#brightmaple

[kayleigh-83]

A Maxis Match Lighting Mod Tweak!

As requested by @jellymeduza I'm sharing my tweak of @dreadpirate's fabulous Maxis Match lighting mod. This makes the unlit rooms during dawn and dusk a bit brighter (closer to how they appear at nighttime) and tweaks the colour-cast a bit too. The photos above are all four time of day states including with my tweaks - but nothing about day or night was actually changed from the original MM lighting mod.

Below are all the before and after pictures for dawn/dusk next to each other - before is the MM lighting mod "out of the box" and after is with my tweaks.

How to install:

Download the Maxis Match lighting mod exactly as per dreadpirates instructions. (don't worry about the part on enabling or disabling dawn and dusk states, that will be included in my edit)

Replace your lighting.txt file with mine included in this download - this will be in your base game install folders, for the UC the file path is "Double Deluxe/Base/TSData/Res/Lights" and you'll be overwriting the lighting.txt file in there with mine.

Enjoy! :)

Download (SFS) | Download (MF)

[kayleigh-83]

Saguaro Springs check in!

Been working a lot on the hood deco, and worked a little on the spa lot today too. Still has a long way to go, and a lot of the hood deco buildings you see are just plopped down so I remember to use them, but they will be moved later. But it's slowly coming together!

For those who don't know - this is a custom vacation destination I'm working on, kind of Palm Springs inspired! You can see past work on this subhood in the Saguaro Springs tag.

[kayleigh-83]

Anya's round part one!

[kayleigh-83]

Just minding my business, working on some hood deco, and along comes....

HIM

[kayleigh-83]

Anya's round part two!

[kayleigh-83]

Another cute little house for the lot bin! Well, not super little - it's 3-4 bedrooms. Based on this floorplan!

Been in more of a build mood lately! A new video should be coming fairly soon, not of this house but another one.

[kayleigh-83]

Anya's round part four!

[kayleigh-83]

Anya's round part three!

[kayleigh-83]

Snowy nights, suburbs and city.

[kayleigh-83]

Hobbies and sub-hobbies

I've been working on implementing a sub-hobby system in my game recently and really enjoying it! I took a look at the different activities available for different hobbies and came up with my list, which I thought I'd share here.

I do have some mods that change the hobby enthusiasm of some objects, or add new ones - I'll link where applicable.

I don't assign these based on any system, just vibes. I usually stick with whatever hobby the game assigns, but I do sometimes change them if it really feels like it doesn't fit to me. The sub-hobbies are intended to be a main focus, but Sims can and will still try other aspects of their overall hobby, and other hobbies altogether sometimes too!

The list is a work in progress but I'm basically happy with it now.

Edited: I found a version of the punching bag that gives fitness enthusiasm instead of sports, and that activity makes more sense to me as a fitness thing, so I moved that sub-hobby over.

Edited x2: Combined a couple gaming subhobbies into "Social Games" and added MyShuno to that category.

Edited x3: Combined sewing and knitting into Fibre Arts under Arts & Crafts hobbies.

Cuisine

Cooking

Baking

Wine & Cocktails

Foodie (restaurants, delivery)

Films & Literature

Reading

Writing (helpful but not necessary to also have this mod)

Movies

Tinkering

Restoring & Repairing (restorable car, general repairs, plus drafting blueprints thanks to a mod)

Woodworking (here and here)

Tinker Toys (RC cars, model trains, toy workbench)

Sports

Soccer

Basketball

Sports Fan (watching sports)

Golf (Execuputter reward object made buyable)

Baseball

Football

Music & Dance

Dancing

Ballet

Piano/Keyboard

Synthesizer

Violin

Singing

Guitar

Bass

Drums

Fitness

Swimming

Lifting & Cardio

Yoga

Boxing (with modded hanging bag from here - unlocked buyable punching bag still gives sports hobby, but it seems more like a fitness thing to me as a solo activity)

Arts & Crafts

Painting

Pottery

Photography (hugely aided by the buyable antique camera and Epi and PF's camera overhaul mod)

Fibre Arts (sewing, knitting with Eisbaer's edit of TonyVeis' 4t2 mod)

Science

Stargazing/Aliens

Biotech (buyable Biotech station and microscopes with science enthusiasm added)

Robotics (this mod makes robotics science related which makes far more sense to me)

Games

Video Games (console, handheld, computer, arcade games)

Board Games (chess, Don't Wake the Llama, mahjong)

Social Games (darts, poker, pool, bowling, MyShuno)

Nature

Entomology (hunting bugs, catching fireflies and butterflies)

Animals (small pets like womrats, birds, koi fish, bird watching)

Gardening (harvestable crops, orchard trees - I play with perfect plants mod so they don't have to maintain flowers and shrubs)

Outdoorsy (fishing, hiking, camping, cloud watching)

Flower Arranging (this mod changes the enthusiasm on the flower bench to nature)

[kayleigh-83]

Welcome to Maple Mills, Brightmaple's new premiere shopping district!

When I created Brightmaple many many moons ago, I designated roughly half the map to residential zoning and the other half for commercial lots. Since all my households own a business, and the town's population has grown over time, I'm starting to run out of room for both! I'd been thinking about adding a shopping district and gradually migrating most of the commercial lots over there for a long time, and today was finally that day - this is Maple Mills!

I had four owned businesses that are currently not owned which got moved here (BRIGHTHAUS, The Snack Shack, The Scorecard and Action Arcade), plus a few community lots that I thought would fit well here instead (Stardust Roller Rink, Larry F. Llama's Fun Palace, Ocean Tower Eatery).

I can't move the owned businesses that are currently owned, but whenever someone sells a lot to retire, I'll move it over before someone else buys it. I still plan to keep a smaller commercial core in Brightmaple, plus many other community lots are still there (parks and playgrounds, the pool, sports field, community gardens etc) but this should free up more space for residential lots there which I really did need.

I've only filled out a small section of the map I used so far, plus added some trees, but I'm very happy with how it's looking so far!

[kayleigh-83]

Was in a build mode mood today, and quite happy with how this house turned out that I made for the lot bin!

I was feeling inspired and confident to tackle the CFE cheat a little after watching @sissysims wonderful new video of building tips. Finally, not scared of attached garages! I always say I'm more of a decorator than a builder, but I want to get a little more bold with CFE and lot adjuster to get the results I want.

I did also use one of @catherinetcjd's excellent 2-click foundation lots, as a nice shortcut. It created the unexpected slope on the driveway you can kind of see, but I like that accidental detail a lot! (I did fix the driveway clipping through the sidewalk later too). At some point I may give this lot a CC free makeover so I have a version to share, but I was burnt out by the time I got to the end of the build, so not today!

One day this will also probably end up a speed build on my channel - I frequently build empty lots for my bin and film it, then film the part two of decorating often months or years down the road when someone finally moves into it!

[kayleigh-83]

I've made a very different style of YouTube video from my usual!

I finally buckled down and made a whole video about my gameplay style, which has been gelling slowly over the last couple years. I've discussed it here before and around the community in general, but after seeing a video from another creator discussing their feelings about wants-based gameplay, I finally got the kick in the ass I needed to get this made.

Although the other video was speaking more to wants-based gameplay in let's play content shared on YouTube, I think it's fun and interesting to share our gameplay approaches more generally. I know I've gotten tons of inspiration from reading and watching other people's games, so hopefully this will also be a little bit of inspiration for you if you need it!

(and yes, the narrator Sim is an approximate representation of me!)

Watch here!

(also yes, I had to reupload and relink this within the first hour - video glitches!)

[kayleigh-83]

New YouTube video, decorating Sabine's new downtown studio apartment! Come check it out!

Watch

[kayleigh-83]

Working on some decorating and enjoying the views :)

[kayleigh-83]

Isaac and Dev, and their son Chandler, moved into a new house this round!