I really missed my “Falconvale” “Nothing is Free” challenge, and I really wanted to get a new traditional “Nothing is Free” challenge going (rules on Mod the Sims here) – as opposed to my “Spectres” challenge, which is combined with an Apocalypse challenge. Plus, I had just gotten the Island Paradise expansion, so the thought of building my own Island Paradise had plenty of merit. Coming up with a story for such a world wasn’t a real stretch of imagination, either… a castaway was completely obvious. So.. Castaway Shores was born. I gutted the town, and “fished” around for an appropriate starting lot, which took some doing.. originally, I picked a land-locked one, but that seemed like a stupid idea, so I moved him to a beachy lot.
My founding character is a guy, named Micah McCloud. His traits are: Loves to Swim, Loner, Handy, Excitable, and Eco-Friendly. His favorite music is Island Life, he loves Grilled Salmon, and he likes the color red. With all that being said, that’s pretty much all you need to know to start reading!
I always wanted to go back to this, in fact, I think I still have the file. But I just don’t play Sims 3 anymore. Maybe someday.
(more…)From my original page on this story: “First of all, I know it’s mis-spelled. I did it on purpose. Poetic license! Second, the title will be explained in due time.
I came up with the idea after downloading a beautifully evocative world called “Silent Hill” (yes, based off the games) from the Sims Exchange – found here if you’re interested. I promptly tossed the idea out and kept looking. Hours later, after coming back to the idea many times, and finally having a brainstorm session with my husband where the story was fleshed out some more, I finally decided this was what I was going to go with. I really wanted to get another “Nothing is Free” challenge going (rules on Mod the Sims here) .. and this time I wanted to START with a story, not the challenge itself. (I started with the challenge last time, and then had to come up with a semi-lame story after the fact when I decided to start blogging it.) However, this was where the complications showed up. For the story to work, I’m going to have to get a bit.. well.. creative. The world is a lovely sad and ruined world, perfect for a lonely sim who thinks they just might be the last sim alive to try to rebuild humanity… er.. simanity. However, that means the play is going to be a bit more complicated. I’ve always wanted to try an Apocalypse challenge (rules found on it’s wiki here) .. but never been brave enough to actually start one. I read over the rules fairly carefully, and if I modify several key things (the big one is going to be the fact that there ARE no rabbit holes to start with in the world – and I’m going to make a really tough choice to also force a NO OTHER SIMS! in the world to start with as well.) Not to completely spoil the story, I will let you discover that as we go.. but this challenge could very well end before it begins if the random chance gods of sims don’t help me out before my founder dies. (yikes!)“
This is the only Sims 3 game I’ve attempted to go back to since Sims 4 came out. I still have the save file, but the issue is still the same. I was going to need to force the save past bugs with cheats, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to just for the sake of the story. Maybe someday.
(more…)Chapter 1.1 < | > Chapter 1.3
The fourth day dawned bright and early, and with the return of the sun, I felt my spirits rise. I pulled the mirror out of the outhouse, and set it up behind it on a board. Why I would need a mirror.. I don’t know.. but for now, it worked to help me shave with the unfamiliar straight razor from the toolkit. I had no desire to end up looking like some scruffy island reject, and some self-care seemed definitely the order of the morning. I caught up on my journal, had a breakfast of my last anchovy, and set out to fish some more up.
However, as I was heading to my boat, I was thoroughly startled by the ringing of my cell phone. Scrambling for my pocket, I fumbled with the buttons, and, shaking, I whispered a scratchy “Hello?” Unfortunately, I was just in time to hear the click of the other party hanging up. Disappointed, but curious, I put the phone back into my pocket and headed out fishing. I didn’t fish for too long due to the rain starting back up, but I did catch some more anchovies and a jellyfish.
When I came back to what I was now thinking of as “my” beach, I ate a soggy and slightly burnt fishy breakfast, then set out to upgrade my bathroom. The handiness manual had outlined the way to make it clean itself, so I followed the directions scrupulously. Before long, I had a self-cleaning bathroom.. what a luxury!
Then, I studied a cookbook until I learned cooking – perhaps now I wouldn’t burn my fish for dinner. With the rain still coming down, the darkness seemed lonely, so I studied the stars and once again looked for any ships on the horizon. Feeling lonely, I crawled exhaustedly into my tent, and fell into a sound sleep.
I woke to MORE rain, and had a lonely soggy anchovy for breakfast… but at least it wasn’t burnt this time! With some extra driftwood, I built myself a makeshift couch, coffee table, chess board and chair.
Then, the rain suddenly cleared, and I took my bike out to explore the island a bit more. I found a gem, a rock, and a flower. I also managed to explore all the roads, and once again marveled at the perfectly laid out, albeit empty village.
An idea to build a town here slowly started growing in my brain. I wondered who owned the island, and how to buy it. I was loving the island life, and college didn’t hold any appeal for me anymore, so I thought perhaps my savings to pay for that could go towards this land I’d found. The island was beautiful, and would make a nice place for a town.
Knowing my food supply was low, I saved enough daylight time to fish, and .. yay! .. I caught a nice-sized tuna. A large shark visiting my beach convinced me to head back in early.
Once I got back home, I studied a charisma manual in the darkening evening, and once the sun went down, I searched the galaxy. I’d all but given up on ships, so the stars were what I studied. One of them appeared to be moving… towards me…
… Uhhh… aliens! Once they left, I went to bed, exhausted.
After last night’s adventure, I slept in, and the sun was well on it’s way across the sky before I managed to wake up. I had roasted tuna for breakfast.. what a treat! I was raining.. AGAIN.. what a day. Then, exploring my beach, I discovered what looked to be a fossilized shark tooth to add to my collection.
Then, suddenly, my phone started ringing. I was less surprised this time, and quickly answered it with a scratchy “Hello?” I turned out to be Fransica, from college, trying to get a hold of me. How the phone worked way out here, I’ll never know, but we chatted for quite a while. She promised to notify the proper authorities, and do some research on the island I’d landed on. I hoped I wouldn’t have to leave my new island, but there was nothing to be done one way or the other, now. The cat was definitely out of the bag.
After we hung up, I checked my phone battery, and saw it still had plenty of time left (thank goodness for the long life battery I had!), then decided to spend some time playing chess. I also tinkered with the bathroom some more, but didn’t upgrade it or anything.
Once it got dark, I looked for stars again.. and suddenly, I was struck by lightning! Deciding this was the last straw for the day, I cleaned myself up in the bathroom, and went to bed in my tent.
Chapter 1.1 < | > Chapter 1.3
Introduction < | > Chapter 1.2
I wake up, groggy and waterlogged. … And covered in sand. What happened? Where am I? Sitting up, I look around slowly, shaking my head. Slowly, the horror of the previous night returns..
I was on a cruise ship, traveling with some other freshmen from college.. a late spring break trip. We’d looked forward to it for what seems like forever. The trip had been awesome, the views of the tropical islands were picturesque, and the fact that the “cruise ship” seemed a little ratty hadn’t bothered any of us. There were lifeboats and survival kits, right? Nothing ever happened other than the completely ordinary on these trips, anyway, right? … Apparently, that wasn’t quite right. In the middle of the fourth night out, the engines started shuddering violently, and then just stopped. I could hear crewmen yelling in panic in a language I didn’t know, and they were running everywhere. In the panic, nobody seemed sure what to do. They weren’t seeming to attempt to launch the lifeboats, so I assumed things were still alright. It all seemed very exciting – something we could tell everyone back at the University about when we got home. Then, there was a horrible crash. Without engines and rudder, we must have hit something! The front of the ship tipped dangerously forward, and everyone on the front of the boat was thrown into the ocean. I ran quickly towards the back of the boat, and laboriously lowered a rowboat I’d noticed hiding well away from the other lifeboats. Fires were breaking out all over the boat, and the screams echoed in the night. By the time I got the boat to the water, I still hadn’t seen anyone else in the back of the ship where I was, so I simply shimmied down the side of the ship into the boat and cut the lines with my pocketknife. I remembered something about the suction a sinking ship caused, so I quickly rowed away. My arms, unused to the punishment, quickly became tired, and I had to take a break. By the time I got back to where I thought the ship had sunk, all I could find were some floating boxes.. and what appeared to be a floating outhouse..?! I lashed it to the back of the boat loosely so I could tow it, but let it go if it started sinking. Who knows what I’d find on the islands I could see in the distance. In the night, there were no lights on the islands, so I wasn’t all that hopeful about finding any civilization. Arms burning, I just kept rowing. I vaguely remembered landing on shore somewhere near dawn.. and then..??
Concerned, I looked around, and to my relief saw that in my exhaustion I had managed to remember to lash the rowboat to a tree before falling asleep on the sand. Determined to not let the dire situation I seemed to be in get me down, I got up and wandered over to the boat to see what might have been stashed in the emergency kit inside.
After a few hours of labor, I’d thoroughly catalogued what I had available. Some bottled water was a welcome sight, as well as a fire starting kit. My boat was still in fairly good condition, and what I had towed in turned out to actually be an “all-in-one” outhouse – which seemed like a luxury on this island. I’d cleaned it out of the water, and set it up on the beach. There had also been a tent in good condition, some candles, a fishing pole, quite a bit of rope, a hammer and nails in a small box of other random tools and a spyglass/telescope – all were welcome sights. There were even some well-packed books and paint and paper! First things first – I set up my tent, and scrounged around the beach for some rocks to make a fire pit. I dug for some sand grubs to bait the fishing pole, then set out in my boat to catch dinner.
By the time I got back with a few anchovies, it was pouring rain. Figures, right? .. Just what I needed. I managed to get a fire going, and ate my first meal in my new home. Exhausted, I fell into my tent, and slept surprisingly soundly.
After another anchovy breakfast, I did some scrounging in the area around my home. I found some other crates that had washed up, as well as some random driftwood, boards, and a partially wrecked lifeboat. One other odd thing I found is what appears to be an old-fashioned icebox of sorts. I took the time to drag all of this back to my camp, and set about making some more furniture for myself. I ended up with a nice coffee table and bench, a chair for my fire pit, and the boat turned nicely into a rain-proof bookshelf. Sorting through my books, I found a handiness manual, a book on logic, a cookbook, some novels, and a blank journal! Thankful for the pen I’d found in the tool box, I set about starting to write my adventures. After catching up on that, I rigged up some candles in a piece of driftwood, and a string of lights for reading at my bench. I also secured the spyglass to a metal pole I found to serve as a makeshift telescope.
Then, feeling like I could use a break, I sat down on my new bench and studied the handiness manual for a while.
It had been a busy day, and night was quickly falling, so I ate yet another dinner of roasted anchovies, and then peered through the telescope in the near-dark, hoping to see the lights of a ship off shore.
I came up completely empty, and ended up simply watching the starts for a bit until exhaustion took over and I went back to my tent for a well-deserved sleep.
Breakfast was more anchovies, then I set about putting together an easel for painting. I rigged a small portion of the sail canvas I had scrounged the day before, I tried my hand at painting the beautiful vista before me.
Needless to say, with no previous painting experience, it didn’t turn out so well. Then the rain began again, so I decided I’d go jogging to warm up.. and to get a better feel of the size and layout of the island I was on.
Strangely enough, all of the lots seem to have mailboxes and trashcans, and there are roads in good condition… a lot of them. There seems to have been plans at one time to colonize this island – but what happened to them, I don’t know. There certainly are no other people that I’ve met, and the only buildings seem to be abandoned ports scattered around the outside of the island.
There are more islands in the distance, as well, which may tell more of the story.. but that will have to be saved for another day. In my investigations of my new island, I found an abandoned bicycle in one of the port sheds, as well as a Nautilus shell and a space rock on one of the beaches. Grateful for the bike, I headed back home in the coming dark, ate another lonely meal, and retired to my tent.
Introduction < | > Chapter 1.2
I’m noticing some of my pictures aren’t showing up properly in some of my posts, so that needs to be fixed asap. –FIXED!
Also, need to get the introductions done for the Falcon Apocalypse Challenge, the Castaway Shores NiF Challenge (DONE), and my “Trailerhood” Project (also intro for Irish Challenge – DONE). My Crazy Irish ISBI Challenge has had some work done to it, and is up and running again, so it needs it’s story caught up, as well as Castaway’s needs proofreading and publishing (DONE).. and Falcon needs writing done.
Most importantly, however, is to get the first wave of my Sunset Valley Remodeling Lots set up for uploading. (2 of 7 lots done)
So.. there’s my list… wonder how many times I have to get distracted before it gets done! 🙂
Thrall
So, I decided to begin a new Nothing is Free challenge since my first one got too buggy to continue, and I really miss it. First, I wanted this to be based on the Island Paradise world, so I cleaned the world out completely (which takes forever), and got things ready to go. The challenge will be published as a story/journal with pictures, so everyone will be able to enjoy seeing how it grows. (Mod The Sims – The “Nothing Is Free” Challenge) The basic premise of the challenge is to build a city from nothing – a completely blank, unpopulated world. From there, you have to build the town and populate it yourself – nothing is free, everything requires work. I’ve already started the challenge .. and what I’ve done is already written, just needs some final proofreading before posting. 🙂
Today, I have every intention of getting the first wave of lots uploaded.
As mentioned in an earlier post, this will include the updated Library, Gym, School, City Hall, Community Pool, and Main Street shopping.
If all goes well, you may very well see the second Wave posted today, or tomorrow, as well – which will include an updated Art Gallery, Science Complex, Two updated fishing holes, a new exclusively beach fun lot (non showtime) and the Community Church (for weddings, parties, and meetings.)
Wave three (based mostly on ambitions and premium content) will then include a Laundromat, Fire Station, Junkyard (Recycling Center), Nectary (Garden Center), Salon, tattoo and spa center, as well as a really cool mini-shopping mall with multiple stores for one stop shopping. (It will include a Pawn Shop (consignment), Toy store, Book store with coffee shoppe/cafe, a robot / electronics shoppe (with future portal), an elixir and alchemy shoppe, a Pet store, a comic book store with some arcade games, and a village wine tasting nectary cellar. The build is a new idea I had in the last couple days, and is coming along very nicely. Should be a lot that can be easily added into most worlds.)
In case you’re curious, the next “waves” are planned as well. Four is based on the Late Night pack, and includes the Film Studio, Diner with Local Watering Hole (50’s style with live band, bar, and rollarena), A Tiki-themed beach bar/casino for the gambling types, a Sports bar by the stadium with live music and plenty of pool tables, a SkyDiving center/ extreme sports entertainment area, and last but not least, a nice poolside dance club.
Wave five is based on the pets expansion pack, and includes the equestrian center, a show grounds (as well as possibly some other horsey related lots like a racetrack, dressage arena, and cross-country course), the dog and cat park, and three more fishing hole upgrades.
Wave six is based on Showtime, and includes and upgrade to Old pier beach, adding more activities for folks, and a showtime stage. I’m also building “coffeeshop” venue (read more cafe than coffee – using the open for business stuff, with a showtime stage. There will also be a live show venue with karaoke and bull riding and bars to get up your nerve. Then, I have a Fusion lounge with a private showtime stage mixed with a lovely sushi restaurant and Chinese garden for ambiance. Lastly, but definitely not least, the “Alto Concert Hall” big stage venue.
Wave seven is based on the Supernatural pack and includes a fabulous Supernatural Hangout venue with a dart tournament section, all themed as a “small” cabin on a hill (but is much larger under the hill, like a wolf den.) Was definitely one of my more ambitiously difficult builds, but has performed fabulously in testing, and it looks really nice! I also have a Gypsy Caravan/ Fortune teller zone with miscellaneously magical stuff and a broom practicing course. Another ambitious remodel, taking the store Gothic Library and turning it into a Vampire Lounge with secret coven/clan hall, bars, elixir shoppe, dance area, spooky graves, a live music stage, and even a private show stage for the Gothic set. Last but not least, I’ve built a fairy garden/Arboretum park for the fairies to play at as well.
Wave eight is one of the smaller waves in some ways, based on a combination of University and Island Paradise. I’ll be building a “Smugglers Hideout” rebel hideout building with a distinctly pirate theme on the beach (near where I’m hoping to add a “Smugglers Rest” shipwreck/dive site if all goes will in the next wave). I’ve also got a boardwalk/pier arcade and game “fair” – hoping to include the new rollercoasters coming out in December, and it will also have a nice bowling alley, as well. The other main thing I’ll be doing this wave, is creating various port facilities around the beaches for houseboats. After I’m satisfied with those, I will be building two commercial boats – one a disco club, the other an exclusive lounge / cruise ship.
Wave Nine is devoted to Island Paradise- hopefully including the four dive spots, as well as a “sunset valley scuba school” lot with a nice water sports shoppe, and that sort of stuff. I also have two resorts to add – one based on a fishing hole/cabin and tent backwoods type thing, the other a lovely beach eco resort for the well to do sims. Finally, I’ll also be adding a “sunset valley marina” lot more for looks than anything else, but I’m also hoping I can set it up for boat sales as well.. we’ll see.
The final wave, ten, will be basically a clean-up wave. building some empty houseboats, trying to set up the “hidden islands” features, and adding some more pet-friendly homes, including a few horse farms. Also, will be trying to make sure all homes have a crib and pet bowls to care for any additions.
Comments welcome! … <whew> now that I have all that written down, time to go get to work!
Thrall
Just posting that I’m once again working on my Nothing is free/Apocalypse challenge. I’ve got some more to write up and post into the first chapter, which I’ll be posting in the next couple days. What I’ve updated is the “welcome” page – mostly the rules and exceptions at the bottom of the page.
Ok, so I ran into some major issues with two of the lots, the main one being the City Hall – who would have thought a simple podium addition would cause so many problems! I spend three hours building, saving, testing, reloading, rebuilding, saving again, retesting.. rinse repeat. .. UGH. Truly no fun. I’m trying to keep the protesters off the lawn, but still allow collectors to get to the spawn points that are built on the lawn.. so far, it’s not working – but I think my newest idea might work. Out of frustration, I did some planning and brain-storming for a couple hours, and I have a pretty good plan for getting Sunset Valley made-over and uploaded. Split it down into 9, maybe 10 waves, adding all expansion pack features, and most premium (store) content features. Island Paradise adding water and partial water lots definitely threw a bit of a monkey wrench into my existing plans, but it definitely opened up some more options and abilities. Beyond all that, things went pretty well, and I’m heading back in-game in a moment to get back to work on fixing those lots. I just have to keep myself from working on the new ideas before getting the first wave finished and uploaded – or I’m going to end up back in the same old cycle of building, building, building, and never uploading a finished product.
As a “teaser” for the next wave, here’s what I’m working on after this: The Art Gallery (adding the ability for townies and playable characters to “donate” stuff, so it will look more like a gallery!! – of course, that means testing it, which should be interesting.. lol!); The Science Building (adding university science objects for the poor Sims who can’t afford the big ticket items!); Two of the fishing holes (very minor updates – Summer Hill gets the Lucky Palms wishing well, Crystal Springs gets the Fountain of Youth from Hidden Springs – the challenge was making it look like they belonged there…); Sunset Valley Community Church (a build done completely by me, set as a small park, works as a meeting/party/wedding venue… really, very pretty, and has been awesome in all the games I’ve used it in – had a few grooms abducted by aliens in the backyard, but really.. it should be safe.. *wink* .. I think.. haha!); and adding a community beach (my own build, will have instructions on where to place the lot, etc – used to replace the beach I sort of shang-hai’ed for my “Park” performance venue – figure having a non-showtime beach might be useful!). After that, I’ll be adding all the Ambitions lots – which are mostly custom builds by me designed to fit with Sunset Valley (suburban) theme.
Today, I’m getting started on uploading my Sunset Valley builds – which is the main thing I promised myself to get done before getting back to my challenges. I keep puttering around with them, improving, testing, building more, etc.. and procrastinating on actually uploading them. So, it’s way past time to get to work on it. My goal today is five uploads. More would be great, but I’m not stopping until I have at least five ready to go – and preferably the seven listed below. *determined face* .. lol. I’m going to start with some of my base game lot updates (the lots that are in the town center, mostly) – which are pretty much done anyway. I’ll do a listing below of the lots I have slated for this first wave of published lots with descriptions of some of the features I added or changed. (I will update with the exchange links and full descriptions when I have them completed)
After this wave, I’ll start working my way through each major expansion pack in each wave – I have not added every lot type to Sunset Valley, and each of the ones I DID add are specialized for something or other… for example, the bars are each designed for something – like a casino, a darts bar, pool bar, live music, or dancing.. or following a specific theme (based around which sims are attracted to that sort of bar or venue.) I wanted a town that had a bit of everything, and that I could go a certain place to do certain actions.. if that makes any sense. Anyway, time to head in game!

