Nobility project: History, Coat of arms, High Orders and Jewelry

Oh my! I'm abroad at the time, far away from my game. But what do you do when you can't access your save? Planning ahead of course!

Or back. This Winter I started creating a detailed background for my community. I already have a couple noble families, mainly Duke de Cavalier and Lady de Sür-Blyth, but I wanted to know their background. Not just one geration, but five! Or ten, even! And my oh my - one thing can certainly lead to another!

The Duchess' Botanical Table

So, you know I have lots of TS4 game related stuff on a web site aside of this blog? It contains the Residents registry and lots of administration info from the 5 Councilor departments, and all is linked from the top, and also from some articles.

This Winter Duchess Claudine de Cavalier made her long going botany project public, and I think I forgot to mention it here. It's available from the Science & Education section of the mentioned web site. Over 10 years she investigated most plants, of course with hired gardeners doing most of the dirty work. Anyway, the result is a table where crops and flowers can be sorted in various ways: By group, by active seasons, and by earnings when growing normal plants and perfect plants.

This is very useful information if you want to grow the plants that will give the highest income, or if you want to be busy in your garden only in a specific season.

Although the main project is completed, there will be added more pictures and info on special plants.

Direct link to the Duchess' Botanical Tables.

It's rumored that the Duchess will be guesting the HIP Prime show in a few weeks, to tell us more from her findings.

As Sims Go By - Episode 3

Here is the 3rd episode of this season! In my ongoing video series As Sims Go By you follow the ups and downs of Region 12's 5 Councilors and their families. Plus in this season the main story deals with (my take on) the Villareal household's backstory! In this episode Wilhelmina gets lost, there is a party at the Chateau Cavalier, the secret vault project gets released, and there is also focus on University in several ways.

This season has only 5 episodes, each lasting about 16 minutes, so next chapter will be up late February.

If you are new to this series, it's recommended to watch season 1 (6 episodes), but you can hopefully enjoy this episode even if you start here.



Enjoy!

Free Will Show - Episode 9

Here's day 9 of the Free Will Show! And it's the most filthy day so far!

I basically think sims are less interesting than I expected, so a few more extras are added to the daily schedule. Starting with this episode, there in an additional Social Vote - we start gentle asking who shall hug their best in-house relation? Post a comment with one name - Charles, Brenda, Sonia or Ramona. They will get no points, but hopefully it might trigger some more social interest.

And there's more: starting in episode 10, Sim in Focus will be allowed to replace one object in the house - in today's episode you will see why this will become useful for them :)

More rule adjustments might occur for the 3rd season, so if you have any input. let's hear it!

For now - enjoy a new day in the Free Will house! And keep in mind that yopu can vote both for Social Vote and the daily Action. More info in the Youtube channel.

More videos coming soon

It feels stupid to blame my video updates delay on the Holidays, because my plans were actually to release more videos end of December. But whatever happened, I now see that there were absolutely no videos at all last month... not quite as planned...

A filty day in the Free Will house! Dump from the upcoming episode...

Good thing is that releases are pretty close:

New year and more projects

Happy new year! I've started 2020 with diving into my game's old history! I love story telling and history, and whenever I create something in my game I also like to know its origin. I want all my sims to have a background spanning many generations, even if those were never played out.

The past week I really dived deep, exploring the past of my Region 12. My year count is currently at Year 222, so I went right back to Year 0 - I imagine this was when the community transferred from TS1 to TS2 and time was no longer static. They started a new and needed to define a top level of society, to control community but also handle politics and wars. There was established an organization called the Royal Chamber, with the power to approve the best man for each peerage. Many families claimed a noble background from TS1, but brought no proofs. Hardly anything could be verified.

The Royal Chamber introduced the King of SimNation, Baltazar II of the De Froux family. This family had a Coat of arms already that could actually be verified, and left no doubt about high nobility (pictured). But for the rest?

Local Calendars - Free Download

July 2022: Downloading from this blogger post no longer works, so please head over to a new page listing all my TS4  custom content. All free. DOWNLOADS

(TS4) When we got Seasons, I was a bit disappointed that we got no calendars. I mean, if calendars would suit just one theme, it would be seasons. We already got a calendar with Get To Work, and another with Cats & Dogs, but that isn't enough when all households focus on weather and seasons. What about those not dedicated to pets or sims in uniforms?

So, I made my own calendars. They even got a local flare as they show pictures from each of my worlds - seven total! I tried to find general motives avoiding sims and building that are not in every version of that world. There are 4 alternatives per calendar, and with a color code per season it's easy to see if a family should switch to another season view (by using the design tool in buy mode).

I did not plan to share them quite yet, but hey - it's nearly New Year!

To use one or many - simply click on the link and save the package file in your game's Mods folder. These are 7 files, and you will save only those you want in your game. Cats & Dogs pack required.

Willow Creek

University Discoveries

[TS4 - picture thread] So, I've now enjoyed the Discover University pack for a couple weeks, and I'm still having lots of fun with it. I've focused on setting back time to graduate some of my older locals, who I imagine got a degree when hey were younger. It's been fun making them younger and dressing them up like students, especially hash business matrons like Corinne Dougham and Claudia Tangerin, who are some of the lead characters in my video series As Sims Go By (ASGB). I could of course have pretended they all got a degree and then cheated their career level, but I prefer the real thing! And - I wanted their graduation photo and diploma for their office walls :)

This is a picture thread, but I'll squeeze in some info, too. Who they are and some of the tricks I learned.

I did not count, but I probably graduated 20 locals so far, all taking place in the "past". Although graduation photos of the first lucky are black and white, I'll keep all pictures in this post unedited color wise.

Foxbury Commons - modified

[TS4 Discover University] Many of the lots that come with a new expansion pack are spacious and not directly packed with content. I guess it's like that because it might trigger many of us to add and modify to our taste, after all there are so many ways to play this game. Another point is that Discover University naturally come with only base game content + what's new in this pack. Most of us have tons of content to choose from, i.e. why should not a Common have an office with objects from Get To Work?

Anyway, I found the Foxbury Commons too spacious. It still takes my sims forever to cross the floor, walk the stairs, and then cross the 2nd floor to get to the chosen computer, but with my smaller adjustments this lot now has more purposes for my gaming style.

Basically I locked in the right side area, and turned it into a sports room with a pool. And, in the opposite end I built a few walls to add a small class room and an office that can be used by my future Professors.

Region 12 NEWS - Year 221

My regional year 221 is complete, and here's the annual NEWS edition!

These clips are max 5 minutes long, and they contain standard rubrics like News, Finance, Showbiz, Job listings, and of course various family notes. The Y221 edition features Suzi "Sushi" Stench, Myra Gupta - and many more!

Hosts to tie it all together are Paulo Caliente (NEW!) and Antoinette Morck.



You might find a few how I play tips, and most news have more details in the community section/residents registry linked from top of this blog. There is also some info in my As Sims Go By video series.

Foxbury - a Quick Tour

I'm currently spending my days in Britechester where 4 sims study for their degrees as a test. I mentioned them in a previous post, but did I say they all study at Foxbury Institute? They stay in a residential home so they actually just vanish by their front door, but when they go out to socialize, they mostly go to Foxbury Common.

Here are 3 of the 4, Jill N. Potterfield, Corinne Dougham and Salvador Kessler - all in a younger version than you might have seen them before, as they all appear in my video series As Sims Go By. I simply set them back a life stage to get the education I imagine these sims have, and after graduation they will become their real age again. Magic! Oh, if you wonder why the 4th sim is not pictured - he is taking this photo; Malcolm Landgraab.

Britechester - here I come!

So, my Region 12 community now has access to University of Britechester and Foxbury Institute! I'm enjoying it very much so far, but have hardly explored anything. It takes longer than I thought to get through one term, and with a test household of 4 active sims with 3 classes each, it gets quite a handful! I'm dong a test run with some of my older sims who I imagine did get a university grade long ago. Can't wait to see that diploma on their office wall :)

So, today I'm simply sharing a few pictures from the new world, University of Britechester, to be specific. I find it picturesque, lush and inviting, with some of the old town vibe of Windenburg. There are so many small streets that I want to explore, but the active area is naturally limited. Still amazing to have a look around!

There are some small beaches, and it's possible to wade and swim!