#and some sims aged up since the last ones saved

[two-calicos-in-a-trenchcoat]

I was hoping I could make a family tree I could zoom all the way out on and be able to see everyone but.....not so much lol

Too many sims

[vermutandherring]

I've always felt that there was something missing from the romance in The Sims 4, though I can't quite put my finger on what. The depth of the relationship? Passion? Variety of interactions? Now, 10 years later, when our characters have learned how to raise children and organize weddings, we can finally teach them the art of love. At least that's what you'd expect from a Lovestruck.

Meet Julianne - together with her we will discover a never-before-seen world of romance, the journey to which starts from the phone (let's ignore the fact that I chose to play in my historical save file). Game doesn't give us a separate option to create an account on the dating app. As with Social Bunny, it works by default. From the first minutes of playing for another household, several sims called my character: some claimed that they got this number from friends, others that they were impressed by the profile in Cupid's Corner (which I did not create) and wanted to get to know each other. Arguably, your large social circle and popularity will attract more potential love interests. Or it's just my imagination and your acquaintances will have no effect on the appearance of calls with offers to get to know each other.

You can take your own profile photo, but without corresponding skill it will take some time. Actually, I love how cute it looks.

However, the best way to succeed in anything is to take matters into your own hands. The game offers us 6 candidates every 12 hours, which you can immediately add to your contacts and go on a date. These are both homeless NPCs and sims you create. I did not check whether it is possible to meet profiles of characters with romantic relationships, but all the households I came across were single, which is obviously the main condition for Cupid's Corner.

I also can't tell if the game selects profiles according to a certain principle. Only 1-2 sims had the same traits as Julianne. The rest were matched by age and gender. All this gives the impression that the application for dating is made somewhat lazily. There is very little information about the characters - only 2 traits, age and living place. And this despite the fact that in CAS we can choose an incredible number of hobbies and traits that can attract our sims.

It was funny to see profiles of the sims' I made before. You can say Wesker is always in my saves ✨

Perhaps there is logic in this, if we take into account that sims themselves have to learn more about each other during dates. So, having chosen 3 candidates, I send Julianne on the first date. Here you have to be careful and send your sims exactly on a date from the EP. Now, in addition to the huge and chaotic menu of communication, you will have another type of dating, which does not overwrite the basic one, but exists separately (which, in my opinion, does not make any sense, since they are identical in essence). After looking through the buy catalog beforehand, I purchased a picnic tablecloth and a board game, hoping to try out some new interactions.

Oh, this iconic arrival on the lot where sims stand around, waving their fingers until they want to drink water or to do the push-ups. I don't think that you are obliged to gift something on the first date. However, here we are talking about a game with a somewhat hyperbolic reality. It would be very nice if your partner greeted you with flowers, candy or a funny gift. But… no. Do you remember the phrase about taking matters into your own hands?

Dating in Lovestruck is no different from basic dating, except that it is now organized as an event, for which you will receive a reward. To finish it successfully, you need to complete as many tasks as possible: talk, flirt, and do activities that you have previously chosen. Like always, everything on the date depends only on you. This is the first and not the last time when I want to remember previous Sims games. Unlike the fourth part, in Sims 2 you can't spend the perfect date relying only on your whims. You should pay attention to your partner's wishes by asking what they want or checking their wishes on the date panel. This way, you make sure that both characters have a good time interacting with each other. In the Sims 4, those moments when your love interest takes the initiative are rather annoying, because their actions may not count towards the dating success scale, wasting your time.

Let's return to Julianne. A bit of grilled cheese, light conversation and a board game were a good start to getting to know each other. The picnic tablecloth is officially my absolute favorite part of the DLC. You can do relatively many things together, and it looks a lot better than sitting in different corners of the room with plates in hand. For me personally, this is exactly what I was missing - to watch how sims adequately communicate with each other, without getting up from their seats to play on the computer. This date ended with gold, for which Julianne received a sweet photo with Vittorio.

Without wasting time, Julianne goes on a second date. It was a bit more boring as I sent sims to a bar to explore the new town. Ciudad Enamorada is a new world, which represents the countries of the Iberian basin and Latin America. It is difficult for me to clearly state my opinion about the city. On the one hand, it is very reminiscent of San Myshuno, but feels more empty and sham like in the case of Tomarang. I suspect that EA have been planning for a long time to move to more modern versions of DirectX and started making bigger worlds full of large, carefully decorated areas to create an open world feel. In the already mentioned Tomarang, you can view the whole neighborhood, while being on the same lot.

But this attempt to deceive the player does not save the situation. The streets look empty due to too little traffic of cars and characters. 10 characters in the cozy Willow Creek neighborhood add life to the town, while the same number of characters in the huge Ciudad Enamorada give the impression of a ghost city.

There's not a lot you can do in these areas, and it turns this beautiful city into another one empty box.

Although there are also pleasant moments. For example, in parks you can meet characters spending time together. Just don't look at them for too long, otherwise you will notice that they sit on the benches for whole days, poking their fingers at the clouds and at the starry sky.

Now your sims can stargaze on the benches and this animation is really sweet. I'd wish it were just a bit more diverse, maybe with kissing interaction (my man deff doesn't understand hints).

Julianne's date with Hosea went well. It was the usual conversations about interests and jokes over a glass of root beer and a little flirting. Since this is the first meeting, Julianne did not insist on extremely frank details, stopping at superficial facts about herself, because now you can not only ask your beloved ones about their likes, but also share your own. The developers tried to deepen the relationship by adding more psychological moments. It would seem that the preferences of sims should be based on this, which would influence their choice of a partner. But to be honest, I couldn't feel it. The information you learn about the characters constantly bombards you with an endless number of messages, reading which is very tiring. Even after reaching the maximum relationship, my sims never developed any specific preferences and could not tell each other anything new (or maybe I create too boring sims).

The second date quickly tired me out, as it was not much different from the first. I managed to finish it for silver, after which Julianne had a little rest. As a reward, she received a teddy bear. I expected that partners after successful dates would quickly want to see each other again. But the rare times they did call, they were asking for advice on relationships with other sims. This is another gap that the devs didn't try to fix or simply ignored its existence - the game does not take into account your current relationship and romantic level with other characters. I think this is an interesting option if you are playing for a polyamorous relationship. But for Julianne, I set the goal to find a partner and chose the exact settings for her in CAS, which the game ignored. Frustrated by this, I sent her on a third date.

It was awful. Julianne couldn't find approach to Omari, and each of their lines turned the date into a complete mess. Neither jokes nor attempts to find a common language helped. It ended up with bronze and little flower as a reward for wasted time. You can also end the date early, or ask to extend it if you don't have time to collect the reward (the additional time decreases with each attempt). Maybe things would have turned out better if Julianne had practiced her romance skill. This is another controversial point for me, with which I cannot decide.

Of course, we must learn to find an approach to each other, train patience, be able to accept our partners and talk about our problems and complaints to each other in order to solve them. But in Lovestruck, romance skill is geared towards unlocking additional interactions, such as kissing or sharing candy box. Do I really have to go on multiple dates and get into relationships with different partners to finally learn how to present sweets? I understand that this was done mostly in order to make the gameplay a little more difficult and exciting, to add some time before you get completely bored.

After all, this skill exists because there must be new skill in Expansion Pack. It's very reminiscent of a similar parenting skill in Parenthood, but some things look absurd. Skills from WW has more sense, but for obvious reason devs can't put something that spicy into the game. Eventually, I got tired of developing a talent for romancing other sims and had to use a cheat code.

Julianne ended up with Hosea. Not because he called after a date or wanted to see her. But because I accidentally bumped into him while was hanging around in the park doing quest (this is really tiny quest you can find in the park and finish it within 10 minutes, 5 of which is loading screens). As we know, nothing makes you closer and helps to grow connection like fishing. But this I would do without paying 40$ (or 999 UAH, for God's sake).

I got tired of Julianne's love story. I tried pushing their progression with Hosea to see what else the game can propose. Not that much. So I switched on other married couple.

I adore new furniture. It embody well the atmosphere of romance and erotic mood, which can be supplemented with wallpaper with interesting animal patterns (I missed zebra and leopard prints since Sims 2). It looks like something you expect to meet in the 'certain places for adults' and I like that devs went a bit further than just a bunch of cute stuff. The only thing that does not go well with the 'strip-clubs-velvet style' is art deco. Why don't make more club/bar furniture with booth seats, puffs and huge mirrors in soft cloth is beyond me. But now, if you want full art deco collection, you should get Hight School Years and Lovestruck altogether. I find it quite funny, not sure either in bad or good context.

As I already mentioned, picnic tablecloth is my absolute favorite from the whole EP. It also has the bear rug variation, which fits just perfect for your romantic evenings by the fireplace. I'm sure Victor and Lily will agree with this.

Same interactions are available for both the rug and the cloth because these are literally the same object.

But what if I tell you that it already was in The Sims, 20 years ago?

Gif made from this video. All credits to the original creator.

I don't like to think about it as an "easter egg". Almost every DLC for The Sims 4 is repeating of the same content and functions from the previous games, but with less functionality. And EA charges extra money for it over and over again. Now let's just wait till they figure out how to implement the biggest easter egg of The Sims series ever - cars.

You can make your sims sitting with drinks like in The Sims 1, but of course it has different vibe.

Time to talk about the "hottest" part of this add-on - the seductive dance. To do this, you will have to develop a little not only relationships, but also romantic skill. Dressing up in erotic outfits is optional and not a requirement. That's where all the fun ends. Your partner will begin to move to the rhythm of the dance, which lasts several minutes and during which nothing happens but monotonous movements. Again, this can be described with the words "cute" and "funny", which fits perfectly with the whole family friendly concept of the game. To be honest, I am not categorically against this, because the step towards real erotic and sexuality makes The Sims 4 hover over the abyss of what is appropriate for its age limit.

This review is already too long, but I would like to add a little more about the interactions. I counted a dozen new romantic interactions with animations. For some of them, you will have to increase your romantic skills. Other parts (such as questions or flirting) use the same animations as in the base game. The menu of relationships has become even more chaotic, the description of preferences is even more complicated and unclear. If you want to make the gameplay more varied, you will have to spend a lot of time reading the explanations and noting these details in your head. And even then, I'm not sure if it will make your game more diverse.

As It's been told many times before, Lovestruck EP makes the romance too complicated. Obviously, the developers tried to add depth to the relationship that was so lacking, but in the end they went in wrong direction. Maybe I should play more to understand new features better. But I just don't have the desire for it. The gameplay became so full of text that I started to turn a blind eye to it. I have no doubt that the new features will give someone more variation to play and build their stories. But for me this DLC doesn't cost neither full nor discount price at all.

I love suits and Lily in butler's uniform wins my heart 🖤 Pose is CC.

There are also some features I didn't mention (like therapy for couples which broke my relationship) so there's a bit more to discover. You are free to argue with me of course. Sometimes I think I'm too biased about the game.

[samssims]

Any timeline for Ada’s return for NSB???

Nonny, it's funny you say this because I currently have 5 posts on my drafts ready to go but I want to stock up on a few more of them before posting. I am hoping for sometime in October, before I disappear into Dragon Age

Longer ramble:

My NSB used to be my simplest gameplay story back when I was writing dialogue and using sims to actually storytell, but now since I've adopted a more gameplay style, my NSB is now my most time consuming story to make. It's the one I love the most so it is the one I put the most effort into now. Hence why it takes me a long time to work on it.

I'm always hoping the poses I want/need will magically appear but then I just end up making them myself lol. The curse of pose making and knowing what you want from a scene.

I've also realized that it is no longer Ada's story and we are fully into Addie's (her daughter). Ada's story resolution will come at the end of Addie's main plot. And I have so many fun teen/high school antics coming for Addie that I realized we're in her era now. If you go back on the last couple of posts, you will see the banner has changed to full reflect that we're with Addie now.

(Some posts have been ever so slightly re-edited to tighten up Addie's story so far)

All this to say that I'm always thinking and planning my NSB, I love them so much. I'm glad you miss them too Nonny.

Hoping to wrap up Addie's childhood years (the posts for that are in my drafts) and start her real plot of teen years soon (not yet filmed - Addie and friends are still children in my game).

She is partially the reason I am making a brand new base save! So I want to finish more of that project before starting to really deep dive into her teen years. It's always one project and then another.

So stick with me, they are all coming back soon I promise! And thank you for being interested ❤️

[katatty]

Strangeswap Floorplans & Household Details

Under a cut cince I consider some of these to be a little bit "spoiler-y", here's all the floorplans for anon who wants to try making Strangeswap for The Sims 4!

I've also included notes on all the changes to sims, etc. Unless noted, assume stuff is the same as the original! I've included notes on the intended LTW but as just pointed out to me a lot of the LTWs show up kind of buggy, lol! So this is a nice reference I guess if anyone wants to have the correct "intended" LTWs (although I'm supportive of changing them if desired, haha, they were kind of a last minute addition).

Smith

The Smith house is a remodel of the Grunt house that combines the aesthetics of both houses. Actual personalities are unchanged, but here are some sims bios etc.

"Johnny has always lived under the hard thumb of his father, General P.T. In this domesticated boot camp, can Johnny prove his worth to this demanding Dad?"

"Pollination Technician #9 enlisted into the army in exchange for amnesty. The military was prepared to spend generously to acquire intelligence from any alien willing to betray its own kind…"

"Jenny loves having a career, but she wishes she could spend more time with her family. She sometimes wondering if marrying P.T. was the right choice."

"Johnny wants to save the world and is certain being part-alien must give him some kind of extraordinary ability, but he’s still trying to figure out his superpower."

(Jill's bio is the same as the original Strangetown)

PT9 is at the top of the military career, like General Buzz (Jenny retains her OG career, though she is thinking of quitting)

PT9 is still enemies with General Buzz like in the original Strangetown, but is also enemies with Glarn Curious

Jenny and PT9 have a slightly low relationship for a married couple and are not currently in love (this is intended to mirror the Lyla/Buzz dynamic, although the reason for it is up to the player's imagination)

The timeline change shown in memories indicates that Jenny became romantically involved with PT9 quite shortly after her father was abducted. In the family album Glarn is shown looking unhappy at their wedding

Johnny is still enemies with Tank, and also has a slight dislike of his half-sisters Lola & Chloe

PT9's LTW is to have lots of children, Jenny's is to have them graduate college. Johnny wants to become captain hero.

Grunt

The Grunt house is a remodel of the Specter household, but more slightly more masc & jock, haha. Note Lyla's grave is where Ichabod's is originally (next to the chair) and is the only grave with flowers and candles placed on it.

"Who is buried in Buzz Grunt’s garden? Will the mysterious, aging outcast split his fortune evenly between his sons, or give everything to his favourite, Tank?"

"Buzz will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He used to enjoy barbershop quartet singing, but that is classified information."

"Tank Grunt wants to be just like his old man. He spends his days digging holes, shapening sticks, and being bigger than the other guy, but deep down inside, he wonders if anyone really knows who he is."

Buzz Grunt works as a professional party guest. The "General" has obvously been dropped from his name

Ripp has been changed from romance to pleasure aspiration

Buzz's LTW is to have 20 best friends. Tank wants to be a world class ballet dancer (nod to the psp game). Ripp wants to reach the top of the culinary career, (I think this one is unaltered, but kinda fits since he has high food interest)

Looking through Buzz's memories, you can see he caught Lyla cheating numorous times, and in the family album there is a picture of him caughting her in bed with Rigger Mortis. Right after the caught cheating memories, there are memories of men (Olive Specter's husbands from OG Strangetown) dying. Lyla dies just after their divorce

Buzz also has memories for the deaths of most people in the graveyard, same as Olive Specter in the original Strangetown.

Ripp is dating Chloe Curious, and they have had their first kiss and made out. He will usually start the game with wants about Ophelia, though.

Tank is friends with Lola Curious, although they go to different schools (in hindsight maybe I should have put the boys in private school? oh well). They have some chemistry but it's up to the player whether to do anything about that

Specter

The Specter house is a remodel of the Beaker castle. Overall there are not many changes here as I think their styles are quite simiilar!

"What experiments is the highly secretive and less than neighbourly Olive Specter performing on poor Ophelia? Will this secrecy affect her retirement plans?"

"Olive knows 238 different ways to make someone scream, and none of them are nice. She enjoys taxidermy and collecting mushrooms."

"Ophelia knows being a test subject isn’t exactly usual for a high school student, but the experiments are mostly harmless and she doesn’t have any other family to turn to. It was this or the orphanage."

Olive Specter's "seriel killer" memories are gone. However, she retains her memory of woohoo with the Grim Reaper

Her memories of most of her OG husbands are gone (she was too busy with her research to make time for love, maybe!), but she does still have her romance & marriage with Ichabod Specter who she met as an elder (as shown in family album)

Rather than being taken away by social services, Nervous ran away as a teenager. The reason for this is not stated, but he's still called "Nervous Subject" so it's implied Olive was using him as a test subject. (There's also an album picture which shows this, or shows Olive neglecting him, depending on interpretation)

Olive's LTW is to max all 7 skills. Ophelia wants to be a Mad Scientist (although it incorrectly reads Education Minister, that's a bug lol!)

Olive and Glarn Curious are enemies, and a picture in the family album shows them arguing as teenagers in some sort of science lab. She has a memory of winning a fight against her as a teenager. (This is intended to mimic Loki's rivalry with the Curious brothers).

Beaker

The Beaker house is a makeover of the Curious lab, which now looks completely ridiculous and is probably my favourite lot, hahaha.

"In search of truth and mystery, the Beakers got more than they were “expecting.” Can Loki, Circe, and Erin cope with their new roles as cosmic parents?"

"A shrewd and clever woman who runs the business end of the Beaker operation. She enjoys taxidermy and collecting coat hangers."

(Loki and Erin's bios are unchanged)

Loki is alien pregnant, like Pascal in the original Strangetown. Circe and Erin both seem supportive of this.

Erin has the knowledge aspiration and is working in the science career as a field researcher. Loki and Crice's careers are unchanged.

The sims are mostly unchanged with no new relationships or new memories, although there's a sweet picture of Loki and Erin playing dolls nicely together as kids rather than him smashing the dollhouse

Curious

The Curious house is a makeover of the Smith house, in a more modern (or retro-furutrist?) style. It also incorperates some elements from the Curious family's childhood home as seen in the original storytelling pictures. Kitty Curious' grave is in their backyard.

"After fruitful careers, siblings Glabe and Glarn are ready for retirement. But at their age, can they keep up with Glarn's twins? Will Lola and Chloe make friends and fit in, or is this family just too strange for Strangetown?"

Lola and Chloe have their original bios, and it appears I straight up forgot to give Glabe and Glarn bios, lol!

The family photos and memories show that Glarn got abducted while the kids were still home (Jenny a fresh adult, Pascal and Vidcund teenagers, and Lazlo a child). He has a negative memory of his abduction despite being a knowledge sim.

Kitty Curious (his wife) died shortly after they both reached alderhood. The reason for this is left to the player's imagination.

After that, his younger sister Glabe moved in to help with the toddlers. She has taken on the brunt of the childcare and taught them all their toddler skills. She is friends with best friends with both twins, whereas Glarn is not.

Glarn and Glabe both work in the science career. Glarn is a project leader, Glabe is a science teacher.

Glarn's aspiration is knowledge, and he wants to max out 7 skills.

Glabe's aspiration is popularity, and she wants to be Education Minister

Chloe's LTW is to become a professional party guest. As mentioned in the Grunt house notes, she's dating Ripp Grunt.

Lola's LTW is to earn $100,000. She is friends with Tank Grunt.

Lola is an A+ student and in private school, whereas Chloe is in public school and is a D student. Their memories show Chloe being rejected from private school. (Which is the same as OG their memories in OG Strangetown, but was an interesting detail I'd never noticed/considered).

The household is on bad terms with the Smith household. Glarn is enemies with PT9, and both girls has a slight dislike of Johnny. They do all like Jenny & Jill, though.

Singles

The Singles household is the Curious brothers, Nervous Subject, and Ajay Loner. They live in a makeover of 57 Road to Nowhere.

"Has there ever been a group of roommates so different from one another? As if living in Strangetown isn’t hard enough, will these guys be able to accept their differences and be friends or will the tension tear the house apart?"

"Nervous never planned on moving back to Strangetown, but when his internet boyfriend offered him a place to stay who was he to say no? His hobbies include twitching and blinking a lot."

Other bios are unchanged.

Pascal is a romance sim, and works in the Intelligence Career as a private eye. Him and Nervous are in love. Wants to be head of SCIA. (I thought this fit well with his love of conspiracy theories, picture him as a sort of horny Fox Mulder, LOL)

Vidcund gets to keep his knowledge aspiration, but is working in Natural Science as an algae hunter. (He wants to be criminal mastermind which I think is a mistake tbh, feel free to change it to whatever suits your headcanon)

Lazlo is a pleasure sim and working in the paranormal career as a tarot card reader. (His LTW is to become a game designer, ideally it would be the cult leader one but that's not availible without mods IIRC).

Ajay and Nervous do not have careers yet (they are supossed to have moved in more recently). Ajay wants to be a business tycoon and Nervous wants to be a Space Pirate (though I think his LTW is bugged out lmao).

The reason for aspiration and career changes here to to keep it from feeling too much like yet another Curious family (since the Beakers and Curious houses are filling that role) and more like the wacky mix of personalities that make up the Singles girls :)

Most of the guys are on decent terms with each other, but Vidcund has a slight dislike of Ajay and Nervous that will usually lead to fights eventually if the player doesn't intervene.

Loste

Kristen is filling the "Ajay Loner" role in the hood and lives in this makeover of 91 Road to Nowhere. Follow the link to see the house properly.

"Kristen has come to Strangetown hoping to find herself. Will she be successful in her new home or will the odd things that always seem to happen here drive her away?"

Her LTW is the become a hall of famer in the athletic career (since her bio says that it always feels weird to have her bio be anything else).

She's not been changed at all apart from all her relationships with the Singles girls being removed. She's a blank slate!

Community Lots

The neighbourhood comes with my makeover of 81 Road to Nowhere, v1 (see link for pictures). I also made over the community pool:

The neighbourhood also has 188 Road to Nowhere, which is an empty lot, and 73 Road to Nowhere, the weird little house. I didn't do anything to either of them, they're just vanilla maxis houses.

On my downloads page, though, I do have makeovers of them that could give you some ideas. (A trailer park for the bin families and renovation for the original Singles girls.)

Phew, right, I think that's everything! Let me know if you need clarification or more info on anything :)

[tikay21]

🐺 Saint Conroy

more under the cut

Saint Conroy - this guy is where it all started with for me and The Sims. He was the first male character I ever played all the way through his life. I started playing Sims 20 years ago, and my first household was a girl I focused on - Jolene Winter (later Winter-Conroy). But eventually, she needed a partner by her side, so I created the very first version of him. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures left from that version.

Saint today After a long break, I got back to Sims with The Sims 3 because my son wanted it, and – well – I got hooked again, lol.

I recreated them in S3 as best as I could and gave them the look I had imagined with all the new features. Unfortunatly barely S3 screenshots, cause i didn`t document my GP that time this way, story only in my head and memories - so all images here are from the remade in S4. Saint grew up with his mother’s relatives after she passed away early. He was treated well there, but he wanted more than to be stuck in that small town forever. After school, he started working odd jobs and saved up a little money to rent a room in the city, at least as a temporary solution. Without his uncle’s support, it wouldn’t have lasted long. With his guitar, he began busking at the same spots repeatedly. That’s where Jolene noticed him. She started coming by more often to see if he was there, listening to his music from a distance. One day, he approached her, and there was an instant chemistry between them. They grew closer, he taught her how to play the guitar, they fell in love, and became a couple.

Saint landed a few gigs at local venues. He met more people and eventually started the band 'Gravity'. They practiced in a classic garage setup and were finally discovered, thanks to Saint’s persistence in getting people to listen to his music at least once. They married 3 years later while the band started to go it's way and things went very well.

The unstable lifestyle took its toll, and they argued more and more frequently. Saint often withdrew from conversations and did his own thing. The issues with Jaxx weighed heavily on him, but neither of them knew how to help him. They separated and even got divorced, but continued living together in the large finca (which they later bought and restored) that they had rented with the band. Since, deep down, they couldn’t live without each other, they reconciled and remarried a little over a year later. With his wife Jolene Winter-Conroy he has four kidz: Jaxx - Cloud - Leroy und Joshua.

'Gravity' got famous, and he became a clan leader and MC president.

Saint aging

He has a quirky habit: he only wears red shoes. Now he’s a great-grandfather, but I prefer to not age him more, it's game, so I can do what I want haha. They’ve been through so much family history together, up and downs and some tragedies, but I wasn’t really documenting any of it back then.

So one day, my game stopped working, and I had to make a choice: The Sims 4 or no Sims at all. I put it off for as long as I could, but eventually, I made the switch and left them behind, planning to start fresh. But Sims 4 didn’t have the stuff I loved from Sims 3 – bikers, MCs, musicians, bands – it was really missing for me. Nevertheless it lasted about two weeks before I started remaking them in Sims 4. I just couldn’t be without them. They’re connected to everything I do in my Game, even if it’s just in the background. They’re the foundation of my whole gameplay.

I play without aging and death. I manually age them up when it’s time. I just can’t handle a full legacy game with all the consequences. So here we are, and would love cataloging my Sims here now.

The plan is to give each of my characters a profile and update them whenever I feel like it. Saint Conroy ❤️ Sim made by me @tikay21 in various stages of life.

Sim by me @tikay21

I would like to introduce some of my Sims (Char/OC) that I’ve created over the years and which are special to me. Most of this ones I’ve played with for a long time or actually play with.

Conroy - Family Tree

[changingplumbob]

Pancakes Household: Chapter 9, Part 8

Fergus concludes his birthday party and we get some news.

CW: Unicorn zombie with minor carton gore

Calista: Ready to lose all your sleep ins

Eliza: What do you mean

Calista: An adoption fell through at the last minute and my husband put you two forward before they had time to go to the waitlist

Eliza: Wait, really? You're not tricking me?

…

Aaron: So she’s an infant born this morning. There was a family set up but they got cold feet about not having access to parents medical histories so I just told them how reliable the two of you are together. She’s got African American descent so they were keen for at least one of the parents to match

Bob: Thanks Aaron, I really can’t thank you enough for this

Calista: Apparently the birth mother didn’t want to name her, she wanted to avoid attachment, but you didn’t hear that from me. Anyway better get brainstorming

Eliza: Oh Bob already has quite the list, trust me

...

Aaron: There’ll be papers but legally she’ll be seen as yours and Eliza’s from the get go

Bob: I’m sure we can handle not knowing the medical histories, we’re interested in her future. I know it’s selfish to want an infant-

Aaron: Hey, you can always adopt or foster an older one later on. You’re still bringing a child into your family, that’s generous no matter their age

Of course it is Fergus’ birthday party and he spends some time eating cake with his friends. Since aging up has already happened this rotation most of them are teens now to.

In the lounge the adults take over the TV.

Calista: Which button is the gas

Artemisia: Crash ma, crash!

Bob: It’s one of the right ones I think

Artemisia: It’s left ma! Other left! Watch out for-

Aaron: *sighs* You’re not being very helpful Emisia

Artemisia: *tuts* Blame Bob for not having enough seats at their table *leaves*

Eliza: There will be even less when we break the high chair out of storage

Artemisia: What are you doing out here

Beth: You’re all tall now, it’s weird

Artemisia: It’s not my fault that you’re younger than the rest of us

Beth: Whatever

And of course compulsory photos with friends! Chasity and Artemisia below.

Most of Fergus and Artemisia’s friends are born from in game couples. The first two below are Brianna Fryes and Drake Bheeda. Maybe people with better eyes can see the family resemblance but I cannot… Then we have Anya and Atlas

After the party Eliza heads out for a jog with Strawberry but when she gets home it’s Ginger who needs a bath? Keen to dust off her bathing small creatures skills Eliza takes her for a bath. Ginger is very appreciative, even if she shakes off a puddle into the corner.

When Eliza eventually gets to bed Strawberry feels like cuddles and wakes her up.

Eliza: Strawberry! Tomorrow is a big day, mother needs sleep, don’t wake up sleeping sims

Strawberry pretends to listen but she’s stubborn so I’m quite sure it makes no difference to her, especially since Eliza does cave and give her snuggles. Before going back to sleep Eliza decides to check on the dust bunny. Dusty gifts her a fire opal! Not wanting Ginger to feel left out of the snuggle-fest she cuddles her before heading back to sleep. Where is Bob?

It may be half past midnight but Bob is determined to finish his latest book. He’s not particularly good at writing but he needs to save up for his future restaurant.

Strawberry: *yaps* Play time dad, play

Bob: Sorry Strawberry, dad is busy just this second

Strawberry: *yaps* Ginger, come get dad to play

Ginger: *barks* Sure, oh... oh no... he’s on the computer!

To Bob’s confusion Ginger bolts out of the room and is followed by a curious Strawberry. Bob doesn’t have to much time to wonder on it though as he needs to keep writing.

Strawberry: *yaps* Why are we under here

Ginger: *whimpers* hiding

Strawberry: *yaps* Wait, what are we hiding from

Ginger: *whimpers* the computer

Strawberry: *yaps* come on, we’ll crawl out this side and we’ll be away from it. Let's comfort eat

Ginger: I suppose that's what dad does

Ginger reluctantly follows Strawberry out and does her best to forget that Bob is on the computer.

At 2:30 Bob finishes book number 4! He also reached writing level 4, hopefully soon he’ll be able to do more than self publish. Getting ready for bed he is giddy with excitement for his growing household.

Previous ... Next

[lilacwhimss]

CAREERS LEGACY CHALLENGE — A STORY BASED LEGACY

hello! this is my new legacy challenge based off of sims 4 careers!!! it started with me creating a new save and needing a place to organize my ideas, and it became this 10 generations legacy! this has a lot of room for storytelling and developing your own stories, but it also has gameplay focused rules! your sims all have some background detailing for you to comprehend why they want to follow that career! i hope you all enjoy this! if you give it a chance, post and tag me! i also have more generations being planned, but they’ll be extra gens ;)

GENERAL RULES + GUIDELINES:

all required rules have to be completed before moving to the next gen

rules that have a * are optional!

a few cheats are allowed, but try not to overuse them. only in gen. 1, you’ll be allowed to use freerealestate, bb.enablefreebuild, money cheats and university cheats. for the rest of the gens, you can use cas.fulleditmode for other sims, live edit/debug cheats for decorating your house and you can use UI cheats if your game broke to complete aspiration milestones

you must join the careers from each generation, and you also have to reach level 10 of them, even if it requires extra skills (i think this is kinda implied)

i tried my best to make this mod-free, but gen 3 has a modded aspiration. i did give an unmodded alternative, though!

mods and cc are super incentivized!!!

i split the rules into main rules and plot rules. the plot rules are fully optional, but it'll give you some background for your generations!

colors are also optional! i just enjoy playing with them.

PACKS REQUIRED:

EP: all of them (up to For Rent) but Eco Lifestyle and Get to Work.

GP: Spa day, Dine out, Realm of Magic, Outdoor Retreat

SP: Paranormal, Crystal creations, Tiny living, Nifty knitting, Backyard

— 🪻

let's get started!

gen 1: law (judge).

colors: orange & green

—

since you were a kid, you strived for the best. you lived with your mother and her spouse, no sight of your dad. growing up, you had a fiery personality, which lead you to make a single friend in your entire life. you always wanted to be the best at everything, and help people get justice. you discovered that doing yoga kept you in check. all was going well: you were going to the university you always wanted, opening the path to your dream along with your best friend, until they died. how will you navigate life now?

TRAITS & ASPIRATION:

overachiever, hot headed, generous

academic

MAIN RULES:

max research & debate skill

max wellness skill

max a third skill of your choice

always take one elective that has nothing in common with your major

you have to major in history

you must live in a student dorm in your first term.

PLOT RULES:

have only a single friend prior to joining uni (you can cheat this if you want to start the gen as a young adult)

that friend has to die (be creative!)

create a club with your roommates and go out every week*

marry someone that goes to the rival university

have at least one kid and a max. of 3 kids

have a close family dynamic with everyone initially

at some point during the heir’s teen years, modify the family relationship to difficult, but only with the heir. this is important for the next gen.

gen 2: restaurant owner.

colors: pink & purple

—

you definitely had a white picket life growing up, with dancing and cooking being your favorite family activities. your parents were amazing, kind and caring — until you said that you wouldn't attend university. your relationship with them strained, so as soon as you aged, you packed up and moved to Mt. Komorebi with the last savings you had. you had enough to buy/rent a place, but was that enough to get to your dream of opening a restaurant? how will you get money? and, most importantly: how will you deal with your parents?

TRAITS & ASPIRATION:

foodie, dance machine, loner.

master chef

MAIN RULES:

max cooking skill

max dancing skill

max skiing skill*

must move out as soon as your sim ages up to a young adult

work as a babysitter in your teen years to get money

gain at least 4 stars on your restaurant

PLOT RULES:

don't attend uni

when you move out, become a part time barista until you get enough money to buy a restaurant (i recommend building it beforehand to see how much you’ll need to get)

marry an adventurous sim

see your parents once a year

have only one kid and have the supportive family dynamic with them as they grow up.

gen 3: paranormal investigator

colors: black & white

—

you were a lonely kid growing up in the snowy mountains. no siblings, no friends, just you and snowboarding. you always felt like something was watching over you. your parents always supported you, even when you chose to move out and follow what your grandparents wished for. you rented out a place, and weird things started happening around. will you find out what's going on?

TRAITS:

genius, geek and unflirty.

renaissance sim (no mods)/ paranormal proficiency (mod)

MAIN RULES:

max medium skill

max snowboarding skill

must attend uni (you choose the major)

must live in a haunted house lo throughout your life

befriend bonehilda

no kid limit

PLOT RULES

join/create a ghost hunters club

marry someone who is also a freelance paranormal investigator

always own a cat and a dog

gain the coffee fanatic and the close knit lifestyle

successfully plead for someone's life at least once*

gen 4: conservationist (marine biologist)

colors: blue & yellow

—

your parents always told you supernatural stories, entertaining you with possibilities of hidden things all over this world, ranging from ghosts to werewolves. mermaids were always the ones that marveled you, and made you want to learn more. your parents never denied the existence of all of those things — but they never confirmed it either. you decide to settle that yourself, and there's only one way to approach it: by moving to sulani. you buy a small home by the beach, get a job and start researching. one day, you come across some weird type of kelp. what will you do with it?

TRAITS & ASPIRATION:

child of the ocean, ambitious, loves the outdoors

beach life

MAIN RULES:

max fishing skill

max herbalism skill*

max gardening skill

complete the fish collection (if you don't have all packs, it's fine. complete the collection with the packs you own)

also complete the seashell collection

become a mermaid

explore everything in sulani

live on a lot with the volcano activity challenge

PLOT RULES:

always participate in the island festivals

live on a tiny home in a beach lot (that has an ocean part)

marry a human

only have one kid and they must be human (cheat your way into not raising a mermaid)

gain the outdoorsy lifestyle

live on a lot with the simple living challenge*

gen 5: stylist (style influencer)

colors: white & brown (or clean girl-esque colors)

—

you grew up by the beach, always in contact with all sorts of people with different clothing styles that always made you want to learn more about them. you remember going on a trip with your grandparents to a bigger city once, and you were amazed by the hustle and bustle, the different people. you knew you wanted to live there, but you also didn't want to leave sulani behind. will you leave, or will you stay?

TRAITS & ASPIRATION:

loyal, high maintenance and dog lover

friend of the world

MAIN RULES:

max charisma skill

max fitness skill

max wellness skill*

join the stylist branch in the style influencer career

sell at least 5 outfits on trendi

PLOT RULES:

marry a non-committal sim

move to san sequoia, but visit sulani every weekend

have at least two kids with that sim

always own a dog

gain the close knit + frequent traveler lifestyle

divorce your spouse after the second kid

marry your best friend

gen 6: farmer + horse racer

colors: orange & teal

—

you knew your parent loved the city, but that life just wasn't for you. your dad didn't see you a lot — and you knew he never wanted to have you. inspired by your grandparents gardening lessons, you decide to live the city behind and move to the countryside. your parent is disappointed, wanting to be with you for everything in your life, but your step parent supports you a lot. initially, you only planned on living your life, raising plants and chickens. but you stumble upon a horse, and you bond with it. will you adopt it?

TRAITS & ASPIRATION:

animal enthusiast, self assured and neat

country caretaker

MAIN RULES:

max horse riding skill

max gardening skill

max all your horse’s skills

get at least to level 3 of knitting skill

move to Henford-on-Bagley

win the ultimate horse championship

PLOT RULES:

have at least three chickens, one cow, three bunnies, one mini goat and one mini sheep

complete at least one help needed quest from the townies every week

win at least once in every fair (crops, chickens, etc)

live on a lot with the simple living challenge

name all of your animals after food

gain the adrenaline seeker lifestyle

have max friendship with all of your animals*

marry another horse champion (rivals to lovers would be a good option)

have at least two kids

gen 7: acting

colors: black & red

—

you loved watching movies and soap operas in that old, grainy TV your parents had on their farm. you knew you wanted to participate in those, and you yearned for that type of attention. you auditioned a lot as a kid, but would always get rejected, until you eventually found out they ruled you out because you were a bumpkin. angry, you moved away from henford-on-bagley all the way to Del Sol Valley. you decided you needed a fresh start, away from your roots. but will you manage to completely avoid them?

TRAITS & ASPIRATION:

squeamish, ambitious, good

world famous celebrity

MAIN RULES:

max acting skill

max singing skill*

max media production skill

reach pristine reputation

become a global superstar

get ( at least) to the following perks: established name, star treatment, fan favorite and lifestyle brand

PLOT RULES:

gain the health food nut and the frequent traveler lifestyle

move to del sol valley as a teen and live there your entire life

marry another celebrity

have only one child

host charity events at least once a season

you can fall down to a neutral reputation if you decide to get your sim to come clean about their identity

gen 8: jeweler

colors: blue & purple

—

your parents were celebrities, so you were constantly put into the spotlight. you just wanted to read and daydream about crystals and jewels. you constantly had to run away from paparazzi, and you made it to the news by fighting them publicly. that got your parents very angry, and they sent you away to live with your grandparents in henford-on-bagley. you make a lot of animal friends there, and widely explore the world, searching for crystals and metals. one day, someone offers you a getaway from all of the human world: the magic realm. you accept it, but you must return to del sol valley and tell your parents. how will you do it?

TRAITS & ASPIRATION:

creative, perfectionist and outgoing

crystal crafter

MAIN RULES:

max gemology skill

max a second skill of your choice

become a spellcaster

reach rank 6 - virtuoso

learn all spells and potions

get at least 12 perks, and the insightful eye trait is required

complete the crystals and metals collections (if you don't have all packs, it's fine. complete the collection with the packs you own)

PLOT RULES:

befriend all sages

give all sims their respective jewelry pieces (ie: the mystical ring for morgyn ember, the mystical bracelet for the charm family and judith ward’s bling necklace)

craft every jewelry piece + all crystals (with only one type of crystal/metal each i’m not that cruel)

own at least one crystal tree

make at least one piece of jewelry with jet

marry a human OR perform the rite of dissolution after reaching rank 6

have more than one kid, but the heir must be human

gen 9: landlord

colors: yellow & green

—

you had weird books lying around your house, written in a language you couldn’t understand. your parents never cared to explain why, and you never really asked. you had no idea what you wanted to do in life — you just knew you wanted to be rich. after a quick research, you decided to be a landlord. yes, everyone hated landlords, but you just wanted money. when you told that to your parents, they gave you a harsh stare, but said nothing. your grandparents congratulated you, though. so, after a quick business class, you buy your first property. now you just have to… do everything. renew it. you realize it isn’t going to be that easy, and you’re too prideful to ask for money. will you give up, or will you start from the bottom?

TRAITS & ASPIRATION:

materialistic, self assured and ambitious

five star property owner

MAIN RULES:

max photography skill

max mischief skill

max a third skill of your choice

complete the tassels and the marbles collection

own at least one rental property your home world and one in another world

PLOT RULES:

live in brindleton bay

start from the bottom with your rental, but you have to get to a five star rating

marry one of your tenants

host a potluck every weekend and a pool party every summer

have a good relationship with all of your tenants but have a bad relationship with your parents

gain the people person and the energetic lifestyle

you must have twins and let the wheel decide which one will be the heir

hold a grudge against one of your parents

gen 10: veterinarian

colors: pink & white

—

you grew up by the water, surrounded by stray animals you always desperately wanted to have. your parents never allowed you to, leaving you to care for them in secret, spending your pocket money on food for them. you always nurtured this love and compassion for animals, wishing to help them all. you go into university, looking for a biology degree to follow your dream of becoming a vet. your parents don't really care about what you do, as long as you bring money to the table. so what will they say once you state that you'll be opening a vet clinic by yourself?

TRAITS & ASPIRATION:

generous, proper and socially awkward

friend of the animals

MAIN RULES:

max veterinarian skill

max pet training skill

buy and/or renew a vet clinic

get a 5 star clinic rating

always own at least one dog after becoming a young adult

you have to attend university and major in biology

complete the feathers collection

PLOT RULES:

marry one of your clients that has a cat

always feed the birds

have max friendship with at least 5 cats and 5 dogs

never choose mean interactions with pets

join/create a pet lover’s club with weekly meetings in your house

have at least two top tier employees

your vet clinic can be in any world, but you must live there

go camping at least twice in your life

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Also, if I may ask, what exactly is Dragon Age? I'd never heard of it before following your blog, and I know very little about it outside of what you've said about it.

I know I could probably just look it up, but that's not nearly as fun as listening to a friend's rambles.

Okay first of all I'm so sorry for the person I've become, and the person I continue to become as we get closer to and eventually arrive at the release of the new game on Halloween. (Context: it has been a decade since the last game. Nine years for me, as I got into the fandom in the time between the release of the last game and the release of its final DLC.)

The basic explanation is: western fantasy RPG series where the player character gathers up a group of companions to do anything from save the world to survive living in the worst city in the world. The real strength of the series is getting everyone obsessed with the companion characters, who, depending on your choices, you can be friends or enemies with, even as you continue to work together, and maybe you'll fall in love or they'll break your heart or you break their heart. I got dumped by a god. I nearly got dumped by a bastard prince who I encouraged to become king. My witch wife left me and I had to go on a long journey to find her. I almost went for a sacrifice ending and then cried so hard saying goodbye to my elf assassin boyfriend (we met when he was hired to kill me) that I reloaded and made a bunch of different choices.

The other strength is the roleplaying choices that you can make to shape your own character to get obsessed with, and then continue to add lore to them in your head until you're making them in the Sims just because you love them, or have an AU where they work at Subway. Real things I have done.

What else... I think another thing the games do well is in the worldbuilding and lore, and specifically in ambiguity in those things. The first game, Dragon Age: Origins, has the PC and companions fighting to save their country from what's basically a zombie apocalypse. The zombies, called darkspawn, have toxic blood that, if a person is infected, will lead them to a gruesome, agonizing death. In the course of the game, you learn more about how darkspawn are ""born"" - they're not 1:1 pop culture zombies, it's just the best comparison to start with - but... where did they come from in the first place? Why do they exist? The Church has an answer, but the Church is very fallible. You uncover new pieces of information about them in the game's DLC, and then in later games, which half-confirm and half-deny the Church's tale, but we still don't have a clear answer. Maybe we'll finally get one in the next game!

And that's just one example. The Church had a papal schism and the two branches argue about the nature of god's mortal wife - was she a mage or not, did she ascend and become divinity or not? There's a cult that thinks she was reborn as a dragon. You find what is said to be her ashes, which have miraculous healing properties. One of your companions, if killed in the temple where the ashes are housed, resurrects as a sort-of ghost. What's up with that? Who knows! We sure don't!

So, there's a lot of fun lore to chew on, and a lot of fun characters to get obsessed with, and a lot of options for playing your own individual character and getting obsessed with them.

My favorite game of the three is Dragon Age: Origins, the first one, released in 2009. Yes, the graphics are dated, yes the combat gameplay is jank, yes it frequently crashes for some people (there are workarounds), yes there's a weird amount of sexism and some of that is trigger-warning worthy (something to keep in mind for anyone who wants to check it out), but I've played it... five, six times? Half of those as the same character, making the same choices, and yet it seems like every time I play, I find something new hidden away somewhere. A character sidequest I didn't unlock because they didn't like me enough. An NPC sidequest somewhere that I didn't explore well enough.

There's different background options for the character you create, and each of them gives you an "origin story" sequence to play. Usually only an hour or two before you hit the convergence point of the main story, but it dramatically shapes the way you see the locations and characters that you'll return to later in the story. A random merchant that a human noble PC passes by is an old friend for a dwarven noble PC. A random elf that a mage PC finds locked up in prison is the beloved cousin of the city elf PC. A random ambush by darkspawn holds a devastating reunion for the nomadic elf PC. A two-line encounter with a random woman is a lot more for the commoner dwarf PC, because that is their sister who's finally gotten away from their abusive mother. The PC is unvoiced in Origins, but that means there's more dialogue options to choose from than for the other games, which really helps me define the character I'm playing. And as a person who loves to make OCs (you know what I have going on for Pokemon), that's a big big plus.

The other games are good, too - I actually started with Dragon Age 2, and came back to Origins, because that's what I was recommended, and I think it was good because the combat felt so much better in 2, and once I was hooked on the world, I could go back to Origins. But there's something about Origins that makes me a big shill for it.

The Dragon Age fandom is, uh, contentious. If you - or anyone else here - ever want to check out the games, my recommendation is to look at cool art, make a few friends who are chill, and stay away from the radioactive discourse meltdowns that always seemed to be happening when the fandom was more active. I know lots of fandoms are toxic trashbins, I stay in a little corner to dodge that. But Dragon Age is. the fandom is special. Here's a parody post about what it's like.

But I really do love Dragon Age, and I've made some good friends, and I've had a lot of fun, and I'm very excited for the new game, and I am, again, very very sorry for the person I'm becoming.

[konansock]

Hi there! :) I came on here to see if you could give me some advice about the Choose Your Classmates mod. I'm so frustrated with TS4 rn! So I've had your mod for a while, and on a good sim day, it will bring me the sims I CHOOSE for classmates to the school when I bring one of my teens (sorry for all caps, not yelling, just for emphasis). But unfortunately, there aren't too many "good" days. Right now, I have more than enough teens in the world (mostly mine) to fill up my school. So there's absolutely NO need for any NPCs to spawn. But yet....they always do. I get at least 1 NPC each time I go to hs. I play rotationally and have at least 4-5 houses in each of the 8 worlds that I play; there may be only two in a couple of worlds. But basically, my sims compromise a huge majority of the game. Each time I go to play a teen, in the morning before school starts, I go to the mailbox and Choose Classmates/Remove Classmates. I tend to remove some of them when they get older (but are still teens), to make room for my newcoming teens to come to hs and meet each other etc. I remove any NPCs and then go into Manage Worlds and delete those households. And I remove any older teens (like are within a week or so of aging up) or unplayed teens (that I don't intend to play with but aren't necessarily game generated NPCs). I try to choose 35 students. I have my lot limit set to 40, so along with the 2 teachers, janitor, principal, and lunch server, that leaves 35 spaces. So today, after choosing exactly 35 students, I come to school, and most of who I chose aren't there, yet there were 5 NPCs. I deleted them (via MCCC) and switched back and forth to the parents at home then to the hs. Even MORE NPCs. After a third time, I gave up. I went to the mailbox (that I added to the school) after that last time going out and coming back, and there were 11 ELEVEN NPC teens that had been created. I'm like, oh come ON!! (Sorry, I just really HATE NPCs. Would love to play with just my sims, but I know that isn't possible.) Hopefully you'll understand my frustration and predicament. Please let me know if there's ANY other way I should be doing this. And thanks SO MUCH for reading!!

Thank you! I fully understand the frustration!

I have thoroughly tested this mod with my friends, and since the release of the mod, there are many reports on how it's not functioning. Sometimes I ask for their save and it would work on my PC but not theirs.

Another factor might be that classmates are pre-defined so with my mod, normally there would be 8 students max. So the MCCC setting might conflict with that.

I also recommend another mod made by someone else, https://www.nexusmods.com/thesims4/mods/1463?tab=description&fbclid=IwAR2_rVsi-34eAwH2S3FAwqqaT1YX5Hb2gLcTa45_vhObg2-36t1tSACPhD0. This one seems to be working for some who didn't have luck with my version. Hope it helps!

[lilabella12]

1317 - Day 1

Evan is up before dawn the next day - he has a promise to fulfill. He makes some gruel, it's the only thing he can afford right now and leaves it out for the children when they wake. Then he saddles up and takes a ride to his brother's homestead.

When he finally gets there, he can't believe his eyes. Everything his brother worked for for the last decade is gone.

Alll that's left is a pile of smoldering ashes and some of the walls of their home. He can't let the children see this. The fire even consumed some of the nearby woods and the straw roofs... the only thing left untouched are the unfertile soils of the farm.

It takes him a while but he finds Emma.

Her clothes are burned up, but she feels cold and stiff to his touch. he does the only thing he can for her now - he brings her home.

Of course Daniel and Eve are devastated when they get the news.

Daniel: "I should have gone back, I knew it. I'm so sorry, mother..."

Evan: "You did the best you could, Daniel. You saved your siblings, I told you last night."

Eve can't even speak, her tears shake her whole body.

Daniel: "But I could have done something!"

Evan: "And perish in the blaze as well? You would not even recognize the house, Daniel."

Daniel: "But it's our home! Where will we live now?"

Evan: "WIth me. You will stay here, with me. And Eve and Ian, Flora and Ida."

Daniel: "You will take care of the five of us all on your own?"

Evan: "Yes, Daniel. I will."

After this day the house will get a little cramped, but he will manage. He promised his brother to help whenever he can, so he does.

It has been a while since Jayden died, and after a few weeks, Tara is feeling too weak to stand as well. Leah, who has turned 13 a few days ago, takes care of her mother until she passes.

Now all alone in the house and responsible for her two brothers, she vows to get them through this. Whatever it may take.

| previous | next |

poll under the cut ⬇️

So, just as I wrote before, here's a bit of background information for the last few posts. I've had baaaaaad luck with the dice for these past 2 years.

NONE of the Sims who aged up to adults made it, either with a bad age up roll (red) or bad famine roll (pink). Evan is now the only one who can even take care of anyone if we exclude Leah, who is off in another part of the country and probably doesn't even remember her family that well.

So, I wanted to make the story a bit more interesting, not ONLY starvation due to famine so... my mind made up that thing in the last post and the beginning of this one. I hope it wasn't too much to take in, I did enjoy making this story happen.... I would love to know how you all think about it.

Famine is not over yet, but most of what I wanted to tell is done. For now we will combine sidehousehold 2 & the main household. Now the big question is, do you think Evan needs some help with these 5 kids (and a horse) or should we make him do this all alone until Daniel and Eve (the oldest of the bunch) age up?

I'm not opposed to remarrying him, I kinda think he deserves it, but I'm not sure how to integrate it into the story (yet). Also he might have some baby tries left over. So this is where you come in.

Feel free to leave a message as to why you chose how you chose or to tell me how you feel about the story, I love engaging with other simblrs!

After this post is up, I will take a short break just to see the results so I can incorporate them, then we'll be back to regular posts.

[chere-indolente-plays]

hello there! i was wondering with rotational gameplay, how do you keep track of things like birthdays and aging? i've never really played rotationally but i think it could be something i enjoy. any insight would be appreciated

Hello ! Thank you for so much for your ask ❤️. To be honest I've not been playing much, I'm mostly still in the setting up phase so maybe I'll revisit this later...

But here is what I plan to do so far :

First I play with custom lifespan and mine are very very long (1456 days from birth to death with a year lasting about 18 days on average) which, I hope, will help me feel like I'm not missing out on other sims when playing with one household

This might seem very slow but I can always speed it up later if I get bored or do a timeskip (timeskip are your best friends in historical gameplays)

I have an excel sheet to keep track of everybody's age and birthdays but also their sexual & romantic orientations and other personal details

I have an other excel sheet just for the calendar where I've put down the seasons, as well as all the holidays and other celebrations including birthdays

That being say I made a lot of sims and I won't be playing them all just go with who I feel like playing with, probably focusing on a couple of household most days, so I'm ok with missing some birthdays and such

And now I'm gonna take a minute to explain my unnecessarily complicated time system lol :

(here is what my calendar looks like)

Basically I made it so 4 seasons = 3 years = 1 full calendar cycle of 56 days. This way for me it's like there are mini time jumps between year 1 & year 2 and then between year 2 & year 3. Otherwise it would make no sense seasons wise and that's bothering me more than it should. I also like seasons to last a little so I like the 2 weeks setting.

Since all the ages at which my sims change life stage (except for babies and toddlers) are multiples of 3 (6, 12, 18, 39 and 57) the birthdays will always happen the same calendar day but not all sims age up on every cycle (when they turn 3, 9, 15, 21, 24, 27 etc for example). Obviously this is just how I personally do it (and it's very linked to this being a historical gameplay), everyone has their own method. Back in the day I use to have a TS2 save were I would just play a few days with a family then the next and rotate through 5 households with out any planning at all

[funwalker]

The Curious Phenomenon of Player Turnover in Video Games and also a Review of Garden Story.

[This is a crosspost form cohost. The original was posted on Aug. 3, 2024.]

I played Garden Story.

It's a cute little game. Not quite what i expected when I played the demo (however many years ago that was now).

I had assumed it would be an adventure game in the vein of The Legend of Zelda where you pick your way through the world fighting monsters and solving puzzles, but it's really quite different from that, sort of blending in management sim(?) elements (managing your towns by gathering resources every day, fighting off monsters, fixing broken things around town, etc.).

A lot of games have trophies that act as milestones for player progress, like "beat the first boss", "beat the second boss", etc. There are four towns in this game which basically serve as chapters of the story. A play in four acts, you might say.

Now, I understand that for any given game--regardless of genre, regardless of length--it's unlikely that most players will finish it. Like all the way to the end. It's an interesting statistic, but people bounce off of games for all kinds of reasons, and I'm definitely guilty of this sort of thing as well. I was both a little surprised and also not surprised at all that only about 35% of players had beaten the first boss (according to the steam trophies).

For context, these are like, the numbers that you get when a player has to jump over some sort of hurdle. Some excerpts from my Steam library: Only about 40% of players made it past the first major story beat in Broken Age, and it's been a while since I've played it, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly due to obtuse solutions and some point and click jank. About 23% of people who looked past the finicky controls of Skatebird and made it to the second level. The number of people who made it past the tutorial of Deadly Premonition is about 45%. (Honestly, I'm surprised it's even that high, but I guess most people who pick it up know what they're in for...)

Garden Story is not an especially long game. Steam says I've played it for about 26 hours now, but probably 4 were tending to my towns post-game, and another 6 of those were the game just on in the background while i walked away to do something else. (It's one of those games that only saves at the end of an in-game day, so instead of completing a day and shutting it off, I usually opt to just leave it running.... ) [A memory floods into view of my hands as a child, turning off my tv but leaving my snes, ps2, wii, ps3 running as I go off to school. I return, play, finally save my game. the in-game clock reads 999:59, as it has for the last several days.] Does anyone else still do this? lol

But anyways, I think i clocked in at about 15 actual hours of play upon completion. Not long. Not short. Much of that time was spent extending days on into endless nights gathering every last resource from the land so I could upgrade my hammer or whatever.

The first town is definitely the shortest to complete from the start to the boss. It maybe took me about 2-3 hours, and those first hours bounced off about 65% of players. I honestly also thought about putting it down in that time.

I think it's fair to say that the gameplay at the beginning kinda drags. The game emphasizes how "cozy" it is in the trailer, which is kind of true, I suppose, but for me it lacks the satisfaction of something like a farmsim or puzzle game. The daily tasks are pretty shallow and usually uninteresting. Some of the quests (like finding rare resources for NPCs) are downright frustrating. It took me probably 4 or 5 days to find a single glass lens. 4 or 5 days of breaking the same 4 or 5 glass bottles on the beach. It was a quest that required two lenses, but I had the first before starting the quest, which may have skewed my perception of how easy it would be. Maybe I just got really unlucky. I nearly gave up on it though.

Starting out, Concord (your main character) is pretty weak. You have two pips of stamina which means you can attack twice before taking a break. Or you can run for a second and attack once. Or run for a few seconds and attack none. You're pretty slow. Combat--while not really challenging--takes a long time. You pick your way slowly through any screen with enemies. Attack, attack, recover, wait (the enemy is charging up it's rebuttal which takes a second), attack, sidestep, attack. Move on to the next one.

Add this little dance to the first boss fight (which, aside from the last, was the only one that killed me), where you have to wait for the boss to come down from the ceiling to become vulnerable and then you can only get a few weak whacks in before it retreats again... I can understand why a lot of people may not have had the patience to make it this far.

After this battle, you get your first upgrade to stamina (unless you're smarter than I am and equipped Concord's memory instead of Plum's), and that's when the game gained some semblance of fun for me. The difference between two and three pips of stamina is honestly an ocean.

I think maybe the player should've started out with 3 stamina instead of two and it really would've fixed a lot of issues I personally had starting out. Maybe they would've even retained another 10% of players past that first boss fight.

The story starting out doesn't appear to be anything special. Very fantasy-adventure-chosen-one-save-the-world but with cute little talking vegetables and also frogs. It's generally well written, though perhaps a bit needlessly padded in a way that had me skimming and skipping a lot of the dialogue, but I found myself actually getting into it as I went through the final town. There's something quite lovely and bittersweet about the ending that I like a lot, but it took quite a bit of time for me to get there.

All in all, I think it was a pretty alright game. I played it mostly as something to do at night and less as an actually engaging experience. The art is wonderful. The music is nice. I think the bosses are neat. I'm kinda sad that you can't fight them again in the post game. The story really only picks up in the last act, but it went a way I was not expecting from the outset and deals with themes of loss in a way that you don't see often, which I liked.

For as charming as I think this little game actually is, I can understand why 65% of players could not make it to even the second area. There are a lot of little things that add up. The nothingness of a lot of the daily missions. The tedium of fighting enemies. Confusing and under-explained mechanics. The reuse of certain interactable assets in ways that you can't interact with them and vice versa. The feeling that you must be missing something as you try to progress through the world.

There are things where I'm so sure that as a dev, having played through certain scenarios hundred of times, I would find acceptable, but as a player, having to interact with them only a few times, drove me nuts.

But putting that aside (after all, most of the people who did not finish the game had already left by that point), the question I'd like to ask is, "Why was the retention rate so bad, and how could I avoid such a thing in a game that I make?"

For me personally, I think this question can also be answered by a post I saw floating around on cohost a while ago about reasons for unfavorable ratings on Japanese indie games. A large part of it was those games not finding their target audiences. People complained that combat was too hard, the graphics were ugly, they wanted a different game than what they got.

So circling back to my first impressions, I honestly can't tell you whether the demo gave me a false impression of what the game would be like, but the impression I held of this game in my memory was indeed quite different from what I got. Looking at the launch trailer... well, it doesn't quite misrepresent the game but more like... beefs up its resume.

Scrolling through the first page of Steam reviews, I only saw two that wouldn't recommend this game and their main complaints are completely valid that the start of the game is pretty rough, tedious, and repetitive. Digging further, I think becomes apparent that the main complaint is the actual gameplay doesn't support what sold people on this game: the idea of a cozy gardening game. (Seemingly, some sources compared it to Stardew Valley, which gave people a false impression of what sort of game it would be.) Despite the incredibly high bounce off rate of players in the first couple hours of the game, most of the reviews on steam are positive. Probably, the take away from this is that most of the players that bounced off were just apathetic. The game isn't so irredeemable in the beginning to inspire anger. Some of the negative reviews even expressed a sympathy that they couldn't really recommend this game because it turned out they liked it in the end.

Looking past the presentation, I think this is a basic pacing problem. Like when reading a book, you need a hook to hold interest. Your book can be really good in the latter half, but if there's no interesting or urgent conflict to be resolved, a lot of people won't make it to the good part.

With games, this problem is two-fold. You need either a good gameplay hook or a story hook (preferably both). I've played games with mediocre stories because the gameplay was fun and vice versa, but you can't just coast off of both average story and gameplay. Obviously, some people will play anyways, but if you have something to say and you want that thing to be heard by anyone but the most dedicated players, I do think you need something to propel people. Especially if your game relies heavily on random generation and grinding to pad itself.

A "hook" doesn't have to be a big bombastic thing. Even without doing a bunch of fixes to clarify things in the design of the game--without changing the story or even the gameplay nearly at all--I think really it just needed a small adjustment, whether it's just that one extra pip of stamina to make early game combat and foraging more fun or even to trim out a lot of the superfluous dialogue. The art and the music are there. It just needs a little kick in the pants.

As a game designer, I try to keep in mind all of the reasons why someone would buy my game but not make it to the end, because I think that's the goal of most game designers--to find their target audience and give them a meaningful experience to engage with. That's kind of the nature of art, isn't it? I think maybe Garden Story became a good game eventually, but I do also think it had art at its heart the whole time. I know it maybe sounds like I didn't like it, but I really did enjoy it in the end.

Anyways, that's my onion. After about 10 hours into this game, I glanced at the Steam trophies and this piece was born. Haha.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Stay fresh.

It's summer in Texas. Pray for me.

[ohem1111]

oh i have felt deprived of gameplay the last few days because i didn’t want to progress any until i finished the new house and i literalllyyyyy just sat and played almost nonstop since probably 3-4pm and its just a little passed midnight right now. 😅

i did so much today though, i swapped the bedsheets and washed those, did 2 loads of laundry (did not fold them LOL) vaccines the whole house, cleaned all the countertops in the kitchen, ran a load of dishes that i still need to put away and fill the rest of the dirty into the dishwasher tomorrow. i also made a some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! (they are fantastic by the way and only burnt one pan of like 6 cookies because i forgot to turn the timer back on when i got back to my computer to keep playing the sims lol it’s ok my boyfriend said he still likes them) i would include a picture of i’ve already got in bed.

so i did all of that and still played for like 8 hours. we didn’t even have dinner because my boyfriend had a migraine and took a nap at like 5 and eventually woke up for a bit then went right back to sleep. honestly im not even hungry though so it worked out.

on to some gameplay spoilers if you want to skip the rest lol

basically all the kids aged up, i already posted about the twin so you might have seen that colson and ash aged up into children! ash came out and is going by she/her pronouns now.

odin aged up into a teen (he is such a little cutie i’m obsessed), followed by wren. they are the two oldest and are pretty close in age. plus eden had them while she was still a teen too. i have some more exciting things to share about them but ill save it for a gameplay post.

roslyn aged up into a child! and eden has had not just one but two babies in the time i’ve been playing today. their names are bram and melanie!

oh also dorian has officially moved in! i’ve given him a little make over too and i think he’s so cute as well.

the sims is so much fun that i might just keep living actually lol :)

[daman19942]

Get to know you: Sims Style

Thank you to @executables-sims for the tag! Took me a few days, but this was fun to fill out.

What’s your favorite Sims death?

Easy, death by Cowplant! It's so iconic and peak Sims-ridiculousness. That it made its way into future games is no surprise. Plus, I don't have a ton of accidental death in my game, and the Cowplant keeps me on my toes.

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Maxis Match as much as possible. I love TS2's aesthetic, even is some of it appears dated. My game certainly looks better in 2023 than it did in 2004, but it is still recognizably TS2

Do you cheat your sims weight?

No, I let it happen organically. Especially because I use Simler90's Slower Fitness Increase and Nopke's Fitness Decay, both of which really make you work for it. They are essential to my gameplay, but mean more of my sims have a high body skill than is probably normal. They are doing their best!

Do you move objects?

Of course. Why it isn't enabled in my UserStartup file is a question I ask myself daily.

Favorite Mod?

I have more than 500 mods so I don't know how I can pick. I could just say NUMENOR in all-caps to say everything he's done. But I'll go with a recent favorite, Nyami's Actual Alcohol Mod, because it adds chaos to gameplay and chaos is good.

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing?

Living. We are in Live Mode, folks!

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

In an older prompt, I answered with Daniel Monona, but since then it's definitely been Duke Patricio. I've made him 3 times (in my OG 2000's game, where he married Nina Caliente, in a Base Game Starter hood, and again in my 2020's game). He and Zeeshan are my favorite couple and I'm sad they are so close to old age because I've had so much fun playing them (but I've also been giving them way too many extra days with Elixir of Life or Life Fruit).

Ari is #2, but I haven't played him for a bit because I'm stuck on what to do with him as a Vampire...

Have you made a simself?

Nope, only one of my old TS2 Exchange avatar, which was intentionally not what I look like.

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

Never really thought about this, but maybe black?

Favorite EA hair?

Two male hairs, Rocker and Shortmop. Those two haircuts were iconic in my 2000's saves. Jeanette is my favorite CC hair.

Favorite life stage?

Teens. It's where my sims start to develop their personalities, and I begin to think about what I want them to do. They also haven't fully grown into their facial features yet, so you can get all sorts of good and bad surprises. Plus, they can cause lots of of trouble.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

I still consider myself a builder, even though I play my game much more frequently these days. But I think 400+ uploaded lots in my time playing this game allows me to hold onto that label.

Are you a CC creator?

I guess so! Learning how to mesh and use Milkshape in the last year has radically changed how I see myself in the TS2 community, and has stolen so many days from me (the trial and error of making, and the trial and error of uploading), but its been a very fun skill to develop.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

I love my mutuals but I don't interact with other accounts too often. I don't post on a Sims discord or anything. Maybe I should?!

Do you have any sims merch?

I do not.

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

No and I would definitely not have time to produce one!

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

Loaded question time! For one, my game is much more LGBTQ+ than when I shared neighborhood save files with my siblings growing up. Now that it's my game, exploring different relationships with my sims is one of my favorite parts of play.

I've also become much more Maxis Match as I get older. The 2000's were a wild west for CC creation, and my old saves are bursting at the seams with painted-on clothes and the mid-decade emo aesthetic that I have absolutely no interest in playing in 2023.

Lastly, my build style used to be modern and CFE heavy, but now I prefer traditional (modern works better in TS3) and makeovers.

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

I'll take a historical approach to answering this, because there are many active creators whose work I love, but I also try to preserve the legacies of the original TS2 pioneers. Here are 5:

Numenor - The Modfather. His mods did more to expand this game than just about anyone in the heyday of TS2. If you are reading this, you know who Numenor is. Need I say more? Windkeeper - Probably the best Maxis Match CC of the old era. Her stuff holds up remarkably well. en7en - aka "That Pagoda Guy." Yeah, he's the CFE genius who made the Eiffel Tower and disappeared way too soon. A huge inspiration on my old build style. Ehaught58 - one of the great builders across many different Sims eras. I need to upload some of his old TS2 lots. I wish I could still access his Exchange page because it was a treasure trove. His lots were often huge and unfriendly to old machines but would be fine now. A very recognizable build style (dark woods, earth tones). Daihtnaoz7 - If he did nothing but discover CFE he'd still be a legend. But he also wrote the single bridge, double bridge, and atrium tutorials, demonstrating how to best take advantage of this new cheat. A literal gamechanger. I paid tribute to him here.

Honorable mentions: Cyclonesue (TSR), Hatshepsut (TSR), Tiko (TSR), PiaNouka (Exchange), GoddessByline (Exchange), Wintermuteai1, Minideidad (Exchange), Cireking213 (Exchange, still around as CK213 for TS3 and TS4).

How long have you had Simblr?

I think I made this in Spring 2020. Right as COVID was shutting everything down, I found myself playing TS2 a lot more and eventually discovered Simblr. The old, big sites are either shells of their former selves (MTS), or don't allow TS2 content anymore (TSR), so I figured if I wanted to be active in the TS2 community nearly 20 after the game came out, I had to be on Tumblr.

How do you edit your pictures?

I have a Photoshop action that crops, brightens, and sharpens, and somehow pictures still take me way too long.

What expansion/gamepack is your favorite?

Answering for the first 3 games (as I haven't played TS4)

TS1 - Makin Magic! A perfect final EP for the first game. Though Unleashed was probably my very first EP. TS2 - University (I'm in the minority here, but it's so much fun when you have big dorms or chaotic houses). Seasons is #2 TS3 - Late Night. Bridgeport is gorgeous and the new lot styles were fun and I wish they could be ported in TS2.

Tagging: @katatty @lilakartoffelbrei and @bayoubashsims if you haven't gone yet!

#Tag meme

[katatty]

Hi Kat! ☀️

First of all I am in awe. Big fan of your 8 baby challenge series, and of all you do in general 😁 as a storyteller especially. Hats off, you're very talented.

I was wondering, do you have multiples dowload folders? Do you switch depending on the save? I lurked on your blog/simblr a lot (as a fervent reader of yours) and genuinely wonder how you manage a) so much cc or b) switching defaults/cc depending on the saves 😊

Impatiently waiting for the next Baby challenge ep 📺🥳👌

Hope you have a great day.

Hello! Thanks so much for the sweet message! <3 There should be a new baby challenge video coming out later today, I just need to finish editing it xD

I do have multiple downloads folders that I switch out depending on the save, kinda! My EA Games folders looks like this:

(I like it this way, rather than switching just downloads, because this way it isn't possible to load the wrong neighbourhood for the downloads you currently have in and mess up your neighbourhood deco, lol! you can also have different collection files, cameras, etc.)

(Putting the rest under a cut since I got way too detailed describing all this, lmao)

So I have:

a "no cc" game folder for building projects (because I prefer building without cc if I am going to be sharing it)

a "low cc" folder for my YouTube saves, Fiero legacy, and a few other things

my "full cc" folder for my Hollyhead BACC & Pleasantview Plus uberhood.

The last one is definitely too much CC (24GB) and it does noticably make my performance quite bad lol! The game lags a fair bit and will start to flash pink if I play for too long, especially if I am loading large and heavily decorated lots. (This is why I go with a lower-cc vibe for Youtube especially, and whenever I start a new hood these days it tends to be a low-cc one).

Hollyhead & Pleasantview Plus both use the same mods and cc (arguably a mistake LOL), but I do switch out the neighbourhood-specific default replacements, the folders look like this:

There's not that much difference here lol, but they do use different plantsim skins, differences in careers, & Hollyhead has some "fantasy" defaults I don't want showing up in my uberhood.

Then, the "low cc" folder is much more limited! Mostly just essential bodyshop stuff, any maxis sets like the life stories collection or the store stuff, objects that have some sort of useful functionality... but then within that I do have more themed folders I swap in and out depending on the save :)

Robin River is my old for a round robin legacy hood, has some desert-appropriate default replacements & a few bits of cc specificly made for that legacy

Honeycoast is one of those indefinite-hiatus projects, has a lot of "European" build and buy cc as well as defaults

Shellcastle Sands is my legacy hood for the Fieros, the town has a beach city look so has a bunch of fun summery defaults

"Sprucestead" was the beta name for Spruceburg and has all the cc I use in both of my Youtube series. Way fewer default replacements in this folder since I went with more of a pure "maxis match" aesthetic

Each of those folders also includes a slightly different aging mod since I like tweaking that depending on how I am playing the neighbourhood, haha! I also have Uberhood_Mods and Spruceburg_Mods which have a few things that are stuff I want in the 8 baby challenge but not in Sprucebug, and vice versa. (e.g. only the uberhood has the playable nannies mod, Spruceburg has the more dangerous fires mod, etc.)

Uhhhhh, in terms of organisation, I just try to label each folder clearly and keep all my not-in-use folders on my desktop so they're easy to find. I think the different icons make it easier to tell stuff apart! I keep all sort of sims stuff (programs, backups, projects, mods I am saving for later, neighbourhoods, etc) clumped together on my Desktop and tidy it up every once in a while xD

As for how to make the custom icons bc I imagine somebody might ask about this lol, you do it like this:

I downloaded a pack of Sims 4 icons years ago (I can't remember where, sorry!) and made them into .ico files, this was long enough ago I don't really remember the details but I found a wikihow article that explains it xD

Sorry this ended up a crazy-long reply lol, I will say that all this is really not remotely necessary and arguably is quite convoluted and messy, hahha. It's like this bc I have been playing for 10+ years 😅 but I really enjoy organising folders and the like lmao, it's so satisfying to me!

[antiquatedplumbobs]

Tag Game for Historical Simblrs!

I initially made this tag game over a year ago at a point when I felt like there were a lot of new people on history simblr I didn't know. I was chatting with some friends and thought now might be a good time to revive it!

1. What has been your favorite time period to play in or which one are you most excited for?

Right now I'm very excited for the 1920s, I have a lot of plans and some unique story lines I feel coming up. It's also feeling like I'll actually get there soon!

2. Do you have a favorite piece of historical cc? (CAS or BB)

Last time I did this I chose a BB piece so this time I'm going CAS, happylifesims recently made a victorian workers outfit with these adorable rolled sleeves and it just looks so good on guys. It's the current darling of my heart.

3. Who is your favorite sim currently?

Right now it's Willy, I'm really excited to get back into the Sewell's and really start exploring his story in earnest.

4. What is your favorite world?

Still Brindleton Bay, always has been, always will be.

5. Are you more gameplay or story focused?

I like to think I mix these two mediums pretty well, I plan big story arcs but tend to let gameplay influence day to day, and if something interesting gameplay wise happens I try to include it!

6. Do you like to play with pets in your historical saves?

I do! I think they add a really fun dimension to the family and are great for social needs.

7. What’s your biggest immersion breaking pet peeve with the game?

All the townies with the strangest colored hair and body types. And names. I just wish it wasn't all so discordant.

8. What’s your favorite in-game historical item? (CAS or BB)

I really like the items that came with the country kitchen kit, the bucket of fruit and vegetables just makes me so happy.

9. What would you like to see as a new pack or asset to the game?

I'm at the point where I just want a historical pack. I know it's not gonna happen, but gosh a girl can dream.

10. What pack do you think is invaluable as a historical simmer?

I think that Cottage Living is amazing all around, but I'd put Cats and Dogs second, perhaps tying with Get Together. They both have amazing BB and CAS and i prefer the worlds to Henford.

11. Do you have a favorite mod to enhance historical gameplay?

Mizoreyukii has a functional broom that works like a vacuum and it just makes my little historical simmer heart happy to see my sims sweeping away.

12. What’s your ideal family size for playing?

I like having enough to keep it interesting, but not so many that it's overwhelming. I think maybe five or six but obviously the ages influence things too.

13. Do you use poses?

I do! I like to use in game animations whenever I can because they feel a bit more lively to me, but sometimes you need to track down a pose or wrestle with blender to make one when you need something specific.

14. Do you use any overrides in your game?

Yes, I love overrides. I use moonsims historic book override, a mop override, a dish override, a fireplace light override, a dog leash override. Big on overrides here.

15. Do you, or did you, play off-the-grid during your game?

I usually don't, I find it a bit too limiting for what would have actually been historically possible at the time.

16. What lifespan do you play on?

A slightly tweaked version of normal, but some people have been sort of convincing me to potentially try a longer one.... We'll see...

17. What inspired you to start playing a historically?

A reddit post about the decades challenge, which was just a completely new way to think about playing to me. I'd never really done any kind of challenge before at all and I think the combo of passage of time, goals, and so much fun new cc just absolutely hooked me!!

See how my answers have changed in the past year and a half

I geared it towards historical simming, since that’s what I do, but please feel free to partake even if you’re not a historical simmer and just adapt for regular gameplay or whatever you do!!

I'm going to cast a wide net here with my tags @aheathen-conceivably @cowplant-snacks @simadelics @thistleflower-sims @carousel-of-sims @stargazingsims @gilded-ghosts @simming-in-the-rain @scythesms @surely-sims @historysims4 @sasaofastora @javitrulovesims and anyone else who would like to take part!

I really like these because it helps me get to know everyone I see on my dash and sometimes find new people to follow, so don't be shy about taking part!!