Is anyone here using bluesky for the Sims? I'm enjoying it for other stuff but I figured it might be fun to make a Sims account there too. I'm RocketHorseSims there if anyone else is already there too!
Reblogged
random sim build ramblings
Really cannot overstate how productive this shift in perspective has been for me. Over the last few months I think I was lucky to finish two, maybe three new lots. Since implementing this "quantity first, quality later" approach, I've added and made significant progress on six in a matter of a bit over a week, and gained a better understanding of how I want to shape and expand on my hood(s)!
I've also started using this fun trick to help me decide what to work on next:
First, I split my hood and its sub-hoods up into six categories. For me, I separated my main 'hood into three different areas, then my University, Shopping District, and Downtown. You might include vacation destinations or combine other subhoods. But the main point is to have six categories, because you roll a dice to decide which area to build in. (Of course, we're all nerds, so the chance we have dice that go higher or lower than 6 is pretty good, but you get the idea.)
Then I roll the dice again to decide what kind of lot I'm going to build, like so:
- Residential Lot: Single homes, rowhouses, apartments, shared accommodation, hotels, dormitories,etc.
- True Community Lot: Lots for communal use that are typically unstaffed and earn little to no revenue, such as public parks, beaches, alleyways, empty fields, abandoned buildings, plains, wooded areas, ponds, playgrounds & outdoor courts, etc.
- Work Site: A place for work operations that does not make direct sales, such as offices, warehouses, factories, training facilities, etc.
- Retail/Business Lot: A place which generates revenue by the direct sale of a good or service (may be player-owned or not); Storefronts, restaurants & cafes, salons & spas, markets, etc.
- Entertainment Venue: A place which provides an experience which may or may not generate revenue, such as cinemas, theatres, museums & galleries, arcades, clubs, pools, etc.
- Public Service: A lot which provides a service for the community, usually not-for-profit; Fire stations, hospitals, public schools & libraries, community centres, town halls, public transport, etc.
Then I check to see what ideas I might have written down that fit in those categories and I pick something. If you're trying to build a 'hood from scratch this is a good way to get over decision paralysis!
There's something so uniquely beautiful about Sims fanart to me.
Because theoretically, this is a game with zero barrier to entry to creating pictures. You can dress your Sims up however you want, pose them however you want, then take screencaps and say they're doing whatever you want. You can use videos or screenshots of Sims to tell any story you like - and many do, with great success. Thanks to the Sims community you can mod your game to meet almost any aesthetic you can think of. There is, from a technical perspective, no shortage of visuals and "content" to be created just by using the game itself as your medium.
And yet people still want to draw it themselves. People still want to paint pictures and comics and memes of their favourite Sims and they want to do it in their own style. The game itself gives us unfettered 360 degree access to our blorbos and we still want to chew on them and translate them and make them our own. It's a game with no strict plot, no scripted ending, no limits to the sandbox, and yet! Players want to put the time and effort it takes into creating artwork of these Sims because they love them that much. And it's really beautiful.
#other games have more detailed character creation screens than the sims franchise but it's about the character as a Whole#like sure there are games that let you. idk. place individual pores and strands of hair (slight exaggeration)#but it's the combination of not only creating a unique character visually but also that their whole life is up to you#because when people draw or commission artwork of their BG3 or Fallout or other MMO character#a lot of that I think is to be able to visualise or explore things that those characters can't do within their own games#but almost anything is possible within the sims. and even if it's not technically possible it's all playing with dollies anyway#you can pose them well enough to LOOK like that's what they're doing and that's essentially the same#and the barrier to entry for modding or posing your characters is way way way lower than other games#but people are still like. LOVE this creature. I need to chew on it until it appears on this canvas translated through my eyes#because sometimes drawing your favourite characters is like cutting them a plate of fruit. the effort is the message#anyway I've been drawing (and specifically drawing fanart) my whole life#but it never really occurred to me to draw Sims fanart because as a kid I was like 'why not just take an actual picture of them?'#and now as an adult i'm like OHHHH. oh of course. I get it. it's because you want them to be a part of you and vice versa#(symbolically. i'm talking symbolically. for most of you)
Reblogged
Capp Manor Makeover
Download on SFS / MediaFire
Requires the Life Stories bundle; uses four store items (not included, list below)
Costs 573,301; 4 BR / 4,5 BA
More pictures under the cut
Coming up with lore for your Sims neighbourhoods is so fun and free and easy.
I was showing my boyfriend a lot I'd made that had the Bon Voyage tropical food stand on it, saying I couldn't decide whether I wanted to keep the pineapple or not.
He said, "I bet the local teens are always stealing that thing. Like it's a rite of passage."
Boom. Canon now. My Sim teen delinquents are always stealing the water park's giant pineapple and the owners keep futilely replacing it like it's a holiday straw goat. That's why sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.
What tiny tidbits of lore does your Sims neighbourhood have and how did you come up with them?
Hello! I was wondering if you have a custom version of the soccer kits default you created, I would really hate to bother you with a request, just wondering if it would be too much if you just share the alpha and i can create them for personal use if you don't mind. Thank you
Hi! Yes, of course I can do that. It's no bother at all! I'm open to requests like this, especially ones about CC I've already made.
I'll try and get to it ASAP, but in the meantime, if you have Bodyshop, making a non-default version of a clothing texture default is as easy as cloning the outfit in Bodyshop and then importing it straight back into your game. You can then take the defaults out and you'll keep your custom version of the outfit. But, this isn't always perfect (since Bodyshop will compress the textures again) so I'll try and make a custom version with my original files!
F for Fraternity, S for Sorority!
Calcinidae Bay is for all kinds of restricted-building challenges, not just shells, and the uni - Bernard University, named after one of the Bay's co-founders, Shelly Bernard - is where I'm doing my alphabet build challenge. To the left we have Felix Hall, which houses the Cham-Var-Cham Fraternity, and on the right we have Saintegiles House, home to the Annya-Urele Sorority.
They're still a mess inside but as per my new approach to hood-building I'm focusing on lot quantity at the moment and worrying about the details later!
#of course those are the official names of the buildings.#on campus everyone calls them 'The Cool S' and 'The Big F'#Calcinidae Bay#edit: forgot to mention if you're looking at this like 'wait why does this look so busted I can't put my finger on it-'#they're Lot Adjusted to be off-road facing each other. That's a fake apartment life alleyway 'road' between them#part of this challenge is that I'm also using neighbourhood maps made by other people so I'm limited in what I can do#and of course CC-free means nhood deco too lol so this is the best I could manage#edit 2: I guess I could make one of the lots one unit bigger in the 'front yard' and put down road flooring there#so that it would be visible from the neighbourhood#and have the actual 'road' clip into the other house#but all my alphabet challenge lots are 3x3 exactly and I don't really feel like messing with it even if the lot itself is still 3x3 yknow#sim build challenges are the craziest thing to try and tell anyone else about lmao it's like what if you nuzlocked your taxes#edit 3: I guess I could make an empty 1x3 lot and Lot Adjust it to sit exactly between these two lots#and have nothing there but the road floor tiles#because technically if the lot had no walls at all it would be within my rules for the hood#and just never send any of my Sims there#but ehh.......... I want to avoid functionless lots acting as glorified hood deco if I can help it#(I say as if my justification for every single build in this hood being wildly impractical isn't 'well it's not for playing anyway')
Reblogged grabbysimmyhands
me: man, I'm decorating this ts2 cc free lot, and I have this wall space, I just don't know what to put here...
La Cara Del Sol Sun: say no more
Reblogged sims2tutorials
Installing Scriptorium for Legacy Users
So you're a Sims 2 Legacy player who wanted to install some modular stairs? Maybe a lighting mod? You installed Scriptorium and you enter your game and suddenly your foundation is missing or crashes your game whenever you try to place it. Or maybe your pools and rooves have fences in them?
(images sourced from Lazy Duchess Discord server)
WTF did I do?
You've broken your script files!
Currently they look like this:
When they should look like this:
What do the script files do?
They give the game instructions and settings for certain build items that are generated by the game engine such as walls, foundations, pools, modular stairs, fireplaces, rooves, awnings and more. Lighting also uses scripts for some things. Some of these items require the scripts to display in catalog or at all.
How did this happen??
So i've seen two different ways, firstly, the auto installer installs in the wrong location. So what does the player do? They moves the files into the correct location.
The issue with this is the script files that Scriptorium creates when it can't find your game files are missing ALL of the original script lines. Then when you replace your existing script files with these, you basically are replacing your script files with a blank one (minus the Scriptorium lines).
Second way, when manually installing, the player deletes the contents of the original script files and replaces it with the Scriptorium lines.
This results in the same outcome shown in the example script.
Why does this affect only Legacy players?
Legacy uses different file paths. Scriptorium was last updated after M&G came out. The auto installer was made to work with the discs in both their original and compilation file paths. For example, Double Deluxe\Base or Sims 2, or Fun with Pets\SP9 etc. All other versions up until this point have used these paths so they never experienced this issue. EA decided to do something different this time and go by EP/SP numbers. So the installer gets confused and places them in the wrong place.
How do I fix this??
A few options, reinstall or repair your game, or replace the broken script files with the ones below. Place them in your C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Legacy\Base\TSData\Res\Catalog\Scripts folder. You may need to delete the files first that you are replacing and cut and paste the new ones in.
But I still want to use Scriptorium?
Once you have replaced your broken scripts, follow these manual instructions that I have modified from the original Scriptorium post for Legacy users.
Go to C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Legacy\Base\TSData\Res\Catalog\Scripts
And open the fireplaces.txt and copy and paste the line below at the bottom of this file without deleting the existing text.
wildInclude "Scriptorium_Fireplaces*.*"
Then save.
If you have issues with saving due to permissions, cut and paste the files to desktop while you are editing them and move them back after
Next open modularstairs.txt and add the text below
wildInclude "Scriptorium_ModularStairs*.*"
Then open walls.txt and add the text below
wildInclude "Scriptorium_Walls-Fences-Arches*.*"
While remaining in your Scripts folder, Create 3 new folders and call them
Scriptorium_Fireplaces Scriptorium_ModularStairs Scriptorium_Walls-Fences-Arches
Select these 3 folders and right click and choose copy.
Now go to Documents\EA Games\Sims 2 Legacy\Downloads (if you do not have a Downloads folder, create one)
Then right click and press paste shortcut
If you want to use custom lights as well, follow these steps
If your lighting.txt is also empty, this is a copy of the original version
Go to C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Legacy\Base\TSData\Res\Lights
Open lighting.txt and add
wildInclude "Scriptorium_CustomLights*.nlo"
While still in the Lights folder Create a folder called Scriptorium_CustomLights If you already have a folder called CEP3_CustomLights, rename it to Scriptorium_CustomLights
Right click on this folder and copy it
Then go to Documents\EA Games\Sims 2 Legacy\Downloads and paste shortcut
And you are all done :D
If you have any issues, feel free to leave a comment or send a message!
I know I'm getting avoidant with my IRL issues when all I want to do is play Sims lmao
On that note. Desperately seeking ideas or requests! Any Maxis meshes you'd like more recolours for (clothing, hair, or furniture)? Any lots you recently made in your own game that you think were fun? What have you been working on yourself recently? (I love hearing about other people's Sims games...)
