Once a bad area, always a bad area ...

[fairycake89]

Unlike real life, there are certain areas around towns that are more 'upmarket' than others. As you know irl previously downmarket areas become fashionable and property prices increase, albeit temporarily (giving home owners in that area the chance to cash in) and the area takes on a desirable aspect. This got me thinking about why this can't happen in sims. Why cant an area suddenly become desirable? Have a great location 'moodlet'? I think this is one of the few social aspect of sims which is missing from the game.

[matrix54]

Because that'd require real estate + zoning coding, among other things, like shifts in behavior.

[LadyLollerskates]

I remember in the Sims 2 apartment life you could use cheats to change the zoning level of your building, "low" would attract bikers and bohemian artists, "mid" would attract jocks and normal sims, and "high" would attract socialites and techies. I'm sure with the right coding and conditions (E.G. having a certain environment score, average Sim income in the area, well decorated lots) you could implement the same thing in the Sims 3 and have it change automatically. There aren't really any social groups in the Sims 3 though, so maybe it would just attract wealthier Sims or Sims with the snob trait?

[MinghamSmith]

I know some of the bar types in Late Night attracted certain sims based on their traits, so one could theoretically have a building with a low zoning level attract, say, kleptomaniacs, frugal sims and sims in lower levels of the Criminal career as well as sims with little money until conditions improved and it switched to attracting other traits. This is an idea I like, actually. Whenever I have absolute power over a virtual town or city, I nearly always go out of my way to make the crap part of town as well as the rich neighbourhoods. It'd be nice for the game to recognise such places and somehow keep track of their changing fortunes.

My version of Sunset Valley, for instance, has an entire road that I demolished and replaced with run-down housing, crumbling warehouses, dive bars, the town dump and a blatantly haunted mansion with the local vampire count and his posse squatting in it. And it is awesome. :D

[zigersimmer]

We're not actually asking for more lot types, are we?

[fairycake89]

@zigersimmer - I suppose I am asking for more lot types and possibly more traits too.
@MinghamSmith - Exactly .. I think that there should be a way for the game to recognise the changing fortunes of sims.
@Ladylollerskates - But I feel that the game does recognise social grouping .. The very first thing the game mentions when your sim enters a sims home is financial status (where applicable) as in 'X doesn't have much money' or 'X is rich!' ...

I know this is a hypothetical discussion, but still ..

[bl00raspbery]

I think it would be neat if we had different "parts" of town. I always like to start out my sims in apartments (late night) because it's the cheapest housing choice. There's a particular one that is half built, with a crane, that just looks noisy and miserable to live in, and the building itself, when you zoom in on it, just looks kinda gross. It's the cheapest of them all too. Then, some of the more expensive ones are really nice. It would be really cool to have a really nice, expensive part of town, and a not so nice, cheaper part of town, and have the Sims that live there, reflect that.

[DigitalSympathies]

I have a city that's a bit, erm, large.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/2705/snapshot0000000d1d10a3f.jpg

(That's a small pic compared to what it looks like now - all the blank spaces have been filled out with a university district and a small family farming community.)

I have a large poorer area, a few richer areas, two farming communities, a Japanese-themed area, a touristy woods-type place, a downtown district, a business area, a really, really bad area, a suburban, quiet-streets-kinda place, etc.

:) So yeah, I do have my own sort of "poor and rich" divide going on here in my new love, this city.