Secrets of Forgotten Island

So in my previous post I talked about how difficult it was to find a neighbourhood – I’ve finally found one I like, and now I’m trying to set it up so that it’s gorgeous!

I’ve organised a few families (three families of three, go figure on my weird dice rolls).  Unfortunately I don’t want the University to be in a standard Uni neighbourhood, as I’ve heard this can cause problems with one of the hacks I’m using – Squinge’s Teen to YA mod.  So I set it up as a downtown instead – but there’s a problem – Downtown is poorly lit and so the neighbourhood looks bad.

So back to the drawing board!

So I’m trying to set up my “new” sims 2 neighbourhood, the one that I want to actually get emotionally invested in (since all the previous ones I loved I always ended up losing, one way or another). Now seems like the perfect time, as I’ve recently acquired Free Time.

Anyway, as I don’t have Sim City 4, I can’t design my own hood. I’m considering several different hoods to use for my main hood (I’ve got my university all worked out – it’s gorgeous), but what I really want is something with lots of beach lots, and lots of roads close together, as I like playing smaller houses (less chugginess, especially on this terrible old machine). Preferably I would like it flat too – I don’t really like having terrain issues in my lots (which is interesting, as in real life I live on a swamp).
So I’d really like an island – although it doesn’t have to be an island, I just think that would fit in better for story purposes (trying to start up a new community somewhere, etc etc)… But I don’t really want it to be a bunch of separate islands either (or my sims will have to swim between islands).

Enchanted Cove from MTS2 is very pretty, as is Yamomato Beach (from the same place), but I’m not sure I want either of those exactly – Enchanted Cove is too large. However, obviously I’m fussy as there are quite a few nice neighbourhoods that are far too small! Argh!

Anyway, it looks like I’ll never be getting my game running at this rate – since I can’t even find the starting ground…