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earthlynnlp · 4 years ago

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Mods List: How It SHOULD Work

A list of mods that I use in my game. Mods that change various elements of the game to work in ways they really should have all along.

Updated for the July 2023 🐴 Patch!

Things marked with a ⭐ you need to download an update to be compatible.

Things marked with a ⚡�� are possibly broken and are not currently compatible according to Better Exceptions.

Things marked with a ✨ are new to the list since the last patch.

Base Game

⭐ Age Up Add Preferences - Automatically adds preferences to Sims upon aging up.

Privacy Tweak - Close friends and relatives can share a bathroom without issue.

⭐ Call and Visit Tweak - Complete overhaul for visits and phone calls. No more stalker Easter Bunny or Santa, cuts down on a lot of bizarre invitations and has invites match better with Sims preferences, relationship with the Sim and current mood.

Socialization and Sentiment Tweak - Chances to have positive sentiments are higher and negative ones lower if you have a high relationship or are family.

Know Your Coworkers/Classmates + Friendly Coworkers and Classmates

Molding Clay Builds Creativity

Has To Pee Walk Animation For Children Only

More Children At Parks - I use version 3, which only uses existing toddlers and only has toddlers spawn on parks with the Child’s Play lot trait.

Call to Meal Tweak - No longer have to cancel eating a meal, or finish eating a meal to call others to grab a bite to eat.

No Empty Venues When Arriving

Reworked Career Offerings - When you are offered a random job opportunity, the offering makes sense depending on what degree and skill set your Sims has.

Stop Eating When Fed

Disliked Things Are Boring - I don’t get stressed when doing something I don’t like necessarily, it’s just boring.

React to Collapsed Sims - Sims are not that cold, come on now.

Plan Outfits Costs Money

Proposing Costs Money

Pay To Travel From Phone

No Standing Up To Greet - No need to get up and hug someone like you haven’t seen them in months that you live with everyday. Be sure to grab the one in the comments created by LittleMsSam!

Toddlers Can Listen to Group Stories

Swimwear Shower on Pools - Sims wear their swimsuits when showering on lots with a pool lot trait.

Bye Bye Eye Ring (Better CAS Randomization)

Smarter Self-Care

Inborn Personality Mod

Thank You Interactions - Now your Sim can say thank you after receiving a gift.

Kids Can Paint With Easel

Renamed Emotions - Instead of saying Very this or Very that the emotions are more specifically named.

Collectibles Always Ready

More Welcome - Some things aren’t seen as inappropriate when visiting family or close friends.

Neighborhood Stories Viewer

Realistic Kids Mods

Bring Food To Sims - Unlocked for everyone regardless of age and unlocked for kids that can cook with mods or toy stoves so they can force people to eat their concoctions too!

Kids Keep Skills

Generic Lots: Empty No More!

Ear Buds Build Skills - Listen to Podcasts and Audiobooks to build skills while doing other things.

Increased Blackmail Payouts Based on Career and Celebrity Status

Get To Work

Patients sit in the waiting room at the hospital

Clinic Outfit Overhaul

Get Together

More Food At Cafes

Harvest is Not a Group Interaction - Garden Clubs won’t harvest as a group interaction when you have them garden.

City Living

Sell more self made Woodwork at the Flea Market + More Woodworking Furniture

DJ Booth and Music Station Give Both Skills

Watch Speech Tweak - Sims will actually stop to sit and watch people giving Speeches downtown. Watching Sims give a Speech will gain your Sim Charisma.

Style Influencer Tweaks

Flea Market Refresh - Adds a lot more things for sale at the flea market.

Cats & Dogs

Less Rude Towards Pets - Sims that don’t love dogs will no longer just yell at them for existing. Mean Sims will still live their truth though.

Kids Can Walk Dogs

Go For A Walk With Dogs Will Fill Needs

Cat And Dog Sanity - Pets won’t be sick just because you rotated households, on lot load their motives will be randomized and pets will be more likely to interact with each other.

Pet to Pet Try For Baby Fix - Can now try for baby with pets from other households.

Sim to Pet Sentiments - Pets can now have sentiments towards Sims and vice versa.

Go For a Walk With More Pets

Seasons

Weather Affects Mood More

More Grand Meals

Mistletoe Kiss in Winter Only

More Dynamic Ball Fights - Less idle time when having water balloon, snowball, and mud fights.

Real Ice Cream at Seasons Market Stalls - In the Summer your Sims can now buy an ice cream cone from the market stall.

Storm Moodlet Tweak - Kids that are going through a loud phase won’t mind the loud thunderstorm. Some adults won’t be scared of it either, depends on their weather preference.

Get Wax From Beebox

Get Famous

Social Networking Crossover - You can now social network on your phone instead of just on the computer.

Island Living

Island Living Bartender Fix

More Children At The Beach

Toddlers Can Use Beach Towels - Now they have a place to nap when the family goes to the beach!

Sulani Events Calendar and Flyer Notifications

Camping and Picnic Things - Click on ground to spawn a campfire or bonfire anywhere.

Discover University

Less Auto Bike - Instead of getting out bikes to travel all the time, including inside, they will now only get out of the bike when they are traveling in excess of 3,000 meters.

Eco Lifestyle

NAP Overhaul + Civic Policy Overhaul - I have deleted the ones from NAP Overhaul that are covered in Civic Policy to prevent conflicts.

Snowy Escape

Hiking Motive Tweak

More Indoor Slippers

Modest Snowboot Colors

Take Off Shoes With Animation

Outdoorsy and Indoorsy Lifestyles Tweak - Just being indoors and outdoors can count for the lifestyle now as well.

Lifestyle Tweak - A huge set of tweaks for all of the lifestyles so that not all Sims end up with the same lifestyles, with some harder than others to achieve.

No Shoes While Swimming

Take Shoes Off While Napping/Sleeping

Hike While Carrying Toddlers

Kids can learn Snowboarding / Skiing - They weren’t even gaining motor before, now they’ll get a head start.

Dine Out

No Restaurant Bill When You are Invited Out

Restaurant Guest Overhaul - Less celebrities, more families, including parents with grown children, and groups of teen friends out together.

Cook Experimental Food without a Chef Station

Outdoor Retreat

Nature Walks For Everyone

Spa Day

Spa Staff Lights Incense

Improved Spa Day Tablet

Parenthood

⭐ Sibling Care Tweaks - Caring for younger siblings can build character values.

Cool Kitchen Stuff

Ice Cream Deco - Ice Cream will be garnished by default so your restaurant dessert looks like restaurant dessert.

Luxury Party Stuff

Banquet Table Tuning - Adds different food options including Brunch, Gourmet, Spooky and Vegetarian

Romantic Garden Stuff

Naked Foot Fountain - Sims will take off shoes before splashing in the fountain.

Bowling Night Stuff

Bowling with Less Delay Each Turn - Games no longer take forever to play.

Toddler Stuff

Upgradeable Toddler Beds

Laundry Day

⭐ Small Laundry Overhaul

Paranormal Stuff

Scared Mood Tweak - Fire makes Sims Scared instead of Stressed. Scared is now active for toddlers.

Cottage Living

Functional Phone Booth + Functional Finchwick Buildings

High School Years

High School Years Tweaks

Expanded Trendi Outfit Selection

More Variety Career Day

Growing Together

Family Reunion Tweak - Invite relatives for all members of household not just the person planning the event.

Best Hug Ever - Unlocked for everyone teen and up with a high enough relationship with the child.

Horse Ranch

Nectar Available in Restaurants

Horse Breeding Tweaks

Horse Competition Gives Fame

<- Back to Main List of Mods

#sims 4 cc #sims 4 mods #how sims 4 should work

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nishaapologist · 4 years ago

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do you have any fo4 mod recommendations? i re-downloaded recently but i dont know where to start

/sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiides in boy, DO I,

okay so i legit run my game with 87+ mods because as far as im concerned if its not crashing u can still shove a few more in there:

BUT i have a more Core Group that i think are needed as the Bare Basics of playing? so i guess i’ll list them off!

now i will add very quickly: i mod for immersion, usually? immersion and building at my two big ones tbh. i basically try to make my game more open to interpretation so i can Fuck Off and Do Whatever and still have my game be able to facilitate that, whereas other people mod cool stuff in because Cool Stuff Is Cool To Have, regardless of whether or not it fits the “lore” or style of fallout as a whole. so even though i have a lot of mods, most of these boil down to tweaks and small additions to make my life smoother as a whole.

slamming this under a cut because this list goes on for a Bit:

so let’s talk about broader dependencies first! a lot of Big Mods require other tools to run, so obviously we’re starting with:

F4SE (Fallout Script Extender. you can’t do SHIT without this)

Armor and Weapons Keywords Community Resource (aka AWKCR. used for a LOT of armor mods and stuff)

Mod Configuration Menu (this doesn’t have any dependencies itself per se, but a lot of mods play with it and make it easier for you to adjust mods from the menu as opposed to yr pip-boy or, god forbid, the .ini files)

Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch (i mean. why wouldn’t you)

Workshop Framework (for workshop modding and settlement stuff)

there’s technically more i use for Other Mods, but they probably won’t come up here so i’m just gonna sliiiiiiiide on past. i’m also NOT gonna talk abt ENBs cause that’s a whole other can of worms. anyway. moving briskly on to the main course.

MODS MURPHY CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

Armorsmith Extended: adds a BUNCH of modifications to armour, including layering armour, adding more adjustments and modifications like ballistic weave, and being able to adjust like, everything in the game. it also does an overall streamlining of armour slots to make stuff take up Less Space on yr body. neato.

Darker Nights: ever thought to yourself that the moon in fallout must be powered by a nuclear reactor to be so friggin’ bright all the time? this fixes that. makes it dark as shit at night, to a level you prefer! mine’s, like, super dark. enough that without a flashlight i’m staring at a black screen lmaoooo WHICH BRINGS US TO

Pip-Boy Flashlight: i owe this mod my next seven dogs. HOLY SHIT. this pairs up with Darker Nights like a match made in heaven. fully customisable lights on yr pip-boy AND power armour, with a HUUUUGE menu of options. you WILL wonder how on earth you ever put up with the vague green glow of yr pip-boy ever again.

Dogmeat’s Backpack: i love travelling with dogmeat, but he does double as a pack brahmin for me. this adds backpacks to increase his inventory, as well as adds some collars with fun effects to help you in and out of combat! good doggy :)

Durable Vertibirds: vertibirds come and go but they really shouldn’t. this makes vertibirds hard as nails to kill. stops supermutants being able to shoot em outta the sky via wet fart.

Full Dialogue Interface (other dialogue mods are available): lists all dialogue out in full in yr options, so u know what yr gonna say before you even say it! there’s a bunch of mods in this genre, i just picked the one i have for now.

Homemaker: i love building. Homemaker adds a ton (and i mean a TON) of building objects and items that lets you do anything from decorating more thoroughly to building concord, two! it’s a great mod if you, like me, love spending 12 hours placing items. which brings us to:

Creative Clutter: does what it says on the tin. adds HUNDREDS of new items that let you put down clutter to make stuff feel more lived in. luv that for me. but THAT brings us TO:

Place Everywhere: do you wish the game didn’t highlight shit in red when you jostle a bed 2mm to one side? this mod stops that! and also adds an entire overhaul to the way building works, with a learning curve like a brick wall to the face and granular movement adjustments to the pixel. i cannot do ANYTHING without this mod. i functionally cannot PLAY this game without this mod. it’s VERY good, and ties nicely into:

Scrap Everything: ever looked at the trash on the ground and wished you could poof it out of existence? now you can! it even gives you resources for the effort. vines, trash, walls, pavement, grass, rubble, debris, you name it, you can scrap it! it’s a VERY powerful mod though so be careful what you scrap, because i have actually deleted the entire Castle before. whoops.

Start Me Up: a PREMIER mod. this is like. yeah no. i wont even run my game if this isnt installed. Start Me Up doesn’t just let you have a custom alt-start, but changes all the dialogue in the game to scrub any mention of being Shaun’s parent, so you can play that raider you’ve always dreamed of without ANY concerns of someone asking you if you have a kid. a dream come true :)

Sarcastic Sneaking: changes all sneaking dialogue from HIDDEN, DETECTED, CAUTION and DANGER to SAFE FOR NOW, THEY CAN SEE YOU, THEY’RE GONNA FIND YOU, and YOU’RE FUCKED. this mod doesn’t do anything else. yet it’s one of my favourites of all time. a must-have for a murpy playthru.

Wearable Backpacks and Pouches: i like picking up junk, but my frail back keeps breaking under the weight :( this mod adds customisable backpacks and pouches to increase yr carry limit! amazing.

Survival Options: if yr not playing Survival you don’t need this, BUT if you ARE i cannot recc this mod enough. it lets you adjust yr survival experience to perfection, including adding save options like ‘save on cell change’ or ‘save on level up’, as well as tweaking beds and the like. it pairs nicely with:

Unlimited Survival Mode: allows you to further tweak your game by unlocking hard-coded barriers, such as allowing you the vanilla compass, opening up the console, or allowing you to quick save, auto save, manual save, and much, much more. i use this so i can use god mode whilst building in my sarah run, haha.

OTHER MODS MURPHY COULD MAYBE LIVE WITHOUT, BUT WHY WOULD YOU?

No More Creation Club News: SHUT UP I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE CREATION CLUB!!! TODD!!! gets rid of that bloody... newsreel when u open the game. thats it. im at peace.

Multiple Followers Overhaul: lets me have dogmeat, AND another friend :) can be used to have as many as, like, 50 followers or something crazy? i just use it to always have dogmeat + someone else, lmao.

Lots More Female Hairstyle/Male Hairstyles/Facial Hair: this blends together all of the vanilla hairstyles into more interesting combos numbering the, like, hundreds. can’t recc it enough.

Improved Map With Visible Roads: for when i can’t find goodneighbor :( but actually, this makes the map significantly clearer and easier to use to navigate roads, and is just a quality of life tweak that i rly, rly need in survival, lmao

LooksMenu: does a bunch of stuff in character creation that plays nice with other character creation mods, but primarily allows you to modify the face from a menu rather than contextual hover, and lets you save presets to a menu, so once you’ve made a face you can save it for another character/run later!

APC Transport: i JUST added this one but... lets you travel in survival via a personal APC! comes with storage, artillery, and the ability to travel to any major city and found settlement. it’ll break down every now and again and also consumes fuel, so it’s more immersive than plain ol’ fast travel. i’m REALLY enjoying it!

TBH this isn’t even, like, the end of this list... there’s other mods i, personally, like too much to not have, but this is probably the Lite Version(tm) that also has frameworks for other mods like Sim Settlements and what have you.

again u can see its mostly for building and immersion (and i have even more immersion mods than just this, trust me) but i think it’s a pretty good groundwork for any fallout run. have fun!

#ask #fallout #mods #PHEW theres. a few here lmao #i might throw up a list of all current mods onto gdocs for people to see because making a shortlist was TOUGH #but i think i got the main ones all 2gether lmao #Anonymous

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maxismatchccworld · 5 years ago

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Hey you lovely Simmers! It is time for our new Spotlight of the Month. Please give a warm welcome to LittleMsSam aka @littlemssam 😊 I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t play the game without her mods and am so grateful for all of them!

Aloha everyone!

First of all thank you Kerstin for the Opportunity to introduce myself here.

My name is LittleMsSam and I am a Sims 4 Modder since January 2017. I used to play Sims 3 a long time ago and loved it. Not only because of the Game itself but because of the fact that it is a Game which supports modding. I love Games that gives Players the opportunity to mod it and make it more individual. Back then I was fascinated what modders could do with the Game but unfortunately I lost interest in Sims 3 because of lags and the long loading screens.

When Sims 4 came out I immediately loved the new Style. But of course in the beginning not much was to do since it was only Base Game. So I lost interest again for a while until I got back into the Game in the end of 2016.

I was on a Mod Hunt again but there was one thing I simply could not find. The Game was too easy for me so i was searching for a certain Mod to make it a little bit harder. But the only Mods I could find did the opposite: Mods that were making Painting & Writing faster. This was the reason i started to dig into modding myself and the beginning of a Modding Journey that quickly „escalated“.

I learned the Basics of Modding via Scarlet’s Tutorials on Sims 4 VIP. Which Tools do i need, how do i update my Mods and so on. From then on it was and still is a lot of trying by doing, failing and succeeding, laughing and crying.

My first Mod was…

now you can guess…

A slower Painting & Writing Mod. Tadaa!

I was so proud of myself back then and it is still one of my personal favorites that i use in my Game.

After that another Mod followed and another after and more and even more and now i am at a number of 164 Mods, 60 more Mods in a Random Small Mod Collection and a few Bug Fixes.

The main time I spent into modding now is to actually keep all those mods updated and to tweak them here and there. Especially after new Expansions Pack Patches it takes me sometimes up to 10 hours to check & update all of those Mods. Unfortunately for me I still use 95% of them myself so there is no way i would abandon them as long as i play this Game. And by playing I mean I load up the Game, play ten minutes, close the Game and tweak some Mods or make new ones to tweak the Game.

My Mods are various Mods from small tweaking Mods to bigger new Gameplay Mods.

Some of my favorite smaller Mods are the Slower Painting & Writing Mods like mentioned above. The Choose who you Call to Meal Mod which lets you choose who you want to call to Meal and if you want to eat too or not. The Auto Employees | Custom Lot Trait Mod which let’s Barista, Bartender and more auto spawn on Community Lots. The Automatic Thermostat & the Automatic Stereo System Mods which let’s you “upgrade” your Thermostat/Stereos to be automatic. The Cookbooks Cultural, Experimental, Seafood & Jungle Mod which adds new buy-able Cookbooks into your Game. The Sell via Simbay Mod which is a new unique Selling Service where you can submit all your crafted Items and Artifacts. The … annddd I should stop here or else this List will be endless. I use almost all of my Mods myself so yeah they are all kind of my favorites.

Those „smaller Mods“ are usually done in a few hours. Testing them though takes more time then doing them.

There are also some bigger Mods that add new Gameplay and/or took much more time do them and to test them. Those usually take a few days to do and even more days to test.

My first really big Mod was the More Buyable Venues and new Venue Types Mod which let’s you buy more Venues and adds new Venue Types to the Game. It was the first Mod where i had to dig deeper into the Game to figure out how I could buy Bars, Clubs and Co. just like I could with the Retail Lot. But in the end I got it to work and my first big new Gameplay Mod was finished.

My personal favorite bigger/new Gameplay Mods are:

The More Servings Options & Better Meal Time Menus Mod which adds new Servings Options via the cooking and gourmet cooking Menus of stoves & fridges (2, 3, 5, 6 & 7 Sizes). It does not sound big but it took me a hell lot of time to make all those recipes ;)

The Social Activities (Visit Friends, Family and more) Mod which adds Social Activities for your Sims to go to. You can go visit Friends, Family & more or go on Vacation & Honeymoon. Or you can visit a Music Concert or a Cooking Competition and have a chance to win a prize. You can also send your Toddlers to the Daycare or your Pets to the Pet sitter or Dog Trainer.

The Ultrasound Scan Mod which let’s you visit a Gynecologist to do a Ultrasound Examination. This Mod was only possible thanks to Turbodriver who helped me with the script part of this Mod. I really love this one i have to say!

The Live in Business Mod which let’s you run Businesses at Home like a Bar, a Club, a Daycare, a Vet Clinic, a Shop and many more.

And last but not least (before I get carried away again…) the Foster Family Mod where you can become a part of the LMS Foster Family Network and take care of Toddler, Children, Teens or Pets who are in need of a Foster Family. This Mod was only possible with the help of NisaK who helped me with the script part of this Mod. I use this one all the time to foster a bunch of Pets and find them a new Home in the Sims 4 Worlds.

There are also some Mods I personally don’t even use but I was up for a challenge to do them anyway. The biggest one is the “SimDa” Dating App Mod which can help you find your true love, have adventurous Blind Dates or hot One Night Stands.

Now enough of me, my Mods and my shameless self advertising.

I want to say that even if it can be pretty exhausting to support those Mods, I am really grateful I found my way into Modding and that I could meet some amazing people out there. Turbodriver, Basemental, Deaderpool, NisaK, RoBurky, Icemunmun, Scarlet and many more who are all amazing modders and personalities. Scumbumbo who was an inspiring, helpful, kind and amazing person who will be greatly missed. The MCC Discord Team who help the community each day as much as they can with Game Issues. EA & everyone involved for making a great Game that I really enjoy playing.

And of course everyone who uses and enjoys my Mods which is a huge motivation to keep going.

Everyone who did not know about me or my Mods feel free to come over and check my tumblr out.

Thank you all!

#s4cc #s4mm #ts4cc #ts4mm #maxis match #thesims4 #s4 spotlight #littlemssam

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moistwithgender · 5 years ago

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Monthly Media Roundup (May 2019)

The march of time inexorably proceeds beyond my grasp and so I must write another post. I’ve been a bit burned out, just focusing on one diversion (it was Zelda, you know it was Zelda), but after finishing it I recovered enough energy to get a few more things done in the last half of the month. I didn’t watch any anime or read any manga in May, though I did read some 70s Marvel, which I liveblog in my “curry reads comics” tag. Last time I did an actual capital-P Post about my Marvel reading was a year ago after marathoning a full(ish) decade. If people are interested in more of that I could work at making posts for each year of issues I read, recapping the developments and my thoughts on them (which will become more relevant as Events become more common, I imagine). I’ve just got a few games to talk about this month, but I imagine I have a lot to say about at least one of them.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch): 2 years ago I did something I extremely rarely do: stood in line at a Best Buy at midnight for the release of the Switch so that I could buy it with BotW. BotW was also out on Wii U, which I had, but the promotional material for BotW had struck such a chord in me that it justified making the jump for the new console (this would eventually become troublesome when the first model of joycons failed, but, well). I got home, put some ten odd hours into it, and then put it down for two years. I’ve always had a problem where, struck with the intuition that I will end up forming a deep relationship with a work, I will put it off for years. I put off Persona 3 for five years after buying it at launch, and it eventually became the most personal game experience I would have, even seven years onward. I think the two factors that pushed me to finally play through BotW was wanting to watch a friend stream it (but also not wanting it spoiled for me), and needing a distraction for when I was taking care of my cat.

It’s been about two months now since he passed away, and I finally finished the game at 215+ hours about half a month ago. So, I was playing this game as a coping method while preparing for loss, and in dealing with loss. It’s appropriate that the game is effectively both a fantasy about reclaiming at least part of what you have lost, and a colossal exercise in coping. The game is as much about getting distracted from your responsibilities and fucking off to snowboard in the mountains as it is about being aware of the world around you. The Zelda games have frequently used themes of Shintoism to portray harmony in nature and in civilization. I’m currently replaying Ocarina of Time and the cosmogony myth (is it a myth if a talking tree explains it to you?) specifically words the goddesses as “[giving] the spirit of law to the world” and “[producing] all life forms who would uphold the law.” When I was younger (see: early 20s) I didn’t scrutinize the text much but now I figure it’s reasonable to read “law” as “natural order”. It should be noted that for an N64 game, OoT has remarkably good prose. BotW, in transitioning the series in what may be its third main genre (as opposed to the genres of Zelda 1 and OoT), has taken that Shintoist aesthetic and incorporated it into the entire philosophy of the game’s design. More than just being a game whose narrative concerns an imbalanced world, BotW embraces the trends of open worlds and immersive sims to create an immense, varied space where the coded laws of physics are always impacting the experience. Thunderstorms make metal equipment a liability, while rain covers the sounds of footsteps. Wind can sweep away items, fire and high temperatures affect flammable objects (including yourself), and aforementioned metallic items can conduct electricity, which can be used to solve puzzles in unintended ways. Weather changes regularly based on the region and changes the world in tandem. Rain doesn’t just fall, it actively collects, and ponds become bigger, and surfaces become slicker. Each systemic element (pun not intended) that was incorporated affected everything else in the world, and in interviews there were mentions that changing the volume of wind in one area had a butterfly effect on another, causing pots to fly off of patios in a village. It’s no wonder the game took five years to make, considering how rarely glitches occur in the game (and most that I know of have to be deliberately recreated for exploitation). You’re engaging with enemies as much as you are with the environment, and at times even with your own body, creating and consuming food and drink for the purpose of staving off sunstroke or frostbite. As a result, BotW’s Hyrule is immensely palpable, and easy to lose oneself in from how livable it feels.

When I first started playing at release, I was a bit disappointed to discover that villages existed in-game, as early promotional material and the state of the Great Plateau you start on painted a picture of a lonely world. In the end, the soundtrack and vast amount of uncolonized land does give an understated sense of melancholy that defines the game, though the fact that every five steps you’ll find a Korok micropuzzle waiting to YA HA HA and fanfare at you betrays that a bit (I still love those Koroks and their puzzles, don’t @ me). The NPCs in this are numerous, though, from the occupants of the villages to wandering traders, and their personalities are all distinct and charming, and probably the best I’ve ever seen in a game, or at least in a long time. If this game wasn’t railroading the Link/Zelda relationship so hard, I would have liked a Dragon’s Dogma-style “date any NPC (within reason)” mechanic. I’m just going to have to start a “NPCs you should marry” side-tumblr.

Another defining aspect of the gameplay, and easily what makes the game surpass arguably every other Zelda, is how Nintendo heard the decade or so of complaints about the linear Zelda lock-and-key formula being reiterated to the point of stagnation, and, after great success with A Link Between Worlds’ item rental subversion, just decided to make everything optional. You do the tutorial on the Great Plateau, and, if you feel especially gutsy, you can beeline it straight to Ganon. He’s in horse-riding distance, or running distance, if you’re tenacious. Will you make it to him, survive the hordes of enemies, and take him down? If it’s your first time playing the game and you haven’t learned the systems, probably not. Is it possible? Absolutely. Much like how the monthly cycle of a Persona game is a proverbial Rocky training montage of preparing for The Big Fight, everything you do in BotW is in preparation. A lot of open world games can feel dissonant in that you’re incentivized to be distracted as a player and make your own fun, meanwhile the protagonist keeps saying “I’m gonna get bloody revenge on the mafia boss!” during bowling matches. There is still, unavoidably, a sense of urgency played up for narrative sake in BotW, since Impa insists Zelda is waiting and can’t hold Ganon back forever, but it’s all much more narratively justifiable, if you want that. You know, because Zelda is for hardcore roleplaying.

I couldn’t resist a second playthrough, even after logging 215+ hours, so I went ahead and started a separate file on Master Mode, Nintendo’s weird in-house, in-franchise rebranding of, uh, a hard mode. Previously it was called Hero Mode. Why do you--well, okay, I know why they do it. They’re likely trying to distinguish it from a “we just tweaked the numbers” hard mode, and also want to make it feel less threatening than something labeled hard mode. If they’re going to go to the trouble to make it a distinct form of play, they want to try and appeal to everyone. And it is fairly distinct. All enemies are bumped up one rank, so a red bokoblin is blue, and a blue bokoblin is black, and so on. There is a new strongest rank of enemy, though in my run I did not seek them out. There are enemies (and treasure chests!) perched on flying rafts, which can be one-shot with proper bow aiming, but also carry dangerous elemental arrows, and can alert all other enemies in the area. Stealth is much more difficult, and pointless early in. All enemies regenerate up to a third of their health, including bosses! Though, that can be temporarily interrupted by inflicting any amount of damage on them, so it behooves you to be on the offense. Less autosave slots! This wasn’t a problem for me. Guardians randomly delay the firing of their beams! This was absolutely a problem for me and I avoided them entirely in my run. In the beginning when tools and resources are scare, particularly on the Great Plateau, Master Mode is at its hardest, and its most thrilling. Rather than aimlessly exploring, I was pressured to decide where I knew things were, and beeline it to them. Sometime in-between two of the four main optional dungeons, I had amassed enough valuable resources that the game had settled back into the same kind of difficulty as normal mode. Bosses were a little harder due to regen and my resources being somewhat scarcer, but they were manageable. Competently performing flurry attacks (upon successfully dodging attacks at the last second) was extremely valuable to me, but I imagine with enough food in my inventory, I could have brute forced my way through a lot of the fights (though, uh, obviously thou wouldst like to live deliciously (please hate me for this phrasing)). I chose to forego the Master Sword for the sake of challenge, and beat Master Mode with only seven hearts, in around 25 hours. You should play Master Mode, it’s fun.

Here’s a little gameplay SPOILER:

Something I haven’t done, but would like to eventually do, is avoid the main dungeons and just head straight to Ganon. When I played Master Mode, I wasn’t totally confident, and did the dungeons for the resources. After watching some speedruns I learned that if you skip the dungeons, and therefore the main bosses, you have to fight them all at once immediately before the fight with Ganon, without breaks.

That. Sounds. Great.

Wandersong (PC/Steam): Have you heard about Homestuck?

Okay, wait. Wait. Come back, wait. Stop leaving. PLEASE.

Okay, I got the most inflammatory sentence out of the way. Now that we’re eased into that: Wandersong is unignorably influenced by Homestuck. Homestuck conjured a lot of baggage, from having a really difficult, pretentious, arrogant author (I should know, I gave him the benefit of the doubt for way too long), to having some unfortunate narrative turns, to being a billion words long. Wandersong invokes the vaster-than-God scope, the minute and personal perspective of the heroes, and its inclinations toward emotional intelligence (it still surprises me Homestuck had these moments given the author’s deeply unsympathetic sense of humor), and… condenses it! It also makes it a light puzzle-platformer and is about performing music (note: not rhythm, you don’t have to have ANY rhythm), and looks like a Paper Mario game. It is very charming, very funny, very optimistic, and most surprisingly, uncompromising at times. Wandersong says that you, despite your role, are capable of great things, especially self growth and change, as long as you commit to it. If, faced with the consequences of your bad decisions, you choose to double down and keep at it, you will reap what you sow. This is distinctly different from Undertale’s brand of pacifism route optimism, where “no one has to die!” This brand of optimism is a measured but enthusiastic “you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved, but you can save the rest” and I think that’s a uniquely valuable message.

I was a little confused about the resolution of the communist uprising chapter, but I recall the game bringing my cynicism into question, and the most important thing a work can do is make you question yourself.

(Also, if any of my mutuals are low on funds but interested, I do have a drm-free version I can share.)

Minit (PC/Steam): I don’t think I actually have a lot to say about Minit! It’s very fun and curious and short. You play a little… duck… thing, and you pick up a cursed sword which kills you in one minute. Then you wake up the next day, and die in a minute. Then you wake up the next day. Having only sixty seconds of vitality, you have to optimize your exploration. There’s a slow-speaking old man who you will die listening to, but the hint he gives at the end of his sentence will lead you to something valuable. There’s a guy in a bar angry about the lack of music. If you change the music, he will probably dislike it. If you keep changing the music, you might live to see him like it. There’s a boat ride to a tropical island you have to grit your teeth and wait through. Not all of the events are slow, some are quick bouts of hurried exploration. Most of it is, given the time limit. I’d say more, but given the overall length (it took me about an hour to finish), I’d risk spoiling a sizable fraction of the experience. It’s about $10, though I got mine in a Humble Bundle Monthly subscription. The spec requirements are very low, so your laptop can likely run it.

A Hat in Time (PC/Steam): Heads up, I’m gonna get into a lot of spoilers for this game, including endgame spoilers, but also heads up, the story isn’t really the point in this game. This is a game about tone and platforming. That said, I’m gonna be talking exclusively about the weird ideas in this game, and if you want those weird ideas to be a surprise, then just skip ahead until I put up big letters.

I’m somewhat hesitant to be critical of A Hat in Time because despite a number of weird Things about it, I recognize that it’s quite popular with a lot of people, and that always makes me pause and want to figure out what it is that makes it pass the bar for others. My guess at this point is that it invokes nostalgia through its unmitigated imitation of games that came before. The games it chooses to ape are all your childhood’s Greatest Hits, Wind Waker (which it most resembled in its earliest development), Super Mario Sunshine/Galaxy (which it most resembles now), Banjo-Kazooie, Psychonauts, etc. It never really surpasses those games, for me, and at times cribs from them to the degree that it obscures the game’s own identity. After all, what you enjoy may help define you, but you wouldn’t say it’s your personality. Well. Unless you kin the Gamecube. I guess. There are bonus levels to the game’s different “worlds” (I thought they were different planets, since your hub area is a spaceship, and you access them via different telescopes, but it turns out it’s just one planet?), and you can collect photographs, which sequentially tell a story about the residents of that “world”. Psychonauts did this because each level took place in the mind of a character, and the photos together told a story about the character that fundamentally changed the way you thought about them, and made the whole game feel richer as a result. I collected the photos for all but the DLC levels in AHiT (those are Really Hard), and of those five or so worlds, none of those bonus photos told me anything that changed how I thought about the characters. There’s a dock town run by a mafia (s-sorta) led by a chef, but did you know they all used to work at a processing factory before going there? There are two manipulative bird directors who are fighting over the same studio to produce their own film and win an award, but did you know they… wanted to be directors since they were kids? There’s a devil analogue who steals people’s souls if they wander into his forest, but did you know he was a prince, and the princess was mad he talked to another girl (it was a flower girl, he was getting flowers for the princess), and imprisoned him until they both the prince and princess turned into evil ghosts? That’s the only one that comes close to being an “oh” moment, but I don’t think it does for the reasons the writer was hoping for. In general, these are prologues without substance.

Speaking of substance, the game has a bit of an issue with theming. At least, it does at first. The first town is the previously mentioned dock town, run by a mafia. By “mafia”, I mean a bunch of meatheads who talk about how they like punching people, and refer to themselves individually, in the third person, as Mafia. Mafia loves to punch the poor and the birds. Mafia is a one-dimensional character copy-pasted across 20% of the game. Mafia laughs. They’re run by a chef, but also they can’t cook, so there’s a cat chef in hiding who routinely swaps out their food with his so no one has to eat bad food. I don’t know why, when the town has maybe three non-Mafia character. He does eventually leave and board your ship, so maybe he’s just looking for something to do. The leader of the mafia also boards your ship, for a joke and to sell you an upgrade. The mafia are also afraid of mud monsters, or aliens, or something. There’s a girl with a moustache named Moustache Girl who wants to use your Time Macguffins to overthrow organized crime, and Hat Girl decides that’s a no-go. There are giant faucets around the town that replace all the water with lava. You might be noticing these things have little to no connection. You might be suspecting this level was made first when the dev was inexperienced. I might be suspecting this. It’s fine.

Later worlds do a much better job of theming. There’s the movie studio split between two birds. One of them a penguin, who prefers science fiction, the other a…

...hmmm. I suspect this guy, The Conductor, is an OC the director has had for a while, maybe since childhood, that they just decided Is A Bird, and carried it into the game, since the game occasionally is like... bird?? Alternatively, it’s some sort of corruption of Woodstock from Peanuts. Possibly both. Anyway, this guy just wants to make movies that take place on wild western trains. He has a strong fake Scottish accent, and the penguin, named DJ Grooves, is some sort of disco Elvis. They’ve both hired owls as actors, and some crows have snuck onto the train set (the crows are so obviously the G-Men from Psychonauts’ Milkman level it bothers me a bit). This is already a little busy, but it’s okay! Birds, movies, two distinct genres, and you trapped in-between them, just trying to collect your macguffins. It works. You take part in both of their movies, and your performance in both determines the winner, when suddenly… CORRUPTION WAS AFOOT, and you have to explore the depths of the studio and engage in a showdown.

Another world is a spooky forest where your access is restricted by completing certain contracts for the devilish character. Sometimes it’s murder (reasonable), exploring a haunted mansion in survival horror format (ooh!), fixing the plumbing in a well (wait, what), and doing mail delivery (back up back up). Half of that works. The finale of the forest makes up for it, though. This game insists on most of its bosses having like 4-5 phases and breaks for dialogue and the gall required to get away with that honestly earned my respect. They’re pretty fun times.

The best level to play is, unsurprisingly, the first DLC. I say unsurprising because it’s clear the dev is learning as they go, and the level design improves as they go along. Aside from bonus levels, the first DLC takes place on a massive cruise liner titled the SS Literally Can’t Sink. Ha ha. It’s split into three parts. The first part has you exploring the many interconnected rooms of the ship to find broken shards of a macguffin, the second part has you taking that mental map and using it to frantically complete multiple timed fetch quests at once, and the third part, now that you understand the ship pretty intimately, capsizes the ship, requiring you to traverse frigid waters and overturned scenery to retrieve babies and the ship’s incompetent but adorable baby seal crew (the seals speak in hewwo talk, the game is unforgivably loaded with memes but let me have this). This progression is my favorite in the game, and while I haven’t bought the Nyakuza Metro DLC, I’m looking forward to it.

The ending level had me a bit bewildered at first because in the beginning when Hat Kid refuses to use time powers to stop organized crime, I saw it as a hamfisted way to create tension between Hat Kid and Moustache Girl. Apparently it was working up towards the moral of the story. In the final level, Moustache Girl has stolen all the macguffins, and possessing ultimate power, becomes corrupted ultimately, and summons everyone in the world to her Bowser castle to be judged and die. On first glance, I thought “well, sure, that’s sensible,” but when Hat Kid finds the support of all the villains in the game, I was a little confused. The villains sacrifice themselves to give you infinite health, explicitly stating that they’ll just come back through time magic if you win so who cares (cool stakes), and you overcome authoritarianism with the support of corrupt hollywood, organized crime, and the literal devil. This would be fine if at some point Hat Kid, you know, took them on a Zuko Quest to face turn all of them, but that doesn’t happen. They just all decide “hey yeah, fuck this girl! Also we don’t have time for the nuance this might require!” After all is said and done and you collect all your macguffins, you’re given the choice of leaving the defeated Moustache Girl a single macguffin so she can defeat the mafia (whose side are we on) or just saying nahhh. Neither appears to make a difference, but maybe in a year or two we’ll get a DLC that makes you regret your words and deeds. You try to fly your ship to your home planet, and the villains all grab on to your ship, which is in space, begging you not to leave. I seriously suspect they intended to incorporate face-turn scenes and just couldn’t find the time, because nothing but physical proximity implies these guys would have any emotional attachment to Hat Kid, and that’s a bit of a stretch. Anyway, Hat Kid brooms them off the ship to plummet down to earth and flies away. Sheds a tear about the whole thing. In the end, the moral was that Order good, but too much Order bad, except if you are Hat Kid, in which case Chaos good. Or maybe…

After finishing the game I decided to look into any left over secrets, since my completion score was in the 80s of percents. Turns out that if you use the camera badge to finagle the free look feature into a marginally open armoire somewhere on your spaceship, you can find a shrine to Hat Kid with a couple skulls, a bunch of blurry photos, and some strange symbols. If you doing this while wearing the mask that lets you see the secrets of the dead (for platforming and puzzle purposes, of course), there’s a bunch of alien text you can decode. And then there’s some youtube channels. And a twitter account. All sharing more of those decodable ciphers, all talking about vague dreamy apocalyptic histories and dark betrayals. Or something. That’s right, this game’s got a fucking ARG. I cut things off there. If the developer Gears for Breakfast is gonna make an occultist grimdark sequel to A Hat in Time, they can put up a trailer for it.

OKAY I’M DONE TALKING ABOUT A HAT IN TIME, the short of it is that I had a lot of mixed feelings but had fun.

How did I end up talking more about A Hat in Time than Breath of the Wild? What are my priorities?

Well, that’s everything I finished in May! Will I get back to anime and manga in June? Guess we’ll see! Again, let me know if you want me to do year-recap Marvel posts, since my liveblogging is mostly just shitposts, and the occasional attempt at thoughtfulness among those posts feels kind of out of place. Honestly, I’m probably gonna do that anyway, but it’s nice to see interest. If you read all this, thanks a lot! Go play Breath of the Wild and Wandersong.

#curry plays games

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less-than-hash · 6 years ago

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Holes in the Firmament

Every dev I know has at least one dream game - stuff that they'd love to be able to make some day. The more ambitious these get - the more complex or long - the less likely they are to get made. And in a collaborative medium like games, the more people (and the more money!) involved in a project, the less control any given individual has over it.

This isn't intrinsically bad. (It can also be wildly valuable to a project and rewarding personally.)

But we devs still dream of those games we'd make if we had, say, the resources of a two hundred person studio, the backing of a major publisher, and absolute freedom.

Three of mine are behind the cut.

As a note, none of these reflect upcoming Obsidian projects. Nor are they projects Obsidian would likely ever make. They don't fit the studio's brand. Which is why I'm dreaming about them here, and not pitching them internally.

So, first up!

A Squad-Based 1st-Person Firefighting Game with a Robust Relationship System and a Branching Narrative

I don't understand why there aren't more games about firefighting - though if I had to guess it's largely because making fire look good in-game is extraordinarily difficult. As is making an environment decay over time (though I suspect there are probably some pretty good, easy solutions for this using dev sleight-of-hand).

There are actually a Iot of interactive sim games about firefighting for training purposes. Much like war and flight, firefighting is something best trained without risking real life and limb.

Firefighting appeals to me as a gameplay space because it's actively protective - it's about limiting destruction and saving lives. But it can very easily be modeled with similar gameplay loops to shooters - ultimately both are about emptying rooms of danger - here it's just with water instead of bullets.

I could be water!

In short, firefighters engage in almost unequivocal good. They're heroic. They’re human. They’re flawed. And they brave dangers every day. But our industry basically ignores them.

Firefighting would give us the opportunity to set games in the modern world with people who, during their off hours, experience much more relatable struggles than your average freedom fighter, super spy, or elite soldier - relationship difficulties, debt, children, and the like.

So what would this game actually look and play like? It would likely be mission-based (calls come in of their own accord, after all), make use of movement and environmental hazards (not unlike a cover-based shooter), and have simple companion-direction mechanics similar to the Mass Effect trilogy or Spec Ops: The Line.

(Alternatively, the action could be dialed down a bit to focus on positioning a la Valkyria Chronicles.)

The gameplay would be focused on keeping your squad alive while saving as many people as possible.

Between missions you hang out at the station, or the bar, or at home - or try to balance all three, a la Catherine. You build relationships, helping your squad perform better together. You never recruit anyone, but your companions, your fellow firefighters, can die in missions, altering the narrative in both tone and content.

tl;dr: Mass Effect 2 meets Rescue Me with some dashes of Catherine

Next!

Narrative-Focused Urban Fantasy RPG/Immersive Sim

How does this not exist yet? Where's our Dresden Files or Hellblazer inspired RPGs? Or even The Magicians or Harry Potter, for that matter?

Where my Chilling Adventures of Sabrina RPG?

There's Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, which, while fantastic, is 13 years old.

While I'm looking forward to Necrobarista, that seems like a pretty tight, focused experience.

We've plenty of games with magicians in fantasy realms or in space - AKA BioWare's entire oeuvre - but few in the AAA space set in the modern world.

Unless you count superhero magicians.

Wait. Did Dr. Strange even get a game? Google suggests no. What’s going on here, videogame industry? Why won’t you suffer a witch to live?!

Honestly, I get to an extent why this is. There's a reason there've been Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse games, but no Mage games, either for Ascension or Awakening. Magic is broad, and often (especially in games) wildly destructive, which can be at odds with a modern setting (or rather what makes a modern setting interesting).

Art by Jason Chan, from Reign of the Exarchs by White Wolf.

But it doesn't have to be.

The flexibility of magic actually allows for a lot of different gameplay styles. You can do straight up first-person action like The Darkness or stealth survival like Last of Us. If I were to adapt Phonogram, a comic I love deeply, you can bet your ass there'd be beatmatch spellcasting.

A lot of gameplay mechanics we take for granted are actually damned-near magical.

Maps that point you where to go and tell you where your enemies are?

Dropping from a second story window without difficulty?

Regenerating health?

Items that make you smarter, stronger, or more likable?

Bullet time?

Rewinding to an earlier point in time to avoid death or a bad decision?

So that's another question a developer has to answer: if magic comes in so many shades, what color is yours? What are you hoping to accomplish?

For me, the presence of magic in the modern world demands a layer of secrecy that implies other layers of secrets. A modern world in which magic functions immediately deepens. What else lurks out there? Where are the other magicians? How are they using their abilities?

Additionally, magic is surreal. Bend and twist reality, and you're forced to look at it from new angles. If you can tweak people's emotional responses to you, how do you know the relationships around you are real?

And that's before you realize your dreams literally might come true - especially the nightmares. Is the face in the mirror a reflection, or something sinister and jealous? Is the ghost haunting you your literal past reaching out to reclaim you?

My dream modern magician game is an open-world immersive sim in an urban setting. Drop Prey, Dishonored, or BioShock style gameplay into a sprawling city filled with physics objects ripe for transmutation and NPCs waiting to be enchanted. Add an otherworld accessed by stepping through mirrors (the entire map within is reversed).

It's about what power can accomplish, what justifies its use, and what its limits are.

Populate the world with a few powerful magician NPCs with their own agendas; dozens of NPCs to chat up, learn more about, seduce, and manipulate; and a threat that could consume reality's very soul if someone doesn't step up to deal with it. Shake. Serve.

tl;dr: Dishonored meets Vampyr by way of Hellblazer and Hellboy

And finally!

Friendship Simulator 2019

My favorite parts of the Persona games and Catherine are the things outside of the core gameplay loops. The bits where you're hanging out with your friends, chatting with them, finding out more about them, and guiding and supporting them (or tearing them down).

Or hiding in the toilet to text your significant other.

One of the things I love about Persona 5: Dancing Star Night in Starlight is that the narrative is almost solely in this mode. It's entirely about learning more about your fellow Phantom Thieves.

Lest you think I uncritically and unabashedly love it, P5D has some major narrative problems - it entirely fails to pay off its initial premise, for example, and there's no persistence to the player choices or (player-driven) reactivity within the narrative.

Nor does the way the player "progresses" the narrative make a tremendous amount of sense within the fiction of the world.

Sorry I got distracted.

Point is, from a narrative perspective it's a game about getting to know people better - literally exploring their lives - and then supporting (or undermining, if you're terrible) them.

Similarly, nothing the player says in Persona (or, for the most part, Catherine) has any impact on the game. The player might progress a Social Link more slowly by being an ass to the protagonists' friends, but they'll still increase that Link over time, provided they put time into it.

And I don't want to be dismissive here. Time management is one of the major ways in which the player engages with the Persona games. Outside of combat and maybe monster-training, it's probably the most important mechanic at play. Taking longer to max out a Social Link means you're missing other content and missing opportunities to increase your stats. Or maybe the Social Link doesn't get completed at all. (Sorry, Haru.) Or maybe you’re not powerful enough to overcome the next Shadow in time and your game ends. Those are non-trivial consequences.

But the story of the Social Link, or the story of the game, will never change based on (the vast majority of) the player's interactions with their buddies.

Despite that, the games give the player a lot of freedom as to when (or whether!) they approach those relationships.

On the other end of the spectrum, Life is Strange (and Before the Storm) does a fantastic job of letting the player get to know the characters around Max (and Chloe) and responding logically to the player's choices.

The kid who has a crush on Max (Warren, I think?) remembers what the player promises him and then responds to whether or not the player follows through on it.

If Chloe plays A Game That Absolutely Involves Neither Dungeons Nor Dragons with her friends, they'll refer to it excitedly later and ask her to join in another round.

The TellTale games are also pretty good at this, especially Wolf Among Us, but that'll take me a bit far afield.

What Life is Strange does not provide the player is any control at all over the flow of the narrative. When the player completes a narrative beat within a scene, they're rushed along to the next scene, which is never one of their choosing. There's plenty of flexibility within the relationships (and within many of the smaller subplots), but little within the game's larger structure.

Ultimately, Persona provides little variability, while Life is Strange provides little narrative control.

I want to make a game that grabs the strong aspects of both of these while jettisoning their weaknesses.

(Far, far easier written than done!)

Basically, I want to make a game focused on the exploration of relationships. Where the personalities are the mysteries to unravel, and the interpersonal relationships between characters the dungeons to be navigated. Where the inner demons are the beasts in need of slaying - not through mystically entering the subconscious and doing battle with the Shadow, but through conversation.

I want a game about building a community, a family, and helping it come to support itself.

I think that one essential change that would make this significantly more doable is discarding the larger threats to the characters, especially those supernatural in nature. The relationships among the cast of Persona 4 are propping for the story of the Midnight Channel Murders. Arcadia Bay's pending apocalypse distracts from the relationships that seem to be the actual core story of Life is Strange.

(I find Before the Storm a stronger narrative than the original Life is Strange in large part because it's not being torn in multiple directions.)

Which isn't to say that there can't be threats, obstacles, and dangers. The world presents all manner of difficulties. Most of them requiring far more challenging and interesting solutions than "stick a sword in it."

That's a lot of abstraction, so what would this game actually look and play like?

Well, as I mentioned above, I think the Persona games, esp. Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 already do a fantastic job of providing the player the framework for exploring a space and approaching relationships at their own pace.

Add into this characters that the player can engage with in order to learn more about them (not unlike Vampyr), help with their problems, and build (or break!) relationships with them or others, and you have something of an open-world interpersonal relationship game.

The narrative of these relationships would change based on the player's actions (both in regard to how they interact with the character and how they deal with (or fail to deal with) the character's problems). So would the player's reputation, which impacts their interactions with other characters.

(The reputation system is actually one of my favorite ideas in Pillars, but I think we sometimes fail to use it to its full potential. I certainly know I do.)

Side note: in this dream game, the relationships I'm describing are not expressed in a systemic way. They're not ranked like Social Links, and they don't have reputation bars like in Dragon Age or Tyranny. It's much more akin to Life is Strange here, with each character containing their own narrative(s) to be navigated.

Over time, you bring some of these characters closer to your protagonist, recruiting a tight-knit circle that helps you face the game's primary conflict. These relationships bounce off of one another. You can never make everyone happy, after all, and some people will never get along. Late game play requires that the player balance these relationships and help forge friendships or avoid catastrophic fallings out.

Yeah, but what is that primary conflict?

Potentially anything the world could throw at a person. A lot of television shows have provided us a framework we can borrow from. Veronica Mars comes immediately to mind. (Or one of my favorite films, Brick.) Then there's Lost, which is overtly about building communities and relationships in order to survive. The Wire is another possibility. (Imagine playing as a Stringer Bell type trying to build a crew while maintaining relationships with rival crews.)

My point being that we already know what these kinds of stories look like. We just have to be brave enough to make a game that's focused around understanding other people rather than shooting them.

tl;dr: Life is Strange meets Persona, minus the strange and the personas

And that’s three glimpses into my brain. Into my dreams.

You may have noticed a few through lines. I'm pretty clearly interested in making games:

Set in the modern day

That tackle modern, realistic (and I use that term extremely loosely) concerns

That are largely non-violent

With non-linear narratives

That involve exploring the lives and feelings of non-player characters

And give those interpersonal relationships systemic narrative bite

Obviously, the projects I've been involved in recently don't check off every one of those boxes on my wishlist. That's generally how it is, if you're making games with other people.

But if you're very, very lucky, you get the opportunity to work on projects that scratch at least one or two of those itches.

I've been very, very lucky.

Cheers, <3 <3 <#

#gamedev #game design #narrative #relationships #persona #catherine #mass effect #life is strange #prey #dishonored #vampyr #necrobarista

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lumionblog-blog · 6 years ago

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From a Spinal Injury to an Independent Design Professional with Lumion

Despite tetraplegia, and use of only one arm, Lumion user Manakit Thawlom is making strides in the professional design world with his renders of modern Thai structures.

While the architecture profession has progressed to be more inclusive and diverse, there are still many barriers to standard CAD software that limit professional opportunities for some people with disabilities.

With the rise of new computer technologies and intuitive 3D architecture software like Lumion, designer Manakit Thawlom is breaking through and helping change that narrative.

One of Manakit’s favorite projects was the stylish DeChiang in Chiang Mai. Rendered in Lumion 8.

Born in Thailand to a family of four, Manakit (also known online as Eakira) was in a car accident in 1996 and suffered a C4 spinal cord injury where he lost the ability to move three of his four limbs. With the love and support of his family and friends, as well as years of physical therapy, Manakit is now producing rendered images and videos with SketchUp and Lumion, showcasing the beauty of modern Thai design while getting a little creative with his personal projects.

“Lumion is really great for disabled users,” said Manakit. “For instance, people with tetraplegia cannot use the mouse like a normal user, and we can’t press multiple buttons simultaneously. [Lumion’s] user interface is easy to use, especially when using a pen mouse and head mouse (I often use the head mouse).”

In this blog post, we sit down with Manakit to discuss his story and how he’s overcoming the obstacles presented by his injury while creating spectacular renders in Lumion.

Overcoming injury through architecture and design

When a car accident in 1996 severely injured his C4 spine and spinal cord, Manakit found himself paralyzed and unable to use both his legs and an arm. Bedridden and faced with a new, very different life, his family gave him the love and support he needed and he was motivated to learn new skills and adapt to the challenges he faced.

Manakit, middle, with his mother and little sister.

Over this period, his passion for learning new things never waned. With a donated computer and a Windows 3.1 operating system, he dived into various software such as MS Word, Adobe Photoshop 5.0, Vegas Pro 9 and Joomla. As he continued building up his skills, Manakit started to work by editing pre-wedding photos.

Later, he would get involved in magazine work as well as architectural 3D compositing and rendering.

“My world was opened again,” he said. “With the income, my little sister and I have built a home for our parents. The house is specially designed for the physically disabled, and I designed it myself.”

You can watch his full story here:

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“I’m proud and happy to be able to support my family and help people around me. ‘We can be disabled but there’s always great things in return.’”

Navigating the 3D architectural design profession

For some of his early 3D architecture projects, Manakit mentioned using “The Sims” to help him flush out design ideas. This program, he said, was refreshingly user-friendly for a person with his injury.

It was around three years ago, however, that Manakit was asked to create a 3D landscape with pictures and video. At this time, he was using SketchUp to realize the project. A year later, Manakit was rendering images using Lumion 5.

“My first impression was ‘Wow!’ It was so easy to use, easy to insert a model and easy to edit. Nevertheless, the lighting and color in Lumion 5 weren’t impressing clients. Fast forward to Lumion 8, I was hired by Lanna Asset and they were impressed by Lumion 8’s performance so they bought a license and a PC for me to work on. That was how I really got to start using Lumion. It’s way more convenient and faster than any other program for both image and video rendering. I can render an image and then a video without reconfiguring many parameters.”

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One of Manakit’s favorite projects was the ‘DeChiang’ project, a housing project in Chiang Mai that serves as a prime example of modern Thai design.

Front view of the DeChiang Housing Project

The parking lot and landscaping

Birds-eye-view of the housing project

Home interior design

Detail of interior

“My workflow usually goes like this. The team I work with will design the building and create a SketchUp model. Next, I edit the materials and group the colors, and use LiveSync for SketchUp to import the model into Lumion. I position the model, composite the trees and landscape, configure the materials and set up the scene and lighting. The last step is to render images and videos (if requested).”

His most challenging project was Paradise Hills, which was a resort located on a hilly slope and surrounded by forests. “The difficulty here was recreating the forest and the landscape to resemble the actual location.”

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Paradise Hills

Manakit’s favorite features in Lumion are ‘LiveSync for SketchUp’ and the ‘Soften Hard Edges,’ while his favorite effects are ‘Sky Light’, ‘Reflections’ and ‘Styles’.

Thai Loft. Project by Tm_Design.

How Lumion Can Empower Designers With Disabilities

Most rendering software is notorious for being out of reach for architects, leaving them with little choice but to outsource or hire a visualization specialist. Lumion, on the other hand, underscores fast rendering with intelligent controls so that every architect can pick it up and start creating beautiful results immediately.

According to Manakit, “I usually talk about Lumion with my disabled friends and my friends that work in the field, and I mention that Lumion is user-friendly, easy to configure and straightforward when arranging models and materials — just like playing The Sims. It’s even more fun when playing around with the lighting and the lighting effects by simply dragging the mouse. It takes only a couple of minutes to edit the lights.”

Manakit with his dual-monitor setup

When it comes to being a designer with tetraplegia, Manakit enjoys how Lumion has shortcuts for many commands. “People with tetraplegia cannot use a mouse like a normal user and cannot press multiple buttons simultaneously,” Manakit said. “The interface is really easy if you are using a pen mouse or a head mouse (I’m using the head mouse). It’s great for disabled users.”

Fast Workflows, Beautiful Results

The idea behind Lumion is this — architects and designers of any background can throw in their 3D model, quickly add materials and context, and tweak a few effects before rendering engaging, beautiful images and videos with jaw-dropping speeds.

While these qualities can help architects and designers to render incredible results themselves, Lumion’s design and intuitive controls also make it the ideal 3D rendering tool for people with disabilities. To learn more about Lumion, visit our What’s New page.

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tiredtoothache · 7 years ago

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Six Month Anniversary!

So today is my six month anniversary on Simblr and I almost forgot about it...how typical...

Wow...I can’t believe I’ve dedicated six months of my life to...well anything...let alone this blog! The fact that I’ve been able to keep up with a schedule and create content (almost) every day for six months is crazy and I’m actually quite proud of myself lol, I tend to just get disinterested by things and move on, but because of the incredible people I’ve met on here, and all the support I get daily, I held on, and here we are!

I know I tell this story time and time again but let’s here it for a fifth (?) time shall we? The full story of how I started this blog...

May 22nd, 2017: I had been watching @lilsimsie‘s videos for a good few months now and I kept hearing her mention the fact that she had a Tumblr where she posted unedited screenshots of her Current Household, so I looked it up, and I was really interested by what I saw. I discovered an entire world of online creators, each so talented in their own right, and decided right then and there that I’d create one.

Now, I had had the blog ‘TiredToothAche’ since maybe sometime in 2016, I’m not sure, but I never used it, and I debated creating another blog with a Sims themed name, but in the end I liked TiredToothAche too much to get rid of it. So I went onto the gallery, downloaded Kayla’s sim Dylan Vanderbilt, tweaked her to my then sim style, created a current household using the ‘new’ Dylan Benson and started uploading unedited pictures of her and her dramatic life.

I took awful screenshots and didn’t know how to edit, and for god's sake I didn’t even use my own sim! But I was enjoying myself...until it got boring. I was sick of my version of Dylan and her now boring life and wanted to create another household.

It was around this time I remember following @femmesim. I was completely in awe of her writing skills, as well as her editing and the sims she created, and I adored the fact that she used the sims to convey a realistic story, it was such an interesting concept to me as I hadn’t seen it been done before then.

So low and behold, I again went onto the Gallery and found two sims, a typical teenage girl and a guy called John Styles. (Around this time I was also interested in starting the NSB challenge and I had made my founder. Realising I couldn’t play it until I got City Living, I made her mum and aunt, and I became so interested in their story and relationship I changed them into toddlers and created their parents, the original John and Kennedy). I tweaked these sims and as it was JFK’s birthday the day I ‘created’ them I incorporated him into the sims names, thus they became known as John and Kennedy Fitzpatrick. I decided I would start a story about the two, and I named it “Love to Death”, stupid ik. I got carried away, and instead of the story starting when they were teenagers, it properly began when they were children, and so started these six months of chaos.

Over time I came out of my shell, started chatting with people here and there and I developed a small amount of editing skills. I learned basic code and after many days eventually changed my theme to one I liked. This is when one of my favourite people in this world @littlemissnellie messaged me. Honestly, it’s one of the best things to ever happen to me. She asked me if she could use the theme I used, and we each helped each other with the coding (bc goddamn it's hard) and that was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. I’m so lucky to call her my friend and I’m so grateful for all she’s done for me in the past couple months I’ve known her. Eleanor is so kind and thoughtful and I can always go to her to obsess over musicals and rant about future plotlines etc...Thanks for being such a wonderful person El, ily ♥

Through her I met Elysia (@whiite-tea) and Molly (@surreysimmer), again, two of the most wonderful people I’ve ever had the pleasure to talk to. We’ve all become so close in such a short amount of time, it’s creepy really, and I know we were just meant to meet each other.

Elysia is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, she never fails to make me smile or to brighten my day, and even if we don’t talk as much as we’d like to (stupid timezones) I know I can always count on her. Ily Elysia ♥

Molly is generally just incredible. She’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and she always brightens my day, no matter how shit it has previously been. She gives great advice and I know she’ll always be there when I need to rant or complain. Ily Mols ♥

Amber (@panda-plumbobs) is such a lovely, friendly person. I’m not actually sure how we began talking but I’m so glad we did. She’s always there to lift others spirits and to cheer people up when they're upset, and she always has a witty comment too, which is appreciated lol. She is so funny and just such a kind person. Ily Amber ♥

All my friends are such hard working, diligent, amazing people and I’m so lucky to have them in my life. They’re constantly inspiring me, encouraging me and supporting me and I really appreciate it. You guys are the best, thank you!

I’m going to end this here because it’s a massive post and I bet very few people actually care, but I just want to thank everyone who has followed me, supported me, befriended me, and inspired me over the past six months. I have so many people I want to mention that this post would probably double in size, and so I won’t mention them now, but seriously guys, thank you all so much.

#nonsims #savirohide #six month anniversary #this was a long ass rant wasn't it #sorry don't feel like you have to read it all #its just me gushing over my friends lol whats new #littlemissnellie #femmesim #surreysimmer #whiite-tea #panda-plumbobs #lilsimsie

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crystalnet · 7 years ago

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Top 10 Games of the Year

1. Breath of the Wild

It’s not a remotely close contest as far as my top pick goes. This game is simply the finest example of an adventure game that I can imagine, and seems as though it were an example of Plato's Archetypes, as in it is the perfectly crystallized realization of what an "adventure" game should be (read "adventure" as actually meaning lite action RPG).

I've written about it a lot elsewhere on this blog and will continue to given that substantial DLC is dropping for it soon so to be brief and not over-repeat myself, I believe there is a sacred zen quality to this game by which all systems, emergent and physics-based ones-- as well as culinary, arsenal-building, combat and item collecting systems-- are all all excellently interwoven in an organic and emotionally moving way, in which wandering through a never-before explored glade or glen is as life-affirming as a very good scenic hike might be, for example. Indeed, I believe this game is just the breath of fresh air that gaming needed~

2. Nier Automata

Violently eviscerating hordes of robots with a blade-wielding android has never been paired with Hegelian philosophy so well. Indeed this game is as fun to play as it is to think about... or at least it's fun until you consider the implications of what your actually doing in the game much of the time. Alas, most games don't make you question the ethics and morality of the things you do in-game, such as massacre robot hordes, but this game makes you look directly at ethical quandaries like it's your job, and that's kind of amazing. I'm not even a big story buff when it comes to gaming, but this one is something special, and reminds me of the PS1 era of gritty, spunky JRPGs like Xenogears or Vagrant Story.

It's also just a blast to play, and tweaking your individualized load-out which includes weapons combinations, abilities and deep stat-tweaking, is really satisfying. And the cherry on top here is the gorgeous design concepts and music. Especially the music. The OST is certainly my favorite game music of the year.

3. Persona 5

I haven't beat it so I'm technically kind of a poser but I mean I spent over 50 hours on it which is the 3rd highest playtime this year for me after BotW and FFXV so I think it counts. Sure I won't know the ultimate fate of the Phantom Thieves for another couple months probably, since I've been savouring this and going slow with it, but I've certainly played enough to know that this is a shining example of what a modern JPRG can be. A shit ton of deep, interwoven non-linear systems? Check. Quirky Japanese stuff out the wazoo like dating sim stuff and a talking cat? Check. Great combat and grindy, ass kicking dungeons? Double check. Insane acid jazz OST? Checkkkkkk, you get the point It's really good. In some ways it's sitll not quite my type of game in the way it is neither high-fantasy or cyberpunk, but the gameplay itself shines through. Idk, I don't like it as much as some people do but like I feel a kinship with the people who worship it. And I've def gotten more out of it than the other games listed below, if only for the serious depth of combat/gameplay and sheer length. The length.... (help)

4. Sonic Mania/ Forces

Yeah that's right, Mania AND Forces. Mania is well-loved but Forces is well-derided, but I'm here to say I probably prefer Forces. Yeah that's right. Write me off now if you want, all 3 of you who ever see this. I think it's a damn solid Sonic game, and I can count the number of good 3D Sonic games on a single hand (Adventure 1, some of A2, Generations, Colors and Lost World). So like idk why Sanic fans get it so twisted and love the complain-train so much, and as far as 3D entries go, I think it's a very solid, if not altogether good Sonic game. Yeah the levels are short compared to Adventure levels, and even Generations, but there's a ton of them, and there's depth in the Avatar levels, and speed-running is really fun in this, and the design is great, and and and, I get to be best friends with Sonic!!!! Also yeah Mania is great and functions as a solid summation of Sonic 1-3. Now bring on the Sonic Advance homage!

5. Super Mario Odyssey

It's really freakin good, 'nuff basically said. Like it was a blast to play through initially and there's still an insane amount of Moons I need to get so the good times keeping rolling with this one. The visual style is a thrill. The platform-y stuff is super fun and well-designed (as are the levels in general). Everything comes together and it easily supplants my other favorite Mario game (Galaxy, sorry!). And yeah that's right, I choose Sonic over Mario, any day. Sonic 4 life. 6. Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age + FFXV DLC/Comrades

One of these is a re-master of a 10 year old game, and the other is a slew of DLC that Square has churned out for a 1 year old game, so I think together they count for a super solid entry. XII is one of my favorites and this fresh coat of paint and job system does wonders for the game. Like seriously, it's an amazing remaster. And the FFXV DLC has proven to be slightly uneven but pretty fantastic at its best (Episode Prompto, Comrades specifically). And a game changing patch next week makes it seem like this game is still very much alive over a year later, and it has Square's full support. Meanwhile, they get all out money because we are slaves to the mighty Enix. I don't mind though (help).

7. Fire Emblem Warriors

Really solid Warriors/Emblem spin-off! I'm not even previously a fan of Musou games really, but the thought of having a game like this on the go seemed to make a lot of sense. Plus they add in a little more lite-RTS style strategic play so it's not just hack-n-slash. The presentation is the x-factor for me though, which this cel-shaded style growing on me more and more. I also don't even have experience with FE outside of maining as Robin on Smash but honestly I feel like this works as an interesting intro to the series. I'll get into it in time for the new proper entry on the Switch, but in the meantime, this is a super satisfying strategic action game with really nice RPG systems underlying everything. And it looks and plays like a dream on the Switch.

8. Resident Evil 7

So I totally still don't know how to feel about this game as far as what it does for the series as a whole and what it means for the franchise, but I think it's clearly a more positive, or at very least more interesting, step for the franchise than RE6 was. I played through the whole thing in 2 days which warranted its status as a rental and not a buy for me, but I certainly enjoyed it! Like I may have just slightly enjoyed the demo more somehow, but the game was pretty fun, and just thinking about it makes me want to revisit it now... I may have to buy the new version with all DLC and stuff eventually, even though I'm still not sure RE should be first-person, or if it's okay to ransack a never-released property like P.T. in the way this game does, but I think this game still deserves a spot.

9. Snipperclips

Super fun, super cheap. Surprisingly fun at that, and it's a multiplayer/party game, which I always need more of. The Switch is still missing that Wii Sports type of game that can get the whole family involved at holiday gatherings in that there's nothing that showcases the gyro/rumble stuff in a easy-going multiplayer context, and no I can't count 1-2-Switch because that game looks like a weird mess of a game that only hipsters or 30-somethings would try to play, busting out at a party like once and then tossing it? Honestly though I have no idea who that game is for. But it doesn't matter though, because Snipperclips comes closest to this on the Switch. It doesn't utilize any gyro stuff, but it's still a really good, pick-up-and play multiplayer game, which any console can always use more of.

10. Xenoblade Chronicles 2?

Haven't gotten this yet, but I inevitably will.... I think. I'm chomping at the bit for a full-scale JRPG on Switch, and this looks really solid, and yet I'm slightly hesitant because it has that super kid-friendly Nintendo sheen which doesn't always mesh super organically with JRPGs. Like Takahashi used to do games like Xenosaga/Xenogears so I'm just curious how he comes to work with Nintendo (I say this as a virtual Xenoblade noob, I know people love the first game a lot). But yeah this will probably be a great into to the series when I finally do cave and soon I'll be hitting up the first one and the Wii U one...If I like this enough it could likely replace Persona 5, as both of them seem to both be excellent JRPG goodness.

In short, t's been a super solid year y'all. Wow. Now can I stop pretending to care this much about video games because our country is undergoing a Nazi takeover and this level of escapism is actually the priority of my life right now? No? Still no? Okay...

#botw #breath of the wild #zelda #ffxv #persona 5 #nier automata #sonic forces #sonic mania #mario odyssey #super mario odyssey #fire emblem warriors #resident evil 7 #snipperclips #xenoblade chronicles 2 #game of the year #list

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faerietalesims · 7 years ago

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I’ve seen this tag floating around and it’s actually one I was secretly hoping someone would tag me in so thank you @sixelasims!

1. What’s your favourite sims death?

I get way too attached to all of my sims to have a preference for killing them, but in terms of EAs creativity, I’d say my favourite death is the Blunt Force Trauma one from ts3 university life!

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Maxis Match!!

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

Not really, I love that they can gain and lose weight so when my sims start to gain weight sometimes I take them to the gym! It’s a cool realistic thing that I like that they put in the game!

4. Do you use move objects?

Of course! Life’s only essential cheat!

5. Favourite mod?

I’d say ones like master controller in ts3 and mc command centre in ts4 as I hate it when I’ve had a family for ages, and all of the townies and local families just get old and die off and then randomers move in? Like I love that those mods keep life going! Plus I love seeing pregnant sims walking around!

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

The first ever expansion pack I bought for a sims game was seasons for ts3 (because for some reason I lived a sheltered life and had no idea expansion packs and such existed until then?) but my first pack for ts4 I think was get together? which I bought at the same time as get to work lmao!

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

I’ve pronounced live mode as in aLIVE ever since I started playing sims back when I was like 8 so yeah lmao now I shall forever say it that way!

8. Who’s your favourite sim that you’ve made?

Technically I didn’t make her, she was born in game, but one of the children from my sims 3 legacy, Marie, yeah, she was great. Fun Fact: I actually based one of my english papers on her and got top marks for it lmao. If only they knew it was based on a sim!

9. Have you made a simself?

Of course! Isn’t that the first thing everyone makes the first time they ever open sims?

10. What sim traits do you give yourself?

Bookworm, Goofball and Perfectionist.

11. Which is your favourite EA hair colour?

The browns are pretty nice as well as the nice blonde!

12. Favourite EA hair?

The side braid that came with Spa Day is a fave as well as the new super cute bun that came with Bowling Night Stuff.

13. Favourite life stage?

Teenagers are always fun, especially now with Parenthood!

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

Weirdly I was pretty good at building in ts3 but I can’t build to save my life in ts4! But decorating on the other hand, boiii I love it!

15. Are you a CC creator?

I guess so? Although I definitely don’t make cc often enough to qualify for the official title.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad?

I have a few mutuals that I love but I won’t say I have a squad or anything lmao

17. What’s your favourite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4)

3 for the mems, 4 for the current.

18. Do you have any sims merch?

No, I’d love to though!

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims?

No, I used to watch a few but all the good ones stopped posting and tbh everyone’s sims 4 videos are the same.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing?

I’m actually good at things now lmao.

21. What’s your Origin ID?

faerietalesims

22. Who’s your favourite CC creator?

who isnt? I have no one favourite because I appreciate so many!

23. How long have you had a simblr?

I made my simblr in December 2015 so a year and a half?

24. How do you edit your pictures?

I have a PSD for gameplay/legacy pictures which I tweak depending on the picture and I then have another one for cas pics!

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

Seasons would be amazing as well as maybe Supernatural or something, I’m not sure! I’ll take what I can get!

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favourite so far?

Parenthood. Easily.

I’m not sure who has done this and who hasn’t but I tag: @soulfulsim, @publicwoohoo, and my girl @soneasims!

#tag #nonsims #saviourhide #about me

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12raben · 8 years ago

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Medieval Charter Challenge - Rule Tweak Set for Jobs

First things first:

I want to thank vllygrl for the Medieval Charter Challenge! It is a huge inspiration to me and influenced my gameplay immensely!

Ok, now we can go on.

I read some variations of the BACC and thought: “This makes an aweful lot of sense.” In the MCC careers are unlocked as soon as your community reaches a certain level. In the BACC there are some requirements, the sim and/or the community have to achieve before the sim can join a specific career. Not many sims in my game actually follow a career, so a few more rules are okay with me. ;) I use a set huge pile of mods to make my game as “historical” as posible. If you are interested in the way, I want to incorporate some of them into the rules just read under the cut. :)

(A warning: This post got way longer, than I expected XD )

The mods, I use, which are touched by my additional rules:

Almighty Hat’s G-rated Religion

a cheaty-cheat-object to enter careers whenever you like e.g. simblender or the job notice board

Moghughson’s Postal System for the Sims

Chaavik’s Paint Faster

Cyjon’s Job Stopinator and Edukashun Iz Gud

Simlogical’s Prisoner Set

An item to transfer money e.g. Christanlov’s Wallet Token Controller

Bethgael’s and Morganna’s Defaults for the following Careers:

Criminal

Culinary

Slacker��

Athletic

Business

Law Enforcement

Medicine

Military

Politics

Science

Architecture

Dance

Entertainment

Intelligence

Oceanography

Education

Gamer

Law

Music

Natural Science

Paranormal

Showbiz

Custom Careers

Domestic Service by Child_of_Air

Medieval Midwife by pykkadilly

Morganna’s Jacoban Career

Since Morganna’s defaults change some of the careers purposes (e.g. Athletic becomes Knighthood) I made some changes to the MCC-requirements.

My sims usually don’t have to look through newspapers to get a job. I use eighter the sim blender or the job notice board.

Oh, and I have all EPs, so there are some specific requirements, which are only possible with the corresponding EPs.

Ok. Let’s start: Careers, which are unlocked in a

Settlement

The Military

This career is a little special. In the MCC the career is only available for gentry and above. At first this is also the case for my sims.

There are some community requirements too. In order to start a military career, your sim needs a weapon. So there has to be a smith in your community. (It doesn’t matter, whether he is a blacksmith or a goldsmith or specializes in another kind of metal manufacture.)

Life in the military is hard and sometimes dangerous. Soldiers live in Barracks. Spouses and children of soldiers have to live in an own seperate household. The soldier has to send money to their family. Only sims at level 6 of the career or higher live in their own home. A sim, who is level 8 and above needs a fort of any kind. (e.g. a castle, a camp or a watch tower) Only sims in gentry can enter the higher levels of the career (Level 6 and up). I use annual ROS. One of them is resembling war. Once this event has been rolled, all sims can join the military.

There also has to be a “theatre of war”. It can be residential or community lot. I use a residential lot, where my soldiers move, whenever I have a war as a ROS. The soldiers on that lot get a prisoner token, so they are unavailable. The graves of the brave soldiers, who died during the war stay on the lot. Their inventory items may be transferred to their family members. Just royal and the High Constable’s body may be returned to the actual community and rest on the graveyard.

This are the career steps:

Scout

Sentry

Pike(wo)man

Archer

Engineer

Sergeant-at-Arms

(Wo)Man-at-Arms

Castellan

Lieutenant General

High Constable

For every military brass, there have to be a few lower ones to boss around:

Sergeants: 5 soldiers at level 1-5.

Castellan: 2 Sergants

Lieutenant General: 2 Castellans

High Constable: 3 Lieutenant Generals There can only be one High Constable at the time.

I think, that’s it. There are still some more careers available in a settlement.

Careers for Peasants: Level 1-3 and Yeomen: Level 3-10

Cookery (Culinary)

A sim, who wants to work in this career, has to own a tavern, inn or restaurant. (Basically a lot, where sims can eat.) The lot does not have to reach a particular rank, but has to be played at least once a season.

Domestic Service (Cleaning/Service)

If there is a household, which needs a maid (or anything similar) I use Christianlov’s NPC-Controller. You can select an option to pay the NPC. I use this and the career. Sims can only hire sims, who are two ranks below them, but not more than three.

Assuming we have the social status Royal (highest), Noble, Gentry, Merchant, Yeomen and Peasant (lowest), a noble family can hire a maid from the merchant class, but not from peasantry.

Unless the peasant is friends with the patriarch and/or his spouse.

Artist

The sim, who wants to make art for a living, has to sell 10 masterpieces. (I use a mod, which makes sims paint faster, that’s why there are so many.) Or he has to own a shop, where he sells his paintings. Also the sim has to paint a picture of a high ranking sim (gentry or above) and sell this picture to his new patron (give gift interaction, the artist can be payed, but don’t have to be).

Midwife

There had to be at least 2 babys born ingame. Any sim, who attended a birth (as a witness or gave birth him/herself) and has 5 cleaning points, can enter this career.

Careers for Gentry: Level 1-6 and Nobles: 7-10

Knighthood (once custom knight-career, but now default replacement of the athletic-career)

A knight has many qualities. But every sim, who wants to enter this career path has to have 15 skill points. It doesn’t matter which, but they have to add up to 15. Also, they need a sports-outfit, which resembles an armour.

Hamlet

Church (once Science) Another “special” career. To reach level 2 in the MCC (the hamlet) you have to build a church. It makes sense, there is an open spot for one sim, who cares for that church. This is is for the time beeing, the only open spot in the career. The sim has to be a member of the gentry-class (or higher). Every other sim, who enters this career, has to live in a cloistre/monastery. And those are added at MCC-level 3 (Village). His faith and seal level have to be at level 90 or higher. Once they entered the career, their faith/seal don’t matter anymore. (Though it would make sense to keep it high.) The social status is irrelevant in the church. Everyone can climb to the top of that career. Sims in this career may not marry or have any romantic relationships. (If you’re playing with ACR, don’t forget to change the nun’s/monk’s tokens.) They don’t have any personal belongings and can’t be heirs. (And if there is a war, they don’t have to serve at arms.) But at level 6 or higher, there are some more things needed. Every cellarer needs (obviously) a cellar, meaning if your cloistre dosen’t have one, there can’t be a cellarer. All levels above (7 - 10) have one open position per “church-lot”. In the MCC, there are 4 (church, cloistre, monastry and cathedral) meaning there are 16 open slots at the end of the MCC. And there can be as many Novices, Brothers and Sisters as you like. :)

for Peasants and Yeomen: Level 1-6 and Yeomen: Level 1-10

Criminal I think, a sim, who becomes a criminal, is a bit desperate. If you want your sim to get into this career his funds have to be below 100 simoleans for two days. Also his religion either allows theft or his faith and/or seal drops below 40.

Law Enforcement This career is open, when there have been 3 burglaries (regardless of outcome) and a prison has been built. The first sim, who enters this career, has to run the prison. The family of this sim may live on the same lot. When the sim, who runs the prison dies, eighter his heir continues the “business” or a new prison guard moves in.

Artificer (once Gamer) This default changes the the whole purpose of the career. Instead of a sim, who plays games for money, you get one, who is a skilled craftsman. To enter this career, the sim has to own a shop with rank 5 or higher. He also has to max his tinkering-enthusiasm. In his shop has to be a object, where he can draw plans (e.g. easel or drafting board)

Careers for Gentry: Level 1-6 and Nobles: 7-10

Adventure Most of the adventure career matches a historical game... Well at least the job titles. The space pirate (top of the career) might just be a legendary hero (like Sinbad or Hercules) To make provit of adventures, he has to own a shop, where he can sell his loot. (Can be a home business, but has to be played once a season.) And the sim has to have at least a little experience. He either visited a vacation destination and stayed there at least 4 days or has earned 8 vacation memories. (There are some, which can be earned at objects like the tea table and axe throwing taget.) Also the sim has to make a vacation once a year.

Clandestine (once Intelligence) This career opens, when another sim reaches the top of the criminal, law enforcement or military career. When a king is crowned, the career also opens. The spy has to have 5 logic- and 5 charisma-points too.

Education Another special one. The MCC states:

Peasant and Yeoman children may not attend school. Use Simlogical’s Flexi School or other hack to avoid the Maxis school.

Merchant and Gentry children and teens may attend a convent or monastery school, set this up in your community using Simlogical’s School Hacks or use the Maxis school.

Nobility and Royalty children and teens will be tutored at home and may attend college.

[...]

Only Gentry and Nobility teens may attend Colleges, and their parents must pay $40,000 tuition.

In my game education is expensive. Only sims with a certain amount can attend a school and university. (It also restricts the number of children in one household, because some families will have enough money for their heir, but the 5th son, might leave the house uneducated.) All students have to pay a fee to the owner of the school. The college tuition stays the same.

Merchant: 200 simoleans

Gentry: 300 simoleans

Noblility: 500 simoleans

Parents pay the fees, so their children get the best education possible... or at least worth their money. Diffrent fees mean diffrent schools.

Running three schools would require too many sims in the education career for my taste. That’s why I’m planning “just” two. Of course you could have more or less, if you like. One for the blue-blooded (gentry and noblility) and one for the merchants. I set up schools on community lots. A detailed tutorial on how to do that, you can find here. (Thank you, silivrin!) Who can set up a school? The merchant school can be run by anyone, who is merchant or above. The principal of the school for gentry and/or noblility has to be gentry or above. Other than that anyone with the money, which is needed to own a community lot school can enter the education career. The school doesn’t have to be played regularly, but it is nice to see the little ones struggling with their homework <3 (Visiting the school with sims, who are not students, is of course not allowed. Unless they are their parents or something similar.)

The levels of the career are restricted. Teaching merchant children opens level 1 - 5. If you want to teach gentry and above, your sim will also have to have the skills for level 6 of the career. This sim can climb only 1 level.

Level 8 - 10 are only available, when there is a university in your hood. It is open for all sims of the gentry class and above, who also have a diploma.

There can be only one sim with Level 10 (Rector of the University) per university.

I might add some things to this career, because I don’t have a university yet. I need to do some playtesting...

Village

Journalism or Carrier Just do, as I do, ignore the default job descriptions... In my game this career is for town criers and carriers. One sim in your neighborhood has to own a shop, where you can buy books or magazins or anything decorative like paper, scrolls and feathers... (or Moghughson’s Greetings Cards). The sim, who owns the shop, can also join this career. A sim, who spreads news, needs something to report. If there were 5 fires, 3 burglaries or 7 sim-deaths during 1 season, the career is open for everyone. (But I think, nobles won’t be attracted by it...)

Free Mason (Architecture) Again a default changes the career quite a lot. An art degree to be a Treadmill Walker is a little exaggerated, right? All levels are open for peasantry and yeomanry. But gentry and above wouldn’t work at the lower levels of this career. They can be Master Designer (level 8) and above, if they have the neccessary skills. There can be only one “Surveyor of the King's/Queen's Works” (top of career), if there is a king/queen. There can be only one Surveyor at the time.

Business I restrict this career to merchants. Since they are the the class, who is takin’ care of business, it’s their domain. Once the merchant owns a community lot, he can enter the career, but he has to visit his shop at least once a season. Only sims with a level 10 business can become a Merchant Prince(ss) (Top of the career)

for Peasants and Yeomen: Level 1-6 and Yeomen: Level 1-10

Slacker The sim can become a slacker, when there are 3 community-lots for entertainment. They don’t have to be owned by a sim. Also this work-seeking sim doesn’t really want to work. (He is a Slacker, remember?) So, you either take up the newspaper/switch on the computer take a look in the magical book stand and search for a job vanilla style. If you are lucky there is an open spot. Or you use a dice to randomize the success of their job research. (I use the second method for illiterate sims. D(10) if the dice shows a 1 they get the job.)

Wizardry (Paranormal) This default is just perfect :) I love playing witches and warlocks. This career is exclusive. No “normal” sim can enter this career. Other paranormal sims like werewolves and plantsims need to be witches too. But wait there is more: the witch/warlock has to be friends with one of the head witches and visited them on their lot at least once. (This reminds me, I’ll have to makeover the secret lots. EA, why you make so ugly lots??)

Scientia (Natural Science) The default changes this career in a way, which makes me think of alchemy. So, if the sim wants to enter this career, he has to max cooking-hobby-enthusiasm. He also needs a “lab”. It can be a small room or shed in the sim’s home. Decorate it with furniture and sculptures according to a theme worth 2500 simoleans (or more).

Ministrel (Music) The career is open for any sim, who successfully earned money at a community lot, while playing a music instrument. By “successfully” I mean the “happy animation” (where the sim shakes the jar and giggles). He has to do that every day for one season.

Medical A sim, who wants to be a physician, needs a “doctor's office”. It has to be a shop, where sims can purchase anything, which is beneficial for their health. (e.g. they sell potions or comfort soup, offer massages or both or anything, you can think of) The shop has to reach level 5 before entering the career and has to be played at least once a season after.

Careers for Gentry: Level 1-6 and Nobles: 7-10

Politics A town hall is needed to open this career. (Can be owned by a sim, but doesn’t have to.) If there are some sims, who want to rule and make their house the greatest of them all, this career opens. Meaning: You have to have three or more families, who are gentry or above.

Law Nepheris described it perfectly:

“Wherever more than two Sims are gathered, there are bound to be conflicts. Your Sim has a special talent for negotiating conflict and finding their way in the complex jungle of legal matter, and has offered their services to help keep the peace in town. Requirements: [...] To enter the career this way, a Sim needs to have studied Couples Counselling. The career is unlocked for everyone with a University degree [...]”

Town

Courtier (Show Business) At first I thought: “Hm, considering the default description, this career should be for nobles only.” But wouldn’t it be interesting to see a peasant infiltrate the court? A sim, who wants to enter this career, has to be friends with eighter the king/queen, or with 3 members of the noble class. Level 7 and above however, are limited to gentry/nobility/royalty. But(!) to reach the top of the career (King's Companion/Queen's Confidante) you have to be BFFs with the ruler of your kingdom. If the friendship ends (e.g. the monarch died) you have to demote the sim to Level 9.

Maritime (Oceanography) Another “complicated” one... In order to complete the MCC, you have to build a Harbor & Docks for Trade Ships. This is needed to unlock this career. All sims, even those poor as dirt, may climb up to level 6 (Navigator). But then, they need more. What is a captain without a ship? Have your sim buy an “imaginary” ship for 8.000 simoleans. (e.g. neighborhood decoration). (Maybe, just maybe, I’m going to have one of my captains actually live on a ship. (He/She won’t have to pay the 8.000.) This would be the sim, who takes my sims to vacation areas. Or this job will do a placeholder-sim, even though I don’t really like to have more, than I really need. I’m going to figure that out...) Level 8 and up are only for gentry and above.

for Peasants and Yeomen: Level 1-6 and Yeomen: Level 1-10

Dance In order to reach the town-level, you have to build a music venue. That will do. But your sim has to build his enthusiasms for dancing until the sim can teach dancing to others. The sim also has to have 5 body skill points.

Careers for Gentry: Level 1-6 and Nobles: 7-10

Jacoban Career In my game the religion of the watcher is the most popular. Morganna’s custom career fits this spot perfectly. Once you built your cathedral, this career is open, but has some of the restrictions of the church career. They have to live in a cloistre/monastery. The faith and seal level have to be at level 90 or higher. And this career is only for gentry and above. True jacobanians (is that the word?) don’t marry or have romantic relationships. (Don’t forget ACR ;) ) They can have personal belongings and can be heirs and also can serve at arms, if it’s needed. e.g. the original heir died (I plan on building a apartment-lot for these sims.) When they become heirs, they have to appoint an heir, since they won’t have children of their own. (I think, I makes sense to choose the sim with the closest social status and highest relationship.) The Proxy is the top of the career. There can be only one.

This took waaaaay longer, than I thought. Please note: It’s a wip. As I’m playing the game, I’m always discover things, I want to do or change or... it is a big bunch of ideas, let’s phrase it like this XD

Thank you for your attention and your patience, while reading this block of text.

:D Happy Simming!

#sims #sims 2 #sims 2 medieval #mcc

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