Kedatuan

A Sims 3 Build and Storytelling blog set in the precolonial Philippines

[kedatuansims3]

It’s been a couple of months since my last update. In the interim, I dealt with work, computer problems, financial issues, and the typical headaches that come with being lorded over by morons. You know, the usual. I’m still recovering from Covid as I type this but am on the track to recovery. By now, I’m just doing this to help me pass the time.

i am finally done with the routing of the world and will now be working on the finer details such as filling the empty lots with trees, adding spawners, and finishing the lots wherever the settlements may be. So far, the island has one large settlement, pictured above. I plan to make a few more inner-island villages, including one that basically acts as a pirate stronghold.

I can’t make any promises of when it would be ready for testing, though.

[kedatuansims3]

Kedatuan (v.1 Beta) (Tester's wanted)

Just in time for Independence Day. Yay, I guess.

This is a for-testing version of my Sims 3 world, which I've worked on since at least 2021. The world is based on an enlarged version of Isla Paradiso with most of the outer islands removed. The main island is now significantly larger and holds several lots, which I hope to soon rebuild into a larger version of the blank word Kapuluan and, of course, the one that started it all, San Simeon.

Download it here. 

To make the world look exactly as it does in the pictures, you must download all the recommended CC listed here. This is effectively also the credit roll for everyone's CC that I used.Also included are other files which are either abandonware or allowed in as  per the creator's TOS.

You'll need The Sims 3 base game, patch 1.67, and all other expansions up to Island Paradise. Stuff packs are not necessary.

Caveat Emptor: Note that this is a beta and that you are effectively acting as testers for this world. If you believe you've spotted an issue, send me a DM. While I won't be able to fix it right away (see below), it'll at least call my attention to it and I can probably work out a fix in the future.

Known issues

The game sometimes fails to load some of the patterns I used to make the world, even on a computer that had them installed. I am unsure as of now what the fix for this is. Let me know if this happens to you (or if you know how to fix it).

As noted in one of the credit notes, this version might contain abandonware and some CC that got attached but, for testing purposes, might've been kept in temporarily. I will do my best to have the clearances for as much CC as I can in the future. If you believe that your CC was included in the file and you don't want it there, provide proof thereof and inform me of it via DMs and I'll take the necessary actions in the interim.

Background

Over the past few weeks, a lot of my Tumblr-based Sims activity came to a screeching halt in no small part to the sudden change in my living condition. I had to move back in with my parents and was unable to set up my PC at their place due to a lack of space. This had basically scuttled my ability to progress with anything special for the slated holidays of June 12 (Philippine Independence Day) or July 4 (Republic Day). 

I cannot make any further updates until this situation changes, which could take upwards of a few months. However, I still managed to create something before those events  happened, and so here we are.

[kedatuansims3]

It’s been a couple of months since my last update. In the interim, I dealt with work, computer problems, financial issues, and the typical headaches that come with being lorded over by morons. You know, the usual. I’m still recovering from Covid as I type this but am on the track to recovery. By now, I’m just doing this to help me pass the time.

i am finally done with the routing of the world and will now be working on the finer details such as filling the empty lots with trees, adding spawners, and finishing the lots wherever the settlements may be. So far, the island has one large settlement, pictured above. I plan to make a few more inner-island villages, including one that basically acts as a pirate stronghold.

I can’t make any promises of when it would be ready for testing, though.

[kedatuansims3]

Kedatuan/San Simeon Official Discord Launch

Today, Republic Day, is the date I formally open the Kedatuan, San Simeon, and More official Discord server. Expect a few more updates in the coming days and weeks.

Here’s the invite. Hop on, read the rules, and enjoy your stay.

[kedatuansims3]

Welcome, my friends, to the Kedatuan

Kedatuan is San Simeon before the dawn of the colonial era. I’ve gotten as far as a complete map that’s partially built over. However, having others to help me out will make the project easier to finish. Thus, I decided to open up a Let’s Build invite and make this a community project to interested Sims 3 simmers.

The project formally opens on Republic Day, 4 July. By then, I would’ve finished the map and have everything set up.  I will be hosting the build’s discussions on a dedicated server on Discord.

It is open to all interested Sims 3 simmers on ModTheSims, Tumblr, and Discord. If you want to join in, drop me a line and I’ll have an invitation on or before the 4th of July. Learn more about the project here. Expect further details on the project will be available on opening day.

[kedatuansims3]

All the lots have been placed. Now comes the terraforming. I’ve a few bits of terrain to fix and a lot of landscaping to do before I resume building houses. The lots I placed in will also serve as the foundation for the re-make of San Simeon.

[sansimeonsims]

An Announcement

Magandang araw po, mga kaibigan.

These past few months, I haven’t done a lot of updates to San Simeon and my other Filipino-themed worlds. I’ve been going  through a few things in real life and current events aren’t helping at all. Thus, I had to focus on my mental health and professional commitments. What little time I had for simming, I reserved for low commitment projects like the Praaven Cathedral.

Keep reading

[sansimeonsims]

And now for something completely different. The so-called Kingdom of Maharlika is a pseudohistorical conspiracy theory that posits a precolonial kingdom of the name that spanned the entire Philippine archipelago, North Borneo, and several Pacific islands. It’s basically an Austronesian irredentist fantasyland and it was made as political propaganda.

In truth, Maharlika referred to the Tagalog warrior classes, subservient to the aristocracy (maginoo in the Tagalog regions). No historical document from the time of the contact or earlier (see the bibliography) indicated anything of the sort by the time of Spanish colonization. Instead, pre-European contact Philippines was the site of several polities, often centered on a fortified city-state, and various indigenous cultures who eked a subsistence living alongside them.

Although the city-states could be very wealthy and sophisticated, they often did not exert anything other than soft power to the surrounding communities and tribes. The city-states and various smaller communities were largely independent of one another. Although smaller communities may be subservient to the paramount ruler of a larger state, they are legally the rulers of their own lands.This followed the Southeast Asian state model called the mandala, which differed from the traditional models of sovereignty used in Europe, the Middle East, and the Sinosphere. 

This is an exceptionally dicey thing for me to post here as the “Kingdom of Maharlika” and its chief proponents are tied to the propaganda machine of a specific political family. But far be it for me to let pseudohistory lie undisturbed.

[kedatuansims3]

About half the big island is forested now, and most of the lots are in place. Only a few lots remain in need of placement there, and almost all of them in the side shown in the last picture. Most of the lots placed have some forest cover in them to help them blend, though this is largely temporary.

The lots of the smaller islands, meanwhile, have yet to be placed, and very few other islands sans the big one have been landscaped to any degree. This is primarily because I do the lots and landscaping simultaneously. No lots, no landscaping.

[kedatuansims3]

I am nowhere near finished with this world. Honestly, the large expanses of flat land that emerged when I enlarged Isla Paradiso mean that I’ve gained a lot of opportunities to plan new towns and communities for this world on the main island alone.

I also keep reminding myself that I don’t need to worry about arranging the lots the way I would for San Simeon. I’ll be crossing that bridge well into the future.

The new lot density has implications for performance issues and paring things down is gonna be a challenge. It’s also frankly very overwhelming. The new space is basically throwing off my lot references, which I based on the in-game Isla Paradiso.

[kedatuansims3]

The redone interiors of the Rajah’s palace, still a WIP but closer to how I feel it should look.

[kedatuansims3]

Update on the enlarged map focused on the island’s principal city-state. I’ve you’ve been following my other blog, @sansimeonsims, you will notice that this town isn’t even the town that eventually became the titular colonial city. Instead, it became the mostly rural San Jacinto Cadatuan, a town more known for its shipyard. Indeed, I got the name from the fact that my earlier attempts to build a precolonial world tended to focus on this part of Isla Paradiso, and it seemed to be the best place to plop it in (two large lots for the aristocracy and their massive estates, close proximity to the sea, etc.). Enlarging the island just made it easier to turn it into a full-pledged town.

This section of the world is close to completion, with only 5-7 lots to go before I can confidently call it “finished.” Actually decking out the lots is gonna take some time (only two of the main inhabitable lots are decorated thus far, and mostly just to see the result). The rest of the world remains pretty bare in comparison, so it’s gonna be quite a slow build.

[kedatuansims3]

The last pictures of the present world enlargement in CAW. I’ve already begun placing the trees and lots in, based on reference shots I took of the de-colonized modded Isla Paradiso. There’s a lot more tree variety here and there, though how much I retain will depend on the aesthetic I’m going for. All the trees are either indigenous or analogous to indigenous ones, as per the other conversion. I also started placing the rocks/hardscaping. Once I resume, I’ll try to fill in the seaside town before proceeding with the rest of the world.

As for why I had to put this on hold for longer than expected, here’s the reason why. My computer decided it didn’t want to cooperate until some much needed and expensive upgrades were done. Unfortunately, the upgrades necessitated a couple of things, including a new case. The only case then available didn’t have space for a DVD-RW, so I had to rely on an external one. And as luck would have it, my father had no idea where he kept his so I couldn’t borrow it. Thus, until we find it or I buy a new one, I can’t resume building.

[kedatuansims3]

After careful deliberation, I have decided to embiggen the map I’m working on. This reroll is, in essence, a brand new world. To achieve this, I extracted the Isla Paradiso map, enlarged the main islands

I had no use for the outlying islands in the world I’m building so I was not at all too concerned about them. What i needed was building space to create authentic, close-packed pre-colonial (and later colonial) towns. And since unexplored islands were low priority, I did away with some of them. I will still be adding dive sites, and a few other islands, though.

I am still nowhere near done painting the terrain (let alone the rest of the world construction) when I took these screenies, but I love what I’m seeing.

[kedatuansims3]

One house in a small farming community in the town’s outskirts, comprising the extended family and household of a freeperson. The house is modest compared with the abodes of the royals, though the personal effects suggest some status.

The farmers till the land in the Rajah’s name and are sworn to serve the nobles during military campaigns. But with this they enjoyed some degree of dignity not afforded to most commoners (serfs, indentured servants, chattel slaves, and the slaves of slaves, known collectively as alipin in Tagalog areas).

This represents my second attempt at creating a commoner’s house, and reveals a new experimental style I have for the native houses. I based the interiors more closely on the interior sets of the television series Amaya (I’ve built a modest screenshot collection in the process). These will prove useful as I build up the world both interior- and exterior-wise.

These now have several different wall styles to mimic the ad-hoc construction of most thatch homes. I downloaded different wickerwork patterns to achieve the look. This will set me back by several weeks since I’ll be updating all the homes exterior-wise. It also puts me in a conundrum because I prefer decorating while the families are already there. But hey, it’s a good reference to keep in mind.

[kedatuansims3]

The Kedatuan so far. Most of the main lots to the coast have been filled in. Only one pre-placed lot lacks a kelong. In the future, expect the lagoon to also have another kelong village and/or a singular stilt house in the future.

I am pondering on turning some of the individual houses into multifamily compounds like the homes of the aristocracy. On one hand, multibuilding lots add density to the appearance of the town, which make it look more populated than the game allows (and adds more usable room for the sims, who will inevitably have large families). On the other hand, that will quickly put them out of “starter home” range. That said, the kelongs do act as the best candidate for that since they only have one small home available for use.

This only refers to the settlement on this side of the strait, though. On the other large island, nothing has yet been built. I also plan on adding more settlements further back into the island. As a rule, the closer a sim’s house is to the city-state, the more likely it is that they swear allegiance to the Rajah.

San Simeon’s old spot will probably be the only one I’m leaving as sparsely populated deep jungle.

[kedatuansims3]

The Rajah’s Residence

Bordered on all four corners by a palisade much like the citadel, the home of the island’s paramount ruler is a stately symbol of power and authority. The trusses of the building’s front-facing support beams, which support the floor, have been carved to resemble dragons. To one side is a small shrine dedicated to the king’s patron deity. The others hold the living quarters of the king’s trusted vassals and any daughters he might sire. Four storehouses keep the Rajah’s treasures safe under guard.

The king’s enslaved retinue get no home of their own and sleep within their masters house in various corners. Should any of the king’s slaves be granted permission to marry, they may settle in the immediate area outside the compound.

Palisade-lined compounds like this were a symbol of status among the aristocracy and represent their control over their realm’s economy.

The design of this building is my second take on the homes of the aristocracy. I can only rely on conjecture to reconstruct a house like this as most historic examples were made of wood and thatch and thus did not survive to the modern day. In the absence of surviving examples, I turned to similar regional styles and works done by others.

As with the great house in the citadel, this home’s exteriors were based on those of the Torogan, the royal houses of the Maranao aristocracy in what is now the modern province of Lanao del Sur in the island of Mindanao. Interior furnishings were based on both the interiors of a torogan and the depictions of a paramount king’s residence in the GMA series Amaya. The end result is consistent with the accounts of Antonio Pigafetta and other chroniclers during the Spanish conquest of houses during the period.

[kedatuansims3]

Ever since I finished my emptied out version of Potato_Ballad’s Isla Paradiso I’ve returned to working on the Kedatuan. Here’s the new version of the town center. I chose a higher palisade, a more unified color scheme, and fewer buildings. I plan to decorate all the interiors; pictured are the interiors of the great house, possible site of the politics rabbit hole.

Currently, the site is a community lot, meant to house a few pertinent rabbit holes (politics and military)... that is. if I don’t just decide to put them in the Karakoa. In which case, this will become a regular residential.