#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.

[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!

[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

[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 ❤️

[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

[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!!

[victorluvsalice]

Welcome back to the Chill Valicer Save! We had a pretty busy Summer Tuesday around here, sending the gang out and about again to have another food sale with their new Van Liddelton Snacks stand! Which took a little doing, as you will learn –

-->Naturally, we started where I left off last time, with Smiler finishing fixing up the wind turbines and combing through the resultant trash piles for parts; Alice gaming on her and Victor’s computer surrounded by cats; and Victor snoozing in bed. Victor’s energy was basically full, though, so he ended up waking up while I was getting Smiler to clean up all the trash. Having spotted a specter in the crafting barn, I had him transportalate down to give it a present (a spare Potion of Good Fortune) he had on him –

Just in time for Temperance to show up. Like, she appeared just as he transportalated away. And then she got glared at by one of the cats who’d just jumped up on the bed. XD I grabbed Victor’s bizarre idol from his inventory and slapped it on the floor next to her as per usual, and let her get banished while I focused on Victor’s specter-present giving. Fortunately, it went well, and the specter gave him another lump of wraith wax in return! We do love our wraith wax around here – though Victor DOES have a lot of it at this point. Might be time to start selling some of them to oddity collectors...

-->Anyway – I had Victor collect his wraith wax (along with another spare lump of it I found on the floor) and go outside to play with Shadow while Smiler collected all the trash piles, got the trash Victor and Alice were carrying in THEIR inventories, then trucked it all over to the recycler to be, well, recycled. Along with some items that I didn’t see any point in keeping, like the Tentacle Tom they won at the arcade, the extra stereo they won at their house party, the VIP buckets from the Love Date dates, some used-up sacred candles, and a poop. XD Though, once they were done recycling, they got a little over $3,000 along with all their bits and pieces. O.o I – really don’t know where that money came from? I’ve never seen them get a cash payout when they recycle anything, but I really don’t know where else it could have come from...maybe from them recycling some higher-ticket items instead of just trash piles? *shrug* Mystery for the ages!

-->With that sorted, I decided that the best thing to do would be to have Smiler make mechanisms (as I still want them to make a Servo at one point, and they still needed loads of those), and Victor make eco-upgrade parts (as I wanted him to do some eco-upgrading on some of the stuff on the lot – notably the recycler). They plugged away on that, making two items each (Victor reaching Fabrication skill 5 in the process, good for him), while Alice got Video Gaming skill 4 from her Sim Scuffle session before I sent her to grab a little more sleep. She refreshed her energy quickly in her and Victor’s amazing bed, and after just about an in-game hour she was ready to get up –

-->But before I woke her up, I looked inside of her inventory and realized “oh yeah, you have a load of photos in here that need to be cleaned out, don’t you?” So I pulled them all out and looked them over to see which ones I wanted to keep and which would have to be sold. I ended up hanging the two medium-sized pictures of Smiler doing their first food sale in Brindleton Bay (when they got Shock and Surprise spayed) in the kitchen, above the pet bowls (there was room there, and it felt appropriate to have these pictures in the kitchen); moved two of the pictures from the Valicertine’s photoshoot into the digital photo frame to join the parade of changing pictures there; and put a cute picture Alice had snapped of a cat poster in the vet’s office on her and Victor’s desk, since she’s the one who uses it the most, before selling all the rest. *nods* I also took a moment to put the fossilized egg in her inventory on the display shelf with the other fossils outside the séance room, and did a little “move objects on” in build mode to put her new emerald crystal in with another small crystal in the crystal shelves inside the séance room. *dusts hands* Collectibles sorted!

-->With Alice’s inventory looking a bit less crowded, I got her up and decided to check if she could prep anything in the stand mixer, as I wanted to make some fresh treats for today’s food sale. As it turned out, though, her ability to make various batters and doughs was limited, as there was a distinct lack of flour in the house. Fortunately, this group can just MAKE their own flour thanks to Simsonian Library’s bulk food processor, so I had her join Victor and Smiler in the barn to make a big bag of soybean-based flour (as that’s what she had in her inventory). They all ended up finishing up their tasks around the same time – I had Victor go and take care of a tendril that had popped up outside, then sent him to use some of his eco parts to give the recycler some hardened gears (I think this gets you more bits and pieces from non-organic stuff?), and was preparing to have Alice collect her flour (which she’d insisted on taking upstairs to put on Smiler’s bar for some reason) –

When I spotted a trash plant growing in the pet obstacle course! O.o When did that sprout?! I thought I’d cleared up any trash that might be over there... Confused, I had Smiler got over and uproot it, then scavenge parts from the resultant trash pile before bagging it up and throwing it away. Normally, after this, I would have them dig any recyclables out of the trash can to make sure it didn’t overflow, but as Victor was still upgrading, I had Smiler instead take the trash and head out to the rabbithole dump. *shrug* Kept them busy and kept the roach and fly situation from getting any worse!

[scottysketches]

wip wednesday

been a month since I posted any form of wip progress. I don't really have anything new - this time of year is always really bad for me, my motivation and desire to do anything creative tanks thanks seasonal depression you're a real one - not to mention that xmas eve was also the ten year anniversary of my nan's passing. It's just been a really weird month.

But! I've started sleeping better, I'm going to start going back to the gym (want to shed a load of weight before my cousin's wedding in August), and actually taking some time off from writing Don't Dream It's Over has helped me with blocking out the remaining chapters.

There have also been some developments with regards to how my Satine Lives AU will continue once DDIO is completed:

I've worked a little more on talk me down, my Korkie/Amis side story

I've started writing notes and drafting ideas for a Korkie-centric story, set between the end of DDIO and A New Hope (so will actually cover the nineteen-odd years that the Kryze-Kenobi clan are in hiding after the downfall of the Republic)

I completed Jedi: Survivor! And I loved every second of it! The combat is incredible, the maps are beautiful, the ability to customise Cal's appearance is very well done! I've actually got a story in the works where Cal, Merrin and Greez run into Korkie on Ryloth (no working title as of yet, it's saved on my computer under the name 'twin sons' - yes, playing on the idea that Cal also looks like he could be Obi-Wan's kid lol)

In case folks were unaware, after I published the first chapter of DDIO I ended up creating a series for it on AO3 because I knew I was going to end up writing loads more set within this AU. It's titled (rather appropriately) The One Where Obi-Wan Gets a Happy(ish) Ending. For now, DDIO is the only story in it, but the other stories that are in the series description are meet you there, talk me down, tear me to pieces and afterglow:

meet you there: Ahsoka Tano & Korkie Kryze, in progress - set immediately after Ahsoka leaves the Jedi at the end of S5 Ep20, "The Wrong Jedi" [excerpt here]

talk me down: Korkie Kryze/Amis, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze, in progress - follows Amis from the age of ten to the Night of a Thousand Tears as he comes to terms with his sexuality, meeting Korkie and falling for his best friend [excerpt here]

tear me to pieces: Korkie Kryze/Amis, in progress - set in the immediate aftermath of the Night of a Thousand Tears

afterglow: Ahsoka Tano & Korkie Kryze, Korkie Kryze/Amis, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze (mentioned), in progress - set during the galaxy-wide celebrations after the downfall of the Empire. Ahsoka is reunited with an old friend and his family on Naboo

---

Aside from all this Star Wars stuff, I've also gotten into some new stuff - I'm really enjoying the Percy Jackson show, criticisms about some changes from the source material aside; I've been playing The Sims 4 again after not touching it from around the time the latest expansion pack, For Rent, was released; and I've spent the last few weeks binging the few seasons of Chicago Med, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Fire that are available on Now TV here in the UK.

Anyway, now that my seasonal depression seems to hopefully be settling down to hibernate until the end of November, I'm going to try and set some time aside to work on DDIO and try to get chapter 4 out before the end of January.

Cheers, folks, Scotty :)

[inkofamethyst]

March 27, 2024

daylist: symphonic nerdy wednesday evening (city pop, japanese jazz, orchestra, film score [it was exclusively ~vgm~ (lots of NieR and Final Fantasy, lots of vocal tracks!) lol], mmorpg)

song obsession of the week: The Old Witch Sleep and the Good Man Grace - The Amazing Devil gfkgdkjgkjfgkjd

Man I am just so pro-right to repair. Was thinking about getting some new headphones because the earpads on the ones I've had for years have been flaking bad for months, but they sell what are essentially the same earpads online! The headphones themselves are still fully functional, so why contribute to electronic waste when I don't have to? And now they feel perfect :)

Speaking of repair though, I've been done dirty by orthodontists and dentists all my life. And now I might have to pay, again, to fix issues that were ultimately caused by them. I've done (almost) everything right. Wore my retainers nightly, brushed, and I'm now into flossing regularly. So annoying.

Anyway I'm lowk stressing about the future (because of course I am) because even though I could "afford" a solo apartment, I also can't help but feel like that would be squandering my opportunity to save a ton toward the future when my savings would make the most impact (yeah, sorry, it's another one of these, and won't be the last I'm sure). Living solo is something I want and would love to do. And according to my calculations, I could. Even without sacrificing retirement and saving toward a house. Which is more than most graduate/PhD students are ever able to do during their schooling. But it's the anxiety of knowing that I could do more if I had even just one roommate. It's like, considering my situation as a student, what I already have saved, what I will be able to save, what I will have left over each month (a seriously comfortable sum (because, like a platypus, I don't do much)), I would be fine. I would be happy! But having one roommate wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, I guess. And then I could contribute more to my future happiness.

I don't know.

Can I place a monetary value on comfort?

I have a little under a year to figure out what I'm going to do. I can tell you what I want. I want someone to tell me that choosing to live alone would not be ruinous. That it'd be okay. That it'd be worth it for my contentment. That I'm taking the right steps, that I have a good foundation set. But I have to make the decision by myself. And then live with it. Through whatever comes. Because I don't really want to move more than once more before my program ends (and another thing, it would be much more difficult to save up for moving again if I lived alone).

Part of me wants to approach this with the mindset that the future is never guaranteed. And that, as a result, it's okay to splurge now. (Also there's the part about my grandmother potentially not being able to take care of her dog as she ages, and I wouldn't want to rehome her entirely (the puppy, not my grandmother).)

But like, okay. The 50-30-20 needs-wants-saving axis, right? I could stick "living alone" as part of wants since I don't otherwise really spend that much in wants ultimately.

Let me go calculate.

Okay. Post-tax (which is how you're meant to calculate 50-30-20), I'd be doing a bit better than the suggested model (but!!! this includes all the help I'm getting without which I simply would not consider this in the first place).

Let me... let me do some future sims.

nerdwallet says I'll be fine.

Okay. Okay! okay.. Ohh-kay.

I'm not completely decided but at least I have all that information available to me.

Today I'm thankful that.. I don't have a lot of homework tonight. So I can go to bed. OH OH ALSO thankful the person I've wanted as my secondary advisor for months but was too afraid to ask said yes and seemed happy to say so <3

[edit, ~a week later: the trouble will be finding a 1b/1b at my price point (still pretty low for this area since I don't really want to settle for a studio) that's close enough and has my minimum requirements (I suppose another potential option would be saving aggressively for another year to grind out a pot of money that would sustain me for three years at a slightly higher price point)]

[thehouseofmorningstar34]

Messy trait

Hey Im Sara Im back at it again with another Rare Trait to add to the collection! I decided that okay we did a serious one lets have fun with this one why don’t we and here we go the messy

trait was born. Have you ever had one of those people that just irked the hell out of you or always stuck their nose in your business or opened their big mouth about everything? This trait is a little on my petty side. I was poking fun not only at some folks a little but I was like oh my gosh I hope and pray I don't get canceled for this trait!! So Simmer grab ya home girls or bros and let's get real messy (I AM NOT LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY TROUBLE YOUR SIM

GETS INTO!)

Xxx, Dkitten34

Ok Simmers here's the details on this little old trait of mine:

~It comes with 15 buff replacements (if any are not working let me know!)

~12 proxy buffs to have you and your save on its toes!

ID please! 🪪 Ages for this trait are Teens-Elders

(but hun I got you covered if you want to stay messy for life)

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

~A Rare trait exclusive bonus ;)

~Your Sims' needs will speed up by 1.5.

In terms of relationships in the categories love,friends and mischief

~Your sims will level up by 1.1.

The party doesn't stop right?

~When you have this trait you will never feel embarrassed or uncomfortable ever again!

~Making drinks, mischief, social and dancing skills will increase by 1.5.

Lastly Messy sims love to be cocky and confident so why no double that; so I did

When your sim is feeling confident it will double by 2.

Do you want this lil messy troublemaker to stay around? Well your in luck 😉

With this Rare Trait Exclusive once your sim reaches adulthood aging will be blocked!!

✨All my mods are playtested and are up to date with the latest patch:PC:1.105.332.1020/Mac: 1.105.332.1220 ✨

I hope you enjoy being a little messy!😜

How to Download: 📂

THIS IS IMPORTANT I noticed that in my download count most didn’t download the package file as well 

You need both for the mod to work properly.

Open your file folder folder go to the file named Electronic arts it should be in your documents section of your files. Click it!

Click on the next folder named The Sims 4 after that find your mods folder, that is the folder where you’ll be placing the Messy Trait in.

Go to downloads and drag both of those to your mods folder make sure since its a script file it is no more than one subfolder deep! 

A tip make sure to delete your local thumbcache it has a tendency to store old mod data that is in the same folder labeled The Sims 4 

Also when deleting old mods do the same delete that cache babes

Last step when you load up the game make sure to go in game options and click enable mods and and click enable script mods! 

My TOU:

If you decide to download any and use any of my content, please don’t post them on any other sites.

Do not put them behind a paywall site.

Please if you want to credit me on any posts, I would like to see what trouble your Sims get into with my content

And Please don’t alter or repackage my files in any way.

Thank you again for joining me on my modding journey and enjoy!!

PLUR And in Plumbob we trust!

EA tag DaddysKitten34 (Let's be besties!)