#(tbd)

[akitasimblr]

the blog will be going through some "housekeeping" for the next few days.

hopefully, some of the harpers will return in july :)

[veliseraptor]

am just feeling very "can one thing not go wrong for one day, please, i'm barely keeping it together at all" about everything right now

[elhnrt]

life update i WILL BE BACK to be more annoying on all of your dashes about mid-july, just doing my usual summer sabbatical off main that lasts about a month and finishing up this fuck of a job that's paid aight but isn't worth my soul getting sucked out tbqh (ive done maybe 3 canvases in four months, fucking FOUR, when i used to could bang out four a WEEK), perhaps am just not cut out for predictable monotone 8hr m-f scheduling. lame! well there's other jobs (a new one which i basically all but have because they gave me the i9 to take home before they even sent out my bg check LOL... i'm just so likeable and funny and employable)

[heleerie]

I have.... No idea what's going on on my dash apart from a couple posts I've seen but it almost feels like this anti-AI sentiment is slipping into some serious ableist territory based on that so I wanna say while I don't support AI in creative writing or artwork, there is a big difference between using AI to generate art and creative writing in the RPC and AI that assists in translations/grammar/spelling, etc. Many accessibility tools utilize AI and have for a very long time, taring disabled and EAL/D  writers with the "evil bad AI user" brush is absolutely moronic and should not be encouraged or welcomed in the community.

[okkanai]

the parasites . . . the PARASITES.

[goraiishi]

💀

[starfaite]

The fact people got genuinely angry at the sans and toriel thing in chapter 4 KILLS me. I thought that was a joke.

[vinodiriso]

hey, btw, i am afraid this might be a controversial take for tumblr but I just wanna check something out: is it weird to want to write your fandomless oc's with other people's fandomless oc's? like I understand if someone writes a fandom-based oc to wanna try and interact with canon muses from their own fandom or from fandom their oc has verses in (like dragon age/DND/bg3 like I see a lot on my dash!), but if we are both writing fandomless oc's, isn't it a bit of a slap in the face to just go for my canon muses and disregard completely my oc's, especially since theres a great potential for our muses to mash together? i am probably just bitter, ignore me ❤️

[cargopantsprentiss]

I really try not to gaf about numbers when it comes to fic but my last like 4 one shots have bombed and I’d really like to know why if anyone has any constructive crit 😭 also the fact I put them into a series so they’re all catalogued neater… does that make people think they need to read all of them to read any of them?

[xandezsims]

The Bug Report is actually on Trending right now! Thanks to everyone who's boosted and upvoted, but as many more as we can get will keep it there. Can't ignore it if it's right on the front page.

L&D Trans Sim Tagging: EA Made an Oopsie

Xan here. Remember how I never got into Fullbody outfits, in the original Trans Sim tutorial? Well, I am honor-bound to get into it a little. Why? Because I made a discovery, and it's...not great.

TL;DR: The Part Flags for most of Life & Death are messed up. Trans Sims are wearing the wrong meshes and it cannot be avoided; EA has to fix it.

If this concerns you, please upvote the report, and spread the word. They have ignored the Sims community about gender-related glitches in the past. Help us make them fix this, so we don't have to.

In-depth explanation about the problem below.

I was stoked to see we got clothes for both frames in the newer packs. Finally, Sims can wear whatever gender clothing they want! That's the goal, right? But, recent testing made me wonder how they handle opposite-frames. I thought I could learn something to help with inclusive tagging. So, I stuck Carmen in a dress from L&D, and:

It passes from the front, but...her chest. That's the opposite gender distortion. The one caused by putting a AM (masc frame) mesh on any AF (female) Sim, trans or not. I've definitely talked about this.

I went and cloned both meshes to check the tags, and sure enough:

Quick tagging lesson: toggling Restrict Opposite Frame means Carmen can't wear the AF one. She has to wear the AM frame dress, because as a trans Sim, her frame is AM. (Literally, the Opposite Frame of her gender.) But because she has breasts, she inherits the chest distortion all female Sims get wearing a man's top. The same applies for Erik, her counterpart (AM w/AF frame).

With a sinking feeling, I went back to the game and tried...everything.

I ran out of space, there are more. Trans-men are the same. I got halfway through the AM catalog and ran out of willpower. I'm betting almost every item made for both frames in this pack is tagged wrong. It's locked by frame, instead of gender. With pants, that's not a problem--but tops, dresses and suits will all be swapped.

So, now we know Fullbody meshes work similarly to tops. They need to be locked by Gender. And it's really just that tag. To test, I went back to my cloned dresses, and fixed it with two clicks:

This means all women regardless of frame can use the AF, and all men can use the AM. And here's the result: AF dress on AF Sim, AM dress on AM Sim. They literally swapped dresses.

So, easily fixed! That's 2 files out of...all of them. (sigh) I filed a Bug Report, linked above. Hopefully the amount of evidence I provided will get an actual response. That, or they'll think I'm an arrogant prat for telling them how their game works. But, I didn't break it.

Moral of the Story: this is a great example of what not to do if you make cc, or if you retag what you download. Remember, if you want to limit who can wear a mesh:

"Restrict Opposite Gender" for Tops and Fullbody; this makes sure all AF and AM Sims wear their meshes, and don't end up with chest lumps.

"Restrict Opposite Gender" for AF Bottoms; Trans-AM Sims break in half. Don't Restrict AM Bottoms at all. They fit everyone.

Or, Don't Restrict Anything, if you want all options. Note: distortions will happen. Mark your gender filters. They help a lot.

Earrings, Hats, Makeup, Gloves, Socks, Tights work for everyone

Necklaces and Nails are "Restrict Opposite Frame"; Trans Sims can't wear these from their own gender. They don't fit.

If you got this far, thank you for sticking it out. My innocent question turned into a tagging lesson (again). But, if it helps anyone in the future, I'll be glad. At least now we know there's a problem.

Please boost the Bug Report, share if you found it useful, and thanks for reading. I'm on the soap box again re: trans inclusion, but it's still Pride and I can't not stand up for my people. The more we know, the better we can do on our side.

Finally, tagging some folks who might want to know, if they don't already (feel free to ignore): @sejianismodding @the-crypt-o-club @yooniesim @whyhellosims @thefoxburyinstitute @sims4tutorials @mmfinds @gncc

[skulandcrossbones]

"stop commenting on actress's bodies" nah actually I think I will continue to comment on the fact that since the rise of ozempic every second actress looks like she's about to blow away in a strong wind because I lived through heroin chic and normalised eating disorders and insane body expectations the FIRST fucking time and saw the damage it did so I'm personally not going to stay silent and let choice feminism make extreme weight loss "acceptable" just because tiktok has convinced some of yall that any choice a woman makes is Valid just because she's a fucking woman like are you all fucking serious right now

[soracities]

happy "everyone forgets that icarus also flew" monday. i want to throw up !

[mysterycitrus]

bring back the creatures

[orpheuslament]

"im so tired of dog/cannibalism/religious metaphors" then write something different & share it with the world. do it. if youre so special & so talented. at least the ppl writing cliché stuff are writing

[v-arbellanaris]

my fav part of origins is the fact that it's a love letter to "the end does not justify the means". the entire game, in almost every quest, this is the constant question that's thrown at us. everyone in the story tells us that they did what they did because it would achieve the best outcome. from uldred's uprising in the circle tower, to zathrian's cursing of the werewolves, to bhelen's coup. loghain himself uses this as justification for the retreat at ostagar - that it was the morally correct decision to abandon the field, because it guaranteed some of the army would survive and could regroup for a new assault on the darkspawn in ostagar. and it's so specific that loghain, as the primary antagonist, loghain is the one arguing that the ends justifies the means because he is either your parallel, or your mirror.

to be more specific, my favourite thing about origins is that you, as the player character, are faced with the exact same choice. you will always resolve the circle tower uprising. you will always resolve the issue between the dalish and the werewolves. you will always settle the secession crisis in orzammar. you will always fight the archdemon and win over it. but how? what are your means? will you murder a child to spare redcliffe? will you slaughter cornered circle mages trapped in a tower with no escape? will you kill innocent werewolves who had nothing to do with a tragedy that happened hundreds of years ago? will you support a king that has his own family's blood on his hands because he wants change or a king that's more committed to culture & tradition over justice?

does it matter? to you? to anyone? why does it matter, if you're going to get to the same place in the story at the end?

and the story tells you. again and again. it matters. it matters because the ends do not justify the means. to roughly quote ursula k le guin, it matters because there is no end - you start the awakening dlc as your own warden if you survived, or as an orlesian warden if not. so, all you have left is the means.

it's very clumsy in a lot of places, and there's obvious issues if you look at each case in closer detail (e.g. the ideas around social justice re: dalish elves & mages), but overall, this is the kind of story that makes origins so special to me tbh. it really holds up a mirror to this kind of cold, utilitarian morality that's so often rewarded in "dark" fantasy genres. like idk it's very good to me.