Lunch Break

Zoltan and Ivy are going to have to wait to find out how their business will be affected. It is time to take a break for lunch.

Firstly, we will take it as read that the primary focus of OFB is about running your own businesses. Giving you time to get your breath back from "the science bit" in the last few pages and eat the packed lunch provided, we are going to have a look at what is here to enhance the regular life of your non-entrepreneurial sims. On the left is Hastings Hall, formerly the offices of the Horton & District Farmers Union and it is decorated exclusively in new material from OFB and has examples of many of the things we will be looking at in greater detail.

New Collections

Not surprisingly, there are new collections of walls, floors, windows, doors and other themed objects. These are Business, European, International, Storybook and Mission. The first one does include walls and floors that don't have to be put in a business.

Some of the new walls and floors blend nicely with existing ones but there are some new unique styles also.

You may have seen me in ...

Some features of OFB are repeated from previous EPs. The Influence System was first seen in "University". Turn Ons/Offs, Attraction and Restaurantscame from "Nightlife". For those who already have those EPs, you will not notice any difference. For those of you who may not yet have the complete set, you have something else to enrich your playing.

If you wish to find out more about them, clicking on the different names in boldface will send you to where they are mentioned in my previous reviews.

New Interactions

As with previous expansions, there are some more interactions that have come with the game. On the left we see the Kenyon family dancing together. The "Dance Together" interaction between parent and child is very quaint. All together now. Awwww.

On the right, we see Reno Kenyon blowing bubbles and other interactions include "Rock, Paper, Scissors" and children can now show off with cartwheels, somersaults and headstands.

Up On The Roof

This EP brings us new types of roofing, which is something that a lot of the community has been crying out for and trying to achieve with varied successes with the "floor constraint" cheat. Until this EP, steeples, domes and turreted roofs were something that could only be accomplished with advanced architectural cheats. Now, you can create a dome, steeple or conical roof. The only limitation is that they have to be on a square base. In a nutshell, you cannot use one of these roofs on a 4x3 base, although 3x3 and 4x4 are both fine.

As before, you can put one roof over another and even mix styles. On the left, we see the central tower of Henderson House, which has both a steeple roof (last one along on the bottom row) and a domed roof to give it the unique look.

The "roofslopeangle" cheat which came with NL does not work with these new shaped roofs, although it still does work with the three standard types.

Being someone who is very keen in domes, I think I will still be creating some hand-made ones, although this new option will cut corners in some of my designs.

With these new styles, the cry is getting louder for a utility to help us create our own new roof textures. Maxis, can you hear us yet?

Written at 00:47 on Sunday 5 March 2006 by Andy.