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). Neighborhoods in The Sims 3 are meant to be "open world," with accessible terrain between lots. The Sims 3 also introduced rabbit holes, public buildings where Sims work, shop, attend class, eat, or attend events, that the player cannot see into.

The Sims 4 treats neighborhoods as a subunit of a larger "world". 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. With The Sims 3 ' s open neighborhood concept, players could see the Sims moving between the lots without a loading screen, and could access those areas as well. The Sims 4 allows Sims to move around within the loaded neighborhood and gives players full control over those Sims. There are no loading screens for individual lots within the neighborhood.

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/worlds, in the sense of being able to go from one to another, then return home, is not possible. Moving between neighborhoods was not possible until patch 55 for The Sims 3 was released.

In The Sims 3, beginning with patch 55, a feature which allows Sims to move to different worlds is added to the game. The concept is similar to saving the household to the lot bin, switching to different world, and placing the household into the new world. The Sims in the household will retain the skills and achievements they've earned, as well as the number of days the game has passed. There are drawbacks, however. All Sims will lose relationships with other Sims they know. This is necessary, as those Sims will not be present in the destination world. However, the relationships between the household members will usually be messed up as well. Also, if the destination world does not provide a certain rabbit hole, such as a film studio, Sims will lose their job. Sometimes, this feature will also cause some bugs.

In The Sims 4, individual neighborhoods are considered part of a combined world. 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.

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
Neighborhoods are now being officially referred to as "worlds", possibly due to both Electronic Arts' use of the Create a World tool and their scale.

Neighborhoods are now "seamless", open to exploration between lots and are affected by a new game mechanic called story progression.

The Create a World tool allows players to make their own neighborhoods with custom terrains similar to SimCity 4. A game patch, released in conjunction with the release of Ambitions, also allows players to manipulate premade neighborhoods to a limited degree, such as adding or removing lots and scenery.

As of Late Night, worlds are divided into "Sims 3 Towns" and "Late Night Towns". There seem to be important differences between the two, such as the Sims they can spawn, etc., Bridgeport is the only pre-made world to be catalogued as a city. The rest, including the exotic destinations from World Adventures, are considered suburbs.

In The Sims 3: Supernatural, players can tweak the number of supernatural Sims and celebrities through a new setting known as "Population Control Settings".

Neighborhood continuity in The Sims 3
While Sunset Valley and Riverview feature younger versions of living The Sims 2 Sims, Twinbrook's returning families are up to two generations behind their The Sims 2 counterparts, and Barnacle Bay even acts as a sequel (Dina Caliente's bio states that she wants to break hearts as she did in Pleasantview), this evidence suggests that the different worlds may also be located in different times. When a Sim hits a Hot Spot in Bridgeport, a tag may appear stating "This is hotter than Hank Goddard when he caught on fire", meaning something of the sort might have happened in between the timelines of Sunset Valley and Bridgeport.

The Sims 3 neighborhoods

 * Sunset Valley
 * Twinbrook
 * Bridgeport
 * Appaloosa Plains
 * Starlight Shores
 * Moonlight Falls
 * Isla Paradiso


 * Downloadable
 * Riverview is a free downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store.
 * Barnacle Bay is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for $20 with bonus 100 SimPoints and exclusive contents.
 * Hidden Springs is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for 2450 SimPoints.
 * Lunar Lakes is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for 2450 SimPoints.
 * Lucky Palms is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for 2450 SimPoints.
 * Sunlit Tides is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for 2450 SimPoints, or 4350 SimPoints for the gold edition.
 * Monte Vista is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for $20 with bonus 100 SimPoints, or $35 with bonus 1900 SimPoints.
 * Aurora Skies is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for 2450 SimPoints, or 4350 SimPoints for the gold edition.
 * Dragon Valley is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for $20 with bonus 100 SimPoints, or $35 with bonus 1900 SimPoints, plus Celtic Lands.
 * Midnight Hollow is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for 2450 SimPoints, or 4350 SimPoints for the gold edition.
 * Roaring Heights is a downloadable world offered at The Sims 3 store for $20 with bonus 100 SimPoints, or $35 with bonus 1900 SimPoints.


 * Sub-neighborhoods
 * Al Simhara
 * Champs Les Sims
 * Shang Simla
 * Sims University
 * Oasis Landing

The Sims 4
Neighborhoods in The Sims 4 are considered part of the larger world. Travel between neighborhoods is possible, as long as the neighborhoods are within the same 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.

Neighborhoods


 * Willow Creek


 * Oasis Springs

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.