introducing...

noelle minton (heir) & bronson littler (future spouse)

friendship with my semi-hiatus ended, now this sim i made is my best friend 🤝

Snow Mountain Ville by Angela Ester

It's Wednesday, and it's a world overview, and for once this one isn't on the Exchange. Woo! But, it is an older world, uploaded in 2012, and it's a mountainous one. Mountain worlds will catch my attention even more than desert worlds will, so...yeah.

And this one's very pretty! Perpetually snow-capped mountains with more in the distance via a distant terrain (Sunset Valley's, I think), a big waterfall, lots of evergreen trees. Feels like home, to me. Just needs some aspens. (And, @echoweaver, it could be an excellent Warrior Cats world?)

It's a fairly big world, but I think it's still 1024x1024, and the playable area is pretty condensed, which IMO makes worlds easier to play. The world requires all EPs that existed at the time that it was uploaded, which is up to Pets. I don't think it requires anything from stuff packs or the Store, and there is no CC included or needed, as far as I can tell.

The world has many lots both community/rabbithole and residential. I'd say about 40% of the houses are fully furnished, and the rest are empty. (More about the residential lots after the cut.) The world has many duplicate rabbitholes (two hospitals, three science buildings, twi business buildings, a bunch of diners and bistros, etc.), but I suspect it's mostly for the look of the buildings rather than their function. For instance, the science rabbitholes look pretty industrial, and they're sitting in the part of the "downtown" that looks more industrial. With all those rabbitholes, it means there'll be plenty of job opportunities in the town, but if you use the Job Overhaul mod, it also means that the job your sim wants (or that you want them to have) might be drowned out by redundant offers from the redundant rabbitholes. So, you could delete some of the extras and replace them with something playable but with the right "look." Or, you could use the Transmogrifier to turn the extra rabbitholes into non-functional deco buildings. Whatever. My point is, they don't have to remain rabbitholes. LOL

The world has all of the available-at-the-time spawners except the WA fish ones, and they're well-distributed throughout the world.

The title of this post is a link to the world's upload on the creator's Blogspot blog. I'm not uploading a .world file this time because this world isn't on the Exchange, and the creator is active and creates lots and worlds/neighborhoods for TS2, TS3, and TS4. She is active on YouTube, but I wasn't able to find a Tumblr for her. So, I thought I'd advertise her on Tumblr, too. :)

If you download this world and find yourself liking it, I recommend taking a look at the creator's other downloads. There are four or five other worlds as nice as this one, as well as many lots in different sizes and styles that would fit into this world or others.

There's more specific info and many more pictures behind the cut.

First up, we'll do some overhead pics of the world in map view and Edit Town. Here are both views for most of the world:

You can see the redundant rabbitholes in the map view pic, mostly in the "downtown" area in the upper right of the pictures. There are also two salons, two firehouses, and two consignment shops in the world, though only one of each is categorized as such. The others are categorized as art galleries, for some reason. Both of the firehouses are EA, as is one of the salons and one of the consignment shops. I don't know if there was a rationale behind the duplication, but if I were to play this world, I'd probably replace the EA salon and consignment shop and one of the firehouses with something else, probably lot types for the later EPs. There are also some other community lots that are missing proper categorization. For instance, there's a laundromat that's categorized as no visitors allowed. Again, I don't know if this was intentional or if something just got messed up in the packing process or when I converted the sims3pack to a .world file. Whatever the case, it's easily changed/fixed.

Here are map view and Edit Town pics of the rest of the world:

As you can see, these lots are mostly residential, and there are a number of empty lots as well. I like that the residential lots in this world are broken out into distinct sections. So, let's take a look at some of them.

First, there are some apartment lots in the "downtown" area. A couple of them are EA lots from Late Night, though they may have been edited (I didn't look), but the others are original and are furnished. Some pics:

Then, in the lower right of the pics of the main part of the map, you can see a block of 27 residential lots. These are all identical one-bedroom houses on 20x20 lots, and they are all identically partitioned inside but empty. They look like this on the outside:

I don't personally have a use for 27 one-bedroom houses, so I would switch some of these out for other small bungalow houses I have that have more bedrooms, or build some new ones. But if you do have a use for 27 one-bedroom houses and are OK with the tract housing look, you can easily change exterior colors and add different plantings and stuff like that, so that they don't all look exactly the same, and then furnish up these little guys.

Speaking of little guys, another residential area is the small island connected to the downtown area by a bridge. It's in the top center of the overhead pics above. There are 8 small lots situated on a walk path on that island, and 3 of those lots have furnished houses on them. Again, they're little one-bedroom houses, but they're really cute, and they're spread out amongst the trees, some with mountain views and some with ocean views. Here are two of them:

I'd use these as my starters, personally. Assuming I'm starting with single sims.

And here are some pics of some of the other residential lots in the more "suburban" residential areas of the world, where the step-up/wealthy lots are. Plus there's another such pic before the cut on this post:

Overall, I quite like the residential lots in this world. Some of them are EA lots, but I think they've been edited a bit because they aren't the impractical eyesores that EA lots tend to be. The yellow mansion aside, they're very much my style because I prefer more compact houses. They're just easier to play, IMO, because you don't lose your sims in them. That said, I do think there are too many one-bedroom lots in this world because I tend to think that most players want their sims to procreate, and small, one-bedroom houses aren't very conducive to that, at least not in the long term. But, as I said, this is easily remedied, if you agree with me.

Next, we'll have a quick look at some of the community lots, most of which are in the "downtown" area:

Respectively, those are:

A cat park next door to one of the firehouses

The non-EA consignment shop

The library (on the left side of the pic) and the non-EA salon

A little park next to the city hall. There are a number of similar little parks in the "downtown" area. Some of them have some playground equipment on them, some just have seating. You could easily add more stuff to them, if you wanted to. Plus there's a full-blown playground next to the block of 27 one-bedroom houses.

A nectary with a big community garden next door

A chapel set up for weddings. Directly behind is the graveyard with a mausoleum. They are separate lots, but with no space between them.

Annnnd we'll finish off with some random scenery of this very pretty world. :)

🌈 2023 ✨

Another year is over so it's time for a look back at what was happening on this blog! I haven't really been around, it was just my queue, and maybe that's one reason why I looked at my archive and went "huh" at everything. I don't remember much. The other reason why this year probably went poof in my head is because I was dealing with some mental health stuff lol. I say lol but it wasn't actually very lol but I'm doing better now and 2024...is looking promising for now.

So, let's talk more under the cut, shall we?

January

We're in Bridgeport and Sawyer is living his best life. You know, girlfriends, boyfriends, being turned into a vampire, giving birth to three little vampires, threatening to sell his enemies' organs on the black market...best life indeed.

February

Okay I am now seeing that "talking more" about every month will be impossible since I actually don't have much recollection of 2023 lmao

March

Sawyer and Erin are at the best point of their relationship, but we left them alone for a bit and went back to NSB. Pastel just moved to Strangerville and got a...rather strange roommate.

April

The rather strange roommate becomes Pastel's rather strange wife. I love these two so much. We also say hello to Moss -- and also to Ross, who returns from...god knows where. I mean yeah, there was the ts3 Ross, but technically they're two different people. Parallel universes and stuff.

May

Thea is born and strange wife Jesse gets even stranger. That whole "merging with the mother plant" thing was kinda weird but I really enjoyed it. Idk what I was on but it was fun. And then, before returning to the lepacy, I posted my Cottage Living screenshots! ...which were really just me going "uwu what does this do" on every possible Wicked Whims option.

June

...and I went from posting weird WW Ross stuff to posting wholesome Growing Together Ross stuff. If that gave you a whiplash, I am sorry, but imagine what it must be like for me. I'm locked with this guy in my head 24/7. He's the whiplash king. A blorbo to you, a curse to me. A beloved curse tho. Ok I'm getting weird. Back to the lepacy.

July

Lepacy time! Loved the soap opera Generations gen. Kinda wish I had sticked to some of the storylines instead of going "eh nvm I just wanna play". I'm not saying I regret not actually letting Saywer go on a killing spree but also...imagine if he went on a killing spree. You don't see that in lepacies often do ya

August

August was...welp 💀 I was at the grippy socks hospital for most of that month, 10/10 would recommend, but my queue ran out while I was there so I just reblogged some old stuff for a few weeks.

September

September is just lepacy month. Cornelia and Archer are happy, they get married, they get more children...yeah. Good wholesome Generations times all around. It's not like they're gonna get divorced later or anything.

October

The twins are kind of chaotic, one of them turns into a ghost, both then bring their cursed imaginary friends to life...and the final child of Archer and Cornelia is born.

November

I loved running into Sawyer at the grocery store all the time. Weird vampire alleged killer grandpa behavior suits him. Dorothea goes away to a boarding school, hates it there and instantly comes back. Relatable. Oh and midlife crisis hits Archer hard.

December

And we're in December! Dorothea enters her horsegirl era and finds herself a girlfriend...and we'll continue that in 2024!

What's in store for the new year besides the lepacy? Well, Not So Berry will be making a return (and HOPEFULLY we'll finally get to the end. we need to). There's a story I want to do in the NSB universe, if you know you know. Before we dive into the next lepacy generation, I'm thinking of another BC with the gen 7 heir...oh and Marika's Black Widow. Shoot and I'm starting an irl job in January. Yeah no we're not doing all this in 2024, don't count on it 💀 But I'll try.

Happy New Year! 🎇

Get to Know Me - Sims Edition

i am so late to this but thank you to everyone who tagged and mentioned me!! i loved reading your answers, i love being nosy.

let me get this first q out of the way:

Who's your favourite sim that you've made?

it's a tie between my 2 little meow meows pictured above 🥺

amir because he's the oc i'm most attached to and have most fully developed

vlad because i just love the way his sim turned out and he's such a fun character to think about

if they ever met, vlad would be like "greetings." and amir would be like "bro what the fucckkk" 😭

speaking of vampires i also love the idea of au-vampire-amir being this ashamed, existential crisis having vegetarian vampire who struggles with controlling and hiding his bloodlust.

i never get bored coming up with ideas for those 2.

rest of my answers below the cut :3

What's your favourite Sims death?

it's been YEARS since i intentionally made any of sims die. i barely do gameplay these days and i am attached to the sims i make. but when i used to play sims chaotically, i preferred to "accidentally" murder sims by fire instead of deleting the pool ladder. i would furnish their houses with the cheapest stoves and fireplaces, and sit back and watching the inevitable unfold... it was the final destination fan in me.

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

i can't live without alpha hair and i love a well done piece of alpha clothing.

Favourite Mod?

CmarNYC morphing penis 😐

for a sfw mod, pose player was truly a game changer, can't play without it.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

i never bought any of them 💅 the first one i p*rated was late night because umm a fancy city, bars and clubs, celebs and vampires, 2000s hoe clothes... what more could you want!

Do you pronounce live mode or aLIVE or LiVing?

a-live!

Have you made a simself?

no ❤

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

if we're talking about TS4, i think the ginger hair colour is okay and the grey too. for TS3, i don't use any of the default hair colour presets.

Favorite EA hair?

i've tried so hard and i just cannot enjoy any of them compared to the alpha cc hair available. in my opinion this is the least offensive one, the "teddy" from the store:

Favorite life stage?

young adult

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

i'm in it for cas and the storytelling medium

Are you a CC creator?

hehe...

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

i consider all the people i frequently engage with to be my simblr friends!! 💗

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

i've considered recording, editing and uploading speed CAS videos but it seems like a lot of effort 😭

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

i've always preferred creating masculine male sims/characters, that hasn't changed throughout the years. i've learned how to take better pictures, how to style my sims better, how to create the kinds of clothes i want to style them in, and i've learned my preferred slider settings and facial features/proportions. i make the same "genre" of male sims over and over and over again, so my style hasn't really changed, but my skills have improved and i've solidified my aesthetic which i am proud of :D

Who's your favourite CC creator?

i really can't pick a favourite because there is just so much sheer talent and a thriving cc community even today, but if i had to pick one, i would say rustynail. i used the shit out of their cc back in the day. everything my sims wore was straight off the runway darling... rusty brought glamour and high fashion to the sims! an inspiration.

How long have you had a simblr?

since even before 2013 😭 tumblr was my main social media for many years LMFAOOOOO and i made a simblr after following many ts3 blogs, being wowed by their screenshots, and i wanted to join in on the fun and wanted to download all the cool cc people were making... that was the start of my ts3 obsession !

How do you edit your pictures?

i use a gshade preset i made, then i mostly just crop and add text in gimp. i don't have the patience to edit my pics.

What expansion/ stuff pack is your favourite?

late night duh and seasons is a close second because it just makes the game so much more immersive and beautiful. pets is also a top one because it adds so much to the game, it's such a well thought out pack in my opinion, and what life simulator can be complete without pets?

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. 😊

howdy! i'm kai (she/her), a 23 year old grad student who loves the sims. i had a simblr once, but i stressed myself out by trying to be too big and elaborate so i deleted it. now that i'm a few years removed from it, i've wanted to make my return to share my sims, builds, and some casual gameplay!

you can also check out my main blog, @miwtual — i'll be there when i'm not posting sims stuff.

gameplay

♡ newcrest to moonlight bay — all / builds / sims / gameplay / (desktop) page — posts on mondays between 11am-7pm CST [ ts3 on xbox 360 was my first proper sims game i ever played, and in honor of those sims i spent hundreds of hours playing with, i'm recreating them in ts4 in newcrest. will eventually turn into me doing some rotational gameplay with the neighborhood! ]

♡ graves legacy — beginning / current / (desktop) page — posts on wednesdays between 11am-7pm CST [ some cozy casual legacy gameplay where everyone in the family is going to be goth, so help me GOD ]

♡ RE: not so berry challenge — beginning / current / (desktop) page — posts on fridays between 11am-7pm CST [ i made a personal rewrite of the not so berry legacy challenge a while ago, so this will be my attempt at playing it! ]

other stuff

♡ my mods folder — (desktop) page [ what it says on the tin, i put my commonly used mods and custom content on this page for those curious of what i use! i'm also wcif friendly, so if you see me use something and aren't sure what it is, feel free to ask :) ]

♡ other links — cc finds / my sims / my builds / challenges

Just a ramble about aesthetics and things

Like most of us, I also saw that aesthetics question going round and since reading it and the responses to it, I've been thinking about it more than I should, which in turn got me thinking about other things Simblr and community related and I decided to share my two cents about it as well.

The question stated in the poll was "How important do you think 'aesthetic quality' is in the simblr community?" and the answers varied immensely. Doing a quick Tumblr/Simblr scroll, the answer would have to be 'very important', because most images showing up are very gorgeous: beautiful colours, great compositions, perfect lighting. However, when I check the tab that shows which posts I have liked, the pattern changes: it's the storytellers who get most of my Tumblr hearts. And then it doesn't matter whether it's part of an elaborate story that's been going on for years with several plot twists, or just a family having breakfast. I like both equally, because both tell a story. Sure, I like a nice Sim picture as much as the next person, but for me, it will always be about the story it tells much more than the aesthetics of it.

The same is true for my own posts: I just want to tell my stories, share my Sims, my town. Yes, I sometimes post picture posts of lots I've built. At first glance, you could say that's about aesthetics more than storytelling. But it's not. Because of the way I play, everything is connected: the story is Honeycomb Valley and everything from the lots to the Sims to the seemingly random things that happen to them are all part of it. Sure, I love creating beautiful lots, but that's mostly because I like realism in my game. I like to see my sims in places that look true to life. And because this is a self-created world, it can look like the best version of that life. 😉

In taking pictures, I try to get the best angle and before posting I run my pictures through Picmonkey to do a bit of basic editing, which is mostly just an auto adjust of brightness and shadows. Literally two clicks and I'm done. I hadn't even heard of Reshade and all those other -shades until a month or two ago. 😄

I read another reply saying how everyone who has a Simblr does so for the notes, because if you're not in it for the notes, why have a Simblr in the first place? This made me laugh. I get the point, but if I was in it for the notes, I might as well leave today. I averaged around 20 notes per post during my glory days and only around 9 since returning after my hiatus. I can think of many reasons why this is:

My posts can seem very incoherent: I can be posting about James Wyler one day and about Luke Bennett the next. These two have never even crossed paths and their stories have no apparent connection whatsoever. I can imagine how this makes my stories and my Sims hard to follow for most.

I don’t post my full stories on here. Reading them requires a visit to my WordPress blog. I understand how most people just want to do a quick scroll, read, like, and move on.

I am and will forever be TS3 player. And we're simply a smaller crowd in the Simblr universe currently.

I was gone for five years.

Now, I could change all of this (except for that last one) and possibly get more followers and more notes. But I don't want to. Yes, of course, I love getting a notification saying someone liked my post. I appreciate the support and the love and it makes me very happy to see there are people out there who like the stories I write, the lots I build and feel connected to my Sims to some degree. So in that sense, I get why someone would say we're all in it for the notes. But I don't care about the quantity. I love those 9 just as much as I love the 195 I once received on my much-reblogged post of The Greenery.

So, I'm not changing a thing. I'm keeping my WordPress blog as my main Sims home because that's where everything connects. Where it does make sense that I'm posting about James on day 1 and about Luke on day 2. Where the story is Honeycomb Valley. Where you can click from a story to a Sim profile and vice versa. And my Simblr will remain a place to just post bits and pieces (and rambles like this) and to stay connected to the ones who are interested in me, my stories and my Sims. I love my 9 notes and I love the 3 people who click on to visit my WordPress blog and read my full stories a little bit extra. 😉❤️

One last thing I would like to add to this already much too-long rant is how much I miss the old Sim community. The days of the forums and the tight-knit online group us Sims veterans were. Discovering and becoming a part of the Sim community back then has meant a lot to me. I miss that. I realise I sound like a grandmother now, reminiscing about the good old days, so maybe it's time to end this post. 😄

Anyway, that's my ramble of thoughts on aesthetics, Simblrs and community. Thanks for reading. 😊

I'm alive!!!

Hello in 2024. Easter Sunday has always been my Simmer's Return time for some reason. Holy shit my bio still says I'm 19.

I'm not even sure if anyone still follows this blog anymore. I MISSED the community so badly, I missed sims, and I missed writing sim stories. This blog turns 11 in June and it's so surreal to realise this, honestly.

Where have I been? Well, mostly sinking the past 4 years into the terrible, terrible game known as Destiny 2 over at @flowers-of-io and writing fics for it on AO3. I'm 23 now, BA of Journalism & Media Studies, and I work in a newspaper. This is my rags (13 yo Simmer with broken English) to riches (well, still below minimum wage, but at least they PAY ME for WRITING!!!!) story.

I'm happy! I think it's important to say, because over my time in this community and running this blog I've gone through some of the darkest periods of my life, and I want to make a statement that Things Change and Hope Exists. I'm in a long-term relationship, living on my own, doing a job that I love, and pursuing therapy that helps me immensely. And I write every day. I'm happy.

Am I back? Maybe; that depends if my TS2 gets a grip and stops crashing randomly every now and then, because I've given up on trying to battle with my laptop to stop overheating when I so much as open TS3. Am I going to finish Postcards from Nowhere? I'd love to, but we'll see about that as well. I'm incredibly emotional to be posting here again if I'm being honest. This blog has been with me for almost half of my life and it's so odd to be coming back having left it half-desolate, feeling almost like a stranger in my own home. I truly hope anyone is still here.

And even if not, it's good to be back. I missed you.

New Year's Resolutions 2024

Thanks to @nocturnalazure for tagging me!

Also, anyone else I might've missed. 😢 I don't know if there's a way to distinguish being tagged on a post vs on a comment in tumblr, but it would be helpful when I know I was tagged a bit ago, but I don't remember by whom.

What's your resolution for your simblr?

OK, I guess I have some categories of goals.

Modding resolution: Release the Warriorcats Mod.

This mod is really close to done, but I'm in animation muck. I both hate seeing animations look bad AND I'm not an animator. For training interactions, I need multi-sim animations where one sim observes while the other acts, and when I tried to do this, I realized that I have a lot to learn before I can make this do what I want. I need one more good run in a geeky minset, and this thing will be read to at least release as beta.

This thing is bottlenecking other smaller mod ideas. I'm proud of it, and I want to finish it. But the turn of the year has been really bad for high-effort hobby energy.

For those who have sent me asks about this mod, I am going to say something that you should absolutely not apply any other modder, including me, for anything else. Bugging me about this (in a nice way!) is probably the best way to get it finished. Hearing from folks who use my pets mods makes my heart sing. Knowing that someone cares is the best source of positive energy I have.

It's a new year, and some very high-stress stuff in my personal life has improved. I know can do this in 2024.

In my points of low mood, I have wondered if there's even any point to finishing something this high-effort for a game this old. But, like Minecraft, TS3 never seems to die. 2022-3 was actually a modding renaissance. I have built some interest in TS4 at the end of this year, but it hasn't made me even a little bit interested in abandoning TS3. So I'm going to do my best to set that demotivating nonsense aside.

Gaming resolution: Finish the Samples.

I can't believe I actually wrote that, but it could happen in 2024. Generation 8 is starting in gameplay, and in a 10-generation legacy, this is the last "complete" generation.

I will never do another 10-generation anything. There are two many different and interesting

Blogging resolution: Catch the Wonderlands up to the present.

I stopped playing halfway through Gen 3. I originally started posting this challenge on tumblr during Gen 2 when I created this simblr some horrifying number of years ago. Gen 1 was all on Wordpress and is new to the simblr. I've been reluctant to play forward on the challenge until I can bring the simblr with it.

2. What do you want from the sims franchise?

Haha. That's a complicated question. I think I may always be a TS3 player at my core. I send retroactive apologies to every TS2 players I looked askance at ten+ years ago. With that in mind, I can't reasonably expect much of anything from EA on my core hobby.

My pie-in-the-sky dream would be a 64-bit update for TS3 on Windows. That's not completely impossible, but it doesn't look likely to happen.

I'm keeping an eye on Project Rene. EA has given a good sense that they learned from the player response to TS3 & 4, and 5 could be a good synthesis. OTOH, the PRIMARY ask I have from them is 100% offline play, and I don't have a lot of hope. Though EA made the commitment to offline play for TS4, they've been clawing it back by inches over the years, and they even quietly made it impossible to install fresly-downloaded TS3 store content on 1.67. I'm fighting hard to keep my TS3 game at 1.67 because I want to be able to play on airplanes and in places I simply cannot log in. I don't give a !@#$ whether EA can validate my license. They're making enough money. They can stuff it in their butts. So, with that said, I am just assuming that TS3 1.67 is going to be the core of my fandom for the forseeable future, but my mind isn't closed. If TS5 is otherwise awesome, I can branch out.

My biggest hope for the franchise is from the fandom -- that the TS3 modding renaissance will continue. We keep renewing this old game, and as it continues to be renewed, there continue to be amazing fun new ways to play it. Thank you folks so much.

3. Any other new year's resolution?

Getting my Hobbit fanedit accepted by the Fanedit Academy at fanedit.org.

Heh. So, I have a very long drama story about my fanediting hobby. I flamed off the fanedit.org community when I attempted to submit my first edit years ago (The Hobbit, which should surprise exactly nobody who has looked at fanedits). I was floored when, in 2023, I was contacted by the head of that site to apologize for that situation and ask me to resubmit. It appears that my treatment by the reviewers prompted him to clean house and build a more welcoming community. Wow.

So, now my very first edit is under review by the "Faneditors Academy," which is the primary way to reach new viewers and gain feedback in this hobby. The site leader is involved in my review, but one of the reviewers is one of guys who treated me badly the first time, and he's complex to work with -- there's an undercurrent of him trying to justify rejecting me without a review the first time. I am determined to see this review through to the end. I am very proud of this edit. Also, the feedback is definitely leading me to take it the next level.

But I'll be honest -- working through the criticism and revisions is one reason I haven't touched the Warriorcats mod in months. I need to clear my mind and my plate to really focus on addressing feedback, and the criticism level makes that draining.

[Sharing from personal life -- another reason my modding dropped off is that this winter my trans wife came out to my socially conservative parents. We are not disowned, but it's been complicated and emotionally draining. Lighthearted play with stream-of-consciousness commentary is about as deep as I've been able to go for months.]

Sims 3 performance tweaks

OLD OLD OLD OLD OLD OLD OLD OLD

GO HERE INSTEAD THANKS BYE

Updated 24/11/23 - RIP DXVK 😭for now

Updated 12/10/23 :) - added some more details, including important info about ObjectSizeCullFactor, which could be the holy grail for potato PCs. Also updated the linked files.

I figured I'd make a proper blog post instead of just random scattered discord posts. Here are some of the things I've done to improve my sims 3 performance, and (mostly) remove stuttering, as well as some stuff to increase the graphics quality. I don't know how accurate any of this is, but it's helped my game a lot  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Please note that I have a 2070, and I would recommend having >2gb for your GPU if using these tweaks (and just in general). While these settings and tweaks might help you if you're on an older card, I have no way of really checking that.

This guide is mostly focused on reducing stutter, with a few tips thrown in for reducing memory usage for the girlies with the large luxurious games and Error 12 problems.

Stutter?

Stutter (or frame drops) are sadly a part of the sims 3, th-e-y're th-e frequ-ent hitches where the game "freezes" for a second, often when moving the camera.

The main tweaks will help reduce stuttering while the game is paused, sadly while playing the game, you're still gunna chug along. Object and sim loading/unloading/displaying/hiding causes a large amount of the stutter, so unless you have an older computer, most of the graphics settings aren't going to help you, but will (in a few cases) help with reducing memory usage.

If you'd like to try this out, there's the (top secret super hidden) config value prop $ConfigGroup ForceHighLODObjects 1, which forces everything to high LOD, which should make the game overall a whole lot smoother both paused and unpaused (high detail lots will still lag it when loading tho) compared to the default settings. Just add a new line under one of the settings fields with it in. Do not use this in your normal gameplay unless playing in a small map, as it greatly increases memory usage. Looks real pretty though.

!!THESE CHANGES SHOULD BE MADE ON TOP OF A GraphicsRules.SRG FILE THAT SUPPORTS YOUR GRAPHICS CARD!!

Either download one that has been updated, update it yourself, or use the tool. No longer providing my own but might in the future.

Main Performance Tweak - LODs

The main setting that helped alleviate most stuttering for me was RenderSimLODDistances in the GraphicsRules.srg file (\The Sims 3\Game\Bin). Essentially we change it to load the low quality LOD models from muuuch further.

prop $ConfigGroup RenderSimLODDistances "70, 70, 9999999, 9999999"

The values for this are highres lot distance, highres world distance, low lot, low world. In an ideal world we would be able to max out high res, but due to how the culling works, that just increases stuttering. I would also recommend turning off ForceActiveLotObjectsToHighLOD if you're using high detail lots > 1, and MinSimLOD to 0

I recommend tweaking the highres values if you get lag when zooming in.

For more memory

I would HIGHLY recommend dropping ActiveLODLimit and ObjectSizeCullFactor, as they are a much better way of reducing loaded in assets. You can be fairly ruthless with them, I recommend dropping ObjectSizeCullFactor down to <75~, and ActiveLODLimit (dunno if this actually does anything) the same (too low and the game will never load). Raise it up if you're noticing pop-in. IIRC your household lot loads everything regardless(?)

If you're frequently running into Error 12, or playing large households, I, sadly, recommend keeping "Max Detail Lots" at 1. I would also recommend DropTexMipsOnLoad = 0 (shouldn't help but it does), and maybe tweaking some of the texture sizes to lower res, depending on your preferences (a lot get crushed anyway). Other options like culling and LOD distances have basically no impact on overall memory use and are safe to increase. Make sure you're also using my memory notifier/freer thing too ;^)

Graphics

Things that didn't have any/much of a performance impact but make the game look better (in my opinion)

Clip planes

Bane of my existence

prop $ConfigGroup ClipPlaneMapViewDistances "1.0, 12000.0" This is basically how far you can see, I recommend raising this, as I noticed 0 performance hit at all, and I like to be able to see the pretty maps (You'd be surprised at how good some look!). Some maps look a little scuffed with it maxed out, or have seams, however this can be reduced with…

Fog

FogDistances I have mine set to FogDistances "300, 600, 3000, 8000" and FogCurveModifier "9, 1" This is personal preference, and I'd recommend playing around with it to find something that works for your world and clip distance. Neither options have any noticeable performance impact for me (objects still load regardless of clip/fog distance).

AllowImpostorUnload no clue what this does, I set it to false

Trees

Max em out

setting $VeryHigh prop $ConfigGroup RenderTreeLargeLODDistances "-100, 999999, 10, 3300" prop $ConfigGroup RenderTreeSmallLODDistances "-100, 999999, 10, 3300" prop $ConfigGroup RenderTreeShrubLODDistances "-100, 999999, 10, 3300" prop $ConfigGroup RenderTreeGroundLODDistances "-100, 999999, 10, 3300"

There's no real reason not to. You could change the values so it loads the low(er) res ones further away and then higher ones in after, but the performance hit was nothing for me. Having all the trees there looks reaaaallllyy nice on some towns.

Random other tweaks

Things I changed from default ShadowMapSize 4096 - I think this does something??? 🤷

prop $ConfigGroup TextureSizeThreshold 4096 prop $ConfigGroup RttSizeSmall 1024 prop $ConfigGroup RttSizeLarge 2048

these don't really have any impact, but in my mind it makes sense to increase them

DXVK and dxwrapper

!!!! THIS MIGHT NOT WORK FOR EA LAUNCHER IDK !!!

UPDATE: I no longer recommend DXVK due to it increasing overall memory usage, having said that, dxwrapper is still very nice, I'd recommend using it over LazyDuchess's ASI loader. Keeping this here down the bottom just in case.

If you are using dxvk, I use(d) dxvk-async but you should be fine to use the main repo. On top of this I use dxwrapper for the exception handling features.

One thing you'll have to keep in mind is Your Options.ini file will need to be remade if using dxvk since it looks like you've installed a new GPU.

To install, just shove the right dll's into your \The Sims 3\Game\Bin folder - d3d9.dll for dxvk, everything from dxwrapper and the ddraw.dll from its Stubs folder. If you're using Smooth Patch, which you should be, it's okay to delete the ddraw provided with it, as dxwrapper can do .asi plugin loading itself (LoadPlugins = 1 in ini). You should see a few new files pop up when you launch the game if installed correctly, dxwrapper.log and TS3W.dxvk-cache

If you're using reshade, rename the reshade dll to dxgi.dll

depth buffer might not work, I'm not 100% sure, so keep that in mind

Sul sul!

ok so finally, after too much time, i'm making my intro post! my name is cam (she/her), i'm 25, i speak spanish and english. i made this simblr because i wanted to separate the sims stuff from the stuff i follow on my other blog. the name comes from the fact that my favorite color is green, and the plumbob is also green 💚

more rambling and info about me under the cut!

this is technically my second simblr as i had a TS2 one in like 2016 when i graduated from school and was obsessed with berry sims but for the life of me i can't remember what it was called.

i've been playing the sims since my childhood when I used to play in my mom's computer without any cc or mods until i found out about them and turned into a cc addict lol. i started with TS3, then TS2 and didn't play TS4 until cats and dogs came out i'm a recently graduated veterinarian, that hopefully explains why

the sim in the pic above and my pfp is my atempt at a simself that i'm never satisfied with, and the dogs are my real life dogs!

i honestly dont know what i will post here, maybe some screenshots and reblog cc, maybe i will attempt some challenges or share some of my little pixel babies. maybe this will all go to trash when i get a job, but for now i wanna have fun and maybe make some friends!

if youre still here, thanks for reading!

I have been following you for years and see that you have a sim story now. I'm thinking about making my own story and wondering what made you start after all these years.

Tbh I'm not really sure why I decided to do this. It just happened like I had my core 3 sims (Antoinette, Matt, Indee) for years like since ts3.

And I never did anything with them (not saying you have to) like they had no real personalities (still kinda don't) but the few details of their backgrounds (like me always giving matt a son for some reason) was always a thing. So I randomly started to plan stuff out in google docs and it turned to 10 parts now it's almost 30 parts including my other/new sims.

Half of it is inspired by gameplay. So playing the game and roleplaying helped.

Replies...

Okaaaay. Not really a good start of the month, especially my birth month. Made silly mistakes here and there, mixed in with a little drama. But some of you took time replying to my posts, and thank you for that. And sorry if I don't get to reply that fast. Anyway...

>> 6 Oct 2022: Happy Simblreen Everyone...

@kevinvoncrastenburg: "Omg the Sims 2 mirrors! So awesome, thank you so much for sharing! 🎃💜"

@bast-sims: "💗🖤🖤🖤💗"

@nornities: "Ohhh... there are not enough nice mirrors, so thank you!"

@joshttew: "Halloween vibes are serving with this and such a great idea to turn paintings into mirrors, so they could be combined (▉ ▉ ▉)"

Thank you all! I'm super glad you liked them.

@fluttereyes-ts3-blog: "I'll also just be sharing Halloween themed tat, can't be bothered with all the ceremonials."

Agreed, just share 'em right ahead and there you go!

>> 6 Oct 2022: Uhhh...so there's a mistake that happened...

@bioniczombie: "just gonna go ahead and put those in my game now.... :D and ty for sharing!! <3 and happy early birthday!!!"

Hihihi...thanks for the early greeting! I hope you liked them...

>> 7 Oct 2022: Ouch. Youtube. Ouch...

@puffkins2000s: "Wow. I feel called out on Tumblr now. >_<;;"

Yeah, I'm pretty amused at how the internet secretly reads our minds...

>> 8 Oct 2022: Couldn't check tumblr while at work because I ran out of cellular data...

@bioniczombie: "I've noticed post notes seem to die off pretty quickly. I do get notes sporadically for older posts, though!"

I think this is kinda true especially for new simblrs that isn't TS4. And yeah, I could say the same for older posts too. I get some notes too but most of the time they're from bots :(

@celtysims: "I feel that"

Yeah, kinda depressing isn't it? But I'm trying my best to get it off my mind..

@nornities: "But that's normal and to be expected. It doesn't tell anything about wether people like what you do or not. So please don't take it personal and even more important, don't let the number of notes govern your fun."

I know, I know. But the feeling of insecurity still gets to me sometimes. Like I said, I try to get it off my mind but today I just felt a little bit dramatic..(hormones, I guess?). Thanks anyway..

Haha Clara, your Sims posts bring my own times with the Simblr community to my mind 😂 I was like uhh 19 at the time? Wow, it's been 8 years, I'm an old hag. I remember being so proud because I wrote these sims stories into my Finnish blogspot blog and there was this content creator who created cc specifically for people who wanted to build restaurants, schools, hospitals etc and she was really popular and all the Finnish sims story writers used her cc in their settings AND SHE FOLLOWED ME and I would say we were sorta friends too?? Haha I remember being so proud about it 😂 Your pics just make me wanna blow the dust off my own Sims games and try creating a sim. (TS4 isn't my piece of cake though, I mean I do love how customizable it is but I personally hate the gameplay, though I guess I could try to just pack it with CC and decorate houses and create sims or do makeovers to Maxis Sims and redecorate their houses with it and then take photos without actually playing because I have the most experience with TS3 and I'm still pretty proud of some of my sims I created back when I blogged about it but damn I hate the bugginess and it being a Crash EAcoot, TS2 is my favorite when we look at the gameplay but I don't really like creating sims or decorating with it so)

I didn't know you used to play the sims too! It's honestly the videogame franchise I've been playing for the longest. i would play the sims 2 on my cousin's computer before my parents bought me the sims 3 and oh BOY... it got me hooked. I spent my best years playing the sims 3 and I wholeheartedly believe that it's the best in the franchise! I didn't plan on buying the Sims 4 actually, I was turned off by the comics-style graphics and the lack of open world. I clung onto TS3 for years, until I played a free demo of the sims 4 and I caved... and here I am, several years and a 4 Go Mods folder later, lol.

maybe you should try creating a Sim too? it would bring back good memories, I'm sure. and it's so relaxing to me!

Anniversary Part 2

happy 1 year to my OTP, @sparklyunicornsims thank you for blessing mine and Max’s lives with Harlow, you’re both babes

♡ click for hq ♡