A City for All Seasons

“Before Pleasantview, there was Sunset Valley, founded by the Goth Family and built up by the Landgraabs to be a quiet, peaceful town. But when the Altos arrive with uptown ideals, will the townfolk feel the need to choose sides?”

—Sunset Valley Visitors Guide

Sunset Valley is a pleasant little place to call home, which is why so many families have settled down in its quiet neighborhoods. The streets are lined with Sims who love, laugh, and play. Shops offer goods and services to make life a little better. And the job scene is positively robust, as Sims can land a promotion-packed career just by waltzing through the front door of various locations, such as the stadium or police station.

Of course, this microcosm of life is not without its quirks and intrigue. Not every career track is on the up-and-up. Not every couple sitting around a meal table is all smiles. And the prices at the day spa prove that some economic disparity bubbles under the surface of Sunset Valley.

To be an effective, prosperous citizen of Sunset Valley, you need to know all about the town around you. Learn exactly where you need to go for classes to better your Sims. Know the inventory of the local bookshop so when you need to catch up on your reading, you spend less time browsing and more time developing beneficial life skills. (Or goofing off with a trashy romance novel.)

Career Venues

Many Sims appreciate the set work hours and steady pay offered by traditional careers. Working day jobs has the added benefit of leaving the evenings free to take in rather intriguing extracurricular activities. Sims can find a wide range of traditional careers by paying an initial visit to the following establishments or by browsing for jobs in a newspaper or on a computer.

Many of the places you check into to land a career also offer special events or classes. The areas around these facilities are interesting to explore, too, because you can run into new Sims and interact with them as well as find cool objects to collect such as seeds and butterflies. (More on that in a little bit.) In fact, with careers being such an important part of many Sims’ lives, there’s no better place to start the grand tour of Sunset Valley.

Llama Memorial Stadium

Interactions

Join Professional Sports Career
Attend Athletic Class (§400)
Attend Concert
Attend Game (§60)

Rah-rah-rah! Go team! The Llama Memorial Stadium is home to Sunset Valley’s pro teams and a mecca for sporting fans. It’s also an excellent place to go if you want to get in better shape, because this is the only place in Sunset Valley that offers a basic fitness class. Once the first level of the Athletic skill is acquired here (or elsewhere), it can be developed and maintained both at home with exercise equipment or at the 28 Hour Wellness Gym.

Sims who want to pursue the Professional Sports career report here, too. As they work their way up the ladder, going from a towel holder to a superstar, they report to this coliseum on a near-daily basis. However, the stadium hosts more than the Athletic career.

Professional sporting events also unfold at the stadium, which result in big mood boosts for Sims. Concerts (which are now free!) are another special event at the stadium. Concerts boost mood, especially if the attending Sims like music.

Fort Gnome Military Base

Interactions

Join Military Career
Attend Handiness Class (§400)
Tour Base

Report for duty at Fort Gnome, Sunset Valley’s enormous military base. The main reason for visiting the base is to join the ranks of Sunset Valley’s bravest and launch a Military career, but any Sim tired of paying repair technicians to fix appliances that constantly go kaput should also enroll in the Handiness class. For a paltry §400, your Sims will get started in the fine art of tinkering, which can be a real money-saver once the skill has been developed. The military base is more than happy to accept visitors, too. Just sign up for a tour to see Fort Gnome up close. Well, not too close. Parochial security prevents personnel from showing citizens everything on the grounds. Wait, what’s in that strange hangar out back? Move along... nothing to see here.

Police Department

Interactions

Join Law Enforcement Career

The Police Department isn’t much of a tourist-friendly place. In fact, the only thing to do at this venue is join the Law Enforcement career track and then report back if you indeed accept the badge.

However, should you become a law officer in Sunset Valley, there are a couple exciting interactions you can do with another location in town... such as that creepy old warehouse surrounded by trees. It looks like a front for unsavory activities.

Little Corsican Bistro

Interactions

Join Culinary Career
Attend Cooking Class (§400)
Attend Mixology Class (§400)—Late Night required
Eat Here (prices vary)
Get Drinks (prices vary)
Eat Outside (prices vary)

The Little Corsican Bistro is one of two eateries in Sunset Valley where Culinary careers can be launched. If your Sim has the gift of cooking, then this is a great place to make a living. But even if you don’t saunter through the front doors with a Natural Cook trait to your resume, the Cooking classes here are sure to help develop this skill.

Hogan’s Deep-Fried Diner

Interactions

Join Culinary Career
Attend Cooking Class (§400)
Attend Mixology Class (§400)—Late Night required
Eat Here (prices vary)
Get Drinks (prices vary)

Hogan’s Deep-Fried Diner is another place to build a career or take a Cooking class. It’s a bit less swank than the bistro, but the Cooking classes here are by no means inferior. Either one will get novice cooks started on the lengthy (but satisfying!) Cooking skill development process.

The diner is a great destination because it’s much more affordable than the bistro. But don’t think the simple pleasures of a down-home meal at this low-key cafe won’t give your Sims a great mood boost. Eating out or having drinks in general make Sims happy. It’s a fun place to eat and worth stopping into from time to time, even if your Cooking skill is well developed and you can make extraordinary dishes at home.

Wilsonoff Community Theater

Interactions

Join Music Career
Attend Guitar Class (§400)
Attend Movie (§30)
Tour Theater
Attend Guitar Class (§400)—Late Night required
Attend Piano Class (§400)—Late Night required
Attend Bass Class (§400)—Late Night required
Attend Drums Class (§400)—Late Night required

The Community Theater is the destination for Sims with a penchant for music. Whether it is to launch a Music career that will eventually take you to super-stardom or just a place to start noodling around on the five-string, the theater is definitely one of the first places the musically-minded should stop at in Sunset Valley.

You can also take in a film at the Community Theater and enjoy a great entertainment boost that lasts for hours. This is a relatively inexpensive way to get a mood boost, which can prove beneficial for performance at work the following day. Movies are shown every day starting at 12 PM, making it a great place to start a date.

Sacred Spleen Memorial Hospital

Interactions

Join Medical Career
Get Plastic Surgery
Plastic Surgery > Cheap Facial Beautification (§950)—Pets required
Plastic Surgery > Cheap Body Modification (§1,100)—Pets required
Plastic Surgery > Expensive Facial Beautification (§2,800)—Pets required
Plastic Surgery > Expensive Body Modification (§3,250)—Pets required

Prospective doctors and surgeons can join the Medical career at the hospital. The hospital staff is way too busy healing patients to offer tours or classes. Young doctors working their way up the Medical career will spend a lot of time at this venue working with patients, issuing vaccinations, and helping out at free clinics.

Plastic Surgery

Plastic Surgery was introduced with the Pets expansion pack. If you have that expansion, and want to change an aspect of your Sim’s face or body, you can go to the hospital and have plastic surgery. Once you choose an option, you head to the hospital and have the surgery. If the surgery goes well, you’re taken into Create a Sim and allowed to make your choice of changes.

However, success is not assured. Sometimes things go horribly wrong and you step back outside looking... different. Your Sim then gets the Embarrassed moodlet. Re-enter the hospital for a fix. Corrective Face Surgery, a new interaction on the hospital, costs §2,050. This selection puts all features back to where they were prior to the procedure.

Brownie Bites

Just like the real world, going under the cosmetic knife is not without risk. Cheap plastic surgeries are more likely to go awry, particularly if your Sim has either the Loser or Unlucky traits, (Conversely, the Lucky trait makes the plastic surgery more likely to succeed.) So, bear this mind should to decide to check into the hospital for some upkeep on your Sim’s face or body. And do yourself a big favor: save your game before getting a procedure. It’s much easier and cheaper to reload a saved game than paying to repair a botched plastic surgery!

Doo Peas Corporate Towers

Interactions

Join Business Career
Join Journalism Career
Attend Writing Class (§400)

The Doo Peas Corporate Towers are where two careers can be launched: Business and Journalism. While it seems like those two careers might be at odds with each, today’s multinational communication mega-corporations have fused these two professions closer than ever. Whether you want to be a boardroom titan or a star news anchor one day, step through the lobby doors at some point to start a fresh career.

The venue also hosts the classroom for the Writing skill. If you want to speedily start developing the trait, pay the fee to enroll. Once the skill development process is under way, use a computer at home or at the library to advance the talent and work on what could (hopefully) be some very profitable novels.

City Hall

Interactions

Join Political Career
Attend Charisma Class (§400)
Tour City Hall

It’s not surprising that the place politicians come to be heard to is the same place that teaches a course on Charisma, an invaluable commodity in politics. Here, Sims can learn the finer nuances of smooth talking, which unlocks new, powerful socials capable of improving relationship-building, including the extremely useful Smooth Recovery social for conversations that are of the edge of being deep-sixed by a big-mouth or talky-time faux pas.

Sims can also tour City Hall, which is interesting to Sims who have shown an aptitude for charisma or politics. Watch those bubbles in conversations so you know when you’re dealing with somebody who fancies this sort of thing.

Outstanding Citizen Warehouse Corp.

Interactions

Join Criminal Career
Raid Warehouse (Special Agents only)

There is nothing suspicious about this warehouse. It’s only tucked in the midst of a copse of trees, and slivers of light can be seen between its boarded-up windows at night. And a name like Outstanding Citizen Warehouse? Why, that’s just good advertising! (Actually, it’s not. The crime boss in charge of working the criminal element of Sunset Valley just has a dry sense of humor and an appreciation for forced irony.) Sims who want to work the shadier side of the street apply here for their marching orders.

The warehouse is not the only career stop for criminals, though. Sims in the Law Enforcement career also pay visits to the warehouse while hoping to shine a light on the city’s seedy underbelly.

The yard behind the warehouse is home to a number of bugs and harvestable plants.

Landgraab Industries Science Facility

Interactions

Join Science Career
Attend Gardening Class (§400)
Attend Logic Class (§320)
Tour Science Lab
Donate Insects to Science
Join Alien Test Subject Career

High on the hills overlooking Sunset Valley, scientists spend day and night toiling over the building blocks of the universe, hoping to unlocks the secrets that fill the gaps between that which is known and that which we cannot answer. Or it’s just a bunch of goofballs turning screwdrivers in things to look busy while planning their costumes for the next con.

Either way, Sims with a set of brains should head up to the gleaming dome on the hill to enroll in the Science career. As for Sims with a green thumb, well, head up that same hill, too. This is where you take the Gardening class that acquaints you with the basics of planting and growing seeds into harvestables. Sims who want to expand their horizons should check out the Logic class, which starts another skill track that can lead to chess victories and celestial spotting via the telescope.

Finally, if Sims have started collecting insects around Sunset Valley, they can bring them up to the Landgraab Industries Science Facility to donate them to science. And by donate, we mean collect a nice little purse of Simoleons for turning in some rare bugs.

If you have a playable alien in your household, be sure to check out the science facility to join the all-new Alien Test Subject part-time career. We go over this entire new career in the Alien chapter of this guide, as well as touch on it in the New Career and Skills chapter.