littlesquidink

Loquacious Lurker

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Now this is cozy gameplay. Playing Dixie Land is always fun, even when she's settled into a chill family/work routine.

I can't get enough of playing Widespot sims, even when I take a break, they always pull me back in.

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Decided to do a cozy single-household play after feeling some burn out from household overload in my uberhood. Babs was "visited" by a burglar, burned down her kitchen making breakfast, then died from hunger after returning home from work.

So cozy. The coziest. I have never had more calm serene game play. Well, I guess it's back to Bigg City.

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Oh, Andy.

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Violet decided it was time to grow up. Literally. The Vampire's night had kept her young, but at what cost? She didn't see her kids, she had to leave her job, and throwing parties was out of the question when she wouldn't want to answer the obvious questions her friends would ask. So she called her kids and asked for help. Oddly enough, her twins were expert on vampires thanks to Green's own misfortune with a vampire and Cyan's paranormal career. Lily was just glad to be home again. After Violet had the cure, she waited for the boys to leave and Lily to go to bed. The curing process wasn't fun, but seeing herself in the mirror again was a welcome relief. Now, to win back her town before the criminal uprising in Bigg City becomes more powerful.

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The oldest teens are now in uni together. They're all related/friends in some way, so it made sense to go through college together. These are the unborn babies from Mountainside Valley and Widespot from day 1 of my gameplay. They're such a fun bunch and really interesting genetics.

Snow Mann (green sweat suit): daughter of Candy Hart and Junior Mann stepdaughter of Mary Land, step sister and BFF with Is

Is Land (white shirt, brown skirt): daughter of Mary Land and Valentine Hart stepdaughter of Junior Mann, stepsister and BFF with Snow

Sweet Hart (overalls): daughter of Penny Weiss and Rhett Hart stepdaughter of Hugh Knowe, BFF with everyone (just like her mom)

Maple Treah (orange head scarf): daughter of Forest and Willow Treah, twin sister of Spruce

Spruce Treah (jeans): son of Forest and Willow Treah, twin brother of Maple and dating Tenna

Tenna Hart (purple skirt): daughter of Sandy Beech and Valentine Hart, stepdaughter of Hamilton Beech, dating Spruce (and future baby daddy, because a full house and uni classes wasn't enough for my sanity)

Trying to find motivation to finish this uni round. I loved my college experience, but still can't find motivation to do anything but speed run Sims uni.

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John Mole just photobooth woohoo'd with Sharon Wirth, Patricia Wan, and Alexandra Teatherton (who is the active household) within the first 2 hours of the outing he invited them on. I guess that's one way to get to know your neighbors.

[simmergetic]

SkyBox/Horizons/Skylines Database for The Sims 2

I‘ve received many questions about where to find various SkyBoxes and Horizons as seen in my gameplay screenshots so I thought I’d put together a list of custom content links that you can easily go through to pick and choose what best suits your game. Although they are all beautiful, I’ve put a star next to my most frequently used boxes. 

Important: Please don’t forget to download SkyFix 2.1 by Simnopke AND Effects (FX) Default Replacement Cube by Lowedeus before downloading these into your game. Be sure to place skyboxes at the lowest part of any corner of map with the arrow pointing towards the corner. 

HOOD-BASED SKYLINES/HORIZONS

Six Terrain Matching Horizons by dramallamadingdang  ★

6 360 Degree Seasons-Ready Skylines by GreatCheeseCakePersona  ★

City & Rural Skylines by GreatCheeseCakePersona

Mountain Skyline by GreatCheeseCakePersona

Neighborhood Horizons by Criquette uploaded by WitheredWillies

HOOD-BASED SKYBOXES

Great Sky of Totalitarianism by Lowedeus  ★

Lowedeus Moving Clouds But Slower by plumbobbled 

The Great Sky Project Part. 1 by dramallamadingdang  ★

The Great Sky Project Part. 2 by dramallamadingdang  ★

GOS’s Spooky Dip by dramallamadingdang

Animated Wispy Clouds by dramallamadingdang

High Cirrus Clouds by dramallamadingdang

GCCP’s Green Mountain Skyline (Edited) by dramallamadingdang

Water & Sky by Psychosim

Water & Sky Recolours by nimi4

Water & Sky Recolours (Marlin Studio) by nimi4

SkyOmg by ja-viera  ★

SkyOmg Recolours by phinae 

SkyOmg Recolours by  Keoni-chan  ★

SkyOmg Recolours by poppet-sims  ★

SkyOmg Recolours by simmiscellany  ★

Off-world Set/Pack by GrilledCheese-Aspiration  ★

Space Skies: Cygnus X, Barred Spiral Galaxy, Omega Centauri by Psychosim

Space Skies: Two Starry Hubble Images by silviansims  

Space Skies, the familiar: Earth and Van Gogh by Psychosim

Space Skies: Nebula galore by Psychosim “Space Sky. Space Sky! SPACE SKY!“ by Psychosim

Rotating Skybox (lowedeus) fixed & reuploaded for Skyfix 2.1 by loonyjelly

Horizonless Skies by dramallamadingdang 

Skies Part 2 by poppet-sims

LOT-BASED SKYBOXES

Great Sky of Totalitarianism by Lowedeus  

Aurora Sky Recolors (GST recolour) by freezerbunny-sims

Skyboxes by Slig

Weather Atmosphere by Chris997

Colors In The Sky by DaniCast

Maelstrom Skies by just_jaspe

10 Skybox Recolors by kristyail

4 Recolors for The Sky Pt II by kristyail

19 Recolors for The Lot by kristyail

MISC (More to be added)

Invisible Sun, Moon and Star Defaults by Lowedeus

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If you know of any skyboxes other than what is listed, please send me a message or reply below so I can add it. I take zero credit for any of this custom content. Thank you to The Sims Community for supporting my work here on Tumblr and a BIG THANK YOU to the custom content creators for making this list possible. ***** If you are a creator and wish to have your link removed, please reply below or send me a message *****

[littlesquidink]

It's time to beautify the neighborhood.

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Rocky and Layla are the cutest couple. They were preparing for their first child when Rocky lost his high-paying job in the music career. He took to the streets to play for the fans and after some much-needed encouragement from his mom, he decided to try his luck again in the music career. Joke's on his old manager, his new gig pays better and has a better title. The next generation of the Beech family is going to be living in style (and thanks to Layla and Rocky, will be quite musically inclined).

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Cliff Notes moved to Bigg City for a view of the water and a closer commute to the hospital. He spends his days working as the Chief of Staff and maxing out his skills. He is alone, but not unhappy. In fact, talking to himself feels like the only logical conversation he has most days. He might call Hugh and invite him over to catch up and brag about his success.

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After years of bad luck, Daisy has nearly reached her LTW. She and Helen live together in a duplex. They share everything (except their men) and are really doing well for themselves. Helen just opened her first hair salon outside of her home and she's already quite popular. Hi and Pong are pretty different, but their love for the Wheel sisters has forced them into a friendship. Cam (Daisy's teenage daughter) loves having a mentor like Hi who is just as into sports and fitness as she is.

Are the Wheel sisters my favorites?

A creator never chooses favorites, but since I didn't make them, I can and do choose. Yes, they are my favorites (along with so many other sims in this neighborhood.)

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JoAnn having her son during her guitar solo is kismet.

Motherhood isn't for her, so baby Jimi is going to be adopted. (Cliff Notes, the father, also isn't interested in having children.) Jimi will be adopted by Sara and Scot Land (she's Jimi's sort-of aunt.)

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When Delta took a job as a nanny, she wasn't sure what to expect. She had plenty of kid experience with her nieces and nephew, plus her job in education well prepared her for whatever nannying through her way. Or so she thought. While the kids were great, there was something odd about their grandfather. After the kids left for school, Yin claimed to be leaving for work but after a few days, Delta realized he wasn't coming home.

Delta was ready to be a nanny, but she wasn't ready to be a mom, so she took the kids to the best mom she knew, Mary. What happened to Yin? Well, Bigg City and it's neighboring towns are about to find out.

[paluding]

Sims 2 - Making tall buildings actually playable

I've always hated how the camera jumps up and down when playing tall and slim buildings. Turns out, it's really easy to fix! It’ll take you less than a minute. All the details under the cut.

All it takes is opening the LiveCamera.txt file in your Documents>Cameras folder with a text editor and changing these two parameters near the bottom to a higher value. Doesn’t matter if you're using a custom camera mod or not. Those parameters should be there. I have set mine like this (remember to save a backup just in case you don't like these changes).

It might seem a bit extreme, but I still think it’s fine.

-The top parameter, floorheightsamplerange, handles how much the floors “extend out”, so the camera object can stand on it mid-air. The higher it is, the further the floor will extend. This will make it so your camera will be able to stick to the floor you’re on, even if you pan away from the building. No more annoying jumps up and down!

-The parameter below that, floorheightsampleinnerrange, handles the transition between sticking to the current floor and dropping to the ground level once it goes past the edge. The higher it is, the smoothest the fall will be.

I’ll note though that the behaviour of these parameters might not be 100% accurate with how the game actually works, but from what I tested I think it’s pretty close as an explanation. If someone knows better how this Live Camera works, please let me know and I’ll try my best to correct any inaccuracies.

Save the .txt file and check how it works in game. It might feel weird at first, but personally I find it so much smoother and easier to handle. If you’re not happy with these values, close the game and edit those parameters until you find your sweet spot. Unfortunately, you will have to close and open the game every time you change it to check how it works.

There’s so many cool Custom Camera mods out there that I thought it’s probably better to just show how to edit those 2 parameters than editing and reuploading all of them.

So yeah, that’s it. Now you can play those tall lots without getting a headache. Go ahead and send your college simmies to that hideous Sim State Tower with a hot tub on top of it. Now you’ll be able to see what’s going on up there.

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I thought it was just me who found this camera jump annoying. I avoided lots and moved sims from apartments just to avoid it.

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These teens are getting to NOSE each other. On a semi-serious note, I love this pairing. A Land kid getting to live in the Mann mansion just seems right (assuming Kaye can find a way to fund the mansion she's inherited upon adulthood).

Frank McCormick (son of Ryan McCormick and Dixie Land) and Kaye Mann (daughter of Candy Hart and Rich Mann)

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Penny rethinking her want to sing karaoke

She's not a prude, she just wants to sing.

Tina stop snogging, you've got a mystery to solve.

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Cecilia began researching Green's odd sunburn once he went to sleep. She gave up her life as a professional party guest and began interning at the local hospital (mom would have been so proud) to learn as much as she could. But her efforts were fruitless, so she made a call to Green's twin Cyan. His work in the paranormal might have answers. They did. Green is a vampire. The news shook Cecilia to her core, but Green reassured her: I like being alone. I like spending quiet nights here with you building machines. You spend your days enjoying life, and I'll be here when you're ready to come home. Honestly, it's kind of a win-win.

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My death records after 25 (or so) in-game days in my uberhood vs. 4 days in Winterose.