#like I don’t need to be able to access all my sims 4 cc on my phone why the fuck would I want that

[gales-big-naturals]

Getting violently angry with Microsoft Onedrive because it’s easier to laser focus on that than be generally angry with everything in the entire world

[imfromsixam]

My Dream Teen Sleepover (CC Pack for The Sims 4)

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to dive back into creating something special for teens, but I’m thrilled to share that the wait is over! I’m excited to introduce you to the My Dream Teen Sleepover CC Pack, designed to bring the ultimate sleepover experience to your Sims' lives.

This pack is all about capturing the fun and cozy essence of hanging out with friends. Whether it's playing a spin the bottle game (decorative), indulging in makeup or skincare routines, or gossiping about high school, this pack has everything your Sims need to create unforgettable sleepover memories.

Enhance your sleepover scenes with this CC pack that includes 26 items. You’ll find a new vanity with a classic movie star look, plus comfort items like a bed, chair stool, and a sleep mat. For décor, enjoy posters, face sheets, magazines, flower and heart pillows, a polaroid camera, polaroids, a polaroid wall hanger, a skincare kit, a smartphone stand, a spin-the-bottle game, and a wavy mirror.

Don’t forget the electronics with a speaker and three versions of string lights for perfect ambiance. Store your essentials in a dresser and keep surfaces stylish with a night table and tulip night table.

Also, I've always wanted to have floor cushions where my Sims could sit, and thanks to Growing Together, I've been able to use the sleepbag functionality to create them.

Ready to turn your Sims' sleepovers into the ultimate teen hangout? Get Early Access to My Dream Teen Sleepover CC Pack now and start the fun!

Don’t forget to share your sleepover scenes and tag me—I can’t wait to see how your Sims enjoy their dream sleepovers!

About this CC Pack

This CC PACK includes 26 items

Activities: Vanity (Requires Glamorous Vintage SP), Face Sheets (Requires Spa Day GP)

Comfort: Bed, Chair Stool, Flower and Heart Floor Cushion (Requires Growing Together EP), Sleep Mat (Requires Growing Together EP)

Decorative: Posters, Face Sheets, Magazines, Flower and Heart Pillows, Polaroid Camera, Polaroids, Polaroids Wall Hanger, Skincare Kit, Smartphone Stand, Spin Bottle Game, Wavy Mirror

Electronics: Stereo/Speaker

Lighting: String Lights (3 versions)

Storage: Dresser

Surface: Night Table, Tulip Night Table

▶ ACCESS INFO

Public access: December 2

GET EARLY ACCESS HERE

[grimfolks]

i'm sorry to bother you, i just came across your blog and i'm so shocked with how amazing your sims look. i play sims 3 but my sims look pretty average and my screenshots don't look great, can you please if it's possible explain how your sims look so beautiful like this? (specifically this post hiddenspriings/742135415348330496) like, how do your sims look that good? is that a default skin? and how do they have those shadows on their faces etc, is that editing or reshade? can you please explain deeply? i'm sorry i'm asking for many things, i'm just a noob and i really get confused looking at these beautiful posts wondering how to make my sims look cool like that too!!

I don't even know where to start asdfghjkl 😅 developing a sim style is honestly a journey and when I joined simblr my sims looked like potatoes too, it takes time and effort to actively work on that 'skill' if I might call it that. With that often comes the dissatisfaction of your progress and how your sims look, and sometimes you just have to stop yourself and enjoy the ride, without looking around at what others are doing. Anyways, into actual 'tips':

I think you need to figure out where you stand when it comes to cc (it's not really a need but it's gonna help I guess). I like the look of very simple maxis match skins (I have those linked on my resources page) and very often alpha makeup cc layered on top. I personally don't really like how alpha skins look like on my sims (they usually have much more depth to them but since I’m not into that I can’t recommend anything) so everything you see on them - highlights, blushes, shadows etc. is just makeup cc. For those I recommend: blushes 1 2 3 4 shadows & highlights 1(!) 2(!) 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (+ tifa’s stuff here). Add them on top of each other and bam! suddenly your sim isn’t so flat faced anymore (little note here, I often use ‘blushes’ as shadows as well depending on their placement ;)

If you are interested in what I personally use as defaults check my resources page. I also have all the skins and eyes cc I use linked there. My advice would be to also check other simblrs’ resources as well, there are some well hidden gems there that otherwise I wouldn’t be able to find on my own. 

But If you are new to sims 3 you might ask: hey, how do you layer cc if you can only apply one for the category in cas? Well...Get yourself nraas master controller if you haven't already. With that mod you can increase the number of sliders which give you freedom of creating more diverse looking sims and assign multiple makeup per location. I won't explain how to do it here as there are multiple guides online, just google your question :) - I even saw great guides on youtube! It might seem like a lot at first but believe me, nraas along with its many modules will save you a lot of time and hussle. 

Lastly, part of the posting process here on simblr is editing and I cannot lie that my sims don’t benefit on that. I use reshade with mxao which enhance colors and shadows (check my f.a.q page for links) and smooth out pictures further with photoshop tools. 

Now I’m gonna expose myself a little, this is from left to right: the oldest sim in my folder currently (I’d say this is my late 2022 style), my newest sim and my newest sim with reshade on (but no further editing).

It’s a shame I don’t have access to my very first sims in sims 3 to really compare them but I think even here you can see the difference. So do not get discouraged, it will take a time and dedication like any other hobby but you’ll get where you want to be eventually :)

[jaymojica0923]

i don’t usually rant or complain when it comes down to some content creators/sims 4 content in general, i usually just keep it to myself. but, i feel the need to talk on this subject because i wanna know if i’m alone on the subject matter of certain sims 4 content creators who make beautiful content — i’ll give credit where it’s due.

but, when i want to download it for my gameplay and i can’t because they have no links to download and you’ll have to contact that creator directly, or they have it behind paywall and it’s been years since that content was created. i mean, i can understand free patreon members having to wait 2 weeks to a month for it to become available for us to even access.

but i just feel like some people shouldn’t be sims 4 content creators if you’re gonna have years worth of content behind a paywall and charge an insane amount of money for a membership whether it’s monthly or yearly.

some of us don’t have the money for that, me being one of those people.

i can’t even tell you how many days i’ve been doing cc shopping to not be able to get the stuff i want to get but i can’t because it’s behind a paywall/has no direct link to download it.

i’m not calling out a specific person, i’m saying this in general.

some of you content creators need to do better when it comes to allowing access to your content once a certain time period has passed by.

and to the sims 4 content creators who actually release their content for free on a timely basis, thank you. it’s because of you guys that i can add to my game and make it how i want it (even if i have yet to figure out solid gameplay yet 😭)

and yes, maybe i can just create content myself and share my own work, if i was even that talented. but i’m still learning and it’s not easy at all.

[echoweaver]

I was just having a PM chat with another simmer about Sims 3 game performance, and I thought maybe it would be worth posting this stuff publicly. There are other game performance guides around the Internet, but this is mine.

Sims 3 is an old game. It’s enormously ambitious, and I wish they’d built a better data management engine in the beginning when they knew they were going to try to simulate basic behavior for an entire town over generations. When it runs like crap, it’s natural to assume that the problem is the computer, but the truth is that in 2021, the major reason that the game gets laggy is the GAME. It’s almost never the computer.

Sims 3 is a 32-bit game. That means that it has huge limitations on how much memory it can access. If you have the long-address patch (which if you have your game patched up to 1.67+ you will have), then the total memory the game can use is 4G. Before long addressing, the max usable memory was 2G, and the game stopped being able to function in that amount after about the 4th expansion I think.

It doesn’t matter if you have a 64-bit operating system, which you probably do. Sims 3 has to run in 32-bit backward compatibility.

There’s a lot of advice on how to improve performance. Some of it worked in the past but doesn’t now. Some of it never worked. Here are the things I know of that actually do make Sims 3 run better: 1. NRaas mods ErrorTrap and Overwatch: Even if you hate mods, you want these. They don’t change the behavior of the game. They fix bugs that bloat the game and corrupt save files. I honestly don’t know how anyone plays generational games without these. I’ve spoken to a lot of players over the years who don’t mod because they consider it dangerous to their game. I can see that reasoning, but not for these two mods.

2. An FPS (frames-per-second) limiter. This gets really technical, but the jist of it is that Sims 3 was written at a time when computers didn’t have nearly the graphics resources they have today. Because of this, it’s written to use ALL the resources it can get to generate the maximum number of visual frames it can. On a modern computer it’s likely to generate hundreds of frames per second when you only need 30 fps, and no matter how studly a computer you give it, it’s likely to chew up those extra resources generating more frames you’ll never see. When I added FPS limiting, suddenly the fan on my computer went quiet. It was stunning. I don’t see this issue discussed nearly as much as other ones, probably because of the confusing technical reasons, but it might be the biggest thing you can do for your game performance.

For certain graphics cards, you can limit the frames generated in the graphics config. I used Bandicam for years. You need to run it before you launch Sims and set FPS to 30 on the video tab. HOWEVER, I stopped using Bandicam when Smooth Patch (below) came out. You want maximum FPS of 30. That’s the maximum number that’s useful to the eye except arguably for first person shooters and virtual reality. [Note: Other simmers are telling me that they think somewhat higher frame rates can be a big visual improvement for their games. I think I’ll try 60 for a while myself and see. A lot of games target 30, so it’s worth trying out some limits to see what you think. When you’re talking about modern hardware, 60fps is almost the same for performance as 30. Whatever the case, don’t set it higher than the refresh rate on your monitor. Anything over that literally can’t be displayed.]

3. Smooth Patch by LazyDuchess. This is some kind of runtime injection magic that updates the way some threading is done in the game. the biggest thing it affects is loading the catalogues in CAS and build/buy, but it can make games load faster tool. As an afterthought, the config file includes frame rate limiting, so you can just forget about #2 above and set FPSlimit=30 after installing Smooth Patch.

4. CC Magic. This is a cc organizer, which is very nice to have in its own right. The big performance deal is that it merges your cc into big packages for you. Merged packages are better for performance but a living hell to do manually.

So that’s it! I’ve done a lot of fiddlier stuff, but I think these things are the most bang for your buck.

[bitch-with-a-spoon]

quick CAS rant

These are CAS things I have noticed but have been very infuriating for me as I like to fill towns with my own townies.

When I was creating a sim, I set their sex as male but had preferences as feminine and had the pronouns she/her. I like creating diverse sims and wanted to mess around with the new options with pronouns. In CAS and relationship this sim is listed as a brother rather than a sister or sibling. I can see how a fix for this can be more nuanced than matching the term to the pronouns, but still irritating nonetheless.

the wrap style of the hijab available only under everyday and not for formal, party, etc. While this is a simple fix of removing the dress type tag, it shows a lack of thought or perhaps ignorance by the sims team.

There are very few modest clothes and the ones that are look so... old. No hate to people who dress in this style, but if I am trying to make a sim that dresses modestly and is a teen or young adult, there are really no clothing options available for them to wear that look nice/fashionable. I know I spoke on this in another post, but I am so tired of having to rely on CC to make sims. I believe that CC should be there to enhance and to explore more styles, and I love CC creators and modders within the community, but it again feels like we need these people to make the game playable rather than to enhance it. Again, I don’t think it should be so hard to find a dress or outfit in game that can cover the chest, arms, and legs that also looks like a real outfit somebody would wear (more emphasis on the dresses).

Also, the lack of disability rep is upsetting. I recently got mocked for this on twitter, and it did remind me that not everybody knows that I am disabled and me caring about accessibility and representation isn’t from some place of wanting to feel like I’ve done something but rather because it is something that I and several of my friends face, and it hurts to not be able to see these options within the game. I don’t want to have to play in a world and have to imagine they are magically cured. At least in the sims 3 there were canes, granted they were for elders, but more than the sims 4 has.

I do apologize if this feels choppy, I’ve been writing this in between other things so not all thoughts are properly connected!

Obviously I understand that there are more issues and things to tackle in game, but it feels so disheartening when I play this game where the whole idea is that you can create you or at least people like you but then don’t give us the full ability to live this out.

[boyfrogsims]

boyfrog create a sim challenge/contest! 

deadline: wednesday, august 3rd, 2022

these two hotties need a bf/gf, and i need your help to make one! the sim i choose will be in a mini-machinima i make for the happy couple :) all genders of sim are cool. feel free to join both, as well. post your sim to tiktok and be sure to tag me (@boyfrogsims) or duet me, so i can find it! 

here are some “rules” that might help answer any questions you have, altho this is just for fun and not too serious: 

1. use all the cc your heart desires (or none!)

this time around the sims are maxis match, but if this gets enough interest im totally down to do another one with alpha :)

2. however, i reserve the right to change your sim a bit!

this will either be to make them match for the video (this is unlikely - i’ll probably just change my sim, but just as a warning) OR if my laptop can’t handle the cc (i have a shit laptop, sorry guys!)

ill avoid changing any facial features, don’t worry

3. pleassssse include some info on the personality of your sim

just personality traits is fine!

it will make my life filming easier if i have an idea of what they’d do

4. you don’t need a cc list when you post, but you need to be able to find it for me if you win, so i can actually make a video with your sim

no paywalls please, i won’t be able to access it. if you accidentally use a paywalled piece that’s cool, just let me know if you have an alternative, or if i can pick one :)

the sims 4 tray importer is great for finding all the cc you used

5. i promise this video will be happy! no dying here lol (unless you want me to make a sad one 👀)

the video will probably be around 15 seconds, and it will just be whatever i feel like making. again, this is just for fun!

you’re free to use the couple in any of your stuff, too, i can put them both up for download

here are some examples of the mini-machinimas i make for tiktok.  one two three four five

my youtube channel is also a good example, tho a tiktok will be much shorter and less complex.

[mack3030]

Things the Sims 4 Community Can Do About Paywalls...A Post...

[This is going to be a bit long, so you may want to save it and read it when you have time, or just...you know, buckle in.]

I thought I would ring in the new year by talking about something that I feel we as a community need to finally decide on. (It’s been debated since 2017 or so, and it’s now 2021...) I’d like, if possible, to try to suggest some real solutions and choices that we can make that will hopefully create a better and more honest community out of all of us.  Now I would like to start by making some postulates. In geometry, postulates are facts that do not need proven with a mathematical proof. They are assumed to be true. Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers would call these “Self-Evident Truths”. I would like to use these as a bit of a basis for my arguments. 

Truth: The Sims 4 has been enough of a cash cow for EA.  If you buy the base game ($40) plus all expansion packs (40 each x 10) + all game packs (20 each x 9) + all stuff packs (10 each x 17) you would come to a total of seven hundred and 90 dollars ($790) plus tax. This is of course, without sales, bundling, etc, which many people DO take advantage of, but STILL. That is a TON of money for EA’s pockets.  EA makes a majority of its money on the fact that the Sims 4 is an “incomplete game”. It “completes” the game further and further by adding more “expansions” to the game to the point that it seems almost useless to buy the base game alone without adding to it. 

Even with sales and other things, it’s easy to spend over $500 dollars on the sims 4 game + expansions. Still a lot of cash for a game that is years old. This is just money that is spent on the game that goes to EA. This does not account for:  * Money spent to buy a new computer because your old one wouldn’t run the sims.  * Money spent supporting CC artists who have donations open or early access.  * Money spent on access to sites that have ads/paywalls/exclusive sims 4 CC such as Leosims, etc. (Which are the problem, frankly)

We should be able to respect the fact that a majority of us paid a hefty amount for this game. It is unfair, and frankly greedy to REQUIRE people to pay MORE just to unlock or gain access to specific user created content. 

I am not talking about a VOLUNTARY support or donation because they like what you offer. I am talking about FORCING people to pay if they want to ever be able to use the CC or mod you offer. 

Now, the typical defense for this is “Well, I’m an artist! I spend time/effort/etc working hard on these meshes, the code, etc to make this content!”  Which leads me to point #2. 

Truth: Mods, CC, and other content for the Sims 4 are useless without the game. Once they are created/uploaded to the game, all copyright to those objects IMMEDIATELY transfers to EA. 

I teach art in a Missouri public school. Our state standards dictate that when art students are in middle school grades, they have to learn about copyright, fair use, and creative commons. While I am not a copyright lawyer, I have had to learn enough about this subject to teach it. So allow me to break down a few facts about copyright: 

First, when ya make it, ya own it. There’s not a process to apply for a copyright. The moment you create something that is 100% your own work, you hold the copyright to it. 

Second, when you make something that is created based off of or USING someone else’s intellectual property as a reference or resource it is a fan creation. In art, we call this “fanart”. It is not 100% your own work. Someone else’s intellectual property is involved. 

Fan creations always have tread a very thin and shadowy line when it comes to different companies and the legality of them. You can easily search google for various articles explaining it, but to summarize it in a short method: 

Most companies do not actively go after those who create fan creations unless they are making profits that could instead be going to the creators of the intellectual property. If the fan creation is discovered to be making profits and/or taking the intellectual property in a direction the creator does not approve of, they have legal options to pursue (court, cease and desist letters, etc). 

Third, Copyright can be transferred from person to person. In most cases this is done through a written document that both parties sign, however there IS an exception to this that EA uses to allow itself to transfer your copyrights to your content to them: 

EA’s agreement with you is non-exclusive, meaning that the moment you hit “agree” on the sims 4 terms and conditions, you have handed over your rights to any CC you create for the game. 

If you want to maintain full creative rights over the mesh/mods/etc you make then, you have to not make that content for the sims 4 and make your own platform to host it on. This is way easier said than done. 

Truth: There have been various examples in the past of CC creators who have stolen meshes, bases, bits/pieces of work, or “inspiration” for CC from other sites/companies, who have been called on it publicly. 

The most recent event concerning this was drama concerning itsbrandysims and their use of meshes from imvu/secondlife (you can see my opinion on the subject HERE), but there have been other documented cases. Leosims, for example, has been listed as an example of someone taking meshes from secondlife creators and reuploading them (when it was told to me, I was shown THIS thread as evidence). Another well known creator was accused by a former sims 4 cc creator (who now makes content from second life), and was called out in THIS post in 2019. 

The horrible part of this? Many of these creators are charging people (often at not so great rates as well), for STOLEN content. Content they don’t even own, that they ripped from another place. This should not be accepted by a community that loves a game as much as the Sims 4 community.  Truth: EA has provided a way for people to make money while not hiding content behind paywalls entirely, and the INTENT of this was to OFFSET COSTS.  Almost every post about content locked behind paywalls features this post found on the Sims Forum from 2017. In it, SimGuruDrake, who was the community manager at the time (she has since left the Sims 4 team for another job).  Most of you who have seen this discussion topic before know this post by heart, but I’d like to highlight one important aspect of it: 

One thing that is always important about communication is the intent behind it. The intent for people to be allowed to make patreons and allow early access wasn’t so people could just make money for themselves, the idea was to offset costs to buy programs to make the content. For example, a yearly subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud (which has photoshop, illustrator, etc) costs a couple hundred dollars US a year. If someone was using photoshop to help them create their CC in addition to blender or other free programs, EA/Maxis wanted to allow the creator to not have to pay for making the CC out of pocket.  Can EA/Maxis control what people spend the money they make off of patreon on? No. But it should be noted that the intent of this action was to help people pay for supplies for their hobby more than to make a business out of it. 

Onto the next truth! Truth: There is an image that disputes this post above, however the authenticity of it and timing of it are very disputed. 

This image is often thrown around by people who lock content behind paywalls, but I would like to take a second and try to provide an honest assessment of it.  First of all, I have a bit of a problem with the fact that the original person who “messaged” SimGuruDrake this question has not been identified. This image was not posted on the tumblr of a CC creator who claimed “Hey I reached out to a sims guru and this is the answer I got!” The main pages that have this image are either tweets from CC creators using it to defend their stance on paywalls (ex: here), or tumblrs/tweets “debunking it” (ex: here, here).  I even reverse image searched this image using google, and another platform and could not figure out where this originated from. Of course, I’m not an expert, but...still. 

The fact that the origin of this picture is unknown casts doubt on it. If it were a well known CC maker who is known for being honest, that’s one thing. But the fact that we don’t exactly know where it came from is suspicious. Because frankly, anyone with some decent editing ability could photoshop this. 

Here’s my imperfect edit, but I’m just a self-taught graphics nerd and I am not as dedicated at faking screenshots as some. (And the crap photo quality didn’t help.) Another common issue is that at the supposed “time” that this question was being asked, some state that SimsGuruDrake had already left the Sims 4 team. I will admit, this photo is within the correct timeline, as SimsGuruDrake did not officially depart the sims 4 team until February 2018. (There is a post on the sims forums that has a timestamp that confirms this.) But, if you were in the process of leaving your job within the next month (as a two week/30 day notice is common when leaving a job), would you REALLY be answering questions in DMs on twitter, or be focusing on packing up, and training your successor?  The last thing that really makes me doubt the validity of this picture is the fact that it’s not really easy to message the sims gurus on Twitter. This appears to be twitter from the screenshot (although there are some things that are a little out of place from the current UI): But when I attempt to direct message a sims guru I get this message: 

I even tried seeing if I could reach out via DM to Drake herself, (who now posts under a different twitter) to see if it was possible: 

Could the policies have changed since 2018? Possibly, but I feel that opening up direct messages is just asking for Sims 4 team members to get angry messages, so this could very well be a long running EA policy. I have also reached out to her via a twitter tag (as of 1/2/21), and will update y’all if I get a reply:

Okay, so now that we’ve gone through all of this, let’s talk about the last truth that’s really important:  Truth: Putting content behind paywalls has generally been considered disgusting by many in the sims 4 community, and TAKES AWAY the choice of people to support CC creators they love/appreciate WILLINGLY.  A few notable posts sharing the disgust with this practice can be found: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE). And these are just what I can find from a simple precursory search.

Okay, Brainiac. So what can we do to solve this problem? 

Well, there’s a few methods we can employ, and sadly, it’s going to take a bit of a commitment and concentrated effort from the community. 

Step #1: Make the COMMUNITY the VICTIM instead of EA. 

Now when I say this, I don’t mean we’re actually victims, but mean that instead of constantly saying things like “WHEN YOU DO THIS YOU VIOLATE EA’S TOU!”, thus making EA the “victim” of the crime. We change the dialog to saying “When you lock stuff behind paywalls, you cheat the sims 4 community and disrespect their choice to support you or not.”  Because let’s be honest. Maxis/EA really doesn’t give much of a care about if people aren’t following this rule. You can report people to the team, but as far as most people have seen, it doesn’t get anywhere. But if we make it where the community is the party being “wronged” it is much harder for those who have paywalls to not be scared. Because the community, in the end, has to be with them.  DepthofPixels had a really amazing post about this HERE. 

Step 2: Decide to not support anyone who puts their content behind exclusive paywalls and do not hesitate to spread the word about why you choose not to do so. 

By that, I mean

not paying any patreon accounts that don’t offer either their content 100% for free, or offer early access.

And sharing about why you choose to do that on your social media. Something I might suggest would be to make it a bit personal and share something like:

Instead of spending $15 a month to get exclusive content from Leosims (or any other patreon/paywall creator here) I’m spending that $15 supporting creator x, creator y, and creator z, who don’t put their work behind paywalls! 

Link their patrons, share why you like their content, and why you take the stance to make the community better. Make it a positive thing, praising the people who are doing RIGHT by the community. 

Yes, you may not get their content for a while (although there are some different places (

x

,

x

) to find them *cough*. But in the end, is it worth supporting someone’s content when they’re treating the community badly? 

Step 3: Report creators who actively steal content from IMVU/secondlife to those respective companies, and all others to EA. (Even though nothing may happen.)

Here’s the deal. When people steal from either of those sites, they are infringing on someone’s copyright, as well as Imvu/secondlife’s copyright as well. It’s not okay, and they should be held accountable for it. Here’s the LINK for submitting a ticket to Secondlife. I haven’t been able to find one for IMVU, but maybe someone else will find one. Let those companies know and allow them to handle those specific creators.  As to the other creators, EA may not handle them at the moment. But IF (and this is a wishful thinking “if”) there were suddenly a flood of messages about certain creators...? I think they might have to pay attention to some of those messages. There is an official report form, but it might even be worth tweeting to SleddingGuruFrost, who is the current community manager asking about their stance on paywalls.  And last but not least: 

Step 4: Make sure that those who are doing the right thing and not putting their work behind paywalls feel appreciated. Show them some love via a tumblr ask, or by tagging them on twitter, or by going up a tier on their patreon (or pledging for the first time). Celebrate these heroes who are creating content and not forcing it on us. 

Us asking for people to give us a choice to support them isn’t being greedy, or disrespecting their time. We just want transparency, and respect from those who create content for the game we love so much versus them treating us like we’re just a source of income. I know it might seem a bit hard to do this for some of you, and for some it may seem like I’m preaching to the choir, but we have to decide where we stand on this issue and stop letting those who abuse this system keep doing it. We can make a difference if we decide as a COMMUNITY to work together.

With commitment,  ~Sunny

[pictureamoebae]

What is some advice you can give to a new CC creator? I really love all of your work and you're one of my favorite creators I've found so far. Is there anything you wish you knew starting off that would have been really helpful?

Hi! Thank you so much for your sweet words 💚

There are lots of technical things I’ve learned along the way, but I’m still really quite green compared to a lot of others in that regard. Still, the studio.exportall and studio.importall cheats for Sims 4 Studio would have saved me *a lot* of time when I made my first eleventy billion wall sets. Spending time reading through the S4S tutorials and regularly reading the creator help section even when you don’t need help can teach you the odd thing here and there. And when you do need help, don’t be afraid to ask.

The main piece of advice I have, though, is to focus on making what you want to make, and not to worry about what you think others want you to make. Make things as often or as infrequently as you want, don’t stick to a schedule because you think it’s the right thing to do, or to increase visibility, or to chase numbers, or anything like that - you’ll burn out and it’ll stop being fun. If you want to post 1 thing a month then do that. If you want to post 3 things in a day, go right ahead.

This is especially true if you ever start a Patreon or anything like that. Even if you don’t do early access (which I don’t - I don’t want anyone to feel pressured into supporting me because they have no choice, if they like my stuff they will support me and that’s all that matters), the pressure is always there to think constantly about whether you’re driving people over there and keeping visibility. Try to remember why you started making cc to begin with: presumably because there were things you wanted in your own game that you couldn’t find, and because you wanted to be able to share that with others.

It’s fun to make things and see them come to life in your own game. It’s fun to see them come to life in other people’s games. And it’s incredibly rewarding to hear people say they enjoy what you make. Try to hold onto that joy and let that be the metric that guides you, rather than worrying about numbers or popularity or any of that other stuff. It’ll help you stay motivated, and stop you feeling like it’s a chore.

Ultimately, if people find your content fun or useful they’ll support you, and they’ll be happier to do so if they know you’re happy doing what you do. You can’t force that, and staying true to yourself (as cliché as that sounds) is the best thing you can do.

Good luck with your cc journey! You’ll probably get frustrated at times when things go wrong but that’s fine! Persevere and just keep doing what’s fun!

[the-dewofthesea]

coming 2021

like as for many other people this has been the hardest year ever for me. I wanted to post this a while ago, but needed some time to regain focus. I now finally got enough time to put things down clearly and look at the future to come. I've decided to once more try to fully go for all my creative projects, including my gaming content, as I'm still jobless and being sad about that is not going to help so I should use my time useful instead.

CC for the Sims 3 & 4 for my own sanity I've made a new schedule that will only include 1 set of items a week, as creating deadlines for trying to post something every few days for the past months made me unnecessarily stressed out if I missed one or couldn't make the items I wanted. I'll continue to post all winter gifts WIPs I still have in the old way (randomly XD) and after that the new schedule will be as below, starting 1st week of February, and they will also become available for early access 3 weeks earlier from now on for my patreons, so as a patreon you can already start enjoying these new sets starting this week 🎉

week 1: art related set

week 2: EA-edit set

week 3: Dew at Home set

week 4: nature/history related set

(it's a hard decision for me to make as I don't like to put things behind paywalls, but since I'm still jobless and there is no immediate hope in the near future this will change due to the whole crisis and lockdown situation, still I would love to be able to keep making content. I will though make a clear distinction on tumblr between early access and full release, as I personally hate the not so clear/click-bate posts some people make.)

re-imagining the Sims 4 worlds with mods that have come out recently it is now even more possible to create super customized/edited worlds in the Sims 4. I've had this idea for forever to re-imagine the Sims 4 worlds completely and make them less standard (and USA looking.) sadly the game never gave us the options the Sims 3 had with the CAW tool. but now I would like to revisit this idea for a series of videos on my youtube channel, and hopefully even start streaming!

other games; YouTube & Twitch I'm still doing things in other games as well and am super close to finishing my first videos, on my path to be less perfectionistic and less lonely I also have the goal to start streaming in the near future.

Planet Zoo: Gråthorpe, a scandinavian inspired wildlife sanctuary and rescue center on the outskirts of a town.

Planet Coaster: Castles series, cause I enjoy history and building realistic things, I've already made some castles in the past.

Cities Skylines: Kaerljord, based on the Faroe Islands (if I finally get all mods sorted and running XD)

[msotherworldly]

10 CAS Features I Would Like to See in the Sims 5

I’ve already made two lists on features I would like to see in the next installment of the Sims series, but I thought the area of character creation necessitated it’s own category. For some, building is all they do; others simply want to play the game, completing as many of the aspirations and befriending as many other sims as they can. Then there are those of us who are obsessed with the characters themselves. We use mods to give them height or new hair colours, spend hours downloading virtual clothes online, and craft elaborate backstories. Even the length of our Sims noses are important to us. With both improvements and losses in the fourth game, it’s only natural that I have a wish list for the fifth title.

1) Hair Options

EA’s hairs have improved over the years, but you’re required to buy numerous expansion and stuff packs to acquire them. Even with several expansion hairs at my disposal, I find myself turning to mods to find the type of hair I like: wavy, long, and with bangs.

The ability to craft your own hairstyles would be a boon to the series. What if you could change the length of your hair, as well as the type (straight, wavy, curly, or kinky)? What if you could add or remove different bang types? The ability to dye different parts of your hair, as seen in Sims 3, any colour you wanted, including roots, tips, or even streaks, would be feasible. Even throwing colour down wherever, as seen in the Sims 4 Pet system, should be possible: at that point, you could have someone with rainbow hair!

For more complicated styles, such as braids, buzz cuts, or accessorized updos, default hairs could still be provided, but even some of these should include the option to add bangs (straight fringe, uneven fringe, or side swept) as well as dyes and types.

2) Clothing Customization

To the same end, the ability to edit the game’s clothes would excite those of us who have become addicted to Animal Crossing’s latest “Pro Design” option. Outfits would have a “remove sleeve” option, or the ability to make them long or short. Hoodies could be toggled, so that Sims could choose to wear them up or down. Skirts or dresses could be made short, medium or long, and designs could be asymmetrical. Patterns could be added to less complex outfits using a stamp tool, similar to what was developed for Pets; t-shirts could have stripes, polka dots, or chevron patterns added! More skilled simmers could even draw their own illustrations on to clothes.

3) Accessories & Additional Categories

In the Sims 4, you can have hats and necklaces, but not tiaras and scarves. More accessories should be given their own categories, allowing you to add kerchiefs, woolly scarves, tiaras, headbands, or bows to your Sim—in addition to everything else.

Some accessories could be added to other clothes, such as a “belt” option you can use to add colour to any of the game’s pants. All of the shirts would also include a “tie” category. Purses and backpacks could be added to the game, independent of whatever outfit your Sim was wearing, as well as more slots for rings and earrings.

Jackets and t-shirts might even be made separate, allowing your Sim to don their favourite hoodie whatever their outfit for the day. There could be capes, shawls, masks...more categories would make for some fun combinations (and perhaps more notoriously ugly townies).

4) Colour Wheel: Skin, Hair, and Eyes

The Sims 3 featured a colour wheel for both hair and eyes which was missed in the Sims 4. Gone are the days when you could give your Sim dark purple hair and blood red eyes without the use of mods. What Sims 3 didn’t do was include a colour wheel for skin (though the options given through expansions over time gave a close approximation).

The types of Sims you could make in the Sims 5 with a colour wheel would be endless. In addition to making them all resemble anime characters with purple eyes and pastel pink hair, the ability to choose any skin colour would enable the creation of characters like Grimora or Thanos. You could make a town full of Simpson’s type characters if you wanted to.

Having free rein over skin tones would also allow players to tweak any EA skin tones they weren’t happy with. You’d be able to add more red to the tones, darken them, or simply make them appear less washed out.

5) Height Slider

It’s understandable why a height slider hasn’t been implemented, given the strain it would put on animations. While I won’t be (too) upset if this is too difficult to add, there’s no denying that it greatly diversifies characters. A tall character stands out from a short one, leading to cute but awkward couples of drastically varying heights, as well as making the world more realistic.

At the very least, there should be a notable height difference between teens and adults, whom I can’t tell apart.

6) Sex & Gender

The Sims 4 added great options for sex and gender when they enabled unisex clothes and the ability to make transgender Sims. It was the first game I saw that enabled that level of control, and I hope to see an improved version of the system in the Sims 5.

Still absent are more gender categories. In addition to “male” and “female” identities, there should also be a “non-binary” option. In game, depending on what you choose, your Sims would then be addressed as “he,” “she,” or “they.”

Having body types that sat more on a spectrum could open up the character creator too, adding a third body slider that would tend towards masculine or feminine without being strictly one or the other unless you chose to sit at either extreme. Masculine or feminine attributes (such as breasts) could be added independent of the body type, and all clothes and hairs would remain available to all Sims.

7) Personality Quirks

Some of these aspects might feel more like grocery shop lists to some people, but I found they added to my Sims. The Sims 3 allowed you to choose your sim’s favourite food, colour, and music. In the Sims 2, you could choose your turn on’s and turn off’s, such as hair colour or body type. The Sims 3 also introduced a biography section where you could type out your Sim’s backstory and any additional details you wanted to include.

While these attributes mostly contributed to generating moodlets, they could be made more integral to the game. Sims could experience increased happiness wearing their favourite colour or seeing it in a room. Sims could write higher quality songs in their preferred genre. Socials could be opened around these traits, with Sims finding friendships easier to build after discovering that they shared one or more.

The turn on and turn off system could be extended to all levels of attraction: a Sim’s sexual orientation could be defined, offering straight, gay, bisexual, or pansexual as options. No more having your female Sim chatting up Brent or Brant when you’re not looking!

8) More Traits

The ability to choose only three traits for adult sims has never felt sufficient. Even five traits don’t feel like enough for more complex characters. The option to have five traits by default (and then to unlock more “default traits” through the rewards store using a potion) would be welcome.

The inclusion of more options would be great too; who doesn’t want a “sarcastic” trait?

8) Disabilities

There are dozens of disabilities in the real world, making the inclusion of them all impossible. However, more common disabilities, such as having a bionic leg or being relegated to a wheelchair, should be represented. Elderly Sims should have the option of needing canes or walkers.

More complex disabilities, such as being deaf, mute, or blind, would be difficult to add, owing to the array of socials, such as sign language, that would need to be added. However, if such disabilities could be included, the game would be even more inclusive than it already is.

At the very least, wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs should be doable. There’s some hope that even Sims 4 could receive such features.

9) More Tattoo Options

As someone who’s a tattoo enthusiast in real life, I find the game’s selection disappointing. Moreover, I miss the versatility offered by the Sims 3 system, which allowed you to edit the size, colours, and placement of the tattoo. There need to be more tattoos, particularly with each pack; they should follow the typical categories (tribal, new school, traditional, Japanese, and more) with some funkier pieces thrown in.

Tattoos shouldn’t be limited by slots either, meaning that you should be able to have ten different designs on one leg if you choose. More skilled Simmers should be given the option to draw their own designs, and then share those designs with others on the Gallery.

A Sim could have their name, or a portrait of their significant other, inked into their skin—with wonderful or disastrous results.

10) Save an Outfit

This final feature is more about convenience than anything. Have a fashionista Sim for whom five outfit slots aren’t enough? Plan to create an asylum or group in which a single uniform is needed? Wish to transfer the same outfit to another outfit category?

This feature would allow you to save an outfit. You can already save Sims and houses to the library, and a third “closet” category could save hours of sifting through clothes in order to recreate a look. These looks could be uploaded to the Gallery. With the other features I mentioned (colour wheels, hair manipulation, dyes and stamps), outfits, along with their matching hairstyles, could be accessed effortlessly and shared with the community.

Shirts with detailed illustrations or zanier dye jobs could be uploaded and accessed by others, thereby removing the need for simpler mods and the barrier they present for those who want to keep their game “cc free.”

There are more features, most of them small, that I would love, but these ten cover what I would like to see. It goes without saying that I want to see other aspects (such as the click and drag tool and the two body sliders) given further freedom, but if even a colour wheel is added I’ll be enthused.

[hbh-entertainment]

i tried to make my fictional kpop company’s head quarters on the sims 4 and this is what happened.

i got this idea from @ephemera-sm​ who posted a text post about how it would be interesting to see a floor plan of oc dorms, companies, etc. I thought that was an amazing idea so i decided to make my company on the sims! 

some notes before we start: 

the sims only allows 4 floors to be built. obviously a real company has multiple floors and multiple different levels. some of the layouts that i created i see as being a ‘repeat’ floor (so like... multiple floors may have the exact same layout)

i am really really really ungifted when it comes to sims4 building. please don’t judge me too hard. i don’t have cc furniture either. i was working on limited skill and resources. i’m insecure about posting this lmao please be nice.

if you even read through this whole thing.... i’m open to answering any questions about HBH or the building or staff or whatever! questions help me world build and I really need to work on world building.

Alright. Let’s start with the ground floor. 

Ah, the main lobby. Where visitors and artists alike enter the wondrous building and are greeted by the equally-wondrous, piece of ancient history secretary, Mrs Son Youngja. Right next to the entrance (that you can only get through if you either have an ID or buzz in), are three large display cases. Inside these cases are all the awards that HBH artists have won over the years. Yes, this is a flex on any newcomers that have never been to HBH’s headquarters. No, it’s not subtle in the slightest.

If you’re a trainee, employee, or artist, you have to show Youngja your HBH Entertainment ID before heading to the elevators. Anyone who doesn’t have their ID has to wait in the lobby, but they will be asked to leave by security if they loiter for more than ten minutes. You do not want to mess with security. 

In order to access the rest of the building, you will need your HBH Entertainment ID to open the elevators. Depending on your position at the company, your ID may only get you into specific locations. For example, a corporate intern will only have access to the corporate floor. 

I always pictured HBH to have a wall full of ivy or plants or maybe even running water behind the front desk. I feel like Hak Bonghwa would want that just to like ‘bring calmness’ or something. The sims 4 ivy wall looks fugly but please just envision a cool looking plant wall.

In my Sims 4 world, I called it ‘The Big Practice Room’. At HBH, there are actually at least 2 of these types of floors, stacked one on top of the other. 

So there are two floors that look like this! The first one is on floor 1, and they call it Practice Room A. The second one is on floor 2, and they call it Practice Room B. 

These larger practice rooms are mostly reserved for debuted idols to practice their choreography. Large groups like Triptych need big practice rooms like this so all their members can work together. 

Trainees rarely use these practice rooms unless they are given permission from their instructors to book them. They are sort of a rite of passage to be able to use the larger practice rooms after you debut. 

I showed a picture of some random posters next to the ‘sound system’ in the second picture because in my head these practice rooms just have a ton of vice/promise/triptych memes printed out and pasted onto the walls near the back of the rooms.

Part of being an HBH artist is coming in at five in the morning to see a new meme of yourself right next to the aux cord. Good morning, Seoul. 

As you can see, there are two locker rooms up here. Most of the idols just dump their stuff against the wall in the practice room, but sometimes people actually use the lockers that HBH paid for.

There’s also three showers and if I could find space for it there would have also been bathroom stalls but.... hehe i made everything too small and was too lazy to rescale. There should be three toilet stalls in each locker room, just use your imagination. 

In the Sims 4, Trainee Town is one floor. At HBH, it’s more like two. So imagine this floor, but another identical floor on top of it. 

They call it ‘Trainee Town’ because these two floors are only used by trainees. 

Well, not all the time, but you will rarely see a debuted idol in a practice room up here or walking around unless they are hosting a class or dropping by to give tips.

Trainee Town has four practice rooms, all which are significantly smaller than the larger practice rooms that we saw earlier. This is because when they are training, they are broken down into smaller groups and taught by instructors. They also are broken down into smaller performance groups when it comes to busking and showcases, so they never really need a large place to practice.

Actually, the kids will practice anywhere. The space between the two elevators has been used as a practice room multiple times. 

Right when they get off the elevators, there are bulletin boards that not only have the schedules for their training and showcases, but also sometimes they’ll leave messages to each other on them. It’s cute. 

You might have noticed that the locker rooms don’t have showers. That’s because I ran out of space again. There is supposed to be showers and toilets. I just don’t know how to be an architect. 

There’s at least three floors of corporate, but only one has Hak Bonghwa’s office. (The floor above his has an office very similar to his. That office belongs to Heo Seongja.)

They all generally have this same layout. Open seating, no cubical, only a half-wall to separate desks.

HBH’s unofficial-official color is a greyish blue so I tried to keep the color theme going in this specific floor because this is like... where the Business Happens. 

I couldn’t make it but there is a specific floor in HBH that is dedicated to just conference rooms. All the top floors of HBH are for business offices and stuff, but the conference floor is the second-to-top floor. The only floor above that one is the food court, which overlooks the city.

I totally forgot to add the food court, but imagine like... a college dining hall. It’s like that but with healthy food and tables with benches. 

Anyways! Hak Bonghwa’s office is in a glass box so he can see all his workers. He doesn’t do this to be controlling or whatever, he wants to make it feel like they’re all in this together. 

His desk always has photos of his family on it. 

He has a small conference section of his office with a cat vase. In my head, there was no cat vase. Now that I saw this one from the Sims, there is now canonically a cat vase in Hak Bonghwa’s office. 

The tea is: a good chunk of HBH workers hate this office layout because there’s no privacy and you can always see what other people are up to and it’s distracting. 

The last level I created were The Dungeons. 

The Dungeons got it’s nickname for two reasons. One, the other half of the basement (which isn’t shown because I got too tired to finish it) used to be the old trainee rooms when Vice were training. 

The second is because of the obsurd amount of time you spend down here when you’re working on a new album.

Most of HBH artists are self-producing so the members will spend a good chunk of their time down in one of the studios to record their comebacks. 

There are three recording studios. The Green Studio, the Red Studio, and the Blue Studio. They all get their names from the carpets that are laid on the floor. 

The Blue Room is used the most frequently for production lessons for trainees.  

Across the hall, you may have noticed two other rooms. One of these rooms “belongs” to Cyth from Vice. The other belongs to Rushi and Haeun, two long-time trainees. 

Cyth gets a room because he produces not only for Vice but he also has had a helping hand in almost every HBH artist comeback since Triptych debuted. He’s earned his own work space to say the least.

Rushi and Haeun have one for similar reasons. They have both been trainees for nearly six years now. A part of their training was that they got to produce, compose, and write for other HBH idols. They have helped Promise create their whole “Dancer” album as well as a few early Triptych tracks. Even though they are just trainees, they are very valuable members to the HBH gang. 

To explain the “random space” part! 

I’ve thought it through and I’ve decided that I will probably be putting several ‘empty’ rooms down there for a variety of things like rap practice, vocal practice, lyric writing practice, etc. Just more practice space for idols and trainees. 

I have nothing else to add. If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear them. I may or may not make the dorms?? idk. We’ll see. i’d love to see other people’s floor plans! hop on this! let’s make it a trend! Thank you for reading this very long post! Stay healthy please. 

[romancereaper]

FAQ - quick find

Where do I find deals for The Sims 4?

CDKeys & Instant Gaming are the trusted sites that I always use for new releases or just updating my collection. They often do major bundles extremely cheap. 

How do I install CC and Mods?

See here for a great how to.

What does alpha/maxis match mean?

Alpha is defined as realistic. Alpha requires that you change your game settings. For hair, you must have sim detail on very high. For buy items, you will also need your other settings on high. For all alpha, you MUST have laptop mode off.

Maxis Match is styled on the game and matches it perfectly. MM does not require any settings changes (usually).

Why does my alpha hair look funny?

Probably because you didn’t read and follow instructions. Turn off laptop mode and set sim settings to very high. Due to polycount, you will have errors in how it shows until you do.

Why does my sim show up as question marks?

Broken and outdated CC will cause this issue. If you are seeing it in CAS, fiddle around and see which category it comes from. It’ll help you narrow down the search in your mods folder so you can delete it later.

Where can I get eyelashes?

Maxis Match lashes

Kijiko lashes (lashes everyone seems to use)

PBJ lashes

Can I trust ____ site?

Wix: Wouldn’t suggest it. Usually creators who use wix end up bogging down pages with ads and hidden codes that will cause you problems or put in tracking cookies that go with the ads. Even if you put in a no ads extension, you will likely experience annoyances in speed. Maybe I’m just impatient.

Pateron: Yes and no. We’ll get to the legal jaron later. Overall, Pateron is a safe place to allow downloads, just be aware that some creators keep everything behind a paywall and some just use the site to upload with no paywalls.

Adfly: No. No. No. Do not ever trust or use adfly links. They’re dangerous to your computer. This goes hand in hand with Wix sites. Many creators only use Wix to include their adfly. These are not trustworthy. You can get some extensions to get out of using adfly but they do not always work and you might end up with a virus being forcefully installed to your computer.

The Sims Resource (TSR):  Yes but make sure you have an adblocker AND a time skipper. TSR Freeium currently doesn’t fully work but you can also get that to help with some of the issues. 

Mod The Sims: Yes but be aware that a lot of mods do not get updated on the reg. It’s been mostly abandoned.

Sim Studio:  Yes but again, watch for adfly. Not all creators use it but some do. It will vary by creator.

Simfileshare: Yes, this used to be how everyone uploaded. Some people still use and some don’t. You shouldn’t have any issues besides sometimes it’s just down.

Sims 4 Mods: Yes, no problems.

Around The Sims:  Yes, no problems.

Simsdom: Ok so there’s a lot of debate here. It’s a yes but also a no. 1) They link outside sources to their page but make you sit through an ad time. 2) They’re ad crazy 3) they do not show all results unless you pay them. I don’t recommend using them. They are mainly just for alpha and most of the creators on the site are actually known in the community for being shitty about adfly, paywalls, uploading incomplete items (and making you pay for them), uploading items they didn’t make, and harassing people in the community. SO I’ll say no.

Paysites Must Be Destroyed: YES, a thousand times yes. This site uploads pay content. Pay content is not allowed by EA’s TOU due to the fact that creators use their work. Basically, you aren’t legally able to profit off of making items for the game. This site is here to make it so creators who require payment for items can’t keep requiring it. The site has been up since Sims 2 days. Creators have tried to sue but the site has been backed by EA, I guess because well, it’s still up and kicking. 

LoversLab: Yes, this is an ADULT website. Please don’t go to it if you’re not 18+. This is where you can find Wicked Whims.

DerShayan: Yes! You can find super nice maps for the game here and you will experience no issues with the site.

SimRealist: Yes, they currently have a couple of mods to include one for funerals, banking, and health care.

Basemental: Yes, also another 18+. You can get something better than juice and some drugs for your game, if that’s what you’re into. I do think it’s only fair to include a warning that if you do get the drug mod, you can end up with a sim having cancer. 

Marigold: Yes and no. This is all alpha. It’s not the best quality. The creator uses adfly. What you see on the page is not what it looks like. It’s one of those catfish sites.

KKB: Yes and no. This is mainly all alpha and fairly good quality but be advised there is adfly and no just adfly, but multiple adfly links linked to each other. Half the time, you will not get to the download page because of the amount of adfly used.

Sacrifical: Yes. Be advised that these mods are very heavy and will slow down your game. Your game will be very slow to load if you have any of these in basically because it comes with animations plus new scripts. It’s just very heavy.

What are some tumblrs that have MM content?

@maxismatchccworld is the best known. They do post about early access aka items not available unless you pay but they do not post anything behind adfly.

@simblrdirect has an amazing list of creators that you can find here.

@ts4ccdirectory also has a large list of creators here.

@peacemaker-ic is the place you want to go for build/buy, without a doubt.

@illogicalsims also has amazing build buy.

@candysims4 has CAS items. Some are early access so please aware of that.

@zurkdesign has great CAS items. Specializes in hair for children. Some items are locked on their site, sadly. 

[colourfullsims]

Big Brother Challenge: Casting Call

I’ve been dying to do a challenge myself after watching everyone else doing Bachelor/ette and Love Island challenges, and since Big Brother has become a recent obsession curiosity of mine, I thought I would give this a try. I will be accepting 10 sims for my Big Brother Challenge! For those who have never watched Big Brother (definitely read the rules under the cut), the objective is to be one of two remaining houseguests at the end of the summer and be voted Big Brother. Houseguests get voted out each week after playing competitions and voting people out. The twist is that you never know what your fellow houseguests intentions are; someone you thought was on your side can be secretly convincing the house to vote you out for the week. Will your sim be able to keep an invisible hand on the houseguests’ puppet strings, or will they lose their chance at half a million simoleons?

I’ll be picking 5 male and 5 female sims to enter the Big Brother house. I’m aiming to have the houseguests come from all walks of life, so try to make your sim unique! Great info to include in your submission is:

Basic bio information (name, age, gender, sexuality, race, hometown, occupation, etc).

Personality type (outgoing, shy, serious, goofy, friendly, mean, etc).

Any relationships they may have at home (parents, siblings, romantic partners, children, etc.)

Their gameplay strategy going into the house (will they try to win competitions, will they focus on social game, would they get into a showmance?)

Any random facts that you’d like to share (I may work them into the posts if they’re relevant!)

Also, I’ll be accepting young adult aged and up sims, so don’t be afraid to make elder sims! The more different the cast is, the more interesting it will be to watch their interactions with each other! 

Please keep any CC used on your sim (besides skin details) limited to their everyday wear, and Maxis Match or Maxis-ish. Dress all remaining categories with DLC (I have all packs except for MFPS so go crazy), that way I have a sense of their style! 

I’ll be keeping submissions open until Saturday, July 6, 2019  at 11:59 PM EST, or until I have enough submissions if I don’t get ten in time. Tag me in your entry so that I can check it out, and if I haven’t reblogged it within a day, just message me a reminder (it may have gotten lost in my notifications). Below the cut will be my version of this challenge’s rules for anyone who wants to try this too!

Big Brother Challenge Rules

I’m following a modified version of these rules for this challenge. The setup will be similar to the US version of Big Brother: houseguests will be placed into the house and left to their own devices. Only the basics for survival will be placed into the house; beds, showers, toilets, fridge, seating space, etc. There will be no access to the outside world in the house, so radios, tvs, computers, books, and phones are off limits (unless needed for the week’s task). Each week will follow the same schedule:

DAY 1 - 3: HOH COMPETITION 

The Head of Household competition takes place during the first three days of the week. During this time, the skill building object of the week will be placed in the house for the houseguests to interact with. Some houseguests may decide to neglect this weekly task and will suffer for it later. At the end of day 3, the houseguest who has the highest level in that week’s skill will be made HOH, granting them immunity for the week, access to the private HOH room, and the power to nominate two houseguests for eviction. Runner-ups from the competition (top 30%) will be allowed to sleep in the nicer of the bedrooms. Middle of the pack (mid 30%) will sleep in the average bedroom. The worst performing houseguests (bottom 30%)  will become that week’s Have-Nots, forcing them to sleep in the Have-Not room on uncomfortable beds, cleaning up after the other houseguests, and only allowing them to eat slop for the week (for this challenge, I’ll be using fruitcake lol).

Houseguests cannot be HOH two weeks in a row, so the winner of this week will have to sit out next week’s HOH competition.

DAY 4: EVICTION NOMINATION

Day 4 will be used as time for the HOH to decide which two houseguests they would like to nominate for the week. All skill building items will be removed from the house to encourage the houseguests to socialize. Nominations will be determined by relationship; the two houseguests who have the worst relationship with the current HOH will be nominated for eviction at the end of day 4. Nominees will lose 10 points of relationship with the HOH.

Nominations can be further influenced by any potential alliances the HOH may have (see more info on alliances below).

DAY 5: VETO COMPETITION 

The Power of Veto competition takes place the day after nominations. During this time, the HOH, two eviction nominees, and three randomly drawn houseguests will participate in a skilled task following the theme of the weekly task. The random draw is done in correspondence with the HOH and nominees, and in the event that the HOH or nominee pulls “Houseguest Choice” they will choose the houseguest with whom they have the highest relationship. All six sims will be directed to complete the same task. Whoever completes this task the fastest or with the highest quality will be awarded the Power of Veto.

DAY 6: VETO MEETING

The Veto Meeting is an opportunity for the Power of Veto holder to take one of the nominees off the block. Immediately after the POV competition, skill building objects will be removed from the house again to encourage socialization. During this time, the POV holder will autonomously build or deteriorate relationships with the other houseguests. At the end of day 6, the POV holder will decide whether or not they will use the veto on either houseguest. 

This is not always straight-forward: if the current POV holder has alliances, they may vote in their group’s favor, which could override their personal preferences. In the case of 3 or more high relationship alliance members having a low relationship with one of the nominees, the preference of the POV is overridden to stay in the good graces of the group (this is only canceled out by showmances and bromances, see more below).

If the POV holder decides to use the veto on a nominee, they will come off the block and are safe for the week. The HOH must then nominate another houseguest as a replacement, again choosing who they have the lowest relationship with out of the remaining eligible houseguests (no one who was just taken off the block or who was granted immunity elsewise is eligible). If the veto is not used, nominations stay the same.

Nominees will lose 10 points of relationship with the POV holder if they were not pulled off the block. Conversely, nominees gain 10 points of relationship if the veto was used to save them. Any houseguests nominated as a result of a veto nomination (aka, being backdoored) will lose 15 points of relationship with the HOH.

DAY 7: EVICTION VOTE

The majority of the last day is used for houseguests to socialize. This is the nominees final chance to build better relationships with the houseguests, and potentially sway them to not vote them out of the house. At the end of the day, both nominees will be allowed to directly interact with each houseguest to plea their case (I’ll be having them do one friendly interaction with each houseguest). After that, the votes are given in the diary room. Neither nominee is allowed to vote, and the HOH will only vote in the case of a tie. Houseguests will vote to evict the nominee they have the lowest relationship with (or in preference of their strongest alliance, see more below). The house guest with the most votes will be evicted from the house.

If a houseguest’s favorite alliance member was voted out of the house, they will lose 25 relationship points with the HOH and POV holder. The next week starts up with a brand new skill object, and rinse and repeat!

JURY

Five house guests will be kept around to participate as the jury for the final two houseguests. These will be the last 5 sims to have been evicted from the house (during weeks 4 - 8), who will live in the jury house until the finale. During their time in the jury house (1 week of play time) their relationships with the other evicted houseguests may sway their final vote (if they have little to no relationship with either of the final two, they may vote in the preference of their favorite jury member).

END GAME

When the final three sims are in the house, they will battle in a three way competition for the final HOH. HOH will then have to decide which houseguest to evict, based upon relationship. The final two will then be put up for judgement by the jury (see above). All five jury members will have one final chance to interact with the remaining houseguest they like the least (to ask why they think they should win). After each jury member have given their final question, they will submit their votes in an envelope. One by one their votes will be revealed until the vote is at least 3 in favor of one houseguest. The winner will receive 500,000 simoleons, and runner up receives 50,000 simoleons!

ALLIANCES

Alliances are one of the staple ways that houseguests determine how they play the social aspect of the game, and they can be formed in several different ways.

Showmance

This is the strongest of the alliances. If two houseguests become romantically involved, they become a showmance. Showmances will do anything to keep one another in the game; they will never nominate each other for eviction, will always use the power of veto on the other if they end up on the block, and will always vote in their partners preference for the eviction vote, especially if their partner is HOH or has a bromance member on the block. However, showmances make you a target, and each week a showmance remains together results in houseguests losing 5 relationship points with the couple at the start of the week. Will override any other alliance.

Bromance

Bromances are formed by strong friendly bonds; if two houseguests have a high friendly relationship status (high enough to perform the “Become Best Friends” interaction), they become a bromance. Bromances will vote in their partner’s favor for eviction votes and will never put one another on the block. Unfortunately, bromances will not use the Power of Veto to save their bro if they are both on the block. Bummer. Being in a bromance also places a target on your back, and each week the bros stay together results in houseguests losing 5 relationship points with the partners in crime. Will override group alliances.

Group Alliances

Group alliances are different from the other two alliances in that you can be in multiple group alliances at once. If a group of 3 or more sims is caught hanging out for extended periods of time and becoming friends, they are considered a group alliance. Being in these alliances doesn’t guarantee any type of safety from nomination or eviction, though. Groups flip all the time and alliance members can be caught playing multiple sides of the house. 

When nomination time comes, an alliance member can potentially put up a group alliance member if they are more invested in another group alliance (have stronger relationships with a different group alliance, bromance, or showmance member).

Group alliance members might not take an alliance member off the block if their relationships with another group is stronger.

Group alliance members may vote an alliance member out of the house if their relationship with the other nominee is better, or their showmance partner’s friend is the other nominee.

VIEWER INPUT

There will be opportunities each week for the viewers to vote for certain twists to be released upon the houseguests. These twists can make the game more challenging for the houseguests, or even save them for that week if used wisely. I’m still working out the actual rewards and punishments, but each week you can vote for:

Viewer Favorite: Viewers can vote for their favorite house guest for the week and grant them a power up. Power ups will give the sim an advantage in the game, possibly extending their longevity.

Viewer Villain: Viewers can vote for their least favorite house guest for the week and curse them a punishment. Punishments are designed to attack the sims game and put them at risk of eviction.

And that’s it! This is definitely a more complex version of the challenge, but I think that it will make the overall storyline of the competition more entertaining to watch, especially because elements of these rules will push houseguests into bad moods and make some enemies. I’d love to have one of your sims as a contestant in the challenge, so send those entries in!

[peacemaker-ic]

Roarsome Kids Bedroom - 30 New items for toddlers and children

A long time in the making and a first for me, today I bring you my first toddler and children's furniture set. Often overlooked (including by me), children often get a mismatch of furniture but nothing really cohesive. Well that is about to change. This set takes a common theme for children's furniture and applies it to the game in a fun, colourful way so your sims can finally have a decent room to call their own.

What you need to know:

All bedding has custom animations just like my luxurious bedding

The giraffe bookcase is actually a functional bookcase; click on the frame to get access to the books

Only one size of rug, I have shrunk to get additional sizes

You may need to turn on MOO to clutter up everything

The books are found under the Modern style tag unlike the rest of the set since they match the larger versions found in Myra Living and Study.

Updates:

8/12/2019: Updated bedding and bedframes for Pre-Uni patch that caused error 102

The Build/Buy items feature:

basegame compatibility

non-default

30 meshes in total with between 4 and 44 colour/style options:

find items easily using phrase "Roarsome" in search bar (try this tutorial to easily find my sets)

style (found under "contemporary" tag) and colour filter compatible

custom thumbnails

Pricing  and polycount as follows: - Toddler bedframe ($150, 1608 polys) - Kids bedframe ($175, 756 polys) - Kids bedframe no bedend ($170, 418 polys) - Luxurious toddler bedding ($200, 872 polys) - Luxurious single Bedding V1 ($325, 1264 polys) - Luxurious single Bedding V2 ($300, 910 polys) - Endtable ($85, 530 polys) - Dresser ($275, 774 polys) - Toybox ($175, 592 polys) - Wall shelf ($45, 238 polys) - Giraffe bookcase ($135, 292 polys) - Oval desk ($105, 438 polys) - 2 tile oval desk ($180, 534 polys) - Desk chair ($65, 802 polys) - Highchair ($95, 856 polys) - Beanbag ($125, 1559 polys)* - Bunny vase ($45, 608 polys) - Cloudy mood mirror ($75, 619 polys) - Beary delightful mirror ($85, 618 polys) - Growth chart ($20, 458 polys) - Animals A to Z ($45, 54 polys) - Awesome animal rug ($65, 2 polys) - Bunny frame ($25, 260 polys) - Kiddy books 01/02/03 ($21/22/23, 242/158/186 polys) - Cuddly Koala plushie ($30, 930 polys)* - Tweet O'Clock ($30, 328 polys) - Handy Dandy Antlers ($70, 1198 polys) - Table lamp ($55, 450 polys)

*This content is considered high poly so use in moderation, or if you don't think your computer can handle it, best to take these items out.

CC credits:

All custom content is mine, so feel free to browse through my downloads to find it.

Now, there are 2 download links. One for a merged package, and another with all packages separate within a folder in a RAR archive. To install, extract the archive using WINZip/WinRAR/7Zip/Unarchiver and place the folder or package files in your mods folder, then look for them in your game. If you are having issues check out my Installing Content help page.

Download (SimFileShare): Merged (Mirror) | Separated

I have also uploaded the files individually below

Download Individual Items:

Google Drive

My content will always be free, but if you are so inclined and able, you can show your support and buy me a coffee

[mack3030]

Types of Paywall Abuse --- A post...

I think it’s time to tackle a topic that might make a few simmers uncomfortable, but we need to talk about it, because in addition to seeing a lot of people complain about it in general, I’ve also been getting some anons in my inbox talking about it. So let’s discuss this. 

Now, first of all, I would like to clarify a couple of things: 

When I speak of PAYWALLS here, I am talking about custom content that can ONLY be accessed by paying, or viewing an ad through a virus filled ad shortener link (which is just as bad).  Pure early access content, where you pay for it and get it earlier than everyone else who gets it for free IS NOT PAYWALLED CONTENT. 

This is why it is called a pay “WALL” because the wall portion indicates that you cannot access it without paying a fee/toll. 

Second of all, I would like to remind the public at large that this is not hate, it is a critical commentary. I am not going to go for these creators personally, nor do I want to. I, as a member of the community who plays the sims 4, and downloads/uses CC, would like to simply hold some of these creators accountable for actions that are unethical and unsatisfactory to the community in which they serve. That is it. No more, no less. I simply believe they CAN do better and BE better than this. 

Now, let’s get into the meat of this. 

The main type of abuse that I have focused on has been what I call Permapaywalls. 

Permapaywalls:

Content that cannot be accessed ANY other way than either paying a certain amount via patreon or another service, OR viewing a link through a virus-filled ad that puts your computer at risk. 

There are many creators who are well known permapaywall creators, with at least 80% or more of their content being locked behind these permapaywalls. Sometimes they may release a few items for free, but this is very similar to being allowed to test drive a car before buying it. It’s to entice the user/viewer into liking the brand, and then buying in.

I’m not going to delve into this too much because I’ve already expounded on this topic a bit. So let’s go further. 

The next type of abuse is what I like to call “Exclusive Loopholes”. 

Exclusive Loopholes: Creators who try to “get around” EA’s early access policy by offering a majority of their content as early access, but holding back certain items only to those who “subscribe” to their “patreon exclusive” content. 

There are some who are okay with this, thinking of this as a neat “bonus” for those who subscribe and support. However, the sims team made it clear: 

Folks who have a Patreon page are welcome to provide folks with "early access" incentives for their content but it should be made available to the general public within 2-3 weeks of it being given to folks early.

- Simguru Drake, The Sims Forum

Notice nowhere in this answer does it say anything about BONUS CC incentives. Nowhere. This is just a method that certain creators try to use to keep people from decrying them as “big bad paywall creators”. This way they can say “oh look, we do early access, we’re following EA’s rules~!” while still holding content hostage. 

If you want to offer your patreons some exclusives, here’s some ideas:  * Share pictures of your process, or work in progress content coming up.  * Allow them to have input into your process via polls and questions.  * Have an exclusive discord community just for your patreons where they can talk to you easier and share excitement and input about your content with you and each other.  * Have exclusive streams where only you and your patreons have the link to see you go live making content.  * Host a workshop on how to make CC using your process. (I see all of you who steal meshes from other sites sweating over this. ;D)  * Pause billing for a month and say “you know what, since you guys have been loyal and supported me, have a month of patreon on me!”  * Anything that honestly doesn’t involve only giving those patreons CC and not releasing it to the public. 

Let’s talk about another type, and oh my lanta, this type has had some anons messaging me ALL up in arms. I like to call this type “The Donation Disaster”.

Donation Disaster: Someone who CONSTANTLY uses the “downs” in the up/downs of life as excuses to not release content on time, or delay it while still collecting payment from patreons. Bonus “you’re a jerk” points if they then try to use those misfortunate circumstances to beg for even more money from their patreons on multiple occasions. 

Look, we all have junk that goes on in our lives. But when that junk is used as an excuse for you continually delaying content while still charging your patreons (and not using the pause feature), it makes them feel cheated.  In addition, when you then ask for donations to help you during your difficult time, and turn to your patreons instead of the support networks that are around you (ex: friends, family, religious communities, etc.), that can be VERY off-putting. You might be able to get away with it once, maybe twice, without a large chunk of your community turning against you. But the more regular it becomes, and the more they hear about how strapped for cash you are and how you’re asking them to give more than their pledge, and you’ll soon find yourself being called a scammer. Regardless of your intent, or if your problems are reality, you’ll find people’s empathy for your situation will be lacking.

I’ve had a few anons in my inbox talking about different patreon creators that always seem to have an excuse for why updates aren’t coming just yet, or why x is broken, and with their excuse comes a plea for help with bills, and a link to a paypal or venmo. 

Everyone has junk, don’t get me wrong. And it sucks to go through the junk we have in life, but if you’re reaching out to random people on the internet as your first method of support, you might need to be looking someplace else for support first before you come to the people who are already paying you for content you make. A one time “hey I’m in a bind, I need some help” donation thing might not be a bad thing, but when it becomes a constant pattern on your patreon....people aren’t going to take it well...at all. 

And last, but not least, I’d like to talk about the last kind of patreon abuse, which frankly, is really upsetting to me. I don’t even really have a name for it, because it’s literally so much of a “what?” thing in my head. I don’t even understand why it goes on.  Now, this practice involves the black/POC community, and frankly, as a white girl, I don’t feel I should be speaking over the community and what they have to say. Thankfully @xmiramira​ spoke on it, all the way back in 2019. Here’s an excerpt from her fantastic POST:

Even new creators who JUST joined the community sliding up in TBS with locs and braids talking about Patreon only. GTFOH. I’m not okay with creators doing Patreon only CC PERIOD, but my main discussion is focused on NON BLACK simmers making CC catered to US, and making it PATREON EXCLUSIVE IN AN ATTEMPT TO FORCE US TO PLEDGE, and how people are ASSUMING that I’m OKAY WITH THIS, and ASSUMING that I’m letting it FLY in my community. Just because I don’t go off about shit as frequent as I used to doesn’t mean I cannot see and I am not doing what I can to keep the fuckery OUT.“Oh but your friend has a Patreon” I don’t have an issue with what @ebonixsims is doing because it’s all early release. It gets released to the public a few weeks later. It’s not being kept behind Patreon, forcing people to pledge to her. Despite this, she’s still doing really good with it. So don’t get it twisted, I’m not on social media arguing with folks so people just assumed I’m okay with this shit, I’m really not. I’m actually two seconds off dropping Patreon share folders. (That also have my shit in it) Supporting people is one thing, but a lot of these motherfuckers are becoming extremely exploitive, and it’s aggravating. It’s like you goofy motherfuckers sit in DMs like “yeah let’s make some CC for the negros and put it on Patreon” Fuck outta here. And it’s not even just hair, it’s skins and even CLOTHING STYLES. Y’all are really wilding the hell out. African necklaces, black girl magic chains, Juicy Couture sweatsuits. Who the fuck do you think you’re fooling? IM TIRED! Next time someone asks me where I got something and it’s Patreon exclusive I’m dropping a SFS link. FUCK OUTTA HERE!

Here’s the deal. The black community has been fighting for a while to be able to feel represented in this game. Here’s two articles (ONE, TWO) talking about this issue.  But the thing that has me upset is the fact that SO many creators of content that is AIMED at Black/POC simmers are locking that content (or a good majority of it) behind paywalls. And what’s even more shameful is some of those creators are POC themselves! They understand what it’s like to feel that they cannot make themselves or have sims that look like them in this game, yet they still lock their content away and expect people not just in the SIMS community, but in the POC community to pay through the nose for it.  The fact that this is STILL going on, two freaking years after she made this post, and that both NON POC creators and POC creators are engaging in this behavior is honestly disappointing and shameful. I believe black/POC creators should be supported, BUT they should be supported without depriving their OWN community of representation and access. And frankly, if you’re a NON POC creator and you’re specifically targeting this group to make money off of them with paywalls, I have only one thing to say to you:

I’d speak on it more, but frankly, I’d rather let the people who are actually in the black/POC community speak on it, so if any of you want to let loose in the comments about this problem, go wild. I’m happy to sit back and listen, and I suggest others do the same.