wandering sims

Requirements

This world requires the following expansion packs: World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life (so all but Showtime, Island Paradise and Into the Future). Supernatural is particularly important as it's the expansion that contains most of the Victorian-esque items that match this world; also, the world is home to a few occults which were introduced in that pack.

Ravinehood does not require Stuff Packs, there is no custom content or store content. You don't need Midnight Hollow to make it work. This also means, tangentially, that the world does not have a distant terrain – which, for those who don't know, is a special object which usually surrounds all worlds that are not islands to hide that the worlds are essentially a square-shaped area with an ocean around them. No worries, though: the mountains around Ravinehood are so tall that during regular gameplay you won't even notice its absence.

Lots

This world has 91 lots: 37 commercial, 41 residential, and 13 empty ones. (Midnight Hollow originally had 92 lots: I replaced two adjacent lots with a single bigger one to fit the combined school/stadium rabbit hole. The deleted lots contained the theater and the police station/military base combo, which were moved elsewhere.) Because of the mountains, you can only place additional lots on the shoreline.

All lots are the ones originally designed by EA for Midnight Hollow, renovated by me. Community lots have seen the most changes to add content from the aforementioned expansions, while for residential lots I've taken a more conservative approach, mostly adding color and removing store content. The lots around the city center that were intended for using the Savvy Seller set have become clubs and an apartment.

The world features a library, a graveyard, a junkyard, a consignment store with a dry cleaner, a nectary, a gym, a public pool, a beauty salon, a fire department, a nerd shop (paired with an elixir shop), a dog park, a cat jungle, a horse ranch, two art galleries (one of which includes a relic shop), two beaches, two fishing spots, two parks (including a festival lot), and five hangout spots of different types. All rabbit holes from the base game, Late Night, Pets and Supernatural are included. There are two bistros. The film studio from Late Night is in the basement of the university building shell (which also includes a bowling alley, a cafeteria, and a fake movie theater).

Ravinehood also includes four extra lots posted by EA on The Sims 3 Store: the Gothique Library, the Golden Ticket Toy Shop, the Now and Then Century Manor, and the Grim Ghastly Manor. The store contents have been removed and the lots have been reimagined as the nectary, the consignment store, and two houses, respectively. The fire station, salon, and horse ranch are modified versions of the ones that came with the Pets EP.

Population

There are 40 Sims and 8 pets living in Ravinehood, divided into 23 households each with its own story. Their ages cover all life stages from toddler to elder, although most are young adults and adults; 13 of them are occults. There are also 2 pregnancies in their early stages. Most Sims know at least one skill, have a job, and have relationships and friendships outside their household.

Most of the Sims were created by EA as ghosts for their worlds, but they appear in Ravinehood resurrected and with new stories (so you'll find Lolita Goth raising a fairy in what was once the Specter house, and the Remingtons from Riverview striving to catch a unicorn). My thanks go to the simmer community who kindly shared them on the Exchange. The other Sims were created by me, sometimes drawing inspiration from my reading, particularly Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series and Herbie Brennan's "Faerie Wars Chronicles".

NPC Sims will be randomly generated by the game, so I recommend installing the Random Sim Fixes 2.0 mod by LazyDuchess to avoid them all looking the same.

Overview

Campground Map

Hiking Skill

Collectibles

Foraging

Ailments, Injuries, Fear, and Insects

Chance of Death

Campground Map

Price: §1690 Category: Sporting Goods 2 CASt channels Poly Count: 650 poly Created by Around The Sims 3

Hiking Skill

Hiking is a 6 level skill, and is primarily gained by sims going on hikes under the new “Hiking…” pie menu option on the Campground Map.

There is also a new hiking skill class available at the Stadium rabbithole for §300.

As your sim increases their hiking skill, they will unlock longer hikes and the ability to hike at night.

Going on hikes also raises a sim’s athletic skill, albeit slower than a traditional workout.

Sims who get hungry while hiking will automatically eat, though there is a chance that what they eat may make them Nauseous or fall into a Dark Slumber (poisoned).

Sims with low bladder need will “go in nature,” but they also have a chance of getting the Itchy or Poisoned moodlet after the fact.

If a sim becomes too tired, too hot, or too cold, they will abandon the hike early.

Hiking cooldowns vary depending on how long the sim’s hike took to complete and give sims the Fatigued moodlet.

Sims with the Athletic or Adventurous traits, or with a high Athletic skill will have their hiking cooldown cut in half.

Child sims with the Scouting skill (if The Sims 3: Generations is installed) will get a boost in the hiking skill when they age into teens.

Day hikes can take place between 8:00am and 8:00pm, and night hikes can take place between 8:00pm and 4:00am.

Sims can only hike in sunny weather or during a reviving sprinkle (if The Sims 3: Supernatural is installed), unless they have completed the Seasoned Hiker skill challenge.

Sims cannot hike when it is actively snowing or when there is snow on the ground.

By completing the Expert Hiker skill challenge can lead Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced hikes during the day to earn extra simoleons.

Upon successfully completing a hike, sims will have a 2% chance of finding a gnome and a 1% chance of finding a genie lamp.

Hiking Skill Unlock Levels

Level 1: Beginner Hike

Level 2: Beginner Night Hike

Level 3: Intermediate Hike

Level 4: Intermediate Night Hike

Level 5: Advanced Hike

Level 6: Advanced Night Hike

Collectibles

While out hiking, sims have a 30% chance of finding collectibles of varying rarities like gems, metals, space rocks, insects, and wildflowers.

Certain traits or occult states can either increase or decrease your chance of finding collectibles by 5% (note: this value stacks the more traits or occult states your sim has):

Increased Chance - Lucky, Gatherer, and Loves The Outdoors

Decreased Chance - Unlucky, Loser, and Hates The Outdoors

Night Owls, Vampires, and Werewolves also have a 5% higher chance of finding collectibles on night hikes.

Day hikes and night hikes each have their own set of collectibles that can be found.

Additionally, the longer the hike, the higher the chance of your sim finding rarer collectibles.

All wildflowers can only be found during the day, and the same space rocks can be found both during the day and at night.

A full list of collectibles can be found on the download page under the header “Collectibles.”

Foraging

Sims can go foraging using the “Forage” interaction on the Campground Map. 

Going foraging will give sims a 30% chance to find harvestables, seeds, and honey/beeswax. 

Certain traits, skills, or occult states can either increase or decrease your chance of successfully foraging by 5% (note: this value stacks the more traits, skills, or occult states your sim has):

Increased Chance Traits - Lucky, Gatherer, Loves The Outdoors, Green Thumb (or Gardening skill level 5 or higher), and Super Green Thumb (lifetime reward)

Decreased Chance Traits - Unlucky, Loser, and Hates The Outdoors

Night Owls, Vampires, and Werewolves also have a 5% higher chance of finding harvestables while foraging at night.

Sims can forage during the day or at night for 2, 4 or 6 hours at a time, with day foraging and night foraging yielding different harvestables/seeds.

Sims who get hungry while foraging will automatically eat, though there is a chance that what they eat may make them Nauseous or fall into a Dark Slumber (poisoned).

Sims with low bladder need will “go in nature,” but they also have a chance of getting the Itchy or Poisoned moodlet after the fact.

If a sim becomes too tired, too hot, or too cold, they will abandon foraging early.

Foraging cooldowns vary depending on how long the sim’s foraging took to complete and give sims the Fatigued moodlet.

Foraging also carries a 2% risk of contracting Botinitus Minorous, which will turn your sim into a PlantSim.

Upon successfully completing foraging, sims will have a 2% chance of finding a gnome and a 1% chance of finding a genie lamp.

A full list of foraging harvestables/seeds can be found on the download page under the header “Foraging.”

Ailments, Injuries, Fear, and Insects

Both hiking and foraging have a chance of giving your sims different ailments or injuries, scaring them, or giving them encounters with insects.

When hiking, there is a 25% chance of a sim developing an ailment, a 40% chance of injury, a 35% chance of fear, and a 25% chance they encounter insects.

When foraging, there is a 40% chance of a sim developing an ailment, a 25% chance of injury, a 35% chance of fear, and a 25% chance they encounter insects.

All of the possible ailment, injury, fear, and insect moodlets are listed below:

Ailments: Allergy Haze, Nauseous, Itchy, Poisoned, Soaked

Decreased Chance - Lucky, Athletic (or Athletic skill level 5 or higher), and Hiking Skill (level 4 or higher)

Increased Chance - Unlucky, Loser, and Hates the Outdoors sims have a higher chance.

Injuries: Ouch My Face, Hurt Hand, Hurt Foot, Singed, Tortured Soles, Hydrophobic, Bitten, and On Fire

Decreased Chance - Lucky, Athletic (or Athletic skill level 5 or higher), Adventurous, Brave, and Hiking Skill (level 4 or higher)

Increased Chance - Unlucky, Clumsy, Absent Minded, Loser, Coward, Daredevil, Hates the Outdoors, Tired moodlet, and Sore moodlet

Night hikes also have an increased risk of causing injuries.

Fear: Scared, Horrified, and Terrified

Decreased Chance - Lucky, Brave, Adventurous, and Hiking Skill (level 4 or higher)

Increased Chance - Unlucky, Loser, Childish, Coward, Dramatic, Over Emotional, Neurotic, and Hates the Outdoors

Insects: Mosquito Bite Low, Mosquito Bite Mid, Mosquito Bite High, Bee Sting, Bee Attack, and Got Fleas (Human)

Decreased Chance - Lucky and Athletic (or Athletic skill level 5 or higher)

Increased Chance - Unlucky, Loser, Childish, Clumsy, Coward, Absent Minded, and Hates the Outdoors sims have a higher chance.

Note: If a sim is wearing mosquito repellent (from The Sims 3: Island Paradise), they will not get bitten by mosquitos while hiking or foraging.

Certain moodlets like Bee Attack, On Fire, and Terrified will end a sim’s hike early.

Chance of Death

There is also a 5% chance of a sim dying while hiking via drowning, burning to death, or blunt force trauma.

Certain traits, skills, and moodlets can either increase or decrease your chance of death by 5% (note: this value stacks):

Increased Chance - Unlucky, Clumsy, Absent Minded, Loser, Daredevil, Hates the Outdoors, and Tired moodlet 

Decreased Chance - Lucky, Athletic (or Athletic skill level 5 or higher), Adventurous, Brave, and Hiking Skill (level 4 or higher)

Note: There is no chance of death while foraging.

Tuning

All of the tunable values can be found on the mod download page under the header “Tuning.”

Conflicts & Known Issues

This is a new script mod so there shouldn’t be any conflicts.

Uninstallation

Same as with other custom skills, removing the hiking skill may cause issues in saves where the skill has been used. I have created a new cheat called “uninstallHikingMod” to remove the hiking skill from any sims in the world and cancel all hiking interactions that may be active, but use this mod with caution.

Credits

EA/Maxis for The Sims 3 and The Sims 4, Around The Sims for meshes and textures, Visual Studio 2019, ILSpy, s3pe, and Notepad++

Thank You

Thank you to @aroundthesims, @flotheory, @puffkins2000, @nectar-cellar, @omedapixel, @zoeoe-sims, Mihaia10 on ModTheSims, and plumblossom on Discord!

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