#whimsyverse

[deelitefulsimmer]

Ok, how about this one? Is there a "no autonomous video games" mod anywhere? It bugs me how literally EVERY SIM plays video games at such a high autonomy.

Hmmmm...I’m not sure if it’s an option on it, but have you tried the mc command center? Other than that I don’t know of one. Anyone?

[whimsyverse]

Yeah, I'm starting over again

Ok, so...obviously I lost momentum again, but I'm still on this kick, so I decided to shift gears and change focus a bit, and I'm starting fresh - not from scratch, but with a shifted focus.

I'd realized that the way I had set things up had created a lot more work than I'd anticipated. While I enjoy being thorough, I realized it was killing my motivation to actually do the project. So I decided to focus on the most important characters - at least, where full families were involved. The biggest example is that characters like Vincent Dolan and Renard Bordeaux will no longer be teenagers but rather young adults. That way I don't have to spend so much time creating entire families. It wasn't such a big ask for these two characters in particular, since Renard had no family and Vincent's parents were both pretty important to his story and, as such, had been pretty well-defined, but for other characters, it was forcing me to actually create new people from scratch - and as I've described before, the process of making a sim involves a lot of extraneous work on my part with giving them skills, traits, jobs, etc. This allows me to focus on the important characters only and has greatly improved my ability to actually do the thing.

That being said, I've actually created most of the Sims already, so it's mostly about placing them at this point...so hopefully I can just ride this momentum and actually finish the darned thing finally.

The other major change is that I greatly reduced the amount of mods I was using. I won't create a new list, since I think all the mods I'm still using were on those lists, but they were creating a lot of extra consideration on my part. I removed some of the mods that were creating additional gameplay elements and many of the traits, opting to grab a few trait packs rather than individual traits, since they seemed to cover a broader range that I figured I could make work, even if they wouldn't necessarily be 100% accurate. But I realized that so many of the traits were almost synonymous with one another that it was just forcing me to keep that many more mods updated with each patch.

These are the trait packs I'm using:

6 Traits; Optimistic, Bossy, Vulgar, Extreme, Hypochondriac, and Learning Difficulty and 6 Traits: Pessimistic, Sarcastic, Cryptozoologist, Contemplative, Spiritual, Queen by jessienebulous

10 More Traits! by SpaceAce (I liked a lot of his "15 More Traits!" mod too, but there were a lot of duplicates, so I decided to pass on that one)

New Hobby Traits and New Emotional Traits by kutto (their emotional traits especially has been a wonderful addition, plugging up a lot of the gaps left by EA)

I am also using a few miscellaneous trait mods that I won't link to here since I linked them before, so you may see some mentioned in the individual character posts.

Finally, I had to decide which "override" mods I was going to use to breathe life into the game world, since the number I'd selected was...pretty optimistic. I decided to stick with Deaderpool's MC Command Center and Wonderful Whims by TURBODRIVER. MCCC does most of what I want, but I liked WW's ability to give your sims attractiveness likes and dislikes. It's also what I've been using to set sexual preference.

Anyways...time to start this again...and, y'know, hopefully finish this time...

[whimsyverse]

My second family, like before, is Renard Bordeaux - not technically a family, but whatever.

Family Bio: Everyone knows Renard! ...or thinks they do. He’s a friendly, disarming young man who always has a smile on his face...though there’s an entire encyclopedia of meanings behind each of those smiles. Renard seems, on the surface, to be well-meaning, if not a bit bungling, but there is almost always something going on beneath the surface as he dispassionately plots and schemes for unknown purposes. Anyone who says they know Renard is either flat-out lying or deluded...as no one knows what truly lies beneath those multitudinous smiles.

Renard Bordeaux

Meta Bio: Renard was the second Sim I placed in my first pass of the Whimsyverse project, and he’s generally pretty similar to what he was then: a mysterious, often duplicitous, crafty individual who comes across as a well-meaning but mostly bungling doofus. Even I don’t remember his origins - I think he was just a random character I created in an early Sims game simply because I liked the name, but he has evolved over the years into a sort of Xanatos-ian trickster with machinations upon machinations. He usually ends up working towards the best interests of the heroes, but often in a roundabout way that puts him at odds with them until the very end. But no matter what he does, he always wears a multitude of smiles on his omnipresent mask hiding his true intentions. One of his defining characteristics is that he generally blends in wherever he goes, and he had a very forgettable demeanor, which is just how he likes it.

Age: Teenager Gender: Cis Male Sexuality: Pansexual; Polyamorous Aspiration: Chief of Mischief Lifestyle: People Person Walk Style: Normal Style: Normal

Degree: N/A Career: Drama Club Skills: Acting (5); Baking (2); Charisma (6); Cooking (2); Fitness (3); Guitar (4); Logic (3); Persuasion (4); Piano (6); Pipe Organ (3); Research and Debate (4)

Likes: Comedy; Mischief; Guitar; Piano; Acting; Red; Brown; Alternative Music; Blues Music; Singer Songwriter Music; Classical Music; Pop Music; Retro Music; Romance Music; Easy Listening Music; Jazz Music Dislikes: Green

Traits: Pleased; Psychopath; Light-Hearted; Optimistic; Relaxed; Popularity Sim; Carefree; Mastermind; Charismatic; Incredibly Friendly; Savant; Faster Friendship Loss; Sincere; Great Storyteller; Laid-Back; Professional Slacker; Slower Romance Gain; Connections; Observant; Shameless; Socially Gifted; Pleasure Sim; Personality Reader; Worldly Knowledge; Independent; Always Welcome; Seldom Sleepy; Gregarious; Attractiveness Ambivalent; Polyamorous

[whimsyverse]

Family #1: The Dolans

(this is a re-upload as I made some major changes to my mod situation, specifically the CC traits I'm using...nearly all of the traits from here on out will be from Chingyu's trait pack, just for simplicity's sake)

After a long delay of straightening out my many (many, many) mods and just generally fighting with my lack of motivation to do...things...I've finally placed my first family: the Dolans! Pictures above (left to right) are: Vincent, Donovan, Lucinda, and Lillian.

You may recognize Vincent, at least, from my first Whimsyverse project...that'll be an ongoing theme, of course, since I'm remaking all of these characters again. This time, though, instead of making them all adults, I'll be defaulting most of my major characters to teenagers for no real specific reason besides that it feels like I'm starting at the beginning of their stories. Also it's more work for me to make all of their families and I

am nothing if not a masochist...

Family Bio: Donovan Dolan is a dangerous and brilliant criminal for hire, performing everything from high-profile heists to hitman-style assassinations dispassionately for the highest bidder. However, this was not the case when he first met Lillian, an aspiring model, and their whirlwind romance ended with them married and Lillian pregnant with twins. While establishing himself as one of the most dangerous men alive, the twins Vincent and Lillian were growing up with their gentle and loving mother, who all but gave up her own aspirations to raise them. Vincent and Lillian resent their absentee and dangerous father for how he neglects his family, and for his part, it is clear that Donovan expects at least one of them to continue in his footsteps...though which one has yet to be decided.

Vincent Dolan

Meta Bio: Vincent is my version of that character we all make around high school/early college - the hyper-competent badass that’s just there to be awesome and to let us write super cool scenes. He was super cool and good at everything and had a tragic backstory and was super emo and edgy and graargh! However, as I grew, Vincent stuck with me and became a character I reused many, many times over, and as I became more competent of a storyteller (I said more competent!), he grew too. He remained the hyper-competent badass he started as (a bit of self-indulgence on my part, perhaps), but the tragedy of his backstory and the psychology of him wrestling with his trauma became more pronounced in how I wrote him. He was no longer just a bad-ass, he was a more complex character who, despite appearing to be unaffected by everything around him, was really hyper-repressed to a dangerous degree. I started writing him less as that hyper-competent Gary Stu and more as a normal man (or boy) who simply didn’t know how to express himself or process the trauma of his past - in which he watches his father kill his mother and threaten to kill his twin sister - without letting the pain that comes naturally to that trauma overwhelm him. So he simply shuts it all out. At the same time, he has drilled into his head (thanks, again, to his father) that he simply isn’t good enough. This no longer manifests as a sort of infantile, impotent angst, but rather a silent drive to always do better at everything he does - an intense focus that earned him the very fitting title “a model of intense apathy” from my friend. But one of the most fun parts of the character isn’t writing him being exceptional at everything (I actually enjoy emphasizing that he is not good at everything...anything that requires a modicum of creativity or personal expression is utterly beyond him), it’s watching him, with the help of people around him, discover the young man that he could have been. I recently wrote him smiling for the first time and it was very sweet.

Age: Teenager Gender: Cis Male Sexuality: Asexual Aspiration: Renaissance Sim Lifestyle: Energetic Walk Style: Tough Style: Basic

Degree: N/A Career: N/A Skills: Fitness (4); Logic (3)

Likes: Color Purple, Color Black Dislikes: Comedy; Mischief

Traits: Reserved; Alexithymia; Scary; Unfunny; Over-Achiever; Mentally Gifted; Shameless; Unique Appearance; Slower Romance Gain; Physically Gifted; Brave; Needs No One; Carefree; Heat Acclimation; Slower Friendship Gain; Seldom Sleepy; Cold Acclimation; Quick Learner

Donovan Dolan

Meta Bio: Donovan has never been especially well-defined, and as such, this will be a pretty short bio. He only ever really existed as a vessel to drive Vincent’s trauma. He’s gone from being a petty thug to a master criminal to a dangerous madman. But I tend to enjoy playing him more as a sort of mirror into what Vincent could become - a hyper-competent, dangerous psychopath - a term I use more or less literally here, to emphasize his utter lack of empathy/sympathy. Like many psychopaths, he appears, outwardly, to be extremely well-adjusted, even charming and charismatic, but without the ability to relate to others. He is highly focused on his job, whatever that may be at the time.

Age: Adult Gender: Cis Male Sexuality: Straight Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy Lifestyle: Workaholic Walk Style: Tough Style: Basic

Career: Criminal (The Boss) Skills: Charisma (8); Fitness (8); Handiness (6); Logic (8); Mischief (10); Persuasion (4); Rock Climbing (5); Skiing (5)

Likes: Retro Music; Fitness; Rock Climbing; Dislikes: Video Games; Comedy; Backyard Music; Winter Holiday Music; New Age Music; Summer Strut Music; Tween Pop Music; Lullabies Radio Music

Traits: (*deep breath*) Abusive, Bad-Natured, Brilliant, Psychopath, Well-Balanced, Mentally Gifted, Argumentative, Emotional Control, Good Manners, Insensitive, Faster Relationship Gain, Physically Gifted, Socially Gifted, In the Know, Influential Individual, Mastermind, Natural Leader, Faster Friendship Gain, Over-Achiever, Connections, Brave, Carefree, Fortune Sim, Cold Acclimation, Savant, Great Kisser, Entrepreneurial, Shameless, Needs No One, Heat Acclimation, Hardly Hungry, Business Savvy, Alluring, Career-Minded, Dastardly, High Metabolism,

Lucinda Dolan

Meta Bio: Lucinda is even less defined than Donovan, usually. Once again, she exists simply to die and provide fuel for Vincent’s tragedy. She is usually described as being exceptionally kind and gentle, the opposite of her husband, and having made a strong impression on Vincent and Lillian during their childhoods. For the Sims version, I liked to imagine her as being full of life and energy and happiness. She leans a bit more into creative endeavors, which neither of her children took after. She still lives for her children, though, and the decision to give up her dreams as a model was her own...she wanted to be a parent more than she wanted anything else.

Age: Adult Gender: Cis Female Sexuality: Bisexual Aspiration: Super Parent Lifestyle: Close-Knit Walk Style: Feminine Style: Basic

Degree: Drama Career: N/A Skills: Acting (3); Charisma (4); Comedy (2); Dancing (4); Fitness (2); Painting (2); Parenting (6); Piano (4); Singing (5); Wellness (2)

Likes: Alternative Music; Singer Songwriter Music; Pop Music; Easy Listening Music; Americana Music; Color Black; Color Purple; Dancing; Painting; Piano; Singing Dislikes: Baking; Cooking; Mischief

Traits: Emotional; High-Spirited; Tender; Light-Hearted; Family Oriented; Role Model; Mediator; Kindness Ambassador; Responsible; Beloved; Incredibly Friendly; Good Manners; Emotional Control; Compassionate; Family Sim; Domestic; Gregarious

Lillian Dolan

Meta Bio: Unsurprisingly, Lillian, like her parents, has never been extremely well-defined, but I have had her appear occasionally in stories - I just never really cemented what kind of character she was. In the past, she was the polar opposite of Vincent: energetic, cheerful, impetuous. Other times she took more after their mother and was more quietly calm and confident. In this case, I decided to make her sort of a high-strung workaholic who doesn’t really know how to relate to people, mostly because that’s how she was in one of her more recent appearances. So hey, maybe that’s now her canon personality!

Age: Teenager Gender: Cis Female Sexuality: Bisexual Aspiration: Figuring it Out Lifestyle: Coffee Fanatic; Workaholic Walk Style: Normal Style: Preppy

Degree: N/A Career: Lifeguard Skills: Logic (4); Persuasion (2); Research and Debate (5); Rock Climbing (2); Writing (3)

Likes: Wellness; Research and Debate; Rock Climbing; Fitness; Writing; Color Black; Color Purple Dislikes: Video Gaming; Comedy; Mischief; Cooking; Baking; Dancing; Color Pink

Traits: Serious; Generalized Anxiety Disorder; Smart; Avoidant; Knowledge Sim; Top Notch Toddler; Physically Gifted; Mentally Gifted; Over-Achiever; Seldom Sleepy; Speed Reader; Independent; Learning about Life; Career-Minded; Quick Learner

[whimsyverse]

ugh...I’m doing this again...

So...yeah, it’s been a long couple month--huh? What’s that? THREE YEARS?!

...oof...

So I’ve been getting back into the Sims 4 again despite my best intentions (really hoping Paralives takes off so EA is no longer the only game in town for life sims) and as it turns out, I am utterly incapable of just enjoying this game without making it tons of work for myself...so here we are again.

(don’t be like that, baby, you know you love it)

I was just gonna go ahead and do it without the Tumblr, but last night I wanted to go back and check a few things to see how I’d done them before and I realized that A) it was super useful for when I inevitably failed and came back to the project fresh THREE YEARS later, and B) it’s kinda fun for me to read through how much the characters have changed. If nothing else, it’s a fun little archive for myself, and now all of you have to suffer along with me!

So...here we go again! ;^_^

Like before, I’ve separated this into three phases (even if I do tend to do them simultaneously in a lot of ways). Phase 1 is prep, wherein I gather up all of the copious complex and unnecessary mods needed to actually enjoy the game (seriously, the characters are so boring and devoid of character without mods); Phase 2 is where I design the characters - though in a way, they end up being sort of rough drafts in this phase because in Phase 3, I place them in the world and add the traits, rewards, jobs, and relationships that I couldn’t set in the first place.

I’ve already done a large chunk of Phase 1 (though I’m always finding new mods to break the game and make it unplayable, so I’ll probably add more as I go), and I intend to write up a post following this one with the mods I’ve settled on (as much for my benefit as anyone else’s, though I’ll link to the sources for download, so maybe it’ll help the creators). 

I’ve also got a lot of Phase 2 done with probably about half of the cast created (though like with Phase 1, I’m always remembering more people I forgot to add). This time, though, I’m sticking with my own OCs predominantly over characters from other canons. I may change my mind later, but...eh, gotta limit myself somehow or I’ll be here until the heat death of the universe, especially since I have a lot more characters than last time around (thanks Masks: the Next Generation)

Anyways...this is the last sentence!