#that one is in ts4 safe and sound (well...)

[nikatyler]

Sawyer: Well hello there...and he's good looking too. Jackpot.

[angel-is-here-too]

TS4 Fnaf legacy challenge

I’m a big fan of the sims as well as FNAF and I do love legacy challenges so I decided to make one of my own, even though it is a bit strange to have a legacy when pretty much everyone is possessed by a dead child ( but let’s ignore that fact, let’s just pretend their living live inspired by the animatronics so it isn’t THAT weird)

Also it’s roughly based on the cannon, very roughly 

It is Base game compatible though I mention somethings that can be changed by a pack, if my grammar isn't proper in this text I apologize English isn't my first language

I picked the characters I like, it’s not all of the fnaf characters( that would be impossible)

Basic rules:

1. All gens must die on the lot you first choose to live in( meaning they can move out, but need to move back before they die)

2. No cheats that would make it easier ( the only cheat I allow is if a gen calls for twins, cause that’s a bit difficult to achieve)

3. Aging can be at whatever length you like

4. After the first gen you don’t have to do the generations in order 

5. Must complete all goals 

Gen#1- The Puppet

We’re starting with the one that was the first to be killed ( at least in my head it makes sense for her to be the first)

The Puppet is a rather caring animatronic, always there for others, you never turn a friend down and make sure everyone around you is safe and sound

Traits: Music lover, family orientated, loyal ( or proper if you have Snowy Escape)

Aspiration: Friend of the world

Career: Freelance writer then quit and become a stay at home mom 

You have to have 5 good friends that you call and text everyday

You have to marry the first single sim you find

You have to apologize and be friendly to sims even if their mean to you

You have at least 4 kids( if you want to hate yourself have 6)

Master 1 music skill and have the other two above five( and master singing if you have City living)

If you have seasons go all in on Halloween, if you don’t have seasons decorate house in a spooky way as much as you can

Gen#2- Freddy Fazbear

You grew up surrounded by people and love the attention, you love being by other people and they love you too, sometimes a bit too much. You’re funny and friendly personality makes everyone smile

Traits: Goofball, glutton, perfectionist(or self absorbed if you have GF)

Aspiration: Jokestar

Career: Entertainer( comedy branch)

Have at least 7 friends go to a club with them every weekend

Pizza, order it at least every other week

Have l.10 in comedy and charisma

Engage to a sim with at least one positive trait(outgoing etc…)

Have 2 affairs after you have your first child ( if you have a male sim then affair is meant to be at the same time) while with your partner (your partner can’t find out about it)

Have children with said affairs if your sim is a male they can’t interact with the kids, if your sim is a female they have to raise the kids but not have a good relationship (You love your firstborn only)

If you have get together make a club ‘band’

Gen#3- Chica the chicken

Your parent raised you to love food, you put food over anything else though you’ll eat anything you have your limits, you love animals and would never harm them

Traits: Loves outdoors, Vegetarian and slob( you can replace loves the outdoors with animal enthusiast if you have Cottage living)

Aspiration: Master Chef

Career: Culinary ( or open a restaurant if you have the pack)

Master cooking and gourmet cooking,(or baking if you have get to work)

Don’t clean unless a sim does it automatically

Have one child only, not by love by a random ‘hook-up’, don’t talk to the baby daddy ever 

If you have any pack that has animals in it you must have at least one of each, if you don’t have a pack with animals then catch fish and put one in every room, including in front of the house

Decorate the house with animal themed items

Gen#4- Foxy the pirate 

The previous gen was obsessed with food, you on the other hand love staying fit, healthy food and exercise, also brawling with the neighbors never hurt anyone

Traits: Hot headed, active , self assured( or high achiever if you have snowy escape)

Aspiration: Bodybuilder

Career: Athlete , either branch 

Work out everyday

Max out athleticism

Have more enemies then friends

Have two kids ,prefer the one that isn’t the next gen

Do at least a half of a collection of your choice

Gen#5- Bonnie the Bunny

You were always shadowed by your sibling, they were the favorite and you weren’t you were sick of being left out so you decided to move away and live out your dream

Traits: romantic, musical lover, ambitious

Aspiration: musical genius 

Career: Entertainer, musical branch

Marry and remarry your highschool sweetheart

Have a long-term engagement before you get back to your sweetheart

‘Run away’ as a teen either to the city (if you have city living) or to an empty lot which you will give two lot challenges

Have a negative relationship with your sibling, fix it when you’re both adults

Have two children with your lover before the divorce, one during your engagement , and adopt one after you remarry

Master guitar and violin skill

Grow a flower in your bedroom

Gen#6- Golden Freddy

You grew up surrounded by so many people, such caring people, but all you want is to be left alone. Often your left confused with live being filled with so many possibilities

Traits: Loner, erratic, gloomy(or paranoid if you have strangeville)

Aspiration: Do at least half of all the creative aspiration(writing, painting….)

Career: Have 5 random careers before settling on painter

Must be the ‘middle child’ ( the third born)

Master 2 skill and have l.8 in 4 skills

Have good relationship with family, but don’t answer their calls

Don’t talk to strangers , don’t make friends, until young adulthood

don’t go outside your lot when you are a teen

Have penpals

Preferably find a partner with the outgoing or good trait

Have a single child with your partner, but close yourself off 

Die in an accident before being a senior( drowning, burning)

Gen#7- Baby

Your parent was always so closed off, never going outside, staying in… Well all you want is to be outside, clubbing, drinking, talking, making mistakes

Traits: childish, lazy, noncommittal

Aspiration: Serial romantic

Career: None

You’re a leech, only live off your friends and family

Master charisma( singing, if you have city living and dancing if you have get together)and mischief

Don’t ever get a job, don’t attend school when you’re a teen just skip it, and slack off when you are a kid

Date multiple people at once

Have a child with 3 of them, try to be in contact, but no child will live with you

(you can switch to the next generation once you are finished with this one, or they can move in once they are a teen)

Gen#8- Ballora

Truth is your mom barely spend time with you, but you strive to be better, you want to be successful and have a happy family

Traits: Loyal, family oriented, outgoing ( or high maintenance if you have Spa day)

Aspiration: Big happy family( or super parent)

Career: Business( or politics if you have city living)

Marry your bff

Have 3 kids, with a your husband

Your husband must cheat on you, but you stay in said relationship (it’s death do us apart afterall)

Make sure the house is spotless and the fridge is never empty

Master charisma(and parenting, or dancing if you have those packs)

Have excellent relationships with your kids, you bring them everywhere

 have only one friend you talk to, but don’t go to clubs, party places with them (kids aren’t allowed to go to such places so neither will you)

Die peacefully

If any traits conflict with one another please tell me

[yooniesim]

Hello passionate friend. 💗 I have a question. As a long time Sim fan the cc world amazed me when I found it. Originally I found paid cc that I loved and I paid. Then I started to just wait for the early access as I came to have some favourites. Only one I found never ever had early access…there were a little bits here and there but the stuff I wanted was locked away. So I paid and I was scammed. It was higher than I have ever paid but after I paid I was told I could only have what was the current pack and choice one ONE old one. I didn’t want the current one. I wanted 3 old ones. I was told I could pay 3 times. I did not. At this time I didn’t understand how wrong this was but it sure didn’t feel good. All this time later SixamCC still has their stuff behind the paywall. They lied and said they would release all the older content and only released one!! Every like now takes you to a new site that says coming soon. If you click coming soon it takes you back to subscribe on Patreon with the same payment terms that have always been there. I hate this creator and I really wish there was someone who was posting all their cc!! I saw someone a little bit ago that was posting all the links on Tumblr but I guess they got shut down as I cannot find them. I need to heal my hurt little Sim heart and get this assholes stuff for free and share it!! I know it sounds stupid but I have met so many amazing people in this community that when garbage like that comes around it actually makes me so sad. I know I’m not the only one they ripped off. Can I even report them?? Is there any information you can share with me for getting the Simblr account posting all the links or how to report. Love from, a similar minded simmer that always reads ALL your posts. I’m a first time asker 😊.

Hey nonny! I believe you can report them this way:

Here is the link to the contact us page: boop!

As for getting Sixam's cc, i'm pretty sure you can find it on TS4 Rebels. Just Google it and it should come up. Make sure you have an adblocker on since there could be adult ads. But the downloads should be safe now that they're hosting them differently (without weird external sites involved).

I hope this helps, I'm sorry you had this experience 🥺 and I wish you well simming from now on 🥰 thanks for sending this nonny!

[fellowstrangetownappreciator]

The Strange Case of The Strangetown Metamorphosis

There is a mysterious Sim that appears in Strangetown.

That's like saying "there is a fish that appears in the ocean", I know, so I'll be a little more specific.

They are an adult whose memories show inconsistencies with those of their family members. Something is missing!

Alright. That's also not saying much, that's like half of the premades in vanilla, non-clean hoods.

They are immediately recognizable by their appearance and, dare I say it, have distinguishing features unique to them.

Well, that also kinda fits everyone...

They feature in more than one installment of the series.

Again, not that helpful. I mean, almost everybody from the base game hoods is (for better or worse) represented in TS3 or TS4.

They appear in TS2 for PSP!

Hmm...

They are a member of a wealthy family connected to science and paranormal.

And...

They are somehow connected to (possible) cloning.

I imagine that now you’re probably rolling your eyes and asking: Why didn’t I just simply say I was going to talk about Bella Goth?

Because... I’m not!

It’s Loki Beaker. In this mini-essay I’m going to speak about Loki, what is the mystery around him, what hints are there and what are some of the theories and which one do I fancy.

It’s basically a routine round of the popular game “connect EAxis’ oversights and glue them together into a headcanon”.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to:

The Mystery of Loki Beaker!

0: Preface: Loki who?

“As soon as he perfects his latest invention, Loki is sure to get the recognition he knows he deserves. In the meantime, he keeps himself busy by trying to assemble a nuclear reactor out of common household items.”

On the first glance, Loki as a Sim seems quite straightforward. He is a Knowledge Sim with a very eccentric personality. All his trait points are in the extremes, as you can see:

He is a scientist, a competent one at that, as proven by his high career level and the fun fact that some of the game’s horrible machinery you can buy for Aspiration points is attributed to his creation.

(It explains why are the Beakers the only ones who have the stuff lying around by default. It is normal for a Strangetown family to own a non-buyable reward object or two but those are career rewards, the Beakers are the only one who canonically own Aspiration points rewards.)

Even though he knows his stuff when it comes to his profession, he is very corrupt and tests his questionable projects on his captive, Nervous Subject.

To say that Loki is unpopular would be an understatement. No one but his wife Circe likes Loki, even his own sister is indifferent towards him. Yes, he has a sister. Her name is Erin and she also lives in Strangetown with a colorful collection of roommates.

Nothing mysterious about him so far. (apart from his eyebrows)

1: Characterization fallen apart

And then The Sims 3 happened. It was actually quite late into the game’s life cycle, the early 2013, when a beautiful nordic-themed world was released on TS3 Store. Its name was Aurora Skies and it featured Loki, Erin and their parents.

TS3 Loki is a child and Erin is a toddler.

Now I haven’t actually played Aurora Skies. I own (and love) TS3 but the price range for the Store worlds is too high for me, content-to-money wise. So there might be some hidden clues about the Beakers in their house or relationship panels that I haven’t been able to inspect but... not to sound cynical but I doubt it. I doubt such attention was given to detail of this family in Aurora Skies, as they don’t even have individual bios.

But... that is... fine? I mean, we have Loki’s TS2 bio...

Nope. Sure we do. And it would be fine if hair color and ambitions weren’t the only thing Loki and his younger self (from now on referred to as smol Loki) had in common.

Let’s take a look on smol Loki’s personality.

The first noticeable thing is that there is not a trace of Loki’s trademark villainy. He’s not Mean Spirited, he’s not Evil, he’s not even a No Sense of Humor Sim. His extreme neatness and hyperactivity are nowhere to be seen either. While it is true that TS3′s capabilities of defining personality are very limited as it picks “outstanding points” rather than a position of each trait on a scale, and it only has 5 slots (and tiny teeny 3 for children), it doesn’t make any sense still for the devs not to pick some more loki-esque traits for the precious slots they had.

Unless...

They didn’t care about Loki’s personality and there were no deeper intentions.

Unless the devs were trying to purposefully show us new angles of his character that either got suppressed while he was growing up, or manifest in ways that TS2′s scale system wasn’t able to show.

Could the Lucky trait in particular have had something to do with the change?

(Also, those traits of smol Loki are reason why I usually go for a Family Secondary Loki in TS2 and thus make Strangetown the purgatory of two unstable blonde Knowledge/Family sciency guys.)

We also must not omit that even though smol Loki didn’t display any of them, he still had all of Loki’s signature traits in him, as Loki in TS2 has his actual personality synced with the genetic one, meaning that there was something in there that caused him not to act so mean that got lost as he grew up. In other words, something brought up the worst in him.

And that’s not all. Smol Loki is not a regular TS3 child. You see, in TS3, premade children aren’t particularly known for being highly skilled experts. Neither are in TS2, for that matter, and it’s okay. It’s realistic.

Smol Loki has a skill maxed.

It is very rare for a premade regardless of age to already start with a maxed skill and I personally don’t know of any other premade children that do.

And it’s writing.

What does writing have to do with Loki? Does Loki write? Probably he has to, those academic papers aren’t gonna spawn out of thin air, but that’s not what the writing skill in TS3 (or the hidden writing skill in TS2) are about. They’re about creative writing only.

Ok, ok. How high is Loki’s Creativity skill, then? In TS2, skills are much broader, they more resemble skillsets than individual skills, and writing categorizes under Creativity. Bring out the skill panel!

Two. He has 2 points in Creativity. That is... low. That is actually very low, especially for a Sim that has supposedly been writing for fun since childhood. (and was a prodigy, while we’re at it) It is safe to say, I think, that if the player doesn’t make him do it, Loki doesn’t write anymore and he hasn’t been doing that for a long, long time.

While I would cynically admit that the dissonance in personalities might be just the lack of damns given from EAxis’ side, this seems to me too on the nose to be unintentional.

They would have no reason to bring the Beakers back without the “evil scientists” thing in mind. I mean, that’s what they’re iconic for. That’s what they’re recognizable by. (apart from their eyebrows)

So the person who was in charge of creating smol Loki probably knew they were recreating “Loki the mad scientist”.

So when they were picking the skill they use to demonstrate that this kid is gonna go far, they thought... “evil scientist = writing”...?

I would understand going for Creativity in general. I mean, Loki’s an inventor. That comes with the territory. But creativity as such isn’t really a skill in TS3. It’s divided to different activities.

Wouldn’t it make more sense just in general to pick logic, then? I mean, Loki isn’t that extremely logical by default but it is his second strongest skill and a feature unmistakably connected to being a scientist.

That’s what leads me to believe that writing plays a role in the story and it was chosen on purpose.

So how did a sweet little family-oriented boy talented with words transform into the ruthless catboy inventor we know and love?

And that, my friends, is the mystery of Loki Beaker.

2: A closer look at our environmentalist friends, the Beakers

If we want to get the full picture and come to a satisfying conclusion of some sorts, we need to inspect smol Loki’s surroundings. Maybe there is a clue to the continuous force or a traumatic event that shifted smol Loki’s direction in life?

Loki’s and Erin’s parents are named Gundrun and Bjorn. Even though their age would still allow it, they’re not present at the start of TS2′s Strangetown play, they’re long dead. Bjorn died before Erin became an adult and Gundrun died shortly before her son’s engagement to Circe. Because they died by the time Loki had (presumably) already long enrolled in his current life-path, we can safely rule out any tragic early death of parental figures scenario as a possible answer.

Gundrun is the only Beaker that canonically also writes. She has 5 points in the writing skill. She also shares some traits with Loki, namely the smarts and ambition.

But she has little to do with science and is way more business-oriented which is a trait she shares with Circe’s ancestors, for example her father. Maybe the families knew each other from business ventures even before they moved to Strangetown? It is stated in their memories that Loki and Circe first met when they were children. But I digress!

Anyway, I don’t see anything in Gundrun that would suggest any abusive behavior towards her son that might have triggered his drastic change. Possibly but not necessarily she might’ve been a bit absent but nothing out of ordinary.

And now the father, Bjorn.

Bjorn is the sciency half of the couple and works as an Aquatic Ecosystem Tweaker. Again, he has zero traits that would raise any red flags and he shares 4 out of 5 traits with either smol Loki or Loki. (I don’t know if Loki is a “natural cook” but he cooks quite well, so I think that counts.)

What’s interesting about Bjorn, though, is his speech that serves as a flavor text for the Aurora Skies store page.

(Image transcript: “Do it for science! Science is everywhere around us, but at Aurora Skies it’s not just something you learn; it’s something you do!  We need bright young minds to make the dreams of the future a reality. Even now we’re finding more uses for garbage to help the planet. Charging batteries, powering machines - the sky is the limit. Just this last year we created a modified Hot Air Baloon using garbage as fuel and turning it into pure air with a pine breeze scent.  Now you can have efficient travel and an amazing romantic adventure with no cost to the ozone (or your nose)! Every year we’re creating more and more exciting things in the world of science. Garbage-powered hearts, heart-powered cars, solar-powered cats; what will you think of next!  It’s all up to you. Do it for Science! Did you know? Hot Air Balloons are an epic form of travel based around the simple principle that hot air is lighter than cold air.  They lift in the air based on the heat system in the balloon. Increasing the temperature of the air inside the balloon makes it lighter than the air outside and the balloon begins to float.  More air is required to lift heavier things; that’s why the balloons have to be so huge! How cool (or hot!) is that?”)

From this piece of text we can see Bjorn’s passion and dedication to “green” science. Nothing in his traits suggests he fakes it, so I think it’s safe to believe that this peppy idealist is a glimpse into Loki’s father’s genuine self.

He might have encouraged his children to follow in his footsteps (”We need bright young minds to make the dreams of the future a reality.“) and smol Loki, who later in life seemed to have similar levels of enthusiasm (science is his One True Hobby), might have been receptive to that.

Now just close your eyes for a second and imagine an alternate reality in which Loki picked up where Bjorn left and instead of a energy-refilling machine that electrocutes you if you’re not happy enough, he invented “solar-powered cats”.

Still no hints on what could’ve messed Loki up, though.

Let’s take a look at the parents in TS2. Even though they’re not present and aren’t even resurrectable, they’re still coded in the game for purposes of genetics, memories and family trees, so some of their characteristics are salvageable.

And by the Watcher, they were both Romance Sims.

They were workaholic Romance Sims who cared about the environment and liked recycling (and Hot Baloons).

And they were both extremely Nice and very Sloppy, if their personalities on wiki are something to go by. Which they unfortunately aren’t, at least not completely because most ancestors don’t simply have “their own” personalities and use presets instead, so they tend to be quite similar.

The same goes for most of the Beaker clan, unfortunately. Fun fact is that there is no Knowledge Sim in sight (before Loki, of course). Maybe they weren’t a scientist family, but a bunch of Romance Sims who used to spend their free time in between woohoos saving the planet with eco-science. (3 out of 6 of Loki’s and Erin’s ancestors were Romance Sims, 2 were Fortune and 1 was Family)

But! There is one outlier. Her name is Gertrude Beaker. She is Loki’s paternal grandmother.

And similarly to her grandson, she certainly has a personality to remember.

She doesn’t use a preset, this is a personality that someone went and manually assigned (...or generated) for her. And she is Neat, Outgoing and doesn’t have a nice bone in her body. But unlike Loki, she has a sense of humor (which makes her even more dangerous, in my opinion) and is extremely Lazy.

She is a Fortune Sim and the only Beaker who shares the darker sides of Loki’s personality. (to be clear, I don’t mean their taste for cleaning but the round 0 of Nice points)

Because she doesn’t feature in TS3 at all, it is safe to say that she wasn’t in her grandchildren’s lives until the family moved to Strangetown. Could she be the corrupting influence on smol Loki?

As far as personality comparison goes, she seems to be the only possible culprit, the only one who’s personality shares the same unpleasant qualities he became infamous for. But! That’s not saying much. There is no evidence she actually did anything.

There’s not even any evidence that she ever met her grandson, given he has no memory of her dying which means she might have died before he was even born. That would be a solid evidence on the contrary and would rule her out. But I’m leaving some maneuvering space for theories here because she is the only Beaker ancestor with custom personality, after all, and that is suspicious.

That’s all the Beakers we know of if not counting Atom and Ceres, who came after Loki, so they’re not relevant to the question of his childhood. Or... are they?

3: And that’s when the trouble began

Another part of this question that might help us discern what happened to Loki is the when. All we know so far is that there is a big void of unknown between smol Loki and regular Loki and the point of transformation happened in there somewhere.

Thankfully, we have something to give us an idea. It’s this snapshot in storytelling pictures for the Beakers:

It shows smol Loki destroying a dollhouse. It seems to be in an impersonal environment of some sorts. The cheapest bed in the game is against a bare white wall, the window is hid behind blue curtains and there doesn’t really seem to be anything else but the dollhouse, a teddy bear in the background and that... very unpleasant bed.

It clearly tells us that Loki’s shift started in his pre-teen years.

And seeing that room which is definitely not in the Beaker Castle at 1 Tesla Court, it makes me think of a hotel or a cheap apartment the family was staying in while moving from Aurora Skies to Strangetown. Maybe the castle-like something the household inhabits at the start of the game wasn’t a property of the Beakers at all, maybe that was where the Salamises used to live and now it belongs to Circe?

Anyway, could it had been leaving Aurora Skies that sent smol Loki down an existential crisis and settling in the not exactly welcoming environment of Strangetown, enrolling in a local school, that sealed it?

But why all the stuff with writing? This would work with any other hobby but somehow it had to be writing and it’s our task to find out why.

4: Not your average tragedy

Now in our search we already have some ideas but it wouldn’t be thorough if we didn’t take into account smol Loki’s actual personality. I mean, we went into what traits he doesn’t have but what about those he has?

Namely Lucky and Family-Oriented.

I think Lucky is a very interesting choice. There’s nothing inherent about Loki Beaker that would make you go “that’s one lucky guy!” (if you don’t count his relationship with Circe as a stroke of luck, that is) and the same goes for smol Loki.

But... it could be a clue. His metamorphosis either couldn’t be triggered by trauma because he’s lucky and it would avoid him, or it must’ve been something tremendously horrid so he’s lucky he’s still alive.

Now we know we are searching for something that happened in his late childhood, verging on the start of his teenage years. His family was going through the turmoil of moving to a desert and he has already known his future partner Circe. Meanwhile Erin-

Oh, wait. Erin.

Smol Loki was Family-Oriented which implies he would probably have a good relationship with his little sister, as he would’ve naturally inclined to protect her and help his parents take care of her. But!

Not only do they have an amicable but distant relationship as adults but Erin seems to forget that Loki even existed in her childhood.

He has the usual set of memories of a sibling growing up well but she doesn’t, she has no Loki-related memories at all, not even of his marriage, which was a quite recent event.

Could the reason for Loki’s “downfall” be somehow related to his sister? Was there a dramatic event in which she lost a part of her memory?

5: Theories!

Ok, we’re finally here! Now I try to present some theories about what might’ve happened.

1. Burdens of the golden child

In Aurora Skies, Loki used to be the little wonder every relative was gushing about. With his father as an acclaimed scientist and a very liked person in general, there was little to no adversity his son had to face. He followed his passion and having nobody to really compare himself to, nor anybody who would terrorize him, he prospered.

But then the Beakers moved. Strangetown was... different. It was way smaller than Aurora Skies, so everybody inherently knew everybody and everybody had to interact with everybody... because the small space of a desert community didn’t leave them with any choice. And it was bleak and unfriendly. No one except for the Salamises knew the Beakers, so they found themselves under scrutiny from their new neighbors.

So Loki, who used to live thinking he was unique, was now sitting everyday in a much smaller classroom with Pascal and Vidcund Curious, whom he was immediately being compared to. But he wasn’t like the Curiouses. He was a kid of a scientist but wasn’t a science kid. He didn’t have much in common with Pascal who approached him and tried to befriend him at first but he wanted to. In Strangetown, nothing seemed to be cooler than being really, really into science. Pascal’s and Loki’s communication attempts were rather poor, though, and in the end, they never made friends. Loki slowly began to disdain the oldest Curious boy and it culminated a few years later in high school when Pascal made an attempt to woo Circe. It was even worse with Vidcund. Ever since Loki’s first day at the new school, Vidcund had been eyeing him with a disgusted look and Loki became quick to reciprocate.

In Strangetown, nothing seemed to be cooler than being really, really into science. Even Circe was on it! She was the only person his age he has know in Strangetown before his family moved in and he liked her. Not “like” liked her, yuck! But he thought she was cool. Her family used to visit the Beakers in Aurora Skies and they played together. She was a friend! Or so Loki thought. She seemed to like hanging out with the Curiouses much more.

In Strangetown, nothing seemed to be cooler than being really, really into science, yes. But not in the eyes of Buzz Grunt, the son of a general who lived in Strangetown. Their family were the self-proclaimed protectors of the hood but at the same time they weren’t shy to show a strong distaste for all that made Strangetown an important desert settlement in the first place. And little Buzz, although Loki doubted he understood the nuances, was very fond of asserting his dominance over his less sporty and hyper-masculine classmates.

Suddenly jealous of the Curious brothers, under pressure from both the adults and his peers comparing him to them and bullied by Buzz, Loki’s social life fell apart. He started having problems... and he came up with solutions. He has always liked science but from back then on he hyperfixated on it to prove everybody who picked on him for being a worthless parody of a science kid wrong.

Not only his social life and self-confidence were busted, though. Moving away from Aurora Skies to Strangetown that had much higher prices for housing because of the limited space, the living standards for the Beakers lowered. It was chaotic and uncomfortable. Plus, almost everybody in Strangetown was loaded. Why, Circe and her parents lived in a small castle! Loki felt like they’re the only “poor” family around and it played into his new-found insecurities.

And then there was Erin’s accident. She suffered a severe head injury and even though she fortunately survived, she was never... the same. She had issues with her memory. Loki tried to convince himself that he’s big enough not to cry but when they were visiting Erin in the hospital and she didn’t recognize him, he cried. It was his little sister! And... it was all his fault anyway! If he was quicker and pushed her to safety, she would’ve been fine! Or even better, he wished the car would’ve hit him instead.

Loki was becoming more and more snappy, focused on his grades and projects, unavailable. The siblings never mended their relationship, Erin, even though she recovered, never got to make new memories with her brother. Not remembering them growing up together, he was like a stranger to her. A scary mean teenage boy she didn’t know and, even though she was a very friendly child, she was too intimidated to willingly spend time with him. And Loki was always busy and moreover, he felt guilty and inexplicably angry, so he postponed approaching her, until it was too late, he was in college, she was in high school and it was too awkward.

And... there was no time to write anymore.

2. Gertrude the Neat and Mean (and Lazy)

Ok, Loki doesn’t have any memories of his grandma. But hear me out! Erin does not have any of him either and yet they met. This theory doesn't require any additional write up – he simply got under the influence of his 0 Nice points granny and she cultivated him to be just like her.

My personal take: This is maybe my least favorite theory of them all, even though it is quite straightforward. It doesn't take much into consideration and demonizes Gertrude, who as far as we know, might not done anything wrong.

3. The accident

This theory takes advantage of TS3's canon sciency machinery, namely Cerebralizing Brain Enhancing Machine 2.0.

It can, among other things, change a Sim's personality. There is (quite unfortunately, in my opinion) no chance of consequential failure in the actual game, the most it can do is to (non-fatally) electrocute your Sim. But...

Imagine smol Loki sneaking into his dad's laboratory, most probably at his workplace.

He was curious. Ever since his father showed him all the equipment in there, all he could think of was the machine that made people smarter.

Maybe it could make him smarter?

I mean, Loki knew he was already quite smart. At least, he's been told he was and he had no reason not to believe it.

But he could be even smarter.

He could be like his dad. Or his mom. Or Erin. Everyone was talking about how clever young Erin seemed. Loki was proud of her but part of him just wanted that, too.

So what if... he went to dad's laboratory, just for a little while, and made himself smarter?

He made all the necessary preparations. It meant to memorize dad’s schedule, so he knew just the time when he could sneak into the laboratory. It also meant to get a good costume so he won’t be recognizable on the security footage!

And then finally, he was ready. To infiltrate the laboratory was easy enough but it only made Loki more nervous. He was on the edge but determined. He wanted to make it big in the world. He needed to seize the opportunity. And fear... fear was there to be ignored! Hands, stop trembling!

His confidence grew a bit once he got to the machine itself. He knew how to run it thanks to his dad and it made him feel competent and ready.

Little did he know that there was a huge oversight. Although Loki could operate the technology on a very basic level, his knowledge went nowhere near deep enough for him to detect that the machine has yet another set of settings and those currently expect an adult user. It wasn’t configured for a child patient.

But unaware of that, the boy in his patchy dinosaur costume climbed on top of the machine and with his eyes wide open and his heart racing he connected the Brain Enhancer to his system. Then, with his hand sweating, he pushed a button on a remote he was clutching to.

When Bjorn, alerted by Loki’s screams, rushed into the laboratory, it was way too late.

As his terrified father was calling the ambulance, the child was alive and even still awake. He was too weak to cry. He just watched Bjorn, wishing for death and looking for signs of wrath in father’s eyes.

There were none. Only fear.

Physically, Loki Beaker managed to recover just fine. With the power of advanced medicine and plastic surgery, the burns he suffered were reduced to nothing but almost invisible scars.

But inside, he was never the same. Literally. Even though the procedure backfired horribly, it still worked to some extend - but even that extend was warped. Loki succeeded in giving himself the Genius trait but several of his traits were replaced also, including the Lucky trait that probably saved his life.

6: Conclusion!

I like Loki very much. (no sh*t, who would’ve guessed) He’s a very controversial and over-the-top character who tends to be rather unpredictable in the actual gameplay. I started writing this giant thing to find an answer to his backstory that would satisfy me and hopefully also some of you.

With a heavy heart I conclude I’m not successful.

First I have to admit I originally planned to present 5 theories instead of 3 but I scrapped 2 of them.

First was about Atom time traveling and replacing Loki, creating himself again and again in a time loop (would explain the huge personality difference between smol Loki and Loki-Atom) and it was very far-fetched but fun, alas I realized it was out of character for Atom, since he seems to love his sister and his Plumbot so much he would hardly leave them behind to pull that off.

The second was about Nervous and the corrupting power of Death he has inside that would slowly drive Loki and Circe “evil” even though it’s unclear whether they first adopted him with being a lab-rat in mind. But it would not make sense since a change like that would be visible on their personality panels. That’s not that important, though. What made me not include this theory is that it feels uncomfortably victim blame-y. It’s not directly since it wouldn’t be Nervous’ fault anyway but any attempt to shift the blame from Loki and Circe in this situation feels uncomfortable.

(To be clear, I don’t think the Beakers deserve demonization. In my opinion, the best way to treat them narrative-wise is like eccentric people capable of feeling love and doing good things sometimes, yet irredeemably self-centered, morally bankrupt and deserving a lifetime in jail for child abuse they have done on Nervous. Not one-dimensional but still villains and still objectively bad people.)

And those 3 theories above? They could’ve been better.

I think I like the first the most, even though I still feel like something is missing. I just tend to like relatively grounded explanations and this one doesn’t feature the supernatural nor any deus ex machina gadget.

What about you? And do you have any other theories? Sky’s the limit! It’ll make my day to hear them!

Whatever your takes are, they’re all valid.

[goldenhour-s]

tomorrow, it's 2 months since my parents’ car accident.

aka an update on me and my family’s situation.

TW: car accidents, (physical) disability, trauma.

today, mom got home after numerous transfers between hospitals and rehab centres (all switches due to covid and whole wards being shut down and readjusted for the pandemic’s second wave in poland; it’s been fucking HELL). she’s probably gonna be transferred to yet another hospital next week, because it’s absolutely CRUCIAL mama is rehabilitated without a major break.

it’s the first time we’re seeing each other in over a month, and let’s be real, the 2 visits i managed to have in september were short and it feels like ages ago.

everything has been hectic as the situation changes from day to day, plans have to be adjusted or cancelled, and the house was simply not ready to welcome a patient who still cannot sit up on their own, NOW.

mom’s doing better, though. there are visible improvements thanks to the rehab, and it’s amazing to see how from no leg&hip movements at all back in september, mom can now straighten her right leg on her own, can move the leg to the sides, can even move her right hip. her left side is “stubborn and uncooperative” at times as she says, but it’s improving as well, just... visibly slower.

the rehab professionals keep saying mom has high chances of walking, one day. but, again, it’s crucial she’s in constant rehabilitation. first months after the post-accident surgery are of utmost importance for a patient to get better in the future.

it’s been so tough, so fucking tough for my whole family. mentally, we’re all kind of mess; physically, we’re a mess but getting by; financially, well. we’re trying to apply for various aids from the government, there’s of course some insurance money icoming, there are savings... but there are no endless purses, you know? i’ve already thought about setting up a gofundme, but i don’t wanna do it unless i’m sure i can’t do anything else.

it’s scary to admit that, at some point, you can only trust that there will be some good, able people out there to help you simply because they’re willing and capable.

i think i’ll be able to open build commissions soon-ish, probably before the end of this month. any money’s good money in times like these, you know? so, even though i won’t charge much, it’ll count.

if you’re reading this and would like to (and are able to!) help us out a bit, you can do so via my kofi - you just donate by buying a virtual coffee that’s 3 bucks. if you decide to do that, i’d be so grateful, honestly. among hospitalization & various medical expenses which revolve around mama’s rehabilitation, i’m still trying to see my therapist once a week... and of course it’s a cost that i feel guilty for. i don’t think my mental health could take a therapy loss now, though. i’m already struggling while being able to ease this post-traumatic mental shit once a week.

i’m not in the best shape mentally, that’s a fact; i know no one could blame me under these circumstances. despite that, i managed to prepare 7! lots for simblreen, additional one is coming, then i have 3 newly renovated evergreen harbor apartments, functional and cc-free/cc-light, aaand i wanna make another 2 glimmerbrook builds. soooo if you like my works in ts4 and you wanna send me a thank you coffee via kofi, damn i won’t be mad lmao

it’s not a post about donations, and again, please do not send me a singLE COIN! if you can’t afford that. this year took a toll on so many of us, it’s scary. but... we’re still here, aren’t we?

i think i’m gonna end it here; i’m EXHAUSTED after today’s reunion. the emotions, all these nerves, it got me mad tired. i’m impossibly grateful i could see mom again, though, and to have her show her improvements in person, and to see her reunions with our cats and dog, and to see my parents tear up at the sight of each other-- yeah. today’s been a lot.

mama is safe and sound at home for now, but we’re looking into yet another rehab centre option. until that - i’ll be busy tending to her, entertaining her and simply enjoying our time together. it’s been a while, and the time that passed has been impossibly difficult.

stay safe.

alka

[aminovas]

Photoshop Image Masking Tutorial Part 1: Simple Layer Masking to Image with Alpha, for Stencils and Overlays

As promised to a few people now, here is a (probably overly long) tutorial on masking in photoshop. Masking is where you use another image to show what parts of the main image you want to be visible and which parts invisible (or transparent). White = visible. Black = invisibile. Gray = various degrees of transparency. Alpha layers in DDS images do this for the entire image. Masks of individual layers do this for individual layers. This is a really really helpful skill for making textures. 

This is all aimed at people who enjoy using Photoshop but are primarily beginners at it. I think I can safely say that masking is a “hump” skill for people who are otherwise pretty handy at Photoshop. I’m told it is a tricky thing to learn and an easy thing to forget, and it doesn’t help that there are several ways to approach it. This is the way I learned that actually stuck for me, so maybe it will make sense for you, too. 

Part 1 (below) walks you through how I do overlays/stencils with transparency, from an image that is NOT neatly clipped. 

Part 2 will cover RGB masks. 

Part 3 will be masking of paint layers and other things in Create A World. 

Part 4 will be masking in World Machine. 

Part 5 will venture away from masking to cover novel uses of CAW, World Machine, and Crazy Bump for making textures, primarily normal maps, for CC objects and CAS (yes really!). 

This is written for TS3 modders, but TS4 and TS2 modders might find it useful as well. 

Skills covered: 

Select --> Color Range, Inverse

Edit --> fill

Image --> adjustment --> Hue/Saturation(/Lightness), Brightness/Contrast

Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur

Layers: New Layer, Merge Layers, Delete Layers, Mask Layer, Apply Mask

Channels: Edit Mask of Layer, Create Alpha Channel, Edit Alpha Channel

Save as DDS with transparency, Save as PNG for opening in Gimp with transparency

Importing into TSRW stencil OR package file via S3PE

If you already use photoshop, you probably have done some form of creating layers with transparency. You may have selected a portion of your image and copied it, or erased everything but the parts of your image you want. That is all VALID, but working with masks instead has two advantages: first, it is non-destructive. Your image remains intact in case you delete something you might want later. Second, you can make softer transitions with greater detail than is ever possible from hand selecting or using the magic wand tool.

To begin, you can open your image directly in photoshop and just start working with it as is, or if you prefer you can copy it over to a document of the right size for your final texture (ie. 1024x1024 at 72 px per inch ARGB). You might want to do that if you already have other elements of your texture going on, but if you edit this image separately you don’t risk accidentally messing up your existing work. So:

1. Open your image. In Layers, right click your background to create a copy. Please leave the background layer there for now, or make a second copy to save for later. You need TWO layers with your image in, because the layer we are working with is going to be transformed into a masking layer. 

2. I’m aiming to isolate the mermaid. I definitely don’t need any of the beige background and I don’t care about the shape of the shield, so I’m just going to use the marquee tool to select the areas I don’t want and delete the. I select the area I want to keep, then go to select --> inverse selection to select the surrounding areas. I can then hit delete and place a black layer underneath to merge down on OR I can go to the edit menu --> fill --> black. The goal here is to gradually make the areas we don’t want BLACK and the areas we do want WHITE.

3. We now have our mermaid on the red shield sitting surrounded by black. This is a pretty good image to work with because what I want to isolate is a different color than the part I don’t want to keep. I’m going to now use the select --> color range tool to select red, and then the hue/saturation adjustment to make all of the red go black:

If you haven’t already merged your image with a black background, you can do that now. 

4. Before proceeding, make sure your image is entirely desturated (in grayscale). If you haven’t already, go to image --> adjustments --> hue/saturation, and drag the saturation levels all the way down. Now we go into the Image menu --> Adjustments --> Brightness/Contrast and start playing with these to make the area inside the mermaid as white as possible and the areas surrounding the mermaid as dark as possible. I find it helps to adjust brightness first to bring the areas I want to go to white above a 50% gray and then use the contrast to drive those values apart. This might sound weird, but just play around, and you will get the idea.

You likely will find that the image has too much detail. The scales on the mermaid I don’t want to be transparent. I want those dark details on my image to show! So, I go into Filter --> Blur --> gaussian blur to help make those details more light gray. This also make the white outline leftover from the shield shape darker by blurring the surrounding black into it.

I can then go back into brightness/contrast. You can jump back and forth between the two tools until you get a nice, crisp mask.

You can then go back into gaussian blur one more time to make the edges a little smoother.

5. I now am going to copy this black and white image and add it as a masking layer of my original image. You need to be working with a copy layer of your original image. This will not work with the background layer (unless you want the mask to be the alpha of the entire image). 

You have your black and white “mask” layer copied. Now you select the layer with your original colored image and add a masking layer to it. From within the Layers panel (really important to be in the Layers panel, NOT channels) click the rectangle with the circle in it. This will add a masking image to your layer.

For that layer, click the channels panel, then click the “eye” visibility to the left of each channel to turn off the visibility of the RGB channels and turn on the visibility of the Mask channel. Select the mask channel and paste your mask image into it. Click back on the “eyes” to make everything visible, then go back to the Layers panel to see your image, now transparent because of the added mask. Note that from within the layers panel you can select either the image or the mask (the little “link” symbol in between can be turned on and off to link them or not, but you can ignore that for our purposes.)

6. Now we are going to edit the mask. I like to make a layer of a contrasting color to my image and place it underneath, so I can better see what the mask leaves and keeps. 

Making sure your layer with your masked image is selected in the layers panel, go back to the channels panel, and select the mask channel to work with. You can leave the RGB/red/green/blue channels enabled and edit the mask directly,  using either brightness/contrast OR a paint brush with black or white color. As you paint black on the mask you will see this “erases” the image (but it isn’t actually erasing the image, just adjusting the mask). 

Playing with brightness will push the boundaries of your mask in and out, and contrast will make the boundary crisper. You can always adjust the layer with blur, too.

7. OK, cool! The mask is how I want it. Now I can prepare it for use. At this point you only need the layers with your image and its mask. 

Assuming that you now want to transfer this image elsewhere and perhaps edit its shape to fit something else, you can then right-click the mask and select “apply mask”. This will delete the parts of your image that are masked out. Now you can copy your image and past it wherever you want it to go. 

8. I’m making an overlay for a banner deco object. I already have a template made showing me where the banner is. I past the image into it and adjust its shape to look how I want. 

9. Once you have it looking how you want, the final step is to prep it for saving as a DDS file. Assuming your image is the correct size (ie 1024x1024), we are once again going to use our image to make a mask. Only, this time, it already is at the correct opacity and transparency. So, duplicate your image. You can also at this point create a solid black background layer underneath it (new layer, fill it with edit/fill or with a the rectangle (pixel) tool). Choose one of your two image layers to make the new mask from. Select that layer, and go to image --> adjustments --> hue saturation. Drag the lightness ALL the way up (+100). You will see all of your image turn white. Click ok, then merge your all-white image down onto the black layer! Presto! This is your image mask again, only adjusted to fit your final image. In fact, this is what is going to become the mask of the entire image, the Alpha channel. 

In my example below I’ve renamed that layer “alpha”. This does NOT make it the alpha channel, it is just to remind myself this layer will become the alpha channel. Now I make a layer behind my primary image filled with a color that matches the overall hue of my primary image. The point of this is so that any transparency created by the alpha layer will catch this color instead of filling it with white. You can then merge your primary image down onto this color layer, making it a solid image with no transparency. 

Now we COPY your “alpha” layer in its entirety, and go back into Channels panel. At the bottom of the channels panel, click the “new channel” (same image as “new layer” in the layers panel. This now creates the ALPHA channel for the ENTIRE IMAGE (not just whatever layer).  Make sure that just the Alpha channel is selected and paste your copied “alpha” layer into it. Make sure that your entire image is still visible when the RGB channels are all visible. 

10. We can now save this image. (If you don’t have the NVIDIA plug in or it doesn’t work for you, you can use this plugin: https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-texture-works-plugin   OR you can save the image as a PNG with transparency and open it in GIMP to save it as a DDS. JPEG formating does NOT carry the Alpha channel transparency!). The correct format is DXT5 ARB 8 with interpolated alpha. You can name it whatever you want.

11. To use this stencil in TSRW, simply open up your project, go to the texture variation you want, go to stencil, and import the DDS image. You could also import it as an overlay.

To import it is a default override of an image for an object you have as a package, open the package in S3PE (clone it first with S3OC if you want to make a NEW non-default object) and then right-click the _IMG you want to replace, select replace, and then navigate to your saved image. S3PE will automatically change to file name to whatever the name of the image you are replacing is. And that is it! 

Alternately, you can use Texture Tweaker to create new texture variations and add new stencils. But, I’m not going to explain that here. 

That is all I’ve got for now! 

[brightsimmer]

New Challenge: The Not So Berry Challenge

So I saw one of my favorite Simmers on YouTube (Vixella) start this new challenge and it sounded like a lot of fun! It was created by lilsimsie and alwaysimming and this is the post explaining the challenge.

Hopefully I’ll still be continuing my Ziam family but I get bored so easily and like to start new things all the time...

I’m going to skip explaining the rules of the challenge because I don’t really feel like it lol and its all there in the post I linked. Basically there’s a color for each generation and each heir has to have a specific aspiration and traits and usually a career. It’s a lot more structured in many ways than the original legacy challenge which I actually really like!

The color for the first generation (the founder) of this challenge is mint!

This is my founder, her name is Lia Berry (I copied Vixella for her last name)

Aspiration: Chief of Mischief

Traits: Vegetarian, Jealous and Materialistic

So I really wanted her hair to actually be mint colored but most of the MM CC hairs that I have only come in the base game colors and I’m too lazy to track down recolors... this teal blue is kinda close to mint lol. Her eyes are a light minty green and all of her outfits somehow incorporate the color mint. Also I found this amazing nose ring that I’m hoping will work on Zayn as well!

Although for this outfit (her third outfit), her shoes are aqua/teal... I really love the color mint but its not the easiest to find clothing/shoes in that color. Or like I said, I’m pretty lazy about finding CC so... I did just finally download a bunch of new stuff today although I had to get rid of some of my older CC because my game wouldn’t start; it said it was broken/missing files and told me to remove all my mods but I just randomly took things out my Mods folder until I got the game to start.

This is Lia’s first outfit, I’m in love with this top!! I did a lot of mint and black (or mint and white, or both) for her outfits because that’s my favorite color combination!!

Her second outfit and probably my favorite one!! I’ve been wanting the layer-able jackets/cardigans that Simple Simmer made but for the longest time I haven’t been able to download anything from Mediafire for some strange reason but I just recently got a new internet provider and now it works! So I went crazy and downloaded a shit ton of Simple Simmer’s stuff! And yes that’s the same top as before in grey... I tried a ton of different shirts with this cardigan and most of them either looked terrible or clipped.

Her formal wear. I like this dress that came with City Living but I need to find some CC dresses, for sure!

Athletic wear

One of her sleepwears (I forgot to get a picture of her second one). I know her hair keeps changing length lol.... oh well!

Party wear, another favorite! (same top AGAIN)

And finally her swimwear.

And then I decided to give her some tats! This sleeve and also stars going down her back.

So this is Lia’s house (and her going inside for the first time.) She lives in Oasis Springs (which I don’t think I’ve ever had a Sim live there before actually... but that’s kind of the point of this challenge, to do things you haven’t done yet in TS4) and I built this house myself. The rules say that money cheats are ok, so I used “motherlode” ONCE after she moved into this lot so she started with around $66,000 and after I was finished building, she was left with around $500.

So here’s the story on this house: I actually had a super weird dream last night about this house and I can’t quite remember if the house was in the Sims or in real life... but it was a suuuuper unique house and I woke up remembering it so vividly so I was like “I have to build this house!” and that was before I even saw Vixella’s video about this challenge... so I was planning on building this house anyway. Then I found out about this challenge and it was perfect so I had to do it!

Here’s a tour of this house which I’m calling either The Fountain House or The House With the Floor... “The Fountain House with *THE FLOOR*” lol

The back yard

As you walk in the house...

So... I feel like I have a lot of explaining to do lol. First off, the wall on the right is all windows but since I was on the top level so you can see the skylights (or dance floors!) its doing something weird to the windows, so just imagine the windows looking normal and clear.

Second of all... yes that’s a giant, ridiculous, over the top fountain right there taking up soooo much space. It looks completely stupid being inside a house like this but... I really love it! And that FLOOR. That floor took me like 2 years to do! Not really but I’m obsessed with how crazy it looks.

So here’s what its supposed to to look like with the windows looking normal but now it looks like there’s holes in the ceiling/roof since the dance floors are there acting as skylights (when oh when will we get actual skylights for this game?? or just transparent floor tiles?)

The bathroom that’s right off of the main entryway, to the left (the toilet’s behind the half wall)

The blue door is the bathroom door and the arch ways lead into the living room/office area

This is the kitchen, it’s at the back of the main room. That door (that you can kinda see...) leads to the bedroom

Lia’s bedroom (this is where I started to run out of money because I did her en suite bathroom and bedroom last) but I still used my favorite wallpaper! 

The en suite which is still a work in progress

The view from the kitchen (again with the windows all clouded over for some reason)

The living room/office

The same view from the kitchen island except with the windows normal and the ceiling messed up

Lots of mint in here!

The side of the house that’s all glass and hopefully the layout makes more sense... the bedroom is behind the kitchen

She’s really adorable!

So as per the challenge requirements, Lia joined the Scientist career.

Doing some reading out in her yard, trying to get a breakthrough!

First day of work at the lab!

Mixing a synthetic food serum!

Looking super cute while inventing the Momentum Conserver

I already fucked up with her Vegetarian trait and made her eat meat! I had her get a sandwich and forgot to check if it was vegetarian-safe or not. I always went with a sandwich with my Sims at the careers (when I played a ton of Get to Work) because the only other choices are a soda (doesn’t fill them up very much and it makes their bladder go down), a pre-made meal and a pastry which both have to be microwaved and then they always get Uncomfortable from eating microwaved food (which is bullshit lol) so a sandwich is the best option. So it sucks that she can’t eat them. 

Excited about admiring her new TV!

Reading some more to get more breakthroughs since she got promoted her first day!

Lia went out to visit San MyShuno and ending up going to the Fashion District where she tried some new food and met some new people, like Miko and Penny.

I also had her meet Paolo since he was there at the karaoke bar (and Paolo is one of my favorite Sims!) I don’t think he’s really her type so they probably won’t be getting together but she needs to meet someone and start having kids pretty soon! This is why I hate having the normal lifespan because it makes me rush through my Sim’s life because it seems so short!

About to freeze-ray her coworker after inventing the Sim Ray!

Look at that screenshot-taking timing!

And finally tinkering with the coffee maker. She’s already at level 3 in the Scientist career and she’s only been to work 4 times!