Clara Plays The Sims

[claraplayssims]

🌎 Willow Creek  📍 Crick Cabana 📬 20x15 💵 18,500 🛏️ 2 🛁 1.5

As you might remember, I set out on a mission to revamp the Base Game worlds, starting with Willow Creek! After the Municipal Muses and Streamlet Single, this is my Crick Cabana Reno, which is exactly $20,000 (terrain included). Perfect for a couple or a single parent with kids! No cheat, no Cc, no mod needed. Just an easy peasy base game starter house, equiped with everything you need to level up base skills. Let me know if you use it!

Gallery download: LINK

[claraplayssims]

🌸🏠 Streamlet Single Reno 🌳🔨

🌎 Willow Creek  📍 Streamlet Single 📬 20x15 💵 18,500 🛏️ 1 🛁 1.5

Update! This Base Game Simmer (often, if not mostly) is renovating Willow Creek, Oasis Springs and of course Newcrest, hoping to help those among you who might have JUST started The Sims, or are Base Game Simmers like me. Streamlet Single might not be my cutest creation but, when you look where it started, it’s a vast improvement. In case you need more convincing, I’ve included some pictures at the bottom for reference. Sad house was sad. Now it’s better.

Gallery download: LINK

[claraplayssims]

💵💍 Eliza Pancakes Makeover 💅👄

I like to think that my Sims are living their best life, and as such, I am a big fan of makeovers. Makeovers can help you enjoy and relate to a character a lot more, and focus on what they bring to the story rather than how they disrupt your game. In general, makeovers are an absolute mandate for the hot and cold weather outfits that are randomly generated by the game. But if you’re like me and like taking care of all your Sims equally, including the premade ones, you give them full-on makeovers from head to toes on a regular basis. 

I’ve done this for all the premade characters, and I’ll be sharing them every Thursday moving forward, with the hashtag #TownieThursday. This week, I’m starting with Eliza Pancakes, one of those Marmite (“You Either Love It Or Hate It”) characters from the game. Eliza has been in the Sims since the game launched, and she only underwent a makeover once, when toddlers came around. Even then, the makeover was one additional outfit for her, and a toddler who joined the household. 

There is a lot to say about Eliza. She’s often pictured as a nag or a shrew, chewing off Bob’s ear with order and reproach, and more than happy to split the conjugal bed in two twin beds on either side of the same bedroom. She seems extremely unhappy, and not content with her family life. This makeover is hopefully the first step in improving her mood, and her life altogether. A little self care goes a long way, you know what I mean? 

When it comes to her appearance, I did not change much. 100% of premade Sims come with a weird protrusion of the lower jaw so I slid that back, but I kept the general shape of her brows, nose and face because they add to her uniqueness. I gave her additional freckles. Since she is a fitness fan, I straightened her torso a little bit; and since I assume that she gave birth to Iggy, I also made her hips a little bit wider.

Her wardrobe was another story… Absolutely all her outfits were terrible, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup nor manicure. I tried to keep her details as faithful as possible while going in deep. For example you can tell that she loves wearing her jewellery, probably to show off to her neighbours, so I kept jewellery on. She now has a manicure style to go with every outfit (because it’s all in the details…) And from her house and previous outfits, you can tell that she loves the colour pink, so that is reflected in her new outfits too. There are also a couple of trailers (Pools, Outdoor Retreat) and screenshots (Holidays Pack) showing her in different outfits, so I was inspired by those as well. 

I did not change her personality traits, but I added Likes for Colours (she likes pink and green, as you would probably expect), Music (a fan of S-Pop) and Activities (Painting and Fitness among other things). The count is only up to 15 out of 50 though, and I liked giving some room for the gameplay to let you decide additions to her personal taste.

I genuinely hope that you’ll like this new version of Eliza Pancakes, or that it will inspire you to create your own… She deserves it!

Gallery download: LINK

[claraplayssims]

🌳 Foundry Cove appreciation post 🐸

While they aren’t my favourite worlds, both Oasis Springs and Willow Creek will always hold a special place in my heart. I absolutely adore their vibe, whether southern desert or bayou. More often than not, Foundry Cove has been my landing place when starting a new challenge or a legacy. I thought I’d share some of my favourite pictures with you.

[claraplayssims]

🧸 100 Infants Daddies, San Sequoia Style 🍼

I’ve been having so much fun with Growing Together, and watching a lot of playthroughs. I am not sure anymore that 100 Infants is for me, given how it recently turned out for James Turner and lilsimsie 😱 Let me know if you’ve started the challenge, and how you are finding it so far…

In the meantime, I’ve still decided to create donors for the warriors among us who decided to jump into it enthusiastically, and this time I’m focusing on packs, starting with Growing Together. I’ve created a full house of Baby Daddies in San Sequoia, with various styles, aspirations, traits, likes and dislikes. And then improved  my presentation a little bit thanks to ratboysim’s poses.

Hope you like them!

[claraplayssims]

👀 A whole new world? 🗺️

I’ve been spending a lot of time chatting with fellow Simmers lately and one big consensus is how much The Sims 4 has evolved since its launch. With the addition of new characters, neighbourhood stories, pronouns, likes and dislikes, clothing, wearables, the base game has progressed faster and faster, and is now becoming even bigger with the arrival of infants.

Despite all of that, some features are still decidedly 2014, for better or for worse. Like the townies. Townies are Sims that are premade or randomly generated by the game to populate your neighbourhoods. You can tweak the Neighborhood Stories option, which can limit the number of townies generated. And some Mods will even deactivate the generation of townies altogether. But some townies, the ones we call premade or NPCs, are unavoidable.

They are characters that we love to love or hate, actively defend or sneakily eliminate. I’m sure that you are familiar with some of their names: Bella Goth, Don Lothario, Nancy Landgrab, Johnny Zest,... With the exception of Newcrest, every new Sims world comes with a number of premade characters present in the world. They are the Townies.

On top of that, the team at Maxis have shared a few additional Sims to help you populate your worlds. They can be found on the Gallery account of the studio, and of some of the SimGurus (especially SimGuruZephyr and SimGuruMorgan). Personally, I think that these characters are brilliant. They’re goofy and quirky and colourful, and personify everything that makes The Sims. 

So I’ve decided to take a stab at giving the Townies a makeover (I know, I know, old school, and who wants another Townie Makeover anyway…). Well, hear me out: some of those characters have been rocking the same look for almost a decade, but they are still brilliant and they deserve so much better (Katrina Caliente, you were done so dirty). 

I’ll probably start with my favs (Pancakes, Purdues, Fogel, etc) and will try to incorporate infants to the mix where/if I can. I’ll also try to stick to their respective packs as much as I can, so they are more accessible for everyone. 

[claraplayssims]

👶 The 100 Baby Daddy Challenge 🍼

I’ve been playing and watching a lot of challenges lately to test them all and I’ll write up something about that soon, but for now I wanted to specifically talk about the 100 Baby Challenge. This challenge was invented by Amiisays in The Sims 2. The version that we are all playing in The Sims 4 was updated by Snarky Witch. The original rules, as well as the pack variants, are here. 

To me, it is a really fun challenge to play. Despite its title, it doesn’t get repetitive as each child will be different and bring their own qualities to the mix. I am currently at Baby #25, and now that EA have announced a new life stage with Infants coming into the mix, who knows where this will lead! I’m personally very excited to either keep going or even restart the challenge when Infants come, in 2023.

There is, however, one caveat: the townies generated by the game are not the best, to put it lightly. Ever. And I am not talking about the eyeball-ring-fishnet-stockings-shapka-hat sort of look. I am talking about the genetics. Even if you find a good looking Sim, for some reason, the bone structure seems to go all wrong after one generation - resulting in massive foreheads and disappearing chins on triangle bodies 🧬💀

So, my own challenge is to create 100 Baby Daddies: I'm putting together a bunch of single donors! I am doing my best to create Base Game ones as a priority, and then will most likely use the best packs (Seasons, Cats & Dogs, Parenthood,...) and *maybe* kits. I’ll be listing them all below with their own link to the gallery. 

Obviously, none of them are exclusive to this challenge. They all have their own Traits, Aspiration and Likes/Dislikes so you can use them however you like - they can work well as townies, neighbours, roommates, classmates... Have your pick, and feel free to comment if you’d like to see specific packs being used. More importantly, enjoy and feel free to create your own 100 daddies!

GALLERY LINKS

Series #1 - Gallery link Reese - Gallery link Otis - Gallery link Aidan - Gallery link Kenneth - Gallery link Damian - Gallery link Alden - Gallery link Luke - Gallery link Art - Gallery link

Series #2  - Gallery link Arthur - Gallery link Tyler - Gallery link Hunter - Gallery link Avery - Gallery link Bastien - Gallery link Logan - Gallery link Fletcher - Gallery link Adham - Gallery link

Series #3 - Gallery link Drew - Gallery link Neil - Gallery link Jackson - Gallery link Finn - Gallery link Dax - Gallery link Yoshi - Gallery link Matteo - Gallery link Benny - Gallery link

Series #4 - Gallery link Gareth - Gallery link Jake - Gallery link Hudson - Gallery link Myles - Gallery link Alfred - Gallery link Dylan - Gallery link Lucas - Gallery link Landon - Gallery link

Series #5 - Gallery link Sean - Gallery link Jesse - Gallery link Noah - Gallery link Elliott - Gallery link Ferman - Gallery link Cole - Gallery link Archie - Gallery link Alex - Gallery link

Series #6 - Gallery link Wesley - Gallery link Chase - Gallery link Nash - Gallery link Paxton - Gallery link Mika - Gallery link Maverick - Gallery link Isaiah - Gallery link Deacon - Gallery link

[claraplayssims]

💒💐Willow Creek Wedding Venue 💍💚

This is my absolute first video for the Sims 4, and first Community Lot. The building was originally a Museum (and still can be used as such) but I converted it into a Wedding Venue since the last Sims update allows us to do so. In my Base Game save, it replaces the Municipal Muses building, which is the Willow Creek Museum. But you can place it on any 40x30 lot or bigger! Note that I tried to keep as much of the building character as I could, since I think it is important for the neighbourhoods to feel organic. And yes, through the video, you can get a sneak peak at my Blue Velvet reno. For a long time now I have been working on a base game starting save, which I hope to be able to showcase and share during this Spring season!

The most important part for this Wedding Venue is that I have also added a small cemetery on the side. It might feel weird, but I do feel like it is a good place for family graves to be placed. Weddings are always a celebration of life, and sometimes you might just be missing that one person who can’t be a part of it. Now they can join in!

Aside from the gardens and the wedding arch, the building holds a huge wedding reception area where up to 42 Sims can sit down. Playtests were fun, as you can probably imagine! It has a big kitchen with the best appliances, and a small bar with room for a live musician. There are also suites upstairs for the bride(s) and/or groom(s), and bathrooms with bathtubs in case someone gets a bit too tense on their big day.

To playtest and record the stop motion, I’ve also recreated the characters from the Portrait of a Wedding paintings. Every build and household are available in my gallery, and the speed build is below. All feedback welcome!

Gallery download: LINK

[claraplayssims]

Hi, I’m Clara! Nice to meet you! 

I’m not really great at intros so here are 10 things about me:

1 - My favourite colour is green, specifically forest green.  2 - I secretly wish I was a redhead. 3 - I’m big on reading, historical fiction being my favourite genre.  4 - I’m a coffee lover, some would say that I am addicted.  5 - I have travelled to 31 countries so far. 6 - I enjoy programming, photography and gardening.  7 - I used to be a radio DJ in college.  8 - Academia gives me nightmares. 9 - My first memory is of fireworks.  10 - My favourite weather is snowy. 

Your turn! 

Who are you and how did you get here?!