I have never played TS3 before, can you build community lots like book stores and museums where your sims can visit and chill like in TS2 community lots. Or is everything rabbit holes?

You can absolutely build them so that your sims can visit and chill. There are rabbitholes for careers, so you can't follow your sims to work in some careers. But with the help of mods, you can make even that entirely interactive. Everything non-career related is open and interactive and you can build (or edit) the lots just how you want and add activities to your liking.

Not sure which EP, but there are cash registers that create roles for various stores, and your Sims can buy things in the shops. Elixer store and consignment shop being examples.

Thank you so much!! I have been confused about this issue for a long time. I bought TS3 for dirt cheap yesterday , I am going to have a blast discovering it for the first time <3

I use rabbithole rugs and doors in the way too many worlds I am working on. And I use the registers also. I then can place them as wanted in the lots I build. I actually tend to make too many community lots as they are so fun to make and I want my Sims to have some variety in where to go.

I recently downloaded a kind of futuristic world. It combines useable buildings with rabbithole rugs. Umm... so the day spa has an actual massage room, and go to another room to enter rabbithole. The rabbithole shows from town view, so you can just click the icon. Science building also has rug, but I installed various science equipment, such as brain scanner, white board, science station, etc. I think the world may be by @Norn ?

Could you explain what is a rabbit hole rug and door? I have no clue at all what those are lol

That might be possible, I usually do the work places like that. But there are plenty worlds out there that do it the same way.



There are two ways to make a work place more interactive. First is rabbithole replacements - these are rugs or doors that replace the EA rabbithole building, the object. While you can peek inside some rabbithole buildings you cannot enter them. And those buildings are huge. They take up the whole lot.

The rugs and doors have the same functionality - your sim will walk over/through them and vanish, going to work. But they allow you to build the lot around to your liking, e.g. combine the spa RH with the salon (non-RH), or the movie RH with a pub. This not only saves space in your town but also adds to liveliness. There are quite a few versions out there which I can't all link. The newest ones (I think) are the ones by aa6x7 on tumblr. They have an invisible preset so you are not even bound to make a rug fit in.

The second way is full replacement, using Zerbu's Ultimate Careers (updated by SonyaYU). While you still need the RHs (no matter of original objects or replacements) the mod keeps your sims outside the RH and allows to simulate "working" in the open, using regular game objects to skill and pretend advancement.

As LadySmoks mentioned, you can use cash registers such as the books, food, relics and nectary registers that come with the World Adventures Expansion pack. These can be used in your base neighborhood, though the relics can only contain quartz or sometimes be stocked with other gems/metals. Consignment Registers come with the Ambitions expansion pack and there are others as well, but I'm not familiar with those.

Edit: Just wanted to add that you can create your own bookstore using the books register. It will contain the normal books found in a rabbit hole bookstore but you can't have the part-time job of Bookstore Clerk without the rabbit hole. The food register is the best one, means you can make a nice café though the food is limited.

It really depends how many gameplay content packs (expansions and preium content from STORE) and mods you willing to use.

If you want a book store say that has everything present (like book shelves and physical books), it may be possible with Savvy Sellers Collection or open for business enhancing mods. If you want cash register over a rabbit hole, you’ll need World Adventures for it (buydebug object found). Musuems are already present in the base game as assignment.

Although, there are limitations and require a bit more stuff to install and set up, as TS3 doesnt have in-depth and great Open for Business expansion. If you want to set a particular specific functioning venue, you can always ask the players here if you cant find anything in particular

Other than WA, there are elixir, consignment, pet (with limited edition), comic and robot futuristic registers from various oacks. Into the future introduce more minor ways to open up shops without sticking to vanilla rabbit holes (clothing, car shop, functional outdoor cafes) if you place down the rekevant podiums/vendors. With Showtime and Late Night pack, you can build cool functional stages for performers or bands to play in cross compatible base game and LN lots. With each pack, more endless possibilities open for various venues for to create and operate

Also, for cafes or bars serving food, I place an ITF food replicator and a normal refrigerator. Use transmogrifier to copy replicator script and paste to refrigerator, then remove food replicator. It will create a role Sim as waiter/ess. Place some cafe tables and chairs. Animations are a little off, being for the food replicator, and the food is synthesized this or that, but all is never perfect in TS3.

I have both the register and rug in a bookstore I have in a world I am doing now. I have had food register, bistro rug, and the professional kitchen on one lot also. And I have done lots with to about 8 rugs. I usually have the area divided into rooms/sections and decorate them as appropriate also.

edit: I see you are asking about 3 and 4. Totally IMO 3 is a far better game. There are some good things about 4 but it does not compare to 3.