#the problem with games without save files

[immawraffle]

Picked the wrong conversation option in a companion quest while exploring all my choices and the conversation ended before I could exit out and fix it

[pickaropoprocks]

Fighting battles that have ABSOLUTELY been seen before (wanting to restart my Animal Crossing New Leaf town so I can begin the game from scratch and as myself as I am now vs. not wanting to restart my town because nostalgia and I'd miss my villagers)

[snowstormarts]

Cuddling time [Date Everything x GN Reader]

Just some cuddling with the boys, headcanons maybe & co. I'm just dipping my claws in the water here so don't expect too much since its been a few years since I last wrote anything really ^^"

Also feel free to send me ideas or requests, I have a hard time coming up ideas to write for (which will be probably a bit obvious, sorry) but have fun reading, reblogs & likes are appreciated

[Feat: Daemon, Chance, Hector, Mateo & Dirk/Clarence]

[Dividers by ithemes]

🐾 Mateo Manta 🐾

- His arms wrap around your waist, they fit perfectly around you as he pulls you closer letting your head rest on his soft, warm chest. Not to mentione that if you're still cold or need something weighted he will gladly share his jacket with you that smells like Vanilla & Tasslehounds

- I headcanon that the Jacket he wears is weighted like a weighted blanket, which can help with his Anxiety

- Once you got all cozy he will tell you about his day, be it the chaos his/the other residents critters have caused while under his care or what new stray he had found. And of course he listens to what you have to share, laughing, nodding along & hugging you when it was an especially hard/overwhelming day. Blocking out all the stress for the time being, letting you be pulled into a wall of pure comfort & safety

- His Critter family is of course, also here in the room, you can't keep them away from you guys. Stitch & Davi sleep at your feet, curled up against each other while Sprite lays on top of Mateos head

🪲☣ Daemon ☣🪲

- Seeing as he is a Game Bug, he hasn't experienced a lot besides breaking a few game scenes and trying to scare you, so when you offered to cuddle with him, he simply just said "sure" and went along with it, not expecting much

- But the second you cuddled up to him on the bed you realized quickly that he was quiet stiff, laying straight on the bed staring up at the ceiling. He wasn't quiet sure what to do seeing as the scrapped files didn't have cuddling codes, so you would need to lend a hand...or two...

- But once he got it down, it was the strangest yet comfiest cuddle session you ever had. Sometimes besides the arms around you midsection you would feel other arms carassing you, massaging your shoulders as you felt his lips on your neck, forehead and back even though he was facing you, never daring to look away from you

- He also produces a silent, whitenoise-humming sound, so if you ever have problems sleeping he's the man to go to...If you can ignore his glowing, white eyes that will stare at you the whole time

🎲 Chance 🎲

- Can be the little or big spoon, he's quiet happy with either or. As a little spoon he will talk about the characters he has for G&G, their storys, motivations, design ideas and so much more. While as a Big spoon he will tell you a story, whatever you want it can be adventurous, a horror story or just a fairytale so you can relax while he fills the silence

- He will always cuddle up to you, either burrying himself into your chest or shoulder or curling himself around you. Cocooning you into a save hold, legs drapped over yours as he rests his forehead against the back of your neck

- Makes the coolest pillowforts, the pillow walls are super sturdy somehow and he even got some fairy lights. Overtime he will build them out to a point where they basically become less of a pillowfort and more of a pillowcave with a secret back entrance & snack hoard

💨❄ Hector ❄💨

- Poor man will be too anxious to leave the attic at first, he showed himself to you and that did help with some of his self-esterm issues but not all of them. So you decided to build a little nest in the attic with him, so you could still get some cuddling experience with him

- He's a great cuddle buddy, he can change his body heat to whatever you desire which means even when it's in the middle of summer you can enjoy a good cuddle session in his arms without breaking a sweat

- He's a small spoon through and through, he curls up into a ball (much like a cat) and gets as close as he can without making you uncomfortable. He will also pull a blanket over himself to stay hidden because of his never ending reddening face [He will be gently teased about it by some of the others in the Attic]

👕🕸 Dirk/Clarence 🫧👕

- Dirk is a chaotic cuddler, he will drap his arm and head over your chest and use you like a cuddly bed plushy. He also sleeps without a shirt on so you can run your fingers across his back, admire the tattoos he has, draw shapes across his body that will have him teasingly ask you what you are doing. Though be warned he will retaliate if you do somehow find a ticklish spot on him, cuddle time can wait that man would be on a tickle war path

- Clarence on the other hand is a more neatly cuddler, he will pull you to his side and let you rest on his shoulder. On the otherside of you is of course the Batman Bodypillow, keeping your back protected from not only the cold but also nightmares [Acording to him at least]

- Dirk always brings a plushy around that you had washed once but never got back, you thought you lost it somehwhere but nope he simply "borrrowed" it and then hid it behind Washford whenever you came around. It was one item that brought him comfort after he and Harper had a rough fight, the lil' guy was basically his vent buddy while he was with her

- He has a solid grip, no matter if he's in a dirty or clean, once he has you in his arms it will be a feat to escape from him. And don't even try waking him up, that man sleeps like a rock...

[fleuraliasave]

❤ Version 8.0 Fleuralia Save File ❤

Download link down below (please read entire post before installing)

This save file uses all EP’s, GP’s, SP’s and most of the kits (Except Sweet Slumber Party, Cozy Kitsch, Urban Homage, Goth Galore, Grunge Revival, Carnaval Streetwear and Modern Menswear kits).

What’s new in this update?:

Ciudad Enamorada and Ravenwood have been completely redone, added multiple new lots, updated other lots and provided make-overs for the households.

Added new households (when living in world; with jobs, friends, preferences etc).

Current Status of Worlds:

Finished worlds: Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Newcrest, Magnolia Promenade, Windenburg, San Myshuno, Forgotten Hollow, Brindleton Bay, Del Sol Valley, StrangerVille, Glimmerbrook, Sulani, Britechester , Evergreen Harbor, Mt. Komorebi, Henford-on-Bagley, Tartosa, Moonwood Mill, Copperdale, San Sequoia, Chestnut Ridge, Tomarang, Ciudad Enamorada (NEW!) and Ravenwood (NEW!).

Finished vacation worlds: Granite Falls and Selvadorada.

Finihed other lots: Hospital, Science Lab and the Police Station.

To be updated: the Magic Realm and Grimm's office, will either be included in a future update or on the gallery (OriginID: fleuralia)

What do you get with this save?:

For my save file all lots are either completely new builds (almost all) or renovations, ofcourse created by me. Exception: I have added the official build for the release of the Paranormal SP by Dr Ashley to this save. This build is therefore not my own creation, credits are given in the description to Dr Ashley. The lots in newer worlds are largely created by GameChangers. The ratio is around 50/50 with my builds versus renovations (done by me but with the original as the base).

All the townies had make-overs plus I added new families to spice it up a bit. Some of the townies are made by other creators, who are given credits in the description of the household. All the townies in the different worlds have a story, some include sentiments and adjusted relationships to the story.

Added plenty of community lots to give your Sims something to do (YAY!). Almost every world has one restaurant, but it also includes festivals that represent the four seasons (park lots) and a fully functional shopping street in Magnolia Promenade (toy store, bridal store and more).

I have added rental lots so you can go on vacation in more worlds. For example in Sulani, Willow Creek and Windenburg.

Other details:

As mentioned at the beginning, this save uses almost all packs (except some kits). This means that if you download it without owning or installing most of the packs a lot of objects will disappear from the save, but if you are not bothered by this you can still download and play in it.  

I disabled the neigborhood action plan voting/environmental changes, you enable them again in the pack settings menu. I also disabled the neigborhood stories, you can enable them again in the household menu.

I would love to add some households in this save created by all of you! Add your household under the hashtag #fleuraliatownies in The Sims 4 Gallery, you can add a storyline and world in the description but thats not obligatory. If I respond on your creation it means that I have incorporated it in the save for the next update.

Sadly every game update comes with a lot of bugs. I suggest before reporting problems in the save to me, to check on forums if its related to a general bug/glitch or to mods (if you use them).

Questions and supportive feedback are always welcome, you can reach me here via a comment on this post, an ask or through a DM 😁

As said in my previous post I will be slowly starting on moving the builds and sims to a fresh save to help with bugs and incorporate fixes from the Sims team that only work in fresh saves (like Grimm not being able to woohoo). But this will take me some time, when its nearly done I will update on here as always.

How to make it work in your game:

Download the save file from the link below.

Drag it in your saves folder under: PC/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/saves.

Change the numbers if you already have a save with the same name.

It should now show up in your game as: Fleuralia Save V 8.0.

DOWNLOAD (SFS) / Alternate (GD)

!!Don’t re-upload or claim as your own!!

Future updates will follow after each pack release (if it includes a world). The time the update will be uploaded after each release depends on how much I have to change and on my work schedule around that time.

Last but not least, enjoy and till next time! XX

Fleuralia

Feel free to support me ❤️: Ko-fi account

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #16

April 26-May 3 2024

President Biden announced $3 billion to help replace lead pipes in the drinking water system. Millions of Americans get their drinking water through lead pipes, which are toxic, no level of lead exposure is safe. This problem disproportionately affects people of color and low income communities. This first investment of a planned $15 billion will replace 1.7 million lead pipe lines. The Biden Administration plans to replace all lead pipes in the country by the end of the decade.

President Biden canceled the student debt of 317,000 former students of a fraudulent for-profit college system. The Art Institutes was a for-profit system of dozens of schools offering degrees in video-game design and other arts. After years of legal troubles around misleading students and falsifying data the last AI schools closed abruptly without warning in September last year. This adds to the $29 billion in debt for 1.7 borrowers who wee mislead and defrauded by their schools which the Biden Administration has done, and a total debt relief for 4.6 million borrowers so far under Biden.

President Biden expanded two California national monuments protecting thousands of acres of land. The two national monuments are the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, which are being expanded by 120,000 acres. The new protections cover lands of cultural and religious importance to a number of California based native communities. This expansion was first proposed by then Senator Kamala Harris in 2018 as part of a wide ranging plan to expand and protect public land in California. This expansion is part of the Administration's goals to protect, conserve, and restore at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

The Department of Transportation announced new rules that will require car manufacturers to install automatic braking systems in new cars. Starting in 2029 all new cars will be required to have systems to detect pedestrians and automatically apply the breaks in an emergency. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration projects this new rule will save 360 lives every year and prevent at least 24,000 injuries annually.

The IRS announced plans to ramp up audits on the wealthiest Americans. The IRS plans on increasing its audit rate on taxpayers who make over $10 million a year. After decades of Republicans in Congress cutting IRS funding to protect wealthy tax cheats the Biden Administration passed $80 billion for tougher enforcement on the wealthy. The IRS has been able to collect just in one year $500 Million in undisputed but unpaid back taxes from wealthy households, and shows a rise of $31 billion from audits in the 2023 tax year. The IRS also announced its free direct file pilot program was a smashing success. The program allowed tax payers across 12 states to file directly for free with the IRS over the internet. The IRS announced that 140,000 tax payers were able to use it over their target of 100,000, they estimated it saved $5.6 million in tax prep fees, over 90% of users were happy with the webpage and reported it quicker and easier than companies like H&R Block. the IRS plans to bring direct file nationwide next year.

The Department of Interior announced plans for new off shore wind power. The two new sites, off the coast of Oregon and in the Gulf of Maine, would together generate 18 gigawatts of totally clean energy, enough to power 6 million homes.

The Biden Administration announced new rules to finally allow DACA recipients to be covered by Obamacare. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an Obama era policy that allows people brought to the United States as children without legal status to remain and to legally work. However for years DACA recipients have not been able to get health coverage through the Obamacare Health Care Marketplace. This rule change will bring health coverage to at least 100,000 uninsured people.

The Department of Health and Human Services finalized rules that require LGBTQ+ and Intersex minors in the foster care system be placed in supportive and affirming homes.

The Senate confirmed Georgia Alexakis to a life time federal judgeship in Illinois. This brings the total number of federal judges appointed by President Biden to 194. For the first time in history the majority of a President's nominees to the federal bench have not been white men.

[sakuratrait]

Pots & Pans Recolor Override! 🥘

Hello guys!! WAR IS OVER. I DID IT. I FINISHED IT. FINALLY. I'm exausted, this took SO long, I'm SO SLOW OH MY GOD 💀. (That weird brown was just not it-) That's it- that's all I'm gonna say- I hope you like it and find it useful ✨.

⚠️HORSE RANCH UPDATE!✨⚠️

Infos🪧:

City Living, HighSchool Years & Dine Out compatible. ⚠️(I don't have Home Chef Hustle, LoveStruck, and Life & Death so I don't really know if new pots or pans came with them... but don't worry, when I'll purchase them I will definetly check it out and potentially do an update!)⚠️

40+ files!!

Basegame Compatible (If you only have Base game, just delete all the non "BG" files, same thing if you don't own some packs :))

Ofc, still low poly!

(All pics taken without re/gshade and not edited :3)

Terms Of Use💌:

• Just don't claim as yours and don't reupload (unless it's a build download, cc folder or save file dowload, still, don't put behind any type of paywall/addfly). Simple as that... these are just ea recolors after all~

And let me know if you encounter any problems!!

Download On Patreon (Always Free!)

🔊 @alwaysfreecc @public-ccfinds @maxismatchccworld @sssvitlanz @mmfinds Thank you all sm!!

[lotussimscc]

My Favorite Downloadable Sim Creators!

If you are anything like me, you end up putting a lot of effort into your main character sim, but don't really have the energy to create the rest of the town. The townies the game creates just don't fit the world you created in your head, so you end up disappointed. Well, a great solution is downloading other people's amazing sims and using MCCC to populate them in your town! No more random ugly townies, now you have pretty people with their own stories! Here is my list of favorite sim creators (in no particular order) and a brief description about what they make:

@wildfairies (Tag/Patreon) - Maxis-Match, CC-Mid. Makes a nice blend of regular and occult sims. They all look unique and pretty without being too overly detailed or distracting while playing! Most available sims have one outfit each.

@sunnyssimming (Tag/Patreon) - Maxis-Mix, CC-mid. Makes gorgeous female sims (and one guy). She makes mostly Maxis-Match, but some hair or makeup might dip into the alpha category. Available sims have one outfit each.

@m0ckest (Tag/Patreon) - Maxis-Match, CC-Free (she has a page with default replacements she uses if you want the sims to look one-to-one). She releases townie makeovers, brand-new sims, and lots. I'm honestly pretty impressed with how good her sims look without using CC!

@pearlean (Tag/Patreon) - Maxis-Match/Custom Art Style, CC-Mid/Heavy. She has her own art style which I would say is closest to something like Telltale's Walking Dead game, which is aided by her beautiful GShade preset. Some base sims and some with one outfit.

@nikatyler (Tag/Patreon) - Maxis-Match, CC-Lite. If you want a full catalog of available sims, you'll want to check her out (seriously, 29 pages of Sims 4 downloads alone, and she has stuff for Sims 3 as well). She has townie makeovers, brand-new sims, lots, and a good mix of regular and occult sims! Most downloads have all outfits included.

@seyvia (Tag) - Maxis-Mix, CC-Mid/Heavy. She has a more cartoony art style with large eyes and expressive faces, which is right up my alley! She has also remade the Stardew Valley bachelors/bachelorettes and even has some CC-Free downloads. Downloads have all outfits included.

@puppycheesecake (Tag) - Maxis-Match, CC-Mid. They have some really creative ideas for sims, with a lot of horror/occult/fantasy-inspired ones (although there are plenty of regular sims, too!) Some downloads have all outfits, some have one, but it is labelled which is which on each sim.

@youngcozyboy (Tag) - Maxis-Mix/Alpha, CC-Heavy. Anime/cartoon-influenced, with some more NSFW downloads/pictures sprinkled in there. They have a large catalog of downloads/townie makeovers and plenty of fantasy-inspired sims (which is something I always love to see). They are Korean, so you'll have to rename the sims once you've downloaded them if you don't speak it, but that isn't a big deal. Also, their screenshots are so expressive and pretty, it really captures each sim's personality! Most sims have one outfit included.

@ladychaos (Tag/Patreon) - Maxis-Match, CC-Lite/Free. She has her own save file that you can download and use, but she also posts everything to the gallery and her Patreon! Her lots and households all have a cozy look/feel to them and have their own stories to tell. I particular love her Strangerville ones! All downloads have all outfits included.

@bansheeso (Tag/Patreon) - Maxis-Match/Mix, CC-Mid. If you are looking for some pretty occult boys (and one girl), then she is the person to go to. I love populating my town with some occult/fantasy sims, so her creations are great for my world! Their household names are in Ukrainian, but that's not a problem since they can easily be renamed. Each download has one outfit.

@fallstaticexit (Tag) - Maxis-Match, CC-Mid. Some nice looking townie makeovers along with some retired sims from their stories. Really solid additions to any world! If you do check her out, be sure to look at her Children of the Forest story, I'm very invested in it! Some come with all their outfits and some come with one.

@greglunvik (Tag/Patreon) - Maxis-Match, CC-Mid. He makes some great, unique-looking sims and makeovers. No same-face syndrome here, each sim has their own distinct face structure with some wrinkles, moles, and other details that I feel like get overlooked too often to make the most beautiful sim. Unique sims have one outfit and makeovers have all outfits. (Formerly @acuar-io but that blog is a personal one now. Many of his downloads are still on his main blog, but as he has said many times, please do not bother his main with sims stuff. Direct that to the greglunvik account)

@kharssims (Tag) - Maxis-Match, CC-Mid/High. He focuses on male sims and they look great! The perfect amount of facial details like wrinkles, freckles, and moles to keep them looking unique and like an actual person you could come across. Each download has one outfit.

@thebramblewood (Tag) - Maxis-Match, CC-Lite/Mid. While they may not have a huge catalog, I think that they have a great selection of maxis-match sims, both makeovers and originals, to choose from. My personal favorite of theirs is Bridget Bledsoe from their Occult Sim Dump! Each sim has one outfit.

Some Honorable Mentions!

@occultradio (Tag) - Maxis-Match, CC-Mid. They don't make sim downloads often, but I love the ones they have available so much. Their Mothman is one of my favorite sims in my entire gallery!

@mothelette - They don't have their sims up for download, but I gotta point out the witchcraft they perform to make their beautifully-stylized sims. Their creations are amazing.

@nefarrilou - They don't have their sims up for download, but they do create beautiful lookbooks. Occults, townie makeovers, and recreations of popular characters in media, they'll have something you'll enjoy!

[tedsies]

i caved and bought the legacy collection out of curiosity

i bought it on steam by the way, no way am I going anywhere near the ea app

random thoughts as i go along:

game loaded up straight away with no issues (what a strange feeling)

got into pleasantview within 2 minutes (obvs I have no cc installed right now so its gonna be faster anyway)

a bit of a jumpscare to see the game again without reshade ngl

straight into the lothario household. don you look... different without all my defaults

screen resolution defaulted to the right size without me having to change anything by the way, which was nice

turned up all the graphics setting to max and going to visit the goth household as that always gives me lag, even vanilla

this experience is already making me realise I need to cut down my 12gb downloads folder, cos man this is so smooth and fast without all of that in my game

well everything is working perfectly straight out of the box. had no issues with multiple sims on the big goth lot

going to quit and load up again with my ui mods and defaults next (along with hugelunatic's ikea pack as cc)

legacy collection has an entirely different file path by the way, so won't mess with existing ultimate collection installs (i wouldn't have dared to do this otherwise)

okay all my defaults, ui mods and some others are now in (downloads folder is up to 3.64gb now) and everything is working fine still

ikea items as cc don't seem to be fully appearing in the catalog though? that might be a me problem but i dont know

adding in all my cas cc now, along with hood defaults and hood deco cc (downloads folder is up to 6.5gb now). i'm also adding in anything else I can think of like camera mods, user startup cheat etc etc

getting into pleasantview in less than 2 mins still

heading into cas for the first time now...

... and it loaded up within 10 seconds even with ALL of my cas cc? and this is the first time too so I would've expected major lag. normally cas takes about 60 seconds to load in my game

update on the ikea pack as cc... the build items are definitely there, but not the buy for some reason?

biting the bullet and adding in the remaining 6gb of my 12gb downloads folder

all of my cc is now in the game and loading times were about 30 seconds longer than before. still no issues

took darren dreamer to a community lot and there were no crashes/issues/lag. normally going to a community lot is very dangerous for me cos its where I get the most crashes or issues, its why all my community lots are incredibly small lot sizes

also I have the hood deco view set to extra large... normally I have to have it set to extra small just to play in a small household

i dont think I'm being delulu here to say things are running better

next up is adding in all of my mods, then after that I might dare putting in my mega populated uberhood save, and try reshade?

another ikea update: everything is showing up now. it was me being an idiot

so all of my mods are now also in (so my entire downloads folder now) and i haven't been able to trigger any crashes or pink soup yet through normal gameplay? even with extra large hood view from lots

reshade keeps crashing my game on startup... damn, what am I doing wrong

RESHADE IS NOW WORKING (ver 6.1.1)! thanks to this guide

I finally added in my uberhood save (which is packed with hood deco and and has 35 playable families).... and it's working! I also played with a household for a bit and everything was working fine

final update before I go to bed (as its gone midnight here lol)

i now have all of my mods, cc, saves, and reshade installed, and I've yet to have any pink soup or crashes (apart from the crashes when I was *incorrectly* trying to install reshade). honestly... i'm surprised. i dont want to speak too soon obviously, but things seem better. i was just playing in a household with extra large lot view on and that would usually IMMEDIATELY crash my game, but nothing happened. tomorrow i'll actually play for an extended period of time, so i'll be able to tell more for sure then.

i hope this has been helpful to at least a couple of people, and i'll leave with you a shot of my pleasantview newly loaded up in the legacy collection 😅

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Billionaire-proofing the internet

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

During the Napster wars, the record labels seriously pissed off millions of internet users when they sued over 19,000 music fans, mostly kids, but also grannies, old people, and dead people.

It's hard to overstate how badly the labels behaved. Like, there was the Swarthmore student who was the maintainer of a free/open source search engine that indexed files available in public sharepoints on the LAN. The labels sued him for millions and millions (the statutory damages for digital copyright infringement runs to $150,000 per file) and, when he begged for a settlement, said that they would accept his life's savings, but only if he changed majors and stopped studying Computer Science.

No, really.

What's more, none of the money the labels extracted from teenagers, grandparents (and the dead) went to artists. The labels just kept it all, while continuing to insist that they were doing all this because they wanted to "protect artists."

One thing everyone agreed on was how disgusted we all were with the labels. What we didn't agree on was what to do about it. A lot of us wanted to reform copyright – say, by creating a blanket license for internet music so that artists could get paid directly. This was the systemic approach.

Another group – call them the "individualists" – wanted a boycott. Just stop buying and listening to music from the major labels. Every dollar you spend with a label is being used to fund a campaign of legal terror. Merely enjoying popular music makes you part of the problem.

You can probably guess which group I was in. Leaving aside the futility of "voting with your wallet" (a rigged ballot that's always won by the people with the thickest wallet), I just thought this was bad tactics.

Here's what I would say when people told me we should all stop listening to popular music: "If members of your popular movement are not allowed to listen to popular music, your movement won't be very popular."

We weren't going to make political change by creating an impossible purity test ("Ew, you listen to music from a major label? God, what's wrong with you?"). I mean, for one thing, a lot of popular music is legitimately fantastic and makes peoples' lives better. Popular movements should strive to increase their members' joy, not demand their deprivation. Again, not merely because this is a nice thing to do for people, but also because it's good tactics to make participation in the thing you're trying to do as joyous as possible.

Which brings me to social media. The problem with social media is that the people we love and want to interact with are being held prisoner in walled gardens. The mechanism of their imprisonment is the "switching costs" of leaving. Our friends and communities are on bad social media networks because they love each other more than they hate Musk or Zuck. Leaving a social platform can cost you contact with family members in the country you emigrated from, a support group of people who share your rare disease, the customers or audience you rely on for your livelihood, or just the other parents organizing your kid's little league game.

Hypothetically, you could organize all these people to leave at once, go somewhere else, and re-establish all your social connections. Practically, the "collective action problem" of doing so is nearly insurmountable. This is what platform owners depend on – it's why they know they can enshittify their services without losing users. So long as the pain of using the service is lower than the pain of leaving it, the companies can turn the screws on users to make their lives worse in order to extract more profit from them. This is why Musk killed the block button and why Zuck fired all his moderators. Why bear the expense of doing something nice for users if they'll still stick around even if you cut a ton of headcount and/or expensive compute?

There's a way out of this, thankfully. When social media is federated, then you can leave a server without leaving your friends. Think of it as being similar to changing cell-phone companies. When you switch from Verizon to T-Mobile, you keep your number, you keep your address book and you keep your friends, who won't even know you switched networks unless you tell them:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/29/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms/

There's no reason social media couldn't work this way. You should be able to leave Facebook or Twitter for Mastodon, Bluesky, or any other service and still talk with the people you left behind, provided they still want to talk with you:

https://www.eff.org/interoperablefacebook

That's how the Fediverse – which Mastodon is part of – works already. You can switch from one Mastodon server to another, and all the people you follow and who follow you will just move over to that new server. That means that if the person or company or group running your server goes sour, you aren't stuck making a choice between the people you love who connect to you on that server, and the pain of dealing with whatever bullshit the management is throwing off:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/23/semipermeable-membranes/#free-as-in-puppies

We could make that stronger! Data protection laws like the EU's GDPR and California's CCPA create a legal duty for online services to hand over your data on demand. Arguably, these laws already require your Mastodon server's management to give you the files you need to switch from one server to another, but that could be clarified. Handing these files over to users on demand is really straightforward – even a volunteer running a small server for a few friends will have no trouble living up to this obligation. It's literally just a minute's work for each user.

Another way to make this stronger is through governance. Many of the great services that defined the old, good internet were run by "benevolent dictators for life." This worked well, but failed so badly. Even if the dictator for life stayed benevolent, that didn't make them infallible. The problem of a dictatorship isn't just malice – it's also human frailty. For a service to remain good over long timescales, it needs accountable, responsive governance. That's why all the most successful BDFL services (like Wikipedia) transitioned to community-managed systems:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/10/bdfl/#high-on-your-own-supply

There, too, Mastodon shines. Mastodon's founder Eugen Rochko has just explicitly abjured his role as "ultimate decision-maker" and handed management over to a nonprofit:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/mastodon-becomes-nonprofit-to-make-sure-its-never-ruined-by-billionaire-ceo/

I love using Mastodon and I have a lot of hope for its future. I wish I was as happy with Bluesky, which was founded with the promise of federation, and which uses a clever naming scheme that makes it even harder for server owners to usurp your identity. But while Bluesky has added many, many technically impressive features, they haven't delivered on the long-promised federation:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/#tie-yourself-to-a-federated-mast

Bluesky sure seems like a lot of fun! They've pulled tens of millions of users over from other systems, and by all accounts, they've all having a great time. The problem is that without federation, all those users are vulnerable to bad decisions by management (perhaps under pressure from the company's investors) or by a change in management (perhaps instigated by investors if the current management refuses to institute extractive measures that are good for the investors but bad for the users). Federation is to social media what fire-exits are to nightclubs: a way for people to escape if the party turns deadly:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/14/fire-exits/#graceful-failure-modes

So what's the answer? Well, around Mastodon, you'll hear a refrain that reminds me a lot of the Napster wars: "People who are enjoying themselves on Bluesky are wrong to do so, because it's not federated and the only server you can use is run by a VC-backed for-profit. They should all leave that great party – there's no fire exits!"

This is the social media version of "To be in our movement, you have to stop listening to popular music." Sure, those people shouldn't be crammed into a nightclub that has no fire exits. But thankfully, there is an alternative to being the kind of scold who demands that people leave a great party, and being the kind of callous person who lets tens of millions of people continue to risk their lives by being stuck in a fire-trap.

We can install our own fire-exits in Bluesky.

Yesterday, an initiative called "Free Our Feeds" launched, with a set of goals for "billionaire-proofing" social media. One of those goals is to add the long-delayed federation to Bluesky. I'm one of the inaugural endorsers for this, because installing fire exits for Bluesky isn't just the right thing to do, it's also good tactics:

https://freeourfeeds.com/

Here's why: if a body independent of the Bluesky corporation implements its federation services, then we ensure that its fire exits are beyond the control of its VCs. That means that if they are ever tempted in future to brick up the fire-exits, they won't be able to. This isn't a hypothetical risk. When businesses start to enshittify their services, they fully commit themselves to blocking anything that makes it easy to leave those services.

That's why Apple went so hard after Beeper Plus, a service that enhanced iMessage's security by making conversations between Apple and Android users as private as chats that were confined to Apple users:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/07/blue-bubbles-for-all/#never-underestimate-the-determination-of-a-kid-who-is-time-rich-and-cash-poor

It's why Elon Musk periodically freaks out and suspends users who list their Mastodon userids in their Twitter bios:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/15/elon-musk-suspends-mastodon-twitter-account-over-elonjet-tracking/

And it's why Meta will suspend your account if you link to Pixelfed, a Fediverse-based alternative to Instagram:

https://www.404media.co/meta-is-blocking-links-to-decentralized-instagram-competitor-pixelfed/

Once upon a time, we had a solid way of overcoming the problem of lock-in. We'd reverse-engineer a proprietary system and make a free, open alternative. We've been hacking fire exits into walled gardens since the Usenet days, with the creation of the alt.* hierarchy:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/11/altinteroperabilityadversarial

When the corporate owners of Unix started getting all weird about source-code access and user-modifiability, we didn't insist that Unix users were bad people for sticking with a corporate OS. We reverse-engineered Unix and set all those users free:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Project

The answer to Microsoft's proprietary SMB network protocol wasn't a campaign to shame people for having SMB running on their LANs. It was reverse-engineering SMB and making SAMBA, which is now in every single device in your home and office, and it's gloriously free as in speech and free as in beer:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/samba-versus-smb-adversarial-interoperability-judo-network-effects

In the years since, a thicket of laws we colloquially call "IP" has grown up around services and products, and people have literally forgotten that there is an alternative to wheedling people to endure the pain of leaving a proprietary system for a free one. IP has put the imaginations of people who dream of a free internet in chains.

We can do better than begging people to leave a party they're enjoying; we can install our own fucking fire exits. Sure, maybe that means that a lot of those users will stay on the proprietary platform, but at least we'll have given them a way to leave if things go horribly wrong.

After all, there's no virtue in software freedom. The only thing worth caring about is human freedom. The only reason to value software freedom is if it sets humans free.

If I had my way, all those people enjoying themselves on Bluesky would come and enjoy themselves in the Fediverse. But I'm not a purist. If there's a way to use Bluesky without locking myself to the platform, I will join the party there in a hot second. And if there's a way to join the Bluesky party from the Fediverse, then goddamn I will party my ass off.

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/14/contesting-popularity/#everybody-samba

[chieltbest]

Yet Another Package Editor

Download the latest version here

YaPe is a modern package editor for DBPF (.package) files

Features:

Edit any package - FAST

List and edit resources in a package

Filter resources by type

Easy editors for several resource types

Supports opening ANY DBPF-coded .package, .dat, or .sc4 file

Easily reduce texture size, add/remove/recreate mipmaps, change texture format

Import textures by dragging, export DDS

Native on Windows and Linux

Why make yet another package editor?

Simply said, because SimPe can be kind of cumbersome especially on Linux, and package editors other than SimPe (s3pe, s4pe, iLive's Reader etc.) do not support Sims 2 resources.

To illustrate, I timed someone shrinking a texture (convert RawARGB32 -> DXT1, shrink 2x) in both SimPe and YaPe:

SimPe + GIMP: 1m 30s

YaPe: 10s

Originally this started as just a way to easily test if my DBPF library was doing the correct thing, but over time it has grown to become a half-decent editor suitable for more general use.

Tutorial / usage tips

Here I will explain how to shrink and convert textures in YaPe because that's what I imagine most people will use this program for right now, but of course you can use it for other things as well.

Let's get started by getting the program to look the way you want to: use the options in the top left to change the scale of the interface and switch between dark and light mode.

Now drag a package file into the program (don't worry about closing the sims except when you save the package), a list of resources in the package will be visible. You can find out what the abbreviations mean by hovering your mouse over them; in general I try to add tooltips like this to buttons or options that are unclear.

Don't be afraid to mess around and make changes! The changes you make are never saved unless you press the save button, so if you simply drag your package file into YaPe again without saving you will get your original package back (there is currently no undo function, but it is a planned feature).

All these resources are great, but we're only interested in the textures for this tutorial so let's set a filter. Right click on a texture (TXTR) and select "Filter on type".

Great! Now you can only see the textures we're interested in. You can disable this filter by unticking the "filter" option at the top.

Now click on the "TXTR" to open the texture, it will open a new tab in the lower half of the window by default. If your window is not very big (like mine is for this tutorial) you might have trouble seeing the texture and all the options. You can drag the tab around and put it somewhere else in the program, I'm going to put it on the right and make it a little bigger so we can see what's going on.

Okay, now we can see all the options, and well... there's a bunch of them. We'll go over some of the options that you'll likely want to use but feel free to experiment of course.

First, let's have a look at the texture viewer at the bottom: you can zoom in on the texture by holding control and scrolling, and you can change which mipmap is displayed by clicking the radio buttons above the texture.

But wait, this texture does not have enough mipmaps to show up in game! (post by @pforestsims) Let's fix that right this instant by clicking the "Add missing mipmaps" button in the middle.

Okay, now the mipmaps will show up in game, which is good... except that this mipmap is really blurry. (post by me) Luckily we can fix this really easily, just click the "Recalculate all mipmaps" button.

Much better!... except that we've created a new hidden problem: the leaves will disappear when zooming out in game (blog by lisyarus) but even this problem can be fixed. We can actually preview what the texture will look like when zoomed out by switching the format to DXT1 since DXT1 has binary transparency, just like alpha tested textures like leaves and grass.

Right, so the leaves have a bunch of holes that don't look right when zooming out, let's change that. Above the "Add missing mipmaps" button there is the "Preserve transparency" slider: try changing it to something like 120-170 and click "Recalculate all mipmaps", you can see that the transparency changes, if it's still too thin/transparent set the value higher and recalculate again and so on.

Have a look at all the mipmaps (zoom levels) and once you're satisfied with the transparency change the format back to DXT5.

This texture will now look great in game! But it is also quite large, so we can reduce the size 2x smaller without sacrificing very much in terms of looks (sorry to all the cc authors who love their large textures). Click the "Remove largest texture" button, which will make it so that the first mipmap becomes the largest texture effectively reducing the size by 2x. Like mentioned it does use the first mipmap so make sure to fix any blurry mipmaps first.

You can repeat the same process for the other textures in the package, and then we're done. Save the package by clicking the save button in the top bar, and have a look in game at your beautiful textures.

Another option is to drag images/textures you've made somewhere else into the program (with special support for dds files), for a full lists of supported image formats you can look here. (image-rs documentation) The image/texture will currently go into the firsts open texture resource tab because of UI framework limitations.

Here's a look at some of the other editor currently implemented:

Enjoy :)

[nectar-cellar]

Modern Kitchen Counters Default Replacement

I didn't like the huge curved handles on the "Real Flat" base game kitchen counters and cabinets.

I couldn't handle them... hehehe... 😂🤣😝🤪😂😆😁😂😂😂😋

So I've deleted them. 😐

They are gone now.

These files are default replacements.

What is replaced: the Real Flat counter, counter island, overhead cabinet, and double-sided cabinet. Including all the modular pieces. Including ALL LOD meshes.

Some issues to be aware of:

it's a bit glitchy, but most mesh/texture problems can be solved by painting them again or deleting & placing again

the texture quality is not the best, there are some artifacts when using plain colours

there is a texture seam on the upper part of the corner cabinet, it's a UV mapping problem by EA not me

The texture quality is not great so I strongly suggest putting patterns on them.

This was quite an ambitious project to figure out, so I really hope you enjoy the new look of this base game kitchen as much as I do!

BAD CC CAUSES ISSUES WHEN SAVING LOTS, DO NOT DOWNLOAD

Download: simfileshare / mega

Some notes I want to share for creators below in case helpful or interesting:

I had to default replace the multiplier and specular textures for every mesh I edited (to remove the handle prints).

I used s3oc to clone the objects without renumbering them, this became my default replacement package.

I used TSR Workshop to export/import the .wso meshes, and to compile my edited meshes into a non-DR package file. I used s3pe to export the MLOD and MODL resources from the non-DR package into the default replacement package via the "replace" function.

I edited the meshes in Milkshape (only deleting the handles) so I didn't have to change the slots or bones or other complicated stuff like that...

I hope this info is helpful in some way. There aren't a lot of default replacement objects/furniture out there. I don't really know what I'm doing but I learned some things from this project.

[koimethehorizon]

A Major Critique on Deltarune Ch 3-4's Shadow Crystals (maybe for future chapters as well)

(Massive Deltarune Chapter 1-4 spoilers!)

UPDATE (6/7/25): Thanks, dreams-narrator for pointing out that you can actually beat secret bosses on separate save files, then pick the crystal up at the random cliff in Castle Town in the next one.

Oh, it's the wrong number! The wrong number song! I'm very very sorry that I got that wrong!

...I do still think the points-of-no return issue is still very much of game design issue, but a lot of this is fortunately alleviated.

Hi, enormous Deltarune fan here who loved these new chapters. I'll be singing praises about this release and dropping Deltarune-shaped brain chunks out of my ears til 2026's Deltarune tomorrow.

Gonna say it straight up, Ch 3's secret boss requirements sucks and I think the frequency of points-of-no-return spells a bad precedent for the future of this game.

WHY TOBY???

One of the first NPCs you meet before Tenna's game tells you not to worry about what rank you get = a total lie, and if you commit to S ranking Round 2, Ramb will still let you play an unwinnable game then tell you "If only you'd gotten the S rank earlier".

SCREW YOU!!!!

So yeah, you gotta restart the whole chapter over.

And I'm damn sure that most people had to do this because S ranks for your first run at fighting the new enemies/getting used to the rank requirements/first time controlling the minigames is kinda unreasonable.

Yes, there is an NPC who can help you get from A to S with 1500 points but again, if this is your first time, you probably won't have enough to buy this. You might even spend a lot of it on the B rank gacha machine or the A rank Susiezilla minigame out the same curiosity you had trying to find the damn secret in the first place!

If only there was a way to convert dark dollars to Points... oh wait there is! IN THE S RANK ROOM!!!

Gerson's is fortunately far more forgivable and if you're curious enough, you'll get it without even realizing he's the secret boss... but still. Unlike Jevil and Spamton, you are locked out if you leave the first version of Dark Sanctuary.

Why even have so many warp points if we can't even do this...

The Issue with Replayability

This trend is troubling. Toby's games have always had an issue with being games that encourage replayability and secret hunting but, and I hate to admit this, they're not very engaging games to replay unless you're committing to a completely different route.

With Undertale, a boring replay (until the new content) and a fading emotional investment of the game is the MAIN THEME of the True Pacifist and Genocide routes. But most of all, Undertale was a short game so it wasn't going to be mundane walking through the same beats.

This is not the case for Deltarune. This game is [BIG]. If you miss something, you gotta go WAAAAY back to check something again. Worse, by the end of every chapter, you get locked out of that chapter's Dark World permanently.

When replaying a chapter, most of the time is spent either reading or skipping dialogue, and most fights are going to play out pretty much the same way. The reason why this shallow gameplay is mostly passed off is is because Undertale/Deltarune's humor, writing, and gameplay gimmicks are so varied (and good!) that you'll never be stuck on one beat for a very long time.

Fortunately, there aren't as many Undertale-level deviations in the narrative that require you to restart, other than the Weird Route. A lot of the missable items and conversations are mostly flavor text that you can look up later.

If you were restarting a chapter from the ground up, you were probably one of those sickos who tried to hoard every individual item available to see what Ralsei, Susie, and future playable characters would say about them... or an EGG hunter. (I can't believe I restarted for those teas...) This is NOT true with Shadow Crystals.

A Future Problem

These are unquestionably important missable items that the game WANTS you to get every chapter that requires not only a whole chapter reset to get, but MULTIPLE CHAPTER RESETS if you happen to miss the crystal in previous one!

And I want to emphasize, if you miss these, your ass has to reset SEVERAL HOURS back to get the one you forgot.

In the far future, when Deltarune completes and we find out what having all these crystals do and we have no QoL measure to get them all... and everyone misses the Chapter 3 one because of how unfriendly it is for blind runs.... we're in for a huge drag.

I really hope this is an issue that's on the Deltarune team's radar and that we can go back to some abridged sections to get these again. I'm a sicko so I have all these + the eggs and... god I hope the eggs aren't important too.

PS. Some might include the Roaring Knight being the secret fight into the BS I mentioned.... and I disagree.

Praise incoming!

The Roaring Knight is bullshit and hard as hell, but it should be! This is the first real fight in Deltarune that actually made me consider my equipment and battle strategy multiple times.

The Shadow Mantle turning an unwinnable JRPG stomp fight into a real-winnable fight is a genius misdirect that shows the first tangible evidence that Susie and the player might be able to defy the prophecy.

In Undertale, our struggle against Sans was made fun of because we were forcing ourselves through a frustrating fight purely to find out what happens at the end of the Genocide run. But here, even Gaster roots us on, hoping that the determination we show here will amount to something greater.

I think it's seriously understated how game-changing and brilliant this twist is with what it implies.

And come on, everything with Susie during this fight is so cool.

[imraespace]

:LOAD SAVE FILE: BLADE X READER ARE YOU DEAD SERIOUS? || 27 PICS , 1.6K WORDS

GAME LOG: STELLARON HUNTERS, ASTRAL EXPRESS, two very popular channels known for their ghost hunting and rivalry, but it seems a certain tweet showed that there's a hidden connection between these channels.

You stared at your phone screen with a groan leaving your lips. Unluckily for you, you failed to see the last few messages and threw on a random hoodie. Best you get this camera now rather than waiting!

As soon as you step out of your apartment, the slowly setting sun hits your face, blinding you a bit.

"..Maybe I should go back in and sleep! Or watch a movie.." You mumbled to yourself, yet did the opposite as you locked your door and made your way down.

Not much time passed as you stood by the side of the road, waiting for a car, not hiding the yawn that escaped your mouth. In the meantime, you checked your phone from time to time, finally catching Himeko's messages, but brushed them aside; she will just have to repay you!

Finally, the honk of a car's horn caught your attention, causing your fingers to brush past the phone's power button, turning it off as your legs moved towards the car.

A greeting left your mouth as you entered the car, giving the driver your desired location, then made yourself comfortable, that is, until your eyes landed on the person beside you.

A small gasp left you as you found out that none other than the popular Blade is seated right next to you! He acknowledged you for a bit, then went back to his phone, carrying on with his day.

You huffed, turning to face your window while resting your chin in your palm. You, personally, had no problem with him, you had ZERO problems with the Stellaron Hunters actually, but.. fans made the rivalry. Two big channels that do the same thing? There can only be one!!

In fact, you've met with them before here and there, and they were nice! Except emo ass over here.. Maybe he's not talkative! Or he has a stick up his ass! But who are you to judge?

You sighed, enjoying the view outside until a random snap outside broke you out of your thoughts. "Huh?" you muttered, looking around and finding Blade looking in your direction, sharing the same confusion.

You shrugged your shoulders at him, turning back to see if you could find anything, but nothing was found. Sadly, there was nothing you could've done as your trip was over when the store came to view.

You bid them both goodbye, carrying on with your evening but oh boy.

Without any knowledge of what is happening right now, you continued with your task, finishing up for the night and making your way back home and instantly decided to catch some zzz's.

.

.

.

At 5:00AM, you received an email. It simply read:

"Blade <yingxing@gmail.com> to me 🠻

"You clearly caused us a problem, and I have to deal with it on my own, so therefore I am reaching out to you. My number is xxx-xxxx. Message me when you can."

Only then at 9:00AM, when you woke up, still clueless of what has been happening, then you checked his email.

"I caused a problem?" You muttered to yourself, rubbing your eyes. You then checked your messages, media, and only then your jaw dropped, and you flew to his number!

True to your words, you did indeed sleep after that! But there was a nagging feeling that you actually solved nothing, and no one believed you.

So you decided that if Blade wants to just throw it under the bus, then maybe you will take action on your own!

And you did just that when you started banging on Dan Heng's door! The poor boy was a bit confused to see you banging on his door at 11:00 AM, but his channel consists of ghosts, so nothing surprises him anymore.

"Good morning..?" He muttered, staring down at you.

"Hi best buddy Dan! May I come in?" You asked, flashing him a small smile.

He moved aside, inviting you into his apartment. You both are kinda neighbours so..

You made yourself comfortable on his couch, fixing yourself then looked straight at him.

"I need your help." You suddenly said. The boy ssighed, simply moving your legs then sat on the couch.

"With?"

"Blade, you both used to be friends, right?" The sudden mention of his old friend caught his attention, but then he remembered the situation you're in.

"Yes, what do you need?" He asked.

"How do I befriend him?"

.

.

.

"Uh.. he's changed a lot, so I can't really help you with that."

"Thanks for the help.. not.." You muttered, rolling your eyes. You sighed at the zero help, but you kind of thought this would be the response you would get. Dan doesn't really talk about his past with Blade.

"Well, you don't mind me getting close with him?"

"No. You do you."

And that you did! You went back home, and for three consistent days, you nagged poor Blade with messages.

(i hit the limit😂😂😒😒🖕🏽) click here to view the last few messages between them!

After sending Blade the location, at almost 11:00 PM, you changed into some presentable clothing and made your way towards your favorite 24-hour store!

The walk was quiet, hushed, but for some reason, this walk felt a bit uneasy. You don't normally go on late-night walks, but the excitement from texting Blade, completely forgetting the thought of him even accepting it, maybe not even showing up.

You giggled at yourself, don't you do ghost hunting videos.. WHY are you scared of a walk to a store..

You took a few looks behind your back, noticing that the street is empty, quiet. You're alone. The only light produced is from the street lights.

Slowly, your footsteps quicken, but for some reason, it felt as if you were walking in place, not moving one bit. How far was this store again?

Your steps slowed, but your heart didn't. Maybe.. for starters you will quit this ghost shit because what the flip! And secondly, maybe it's payback for annoying Blade.. Nah!

But then you heard footsteps, slowly, making their way. The hairs on the back of your neck stood as the footsteps grew louder. You've dealt with ghosts, though normally you're with professionals (Welt) and with friends.

What did you normally do in videos? Panic.. sounds about right! You breaths quicked, footsteps growing louder, eyes growing in size and then..

A hand rested on your shoulder, causing a scream to leave your lips, hand flying to hit whatever was behind you, but unfortunately, your hand came in contact with.. nothing.

A small timid mumbled left your mouth, stepping back but your back came in contact with something..

Another scream left your mout as you closed your eyes shut but a familiar voice came to your sense of hearing.

"..Are you okay or..?"

You whipped your head in the direction, and suddenly, the view of the store was clear; actually, you were right in front of it. Without knowing, a few teardrops fell on your cheek as your eyes came in contact with him.

"Oh you actually came.." You muttered.

Blade rose his eyebrows in confusion.

"Are you going to answer me? You were just standing there hyperventilating." He simply stated.

"I was?"

He sighed, looking behind you, then locked back eye contact with you.

"Let's get ice cream."

Oh yeah, that's why you left your house. Though your excited mood is not so excited anymore, and Blade noticed. He noticed how shaky you were, how you nodded, and quickly made it into the store.

He thought about it, he may look cruel on he outside and actually he is mean without trying, but he has.. a somewhat heart, and took it upon himself to make you feel better.

He enetered the store and saw you just staring off into the distance.

"Did you pick out your ice cream flavor?" He asked, walking up to the freezer beside you, pulling out a random ice cream.

"Huh? Oh, right.." You mumbled, taking out one. But to your surprise, he took it from your hand and walked away leaving you with one request:

"You can buy more snacks, meet me at the cash register."

You blinked at his words, then did as he said with a small smile, who's gonna turn down free snacks!

.

.

.

After grabbing everything you wanted, you made it to the cash register, and Blade actually bought you everything you grabbed!

You both left the store, and the chills were back, and he noticed thankfully.

"Do you want me to walk you back home?" He asked.

You sighed, not hiding the disappointment on your face.

"I kinda.. wanted to hang out with you." You muttered.

He stared at your saddened face and the bag of snacks in your hand, then held his face in his hand, regretting the words that is about to leave his mouth.

"Do you want to spend some time at my place? I'm not going at yours."

"REALLY?" Oh, it seems you're back to normal!

His head shook a bit, giving you the green light.

"ICE CREAM EATING CHALLENGE HERE WE GO!"

You exclaimed, running as Blade followed behind to tell you that you're going in the wrong direction.

But your reaction stayed the same, after a spooky ghost session with your crew, you always ate ice cream to calm your nerves, but it seems the tradition has to stay.

At least you got an extra sweet (sour) treat this time! Blade!

As the view of his apartment came clear, your movements stopped as you turned around to face him with a bright smile, but then..

Snap!

You both turned in the direction of a now running fan.

"Are you serious.." He muttered.

[fleuraliasave]

*OUTDATED NEW VERSION AVAILABLE HERE*

❤ Version 7.0 Fleuralia Save File ❤

Download link down below (please read entire post before installing)

This save file uses all EP’s, GP’s (not Journey to Batuu), SP’s and most of the kits (Country Kitchen, Blooming Rooms, Incheon Arrivals, Retro Fit, Industrial loft, Moonlight Chic, Little Campers, Pastel Pop, Everyday Clutter, Bathroom Clutter, Simtimates Collection, First Fits, Desert Luxe, Modern Luxe, Poolside Splash, Book Nook, Basement treasures, Greenhouse Haven, Pastel Pop and Bust the Dust).

What’s new in this update?:

Chestnut Ridge and Tomarang have been completely redone, added multiple new lots, updated other lots and provided make-overs for the households.

Added new households (when living in world; with jobs, friends, preferences etc).

Added rental lots in multiple other worlds outside of Tomarang (Brindleton Bay, Henford-on-Bagley, Britechester and more).

Spooky Fall Festival has been moved to Chestnut Ridge (bigger with haunted house ride). The old lot in Brindleton Bay has been changed into a cemetery.

Current Status of Worlds:

Finished worlds: Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Newcrest, Magnolia Promenade, Windenburg, San Myshuno, Forgotten Hollow, Brindleton Bay, Del Sol Valley, StrangerVille, Glimmerbrook, Sulani, Britechester , Evergreen Harbor, Mt. Komorebi, Henford-on-Bagley, Tartosa, Moonwood Mill, Copperdale, San Sequoia, Chestnut Ridge (NEW!) and Tomarang (NEW!).

Finished vacation worlds: Granite Falls and Selvadorada.

Finihed other lots: Hospital, Science Lab and the Police Station.

To be updated: the Magic Realm, will either be included in a future update or on the gallery (OriginID: fleuralia)

What do you get with this save?:

For my save file all lots are either completely new builds (almost all) or renovations, ofcourse created by me. Exceptions: I have added the official builds for the releases of the Paranormal SP by Dr Ashley and the Dream Home Decorator GP by Deligracy to this save, since I thought they deserved a spot. These two are therefore not my own creations, credits are given in the description to Dr Ashley and Deligracy. Mt. Komorebi, Henford-on-Bagley, Tartosa, Moonwood Mill, Copperdale, San Sequoia and Chestnut Ridge lots are largely created by GameChangers. Most lots have gotten smaller updates, others are completely new builds by me.

All the townies had make-overs plus I added new families to spice it up a bit. Some of the townies are made by other creators, who are given credits in the description of the household. All the townies in the different worlds have a story, some include sentiments and adjusted relationships to the story.

Added plenty of community lots to give your Sims something to do (YAY!). Almost every world has one restaurant, but it also includes festivals that represent the four seasons (park lots) and a fully functional shopping street in Magnolia Promenade (toy store, bridal store and more).

I have added rental lots so you can go on vacation in more worlds. For example in Sulani, Willow Creek and Windenburg.

Other details:

As mentioned at the beginning, this save uses almost all packs (except Journey to Batuu and some kits). This means that if you download it without owning or installing most of the packs a lot of objects will disappear from the save, but if you are not bothered by this you can still download and play in it.  

I disabled the autonomous fame gain and neigborhood action plan voting/environmental changes, you enable them again in the pack settings menu.

I would love to add some households in this save created by all of you! Add your household under the hashtag #fleuraliatownies in The Sims 4 Gallery, you can add a storyline and world in the description but thats not obligatory. If I respond on your creation it means that I have incorporated it in the save for the next update.

Sadly every game update comes with a lot of bugs. I suggest before reporting problems in the save to me, to check on forums if its related to a general bug/glitch or to mods (if you use them).

Questions and supportive feedback are always welcome, you can reach me here via a comment on this post, an ask or through a DM 😁

How to make it work in your game:

Download the save file from the link below.

Drag it in your saves folder under: PC/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/saves.

Change the numbers if you already have a save with the same name.

It should now show up in your game as: Fleuralia Save Version 7.0.

DOWNLOAD (SFS) / Alternate (GD)

!!Don’t re-upload or claim as your own!!

Future updates will follow after each pack release (if it includes a world). The time the update will be uploaded after each release depends on how much I have to change and on my work schedule around that time.

Last but not least, enjoy and till next time! XX

Fleuralia

Feel free to support me ❤️: Ko-fi account

[sirfrogsworth]

I use AI upscaling to help with my photo restorations. And it is the one use of generative AI that I think has serious merit. I use Topaz so it is ethically trained on licensed images. It helps me preserve memories and give people photos of their loved ones with a clarity they have never seen. They get a much better sense of what their grandpa looked like when he was young.

But AI upscaling is not a push button solution. And I don't think it will be for a long time, if ever. It's part of a larger workflow. It doesn't save me time or effort. In fact, it adds quite a bit of time to the restorations.

Sometimes I have to upscale the background and people separately. Often I have to adjust the contrast and detail on people's faces so the AI renders them accurately. I have learned how to set things up for success before the AI does its thing. And sometimes there is a lot of trial and error to get a non-nightmare result. Each try can take several minutes to render. There are several algorithms to choose from, several intensity sliders, and once the upscale is at a place I am happy with, I have to use traditional techniques to make the people not look like wax figures. I use things like custom film grains and LUTs to make the pristine AI result look like an old photo again.

In other words, I care about the photos I'm restoring.

I saw people talking about restoring Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It's a very difficult problem due to how the show was produced. The live action was captured on film—which can be re-scanned at a higher resolution. But the digital effects were all done on analog 480p video tape. Not only would they need to be re-rendered but they would also have to be recomposited. Odo's shapeshifting is especially tricky. There isn't an economical way to remaster the show. TNG was only possible because they filmed practical assets for most of the VFX. They still had to redo all the compositing and it was very costly just to do that.

AI could be the answer. But only if the studio is willing to see it as a tool to be used in conjunction with artists and not a push button solution. Every frame needs to be checked. Different scenes will need different techniques to upscale them properly. And some scenes will just need to be cleaned up manually with traditional tools.

Upscaling to 1080p or 4K is often a mistake. The more extra pixels you try to add, the harder it will be to get a natural result. I think 720p would be a happy medium to shoot for. Combined with modern TVs traditional upscaling you will get a good viewing experience.

There are already fan upscales that are decent. I would say they managed to get the equivalent detail of maybe 600p. If you remember playing games on an old CRT monitor, going from 640x480 to 800x600 is actually a decent bump in detail.

Even though the files are outputted at 720p, it doesn't look quite as sharp as native 720p video. It's complicated to explain, but the short version is... detail and pixel resolution aren't really the same thing. Even if the file is upscaled to 1080p or 4K, that doesn't mean it has equivalent detail.

Which means we use a really shitty metric to give people a sense of how much detail a video will have. Ks and Megapixels are near useless these days.

Do your 200 megapixel phone photos really look sharper than my 24 megapixel DSLR photos?

My point is... detail is complicated.

And AI is currently unable to handle all of that complication without supervision and care.

In any case, the fan upscale of DS9 is definitely superior to the DVD versions. Feel free to seek that out (use a VPN). And because fans did it, the upscales were done with great care. They didn't push the tool beyond its limits and they reviewed every episode to make sure no nightmares snuck in.

I really don't know how to prevent studios from cheaping out and just running content through an upscaler with no care or supervision. But I also don't think fans should outright reject AI as a solution. It can be done well if they let actual artists leverage the tools and do it correctly.

[sakuratrait]

Cherry Trees Default Replacement~

⚠️01/2025 GET TOGETHER UPDATE!✨⚠️

Finally retextured the cherry trees from Windenburg too!

Hello everyone! This is my first post ever here on Tumblr... I'm pretty nervous but extremely exited at the same time!

I always though the bg texture was too chunky and too undefined... so I swapped it with the one from the cherry trees of My Wedding Stories, tweaked the colors and added the speculars... I hope you like it ☛☚

Infos🪧:

Basegame Compatible

Cats & Dogs (unintentional lmao) little addon, you don't need the pack to download tho!

Ofc, still low poly!

(All pics taken without re/gshade and not edited :3)

Terms Of Use💌:

• Just don't claim as yours and don't reupload (unless it's a build download, cc folder or save file dowload, still, don't put behind any type of paywall/addfly). Simple as that... this is just a ea retexture with a texure already present in game after all~

And let me know if you encounter any problems!!

Download on Patreon (Always Free!)

🔊 @alwaysfreecc @mmfinds @public-ccfinds @maxismatchccworld thank you all sm!