FINALLY after serious game crashing, having to go through all of my downloads bit by bit and toss out some and having lost a few buildings and sims =( my sims 2 game is now working again! Wheeee.
And for now I am going to carry on playing in the Harry Potter neighbourhood. I managed to save a few of the buildings I'd built before (although some of my wallpapers have gone so I have to redecorate) and I've been building some new ones.
I thought really hard about how I wanted to play the actual Hogwarts part of the neighbourhood. I want the kids to be able to have their families and go home for the holidays, but I also want to play them living at the school. I'm still not really sure how I will achieve this, but for now I am building the school itself in several parts. Four of these parts will be residential, and will have a common room and dormitories of each of the houses. They will also have other rooms. Then I will build common areas on community lots. I think it will be a matter of trial and error but I'm ready to jump in!
So firstly, I'm sharing the Ravenclaw section of the school which encompasses Ravenclaw tower with common room and dormitories, the Ravenclaw head of house apartment and office, the charms classroom and the astronomy classroom. There's also a LOT of empty space, which may or may not be filled up later.
External shot. The other parts of the castle will be built immediately next door so it will end up looking a little more like one large building rather than lots of separates.
The Ground floor which is mainly empty. When I'm doing close-up shots, I want to give the illusion that this is a part of a huge castle, so that's why there are doors that don't really go anywhere.
The first floor. The main staircase only comes up to this level, and there are 2 'false' doors on this landing. The other door leads to the Charms classroom. Along one corridor, there's a door to the Head of Ravenclaw's office and also one to their apartment. (which I realised doesn't have a bathroom!! Oops! I'll have to rearrange it). This corridor ends with a spiral staircase leading up into the Astronomy Tower. The other corridor leads down to a spiral staircase leading up into Ravenclaw Tower.
The Landing.
Charms Class. The room was a bit too small to try and copy the layout of the classroom from the film, so I changed it to this layout which hopefully works in the space.
An office for the Ravenclaw Head of House. It's pretty tiny haha.
The apartment is also very small. Having roleplayed a Hogwarts Professor on an RPG site, I've often thought about where the teachers sleep and go to get away from it all.
I haven't decided who the professor will be yet, so this is mainly undecorated for now.
Second Floor is empty.
Third floor is also empty.
Fourth floor has the boys' dormitory and bathroom in the Ravenclaw Tower, and the Astronomy classroom in the Astronomy tower.
I have only made two dorms at this stage, one for girls and one for boys. If that isn't working out, I can use the empty floors to make a couple more rooms, but it should be plenty.
The bathroom has one enclosed bath, two enclosed toilets, three sinks and a walk-in shower section behind the dividing wall.
The astronomy classroom is for doing the theoretical portions of the class. I really like how the this room turned out with the stars and suns scattered around the black walls. The staircase continues up to the telescope platforms.
The fifth floor of the Ravenclaw tower has exactly the same layout as below, for the girls. The Astronomy tower has the first platform with telescopes for star-gazing.
The Sixth floor is the Ravenclaw Common room, right at the top of the Ravenclaw tower.
A large portion of the room is given over to study area with desks and bookcases.
But there is also space to relax and chat in front of the fire.
Seventh floor is the final set of stairs up the astronomy tower.
And more telescopes at the top for star-gazing.
It's looking very lonely here by itself, but it will soon be joined by other parts of the castle!
Charms Class. The room was a bit too small to try and copy the layout of the classroom from the film, so I changed it to this layout which hopefully works in the space.
