#however; i still like ts4 but this is too much already

[alistairstheirins]

So? The $im$ 4 becomes Skyrim and GTA V?!? It keeps so many unnecessary DLCs when nobody asks for them.

[kimmiessimmies]

Make this night count...

"Look at all the colours! Isn't it pretty, James?"

"Very. The view is great from up here."

"It was a good idea to book this room for tonight."

"I'm full of good ideas."

"We have made things difficult for her this year, haven't we, James?"

"For whom, lovely?"

"Our author. This. Us. It was never part of her plan, was it?"

"No, but, haven't we also made things great for her?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Well, we've made things great for us, either way, Sade."

"Cheers to that, lovely."

"Sade..."

"Hmm...?"

"You wouldn't let me kiss you under the mistletoe because of where it might lead, but... since we're here now... Will you let me kiss you for New Year's?"

"Umm... No, I don't think so...

"Oh... Sorry..."

"I'm not going to let you kiss me for New Year's, James, because I'm going to kiss you first."

"Wha..."

"Happy New Year, you."

"Happy New Year, my girl..."

......

....

...

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think she'll let us be together in the new year?"

"We'll have to see, love... Let's make this night count while we're here..."

My dear followers,

This year has been very... intense... for me. I already wrote a long post about my mental health struggles, which put a huge stamp on my year. However, 2023 will also forever be the year I went back to my Sims, back to my stories, and back to Tumblr.

I spent five years away. Both because real life took over and because I had gotten into a rut with my Sims and the story. I never forgot them, though, and never stopped loving them. And suddenly, somewhere in February, it clicked. Everything fell into place, and I knew where I wanted to go with it all. In fact, it was this boy up here, my dearest James, who pulled me back. His story was suddenly clear as day to me. But how to begin? So, in March, I decided to just start writing. Then, I dusted off my game, found that all shortcuts and cheats were apparently in my muscle memory, and started shooting pictures to go with what I had written. And once I got going, I didn't stop. Everything I wrote in 2023 (and that's a lot!) even if it seemed unrelated, was geared towards James's story and the big moment that still lies ahead. However... As I've emphasised several times by now, I didn't account for this girl... So now it's like James said, "We'll have to see."

Coming back to my story brought me so much this year; I went from gameplay-based to story-based and found out how much I truly LOVE writing and how much it helps me, especially now that I'm going through rough times. Encouraged and inspired by someone dear to me, my story gained a title and came to Tumblr in full. I learnt to not only accept the benefits of poses, but how incredibly enhancing they can be to bring my ideas to life when used right. I reconnected with old contacts and made new connections too, some of whom proved to be true friends outside of this Tumblr/Sims world too. I've loved getting caught up on the stories I used to follow and discovering new ones. I've been amazed at how good CC has become in five years and pleasantly surprised to see there's still a good crowd playing TS3 in addition to the great things some of you are doing with TS4. All of this has been bright spots in my darkness.

And now we're entering 2024. I hope it will be light and bright for all of us. May the good days outnumber the bad ones and may we continue to feel the joy these little pixel-people bring us. Happy New Year to you and yours.

Much love. ❤️

-Kim

P.s. I know, I know; Some of you are now very disappointed you didn't get to see James and Sadie "making the night count." Just for all of you filthy animals I have one more post in this non-canon series set to go. Be forewarned; this one is very NSFW (And Not Suitable To View At New Year's Parties With Lots Of People Around) and will be labelled mature. I also have a sneaking suspicion it'll take Tumblr about 3 seconds to take it down, so I have an alternative post with Pillowfort link waiting in the wings. Going live as the the New Year hits where I am, at midnight GMT+1. See them making the night count by clicking here!

[alltimefail-sims]

A story in two parts... 🙃

The Apple Nectar actually ended up being okay quality though! Not too shabby for Lea's first attempt.

As promised, my thoughts on nectar making are below the cut ↓

The nectar making skill is built slowly and gained at a much slower rate than horseback riding, for instance. I'm assuming that's because it's a 5-tier skill instead of 10-tier skill, but Lea didn't level up to level 2 until 4 or 5 bottles later. 🥴

That being said: even a poor, unaged bottle of nectar goes for 55 simoleons. That's a good profit, especially if you're growing your own produce, so it's a lucrative skill right off the bat. Considering that Lea can't get a job because a horse and a ranch are basically a full-time job, it's nice to have a skill that can help pay the bills. I also love the "aging" rack because, surprisingly, it's functional! Hallelujah! I'm so tired of getting a plethora of cute, decorative objects that serve no function or even go as far to allude to an actual skill without providing it (I'm looking at you, woven basket decor items - but more on that later). However, I had no idea how long it took to age a bottle of nectar. I'm guessing it is worth the wait and will increase the price, quality, and potency when consumed...but I'd had a bottle of apple nectar put away for a few days and it still hadn't aged. (I just looked it up and Google says 1 week, which feels reasonable in "sim time." I was worried it would be longer.)

I do wish there were a few more animations while making nectar just so it could be more interesting to watch, but honestly I don't think it takes that long to produce a bottle in comparison to other skills in the game (like gardening... GOD growing and tending crops in TS4 is excruciatingly tedious). Plus, if you have the "rancher" skill, you can sometimes get additional bottles out of one nectar-making session, so that's really nice. Visually, I'd compare this skill to knitting and cross-stitching due to its repetition, and if you're wondering what it looks like... well, the trailer shows it all lol. I don't think there's much to it: they stomp a little, fall, get up, repeat until the nectar is complete. Then they step out, seal the bottle, and the bottle goes into their inventory. There are some pretty funny expressions you can get though (outtake below).

Because this skill's animation is pretty repetitive and simple, I think they should have thrown one or even two more skills in there. After all, this pack is $40. Basket weaving, as I mentioned above, would even used a similar animation to an already existing in-game skill (cross stitching) so I think this would have been fairly easy to implement. In fact, I'm still shocked it isn't a part of this pack. There are some good decorative objects and CAS items that allude to Native culture, but by and large the pack lacks actual substance to represent actively living in these cultures - I think skills like basket weaving or pottery would have been a great way to add substance to the pack AND create an opportunity to talk more about Native American cultures and pay proper homage to their traditions and skillsets. I would have loved seeing elder native sims mentoring young sims in basket weaving like they can do with knitting, for instance... that would have been so adorable. 🥺❤️ It just feels like a real missed opportunity on their part. One recipe (smh) and a couple decorative objects/cas items are a good start, but more could have definitely been done. If modders can implement these things for free, game devs should have no problem implementing these features. ESPECIALLY when you consider the pack's asking price... and I stand by that!

All that being said, I am pleased with this skill and find the animations cute, but it's certainly not intensive enough that they can justify it being the only skill in the pack separate from horse-related skills. (Which, for the record, I don't really count because that's the whole selling point of the pack. Anything horse related should be a given).

I'm not trying to diminish the amount of work it took to animate and implement horses - I haven't experienced many bugs personally, and I know adding an entirely new living creature with customization and personalization is tedious. Even so, I still don't think the full price is justified. Comparing it to Cats and Dogs, I think this EP missed a lot of good opportunities to implement a new career, skills, and gameplay. I even feel like we could have gotten some new dialogue interactions, or even a spiritual/cultural trait related to Native American ideologies or customs (kind of like the child of the island/child of the ocean traits we got with Island Living) but I've yet to see many notable additions in that regard. If this pack was a $20 game pack I think I would feel totally different. I'm having fun, but I would never be able to justify spending $40.

SO... would I recommend it? Honestly... so far, yeah. I would just snag it when it goes on sale for $20 (or through other means. You do you). $20 is the price it should have been in the first place. But I am shocked at how much fun I've been having. The CAS and Build/Buy is really good, maybe my favorite in a while (but I'm into the rugged, dirty, western style quite a bit... if that's not your thing, this pack won't do anything for you). The horses are cool and in my experience after playing it for a few days, they're animated really well (surprisingly... I thought this pack would be 'My Wedding Stories' all over again). I also love this world. It's right up there with San Myshuno, Brindleton Bay, and Windenburg for me.

Coming up: I'll be taking Lea into town- she's a loner, but it's time to force her out of her comfort zone so she can make some friends. (Plus, I really want to see the new dance floor animation haha.)

Like always, if you read all that, I have big big love for you. I leave you with a little kith upon your head (or a respective big thumbs up if physical affection is not your jam).

[greenplumbboblover]

THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN RESOLVED!

(Source: https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=687747 )

TL;DR: What happened?

Two creators had unfortunately been victim to their passwords being leaked. The people who are behind these types of TS4 malware issues tend to find leaked passwords and then sharing their Trojan file.

IF you downloaded any of these 4 items in the last 24 hours: 1. No Mosaic / Censor Mod for The Sims 4 - Toddler Compatibility Update! 2. AllCheats - Get your cheats back! 3. CAS FullEditMode Always On (Updated 6/26/18) 4. Full House Mod - Increase your Household Size! [Still Compatible as of 1/25/18] Just know that they were only live for 1,5 hours. The chances that you downloaded something malware are quite low due to this. However, just to be safe, it's good to delete them anyways if you did download them 24 hours before as of this reblog post.

So: Just a reminder to, well, everyone using the internet: Make sure to change your passwords periodically! (and, if possible, use an authentication app).

As far as I know, MTS is working on making it much harder to update posts when you've been inactive for a while! So in the future, the hackers would need access to your email provider to include malware in your mods. I believe this code is already live as we speak.

How to stay safe downloading anything CC related in the future:

Know that this issue is seemingly a big issue in The sims 4 community! While the other communities are certainly not ruled out to be able to have malware in them, it seems this group of hackers are really focused on The Sims 4 community as a whole.

What files are the issue?

ts4script files. Because it's raw python AND TS4 doesn't have great restrictions for script mods in place, these people can modify the python file to create a .dll file on running the game. That's how they get information if they're lucky.

.exe files or files that look like another file type but are an .exe file. (or some executable file like a bash script, etc). MTS does check these things before approving, but do be careful when downloading these things from tumblr or github. Make sure to check the comments there instead.

What files CANNOT ever get malware in them?

Simply said: .Package files. Exception for maybe the .package files that are actually ts4script files, but that's really from the ancient TS4 days.

With other words, your: CasParts, Lots, Cosmetics, Hair, Sims, Recolours, Objects CANNOT have malware in them

The only "kind of" malware we saw back in the days in Package files was the infamous TS3 Doll corruption bug. But that didn't collect your data, just corrupted your save/game 😉

What ways can I detect if something is malware at first sight?

99% of script modders, when updating their mods, WILL add WHY they updated their mod in the first place. If you do NOT see any update reasons in the description, it's probably malware.

Check the comments! If you're not sure, always check if someone left a comment (or in Tumblr's case, a Reblog).

Trust your gut feeling! Does something seem strange? A bit out of place from the usual? Give it a few days before you download the mod.

Package files SHOULD NEVER have a way of "installing your content" through an .exe file "For simplicity", because 99% of the cases, it's malware to trick you. Unless there is a excellent reason for it (and I mean REALLY good reason).

More or less a download site related thing: If a download site has a billion buttons saying "Download". Please don't press these. They are most likely Malware too, but definitely shady ads. For those pages, it would be best to leave the item alone, unless you really know what you're doing!

Conclusion

While these discord server announcements mean well, it frustrates me to see that they mention that EVERYTHING is compromised. Whereas in reality it's only TS4Scripts and .exe files that can do harm.

I know they mean well! And wanting to protect people! But at the same time, it also spreads a sense of misinformation that can harm creators, websites, you name it.

So, instead, I would love to advise them to educate their members instead on what files can be the problem! And how to detect them. The more we get this into the world, the better we will be able to protect one another from downloading bad things!

And of course, websites that share CC, should make an effort to prevent this in the future. I'm happy MTS is doing this at the moment.

Stay safe!

(Sourced from the Sims After Dark discord server)

DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY MODS FROM MODTHESIMS! Numerous mods there (including those by TwistedMexi) are being compromised by hackers adding a malicious file with the mods

Please reblog!!

[guessimate]

I’m sorry this is going to be slightly shorter, but I played the family only till the weekend for now, so the adults had not yet aged up. I’ll fix it later, but I’m going home for my birthday and Easter, so I had to ‘pack’ my save file before I went… 

I’ve also tried the new infant update in TS4 (I have only the base game) and I was considering doing the Ultimate Decades, but it’s just way too long for me… Time somehow flows way more slowly in TS4… eleven considering how long rotations can take in TS2.

~*~

I put the want trees that allow teens to get adult WooHoo wants into my game, as there is one married couple of teenagers in my game thanks to a ROS. However, I don’t think these want trees allow for marriage/baby wants, unfortunately. 

I am also using an updated ROS doc, which has 20 more scenarios… though the Carbonneau family still somehow rolled a low number of 5 [out of 120]. This scenario says just to throw a party, which is not bad, but it’s nothing to write home about.

They threw a party after Cyprian had come home, on Eleonora’s birthday. He had just met this baby of his and it’s already growing from toddler to a child! I’m sure everyone invited came to the party to congratulate the head of the party on coming back home safely rather than to see the age up...

~*~

Cecilia was rolled to be a Family sim. I love it, especially that she was adopted. She doesn’t even want her first kiss, she just wants her very first WooHoo. Just don’t get yourself into any scandals there, ok? I don’t think anyone would turn a blind eye to an adopted teen getting pregnant out of wedlock… She learnt Couple Counselling because she wanted to.

Later on, at the weekend the Venditor family came over (the head of the family and his daughter). I think they might be interested in getting their heir married to Cecilia. I think that’s a decent match for an adopted daughter - marrying into the merchant class.

~*~

Eleonora aged up, having learned all the toddler skills and the nursery rhyme, plus some creativity. ~*~

I seem to be having issues with maxing out Tinkering enthusiasm for Aubrey by just repairing objects around the house. I might have to get him some hobby item. Perhaps the woodworking station.

At the end of the round Cyprian got on the typical Fortune sim ‘buy this object’ spree, but I allowed it, as he wanted to buy some plants and other things for the outside, which is great for Aubrey, as Nature is his One True Hobby. 

I had to sell some of the things Aubrey crafted because they were not really era appropriate, and then I replaced them with the objects they wanted to get. I’m not going to be using the woodworking station much, unless someone is a woodworker, or I really need to max out the Tinkering hobby. I like the object, but it might be a bit too profitable.

~*~

Writing novels and eating cheese seems to be all Eustacia wants to do at this point (plus going on a date with her husband, occasionally). 

I also realized neither Cecilia nor Cyprian like talking about Grilled Cheese, so it seems like only Eustacia’s biological children will be putting up with her talking about her interests… 

I also finally figured out why I wasn’t getting the best seller popups… I simply didn’t have a phone, which prevented my sim from getting royalties. I allowed Eustacia to use phone just this round (especially that they had to throw a party anyway), and I felt like she deserved at least one bestseller memory. Her magnum opus turned out to be worth 2,964$.

~*~

They started with 18,872$, and they bought stuff worth 1930$, so they should have ended up not with 22,366$ but with 24,296$.

They got a horse carriage, because 3 household members wanted ‘a car’, and they needed some sort of a promotion item.

That means they earned 5424$.

They dug up a treasure chest worth 5,000$, which can serve as a dowry for one of the daughters.

3000$ – rent.

542$ – tax.

1000$ – treasure tax.

4542$ = to the Royal Steward. The Monarch has earned 133,500$ total so far.

542$ – tithe rounded up to 550$. The Church has accumulated 22,150$ total so far.

They’re left with ~18,000$ in the bank (because of all the woodworking...).

[moyokeansimblr]

100 Followers Gift - Joliebean's Jewelry Box

I can't believe 100 of you like my content enough to follow me! Thank you!! 🥰 I really hope these haven't been converted already, but if they were google wouldn't tell me. So I did! @joliebean's Jewelry Box set 4t2.

Joliebean mentions that the ts4 necklaces were high poly, and I wasn't sure what reasonable poly was so I used the LOD1 for everything so they'd be a bit lower without losing too much detail. The necklaces still ended up being 11k and 4k respectively. My apologies. Everything comes in all 10 colors. Only for YAEF as of now. And you have the option if you want them in Glasses or in BV Jewelry.

DOWNLOAD Jolibean's Jewelry Box in Glasses or BV Jewelry on Patreon (FREE)

But please consider donating if you like what I do so I know! 🙏

The necklaces and bracelets use the same textures, however I didn't repo them because they're already rather small. I can if there's demand though. Enjoy, and let me know if anything's wrong!

[missnight0wl]

Story time!

I’ve asked you a while ago whether you’d be interested in hearing about my probably first serious HPHM theory (and how it kind of resulted in my love for Jacob and Rakepick), and well… here’s that story! I’ll just warn you that it’s gonna be quite different from my usual posts, and it’s rather a “my personal story with HPHM” post than a theory post. But I hope you can still enjoy it!

I’m a person who grew up with Harry Potter, and while I read the books many many times in my life, I was always rather disappointed in the movies. Therefore, once the last book was published, I honestly wasn’t really following the news about HP. That means that I had no idea that Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is gonna be released or that it’s even a thing. In fact, I learnt about it from a YouTube video some time after the premiere.

Also, here’s a fun side story: that particular video was from a girl who usually makes The Sims 4 content. I watch her channel from time to time, but I admit I prefer her boyfriend’s channel much more, and so I watch him regularly. Still, she appears in my recommendations occasionally. And truth be told, I’m pretty sure that’s why I saw her video that day. In other words, it’s quite possible that I got into HPHM not because of my love for HP... but for TS4 😅

Back to the main story though!

The game didn’t appear super impressive, judging by her video. However, I was going through a weird period then of just testing a bunch of different mobile games, so I was like:

I started playing like a week or two after the release, thinking that I’d quit after a month or two (she said, over three years later…). This is pretty relevant here because it means that I really wasn’t invested at first, like… at all.

This was also the time when I discovered WillBits, who started making playthroughs back in the beta version of the game. I basically was watching him while simultaneously playing myself, so I knew the story a bit ahead of time. Anyway, as I said, I was very casual about it. I got a bit more interested in Y3, but still not too much. But then… Y4 began. And, oh boy...

Remember that one moment in Y4Ch1?

Now that I look back at it, it’s pretty obvious that Rakepick was talking about Jacob. But at the time… it really didn’t occur to me. Like, at all. I dunno, maybe it’s because I still wasn’t so much into analysing this story, or maybe I watched it first on YouTube where WillBits glossed over it, and so did I… Either way, the point is that no connection between Jacob and Rakepick was created in my mind. And it’s gonna be quite important later.

Anyway, time was passing by, and I believe it was somewhere like… halfway through Y4 maybe? I was reading that one thread on Reddit about R and whatnot, and I remember one user mentioning Rakepick’s apprentice you can learn about in Y4Ch3. Y’know, in this scene:

(...)

The thing is that I didn’t choose this option myself in my first playthrough, so it was totally new information for me. And at this moment, I was like:

This was the moment when something clicked in my head. I won’t tell you about my exact thought process, but I basically came up with this theory that Rakepick’s ex-apprentice is R. Mind you, this was the point in the story when we were led to believe that R is a single person. And of course it couldn’t be Jacob because… how? Our brother is good. He was worried about Hogwarts being doomed and all. You know, it’s actually funny how much faith I had in Jacob, considering that we didn’t even know about Duncan yet and that R fucking blackmailed Jacob into all of that. And Jacob Ellis wasn’t even a character back then! Yet for some reason, I was already like: “No! Jacob is not evil!”.

Also, to be fair, I don’t think that Jacob being evil would be a bad plot twist in general. I just don’t believe it could really work in the story how it was presented at the time and especially how it went later. But back to the theory…

I’m not gonna lie, I was super hyped about the whole idea, and I thought it worked really well. I had the whole backstory that Rakepick and her Apprentice were searching for the Cursed Vaults together, but they had some kind of a fight that ruined their partnership and their friendship. And so, the Apprentice became that mysterious R figure who wants to get the treasure for themselves, so they obviously want to stop both Rakepick and MC. At the same time, they’re kind of jealous of MC because they might take their place in a way as Rakepick’s next apprentice. Moreover, it totally explained why Rakepick was always so openly shady and she even provoked MC not to trust her – because she didn’t want to repeat the mistake she made with the Apprentice. So yeah, it all makes sense, right?

And honestly, I was attached to this theory for a very long time. I believe that even when it started being clearer in Y5 that R might be a group and not a single person, I still thought I’m onto something with the Apprentice. Again, I still did not even consider that it might be Jacob. In fact, I had some ideas for the stories about Jacob meeting Rakepick after the Cursed Vaults, with Helena introducing them to each other. 

But then, Y5Ch15 happened, and we found the notebook where Jacob revealed that he worked with Rakepick…

And let me tell you, never before and never after was I as excited about HPHM as during that couple of chapters (until like Y5Ch19). And now that I go back to it, I think a big reason behind it is that I genuinely wasn’t expecting this revelation. And I wasn’t expecting this because I was so fixated on that first “serious” theory of mine. So, you see how it had a pretty big impact in the end.

After that, it kind of escalated on its own. I was just so stoked and thoughts were rushing through my head.

Wait, why Rakepick doesn’t want to admit she saved our life? It puts her in a good light! Just admit it, use it to your advantage! Why she hides she knew Jacob? JUST ADMIT YOU SAVED HIS LIFE! YOU CAN USE IT AGAINST MC! Wait… if it could be beneficial for her, but she still refuses to admit it… does it mean someone asked her to keep it a secret? But why?! And was it Jacob? OMG, does it mean she cares about him? If she didn’t care about him, she’d use this information! Right? Is she trying to protect him?!

And you know what’s the best? Well, two things, actually.

First of all, there is that wonderful art made by my friend at the beginning of Y5, which you should totally check out HERE. I absolutely love this headcanon because of how clever and touching it is. I also believe it could be a thing with more people who were closer with Jacob (so not only McGonagall but also Flitwick, Hagrid, or Madam Rosmerta). However, some time after I discovered this art, we had this moment in the game (Y5Ch10):

And I remember being like: “Haha, wouldn’t it be funny if Rakepick made the same mistake as McGonagall? Haha! It’s almost a shame it’s impossible because Rakepick didn’t know Jacob”. But then, we found Jacob’s notebook, and I was like: “Wait… DID SHE REALLY CONFUSED MC WITH JACOB?!”. Funnily enough, the same bug occurred once again later (Y5Ch21):

To make it even better, both situations could’ve indeed made Rakepick think of Jacob. We know he used to visit Knockturn Alley, and that they worked together on the Portrait Vault specifically.

As for the second thing: remember that one part from Jacob’s notebook?

And remember how I said that Jacob Ellis was barely a character back in Y4? Well, truth be told, I had a problem with what to do with my Jacob for quite some time. And I believe I mentioned it somewhere on my blog forever ago, but I was actually seriously considering killing Jacob off: either through suicide or in the Battle of Hogwarts. I just… didn’t really see him finding his place in a normal life after everything he’s potentially been through. So, what was I supposed to do with him, right?

But then came Rakepick. And I started seeing how similar they are in their life experience. How she could be proof for Jacob that R might mess with your life, but you can still survive it and live. How she would probably be the only person being able to fully understand him after all of that... And honestly, Rakepick is quite literally the only reason Jacob Ellis is alive. Because when I saw it, I was like: “Yeah, I want to work with that!”.

And that’s how my love for these two keeps me still with this game! 😅 Also, it’s pretty funny how some elements of that first theory are kind of still noticeable in my view of the story – like Rakepick purposefully being super shady and not letting MC get too close to her emotionally.

Anyway, thank you for getting this far! 💖 I hope you enjoyed my silly story, and I didn’t bore you to death!

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: January 5th, 2021

How exactly can we get the option to gift cove a bracelet at the start of step 3? I really only get that option with having a ponytail-black shirt-black pants-no accessories cove but i dont know the specific requirements for the option to show up

Cove’s gotta wear a bracelet in Step 2. If he doesn’t it means him liking bracelets isn’t a very long-standing trait and so the MC wouldn’t think to get him one as a gift.

I am very sorry if this was asked before but I have noticed "Our Life: Beginnings and Always" and "Our Like: Now and Forever." Did I miss something? Is "N&F" going to be a sequel or DLC? Are we going to see a geriatric Cove? (haha) Thank you in advance for the reply. ^_^ 

Our Life: Now & Forever is a new game in the franchise, but it’s not a sequel. It’ll have a new cast, new story, and new setting. It will still have all the best features of the original game and be about creating your own character/growing up from childhood!

Is there a specific reason why Cove gets so flustered and has to jump out if bed and walk it off when they share a bed in step 3? It seems a bit over the top for something they've already done twice! Once with the late night visit when Cove finds out his mom is coming and once in the RV.

Is just because they are older and the implications are different, even though the crush was already there in the RV/latenight visit scenes? Or did I miss something that made Cove more reluctant or more apprehensive towards sharing a bed/touching?

Sharing a bed with the person he likes/love is different for him at eighteen than it is at thirteen. Some things get easier when you grow up, like he’s more comfortable sharing food, but some things get harder/more complicated to him. Sharing a bed is one of those for Cove. It feels a lot more intimate and meaningful as time goes on, rather than less of a big deal.

Hello! First, I wanted to thank you and congratulate you for this amazing game. I enjoyed every single second! In a year full of stress, this was a little cozy light. Do you have any plans to make it available for other languages? Thank you again 💕 

Thank you! I’m afraid the game is still in pretty active development so we can’t consider translating the script in it’s semi-incomplete form. And we’re not a big enough company that we can promise translations will definitely come when the game is done, unfortunately. We can see what things are like when all the words are truly set, though.

Did Cove's name come from that Cove restaurant on Holden beach? Whenever I search up his name I always get those results haha 

No, haha. His first name was based on his character and the game’s theme, his last name is a reference to something of a personal joke.

Will the NSFW DLC have CGs too?

Yep!

So, to start off, I need to thank you guys, from the bottom of my heart, for creating Cove Holden. I want every single one of my MCs to be able to get engaged and married to that precious angel, so I was wondering how transitioning into step 4 using save files will work? Will I be able to load up a save file saved right before the end credits after step 3, or will I need to load one from before the transition section after step 3? I’m sorry if this has already been answered somewhere, but if it has, I haven’t been able to find it. Thank you!!!!!! 

Thank you very much c:. You’ll be able to load any save file, unless it was taken as the credits were actually rolling, and the Step 4 epilogue will simply start going once you’ve played through whatever was left of the main game and seen the credits. There are rare cases where a save file breaks between updates, but generally continuing where you left off should work for people.

Hi! I absolutely adore our life, and I was wondering is there a way to have Shiloh remember the MC and Lizzie in step 3?

I’m glad you like it! Sadly, no matter what you do Shiloh will act the same in that scene.

Hi! I'm the Australian that asked about ever including an Aussie VA, do you have any future plans for Our Life 2 or any other games to include an Aussie character and VA? 

Right now we don’t have any guaranteed future Aussie roles. But we don’t have fully developed character lists for our upcoming games yet, so that may still change.

Will OL2 also follow the tradition of "Blonde Adult That We Cannot Date"? 👀

Haha, maybe. There isn’t one right now, however we still have a lot of side characters to plan.

Hey, are the houses in the game furnished based on items in the Sims 4? I’ve noticed some similarities, but I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence. (If it is, that’d make me building it in TS4 MUCH easier...)

For me, I use real world pictures as references as well as text notes. I loved Sims 2 when I was young but haven’t gotten into a new Sims game since. I don’t believe the artist checks Sims 4 when creating their work, though it’s not impossible. Maybe they do.

is it possible to still get your name in the voiced dlc [I'm not sure how you would do it, is it from patreon ??] or is it too late ?? 

Currently there’s no way to get your name voiced. But we are looking into opening up a method for that one more time later this year. You can keep an eye out for that!

Will we be able to ask Derek out to the dance if we get his DLC? Not a Derek fan but I'm planning to surprise my friend with this 

Yeah. Taking Derek to the dance is part of his DLC.

Hi! I have a question I've been curious about, if you're comfortable with answering! If Cove and the MC remain just friends into Step 4/MC dates one of the other guys, will Cove canonically be in a relationship with/interested in somebody else at that point or shortly after? Thank you!

He won’t. There’s not really anyone in his school, and certainly not the neighborhood he grows up in, that he’d be into other than the MC. As a pretty newly independent adult he hasn’t had enough time to truly find a special someone in Step 4. It takes a while for him to make that kind of move, haha. It’s totally fine to headcanon that sometime after Step 4 he finds love with someone else, but it won’t happen in-game.

i just wanted to share this cute little playlist that i made about cove! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5wM7GNiJh5eRqhvLBperfQ?si=4FocdBsNTpeF053yOwaLSA

Cool! Thanks for sharing it with us.

No, no, no create longer ask answers please. 😌

The ask answers are not too long. If anything I'm greedy and wish they were longer... I'm already subbed to your guys patreon and I still can't get enough 👀 I'm in love with you guys 

Will you post more of those long form ask posts? I love them 🥰

Haha, thank you for these messages. I’m glad you’re enjoying the content.

——————————————————————

Thank you very much for all the questions! Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[moudschegiebchn]

Before I start a little disclaimer: I don't put too much energy into this. I'll explore as I go along however long that may be. Don't take anything I write too seriously. This is all just meant for fun.

Now that we have that out of the way here's our Sim who'll explore Isla Paradiso for us:

Say hello to Silvie Rogue. She's pretty much a preset face but idc she's cute. Traits: absent-minded, loves outdoors, sailor, clumsy, family-oriented Lifetime wish: Great Explorer

many ramblings + a few more pics form my first evening playing under the cut

i'll probably always prefer the cartoon-y look from ts2 & ts4 but i don't hate ts3's style anymore xD

the very prominent eye shine creeps me out though

i did manage to find some default replacements i actually like!

there's a weird thing in CAS going on with the camera but that's probably on me? or due to the fact that i'm playing in borderless window mode on a 34" monitor

you can't create mermaids from CAS?? that's disappointing

i miss the option to have more than one outfit per category (later i realised that this is possible but only through a dresser? ugh)

after only checking CAS for young adult females lemme tell ya: ts3 doesn't has such an obsession with them as ts4 lol

Isla Paradiso is huge there are so many lots my starter sim could choose from and it's just beautiful

there are two cemeteries. two! it was a kinda happy-sad thing realising that cemeteries used to be a thing with the sims. per default not because of a mod.

already found the option to disable all the store advertising, hooray! i will never get over this whole store thing

her work hours are 8am - 2pm. she's gonna have a job and be able to do other things easily! it feels like ts4 work hours are generally pretty long and i find it hard to get them out and do stuff

there are different ringtones for the phone omg! it's like five or six and it's making me genuinely a little bit excited lol especially that we can set it to sound like a home phone in ts2 *nostalgia intensifies*

the little sound it makes whenever a pie menu opens ;_; <3 i've missed this!!

can't use SRWE because of the way the ui reacts to it (not at all thus making it look very weird) sad

hitting fast speed 2 actually feels so much faster!! getting a bit too excited over this but it is one of the biggest smallest things that bug me about ts4. speed 2 doesn't feel that different and don't get me started on speed 3. but this…!! it's a whole new world

the bed is messy! i repeat: the bed is messy!!

my sim made waffles three times and burnt every one of them

her TV broke and she was so upset about it lmao

despite having the sailor trait Silvie is not immune to getting seasick. can you imagine the same thing in ts4? me neither

it's only Thursday and so far everything that could be dirty or broke was dirty and/or broke, some things even multiple times. i love it.

I SEE SHARKS!!

while repairing the TV she got electrocuted and didn't loose the spiky hair just by going into the ocean hehehe

there are wishes and they matter!! *happy cry*

still think only being able to lock four is not enough but eh. it's better than three meaningless whims. and i like having so much more control than in ts2 with the random rolls after completing one

still miss fears though

stuff in the reward store is expensive and it takes time to get enough points. it actually feels like i have to work for it and it's great

the actual ts3 camera feels a lot different from the ts4 version of it and i don't like it

tab mode is absolut torture WHAT IS THIS?!

so far the game crashed once and another time it didn't close properly and I had to force a restart

the ui isn't all over the place like in ts4 and i find it much less stressing + overwhelming

we only have one shortcut key for inventory?? how did we ever live like this?!! such peasantry

[ratboysims]

anonymous said: im so excited to see your rose generation gameplay i’m currently in the middle of it and it’s such a mess → my heir is currently a teen in game and it’s ALREADY so messy and so much to keep track of, i kinda love it though!! i hope you guys like it as much as i do!

anonymous said: I really love the gameplay posts, they’re not boring at all!! pls keep posting them (if you want to ofc almsnsjd) → ok good, thank you all so much for dealing with my insecure ass :,) my queue is filled until the end of february now, so you wouldn’t be getting rid of the nsb posts soon anyway lol.

anonymous said: Hi, I have the same reshade as you however my game doesn’t look as bright as yours. Have you changed any of the settings? → i get questions like this a lot, which is weird because i literally use the reshade just as it is! i guess make sure you have the right reshade version and not an earlier/later one? and play around with the colors and brightness of your in-game lights, i do that a lot!

anonymous said: hi! do you still do commissions for poses? → hi, right now commissions are not open!! i would LOVE to do them again someday, but i realized it’s really not good for my mental health last time. the thought of someone paying for my poses and then waiting for them and the possibility of them not being happy with them had me literally breaking out in hives lol. maybe when i’m in a better place i’ll try again!!

anonymous said: Hello. Wanna say many thanx about your works they are really wounderful. My question is about your save file rat save, do you have any new ? → not yet! i’m working on editing/replacing some older builds i wasn’t happy with and adding new ones, so maybe in a month or two i’ll post an updated download.

anonymous said: finally, *finally* someone gets it. I hate the overly realistic style. the stringy hair looks like shit. let them be stylized. like there's one thing going for some realism in the facial features that's nice too! but I'm also the person that thinks that looks really nice combined with the "clay" look of TS4. →i love this alpha slander in my inbox, all my homies hate alpha hair

anonymous said: hi there! just downloaded your ratsave and am so excited, but wanted to let you know your SFS link seems to be broken? I was able to download it with dropbox though! just thought I'd let you know :) → hey! it seems to work for me, but i do know simfileshare has had a ton of issues lately which is why i started linking to dropbox too in the first place!

anonymous said: hello i am in Love with your currently gameplay. everyone is just so 🥺🥺🥺 and i have to take a second every time you update w gameplay bc its just so Good. sorry for the gush,,,,, → this is so nice thank you so much!! i’m so glad you’re enjoying :)

anonymous said: knowing youre a month ahead playing makes me nervous → it dead assed makes me nervous too, i used to not be able to use queue and would just post whenever i felt like it but i decided to take the backseat on this one and it feels weird............

anonymous said: You have a cat boy WOL?? Omg me too! And yours is so pretty! It took me forever to get enough wolf marks to get that hair lol → yes!! come off anon and talk to me about ff, if you play on the crystal data center you’re invited to my house for some free materia and healer queues.

anonymous said: Is silas' hair custom? its so nice!! → it’s the ‘styled for hire’ hair, you get it from wolf marks earned in PvP!! took me forever to get, but was really worth it. 

anonymous said: yu shld really go into interior design, like you could really help boring ass bitches have a nice ass home → i think i actually would love doing interior design... only issue is i SUCK at like floor plans and furniture, i just like decorating lol.

anonymous said: Weird question, could I possibly gift you a stuff pack? I just love your builds so much, and thought this may be a neat way to give thanks ! → this is SO SWEET, but honestly i can get the stuffpacks if i really want them so i’d feel bad :,)

anonymous said: are ur star skins ww compatible? → NO idea, if someone reading this uses WW please let us know!

anonymous said: could post mindy's house on the gallery, i think its so pretty :3 → it kinda already is! i don’t think i’ll post her exact house, but it’s just a refurnished version of the ‘granda place’ build from here!

anonymous said: hello!! i just wanted to say that i think you are one of the nicest people in this community. that’s all <3 → you’re one of the nicest anons!!

anonymous said: hey I just wanted to pop in and say that uh your sims are gorge, builds are top-tier immaculate, and the vibes you give off are pretty groovy :) (hopefully I did this right, never asked anyone before-) → you did this absolutely right thank you so much! :,) i love getting told my vibes are groovy, that makes me happy lol.

[sableyegaming]

Guess what i got for christmas :)

TS4 was pretty cheap (or at least affordable) and i got gifted money, so i bought it! Now I have the three of them; I got TS3 for christmas 3 years ago or so, and TS2 was a birthday gift (and then i saved up and bought almost all the expansions over a long period of time). I don't think I will be buying the expansion packs for TS4, maybe one or two, but i really don't care about most of them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I got it mostly cause of the build features and cause it loads super fast so playing it casually is gonna be easier than with the other two (especially TS3, that one takes ages to load). Also its pretty and it's the sims, and i love the sims a lot... maybe too much...

I started playing it as if it was a Harvest Moon game: make friends, grow things and forage around to make money, collect stuff, etc. I googled it after coming up with the idea, and there's already a challenge or two out there about Harvest moon, but i don't like hard rules or requirements when playing my games.

At first i thought it was a bad desicion to buy it, but then i played it for a while and was surprised by how much the game has improved since i played it back when it came out. It's not perfect, but it's better than the trash fire it was when it first released, and honestly? I'm happy about it. I've been enjoying the game for what it is; it's casual, relaxed, easy. It isn't the super complex social-emotional simulation it promised, honestly TS2 is better at that (better even than TS3, in my humble opinion), but it's still fun. I remember when TS4 originally came out; it was horrible. I tried it before buying it and i was like "no way im gonna spend my money on thins, i'm gonna buy another TS2 expansion pack". And i did; the TS2 expansion pack had more content than the whole of TS4 at the time. Now, however many years later and who knows how many updates later, 6 dollars sounds fair.

Veredict: Hated it back then, enjoying it now. Don't buy it full price though.

[nikatyler]

I wasn’t really going to do a post like this at first, but then I was tagged twice (by @silverspringsimmer and @mysimsloveaffair) and I though well, to be fair, why not. So here’s a few things I’d like to do this year, but if I don’t get to do it, that’s fine. First and foremost, I want to finish my second year of uni and successfully start the third one. And maybe find a job for the summer. And a romantic partner? 🥺 Anyway, simblr.

Complete gen 6 of Roses. I have my heir, I have Regan’s story wrapped, now let’s get to the point where I can call this generation finished. Usually, that’s when my next heir becomes a young adult, and I think I’ll do it similarly here. Will there be a gen 7, I don’t know, however I already have an idea how to end this, and basically it will be done so that if I want to, I can always come back later to tell the stories of this family again. And I’m pretty sure I will want to come back at some point.

Gen 4 story/ies. Another evergreen wish that I talk about a lot. 😂 These guys have my entire heart and the only reason why I want to quit the legacy after gen 6 is that I want to go back to my favourite siblings Caleb, Tyler, Bianca and Zoey. Mostly Zoey though, for now, as her storyline is the most interesting one and also the one I want to retell the most. The original one was good-ish, but it could be better now that I’m older and wiser and know a bit more about how to use sims to tell stories.

Complete the plum generation of NSB. And maybe the orange one too. I could complete two in one year, right?

Complete the peach generation of BPR. Which reminds me, I haven’t opened it yet on my new laptop. Hm. Maybe I’ll play tonight.

Another BC?? Let me know if you’d join and what game you’d prefer it to be (TS3/TS4). I kinda wanna do this again.

That was for what I want to do in the game (but knowing me, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see it this year - I’ll try to get it out this year though), now let’s talk about my blog:

Stick to a 9 posts per day queue. I have a huge backlog, I have pictures from 2019 that still haven’t been posted, I can do this. It’s likely I’ll have something to post for a very long time.

Gen 6 of Roses, grey gen of NSB, peach generation of BPR. That’s pretty much my posting schedule for 2021.

Make a new resources page for TS4. It needs a lot of fixing.

Become friendlier, make more friends, send more asks and all that stuff. I’ve mentioned this already, I didn’t interact with the community that much last year and I feel bad about that, so I’ve got to fix that.

Be less bitter and switch to a lot more positive mindset. This is an irl resolution, but it works for simblr too. I’m a bitter little bitch with hateful tendencies sometimes and I...hate it. We’re leaving that energy in 2020. Holding grudges can stay there too, we’re starting with a clear head. If you think I (still) a) hate you, b) am angry at you or c) don’t want to talk to you because *insert the reason if you have one* - forget about it. Seriously. Similarly, if I wronged you, will you believe me that I’ll try to do better this year? 🥺👉👈

Be less annoying. It’s just the way I am online but I think I could (and should) tone it down.

Sim Requests! I think this counts for that “and more” part in the picture. I’m not really sure what I meant by that when I put it there haha. Anyway. I would officially like to open sim requests again! There are just two rules, one, this is for my followers only and two, actually use the sim at some point. Just send me a message if you want one. These will stay open all year unless I specifically make a post saying otherwise.

Right. I don’t know where I was going with this because my friend called, but I think I covered the most important parts. I’m not listing the classic - play for myself and for fun, if it doesn’t spark joy, quit it. I think I’m doing quite well on that front already.

Once again, happy new year!

[criquette-was-here]

Replies

Anonymous said:

Hi Criquette! I love your work and tutorials, in fact, you taught me how to make hood deco buildings light up at night! However, I'm having an issue with the transparency. The day window texture and the main building textures have a transparent gap between them even though they line up perfectly in the image program and GMND preview. Do you know what may be causing this?

Hey anon! Thank you! I’m glad you’ve managed to get your decorations light up at night. As for the gap, sometimes, if a material has ‘alphatest enabled’ on ‘1′ it can interpret almost opaque (i.e. transparency at 50-70%) areas of the texture as fully transparent. Alphatest renders transparency strictly as true/false, or 1/0. I would recommend to turn alphatest off (set to ‘0′) and if you still need to have transparency in your day windows texture, make it work with ‘blend mode: blend’.

@saralynnx​ said:

I'm just in total awe right now. Feverfew completely blew all of my expectations out of the water, and is a prime example of 'TS3 and TS4 could never!' I seriously feel bad for people who are no longer active in the TS2 community for missing out on this masterpiece.

Oh, thank you Sara! Well, this game can wait (i’ve had a break for six years myself) and if someone decides to get back to TS2, Feverfew will be available :)

Anonymous said:

Any chances you could upload just the sc4 terrain for Feverfew? 

Oh, dear anon. There’s no point in doing that. Because the unedited map for thins neighborhood looks like this:

You can still have the Vervainwort SC4 map instead, which makes definitely more sense.

Anonymous said:

Omg I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mind the look of it I just thought I did something wrong! Good to know I’m set. Thank you for replying I know you’re being inundated with messages! Bless!

Not to worry, anon! Happy simming :)

@impassingoveryou​ said:

Had to chuckle a bit at Mr. Bean‘s car. I didn‘t even notice it until my brother casually walked past me and pointed it out. Was that supposed to be an easter egg? :D

Well, I did show some WIP pics of this little car earlier. Not sure about an easter egg, but it’s definitely a mention :) As for the easter eggs, there’s one and it’s not related to mr. Bean ;)

Anonymous said:

Hi, thank you for Feverfew! I don't have a computer at the moment, so I can't dowload it and wander around in it like I want to, but I already love it just from the pictures. Just curious, are there spaces/suitable terrain for beach lots in Feverfew? I have a couple of ideas for beach lots and was wondering if I can fit them into Feverview.

Hi anon! There’s literally one single beach lot in Feverfew and it has a pub so you’ll have to make it over :)

@veetiesims2​ said:

As a detail-crazy worldbuilder I really admire all the work you did on Feverfew. It's not my usual style but it reminds me so much of the village of my childhood that I think I'll adopt it as a side hood! Thanks <3

Ah, thank you Veetie! I’m so glad that so many people see Feverfew this way. I didn’t grew up in a town like this myself, but I really fell in love with small British towns and villages, so it was really something I wanted to try and recreate in-game.

Anonymous said:

This might be dramatic but I literally teared up when I opened up your neighborhood. I wish I was so detail oriented. Your screenshots did not do it justice because W O W

Ahh, thanks anon! Yes, Feverfew looks better in-game than on screenshots ^__^”

@ankapartizankaniko​ said:

Criquette, you're amazing! and your city is amazing! Thank you for a cool gift for the new year. Now I don't want to finish building my city ;)

Oh, please do finish it! :D You’re most welcome @ankapartizankaniko​ and Happy New Year!

Anonymous said:

Hi, I saw a YouTube-video about Feverfew, and there was this river-piece neighborhood deco. Would it be possible to share that piece separately? I love Feverfew, but I play medieval, so I can not use whole hood, but that river hood deco would be perfect!

Hello anon! You can download the whole thing, take the ‘FeverfewHoodCC’ folder and put it into your downloads folder without installing the whole thing. All the hood decorations, including river pieces, will appear as usual under ‘landmark’ and ‘misc’ submenu.

@pleasant-lives​ said:

I was watching the video review of Feverfew and I just kept thinking: I wish we had an open world in ts2! It’s so pretty and detailed, I am amazed

Yes, an open world in TS2 would be nice. But frankly, I’m quite satisfied with the one we have :)

Anonymous said:

2) or, e.g. is it possible to create a default replacement of impostor textures for a lot... by putting its custom textures in a separate package... which would override, upon each load of the game, those textures that game generates after each save? i've never done DRs myself so all of the above is probably nonsense, and even if it's possible it's too much work anyway... but i was mostly just wondering what your thoughts on this topic are. p.s. great worldbuilding in the Feverfew story mode! :)

Is it me, or the first bit is lost somewhere? :D Well, lot imposters work a bit different comparing to usual CC. Although there’s still left some place for experiments and who knows, may be at some point we will be able to improve them somehow!

[vintagesimstress]

VI c. UV_1

(Previous: Changing the texture displayed in Blender)

As mentioned before, the uv_1 map plays a very different role than uv_0: it tells the game where certain parts of your mesh are located, so that the whole thing could move with sliders. It seems many people struggle with it a lot – and to be honest, I have no idea why, as in my experience uv_1 has always been totally unproblematic. Hopefully you'll share my feelings on this!

Let's click once again the little triangle on the right ('Data') and choose 'uv_1' this time.

As you can see, the texture on the model turned very weird – and it'll stay this way, as that map is not meant for texturing. You can as well change to solid shading, if you find that craziness spooky or annoying.

If you switch to edit mode, you'll see that the map looks just as crazy:

UV_1 uses a completely different type of template. It differs very slightly depending on age and gender of your sim; the adult female one looks like this:

You can download all the versions from S4S forum, in HERE (I highly suggest you make some kind of 'Basics' folder for all those things which you'll keep reusing!)

Once you have downloaded it, click 'Image' and then 'Open image'. It works exactly the same as in case of uv_0. Now it should look like this:

You can see that your vertices are twice wider than the template. I'm not sure why the template has been made in this way instead of getting adjusted to the TS4 requirements, but that's what we have to work with. Select all the vertices (a), press s, then x, then type 0.5 and press enter. Do not move your mouse! Your uv map should be twice narrower now:

We still have to move it, so that it'd align with the template. Select all again, this time press g, x and type 512. That's exactly the number of pixels you need to move your mesh to the right. Now it should finally look correct.

Just like in case of uv_0, the top part is completely done, so the only thing we have to do is unwrap the skirt. This time the only valid methods for doing it are no. 1 and 2 (see: VI a), namely moving the lines manually or using cylinder projection. As at this point making manual adjustments would be too cumbersome, we're going to use option no. 2.

Select the lowest line of vertices to select your whole skirt, go to front view this time (num 1) and choose cylinder projection.

Move the newly unwrapped faces up or down (g, y), to the black area, so that you could properly see them.

You can see that my dress got unwrapped a bit unevenly – there are small 'steps' on the sides. I highlighted all the faces which should form the left edge. Now I'll move the highlighted parts on the right to the left, and the non-highlighted parts on the left to the right, and then it should all look and work fine.

Tip: you can also move them precisely into the right place by typing g, x, 1024 (to move to the right) or g, x, -1024 (to move to the left)!

The weird part at the bottom is the closing circle; you can select the central vertex (which is here doubled on the sides), weld it and move it down, to more or less align it with the lowest row. Or simply wait with closing your dress until you're done with uv_1 ;). The bigger problem is that step my dress still has at the top. I'll select all the vertices below it and just very gently move them along the x axis to the left. Now, that looks better:

And now, just as we did before, we have to connect the skirt with the top. It's a bit trickier than in case of uv_0, because you can't do it in one piece: your mesh has to be split along the back and both sides. Take a look at the top mesh. Let's start from the left: click the rightmost face and then, in 3D view, the faces right underneath it. This will tell you where your skirt should be split.

I'll deselect the face of the top, select the whole part of the skirt left from the selection and then move it to the left (g, x), separating it from the central part.

That weird line at the bottom is the closing circle again – I'll delete it and redo it afterwards, it'll really be easier.

Repeat the same steps for the part on the right.

The edges of those three parts should be, if possible, straight. Mine aren't. To be able to adjust them, I'll select the edges and temporarily split them (ctrl + e, in 3D view). Select a vertex or two above as well, or the uppermost one won't get split!

(If you're having problems with selecting edges, it might be smart to select the whole skirt (not the top!) and change it back from tris to quads (alt + j). Then you can easily select edges by clicking them while holding alt).

Split also the top row of vertices, to separate the skirt from the top. Just for a second.

Now select a whole edge, press w and choose 'Align X'

Repeat for the remaining edges. If you want to and feel that it's needed, you can also straighten other lines in your mesh.

Now it's finally the time to put it in the right place. Select the skirt and move it up (g, y).

One can immediately see that it's way too tall. Scale it along the y axis until it looks more reasonable. It should start at the lowest line of the top and end a bit above the feet. Nothing big will happen if it covers them, but it has to fit inside the picture!

And now just scale and move each of the 3 parts individually, along the x axis, to match them with the top.

The only thing left to do is to weld the vertices. It's unlucky that we separated the skirt from the top; now we have to select all, remove doubles and then once again split the side edges to be able to weld everything properly. Just like with uv_0: select a vertex, press w and choose 'weld' from the drop-down menu. Repeat for aaaaaall the vertices connecting the skirt with the top.

Sometimes the vertices can be quite far away from each other. Is it still safe to weld them? I'd say risk it. If you see some weird stuff happening in game when changing your sim's body type, you'll know you have to fine tune it: straighten some lines, make them more regular etc. However, chances are quite high that it won't matter at all.

Select all and remove doubles. Yes, again (I keep doing it all the time, that's probably why I love the edge split modifier so much).

And now a very important, final step that I usually forget about: you have to revert the moving and scaling changes you made at the very beginning. Select all and press g, x, -512 to move it back into position, and then s, x, 2, to make it twice wider again. Otherwise TS4 will get quite perplexed with your mesh (and so will you, seeing everything being weirdly deformed and moving with all the wrong sliders)!

As you see, it's not very difficult and once you get a grip of it, you can do it in no time. To be honest, 90% of the time I don't even do the whole scaling and moving thing; I just open the picture, to know where the feet are, and adjust the rest to the top. UV_1 is really not that bad, at least as long as you don't have to deal with the upper body half.

Here are just a couple of general, closing remarks which I'd like to share:

If you move any vertices of the top, immediately move them on the uv_1 map as well. I try to avoid it at all costs, but sometimes I can't resist making just one teeny tiny adjustment... Arms are usually not a problem, neck can get problematic, and breast area is an absolute nightmare. I already mentioned it once, but honestly, better dissolve vertices and cut new edges with the knife tool than move anything in there.

If you're frankenmeshing, remember to weld any vertices you merged in 3D view! If your mesh is getting split in game when you move any sliders, that probably means you didn't connect those parts on the uv_1 map (or that it's vertex paint... but that's another story).

Of course, if you added any other parts to your mesh than just a skirt – or if you frankenmeshed a thing, but changed its location, e.g. took a hair ribbon and put it on the skirt – you have to put it in the right place as well! In case of frankenmeshing you just have to change its location on the map; if you made it yourself, you'll have to experiment with different types of unwrapping first (pssst, projecting from view usually isn't a bad idea).

There are also certain cases - rarely, but still - when it might be a better idea not to properly unwrap a part of the mesh, but weld it all together to a little dot and put it in the right place on the uv_1. The first example which comes to my mind are 3D buttons. I always weld each button to a single dot, so that it’d be changing its size evenly, without deformations. However, this comes at a prize of an increased risk of clipping.

And finally: if you're having big problems with uv_1 and my method doesn't work for you – or if you made your mesh completely from scratch, so you don't have an unwrapped top – you can always make a data transfer, copying uv_1 data from another mesh. I won't elaborate on this one, because Teanmoon already explained it all in her amazing tutorial, which you can find HERE. Scroll down a bit until you see 'UV-1 Transfers'. I think I used it myself once or twice in the past and I was quite pleased with the results :).

***

Once again, I'm sorry both for how long you had to wait for this tutorial and for its final length. I swear I intended it to be a simple, concise explanation ^^. I hope that at least it's all clear and will help you avoid any problems with uvs. Please tell me if you have any questions or if something doesn't work for you – really, I mean it! Half of my inspiration for this tutorial comes from me watching other simmers struggle with making their first pieces of CC, as it helps me notice what hasn't been explained yet.

From now on we'll be moving into the dangerous territory of clones, cuts, regions, bones and weights, and I need some time to figure out how to divide this whole topic into sensible parts. It's not even that hard, but very interconnected, and that makes it difficult to tackle – as covering it all in one part is absolutely out of the question. Please have some patience with me and stay tuned!

[goatskickin]

Simblr Community Challenge by @amelettes

I was tagged by @curiousb​

How long have you been playing the Sims More than half my life for sure. I remember going over to a Girl Scout meeting and the troop leader’s daughter having the Sims 1 and me being just obsessed with it. I was never into CC much with the Sims 1 (basically didn’t understand how it worked) but my cousin made some and I was envious. Got into the Sims 2 right as it was released and grew up with it! I remember biking to the store to spend my babysitting money on expansion packs. I have very fond memories of reading stories on the Exchange (does anyone remember Toast? Boom Boom? Gage? Uglacies? that Greek one with togas?). I also remember downloading CC from my parent’s computer in the basement, then loading it onto a zip drive to take back to my computer. It was made from spare parts (with monitor resting on old books) and didn’t have an internet connection. Yes, I am OLD. I got into making CC around 2009 (I think?) and although I never did anything too advanced, I always liked it and liked being a part of the CC community.

However, I stopped playing TS2 for a long stretch. I spent 2014 to relatively recently being a Broke Disaster Youth, so I didn’t have money for a good computer, nor the time to play vidya games. Though I missed it terribly! But I was able to get back into TS2 and making CC recently because of the pandemic (boredom) and I had saved up enough to have a decent laptop. Like @curiousb said elsewhere, some of those CC skills are just gone from my head. I used to do object recolors! I used to MESH. I used to be able to make multi-layerable makeup for goodness’ sake. I opened SimPE a while ago and did not comprehend what the hell I was looking at. In due time though! I can learn again.

How long have you been a Simblr, and why did you become one - I checked and apparently I made this 8 (8!) years ago. I used to be all on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth, but getting a simblr was trendy back in the day so I got one. I just checked Dreamwidth the other day and those Mediafire links still work! I never had a platform to share goofy glitches or appreciate CC I liked so tumblr is good for that.

What type of Simblr are you -

Which generation of Sims do you primarily play - TS2 lassie 4 lyfe. I never liked the look of TS3 even with CC, though I’d be interested in trying TS4. Not interested enough to buy it though. Tagging @whattheskell, @strangetomato, @simematography, @aehklnt, @xwhitepolar, @digitalangels and @2fingerswhiskey (if you have already been tagged, my b).

[heysimhey]

Play The Sims 2 in The Sims 4!

I've been simming since 2000 beginning with The Sims 1. Of all the versions of the game, The Sims 2 version has always been my favorite mainly due to the character stories. Even when The Sims 3 came out, I still was tied to the characters and stories of version 2 and it never quite felt right. Then The Sims 4 came out and I was excited to see the Goths, but the story line was "wrong". My beloved characters were missing. I played for a few years and then went back to 2. I loved the stories of 2, but the game play and graphics of 4. What's a girl to do?

Create the Sims 2 character and stories in the Sims 4? Yeah, that actually works for me....and was a lot of work as well.

I didn't bring over the characters from every world in TS2. The reason being, I never really cared for any of the other characters from the neighborhoods like Belladonna Cove, Riverblossom Hills or Desiderata Valley. In fact, I can honestly say, I never even bothered playing Desiderata Valley. I had enough drama with the main three (Pleasantview, Strangetown and Veronaville....and Bluewater Village).

But wasn't it crazy that with every neighborhood, you got a separate and exactly the same Bluewater Village from scratch? So a different Malcom Landgraab everytime. The Malcom Landgraab from Strangetown didn't know the Pleasantview folks and vice versa. I always found that wacky, so I picked the ML from Pleasantview to play with and abandoned the other dopplegangers.

And why couldn't the Goths know the Smiths? Why couldn't the Pleasants have a barbecue with the Monty's? Why couldn't sims from one neighborhood have friendships/rivalries and romances with sims from another neighborhood? Well, now they can! Pleasantview, Strangetown (Strangerville), Veronaville and Bluewater Village are all open and connected in The Sims 4! I even threw in some goodies like the Newbies and Mashugas from The Sims 1 and that mean ole Mrs. Crumplebottom!

I tried my best to find original renditions of their homes from TS2. As you know, aspirations have changed a little bit, but I tried my darndest to stay true to their aspirations from TS2 with the help of other personality traits along the side. I have already played the neighborhoods to the point of where TS2 begins, with the proper relationships established, ghosts deceased (check out Olive Specter's lil' grim garden *shudder*) and everyone in their proper lots.

Original sims who came with TS4 are still around somewhere in the neighborhood bin. I evicted most of them to make room for my characters. Below are details for each neighborhood that I put together.

Huge shout-out to Midnite Tech for creating the package file that allows us to edit our World names.

The packs I have installed currently are: Get to Work, Get Together, City Living, Get Famous, Discover University, Strangerville, Dine Out, Movie Hangout Stuff, Vintage Glamour Stuff, Tiny Living Stuff and Holiday Celebration.

I wish I could say this is Base Game compatible, but unfortunately, you will need these packs in order to have the full experience. I will be purchasing the other packs as I choose in the future, but for right now, I'm good.

About Pleasantview (Willow Creek)

The Goths, Pleasants, Calientes, Dreamers and Brokes are here and are cued as best as possible to their TS2 initial situations. I also included Bob and Betty Newbie from TS1, whom we later found out were Brandi's parents. Their relationship is also reflected in this file. The notorious maid, Kaylynn Langerak is also residing in Pleasantview and is bound to cause some ruckus.

About Strangerville (Strangetown)

The Smiths, Grunts, Curiouses, Beakers and Specters are in full play with the appropriate ghosts haunting Olive's lot. Bella was definitely abducted by aliens (although we can't view all of their memories anymore) and dropped in Strangeville just the same as Strangetown's TS2. She has a story of her own. Thankfully, you can easily decide to reunite her with her family, or let her start a new life. Caution, the neighborhoods are connected, so she is bound to run into one of her relatives.

*For WHATEVER reason, the file would NOT let me change the name of Strangerville to Strangetown.  It may have something to do with the whole Strangerville story line.  But I have seen others edit this.  Ah well.*

About Veronaville (Windenburg)

The Capp, Monty and Summerdream families are here with the Monty/Capp feud still going strong. Romeo and Juliette are still in love. Awwwww. I almost never played this neighborhood, but it just wouldn't feel right if I didn't include them.

About Bluewater Village (Newcrest)

The Landgraab, Tinker, Ramirez, Jacquet and Delarosa characters came on over with their aspirations. J'Adore Bakery is owned by the Jacquets, but I didn't create the other businesses.

About Downtown (San Myshuno)

This is where you will find the notorious Mrs. Crumplebottom. She is content in her little house right smack dab where it is and you better stay off her lawn. I heard Malcom Landgraab III offered her a ton of money to move so he could build a new skyrise. She refused to sell and clobbered him with her purse. So he built around her. Malcom Landgraab IV is terrified of her due to the fact that he remembers the huge knot his father had to nurse all those years ago, so he continues his father's legacy of building around her. She ain't budging.

About Twikkii Springs (Oasis Springs)(Twikkii Island)

I named this Twikkii Springs instead of Twikkii Island because Oasis Springs isn't really an island, so it didn't make much sense. So I modified it to be Twikkii Springs. I used Zerbu's World Type Changes mod to make Oasis Springs a destination world. The Mashuga's currently run things here in their token pink octogon house. At least, in my head they do. You can play this however you want. You can get the mod here or don't use the mod and play it as is.

Honorable Mentions

Del Sol Valley

I left these named the same as we didn't really have a fame expansion for TS2. I was tempted to name it Studio Town like in TS1, but that just sounded too "Toon-Town"ish, so nah, pass. I like Del Sol Valley.

Magnolia Promenade

I totally tried to rename this to Uptown Bluewater, but the game said nope. So Magnolia Promenade it is. Maybe one day the powers that bEA will be nice and allow us to freely rename our worlds....or is that wishful thinking?

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Majority of the lots that you see here in these worlds, I downloaded from the gallery. I won't feel bad at all if you wanna change things up.

The custom maps that I used for my worlds, you will have to install them separately in order for your neighborhoods to look like my pictures above.  You can get the maps here.

*************

DID I MISS SOMETHING?? I tried my best to make this as close to the original TS2 version as possible, but the human in me probably forgot a detail or two. Let me know!

{HOW TO INSTALL}

1. Download my save file here. (SFS not working? Get it here instead.)

2. Then copy the file from your downloads folder into this path: my documents/electronic arts/the sims 4/saves | NOT your mods, tray folder or any other folder.

3. When you open the game, you should see the file The Sims 2 Reprise. :)

{TERMS OF USE}

Feel free to use this save file and have fun with your sims. If you make a video, please let me know. I totally would love to see how others play with this world. I would appreciate a shout out too!

I'm @HeySimHey on Twitter and Instagram and HeySimHey on Youtube. I'll be glad to hear from you!