#ts2 blog

[theplumbobguide]

The Rules of Rotations

"rules are good! rules ~control~ the fun!" - monica geller

You've been on the sims forums, or watching sims videos for a long time. Maybe you've heard of this already, maybe you're already implementing rotational gameplay in your own sims game (sims 2 or otherwise). Just in case you haven't, though, or in case you're interested on how I play - or are just overall looking for ideas - here is a brief description and then a set of rules I follow: Rotational Gameplay Description: Easily and more concisely described, rotational gameplay is when you play various families in some type of order with a specific amount of days. Fun fact: all of the sims 2 'hoods are actually meant to be played in a rotation. This is notably present because of the scripted events that all the families have when you load in. Interestingly, though, while I've heard a lot of people say that you need to specifically play in the Prima Guide order - you don't. I've seen simmers play the scripted events “out of order" and they work just fine. However, depending on which order you play it in you may lose some of the scripted events. For example, if you start with the Goth Family in Pleasantview you will get the scripted events and all can go well... or not... depending on what you do/how you want to play it, but you completely lose Don Lotharios scripted events. If you play with the Caliente sisters first, you won't have Mortimer (and maybe Alexander) in the Goth mansion when you load in to do Cassandra's wedding and need to invite them to attend. There's a lot of little things like that with the scripted events, so while you don't need to play in the Prima Guide order, it is pretty useful if you want to enjoy some of the originally intended drama. Rotational Gameplay Rules: I have a lot of rules and need to break down said rules into sections, so buckle your seatbelts kids, we're in for a long ride. (why am I like this?)

'Hood Rotation Rules: 'Hoods are the starter area of all sim families. This is where you first load up (provided you haven't downloaded a subhood and are loading into that first, obviously). Whether you've loaded into an original pre-made hood, a custom hood, or are creating your own, all of these rules could apply. Rule #1. "How long are we going to stay here, mom?" Well, that depends. This little portion of the rules varies amongst simmers. My typical style is maxis' season length (5 days, baby). For me, this not only allows the most amount of days to progress my sims and their stories but also allows me to get the most enjoyment out of my game. Not to mention, it's very easy to pass over my sims and I know where I'm at just by the seasons. Yes, you can also make an excel sheet, but for those of us peasants without a dual monitor (me), going back and forth is a pain and it just makes it a chore. Following the seasons is a tad difficult when you play like me in a desert 'hood and have fixed the seasons so that you don't get winters, and instead have 2 back to back summers. I either do check my spreadsheet, or really simply go into my families in order and find which sim family is in an earlier season than the rest. Which leads me to...

Rule #2. Where do we start? Where do we end? Now that you know what rotational gameplay is, and you also know how long you want to play for, here comes the main and probably most important question. Who do you play with first? As I mentioned above, when playing with the premade original Sims 2 'hoods, we do have a Prima Guide to guide (hehe) us on whom we might play first. In the three original 'hoods the standard is: - Pleasantview: Don Lothario - Strangetown: Curious Brothers - Veronavillie: The Capps But what if you have your own 'hood? For me, that leads into a whole other upcoming blog post, but without stealing from my future self: Your first family (yep, that big of a no-brainer). Choose or make your own family, either from the bin or create a sim, and make them your first sim family in your rotational gameplay. I play without using too many of my precious brain cells and essentially play in the order of who moved into the hood, first to last. However, there is, of course, a loophole in this rule (of course there is): Sims who moved out of a household get played after their original household. Let me give you an example to really make it clear: Nina Caliente wants to move out as soon as Dina and Mortimer get married (fair, I wouldn't want to third wheel my sister's marriage either). In my rotational rules Nina's household would now be played after Dina. Changing the rotation from: Lothario, Goth, Caliente, Broke... it would be Lothario, Goth, Caliente-Goth, Caliente, Broke... This specific rule works the whole way around for me. If your sims teen moves off to University, when they come back they are played after their original family (unless they move back in with the parents).

Rule #3. Pay day, tax day, and the great beyond. Now there are A LOT of ways to do this, and there are a lot of simmers who have made various tax systems and mods to implement this. So before I get into anything, here is a list of some of my favourite tax systems: - Pleasantsims Tax System classic - PhDSimmer Tax System - Delijume-Sims Tax System - Sims 2 Idea's Tax Calculator - Monquie's Automatic Payment Mod This isn't even an extensive list. There are SO many tax systems that you can follow or pull from that at this point it almost feels redundant to make one of my own. So I'm not. I use the Pleasantsims Tax System, but I've also been known to sometimes try other things out (hence the above list). Find what you like, do a google search if none of these tickle you, or create your own. Because I do follow a modless version, I also need to have a system on *when* I do my taxes, and what happens to my poor dear old sims who "forgot" to do their taxes on time (it happens). - Every 2nd day of all seasons is tax day. Yes, even if it's the weekend. It makes more sense to me this way because I cannot load in on day one and just go straight to taxes. - On day 3, if you haven't paid your taxes yet (silly goose), you now owe 5% of the unpaid tax + 1% of the unpaid tax every day that you're late. Yes, that means that if you owed $100 in tax and forgot you now owe $160 on day 3, $170 on day 4 and so on. - If you’ve missed 2 rounds of taxes you are now charged with ~tax evasion~ 200% of your overall taxes are now owed and you get to go to jail for a full sim season (how fun!). Going back to the example of owing $100 in taxes: by day 5 you owe $180, by day 1 of the new season you owe $190, the new tax season asks, let’s say another $100 (for simplicity purposes) and the red flags are up. If by the next tax day you haven’t paid you now owe $380+$760=$1,140 and a whole sim season in jail (yikes). I enjoy adding a jail so that I can enjoy some realism and a little bit of fun, while teaching my sims that there are consequences to their actions. Not to mention, there is a lot of drama that can happen because your sim is in jail. I won’t go in too deeply here, because that is for another blog post. All in all, this is an easy way to make sure that sims don’t get too rich and add the possibility of some great storytelling. Imagine sending your Business Tycoon sim to jail because they were evading taxes? I wonder what would happen with their gold digger wife… (cue evil laughter)

 Rule #4. To go on vacation, or not to go on vacation, that is the question. I love going on vacations with my sim families. You know what I don’t like, though? I don’t like the fact that time freezes while on vacation (what is even the point of vacation days if that happens anyway?). So with the use of this incredibly useful mod I no longer have to deal with that insanity. - Simwardrobe's Season and Weather Controller : download here This handy-dandy little mod is INTEGRAL for the way I play because all my sims need to be on the same seasons for the rotations to work properly. Not only does this allow me to change the season for moved-in sims to be on the right timeline, but in this case of use, it allows me to choose how many days have passed in-game. Let’s say that you left on day 2 of spring and are “gone” on vacation for 3 days, this means that you’re back home on your last day of rotation (day 5). The in-game mechanics just make it later in the day, but realistically you were gone for a lot longer than just a couple hours. With the use of Simwardrobe’s mod, I can just set the day in the season to day 5. (While writing this I cannot remember if for the life of me if this will automatically age your sims the 3 days they’re missing, but if not, you can use this mod: SimBlender) *This is also an incredibly useful mod for storytelling amongst other things. There is not a family in my game that does not own this thing. I use it to change aspirations, hobbies, age, etc. I don’t think I could create a lot of the stories I do without it. Now, this of course does not subtract your vacation days or anything like that, but it’s all good. Use those vacation days when they’re elders or if they’re actually sick. Regardless, you no longer have to play your sim for an extra 3+ days because you sent them on vacation. Now, vacationing is part of your rotation! Also, worry not! If you decide to go on a longer vacation than 3 days and it bleeds into the next season, both of those mods have your back and you can calculate where they are supposed to be when you arrive home. Then you can just move on with the rotations and come back to them where they are.

Rule #5. “Well, we're here... now what?” “Party.” Okay, you've got your families, you're staying for the season, taxes are being calculated, you start to play and... what? This is where my rules get a little more niched than some of the other rules you may or may not find all over the sims corner of the internet. To be infinitely clear, while I am writing this I don't believe I was the first to implement ALL these rules and I don't think I am the first to even make them up. Because I play a full rotation with seasons, I like to add a little je-ne-sais-quoi. I actually do know what (yes, I speak French), I play with Holidays. Holidays are truly what make the seasons go-round, and offer you the option to have more parties and get-togethers and not get stuck in the mundane day-to-day simulation that is your sims life (...or yours?). What are the Holidays I play with? - Spring Day 2: Love Day - Summer Day 2: Will Wright Day - Autumn Day 4: Halloween - Winter Day 3: Winterfest - Winter Day 4: New Years Now, I will be real with you, I don't *always* do *every* holiday with all my families. Not only would that get repetitive but also intensely boring. Also, not all sims celebrate all the things. Instead, I like to have certain families do certain parties. For example, I have a family where one of the sims is the mayor of the town and in my mind he hosts THE Winterfest bash. That's the one you desperately want to be invited to. They go BIG. I have another family who's friends with most people in the town, and they love to throw a great BBQ party on Will Wright Day. On the other hand, I love to make my sims go out for Love Day because unless my sims roll the want for a date... I sometimes forget to send them on one (wups). This is a great way to ensure some fun and a little bit of stability in your rotational gameplay. You might forget to do it one season, you might be like me and decide which sims host or celebrate what. You may even want to add more events! Either way, implementing your own holiday system is always a good time if you ask me. Plus, as per the last blog post, what a fun way to maybe cause chaos. Oh no... you took your side piece out for valentines and not your spouse... big yikes.. Alright, it’s time for our next set of rules etc guys. Welcome to…

University Rotation Rules: Rule #1. “What else am I supposed to do? Stay here and learn?” - E.L ‘Road Trip��� Yes. You’ve arrived at university. It’s time to learn… hopefully. Now, what if you have multiple sims going to university, and you don’t want to play with too many sims in one place? Easy, you place them in different housing and you play with them, say it with me, ~rotationally~! 

Exciting, right? You may be wondering how to play rotationally in university in a fun, yet unified way, that makes it more fun. I like to play with each family per-term. That means I complete term 1 of Freshman year, move onto the next family and so on until I am back to the first family and officially on term 2 for the whole gang. The reason I do this is two fold: 1. You have an ample amount of time per-term to achieve your sim wants, maybe do well in school, and create some drama.  2. This creates an official rotation for when they move into town.

I write it this way because some of you are like me, and when creating a new ‘hood you start off with your first ever created sim in University. Maybe you even create multiple families, or decide to play with some of the friends your sim made. Or you’re on the second generation and you have multiple sims going to university at the same time.

If you have multiple sims from a generation moving in, but they are not the same age in your mind, maybe you play with the ageing system of 1 day = 1 year (which makes sense) you may want your sims to stay in that ageing order. (This is where things get complicated, but I’m going to fully break it down for you, so continue reading on.)

If a sim is meant to move to University a year after another sim, you move them in once said original sim has completed Freshman year. (easy, right?). When they move into the ‘hood once completed university, you play them with -1 day in the season. This means you use that handy mod I linked above, and when you move the latter sim in you set the season to day 2 right away (tax day! lucky them).

Hopefully that makes sense to you, because here comes the part that may or may not throw you off a bit: The Sims 2 University is split into 4 “years” which can look like 4 days - unless you play per-term like I do which could instead look like 8 days… but that is an awkward and long amount of time for your sims to be away. So I meet myself in the middle. In my sims world sims are gone for university for 1 full rotation (5 sim days). Yes, *technically* the way I play, all sims are gone to university for 4 days, which would mean that they should come back 4 days after they left, but that is a lot of things to remember and I cannot. So instead of breaking my head whenever I send a sim off to university, I finish up whatever days are left in the household and finish their rotation before moving on. From there, my sims are gone for 1 full rotation. That means if my sim leaves home in Spring, they’re gone for the Summer and back for Autumn. It seems like a while, and I can imagine for really strict age-based players that can seem very wrong, but for my brain it’s the easiest way. Not to mention, I often use the elixir of life and/or age sims down or up via the Simblender (what can I say, I love making the game work for me).

Of course, make the game work for you, and if you like doing the maths and work on an age-based gameplay style: just do the 4 day university rotation rules. I suggest if you do this, though, you have a really detailed spreadsheet. If you’re like me, though, 1 rotation is plenty and you need not to worry about all that. 

Rule #2. Loans & Lies told to you. I know a lot of simmers who like to use loans and make university actually cost you money. I, however, believe in a world where higher education (like a bachelors degree) should be free. I’m not going to lie to you, this little section is stale because I don’t have a system in place for paying for books/classes etc. I like to imagine that your “bills” are what you owe to the school for living on campus (which, it is so…). I also do not tax my University sims. Here’s why: I play with the No-20k-Handout mod, and the money my Sims make in university is the money they have to start their life with. It can be hard sometimes… especially considering the fact that Sims that graduate with a 4.0 make a maximum of $9,600. This doesn’t include your bills, clothes or furniture you buy or anything else for that matter. Most of my university sims end up in very unfurnished apartments. Luckily for my sims that have quite established families, I also have: Monique’s Hacked Computer and I will send them a bit of money once they’ve finished university to get them started. One of my sims parents sent her $35k as soon as she finished university.

Rule #3. ‘tis the season to drink a lot of juice I don’t play with the same rules regarding holidays when in University. The chances of your final exam and Winterfest happening at the same time is just too much for me to handle. It’s okay, though, because it birthed some new fun rules for me to share with you. While my sims don’t celebrate anything while in university, it tends to be because I enjoy feeling like everything is unified. How? Whatever seasonal rotation they’re on is the season they’re stuck in throughout their time in university. Yep, that is 8 full days of Summer or any other season for that matter. I will say, when the rotation falls in Autumn it’s pretty awesome because they experience faster skill gain during that season. But man, my romance or secondary romance sims THRIVE when it’s Spring because of the extra smooth romance interactions during that season. Now, some of you may love it, some of you may hate it. So here are some other ways you can have fun with it: - Everlasting Autumn: for those of you who like a smoother ride with skill gain during your university gameplay. I do, however, want to mention that sims with gold and above aspirations really do thrive with the wonderful Thinking Cap that you can purchase with your aspiration points. Knowledge sims with the Eureka! Aspiration trait, the Thinking Cap, and Autumn season gain skills like it’s nobody's business and it’s awesome, but also can be a little boring because of just how easy it can be. - Using either our wonderful weather mod via Simwardrobe (linked above) you can adjust how long a season is and make it last for each individual “year” is a valid option. Or you can use the in-game mechanics of choosing the seasons in the neighbourhood setting (which can be different from sub-hood to sub-hood). Doing it the latter way, I would make every season 1 season until Freshman year is over, then change it when sims go into their Sophomore year. Because I play like they’re gone for a season, I like to play with an everlasting season based on when I’ve sent them. To me, this makes it feel more complete. Like I really did play them during their summer season and not like they skipped one altogether. Of course, though, to completely discount my first paragraph - you could always play with one of the Holidays (or all of them, I won’t judge you) during your university gameplay. For example, keeping in the tone of you sent your sim to university for the summer: Sophomore year would be when I would consider doing a Will Wright Day party. The Greek house is going to love that idea. 

Rule #4. Bring him to the Greek-house I have a pretty heavy handed rule for greek-houses specifically made for the ‘hoods that I have created myself. No one can join a greek house until they are a third generation university sim from parents and grandparents who were in the secret society (ouf).

Yep, I think that far ahead. While greek houses in the sims can be created by anyone, I like to add this rule because they can be a bit of a pain and I like to create a greek house that is picky about who gets to join. I also get a little cheat-y at this point, but I’m ahead of myself.  Here’s the breakdown: - Gen 1 sim(s) need to be inducted in the secret society. That means they *need* to meet and befriend 3 secret society members. - Gen 2, all the same. Make friends with the sims wearing the black blazer. - Gen 3. You are a third generation sim and therefore an immediate secret society member. How do you do it?: in the neighbourhood view type in “boolprop testingcheatsenabled true”. Go into your 3rd Gen family and shift click your sim. From there, an option menu will come up, find and click on “Add to Secret Society” and tada, you’re in. I suggest, if you’re alone in the university or the only sim who gets this option, befriending some of the members and then creating your greek house. From there, add your secret society friends to the house.

It can be interesting and a little complicated when let’s say that you have 2nd Gen siblings that go to university and one gets in and the other does not, because that means the children from the sim that was a member gets to have a greek house (if they want it), and the children from the sim that was not a member has to work on being friends with secret society members if they want to get into the greek house. My fun little loophole works like this: if you’re cousins with a greek house member, you just have to be friends with them and the other members of the greek house to be invited in. At that point you have a family member vouching for you, and the rest of the greek house has agreed that you have enough status to get in, despite the fact that your parent wasn’t a member. This, of course, only matters if said sims even want to be a part of a greek house.

Regardless, the rule is: both a grandparent and parent need to be secret society members to get you to be an immediate member, and only an immediate member can start a greek house. To join, you must become a secret society member by befriending everyone from the greek house (which you pretty much need to do anyway to apply, so really I’m helping you get in right away). Finally, let’s say this next sim is Gen 4: Gen 1 was a SS member, Gen 2 was a SS member, Gen 3 wanted to join a greek house and therefore created one by being an immediate member, and Gen 4 is an immediate SS member and placed in the greek house asap. *to keep the greek house going, keep a placeholder sim in the greek house. At this point, it should be easy because there are probably sims going to university at different times. (Remember to send off sims in different years to keep the space, for example, your sibling may be 4 days younger, and therefore start university during the older siblings Senior year!) If we are going with the cousin scenario, their children can join the greek house right away and become immediate SS members (again, only if they want to) because their parent was in the greek house and therefore would give them the opportunity to join based on family status.

I also want to make a point and say that while my sims who aren’t SS members do sometimes end up successful sims, I like to think that being a SS member gives you a leg-up after university (networking with nepo babies who?). Which makes me almost ensure in my gameplay that the sims who are SS members and/or greek house participants lead quite successful and lavish lifestyles. This means kids are sent to private school (which costs money, thank you Monique's hacked computer) and live the life I imagine all those kids from ‘Gilmore Girls’ Life and Death Brigade got to.

** last little note: when I play with the premade hoods a lot of this section pretty much flies out the door. As there are pe-made universities that go with those hoods there are also pre-made greek houses who are not SS members. You can go ahead and change that and keep these rules if that gives you joy, or you can be like me and throw it all away. In the Pleasantview-Sim State University land I like to add sims where they want to as they want to. My Angela Pleasant wanted to be a greek house member and so she joined the sorority with only the in-game mechanic rules around that. The Sims is, as always, your game. Play it how it feels best for you.

Wow, okay. That was a lot of information to leave you here with. So, feel free to comment if you have any questions, I’d be happy to clear things up in the comment section and edit this post if something felt unclear. I hope you all enjoyed this post and at least found a little something in here to help you with your gameplay. Take care, and I will be back with another post sometime soon. meaghanplumbob xox

[guihlouz-journal]

Hello Simmers! Until this very moment I was committed to creating my version of the Scooby Doo gang in TS2 for Halloween but unfortunately I found myself extremely frustrated with the lack of content to be able to create them.

I really wanted them in my game and to share them with you, but I don't think I can do them now. Who knows, maybe one day I will :(

(And sorry for any mistakes in language, it's not my native language)

[zevrans]

THE SIMS 2 (2004, dev. by Maxis)

[sims2ikeahomestuff]

once again posting old art here's EVERYONE

[nonsensical-pixels]

hellow, new update, for now this is gonna look a bit more like a random thoughts / gameplay simblr...

ts2 is running amazing on fedora 41 - i'm legit not getting ANY pink even with a full stress test of high lot imposters, a TON of high-poly cc, etc! LITERALLY my dream!

but, unfortunately, i haven't got simpe, milkshape, etc. to run yet. which i've been procrastinating for some time due to lack of tutorials but also laziness, i'm liking my new schedule and i can finally enjoy this game the way will wright intended 🩷

A FINAL UPDATE FOR MY PINK SOUP EXPERIMENTATION

at this point, i have tested sims 2 on the latest windows 11 on various other PCs in my house, with both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards. there's barely any difference. i still am experiencing major crashing and pink soup issues on systems with an RTX 3060, RX 580, GTX 1660 Ti, and of course my 7900 XTX. dxvk, new drivers, literally everything great minds like @osab and @brandinotbroke and many others have suggested has done nothing.

BUT!

at their suggestion, i tried Linux. Fedora 41 as i said above.

AND ALL MY PROBLEMS HAVE GONE AWAY.

other games are now running smoothly too with 0 errors and crashing; of course i don't have access to the same apps and ease of comfort as i did on windows, but hot damn, i can play sims 2! with and without cc! again!!

i am also not the only one, funnily enough! in our tests this massive pink flashing issue seems to affect not just my PC, but many others who have both NVIDIA or AMD graphics cards. the only link we have found... is windows 11.

with Linux it just all goes away!

so tl;dr;

IF YOU ARE HAVING PINK FLASHING ISSUES ON YOUR WINDOWS 11, IT IS LIKELY NOT YOUR PC, IT IS AN ISSUE WITH THE LATEST WINDOWS UPDATE!

so do NOT go out buying yourself an RTX GPU or a new CPU, it is just NOT going to help! don't bother with trying to reinstall windows because literally it has done nothing for me.

our current theory is that something is screwed with the latest update. in directx, in texture memory allocation - literally do not know. all we know is that a different OS just - fixes it. literally and figuratively like magic.

if you're willing to learn how to install Linux and potentially a new SSD, go for it! hopefully in a few days me or someone else will have a tutorial out.

LONG LIVE LINUX!

[thecardinalsims]

It's BIG.

It's BLUE.

It's UPDATED.

Hiya Simblr, it has been a while. I have a big update today- it's one of my oldest guides on MTS, but new and blue! The changelog is in the MTS comments- but the short and sweet is that two years of learning Blender has been squeezed in there for your convenience, complete with graphics and GIF examples.

ModTheSims tutorial Google Docs tutorial Blender Templates

[okaydays22]

[angelapleasant]

info + dl

[simstationdance]

out of curiosity, if tumblr was going to shut down in the near future, where would those of us on simblr - particularly the sims 2 side of simblr - go, exactly? just curious. like what's the plan here.

i ask because matt mullenweg has fired half of the remaining tumblr staff, leaving 25 people left to run this hell site and things are not looking good for us.

[bingodcat]

─── ⋆.˚⟡ ݁₊ . new simblr !

sul sul! i’m clara (she/her), i’m 20 years old and from brazil. i’ve been playing the sims and lurking in the community since 2018, but this is my first simblr i plan to share my love for the sims 2 (and maybe sims 4) through storytelling, interior builds, legacy challenges, and maybe more!

please feel free to reblog and follow! i’m looking for new simblrs to interact with and become mutuals ᓚ₍ ^. .^₎ᯓᡣ𐭩

[theplumbobguide]

How to Make Your Game More Interesting:

you're so... ~interesting~

Intro: Hello all, Really quickly, I'd like to introduce myself. I have been playing the sims 2 since release when I was quite young, and still play 20 years later. In playing for 20 years, I have read the prima guides like they were the guides to my personal religion. I have deep dived into all the lore, and gone through more than a person who is not a dev should in this game. I've played too much. I've done too much. I also regularly peruse sims 2 subreddits, watch the sims 2 on youtube and generally seem to have made the sims 2 my life (writing this out, I'm feeling a little sad but... worth it). The main thing I see REGULARLY when reading comments and posts on reddit or the youtube comment section is that people generally don't know how to make their game interesting. Why? Well, it seems like generally people get very attached to their sims (same tbh) and don't want to cause chaos, or don't know how to cause chaos. My fun fact: I used to be just like you. Yes you, the person reading this is who is stuck in the loop of creating one perfect family after another and getting bored. I chronically made families of sims with the LTW of Fortune and Family who loved each other deeply, who had perfect A+ children, who succeeded in everything they did... sims who became stale. (how boring!) That was until I decided to use the skills I have learned through reading books, watching soap-opera-y shows, intense movies, and attempting to write my own novels to good use. This is where we come to part of what you came here for. Golden Rules: Rule #1. No good story has a main character who isn't flawed. Creating flawed sims is my main rule; if you had to leave this blog with one thing it's this: make flawed sims. Now, this doesn't mean all sims should be Romance sims or have a Romance secondary aspiration, but rather giving your sims "human qualities". Example: A sim with "anger issues", a sim who always chooses the wrong type of sims to date, a sim who is struggling with their sexuality, AN EVIL SIM. The list can go on. You can do this with your imagination and interactions in-game. You can also download wonderful mods like: Traits Project. This mod will help you create more dynamic sims without needing to think too much about it (OR thinking a lot about it, and adding the traits manually to really build your character). As you can see, there are tons of ways to create flawed sims. I ask you to be inspired by characters from the entertainment you enjoy consuming. You'd be surprised in how many little ways you can make a sim interesting and build a story around them. - A side note in this section: never underestimate a good "mid-life crisis". Quitting a job, gambling addiction, a new romantic interest, shopping addiction, arguing with a partner etc. The possibilities are endless. Rule #2. When in doubt, don't be afraid to take a sim out. No, I don't mean for a night out on the town... Here's the thing, sometimes your sim rolls boring wants regularly, seems to serve little to no purpose, and gives you the general feeling that there isn't much going on behind those pixelated eyes. Regardless of whether or not you like the sim you're thinking of in this moment, it's time to use them to drive the plot or create character development for your other playables. *Grim enters stage left* Never underestimate the storytelling tool that involves making your sim a ghost. Now, with that being said - we all enjoy occasionally letting the intrusive thoughts win when it comes to introducing your sim to the grim reaper; but we can't forget one of the main rules in storytelling plot drivers. You cannot off a character "just because". We must have reason, and this is where we can get really creative. Maybe your sim secretly really dislikes their so-called "perfect life". Maybe they just happen to hike in the desert, during the summer, with their needs really low... Maybe they fall asleep while making family dinner... MAYBE they take a little nightly swim while tired and seem to forget where that pesky pool ladder went.

There are tons of ways you can use these ideas and use it to drive your plot forward. Subjecting their loved ones to the reprocussions of their loss. It is here that I can't fail to mention that while random death can be important; as well as heart breaking. Here are a few ways I make random death possible in my game that I think are great: - Death By Childbirth - More Dangerous Fire - Real Sickness

The big thing I would like to reiterate, is to make sure that if it is not random, and completely your choice as the player, either send them off to the simulated great beyond for passion or pleasure. *Passion would be to move a plot forward, cause chaos, create a character arc for a sim or family, etc. *Pleasure would be just because it makes you happy to have more graves in your cemetary. you're a tad evil aren't you, you little minx. Rule #3. You Can't Always Get What You Want... but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find *you get what you need* Now, as you might have guessed: I am a semi-wants based player. You may be wondering "what that means?" What that means indeed, little friend. Semi-Wants Based Playstyle essentially boils down to: I try to achive almost everything my sim wants to do - but only if I like it for them. Also, sometimes your sim may not "want" something per se, but you've decided that you want to do it and don't want to wait for them to tell you they want to do it. This means, if my family sim decides that maybe they are more or just as attracted to their neighbour as they are their spouse and run a want to flirt with them... we may ruin a marriage or keep a deep dark secret, OR I will feel like it is too far out of left field for this particular sim and chose to ignore it completely. I go off ~vibes~ and suggest you try that too. Story time: I have the "Death by Childbirth" mod in my game. Two of my sims that we're romance sims lived together as a polyamourous couple sharing the sims they brought home. One day the female and male sims did an autonomous woohoo (thank you ACR), and fell pregnant wups. During that pregnancy, though, I noticed them be cute and close and... not have wants for other sims? I thought it was interesting and intended to maybe make them secondary family sims... until my female sim died during childbirth. Now, I could have gone two ways: 1. let the game be as it was and have the male sim be a single dad, or 2. use some cheats and get the resurrect o nomitron. The female sim who died was in the paranormal career, so I figured "why not! DO IT FOR THE PLOT." I resurrected her and decided that both sims underwent such a significant change that they may have also changed their outlooks on life, and changed their LTW. However, I always made it part of their story that while at first things would be good... at one point they would begin to feel like maybe family life wasn't really what they wanted or thought it would be. 3 children later (he wanted it), my female sim is going stir crazy; just wants to make friends and go to work and find the *more* that she knows is out there; my male sim is feeling very alone and like his wife isn't really there for him and his eye is beginning to wander... Who knows what will happen. What I'm trying to (and hopefully) get at here is this: The sims is YOUR game. Your sandbox. While it is fun to create chaos for chaos' sake, don't be afraid to do what YOU want. That's what makes the game enjoyable overall. So yes, maybe something bad happens to a sim, you have the complete ability to turn it around, as long as it what? Say it with me kids: "PrOgReSsEs ThE pLoT." That is what makes interesting gameplay/storytelling. you can really tell my creative writing teachers drilled something into my brain... but what was it? Rule #4. Jump Around! I know not everyone is a rotational player, nor is playing rotationally for everyone. I do, of course, think it's great (however you do it). I don't think it's a *must* to enjoy the game, though. I do stand on the hill that believes that some amount of "changing it up" is important. Once again, everyone is different, so find what you need or speaks to you in this section; but here are some things I do to make sure that I don't get burnt out.

Part 1. "Traditional" Rotational Gameplay: I play for the full EA/Maxis length season (5 days) with each family. You can do more or less. I also play in a pretty regular rotation that only gets changed based on circumstance. For example, if the family breaks apart, the moved family gets played after the original family.

Part 2. I build and/or upgrade all my lots slowly. Whenever I get the itch or inspiration to build I run with it. I usually get the feeling when it's beginning to be necessary in my game. Sometimes you need a coffee shop for a date… then a restaurant… then you think: wow my sims can meet more people at a bar. I build based off my wants and my gameplay needs. With that being said, I also love making my own hoods and slowly building up the town are more sims join the rotations (kinda like a BACC, but not really).

Part 3. I am never opposed to moving sims into a different house/location or simply sending them off on a vacation. Maybe even making sure they leave the house for more mundane reasons. When was the last time you took your kid to the park, you monster? You'd be surprised on how refreshing it can be. Also, how realistic. Gone are the days where your sim lived in the same home from College to Elderhood. Gone are the days where your sim never used their vacation days. Gone are they days where your sim only ever knew the four walls you built around them. Hopefully with doors and windows... but maybe not.. Rule #5. Remember Who You Are, SIMba. Keep in mind that the sims truly is your game. Your imagination. Your little world. You can make it as perfect or as chaotic as you want. As someone who's roots are in "the perfect sim/family" type gameplay, I always allow at least 1 if not 2-3 families who fit that bill somehow, to keep my little heart happy. (Another great idea for you comes from the movie "Don't Worry Darling": think of a town where everything is the 1950's vision of perfect - but everyone *is* happy... until... and fill in the blank as you go.) I digress, you can try out any/all these rules. You can even take inspiration from my game or ideas I layed out in this first ever post here, but at the end of the day, you will always be you. The Sims will always be your game. Don't be afraid to try things, don't be afraid to be your real and truest self. For some of you that means a town of insane sims wearing chicken costumes, and for others that might be trying to actually create the perfect town/family (I challenge you to make sure they have not 1 bad memory). Either way, and all the ways, I hope that this post at the least gave you joy and at the best gave you inspiration. More to come in the future! Have an exellent day, meaghanplumbob xox

[episims]

Wedding Ring Band TXMT Defaults

A tiny addition to today's ring posts: the band TXMT defaults pforest shared here for engagement rings made for wedding rings too.

Can be combined with those engagement ring defaults, and/or the color trait mod I shared earlier, or used individually.

Download (SFS) (alternate)

The files are compressed. Only pick one color.

Full credit to @pforestsims, I just slapped their work into different files and stole the swatch style too.

[100babywarehouse]

(Transcript at the bottom, under cut.)

What is 100 Baby Warehouse?

It is exactly what it sounds like - it's a collection of sims that were the results of 100 baby challenges. In other words, this is a warehouse of sorts, and the only thing stocked here are sims. If you are looking for a spouse for your legacy, and you know exactly the kind of sims your heir likes, you may be able to find exactly what you're looking for here - if you're looking for a family-motivated male young adult, browse our selection to see if there's someone who fits your parameters. If your NSB rose gen needs some cute sims to woo, you can find those here!

Are there only "The Sims 4" sims here?

Absolutely not! You can play a 100 baby challenge in almost every sims game - I'm not sure about The Sims 1, but I know for a fact you can in 2 and 3. So, in our navigation page there will also be sections for sims strictly in TS2 and TS3.

I'm playing a 100 Baby Challenge right now. Can I submit a sim?

Yes!! Please! This blog will be EMPTY if no one submits sims, because I simply cannot play that many 100 baby challenges at once. I'm playing 2 right now, and that's hard enough.

Will you have sims for download if no one submits any?

Well, yes. But not very many, and not a good variety. There will be no TS3 or TS2 sims if no one submits any, because I don't currently have either installed. So please, if you have sims you want to share, please do!

Can I just make a post and tag you so you can reblog it, instead of submitting my sims?

That's perfectly fine too! I just have the submission page to make things easier on everyone, but if you want to make the post yourself and tag me, that works just as well. Just add @100babywarehouse anywhere on your post, and I'll see it and add it to the sim collection.

I don't play 100 baby challenge, but I want to submit a legacy spare. Is that okay?

While this is called 100 Baby Warehouse, this is also fine. I will have a specific category for legacy spares on the navigation pages, because I know that most people play legacies more than 100 baby challenges (including myself). Otherwise, this blog might be rather empty, and I don't want that! Either way, as long as the sim would normally be kicked out of the main house and forgotten, left to the whims of story progression, the sim is welcome in this collection.

If this is the 100 baby warehouse, does that mean there are only babies/infants, toddlers, and children here?

No! Definitely not! Sims of any age can be added to our "inventory." Even adults and elders. So if you want several teens for the teen angst story you are wanting to write, have a look around our teen category.

Can I download Aeli?

Not right now, sorry. Maybe later.

If you have a question you want me to answer, please feel free to send it to me! And if you're shy, feel free to ask it on anon. Just know that if too many people are nasty, anonymous asks will be disabled.

Transcript for picture:

"Hello there!

My name is Aeli, and I am the matron of this place. "What is this place?" You may ask. That's why I'm here - to guide you.

This is officially a "warehouse," as some may call it, but I think of it as an adoption center of sorts.

Here, you will find sims that have been forgotten, or abandoned, and left to the whims of fate (or story progression). Specifically, these sims were used strictly as stepping stones in a 100 Baby Challenge - in this challenge, the children are simply a means to an end, unless their challenge is done using the multiple matriarch rules, in which case the only child that matters is the final daughter of each matriarch.

And that's just unbearably sad to me.

All of these wonderful sims have such potential, they could have whole futures ahead of them, but they are denied that simply because that's how the challenge works. They are kicked out the instant they are no longer teenagers.

So here, we have a collection of many of these wonderful sims that Watchers in need may take in and care for, themselves. These sims can have any life they may dream of - or, well... have nightmares about.

Whatever life they end up with is up to you, the Watcher."

[eulaliasims]

This house near Middleground's town center has been sitting empty for literal years; now I'm slowly decorating it for Harper.

[daydreamave1]

My ideal self-care night 💚🍵