Lisa

1. Lighting Mod: Cozy Home Lighting Mod + Night Light Map Fixes

Goes without saying, I use my own lighting mod. Most of the other shaders won't look right without some kind of lighting mod.

I use Cozy Home, which is the newest mod I did. It's better to read it from the README because this is too long to put here.

The lighting mod also contains fixes to the Light Maps for both lot and neighborhood so they're less blue. Otherwise night lighting will not look right.

README | DOWNLOAD

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2. Neighborhood Shaders and Light Maps: @spockthewok's Reflective Water + @simnopke's Accurate Neighborhood Terrain Lighting + @criquette-was-here's Neighborhood Road Transparency Fix

What Will has been putting up, from the purple soup research to the object limit findings, and now the reflective water shader has been incredible. He's managed to do it much more beautifully than I have (as I can't really do much more than color scalar changes and combining mods together on the shader end of things). I prefer this over Voeille's water mod because the ocean does not go black with reflections off.

Make sure to get the version labeled dreadpirate as that one has @criquette-was-here's Better Nightlife mod integrated already.

The next part of this roundup is the Accurate Neighborhood Terrain Lighting, which fixes the shadow weirdness in the impostor (if you use the version with Criquette's Neighborhood Lighting Remedy integrated, which I recommend if you use any of my lighting mods). I personally use the strong-lightingRemedy version.

Finally, there's the Neighborhood Road Transparency Fix, which fixes the transparent areas on the sides of neighbourhood road, so the objects and decals below becomes visible and ‘cut-off’ effect disappears.

DOWNLOAD HERE: Reflective Water | Accurate Neighborhood Terrain Lighting | Neighborhood Road Transparency Fix (6.2.1 on the list)

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3. Lot Skirt Shader: @christaskyy's Improved Lot Skirt Shader

This new shader improves on the lot skirt rendering to be closer to the neighborhood view along the surrounding area after the lot boundary. This also means, with the right lighting mod configuration (ahem!), the roads match better. Not perfect, but better than before.

The lot skirt mod was made using my original shader fixes so this already contains @simnopke's Sky Fix and @criquette-was-here's Winter Road Fix.

The original link leads to Boosty, which causes issues for a lot of people so I am instead linking to their alternate link to the download. Make sure this shader loads after the Extended StandardMaterial Shader that will be linked later on.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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4. Terrain Tile/Pond/Pool Shader: Aquamarine Pond Water + No Blue Snow

Now, this one is my work. I based this shader on Moi's Water Mod, but adjusted the colors (especially with reflection off) to be similar to Targa's old water mod. I wanted the colour to be something that isn't solid black without a swimming pool.

This contains both the terrain tile shaders and the pool shaders, which I took inspiration from the old Gunmod shader for but updated for Seasons. The shader also contains the night snow fixes as well, so the snow will not be blue at night.

Note that this is incompatible with water mods like Voeille's water mods or mods like @lazyduchess's Lot Lighting Fixes. I can't get Lot Lighting Fixes to personally work right and the snow issues personally don't bother me as I don't really play a lot of winter seasons.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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5. Roof Shader: Slightly Brighter Roofs + No Blue Snow

I find many roof shaders too bright so what I did for this was just remove the bluish cast on the material shader part and made it just a touch brighter than Maxis, so you can still use roofs that aren't made with brighter roof mods in mind.

This again has the no blue snow fix integrated.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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6. Standard Shader: @crispsandkerosene's Extended StandardMaterial Shader

(Photo is stolen from Crisps)

C&K has already written up a list of what this shader does. I personally use the version with @lazyduchess's Bright CAS Fix. For the lot shader portion, make sure Christa's lot skirt shader loads after this, or delete the lot skirt shader portion in Crisps' file using SimPE.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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7. Sim Standard Shader: My Edit of @crispsandkerosene's Extended SimStandardMaterial Shader

Just an edit I did of @crispsandkerosene’s SimStandardMaterial shader because I liked a setting somewhere in between the vanilla maxis setting for the scale lighting and the one in the Brighter SIms version.

You can read C&K's post for more information about the shader.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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8. Shadow Shaders: @simnopke's Sim Shadow Fix + @lazyduchess's Soft Outdoor Shadows 2.0

Nopke's mod allows the shadows to even show up as shadows, while LD's soften them so that the outlines are not too harsh. I use dark for Nopke's mode, and No Overlap 100 on LD's.

DOWNLOAD: Sim Shadow Fix | Soft Outdoor Shadows 2.0

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Generation one; the inventor

After leaving home for the first time, you find yourself living on the outskirts of a desert town. You’re not there for very long before you start to notice strange things flying through the skies and the locals seem to act as if nothing is out of the ordinary especially the odd green ones. You try to make your way as an inventor, but spend most of your free time gazing at the night sky as these irregularities inspire you to question; what’s out there?

✧ Lifetime wish: The Tinkerer ✧ Required traits: Eccentric, Socially awkward, Loner, Genius, Handy. ✧ Career: self-employed inventor. ✧ Spouse: no marriage. ✧ Location: Strangetown ✧ Limit on children: you can only have alien children by abduction or through the time machine. The next-gen heir must be alien. ✧ Max skills: handiness, inventing, logic ✧ Prompts:

Buy a telescope and gaze at the stars every night.

Collect and analyze 100% of all space rocks and keep them as a collection on your lot.

Go on at least 5 online dates but never become more than friends.

Create a Simbot (or purchase the LTR if it's too hard) and have it be your only friend while it lives in your basement.

Have a hamper in your house but never do your laundry until you have a maid or a child that’ll do it for you.

Each time your sell/delete piles of clothes, you have to change one of your founder’s outfits and take a 100 simoleons from your balance.

Befriend any aliens that visit your lot.

Build a time machine and travel through time at least once.

Generation two; the alien

Your parent was always honest when they said you were different from all the other children in class, but all you really wish for is to be as normal as possible. You're always finding yourself feeling jealous of those who fit in oh so easily and know who their true authentic selves are. This pushes you to become super interested in all of the mundane things that come with a regular human life and turns you into a multi-talented artist as you try to create that perfect human picture for yourself.

✧ Lifetime wish: Renaissance Sim ✧ Required traits: Artistic, Savvy Sculptor, Art Appraiser, Bookworm, Friendly ✧ Career: self-employed painter, writer or sculptor. ✧ spouse: marriage allowed, must be human. ✧ Location: Sunset Valley ✧ Limit on children: no, but the heir must be human. ✧ Max skills: painting, sculpting, writing ✧ Prompts:

Create a private museum with your own artworks.

Make portraits and ice sculptures of your whole family (your spouse and children).

Choose whichever townie sim your alien would be most jealous of, make an ice sculpture of them and add them to your family collection, where you secretly pretend it’s you.

Have three best friends, they must be regular humans.

Send at least one of your kids to boarding school.

Become part of a bookclub.

Only ever write trashy novels.

Scan at least 5 sims to learn their traits.

Lock any alien children you have in the basement. They’re not allowed to go to school or leave the house. Kick them out the moment they age up into young adults.

Generation three; the gardener

Your parents did everything to be as normal as possible, restricting you from feeling what true freedom is like. That’s why you move to Twinbrook or Riverview, for a fresh start where you can truly taste what freedom feels like, with your feet in the dirt!

✧ Lifetime wish: the perfect garden. ✧ Required traits: green-thumb, loves the outdoors, eco-friendly, natural born cook, gatherer ✧ Career: Self-employed gardener ✧ Spouse: marriage allowed, must be a like-minded sim with an attraction score of at least 8 out of 10. ✧ Location: Twinbrook or Riverview. ✧ Limit on children: only one human child allowed. ✧ Max skills: gardening, cooking ✧ Prompts:

If you take your parents with you when you move towns, kick them out immediately.

Plant all base game plants/seeds.

If prompted, complete the Cheese, Steak, Egg and Omni Plant opportunity line.

Use apples or melons to influence the gender of your child.

Build a greenhouse in your garden.

Don’t have anything from the electronics catalogue in your house.

Grow a forbidden fruit.

Become a plant sim.

Use your own crops to make your meals.

Learn how to make Baked Angel Foodcake.

Generation four; the paranormal

Your parents love of nature and the environment has a great influence on you, but only with regards with being happy somewhere green. You find yourself living in a small gloomy town with a lot of history and oddities; two topics you find the most interesting.

✧ Lifetime wish: paranormal profiteer or master of mysticism. ✧ Required traits: eccentric, perceptive, genius, supernatural fan, charismatic. ✧ Career: ghost hunter or fortune teller (mystic path). ✧ Spouse: marriage allowed. ✧ Location: Midnight Hollow ✧ Limit on children: two, but the heir must be a ghost. ✧ Max skills: charisma, logic (if ghost hunter), alchemy (if fortune teller) ✧ Prompts:

Become friends with a ghost.

Get at least one of your kids (the heir) killed and resurrect them as a ghost.

Get Bonehilda as a maid.

Try to become friends with the Grim Reaper.

Own the graveyard (purchase property).

Open up a shop in town selling occult memorabilia (creepy toys/decorations).

Generation five; the spirit

Your parent's love of the paranormal lead to your accidental death and resurrection. You seem to be a spirit now, but you age just like everyone else. You don't stay long in your hometown before you start jetsetting across the globe to adventure.

✧ Lifetime wish: seasoned traveler or bottomless nectar cellar. ✧ Required traits: adventurous, commitment issues, disciplined, athletic, brave. ✧ Career: self-employed nectar maker, or 'relic hunter' (make your money selling relics at the consignment store back home.) ✧ Spouse: no marriage. ✧ Location: players-choice. ✧ limit on children: at least three, and the heir must become a vampire. ✧ max skills: martial arts, nectar making ✧ Prompts:

Don’t make any friends in your hometown, only abroad.

Learn all the songs from across the world.

Have a child from a local in each of the three vacation worlds.

Have a private museum with all of the unique relics you find during your adventures.

Gain visa level 3 in each vacation world.

Own a vacation home in each vacation world.

Grow plasma fruit and have a collection of plasma fruit nectar.

Generation six; the vampire

Born (or turned into) a creature of the night you struggled to maintain relationships with non-occults which lead to a dislike to anyone who wasn't like you. You end up finding yourself in a city that never sleeps with a thirst for something other than plasma.

✧ Lifetime wish: turn the town or heartbreaker ✧ Required traits: evil, flirty, star quality, charismatic, irresistible ✧ Career: Criminal, Emperor of Evil branch ✧ Spouse: unlimited. ✧ Location: Bridgeport ✧ Limit on children: no, but the heir must become a werewolf. ✧ Max skills: mixology, piano, Athletic ✧ Prompts:

Steal your parent’s plasma fruit nectar collection and take it with you to Bridgeport.

Reach level five celebrity status.

Kill each spouse after they have given you a child and then move on to a new spouse for the next one. (recommended mod)

Lure in your dates by making them romantic drinks and using ‘Make sim think about me’ and ‘hypnotic gaze’ interactions.

Raid the hospital and grocery store

Sleep on a Vampire Altar in your basement when you’re alone, but keep a normal bed upstairs for you and your (living) spouses.

Keep all of your spouses graves in your backyard.

Generation seven; the hound

After growing up in the big city, surrounded by odd looks and flashing lights; you want nothing more than a bit of peace and quiet. Oh, and some normality. You move to a hidden town in the mountains, away from all the hustle and bustle where you start your own life and maybe a family.

✧ Lifetime wish: Leader of the pack or Surrounded by family. ✧ Required traits: friendly, family-orientated, good, dog person, born salesperson. ✧ Career: part-time jobs, opportunities and consignments only. ✧ Spouse: marriage allowed. ✧ Location: Hidden Springs ✧ Limit on children: five, but the heir must become a witch. ✧ Max skills: photography ✧ Prompts:

Have a best friend and turn them into a werewolf.

Reach the max career level of all part time jobs.

Own two dogs and breed them to have a litter of puppies (that you can give up for adoption if you like).

Document your family life with your own personal camera and place your photo’s all over the house.

Have at least three small creatures as pets (bird, turtle, snake, lizard, or rodent).

Collect all (basegame) butterflies and keep them in jars.

Cure yourself with your heir’s elixir when you turn into an elder so you can live out your last days as a human.

Generation eight; the spellcaster

With such peculiar ancestors, magic brews within you. After growing up in Hidden Springs and noticing the slight magical occurrences around, you decide you need to be somewhere where magic has deep roots which is why you find yourself in Moonlight falls. You want to prove that you're just as much a witch as anyone else here, will you succeed in this venture?

✧ Lifetime wish: alchemy artisan or mystic healer. ✧ Required traits: bookworm, perfectionist, neurotic, virtuoso, cat person ✧ Career: self-employed alchemist ✧ Spouse: no marriage. ✧ Location: Moonlight Falls ✧ Limit on children: no, but the heir must become a fairy. ✧ Max skills: alchemy, violin. ✧ Prompts:

Create a werewolf cure for your parent once they’ve turned into an elder.

Win a spellcasting duel from another witch.

Turn your dresser into a magic portal.

Own the elixir consignment store as a property.

Use the Toadification Curse on your enemies.

Use the Thirst Curse on a vampire, killing them.

Bring back a vampire your killed as a zombie with the Reanimation Ritual.

Have a cat or small creature as your familiar.

When your kids get married, play the violin at their wedding.

Generation nine; the fae

After living in a town with such deep magical roots and pecularities all around, you feel like you blend in a little too much which drove you a little crazy - you dream of a life in the spotlight which provokes your move to a dazzling city that's all about stardom.

✧ Lifetime wish: Vocal legend or Magic Make over ✧ Required traits: social butterfly, insane, diva, party animal, natural born performer. ✧ Career: Singing profession ✧ Spouse: yes, two marriages; first with a human and last with a genie. ✧ Location: Starlight Shores ✧ Limit on children: no limit, but the heir must be a female genie. ✧ Max skills: guitar, charisma. ✧ Prompts:

As a teen, pull a bunch of fairy pranks on your classmates and/or siblings.

Obtain a genie lamp and free the genie.

Cheat on your spouse with the genie and then divorce your human spouse to marry the genie.

Keep up a garden/greenhouse with your bloom ability.

Use Aura of Creativity on yourself whenever you perform your music.

Throw a party for your fellow fairies in town inside a fairy house.

If you haven't chosen Magic Make over as your LTW, use inner bloom on at least five sims.

Generation ten; the wishgiver

Born from a fairy and a genie, you've always been told you were magical but after growing up near the beaches of Starlight Shores the only thing that seemed magical in your life was the sea, this inspired you to move somewhere that seems like it was created from your very own wishful love of the ocean.

✧ Lifetime wish: deepsea diver. ✧ Required traits: loves to swim, athletic, angler, loves the outdoors, loves the cold. ✧ Career: self employed diver. ✧ Spouse: no marriages. ✧ Location: Isla Paradiso (use the fixes!). ✧ Limit on children: three, but the heir must be a mermaid. ✧ Max skills: scuba diving, athletic ✧ Prompts:

Find all treasure chests on all diving lots.

Meet a mermaid/man, have at least one child with them and do not see the mermaid/man again after their birth.

Banish any sim that has a negative interaction with you.

Ensorcel your enemies and make them do your household chores.

Move into a houseboat.

Discover all uncharted islands.

Own a resort and upgrade it to the max level.

Teach your heir how to fish.

Generation eleven; the merchild

Your mother loved the sea so dearly which shines through you as you are a child of the ocean; a merchild. You never knew you merparent growing up but that never stopped you from seeking them out later in life. Your story and ancestry seems to hold so many mysterys, what will you uncover? As a natural swimmer with a love for humans, it’s only natural you become a life guard, using your skills to save lives on a daily basis, while in your free time you like to fish up your dinner.

✧ Lifetime wish: Presenting the perfect private aquarium ✧ Required traits: Loves the outdoors, loves the heat, charismatic, athletic, angler. ✧ Career: Life guard ✧ Spouse: someone you rescued ✧ Location: stay in Isla Paradiso ✧ Limit on children: none. ✧ Max skills: Fishing, athletic, charisma ✧ Prompts:

Don't meet your parent until young adulthood, befriend them to the max relationship.

Build a large swimming pool in your garden.

Create a private fishing pond on your lot and stock it with fish.

Only eat (raw or cooked) fish and kelp to satisfy your hunger.

Marry one of the sims you rescue during your job.