Jun 2, 2016

The Sims 4 Gender Options

You knew I was going to post about this, didn't you? How could I not?

I'm incredibly happy with EA's latest stride with Sims 4, removing gendered customization barriers and opening up CAS options to allow for more diverse sims. This is such a big stride for trans inclusion in video games! Sims is an incredibly popular and highly influential franchise so to see such a big name taking this leap makes me beyond excited.

Small legacy update: I took a break from playing my legacy for a bit but I'm getting back into it now and I'm almost ready to pick the heir for Gen. 5! I'll post more once I reach that milestone.

May 20, 2016

Things That Ghosts Like To Do In My House

Welcome back to my simself's legacy! This post is all about the ghosts. Because they won't fuck off, seriously.

Caitlin, Miriam and Ziba have been haunting the new house like mad. And the thing is, they will not return to their graves! Normally they return to their grave around when morning hits, right? Not these guys! These fuckers are determined to make the remaining family's lives as hard as they fucking can. I used resetsim to send them all back to the grave after their initial three-day stint, but now they've been out for about a week and I just haven't bothered. This is a chronicling of them fucking up my game.

The three of them enjoy performing a great many tasks inside of this fantastical new house! A lot of what they do pertains to the basic upkeep up needs, which I guess ghost sims have even when they're just being haunting pieces of shit and not actually a part of the active household.

Here we see Miriam and Ziba napping together.


The three of them do a fair bit of cooking! Household servings for the most part, luckily. Back in the apartment those fuckers would cook single servings in the middle of the damn night. Almost set the fucking house on fire returning to their graves in the middle of cooking. But it's so great that they're just... not returning to their graves on their own any more! How fucking cool is that! Wow!


Caitlin made some waffles, too! How sweet. And Ziba's helping herself to some of Diana's grilled cheese.

If ghosts need to eat, then ghosts need to pee! They also need to clog every toilet in the house. All three.


Ziba attempting to assuage the washing machine. Just about the only useful thing she has zone, attempting to help with household chores. Otherwise, herself and the other ghosts have been taking up new hobbies in their spare time.

Ziba has the athletic trait, so despite never developing the skill in her living days, she can frequently be found exercising by the stereo in the landing.


Caitlin, what an artistic bugger, decided to nab Diana's sculpting station while she was between projects.

Aside from taking care of themselves and indulging in hobbies, they enjoy milling around and interacting with each other, as well as members of the household. Here we see the living room as a midday hotspot. Hmmmm, midday, as in when they should be resting in their graves? Why yes! But here they fucking are nonetheless.

For whatever reason, they scare each other, but they've never tried to scare any of the humans of the household. Ghosts spookin' ghosts. Yep. And it's always Miriam too! Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen any of the other ghosts scare others. Ziba may have done it to Miriam once, but otherwise it's just Miriam being a piece of shit.

While they do mostly keep to themselves, in their little circle of spook, here Ziba holds baby Adrian, the third of Diana and her wife Annmarie's five children. She didn't even do anything with him, she just kinda... picked him up. He didn't even need anything. She just picked him up and put him back in the crib. Thanks, Ziba.

Ziba also ended up in a conversation with Lillian, the oldest of the five. She complained about school.


Miriam literally waited by this sandbox for Ziba just to scare her. What an asshole.

Haunting things, however, transitions us into a portion of the post that I like to call Things That Ghosts Like To Haunt In My House!

The computer desk, complete with Thorn trying to write a novel!

This stinky potty chair!

This bedside lamp, much to the dismay of Chrysanthemum, who just woke up!

This barrel of flowers!

This rack of CDs!

This reading chair!

This small alarm clock!

This goddamn mail box!

This toilet in the master bathroom!

And this dining room chair, next to poor sweet Lillian who just wants to go the fuck to bed.

All in all the ghosts actually aren't that bad, complain as I might. They're only a slight nuisance. And hey, they're in for a toss up soon! The last of Gen. 3 passed away in this session, so they may have some new haunting buddies soon.

Thorn was the first to go, as she was the oldest.

She actually passed away in the middle of her shift, so here she is in her work uniform as a World Renowned Surgeon, shortly before moving on.


She begged, of course, but to no avail.

Here is her portion of the basement memorial. She has her prom pic, her Debate Club participation trophy, her Valedictorian award and her Most Likely to Take Over the World award, as well as her high school diploma.

Two days later, they lost Chrysanthemum, the older of the two twins. They haven't heard anything of Casablanca yet.

She passed on while she was on her way out of the house to deliver a painting for an opportunity.

Miriam and Caitlin were around to see it, and while Caitlin was pretty much unphased, Miriam was very upset to see her child pass on.

Chrysanthemum took the more cordial approach with the Grim Reaper and shook his hand before leaping into her grave.

The whole scene was kind of a mess, really. Diana came downstairs from taking care of the babies to weep at the loss, Miriam was crying for her child, Caitlin just got bored and fucked right off, and that asshole in the blue track pants is this fucking paparazzi that I keep having to use resetsim to get off the fucking porch. There was quite a bit happening at once.


Since Chrysanthemum basically acted as the second parent for Diana and was present from beginning to end, I gave her an honourary position in the memorial with Thorn, representing the third generation. She has her prom picture, her Music Club participation trophy, her high school diploma, and three awards: Valedictorian and Most Artistic from high school, and her award for earning $25,000 from her painting. For good measure, and since I had the space, I added her very last painting, the one she was set to deliver.

After Chrysanthemum died, I saved and exited my game. That was the same day that the last two of Diana's five children were born (yes, twins again!), so it was quite a lot!

The current standing for Gen. 5: Lillian (just became child), Ryan (about to become child), Adrian (just became toddler), Isla (just born), Marissa (just born)

Gen. 5 is well on its way! I'll do a more detailed family tree once they're all a little more grown. Until then!

May 17, 2016

Legacy House

Today I moved my legacy family into their new home and did some major renos and decorating! I decided to do a before and after because I'm super proud of the work I did. I didn't touch the pre-existing colour schemes or the wallpaper/flooring but I did play with the placement of walls, finish the backyard, and add an assload of decorations and a basement.

Before we go on our tour, let's say goodbye to all the folks we had to leave behind.

These three people died during birthday parties. Their ghosts were placed inside the apartment's shell using moveobjects, and they remain there to this day. R.I.P. huge party poopers who just had to fucking die in the middle of a birthday party.

They are gone now! It's a fresh start. Welcome to the Black Parade [Redacted] Home (because I don't want this shit coming up when you google my name)! This is 305 Windmill Way from My Sims Reality's Anne Arbor.

Here is what it looked like from the outside before:


Nice looking, cozy, but pretty barren. Here is the outside after!


Utilizing all that empty space!

We'll take a closer look at the yard later. For now, let's step inside!

Here is the first floor before. 

And here is after! The first floor was mostly a decorating job, with some minimal rearrangements and additions. We'll start with the living room!



The living room was left mostly untouched. I added the sculpting station for Diana, as she's a self-employed sculptor, and while the easel was already in the room, I added the paint supply table for decoration. Speaking of paintings, the cardinal on the far wall of the first picture is a work by Chrysanthemum, artfully paired with the three brown leafs to the left.

Passing through the foyer on the way to the dining room!



Again, super minimal changes. Painting of a ladybug on a cherry by Chrysanthemum! Flowers also added to the table and a painting on the far wall but otherwise unchanged. Moving through the next arch we arrive in the kitchen!



Added a big-ass grilled cheese painting because I thought it worked. Put a little garbage can in the corner and a food processor on the counter, along with other wall and counter deco. Through the door on the right is the laundry room.

The laundry room is this weird long room at the back of the house. It's got a little indent for the washer and dryer along with a hamper but there's nothing else in it? I added the soap but that's about it. Also added the home security thing (and the one at the front door). Before we go upstairs, let's check the bathroom!


The downstairs bathroom is pretty small, so the pics came out a little warped and at weird angles, but there it is! I flipped some stuff around and rearranged the furniture. New towel, new toilet paper, new cabinet and counter objects. And that finishes the first floor! Up we go!

This is the second floor before. Here is where I did some fussing around with the walls, focusing on the two bathrooms and the bedroom in the lower left corner.

I pushed two spaces into the bathrooms to make the bedroom big enough to comfortably fit three beds. The two bathrooms were slightly compressed and all of the furniture was shifted. I'll go into more detail about each of those rooms later. Here we will start at the start, with the landing!


Chess table was already there, I added deco, CD player and bird cage! I don't know which bird I'll have them get for the cage yet.



Here is the first of the kids' rooms. This room was already pretty nice, so I just added the hamper along with some decorations. The large painting on the wall is Caitlin's.


This is the one with the big changes! After moving the walls, I put the desk and bookshelves on the far wall by the bathroom (which is where the door leads) and added a third bed. The beds were moved into a circular shape and I put the carpet in 'cause it seemed pretty empty. Painting behind the computer by Caitlin.



This is the shared bathroom upstairs. The other of the two doors leads into the landing. Kind of a weird shape, but it works.



Here's the master bed! All deco for this one. Flowers, paintings, etc. Flowers in the middle pic by Chrysanthemum.


Following the door in the last pic, we enter the master bathroom! Funny shape because of the shifted walls but worked out pretty well nonetheless.



Opposite the door to the master bath is the door to the en-suite nursery. Simple wall deco for this one. Painting in the last pic by Chrysanthemum! This finishes the main house, which takes us out to the backyard!



Moving left to right, we start with the playground. I absolutely adore the bee-themed playground equipment that comes with Seasons! Turtle sandpit from Generations, slide from Town Life, and bench from the Faire Folk store set.

Put some chairs and a barbeque to fill the space on the deck. Also put some flowers in that weird little corner.

Fire pit! Used a pit from Town Life with some lawn chairs from University.

And here we have the finishing touch, the hot tub! With lawn chairs. Pretty self-explanatory! Thinking of adding something to make this area a little less plain but I'm not sure yet so I'll just leave it for now.


Behind the hot tub is the garage. I bought them two fancy shmancy new cars! Shown against the back wall of the garage is the stairs to the basement.


The basement is a memorial. Each row will eventually contain the ashes of the previous generation's heirs atop a pedestal on a carpet themed around their aesthetic, along with any accolades from their time. Caitlin's only wall plaque is her award for earning $25,000 from her painting, while Miriam has her Valedictorian and Most Artistic awards, her prom picture, and her Music Club participation trophy. The opposite wall has all of their high school graduation certificates, and will have any university certificates, if I ever send someone from this family there.

That concludes our house tour! The whole move and all of the renovations came out of family funds, no cheats needed! That's the first time I've been able to do that without getting impatient and using cheats, so I'm really happy with it. Even better, after all of that, they still have just over $300,000 left! I've never had a file this monetarily successful before. I gotta say, being a self-employed painter makes shit cash in the beginning, but once you get to the top of that career, skill maxed out, all skill challenges completed, and the Extra Creative Lifetime Happiness reward, you cam pump out an average of $6000 worth of paintings per day! Fucking wild. That was really the biggest cash source, Caitlin and Chrysanthemum's paintings.

Diana is one day pregnant with Gen. 5. Here we go!