#weird sim stuff

[warmsol]

mama y papa ♡

[weirdsimsinhistory]

Why are the Sims so awkward at the Mansion & Garden Stuff loading screen lol

[nucrests]

The Jones Siblings ▪

Deborah, Michael's mother, with her brother & sisters

From left to right (also from oldest to the youngest) ➡ Henry, Virginia, and Colleen

[b4kuch1n]

Hello! Honoring the call for a global strike, from now (24/01/2024) until the end of this week (6AM Monday 29/01/2024, Hanoi/Jakarta time (GMT+7)) I am offering one full-body sketch of any character you want for every e-sim you donate.

All you need to do is:

go to gazaesims.com

follow the instruction there and donate an e-sim of any plan

screenshot the confirmation of your purchase and donation

send the screenshots to me via either email (b4kuch1n@gmail.com) or Tumblr DM, along with the character you want a sketch of and any references you have on hand.

Standard commission/request guideline applied. I'll run streams in the next four days (and perhaps after as well) on Youtube doing these sketches live - those will be announced on this blog as they happen.

I'm not currently affiliated with the Cartoonist Cooperative or any other artists doing the same drive, but if my art's not what you're looking for, definitely give the Coop's site as well as the e-sim tag on Tumblr a look! And if you're not looking for sketch commissions from me or art commission in general at the moment, I encourage you to donate an e-sim anyway if possible.

Thank you for your work and support - I can't wait to draw your character!

[tricoufamily]

kit and willoughby book side characaters kit and willoguhby book side charactesr

[remorner]

where you go i go

[dorvayn]

School is kicking my ass too much for me to do any art. All I can think of is Jonathan Sims in Sims position.

[turtleplushi]

I need to stop drawing them my god

[wow-an-unfunny-joke]

If I wrote a time travel au (Jon and Martin go back in time to first season archives after 200) where because of future intervention there’s a lot less trauma, and with less horrors to worry about past Jon begins to question his gender and starts experimenting with it- and it freaks future Jon out because ‘what tf do you mean I’m trans and never figured it out because Trauma????’

Would anyone read it?

[ranchstoryblog]

Beyond the Farm: A Dramatic Martial Arts Detective Life Sim?

Long, long ago; in the year 1999, the term "life sim" wasn't used as often or understood as well as it is today. Boku no Natsuyasumi wouldn't release for another year, Animal Crossing was two years away, and reviewers were struggling to determine what a game like Harvest Moon 64 was. Often, instead of putting it alongside simulation games, choosing to place it among RPGs instead.

At this time, one of the biggest game developers in the industry had everything to prove for their next generation console. One of their most legendary creators was putting together something that could influence the entire gaming landscape, building systems modern games would take for granted from scratch. A game that sought to simulate real life as closely as possible.

Positing itself as an epic kung fu saga, most of Shenmue's promotional material focuses on action and adventure that happened to have an impressive world to explore. Upon release, players would quickly find it was almost the exact opposite. A world to live in, one day at a time, with a kung fu adventure somewhere in the backdrop. So, 25 years later, let's look at it through the lens of a life sim.

Living in Shenmue

Though the game opens with a dramatic set-up, your father murdered before your eyes by a mysterious man belonging to a foreign crime organization for reasons unknown, the first gameplay element introduced to you isn't how to throw a punch or a kick. Instead, upon exiting your home for the first time, you encounter a little girl taking care of an orphan kitten, and being pretty ill-prepared for it.

If the player chooses to visit this kitten every single day, using their small 500 yen daily allowance on cat food instead of toys, video games, or candy, they can watch the kitten recover over the next few weeks. Starting from barely being able to stand or eat, shivering in a cardboard box, to eventually exploring freely and climbing to the top of the nearby shrine, triumphant over its adversity.

This entirely optional side-quest is more or less an introduction to one of the main ways to play the game. While following your trail of clues to find your father's killer is one thing, establishing a daily routine that helps work towards tangible goals or experience new things is just as important. Some of these activities improve the protagonist's skills, like practicing martial arts in an empty lot to level-up and evolve moves, while others will challenge the player's skill, like getting good at motorcycle racing game "Hang On" so that a later challenge where you're driving a real motorcycle is a bit easier.

Contemporary games in the simulation genre tended to saddle you with a routine-focused task from the outset, such as a business to run or a field to plow, so it was certainly novel to simply be a jobless teenager trying to find a way to fill your days as seemingly every new step in your main goal required you to wait for someone else before moving forward.

Shenmue's Inhabitants

Of course, it's not just the player involving themselves with a daily routine. Hundreds of NPCs populate the world, each one with distinct personalities, backstories, and full voice-over. If you want, you can follow someone leaving their home in the morning, watch them open their store, walk in, examine every little thing on their shelves, and then pester them all day with questions about if any local gangsters with tattoos have stopped by their antique china shop lately.

On the rare occasions where you don't have any leads to follow, you can actually get to hear more about what they're thinking about. Some of them are familiar with the protagonist and ask how he's doing, or even visit him at home if they're worried, and others will just let you in on their personal life, like relationship troubles. Maybe try to teach you some Italian. If you forget to say hi while exploring town, maybe pick up the phone and call them in the evening.

Unfortunately, it's somewhat rare to get much insight in-game. Perhaps due to the technological hurdles of having everyone voiced and simply not having enough room for that many unique sound files, but the initial release of the game did also come with an online enabled companion disc called "Shenmue Passport." In it, every character in the game, including the dogs and cats, has a bio that includes a paragraph or two about their lives and various stats like birth dates and blood type. Though the feature has gone offline since then, fans have recreated it with a mobile app called "Suka Pass."

The Nature of Shenmue

While most of Shenmue's gameplay occurs in urban environments, plenty of attention was given to the nature the player experiences as well. When it rains, mud and puddles form; when it snows, you can hear it crunching beneath your feet, and tire tracks line the streets. Though you can easily complete the game before the end of December, ignoring the story until as far as April lets you experience the world turning greener, cherry blossoms blooming, and dandelions sprouting up. For some extra verisimilitude, you can even use the real life weather data from 1986/1987 Yokosuka to have the in-game weather match. Pretty impressive stuff for 1999.

However, one of the most memorable moments in the series comes from the end of Shenmue 2. On the fourth disc of the game, where one might normally expect there to be grand spectacle, action, or conquest, there's something else entirely: A chance encounter where you meet someone who's going the same way you're going, followed by a two-day walk and talk where you get to know one another. There are no wolves chasing you, dangerous decisions to make, or villains with chainsaws. There are, however, some colza blossoms that just bloomed. You have to take a detour to see them, but doesn't it sound nice? Why not, since we're here.

More than any action scene, sprawling city street, or technological advancement for the medium, this is the moment that defines what Shenmue is. A mundane world that exists all around you, and feels like it could go on forever if you suspend your disbelief for just a moment. If there's one thing I think any life sim should try to replicate from Shenmue, it's this. The grandeur of this slow walk through the woods where you get to ask a stranger dozens of questions, and answer dozens in return. The more common "two minute event where you can pick the good choice or the bad choice" can't compare.

Only 3.6% of you asked for more posts about life sims that aren't Story of Seasons, but I didn't want to leave those of you who wanted it out to dry. I might still do another one at some point, something more "typical" like Fields of Mistria, but I hope this was interesting for you. While it wasn't one of the more popular requests, and it requires a lot more work than a meme, or just more of the same, it's worth doing so long as someone enjoys it.

[emioliravioli]

would you still love me if i made a blazamy high school yandere au........

[sunlight-shunlight]

pondering that falon'din is associated with an owl, and those are also messengers of andruil. and he's referred to as "winged death" which is also mentioned to be something that elgar'nan deploys against enemies. and both falon'din and andruil are referred to as venturing into dark places, where no one else can survive/wanted to go.

and ghilan'nain was not initially an evanuris, but was antagonistic towards them and making a bunch of weird creatures. she was given the offer to join them in return for getting rid of the creatures, and accepted. but with "pride stopping her hand" from destroying a few. and when asked about trusting people to share power, solas says "I know that mistake well enough to carve the angles of her face from memory."

solas also has nothing good at all to say about falon'din, mostly calling him a bloodthirsty tyrant who went so far in encroaching onto other evanuris territory that mythal had to besiege his temple and beat him up to stop him.

but he says nothing about dirthamen at all.

dirthamen is described as having gone missing unexpectedly, scaring all his followers, because they were now unprotected. and caught between their own high priest wanting to lock them into the temple forever like a cask of amontillado, and other forces outside that wanted to take their secrets by force. there is one note that a dirthamen follower defied the evanuris and took on a forbidden (probably a dragon) type of form, and was judged by elgar'nan harshly. he apparently also invented the varterral to protect his town from a high dragon? wack, but also could indicate that he had worked with ghilan'nain on making it, since she's the only one who's otherwise mentioned to be bioengineering stuff.

dirthamen has very very few surviving statues or depictions, and is more associated with falon'din than as his own independent figure in the dalish myths. even his own temple includes mosaics of falon'din. there's a few statues that are probably dirthamen, but the most striking is in mythal's section of the fade behind the eluvian, which is a statue of a hooded figure, doubled over with a giant sword sticking out of his back.

[sojutrait]

a lil lady with a florence and the machine obsession

[kalashnikovlobotomy]

heh not to flex on those of you who have had a less productive day but today i massacred a sims 3 apartment lot to look vaguely romaniancommie with its furniture clipping together so bad it took me 7 tries to save it (no screenshots im too tired) and sims 3 rusrom want to fuck eachother freaknasty to the point where it's affecting their mood. now if i can make cana and ame ill show you guys some real messy shit.

[urproblematicfav-arsonk]

Me: I should write a fic about Jon getting fucked and vored by the Hallway-

My fav movie from my childhood:

Me: hmn

[shesthespinstersimmer]

Bondi (3)

Thought I’d take a moment to dive a little deeper into the relationship of Lo, Bondi and her partner Aire:

WHAT’S TEA?

Lo wasted no time snatching Bondi up as soon as she met her - Lo told her she wasn’t into relationships, but she tried (for about two weeks). They floated around each other‘s orbits for a while, but Lo couldn’t shake it and managed to talk her into a few more weeks (because just look at her, she’s beautiful).

But an old flame came back and Lo gently cut Bondi loose. Bondi tried to be cool about it, (after all, they weren’t that serious) but it did sting a bit.

But not for long - her sister Blythe took her to a listening room, where she first saw Aire perform.

As soon as their eyes locked, that was it.

But you know Lo - her old flame flamed out (kinda) and Lo couldn’t stop thinking about Bondi.

Aire’s not exactly a fan of their history, but she trusts her girl. Lo? Not so much.

So she sets boundaries and leaves it at that.

In reality, Aire has nothing to worry about - Lo respects their boundaries and has no desire to overstep. For her, Bondi will always fall into her “ones who got away” file.

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