I started this WordPress Blog back in 2012. At the beginning, I assure you, I had no idea what I was starting. I posted a few things… but it wasn’t for several years that my blogging really took off. I dabbled in a few Sims 3 stories (which are still accessible on this site – just check my retired & completed simlit section). By August 2016, however, I was well and truly hooked on blogging, although at that point, I was still waffling between Sims 3 and 4. The waffling didn’t take too much more time, though, before I was thoroughly addicted to Sims 4. Once I hit this point, I’ve never gone back. I still had (and have) periods of writer’s block and inactivity, but I always come back.

Sometime in 2023, this blog really tripled in traffic. And it did so on a very consistent basis. Which made me really start seriously considering the thoughts and ideas for it that I’d had in the back of my head for YEARS. The host I was on prior to this one, wordpress.com .. was great. It was cheap, it was reliable, and it was easy to use. However, the amount of customization and control I had over the website design and add-ons was, well.. very very low. And even if I doubled the cost of the plan I was on, it was going to remain virtually the same…. which is exactly the opposite of what this growing blog needed. With my challenges gaining in popularity, and my livestreaming, I really wanted to be able to upgrade the graphics, layout, and things that the website offered… By October, it was clear my blog was getting 25,000 to 30,000 hits per month on a very stable basis – so when I noticed that my two year subscription to wrodpress.com was ready to renew on the 26th, I decided, spur-of-the-moment, that there wasn’t going to be a better time to upgrade. So I immediately started looking for a way to pay for a new webhost, and researching where I wanted to go, as well as finding out exactly what upgrades I wanted and needed for the site. Originally, I was going to do a fund-raising stream for the money, but a very lovely friend of mine kindly donated the full amount I needed to pay for the next THREE YEARS of hosting. When that’s almost up, I will certainly be looking for ways to raise the money for the next web-hosting fee, but that’s a problem for future me. (If you’re interested in helping to support this site and my streaming, check out my Support Me page. 100% of donations will go to the website and my streaming.)

All that being said, I do try to be pretty transparent on the effort that goes into this website – the background work, the time for upgrading, the work involved in moving the site, as well as what it takes to keep my challenges updated. I’m also in a long process of adding a knowledge database to this website to share the Sims 4 knowledge I’ve accrued over the years (expect that to start happening by January 2024 – I do have a few other major things on my list before I start devoting a ton of time into the toolsnlinks section, but it’s coming.) This transparency led to the need to have a page devoted to collecting the posts about website news and information…. so that’s where this page comes in. Obviously, there’s no real reason to go back to the news I was posting at the very beginning of the website, but it’s there buried in the archives if you’re ever curious!

CategoryPosts

• Pages Updated

  April 20, 2019

  I know I’ve been gone a long while, but I’m back to playing now. Real life health issues got in the way, and let’s be honest, I was a little burned out anyway. I have played a bit since I posted last (played through and finished up the Strangerville aspiration- which was great fun!!, played around with Celebrity in Get Famous, and played some on my Achiever save that I’m not blogging.) .. I just didn’t feel like doing anything with the blog. Simply didn’t have the mental energy to do it. Things are looking up now, though… and I’m BACK! So… that being said, the first thing I did was go through my Sims 4 saves and delete the ones I have no intention of playing again. Then, I delved back into my Ramblers save, and got a bunch more of House 008 played.. and a new chapter published. Lastly, I took a couple hours and updated my blog with the two neighborhoods (tours and indexes) I was missing for my Townie Rotation. I have not done the Introduction posts for each family yet, that’s next on my blog to-do list. Meanwhile, I’m going to play some more. All menus and pages updated with correct links.Continue reading →

• Back to playing…

  July 15, 2018

  Our Air Conditioning unit is finally fixed.. and my computer (which was being temperamental upon having to be moved during construction) is back to working again. I played the next family yesterday, and I should get the family after that done sometime today, whether I get it posted before tomorrow is another question though, but I’ll try. Working on Sullivan/Stien post now, should have it up in a few.. and then things will (finally) be back to normal!

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• Taking a Break…

  July 3, 2018

  I will probably not be posting much this week. To make a long story short, our Air Conditioning is not working and we’ve had trouble getting someone out to fix it. The end is in sight (it will get fixed friday or saturday), but with the heat wave we’re set to get this week, we will probably not be spending a lot of time at home, so I probably won’t be playing and posting much if at all this week. I wanted to post something about it, however, so I wouldn’t leave you guys wondering what happened.. and I will get back to posting as soon as being at home is once again tolerable!

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• Sorry about the lack of posts this week!

  March 26, 2017

  I’ve been feverishly testing the Apartment Switch – Switch Four so it can release on Sunday like I had scheduled. I also have a week long vacation that we leave for tomorrow morning right after I post the Switch.. so it’s been a hectic week. I haven’t had the time or energy to do anything other than getting ready for the trip or testing. I will be back to posting regularly April 2nd. I do have two posts scheduled for while I’m gone, the beginnings of the testing, but I didn’t have time to write up the rest of testing, so those will post after I get home and have time to breathe and go through the pile of screenshots and notes.

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• Ruminations Pt. 2

  March 10, 2017

  So I got that save file working. And bonus.. discovered I have two save files, one from the very beginning of the story, and one way past where I have written. So I am left with three choices….

  1. Start completely over. Pretty straight forward, I’d lose the beginning stuff I have (which I love), although I could rewrite it.
  2. Start from the day 1 save and play seven days to match the seven days worth I have written up. This would allow me to add new screenshots and continue with the story as I want to without being constrained to how the game went when I played further. Would require re-setting up the world (ghosts, etc.) that I had done in the game file I took further in.
  3. Use the Week 4 Day 5 played file in conjunction with the notes I have taken from it way back then. Would require very little set up, just the mods… however, I don’t have as many screenshots as I thought I had of the time that’s been played but not written into the story, and it would make things harder to progress the story as I want to.

  I’m leaning heavily towards option two. I already wrote up days 8-10 in a new post, which needs proofing and editing, then would be ready to go. I’d lose all the time I played in the played file, but I think I’m okay with it. It would totally give me the freedom I want with the story, and allow me to stage screenshots better than the ones I have from 2012. I’ve already gone through the posts I have posted on my blog (prologue and three chapters) and edited them so they’re the way I want them.

  If your interested, they’re here:

  • Prologue: The Roar
  • 1. Where is everyone?
  • 2. The Will to Survive
  • 3. Determination vs. Hopelessness

  Expect to see chapter four in the next few days, as I said, it just needs editing.

  I’ve spent way too much time on this considering I still have testing to do for Switch Three of the Apartment Switch, which is due out Sunday…. but that’s okay. I’m still having fun! Now, back to my testing …. (if only I can get this story out of my head long enough to play!)

  Continue reading →

• Ruminations….

  March 10, 2017

  So, one of my oldest stories on here is still technically “on hiatus”… and it has been since 2012. I never got to the point of retiring it, I just stopped writing it. Partially – well, no mostly – because I got so frustrated that I couldn’t make the game do what needed to happen in my story. I still LOVE the story idea, and where I wanted to go with it. I even have two “drafts” of posts sitting here on wordpress, waiting for the words to be written to go with the pictures. I have the rest of the pictures for more posts saved from backup to backup and computer to computer as the years have gone by.

  It finally occurred to me tonight that if I had gone to all this trouble to save this story that had a measly three actual chapters posted.. then maybe that should tell me something: this story is important to me. Important enough to save, which means I really ought to honor that by re-examining why I stopped writing it and how I can get back to the story. I started the story, I think, as a game-driven story.. or so I thought.. but then the game didn’t follow what I wanted to happen. Of course, back then I didn’t know what a game driven story was versus a story-driven or scripted. Now I do… and what I see is possibilities. Whether I can do them justice, I don’t know… But if I saved this story for all this time (and I did), I feel I have the duty to at least try.

  Where to go from where it is? First of all, it’ll need to be changed to a story-driven simlit. I couldn’t continue because game and story weren’t matching up and I wasn’t (at the time) willing to cheat to get where I needed the game to be. If I change the driving force of it to being the story.. and not the game.. then cheating in game to get the screenshots I need is possible, and even desirable. Which eliminates the main reason I stopped writing the story. Now the only question left is.. do I have the writing talent and/or time to put into it to make this story actually work? That I don’t know. But I feel I have to try.

  So.. on that note.. expect to see some strange story posts coming sometime soon.. once I have the time away from testing the Apartment Switch … and I get the save functional again on Sims 3. If I can get the save functional in the next week or two, I will definitely be continuing the story. If not, it’ll have to go in the “retired” file.. but I truly think I can get it back up and working. I found the town it uses and have it installed and working, I just have to get the save back into the game. .. Then all I need is to write!

  Can I do it? Who knows. (Why I felt the need to write all this out, I don’t know that either.. but here it is. Site update news indeed.)

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• Trying out a new theme…

  February 20, 2017

  Decided I’d spent long enough on that dark/light theme (been using it since 2014!) .. so I’m trying out another one. Haven’t decided 100% whether I like it or not, but I’m giving it a go. It seems easier to get around, and there are less columns to fuss with. Tell me what you think.. keep it or go back to the old one? (Yay, I did manage to keep the horsies, though! Falconvale lives on a little bit with that header!) Bonus: I could add purple background to this one, it’s my favorite color!

  Continue reading →

• 100 Posts!

  February 11, 2017

  100 Posts!

  I just hit 100 posts on this blog!  Had to cheer for it and mention it.. because that’s just awesome. Here’s to many more!

  Continue reading →

• My New Project

  February 8, 2017

  Guess what? I’m authoring a new challenge.

  Think Drifter Challenge meets Movin’ On Up. As most of you know, I love the Drifter Challenge and have two (currently) saves going on that. Lately, I have been also playing the Moving on Up challenge, and it’s frustrating .. the way it’s written you bounce back and forth between one bedroom and two bedroom and always take the furniture with you, leaving behind unfurnished shells. For us “Drifters,” leaving behind empty homes after working hard to create a livable space is .. well.. the opposite of drifting. I am writing a more “drifter-style” challenge – where you leave behind fully furnished apartments for other sims to move into.. moving from the smallest apartment to the largest (not necessarily the cheapest to the most expensive like the Movin’ On Up challenge). With the way I’m designing this challenge, it can be played on an existing (finished) Drifter challenge save (if you want to continue your family and building the world) or on pretty much any other save. The only neighborhood affected by this challenge is San Myshuno, so it leaves you flexible to do other challenges with the same family. (ex. Building Newcrest or Windenburg… Drifting would have to be done beforehand, though, because your first drifter house is specifically started on a brand new sim, not one aged through the game.)

  My current plan/idea is based around a 5 generation challenge (although testing may prove it’s next to impossible to do it in that short amount of time) .. or a 5 “step” challenge. The basic goal of said challenge is to get all the apartments furnished to a certain value point in the shortest amount of time possible, then the next generation moves onto the next challenge. I split up the apartments based on cost and size (in a big spreadsheet) and came up with five groups of them that are similar in cost and size. (a set of five starter apartments, then low cost 2 bedrooms, etc.. ) Each challenge will start with a “starter” and move through other apartments to a “finishing” apartment/penthouse, going up in value/size for each successive apartment. The first challenge will have a series of four apartments, then 5 apartments for the other 4 challenges (at least, that’s how it’s working out now, it may go to six challenges with 4 apartments on each.) Also, there will be two difficulties. “Normal” where you start with an unfurnished (but walls still there) version of each apartment (there are a couple that will be bulldozed, though, to keep the challenge fair and playable), and “Extreme” where all of the apartments are literally bulldozed and you have to figure out where rooms go inside the shell and everything. My daughter is far less into building than I am and really pushed for an “easier” version, and I can see where it would be nice to have one.

  Prospective Challenge features/rules:

  • Like Drifter, you start from absolute zero for each challenge.
  • Like Drifter, you move on when the heir is young adult.
  • However,  there the similarities stop. There is no “house fail”.. if you’re not done with the challenge in the first generation, all that happens is you lose points and have to wait for the next heir to reach young adult to move on.
  • You also don’t go back to zero money between apartments inside a challenge (there are 4-5 apartments for each challenge.) Example: you’ve just finished the first apartment and it was valued at 8000-10000 simoleons like required, so you “move household” through the phone menu, choose “sell furniture” and “bulldoze lot” (for extreme) or “unfurnished” (for normal). This means that when you move in, you’ll have 8-10k funds available immediately to spend on the next apartment towards moving on to the next one. (If this turns out to be too easy, I may have to revert to zeroing funds before moving, but at least you won’t lose your skills and job and such.)
  • Yes, that means there will be a CAP on how high the value of the apartment can go for each apartment. If you caught the 8000-10000 it DOES mean that the first apartment in the challenge can’t be worth more than 10k when you move out. Gotta keep the rent reachable for the next sim to move in! (However, the final house of each challenge will NOT have this value cap… build to your heart’s content there.)
  • You’ll get to pick any three things to go with you to your next apartment. (These are put in the household inventory so they don’t count on your value tally. – Up to two frogs can be carried with you in your inventory as well. (can’t forget those froggies!) I may allow snowglobes to be brought along, as well, considering they’re low value and fairly useless.)
  • There aren’t as many house challenge-type goals. (I.e. specific aspirations and careers to be completed.. I haven’t decided whether I’ll include a couple goals like this or not. If I do, they’ll be the ones specific to City Living expansion so that this challenge can be played with only City Living installed on a base game. – i.e. the three careers that come with CL and the one aspiration. -Obviously, it’ll be more fun with more money making options from other expansions, but they won’t be necessary.)
  • You’re building within an existing “shell,” instead of building from scratch each and every time. (There are, though, a handful of apartment/penthouses that will be built from “ground” up.)
  • Possibly using a point structure to see how well you did, with a maximum of 100 points per challenge. The only downfall with this  idea is.. well.. nitpicking with the points. So it’s still a big maybe.
  • You can use any method of gaining money and furniture that doesn’t involve cheating. i.e. Jobs, collecting, crafting, festivals.. etc.  If you can figure out a way to get a garden in your itty bitty apartments, that’s okay, too. (Just remember you’re only allowed three items and each plant counts as an item – yes, they can be put in the household inventory, too.)
  • No bringing in a spouse, roommate or child without them having a place to stay/sleep.
  • Any funds a roommate or spouse bring in must be cheated away with the “money” cheat – you have to make the money yourself not get it from moving random sims in.
  • All sims in the household may be controlled! (That means they can help contribute to the money being made via job or crafting.)
  • Heirs must be made through “try for baby” with someone living in the apartment with your sim. (maybe. I’m still debating on this one.. doesn’t seem fair to allow them to be from outside the apartment when it won’t work that way for male main sims…)
  • Lot Traits can be added to the list, but never taken away. The traits that the apartment came with must stay, but you’re welcome to add other traits to fill up the three slots.
  • I have not decided about the commercial lots in San Myshuno – whether or not they’ll be part of the challenge. If they are, they will only factor into the “Extreme” challenge difficulty, not the “Normal” (in other words, they won’t be restricted or bulldozed and built in the normal difficulty)
  • On that note, Travel is up to your discretion. If you’re doing this as an add-on challenge after the end of a Drifter save, you’d have commercial lots available to you, so you can travel wherever you want. If, however, you want to make the challenge harder, you’re welcome to restrict travel. It does make the challenge significantly harder, though.

  What does all that mean?

  Wow. That’s a lot of bullet points. When broken down, this challenge will be more of an interior decorating challenge than anything else.  I don’t want to rely too heavily on the “drifter” or “movin on up” themes, I want this challenge to be able to stand on it’s own. Tentatively, I’ve given it the working title of “The Apartment Switch,” simply because we couldn’t come up with anything that sounded better. It may change!

  Currently, my daughter and I are already starting some playtesting of this, and since our styles of play are very different, I’ll be able to get a lot of information out of the tests. That’s not to say I don’t need a few other brave souls to test it out once I get a rough draft of the challenges ready.. so if you’re interested, please speak up (the easiest way to say you’re interested is to just reply in the comments below. Alternatively, you can find me as IllusoryThrall on the sims 4 forums or as Wyldhawke on Origin.)

  As I get the rough draft of the challenge ready, any and all of this might change, but I’ll definitely post about changes here on my blog. I will also be posting pictures and status updates on the playtests I have running while I get the rough draft ready, so that should be fun.

  If you made it through all of that, you deserve a cookie.. so cookies for everyone! *grin*

  Continue reading →

• Argh…. Crashes….

  August 19, 2016

  You know, sometimes I really hate Sims 3. My Falcon save keeps getting errors… Especially that dreaded save error 12. It’ll run ok for a while but then poof. Another error. It’s really annoying, I tell you what. For some reason my castaway challenge runs fine most of the time, it’s just the poor Falcons.  I want to get on with chapter two of Falcons, but every time I try, it errors out on me. Waiting for it to load now to try again so wish me luck!

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