How to make seasonal lots

[Simizen 1,100]

So, what I was wondering is, how can I make a lot change per season? My goal is to use some of the Maxis farms, and have the tiles change throughout the year. Partly due to just basic aesthetics (they're super bland after they pop up, lol), and partly for just experimentation and getting a feel for it.

I'm content with the starting lot being a ploppable one, though, I'd rather like it to be growable, just so I can see how it works out. I know other mods like SPAM and many of the BSC farms have seasonal tiles/lots for farms, so I know it's possible, I'm just not clear on how to do it.

[nos.17 5,265]

8 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

I'm content with the starting lot being a ploppable one, though, I'd rather like it to be growable, just so I can see how it works out. I know other mods like SPAM and many of the BSC farms have seasonal tiles/lots for farms, so I know it's possible, I'm just not clear on how to do it.

The best way is to just take a loot at those files and see how they did it!

In general though, I think most of these are done through timed props, and you may look into properties here, specifically Simulator Date Start, Simulator Date Interval, and Simulator Date Duration.

[Simizen 1,100]

14 hours ago, nos.17 said:

The best way is to just take a loot at those files and see how they did it!

while that's wonderful advice, only problem i have with it, is where to find all these parts. Like, i'm sure the LE would do it, but I feel that to do this in a better way, I'd need to use another program, and so far, I know that the iLives reader could potentially do it, but I wouldn't even know where to begin with that. Is there another app to use, or am I stuck with those?

Course you say it's timed props, but, would the textures be considered props? Cause that's kinda what I was thinking of doing, is having the textures flip per season. Which i feel would be a bit more complicated (i could easily be overthinking it though).

And thank you for the info, much appreciated!

[nos.17 5,265]

7 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

while that's wonderful advice, only problem i have with it, is where to find all these parts. Like, i'm sure the LE would do it, but I feel that to do this in a better way, I'd need to use another program, and so far, I know that the iLives reader could potentially do it, but I wouldn't even know where to begin with that. Is there another app to use, or am I stuck with those?

Course you say it's timed props, but, would the textures be considered props? Cause that's kinda what I was thinking of doing, is having the textures flip per season. Which i feel would be a bit more complicated (i could easily be overthinking it though).

And thank you for the info, much appreciated!

Reader is definitely the tool do do this with. LE is how you would place the props onto the lot, but to give the props the correct properties, you'll need to do it with reader. If you have no familiarity, you might have a look through here.

Textures to my knowledge cannot be timed to appear/disappear in game. They would have to be manually swapped out. Fortunately, textures are "dynamic" in the sense that you do not need to re-plop the lot or have it regrow for the updated textures to appear, like you would with props or buildings. You could have two different texture options using the same IID, and swap them in and out of plugins depending on which set you want to see. Reload the game and they would automatically show up. A way around this could be to make a flat prop and put it across the ground, but this would look bad if the lot is placed on any kind of hill.

[Simizen 1,100]

Okay then, I'll have to figure something out for what I want then. I think Maxis left enough props on farms to work with that I could probably come up with something.