The Croft Mansion For The Sims

If you just want to use the house and are not interested in these notes then just copy the house into the neighbourhood of your choice. It will overwrite the Lot 2 so back up that house before replacing it, if you want to keep it!

This house was designed using all the expansion packs and the objects in the Tomb Raider Croft Mansion section. I may have used one or two walls or floors either from The Simposium or the sims. I can't recall exactly :) The row of tiles around the Sky light over the pool area is from Hot Date but any light stone tile will do. The roof is in the Tomb Raider Roof zip file.

If you don't have all the expansion packs then you will most likely get an error message about missing objects. I think that that is all that will happen but I cannot tell for sure so be forewarned!

Right! If you are interested in reading further, I suggest you read this file together with the Screen Shots included.

First off let me start by saying that as a Mansion, it's a lousy design hehe! It was designed for the original Tomb Raider games and it was rather limited in Layout seeing it was mostly created as a tutorial level for beginners. It was also a dos based game and it was quite advanced for it's time.

Secondly, it makes a dreadful Sims house too! They layout is bad and has a zero layout score. The object of all this was to recreate the mansion as closely as I could within The Sims Game.

In the first Screen Shot it shows the exterior front view. The front left garden has what I assume to be an orchard of sorts. The lamp poles by the front gate are not in the Game Mansion. On the right side of the house is a maze which has a small building and underground area which I didn't make because of the limitations. I placed a garden lamp in the middle to indicate the spot for sentimentality sake. I used the low hedge around the outer reaches so one can see into the maze better

Towards the back on the right side of the property is the enclosed pool and I used the glass roofs from The Palm House Set available from Sims Architectural Supplies (http://www.simsarchitecturalsupplies.com/) and the white transparent floor from Caro's Sim Kagen (http://caro.jp/).

Around the back of the mansion is the obstacle course which made an appearance in the second game. In the first game it was laid out in the entrance hall and Great Ball Room. I decided to go with putting it outside :)

The odd protrusions along the left side and back are part of the mansion in the game. They may have been to look like chimneys or something. I really have no idea. They angle upwards at 45 degrees on the under side but it's impossible to do that in the game without creating a special object for it.

The mansion is completely walled in by a large deep wall. In Sim Scale, it's about one tile wide. I decided against it because it gets in the way of viewing the mansion. Instead I used the castle fence to indicate where the large wrought iron gate is and enclosed the Orchard so I could hang the creeper on the wall.

Grab the Second Screen Shot and let's have a look at the ground floor interior. The kitchen is very plain in the game. The wallpapers with the hanging items have been placed where they occur in the game. There is a long row of counters along the exterior wall and two plain light wood tables (The one by the cold room has two chairs). The wallpaper with the square inlay was just a variation I made to make it more interesting. The stove is a deep recess and looks like an old wood/coal stone stove. The little room where I place the fridge is a large walk in cold room with carcases hanging in it, yuck! I utilised the area to the right of it to create a guest bathroom leading off the entrance hall. In the game, there is nothing there.

The Entrance hall is rather naked except for Large Gold Framed Paintings and the grand father clock. I used the boring ones from the game to indicate roughly where they are but they are really all the way up the double volume.

The Great Ball Room is empty in the game except for the Armour suits, chandeliers and decals of a hifi and speakers on the walls for Lara to use for her work out. I took a little liberty and restored it back to its former splendour hehe! The area in the centre, leading to the Great Ball Room, Kitchen and Lounge is a solid block but I did it in and "I" shape to make it more practical.

The doorway arch entrance to the "Lounge" is actually a secret entrance (Activated in that central area in the maze) to a basement area and there is no actual lounge/living room in the mansion. At least not one we can access. The logical area would be where I put it. I just did a quick layout for "lounge" sake. The game is designed on a square modular grid so they used the "Assumed Lounge" area for the basement, where there are artefacts and such.

The pool room at the back is very close to the original layout. Those recesses (I turned them into bathrooms) are actually on both sides of the pool. There is a decorative object between the two columns. I guess you could place a small sculpture there if you like. The area from where the diving board is, reaches all the way to the back wall which is raised. The diving board is quite high. The walls are actually very dark in the pool room. I used the wallpapers as close to the original as possible. I made the columns lighter though. It is just way too dark.

Grab Screen Shot 3 and let's march upstairs. The staircase goes up and meets in the middle where that out crop that is railed. So that is about the closest it is going to look within the confines of The Sims.

On the right hand side is the gymnasium which leads to the back which is the library. I placed some dance floor tiles down where the slightly raised gym workout platform is. The Library walls are mostly lined with bitmaps of bookcases. In the first game there is a pool table where I placed it but it was removed in the Tomb Raider 2. The only other furniture in the library are three red chairs in each corner and the fireplace, which in the screen shot, is just behind the pile of crates.

Just to the left of the right hand staircase is a doorway. This is a very dark rising passage leading up to the attic. Again, there is nothing on this level and the area was used to create the attic. I used the crates and mixed artwork/statues to give it the look. In the game there is very little other than the crates and it's extremely dark.

On the left side are the bedrooms. The only door that opens is the one that leads to Lara's bedroom. It has a bare wooden floor like on the landing and the gymnasium, with a floor runner in the same pattern as the entrance hall runner (Library Carpet). I use the same texture they used for the bedspread as a carpet and wall pattern. There is just the bed, fireplace and an animal print chaise longue in the corner where I place the Victorian loveseat.

The little room behind the bed is a gun room of sorts which I made into a walk in wardrobe type area. The bathroom is like it is except that there is both a toilet and bidet where the toilet is.

Off the landing is a door that cannot be opened which appears to be to a second bedroom. I created a small second bedroom in there. The proportions are horrible but it was designed for the game and not for an "Architectural Delight"

That's about it! I suggest you decorate it to your own tastes and modify where you see fit. The wallpapers are from the game but obviously I made adaptations them to look better and scale in with The Sims.

I added in windows and doors on the exterior at liberty in order to make the flow a little better.

If you read this far, I hope you enjoyed the little tour :)

NOTE: If you want to change the creeper wallpaper on the front wall you will need to use the map_edit [on / off] cheat because it is built on the edge of the stand.

Jo 
http://simposium.cjb.net
[Big dreamers never sleep]
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