#arianburh

[nimitwinklesims]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH05PK_6UHc&ab_channel=Nimitwinkle

I finished my first medieval Sims video! It’s a broad overview of my MCC settlement Arianburh, and a few main factors I always consider when creating a landscape for a town. Hope you enjoy watching!

I hope you’re all well, Simming friends. I know I often disappear, but this game still has my heart after so many years. Now..... who among you remembers the good old Livejournal days? Just today I got an e-mail from them that it’s been 13 years since I created my account with them. As it happens, I had just been re-reading many of my posts there (2008-2011 were the heydays, really, what?! where does time go?) and realised how much I loved just writing and talking to all of you. I hope to be able to do that more often again in the future, because I miss it.

As for video creation, I’m still learning the ropes, so bear with me :) However I really enjoy sharing my towns in video format! Please let me know what you think, I value your opinion.

Much love, Nimi

[nimitwinklesims]

Eeeeeee I finally allowed myself some free time so I moved all my back-ups onto my fresh TS2 installation on my shiny new Laptop and look! Everything seems to work!

I played Don Lothario and the Goths in the vanilla install, which was fun. (Don woohooed with Nina and Dina, got rejected by Kaylynn, married Cassandra, and then I heard some chimes....) 

I’ve never really played the premades after I first got the game and didn’t know what I was doing. I remember the first time I got Don into a big big drama! I also had Johnny and Ophelia live in a gigantic mansion and have a daughter. Of course now through all the stories of the well-known Simmers I know the characters well and it feels extra special and nostalgic to play them. I’m rather tempted to start up an Uberhood! But first, I want to play through all the scripted events..... :)

The photos are from my medieval town Arianburh at the top and my legacy family the Fairfoots/Fairfeet and their house at the bottom. I’m just really happy to see them all again. :) At the moment I’m feeling the modern vibe more, so when I get around to actual playing I think that’s where I’ll be jumping in. However -- I saw there’s SHEEP now!! And smithing and candlemaking and all sorts of magical things by Sun&Moon! So I am also really looking forward to trying all of that out!

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Oh my gosh I’m moving in families! ♥

Now begins the sad task of making the last babies (toddlers) that I rolled and letting loose a plague over their unsuspecting parents...

These two are Gilfaethwy and Goewin Piggott, pig farmers. (click their names to read about the characters in Welsh mythology they were named after -- I had forgotten I did this, but it gave me a good chuckle! Gilfaethwy is transformed into a pig among other things, so I guess it fits!) Also pictured: Karl, Gilfaethwy’s father, and Agnes, his daughter.

Don’t worry, I’m going to make proper introduction posts for all the families. Just wanted to share my excitement!

The upper picture is from the Fishermen shack and their spot at the river. I haven’t played much with beach lots yet. It looks and sounds marvellous!

[nimitwinklesims]

Thank you for all the recent reblogs and likes of my humble medieval village! To any new (or new-ish) followers: welcome! 

This is the MCC settlement I’ve been building: Arianburh. Here you have all the lots in one fell swoop, because I have a fondness for maps.

I’ve been busy with a few new community lots today, which you may already spot here if your eyes are keen..... 

(click to enlarge)

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I realised what the trick was to the narrow streams! *shifty eyes* Subsequently I have lined Arianburh’s riverbeds with @greatcheesecakepersona‘s cliffs! It’s supposed to be a mountainous fjord area, after all....

A smaller size or one that cuts away to the side would be useful, too.

(It still needs some work, but this way you can see the placement better. I seem to have become more about sharing the WIP process here with you guys, rather than perfect pictures, I hope you don’t mind! ^_^ )

My lots are all pretty much built now, but I had to spend an entire evening doing a 50/50 yesterday because two of them were crashing. And now I’m kind of procrastinating on putting my families in... can you tell? It’s rather a special moment in my mind and I don’t want to mess anything up!

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Soo... well... I decided to start over on the Sims themselves. They were created a bit too hastily, and I wanted to put a bit more effort and personality into them. I also fear that a bit of corruption has snuck into the ‘hood during the many years of building and testing it. As I don’t want my ‘hood to blow up on me before I even begin playing it, I thought it best to start over now before I get attached to the Sims and their silly actions. 

I’ll port over Arianburh’s NH decorations and all the lots, of course, and the setup of all the families will remain the same. They’ll just have different faces (which nobody will notice because I haven’t shown them yet) -- and a cleaner environment!

So far, I’ve got 11 Sims who are all completely different from each other. Their personalities just jump off of the screen, it was such fun to make them! I wanted them to not look “pretty” or “generic” (although there are several who are definitely their own kind of pretty), but more ~~unique~~ and also realistic. I haven’t made Sims in ages, so it was a nice challenge. My key trick was to emphasise at least two facial features and exaggerate them a bit. 

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Aaaaand it’s time for my almost-yearly house post! :P I have so little time these days... but finally, here we are. The last residential lot of medieval village Arianburh!

This is the Thorne Manor House, belonging to the MCC’s starting Gentry family. Of all the families I rolled, this is the most ridiculous one of them all -- although it should make for a good story!

After their parents, Sir Tristan and Lady Iseult, get tragically killed in the political uproar down south that they went to in order to support the king, three orphaned teenage girls decide to run the village by themselves. It is now upon them to protect and guide their little brother who is heir and also their toddling triplet siblings, and steer the daily goings-on of the wrecked and grieving settlement.

The plots of land in front of the manor are the family farm, a community lot that I’m planning on having the Borrow teenage boys work on. (And yes I’m definitely hoping for some inter-class romance drama there! ^^) I think I might also have one of the girls pick up tailoring.

They didn’t have a lot of time recently for the upkeep of the manor grounds, so the garden is rather overgrown at the back where there aren’t any other villagers to notice. I made a servant’s bedroom too, in case they will be needing one later. I based this house off of a drawing in “Timber Framed Buildings Explained - Britain’s Living History”, of a ‘lobby entrance house for a yeoman farmer’ which means that there’s probably all kinds of things wrong with my using it for a knight’s family, but alas. (Perhaps he used to be a yeoman farmer?) By the way, I just found this resource, which might interest you if you like British historical houses too. (Finally, useful maps for medieval halls! Who knows, I might redo this one later.)

Now I just need to get the village green and the river lot in good shape, perhaps figure out what I want to do with religion in this village -- and then -- who knows -- *gasp* after 5 years of planning and building, I might even get around to playing the actual thing?

ps. I also redid the walls of the ruined castle compound (said castle to be built later), because they got lost in a CC swap at some point. Now there’s an inner and an outer ring, which you can kind of see in the second photo.

[nimitwinklesims]

Spot the differences ^^

I rebuilt the Thorne Manor Hall! It just seemed like the perfect opportunity to make a medieval open hall for our Squire family, the founding gentry family of Arianburh.

I tried to work with the outside structure that I had built already, which is why the hall is slightly broader than the wattle-and-daub alcove at the end. The wall texture is the same on the inside and outside, which is a nice realistic detail that I sometimes like to use on historical houses.

This family consists of eight Sims and they all have to have a place at the table; even though the youngest are only toddlers, their late parents would have had places at the table too.

I’m still picking away at it as I go.

These two versions depict a small change I made at the end and I’m unsure whether to keep it: I added a one-tile dais at the far end so I can plant a musician on there at some point. But that means everything has to shift closer, and the wall appears less tall. I also added a smoke window and another inside window to look down into the hall from the walkway.

Which do you like better?

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The Chapel. I’m a little stuck on how I want religion to work in Arianburh to be honest, but I just love building little chapels, so here we are.

I think this is the place of prayer for a Mother Mary type of Goddess, a benevolent and farmer-friendly Christian-like deity. The church itself is built on an older sacred site -- there is still a rowan tree peeping out from behind the tower.

Random factoid time: The angel statue with the harp (albeit awfully non-medieval) is there because I play the harp, myself :)

[nimitwinklesims]

More community lots in Arianburh! At the top you see the village green which also has a riverfront. Sims can fill their water buckets there, as well as at the well. (For some reason my water turned black in build mode?) There is fun to be had in all kind of manners, so this will be a getaway lot for those peasants who are sick of toiling all day!

(Also yes I really need to fix my road defaults; I switched to a darker green edit and now my own roads don’t match.... bummer!)

At the bottom there’s the forest lot for the woodcutter family! I made them a little campsite with lots of harvestable pine trees and other collectables, just behind their house in the middle of the forest. I really can’t wait to play with all of this!

[nimitwinklesims]

I love your manor hall! It looks so beautiful and inviting! But could you maybe tell me where you got these "Fachwerk" walls you used here? They look much better than the old ones I have in my game...

Thank you so much @outoftheclouds! The wattle-and-daub/Fachwerk/vakwerk walls are from the Pirate Bay Redux by Felicitations at the Keep: http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=140 . Photobucket ate the images but through the blur you can still see that they are the ones. It’s a completer set, putting the beams against all kinds of backgrounds. This one is called Sandy Stucco.

[nimitwinklesims]

Replies + “smoke window” WCIF

Votes are unanimous: the dais stays! (Does that rhyme or not? dais is one of those dictionary-words for me that I often read but rarely pronounce...) 

Thank you guys for replying! Tumblr is so much more fun when you have a little bit of conversation. I like to get to know you all through your words ♥ So here are a few words in return.... for @ophidiae @squeezleprime @niamh-sims @duyska @withlovefromayre.

@ophidiae replied to your photoset “Spot the differences ^^ I rebuilt the Thorne Manor Hall! It just...”

I like the dais!

Yay! Thank you!

@squeezleprime replied 

I like the idea of having room for a musician :)

Thank you! I am a musician in RL, in a duo with my boyfriend and we’re always looking for gigs. When I told him I’d built a manor hall he replied: “Nice! Can we play there?” -- so needless to say I immediately went back in and added the dais! Maybe someday our Simself ancestors can play there ^^

@niamh-sims replied

I love the smoke window (can I ask WCIF, please?) and I do really like the dais. I can't wait to see more of the manor!

Thank youu! I realised it’s the first time I shared some inside pics of Arianburh and actually at all, in a very long time! All those neighbourhood pics and house building can also grow old after a while. *laughs* Zooming in from there, I’m getting closer and closer to the Sims themselves. I’ll be glad if I can share more with you, also of the inhabitants!

The “smoke window” is here, along with some other nice roof decorations: http://adelana-sims.blogspot.com/2017/03/sims-2_26.html#more

@duyska replied

I like it better with the dais too, smoke windows is a great touch :)

Thank you! :) I was inspired by the discussion of smoke, chimneys/no chimneys and the placement of the hearth in the resource that I linked to in my post. There’s a picture where you can see a window high up that looks a bit like this window I found in my catalogue.

@withlovefromayre replied

I bet the inside window looks cool from the walkway. I like the addition of the dais

Thank you! And it does!

Also trying out an open window:

[nimitwinklesims]

The Cooke yeoman cottage & bakery shop. Och ‘twas about exactly a year ago that I last shared a finished house of Arianburh! (Which can be seen nextdoor!) So many things happened for me personally. But today I sat and finished up this cottage, which sleeps 8 Sims (again -- there are so.many.big.families in this village): a baker, his elderly mother and aunt, and his five motherless children. They live in the white wattle-and-daub house. It’s super cramped, with the old ladies sleeping in the single downstairs room and the children stacked up upstairs... I dearly hope it works! If not, they can convert the shop into a separate kitchen, as technically they are allowed a second downstairs room.

I’m planning to have the baker use the firewood from the Haywood family and the garden produce (wheat and barley) of the Thorne gentry farm to bake his bread and other edible delights. But as we’re a starting settlement... it’s mainly simple wholesome foods. He might run the hedge tavern as soon as we’re allowed one. Oh! And his aunt should be able to make healing soup! That one will be sure to come in handy once winter hits.

[nimitwinklesims]

hi! i hope you don't mind me asking, but i was wondering where u got your custom roofs from? here's an example of what i mean: /post/165664677889/

Hi applebath!

Many of the medieval custom roofs that I used on Arianburh houses were made by Ermelind (the one you linked is on page 1, but be sure to check page 2 and 3 as well) and I also used a roof by Lama (on the beekeeper’s house).

[nimitwinklesims]

This is why I play Sims ♥

[nimitwinklesims]

Underhill House. The first yeoman family are beekeepers and they have a modest apple orchard. Out back is a little kitchen garden, as well.

This is the first house where I followed a floorplan this rigidly; it looks almost exactly like the page I linked below, except that I made the side bays single rooms to be able to actually use them. It was a fun challenge!

I struggled with the downstairs furnishing because the house is so narrow and has two separate upstairs bays (meaning two stairs)... so I’m going to playtest that before I take pictures :D

The Underhill family consists of two elder men, an adult female married to one of them, and three children.

References: this picture and this page out of a book.