The Sims

In The Sims you never really have to worry about taking a step back in life like downsizing to a smaller apartment or moving back in with your parents. I was wondering if you think EA will ever try to break away from this?

Things like a lack of career advancement, job uncertainty, and pay not scaling with rent hikes could be a neat twist. I feel like a lot of people use The Sims for a bit of escapism and things have gotten significantly more cartoony with The Sims 4 so I don't really see it happening.

I could see them adding mental disorders or homelessness but I feel like they'd whitewash a lot of it. In the case of homelessness for example I could see them depicting it like camping or off the grid living.

Maybe one of the Sims rivals that's being developed will tackle this? Who knows?

Some of this may have been implement to various degrees. I still mostly play The Sims 3. I've tried getting into 4 over the years but it's never stuck for me and it's been a while since my last attempt.

I'm just imaging a Sim with the sad moodlet sitting on a box, in a room full of other boxes, overwhelmed and eating spaghetti.

Maybe various skills could play a role in how these actions go?

A low handiness skill could mean you run the risk of breaking your furniture or assembling it incorrectly. A low athletic skill could cause you to scratch or put holes in your walls. A low charisma skill might mean you can't get people to help you without the promise of ordering pizza.

For context I was thinking about The Sims 2's IKEA Home Stuff DLC and how in The Sims Bustin' Out for the GBA you unpacked your furniture from a crate. It got me wondering how moving mechanics would work in the Sims 3 or 4.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/life-by-you-is-cancelled.1688889/

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/06/paradox-interactive-completely-cancelled-life-by-you/

Kind of disappointed about this, I was hoping it would provide a little bit of competition to EA. At least Paralives is still supposed to released, and my copy of The Sims 3 still works as well!

Sulsul Simmers, MarviSims here! I recently started a new website called RetroSimsMods, where you can download new houses and (soon) objects for TS1 and TS2. With this little website, I just want to keep these awesome games alive and well. Feel free to take a look if that sounds fun! 😁

🔗 Visit RetroSimsMods.com

I hate my sim carrying loads of stuff for all sorts of reasons (I think it creates lag, I hate having to scroll through a load of items to find what I want, there are bugs where the whole inventory disappears when you do certain things and that seems to happens less when they carry less stuff), so I try to keep the bare minimum on my sim:

• Hikon QX40di Gladiator camera
• Collection Helper
• Potent Invigorating Elixirs (means you never need to sleep)
• Vials of Potent Bliss (cures loneliness and stress)
• Wish Enhancing Serums (doubles all wish points, including lifetime wish for 24hr)
• Jars of Potent Friendship (make almost any sim a good friend, except some NPCs like paparazzi)
• Showers in a can (quick clean)
• Pemmican (quick meal + special moodlet)
• Death flower
• Flame fruit (gives positive moodlet)

But I do like to keep things just in case (as you do), so in their house I have different treasure chests for different things like seeds, gems, metals, inventions, relics, etc where I store most things (this allows for keeping much more junk which also potentially creates lag, but then, so do most things in the game lol and this way it isn't cluttering my space), and then my family inventory in buy mode is mostly free gifts my sim gets from being a celebrity, which I used to keep but now mostly sell.

So, does anyone else have these kinds of systems, or do other people generally not give it much thought at all? 😂

Full length trailer for Sims 5?

Or last ditch attempt to make Sims 4 look more appealing?

I don't see them going back further, and as someone who never moved past Sims 3 (and who generally hates this lazy genre of movie, but especially when it's based on a game that has such open and individually adaptable play), this has very little appeal to me personally.

Thoughts from fellow simmers?

The Steam page describes it as

Tiny Life is a fun simulation game that aims to capture the essence of games like The Sims series, but in an isometric pixelart style.

In the game, you control a set of people that live together in a household. You take care of their daily needs, build their skills, forge new relationships... or just mess up their entire life in whatever way you can think of!

It's currently on sale but from the looks of the reviews it's still pretty far in early access and missing some components you would expect in a Sims-style game.

I'm curious if anyone has given it a go and what they thought

I used to at most do a basic floor plan in ms paint on a 64x64 grid I had saved lol but the more I play around with constrainfloorelevation and the endless design options it opens up, the more I find I need to plan, and the harder it is to get my head around what I should do first, because it becomes so much harder to add and change things later on.

I just completely scrapped a lot I'd been trying to figure out for ages because I realised I'd screwed something up it would take starting almost from scratch to fix, I do want to start again, and to avoid this happening again I've tried laying it out in sketches and diagrams but with having both the terrain and the levels of the build shifted and sometimes overlapping (or, in the case of basement and terrain - not allowed to overlap, which is mostly what's messing me up lol), it gets so confusing and my brain just fries 😂

Probably just going to have to jump in and try to figure it out in practice.

Just a funny thought I had before bed the other night. You could go through and get dumped to some location on the map with a positive moodlet that says Being John Malkovich.

After a certain amount of uses you could make decisions like you can with the catacombs or time machine.

I moved my Sim into a house boat so he could escape his several illegitimate children but the lag got so bad living at sea I stopped playing.

I'm just imaging Sims shoving hotdogs in a coffee maker, fish in the dishwasher, and a turkey in the microwave for 10 hours.

They could use recipes from the internet like instant potatoes made with Monster Energy drinks, hamburger smoothies, bologna sushi, and NyQuil chicken. Imagine the possibilities for new moodlets.

This whole idea could bleed over into other skills. Low mixology skills? Whiskey in a shot glass made out of spam.

Paralives describes itself on Steam as

Paralives is an upcoming doll house life simulation indie game for PC and Mac. Build your dream house, create some characters and manage their lives the way you want inside their homes and all around an open world town!

Several articles have been written about it but this PCGamesN article does a pretty good job explaining some of the features the game is planning to have.

Paralives also has a website and Patreon for those interested.

While it's not The Sims and it's only going to be reaching early access in early 2025 I wanted to say I'm fine with people post about Paralives and other Sims adjacent stuff here. I like the idea of promoting smaller projects whether it's games, mods, or open source engine recreations.

To be clear though by life sim I mean general life simulations not job simulations like firefighter or trucker simulators. That's a bit too general and probably better suited for general gaming communities on Lemmy.

My only hope is that people realise these are often fan made creations with teams significantly smaller than EA's and that they set their expectations accordingly. They might need time to breath and develop.

This is still a really small Lemmy community but if you have any thoughts feel free to let me know in the comments.

This makes me think of all the multi-level houses I made in the Sims 3 with an elevator. The combination of a large family and themed floors frequently meant Sims passing out or being late for school/work because they were busy waiting for the elevator.

This was originally posted to Reddit on /r/TheSims by /u/AbsurdMultiverse. Old Reddit link that gets around Reddit's annoying VPN blocking here.

I saw a post on !games@sh.itjust.works with the video Death of a Game: The Sims Online by nerdSlayer Studios. It talks about how The Sims Online was received by fans and it's decline. Towards the end the video FreeSO is mentioned which is something I haven't thought about in years so I wanted to share it here.

FreeSO's GitHub page describes itself as the following:

A full reimplementation of The Sims Online, using Monogame. While FreeSO aims to be faithful to the original game, it includes many quality of life changes such as hardware rendering, custom dynamic lighting, hi-res output and >2 floor houses. If you simply wish to play, you can install FreeSO and the original TSO files using our installer on http://freeso.org, and it will connect to our official servers.

FreeSO currently depends on the original game files (objects, avatars, ui) to function, which are available for download from EA servers. FreeSO is simply a game engine, and does not contain any copyrighted material in and of itself.

It's a neat project I would recommend checking out. It can feel like a massive grind compared to The Sims though.

The Sims Online is also the basis for Project Dollhouse, FreeSims and Simitone. Three open source engine recreation projects.

All projects haven't had new releases in over three years as far as I am aware. I believe Simitone is the most stable of the three.

The Disaster Of The Sims 4 by Izzzyzzz talks about Project Olympus and how the Sims 4 was originally planned to be a multiplayer experience. I wanted to include this for those that want to go down the Sims online rabbit hole.

I think there are mutliplayer mods out there for The Sims 4 but I haven't tried them out myself.

I got Bustin' Out on sale when I was younger and didn't really know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised and had a fair amount of fun with it and went on to complete the other games.

Has anyone else here played them? What was your experience like? Any fun stories?

I grinded the first job mini-game when I was bored and had an obscene amount of money the moment I left Uncle Hayseed's farm and spent so much time messing around I got the Robot Chicken before I was supposed to.

If you want other videos Youtuber ambiguousamphibian has created videos on the GBA versions of The Urbz: Sims in the City and The Sims: Bustin' Out.

All games have a pretty decent amount of Retro Achievements:

• The Urbz: Sims in the City

• The Sims 2

• The Sims: Bustin' Out

Also kind of interesting all the GBA Sims games have a speedrun time of approximately an hour and thirty minutes.

Admittedly I didn't play much of the Making Magic DLC compared to the others but I just found out about the FlaminGoGo dancers in the original Sims thanks to the Izzzyzzz video The Ominous World Of The Sims 1.

The FlaminGoGo Dancer is an NPC that Sims can create by casting the Enchant spell on a pink flamingo. Sims cannot initiate interactions with them, but the FlaminGoGo Dancers will talk to, hug, cheer up, or give backrubs to Sims. In addition, FlaminGoGo Dancers can have conversations with pets and inanimate pink flamingos.

If a FlaminGoGo Dancer is not on terrain when the Enchant spell wears off, she will vanish instead of turning back into a pink flamingo.

https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/FlaminGoGo_Dancer

So about a week ago I made a post here titled If you create a world in the Sims 3 with a lot for a single Sim how difficult would it be to survive? Could you think of anything that could help?. In it I talked about the possible challenges of a post-apocalypse play-through where you have a single Sim in a town and you need to find a way to survive. I decided to give it a go and some people seem interested so I'll outline my attempts so far below.

Attempt 1:

I originally tried creating a Sim with the combination of the Loner and Insane traits so they wouldn't seek out social interactions and could talk to themselves as needed. I tried to kill everyone in the town to fit the post-apocalypse theme but eventually new Sims started taking their place and they would still continually spawn at community lots for events.

At this point I decided to build a basement and isolate my Sim by deleting the ladder and relocating my Sim (and the mailbox and garbage can) underground to test having a Sim that has no one to socialize with it. It went fine. I was able to work on my Sim's writing skill and make enough to pay the bills.

I had the Hates the Outdoors trait so none of this proved to be a problem.

Attempt 2:

After a bit of struggling I was able to get Create a World working with the "Steam" version of The Sims 3 and figured out the PNG thumbnail requirement and created a tiny island with a single lot free of all rabbit hole locations and item spawns.

Immediately after moving in and building a basic house two wild horses, a racoon, and (despite having the Opt Active Household out of Celebrity System option checked) three members of the paparazzi spawned as well as a lone onion in the same location. The animals never seem to leave the general proximity of the lot and occasionally it shows that they are hungry. I've fed the racoon.

Opening up my fridge I had some plantable items so I was able to work on my gardening skill. Apparently through using items, such as the time machine, you are able to acquire things like the omni plant's seed so I may do that eventually.

Despite not setting any spawn points I was still able to fish.

When calling for services the fire department arrives immediately spawning almost directly in front of my Sim, mixologists spawn immediately at the bar, and the child delivering the newspaper delivers the paper then pings out of existence. All other services from pizza to the police never show up.

Making one of the members of the paparazzi join my family and have a child did crash the game but the Sims Wiki says the following

If the school has been deleted then children and teens will stop going to school. This is the only way to not go to school, and is only possible in Windows and macOS as consoles do not have the ability. Also, if the player is controlling one ghost teen or child, they might not be signed up for a school. However, if the school is deleted then children and teens appear to be forced age up badly because they haven't been to school, but if an adult with a high enough logic skill tutors them, their grade can go up, and allow them to age up well without having to go to school.

So I assume having a child and no school wouldn't be a major issue.

The chess grand master challenges are limited to whatever Sim is on the lot.

That's about where I am at. It's interesting to see some elements of the game fall apart in confusion and the atmosphere reminds me at times of the original Sims game where you are basically limited to your lot. I am curious if adding a road would fix some of the service issues I mentioned.

I don't know if there would be any interest in me testing other mechanics and updating this post or uploading the very simple map I made for people to test out themselves.

If someone else wanted to give this a go an additional challenge could be trying to complete the various skill challenges.

I made a post here a couple minutes ago here where I talked about the Loner trait and added the fun fact from The Sims Wiki that said

Loners with the insane trait will never need to socialize with other Sims. This is due to the fact that not only will the social need decrease slower because of the loner trait’s effect, but also having the insane trait allows them to use the “Talk to Self” interaction to raise their social need in addition to their fun need.

(TL:DR) That makes me wonder. Could you survive if it was just you, a single Sim, on the map?

It would be a bit of a apocalypse situation. You wouldn't have any rabbit hole locations; though I don't know if having any is a requirement for creating a world. I don't know how it would effect the "Chat with someone" interaction when using a PC or if you could potentially be able to acquire additional Sims through flirting with maids and fire fighters.

It would limit how far you can progress with certain skills and their challenges I image considering you wouldn't have access to seeds for Gardening or other people for the chess challenges for Logic.

If someone has tried it and uploaded the processes to Youtube I would love to see it. I would be very interested to see how this effects game play mechanics and if you could potentially build up a town in this manner.

If not I may attempt to give it a a go some weekend.

Edit: I'm giving it a go. Originally I just wanted to kill everyone and see what happens (also to add to the apocalyptic vibe). It turns out even opting out of story progression doesn't stop Sims from moving in to take their spot. I also noticed Sims would continue to show up to social spaces like parks.

I think the next step is to delete every lot on the map.

I've kept my Sim locked in a house in the meantime. Having the loner, insane, and hates the outdoors traits has kept him from never needing to leave the house. The loner and insane trait has kept them from talking to anyone even when using a computer.

I chose the unstable trait as my forth for fun but it seems like they can undergo episodes which change their traits. That could potentially be a major set back.

The Sims 3's Loner trait gives you the Too Many People and the Enjoying Solitude moodlets depending on your situation but your Sims still require social interaction. I feel like a social battery system that depletes as you interact with others be an interesting challenge.

Fun Fact from The Sims Wiki

Loners with the insane trait will never need to socialize with other Sims. This is due to the fact that not only will the social need decrease slower because of the loner trait's effect, but also having the insane trait allows them to use the "Talk to Self" interaction to raise their social need in addition to their fun need.

Swimwear is the only one that is working

Kyle Kyleson married the love of his life, Kyra. They went on to have two children, Arya and Alec. One day Kyle was feeling really jovial and was on a roll with the jokes. He became hysterical and naturally died of laughter.

Everyone was devastated, especially Kyra. She grieved and grieved (longer due to mods) and when his ghost finally showed she was so ecstatic and flirty that they did the do.

Days go by and she’s laughing it up with friends. So much so that she becomes hysterical and you guessed it, died by laughter.

Here lies the problem. Arya is a teen and is taking care of Alec (child). They’re trying to move past the trauma of not only watching one parent die but the other not to long after.

Things are going better for the two when I get a notification that Kyra Kyleson has given birth to a baby boy.

I’m sorry what now?! The baby shows up on Arya and Alec’s friends list and everything, but I have no idea where he is or lives.

Can anyone help me find this list sibling so he can grow up with his brother and sister?

TLDR: Wife WooHoo’d with ghost husband and died while pregnant. Baby was born and materialized when invited over to siblings’ home. How do I move baby in?

I stopped playing around the time the My Wedding Stories pack came out (broken). The High School pack that launched after that was also broken (and as an aging off player who does worldbuilding it is not in the least compatible with my playstyle). Are the new Generations pack and the Horse pack interesting/worthwhile? Or at least not broken.

I'm pretty stoked for sims to use the sink closest to the toilet

I played all the GBA games as a kid because I was dumb and thought it would be somewhat similar to the PC release. I still had a lot of fun with them. I really enjoy the quirkiness of them.

If I had to rate them it would be

1. Urbz

2. Bustin Out

3. The Sims 2

I played a bit of Urbz for the GameCube and I feel like it has to be the worst of all Sims console ports.