#ts3 thoughts

last week I wrapped up my Farming Town Vacation gameplay with a festival I managed to get through in four hours (because screenshots) without any game glitches or crashes. I had been apprehensive about attempting it for weeks, expecting every kind of set back possible. When it seemed smooth sailing, I got giddy. It was like getting to the final fight scene in an action movie. Then, as I returned my sims to their household lot and saved my progress, I felt a little sad. 

I started the original run down farm challenge that turned into this series in 2018. While renovating a new world to continue the main story, a spin-off was born. For a year, I played Conjure, a native of the world I was renovating. The game was meant to boost her skills, help me flesh out the people and places in her hometown and enrich the main game. Alas, I grew frustrated with the process, and abandoned the spin-off (and eventually plans for the new world) in 2021. I started setting up Isla Paradiso for the vacation game shortly afterwards. I played it for two years.

I think this game is the longest running sim game I have ever played. It is definitely the longest running TS3 game I’ve played. It is also the first game I’ve ended with an actual ending and not because I just exited one day and never returned, or because I lost the files via corruption or some other computer issue.

I had lots of fun with it. It informed the way I played all the games that followed, and taught me a lot about myself. I will miss it.

When I was setting up for Conquer’s Isla Paradiso vacation, I created a community lot using @aroundthesims​​‘ Ruins objects. Originally I thought the lot would make a great secret party site. Later on, having still not used the lot (forgot it existed, had to search for it the day of the festival, lol), I shifted it’s purpose as the site for a Spring Break bash, giving my household something special to do when Glamour came to stay. Conquer was also learning to DJ and eventually got the moonlight want, so I figured the festival could serve as his debut. 

After playing in live for two years (IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS) I realized there were very few venues where the Central island sims socialized with the Little Sister folks. When it came time to get ready for the festival, I wanted to rectify this to some degree and prepared myself to be very hands on in order to really make the celebration Isla Paradiso wide.

If you’re thinking, this can’t get more complicated, ‘TIME TO MEET MY BRAIN:

My Brain: If Isla Paradiso has a festival every year there has to be a reason for it.

Me (because we’re separate): I mean it’s a tourist hub, so any excuse to get people to spend money.

MB: What attracts spenders more than a cultural festival?

M: Okay. 

MB: Something where people can wear skimpy costumes and parade around town merrily. You do have all those cc masks, headdresses and a bunch of costume make up.

M: That’s a good point. I’ve never used half of that stuff, plus I’ve still got a bunch of beachwear downloaded just for this save and that’ll probably never get used otherwise. 

MB: Excellent! You’re in?

M: I am!

MB: Why are they parading in the outfits, though?

M: What?

MB: Why? If it’s cultural there has to be a reason. You know, the history.

M: I mean it could have been established so long ago no one remembers why --

MB: But you have to remember... because that will help determine what their costumes look like.

M: Oooooh.

MB: And since you decided to be realistic and divide your island based on skin tone there’s going to at least be two different colored costumes.

M: Makes sen--

MB: Possibly multiple colors for different roles in the same faction...

M: Fa-factions?

MB: ...and two distinct styles of costumes to mark the separate factions. Maybe some costume variations depending on the household...

M: Oh, I --

MB: ...styles based on the colonizer group and the colonized group.

M: Umm --

MB: Because divided people will have divided cultures. Divided cultures mean divided histories...

M: WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH THIS!

MB: ...or different versions of the same history.

M: ???

MB: You know? For the event.

M:

MB: The event being celebrated during YOUR festival.

M: What have I done?

MB: What have you done?

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So basically I ran that little sims wikia snippet about Isla Paradiso’s royal descendants through my head overlord and out came a complicated story of the Ichtaca family massacring people to colonize their paradise. This initially took place while I was flicking through clothes in create a sim, and was fleshed out a bit further over time. Eventually, I decided there would be three tales of the final battle that lead to the current Isla Paradiso, and serves as the event the festival is held to honor:

The “official story” i.e. the one taught in the history books that inspires the lighter wealthier population’s celebration. 

The “real story,” or the survival tale descendants of the archipelago’s original, darker and poorer, residents, pass down and celebrate. 

Then the truth, which none of the sims in the game actually knows at this point.

The costumes worn by the residents were based on their respective myths. Only one group’s costumes got captured during live mode, and only a little of their history will be shared in A Farming Town: Tropical Vacation since this is told mostly through Conquer and he’s an outsider.

Oh wow, thanks for sending this!

Most of the sims I actually play that are originals tend to have some aspect of my personality, but the one that I most relate to in this moment is Glamour.

She's always open to exploring new hobbies and pursuing her own desires despite other's opinions, and she has very little patience for other sims' nonsense.

I managed to delete the game shots for the night Conquer realized he and Carmena’s relationship should stay strictly platonic. I deleted the shots on both my computer and my external hard drive and I don’t know HOW I did this and HOW I only just realized I did this. 

New Isol Isle (originally Isolation) is coming soon. Possibly as soon as next week. I wanted to wait until I at least had enough shots (you’ll be happy to know my shot choices are a bit pickier than for the last leg of A Farming Town, lol) to span at least a month of posts and I’m about thirty pics shy of that goal.

Last night I thought about how much I’ve been physically transformed by age, and how that has impacted my ability to recognize my own face. I wasn’t simming when this thought occurred, but it did make me think about the process of making and developing a self sim. 

FroAnhke is the closest I’ve gotten to, perhaps, a younger sim version of myself. I don’t think she looks like me, though. I don’t even think she looks like an exaggerated version of me. I first made a self sim in TS4. At the time I figured my inability to create an approximation was due to the limitations of the game and available custom content. While I don’t think those limits help, I no longer think they’re at the heart of the issue.

All of my self sims attempts look more to me like my younger sibling or my cousin. To other people, they don’t look like the family member I suggest. I always get a squished face response when I say this looks like this person more than myself. That makes me think the problem is that I can’t conceptualize how I appear even when I’m staring at pictures, video, or mirrors and thus I cannot make my own face.

The thought kind of trips me out. I wonder if it’s a common artist thing, some weird wiring with my brain, or some issue with my self esteem mixed with internalized age-ism and fatphobia (as I have plans to plump of FroAnhke as now she’d be about the age where I started to gain more weight).

so I’m getting to these replies a little late. Sorry about that. 

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anitmb said: Oh I like the detail of your world <3 Unfortunately I don't think a proper combo residental/community lot is possible. It can be either or (at least I'm not aware of one). That is why my bakery was a residential lot because I wanted to have the food on a shelf but on a community lot EA's cleaning code would clean them out. Looking forward to seeing what you show us next :)

*sigh* Yeah, I kind of guessed as much. Eventually I’ll also make my bakery a residential lot as you do. Thx for the comment, hopefully you’ve been enjoying my other posts in the Audre set up series.

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day-of-the-plantsims said: That's a great shot with the fish surfacing!

I feel like I can’t really take credit for that shot. I’m 100% sure I either caught by accident just repeatedly hitting the camera key, or I just so happened to pause my game, thought “what the heck is that” and then got in close and saw it was a fish.

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simsdeogloria said: I love it! So well done and definitely feels like it belongs in the town!

Thanks so much! I don’t feel like I always do a good job of tying the style of the lots in to that of the worlds I’m building in. Your comment helped me realized I’m getting better. 8D 

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misspats3 said: This looks so good, the amount of details is awe-inspiring, well done <3