IllusoryThrall's Sims 4 Hub
- Challenges, Tips & Stories
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!
Great NEWS!! My Patreon is officially LIVE!! https://patreon.com/IllusoryThrall
Yes, that means my Planet Zoo Spreadsheet is ready for the public as well! See here for information: https://www.patreon.com/posts/thralls-planet-8-120329459
At this time, only the general support tier ($3) and the Spreadsheet collab tier ($6) are available and live, but I will be adding a tier for custom Sims builds as soon as I have the shop for them set up. My hope is that this will REPLACE my Kofi page, so if you want to support me in ways that will get me a better percentage than Twitch will, this is where to do it!
Also of note: Nearly all of my posts will be available to Free Patreon members (i.e. you don’t need to pay for them) after any Early Access periods and once the item in question is officially published. For access to the unpublished Spreadsheets, you will need to join the Spreadsheet collab tier.
Continue reading →I *think* it’s all updated. I may have made some mistakes, and I did not update the recommended mod list, but I will do that soon, I hope. Beyond that, all the generations have been added (three new gens, and two partial .5 gens .. so technically 5 new gens added). i also added some main rules dealing with some of the new features, and the spreadsheet should be 100% updated barring typos. Please, let me know if you find anything that looks a bit off. I will attempt to do a third or fourth proof-read to attempt to get rid of any of those lingering typos. ENJOY!!
(and yes, Not So Berry is NEXT!)
Continue reading →However, I will say, it’s finally getting there. Should be done by the end of this week! If you’re playing along, use the website rules…. the Spreadsheet is currently only half done. (But if you’re terribly curious, you can see some of the new generations being added!) And, again, I will post as soon as it’s done!!
Continue reading →I finally have all the writing and researching and planning done for Timeline Adventure! I just wanted to post a notice to anyone working on the challenge – DON’T trust what you’re seeing, especially on the spreadsheet, because that’s what I’m updating first… and there’s a LOT to do on it. After that, I’ll update all the blog pages, adding in the new generations, and getting all the new rules in. I will 100% post another notification post here as soon as I’m done with updating everything that needs updating.
Once I post that it’s ready, if you’re midway through the challenge, I suggest either sticking with the challenge as you have it with your tracker spreadsheet – or downloading a copy of the newly updated one (I’ll link in the notice post) and then transferring over all your existing data to the new sheet. I apologize that there isn’t an easier way to do it. 🙁
That being said, the next thing on my list after Timeline is finishing up my Planet Zoo and launching it (hopefully on this coming Sunday) … then starting on Monday, I’ll be working on the next challenge to update: Not So Berry!!
Love you all, hope you’re doing well!!
<3, Thrall
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So, it’s been a while since I posted. Things have been busy – but good. I am well on my way through the first of many challenge updates (which will be all published in January – I have that month set aside for challenge updating!) – I started with Timeline Adventure – and my 6-month post-cancer scan has come back CLEAN!! I realize I’m rather late on the challenge updates from when I originally said I’d start working on them, but… well, life happens, unfortunately.
Continue reading →I have only just (in the last couple days) realized that a good portion of my stories’ images are now showing as either a blank line on the page or a broken link. I can’t apologize anymore.. I’m super unhappy about this.. but here’s the good news: all those images still exist. They’re even in the media library for THIS site. But for some reason, all of the pages on this site are trying to find the pictures on my old website, which has inexplicably deleted most of my images. And the only way I can figure out to fix them… is going to be fixing the URLs literally one. at. a. time. – for some 5000+ images. This is going to take time. So… yeah. In addition to updating all my challenges, apparently, I have more to update, too.. the image URLs.
Again, I apologize profusely about this problem… and will be fixing it as quickly as I can!
(10/19/24)
I have checked into what, exactly, happened, and it appears it’s worse than I first suspected. Not only are the links all wrong, but some of the files never got transferred to this server from the old one. So on top of fixing the links, I also need to re-upload the original files. The only silver lining in the issue is that I do, in fact, HAVE all the original images that are missing from the site. It’s just going to take time and work. And time is something I have very little of. I Have started the process of fixing the first of the stories – Adventures with Jaz – in the hopes of being able to get back to writing sooner rather than later, but I’ve already put almost two full days of work into it… and it’s probably 1/4 done. Sigh. So it’s going to take a while. And updating my challenges takes first priority right now.
Just wanted to leave a quick note. I’ve finished testing and updating the SuperSim Tracking Spreadsheet for Lovestruck (and other packs). Link here: SuperSim Challenge Checklist Spreadsheet
In addition to this, I have just completed a spreadsheet with all lot information for all existing worlds, and places to check off and type in what you call your builds for each lot in case you’re working on a save file. Link here: Thrall’s Save File Tracking Tool
Enjoy!!
Continue reading →Hello! I am sorry I’ve been sort of MIA recently. Partially it’s been because of health issues – both mental and physical, partially because I’ve just been so busy, and in a large part because of the blow that finding out all the images were messed up on my stories did to me. I truly just didn’t know what to do about it. For that matter, I’m still not sure exactly what I’ll be doing about the large part of them. HOWEVER – I have finally taken the time to assess exactly what’s wrong with them, and what it will need to fix them. (More on that below.) Health issues, as well, have been solved, and things are once again going really well for me. I have also mostly concluded a major “upgrade” to my streaming and filming set-up, which was the large part of being too busy to even consider what was going on with my website. With this “upgrade” in its finishing stages, I feel like I really am in need of doing some serious assessing and updating/upgrading on this website…. so, without any further blabbering from me, here’s the updates:
Continue reading →A Worldwide PC Code Giveaway Courtesy of EA Creator Network!
Join my discord to enter!
(Entry will be in the #Giveaways Channel)
Winner must be a member of my Discord so I can get you the code, and will be announced July 27, 2024 at 6PM EDT Live during my 1k Twitch Followers Celebration! (as well as on discord)
So, while I’m not streaming for the next couple weeks, that doesn’t mean I won’t be doing anything. As of now, I have plans to get ALL my challenges updated over this time. Currently, the order of the planned updates is as follows:
Yeah. It’s a lot. But I have it all spaced out, and hopefully I can get most of it done with very little stress. Everything but the Decades modification and the Build A World Challenge should (hopefully) be done by the time I get back to streaming (April 1st), then I’ll work on the last three items over the month of May.
Also, as I finish each item, I will pop back here on this post to cross them out – as well as posting a note to state that it’s done and ready to be used!
Oh, yeah, and as a postscript, in the next couple weeks you should also see Mod lists for my other Youtube playthroughs posted!
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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!
Chapter One – Starting Anew
November 2025 Dev DiarySuperSweetBot Commands for Mods & BroadcastersOctober 2025 Dev DiaryProgress Report!Hacking Situation ResolvedHey all…
Welcome to my new webhost!!
Progress Report on Not So Berry & TimelineExtended Not So Berry 2.0 is coming!!
OMG A Thrall Post?? What?Not So Berry Updating
Jaynie’s Gems: By-The-NumberToday
