Hi, :-)
I underestimated the size of this project, so I chose a rather small lot to make the game runs faster on my system (I have a P4 1.5 Ghz, with only 512 MB of RAM...). The Japanese palace should be composed of several buildings, each has one function. So a proper palace would be a residential complex. One is the public hearing chamber building, another one is the living quarter, etc.. I ran out of space, so I squeeze everything into just one building.... Too much hassle to rebuild the whole thing on another lot.... By the way, I hand-painted a lot of ground area to make it looks more authentic. Looks under some of the platforms, there are soil underneath instead of grass (default), because no weed could survive without light. Lots of work, and I am glad I am working on a relatively small lot.
This is a house with history (though the one I built isn't the real one...). During Ashikaga Shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu built this giant mansion in Muromachi district in Kyoto, where the capital of Japan was. This mansion became gosho (royal residence) of Ashikaga shoguns. It was the administration building of Ashikaga Shogunate (or Muromachi Shogunate). Because this Muromachi Gosho had an enormous amount of flowers, it was nicknamed as Hana no Gosho (The Palace of Flowers).
If I got it right, Hana no Gosho was destroyed after the fall of Ashikaga Shogunate. Ieyasu Tokugawa built Nijo-jo (Nijo castle; still standing today) to replace it. There is very little information on the web about Hana no Gosho, at least I couldn't find any in English.... That's why I borrowed a lot of concepts from Nijo-jo to build this Hana no Gosho. This is not how it looked like (I would be surprised if it looks like this).
Anyways, for more information on Japanese castles, go to Guide to Japanese Castles or Japanese Castles. Unfortunately, there is no info on the Flower Palace.
DOWNLOAD IT on The Sims 2 Exchange.
Please remember to rate it on the Exchange if you like it. Thanks. :-)
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The overview of the Flower Palace and its surroundings. It's a shame that the game can't render the house's neighbors. I put some farms around it, so it'll be nice to see the farm, as well as Mizuguchi Castle nearby.
This is the night view of the palace. The place shines! :-)
This main gate is called Karamon. It's modeled after Nijo Castle's main gate of the second layer (bigger Japanese castles have several layers). The real Karamon of Nijo Castle is extremely exuberant and there is no way one can make one without custom items. For one thing, the front side of the roof is curved, and there is no curved roof top in The Sims 2, unfortunately.
If you look closely, there are two garden gnomes below the stair in front of Karamon. They are supposedly to be guardians of the palace. I hope neighbors don't steal them again....
Isn't it beautiful? This is the inner garden. It's in between Karamon (left) and the door to the house. Lotus flowers are blooming on the inner moat. The bridge afar connects the front part of the castle wall with the rest. There is another one like it on the other side where the moat exits.
The same inner garden at night.
I really ran out of space, so I built the pool underground. Not that there would be a pool in a traditional Japanese house, but the sims likes them.... The blue thingy to the right is the result of a bug that deleted the ground for some odd reason....
This is the ground level and where the living space is. It's a small house, so I have to be very space efficient if I wanted to put everything the sims want. It's very expensively decorated, nontheless. This house costs $192k simoleons, the most expensive one I built of its size. The most expensive one I built so far cost $220k simoleons and it's twice as big.
The bedrooms are on the attic.... See how out of space I am? There are only two bedrooms also.... One is designated as baby's room, but can be redecorated to become a normal bedroom with space for a desk. Armoire, unfortunately, must be shared.
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