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!
I’ve got exciting news for people working on (or thinking about working on) the Timeline Adventure Challenge!! I just finished a full Google Sheet dedicated to keeping track of your goals, progress, and all the sims involved in your challenge. You can fill out as little or as much as you want, and the fun “Trivia” page at the end of the Sheet will automatically pick up what you fill out and tell you how far along you are, and other fun details about your Timeline Adventure Legacy sims. I have done absolutely as much testing of it as I can, so it SHOULD be good to go, but in all likelihood, there is something or other that I missed. PLEASE: IF YOU FIND SOMETHING WRONG OR MISSING – LET ME KNOW!!
The first page (“Info”) has all the information on how to use the sheet, and what each page is for. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! (The sheet has comments enabled, and/or you can comment here as well.)
—> The Timeline Adventure Spreadsheet <—
Another thing I put together that relates to my Timeline Adventure Challenge is a Blank World save file. In it, I have bulldozed everything that needs bulldozing prior to starting a new challenge, so the tedious work of preparing the work is all done and you can jump in right away and start building your own world. Obviously, this file is good for more than just the Timeline Adventure Challenge, but that’s the main reason I made it.
To download, visit my Sims4FileShare page here:
http://simfileshare.net/folder/179665/
I will keep this file updated for new packs, and eventually, I WILL release a file of a whole world full of historical lots ready for starting play… but I’m still working on playing the challenge myself, so I’m only up to Gen 6 lots being done (at the time of this note, that is). Meanwhile, if you don’t want to build yourself, simply check the gallery for #timelineadventure lots, and download away!
Thanks for reading! (And I hope you like the additions!)
-Thrall
Continue reading →Yep, you heard that right. I have another new story in the works! It will be a spin-off from one of my current stories (Island Spirits) and will be a story-based playthrough of my Timeline Adventure Challenge. Basically, I’ve fallen in love with the first born of their family (Saazul), and since she is not the heir, I have been sad that she will be mostly leaving the story soon. So I figured out a way for her to have her very own story and legacy! It will mean that she will be leaving Island Spirits, but it’s for a good reason and a good cause. At this time, I have it set to start in Early March, after Chapter 14 posts for Island Spirits. To facilitate enough time to work on it, I will be (hopefully temporarily) discontinuing all of my non-story-based challenges (Except the Sheppards, who are going to be tied indefinitely to the Tangled Yarn story). Unfortunately, this does include my Drifters (The Ramblers) and my playthrough of the Master Simmer challenge. At this time, my working title for the new story is “The Timeline Children” .. but that may change.
This is just a notice to say I have officially finished updating all of my Challenge Rule Sets to include all of the new packs. I noted what was done in a changelog on each main rule page. If you have any questions/complaints/changes you feel need to be made, please feel free to comment on this post and I’ll get to it ASAP… Hopefully, going forward, it won’t take me as long to update them for new packs. Challenges in specific that I updated today: Master Simmer, Extended Not So Berry, and Hard Mode Decades. Timeline Adventure was already done, and I don’t think the other challenges will need anything updated.
Also: I have added a page to my Thrall “Live” section – a Journal for my Elder Scrolls Solo playthrough that I started on January 2nd. Every Monday and Tuesday afternoon I will be posting a journal entry after a play session, to help me remember where I was, keep a record of what I’ve done, and as a back-history for anyone who starts watching the series later in the year. The first entry was also posted today from the January 2nd game session, so I should be all caught up there now.
High on my priority list now: working on my Thrall’s Tools Collection Helper section, and making sure to allow myself enough time to keep writing on the Blog Stories.
Continue reading →So… It’s official. This rotation thing is NOT working. I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that my grand plans are just not happening. I’ve been stuck for two weeks trying to get out a post that I just can’t find the inspiration for. And it SHOULD be an easy one, because it’s one that is commentary style, not a story! Even worse, I’ve had a million little inspirations for posts that aren’t that “next” one. So… I’m going to change it up a bit. Expect more mermaids in the future. And More Jaz. Less of the others, but I’ll bring out more of them as time passes and inspiration strikes. Currently, the “PLAN” is to do a mermaid post every Wednesday, and Jaz posts each Tuesday and Friday. However, as I finish up the posts that have been sitting in my back log waiting for “their turn” to be published, I will be publishing stuff a little randomly for the next couple of weeks. However.. that WILL mean that I will be getting story posts out again, instead of being locked in writer’s block mode.
Continue reading →If you did not notice, My schedule is now set up on the “Events” at the top left of the Discord, taken automatically from my Google Calendar, and will reflect last-minute cancellations (as well as me posting about them on Twitter). Hopefully, this will make it a bit easier to know what’s coming!
Also: Let me know what you think about the two votes I have in discord about this week’s Twitch content!
Lastly: My youtube channel will again start getting daily VOD posts this week – sorry it took me so long to get back to it! … and I should also be publishing more story posts to this blog this week!
I can’t even begin to say how nice this past week and a half off have been, but I’m really itching to get back to streaming. I know I posted the new schedule before this break, but – since I added another stream to it – I’m going to post it again here.
If you did not notice, My schedule is now set up on the “Events” at the top left of the Discord, taken automatically from my Google Calendar. Hopefully, this will make it a bit easier to know what’s coming!
Guess who got second??? .. A huge congrats to everyone who participated, judges, mods, builders.. what a tough season!
This week CONCLUDES my streaming like a crazy person as I try to complete Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood in one month as well as keep up with my “normal” schedule AND getting my FINAL Builder Games Challenge done. The scores for the final build should be out the 2nd of September, and I will let you know as soon as I do where I placed!
September is going to bring some changes to my streaming schedule. I’ve been having SO much fun with Assassin’s Creed that I don’t want to stop. Plus, the next game in the series is the one that concludes Ezio’s part in the series, so I really really want to find out where his story goes. Consequently, I will be adding one stream to my weekly schedule, and changing another one to feature Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.
The updated schedule will be:
I expect this schedule will be continuing until the end of December (which will also mark my 2 years as an Affiliate on Twitch, so expect a big party… and the entire last week of December will be devoted to the final, #1 Current game from my Thrall’s Game Awards). Once the New Year starts: The times on the schedule will stay the same, but Monday and Tuesday afternoons will be devoted to some Elder Scrolls single player games as a long-play series. I have NOT decided if I will be starting with Daggerfall, or heading straight into Morrowind, but I definitely will not be including Elder Scrolls 1 (Arena) in the series. I also haven’t decided if I will make the “same” character (as much as possible) for all the Elder Scrolls games, and just continue their story from one to the next, or if each game will bring in a new character. If you have a preference for one or the other, I’d love to know about it, so comment or post on discord if you do.
You’ll notice that 1, I’m taking a “staycation” the first week of September to rest and recuperate from the hectic August schedule. And.. 2, I will be starting the September shell challenge while the August shell challenge in still going on. I hope this doesn’t mess with anyone’s plans for completing the challenges, but I really don’t want to miss doing September’s planned challenge (more info on it later) – because it’s going to be another really fun one.. and I can’t postpone it until the next month, because October’s challenge is themed around Halloween, and is another one I refuse to miss. If you have any questions or comments (about anything in this post), just send me a message, or drop a comment and I’ll be happy to answer it!
Oh, yeah.. and during my staycation I hope to put in some work on both updating my challenge rule sets for the new packs, as well as getting back into posting my Youtube VOD archives daily, and working on writing my blog challenges – so there should be lots of fun things upcoming!
This week continues my streaming like a crazy person as I try to complete Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood in one month as well as keep up with my “normal” schedule and getting my Builder Games Build done (which I will be doing regardless of whether I get through to the finale or not, since I won’t know until later in the week if I did.) The scores for the third build won’t be known until Thursday. However, I do have the scores for the second challenge, and I was right in the middle of the pack.
I HAVE to finish Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood this month (or at least all the DLC missions). Because of this, I will NOT be doing much in the way of posting stories on my blog. I do have a few that I want to get done if I have spare time, but.. if I don’t have the time, it just won’t happen. So, in other words, don’t expect it. I WILL be back to posting the First week of September. The first full week of September will also be a vacation from streaming for me, and the week after that will be when ESO nights with Brujj comes back, as well as my regular stream schedule, challenge writing, and work on my Save files.
This week continues my streaming like a crazy person as I try to complete Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood in one month as well as keep up with my “normal” schedule and getting my Builder Games Build done (which I will be doing regardless of whether I get through the next round or not, since I won’t know until later in the week if I did.) The scores for the second build won’t be known until Thursday. However, I do have the scores for the first challenge, and I made it through with flying colors, tying for second place!
I HAVE to finish Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood this month. Because of this, I will NOT be doing much in the way of posting stories on my blog. I do have a few that I want to get done if I have spare time, but.. if I don’t have the time, it just won’t happen. So, in other words, don’t expect it. I WILL be back to posting the First week of September. The first full week of September will also be a vacation from streaming for me, and the week after that will be when ESO nights with Brujj comes back, as well as my regular stream schedule, challenge writing, and work on my Save files.
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
