#Sim Mechanics Assignment Help

[mechanicalclown]

Help the Magnus Archives and the Mechanisms have consumed my every thought, even when I sleep

[artbyblastweave]

Still playing Skyrim. And I’m interested to report that the game is actually better than I remember, on balance. But I’m kind of fascinated by what’s going on with Lydia, mechanically and narratively.

Lydia is the first follower who gets shoved in your face just by virtue of following the main quest. There are others you can pick up earlier, but not without finishing errands (for Faendal and Sven), by forking up a pretty big chunk of change for the early game by hiring Janessa, or by going out of your way in some other manner. If you’re completely new to the game and you’re just powering through the main story as it’s presented, she’s the first option for a follower that the game highlights for you in giant blinking neon lights. And as a quest reward, she’s mechanically kind of a godsend at that point in the story; a doubling of carry capacity, an excellent meat shield and distraction, a way to extract utility from weapons and armor you don’t want to use yourself. More subjectively she provides the impression of a stalwart ally or companion in what can be a very lonely worldspace to exist in. There’s very little reason not to take her with you, and once you have her, the majority of companions being equal, there’s very little reason to get rid of her until she stops level scaling.

Despite the mechanical utility Lydia provides at a crucial point, and the resultant likelyhood that you’ll haul her along for the ride, she’s only a couple steps up from the companion cube. She has no specific, non-fungible impact on the narrative beyond demonstrating Jarl Balgruuf’s favor. Her deferral to you is automatic; if someone is actively paying her a salary to help you defile graves, cut deals with every deity on the continent and invade the afterlife, it sure as hell isn’t you. It isn’t clear what her gig under Balgruuf was before she was assigned to you. She has no personal narrative. She has no personal side quest. One of her biggest inklings of personality is when she expresses vague dissatisfaction with being treated as a pack mule, but then she does it anyway.  She’s party to world-shaking events and political upheavals, but she’s present purely in her capacity as your appendix, so reality simply treats her as your plus-one. 

She’ll block doors you’re trying to get through, and she’ll get mad at you if you push her out of the way. She’ll charge into battle or set off traps while you’re trying to sneak. She’ll microaggress you with stock Nord dialogue while pulverizing your enemies, a plurality of whom are also Nords. She’ll distract bosses long enough to buy you breathing room for a healing spell or a potion. You’ll kill her by accident with an ill-timed area-of-effect spell, roll your eyes, and, ultimately, probably reload your save. Because she might only be a couple steps up from a companion cube, but the whole gag with the companion cube is how ridiculously low the threshold is for the audience to get genuinely attached to something in a video game. A thin character invites apophenia. Behaviors that are purely downstream of dev thoughtlessness will still imply character traits if taken at Watsonian Face Value. In this case, inexplicable undying loyalty, reserved comments on impressive landmarks, and comical stoicism in the face of some of the weirdest events it’s conceptually possible to encounter.  So here’s to weird, underbaked companions in Bethesda Games, and everything we can project onto the void they provide. And Here’s to that related genus of character- units in squad-based tactics or management-sim games with permadeath mechanics who last long enough and accumulate enough equipment, skill points, etc. that they become your Special Little Guy despite otherwise lacking any deliberate character traits.

[kedreeva]

Transparencies are a a heavy load but would still balance out to be a better choice than all the different permutations if that's what you mean.

What kind of interface would you want for peahen simulator? Wasn't there some dragon breeding site ages ago?

Yeah, that was what I meant! And flight-rising is still around, but it's not... that kind of thing isn't really the same. The parents each have three colors, and each offspring randomly gets assigned one in each "spot" (primary color, secondary color, tertiary color), and they can't carry the other as a het. Same for the pattern "genes." So, it's COOL and all, but it has very shallow game mechanics as far as breeding goes. Even compared to some other breeding sims games that track genotypes for generations.

Very honestly, something like this would work just fine (this one is.... ugly as sin, but it is what it is), but we don't quite know peafowl genetics with the same depth as mouse genetics so the different autosomal genes would just kind of have to be treated like they aren't on the same chromosome until someone proves they are. So, drop downs for each autosomal color (treating each color as non-allelic, so each color would need a drop down for wt/het/homo), a drop down for sex-linked (since they're "alleles" in the sense that you can only have one per sex chromosome. except in the case of peach. because peafowl did a weird thing), a drop down for pattern, and drop downs for the leucistic genes. Select all the genes from the drop downs, hit calculate, it spits out a genotype, and each genotype codes to a phenotype. It doesn't even NEED a photo, but it would be cool to have a photo show up, OR to have a second page that does like this thing for horses. Which isn't a calculator, but would help people visualize their result.

There's ONE more problem- some stuff doesn't always show the same in the phenotype, and some stuff doesn't breed true. Het pied, het white, and dark pied all CAN show in the phenotype with white flights and a white throat latch, but they also sometimes show NOTHING. Het white eye CAN show in the phenotype with some white eyes or body silvering, but it can also show nothing. Pied x pied gives three different offspring genotypes, and idk if it's possible to do multiple results, with or without percentages. Hets would give the same problem of multiple results. What happens when someone picks a complicated bird and you end up with

It's daunting. But maybe there's scripts that can produce that?? like list all the combinations. I don't know enough about coding to know if that's even possible. especially with the sex linked stuff

[simplyanjuta]

Making dynamic poses/animations that adjust to a sims body with Animation Tools by thepancake1

Made this short guide after talking to thepancake1. I haven't seen many people use this feature yet and felt like it might be worth sharing? There are some limitations to be aware of, but I think it's a useful option (for poses as well as animations) 😊

Many thanks to thepancake1 for the tools and for the helpful explanations he provided for this guide.

1.       Background and in-game mechanics

The way TS4 handles different body shapes and clothes in animations (for example, in order to avoid clipping) is basically by putting markers (“slots”) on the surface of a sims body that can be then used as (IK) targets with the in-game IK system.

As you probably know, IK (Inverse Kinematics) – as opposed to the default FK (Forward Kinematics) – is a set-up where bones in a chain are influenced backwards. So, for example, when you move a hand, the arm will follow.

In a similar way, what in-game IK does, is assigning a bone or slot to animate relative to. For example, if your sim is posed with hands on the hips, you can assign the hands to the hips slot and the game will then process the pose/animation and perform IK in real time to change the position of the arms and hands relative to the hips.

Note that there are limitations to this system, though, as only hands, feet and the root bind can procedurally target other bones/slots.

Hereby, feet targets and root target are mainly used in interactions with objects, in particular in sitting animations (where, for example, the root is targeting a chair slot).

Hand targets are mainly used for adjusting a pose/animation to a sims body shape and clothes.

The in-game IK always influences the complete arm/leg (chain: foot-calf-thigh/hand-forearm-upperarm).

You can find an article that provides some background information here: https://simsvip.com/2014/08/20/community-blog-the-sims-4-animations/

2.       Using the feature in custom poses/animations

Per default, when you make custom poses/animations with Blender and S4S, the relevant information that the game requires to apply in-game IK is not included. And so, you will notice that while a pose might look good with the base rig in Blender, it might not fit other sims with a different shape in game, in particular causing clipping.

You can use TS4 SimRipper to fine-tune a pose for a certain sim, but this might not be the solution you’re looking for, if you share your poses and/or want them to be compatible with different kinds of sims.

The animation tools now include a feature that makes it possible to use in-game IK with custom poses/animation as described in part 1.

Disclaimer:

The animation tools are in development and subject to change.

Currently TS4 SimRipper sims are not properly supported. (Although, imo for the purpose of the task, it doesn't make much sense to use them as models.)

As you can see in the comparison below, there might be some accuracy loss for the flexibility gained. (The position of the arms in the version without IK targets matches exactly the pose I made in Blender but doesn't work at all for the heavier sim causing extreme clipping. At the same time, the version with IK targets deviates a bit from the pose I made, but works for any sim.)

Below a short guide on how to set it up with the example pose I made.

1)      You can download the tools HERE. Make sure to check the installation guide and tutorials in the wiki tab for the basics. (Note: The tools were originally made for Blender 3.0 but also support newer versions, in particular Blender 3.3.)

Some additional tips for poses in another post of mine HERE.

After you set up the tools in Blender and have made your pose:

2)      Go to the S4AnimTools panel. Fill out rig name, clip splits and clip name as described in the tutorials linked above (also make sure to select “Allow Jaw Animation”).

3)      Find & click “Create World IK channels”. 

This will create 5 IK channels for the afore mentioned hands, feet and b_ROOT_bind bone. You can also add channels either by cloning the existing ones or clicking “Create World IK channels” again. To get rid of unwanted channels click “Delete”.

4)      Set up the targeted bones/slots based on the type of pose you made.

In my example, I created a pose where a sim has the left hand on the hip, and the right hand close to the thigh. Therefore, I added IK channels targeting the “b__L_frontBellyTarget_slot” and “b__R_ThighFrontTarget_slot”.

The slots are marked blue in the picture below. Some notes:

The slots are hidden by default, I made them visible for the picture. You can unhide all bones/slots available by pressing Alt+H. But I recommend doing this on a separate rig/in another blend file or undo it directly afterwards if you don't want all the (unneccessary) bones/slots blocking your view.

The selected slots worked well enough for my example, but you should figure out what is suitable for you. (Fo example, the HandDangle slots seem to be commonly used when the arms are hanging near the body.)

As orientation you can also look up clip files for EA poses/animations via the S4S Game File Cruiser and see what bones/slots are used as targets ("Warehouse" tab -> "SlotAssignments"; IKChainIndex: 0 - left hand / 1 - right hand / 2 - left foot / 3 - right foot /4 - root). On that note: The Clip Pack export loses/resets the slot data, but you can use it to find an animation and check its Instance ID to then search for in the Game File Cruiser. (If you know the name of an animation you can also determine its Instance ID by converting the name with the S4S Hash Generator.)

5)      To ensure an animation works properly and, in particular, blends with other animations in game, each IK channel should (also) target b_ROOT of the rig.

The bones are marked green in the picture below. This set up was recommened to me by pancake. Another experienced creator mentioned though that it's only necessary to target b_ROOT at the start and end of an animation, in his experience.

Also note that this seems to be a restriction for animations that are made as in-game interactions and might not be necessary for poses or animations used with Andrews Pose player.

6)      The start and end frame is set according to the length of the pose/animation (I want to use the pose as a CAS trait pose and set the duration to 150 frames = 5 seconds), except for the b_ROOT target for hands where the end frame is set to 0 in my example, since they are also targeting the slots “b__L_frontBellyTarget_slot” and “b__R_ThighFrontTarget_slot” during the animation.

Note: My example is a static pose. In animations, however, you can also target different slots at different times by setting up multiple IK channels and specifying the start frame and end frame respectively.

7)      Bake the animation by pressing “Bake IK”.

8)      Export the clip and create a package with your pose/animation as described in the linked tutorials above.

@ts4-poses​ @thefoxburyinstitute

[jenlynnesworld]

Fruit of Life Legacy Challenge

With the help of AI I have created my first ever Sims 4 Legacy Challenge. Not sure if it will reach many since I don't use this site much but willing to put it out there in hopes someone might want to play as well. Below is a complete breakdown of the challenge as well as a link to a google doc for checklist purposes.

Fruit of Life Legacy

🌳 Overview

Welcome to the 12-Generation Fruit-Themed Legacy Challenge! Each generation is inspired by a different fruit, shaping your Sims' personalities, goals, and lifestyles. This challenge uses all available Sims 4 packs for a rich, evolving legacy story.

🌟 Overall Rules

Start with a single Sim on an empty lot using standard Legacy Challenge rules (no money cheats, aging on, lifespan on normal).

Each generation must follow its assigned fruit's traits, aspirations, career, and rules.

You must collect and plant each fruit associated with that generation in your legacy garden. This is key to completing the challenge.

By Generation 12, your garden should contain all 12 fruits as a living family legacy.

Use gameplay mechanics, pack content, and world-building to creatively match each fruit’s theme.

🍓 Legacy Garden Rules

A designated garden area must be maintained throughout the legacy.

Every generation must:

Plant their representative fruit.

Tend to at least one other existing plant from a previous generation.

Garden styles may reflect the generation’s personality (e.g., wild, neat rows, enchanted).

The garden must be fully completed by the final generation (all 12 fruit plants thriving)

🍎 Generation 1: Apple – The Root of It All

Symbolism: Stability, beginnings, tradition

Traits: Family-Oriented, Ambitious, Foodie

Aspiration: Successful Lineage

Career: Culinary (Chef Branch)

Rules:

Build your family legacy home from the ground up.

Start with nothing (standard Legacy rules).

Must have a large garden with at least one apple tree.

Marry only after reaching level 5 in your career.

Complete your aspiration and max the cooking skill.

Pack Tie-ins: Base Game, Seasons (gardening), Cottage Living (cross-stitch, farming)

🍇 Generation 2: Grapes – The Refined Idealist

Symbolism: Luxury, creativity, complexity

Traits: Snob, Creative, Romantic

Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire

Career: Style Influencer or Painter

Rules:

Must live in San Myshuno as a young adult.

Host weekly dinner parties or art nights.

Must have a nectar cellar (Home Bar or Winery-themed area).

Have a complicated love life (at least 2 failed relationships before settling down).

Pack Tie-ins: City Living, Get Famous, Dine Out

🍋 Generation 3: Lemon – The Sour Rebel

Symbolism: Bitterness, rebellion, hidden strength

Traits: Hot-Headed, Noncommittal, Genius

Aspiration: Chief of Mischief

Career: Criminal (Boss Branch)

Rules:

Get arrested at least once.

Master mischief and logic.

Never marry; one-night stands only.

Estranged from family until elderhood.

Pack Tie-ins: Get to Work (crime), Strangerville, Paranormal

🍌 Generation 4: Banana – The Goofy Optimist

Symbolism: Humor, silliness, charm

Traits: Goofball, Cheerful, Clumsy

Aspiration: Joke Star

Career: Entertainer (Comedian Branch)

Rules:

Live in a brightly colored, chaotic home.

Prank every Sim you meet at least once.

Host comedy shows at lounges.

Have triplets (naturally or via fertility reward).

Pack Tie-ins: Get Famous, Movie Hangout, Spa Day

🍒 Generation 5: Cherry – The Hopeless Romantic

Symbolism: Love, beauty, temptation

Traits: Romantic, Self-Absorbed, Music Lover

Aspiration: Serial Romantic

Career: Musician or Freelancer (Musician)

Rules:

Must write and dedicate love songs to each lover.

Get caught cheating at least once.

Complete the Romance Festival collection.

Eventually settle down with a long-time friend.

Pack Tie-ins: City Living, Romantic Garden, My Wedding Stories

🍐 Generation 6: Pear – The Quiet Intellectual

Symbolism: Wisdom, patience, introversion

Traits: Bookworm, Loner, Perfectionist

Aspiration: Renaissance Sim

Career: Education or Scientist

Rules:

Max 3 different skills.

Must write a bestselling novel.

Have a secret room only one Sim can access.

Never move out of your childhood home.

Pack Tie-ins: Discover University, Get to Work, High School Years

🍓 Generation 7: Strawberry – The Overachiever

Symbolism: Sweetness, beauty, pressure

Traits: Overachiever, Perfectionist, Outgoing

Aspiration: Academic

Career: Law or Politician

Rules:

Graduate university with honors.

Date a professor or classmate.

Join at least two organizations.

Live in Britechester during college.

Pack Tie-ins: Discover University, Get Together

🍅 Generation 8: Tomato – The Misunderstood One

Symbolism: Confusion (fruit or vegetable?), duality

Traits: Insider, Gloomy, Creative

Aspiration: World-Famous Celebrity

Career: Actor or Influencer

Rules:

Have a public persona opposite of your private self.

Get caught in a public scandal.

Have one child with a fan or paparazzi.

Live in Del Sol Valley.

Pack Tie-ins: Get Famous, Eco Lifestyle (public image)

🍍 Generation 9: Pineapple – The Spiky Outsider

Symbolism: Hospitality, uniqueness, masking softness

Traits: Erratic, Loyal, Outgoing

Aspiration: Friend of the World

Career: Conservationist or Freelance Crafter

Rules:

Live in Sulani and embrace island traditions.

Adopt at least one child.

Join conservation efforts.

Host kava parties often.

Pack Tie-ins: Island Living, Eco Lifestyle, Growing Together

🫐 Generation 10: Blueberry – The Melancholy Dreamer

Symbolism: Melancholy, peace, daydreams

Traits: Creative, Lazy, Music Lover

Aspiration: Musical Genius or Bestselling Author

Career: Freelancer or Unemployed

Rules:

Live off-grid for at least one life stage.

Keep a journal and paint dreamscapes.

Have an imaginary friend (e.g., social bunny or stuffed animal confidante).

Date only aliens or occult Sims.

Pack Tie-ins: Werewolves, Realm of Magic, Paranormal, Nifty Knitting

🍇 Generation 11: Blackberry – The Dark Visionary

Symbolism: Mystery, magic, resilience

Traits: Ambitious, Mean, Geek

Aspiration: Master Vampire or Spellcraft & Sorcery

Career: Secret Agent or Freelancer (Tech Guru)

Rules:

Become an occult (Vampire or Spellcaster).

Marry another occult.

Build a haunted, gothic mansion.

Turn at least 3 Sims into occults.

Pack Tie-ins: Vampires, Realm of Magic, StrangerVille

🍓 Generation 12: Raspberry – The Reconciler

Symbolism: Rebirth, balance, sweetness with thorns

Traits: Good, Neat, Maker

Aspiration: Eco Innovator or Inner Peace

Career: Civil Designer or Gardener

Rules:

Repair family ties (mend broken relationships in the family tree).

Live in Evergreen Harbor and green the neighborhood.

Open a family-run café or garden shop.

Pass on a complete scrapbook of legacy memories.

Pack Tie-ins: Eco Lifestyle, Cottage Living, Tiny Living, Growing Together

[your-favourite-yapper]

Rjl teaches at this like mid uni that used to be his backup backup until he got rejected everywhere else and now acts like it’s beneath him even though it’s exactly right for him. like he grades essays like they ruined his life. he’s unshaved, wears the same two moth-bitten cardigans, has a coffee addiction he treats like a personality, and gets sooo personally offended if students don’t love the victorian literature unit.

and srs black. 21nand a mechanic part time has a podcast abt queer politics and cars (he only updates lisks when he’s high and remus gkt soptify premium to lsiten to kt). is in uni for some reason but lotr hates it. does the bare minimum in remus’ class and still gets As (even if remus fidnt shoe favorutism hes still effortlessly smart butnlike. He litr doesnt submit anything and still gets a 99 in rjls class). everyone knows it’s sus. like the essays are literally two paragraphs and “fuck capitalism” scrawled in permanent marker but somehow remus is like “mm. an A for effort. and bravery.”

Bc remus is obsessed. like imsane. it started year 1 when sirius wore that oil-stained crop top to class and remus forgot how to speak for a full ten minutes. now sirius is the only student he remembers the name of. the only one he sends “feedback emails” to. he made sirius stay after class once to “talk about attendance” and just sat there stuttering and accidentally complimenting his hands for like 30 minutes.

Rjl keeps dressing up as df ppl and breaking down his car and so sts fixes it for him which again, sirius knows abt but remus doesnt know sirius knows abt this. at first sirius was like oh okay this is funny but by the 6th time he was like wait. is he seriously spending hundreds of dollars fucking up his own car just to see me? spoiler: yes !!!!!! he is. he googled “how to melt your own brake pads” and did it with a hairdryer.

eventually soem1 snitches to the head of department. they're like hey. uh. prof lupin is giving one student 20/20 for every assignment while giving everyone else like. 4s. he also keeps ordering custom mechanic costumes and entering the shop like a sims npc. And thats kinda lowk eeird.....

Rjl tries to defend himself in a meeting and ends up saying something like “he has an old soul and he understands duality” and gets fired imm he thinks sirius will back him up but sirius is already halfway out the door. he even tells the board that remus used to drop off annotated versions of his essays with sticky notes like “this reminds me of you.”

court happens. remus uses the last of daddy’s estate money trying to sue the uni for “intellectual discrimination.” loses. is now broke. lives in a studio with a leaking roof and has a night shift janitor job at a mall where he wears gloves to clean the toilets because he’s “still a scholar.” he doesn’t eat. he just drinks vending machine coffee and watches this cam boy stream religiously.

(the cam boy is obviously sirius but remus doesnt know bc he = chrinicallt srupid). sirius even uses the same goddamn crop top. remus is like “wow… uncanny… this is what he would be like if he loved me.” he spends entire paychecks on tips and tips and is on the top membership and is just basically 99% of srs fanbase

then. disaster. sirius announces on stream he has a boyfriend now. a buff golden retriever named james potter who laughs like sunlight and helps him moisturize after sex or whatver. remus breaks and tracks them down. tries to kill james with like a fountain pen. fails. gets arrested. again. trial goes viral on law twitter and sirius posts a pic of him and james eating cake with the caption “he stabbed me with a pen and still didn’t make a mark.”

remus tries to sue for defamation but he has no lawyer and ends up losing everything else. dies in his apartment under a mountain of (siriuss)graded papers and empty instant coffee packets. the last thing he ever watched was a rerun of sirius’ stream. he dies smiling. end.

Dedicated to @queermoons

[victoriansimmer]

I spent 8 years studying to be a historian of medicine. Since I'm out in the work force as a QIDP now, I don't have the opportunity for constant learning that I used to while in school. Learning meshing and conversions has really been scratching that itch. Every turn, there's a new problem to solve, mechanism to learn.

I wasn't expecting to run into weights on the wrong leg (look at that teeny tiny bit of pink where it should be completely green!), so I had to learn to manually assign bones. Thanks to the PBK, Historical Sims, and Sims 2 Shenanigans discords for their help troubleshooting!

Lifelong learning doesn't always look like your nose in a book, and I'm so happy to fall down new avenues every day.

[yama-uba]

At my current age, I know 3 things about myself for sure: I can't dwell on anything (especially before bed), I can't have plums and beets, and I never follow the first two prohibitions. Because of the abundance of thoughts about Paralives, last night I dreamed that I was an intern at PS.

The first thing I remember is that I was introduced to the development team, an analyst, and a tester. And then the team leader asked how I did my "homework" on getting to know the project. I said that I was interested in the fact that they decided to make a mechanic where individual light bulbs in lighting fixtures can burn out and parafolk can buy a separate, suitable light bulb for some objects and screw it in. ATTENTION: I doubt that this will be implemented in the game - it was only part of my dream. And then I asked, if we deepen the home gameplay towards realistic household chores, then can we find out how the mechanism of breakdown and the mechanism of clogging of plumbing is implemented, including sinks/baths/washing machines/boilers, and not just toilets, because a clog is not just a leaky flush tank.

There was an awkward pause and I continued asking questions in an attempt to ease the tension. "Will the game implement a system of water pipes and drainage, which would limit the placement of plumbing?", "Will we create an electrical circuit for the house, where all energy consumers should be taken into account, including sockets and light switches?", "What kind of heating will be preferable in the land of parafolk: radiators, convectors, air conditioners or a warm sweat system?", "Will sources of cold and heat in the house be taken into account, such as tiled floors, doors to the street and a chimney of a fireplace on the upper floors?", "What is the maximum length of a floor in the game and will it be possible to create a panel, frame, brick, monolithic reinforced concrete house and a house-hybrid of construction technologies?" I also asked a bunch of questions that I have already forgotten.

Everyone was looking at me. And then my boss said, "You know, we haven't even thought about this until now. Your first task is to formulate a concept and create a prototype for our focus group and testing of this idea this week." I was very surprised by this deadline. Considering that 1 of these 5 days was already coming to an end, I was assured that this time was more than enough and, as soon as I got the hang of the project, I would be able to do all this in 24 hours.

Then there was a typical "strange work day" in a dream, where it turned out that the junior programmer assigned to me to help with the implementation turned out to be a goose. I mean, he was not anthropomorphic, but a real live, white goose (and, if you look at it from another point of view, he was a really talented programmer, capable of writing code according to my idiotic technical task). As is customary in any dreams, the only thing that confused me was that his name was Steve (this name is associated with very difficult to communicate with people, like Jobs and cases from my experience, but Steve-goose was not only a competent employee, but also a pleasant person).

Somewhere on the 4th day of my work and hard crunch on studying the sewerage system of an American private house together with a goose, I began to sleep right at the meeting. My boss noticed this and asked me if I thought our parafolk personality profile system, which was a complete homage to the Sims 2 character system, was boring. I said that the OCEAN system was good, of course, but I would add to these 5 traits the missing traits from the HEXACO system (and added some other traits that I came up with at that moment, which brought their number to 9), and also returned the Yunk typology, but would make it not a "zodiac sign", but a lifestyle, and also added that very "passion for some activity" from the Hobbies DLC. At that moment, I forgot about fetishes and taboos (as always in a dream).

The team leader loved the idea, but everyone else sighed heavily. He crossed out all his old notes on the wall and started drawing everything again. Steve, sitting next to me at the daily, stretched out his long neck and whispered that this person was both the project's best hope for getting out of beta and the local Elon Musk. So I had to be extremely careful with my "bouts of creativity."

The boss saw this and asked what was missing in my character system for the base game. I said that the fear system from Sims 2 needs to be developed into a full-fledged mechanic. Like there are fears (rational fear of something), and there are phobias (irrational fear). And we could get a lot of interesting multi-layered systems with intrapersonal conflicts of parafolk, like real people. For example, a person who dreams of becoming a superstar (because his mother wanted him to), but is afraid of the stage. And that this would give more replayability with a small amount of starting content for stories: a phobia could arise during the game due to the player's actions, due to being in society with parafolk with this phobia, be hidden from the player (the character knows about his fear), hidden from both the player and the character (latency period). I was asked to list the options:

Thalassophobia - (homage to Sims 2);

Cynophobia (dogs);

Nyctophobia (darkness);

Acrophobia (heights);

Verminophobia (bacteria)

Claustrophobia and Agarophobia (closed and open spaces);

I named half a dozen more phobias that I could remember, including trypophobia. And then I came up with the concept that we need to make a family of pre-mades, where the only toddler will have absolutely all the realized phobias, which will constantly exhaust his parents, but at the same time this same child will heroically save his family, neighbors and acquaintances from dangers and be a "reinsurer hen". This impressed everyone. Especially my boss. … He said that I have 3 days to give them a finished sample so that they can decide whether to do it. I said that I can't. To which the boss assured me that it's okay, because I can do it on the weekend. Steve, who had previously been kind to me, said that he could only help with the mechanics of the house, and this task was beyond his strength.

It seems that this is where my career in game development ended, because I don't remember much after that. But I do remember that I woke up thinking, "I slept through my alarm! Steve now has to defend me in front of everyone else! We'll get fired! We don't have time for anything!" Maybe it's for the best that I didn't pursue a career in the game industry - this world already has enough Peter Molyneux.

...

I wonder if Steve was able to get promoted to middle programmer after such a quest…

[emcandon]

do you ever recreate your book characters in rpgs or games like the sims?

I AM NOT IMMUNE TO THIS IMPULSE. I've got a couple Dragon Age runs in this vein, tho for me it's easier with characters who are not protagonists. Like in Archive terms, I'd be more likely to take a whack at Baldur's Gate with Jin or Imaru (or one of the new cast members in book 2).

The problem is that I love AUs. Tbh AUs are great for letting me think through character problems and drama. Relatedly I've joked for years that in D&D terms, Sunai and Veyadi are a paladin and warlock of the same entity, though which is which is kind of up in the air. (Mechanically imo Sunai is more a bard and Veyadi more a wizard. Multiclass dips into warlock for both probably? Maybe cleric for Sunai.)

Also sometimes when I'm nosing through a new TTRPG manual (WHICH I READ FOR FUN; I FIND THE FINITE AMOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE VERY SOOTHING) I'll engage in a bit of playbook or class assignment for the cast of some project or another. Playbooks for PoA-type systems can be great for helping me get my head around the possibilities for a scene or arc, given that they're so fundamentally narrative based.

[raitrolling]

ok now i have Brain Power (AAAAE-A-E-I-E-A-) again i can go back to my thoughts on how my ocs would play Cosy Games cuz i always think its funny how people always assign characters who are Nice People as being solely animal crossing or minecraft or stardew players and its always like 'they have really pretty towns and are nice to all the NPCS uwu'

katrin is one of those people who maybe plays for hours one day but then never picks up the game again. shit like animal crossing is too daunting for her because you put down that game for a week and your town is full of weeds and the animals ask where youve been and it is just Too Scary to return to and face your failures

nancor likes to aimlessly wander around in his games and is prone to getting lost. you check your minecraft server logs and you just see him getting mauled by various mobs. hes having fun tho, dont worry about it

ashe is a Sidequest Guy, always doing all the little jobs for npcs because he likes to be helpful :) he agonises for ages over what gifts to give his animal crossing villagers when he sends them mail because he wants to make sure they like it, he needs a Good Grade In Friendships ok. he would also get up to a point in a stardew or harvest moon game where an npc asks to marry him and then he immediately checks with cheran if its okay for him to say yes or if he should turn them down LMFAO

velour is looking up tutorials for how to design the prettiest minecraft houses ever, and trying to make sure his stardew farms are the most Aesthetic ever. catch him awake at like 5am having spent all night redesigning his entire animal crossing island because he's going to livestream a tour for his YouTube channel and it needs to be Perfect

mikiel could care less about video games, and is doing the bare minimum in any game he'd touch. most likely the guy who does all the combat quests in Minecraft like fighting the ender dragon or the wither so other people he's playing with can get all the items

lucy is a Task Guy, and is dutifully doing every single daily chore in the game as well as trying to finish any quests as quickly as possible to not keep any NPCs waiting. loves fishing minigames, and completed his fishing + bug catching sections in the animal crossing museum within like a week after he learned how to time travel

viltau is a Spreadsheet Guy aiming for 100% completion and get the absolute most out of any game he'd touch, but he is also an Aesthetics Guy prone to completely renovating his animal crossing worlds / farming sim farms on a whim because he's gotten bored of how they look. he is just like velour being awake at ungodly hours trying to redo his island, but rather than doing it for fan approval hes just generally Deranged

glas just likes to fuck around and doesn't care about having any long-term goals in their games, and generally just designs shit to weird out any of their friends who visit their animal crossing island or minecraft server. why is there a corner of their island full of dolls? why do they have big meme murals in the nether? why is their cow named 'daddy milkies'? don't worry about it

vallis gets obsessed with any sort of animal raising or breeding mechanic and tends to forget about everything else. yeah his island is full of weeds and he still hasn't paid off any debts, but check out his rows upon rows of perfect hybrid flowers he's been crossbreeding

[guessimate]

Hello everyone! This is the last post of round 3, but it's really an extra post, because it's just the monastery lot, where 4 unrelated men reside. They all ended up here because of random occurances making them leave their families for one reason or another.

I rolled if any of the men in the monastery would die, but they wouldn't yet, so I played them as normal, just trying to get Hisashi Lao to age to teen.

I also rolled a ROS and they were supposed to get a wild beehive. I thought it fit very well and I gave them some plants to help. Monks would do gardening anyway, so it made sense. I made one of them learn the Mechanical skill so that he could transfer the bees into an apiary. I gave them lemongrass, thyme, mint, apple, lavender, and rosemary, since these can help with the bees and honey making.

~*~

I employed all the men in the Education career, since I treat the clergy as teachers and knowledge providers. I also used the simlogical school mod a bit for additional assignments and made Hisashi learn as much as he could. He also made friends with all of the men in the monastery.

Both Soji Yu and Yutaka Siew quickly got promoted into Substitute Teachers, while Hiroki Tian was still a Teacher's Aide, which made sense, since he joined the monastery as the last sim (for now). But Hiroki got promoted again on the last day, thanks to a chance card. One of the monks also lost some of the monastery's money because of a chance card, but that's OK. I don't think I'll make the monastery pay taxes, since people will be paying what they owe to them anyway.

Being a Fortune sim, Yutaka got promoted again, this time to the Elementary Teacher. This is where I'll keep him for now, as they have only been teaching children so far.

~*~

Because he moved into the monastery, Hisashi was finally able to continue learning Logic, which is something he wanted to do since his toddlerhood. When he aged up, I gave him a slightly longer hairstyle, because he has got his dad's extremely sharp cheekbones and the previous hair was giving me some invisibility issues. I think he looks all right, but I'm afraid he's going to pass on his facial structure onto his kids as well. He will be moving out of the monastery and starting to live on his own, as he is a Fortune, not a Knowledge sim. If he was a Knowledge sim, I would have kept him in the monastery.

~*~

There really isn't much to say about the monastic life, other than it was mostly skilling and teaching:

Soji Yu was able to max out Nature Enthusiasm, and get the Silver Fishing badge.

Yutaka Siew worked on the skill points needed for the Education career promotions.

Hiroki Tian picked up the Mechanical skill and helped with the bees and the garden.

[welcometowhisper]

Whisper's founders <3

I tried making a good mix of starting sims, with a full range of skin tones, hair colors/types, eyes, builds, occults, etc. Hopefully we get some fun genetics to start with during Whisper's first generation!

I can't wait to see how they interact and get along with each other. I use Lumpinou's First Impressions mod as well as the mechanics that come with the game to let my sims decide for themselves who their friends, enemies and romantic partners are.

No two sims have the same traits or aspirations, to make sure this save is started with an array of stories and gameplay, and each sim is assigned a sim type (similar to the sims 2) using Missy Hissy's Personality Mod. There are six to choose from, so it will be interesting to see if similar sims gravitate towards one another.

I have given them all light back stories, likes/dislikes, attractions and hobbies. I use a randomizer to decide their favorite weather, too! It helps me decide where they like to live and where they'd like to buy homes and spend their time.

Speaking of homes, I should have screenshots of the different district starters up soon!

[scary-stories-to-remember]

wednesday, september 18th, 2024

month 1, week 1, day 4

today was my longest workday of the week. the way my work schedule is currently set up is from 9 am - 12 pm, my students are in class. then the remaining 3 hours of my workday, i use as personal time to do homework or just work on personal projects i can make look like i'm doing work. on wednesdays though, i have a class from 9 am - 12 pm, and then my lunch hour, then from 1 pm - 3 pm i have another class that i assist with. wednesdays are busy, and i am usually a little more tired after the work day is done, but i push through and make it work. i am resilient. i'm extra proud of myself because i got my workday done, did my usual chores that i do after work, did 3 college assignments (3 more to go + a quiz tomorrow and on friday), went to the gym, and now i am rewarding myself with sims videos. my body is tired, but i feel wonderful. i'm looking forward to my parents being gone this weekend, i have the house to myself on friday. i already know how i'm going to celebrate. celebrate is maybe a strong word, but i'm excited for weekends, especially now that i have a cute little ritual that i do with myself. i get my favorite fast food place for dinner (if i've got the money i go to a local thai food place, but this week i've gotta save a *little* money) and then i get high enough that my autistic traits show, and i don't feel shame about it. it's strangely healing, and gives me a big mental reset. plus it helps me unmask for a few hours. overall, it's a fun coping mechanism for me. is it my best or healthiest coping mechanism? probably not, but it does make me happy.

amount of water drank: 50oz/120oz

body healthy foods eaten: protein coffee, grilled chicken, mexican rice, pinto beans, cabbage

soul healthy foods eaten: rice krispie treat

exercise done today, how much: walking, tracked 2.8 miles (mostly on an incline) may be more but wasn't carrying my phone - the outfit i wore today didn't have pockets

medication taken: morning topical medication applied, birth control taken

showered today: yes, once at night - washed hair

brushed teeth: yes, once in the morning, once at night

goals for the day:

have a good day

go to the gym

complete at least 2 college assignments

goals for the week

have a good week

go to the gym at least 3 times this week

complete college assignments

clean guest room

call dentist about payment + make payment

goals for the month

have a good month

be mindful with money

prepare for halloween

have at least 2 social outings with friends

manifestations

i am proud of what i have overcome and what i will overcome

i love my body because my body loves me

i am resilient

[44gamez]

Sims 4 For Rent Review

The Sims 4: For Lease on PC

Multi-family items have been the speak of the Sims city because the launch of Metropolis Residing. However up till that time, The Sims 4 wasn’t fairly able to intensive family sizes, leaving many gamers to depend on mods or accept the utmost restrict. Thankfully, the time has lastly come for individuals who take pleasure in multi-family properties within the Southeast Asian-inspired world of Tomarang. For those who’ve been shopping across the boards for The Sims 4 For Lease, you'll have observed that many gamers have steered it to be a recreation pack slightly than a full-on growth pack. And whereas I agree with this tackle some elements, I consider the content material included offers it sufficient justice to face as an EP. It’s rather more than simply including a number of items within the lot, because it comes with a number of further options. One of many first elements that caught my eye is the eye to element in Southeast Asian tradition. Not solely do we've basic recipes like Halo Halo and Tofu Pad Thai, however we additionally get conventional objects reminiscent of squat bogs and Tuk-Tuks. As somebody who's of Filipino-American heritage, it does make me comfortable to see issues from my very own tradition within the pack, contemplating that the Sims franchise has all the time tried to include all walks of life. I by no means thought I'd be ecstatic to get plastic chairs in The Sims 4, and but right here I'm, making an attempt to recreate all of the events I’ve gone to with these acquainted options. It additionally helps that potlucks and pool events have been added to offer folks extra methods to have fun.

Picture Supply: Maxis Studios through Twinfinite In fact, the large takeaway from the For Lease growth pack is the brand new constructing customization for multiple-family items. Six households might be positioned on a property, however you may make the most of cheats to have an upwards of 99 per save file. The system makes Construct Mode appear rather more difficult, on condition that you will need to assign every space to a household and use Shared rooms for the complete lot. Nonetheless, it isn’t complete sufficient to discourage you, because the menu’s Classes may help information you. You'll be able to tackle two roles for The Sims 4 For Lease: Property Proprietor and Tenant. For those who don’t need an excessive amount of baggage, I counsel starting with the latter to offer your self a straightforward begin. Though the lifetime of a Tenant isn’t as bustling as a landlord’s, it does include some challenges that any renter would acknowledge. From the troubles of an overloaded trash state of affairs to water leakage, you’ll definitely have your arms full making an attempt to handle your unit like another leased family. I do know it may be generally irritating to come across these loading screens with every household transition. But, it isn’t too tedious to attend these few seconds. I keep in mind the times after we needed to reside via these drawn-out loading screens, so I can reside with it, particularly now that heaps can harness an abundance of Sims. However if you're a veteran Sims participant, then you need to deal with the a part of a Property Proprietor, which might span quite a few properties (not simply the one you’re residing in.) It’s a brand new option to rack some Simoleons with out leaving your property.

Picture Supply: Maxis Studios I choose getting my arms soiled to see what different variations of Emergency Occasions can be found, offering extra objective-based gameplay as an alternative of the free-ranged mechanics. You’ll additionally have to maintain observe of hire and unit rankings to keep away from missed funds and Tenant Revolts. Nonetheless, I've encountered some revolts regardless of having a 5-star score, so I suppose you may’t please everybody. I’ll admit I’m not the strictest Property Proprietor (I even felt unhealthy for setting hire for these fictional characters), however I’m certain the function could be excellent for individuals who don’t thoughts laying down the legislation. Alternatively, you could possibly use it as an opportunity to assist everybody around the globe with housing and name upon a Contractor for these distant items. In comparison with different growth pack worlds, Tomarang is smaller in dimension, which is another excuse why Simmers consider it to be a recreation pack. Particularly, this world showcases 9 interactive areas, whereas growth packs like Brindleton Bay embody 16. Nonetheless, we do have to think about that the For Lease EP covers the whole thing of all different growth pack/base universes, which means you may set up multi-units virtually wherever you please. One factor I might have accomplished with out, although, is the rabbithole actions introduced within the tiger sanctuary and Tomarang’s Cave. There ought to undoubtedly be extra methods to discover to make smaller areas really feel rather more intensive than they really are. Much more so, I'd have favored to see tigers slightly than imagining what they'd’ve been like.

Picture Supply: Maxis Studios through Twinfinite What makes up for it's the new Secrets and techniques function that means that you can be taught extra lore about Sims. As an illustration, I discovered that the notorious Malcolm Landgrabb dumps his trash at a neighbor’s home (given his nature, I’m not too stunned.) It helps give extra background to those generally uninteresting NPCs, reminding me the place The Sims first began with its intricate character storytelling. Traits and Aspirations have additionally been expanded for all ages to offer gamers extra choices with their household builds. I do respect that the older technology has its personal attribute relating to the Clever trait, as new content material leaned towards the youthful life phases. All ages, on the whole, additionally harness new variations in clothes which have been closely impressed by the Southeast Asian fashion. All in all, The Sims 4 For Lease growth pack is simply what the Sim group wants to maximise the collection’ storytelling. It offers builders extra methods to customise their energetic worlds whereas additionally offering distinctive gameplay for individuals who aren’t too skilled in Construct Mode. The pack additionally does justice for the Southeast Asian tradition, whether or not or not it's via the structure or the latest objects. As a lot as all of us wish to see The Sims 5 make its option to the gathering, having these growth packs is a wonderful option to maintain the long-running fourth installment going. I by no means even thought it was potential to incorporate multi-units within the franchise, however I’m comfortable to look at the franchise evolve into what it's at this time. The Sims 4 For Lease Reviewer: Kristina Ebanez Award: Editor’s Selection Execs Lastly provides mult-family items. Gives enjoyable gameplay with Secrets and techniques and Snooping. Incorporates extra Southeast Asian-inspired objects. Cons Map dimension is smaller in comparison with different worlds. Restricted rabbithole actions. May be frustating to change between households. Launch Date December 7, 2023 Writer Digital Arts Consoles PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X|S Read the full article

[sparkletrainsstuff]

First off, props to Brian#5362 (that is username on Dovetail Games/Train Sim World creator club ID) for their amazing work on Wabtec 3000 FLXDrive (due to being limited to locomotives in game already, this is actually an ES44C4 painted to look like the FLXDrive.).

BNSF 3284 leads a mixed manifest out of San Bernadino, California; ready to test out the Wabtec test unit 3000 along the Cajon Pass. Note that what is shown in game having oil tanker car right behind locomotives is not correct as standard procedure is to have at least 1 buffer car (like a hopper half filled with sand) between locomotive and tanker car. Think it happens due to the game randomly assigning cars for a mixed manifest. It's a bright late morning with just a little bit of cloud cover.

Nerd Alert! If you don't want to read my ramblings on the Wabtec FLXDrive feel free to stop here 🛑. So the Wabtec FLXDrive is super cool. It's an all battery powered locomotive that is able to charge the batteries utilizing regenerative braking. Dynamic brakes work by converting the mechanical energy of wheels spinning into heat by running the generated current through a bank of resistors. Regenerative braking puts that current back into a bank of batteries instead. So a FLXDrive can generate 4400 horsepower for 30-40 minutes (battery bank capacity is 2.4 Megawatt hours). After that, when the locomotive uses regenerative braking, these batteries will charge (have not been able to find a recharge time listed anywhere yet, feel free to let me know below in comments). This makes the FLXDrive ideal for being a helper locomotive. It can switch on its power to help a train up a steep grade, then switch off when not needed charging batteries during braking. This will be a huge step for green locomotives in the US. We are severely lagging in the amount of electrified lines we have, but these battery locomotives can couple up to and eventually (when battery capacity improves enough) take over the diesels running on same track with no infrastructure changes necessary.

Side note: if anyone could paint/3d print an HO scale locomotive shell with the FLXDrive markings/livery for sale let me know and I'd be stoked. I don't possess the painting skills (yet!) to feel like I'd get an acceptable result.

[cortexreaver]

okay i think i remember where i was going with this sort of umm so a) i feel that the gathering and use of materials both being firmly in the player's hands is crucial to idk The Immersion. like the actual crafting of consumables in da2 and dai, in addition to being tedious from a mechanical perspective since you have to hoard materials *and* return to a specific location to make use of them, imo feels less fulfilling from a roleplay perspective since it's presented as a task being outsourced to an npc. fitting for dragon age: liberal paramilitary commander sim i guess but imagine if origins' skills had been carried over into da2 and a hawke with maxed poison-making could notice anders was asking for help acquiring shit you could make explosives with (maybe one could even assume anders might be aware of how risky asking hawke specifically for help would be in that case). i already touched on the insanely short dev period that game was allowed so idk why i'm even thinking about this though lol

b) hmm how do i put this okay so like in the witcher (1) or morrowind for example alchemical ingredients have assigned sets of properties and most recipes are simply a particular combination of specific substances derived from ingredients rather than specific ingredients themselves, which is more mechanically flexible for the player because they don't have to worry about their supply of one singular material and suggests knowledge/resourcefulness/curiosity on the part of the player character (reflected in both examples mentioned above–the witcher has the player learning to identify plants and studying their uses alongside geralt as he re-learns things he lost to amnesia; ingredients in morrowind have their properties revealed in the ui as the player increases their character's alchemy skill; in both cases the player can also discern properties through experimentation, and the witcher additionally always allows for an item to be created whether or not the combination of base substances is a valid recipe, and the player/geralt has to use the result to find out what it does). obviously this isn't the only approach that can make a system satisfying to engage with, but as i sort of half-explained in my original post it's one that i think works well for games that have the player interacting with lots of flora fauna etc because it illustrates a relationship between a setting's natural world and its inhabitants, and thus i feel it's one that could've fit into.... let's say inquisition because that's the one that has the player doing the most gathering and where resources have the most relevance to the main plot. it is sort of how its armor/weapon crafting works given that a majority of the materials involved have shared properties and are thus technically interchangeable, though it once again is a system where quantity still equals quality to a degree, which i could see theoretically being a means of throttling the player's access to overpowered gear too soon but with the merciful addition in one of the last patches* of the ability to sync acquired schematics across playthroughs it's still very easy to do that–ironically i think fixed-component recipes would have been the way to go with armor and weapon schematics because locking access to higher-quality materials behind the difficulty threshold of the areas they're found in could impose the same limitation while adding even more necessity to explore new regions as their challenge becomes viable for the player, mirroring the expansion of the inquisition's occupied territory and (implied) resource extraction operations plus it would've been consistent with the previous two games using items' material type as an indicator of quality. ive gone off on a fucking tangent again but i started with my point this time instead of forgetting it halfway through so that's progress

*unless you played on xbox 360 or ps3 in which case all you got was another L

it's a shame that bioware never designed a satisfying crafting system at any point in the dragon age series because crafting can add a little somethin to a game not just in terms of strategy (i.e. what a player can do with crafted items) or character depth (i.e. what skills does a character have as a person beyond combat and/or magical prowess) but also as a means of familiarizing the player with the world or at least the region they're in by providing them with another way of interacting with it–it tells them which plants are native to an area, what kinds of animal products its inhabitants use, which metals are common and which are rare, and so on. origins has a nice range of items, but its range of components, most of which are poorly described, is relatively limited, resulting in a system where (for me) the recipes all kind of blend together because the main variation ends up being in component quantities instead of combinations. dragon age 2 had a nine month production period. inquisition has the widest range of components and a decent range of biomes to find them in, but the crafting system is still one in which quality and quantity are essentially the same thing, and in the case of consumables (excluding runes) is out of the player's hands again and contains a glaring disconnect between the herbs that go in and the potions/tonics/grenades that come out. idk what my conclusion was meant to be here or why these stupid fucking games still have me in their grasp. im like 2 months dragon age sober except for the time i booted up origins a couple weeks ago to look at my elves which doesn't count because i wasn't Sober sober at the time. my elves are in there serah