#ts2 community lot ideas

[bubuthejedi]

Laundromat 💙Posters💙💙💙💙💙💙💚💚🧡💛💗Simlish💛💛💛💛

I come to you with 4 recolours of grilled cheese ( presented on resizable canvas which you totally need, if you don't have it already cuz it's awesomeeeeee...). These are meant for laundromat ( I made one on community lot and needed some deco💛🧡💚)

I hope you like them💚💙💜💛 Download here SFS . All is labelled, clearly described so you can keep what you want and easily throw out what you don't like🥰😘

PS. Also totally check out @jacky93sims laundry set 💛💚💙💙💙💙 Happy simming 💓💓💓💓💓💚💙💛🧡❤ Peace🤎🤎🤎🤎💜💙💚💚🧡🧡💛💚💚

[snapdragoned]

Slowly easing my way back into building! I’ve got a brand new town that needs community lots, so here’s a converted warehouse art collective, ft. a shockingly functional circle of easels for figure studies. The building next door hosts ceramics & pottery classes!

[cetoddle]

i love the sims 2 community so much. everyone is so respectful and truly kind

[ueko]

So uhm I am going to change my Patreon email real quick.

[thebramblewood]

this is in a similar vein to an ask you got recently but do you have any tips for those who are interested in sims 4 (or even other games like ts3 and ts2) storytelling? I write fanfiction but I think making sims 4 stories could be a fun venture. Anyway, thank you for your time! I love your stories so very much they're literally my hyperfixation!

Well, that makes two of us because it's literally my hyperfixation. I think I've shared bits of advice before, so some of this might sound familiar, but here are some things I think are important to remember (and I tried to be concise, I swear).

Write the story you want to write. Obviously, it's a great feeling when something takes off and people get invested. But if you pursue an idea only because you think Simblr will like it, you probably won't be inspired for long and it'll probably show. I've been very lucky with my story, but it didn't blow up overnight. Early on, I was thrilled to get double digit notes or one reblog or comment and was admittedly disappointed when I put a lot of effort into something and nobody seemed to notice. But I kept going because I was obsessed and wanted to see it through, and that's more true now than ever.

Start with low stakes and allow yourself to evolve. Before I was on Simblr, I made Sims stories with no poses or visual enhancements or fancy editing. I wrote them for myself, and I loved every minute of it, but they also gave me a solid foundation for the kind of storytelling I do now. Even after starting this blog, I eased myself into it. I learned how to use poses and Reshade, then moved on to more advanced editing techniques, then moved on to teaching myself to make poses and very basic CC. If you try to learn it all at once, you're more likely to give up because you're overwhelmed. Take your time and make peace with the fact that perfection isn't possible. Everyone's always learning!

Take advantage of the fact that Sims is a game. Even though I've been a creative writer for most of my life, I don't come up with fully-fleshed, elaborate Sims stories from scratch. It started off with my legacy and not wanting every generation to feel the same. I thought about gameplay I hadn't experienced yet and centered each generation's story around that. Even with HZID, I just wanted to make and play with vampires! That's it! Initially, I used a lot of gameplay to convey Helena's college experiences, and I still try to incorporate it when I can. It can really be a great base to spark your creativity if you don't know where to start.

Don't have a life outside your story. I'm joking. Kind of. I'm not a very social person and I don't like leaving my house if I don't have to. This leaves me with a lot of time for working on story things. Honestly, I could probably stand to work on it less. But for better or worse, I'm doing story-related things most nights and weekends, and even if I'm not doing anything, I'm thinking about it. It's probably mental illness, but we'll just call it passion. At the same time, it's also important to take breaks! If you're feeling burnt out, step away for a while. If you can't make yourself step away completely (raises hand), just edit the script or spin your blorbos around in CAS or something rather than going straight for posing a scene.

Follow and interact with other storytellers. This is probably the most important thing, and as someone who struggles with social anxiety it was the hardest for me to do. But I try to make a point of keeping up with other stories, commenting, and reblogging. Not only will the amazing talent of other writers inspire you, but you're building meaningful connections that make them more likely to want to interact with your story. There's no denying it feels amazing to watch your audience grow. But no one's going to see you if you don't make an effort to be seen, as scary as it can be. So try to be active in the community and support other storytellers the way you want to be supported!

[rockethorse]

Calcinidae Bay Lot Tour: the Public Schools

Let's take a closer look at a few of Calcinidae Bay's community lots - its public schooling! This screenshot is actually three lots, with two lots overlapped using the Lot Adjuster. On the left is the high school, on the right is the primary school, and between them is a shared gymnasium and a semi-public oval (sports field).

More pics & CC-free decorating ideas below!

As always, these lots are based on shell challenges. The high school and primary school are actually shells that were made for me by @hugelunatic as stocking stuffers back in 2022 (I didn't forget about them!) The shell from the gym/oval lot is actually the smaller canteen building, with the gymnasium being auxiliary (because it had to be such a specific size/shape), and that shell is a 4T2 adaptation of LilSimsie's "Yeehaw" Shell Challenge that I grabbed off the gallery.

Starting with the high school:

If you peeked at the original shell, you'll see there was a two-storey 1x1 "column "room" in the middle of the lot, which made me think of a bell/clock tower and inspired me to use these shells for schools. Normally when I adapt a TS4 shell challenge to TS2 I choose the placement & orientation on the lot, but because these lots were made natively in TS2 I decided to keep the lot size & distribution as they were. This gave me a lot of additional space around the main building that was perfect for adding extra amenities like a library.

The ground floor of the high school has an administration area, lockers, mixed bathroom, sick bay, staff room, and two general-use classrooms that can each fit six students.

The teacher's lounge/staff room, and a small display/awards case. I needed something to do with that little triangular pocket, and now it's one of my favourite features. :)

Upstairs is two specialised classrooms - a moderate science lab and an arts room. I would have liked at least a home ec classroom as well, but I guess that'll be reserved for the eventual private school.

The canteen (cafeteria) is a separate demountable building with outdoor seating, some of it under a shade cloth. The library is also a separate building with a small computer bay and a group study area.

Moving on to the primary school, a much older and smaller building with some minor remodeling so the two schools look cohesive:

The inspiration for my gameplay/lots is a mish-mash of different cultural influences, but I play my schools like the standard Australian system; kids start in reception (about age 5) and attend primary school all the way through to year 6 or 7, then go to high school from year 6/7 through to year 12. Separate middle schools are much less common, and this matches with how the game itself handles kid vs. teen education.

I design my lots kind of "representationally", to get the best balance between realism and playability. While I enjoy including some details that don't provide actual gameplay, I don't want to build enormous, cumbersome lots just to achieve a 1:1 scale when my Sims will never actually need that much space. Plus, most shell challenges tend to be smaller, which I like. Hence why this school has only two classrooms, one for junior primary and a more structured classroom for upper primary.

There is a small admin area downstairs. Upstairs is the sick bay and a modest teacher's lounge/staff room.

The primary school doesn't have its own library, but it does have a small separate building that we in Australia would call OSHC - Out of School Hours Care. It's a service parents can book to drop their children off before school starts, or arrange for them to attend after school finishes until they can pick them up. They provide snacks and some edu-tainment activities. Lots of kids also attend OSHC over school holidays.

The primary school canteen/cafeteria is also a separate building. Both school canteens use the University cafeteria stove, so with the right mod students will be able to grab food there. In addition to an outdoor eating area and a small playground, there is a little produce patch between the two buildings where students are taught about horticulture.

And finally, the lot that joins the two schools, the shared gymnasium and Calcinidae Oval.

The canteen/cafeteria itself would generally not be open during school hours. Instead, the school and/or local council would operate it for profit or hire it out to a third party when the oval was being used for local sports teams and other events on weekends, holidays, and after school hours. Right now it's set up for just such a soccer match.

The inside of the "tuckshop". There is a bathroom on the bottom floor accessible from the outside of the building, while the top floor has two changing rooms for students or local teams.

The gymnasium also serves as an assembly hall for students of both schools. I think the teachers would either have a collapsible stage at the far end of the court, or just stand up in the commentator's booth to give the announcements. Underneath the commentator's booth is the equipment storage shed where many a teen couple has probably sneaked off to make out.

The back view of the tuckshop and the carpark shows how this lot overlaps with the primary school. The existing primary school is blocked from Sims walking through it by a combination of real fences and this hidden CC-free invisible fence.

And that's it for this tour! I'm pretty happy with how these lots look, how I utilised the shells, and how they all fit together in the neighbourhood. I want to have more lots overlapping and slotting together like this to give Calcinidae Bay a more seamless, open feel, like the hood really is connected.

I'll finish this post with some floorplans - if you read all this you're a champ, I hope it gave you some ideas for your own game, and I'd love to know what you think!

[landgraabbed]

hi cat! 🩷 so as you know i really enjoy your ts2 posts and lately i've gotten the itch to play it again! but last time i played ts2 i played it with only a few crappy cc clothes lol, so i have no idea what mods are essential mods to have in ts2 or where to get them, how to prevent saves from getting corrupted and how to build your own custom hood - stuff like that. so i wondered if you have any advice or if you knew any guides on where to even get started on this? 😭 thank you 🩷🩷🩷

vilna hiiiiiii!! first of all i am so sorry that this took me so long to reply! i got ill and it hit me harder than it should rip 😭 anyways, thank you so much as always for your kind words, you know i love your stuff so it really is appreciated 💖

it’s a long write-up and i reference a lot of guides and resources from the community from which i learned myself. i’m really grateful to this community for sharing these resources, truly! i tried to organize this as best and include as much as i could, but i'm sure there may be missing things or things left unclear. so if you have any questions feel free to message me!

i. installation

i personally use the sims 2 rpc launcher by lazyduchess, which is included in osab’s installation guide. i really like this guide, since it includes links to the full sims 2 collection, as well as indications to make the game work more nicely with modern hardware and software, such as modern graphics cards through graphics rules makers or the 4gb patch.

it also includes instructions for reshade installation (i personally use the rpc injection method).

ii. setting up a clean slate

whether you want to play in a premade neighborhood or a custom neighborhood, i recommend using a clean slate, meaning empty and/or clean neighborhoods. many functions of the game use hoods, and sometimes these aren’t actual physical hoods and instead add sims as townies or npcs. there are also “clean” versions of premade neighborhoods that fix/tweak oversights by maxis.

mind that if you want a brand new hood without maxis’ townies, you need to get an empty pleasantview template (N001) in your game’s installation folder, or disable it somehow by changing its name. you can still play in pleasantview as it will be stored in your documents neighborhoods folder, and you can use clean versions for that. you also need to get empty stealth hoods.

this all may sound a bit complicated, but simgaroop made a wonderful write-up here for different user cases depending on what you’d like to do in your game. the mods linked here are a boon!

as for making a brand new empty hood, i love getting custom terrains (which are sc4 files originally made in simcity 4). some of my faves are made by @/nimitwinklesims, but i also like finding them at modthesims. you don't need to create each type of subhood, but i do have at least one of each in bloom valley. in bloom valley i have two downtowns (one is magic town from sims 1 originally converted to sims 2 by @/voleste. the other is @/kattaty's remake of downtown, which will be deleted and replaced with a downtown i'll make myself to be more consistent with my other subhoods. it is incredible, and i think i will use some of their lots in my new downtown because they are great), i have two shopping districts. one is strangetown because i love those premades and townies; i never have sims visit or form relationships with them though, it's just so i see them around. the other is oakburg which uses acorn bend as a base, it works more or less as an expansion to bloom valley and it's where i play more often than not these days. then i have the vacation hood makeovers by @/plumbtales. the university hood was made from scratch by me.

when you create your own hood, you will either have to set up your own townies from scratch or source them from community shared townie hoods. for making townies from scratch, i recommend @/simper-fi’s guide (also recommend getting the mods linked here before you make a hood).

for townie hoods shared by other simmers, i recommend those shared by @/mikexx2 (seriously, look at all those familiar faces that ended up as spouses for gen 1 in bloom valley) and @/marvelann’s sims made townies by @/letthemplaysimscc. i also use the bon voyage locals shared by @/plumbtales. i also make my own townies from time to time or use specific downloaded sims as townies.

iii. on corruption

here’s the good news: as it turns out, corruption really isn’t an issue. april black has made an excellent video on the matter of corruption; although it is long, i recommend anyone who plays ts2 to watch it, or at the very least the final timestamp. to know what to do and what not to do.

although corruption isn’t an issue, i still consider the suite of “anti corruption” mods to be essential in order to avoid overpopulation and overall weirdness.

iv. making the game look pretty

i have linked my eye and skin genetics over here

my supernatural skins default replacements: alien - witch - vampire - plantsim - werewolf - considering switching my vampire, zombie, and werewolf defaults to this

for hair, i only use 4t2 conversions. i just like the way they look. i use @/platinumaspiration’s 4t2 defaults collection, which is a boon. for custom hairstyles, i recommend going through @/4t2clay

for clothes, i recommend going through the sims 2 defaults database. i have also linked some favorite creators for male clothes here. note that they also have female clothes. other creators i enjoy: @/mdpthatsme @kaluxsims @/jacky93sims @/goatskickin

i have a lot of makeup and “skin details” in my folder, but i have always been fond of @/lilith-sims’ things

for build/buy, that’s more difficult to pinpoint, but i again recommend @/sims4t2bb for a conversion database, and also @/veranka-downloads’s plentiful 4t2 and 3t2 conversions. some creators that feature in my folder: @/i07jeuu @/linacheries @/nonsensical-pixels @/pforestsims @/tvickiesims

custom sliders in cas: @/simnopke’s sliders, @/memento-sims’ sliders

for the ui, i use the incredible @/greatcheesecakepersona’s clean ui; i also use the mods linked here (+ @/keoni-chan’s amazing talk to me icon to replace icons), particularly the one to remove the red border in pause mode since that won’t be removed in tab camera

speaking of camera, this is the camera mod i use

i regrettably don’t recall the exact lighting mod i use (looking at them, probably cinema secrets), but i know it is one shared by @/veronaquiltingbee

to beautify my neighbor, i consider these skylines by @/lowedeus to be essential (+ optimized textures by @/celestialspritz). additionally i use the rural charm terrain and roads default replacement by @/criquettewashere in addition to most if not all of their hood decorations. i also love 3t2 hood decor conversions!

another useful resource is the gos events

please note that a lot of these creators do multiple categories of cc, so recommendations for one category may overlap with another; i know that this is just scratching the surface but i hope it helps

v. gameplay mods

i use so many mods to overhaul the gameplay so there will be some omissions. i’ll do my best to provide the most important ones (ignoring the ones previously mentioned)

economy and careers: uni part-time jobs for teens - lower wages - no 20k simoleons handout - loan jar (afaik lamaresims is working on a version to enforce regular payments) - custom bills (750%) - expensive bills for apartments (300%) - private school bill fix (in moreawesomethanyou-al.zip; charges the household 200 simoleons each school day for a child in private school) - lamare’s job options mods - 50% job promotion chance - restricted job offers - work food delivery

food & eating: basically @/jacky93sims's whole library

lifespan & health: lifespan (modified as follows, baby to elder: 3 - 7 - 14 - 21 - 91 - 7-14; i will make the adult lifespan longer still given that i play very slowly, it works as young adult and adult stages, and as is i don’t see many sims of gen 1 living to meet their grandchildren) - more dangerous fires - frequent & faster disease processing

personality: 3t2 traits project and associated mods

relationships and woohoo: acr - romantic standards - reproductive capabilities configurer - pregnant sims wear any outfit

supernatural/occults: plantsims can change hairstyle - no more leafy hair - no more werewolf hair - child lycanthropy - werewolf fangs fix - werewolf transformation 3 nights a week + no personality change vampires can’t eat food - vampire motive decay during day based on aspiration + vampire hunger goes down at night & social/fun decay- hereditary supernaturalism

travel and community lots: visit other sims - community time (+ limeyyoshi’s fix, reuploaded bc i cannot find it)

university: semester changes - pets at university - maternity for young adults - maternity outfit fixed for young adults

misc: planting overhaul - monique’s hacked computer, which i use to give sims separate bank accounts, study skills and badges online, and so on (1 - 2 - 3 - 4) - townie apartment residents - community lot skilling - engagement and wedding ring for color traits - invisible medicine cabinet (so sims can brush teeth and wash face with any mirror) - shiftable everything - midgethetree’s mods - fix subhood selection - longer seasons (7 days)

[ophernelia]

There’s so many people that follow me and have no idea what I do lmao. Not to mention it’s a lot of new people here too, so lemme do an updated introduction!

Helloooooo, I’m Brooklyn! I’m director and artist. I do both traditional art and 3D art. Recently I’ve started making poorly made free cc for TS4 that you can find over on @kiricheu. I post updates on stuff I’m working on here sometimes, but most stuff you’ll see on this blog is for my machinima series, Lykaia. Every single character you see on my page (that I’ve made ofc) is from said series. Most cc I post on Kiricheu is stuff I’ve just made for the series also. I’ve played TS4 for years (since it came out actually. and the sims in general too. My first game was TS2) but since I’ve started my series creating it is the only way I play really. Everything we do over here we do for Lykaia, girl. Go watch it.

Content stuff done, now onto personal stuff! I’m an Afro-Latina who can’t speak Spanish well. (Yes. I am a disappointment lmfao) I’m from Chicago. (Southside baby <3) I’m a research psychologist. I love my job. Proud member of the APA. I’ve lived a thousand different lives already so sometimes I’ll talk about old stuff I used to do. Like modeling, fashion stuff. (I was deep in the industry for a while until I left after getting tired of creeps.) Ummm I’m bi, but I currently have a boyfriend. I talk about him sometimes. If you ever see me say “my son” I mean my dog. Don’t want kids ever. Idk what else to put lol. I like to curse. Like a lot. Idk I’m pretty vulgar, but I try to keep it tame on here somewhat. I don’t consider myself a content creator like that. Just a girl sharing the shit she does, so I do talk my fair share of shit if something bothers me. I’m nice generally though. Unless you say something stupid, racist, sexist, etc. Don’t like racists, don’t like bigots, don’t like copycats. It’s tacky behavior and I will check you, with love tho. Sometimes lol. Idk I don’t bite. Unless you want me to. Don’t tell my man I said that either. Oh! I’m also autistic so that’s that lol. Also incredibly awkward. I also like talking about pop culture stuff too sometimes. So you might see a little of that here and there. I am also very vocal about Palestine and the plight of marginalized groups, so you’ll see a lot of that too. Lots of stuff about the black experience and black activism too because offline I’m an activist. I do a lot of community outreach with a few different orgs! (Proud member of the association of black psychologists. <333 Shout out to them specifically.)

And I think that’s it. Maybe idk. Anything else you wanna know then just ask!

[grilledcheese-aspiration]

a discussion idea! (long post)

my husband and i were chatting last night while cleaning up dinner; he pitched a fun idea that could be a great topic of discussion in the simblr community. maybe this should be a SQotD submission - IDK but: he asked how i feel about sims 2 expansion packs now compared to when they came out. initially, i said "yeh idk, i guess the same?" and that was that.

i put a more thought towards his question and realized, i do feel a bit differently about some of the EPs now compared to when they came out - all under the cut!

university: i was SO SO excited about it bc i didnt go away to college like my friends did so it was a way to vicariously-ish get the experience and a bonus was zombies! now tho? yea i still enjoy it even tho the dormies eventually start pissing me off bc theyre just so damn dumb lmao

nightlife: same level of excitement. i LOVE cities and i love vampires too. this scratched the "i need to go downtown chicago" itch when i couldnt from lack of transportation and safey being a v smol person afraid of the worst. i played all my sims in "downtown", specifically, 107 Custer Blvd. I made-over that lot dozens of times, it's seen dozens of different families and had a million different lifetimes. Nightlife still stands as my fave TS2 EP and 107 Custer - my all-time favorite lot to play.

open for business: initially, i had ZERO excitement over this pack. i personally, right out of high school basically, had NO interest in working myself (i didnt, i went to community college and got by ok w/ chore-money basically) so why the hell would i want to put my sims to work too?? i also didnt care for the music (i like it more now tho) as an Adult - i do enjoy this pack more than i ever did when i was a clueless near-20-yo. also, love the servos but i dont play w them nearly as much as i should being a bot fan and all. (i should fix that)

pets&seasons: i was pumped for these bc MORE IMMERSION AND REAL LIFE STUFF!!! also, weather and animals LOL. i still love these packs the same as i did when they initially released. just kinda wish plantsims werent annoying for me to play, i love them from afar tho! werewolves are neat but theyre also kind of a PITA to play.

bon voyage: EH i dont really go on vaca a lot myself, my sims dont either for the same reasons: money! im also still scarred from the one time i did send my sims on vaca and they got STUCK THERE!!! it broke all my shit and i had no way of fixing it bc i didnt know about MTS, MATY and etc to ask for help/guidance. RIP to that family lmao i hope theyre still having a nice time in the vaca-void theyre prob still floating around in! (note: ive never found bigfoot, some day i wish to!)

freetime: we all have hobbies right? it was all fine and good until the fire nation attacked i was being inundated with a ton of hobby spam, be it notifications, the hobby sims and the lots. it was a lot. its far more manageable now thanks to mods so i dont mind playing into hobbies. i do appreciate the return of the genie tho!

apartment life: ok, look. i thought this was super cool then but now, after living in apartments myself, i despise them and dont put my sims in them anymore either. i do love the witches tho, prob my fave aspect of this pack!

edit to add rankings: nightlife, seasons, pets, apartment life, uni, ofc, free time then bon voyage lmao

id be interested to hear/read you guys' comparison's to the different EPs we have for Sims 2 or any of the sims games tbh. id go over The Sims but i dont have all day lmao ill make a different post on that some time bc i always get in my feels over the OG.

[tvickiesims]

Hi Vickie - I wanted to say thanks so much for bringing life into TS2, you along the other tumblr simmers really have sparked so much joy into this game again! Now I had a question/idea - the goats and sheep skins for the large dog... I know nothing about modding this game - would it be possible to use the small dog to create the chicken? Could the entire back half be invisible and the front of the rig be used for the chicken? Just a thought! Thanks again for everything you do for the community!

Hi Charlie! Thank you soooo much for your kind words! 🤗

Ah, good question! Short answer - unfortunately no.

Long answer for those who are interested:

So just taking chicken model from the Sims 4 and making it a custom collar is very possible. But the problem here is animations as they won't align at all.

I'll try to explain it to you in a simple way using simple terms, but I have very VERY limited knowledge of CAS stuff and therefore skeleton.

You've probably heard creators complain over and over again about bones and skeleton and how everything is bad and looks wrong and how they are sick and tired of it 😆 That's because skeleton is a base used by the game to animate objects. And joints are points for animation. So you take parts of the mesh and assign them to specific bones so that when your object animates, it looks smooth and natural, without holes, gaps, things sticking out etc. But there's no universal instruction on how do to it, it's very object specific and has to be done manually to get best results. It's very tedious and time-consuming. Shout out to @deedee-sims who took care of the skeleton for all of our animals converions ❤️

This is how a large dog's skeleton looks like (blue dots):

In order for animations to look as good as possible, the object basically needs to look as close as possible to a dog (only in our case, because our base is a large dog. Small dog's skeleton is the same but smaller). A chicken has only two legs, no ears or tail but has wings while the dog doesn't. And the skeleton can't be modified (like made smaller/bigger or have it's parts moved). So even if it's technically possible to assign only bones that looks similar or the same to both, the animation will look horrible. Imagine how its head will move 😬😆

It is possible to make a new skeleton, but only for new objects and it is an extremely difficult task involving a lot of editing, including fiddling with SimPe to make the game recognize it.

The only other creatures that might be possible to convert from Sims 4 as collars are foxes and horses. But horses will look like dwarfs, kinda like our llamas already do 😂

So I hope it explains why there are not many animated animals out there and why not all of them may be converted as collars.

[boringbones]

What do you think The Sims 4 should have been? How should they have looked? I see people say they have the best graphics in the series and damn, that's a slander. I think The Sims 4 should have been an evolution of The Sims 3 and instead it looks cartoony and the shadows don't even catch the sims. I even think The Sims 2 looks better than The Sims 4, I think the sims can look great with a lot of custom content but that's the only thing because the world looks so papery and so green. I'm asking you this because I think you're one of the most objective simmers right now and I think you really appreciate The Sims 3.

Objectively, this is what The Sims 4 should have been. A significant evolution of the 3, keeping everything the 3 brought, without the performance issues of that period. That at least was what I expected when the first image came out. It sold us mystery, it sold us the idea of interconnected narratives like in ts2, it sold us the idea of a game that would bring everything that was left out in ts3, but that was in 2!

It's very kind of you, thank you for seeing me that way. My take on Ts4 is that the game is in the condition it is in and part of that is the fault of the extremely "positivist" community. Who celebrates Patch who brings class to the kit, and is happy with considerably superficial and insignificant deliveries.

I've been playing The Sims for 19 years. I criticized The Sims 3 a lot in its time, for (compared to ts2) presenting sims so robotic and with "hard" animations. This has improved over time and HAPPY is fixable. My idealization is that I wouldn't complain about this in ts4, however, 4 went the complete opposite way, giving us goofy sims that look more like they were made for kids than adults. They are literally silly. There is no significant consequence, there is no risk.

What made Ts1, 2 and 3 special was not in 4. However, I cannot deny that The Sims 4 was perhaps one of the games that best managed to represent the original idea of The Sims: House Building Simulator. Houses and Sims. But that alone doesn't sustain what The Sims franchise has become. That goes far beyond these two concepts. By the way, it's not because the ts4's CAS is push and pull that it's the best. It's easier to work on sims in ts2 and 3 with sliders than in 4, especially if you decide to change "ethnic" traits. Since, if you choose the wrong eye, and spend two hours editing it, you'll have to start all over again on the next swatch (model) you choose.

The Sims 4 needs to end. But if it's approaching 10 years, the community is responsible for that. Every time someone annulled themselves, every time someone stopped criticizing, every time someone accepted it and thought it was normal, it corroborated for that. It is worth remembering that it took almost a "third war" on twitter, to give us more variation of skins. And I ask: Do we REALLY deserve to go through this? Should we really lower the bar to charge for essentials?

The Sims 4 is so popular for embracing diversity, but TS3 did it without show, and the mainstream media never applauded it for it. Why? Because he was performing a natural evolution, it was his destiny. In 4, however, it seems that they program evolutions, to be applauded, handing us first a piece of dry bread, then a nice sandwich and…: "Aren't you going to applaud us? We're doing everything you asked!" In exchange for what?

The Sims 4 didn't even have a family tree in the base game. This is a bad joke. To those offended, I can only apologize, I'm not talking about you, I'm giving my opinion about this generation of almost 10 years. As a longtime Simmer, I've never seen maxis deliver so little, charge so much and still be idolized for it. This was not the maxis that revolutionized the industry 20 years ago.

And Yes!! Nothing beats the sims 2 even today.

In addition to having extremely malleable graphics that can look amazingly good 20 years later, it has the best lighting system in the entire franchise and the CRAZIEST sims (WHICH I LOVE)

By the way, do the poles light up the roofs on the ts4 too? (I really have no idea)

[kayleigh-83]

Thanks for tagging me @eulaliasims

1. What’s your favourite sims death? Never thought about having a favourite, maybe the cowplant? Or maybe when death results from something usually mundane like hail or lightning (I’ve had that one).

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match? Mainly Maxis match, but I think of my style as like 90% MM and 10% semi-realistic (more on the BB side) because I do find the occasional thing that fits in with my style from that aesthetic. And I feel like my style is somewhere between the true Maxis match and the cartoony style.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? No? Seems odd!

4. Do you use move objects? Constantly, it’s on more than it’s off. I have an alias set up in my cheat file.

5. Favorite mod? Wow that’s a hard one to narrow down, so I’m gonna choose a few. Based on what has the biggest and most widespread effects, I’d say ACR, Community Lot time, and the whole Traits system (that’s cheating since it’s a million mods but I don’t care lol)

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? Would have been the very first pack, so University I guess! When the games came out I was living at home still and my mom played too, so we always got them relatively soon. Uni came out a month or so before my birthday so I suspect I probably got it as a gift that year.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? LIVE as in LIVING, @eulaliasims is 1000% correct.

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? So not counting born in game? Sort of a tie but I’ve always been very fond of Joshua and Roxanne Lewis, they were two of Brightmaple’s founders - the first ones I thought up, and first ones I created.

9. Have you made a simself? Yes, in my old neighbourhood, I was a vampire along with the Sim version of my cousin. We lived in a huge Victorian mansion I built where I sent all the vampires in the hood to live.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself? Brooding, couch potato, good, loves the heat, hopeless romantic

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color? Don’t really have one I guess.

12. Favorite EA hair? Also don’t really have one lol.

13. Favorite life stage? Probably adult because the most happens, but I also really enjoy toddler which is a hot take in most circles.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? Both! The building is fun and a creative outlet for me, but I do it so I can create more immersive and enjoyable worlds to play in too.

15. Are you a CC creator? Yes but on and off, I do it purely for fun and primarily for things I want in my game. So I take long breaks of making nothing at all, when I’m not in the mood.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? I wouldn’t really say so? I do chat with people from time to time and have lots of great acquaintances on here! I find it to be a generally very nice community. But I usually find online friendship difficult since I find it harder to read people purely through text with no baseline for knowing them irl, for things like tone of voice/mannerisms/body language and just general vibe.

17. What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4) Well I think it’s pretty obvious TS2 has ruined all other games for me (not just other Sims games either).

18. Do you have any sims merch? nope

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims? Actually yes! For speed builds.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? Gotten more Maxis match in terms of aesthetic, if you scroll back to like, pre-2017 on my blog you can see that for sure. For play style it’s a lot more structured - pure rotational so ages sync, more wants based, paying a lot more attention to their personalities etc.

21. What’s your Origin ID? I’ve been playing with either the RPC Launcher or a no-CD crack since the day I switched to the UC, so although I do have an Origin ID I’ve literally used it probably twice ever. So no idea!

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator? There’s too many to pick!

23. How long have you had a simblr? My very first Simblr post was July 31, 2016. Before that I had a bit of a hiatus from playing for a few years, and before that I was on Livejournal/Dreamwidth.

24. How do you edit your pictures? My photo editing program (PSP8) is literally from the era of TS2 itself, which seems appropriate. It’s always worked perfectly well for me - I downloaded Photoshop a couple times but always found doing the same actions clunky and unfamiliar, so I stick with what I know. I adjust curves, saturation, and add a very slight (probably imperceptible) bloom effect. Then I crop in, and I resize by width - meaning my pics are always the same width, but the height varies slightly. I prioritize getting everything into the frame that I want, and don’t really care if the heights are different.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? If I were making up hypothetical TS2 EP’s? I wouldn’t have minded something like Superstar from the Sims 1, having my Sims become famous (if it was done more like OFB/hands on style rather than “off to work in a carpool for the day” style) would have been pretty fun.

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? That’s really tough to pick. Probably Seasons (such world building!), Freetime (the hobbies system adds so much depth for me!) or Open For Business (my whole hood has no EA careers and only businesses sooo...) or Pets?? I love my Sims having pets. They’re all so good!

I’m seeing this going around, so please allow me to tag @you if you haven’t been yet and wanna do this!

[neosimi]

i was tagged by @kestrelteens, thank u for thinking of me friend. ♡

1. What’s your favourite sims death? cowplant! >:)

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match? maxis match.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? no? lmao.

4. Do you use move objects? yes, always.

5. Favorite mod? ACR for sure. i couldn't live without sim manipulator either.

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

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? alive. can't convince me otherwise!

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? uhhh. i feel bad i don't bother naming the sims i've made specifically for my blog. the one that was stuck in my drafts is my fave.

9. Have you made a simself? yup! tbh who hasn't heh.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself? let me look up the ts4 traits... maker, family oriented, socially awkward, and animal enthusiast. :]

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color? hm, idk. i gravitate toward brown i guess.

12. Favorite EA hair? jennifer burb's.

13. Favorite life stage? i feel lame for saying adults lol but it's just the real meat n' potatoes of gameplay there lol.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? gameplay, i don't mind building community lots though.

15. Are you a CC creator? ye.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? everyone in misty's *kith* and ofc my bffs @isabella-goth and @sabrinassims. i'd love to make even more! ♡♡

17. What’s your favorite game? ts2 always and forever.

18. Do you have any sims merch? nope.

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims? no, it's crossed my mind for tutorials tho.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? at the very beginning of playing ts2 (as an adult), there were very few clay hairs so i had some alpha poppet hairs. you could find the find screenshots on this blog lol, but then i gave clay a try and never looked back. there are some cute alpha hairs that are very chef kiss too, don't get me wrong!

21. What’s your Origin ID? what's that /j

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator? i could make a big ol' list of them all lol but my resources page kinda summarizes it.

23. How long have you had a simblr? i want to say 2-3 years? i never interacted w the sims community beforehand x)

24. How do you edit your pictures? literally just reshade, then resizing in photoshop lol.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? i'm so checked out w ts4 sry sdfnsmd.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? IKEA hands down. EP wise, probably freetime.

tagging @isabella-goth @annieshowell @simsdada @grilledcheese-aspiration @sicksadsim @socialbunny and whoever else wants to do this! <3

[speakinginsimlish]

2023 was a great year for me when it comes The Sims. After a 5-year hiatus, I returned to playing and posting, which has been such a source of enjoyment (and, honestly, mild stress, because TS2!). Although Simblr had somewhat changed during my absence, I’m happy to see so many familiar faces still going strong and keeping it all together, and to meet all the new players breathing new life into the game and the community as a whole. The community’s talent, creativity, ingenuity and kindness is a lovely thing to behold and take part in.

With that being said, I have some goals I’d like to achieve in my game in 2024. I’m not exactly holding myself strictly to account, as this is meant to be a fun hobby and life is stressful enough(!), but it would be nice to get at least one of these done and dusted:

Firstly, and most importantly, enjoy, play and post more!

Set up and start playing the medieval ‘hood that I have been toying with the idea of for the best part of 5 years. The amount of CC to download and organisation involved is honestly putting me off, as my life is full enough of dull administrative tasks, but I know I’d really enjoy playing once the hideous and mammoth task of setup was over. Someone please release that special “medieval starter pack” that was vaguely spoken about a few months ago, so I don’t have to go through this pain? 🥺

Even more administration for this one (boo, hiss!), but I would really like to finish organising my main CC collection once and for all. It is too large and unwieldy and everything is all over the place, which bothers me, but not enough to actually finish doing something about it thus far!

Release follower gifts, whether these be Sims or lots for download.

Begin creation of a second vacation ‘hood for Arcadia Falls. I’m not sure whether I’d prefer a more outdoorsy or Asian-themed destination, but I know that just having the tropical subhood is getting a bit old!

Start creating and releasing Sims-related content on YouTube or Twitch. This has a massive question mark over it, as I’m not entirely sure what kind of content I would make or even the best way to make it, but I am inspired by other creators and their content (especially @kayleigh-83’s speedbuild videos!), and I’d love to participate, even in a small way. Any ideas or suggestions as to what content anyone would like to see from me are welcome!

Now that I see that wall of text, it’s slightly overwhelming, but I’m looking forward to this time next year when I can review this list and say that I at least got one thing done. Fingers crossed! 😅

Thanks again to anyone who has liked, reblogged or even passively enjoyed my posts this year. I wish you a great 2024!

[balkopat]

Ok so.. I have a plan.. for a long time.. As a birthday gift, you know, for my birthday.. Like a gift for myself and anyone who would like to have it in their game..

Idea is simple and so complicated at the same time: SimTablet. Like the cellphones at the ts2, I want this can be usable from inventory at home or at community lots. And can be playable, having a chat, sending e-mails, like a computer and maybe some more additionals..

Problems are.. Well first of everything I don't know enough about bhav edit for creating a usable object like this.. That, maybe can be learned via tutorials and/or investigating other creators or in game objects. But I even don't know where to start. I should clone a correct object and made some edits on it, animations, object bones etc.. but what it could be the right object..

My birthday is at december, so I had to start this kind of a object right now to catch it. But still don't know if it is worth it.. Or does it possible at all?

Ideas, ideas on my head..

[landgraabbed]

thank you for tagging me @irrewilderer! it’s a sims q&a thingamajig, under the cut! i will be very longwinded bc that’s how i roll

01: what’s your favorite sims death? the one you had when you got cursed by a mummy in ts3 world adventures. there is a lot of skeeviness around that whole pack, but i remember stumbling onto it in gameplay and it being deeply fucked up in a way recent installments refuse to match

02: alpha cc or maxis match? i lean maxis mix-ish but i don’t care about which way people lean ngl

03: do you cheat when your sims gain weight? this is a weird question and as someone who is experiencing a resurgence in [redacted] i think that whoever made this originally should be ashamed of themself.

04: do you use move objects? yes, no default sims grid placement may satisfy my hoarding tendencies.

05: favorite mod? ts2 needs a suite of mods to encourage it to not self-explode, but i am an acr enjoyer. with the right tuning it makes sims not breed like rabbits but have their own autonomy and people of interest that i find very enjoyable

06: first expansion/game/stuff pack you got? i believe that i got ts1 bundled with some expansion pack? so whichever one came after that until dad got tired and learned how to pirate so i could enjoy games hehe

07: do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? alive, i don’t care if it’s the wrong way

08: who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? it has to be jess. it’s silly but writing her at times allows me to work through some shit of my own.

09: have you made a simself? i never cared to until i got me a wife who lives very far away from me hehe

10: what sim traits did you give yourself? no idea tbh, i forgot (i reek of ts3 absent minded trait)

11: what is your favorite EA hair color? the witching hour defaults and addon palette by pyxis my beloved

12: favorite EA hair? no friggin’ idea my dude

13: favorite life stage? this question would only make sense if eaxis put any thought into life stages other than young/adult since the release of the generations ep. but i’ve recently been reminded of how fun the ts2 teens are.

14: are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? is build/buy not a gameplay function? i can’t build to save my life but i enjoy decorating and live mode (in ts2 mostly)

15: are you a CC creator? as need and want hit me

16: do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? LMFAO what kinda question is this!! no i don’t have a simblr avengers squad or anything and i’m over caring about it. there’s people in the community i’m fond of but i’m not trying to join or create a clique

17: what’s your favorite game? listen. i am going to obtusely pretend that this isn’t a sims interrogatory and talk about the games that have my heart right now bc i can’t choose a single game. you have been warned.

now and forever, the games that miyazaki has directed at fromsoftware, particularly the souls series and bloodborne (i haven’t played elden ring yet but i KNOW i will adore it) are very special to me. bloodborne is a masterpiece. and i am sad that discourse has morphed these games into everything that’s wrong with Gamers and Gatekeeping. the games and the 99% of the community aren’t about that. i walked into them as someone who’d mostly played games casually but loved the games that approach storytelling indirectly. i fell in love with the marriage of gameplay and theming. i love how miyazaki approaches storytelling as an act of archaeology. the world was there long before you. you’re a nobody. things are bleak and you can’t get a straight answer out of anything, but you have other people going through it with you. you can imbue meaning and history into things, and that is beautiful. and i am bitter that one can’t say that the games don’t need an easy mode without being deemed a gatekeeper. (the games were designed with multiplayer that allows other players to cooperate with you and help you. there are gameplay styles that make things easier. all out of the box)

i am a known tes lover but morrowind is the apple of my eye. it’s weird listening to essays about modern day open world design and its pitfalls and to see how morrowind largely circumvents these issues, all the way back in 2002. the lore is amazing and once more it places a large chunk of the meaning making on the player’s hands. vvardenfell is a wonderful region of morrowind and i enjoy the diverse landscapes from the humid and mysterious bitter coast, the harsh ashlands, and the welcoming breadbasket which are the ascadian isles (lovely until you stumble upon the plantations). the exploration and navigation are unmatched and nothing will ever match the skill that is navigating the world through in game directions and learning the silt strider, boat, and stronghold routes. not to get into mark/recall/almsivi and divine intervention. you arrive at vvardenfell as a stranger and the world is hostile, but as the character becomes more familiar with the land you the player master the transversal and that’s honestly some sexy marriage of theming and gameplay. some aspects have aged horribly which is why these days i play with the amazing sexual harassment remover mod.

i think everyone owes it to themself to play outer wilds (NOT worlds). it plays into the strengths i mentioned above. i can’t say much because it ruins the purpose of the game. it’s a tender bastard of a game that makes me so happy that i am alive at a time i can play it and makes me cry every time i listen to tracks from its ost. the writing is maybe the best i have ever witnessed in any art form (“the pain of your absence is sharp and haunting, and i would give anything to not know it; anything but never knowing you at all (which would be worse)”). just play it. i wish i could hire someone to bonk me on the head and give me selective amnesia so i could play it for the first time again. just. play. it.

there’s more, like octopath traveler which is quickly climbing through the ranks, darkest dungeon, pillars of eternity, project zomboid, dragon’s dogma, journey, and more

also, it’s ts2.

18: do you have any sims merch? ew, no

19: do you have a youtube for sims? ew, no

20: how has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? it has, but i’m not quite sure i can describe it? it’s been decades of sims so of course it’s changed.

21: what’s your origin id? come back with a warrant

22: who’s your favorite cc creator? i am a known sforzcc simp

23: how long have you had a simblr? wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy (too long)

24: how do you edit your pictures? i use Very Legitimate photoshop. these days i just run a photopeia action that gives it some color aberration and slap some noise on it.

25: what expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? i love sims 2 freetime? hobbies are such a great addition to the game that just fits in seamlessly with the rest of the game

26: what expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? the eaxis stop shoving shit into ts4 and fix issues and let the modders have it pack