Welcome! :) On this blog you will find stories, how i play and videos created with The Sims 4, but also a few projects from older game versions can be found in the Archive. The old TS3 stories have their own blogs. Most long going stories have a main page with index of updates.

Check out Simmerville's Youtube channel!

I'm no longer on Tumblr! I refused to give all their 3rd parties unlimited access to my computer. Link still works, but no updates.

News May 2022: Mazaloom History Book.

Wednesday, 9 November 2022

This Blog, this Winter

I have tons of plans for both my game and content for this blog. The planned stuff is mostly for my own notes, but also because some of you might like to see how I play and perhaps get inspired to develop your own universe.

Don't hesitate leaving a comment on what you might like to read about! Here's some of those plans:

Newspaper!

* The blog (or rather the connected web site) will get an auto-updating newspaper! That's what the right side top "coming soon" icon is all about. I was planning creating the newspaper right after Summer, but real life got busy. It's mainly a programming challenge or my self, so I intend finding enough time to actually enjoy creating it. The newspaper will gather news from the many resident registers, without me needing to do a lot once it's up and running. There will also be a few head-line news linking to blog posts. It's meant to be a quick way to keep up on community news.

New Video Contest!
* We're done with the Free Will Show, and I'll never again start a never-ending show like that. But video series are always fun creating, especially if they follow a certain format meaning each episode won't take forever to create. Late November a new show will premier on my Youtube channel, and I'm quite eager to see it launched. There will be 6 weekly episodes (each 5 minutes?), and you will be asked to vote at least on the first 4. Main concept will be music, but I'll not reveal more at the moment - just that the advertising is about to start, and the release notes will be posted next week both here on the blog and on the official the sims 4 forum. (There were a few advertisement leaks already here on the blog, did you catch them?...).

New Video Series #2!
* Another video concept will premier some time during this Winter, probably in December. This time it will be all about noble estates! Briefly, there will be a tour with footage from inside many top nobility homes. The focus will be their public quarters as well as some family history. I always loved looking around with walls up, and it's high time to show off a bit more! Because my game is lagging a bit, this will be perfect as it can be combined with stills/voice over. It will be in Simlish of course, and it remains finding the host. This series will be more random, I expect one episode every 5 weeks or so.

New time management of my game
* This far I played rotationally, often with just one single day per household. Yes, it was mostly stressful, and often felt more like a chore than a good game. Now I made the sim year twice as long (28 days per season) and I'm playing up to 5 days per household. I still keep notes on what houses were played because I want all 100+ in my rotation , but the order is now random, and I play more according to what I like to play next. Many schedules do help me with this order, basically I will stop by when there is a birth or birthday or wedding etc. Main change is that I will be allowed to go deeper, ie I never had a chance to build toddler skills. It's too early to say whether this will affect this blog, but I think more in depth focus in game might trigger a few personal portraits, but not anytime soon - time will tell.

A more detailed community system
* I think my game was already one of the  most nerdy community focused games around, but now it    became even more fixed. The nobility system you already know about. The school system had a revamp. Also the political parties have been explored on the blog, and with the "new" Year 120 Constitution and the three Chambers, the election was a lot more meaningful and entertaining to me. I'm not playing The People Chamber in detail, but I know what Politician is seated exactly where, and what departments they work under.

New is that also the religion is currently being revamped. I finally know what/when/who regarding the old Jacoban and Peteran faiths (Medieval) and the current stately religion Church of Similius now has perishes and a system for Priests and one High Priest. Finally I know who they all are, I'll not play them in detail, but they will play a part in story telling and pictures. The top priest families will of course blend more with nobility over time. A mini blog series involving all three religions will come this Winter. Other community areas that will see a revamped organization during this Winter are Showbiz, Military, Sports, Police, Medicine and more. On top of this I want to know who owns every single community lot in ALL my worlds... At least 2 of those should be handled this Winter.

Gossips with Antoinette
* This series seems to be popular and it will continue. I find it a nice and quick way to share minor stuff. Plus - it's fun to gather content for the next issue.

World overviews
* This Winter there will most likely be a series with one chapter per world, including the world map with a few details on who lives where etc. It's still in the planning, but I think it will be useful seeing the larger picture every now and then. I was thinking to include history and tourist sights, but I think it will become too much work, and be better to split up for a future tourism series.

History Book
* It's no longer brand new, but you might have missed that on the website there is a large section presented as Mazaloom kingdom's history book. Lately it was frequently expanded, and you can sort the content by department and region - and more. Biography content links to each sim's bio page, and because all posts are sorted by year, you can see development ever since Medieval age - covering a total of 230 years!

More kingdoms in the planning!
* Finally - not really blog content and I'm not planning to play more kingdoms in detail, but I figured I need some info on additional kingdoms for my story telling. In my notebook there were always the Sea kingdom and the Snorty kingdom, but we heard hardly anything regarding their royals or history. You will now hear more about those, but mostly as a background carpet for my played regents of the Mazaloom kingdom.


There will of course be the regular content, also, and I'll keep releasing those short "Simmerville's screenshot folder" videos on my youtube chanel, including random screenies from my game.

So - this Winter might become a tad busy. I wish for long days, bad weather and a clear brain ;)

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