#and back to the urbz

[xx-j4nu5-c4t5-xx]

I've never seen anyone talk about this (mostly because nobody plays these games really) but do you guys remember Dudley Landgraab?

His wiki page says he appeared in two (possibly three) games throughout the early years of the franchise: The Sims (Console), The Sims: Bustin' Out (Console), and possibly the Urbz: Sims in the City (Console). He's the son of Malcom Landgraab, and usually appears alongside his sister, Mimi. But he's a genuinely interesting little freak???

I haven't played the original Sims, but according to the wiki, it seems like he's an early game NPC who's characterized as a slacker and a party animal. He's a member of the Landgraab family but doesn't seem to have much contact with them.

In Bustin' Out, he's the first house available to move into when you start the game (the other option being his sister's place). He seems to be a straight up criminal in this one, possibly working in the burglar career (you can't check in game so we don't know for sure, but the schedules seem to coincide according to the wiki). His ex-stepmother (your mom) hates him. It's referenced in his bio that his dad cut him off. He's living in a shitty bachelor pad trailer. Not crazy out of pocket considering the other places in that game.

In the Urbz, there's a much more interesting development, though. In Kicktail Park, the local hangout for a bunch of weird skaters, there's a guy named String Bean. Nothing particularly interesting about him on the surface, but in his profile on the Urbz website he seems to be incredibly secretive and weird about his past/identity. Under his dislikes, one of the things he hates is being called Dudley.

That means there's a decent chance that they're the same guy. He got tired of living in a trailer and being a family disappointment, so I guess he went off to the city to reinvent himself.

I love the weird tidbits of lore that you'd never know unless you scrolled through defunct websites and wiki pages made by people who are way too invested in these games.

Sources:

[padawansuggest]

Sometimes you are mentally required to break out the N-DS just so you can binge play a bunch of Sims gameboy games because nothing has, and nothing will, ever hit as hard as they did. Bring that shit back guys I need them all remastered for Switch.

[simminglytimeladies]

Usual Movie Night

This one is an oldie as you can tell from the style but I wanna post it here. Might consider a rerender of this one at some point.

[simantopia]

it's kinda funny that skyline beach & cozmo street dislikes each other when skyline beach plays music by the peas lol. but i understand WHY they dislike each other 'cos if you listen to the EARLY peas songs (I'M SPEAKING PRE-FERGIE!) then they used to be very critical of current (at the time lmao) rap. and i feel like skyline beach is like current rap and the peas was tryin to take it retro and THAT'S why they don't get along. they both likely think they're "fake hip hop" y'know?? yet also ironic, 'cos again, skyline beach uses peas songs for their level

[thesimquarter]

some more miniopolis builds!!

Second Looks Thrift Emporium - King Tower - Jail

+ bonus first draft for a miniopolis .s4c terrain!

[badgertrait]

Matzuiko Jackson

Outfits at every location of The Urbz

[kevinvoncrastenburg]

The Urbz: Sims In The City - Central Station - Lookbook 💀

Genghis Lincoln Shaved Dreads - Top (Trey Top) - Pants* - Boots (Movie Stuff / Base Game Compatible) - Grunge Pattern (Boots) - Studded Knee Pads* - Earrings - Double Bracelets - Nails (Supernatural Claws) - Gloves* - Frankenstitched "Tattoo"*

Scary Mary Hair - Dress* (Comes w Gloves + Choker. Credit goes to Indio!) - Boots (Madlen Dorothy Boots) - Bracelet (Triple Bracelets Right Hand) - Nails* - Torn Tights (The Trillyke Laces & Spikes Folder) - Anarchist Tattoo

Kidd Chaos Hair* - Jacket - Skinny Jeans - Denim Pattern - Boots (BG) - Grunge Pattern (Boots) - Choker - Spiderweb Tattoo - Nose Piercings - Piercings 2 - Ear Piercings - Body Tattoos

Frag Grrl Hair (Strong Female) - Top - Shorts (Diesel) - Shorts Pattern (Day 22) - Boots (adfly warning! Please use the mirror link underneath instead) - Face Piercings (21-22) - Ear Piercings - Choker - Dragon Tattoo (Arm) - Stomach Tattoo - Bracelets (Working Link*) - Spiked Bracelets - Knee Wounds - Socks (MEGA)

Beelzebob Jones

Hair - Jacket - Undershirt Accessory - Shirt Pattern (Hell Smiles Back) - Jeans - Pattern On Jeans (Vintage Striped Fabric) - Boots (BG) - Choker - Ear Piercings - Nails* (Preview) * MediaFire Direct Link * SFS Direct Link * TSR A big shoutout to all our talented cc creators and cc-finds blog operators! You guys radiate magic. ✨ As always thanks for your support. I appreciate it so much!

Divider 1 Divider 2

[andrevasims]

Each district in The Urbz has unique walk cycles, with different variations for male & female Urbz

Your customized playable Urb can also have one of these walk cycles - Originally, I thought which one your Urb had was based on the district you chose as the very first starting point, and I mean that's kind of true, but also I don't know when it "activates" or how or why.

Like here's my Urb whose original starting district was Diamond Heights. I cheated so I had 999 rep from the very beginning of the playthrough. She didn't have this walk cycle until I was halfway through playing South Side Bridge, which was 4 districts after Diamond Heights. I didn't move onto the next district until I'd completed nearly every single goal.

And here is that same Urb, later on in my playthrough as I'd continued through completing more districts, with a "default" walk cycle that I don't think is connected to a specific district.

Like I said, I thought the initial starting district was what designated the player Urb's walk cycle, and I guess it is (sometimes), but I don't know why it changes. Based on what I did while playing, it's not tied to rep level, it's not tied to clothing, it's not tied to goal completion.

I thought maybe it could be tied to relationships, so the reason she's back in Diamond Heights in the 2nd gif is because I'd raised up her relationships with all the Urbz there, but that didn't change anything.

Also if relationships were what determined the walk cycle then your Urb would probably use almost all of them at some point, but they don't. I'm pretty sure they only use either the default walk cycle or the one from their very first starting district. Sooooooo wtf lol

[asimplevampire]

#like#whyyy do they abandon the games when they put out a new one#whyyy is it like this it is so pointless#they would make more money if all the games existed at the same time for different audiences with different tastes imo#i feel like the person asking why we dont just print more money saying this#like im no business major but#whyyyy#ts2#ts3#ts4 (also from @naturally-dazed )

...So I can actually answer this question. I'm also not a business major and I've never been on the Sims team (lol hahaha can you imagine), but I've done some work in game dev, and, well... okay, here's the thing.

There's a lot of good reasons why you might move your team to working on a sequel rather than keeping two games in active development at the same time. Not having been on the Sims team in 2005, I can't tell you exactly which ones of these the devs had in mind, but I can guarantee they had at least one.

A lot of game development is iterative. You start with the thing you did last time- whether 'last time' is 'in the pre-alpha build' or 'in the last game in the series' or whatever- and you make a better, bolder, cooler version. To put it in the words of the Sims 2 team themselves, you wanna make a "More Bitchin' Lesbian Simulator". And that has a lot of parts. One big part is optimizing the game for modern PCs-- Sims 2 is optimized to run on a potato from 2004, and Sims 4 is optimized to run on a potato from 2014. These are very different system requirements, and keeping a game with older requirements functional on modern systems is a pain in the ass. Another of the biggest ones is updating and fixing the game's engine-- you can do things in Sims 3 that you just flat out cannot do in Sims 2, and will never be able to do, even if you're a fanmodder and can spend hours and hours of your own time on it. And speaking of which...

The most expensive thing in game development is labour. Especially when you're working at a triple-A scale where any game has hundreds of people working on it. You've got to pay hundreds of people's salaries and benefits at any given time. Because of this, it often does not make sense to keep a game in development any longer than it is making money, especially if you want to push the envelope and make something More Bitchin'. Any amount of time you spend on developing the old game is a whole lot of time, money, and energy that is not going to the More Bitchin' thing. And if you don't encourage people to stop playing the old game and pick up the More Bitchin' game, the effort -- and money-- you've put into the More Bitchin' game has gone to waste. Like, Sims 2 modders have spent a lot of time and energy and love making Sims 2 better. They've made it feel more open world, made it look like a modern game, and given it entire new mechanics. But if EA was to pay any of these modders for their time? Uhhhhhh, that's multiple years' salary right there, for a game that is actively competing with your new, More Bitchin' Game.

It often makes sense to move a lot of people from the team for the Old Game to the More Bitchin' Game, especially people like "engine programmers" and "game designers" who are doing a lot of work in the early stages of a project but not as much work in the later stages. Management/Corporate/the Suits (TM) often also shift their focus to the New Game, because they have to figure out how to sell it to people. You ever notice how midway through Sims 2 and Sims 3's lifespan, the DLC gets a bit... ehhhhhh? Like, a change of seasons or the Good Witch make your game hang for a full minute. Or Island Paradise makes the game unplayably laggy. Or how a lot of the game mechanics with things like "hobbies" in TS2 and "supernaturals" in TS3 are kinda... lackluster. Things like that? It's because the people who know the game best and are good at optimizing got moved on to the next project, and so you've got more junior members of the team doing all the coding and design. (Incidentally: you will notice that Sims 4 has bucked this trend. I'm guessing it's because The Suits have moved on to Project Rene and have stopped making Sims 4 worse for no reason.)

Speaking of competing. A lot of game studios are operating on a knife edge, wrt finances. Even ones you would think would be okay because they're making more money than god. Games are incredibly expensive to develop; unless you are literally Nintendo, you cannot afford to eat the cost of a failed game. This is especially true for studios published by EA. They're... notorious for shutting down studios that they don't think are doing good enough, even if those studios are universally beloved and making kickass games. If you are a game studio, the sales from your next game are make-or-break. It determines whether you can make anything in the future. And if you want to make another, More Bitchin' thing? You cannot afford to have competition that is better than your new product. Even if you're competing with yourself.

So, like. On the one hand? I agree with you that TS1, TS2, TS3, and TS4 are very different games that appeal to different audiences. I honestly think it's inexcusable that EA doesn't have TS1 or TS2 up for sale anywhere-- at the very least, it'd be a kindness to put them on GOG like they did with SimCity 4. But they're not gonna do that. (You notice, Maxis hasn't put out a SimCity game in years? They have a strong enough competitor that they've been pushed out of the citybuilder genre, probably for good. Releasing SimCity 4 isn't competing with SimCity 6, so they can afford to do that.)

TLDR: There are real good reasons why Maxis can't (and IMO shouldn't) keep Sims 1/2/3 in active development. It's hellaciously expensive to develop a game, and you want to put the majority of your studio's resources towards the newest thing you're working on. Any energy you spend on an old game siphons money away from your More Bitchin' new game-- and that's an expense a dev studio cannot afford to bear.

I played the sims 3 most of this month and the sims 2 a couple of months ago then now again for a week (+like…2007-2014 or ‘15) & the sims 4 since release and genuinely I just think they should have simply kept building on sims 2, make sims 3 a completely seperate life sim game - work on expanding both games instead of just one at a time

and the sims 4 should have just been for mobile or console players or smth

[zx-ta]

Missing Urbz part I

I'm back at it! 8 more to go and we're done!

Cash Monet & Pootie Fads from Diamond Heights

Scary Mary & Beelzebob Jones from Central Station

Lil Bit & Toot Sweet from Skyline Beach

Trang Hang & Rolanda Skye from Kicktail Park

[feroshgirlsims]

Chapter 9.2 - 50 Shades of Enchantment

MIKO

Rich sims were weird—

—And a little fascinating.

Honestly, it was crazy to wear a $950 simoleon blouse to work, wasn’t it? And did the sims of Glimmerbrook really need a fake apothecary to sell them inert potions and herbs to solve problems that were probably mostly in their minds?

Not that Miko was supposed to be thinking about all this, mind you. She was supposed to be listening to her manager, Gemma Charm, explain how the mixing station worked.

“Are you sure you have experience?” Gemma asks hesitantly.

Miko was sure she’d spent three summers working at Body Oils and Bath Stuff before the Newcrest location closed down. And there was no way mixing fake herbal concoctions was  more advanced than restocking shelves with cheap-smelling shampoos and lotions. “Absolutely. You really don’t have to worry about me. All of this is old hat.”

Gemma nods, “Good. You came highly recommended, and we really need the extra help. Election season politics are sort of running our family’s whole life right now.” She rolls her eyes. “My brother really should be the one helping, but, well, you get it.”

Alice always said her father campaigned year round, so that must be what Gemma was talking about. “I’m just here on a student visa, so I don’t vote, but I think it’s important. I’m just glad to help.”

“You don’t vote?” Gemma gasps. “But it’s compulsory. And anyone with an ancient bloodline or a unique power differential is eligible for the seat, so it would be crazy just to sit it out.”

Compulsory voting? Bloodlines? Windenburg politics sounded Byzantine as shit. Miko used to think she wanted to live here after graduation, but now? It would be a relief to get back Sim Nation West and elect her officials based on normal stuff like half-hearted promises to end corruption and lower tax rates.

“Oh, uh, I don’t really care about that stuff…should we talk about the register?”

Gemma is not content to let the subject drop. “That’s a terrible attitude, Miko. What about your bloodline? Were both your parents casters?”

Thankfully, a customer walks in and saves Miko from having to answer that completely bananas question. Did Gemma mean newscaster? What in the hell about Miko and her half-priced Urbz jeans projected “child of sims who are on TV”?  

Mystified, but curious to learn what kind of crazy shit sims bought from this shop, she listens as Gemma greets their customer and launches into a wholly bizarre conversation about the Full Moon’s effect on mandrakes. 

The woman is nodding along, dressed in what is conservatively a $3000 simoleon outfit. She doesn’t even flinch when Gemma informs her about the price of this year’s crop—$250 simoleons a pound. 

What would it be like to have that kind of money?

“I’ll need a Potion of Good Fortune,” the woman adds. “We want to put an addition onto the house and could use a little more money.”

“Of course,” Gemma smiles, “Miko can help you.” She turns back and gives Miko an encouraging look.

“Happy to help!” Miko says, her smile so wide it feels like her face might crack open.

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(Part 2 of 8)

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[madeofcc]

2023 Top ♥

Tagged by @someone-elsa and @shesthespinstersimmer ♥ Thanks a lot !

I didn't remember doing all that this year !

Thanks a lot to everyone who's been following me through this journey. 2023 was one of the worst year of my life but also one of the best weirdly so let's hope 2024 will be better for everyone ♥

below the cut I'll put the link and explanations for each edit

1/ The Moonlight/Moonwood Tales concept : Based on the lore that came with the werewolves pack, I imagined a story that would explain everything between the werewolves, vampires and spellcasters. I actually prepared a plan for season 1 ... Maybe I'll post it next year ?

2/ The stories I planned for this year but so far, only Melodia is still going. DH3 will start next year sadly and Another Side has been cancelled because of lack of time and a bad computer.

3/ Aïssa in the city : a special photoshoot/lookbook with some items I love and also a small interview including infos about DH2 and 3. It's also a way for me to show more about Aïssa's modeling life. The title is also a reference to the upcoming spin-off about her ...

4/ The DH3 women and the DH3 gang because I want you to love them when the story will start !

5/ The EDGEWAVE fest organised by @aniraklova ♥ It surely was my favourite event this year ! What an awesome idea it was and a lot of people did amazing stuff during 2 weeks ! You saved our summer for sure ! I used Candy Bher as a reference to Another Side and MOON who's a character in DH3 ...

6/ Toxic Don ! A potential new Another Side story I've been thinking about years now ... It would be fun !

7/ The Ghostface DH3 edits : It's a reference to DH3 and Scream of course; the plot will be a tribute to Wes Craven actually !

8/ The Melodia musical video part : it actually was awesome and fun to create but it took me an entire month just for this little video. I decided to stick to a more boring regular way to post this story. I also don't have a lot of readers so far so I guess they will forgive me. I still see it as one of my biggest achievement here though so check it if you can ^^ I love how the episode turns into a musical movie

9/ @windbrook's Slashed Challenge : it was one of my favourite CAS challenge of all time ^^ I'm a huge slasher fan ! It was perfect for simblreen and people created awesome characters and stories !

10/ A makeover of the Three Sages that comes with Realm of Magic : Ana Mae is actually an original OCs, they all should appear in DH4 and 5 ... Morgyn should be very important in DH4 actually ...

11/ URBZ Mag DH3 edition ! Get the girls part here and the boys part there ♥ I love doing fake interviews and mag covers ! Sorry not sorry

12/ Valentines day ♥ My favourite is the one with the Destiny, Leïla and Aïssa because it's funny and feminist, what this trio is together ! They surely had a great night that day, it's also supposed to happen after Melodia so ...

13 / Franck and Madame Sophie : the first drag sims I create ! I wanted one for the Aïssa spin-off so I guess it will be them :)

14/ Recent edits I like : Maria Perron for @birdietrait's coven (I love her and I'd love to make a little story about her) / An other Another Side new idea focused on Venessa Jeong / Destiny's last portrait for the ocs associations

15/ My favourite gif coming from Another Side Episode 1 : I think it's the best ending for this episode as it shows all the plots and times together. Everytime I see it I want to get back to the story ...

Tagging @trippisimmies @badwoohoo @bobnewbie @uwutrait @frzr-bunny @windbrook @eslanes @budgie2budgie @nefarrilou @kashisun @birdietrait @castawavy @agena87 @fangs-trait @peonypyxels @barbieaiden @void-imp @ladybugsimblr @xldkx @nilonne @bakersimmer @whyhellosims @mangosimoothie @djservo @sea-cross @surely-sims @hufflepuff-sim @aniraklova @therichantsim @wolfavens @cinamun @alelelesimz @moontaart @pralinesims @cyberth0t @squea @helloavocadooo @cross-design @rebouks @crazy-lazy-elder-sims and anyone else who'd like to join ♥ feel free to tag me or ignore this as well ^^ (Also, check out these blogs, they're all great !)

[simantopia]

from a very old GameSpy article and i feel this is something that has been forgotten about the sims series. the sims used to be satire. this was more evident by its cynical and/or crude humor. now the sims just kinda has a "cozy" & "wholesome" feel to it. it's like the series forgot that it wasn't just a simulator, but also a parody on life itself.

[thesimquarter]

hello! sims 2 miniopolis update!

first of all, my current sims 2 urbz sims >:3 outside of the obvious change of a default skin, they don't look that different compared to my old versions of them. But! believe me they are better.as well, this time! there's the DS exclusive characters and a few sims intended to be townies. In order, Lloyd, Red Man, Daschell Swank, Chet R. Chase, Bucki Brock's sister, Joe from the Flea Market (yes, he does have a name), Ava Cadavra, and Gordie Puck. Indeed, they're very red.

And an update to the town in general! I've finished most of the easy lots now, mostly having harder lots to do now. Such as the Mausoleum, Circus, Brownstones + Slice O'Life (which I… attempted. can you believe that the map of this game doesn’t follow the laws of physics?), etc.

New lots include: - Junked Schoolbus (which IS connected to the Chopper Garage visually but they aren't the same lot) - Chopper Garage (which i am not going to put underneath the road/jail! it looks cool in-game, but possibly impossible to do in the sims 2 but it makes no sense spatially!! the other side of the garage would just be underground!!!) - Cemetery (Mostly just empty buildings for aesthetics. No graves… yet. and there probably won’t be until the final version of the hood.) - Miniopolis Chronicle (TINY) - Miniopolis Hospital + University (if this was ts3 i probably would have made them separately) - Club Xizzle (what is it supposed to look like on the outside + should there be two?) - Glasstown Megamall - Cinema d'Urbania (how do you make a cinema in this game? big TV?)

I redid King Tower as well, just to make it fill out a 3x3 lot instead of a 2x2 lot, and Café Multiplaya has a new outdoor seating area (to fill in space). The Coffee Shop, the Market, and Glasstown apartments were in my last post, just kinda in the background. The Market has a lot of creative liberties taken to it, as I just didn't like how it translated into the Sims (as in it's made to represent the real-life French Quarter Market more). The Glasstown Apartment has a few other units in it for some of the Urbz sims (more on that in a bit!)

I removed pretty much, all the elevation from the .s4c terrain. It's easy to put back butttt, the sims 2 just doesn't work in a way that's friendly to sloped lots (and simcity 4 for slopes that take <1 unit of distance, you can't make steep cliffs in these games. so, basically, due to the compactness of the city, there isn’t enough room to add in slopes without making it all janky). They may come back at the end if we can Wizard the slopes to work the lots, but for now...

Ignore the weird road off the Sim Quarter. I was experimenting with what could be done with the riverboat. I was thinking about putting it on a beach lot and making a joke about it being temporarily landlocked (read: i already did) and was trying to find a good, functional place to put it. There may be other ways to do a riverboat though… hmmm

Anyways onto housing for the Sims. So, the Glasstown Apartments has a few more units to fit in a few other characters (Lottie Cash (I did manage to squeeze a bowling alley in there), Lily Gates, and Darius) but other than that? Very little! (I did Ewan’s House. however, it’s just a box; i took modest pretty literally). I might make a post soon where I talk about where each Urb would probably live, just as an excuse to talk to myself for a little while.

[strangledwires]

I was messing around with debug cheats in the Urbz again during a new game and I used the "Make Me Hate Everyone and Be Miserable" cheat and this? Actually, brought Jayde(s) into the relationship panel.

They even end up in your phone contacts, too. (Though will curiously disappear if you move to a new location, but you can get them back by redoing the cheat)

When calling them, though, they'll be missing an icon instead of using the Jayde placeholder icons.

Unfortunately, since this cheat causes everyone to hate you, they'll always deny your invite. So, it's still hard to tell if they can actually exist in the game outside of CAS or not.

[dreamxsimx]

Little announcement + lil unpopular opinions about The Sims

Hi guys ^^,

Im kinda on phase where i got things to do irl but also has tones ts2 cc's ideas in mind, im also replaying the sims 2 console ports (only the base game ones) and also Urbz.

I already played a few of them a while ago but want to play back to share a review and what i think about each of them when i'll finish them ( that was my small annoucement lmao ).

Now let's get to the unpopular opinions.

1 ) Not all packs are necessary (to me) :

I think that you can have a lot of fun without having all the expansions , i don't have all the packs in ts2 and i have so much fun , i think you also have to be delulu and use your imagination but tbh packs like Nightlife, University , Open for business and Seasons are enough for you to have a good game, same as ts3 i had the best experience with only 3 expansion packs.

2 ) Portals shouldn't be mistaken as spinoffs :

This might be only me who sees it that way but i don't consider a game console versions as "spin offs" but more of a different version of an individual game so when someone calls ts2 on psp a "spin off" it's kinda weird to me cause this isn't what a spin off is to me.

Spin offs games to me are individual games who's the same family as their original versions but have different names , aesthethic, options and stories but still have their original game's signature like Urbz, Mysims , Bustin out and more.

Franchises on console are just portals of the original pc version who have different contents based on different console systems.

3 ) I don't like what EA is doing with The Sims but sometimes i understand them not listening to simmers :

I'm not defending the mess they're doing however sometimes looking at some of their amazing previous projects that never came to light due to the public's bad opinions i do understand some reasons.

Around the 00's The Sims team was at it's highest when it comes to creativity and a lot of people slept on some of their creative works like Urbz which was a game that was so ahead of it's time but sadly had low sells and was called "repetitive" by a gaming site critic which i tbh thought the game was actually very fluid when it comes to contents.

Because of this a sequel of it that could've possibly be about nightclubs and could've have kids in it got cancelled.

The team was giving people authenticity and a big part of people weren't here for it now some people are begging for this to be back but if people didn't slept on it back at it's release maybe creativity from EA would've still been around.

I still have hope that one day the team will get back to authenticity after people will stop give them too much cashes and after they'll realize that what's "trendy" isn't always what people want.

Btw when i say "a lot" i'm not trying to make generalization i don't mean everyone, a lot of people also did like creative contents in the past from the team but a lot of people prefer what's realistic and neutral over what's authenthic and goofy.

Ups that was long sorry but if you took your time to read of this thank you so much <3

Btw thanks to the people who followed me it means a lot <3