#anyone still around from ts3 days?

[simplystefi]

𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝

[simlicious]

Personal update!

Hey everyone! I started to write this at 9:40 am, then I got distracted and did not post it right away but I guess activity on tumblr at that time is low anyway.

I am happy to report that I am still going strong with my changed day/night cycle. It's not always easy, I don't get into bed early enough on some days and feel pretty groggy the next. But this is always where I get defeated - I think okay, sleeping in for half an hour won't be a problem... but then I go to bed even later and the cycle goes backwards really quickly. This time I am determined to stay strong even if that means I walk around like a zombie and drink 1.5 liters of black tea on some days to keep me awake 😆

I guess it takes time to adjust the evening routines too. On these "useless" days, I often play Anno 1800 which is engaging and relaxing at the same time. I often quit the game to mod this and that in the game, so my brain is pretty engaged still and this is how I like it most days.

Since new habits need at least 6 weeks to be counted as a new stable habit, I will focus only on my sleep rhythm for the time being and allow myself to take a mental break from other projects to eliminate the inner expectation of working on those when I know it is unreasonable at this time. It also does me good to let go of any pressure to create TS3 content. I know it has been a while but it does nobody any good if I guilt myself because of it. I often get negative feelings around my simblr lately and it sucks, like I am really unsure about the few AI patterns I made and the poll made me really question what I should do since it is pretty divided. I do not know whether those are more random people who answered the poll or people who often engage in my blog anyway. So I don't really know if I should release those patterns at all or if people come and harass me over them if I do. But not releasing them would mean that energy to create them would be truly wasted, I think? If the images exist already, shouldn't they be used to make it count? Because thinking of that makes me uneasy, I put my creative energy into Anno 1800 for the time being which is not emotionally loaded. I am way too disorganized to really do beauty building, and most of the time I am just happy when my population get the goods they want 😆but modding another item that helps with that or editing other people's mods to fit my needs is fun and satisfying. It's a bit like editing tuning mods for Sims 3 (just with some more complicated layers added depending on the mod).

Knowing myself, I will get another pattern idea soon enough though, and sweater season is fast approaching which means I get into the mood of creating more cozy patterns, hopefully! I want to give a shoutout to people who have shown my patterns in screenshots lately. I admit I am not very active on tumblr at the moment and do not see everything I should. Memorable ones were @martassimsbook and @gittessimsadventuresog, but anyone else please feel addressed too! It means a lot to me to see my patterns in use, it makes me feel validated and useful and lifts my spirits. It also helps to dispel some of my negative thoughts (maybe patterns do not go obsolete after all if people are still using them). I'm really happy they are so useful to you! A lot of you probably do not post many gameplay screenshots but use my patterns anyway, I cannot forget about you 💜thanks for all the support!

[pudding-parade]

Get to know you - Sims Style

@rstarsims3 tagged me for this a while back, and I'm finally posting my answers, which took me a while to compile because 1) Blabbity blab blab blab, as usual, and 2) Still needing lots of rest and stuff, so no sitting at a computer for hours on end.

But here we go! I'mma put my blabby answers and my tag list behind Ye Olde Cut.

What’s your favorite Sims death? What an odd question, especially to lead off… Well, I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be the one from TS2 where cloudwatching occasionally brings a satellite down on the cloudwatcher's head. But generally, mine die of old age, if they manage to get that far. I play with long, but realistically proportional, life stages, mostly because I'm almost always playing "experimental" saves where I'm "road testing" rulesets and such, so I need a lot of time to work out kinks and test ideas and stuff.)

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? I land on a combination of more-realistic (but not ultra-realistic) stuff for CAS, but for everything else, like with furniture and deco and stuff, I tend to prefer CC stuff that visually fits in with the EA stuff in terms of style and textures and whatnot, so that the CC doesn't stick out like a sore thumb when combined with EA stuff. In fact, my "go-to" CC for build/buy is stuff that adds on to EA stuff, like more doors/windows that match an EA door/window.

Do you cheat your sims weight? What, to make the fat ones skinny? The skinny ones fat? The skinny ones buff? No. I don't see why I would. It's easy enough to make a sim gain or lose weight without cheating, which I'm assuming means just using the sliders.

Do you move objects? Is there anyone who doesn't? That's a serious question. Is there any one who doesn't? I want to know.

Favorite Mod? I'm leaving aside the NRaas mods because I don't see them as mods so much as things that are just essential to make the game playable in the often-weird ways that I play. There are others that I also consider just essential for when I'm playing in certain styles, especially for more primitive settings. But for ones that are optional and just pure fun, I'd nominate all of @thesweetsimmer111's baby- and toddler-related ones.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack? I know for TS2 it was Seasons. For TS3…For a long time, I had just the base game, which I got when it came out, but didn't play beyond trying it out and then going back to TS2. Then, years later, I got a new computer and decided to give TS3 another try, but I couldn't find the CD or DVD or whatever it was, so I bought a combo pack with the base game, Late Night, and the High End Loft or whatever it is stuff pack, so I guess it would be Late Night. Other than that, I bought all the other TS3 EPs in one go when EA had them on sale for 50% off via Origin, which that combo pack forced me to install. (But which I am now free of again. 🏴‍☠️)

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing? As aLIVE. Because that is when the game is live. Games do not live, but they can be live. See, this is one reason why English sucks.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Here's a thing about me: I don't really get attached to the pixel people. For me, they're just tools. I'm guessing it's because I'm not a storyteller when it comes to Sims, so I don't see sims as characters. Sure, sometimes I find one endearing for one reason or another. Usually, they have traits that make them assholes, and I like to watch them create chaos and ruin wherever they go. One of the founders of the Random Legacy that I will get back to one of these days is one of those. But I find I like other people's sims more than mine, though that's more of a testament to those simmers' story-telling skills than anything else.

Have you made a simself? Only by accident. A few times I've just been randomly moving sliders around and somehow I ended up with something that looked like me at some stage in my life. It stayed that way for a minute or three, before I yelled OH GOD NO! and quickly slidered the horror away.

But to be honest? I find the entire concept kind of creepy, at least in terms of putting a self-sim in the game and playing them as a character. That would just feel weird to me. That said, I suppose it might have been something that would have appealed to me if I had played when I was a kid, but the game didn't exist when I was a kid. Computers didn't exist when I was a kid, at least not in a form that regular people could own and that could fit on a desk. I was in my 40s when I started playing the game. My daughter played TS2 when she was a kid, and she had a self-sim inserted into the stories she would play, so…yeah. Maybe it's a younger-person thing. Or maybe I'm just weird. Yeah, it's probably that second option.

Which is your favorite EA hair color? Probably the black, but even with that I have to add some highlights to it because otherwise the hair just looks like a creature from the void eating the sim's head.

Favorite EA hair? None of them. They all need to DIAF.

Favorite life stage? I don't have one. I have a least-favorite, babies, because they're basically just objects, but once they're actually sims, I enjoy playing sims of all ages equally.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? I originally bought TS2 just to build in it, and for a couple of years, that was all I did. I only started actually playing the game later. Now, I enjoy both building and actually playing the game, depending on my mood. Usually, I'll have a binge of building, but I eventually come to a point where I'd rather do anything other than build. Then I play the game. Then, eventually, the urge to build comes back. So it's a back-and-forth.

Are you a CC creator? I made lots of stuff for TS2, mostly object retextures/recolors. I've made a few minor things for TS3, and I retexture hairs and add preg morphs to clothing for my own use, but I wouldn't consider myself a CC creator for TS3. In fact, I'm actively resisting learning how to make stuff for TS3 because I really don't want to go down that rabbithole again.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad? Friends in the sense of "people I enjoy talking to and sharing ideas with and sometimes arguing with here on Tumblr?" Sure. Are those the same as friendships that develop face-to-face in the real world? Nope. But, sometimes I like talking to my Simblr friends a lot more than talking to my real-life friends, so make of that what you will. Y'all are less draining sometimes. LOL

Do you have any sims merch? No official merch, but my brother-in-law is into making pottery, and several years ago he made me a big stoneware mug with a plumbbob on it. Which is ironic because when I play the game I turn off the plumbbobs because I hate them. LOL But I love the mug. It's heavy enough that neither cats nor wagging dog tails nor giant snakes (though he could do it if he focused all four of his brain cells on the task) can knock it off of tables, but not so heavy that I can't comfortably lift it. I use it for eating soup and the occasional mug cake, and also for drinking the awful herbal tea my husband makes me drink, though since the recent surgery, I don't have to drink that anymore! *dances* So now it will just be my soup or cake mug. Or one for tea that I actually want to drink.

Do you have a YouTube for sims? I don't have a YouTube for anything. Well, OK, I have a YouTube account for watching other people's stuff and making playlists of things I want to watch, but I don't post videos on it, and I don't really watch video game-related stuff on YouTube, either.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing? It hasn't, really. I've pretty much always just come up with wacky scenarios to play and see how they go. In fact, for me, coming up with the scenario and figuring out how to make it work in the game and then inventing a ruleset to govern it is sometimes more fun than actually playing the scenario. LOL

And my Sims all look like the game made them because…the game makes all of them. I just poke the random button until it produces something that doesn't look too much like a freak of nature, then I hit up a couple sliders to remove or tone down any remaining freakishness. (Though I confess that I will spend an inordinate amount of time sculpting the titties of those who have them. Why? I have no idea, other than I just like me a nice pair of titties. Too bad there aren't any sliders for male titties…) Then I just slap on a different hair, maybe change the eye color, and slather on some makeup and facial/body hair and shit until they don't look too stupid, and then off I go. From there, they're all born in the game, and I just leave them as-is, mostly because I can't be bothered. "I can't be bothered" is pretty much my philosophy of life.

Who’s your favorite CC creator? I hate this kind of question. I feel like all they do is disappoint and discourage people if they're never picked. I refuse to do that over something so trivial. So, my favorite CC creator is you, the person reading this. Yes, you. Even if you don't make CC. It doesn't matter. You're the best.

How long have you had Simblr? I started my TS2 one in 2013. (I can remember that only because I know that I started it the same year I met my husband. LOL ) I started this one….2 years ago? 3? Something like that.

How do you edit your pictures? Other than basic cropping and resizing and maybe adjusting brightness/contrast a bit if the pic is too dark or whatever, I generally don't. I don't even use Reshade all the time anymore, only in certain situations, though I do have an NVIDIA profile for the game that adds ambient occlusion and better antialiasing and shit like that. Sometimes, though, I'll decide to photoshop scenery pics, and then I just kind of stab at it with various tools and filters and layer blends and shit until I like I how it looks. There's no actual process involved. I'm random like that.

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite? I gotta go with World Adventures. Bits of it are a bit, shall we say, culturally problematic, but man, I never get tired of doing those stupid, stupid tombs. LOL Plus, I love that NRaas Traveler allows you to "travel" to any world, and I don't think that mod works without WA, so…. Yeah. WA.

Tagging: I have no idea who's done this, so I'll just tag a few random people, off the top of my head. Feel free to do or ignore, as you choose. No pressure from me! So...@nectar-cellar, @happy-lemon, @erasabledinosaur, @esotheria-sims, @lilleputtu, @littlefrenchsims, @anamoon63, @lazysunjade, annnnnnnnd @papermint-airplane.

[faeriefrolic]

Sims Tag Meme

Thank you so much @cactusblossom for tagging me!!! This was really fun to do. I tag anyone who sees this if they want to do it too!

What’s your favorite sims death? The ranting about death is hilarious, Grim basically says fuck around and find out for that one lmao. I haven't personally seen it in game but it would be wild. But I have to go with the classic delete the pool ladder from ts1 and locking sims in a room with fireworks :)

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? Maxis match! I like my game to be colorful and cartoony.

Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? Nope! I like body diversity and it's a part of their life. The only times I would cheat their weight is if it was glitched (like Madeline and Tabby at one point with the gain weight from pregnancy mod. My sliders weren't playing nice and their animations/arms were messed up)

Do you use move objects? I do, for deco objects. I don't like using it for functional objects though because sims are dumb and can't route/interact with them if they're not placed normally. I like having playable homes/lots than just aesthetically pretty ones

Favorite mod?

First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? I started playing sims with ts1 when I borrowed it and the Livin Large EP from my brother. I still have all the ts1 cds in my room (but sadly no disc drive to put them in lol rip) For ts2 I *think* it was Open for Business, I remember making bookstores with it. For ts3 I bought base game + seasons bundled at Gamestop randomly one day and uhhh oops lol. I don't play ts4, but I have the base game + cats & dogs.

Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? I pronounce it like aLive

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Crystal Leblanc, my little kitty faerie doll! She's an oc of mine and I love watching her get excited over tiny things and her cute faces. I also really love Pewter Dusk, he started as just a random sim request from @shuckleberrysims but I started a save with him and he's so adorable and fun. I love awkward fish genie.

Have you made a simself? I did long ago, but I don't think I even have their sim file anymore lmao

What sim traits did you give yourself? Cat Person, Bookworm, Shy, Supernatural Fan, Natural Cook

What is your favorite EA hair color? I don't think I really have one? I despise the gross green-brown preset in ts3 though, it's SO UGLY... especially when random generated sims had it, uuugh. So glad there's a fix for that now.

Favorite EA hair? A few Uni Life hairs are cute but my recent favorite is one that Mignonette has as a teen/ya. It's a rly cute messy updo hair with a bandana bow. She aged up into it as a teen and it looked really cute on her so I kept it! It's from Master Suite stuff!

Favorite life stage? I think you can guess lmao

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? Gameplay, I cannot build to save my life, I make ugly boxes

Are you a CC creator? No, but I'm interested in learning more about it, I've been fiddling with ITUNs in s3pe and such. I've made mods for Skyrim but I'd like to make more sim downloads (I need to put the Dusks up for download if I track down their cc...)

Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? 2016 switter gang hi!!! It's been a long time and a few of them are no longer on simblr. but I like to think I have some friends on here, though I'm very shy and go on hiatuses a lot

What’s your favorite game? TS3! I wish I could play ts1 again though :(

Do you have any Sims merch? No but I should get some...

Do you have a YouTube for sims? No, I'm pretty self conscious of my voice and I'm afraid of my game error 12'ving or crashing while recording lol. I do stream in discord though

How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? When I started playing I had very minimal cc and was very vanilla. Then I got into berries after discovering simblr, and I really like all the different colors and fun designs. I just think they're neat.

What’s your Origin ID? Honestly I don't know and I don't wanna open origin lol

Who’s your favorite CC creator? Oh gosh too many... too many slkdfjlf but to name a few off the top of my head, @sim-songs, @nectar-cellar, @poisonfireleafs hair, @xiasimla, @teekapoa

How long have you had a simblr? Since 2013! All of my older posts are gone now though when I deleted them years ago :( I wish I could look back on them. Wayback machine doesn't load the pictures and only has a few pages of my old blog.

How do you edit your pictures? I used edit with actions in photoshop before I got reshade. Now I just use @erasabledinosaur's wonderful presets 💗 I'm currently using Papercut and sometimes Strawberry Rhubarb!

What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? Honestly, University Life will always have a place in my heart as it was the first EP I bought after base game + seasons. I have really fond memories of my simself running around the uni world exploring everything about ts3, everything was so new and exciting to me. and I love the uni townies! Especially Cid and Shea. I made ocs that are loosely based on them. (Very loosely since my Cid is nothing like EA Cid lmao)

What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? Well since EA abandoned ts3 all I can ask for is the game magically becoming 64 bit 🙃

[simstryingtheirbestok]

tw: female reproductive ish

Maybe it's because I suffered from uterine fibroids the size of grapefruit--literally, my surgeon was happy to show me the gory pictures lmao--with a side order of endometriosis, before I finally had the affected works removed entirely (o blessed day!); but I will never, ever be able to wrap my head around the idea of modding in afflictions* like menstruation and postpartum depression to TS3. There is only so much reality I can take, and offline life provides such an abundance of it.

Don't get me wrong: The beauty of the world is that we're all different and tastes vary, so I don't mean this to disrespect anyone who uses the birds and bees mod. Not everything is for everybody, and that is as it should be.

I'm just saying that it blows my mind that the damn thing exists in the first place because, well, it does. Like I am literally unable to grasp the motivation for making it.

Modder: Would you like more realism in your game? Me: No, I would like you to acquire an imagination so you could maybe put in some cool shit instead.

*I mean, an affliction is certainly what it was for me. When I reflect that until age 49 I spent 7 out of every 27 days of my life half-incapacitated and fully miserable, I wonder how the fuck I ever got anything done. The most supportive thing another woman ever did for me was validate my pain by sharing with me the story of the time her sister ripped a hand towel in half from her menstrual pain. Ripped it clean in two. A doily, a handkerchief, okay, I could see it. But a hand towel! I never met this lady's sister, but she's kind of my hero all the same.

Seven out of every 27, ages 13-49. Only five of the seven days were usually truly unbearable, but still, that's 2433 days/six years and eight months of my life that I will never get back. And women are expected to work through it! But is there anything more difficult to imagine than a world in which you're allowed to stay home one week of every four? 🤣 The engine of capitalism is not going to allow that for a minute.

Like are we certain estrus was worse than menstruation? Are we for-sure for sure on that? I want to see the receipts. And someone should make a mod that makes all your town's Sims go into heat periodically, because that would be hilarious.

[marylynbirds]

I wanted to share some of my special interests that I currently have or have had in the past, some I'm a bit unsure of but whatever! Anyone relate?

- I used to play with playmobile A LOT, I asked for more for my bday every year, I got an extension to my house. Loved the stuff. (I would always set everything up and then be done playing lol)

- singing, I was in a choir from ages 5-14 (with a brief break bc I had to take swimming lessons) then I joined a small church band and took singing lessons, when I moved I also made sure to join a new band, did that for like 9 years (this meant performing once a month and practice every week for 9 years, with more busy periods as well). I only recently decided to quit bc of multiple factors but I think I've let go of singing as a special interest .

- gymnastics, did that for 13 years, at some point I trained 3 hours per week and assisted 2 more hours. I wasn't very good, but I managed to get a nice score on my level. I was afraid I'd fall/hurt myself 90% of the time. Idk how I kept up with it for so long.

- the sims! My parents got me ts3 when I was around 9 yrs old. I'm in a bit of a sims dip currently but could play ts3 and ts4 for entire days without getting bored for years on end. I still watch a lot of sims 4 content and know a lot of lore and hacks etc.

- Just Dance (2023). I always liked dancing, but it was when I saw a JD streamer when I decided to get a switch and JD2023. I play pretty much every day for at least 30 minutes and love learning more about the lore and can't help sharing it with people if we play together.

- sewing, this one has its moments. But there were a few weeks when I was just sewing almost all day long after coming home from uni no matter how tired I was, I was desperate for more projects. I'm currently working on a quilt.

- werewolves/vampires, I was obsessed with them when I was in high school. I read all he fics on wattpad and tried writing my own xD. I watched a lot of shows on Netflix in lightning speed as well. These days they're cool but I'm no longer as taken by them.

These are just a few from the top of my head, there might be more, especially from my childhood. Let me know what your special interests are! Maybe we have some in common?

[immdreamz]

I’ve been thinking how to get rid of this old pervy grandpa as fast as possible. I never liked their story which resembles Nabokov’s story and Lina always wanted to see a ghost of her rich husband. I don’t think she can find another rich man willing to marry her that easy so it seems that we have to use Eli as our guinea pig. I’ve never killed anyone before on purpose in TS3. 

So when I tried to burn him with fire that easily jumps out of the fireplace he took about 24 hours to get on fire himself. That was plain ridiculous and I saw many chairs and tables turning black and he was just jumping around them, I gave up many times while watching it and thought I would just wait till he dies a natural death of old age.

Then I reloaded the save and replayed it again, only this time I wanted to try to drown him. He got tired from working out and fell asleep in the public pool.

So be it. RIP old pervert.

Lina started crying too loud and on everyone’s shoulders, people started to beg her for money as soon as they saw grim coming after her sugar daddy.

I couldn’t watch her crying over this pensioner and I placed his grave into her inventory and sent her to the science lab to make a ghost out of him.

And Eli became a ghost. No one knows why. No one knows what we’re going to do about it. I was the most surprised because when he came back his relationship with her was just fiance but I was pretty sure the last time I played them they got married in casino before I demolished it. He also got his age reset and was at the beginning of elder stage.

I quickly changed his age to leave him only a couple of days to live and Lina played a bunch of pool games with Jaycen while still wiping her tears off her face and fell in love with him at the same night.

[sheplayswithlifee]

Is there a mod to remove the “crush” system & all sentiments related to prom? Google is letting me down with the results.

Gonna try turning sentiments off and see if that helps.

Note: sentiments can’t be disabled. The game is gonna annoy me into not playing it.

My sim and her boyfriend keep getting crushes on each other. As soon as I remove it or if I let it go away naturally, they’re crushing again. Feeling tense and embarrassed around each other, they have 2 whole kids together & he WATCHED her give birth. Makes no sense for this constant crush shit. Even if those modded events did not occur, they’re in a whole relationship. “Crushing” in this way seems stupid & childish. Plus my sims get crushes on damn near anyone they tlk to, even with the mod that’s supposed to prevent that.

Every single week they get upset with each other because neither of them asked each other to prom because NEITHER of them are fuckin going?!?! It’s like the game makes it a mandatory event or something. Even if they go to prom, they still get the sentiment because they didn’t actually ASK each other to prom.

Wants and fears won’t stay off (already Me too’d this), I knw that’s a bug. I liked whims a lot better. Plus these fears are so weak. You discuss the fear with someone and its conquered?! (Forget what fear Hideo had).

NS assigned Cash a job (I didn’t mind this), I load into his house and he all of a sudden has a fear of a dead end job. He has a money tree out back, who tf cares about a job?!?! He clearly has one for funsies.

Really feel like TST is just releasing anything. I feel like all these issues stem from packs not being tested for compatibility with other packs. The expansions don’t really build on each other, they build on the base game. I feel I should become a 🏴‍☠️ again. Boy, were my TS3 days so good.

[echoweaver]

So, TS4 adventurers, I’m poking around in the game more and deciding if I want to grab more packs in the sale going on for the next two days.

The whole color preset thing seems like so much work. I spent forever on Vickie’s makeup, and it still didn’t look right. I mean, sure, her skintone is silver, but i didn’t have that much trouble on TS3.

I now just can’t get over the fact that both of my gallery sims have the wrong hair color because the correct ones aren’t in the vanilla palette. I see a ton of cool things in gameplay simblers for TS4, but wow having color presets hurts.

Looks like installing CC is pretty much the same. That’s good. 

It seems like there are two primary palettes for wild hair colors: WMS and sorbets. It looks like sorbets has more support but wms offers some darker shades? Anyone have preferences? Are recolors in WMS unnaturals still being released? It looks like wms themself stopped doing cc a few years ago.

Relatedly, I haven’t figured out how to save my household to the harddrive to share rather than putting on the gallery. *facepalm* I’d guess that gallery stuff probably doesn’t permit cc.

Handholding from experienced players is welcome

[to-fu]

not gonna lie, i've been curious about your version of erin beaker for some time now. would you ever want to talk about it? 👀

oh wow i don’t know if you saw me mentioning having a specific interpretation of erin somewhere in the server (if i did?) or if this is just random but you sure are in luck because i have a lot to say! get ready for lukewarm takes and my inability to keep things short without going off five tangents, let’s go under the readmore

first off, i want to mention that i am quite the 'canon purist' for most things in ts2 lore because i feel like there's so much left open to interpretation that i’d rather be grounded by the few canon elements present in the storylines. but when it comes to characters that are less fleshed out (like any of the singles) i think it's easier to get away with more.

with erin specifically, i like looking at the context around her (her living situation, her relationship with her brother, her ts3 family etc) as much as possible to determine what to make of her. of course she has some type of correlation to two of my favorite premades in ts2, so i found myself thinking about her more often with time, trying to determine what to make of these connections too while i was at it.

let's start with how erin is perceived by the community. i’m gonna be generalizing here so i hope this doesn’t come off as if i’m pointing accusing fingers at anyone. i’m just gonna describe dynamics i usually see around, at the end of the day the best part of the sims is that every storyline is different yadda yadda. erin is usually characterized as an airhead of sorts, sometimes dense sometimes not depending on who’s writing her, a goody two shoes, either really interested in distancing herself from whatever loki & circe have going on at the castle, or getting as involved as possible with the sole purpose of saving nervous (and usually ending up in a relationship with him) as his personal guardian angel (i could get into the several reasons why i don't like nervous and erin together but that's not what this is about so we'll just move on)

something to think about to understand my reasoning is erin’s childhood. the beaker family (bjorn, gundrun, loki and erin) is implied to be moderately rich right from ts3; in ts2 both loki and erin have memories of growing up well, being taught their toddler skills by both parents, and in general there doesn't seem to be any imbalance between the two in terms of what their parents provided for them. so when we compare that similar background to how they ended up as adults, it creates a pretty stark contrast.

i remember for quite some time i had this idea of the singles living together not out of necessity, but erin actually owning whatever house the player assigned to them, and the other three just being renters (also because neither of the available houses they can afford look like perfect fits for four adults so i just think it's more likely that erin just winged it for extra money and put some rooms up for rent), because to me it's hard to believe bjorn and gundrun left loki a castle and nothing to erin. unless of course loki bought it with part of his money but it still leaves us with the question, what about erin's part of the inheritance, considering the memories don't really imply them having a greatly favored child? so i just think it's more realistic to think they'd manage to get each a house, except loki is extra like that and settled on a castle.

now, in terms of personality, i talked about childhood because i feel like it's unlikely that she's that far off from loki. i know the problem child (loki) trope is common and all but i don’t think this is the case. for sure, she's more bubbly, less mean in the "i will get out of my way to hurt people regardless if they've done something to me or not" sense, but i still think there must be some type of "i'm better than everyone else in the room" genes to her.

nothing in her bio implies she's "the complete opposite of her brother" or anything like that, which would have made my points completely invalid, her personality points are not as extreme in any direction, so personally speaking i see her more as a petty type, rather than villainy like her brother. she strikes me a lot as, loosely, a regina george kind of woman, and one who thrives off drama. unlike kristen, who i believe is a more toned down individual in this aspect, erin actually responds to chloe's mean streak towards them just as viciously. erin is ultimately nice to the sims who are on her good side, but the moment they cross her, it only takes a minor, trivial thing to start planning petty vendettas against them to execute two weeks later after everyone else has moved on. she's someone who likes being at the center of attention way too much (popularity aspiration + thinking she's psychic + having loki as a brother) and is ready to do anything to get things to go her way. she gets along with kristen and lola mostly for the fact that the both of them are ambitious career-wise but much more laid-back in casual, mundane scenarios, and they're both nicer than she is so they don't want any unnecessary drama out of her. the fact that she doesn't know circe i think was unintentional on the devs' part, because no way loki wouldn't invite literally everyone at their wedding to flex, so i chose to interpret it in a few different ways because they all make sense to me, from "mutually despising each other'' to "getting along as acquaintances only to endearingly shit on loki".

of course, take everything i’ve said with a grain of salt, this is just my attempt to make her a bit more interesting in my head, and something i’ve been toying around for my own enjoyment.

to finish this off, i think this video pretty much encapsulates everything i've said much better than my ten paragraphs will ever do. cheers!

[murfeelee]

Without Fail tag - Simblr Style

Rules: List five things that you, WITHOUT FAIL, weave into or explore in your stories, whether it be specific themes or tropes, character archetypes, allusions to other literary works, what have you! It really can be anything that you consistently include in your narratives for whatever reason. Then invite others to share theirs by tagging them!

I saw @drawing-way-outside-the-lines​ do this here for OC writing inspiration, but I liked the idea of thinking about the question in terms of things I always incorporate into my simming gameplay:

5 things I include in my gameplay WITHOUT FAIL

Fandoms

Multicultural representation

LGBT+ representation

Fantasy genres

Occult lifestates

MY THOUGHTS (and MINI RANT, oops)

1): Fandoms:

My gameplay is nowhere near original. It is 100% derivative, as I am always inspired by my current/favorite tv/film, anime & video game fandoms, that I try to recreate in The Sims 3.

I’ve stuck with some fandom recreations longer than others--not necessarily because I like one more than the other, but often because I need the right CC to get the look & feel of the particular show or game. And most of the time, there’s eff all being made by anyone in the community that suits my needs, unless I make the dang CC myself. And that gets tiring, to the point that I don’t even have the energy to keep certain gameplays going anymore, and I lose my inspiration/willpower and move on to something else. 

2): Multicultural representation:

I am bored to death of EA’s monotone obsession with upper middle class straight white American suburban contemporary worlds, sims and stories. I wish every Sims game could be Bon Voyage or World Adventures, where we got THREE (3!) new culturally inspired worlds with every release (especially considering the tiny AF “worlds” that come in TS4, jeeze).

Asia and Africa are the largest continents on the whole dang planet, yet all we keep getting are China, Japan and Egypt? We have yet to get an African Congo, or Indian/Cambodian jungle (eff Mt Komorebi, let’s climb the Himalayas!), or anything even acknowledging Australia. (You know how many awesome exotic pets we could’ve had by now!? I want peacocks, DARNIT!) Likewise, we keep getting South/Meso American content, but not a drop of anything Caribbean--no Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti, nothing, even though they constantly include voodoo dolls & dreadlocks in every game, like wow.

And the second we DO get some cultural content, you racist hypocrite mofos start complaining about the game generating too many Asian names in the Asian-inspired city of San Myshuno WTF, or how IRL Shinto religion is offensive in a Shinto-inspired Japanese village I CAN’T EVEN with y’all; this is why we can’t have nice things.

Rant over, I’m done.

But yeah, I just want my gameplay & sims to include a wide array of different time periods and cultural backgrounds, because the world is NOT California, EA, eff what Hollywood tells people.

3:) LGBT+ representation

I like loving & wholesome representation of the LGBTQIAP+ rainbow spectrum. Contrary to what Tumblr thinks, gay culture and NSFW content are mutually exclusive, as you CAN post LGBT+ content that is family friendly without flagging every effing post that has anything to do with homosexuality. I’m STILL bugging over how Tumblr flagged everyone’s Pride posts a few years ago, before people got on their case!

4): Fantasy genres:

My favorite genre is fantasy. I tend to think of fantasy 3 main ways: magical, horror, or sci-fi, and depending on my mood, my gameplay can bounce around from month to month between something creepy/goth, or futuristic, or high/low fanciful. Sadly, very rarely do I ever find gameplay inspo that hits the sweet spot between all three.

5:) Occult Lifestates:

My households always include at least one occult sim. My avatar sim Sakura Rain has been a faery since day one. Before we got Supernatural, I had her decked out in these pointed ear accessories, then the pointed ear sliders, etc, until we finally got official content. Even in Nagron from my Spartacus insp gameplay, in the most "normal" household I have, Nasir is still a hedgewitch, and Agron is a werewolf.

_________________________________________________

So yeah, that’s the 5 things I always include in my TS3 gameplay, without fail.

Thanks for reading!

[simlicious]

Personal update 😃

I have not done a personal update for quite some time, so here it is! Today, I dreamed that it was suddenly the 1st of December and I had nothing prepared for my advent calendar yet and was feeling in over my head and thinking "Do I really want to do this again?!" Maybe my brain telling me to actually prepare patterns ahead of time this year and to start early? 🤔 I'll keep that in the back of my mind. I actually finally got Sims 4 running (let's see how long until the next patch breaks everything, maybe I have a few days left). I only want to play with tons of mods, which break all the time and are a pain to update, so I only do that procedure once or twice a year. When I actually get to play, I really like to immerse myself for a while until it is all over again. The funny thing is that I actually have fun playing because so many aspects are new to me (having fun in TS4 is almost unheard of, but apparently it can really happen 😆). Building and CAS are so much fun too! I'm not exactly a gameplay blog and not sure how many of you want to see TS4 on here anyway, so I doubt there will be many pics. I get super frustrated whenever I try to make sims in TS3 CAS, I guess I do not have some of y'all skills or the right CC at times (or do not know how to use it properly). In Sims 4, everything can be solved with a few skin overlays and I feel the weird head shape proportion thing that is so off in Sims 3 does not apply there, which makes everything easier. I do miss patterns though 🥲 I have been pretty preoccupied with other hobbies lately, I've been on a serious style rediscovery with my best friend, we discovered this style system called the Style Key and it is all about giving yourself permission to try out new things and your personal needs when choosing styles, which is really refreshing to all the systems that tell you "you cannot wear that with your body type!" So I've been trying things I did not actually dare to wear, like cute/playful outfits in pastel shades. I may wear the styles now that teenage me was too shy to wear and it feels great! I do not care anymore what other people may think about it. I recently discovered those colorful chunky plastic rings which surprisingly look good on me. I always felt like I could never really make jewelry work on me, and tried the tiniest minimalist pieces because everything felt "too much", but I have never tried the other extreme, the big chunky stuff because I told myself "that could never work". Turns out that trying out stuff instead of limiting myself feels really great and yields surprising results! And I feel more confident too because my outfits are fun and make me happy, and I am more relaxed if I feel happy too. In the Style Key system, I think I'm a Ruby (left-down quadrant) and I think the archetype "Spicy Girl Next Door" fits pretty nicely for me. The biggest takeaway for me is the realization that outfits have to "feel right" for me, not for anybody else and I do not dress to please anyone, but to help me feel good in my own skin and take into account my comfort needs and feelings on that day when I choose what to wear. The Style Key is not a system that tells you exactly what to wear, but it helps you figure out what you need your style to do for you and go from there. It's a bit daunting to get into because it is really so different from other systems and includes rather abstract theory/unusual concepts that are not really that intuitive, but the videos on the youtube channel really help to explain those concepts.

I also still work on some Python projects, but they're still a long way off from amounting to anything. But it's where I can use my problem-solving skills and just tinker around. I just really need something to bite my teeth into every now and then and that is perfect for it. 😊

[pudding-parade]

Simblr New Years Resolution 2024

Because @papermint-airplane is lazy and demanding…and I promise not to whine too much.

What's your Resolution for your Simblr? I dunno. I always say that I want to be less flaky and "here today, gone tomorrow" about it, but I never actually follow through with that. Life happens and, when I can, there are many things that I'd rather be doing than sitting at a computer messing around on a blog. Right now, I don't have a whole lot of other options available, so…Enjoy it while it lasts? Hate it while it lasts? I guess? But even so, there are other games I want to play besides Sims, and since this is a (mostly) Sims-dedicated blog…Well, there we are.

What do you want from the Sims Franchise? All I want for Christmas is a 64-bit TS3 so that I don't have to keep checking how much RAM the game is using and then saving and reloading before it hits the Point of No Return. It must really suck for people who play bigger and more heavily-populated worlds than I do.

I'm convinced a 64-bit TS3 will never happen, though. Even though, last I checked, EA still sells the game. At full price, even.

Any other New Years Resolutions? I've never been one to make resolutions. Life is too unpredictable, so I just go with the flow, doing the best I can day by day. I'm old enough now that I know that who I basically am and what I will do in my life is not going to change much, if at all. I've done chameleon-like change enough in the past -- sometimes willingly, sometimes not -- that I don't feel that I need to change anything else, ever. I'm happy with who and what I am, but it's taken me about 50 years to get to that level of I-don't-give-a-shit-what-anyone-else-thinks zen, so…yeah. LOL

On the other hand, not to be really strange and probably macabre, but…Until recently, I wasn't supposed to live for very much longer. I'd already outlived expectations, in fact. I'd been given about 5 to 7 years of "meaningful" life when I was diagnosed in 2013, meaning that after that it was predicted that I'd pretty much be hospital- or at least bed-bound until I finally kicked it. Or offed myself, which was my plan for when I became incapacitated because that is no kind of life.

So, how long I could've kept going was an open question, but I think it probably wouldn't have been much more than a year, realistically. Things went downhill pretty fast this past year. And I had come to grips with that and had things all arranged. But now that I will live longer, perhaps even a normal lifespan, I'm kind of feeling flummoxed about what I'm going to do with all that time that I hadn't planned on. So maybe my resolution should be figuring that shit out. Yeah.

Anyway! I, too, am lazy and demanding, so I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you read this and decide to do it, too, tell 'em I sent ya.

[kaylynn-langerak]

Simblr Community Challenge

I was tagged by @arielovessims , @limejellysims , @oliveandgrimshouse , @janika31 , and @penig ! Thank all of you so much for tagging me! Apologies for the absolute wall of text, I'm a rambler.

Simblr community challenge by Amelettes!

How long have you been playing the Sims?

Since 2000 or 2001, (so like 2/3 of my life) sometime after Livin’ Large came out, but before House Party. I was 10 or 11, and me and my mom went to K-Mart (RIP), where I discovered Livin’ Large. She also thought the game looked fun, so she bought it for me. I was so excited to play and spent the whole ride home looking at the box, only to not be able to play it because we didn’t realize that it was an expansion pack and that meant we had to have the base game. I’m certain I cried. But within a week or so she got me the base game, and I was instantly addicted. My mom used to let me skip school on new expansion release dates, and had to drive an hour to the nearest GameStop to get them. She did the same thing for TS2, which I started playing the day it came out.

How long have you been a Simblr, and why did you become one?

I think I started this blog in July 2017. After my ex burned my house down in September 2016, I discovered that one of the few things to survive the fire were my TS2 discs. But after I let my pc dry out for a while and got it running again it turned out my disc drive no longer worked, so I started looking for an “alternative” source for the game and discovered that Ultimate Collection was a free thing I could get. I’d already been following some simblrs on my personal tumblr for a while (I was lurking on you guys!), and decided to make one of my own to post screenshots from my game, but rather than make a side blog I made a new email and account so my dash would be nothing but sims!

What type of Simblr are you?

A sporadic one? At first I just posted random gameplay stuff, I’ve dabbled in stories, and I make cc. I’d love to get back into writing stories, and share cc more often like I used to, but my mental health is, well let’s just call it “not good”, so I struggle to even do things I enjoy. I still have a desire to do things, and I do write down a lot of ideas, but it’s just hard for me to actually do the thing. I’ve pretty much been in a state of “be back soon - struggling right now!” for like 2.5 years and it sucks. I feel bad.

Which generation of Sims do you primarily play?

TS2! TS1 might have been my first love, but TS2 is my true love. I do wish I could play TS1, but my pc hates it. I really need to just sit down and fight it until I can make it work. TS3 has also been growing on me the past year or so. It does have some really awesome features, but is also just a general mess in other ways? That’s another one that I need to just sit down and take the time to figure out what mods to get, how they work, where to get the fixed worlds and content, etc.. Something I never liked about it was how the actual sims themselves look? Like potato-y but also uncanny? Or is that just me? But I’ve seen really beautiful TS3 sims that don’t look like that at all, so again, if I could just put the time and effort into making pretty faces and fixing the glitches/annoyances I think I could get a lot more into TS3. TS4 doesn’t really interest me? My grandma got me the base game years ago, and it lives on the shelf with all my other sims games but I never installed it, not that my sad old pc could handle it anyway. My boyfriend got Xbox Game Pass recently, and they have it on there so maybe I’ll mess around with it on console? I do like looking at other people’s TS4 though, and I love 4t2 conversions.

Rules - Tag some people, and let the community bonding commence!

I tag @asimplevampire , @withlovefromsimtown , @thatmultifandomteen , @sixamese-simblr , @frauhupfner , @furbyq , @silverspringsimmer , and anyone else who wants to do it, just say I tagged you! Feel free to not do it if you don’t want to, or already have!

[curiousb]

Simblr Community Challenge by @amelettes

I was tagged by @lilith-sims - thank you!

How long have you been playing the Sims - oh gosh, it must be around 20 years! I recall seeing some publicity for TS1 and was desperately excited about it, as I loved simulation games (like Civilization, Sim City and Transport Tycoon) and it seemed like the ultimate game to me. I had to wait a while before I had a PC capable of actually playing the game though (the dark ages of computer technology!), so it was probably around 2001. The same thing happened upon the release of TS2; I was utterly sucked in by the concept of the game (kids actually grow up - what a radical idea!), but again didn't have a suitable PC. I remember trying to play it on a machine without a graphics card, and completely fried said machine by doing so - oops! I was hooked though, so all my meagre resources at the time went into getting a decent PC, and off I went!

Although I'd hoarded CC for TS1 (I still have fond memories of Persimmon Grove), I played for quite a while without any for TS2, and only gradually become aware of the world of CC through MTS2. I started creating CC myself in 2008, but soon ended up spending all of my time creating rather than playing, and eventually became pretty burned out from it. Then real life took over in around 2015 and I just didn't have the time to dedicate to Sims any more, so my game was mothballed, until the end of last year, when I could resist the call of Sims no longer (I was even dreaming about it). Now I'm keen to focus on playing rather than creating, and recapturing the fun of the game from the early days, although I'm sure I'll go back to creating again in a low-key way at some point.

How long have you been a Simblr, and why did you become one - I started my Simblr when everyone else did, during the Great Migration from Livejournal/Dreamwidth. I'd had both LJ and DW blogs since 2009, and to be honest I preferred the slower pace of those formats. But, life moves on, and I wanted to stay in touch with the community, so I had no choice but to move along with it!

What type of Simblr are you - at the moment, I have no idea! I'm just finding my way again, after being absent from the community for a long while, but I'm sure I'll share some gameplay and/or CC at some point.

Which generation of Sims do you primarily play - TS2 forever! I tried TS3 but just couldn't get into it, even when I could get the game to actually run. I haven't even tried TS4 - it looks pretty, but from what I understand, the gameplay is nowhere near as engaging as TS2.

I'm not sure who has and hasn't been tagged, so apologies if I'm retagging anyone! So, only if you feel like it, I'm tagging @shastakiss, @ove51, @goatskickin, @yandereplumsim, @delonariel and @itsdiamondeyesuniverse

[okruee]

some quick housekeeping!

im just doing a mass reply post for some game/cc related questions under the cut, sorry for answering late <3

hey! i don’t play much anymore tbh, the last time i played was either my midnight sun challenge and the beginning of don’s story with get famous over a year ago LMAO i think if i didn’t make cc i would have stopped playing the game altogether tbh

hey! i don’t see myself opening them anytime soon :/ but i do have a cc finds blog @ruefinds​ where i try to reblog the cc i use

OOH well i like @/ifcasims for hair, @/sketchbookpixels for clothes/hair and @/pralinesims for makeup, and @/brntwaffles for skin details! i have a ts3 resources list too in my wcif tag and a ts3 cc finds blog i use sometimes @skrueu​

take out all of the individual files from the “tray files” folder and place them in \documents\electronic arts\sims 4\tray, (you can’t put folders in there) and then you can find the sim in your gallery

make sure custom content is enabled under advanced in your gallery, you might have to scroll down a bit to find the household/lot, you can search by my originid ‘okrue’ if you’re having trouble

HMM well i’m still learning how to make cc, i wouldn’t call myself an expert by any means!! blender is pretty intimidating tbh, i tried my hand at making some hairs a handful of times before i got something that i thought looked okay! just start playing around with the program and accept that you will probably rage quit multiple times (i still do to this day LMAO) and whenever you run into a problem theres probably a fix on the sims4studio forums, or message a cc creator im sure they’ll try their best to help!

hmm i think this varies from person to person tbh! one thing you could do is rather than deleting, take a bunch of things you dont really use and put them in a seperate folder elsewhere on your computer, that way if you want something back you dont have to search and redownload it bc you have a backup! 

what i do for performance gains specifically is sort my mods folder from biggest file size to smallest (big files are usually high poly and impact performance) and then decide if i really really need that piece of cc, if i don’t then i just delete it all together or delete swatches i dont use to lower the file size 

i think it’s artbreeder.com!

the old one? i’m not sure i even have him anymore D:

i actually have a couple i’ve been working on, on and off since may LOL but the weights and uv_1 are giving me issues which is why i havent uploaded them rip

hey! yeah i am continuing it, i’m just bad at posting consistently and dont realize how sporadic i really am with posting LMAO i always think i JUST posted the last post and i’ll check and see that its been 3 months haha, im glad you like it and my cc, i hope you’re doing well!!

did anyone else with bratz dolls growing up just keep them be feetless 24/7 because they (the feet) would magically disappear to the underneath of ur bed for 6 months as soon as u got them or was that just me