#simmerville

[simmervillessims]

8 Landscape Backdrops for Photo Studio

My previous set of formal backdrops became quite popular, so I decided to make more! Today I uploaded a new set of landscape backdrops to my main blog.

These are sceneries from destinations within the game, Selvadorada, Cavalier Cove, Del Sol Valley and Oasis Springs. They work well with the method explained in my old video (please see blog for link).

Download at main blog.

[cupcakegnome]

Inspiration :) 

[equinoxts2]

Every household in Kulo Seeri has at least one critter living there. The zan-Ku family has a pet skunk and raccoon (tribute to @hafiseazale; skunkified cat in top pic courtesy of @midgethetree‘s Supernatural Transformer) and a wild llama dog named Oyster. (Anyone else remember Simmerville and the FSBS days? I got this dog breed from their site...)

Unfortunately for Oyster, telling friendly pet Skunky from an angry wild skunk is not always easy.

[flethro]

Just to say I love your bacc (what I've read so far). It's inspiring. I did start one myself but was not happy with it. Trying to find a reason for the new world that's not too much like anyone else's.

I like the council, club ideas etc..idea from both you and simsville. Wish I was more creative

I'm trying to be realistic as to why I was searching up simcity and it talked about sim nation which I believe led me to your playthrough. Not really a question but I hope to use your version as inspiration and be different. So hard.

Firstly, thank you for getting in touch. I can relate to the situation you’re in, I felt that way at the start.

It’s nice to hear you say you want to be different with your ideas. We all have a different goal with how we play a Sims game, sometimes that can be a simple variation on something we’ve seen before and other times it’s quite specific.

My reply has turned out to be quite long, so I've added a read-more link here. I hope it's useful to you. 🙂

It’s also great that you’ve come across Simmerville. I found many of their ideas to be a good springboard for coming up with my own. Some of the core parts of how I play are simply personal tweaks to what Simmerville has shared over the years so I would recommend continuing to look over their gameplay for inspiration.

I should mention I don’t specifically play a bacc at the moment, but my gameplay is always revolved around the same general theme of building up a community, no matter which Sims game I’m playing. I don’t worry about restrictions that someone else has created if I can come up with something that sounds more enjoyable so I would encourage you to go with what sounds fun over anything else.

Creating reasons why Sims would want or need to move between neighbourhoods is an important factor for me and could bring some extra variety to your game if you haven’t done so already. You could limit what types of job opportunities there are in each world. Maybe a Sim would need to move to a specific neighbourhood if they are aiming for higher promotions in a particular career track.

Limiting the number of individual career positions across the board would be something to think about and would give local councils some goals to think about for the future. A community often has something they are known for in real life, no matter where they are in the world, so they are likely to use it to their advantage whether that be attracting people to live there or using it to strengthen their local economy through business and commerce. The reasons are yours in the end but once you flesh out some personalities for your Sims, maybe ask yourself what they want to see around them. Maybe the first handful of generations in a community can guide it in a direction that relates to their own career preferences (which would be what the community becomes known for) or it could be based on careers that lend well to a particular neighbourhood.

If you are concerned about your Sims becoming ultra rich and boring to play, Simmerville’s ideas on running a Stock Market is one avenue you could go down. Sims can buy individual shares for $10,000 as an example which generates simoleons for them slowly over time (perhaps $100 or $1000 per round) and can be passed on to other Sims when they die as part of their inheritance. At the end of every round, you would roll a 6-sided die and decide whether the shares had increased or decreased in value over the year. You could even create a board of directors for each company that might have some influence over the way your world develops by poking politician Sims to make decisions that are in their favour. Many ideas would require you to keep notes over time, so try not to overwhelm yourself at the start and incorporate ideas slowly over time to allow yourself time to see if they are right for you.

The more time you spend with your Sims, the more time you have to work out what type of characters they are (and are becoming as time moves on). I like to ask myself ‘What do they really want? What makes them different to other Sims around them and what might they have in common?’

As you raised the topic of SimCity, I would probably recommend you think over a few subjects that might need to be considered by each local council like housing, education levels, a town’s income and running costs if you are keeping track of a community’s finances, etc.

I prefer my Sims to arrive slowly over time, either in small groups or individually, whichever suits. A council has to make decisions and that usually means you have people that like the decision and others that don’t. You can’t please everyone, as the phrase goes, so if you have a general over-arching neighbourhood story on the way, this can make for some drama and maybe some family feuds.

A community needs to be prepared for an increased or decreased flow in population as well. Do they stop Sims at the door and tell them they don’t have enough room or look for ways to take the people in? Maybe a boarding house situation is the answer for a neighbourhood that is too big to have more residential housing. It gives a local Sim a way of earning simoleons that isn’t a conventional career and gives their guests somewhere to live until they find another solution. It is up to you in the end, but you could have your Sims make the decision for you (for better or worse!) if they have some authority.

This wouldn’t work with a traditional bacc ruleset but depending on how many details you’d like to keep track of, you might be interested in giving each Sim a maximum amount of skill points they can achieve in their lifetime. This number could be increased if they receive good grades or graduate university. If two Sims have a child, you could find the average between both parents’ skill scores and the resulting number could be the child’s initial skill score (which could be improved with education as they grow older). This is one of the ideas I came across from Simmerville a few years ago.

It’s a good idea to stop and reflect on how complicated you want your game to be. How many details can you take into account before it seems too much? You then look at what ideas probably don’t need to be there after all or could be simplified to a point that still satisfies you.

I hope you work out a way of playing that suits you well. A lot of it does come down to creativity, but that shouldn’t be seen as a negative. We are all capable of being more creative, so don’t be too hard on yourself and take your time to create a world for your Sims that you enjoy playing in.

[anitmb]

Hi Ani! I know you mentioned not wanting a very detailed financial structure in your game, but in case you were interested in some gameplay inspiration Simmerville's article Hood School (2): Hood Finances has some interesting ideas in the old TS1 section of their site.

Oh, thank you for the hint <3

[weirdsimsinhistory]

Do you remember Simmerville? Can you make suggestions on how to play TS1 that way?

I don’t know that game :/

[thesimsdaily]

[simmervillessims]

The Free Will Show - Day 11

Good morning! A new FREE WILL SHOW episode was uploaded last night to my YT channel. This is a show where each episode is another day/year, contenders go by free will and the last standing person wins the house and becomes a resident of my Region 12. Four red lamps (see graphics) means getting kicked out. The series involves audience voting on the daily Activity and Social.

In this episode they got more social than normal, and of course I add subtitles to those conversations. Guess whether they debated Eco lifestyle or not, this time around? :)

And here’s the direct video link. More details in the video description.

Enjoy!

[simmervillessims]

Dusty Turf Bazar

This is probably Oasis Springs’ oldest community lot, actively run for about 180 years. In the past the outdoor stalls were the busiest part, but nowadays the expanded facility is home to 6 indoor businesses. Just like an old fashioned shopping mall :) The entire complex is owned by Landgraab Trades, Inc.

Donnersmalt Liquor Store is one of the district’s oldest businesses, and is owned by The Verde Trust. This business is the reason why Baron Auphor Saxor of Verde recently met with Malcolm Landgraab, CEO of Landgraab Trades, Inc.

3 of the 6 stores are rentals, and the latest addition is Needle & Thread store, offering yarn, sewing machines and other crafting appliances.

More pictures and text on my main blog :)

[simmervillessims]

Bored with the white ceilings? Thanks to online tutorial, I created a set of 9 wooden alternatives.

This is a replacement, and you can only use 1 of the 9 files in your mods folder at the time. The selected replacement will affect ALL rooms in ALL houses, so I tried to choose rather neutral designs. They might not be perfect, but adds the illusion of a wooden ceiling :) The 9th version is for acoustic rooms, but looks good elsewhere, too, and if you play like me you focus more on the sims and furniture than the ceiling, anyway. Good for photo shots and story telling, though.

Here is a short video showing the 9 alternatives in game: 

Grab the set at my main blog.

[simmervillessims]

Gloom District Order Gala Dinner

The annual gala event takes place at Umbrage Manor every Spring, and this years event will be featured in the upcoming season 2 closing episode of my ongoing As Sims Go By video series (to be released in a couple weeks on my youtube channel).

Baron and Baroness of Gloom are hosting the event, and the guest list is very limited as each district order allows for maximum 8 members.They are invited to bring a spouse or other company, but as the event is annual, and some are member of multiple orders, not all will attend every year. For this event the hosts’ main heir, Lord Edward is missing because he is busy studying at University.

I just put together an article debating rules and etiquette for these gala events. Gala is not just gala, you should also consider your rank as a guest - and a lot more! You can read it all on my main blog. 

[simmervillessims]

Breaking: New Baron of Verde found!

So, there has been a trial ongoing in Region 12 Court House. Malcolm Landgraab accused the Royal Chamber for picking the wrong successor to the Barony of Verde 50 years ago, claiming his late father would be first in line. But things did not turn out like Malcolm hoped, and now the correct Baron of Verde has been found!

Read all about it on my main blog.

[simmervillessims]

Say hello to the fish Aquator

Back in 2014 I ran a project called “Sims By Numbers”. 8 sims by free will in a house, with a certain daily schedule. They had a fish named Aquator in a bowl in the kitchen.

This is now 6 RL years ago, and about 40 sim years ago. And believe it or not, the very same fish, Aquator, is still alive and kicking - happily swinging in his fish bowl! I don’t think he was even fed since 2014, so he is kind of a miracle...

The house is now resided by the sim who won the SBN show, Ochana Mox, her hubby, 3 of their kids, a son-in-law, a grandson and a cat.

The Mox household

[simmervillessims]

Not quite as planned

Sometimes things do not go according to plans ;) Like when Duke and Duchess of Meadows were getting some photos taken. I’m not sure what happened - they probably were just quick enough to find their positions, so instead of posing as the couple they are, it looks like they are out hunting :)

For the record, this photo never hit their wall.

[simmervillessims]

Uhm... but she ain’t dead...

So, I had something really weird... quite spooky if you ask Mary! I’m at first day with Blossom and Mary, and I sent Blossom to the recycling machine. Then I found 2 grave stones in the household inventory, and thought Blossom or Knox had stolen them from another lot, as they both have the Recycle Disciple trait. But when I checked the name of those head stones, they both said... *Mary Greenburg* !!! Blossom’s wife is dead? Twice? So how come she is standing there next to Blossom?

Is this a backstory - that Blossom already had 2 “Marys” in the past? They ran  off, or did she recycle them? :O

Earlier this day, Blossom and Mary went woohooing in a dumpster, and actually Mary was so exhausted that she died and Grim Reaper arrived - but I quit and did not save. It happened the next time I entered too, Mary died again but I did not save. Obviously, because Mary Greenburg is very much alive. So, how could the gravestones be from the events that were not saved?

Did anyone else find Mary’s gravestones? If they belong to her past, I better rewrite her personal bio...

[simmervillessims]

SOLVED!   Clothing outfit tabs messed up?

I just installed Nifty Knitting, including one or two queued patches, and I found this glitch. I tried finding something on this online, as I expected it to be caused by NK, but nothing.

Is anyone else having this when changing a sim’s outfit? The tab icons are messed up, the “everyday” is missing, but the formal icon gives everyday. Swim gives formal, and so on. Surprisingly there are also several new icons, like I never before saw the “career” icon (which now gives sleep outfits), or the Doctor(?) icon.

I also noticed that some of my sims were about to freeze to death while temperature was just chilly (a tad in the blue), they were wearing coll outfit and INDOOR. I wonder if they “thought” they were wearing some other category, but even so I never before had sims die from freezing when the temperature was just a bit into the blue. It helped turning the thermostat on. Not sure if this is related to the outfit tab mix up.