Remember my 4t2 Sixam project I started 2 years ago? Which I almost scrapped but revisited sometime last year? ... well, I've got good news for you then. It's finally out now! ^^
Welcome to Sixam!
Sixam City, a thriving metropolis on the planet of Sixam, home to Sixam Academy, a prestigious intergalactic university that provides special training for aspiring students to become Birth Queens, Colony Drones, or even the latest innovation in alien technology: Pollination Technicians. Renowned for its cultural diversity and interstellar expeditions, the city nurtures a community focused on curiosity, inclusivity and innovation.
Yes, I recreated the secret alien world from TS4 for TS2 as a custom university subhood! Why as a university subhood you may ask? Well, I tried to keep the original vibes of Sixam of it being an "unlockable"/visitable place your sims can explore rather than a regular neighborhood your sims can live in!
Even after graduation, your sims can actually stay and live in the university subhood using Lamare's YAs can enjoy maternity (and all that) mod, as well as Lamare's Pets at University mod!
Update!! (June 24th 2026)
I made-over the entire neighborhood using my animated 4t2 Sixam plants I uploaded earlier this year, this includes all lots in the neighborhood! So, you can totally have the full TS4 Sixam experience in TS2 now!
Oh... and one more thing, as requested, I finally uploaded a Main Hood, as well as a Downtown version of Sixam Academy, ahem... it's Sixam City now! All the original playables have graduated and are adults now... and the drama goes on! It's like they never left! XD
Screenshots before the make-over
Screenshots after the make-over
Download: MTS | Simblr.cc | SFS
More info under the cut...
Neighborhood Info:
The Main Hood/Downtown versions do require all EPs/SPs though, since I wanted to include apartment lots. I miiight do an alternative version without AL one day, so that TS2 Super Collection users can also use it. The University version is still Uni+NL+OFB EP only regardless.
No camera mod is needed, yet, still recommended for easier gameplay, especially since some lots were built on skyscrapers and can be hard to view with just the vanilla camera.
Number of Sims: 90 (10 playable sims in 4 playable families, 31 townies, 44 NPCs, 5 dead sims) -> 130 now! (including alien pets and other bonus NPCs!)
Number of Lots: 35 (7 residential lots, 2 Greek houses, 5 dorms, 1 secret society, 20 community lots, where 8 of which are owned businesses) -> + 2 bonus lots! (A mysterious Nebula Brick Road lot and Alien Parrrtey!, a lot inspired by the alien party lot in TS4 when you visit Sixam, lol.)
Gameplay Info:
Speaking of lots, I made lecture halls for every major, which you could use with beestew's Active Classes mod! These are community lots, featuring skill-building equipment and study spaces, with NPC professors (as lot owners) available for tutoring whenever your sims visit. The Main Hood/Downtown version still includes these lecture halls, so if you ever wanted to try out the university-in-main-hood mods, this is the perfect neighborhood to try Squinge's Mega College Pack mods out.
I also made an optional custom skybox and custom lighting file for Sixam that will make it always nighttime (Yes, you heard right! The sun never shines here on Sixam!) with subtle seasonal color changes - reddish in Autumn, bluish in Winter, and greenish in Spring.
The inhabited version requires the 3 alien skintones (blue/turquoise/violet) from my [4t2] aliens set to keep the TS4 alien characters like Aileen Rauvu authentic. As giving all these colorful aliens the default green skin instead felt as bad as white-washing, say, giving black characters like Olive Specter a lighter skintone for me. An alternative CC-free version with no CC skintones is also available for players who prefer to not have any CC skintones in their games, though.
I also recreated some characters from TS4, especially all the characters from the The Sims 4 Get to Work: Sul Sul trailer. Every character comes with a complete set of ancestors (at least parents) and customized memories, even townies and NPCs! Some also come with interesting lore! Even though, they're just... townies! Oh, and everyone has genetic infant faces! Yayy! XD
Speaking of characters, scripted events don't work in subhoods, but I wrote a text in each family description that somewhat mimic the scripted event notifications anyway. I think this is a brilliant and fun way of introducing new characters, even in university subhoods. All households should also have a complete set of family album pictures that show their lore a bit. The main hood version does however include scripted events. ^^
Recommended Mods:
All notownieregen/antiredudancy/nodormiespawn/nossrespawn mods. All university townies/NPCs in Sixam are aliens.. or at least have a very good reason why they're there, but this can easily be ruined if you don't have these mods installed, lol.
bloodredtoe's Mannequin babies can be born mod. To have more variety, I used the mannequin skintone for some of the alien sims. While this mod isn't required, it's recommended to prevent crashes, especially when these aliens have offspring, as there's a chance they could inherit the mannequin skintone.
Squinge's No Townie Memory Loss. Again, townies and NPCs in this neighborhood are highly customized and I recommend getting no townie amnesia mods to prevent their lore from getting wiped out! As there are a few clues in the bios of some of the townies... including long lost twins!
lingeringwillx's Restore Default Names for Sims in Subneighbohoods . This is especially helpful, not only because the townies/NPCs are related to the playable sims, but also, it will help to maintain the alien atmosphere of Sixam with names like Pollination Technicians, Colony Drones or Birth Queens, etc. instead of having EA's default townie/NPC names.
Install Instructions:
This download consists of 3 parts:
Neighborhood itself:
Main Hood: Place the NSXM folder into your DOCUMENTS/EA Games/The Sims 2/Neighborhoods folder
Note: If you have TS2 UC, it's DOCUMENTS/EA Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/Neighborhoods
Note: If you have TS2 Legacy, it's DOCUMENTS/EA Games/The Sims 2 Legacy/Neighborhoods
University: Place the USXM folder into your PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 University/TSData/Res/NeighborhoodTemplate folder
Note: If you have TS2 UC, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/University Life/EP1/TSData/Res/NeighborhoodTemplate
Note: If you have TS2 Legacy, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Legacy/EP1/TSData/Res/NeighborhoodTemplate
Downtown: Place the DSXM folder into your PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Nightlife/TSData/Res/NeighborhoodTemplate folder
Note: If you have TS2 UC, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/Double Deluxe/EP2/TSData/Res/NeighborhoodTemplate
Note: If you have TS2 Legacy, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Legacy/EP2/TSData/Res/NeighborhoodTemplate
2. 4t2 Sixam Fauna & Flora Set (+ 3 new custom alien skintones):
Download and extract the complete set of the 4t2 Sixam Plants (+ skybox & ocean floor) here.
You should have extracted 4 folders now, go into each one and decide which version of the plants you'd like to keep. Move these folders into the Sixam CC folder of this download. This way, you should have 1 main folder and 4 sub-folders (+ 3 custom alien skins).
Place the Sixam CC folder into your DOCUMENTS/EA Games/The Sims 2/Downloads folder
Note: If you have TS2 UC, it's DOCUMENTS/EA Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/Downloads
Note: If you have TS2 Legacy, it's DOCUMENTS/EA Games/The Sims 2 Legacy/Downloads
Place the sixam_lot.txt file into your PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff/TSData/Res/Lights folder
Note: If you have TS2 UC, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/Fun with Pets/SP9/TSData/Res/Lights
Note: If you have TS2 Legacy, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Legacy/EP9/TSData/Res/Lights
Credits:
To EA for creating Sixam in the first place, even though it was originally created for the wrong game ;)
Makers of SimPE (especially with the newest version, allowing creation of customized NPCs!)
Mootilda for all her amazing tools, especially LotCompressor, LotAdjustor, HoodChecker, and her tutorial on how to create a custom subhood template.
Numenor for his AnyGameStarter, allowing for the creation of a Uni/NL/OFB only environment.
@lowedeus for his original skybox, which I recolored and modified to make the skybox season-friendly, as well as @criquette-was-here for the tutorial on how to make nhood objects glow at night.
Gwenke for the original ocean surface nhood deco, which I also recolored and modified to make it glow at night.
@catherinetcjd for all her inspring builds and also for being such an amazing friend. I recommend her Isosceles Apartments, Experiment 4.2, The Colony as well as her Pyramid Commune No. 9 Live, specifically as optional additional lots for this neighborhood. I learned a lot from you in the past few years of neighborhood and lot building!
Creusa Sims for her support and love while I was creating this neighborhood. It was fun discussing some of the lore in this neighborhood with you. XD
@lordcrumps for also being such an amazing friend! It was you who kept pushing me to actually redo the skybox when I wasn't happy with the draft version, lol! And also for your helpful inputs very early on. ^^
@lamare-sims for being such a talented modder and her amazing mods that make living in university subhoods possible in the first place! This concept wouldn't have otherwise made sense.
That's it for now I guess? I hope you have as much fun with this neighborhood as I had building it! <3
Do not be alarmed. The reason I decided to do an in-depth analysis and study on the pathogenesis of these two viruses, is because they are the culprits behind the two full scale global pandemics in recent history. Humanity has battled disease outbreaks since the start of civilizations. But in living memory there have been only two pandemics with about 40 years between them.
(Concept video made with ai by Arjuwan Lakkdawala.)
The first in 1983 when HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) which untreated progresses into AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome – a fatal condition) caused a worldwide outbreak with its main strain HIV-1, then the second was in 2019 when the Sars-Cov-2 (a Coronavirus - Covid-19) was reported around the world and made governments enforce quarantines and curfews.
So this is the primary reason the viruses were elected for research. Interesting to note that it is viruses that caused these pandemics and not bacterial infections.
A tale of two viruses
Twice the viruses were able to break through the health and safety guidelines of the time. A sign that disease prevention measures in 1983 and 2019 wasn’t sufficient, and the emergence of these viruses had not been foreseen even with advanced 21st century technology and awareness.
Both have RNA genome but HIV has a reverse transcriptes mechanism, by which it converts its RNA into DNA and integrates itself in the host genome and creates reservoirs that can be latent for years; making the virus incurable.
Covid-19 is still shrouded in mystery with very little of the narrative about it making sense. It spreads through aerosol droplets in the air. Is it the flu? Whoever died of flu, or did it ever cause quarantine and curfews. Is it pneumonia? Was the vaccine worse than the virus itself? Why has AstraZeneca been discontinued? What is Long Covid?
The official text on the viruses is that they are of zoonotic origins and evolved to infect human hosts.
Awareness was different in the times that set these outbreaks decades apart. When HIV-1 went global after jumping to humans (known medically as a spillover event) from chimpanzees it was theorized that the cause was eating bushmeat in Africa, there were controversial theories that the species jump had happened when some humans had sex with chimpanzees. But we’ll never get to the bottom of it.
The world didn’t have the Internet and news organizations were too slow and limited to spread awareness globally before the global spread of the disease itself.
HIV-1 became a pandemic; people were having unprotected sex, other routs of infection was the virus spreading through infected needles used by drug addicts and from mother to unborn child, etc.
The HIV virus still doesn’t have a vaccine and in 1983 when it was discovered there was no effective cure. There still isn’t but effective lifelong medication can suppress the virus replication to undetectable levels.
The zoonotic origin of HIV is from the simian Immunodeficiency virus in chimpanzees. Covid-19 is theorized to have evolved to infect humans after spilling over from bats to an intermediate host, probably in the Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, where there was exposure to blood from butchering animals in a very unhygienic and cruel environment.
What has been done since 1983 to combat HIV is a remarkable feat of modern medicine and global awareness.
HIV once in the body attacks the defense cells of CD4+ T, destroying the host defense from all types of diseases, including cancers, this hazardous biological condition progresses into AIDS, which becomes the terminal stage of the infection.
Since 1983 antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been developed to inhibit the virus cells and suppress replication, this treatment is highly effective in reducing transmission and prevention of the virus from progressing into AIDS.
However, the ability of the virus to integrate into host genome as DNA and create latent heterogeneous reservoirs (mixer of mutated virions) makes it incurable with current treatments. HIV has only 9 genes and a very rapid mutation rate, this means that with just about every replication a new slightly different strain can emerge. This results in a “cloud of quasispecies” in the body. This mechanism of the virus makes it challenging to treat and eradicate despite antiretroviral therapy. If treatment is discontinued the virus immediately bursts into large closely related populations with a master strain, attacking the immune system defense cells.
The complex issue is that unlike broad spectrum antibiotics there is no broad spectrum antivirals. So different strains of the same virus can evade antiviral therapy targeting one specific strain.
How does Covid-19 attack the body?
(Concept image of Alien University made with ai by Arjuwan Lakkdawala)
It is the chameleon of viruses or better described as a chimeric virus. Chimeric is a term often given to viruses assumed to be laboratory engineered, by recombining genes of different viruses. The virus has 10 to 15 genes and a high mutation rate. However, in the case of Covid-19 there is no evidence of laboratory tampering according to the mainstream media. It is a chimera virus with its backbone genes from bat viruses and its spike protein from pangolin viruses. However, this is theorized to have happened in the Wuhan Market where there were several species of animals. But there is no explanation about the timeline of the spillover event, which in nature usually requires several animal jumps for a virus to evolve to infect humans. The spikes of Covid-19 are in fact optimized to bind to human ACE2 receptor cells. For such a spillover event to be possible, the animals must be confined and alive in the same habitat for a long time. Which does not seem like a plausible environment in a market. However, zoonotic viruses can evolve to infect humans with a single spillover event.
Covid-19 according to the official narrative depends entirely on the health of your immune system and if you have any underlying illnesses. It primary behaves like a flu; symptoms start as a flu. Then if your immune system is already compromised the spike protein on Covid-19 can bind to and attack everywhere in your body where there are ACE2 receptor cells.
ACE2 cells are expressed in the “upper and lower respiratory tract (especially nasal epithelium and lung alveolar cells) heart, blood vessels, kidneys, intestines, and other tissues.”
The RNA of the virus uses host ribosomes (a protein synthesis organelle – translating instructions in proteins) to replicate the viral genome.
If the immune system is or gets severely compromised Covid-19 can cause an inflammation of cytokine storm, an overreaction from the immune system and dysfunction of defense cells: macrophage, dendritic, neutrophils, T cells, etc. It causes septic shock like organ failure and death.
What is Long Covid?
It is a mystery. There is no definitive definition of what is Long Covid. It is an active area of research. Studies so far in a subset of patients has collected evidence of suspected reservoirs in parts of the body where ACE2 receptor cells are expressed. Subgenomic RNA has been detected in some patients even after nasal swabs and blood tests were negative. Indicating possible reservoirs causing chronic inflammation, immune dysregulation, autoimmune disorders, cytokine inflammation, etc.
This is somewhat similar to how HIV causes chronic inflammation and weakening of the overall immune defenses.
Long Covid could cause people to have decline in cognitive abilities due to brain fog, cognitive impairment, neurological disorders. It is suspected that the reason behind this is reservoirs in the gut microbiome where ACE2 receptors cells are highly expressed. And that the gut-brain axis is the pathway of the virus into the brain and the whole neurological system.
(Author’s Note: could it be that Long Covid is causing the global insanity crisis.)
A fundamental question in microbiology: What is a virus?
There are theories but no definite answer. Perhaps the behavior of viruses could unravel the mystery.
They are non-living obligate parasites. Or we could speak of them as biological machines.
A virus is a genetic material that gets activated when it attaches to a host. Unlike bacteria, a virus does not have the ability to move by itself or ribosomes, or metobolism – a major distinction of it being not alive.
A typical virus is much smaller than any typical bacteria. While viruses can infect host cells and bacteria, the virus itself is basically an apex predator of the world of microorganisms. It has no predator, the only exception is being infected by virophages ( even smaller viruses that parasitize giants like the Pandoraivirus)
However, the astonishing thing is that once it gets a host, it ‘knows’ how to systematically attack cells and even travel to the saliva (as in the case of the rabies virus, so the infected host can bite and infect new hosts) this genetic material is innately programmed to kill host cells and replicate itself. Why would something like this exist in evolution? Survival of the fittest or natural selection does not explain the behaviour of viruses. Viruses can infect even bacteria and kill them.
If we were to look at the behaviour of viruses from the point of view of killing other organisms to survive, and by that, I mean replication, they would have to be alive, but they are not. The scientific definition of 'obligate parasites' of a thing that is also defined as ‘non-living’ means they are designed to kill other organisms with no metabolic aspirations.
The fourth domain of life
The Fourth Domain of Life hypothesis is from around 2010 to 2013, because a few large viruses have some protein synthesis machinery, the hypothesis proposes that they could be descendent from a species that over time lost its life defining mechanism, and so became obligate parasitic genetic material. The Three Domain system was established by Carl Woese: Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya.
In popular science fiction the strange mechanical like behavior of viruses have long fascinated storytellers, and their defiance of living while still being not alive, has made them frontrunners for the concept of unknown alien life forms.
In H.G. Wells 1898 book War of the Worlds, the alien life forms from Mars appear to be closely inspired by viruses.
(Concept images made with ai by Arjuwan Lakkdawala)
If you have ever wondered why computer malicious software is named viruses. It is because the behavior of these ‘digital viruses’ has relatable analogies with actual biological viruses.
Computer scientist Fred Cohen formally coined the term ‘virus’ in 1983 after discussing the matter with his advisor Leonard Adleman of RSA encryption fame. Virus in computer context now describes a malicious software that can attach its programming to host software to disrupt and damage their functions, and replicate itself as it further infects digital files.
(Concept image made with ia by Arjuwan Lakkdawala)
Not all viruses are bad for us
Bacteriophages (viruses that specifically infect bacteria) have been used for centuries and continue to be used as a remedy for bacterial infections. According to the World Health Organization due to antibiotic resistance we could soon be entering the “post-antibiotic era” so we might go back to the ancient remedies of using bacteriophages for bacterial infections.
We do not know what potential viruses could have if we can control their programming by gene editing and protein instructions. Proteins are the encrypted language of the cellular and microbial world. Biological systems understand what they need to do to achieve a certain function from instructions in proteins when amino acids are synthesized (translated). If we want to further refine this language, advanced science can combine the identity of protein molecules with their atomic structure.
An experimental project is the Protein Data Bank, an archive of protein structures established in 1971. It was used to train the AlphaFold series of advancing database of experimental protein structures from their amino acid sequeances. AlphaFold (protein structure database, with over 200 million protein 3D shape predictions by the software ) was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author, scientific researcher, inventor.
Apparently I went into space, by creating a spaceship from nothing. And then I went to an alien university and studied for several years. By going back in time and I also taught at this school.
Get You A Rapper Who Can Be Both: Bigg Fatts Shares "Conscious But Ratchet" | @Bigg_Fatts
Get You A Rapper Who Can Be Both: Bigg Fatts Drops "Conscious But Ratchet" | @Bigg_Fatts
Woke. Ratchet. Bigg Fatts makes it plain that sometimes, you CAN be both on a new single, “Conscious But Ratchet.” “I’m ratchet but intelligent…” Bigg Fatts, the Houston emcee who transforms his flow into a beast whether he’s on his own track or someone else’s beat, has a pretty big 2017 ahead of him. He’s not only got a collaboration with OneHunnidt, Smokey And Craig, that might be coming as…
Stream Mike Red's 'Fortunate' LP, Guilt-Free [@mikedotred #Fortunate]
Stream Mike Red’s ‘Fortunate’ LP, Guilt-Free [@mikedotred #Fortunate]
Most in the city of Houston know Mike Red as a producer first. The local boardman’s name can be found in the liner notes of plenty of projects from the H’s biggest rising stars; but he also does a little rapping of his own from time to time. Last week, Mike Red released Fortunate, the follow-up LP to his 2014 album Root$ and his first full-scale project since collabing with Rai P on 2Kush15. For…
If he wanted to, Bigg Fatts could’ve remained dormant for the rest of 2015. The Houston emcee already made his mark earlier this year with his Snackin’ 4 Beats mixtape, a body of work that firmly established Fatts’ ability to turn others’ music into displays of his own lyrical prowess. And yet, Fatts is still hungry (no pun intended). That’s apparent in the rapper’s newest single, “How Many…
