have you ever opened the sims 4, spent hours in cas, building, decorating, or cc shopping… and then closed the game before actually playing? in the first episode of ctrl alt break, i talked about why the sims 4 can stop feeling fun, especially when perfectionism, forever saves, mod folders, and the need to control everything turn a cozy game into a full-time project → youtube.com/@wistfulbambi
now i encourage you to try this new challenge i created. (i'm sorry i'm still bad at using tumblr) you can use #onesimoneweekchallenge on your posts if you decide to do this!
Adjusted Thumbnails for the Household Panel (incl. a version for shorter teens)
Some of this started off as an experiment following a chat in Creator Musings but a few people wondered if I can share it sometime, so here it is.
1A) Adjusted camera settings for kids and pets
This is just something that bothered me and it mainly affects thumbnails in CAS. There's a strong perspective view applied to the CAS thumbnails of kids and pets, which makes them look a bit distorted and the zoom is too close cutting off the face in some cases:
The adjustments are somewhat a compromise of CAS and in-game settings leaning towards the latter. The adjustments for human sims are also included for in-game thumbnails (due to some restrictions this is not quite possible for pets, but their in-game version looks fine anyways).
1B) Adjusted camera settings for shorter teens (tested with the Shorter Teens mod by Menaceman44)
Disclaimer that sims aged teen-elder use the same camera settings and there's no way that I know of to treat teens differently or assign different settings based on the height of a sim, if you use such a mod.
When you use a height mod, the sims faces will be cut off with the default settings.
My workaround here is zooming out to allow shorter sims to fit into the picture frame. It's not an optimal solution, but the only solution I can think of. Below a preview using the standard teen height (first row) and the "shortest" teen height (second row) from the Shorter Teens mod.
This version uses 1A) as a base, but zooms out more on human sims (pets have the same settings as in 1A).
Note: Also not optimal, but you can try making the UI bigger via the game accessibility settings to make the household panel incl. the thumbnails a bit larger if these settings make the sims portraits too small.
2) Angled Pose (made for Waffle ^^)
Waffle mentioned that we used to have angled pictures in the household panel (seems like this was the case until pets were added to the game). Below I tried to recreate the original settings (based on a very old blurry screenshot :P).
Below an example of how it looks standalone and with the camera settings 1A/1B.
The pose override is only for human sims, not for pets. I feel like the very different proportions and profiles of cats and dogs won't always look great when angled (and I suspect that's the reason this was changed when pets were added).
You can use this option in addition to the above settings or standalone. (This is a pose override, not an override for camera settings and can therefore be used independently.)
Download links are below the cut.
DOWNLOAD
1A) Adjusted camera settings for kids and pets: SFS | MF
1B) Adjusted camera settings for shorter teens: SFS | MF
2) Angled Pose: SFS | MF
Change log:
January 18th 2025: A mermaid specific pose was missing in the Angled Pose mod (only noticeable in CAS). Added it.
Notes:
Pick either 1A) or 1B)! Don't put both files into your mods folder.
You can use 2) in addition or standalone.
You need to delete the file localthumbcache.package to let the game generate new thumbnails. Otherwise you won't see any changes in game until the game needs to update the thumbnails on its own. (You should see the changes in CAS immediately, though.)
Some of y'all probably seen this already, but recently a debug build of TS1 with Edith included was released:
The Sims' Edith Debug Build for QA testing.Pre-Livin'Large Patch/Expansion.For QA and Dev Testing teams.Compiled Jan 5th 2000, Internal Test
Edith is a program that runs alongside the game, allows you to modify and create objects and behaviors during runtime. Any changes you make to interactions, scripts, etc. Will take effect and save in realtime.
Tips under the cut.
Here are some tips, if you wish to check it out:
Set your PC registry to English (US) for Sims if you run into any issues like crashes. The game complains (crashes) sometimes with other languages due to the weirdness of the build. -Always run the game in windowed mode (-w) or Edith won’t work.
Shortcuts are already included with command line arguments for window mode. -No CD patch required, this version of the game comes with no disc or SecuROM requirements.
Only objects made for v1.0 will probably work (or at least anything that doesn't use newer SimAntics functions), so no EP items or mods made for later versions (unless you know if they’re compatible with v1.0 generally).
You’ll need to load a lot to get started. Press “E” to launch Edith, press “M” for $1000 (hurray, no more rosebud!;!;!; required). You can try seeing what other keys work - "L" launches the lighting editor, for example.
There's a lot of developer cheats which are enabled in this build that don't work (or don't exist) in the release version of the game.
You can find a list of these cheats at https://tcrf.net/The_Sims_(Windows)/Developer_Tools or by using the help cheat.
The most useful cheats are "debug_social on" (lets you decide whether an interaction is accepted or denied by another sim), "all_menus on" (lets you use all the interactions on an object, including debug options - similar to the console cheats), "money [amount]" (lets you set your household balance), and "visitor_control on" (lets you control visitor sims including NPCs using the spacebar to switch characters).
Edith can be finicky and has lot of knobs/dials, so best not to fiddle too much with anything that seems mysterious or unintentional. Generally avoid the "default" menu options like New/Open/Save/Print/etc. Your best bets are the object browser and module inspector.
All changes made to an object’s tree or properties are saved in real time (for the most part), there’s no undo button.
Try to stick to running the regular Sims.exe, not the Sims_Debug.exe, since the latter throws C++ errors regularly and can crash.
Download (Base Game Compatible) here:
Cabinets
Counters
Alternative preview and some info from me below the cut
I'm still recovering files. Fortunately I did not damage my laptop or drive. The only folder that got roasted was indeed "just" the His Loft folder.
I made this kitchen today because wifi was out again. Thanks T-online for always being crappy. Speaking of, this kitchen is rancid and I love it so much. It was originally that one desk from the werewolves pack. We've had a kitchen in the vampires and spellcasters pack. Why not in werewolves? Strange, but fixable with some cc. This does not have island counters. If enough people want them let me know, but since the original is boxy I didn't want to deal with rounded end pieces.
and here it is in extra shabby Ferrari red. My beloved.
Thank you to all my extremely helpful patrons, whose feedback and support was crucial in the creation of this mod.
This is a project that has been in my mind for more than a year, and I’m happy to finally be able to post it. It overhauls how the game chooses what sims to spawn in multiple situations. There are multiple packages, so check the descriptions below.
The “simspawnoverhaul” and “simspawnoverhaul-pets” packages are merged versions of the mod (one with smarterwalkbys and the other with smarterwalkbys-pets, respectively), meaning they include all other packages in a single one. If you want to download everything, I recommend picking one of them instead, so you won’t clutter your mods folder. Pick only one, according to the version of smarterwalkbys you want!
Check the bottom of the post for details on compatibility
Short answer: They are physiological designed to be the perfect children’s entertainer.
Long Answer: They didn’t really evolve at all. They were selectively bred alongside mimes, which share a common ancestor, the Jester. Jesters are, of course, the domesticated descendant of Bards, from which the entire Entertainer genus evolved.
Clowns were bred to be appealing to small children who would (theoretically) be more interested in the clown’s bright colors, silly antics, and slapstick comedy.
Mimes were bred to be more appealing to older audiences, for whom color and simplicity are as likely to be disinteresting as fascinating.
This is a dangerous oversimplification. Party clowns were bred to entertain children, and many modern circus clowns are crossbreeds with high party clown content (the party clown’s bright coloration being a desirable trait) but the party clown’s gentle nature and poor reflexes makes purebreeds a poor fit for the circus. The ones you see in the circus are generally crossed with mimes or acrobats.
Generalizing clowns as children’s entertainment leads to tragedy when people think they can trust any clown with small children when many breeds are temperamentally unsuited for that kind of thing - rodeo clowns are notoriously high-strung, funhouse clowns can be mean-spirited, and while the evil clown’s name is something of a misnomer you should still never leave a child alone with one.
To that note. The ancestry doesn’t stop at bards. It goes back to poets! See a particular breed of poet back in the Gaels time were actually quite formidable. They were ruthless and unstoppable to the point of dethroning kings with their sick burns alone. In attempt to harness their power and strength they were cross bred with european writers who were already fully domesticated under the heel of the ruling church. This produced the well known bard with their shanty and songs while still maintaining a bit of their ruthless bite they were prised for. While never quite as effective as the Gaelic poet they maintained their popularity.
The poets however began to fall out of favor and were mostly wiped out. But threads of their heraldry can still be seen today with americanized poet cross breeds. While not retaining their classic power of the Gaelic poets they still maintained their respectable cunning and might of word we can still see today in clubs and spoken word events.
actually entertainer species of one kind or another have been present throughout pretty much all of recorded history. even paleolithic art documents the evolution of homo coulros alongside early humans
history didn’t begin with europe. humans and clowns have coexisted since the beginning
fun fact: while prevailing scientific attitudes tend to assume that clowns were predominantly a scavenger species, there is some evidence that early clowns & humans hunted together
Unironically, as a trained clown (no, really) I find this really funny because you are literally describing how these types of clowns historically came about IRL and doing so with surprising accuracy. I learned this in actual clown school y'all. Your shitposting is accidentally (?) real, factual Clowning History and I can’t get over that.
I want to talk about this somewhere, with someone, but I never know where. I guess this is as good of a place as any. I had a terrible summer and have been mostly miserable. Depression has totally worn me down, and it’s taken away even the joy of playing games. In particular, I don’t find any fun playing Sims. I start the game up sometimes, but I have no desire to keep playing. I am just instantly bored. I got Island Paradise on sale, and I got Realm of Magic the day it was released, but I’ve barely touched the game since.
I miss playing nonstop and being so excited about new releases. The game looks fun and I like looking at other people’s images, but once I try to play myself, nothing.
I don’t like being like this. I just hope that things turn around sooner rather than later, because I don’t know how much longer I can take this.
