Am enjoying reading what's been happening with the McPhail family in stories by @Mmdrgntobldrgn (founders and family) and @ciane (variation using a set of McPhail offspring). Looking forward to playing Sassafras and seeing where the game takes them, but before I do that ... there are other renovations already queued up.
Time to introduce the one I'm currently playing and I'm sure you can figure out which one it is by the title alone Letters to Lucy
Great family reno challenge @Mmdrgntobldrgn
Loved your start @ADWilson
I played another day in your challenge, Addy; so you get a new chapter. And, I think, it's a pretty special one.
Here are the changes I made, I hope you approve and others try it....Renovation Legacy
The aim of this challenge is to renovate the most dilapidated house you can find/build for your sims before the youngest child becomes a young adult.
If you are creating your whole family right away I highly recommend you do NOT put in six kids! You will not be able to feed them all!
You can begin with just a couple and have your children naturally too. (Recommended)
The Rules:
1. Aging must be set to normal.
2. No money cheats please.*
3. You start with no money at all, zero simoleons, nada.
4. Adults cannot have jobs they can only busk (tips earned from guitar, electric piano or violin). When you create your house or find a suitable one you can purchase one instrument.
This is because collecting is too easy in sims 4 as is painting once you get past three and fishing you could be set if you catch 4-6 sturgeons. Sorry guys no easy way out, lol!
5. Or you can purchase the wood working table and make money selling your wares. You cannot have both wood working and busking though, so choose wisely!
6. Children can sometimes find toys in the rubbish bins. Have them look! They cannot continuously look making it more realistic.
7. Gardening is also a way to make money if you are so inclined. It takes a while and is not wildly profitable at fist but it will make you dinners!
Family Relationships
1. Parents must have good relationships with their children. When they become teens that can change as teens are funny in sims 4 and do that funny teen walk and yell a lot!
2. Toddlers, children and teens must be A students, complete their aspirations and homework.
3. Family meals are a must, breakfast and tea (dinner to the Americans).
4. Many times during challenges everyone finds themselves in the red. Keep your Sims happy! It’s cool to be green! Keep relationships levels high!
5. When your children or teens reach the A level you can either age them up or wait for their birthdays. Just remember that you have to have completed the challenge by the time the youngest is a young adult!
6. Every Sunday after Sunday Lunch the family must volunteer at one of the charities. Make sure they all use the loo, are not tired, etc as it takes 4 hours.
The House
1. There can be no wall coverings or floor coverings to begin with. Once you have earned enough money you can begin to upgrade your house!
2. Everyone needs their own room. Parents can share or not depending on whether or not one snores, has back problems, etc. Bed, curtains, bedside table, lamp and dresser or desk or toybox for each room.
3. Bathrooms must have the essentials (one bathroom per two sims).
4. Kitchen is fridge, cooker, sink, three counter units, lighting, and clock.
5. Dining room/area is table, enough chairs for everyone plus a visitor, rug, lighting, two pictures
5. Sitting room is enough comfy seating for everyone, coffee table, two plants, lighting, two pictures and either television or stereo
For people who like scoring things, you can score the rooms: add up the points on the furniture for environment, energy, comfort, fun and stress relief. Hunger, bladder and hygiene don’t count. A total of 10 gives you a level 1 room, 20 a level 2 and so on.
Garden area: if there are plants here that you want to get rid of, you can sell them, but you can only spend the money on fences or walls or other plants. The goal for the garden is to have it fenced and gated (to keep the children safe). You can score a garden like the rooms though, by adding things to it.
Who might like it?
Someone who wants a shortish challenge. The house has to be finished by the time the youngest child is an adult.
Someone who likes building, creating families and starting off a story.
Building rules.
You can make this as hard as you like, except that each house must start with a toilet and shower, some means of cooking (can be a fire pit) and somewhere for everyone to sleep. This can be a sleeping bag on the floor. Any babies or toddlers have to have a cot each and one potty. After that, it’s totally up to you! You can make it as ugly as you like, as run-down as you like…the sleeping area has to have a roof, but nothing else does. You can make the furniture as outrageous as you want…just go wild!
One adult or teen must have the Good trait so that they can make donations on the mailbox.
The family can be as hard to play as you like, and as big as you like. There must be one adult, though, and if the adult is a grandparent, then there has to be one teen. I quite like dressing them in dreadful clothes. And they can’t have better ones until they can afford a dresser!
Give it a starting story and post it for someone else to download and play!
Add it at the bottom of this post, if you like...
I do not consider the following as cheating just adding realism to the game in two instances.
You can add even more realism to this challenge and have one of your sims be on welfare. One per family is all that is allowed but it is money you get once a week. Link below.
Most of us Sims 4 peeps have MCCC installed and so if you want and things get tight you could have your adults divorce and collect child support! Not everyone gets a happily ever after. For those who don’t the link is below. Make sure to download both. Open the package with rar or zip, put them all in a file called MCCC and shove them in your mods folder.
You will need to go to the library and get on a computer. Choose MC Command, then other settings, then money settings, you will see it as one of the choices
Also with the woo hoo one you can try risky woo hoo instead of always trying for baby. Just change the setting from 10 to say 25 through 30 % and watch the fun happen!
Enjoy! It may not be as fast as the Sims3 original version but it does sound like fun!
Update!!! We just discovered that children can find toys, mystery boxes and gems in the frog logs!
@CalebFillion
An addition to the above; due to unmodded game mechanic rules for 4 it is possible for the household to start out as a teen plus a child and toddler, or a couple of toddlers. I haven't tested for a child only household start, I don't play 4 enough. So having a group of orphans or runaways fixing up a place is an option.
When the teen goes to school, I have base and no mods in 4 so don't know if homeschooling is an option, you will get a popup letting you choose between sending the toddler to daycare (free) or hiring a nanny ($60).
One of the perks of collecting is frogs can be bred a few times during the day, for additional frogs to sell so long as you keep at least 2 frogs in your inventory, or on the lot. I also noticed dig patches, I'm guessing they're base game add on after the jungle pack release.
Did not think about starting off with a teen in charge. I use mods so yeah I can homeschool or have them quit even. I may have to do another one just to see how this all works. Ta very much!
Sadly I have to call it, for the McPhails on Industrial island. They will get a do over, but not right off the bat. I need to just putz around in game to see if the issues are the game or the save file. If it's the game it's going to mean, factory reset plus a whole lot more.
@Mmdrgntobldrgn - sometimes when you have problems with a save, you can still rescue the .nhd file of the save and put that in a brand new save. So, you could load a vanilla industrial island and save and quit. Then copy the .nhd file out of your old save into the new one.
@ciane Loved the name she gave her baby - very meaningful, and fits with the family trend as well. @Mmdrgntobldrgn Oh no! Oh woe! That's very sad. And frustrating. And a lot of other things too.
My game was lagging, so I'm hoping it was only all the gift-giving parties and age transitions. I only have one more day to play them, so I hope to get this wrapped up today. Then I'll return to the light house one.
Just checking in before bed (aka turning off the computer...) and found lots to read! @ciane That was a really nice wrap-up to the story, and the house looked great. @ADWilson Loved Luke's second letter (and the red plumbob too). It's a really moving story you're telling there.
@ciane I like the lanterns in the garden - it does give it charm. I've started playing the one you wrote, but my game has gone so crashy that I'm only getting a few pictures taken at a time. And it takes ages to load anyway, never mind reload. Which is really frustrating as I'm so enjoying it. For a brief spell of time at anyrate...
Did you place it in a new world or one you had already been playing?
Do you ever go to the main menu to switch from one game to another? (Don't do that. Stuff from one game can carry over into the new one.)
Do you always use "save as" to create a new save?
Have you deleted all the .tmp files in your dccache folder?
Have you cleaned out all your old saves? (You can move all saves you aren't playing to another folder and copy one back when you want to play it.)
Do you watch the compositor caches and try to keep them under 300,000k?
Do you play with weather turned off? (I turn on snow just for snowflake day and then turn it off again.)
Do you play with memories turned off?
Do you play with other supernaturals turned off?
Do you play with celebrity status turned off for your active family?
Do you play with the NRAAS story progression mod? (That one is fairly heavy in terms of being always busy and can strain your game.)
I'm sure you know all that already. I'm just putting it out there in case any of it might have been overlooked.
Sometimes when we start a new game, we just assume the options are set up the way we like. Then, along comes a thunderstorm or something to remind you to look at those options again.
I'm itching to start my reno too! I'm trying to be good and finish this light house one first.
@ciane You're amazing!
It was in a new world.
Yes, I do go to main menu to change games...ooops.
No, I don't use Save as, I just save it.
.tmp files in my dccache folder - I did delete some cache stuff, but not, I think, those.
Will look at old saves - my husband's off Mon and Tues, so I'll enlist his help for this!
Will find out what a compositor cache is. (more fun for my husband).
I play with weather on.
I do turn off celebrity status - it annoys me.
I think the supernaturals are off too, for the same reason - it ruins a story.
I don't have the NRAAS story progression mod. And I play with story progression off, or people just start behaving in a way that doesn't go with the story!
No, I didn't know all of that, so I'm really grateful to you for your help. I'm not a computer-minded person: my mind doesn't work like that (much to my husband's perplexity, because his does. But then he can't understand how I can always have stories going on in my head, and never be at a loss to make a new one up. So it evens out).
Thanks again
So, is it a new world you haven't played before or just a fresh, not-played-before game?
You should always use "save as" and give the save a different name, even if you just alternate between SV and SV1. That causes your game to do a fresh save each time; and, hopefully, avoid propagating any data that might get corrupted over time.
The .tmp files are just exact duplicates of the other files in the dccache folder. So many people were having problems finding their store stuff in game that EA changed their system in an update so that everything loaded twice, hoping you would then see the missing items; nevermind that this causes a longer load time and bloats your game file. Every time you use the launcher, it adds those. ((I am still on 1.67, so I only use my launcher to upload and download. I start my game from the ts3w.exe file in the programs' bin folder.))
There are two compositor caches that bloat as you use CASt. Both are .package files. One is simply compositorCache.package and the other is simCompositorCache.package. These files along with CASpart*, script*, and social* are all the cache files that you can safely remove, though I prefer NOT to delete the social one. (My sims work hard running around giving friendly introductions to everyone to gain the celebrity charisma challenge.) These other three cache files don't bloat nearly as fast or as much, so I just delete the two that have compositor in their name when I delete the older saves at the end of play or before I load a new game.
So, weather could be a factor in your game; but, as you usually play with it all turned on, that shouldn't be a problem.
One thing I didn't mention is that maybe your settings were adjusted in a windows update. Make sure your fps (frames per second) is staying around 60 fps as a high (by typing in the cheat fps on/off) and watching the number in the top corner go up and down as you play.
Other settings that could have been reset and have a negative impact would be graphic settings and Vsinc, ie. if your video card updated.
So, a quick look at your sims 3 folder will show large if your compositor files are large. ((When mine get go over 300,000k, and especially as they approach 500,000k, I delete them or my game might crash on me.))
Hopefully, some of this helps your game, if not your current save. But, if you "save as" using a different name as soon as you load, and you delete those bloat files (that will regenerate), that WILL help (just maybe not enough for this particular problem). The other thing that I've mentioned a few times is to select the same world as a new play and save it with a different name using "save as". Quit your game and copy the .nhd file out of the old save folder and paste it into the new save folder. This will have your saved data overlaid on the fresh world. This works as long as the .nhd file is not corrupt. If it's corrupt, you can try the .nhd file in an older save folder to revert, hopefully, to a time before the corruption. (When using "save as", you'll always have at least one older version.) When you get a save (that you previously had problems with) to load, you'll want to save the household/family/home to the bin as a precaution against more corruption. Because, when all else fails, you might have to move your game to a new world. Copying over the .nhd file is like moving your household to a new world, but without the reset for all the other sims.
If you have Master Controller, you can (I think) reset* to reset everything in the world. I haven't done this. I usually don't play with Master Controller. I have just read about it.
One other question... do you use Overwatch? THIS is the one most essential mod in my opinion that cleans up your game every day at 3 a.m.
I put the lot in a new Appaloosa Plains, rather than one I'd played before. It wasn't a brand new downloaded world though. I deleted my .tmp files (and played a different game) and had no crashes. Will try your not-loading-from-the-launcher tip - I'm still on 1.67 as well. And will try that game again! Will also check out the compositor caches too
Huge thanks!
Playing in AP usually means animals getting spawned in places they can't route out of. Look for fencing that doesn't allow a horse in and out. I usually delete the fencing on community lots entirely or at least sections large enough (3 tiles wide). Also there are stairs on community lots. This is always problematic. Delete the stairs and you should be fine. I don't think that AP has a problem lot like HS that requires lots of work. You can also turn off animals spawning in settings, right? It keeps the animals that are already running around, but keeps new ones from spawning. NRAAS has a mod for that, but I don't use it and I don't have any problems in my game after doing the simple fence and stairs edits in edit town mode. I do have overwatch though, so that helps.
I have officially finished the Fix the Nix challenge by @KaytayRoall though I couldn't save at the end of play last night, so I missed getting some pics of the lighthouse reno.
Edit: I loaded up my game and took those pics and added another page for that.
Comments
Am enjoying reading what's been happening with the McPhail family in stories by @Mmdrgntobldrgn (founders and family) and @ciane (variation using a set of McPhail offspring). Looking forward to playing Sassafras and seeing where the game takes them, but before I do that ... there are other renovations already queued up.
Time to introduce the one I'm currently playing and I'm sure you can figure out which one it is by the title alone
Letters to Lucy
Sims 3 Blog: Have I Got A Story For You!
Sims 4 Blog: Addy Plays Sims 4
Loved your start @ADWilson
I played another day in your challenge, Addy; so you get a new chapter. And, I think, it's a pretty special one.
https://2sim3.wordpress.com/other/addy
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Did not think about starting off with a teen in charge. I use mods so yeah I can homeschool or have them quit even. I may have to do another one just to see how this all works. Ta very much!
fingers crossed for easy putzing.
Exploring life through imagination & satire since 1969.
Save Game Often
repair & clear caches Often
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@Mmdrgntobldrgn Oh no! Oh woe! That's very sad. And frustrating. And a lot of other things too.
https://2sim3.wordpress.com/other/addy/
My game was lagging, so I'm hoping it was only all the gift-giving parties and age transitions. I only have one more day to play them, so I hope to get this wrapped up today. Then I'll return to the light house one.
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Enjoyed catching up on your newest chapters @ciane
Sims 3 Blog: Have I Got A Story For You!
Sims 4 Blog: Addy Plays Sims 4
Luke has written another letter.
Sims 3 Blog: Have I Got A Story For You!
Sims 4 Blog: Addy Plays Sims 4
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https://2sim3.wordpress.com/other/addy/
I hope you like the ending.
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@ciane That was a really nice wrap-up to the story, and the house looked great.
@ADWilson Loved Luke's second letter (and the red plumbob too). It's a really moving story you're telling there.
https://2sim3.wordpress.com/other/fix
The last two links are the newest ones.
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random legacy
Do you ever go to the main menu to switch from one game to another? (Don't do that. Stuff from one game can carry over into the new one.)
Do you always use "save as" to create a new save?
Have you deleted all the .tmp files in your dccache folder?
Have you cleaned out all your old saves? (You can move all saves you aren't playing to another folder and copy one back when you want to play it.)
Do you watch the compositor caches and try to keep them under 300,000k?
Do you play with weather turned off? (I turn on snow just for snowflake day and then turn it off again.)
Do you play with memories turned off?
Do you play with other supernaturals turned off?
Do you play with celebrity status turned off for your active family?
Do you play with the NRAAS story progression mod? (That one is fairly heavy in terms of being always busy and can strain your game.)
I'm sure you know all that already. I'm just putting it out there in case any of it might have been overlooked.
Sometimes when we start a new game, we just assume the options are set up the way we like. Then, along comes a thunderstorm or something to remind you to look at those options again.
I'm itching to start my reno too! I'm trying to be good and finish this light house one first.
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random legacy
It was in a new world.
Yes, I do go to main menu to change games...ooops.
No, I don't use Save as, I just save it.
.tmp files in my dccache folder - I did delete some cache stuff, but not, I think, those.
Will look at old saves - my husband's off Mon and Tues, so I'll enlist his help for this!
Will find out what a compositor cache is. (more fun for my husband).
I play with weather on.
I do turn off celebrity status - it annoys me.
I think the supernaturals are off too, for the same reason - it ruins a story.
I don't have the NRAAS story progression mod. And I play with story progression off, or people just start behaving in a way that doesn't go with the story!
No, I didn't know all of that, so I'm really grateful to you for your help. I'm not a computer-minded person: my mind doesn't work like that (much to my husband's perplexity, because his does. But then he can't understand how I can always have stories going on in my head, and never be at a loss to make a new one up. So it evens out).
Thanks again
You should always use "save as" and give the save a different name, even if you just alternate between SV and SV1. That causes your game to do a fresh save each time; and, hopefully, avoid propagating any data that might get corrupted over time.
The .tmp files are just exact duplicates of the other files in the dccache folder. So many people were having problems finding their store stuff in game that EA changed their system in an update so that everything loaded twice, hoping you would then see the missing items; nevermind that this causes a longer load time and bloats your game file. Every time you use the launcher, it adds those. ((I am still on 1.67, so I only use my launcher to upload and download. I start my game from the ts3w.exe file in the programs' bin folder.))
There are two compositor caches that bloat as you use CASt. Both are .package files. One is simply compositorCache.package and the other is simCompositorCache.package. These files along with CASpart*, script*, and social* are all the cache files that you can safely remove, though I prefer NOT to delete the social one. (My sims work hard running around giving friendly introductions to everyone to gain the celebrity charisma challenge.) These other three cache files don't bloat nearly as fast or as much, so I just delete the two that have compositor in their name when I delete the older saves at the end of play or before I load a new game.
So, weather could be a factor in your game; but, as you usually play with it all turned on, that shouldn't be a problem.
One thing I didn't mention is that maybe your settings were adjusted in a windows update. Make sure your fps (frames per second) is staying around 60 fps as a high (by typing in the cheat fps on/off) and watching the number in the top corner go up and down as you play.
Other settings that could have been reset and have a negative impact would be graphic settings and Vsinc, ie. if your video card updated.
So, a quick look at your sims 3 folder will show large if your compositor files are large. ((When mine get go over 300,000k, and especially as they approach 500,000k, I delete them or my game might crash on me.))
Hopefully, some of this helps your game, if not your current save. But, if you "save as" using a different name as soon as you load, and you delete those bloat files (that will regenerate), that WILL help (just maybe not enough for this particular problem). The other thing that I've mentioned a few times is to select the same world as a new play and save it with a different name using "save as". Quit your game and copy the .nhd file out of the old save folder and paste it into the new save folder. This will have your saved data overlaid on the fresh world. This works as long as the .nhd file is not corrupt. If it's corrupt, you can try the .nhd file in an older save folder to revert, hopefully, to a time before the corruption. (When using "save as", you'll always have at least one older version.) When you get a save (that you previously had problems with) to load, you'll want to save the household/family/home to the bin as a precaution against more corruption. Because, when all else fails, you might have to move your game to a new world. Copying over the .nhd file is like moving your household to a new world, but without the reset for all the other sims.
If you have Master Controller, you can (I think) reset* to reset everything in the world. I haven't done this. I usually don't play with Master Controller. I have just read about it.
One other question... do you use Overwatch? THIS is the one most essential mod in my opinion that cleans up your game every day at 3 a.m.
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
Huge thanks!
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random legacy
https://2sim3.wordpress.com/other/fix/
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random legacy
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In this letter, Tom brings home a guest and Luke learns a lesson in restraint.
Sims 3 Blog: Have I Got A Story For You!
Sims 4 Blog: Addy Plays Sims 4
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random legacy
Edit: I loaded up my game and took those pics and added another page for that.
You have lots of new pages to look at!
https://2sim3.wordpress.com/other/fix/
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
Exploring life through imagination & satire since 1969.
Save Game Often
repair & clear caches Often
S3 Studio
S3 blog Story, lists of empty lots by world
Behrooz
S2/3/4 Randomnes