(And yeah, I pulled him into CAS and made him a lot hairier than he was. All unicorns ought to be hairy, IMO. But I seem to have lost my tail length slider in the transition to a new user account. Gotta go redownload it...)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
I think Iāve settled on a lighting mod for Lylanir. Itās not the one in this post, which I like better, because that one unfortunately has a longer day, with the sun not setting until 2100, which means itās still semi-light at 2300 and then itās already getting light at 0400 for an 0500 sunrise. Iām not fond of that. So this is an earlier version of the same mod that doesnāt have the extended day, just Maxis-standard. Unfortunately, that one doesnāt have a version with Moonlight Fallsās nice blue water. This one has Monte Vistaās green water, which Iām not as fond of, but I prefer green water over freakishly-long days year-round.
Speaking of which...Itād be nice if lighting could be based on season, with longer days in the summer and shorter in the winter. I mean, assuming that the planet the Sims live on has an axial tilt, that would be something that happens. :) I wonder if any lighting mods do that....
This is the reduxāed Dragon Valley that Iām going to do something fantasy-medievalish in. I have christened this realm Lylanir.Ā Itās this world, though Iām doing some editing of it here and there, adding lots, deleting some rabbitholes and adding others, things like that. This is basically the entire playable area of it. Aside from the clustered village that you can see in the center(ish) of the pic, there are residential and community lots of various sizes scattered all over the map, including on some of the islands in the lower left. Some of them are prebuilt, but most of them are empty.
The world is unpopulated, and itās roadless, so vehicles of any kind canāt be used anywhere in it. Its residents will need to walk or ride horses to get anywhere. So if a Sim living on one of the lots around that lake on the extreme center-right edge of the pic wants/needs to go to the village, he or she will need to walk (or ride a horse) around the ridge that projects toward the front of the pic, then back up to the bridge that goes across the river and then into the village. This takes a long time -- as it should -- so long that thereās a camp lot at about the halfway point, should any motives need replenishing. And if someone is living on those islands, theyāll need to own a boat (or take a very long swim!) to get to the mainland because Iāll be turning off water taxi routing, too. (I am thinking there needs to be an isolated colony of feral werewolves on that bigger island on the lower left edge of the pic, the one that has an additional hill on it...)
Anyway, Iām going to post some pics, sort of a tour around the place, and along the way Iāll do some musing about what I think Iām going to do with this place. Not much is set in stone with that yet, but perhaps musing will help me to decide on some things...
Just a few of stray pics. :) The first one above is one of several little pond fishing spots scattered across the map. The second is the point where the river feeds into the ocean.
This is the main harbor. Itās pretty seedy, has some sleeping quarters, a food register, and a general store register. It also has a gangway on the longest pier, for building a houseboat. I found some galleon pieces that you use as a shell to fit around a houseboat base, so Iām going to attempt to build a houseboat, which Iāve never done before. But for now, that dock remains empty. :)Ā
Iām thinking that if I get ambitious and link some other historical worlds of a similar period to this one via the Traveler mod, I will probably turn this into a base camp because I think it has everything needed for that. And there is that roadless Viking world I saw in my travels, too... *headdesk* Give it a colder climate, and itād make a great trading partner for Lylanir...
And finally, something thatās my own little addition. I decided Lylanir needed a dedicated area for a small witch coven. So, I put down a community lot in the space on the other side of the ridge from the supernatural area but before you get to the bridge that leads into the village. I plunked down theĀ āstonehengeā rock formation on it, and added tiki torches, a bonfire, and a stone coffee table for anĀ āaltarā for their arcane rituals...and Iāll dress it up further later. Then I plunked down five 10x15 residential lots ringed around it, and Iāll move some wimmens into them. Though really, theyāll be more like just proto-hippie lesbians who want to A) growĀ āherbsā and B) be left alone. I mean, they WILL be witches, but the āherb-growing lesbians who want to be left aloneā thing will be their bigger priority.
And this concludes our tour. Next up, some musings that you can completely ignore...
Separated from the main village by a large ridge is the supernatural area of Lylanir. Thereās a large lake with fishing spawners and a couple of prebuilt and some empty lots around it. That area feeds into a forest with mossy trees and fog emitters (that arenāt emitting yet :) ) and community lots that include the fortune teller wagon, the fairy arboretum, and the vault of antiquity from Supernatural, plus a supernatural hangout. Plus, of course, a couple of prebuilt residences catering to alchemy and witchiness and a few empty lots as well.
Due to the lack of roads, Sims who want their fortunes told or who want to visit the arboretum or vault of antiquity are going to have to do some traveling if they live outside the supernatural area, but thatās how it should be, I think.
One of the houses on the lake. Itās adorable. <3 It will probably be the first house I move someone into. I shouldāve taken a closer-up pic to better show off its adorableness...
A cottage for an alchemist who wants to be alone, with preplanted alchemy herbs andĀ āshrooms, and a bunch of planters to plant more stuff in. (Iām thinkinā other kinds of herbs...) Inside is an alchemy station and the basic necessities for motive-filling.
(I need to figure out something to disguise the fireplace chimneys in this world. Iām sure something must exist. I know the worldās creator was keeping the CC to a minimum -- and I totally appreciate that because I want my TS3 game to be minimal on the build/buy CC -- but those brick chimneys and shiny metal chimney caps are messing with my immersion here. *laugh*)
The arboretum and vault of antiquity. Iāve added a fountain of youth from the Hidden Springs world, too. I sort of love that thing. *laugh*
The supernatural hangout. It has...
...a mechanical bull in the basement. This gives me glee. Yeah, I know itās totally anachronistic, but that thing is like my favorite thing ever, from any Sims game. *laugh* I can watch Sims ride it for, like, hours.
This lot also has the fortune teller wagon on it, plus another broom riding arena (Thereās one in the supernatural hangout, too), but this little area with ruins and the wishing well is just so pretty...
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
Above are two lots more on the outskirts of the village. In the center of the first pic is a community lot fishing dock. Its situated on the river, obviously, near one of the two bridges that lead into the village. It has one of the location registers in it. I forget which one. :) The second pic is of one of two prebuilt large farms in the world. Itās a 3-bed/2-bath home with a large horse barn with four stalls in it behind the house and two large fields for planting.
This is a lot that classed as a gym, meant to be a military barracks. It has lots of living space, bathrooms, and a rudimentary kitchen, plus archery ranges, martial arts training dummies, chin-up bars, and a racetrack for race-training horses, plus two stalls to house them.
A more aerial view of the police/military complex. Thereās the barracks and then I placed a lot right next to it and plopped the Dragon Valley military/police rabbithole on it. That lot needs some further decoration and stuff, but right now Iām just plopping down rabbitholes. :)
The horse facilities. Thereās aĀ āliveryā that includes a door version of the equestrian center rabbithole as well as stalls and paddocks to house horses. On a separate lot is a complete training course for both jumping and racing.
Weāll start with theĀ ādowntownā area, a cute little village centered around a seasonal festival grounds:
And Iāll put a cut on the rest, since this might go a bit long...
Since I havenāt let the town actually run yet, the festival grounds (the open area with the haystacks on it) arenāt set up yet, so Iām not sure what theyāre going to end up looking like. But on the right side of the pic, thereās the city hall rabbithole and on the left are some shops, a tavern, and a residence.
In the forefront, a couple of residences. The tent structure in the back serves as a stadium rabbithole. Originally, the Dragon Valley school rabbithole was there but A) I donāt want a school in this world because, if nothing else, travel times are too long and B) the DV school is huge and its architecture is very elvish-looking, which is nice and all, but it just doesnāt fit in with this place. So, a āstadiumā it is. I wish it was a little smaller, but weāll deal. If the residents want their kids to be schooled outside of their homes, they can be sent to the playable, non-rabbithole monastery-sponsored boarding school that Iām going to set up. That was a more common strategy (for those who could afford it!) in the real middle ages anyway.
On the left, an apartment block with areas downstairs that could be used for shops and whatnot. On the right, the same tavern you can see in one of the pics above.
The winery. Itās a really pretty little lot, with some fancy guestrooms on the upper floor (that Iām going to refurnish to be a bit more modest), retail space on the ground floor and, of course, wine-making and wine-tasting facilities in the cellar. (Sorry, I refuse to call itĀ ānectar.ā *laugh*) I imagine farmers living in the boonies traveling here at the end of the growing season and staying for a while in order to turn their excess produce into wine and then let it age a bit, after which they can sell it at the winery register on the lot.
Just contemplating rules and culture and, yāknow, world-building stuff. Also to-do lists. Itās mostly meant for me because I find thatĀ āwritingā helps me to clarify things in my own head, but if you want to read along, feel free. :) Iāll warn you that itās really long, and Iāll probably edit it over time to make it longer still. Or maybe shorter, if I delete things Iāve gotten done. WHO KNOWS WHAT IāLL DO???!!
Right now, Iām just working in Edit Town mode. Iāve moved in a placeholder Sim (who will be annihilated when I start adding the real population; I love that you can do that in TS3) so that I can let the world run a bit so that it generates service Sims. Currently, Iām deleting some rabbitholes I donāt want and adding some that I do. Also, some lots for some of the Ambitions functions. Like, do not want school but do want stadium, police, and military, so Iāve deleted/put those down.Ā
Also do want:
A spa. Partly rabbithole, partly playable. I want it to be a hot springs. Gonna use one of the worldās empty 64x64 lots for it, I think. Maybe a little smaller, but still a big lot. The DV spa rabbithole is pretty elvish-looking, so I might use a rug instead...or I might decide elvish-looking is OK for a spa. Mostly, I just want it to be pretty and relaxing.
A junkyard. I wish there were more period-appropriate junk piles, but Iāll make do with theĀ ānormalā ones. I also want to look at the āInventing Overhaulā mod I have. I think I remember that you can replace the inventable objects with other things. Iād like some more slightly-advanced but closer to period-appropriate things than the advanced tech that mod uses. Like, inventing telescopes, for instance. Not sure Iāll be able to do that because I have zero TS3-modding skills, and if I canāt, Iāll settle for them inventing anachronistic stuff, mostly because I just love inventor Sims and the blacksmithās house in the village is already furnished with an inventing station.
Business, criminal, theater, and science rabbitholes.
An art gallery thatās really more of a studio, with easels and sculpting stations and that Store glass-blowing/jewelry-making thing. maybe the toy-making thing from the Store and stuff like that. Iām going back and forth as to whether this stuff should be part of a residential home for a Da Vinci-like Sim or if it should be a community lot so that everyone of an artistic bent can use the stuff. Iām currently leaning more toward the latter.
A non-rabbithole, playable boarding school for the less-agrarian kids. Not sure what I need to do in TS3 to make that work. Need to do some reading/thinking about it.
Something for vampires, but definitely not a typical āVampire Lounge.ā Iām thinking....Well, the town has a monastery. It has a big, explorable, and very gothy tomb under it. Kinda thinking theĀ ābrothersā will all be vampires.
Maybe want:
A hospital rabbithole. I canāt decide if I want the medical careers (including custom ones I have, like nursing) in this world. I know I wonāt be sending people there to birth babies -- mostly because of travel time -- so otherwise its only function would be careers, so....I donāt know. The worldās alchemy-heavy, and I have some custom elixirs for curing illness and such, so maybe a hospital is unnecessary.
A salon. Makeovers might be nice. A super-gay medieval stylist would be hilarious. Tattoos...maybe. In the real world, tattooing goes back to at least ancient Egypt, but Iād need to download some more appropriate designs than what the game comes with. Iām not sure this is important enough to me to go to that effort.
Wish I could have:Ā A fire station. But that requires the fire truck and thatās pushing anachronism tolerance waaaaaay beyond my threshold. :)
Then, I need to go into all the prebuilt lots and edit them as needed. Like, I know because I looked that some of them have all modern kitchen appliances. Do not want.
Once all thatās done, all the service Sims ought to have been generated. So the next step will be making them over so they look right. Because they generate like this:
Yeah, thatās not gonna work. *laugh* But, Iāll only need to change hairs and everyday outfits, so it shouldnāt take long. What will take a long time will be making the playables, given the CAS lag I have. Which hopefully wonāt be as bad since this Mods folder will be much lighter on the hair than my ānormalā folder...
So, some ideas about this placeās environment and culture and all that:
Its climate will be temperate with all four seasons but on the cooler side. Longer autumn/winter/spring, shorter summer. Mostly to make farming a little harder. Lifespans will be longer to match because I like to take my time with things. Horses, of course, will be integral to this world.
Traveling wonāt be allowed, so itāll be an isolated culture with no one immigrating or emigrating once Iāve got the population set. UNLESS I decide toĀ ānetworkā in one or two other historical worlds of a similar era using the Traveler mod. I donāt know that Iām up for setting up more than this world, though. *laugh*
Iāve been putting in some thought about this placeās culture and while I donāt have much figured out yet, I DO know that this place is definitely going to be fantasy with only a medieval-esque veneer. But I also want it to have an unusual culture, not an LOTR-like sort of epic fantasy. This means itās going to diverge a lot from the real Middle Ages, and Iām not gonna care. Given that, Iāve decided to go all out on some fantasy things.
Like, Iām going to use the dragons that came with Dragon Valley. Iām not quite sure how yet. I might limit them to supernatural Sims having them, maybe only one kind of supernatural having them. Maybe as a sort of witch familiar? Not that I donāt want witches to have cats, of course! *laugh* Maybe dragons can be fairy companions...
That said, obviously supernaturals will be integral here. :) But there wonāt be superstition or stigma about them. No witch trials/burnings or anything like that. Theyāll just be...people. Well, OK, if I do a feral werewolf colony, theyāll probably be feared, but otherwise? People will be cool with the supernatural, even embracing them and seeking to become one, i.e., those monastic vampires. Even though the vampires are probably gonna kill people. For population control, if nothing else.
For the supernaturals....Iāve downloaded a bunch of skin color ramps, I think theyāre called. The things with ranges of unnatural colors on one slider. Iāve never used them. I think Iām going to use them for at least some of the supernaturals, designating a color family for each type of supernatural. I also have a mess of unnatural hair color presets, and Iāll do unnatural eye colors, too. I want to do this partly because I think itāll be visually interesting and very different from what Iāve done in all my Simming before, but mostly because Iām curious to see how the Advanced Genetics that are part of NRAASās Story Progression (as well as a mod I have that blends parental hair colors) will handle such things. Iām hoping for some interesting results, especially with supernatural hybrids.Ā
Speaking of witch burnings...Religion. If there is one at all in this world, Iām definitely not doing anything from the real-world West. Probably wonāt even do anything like the Sims Medieval style of religion. Iām not sure if the āmonasteryā will be related to religion at all, in fact. Currently, Iām leaning toward it being the vampires themselves who are worshipped by everyone else or at least by all the humans. Like, people could send them sacrifices to be drained in exchange for...something. :) I have no idea what right now. But Iām toying with a ābackstoryā about vampires that they are perhaps technologically advanced and not even former humans. Maybe theyāre aliens, maybe theyāre time travelers. Maybe theyāre stranded in Lylanir, maybe they came deliberately as observers or something. Mostly, Iām thinking this because I want to be able to use the science station to make forbidden fruit seeds because I want to use Plantsims. *laugh* I can utilize that big-ass tomb under the monastery to hide some more advanced tech.Ā
But one cultural thing that I am certain of: Itās going to be an egalitarian society. None of this female oppression bullshit. I donāt want it to be female-dominated, either, but just....equal. So, women donāt have to be married and push out a dozen babies if they donāt want to. And they can wear comfortable, practical clothing, including pants. And they donāt have to cover their hair. And they can be badass warriors if they want to be. All that stuff.Ā
A bit of culture Iāve invented, following on from women not having to cover their hair, is that women above child-age will wear braided hairstyles, and the more elaborate the braiding, the higher the status she has. Because only those with status would have time to sit for hours and braid (or have someone else braid) their hair. Iāve downloaded a bunch of elaborately-braided hairstyles, and Iām looking forward to using them.Ā
And I want to think of something similar for men, but Iām having a hard time coming up with something. Iād be fine with complex braids for them, too, but alas such hairstyles donāt seem to exist for males. At least, not very many of them. Maybe tattoos, if I make them more expensive than the game charges for them? If that, then I need to move a salon up to theĀ āDo Wantā list.