#so yeah despite my fears of how stressed I will be wrangling seven Sims

[victorluvsalice]

I Return, with more Thoughts about the Potential Tiny Town Challenge --

-->First off, almost immediately after I finished working on the original damn post, my brain went "hey, if we do the 'multiple fandoms' option, we can get community lots that represent those fandoms and put those in the rest of Windenburg! Wouldn't that be cool? :D :D :D" and wouldn't let that go. So uh, yeah, I guess if I do this, I'm going with Option Two and doing a town with Victor Van Dort, Alice Liddell, Smiler Alton, Emmett "Doc" Brown, Mal Kavian, Preston Garvey, and Wheatley Notamoron. God help my fucking micromanaging tendencies by the time I get the seventh sim on the lot. XD

-->That being said, I'm not opposed to including Victoria and Emily from the first option as "NPCs" in the general world (as I'm already thinking that I would have to do this in a save where Windenburg as it is would be wiped so I could fit in all the aforementioned community lots), so they could still be involved in a way. Hell, might throw in some other characters I'd like to include as NPCs as well -- feels weird to have a Doc without a Marty bumming around somewhere, or a Wheatley without a Chell!

-->I also came up with the idea, briefly mentioned in the original post, that instead of choosing an in-game decor style for every Sim to use while building their house, I should instead do a house that reflects their canon in some way. I feel like this would be easier and more fun for me than forcing myself to stick to a specific decor style for each Sim anyway, and allow me to better represent the Sims I'm using. :)

-->Okay, with the above in mind, let's go through each fandom and how they're being represented in this potential Tiny Town:

Corpse Bride: Town Resident is Victor Van Dort, of course, whose money-making skill would be Painting and whose chosen color would be Blue. I'm thinking a tiny Victorian for his house, naturally -- something that fits in with the aesthetics of the Land of the Living village in the movie. *nods* And as for the Community Lot -- well, how could I pick anything but the Ball & Socket bar? :) We love a colorful pub full of music and fun!

American McGee's Alice: Town Resident is Alice Liddell, whose money-making skill is Writing and whose color is Green (to match her eyes and prevent overlap with other residents). I'm thinking her house should be a tiny version of the Liddell house whose exterior we see a couple of times in the game, with a bit of Wonderland flair (and, of course, not on fucking fire). Haven't fully decided on the Community Lot, but it's probably going to be a park of some kind with Wonderland vibes -- I mean, I still have TONS of CC with all the characters and such, soooo...

The Smiler Coaster: Town Resident is Smiler Alton -- still having a little trouble nailing down their money-making skill, but their color is definitely Yellow. I'm also not ENTIRELY sure what their house should look like yet, but it's definitely gotta have Fun Science Lab vibes. :) (Though, since I'm thinking of making this version specifically my Valicer In The Dark Smiler, maybe it should be something that I think would fit in in Duskwall...) The Community Lot is something I'm actually working on at the moment -- a Ministry of Joy nightclub, with the basic shape of the building based off the station for the actual coaster! I'll share pics of that eventually -- I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming so far. :)

Back To The Future: Town Resident is Emmett "Doc" Brown -- specifically, the young 1930s The Game version I made not long after getting The Sims 4. His money-making skill will probably be Robotics, and his color is Orange. His house will naturally be some form of the Brown family mansion's garage -- even his 1930s self used that as a place to conduct his experiments in secret, after all! And the Community Lot will be an awesome Hill Valley Courthouse build I found on the Gallery (by Eowyn2707) -- it's currently a park, but I'm thinking of changing it to a rec center -- it's big enough inside!

Vampire -- The Masquerade: Bloodlines: Town Resident is Mal Kavian, a fem!Malkavian Fledgling I downloaded off the Gallery ages ago (I unfortunately don't recall the creator at this time). Her money-making skill will be Wellness (because, again, I find that very funny), and her color is Red. Her home will probably be a house version of the nicer haven you can get from LaCroix after the Elizabeth Dane mission (should work well as a tiny home, honestly). And the Community Lot -- well, you'd THINK it would be The Asylum, but I actually already have a really nice version of Confession (the Downtown nightclub) in my Gallery, so I'll likely use that.

Fallout 4: Town Resident is Preston Garvey (specifically, a version of him I found on the Gallery by Jenapher11). His money-making skill is Fabrication, and his color is Light Brown (to go with his iconic jacket). I'm thinking for his house I might do a mini-fort to represent The Castle (the Minutemen's base, also known as the wreckage of Fort Independence) with mid-century modern furniture to represent the facts that the Fallout series is all 50s aesthetics (I also have plenty of Fallout CC to use here). As for the Community Lot, I already have a Red Rocket fuel station in my Gallery as well, though I saw another cool version of it on the Gallery that I might use instead...we'll see! (I, uh, don't recall what lot type either is. XD I'll figure out something!)

Portal: Town Resident is Wheatley Notamoron -- though rather than using the human Wheatley that I made back in the day, I think it might be cool to do a Servo version of him. Finding a good Servo on the Gallery has proved a bit difficult, though, as most people upload Servos with all skills maxed, which is, uh, kind of the opposite of what I want. XD Anyway, his money-making skill would be Programming (because, again, funny) and his color would be White. His house would be a basement house and consist probably of the "relaxation suite" thing that Chell's stuck in at the beginning of Portal 2. And, similarly, the Community Lot would be a basement Aperture Science testing chamber that serves as a gym! Given the amount of walking and bouncing around you do to solve the puzzles in that game, it felt appropriate. :p

-->Finally, some other activities I have in mind for this lot while they build up their tiny town:

a) Smiler creating the "Advocates" club and having regular meetings at the Ministry of Joy nightclub to dance, sing, and otherwise make merry; Preston should probably also create a "Minutemen" club that does things like fabrication and woodworking and the like

b) At least some of the residents going to university once their houses are fully built -- I would at least like Emmett to attend Foxbury and get a Physics degree, and Smiler to go to Mixology skill classes and get the secret Mixology Certificate (because I just learned about this from Petey Plays It's latest Super Sim video -- apparently if you take 11 Mixology skill classes, you can earn a certificate that serves as a "degree" in Mixology, which is very cool :D)

c) I'd also like Emmett to become an "official" scientist once he's done his house-build thing, since it feels appropriate. I haven't done the active career in a while, and it might be fun to return to it. I might also make Victor a Paranormal Investigator -- I'd intended to put the Chill Valicer Save version of Victor into the career before I came up with the idea of them running a grocery store, after all.

d) Obviously there's going to be Valicer with my OT3 -- we'll see how romantic entanglements work out for the others on the lot!

Whew -- got a lot going in in this save and it isn't even an official thing yet. XD Maybe someday soon! I've still got some stuff I want to finish in the Chill Valicer Save first, though...

Sims 4 Wednesday -- Potential Tiny Town Challenge

Hi all! As we're between Chill Valicer Save updates this week, I wanted to talk to you about something I discovered relatively recently and have been thinking about off and on -- The Tiny Town Challenge! I first learned about this challenge through seeing a thumbnail for James Turner's version on YouTube, and, curious, tracked down the original challenge and rules to see what it was all about. You can get the full rule set and take a look at the original lot and Sims Deligracy created at the link above, but the basic gist is that you spend the challenge setting up a tiny town on a large lot (preferably 64x64) for seven Sims. Each Sim has a specific money-making skill that they must use to earn the funds to build their house on their specific sub-lot, and a favorite decor style and color that must inform what their house looks like. Each Sim is moved in individually, once the previous Sim has finished their house, and the challenge ends when all seven houses and any communal area is fully built.

I took one look at that and I was like "yeah, I'm into it." XD Both because it sounds like a fun challenge, and because it's a challenge with minimal set-up (which is the problem with the challenges I personally have come up with previously -- I think they'd be fun, but they require a loooot of prep!). Having thought about it for a bit, I have some ideas about how I'd like to do the challenge myself -- and some problems that I'm going to have to figure out before I can set this up as a potential alternate save file to the Chill Valicer Save:

-->Location: I decided relatively quickly that I'd like to do the challenge in Windenburg, setting up a little community on The Crumbling Isle (something like how Plumbob Paragon set theirs up). I almost never play in Windenburg, so I figured that setting the challenge there would be a good way to encourage me to wander around that world and see the sights. And I already have some ideas about using the other lots to make a true town out of the island -- like turning one lot into a Community Space to get a community garden going, or another lot into a retail store that a couple of the citizens run. Might be fun!

-->Citizenry: Well, you guys know me -- of course the first three residents of the tiny town would be Victor, Alice, and Smiler. However, I'm having trouble deciding on who the other residents of the town could be. The way I see it, I have two options for the rest of the group:

Option One: Add Victoria Everglot and Emily Merrimack and do a "Four Victorians Riding A Roller Coaster" polycule thing on the tiny town lot! This would be fun as it would allow for amusing and adorable polycule shenanigans...but the problem here is the color schemes. Specifically, while Smiler is fine with their primary color being Yellow, Victor, Alice, and Emily ALL suit Blue being their primary color (Victor has his blue butterfly and blue tie -- plus I've always headcanoned it as his favorite color; Alice has her iconic blue dress; and Emily has her blue -- everything), and Alice and Victoria would both suit Red (Alice has that iconic red blood splatter on her apron; Victoria has her red dress). Now, I know how I could fix this for Alice -- make her primary color Green, to match her eyes -- but I'm not sure what to do about Victor and Emily. I mean, when it comes down to it, Emily would have to get Blue, look at her, but the only other alternate colors I can think of for Victor would be Black or Grey, and that would result in a depressing-looking house. :( So yeah, bit of an issue there!

Option Two: Add my young Emmett "Doc" Brown Sim (patterned off his appearance in BTTF: The Game), a fem!Malkavian Fledgling Sim I downloaded off the Gallery (which I'm already planning on calling Mal Kavian), a Preston Garvey Sim, and my take on a Wheatley Sim to the gang and just represent pretty much all my favorite fandoms and games in one go. The bonus here is that I've got the full roster of seven Sims; as stated, I'm representing a bunch of things I enjoy, not just the primary three; and I get a tiny bit of diversity by including a black character as a primary. However, there are also a couple of issues here:

I'm not entirely sure I want to do the challenge with the full compliment of seven Sims, as I have trouble wrangling a mere three sometimes in my Chill Valicer Save. And before you ask, no, I don't have For Rent, so I couldn't turn the lot into a Residental Rental and just play one family at a time. I'd have to really fight with my own micromanaging tendencies to get this to work!

We again have color overlap issues because Victor, Preston, and Wheatley ALSO all suit the color Blue (Victor for the reasons listed above; Preston because the Minutemen have blue as their primary color scheme; and Wheatley because his eye is blue in the game). Now, admittedly, this one is a bit easier to solve -- make Preston's color Light Brown to match his iconic duster (yes, Sims 4 actually distinguishes between Light Brown and Dark Brown -- the only color that gets that distinction in the sort!), and Wheatley's White to match his core's outer shell -- but still. I am apparently obsessed with Blue characters!

Now, I can think of an interesting way to solve this dilemma -- set up two tiny towns on the Crumbling Isle on the two biggest lots, and divide the Sims so there's like five or so on each lot. (Suppose it could be like Victor, Alice, Smiler, Doc, Mal Kavian on one, and Victoria, Emily, Preston, Wheatley on another?) That does mean having to do the challenge twice, and wrangling a lot more Sims, but... *shrug* We'll see how I feel!

-->Skills, Colors, and Decors: As previously stated, all Sims have to have a specific skill that they use to fund the creation of their home, and a favorite color and decor style that should inform the look of said home. Now, the decor thing is kind of a mystery to me (I mix-and-match styles all the time when building, and I don't have Dream Home Decorator to make Sims Like specific types -- though it does occur to me that I could just fudge it by having each house just reflect their canon in some way), but I do have skills and colors almost entirely locked down for almost all of my potential citizens --

Victor: His color would be Blue (probably darker shades of such), and his money-making skill would be either Painting or Piano (though I'm leaning toward Painting because I've always headcanoned him as being more private with his music)

Alice: Her color would be Green, and her money-making skill either Painting or Writing (leaning toward Writing because I like the idea of her writing her own books)

Victoria: Her color would be Red, and her money-making skill would be either Knitting or Cross-Stitch (since we know she likes to sew from seeing her working on her blanket in the movie when Victor climbs onto her balcony)

Emily: Her color would be Blue (brighter shades), and her money-making skill would be either Flower Arranging (for her bouquet) or Gemology (for the wedding ring that starts the whole Corpse Bride mess -- it just amuses me)

Doc: His color would be Orange (as part of the BTTF logo), and his money-making skill would probably be Robotics (since it's the most sciencey-one), though I wouldn't say no to Fabrication

Mal: Her color would be Red (because, you know, vampire), and her money-making skill would be Wellness (because it deeply amuses me to have a vampire from that clan doing yoga and spa stuff)

Preston: His color would be either Blue or Light Brown (as previously stated), and his money-making skill would be either Fabrication (because he's the settlement guy, and Fabrication is a lot like how the workshops work in Fallout 4), Woodworking (the more low-tech version of that), or Archaeology (because he clearly enjoys the past, given you find him hiding in a museum and his coat is apparently looted from another one -- probably have to use a mod to make it available outside Selvadorada, though!)

Wheatley: His color would either be Blue or White (again, as previously stated), and his money-making skill would be Programming (again, because of the hilarity factor -- I mean, Wheatley CAN hack in the game, but we all know just how "good" he is at it XD)

Smiler: Their color would be Yellow, and their money-making skill --

And this is where I run into a problem, because I'm not entirely sure what to do for Smiler. Because my version of Smiler's primary thing is chemistry (or alchemy, depending on the setting), and I'm not entirely sure how to best represent that with the skills on offer. Should I do Mixology, on the basis that I heacanon they are also awesome at mixing drinks? Herbalism because that's kind of close (I have a mod that puts Granite Falls bugs in other worlds, so that's not an issue)? Do I rely on Simsonian Library's Apothecary mod and related skill because that is arguably closer that Herbalism? Or do I just fudge things by choosing Mixology or something before turning them into a spellcaster and having them focus on the Alchemy section of the spellbook? Decisions, decisions...

But yeah -- that's what I currently have in mind for any future Tiny Town-related save files I may make! Not gonna guarantee that this is gonna happen, but it's a distinct possibility. :) And if you guys have any suggestions regarding how I should do the tiny town (and what the fuck Smiler's money-making skill should be), please let me know!