Neighborhood

A neighborhood in The Sims series is a place that consists of lots. Initially, neighborhoods were small (10 lots in The Sims base game) and consisted of only residential lots, but later expansions for The Sims allowed community lots. This pattern was continued into The Sims 2; with Open for Business, Sims could buy community lots and establish businesses there. Residential lots could also be rezoned as dormitories (with The Sims 2: University), hotels (The Sims 2: Bon Voyage), and apartments (The Sims 2: Apartment Life).

The Sims 4 treats portions of its worlds as neighborhoods. Additional neighborhoods, independent of a larger world, are also planned. Neighborhoods themselves retain the open world concept of The Sims 3, but each neighborhood is loaded independently of each other.

Traveling within neighborhoods
In The Sims and The Sims 2, Sims traveled from one lot to another, with nothing in between. The player would see them leave the lot they were on and disappear, after which a loading screen would appear. The player would not see them again until they reappeared on the destination lot. In The Sims 4, Sims can travel to public areas in the loaded neighborhood. Visiting another lot in the same neighborhood, or going anywhere outside the neighborhood, brings a loading screen.

Traveling to sub-neighborhoods
All games allow traveling between a base neighborhood and its sub-neighborhoods. The Sims 2 also allows direct travel between sub-neighborhoods that can be reached by taxicab, car, or walking. In most cases, traveling to a sub-neighborhood is as easy as traveling from lot to lot within a neighborhood or sub-neighborhood. However, vacationing, traveling to more exotic sub-neighborhoods, generally requires more planning.

Traveling and moving between neighborhoods
Traveling between neighborhoods, in the sense of being able to go from one to another, then return home, is not possible in The Sims or The Sims 2. While The Sims 2 allows an inhabited lot to be placed in the Lots and Houses bin, and allows that lot to be placed in a new neighborhood, actually doing that is not recommended, as it damages both neighborhoods if any household members had relationships with, or any sort of memories of, Sims or pets outside the household.

In The Sims 4, Sims can easily move between neighborhoods, but only those Sims in the active neighborhood can be fully controlled. Sims outside the loaded neighborhood can be partially controlled, however. Households can be moved between different neighborhoods in the same world, or between different worlds, without issue.

The Sims Online neighborhoods
There were originally twelve neighborhoods in The Sims Online. Later, these neighborhoods were merged to become EA Land.

The Sims neighborhoods

 * Neighborhoods
 * Neighborhood 1 is the first and only neighborhood in The Sims.
 * Neighborhoods 2, 3, 4 and 5 are added in Livin' Large and The Sims Deluxe Edition.
 * Neighborhoods 6, 7, and 8 are added in House Party.
 * Every neighborhood has the same layout, but only Neighborhood 1 and Neighborhood 2 have pre-made houses and residents. In neighborhoods 3 through 8, Sim Lane will be empty.


 * Sub-neighborhoods
 * Downtown
 * Vacation Island
 * Old Town is the originally unseen part of the neighborhood that Sim Lane connects to.
 * Studio Town
 * Magic Town is the only sub-neighborhood that Sims can live in, but its lots must be bought with MagiCoins.

There is a technique that makes it possible to have an infinite number of neighborhoods, which involves copying an empty neighborhood folder from the Sims folder in "Program Files" and renaming it "UserData(any # &gt; 8)

The Sims 2 neighborhoods

 * Neighborhoods
 * Pleasantview
 * Strangetown
 * Veronaville
 * Riverblossom Hills was added to help the player explore Seasons.
 * Desiderata Valley was created so the player can learn more about hobbies.
 * Belladonna Cove was added so players could experience living in apartments.


 * Sub-neighborhoods


 * Sim State University, a college campus often associated with Pleasantview
 * La Fiesta Tech, a college campus often associated with Strangetown
 * Académie Le Tour, a college campus often associated with Veronaville
 * Downtown
 * Bluewater Village, was added to help the player learn more about owned businesses
 * Twikkii Island, a Pacific Island themed vacation destination
 * Three Lakes, a woodland/mountain themed vacation destination
 * Takemizu Village, a Far East themed vacation destination

Unlike in The Sims, all sub-neighborhoods in The Sims 2 offer residential as well as community lots. Downtown and shopping district sub-neighborhoods are essentially treated as extensions of the neighborhood, but colleges and vacation destinations have the following restrictions:
 * Only young adults can live in college sub-neighborhoods. Only teens can move in, and this triggers the transition to young adult.
 * Young adults can only live in college sub-neighborhoods. Moving out of the college sub-neighborhood triggers the transition to adulthood.
 * Sims living outside of a college sub-neighborhood cannot enter it unless invited by a playable young adult.
 * Sims are unable to live full-time in vacation destinations, although they can own and visit a holiday home there.

The Sims 2 allows players to create all-new neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods from scratch. Players can use neighborhood terrain templates that were included with the game, or can use SimCity 4 to create custom terrains.

The Sims 3
The Sims 3 does not feature neighborhoods. Instead, The Sims 3 introduced the concept of an open world. Sections of the worlds may be informally divided into neighborhoods, but this is strictly at the player's prerogative.

The Sims 4
Neighborhoods in The Sims 4 are loaded separately from each other. Many neighborhoods are treated as part of a larger world. Travel within public spaces in a neighborhood is still "open" as in The Sims 3, but travel between lots in the same neighborhood, or between other neighborhoods in the world, triggers a loading screen. Sims outside the loaded neighborhood cannot be directly controlled. Players can switch between neighborhoods at will, though this brings up a loading screen. There are buildings in the distance that are not accessible, and are largely cosmetic.


 * Willow Creek neighborhoods
 * Foundry Cove
 * Courtyard Lane
 * Pendula View
 * Sage Estates
 * Willow Creek Commercial District
 * Magnolia Blossom Park
 * Sylvan Glade


 * Oasis Springs neighborhoods
 * Bedrock Strait
 * Parched Prospect
 * Skyward Palms
 * Acquisition Butte
 * Oasis Springs Commercial District
 * Desert Bloom Park
 * Forgotten Grotto


 * Granite Falls neighborhoods
 * Campground
 * Granite Falls National Park


 * Independent neighborhoods
 * Magnolia Promenade

The Sims Stories
In The Sims Stories series, only one Sim is playable in the neighborhood until that Sim's storyline is completed. After that, every family in said neighborhood becomes playable.


 * Story neighborhoods
 * Four Corners
 * Bitville
 * Garden Heights
 * Mesa Flats
 * Felicity Island


 * Free play neighborhoods
 * Four Corners (Free Play)
 * Arbor Falls
 * Wanmami Island

The Sims console games & The Sims Social

 * In The Sims for console, The Sims Bustin' Out for console, and The Sims Bustin' Out for handheld, the neighborhood is named SimValley.
 * In The Urbz: Sims in the City for console, the neighborhood is a city named Urbzville.
 * In The Urbz: Sims in the City for handheld, the neighborhood is a small city named Miniopolis.
 * In The Sims 2 for console, the neighborhood is not named, but it consists of three districts, Pleasantview, Strangetown, and Melbourne.
 * In The Sims 2 for GBA, The Sims 2 for Nintendo DS, and The Sims 2 for PSP, the neighborhood is Strangetown.
 * In The Sims 2 Pets for console the neighborhood is Whiskerton and The Sims 2 Pets on GBA is Barkersville.
 * In The Sims 3 for console the neighborhoods are Moonlight Bay (Xbox and PlayStation 3), Vista Beach (Wii), and Beacon Bay (Nintendo DS)
 * In The Sims 3: Pets (Console), the neighborhood shipped with it is Maple Coast.
 * In The Sims Social, the neighborhood is called Little Haven.