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celestialspritz · 2 months ago

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Why Sims 2 has been so broken the last ten years

This is down to my own research, and I'm not saying it is the one and only reason why the game is so broken these days, but I have some points worth mentioning.

So, you're bored one day. You remember this game you had so much fun playing a few years ago, or maybe as a child. It's The Sims 2!

The game has a few issues than from when you last remembered playing, so you search on google for some fixes for the tiny resolution, and among the countless posts you may find, you may find this:

Or this:

(to the creators and players mentioned here this isn't me making a dig at you, i'm just pointing out some cc that could affect the game from working properly. your stuff is all beautiful :D)

Lesya's game is gorgeous!!! Oh, how can I get it to look like that?

So you, with a clean, vanilla (ugly) game you decide to download a few mods she listed, such as:

Skylines by GCKP (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Skies by Lowedeus (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Trees by Criquette (you can get optimised ones here)

No More Blurriness by Voeille (you can get optimised snow only here)

Cool! And then you notice some cheats than can give the game that open-world, interactive feel. Even better!

And you shove them into your folder and you boot up the game. Everything's going great!

Until...

You search hundreds of posts looking for the fix. Some recommend 3rd-party tools, but they seem to make the problem worse. You reinstall, finding you only wasted your time. Something has to be causing this, but you'd never guess it'd be the mods everybody swore by.

Well, in fact, it is. Partly.

I've struggled with pink flashing since 2019, when I reinstalled Sims 2 after I got a decent computer for once. I did everything above, searched for fixes, found Lesya's blog which was my primary inspiration. It was through Lesya's guide that I was able to make my game look pretty!

These mods, which are a staple in the modding community, are beautiful indeed... but what if I told you that the reason they're so beautiful, is because they're high-quality. With textures soaring up to 4k, when, hang on--

In 2004, 4k resolution was... probably unheard of. With the leading monitor size being 1024x768, what would be the point of using such huge textures on an engine that was designed for monitors of at least this size? Would you be able to see the detail of 4k on a monitor of that size? Definitely not.

The max visiting sims, okay, a little hit or miss. If your sims are all wearing high poly alpha CC, then it's a problem. If not, good luck.

Then comes the cheats I mentioned. The lot skirt cheat expands the view distance a significant amount. With the mergenhoodflora cheat, that displays more trees. Combining the two, what do you get?

A massive view distance, blinded by trees.

With skies and skylines with large textures up to 4k, and trees with textures up to 2k, The Sims 2 will collapse. It's like forcing an old man with health conditions to do 20 situps, again and again.

It'll overexert him, by the very least. And you're overexerting the game by cramming custom content that is not optimised for the engine TS2 was built on.

So please, next time you encounter the pink soup, please check your CC folders, and research changes and cheats before you put them into your game. You will enjoy the game much more if you do this, and won't encounter this problem so often.

Don't use Graphics Rules Maker

Instead, opt for a maxis original Graphics Rules uploaded here by Veronavillequiltingbee. It's essentially a rewrite of an old tutorial I made a long time ago.

Once you download the file from VVQB, open DXDIAG by pressing WinKey+R and typing 'dxdiag'.

This value I've underlined is what you need to put after seti textureMemory. Open the sgr file and do CTRL-F and input seti textureMemory.

Add the value from DXDIAG and then save it.

You can use GRM for adding your GPU to the game, but I do not recommend it for anything but that.

Optimising the game... inside the game

*shoves GRM off the table*

We're going to go into TS2 in-game settings for this one.

These settings are optimal if you play CC-heavy households. It will ease the load on your game to make space for the heavy CC you have in your current household. You can tweak these when you want to take photos outside, but for playing I recommend them all to be off - especially at community lots as there are lots of sims there.

I never see anybody talking about Object Hiding.

Object Hiding hides objects from floors that aren't in view. If you're playing downstairs, objects upstairs won't be rendered, thus minimising the load on your game.

I have reflections and smooth edges off because I use ReShade.

Snow on Ground is optional. Sometimes snow can cause pink flashing, I believe it's due to texture replacements that are huge in size too, Voeille's is 2k. I've linked a resized one above.

This post will be updated with later findings. I hope you all found it informative :]

#ts2 pink flashing #ts2 guide #ts2

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writingwithcolor · 11 months ago

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Naming International POC Characters: Do Your Research.

This post is part of a double feature for the same ask. First check out Mod Colette's answer to OP's original question at: A Careful Balance: Portraying a Black Character's Relationship with their Hair. Below are notes on character naming from Mod Rina.

~ ~ ~

@writingraccoon said:

My character is black in a dungeons and dragons-like fantasy world. His name is Kazuki Haile (pronounced hay-lee), and his mother is this world's equivalent of Japanese, which is where his first name is from, while his father is this world's equivalent of Ethiopian, which is where his last name is from. He looks much more like his father, and has hair type 4a. [...]

Hold on a sec.

Haile (pronounced hay-lee), [...] [H]is father is this world’s equivalent of Ethiopian, which is where his last name is from.

OP, where did you get this name? Behindthename.com, perhaps?

Note how it says, “Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. Check marks indicate the level to which a name has been verified.” Do you see any check marks, OP?

What language is this, by the way? If we only count official languages, Ethiopia has 5: Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali, & Tigrinya. If we count everything native to that region? Over 90 languages. And I haven't even mentioned the dormant/extinct ones. Do you know which language this name comes from? Have you determined Kazuki’s father’s ethnic group, religion, and language(s)? Do you know just how ethnically diverse Ethiopia is?

~ ~ ~

To All Looking for Character Names on the Internet:

Skip the name aggregators and baby name lists. They often do not cite their sources, even if they’re pulling from credible ones, and often copy each other.

If you still wish to use a name website, find a second source that isn’t a name website.

Find at least one real life individual, living or dead, who has this given name or surname. Try Wikipedia’s lists of notable individuals under "List of [ethnicity] people." You can even try searching Facebook! Pay attention to when these people were born for chronological accuracy/believability.

Make sure you know the language the name comes from, and the ethnicity/culture/religion it’s associated with.

Make sure you understand the naming practices of that culture—how many names, where they come from, name order, and other conventions.

Make sure you have the correct pronunciation of the name. Don’t always trust Wikipedia or American pronunciation guides on Youtube. Try to find a native speaker or language lesson source, or review the phonology & orthography and parse out the string one phoneme at a time.

Suggestions for web sources:

Wikipedia! Look for: “List of [language] [masculine/feminine] given names,” “List of most common [language] family names,” “List of most common surnames in [continent],” and "List of [ethnicity] people."

Census data! Harder to find due to language barriers & what governments make public, but these can really nail period accuracy. This may sound obvious, but look at the year of the character's birth, not the year your story takes place.

Forums and Reddit. No really. Multicultural couples and expats will often ask around for what to name their children. There’s also r/namenerds, where so many folks have shared names in their language that they now have “International Name Threads.” These are all great first-hand sources for name connotations—what’s trendy vs. old-fashioned, preppy vs. nerdy, or classic vs. overused vs. obscure.

~ ~ ~

Luckily for OP, I got very curious and did some research. More on Ethiopian & Eritrean naming, plus mixed/intercultural naming and my recommendations for this character, under the cut. It's really interesting, I promise!

Ethiopian and Eritrean Naming Practices

Haile (IPA: /həjlə/ roughly “hy-luh.” Both a & e are /ə/, a central “uh” sound) is a phrase meaning “power of” in Ge’ez, sometimes known as Classical Ethiopic, which is an extinct/dormant Semitic language that is now used as a liturgical language in Ethiopian churches (think of how Latin & Sanskrit are used today). So it's a religious name, and was likely popularized by the regnal name of the last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie (“Power of the Trinity”). Ironically, for these reasons it is about as nationalistically “Ethiopian” as a name can get.

Haile is one of the most common “surnames” ever in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Why was that in quotes? Because Ethiopians and Eritreans don’t have surnames. Historically, when they needed to distinguish themselves from others with the same given name, they affixed their father’s given name, and then sometimes their grandfather’s. In modern Ethiopia and Eritrea, their given name is followed by a parent’s (usually father’s) name. First-generation diaspora abroad may solidify this name into a legal “surname” which is then consistently passed down to subsequent generations.

Intercultural Marriages and Naming

This means that Kazuki’s parents will have to figure out if there will be a “surname” going forward, and who it applies to. Your easiest and most likely option is that Kazuki’s dad would have chosen to make his second name (Kazuki’s grandpa’s name) the legal “surname.” The mom would have taken this name upon marriage, and Kazuki would inherit it also. Either moving abroad or the circumstances of the intercultural marriage would have motivated this. Thus “Haile” would be grandpa’s name, and Kazuki wouldn’t be taking his “surname” from his dad. This prevents the mom & Kazuki from having different “surnames.” But you will have to understand and explain where the names came from and the decisions dad made to get there. Otherwise, this will ring culturally hollow and indicate a lack of research.

Typically intercultural parents try to

come up with a first name that is pronounceable in both languages,

go with a name that is the dominant language of where they live, or

compromise and pick one parent’s language, depending on the circumstances.

Option 1 and possibly 3 requires figuring out which language is the father’s first language. Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned national ubiquity of Haile, you will have to start from scratch here and figure out his ethnic group, religion (most are Ethiopian Orthodox and some Sunni Muslim), and language(s).

But then again, writing these characters knowledgeably and respectfully also requires figuring out that information anyway.

~ ~ ~

Names and naming practices are so, so diverse. Do research into the culture and language before picking a name, and never go with only one source.

~ Mod Rina

#asks #language #languages #linguistics #east africa #african #immigration #ethiopian #names #naming #research #resources #writeblr #character names #character name ideas #rina says read under the cut. read it

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sweetbeagaming · 8 months ago

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After two vanilla perfection runs (and 1/2 a run heavily modded which I hated), I've found that I really enjoy the game as it is. I've put these mods into three categories: beginners, post-perfection, and bonus. This is because I truly recommend doing a completely vanilla run to perfection before modding. This game is a gem already! These are my must-haves to enhance Vanilla game play, rather than replace it.

Beginners 🌱 Getting started w/ mods article here and a video.

SMAPI- This framework will be needed

Content Patcher, Generic Mod Config and other framework mods When you download a mod at Nexus a pop-up will show if these are required and you can download from there.

Dynamic Night Time Adds sunsets and sunrises

Automatic Gates You'll never have to open or close a gate manually which the is second to only vanilla game mechanic I truly hate.

No Fence Decay Fixes the first game mechanic that I truly hate

Data Layers Shows the range of sprinklers, scarecrows, etc.

Billboard Anywhere Now you can look at the calendar whenever you need

Passable Crops

Pony W**ght Loss Program Really gross name, very helpful mod. Makes it so your horse can pass through areas you previously couldn't.

Post-Perfection 🌿

Clint Rewritten You should experience Clint as he is written at least once. After that overwrite him lmao

Rustic Traveling Cart

Better Friendship and Better Ranching Do your first play through without these mods, just use a guide if you need. Trust me it's part of the fun!

Chests Anywhere Access your chests anywhere you need. First play through should be partially about learning to manage IMO, which is why I recc for second.

Look Up Anything Don't you dare put this in your first play through, I will haunt you. I'm serious!!! Use a guide.

NPC map locations Say it with me... FIRST TIME, USE A GUIDE.

Bonus (mostly cosmetic) 🍄

Reshade of your choice I'm using Faedew currently because it doesn't drastically alter the OG coloring. The bright colors are part of the charm though unless you can't handle them or just want a general change.

Sweet Skin Tones Wider variety of natural skintones for your farmer

Shardust's Hair Styles Cute hairs for your farmer, including several textured hair options

Hats Won't Mess Up Hair- to keep your cute styles

Elle's Cuter Animals Just makes animals cuter. Comes in: Coop-Barn-Horses-Dogs-Cats

Toddlers Like Parents Genetics for your kids but in a one sided way

Seasonal Outfits (slightly cuter aesthetic) Gives characters a wider variety of seasonal clothing options. Pretty customizable to your desires.

Eventually I might make another list for super cosmetic or more intense mods, such as what I use with Fashion Sense which focuses on farmer customization, or asset replacement mods. These are super unnecessary and I'll likely only be playing the new patch with these above. Enjoy!

#sdv resources #stardew valley #stardew #sdv #sdv mods #stardew valley mods

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arro-now · 3 months ago

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DarkM Main Menu - V1 Release

This post will serve as a hub for this mod. Any future updates will be posted here. The version of each update will be included in the title of the post so you can easily know if you’re up to date.

0. Please remember this is a new mod. I have put in every effort to ensure its quality, but as with any new release, there may be issues. I appreciate your understanding and encourage you to report any errors you encounter.

1. This mod was developed for a 1920x1080 resolution, and I am unsure how it will look on different resolutions. However, I would like this mod to support all hardware. Please contact me via messages if you would like to help :)

2. Two things that have not been changed currently are the menu that opens when you click on the three dots and the slider on the list that appears when you click the world select button.

This is when there are no saves yet.

And this is when at least one save is present.

New game creation.

Please provide any feedback you may have.

Arro_DarkM_MainMenu.package

Also, be sure to use the Overrides folder for this mod if you use any UI recolor. A guide can be found here. The UI recolor mod should be in the Packages folder, and the DarkM_MainMenu should be in Overrides.

You can download Sims 4 cursor from here. Credit for background image goes to this Redditor.

#the sims #ts3 simblr #ts3 #ts3cc #ts3 mods

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cityof2morrow · 4 months ago

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CO2 Skills: Custom Skill Tokens

Published: 7-17-2024 | Updated: N/A SUMMARY I use mods to make more diverse sims in terms of personality traits, body types, and lifetime wants. They’ve made my sims more complex and interesting to play overall. Still, the skill-building system feels limited alongside these mods. Being a decent pianist shouldn’t automatically make it easier to paint, spy, DJ, garden, become a career slacker, work as an architect, and play every other instrument in-game. Being clean certainly benefits barbers and pet owners, but shouldn’t they also be good at cutting hair and animal care? By default, sims can develop at least 40 skills - 4 toddler skills, 7 basic skills, 4 hidden skills, 6 life skills (AL/FT), and 11 talent badges (OFB). This custom skills pack builds directly on the existing skill-hobby system in Sims 2 in the following ways:

60+ new skills taken from other games in the simsverse (Sims 3, Sims 4, console titles, etc.)

100+ new skills related to university majors, career tracks, and popular mods from the simsverse

New skills are linked to certain objects, interactions, and career levels

All TS2 content creators are welcome to link these skills to your creations if they choose BUT this is meant to be non-intrusive. These will be linked to some of my custom careers, majors, and objects.

DETAILS Basegame Compatible – but skill-related objects and mods may require expansions. * These are skill TOKENS ONLY - custom objects, mods, majors and career tracks which use these skills will be published on this site under the #co2skills, #co2careers, and/or #co2edu tags. Modders, feel free to implement these and if you do – please share!

GENERAL INFO

Skills are invisible tokens activated by certain interactions in-game.

Sims can’t develop the same skill twice and they can’t sell or gift them to others.

Skills do not appear in inventories or the UI.

Some repetitive and animal-specific skills were excluded.

An index of all skills and their GUIDS is included with this download. If you have custom skills to add to the list, please ask/message me.

A “SKILL TREE” FOR SIMS 2 Where do these custom skills fit in gameplay? Imagine a system with three levels of expertise… LEVEL 1 = basegame skills (body, charisma, cleaning, cooking, creativity, logic, and mechanical). ^^This level already exists in the basegame and everything starts here. You need 2 or more basic skill points before you can advance. LEVEL 2 = some custom skills, life skills (AL/FT), talent badges (OFB), supernatural/magic (AL) ^^This level exists if you play with expansions. I’ve added a few new skills here related to existing supernatural and woohoo gameplay. LEVEL 3 and up = remaining custom skills and university major skills

^^The bulk of new skills come into play here and help make sims’ hobbies, careers, and lifestyle choices make more sense.

Unlock level 3 skills by earning 2-3 points in a level 1 or level 2 skill, a talent badge, and/or attending university.

Use the skill trees below for reference. Skills are grouped by their basegame skill/hobby affiliation, but some (ballet for example) may appear in multiple categories.

You do NOT need to earn all skills/badges at one level to unlock the next. The point of this project is that your sims can finally specialize in activities and professions related to their true personality.

BODY Body skill is already linked to tai chi and the restocking badge, but the skill is named differently across games (athleticism, fitness, health/sanity, etc.). Unlock new ways to develop a sim’s physical and mental strength.

CHARISMA Charisma links to the sales badge while range of hobby-related interests fall under film and literature. Branch off and concentrate on related skill areas.

CLEANING The cleaning skill is linked to three badges (cosmetology, gardening, and fishing) and enthusiasm for animals and the environment. Specialize in ways which better reflect their lifestyle.

COOKING Venture into new worlds of taste and make magic in the kitchen! This may be especially useful for those who want more challenging gameplay in terms of food-related careers, businesses, and custom food mods.

CREATIVITY & DANCE By default, creativity makes earning badges in flower arranging, pottery, and sewing easier. It also relates to the hidden drafting/dance skills.

…because a sim who hates art should be able to become a master pianist without magically becoming a master painter too.

LOGIC & UNIVERSITY Logic contributes to the register/cashiering badge and the hidden study/homework skill. Now, sims can pursue new schools of knowledge. Certain majors will now require students to learn theory and technical skills in their areas of study.

MECHANICAL Mechanical sims can more easily earn a robotics badge and now, they can also unlock a host of new mechanical/tech-related pursuits.

SUPERNATURAL Sims with supernatural abilities can enhance their craft by building a range of new skills.

OTHER Some of the new skills require TWO (2) or more types of basic skill points. Herbalism, for example, requires both cooking and gardening skill.

DOWNLOAD (choose one) SKILL TOKENS from SFS | from MEGA

* These are skill TOKENS ONLY - custom objects, mods, majors and career tracks which use these skills will be published on this site under the #co2skills, #co2careers, and/or #co2edu tags. Modders, feel free to implement these and if you do – please share! CREDITS Thanks: Echo, Ch4rmful, Gummi, ChocolateCitySim, Sufficeittosay, WHoward, Jelly Meduza and the rest of the Sims 2 modding community. Sources: Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Magic Skill (Echo, 2006), Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik).

#ts2downloads #ts2cc #sims2cc #co2skills #co2careers #co2edu

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sthbigbang · 11 months ago

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✨Sonic the Hedgehog Big Bang 2024!✨

Hello and welcome! We are so excited to announce the first annual Sonic Big Bang event hosted here on Tumblr!

What is a Big Bang?

A big bang is an event that pairs artists and writers together to create collaborative content for a series! Writers will start by writing a story of a certain length, and artists will create a piece of artwork based off their writer’s fic. The goal of this event is to not only create more works for the fandom to enjoy, but to promote collaboration and community between artists and writers in a fandom, in this case, the Sonic Fandom!

Authors sign up to write a fic and will submit a summary of their story. Artists will then be able to claim a fic based only on the list of summaries without knowing the author’s identity. Writers and artists will be paired off into groups and from there, writers will be given a deadline to complete their stories while artists make their accompanying piece.

Schedule + Links

✨Master Guide!✨

This is your guide to pretty much everything you’ll need to know about this event! Here you’ll find everything from content guidelines to mod contact information to role requirements, so please check it out!

✨FAQ✨

Our basic guide for those short on time!

Artist and Writer Sign-ups open January 7th, 2024!

Mod Applications are OPEN!

We are currently looking to bring on a couple more passionate mods for this project. If you would be interested in serving in a leadership role for this event, please let us know by filling out the form above!

Questions? Feel free to ask here or shoot a message to our head mod @fleetways!

Thats all for now! Be sure to keep an eye out for the sign-up form dropping January 7th, and we hope to see you there!

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic fanart #sonic fanfiction #fandom event #sonic fandom #sonic #sth #sonic big bang 2024 #sonic big bang #info

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anachronisims · 9 months ago

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Catch You on the Flippity Flop!

a TS2 traits expansion

by @anachronisims (sufficeittosay) and @cityof2morrow

Part 1: New Traits!

What you get: 16 new trait object files for your personality diversity pleasure. Most of them are opposites of existing 3t2 traits that didn't already have them. One is just because :)

Big Spender (opposite of Frugal)

Black Thumb (opposite of Green Thumb)

Can't Carry a Tune (opposite of Virtuoso)

Climate Denier (opposite of Eco-Friendly)

Difficulty Reading (opposite of Bookworm)

Dislikes Animals (opposite of Animal Lover)

Dislikes Cats (opposite of Cat Person)

Dislikes Dogs (opposite of Dog Person)

Dreamer* (the intersection of Ambitious and Absent-Minded)

Generous (opposite of Mooch)

Homebody (opposite of Adventurous)

Minimalist (opposite of Gatherer)

Nudist (opposite of Never Nude)

Slow Learner (opposite of Genius)

Sweet Tooth (just because)

Terrible Cook (Natural Cook)

(*) I know @lilbabydilljr released a Dreamer trait already as part of the hidden/scrapped TS3 traits collection, but I wanted to change the flavor text and concept of it. My spouseman is a real dreamer-content-to-dream and I felt the TS3 scrapped version was too close to Ambitious. So @cityof2morrow made a different icon for it, and changed the GUID as well because Dill's conflicts with HB's simlife goggles. However, the file name is the same as Dill's and will overwrite it.

ETA: These are traits objects that WILL appear in your catalog in Gen/Misc. They are NOT added to the traits collection file as I don't use it. Feel free to do so yourself, of course.

What's coming next: Updates to existing traits mods that are plausibly affected by these traits (plus some personal preference tuning). Check out the to-do list here. Suggestions welcome and encouraged! Anyone who would like early access as a beta tester, please let us know!

Credits: @hexagonal-bipyramid for the original 3t2 Traits Project, @moocha-muses whose Dylan's Black Thumb got me thinking about this becoming realer than flavor text, and the whole inspiring TS2 simblr community whose appetite for traits mods keeps me going!

Download at SFS

Updated Feb 18 2024 at 245 EST (US) to fix an issue with thumbnails/catalog appearance.

#ts2 resources #ts2 download #ts2 traits #ts2 traits project

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sonysakura · 4 months ago

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🚫 My Sonic Big Bang 2024 Experience

...Or how a few months of my life were severely negatively impacted by someone else's bad management. See for yourself.

Proof of the rule they're speaking about being actively hidden from the participants to this day: FAQ – archived link, screenshot with "Who can participate?" on top, screenshot with "explicit" word search, screenshot with "nsfw" word search; Master Guide – screenshot with "explicit" word search, screenshot with "nsfw" word search; server rules – long screenshots of General Server Rules and StH Big Bang Specific Rules: Mar 12 and Jul 01, screenshots of Strike Policy: Mar 12 and Jul 01, long screenshot of General Guidelines, long screenshot of Collaboration Thread Guidelines.

I feel like this is extremely unfair 😭 One moment I was participating in the event I dreamed about for years, and the next moment I'm thrown out into the cold when I did nothing wrong. I need to get it off my chest...

Below, more about my experience with the event, though it ended up a little vent-y, a detailed (and verified!) record of what exactly happened in private thread #48, the aftermath and some fun facts I discovered or want to share:

First things first! Yep, I signed up for Sonic BB as a Writer back in January. I didn't talk about it outside of my server 'cause I wanted it to be a surprise – when I roll out a lo-o-ong illustrated fic without a warning. I'll admit, I always wanted to participate in a Big Bang for this fandom, it was a dream of sorts. And still, before sending my form in, I carefully read all of the Master Guide and the FAQ both. Seeing as how for my neurodivergent brain the rules and regulations are important, that's what I usually do for events, and this one wasn't an exception. Confident that I understand what the event would require of me, I signed up.

First month of the event went well. My questions were answered (even though I wondered why some of the things I asked couldn't have been in the Master Guide from the beginning), I wrote my fic summary and submitted it without many problems, etc. There was a small hiccup at the very beginning of March when I noticed how strict the management seemed to be (no changes or adjustments allowed), and my anxiety got the best of me, so I asked the mods if there's a plan in case a collab team doesn't work out: screenshot of my message in #writers-info-and-questions, pulled from my Discord data; screenshot of my detailed explanation in DMs; screenshot of Mod Joy's reply. Here are the most important quotes from his reply:

I understand wanting to plan for the worst case scenarios, but I would caution you not to freak yourself out over what all could go wrong! There are some absolutely lovely artists in this event who are excited to work with the writers. Odds are, things will go off without a hitch.

We are highly encouraging that no one drops out after the assignments, especially writers, unless due to extenuating circumstances.

We want to make everything as fun and stress-free for everyone. Know that we will be around to moderate threads and dissolve any tensions that arise,..

In short, I was placated with reassurances of careful moderation, not dropping writers and ✨positivity✨. I decided to stay and challenge myself since originally BB is meant to be a challenge and all...

For those of you who haven't participated: the way it is supposed to go is that writers submit short summaries of their stories, these summaries are stripped of the writers' names and given to artists to pick through. The artists then have to list their Top 10 stories to illustrate during the claims period. After the claims, private collab threads are made for each writer and their artists with a couple of mods. So no one else could see what happens in these threads.

Now flashforward to March 11th and the threads being created. Obviously I don't have screenshots of that due to being kicked off the server without any warning and before any chance of communication, unable to delete my personal information or save anything that might be used against me which was a case of poor management at best and a deliberate move at worst, so I'm retelling as faithfully as possible. It also has been verified by [artist 1] and according to them, this is exactly what happened.

My fic was in the 4-8k range, and I got two artists. I was asleep when the thread opened, and they talked about how excited they are for my fic before I came in. Both of them are 18, young but adults. I’ll call them [artist 1] (they're cool), and the other one is [artist 2]. Both artists seemed to talk to me normally.

Oh, I have to point out that there were hmm, Mods Chaz, Joy, Summers and Frostios in my thread. I think only four of them, but I know for sure Mod Summers was reading our conversation at least in the beginning because I noticed my fic's Warnings saying "None" (the original summary I submitted had Warnings: Discussion of Homophobia, Slight Internalised Homophobia), and I pointed out that there are warnings, though I don't know if they were lost just now or weren't in the sheet available to the Artists either, and whether they were actually lost or mods didn't consider it a big enough warning to keep... I still don't know. Mod Summers just silently pinned my message.

I mentioned how I'm in one of the Asian timezones geographically, so I might be awake or asleep at unconventional times, and they told me their timezones (I didn't ask!), so I figured I can make a timebuddy chart for easy tracking what time it is for everyone. Made one, sent the link to the thread, Mod Summers asked me if I want it pinned, too, and then a couple of hours later (I think?) [artist 1] came and said it's very helpful. This is my evidence for at least Mod Summers probably reading the conversation that followed but also maybe not. I think all of the mods were online or at least visually online when it was happening.

This is where I reveal that the entire conversation happened in like... one afternoon 🥲 Roughly 7 pm to 2 am for me.

Back to the conversation itself. There were a few questions I had so I started with them, basically 1) if they've read my fics before (explained that I'm asking so I know whether I need to tell them about my writing style and Sonadow dynamics I write); 2) do they want me to send in scenes as I write them or they want a full draft; 3) if they have any immediate questions for me. Question 1) is what we need. Both of them said they've never read my stuff before, and that they don't have any questions now but they want art to be as close to text as possible, so they will ask in the future. This is how it went down after (as per my memory, artist rendition I guess):

[artist 1]: I haven't read your fics but I'd like to! Your Ao3 is the same as your handle? [no link]

Me: It isn't a requirement, you don't have to! But that's right. I have to warn you though that I usually rate my Ao3 profile as 18+ when I link it, though 33/36 of my Sonic fics are rated G and T, and I feel like a warning is in order anyway so people don't accidentally stumble upon something they don't want to see and know what to avoid/filter out. [I didn't post any links or encouraged the artists to read my profile, just made a warning to be cautious]

We go into discussion of how long I have been writing, [artist 1] shows no problems with knowing my Ao3 has 3 Mature fics, I describe what series my fic will be for [the series is completely SFW, and even then I didn't post the link to it] and go into details of how I write Sonadow dynamics in my fics without mentioning the NSFW ones obviously, we speak about Question 2).

[artist 2]: [replying to my warning about my Ao3] ooohh so you write gore sometimes?

Me: Nah, I don't actually, I'm pretty uncomfortable with it tbh, so no, I don't. Some blood and a quick description of Maria's dead body is the most I have ever done 😅 All the angst I make characters go through is emotional rather than physical!

[artist 2]: oh I shouldn't have assumed, sorry. It's just the first thing my mind went to

Me: It's okay! I've been a medical student at some point and I think I've just had enough of that - one of the main reasons I'm not a doctor but a linguist.

[artist 1] gets excited about this for some reason, and we chat about it for a moment.

Normal conversation continues like...

Me: Okay, where were we

[artist 2]: i wasn't paying attention errr

Me: Me neither! But it's Question 3)

I go into saying how them wanting to draw as close to the text is 💯 what I wanted to hear because for me my texts are an extension of my soul, I'm fragile about them, and I'd prefer the art to be exactly according to it blah-blah-blah, I describe my thoughts about a plan of work for us and how I'm going to share pieces of my fic according to their respective wishes.

[artist 1]: Sounds great!

[artist 2]: yeah, sounds good

[artist 1] says something else which I just react with an emoji to, and I start getting ready for sleep because it's almost 2 am, and I have to get up at 6 am.

Nothing else was said in the thread. That's it.

I got to bed and as most people nowadays I check my phone one last time. I see [artist 2] requesting a mod they can DM to, but I don't think much of it…

So 6 am. I wake up and again, as most people nowadays, I check my phone. I went to sleep in a good mood, seemingly in good relations with my artists, excited for the collab and having a solid plan everyone agreed to, so I eagerly open Discord to see if they wrote anything new in the thread. I see no Sonic Big Bang 2024 server.

I will not go into too much detail about my state, but I have an extremely acute reaction to stress very similar to a panic attack that lasts for hours. So with shaking fingers I open my DMs to see the message from that first screenshot I started my post with. The following exchange with me learning about the hidden rule happens the next day. Unfortunately, before that I still have to go to work for a full day in that very same mental state, oof. Plus I have no breaks on Tuesday... I go back and forth all day with my friends about how shitty this situation is, and one of them asks me how [artist 1] reacted. I say that I don't know, but they still follow me on Tumblr so I go and message them, and from what they tell me, it sounds like a mod pretended to them that I was removed because of an existing rule that's stated somewhere. They didn't argue with that, and that's understandable of course.

At home, I notice one of the event mods blocked me.

It is difficult to explain what's happening in my mind without going into details of what my [disorders] are, but things that are unfair, things that are injustice put my brain in a loop until all wrongs are righted. I'm ranting about it to friends, and I think about it day and night. On March 14th I vent about it in the tags of a related reblog, and this is the only instance of me talking about StH BB on my blog. Next morning I'm blocked by the event blog and over the next 2 weeks – by two more mods, while another mod speaks to me passively-aggressively in a shared Discord server. Then I'm shown a screenshot where one of the mods claims I offered my Ao3 to my artists (I didn't) and implies everyone who writes NSFW is dangerous. And then I receive a hate ask about the event, calling me "creepy"... All this time, my brain is still stuck in a loop, and let me tell you – it's not fun. It doesn't help that my first reaction to everything that makes me feel bad is always to assume I'm at fault for everything, and seeing how hostile people are to me, I'm drowning in self-blame. Without going into any more detail, it takes me 2 months and a lot of help to somewhat recover, so I finally send my reply to Headmod Chaz and receive one back:

If you got to this part, you know that half of Headmod Chaz's reply is simply untrue since there were no "multiple instances", and in any case I was never asked to keep quiet about my ban (and why should I?). I sent another reply a month later expressing my confusion and wondering when the messages will be removed (only my intro was removed). As of today, that reply is still ignored, and the messages aren't removed 🤷

And this is the entirety of my Sonic Big Bang 2024 experience. Now for some Q&A:

Why did you wait so long to make this post? I didn't want to put any participants under fire, particularly my friends because I'll admit, the mods seem like petty people. And also I was worried about throwing shade on other participants (people associating their works with this) or spoiling the event for people who were genuinely having fun with it. Thus, I waited until it was over!

Is this a callout post? According to definition as "public criticism or asking someone to explain their actions", I think it is – in terms of calling out bad management. It is definitely not a call for harassment. There is a reason I censored some names and left vague who reported me, blocked me, was hostile to me or spread rumours about me. Please don't bother anyone, and if the mods decide to engage with this, they can post their own statement.

Aside from the above reasons, why make a post at all? Two reasons: a personal one and an altruistic one. Firstly, I hope to get closure this way since I still feel like I was unjustly thrown away when I was just being a dutiful person. Secondly, while Headmod Chaz said they will be transparent about this rule next time they run an event, as you can see they fully ignored my suggestion of doing it now, and in general keeping a rule hidden to such an extent where you lie in your FAQ is pretty shady... I don't trust them not to do it again next year.

Is it okay to reblog the post/reply to it, what about sending an ask or a PM? Yes to all. I don't expect anyone to reblog, though if you think it's necessary, go on. I'm posting it to the event tags, so-o I think people who need to see it – will see it. If you decide to be negative or call me names, however, be prepared to be blocked by IP or username.

Finally, fun facts as promised 🔥

There are other participants out there who have had negative experiences with BB or were made uncomfortable by the way it was managed, but I'm not going to speak for them;

There was this whole thing with hypocrisy and possible favouritism;

Despite the mods insisting on ME being quiet about my ban, it's now known that they shared information about it outside the mod group;

Out of 6 mods: 5 have me blocked, 2 were passive-aggressive with 1 of them going as far as verbally lash out at me in DMs, and only 1 mod gave me a human apology (not pictured in screenshots);

I saw 3 NSFW writers and at least 2 NSFW artists participating in BB just by scrolling through my dash, without seeking them out, and this is not counting people I noticed in the server prior to me being banned;

Some people are posting Mature and Explicit extras and sequels/prequels to their BB stories already;

The artist who reported me seems to have dropped out anyway;

There's a joke reason why I'm making a post, too: I have to earn being blocked from the event blog since they said they did it because of multiple instances of me talking about my removal;

I'm actually grace and most of the time write my characters as aspec, and I'm exploring what sexuality and intimacy mean for me through writing, so this situation felt a little... like gatekeeping;

My fic was #48 under the title Chao Care 101, and I want you to give me a high five if you had it among your top choices 🖐

Originally, I wasn't going to complete my BB fic because it made me feel bad, but now I've decided I want to reclaim it, so I'm writing it now. Almost 8k words at the moment. It will be published. And it will be illustrated;

Meanwhile, what came out of this disaster is Sonic Supernova 2025, and I recommend you all to keep an eye out for this inclusive Big Bang-like event 🌟

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