anachronisims

[anachronisims]

💚 Traits, Refreshed & Randomized

I'm currently in the testing process for V2 of my Trait-Based Chemistry mod, but I wanted to go ahead and share this first, since I intend these to be used with that mod.

The original 3t2 traits were released 6 years ago, and I thought it was time for a fresh look. And while Flippity Flop traits by @anachronisims/@cityof2morrow filled in some gaps, I still felt like there were some aspects of real life personalities that were missing. And like most things, I started working on this and couldn't stop. Here's what you'll find in the download folders:

New icons for 3t2 & Flippity Flop traits, using 4t2 icons

Increased texture size for all traits, so they look a bit nicer in Sims' inventories - these went from 128x64 to 256x128 (preview below the cut)

9 new traits to complement the above sets

New icons for some "bonus" traits like @tammyhybrid21's Alien trait and @midgethetree's Fairy trait, plus 8 new completer bonus traits

Mesh swap of Simlogical's Prisoner Tag to fit the same format as the traits

Optional renamed traits (included in a separate folder with credits where applicable)

Trait randomizer program using Hook's RandomStuff

All traits use their original GUIDs and file names so you can just replace them in your downloads folder if you have the originals. You may need to manually refresh thumbnails in-game to see the new icons.

‼️The collection file is required - these objects will not show up in the catalog. If you are new to using traits, you also MUST have the trait_MAIN file from the original traits project post.

It's been ages since I shared anything and I started this project months ago, so it's highly possible I made a mistake somewhere. Let me know if you run into any issues!

✨DOWNLOAD: SFS / MF

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💌 CREDITS

@hexagonal-bipyramid for their Traits project

@anachronisims & @cityof2morrow for their Flippity Flop traits

@tammyhybrid21, @midgethetree & @fireflowersims for some of the bonus traits

Simlogical for the Prisoner Tag

Hook at MATY for RandomStuff program

📝 DOCUMENTATION:

List of traits & GUIDs included

Trait Randomizer instructions

💾 EXTRAS:

If you're looking for true 4t2 trait conversions, @cityof2morrow made an extensive set available here!

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Preview of 3t2 traits, bonus trait with new background color, and prisoner tag mesh change:

[anachronisims]

50+ Sub-Hobby Traits (Sims 2)

Published: 2-3-2025 | Updated: N/A SUMMARY Hobbies and interests were introduced via the Freetime EP (EA/Maxis, 2008). There are 10 hobbies (cuisine, film & literature, tinkering, sports, music and dance, fitness, arts & crafts, science, games, and nature) and 18 interest categories (sci-fi, culture, environment, paranormal, health, fashion, politics, sports, school, animals, toys, money, entertainment, work, crime, food, travel, and weather).  Here are 50+ trait tokens featuring various sub-hobbies – these are meant to compliment the original hobby categories and let players assign specific hobby-related interests to their sims. The Sub-Hobby Project comes from the collective brainstorming of @grilledcheese-aspiration, @slyndseysims @gayars and @anachronisims. DETAILS Requires all EPs/SPs. §0 | Buy > Misc > Misc (purple icons) At the time of this post, these are for storytelling/completion purposes only. These are TOKENS ONLY – they do not alter sims/gameplay on their own. If/when they are incorporated in mods, their custom function(s) will depend on the mods in question. The collection file is REQUIRED to access the traits in-game.

ITEMS Download a PDF/Excel document with the traits and their GUIDs using the link below.

DOWNLOAD (choose one) HOBBY TRAITS from SFS | from MEGA LIST OF TRAITS & GUIDs from SFS | from MEGA REQUIRED: COLLECTION FILE from SFS | from MEGA This file includes 3t2, 4t2, historical/medieval, fantasy, color, music, hobby, and other CC traits for Sims 2 (and some randomizers). Only visible trait tokens are included, and this file should REPLACE the original "Traits-Collection" file. CREDITS Thanks: @grilledcheese-aspiration, @slyndseysims @gayars and @anachronisims. Sources: 3t2 Traits Project (Hexagonal-Bipyramid, 2018),  Any Color You Like (CuriousB, 2010), Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik), Flat Icon.

[anachronisims]

someone just tell me if it’s BETTER

[anachronisims]

SO, me either, but I asked because I have often felt sad about being a particular kind of directionless/dissatisfied with the present in a way that, because I have been playing TS2 my entire YA/A life, has been framed in my mind as lacking a clear LTW. I wondered if this is just me adopting the language of the TS2 aspiration system… which led to wondering if this others do too.

I think it’s also noteworthy to say that in college, particularly my senior year, when I struggled with motivation and depression, I actively used the regular wants/aspiration points framework to get me through it. I kept a running list of my points for a week in my Google tasks checklist thing that, in 2008, was always open in my Gmail window, which was also always open. Showered? +500 points. Went to class? +500 points. Phone a friend? +100 points. I literally started going to the gym and crediting myself with gaining body skill points. This is how I survived (and got the best gpa of my college career, btw).

Thanks for nerding with me, everybody.

[anachronisims]

(yet another SITS mashup)

Default Replacement Terrain + Roads

More pics + Info + DL link under the cut

Fig. 1 - Lot View During Normal Gameplay

Fig. 2 - Hood View During Normal Gameplay

Fig. 3 - Tiling of bare terrain; weird map coding leading to hard seams on mountains in "Lush" version

Fig. 4 - Mountains in "Dirt" Version

Fig. 5 - Lot View - Lot Edge Seam

Fig. 6 - Extreme Closeup of Lot Edge Seam; somewhat pixelated road texture original to Rural Charm road overlays.

"Charming Oblivion" Neighborhood Terrain + Neighborhood Road Default Replacement

brought to you by sufficeittosay aka anachronisims.tumblr.com

What It Is:

A mashup (all I do tbh) of Criquette's Rural Charm roads and the grass texture extracted from Oblivion as a terrain paint by MedinaQuirin, applied to neighborhood terrain as a default replacement

What's Included in the .rar:

A complete folder of full-size screenshots of the mod in action so you can decide whether it suits your aesthetic or not.

A LUSH (temperate) version of the mod. This one has "more" textures included because of the way temperate terrain is, but is not actually "richer" in appearance in any way because of it. See the brightly colored heat-map or cliff view seams in the preview files - the game randomly decides which of the "wet" textures to apply to given squares and often does not correctly blend them. For this reason the included textures are DUPLICATES to minimize the hard seaming that would come from using two different shades of green. I tried, it didn't work, on any of several maps. It just wasn't worth it.

!! RECOMMENDED !! - A DIRT version of the mod. This has fewer textures and is therefore RECOMMENDED. Additionally, the cliff textures have been reduced to 512x512 with no terrible loss of quality. The grass is still green. It just uses the "Dirt" labeled template to achieve the texture savings. Plus… are you really using the Dirt terrain anyway?

BONUS: the rainbow version from my heat map experiment, by request of SadoAlice. The rainbow affects hood view only. Lot view is regular green oblivion grass. You may alter the lot view grass texture images as you desire to the single color of your choice. If you ask very nicely I might do it for you.

For your convenience, the matching terrain paint for Oblivion grass is included, but I don't know why you'd need it. Don't paint over other terrain paint; use control+click to get rid of it same as any other damn thing in build mode.

Again, for your convenience, Criquette's Rural Charm Recolors of CuriousB's lot-view road pieces, which if you've used road DRs before you know is just a thing we have to deal with. (If someone has cracked this piece of the puzzle while I've been out of the game, please let me know!!)

My optional DR cliff textures which are used in an allegedly-but-effectively-not-different way by the game than the "dry" textures that also are cliffy on the map. These also default your neighborhood boulders. If you use my Cliffs of Insanity, you may already have these.

How to install:

1. Locate your existing road and/or terrain default replacements, if any, and remove them from your downloads folder. Depending on which mod you use, they may be a single or separate file.

2. Both the dirt and the lush versions of Charming Oblivion include separate files for the terrain and roads, and BOTH files within the folder are required. Put BOTH files from a single folder into your downloads folder or subfolder of your choosing.

2b. Choose amongst the optional folder items as you please; these also go to your downloads folder

3. If you want to use the Dirt terrain for the reduced texture benefits but are currently playing a Lush hood, never fear! Open the cheat window in hood view. Type "terraintype dirt" and press enter. NOTE: to change back to lush, you actually would type "terraintype temperate" because of course you do. Reference: https://modthesims.info/t/217506

Credits: Criquette Rural Charm - https://criquette-was-here.tumblr.com/ruralcharm Extracted Oblivion Grass - https://medinaquirin.tumblr.com/post/20433784575/a-little-gift-for-the-tumbling-folks-as-it-says Everyone who ever made a hood terrain DR because I probably checked it out before doing this and deciding the shade of green or the shape of the grass just wasn't QUITE what I was looking for.

Download at SFS

[anachronisims]

here i go again (on my own)...

objective: NOT filling up this entire map. we'll see how that goes. the intention is that this is the downtown area only, mostly commercial and public spaces, with just a little bit of residential. if i can limit it to one long main street - probably the second of the up-and-down roads - and just coloring in the surrounds, that should be safe (from a flashing/crashing perspective). i'll be making probably exhaustive use of subhoods for the bulk of the residents of MT.

[anachronisims]

simming “goals” 2025

kinda making a comeback, kinda overwhelmed by half- to quarter-completed modding projects, kinda going to rebuild mount topazos from the ground up to reduce strain and remake certain characters who have too much fug

[anachronisims]

Hi Cari, love the trait mod expansion, can you show me if it's possible to tune your (Get) Straight Outta the Kitchen? It's diabolical but I want my Terrible Cooks to burn 100% of the time 😅

Hi @swishbishbosch, thanks for the love! It’s totally possible but I’m on vacation until next weekend so I can’t check in simpe. I feel like there is probably a BCON in the mod so all you should have to do is find the line for Terrible Cook odds and crank it up to 100 (64).

[anachronisims]

signal boosting even though it seems the signal is out there for a while now (and i’m still on hiatus)

Why Sims 2 has been so broken the last ten years

This is down to my own research, and I'm not saying it is the one and only reason why the game is so broken these days, but I have some points worth mentioning.

So, you're bored one day. You remember this game you had so much fun playing a few years ago, or maybe as a child. It's The Sims 2!

The game has a few issues than from when you last remembered playing, so you search on google for some fixes for the tiny resolution, and among the countless posts you may find, you may find this:

Or this:

(to the creators and players mentioned here this isn't me making a dig at you, i'm just pointing out some cc that could affect the game from working properly. your stuff is all beautiful :D)

Lesya's game is gorgeous!!! Oh, how can I get it to look like that?

So you, with a clean, vanilla (ugly) game you decide to download a few mods she listed, such as:

Skylines by GCKP (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Skies by Lowedeus (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Trees by Criquette (you can get optimised ones here)

No More Blurriness by Voeille (you can get optimised snow only here)

Cool! And then you notice some cheats than can give the game that open-world, interactive feel. Even better!

And you shove them into your folder and you boot up the game. Everything's going great!

Until...

You search hundreds of posts looking for the fix. Some recommend 3rd-party tools, but they seem to make the problem worse. You reinstall, finding you only wasted your time. Something has to be causing this, but you'd never guess it'd be the mods everybody swore by.

Well, in fact, it is. Partly.

I've struggled with pink flashing since 2019, when I reinstalled Sims 2 after I got a decent computer for once. I did everything above, searched for fixes, found Lesya's blog which was my primary inspiration. It was through Lesya's guide that I was able to make my game look pretty!

These mods, which are a staple in the modding community, are beautiful indeed... but what if I told you that the reason they're so beautiful, is because they're high-quality. With textures soaring up to 4k, when, hang on--

In 2004, 4k resolution was... probably unheard of. With the leading monitor size being 1024x768, what would be the point of using such huge textures on an engine that was designed for monitors of at least this size? Would you be able to see the detail of 4k on a monitor of that size? Definitely not.

The max visiting sims, okay, a little hit or miss. If your sims are all wearing high poly alpha CC, then it's a problem. If not, good luck.

Then comes the cheats I mentioned. The lot skirt cheat expands the view distance a significant amount. With the mergenhoodflora cheat, that displays more trees. Combining the two, what do you get?

A massive view distance, blinded by trees.

With skies and skylines with large textures up to 4k, and trees with textures up to 2k, The Sims 2 will collapse. It's like forcing an old man with health conditions to do 20 situps, again and again.

It'll overexert him, by the very least. And you're overexerting the game by cramming custom content that is not optimised for the engine TS2 was built on.

So please, next time you encounter the pink soup, please check your CC folders, and research changes and cheats before you put them into your game. You will enjoy the game much more if you do this, and won't encounter this problem so often.

Don't use Graphics Rules Maker

Instead, opt for a maxis original Graphics Rules uploaded here by Veronavillequiltingbee. It's essentially a rewrite of an old tutorial I made a long time ago.

Once you download the file from VVQB, open DXDIAG by pressing WinKey+R and typing 'dxdiag'.

This value I've underlined is what you need to put after seti textureMemory. Open the sgr file and do CTRL-F and input seti textureMemory.

Add the value from DXDIAG and then save it.

You can use GRM for adding your GPU to the game, but I do not recommend it for anything but that.

Optimising the game... inside the game

*shoves GRM off the table*

We're going to go into TS2 in-game settings for this one.

These settings are optimal if you play CC-heavy households. It will ease the load on your game to make space for the heavy CC you have in your current household. You can tweak these when you want to take photos outside, but for playing I recommend them all to be off - especially at community lots as there are lots of sims there.

I never see anybody talking about Object Hiding.

Object Hiding hides objects from floors that aren't in view. If you're playing downstairs, objects upstairs won't be rendered, thus minimising the load on your game.

I have reflections and smooth edges off because I use ReShade.

Snow on Ground is optional. Sometimes snow can cause pink flashing, I believe it's due to texture replacements that are huge in size too, Voeille's is 2k. I've linked a resized one above.

This post will be updated with later findings. I hope you all found it informative :]

[anachronisims]

i just found CC fingernails in my downloads folder with 1024x1024 textures and I was like "hm that's weird, 128x128 would be enough but ok" and then I went to check the mesh and

FOR 3D FINGERNAILS

I will never ever ever ever put anything into my downloads folder again without opening it in SimPE first

[anachronisims]

cw: grief

the thing about the pink flashing report is it was a passion project to get me through a griefiversary, and it did, and now that it’s been another year my grief is so much less immediate and stinging. just a dull longing ache sometimes, and tears behind my eyes that can’t manifest unless i let myself go back to full grief, which i no longer actively want to do. so, healing happened.

thanks to everyone for giving me internet validation when i needed it (or thought i did), i guess is what i’m saying?

[anachronisims]

(slightly hiatusing for craftober ig cari.made.a.thing)

(feeling both like i’m carving off a piece of my soul leaving TS2 behind and excising a malignant tumor)

(help im so confused)

[anachronisims]

happy birthday ts2 indeed!!!!

thanks fran for the newest bestest least supernatural TO/TO mod!!

Curious Chemistry: Happy 20th Birthday, Sims 2!

Can you believe that our beloved Sims 2 is 20 years old today?! To celebrate - and to show that there's always something new to learn about this daft old game, even after all these years - I'm sharing my first ever venture into BHAV modding. Behold: my own take on a replacement for the Maxis Turn Ons/Offs (TOs), and a complementary mod to adjust the Chemistry calculation between Sims. This is quite specific to the requirements for my own game, but I thought there could be others out there who might also like to give it a whirl...

My new TOs - and their criteria - are shown in the table below (click to enlarge).

In short, it's an amalgamation of a selection of ideas from other people's versions of this mod, with some of my own thrown in too. It takes into account Personality, Interests, Skills, Talent Badges, Hobby Enthusiasm and 3t2 Traits, as well as various aspects of life experience (Reputation, Vacations, Pet Friends, Life Skills, Supernatural identity, wealth, academic/career success, etc.). Maxis Fitness/Fatness and natural hair colour TOs have NOT been replaced. All other TOs have been replaced with either an expansion of the Maxis default (e.g. Athletic, Charismatic, Creative), a re-imagining of an original Maxis concept (e.g. Academic, Ambitious, Fastidious), or with something entirely new (e.g. Alien, Geeky, Sociable).

I don't really play Supernaturals myself, so Vampire/Werewolf Witch/Zombie have been lumped into one TO (Supernatural); Plantsim and Servo have been subsumed into other TOs (Naturalist and Unconventional, respectively). So, if you're a fan of Supernatural Sims, this might not be for you.

Most Icons have also been replaced with TS4 Icons or my own customisations of these.

Some notes on the criteria for particular TOs:

Thresholds for Personality points are 2 (or lower) or 8 (or higher)

The threshold for Interests is 9 (I didn't want these triggered too easily)

The threshold for Hobbies or Skills is 7.5; for Hidden Skills (Dance, Meditation, Tai Chi) the threshold is slightly lower at 7

Where a Hobby features as a criterion, this is the current Enthusiasm level, NOT the Predestined Hobby

The threshold for Talent Badges is Silver

The thresholds for Reputation are + (Good) or - (Bad) 60

Ambitious, Disciplined, Perfectionist or Workaholic Sims will NOT trigger my Unemployed replacement (Lackadaisical), no matter what other attributes they might have; Young Adults and OFB business owners also will not trigger the unemployed criterion

Other criteria (Career/Owned Business, GPA/School Grade, etc.) are given in the table

My version will still work without the original 3t2 Traits, but you won't be getting the full benefit. It also makes use of @anachronisims's Traits Expansion and @tammyhybrid21's Alien Trait.

This will CONFLICT with any other mod that replaces the Maxis TOs, such as those by:

simler90

@midgethetree (Replaced Turn On Offs)

@lazyduchess (Custom Turn Ons/Offs)

@episims (Turn On/Off Replacements)

@lilbabydilljr (Dill's Turn-On/Off Replacement)

@atomtanned (Trait-Based Chemistry)

@pforestsims (Atomtanned’s Trait-Based Chemistry EDIT)

@ramblinsims (Trait-Based TOs Replacement)

It also CONFLICTS with tunaisafish's Attraction Traits Fix.

DOWNLOAD CURIOUS TURN-ONS

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To complement the TO replacements, there is a companion mod that adjusts the Chemistry calculation between Sims.

It's not essential, but recommended, as otherwise you might find that the TOs trigger too easily, especially if you have a mod that allows Secondary Aspiration to be taken into account when determining Chemistry (such as @midgethetree's Romantic Standards).

This mod changes the Attraction/Repulsion between different Aspirations, as shown in the table.

Grilled Cheese Sims have the same extra attraction bonus towards each other as set by Maxis.

I particularly didn't like the Maxis Family/Knowledge mutual attraction - why would a Sim that is focused on self-improvement be attracted to a Sim that is likely to distract them from this in order to spend quality family time? And vice versa: the Family Sim could get resentful of the amount of 'me-time' that the Knowledge Sim needs; plus Knowledge Sims often have risky Wants, not compatible with a cosy family life! Personally, I think that Romance/Knowledge makes more sense, as the Romance Sim would make far fewer demands on the Knowledge Sim's precious study time. And the Knowledge Sim is likely to be open-minded about not fulfilling all the Romance Sim's relationship needs.

So, if you're particularly attached to your Family/Knowledge pairings, this might not be ideal for you.

This mod also REDUCES the contribution of Aspiration/Zodiac to the calculation, and gives the other attributes more weight.

However, it incorporates the compatibility adjustments of @dreadpirate's TS2 Zodiac Compatibility Overhaul.

Maxis attraction bonuses (e.g. Beauty Wish or Vacation bonuses) are unaffected, as is the attraction boost for the 'Irresistible' 3t2 Trait provided by @midgethetree's Romantic Standards.

If the flavour of my Chemistry mod is not to your liking, I'd recommend an alternative, such as those by:

Peanutty

@episims (More Balanced Aspiration Attraction)

@pforestsims (Only TO Chemistry)

@bstu (No Aspiration Chemistry Penalty)

@belladovah (No Zodiac Chemistry)

@dreadpirate (TS2 Zodiac Compatibility Overhaul)

@yerluvinuncle (Different Chemistry)

My mod will CONFLICT with these, and any other mods that alter the Attraction Constants and/or Attraction Tuning BCONs.

DOWNLOAD CURIOUS CHEMISTRY

I also created a variant that eliminates Zodiac from the calculation altogether (but still allows Aspiration to make a reduced contribution). I haven't tested this in my game, as I decided it wasn't quite what I wanted, but if anyone wants to give it a try, then let me know and I'll gladly share it. 😊

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My Sims have tested these out for me extensively, and all seems to be working as intended in my own game, but please do let me know if you find any issues with either mod.

Finally, thanks to all the creators whose work formed the basis of these mods, either for code that I recycled or referred to, or for inspiration for some of the ideas incorporated here:

simler90 (especially the code for Rich/Poor calculations)

@lazyduchess

@midgethetree

@episims

@lilbabydilljr

@atomtanned

@pforestsims

@ramblinsims

@lamare-sims

Peanutty

@dreadpirate

@yerluvinuncle

Special thanks to @ramblinsims, for pointing me in the right direction and for moral support.

Extra special thanks to my Jedi Master @episims, for immense patience with my endless questions, providing encouragement, reviewing my code, helping me to zap bugs and being a fantastic teacher and all-round amazing person. I could not have done this without them.

[anachronisims]

As soon as I came up with the both option I knew that was the answer lol

Re the Sub-Hobby Project -

@grilledcheese-aspiration @slyndseysims @cityof2morrow

[anachronisims]

Re the Sub-Hobby Project -

@grilledcheese-aspiration @slyndseysims @cityof2morrow

[anachronisims]

remember that time this was my hyperfocus for 36 hours

it swung back around, i’m actively going to be working on it this week yay

Just gonna throw this mod idea out there because I keep thinking about it...

I've been slowly implementing preferred sub hobbies for sims based on Pleasantsims random hobbies. Basically if a sims true hobby is sports, then you randomize sports hobbies and then basketball is their favorite, or if their true hobby is art then maybe pottery is their hobby, etc etc.

I was just thinking it would be cool to have a mod that checks their true hobby and then randomly assigns them one in their inventory, like the trait system or favorite color system.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯