#they utilize their maps really well and help tell the story of HoT in a really really interesting way
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You know, one thing I like a lot about verdant brink is that every event ties back to the meta event of the map. And it's not like drizzlewood where every event is designed with the goal of progressing the meta, instead it's that the meta is just this constantly running cycle on verdant brink, it's always going whenever you pop in, and every event is part of it because the meta is designed in a way so every event can tie to it without it being forced. The events are all helping the crash survivors and the locals get and maintain safe footholds in the jungle. And the meta is all about the same thing.
I like how you don't have to drop everything you're doing when the meta rolls around, because you've already been doing it. It's the thing that annoys me most about the amnytas map honestly. I'll be working on the event achievement for one of the bastions and oop gotta drop everything because now it's time for the meta so nothing else will get done on this map. Like sometimes the verdant brink meta will cut off what I'm doing, but I'll have a clear countdown to sunset at the same time and I know I just have to run through the same event chain to get back to where I was. In amnytas I just have to go to the event location and wait for the event to pop up eventually and hope the meta doesn't interrupt me.
And like I can see my impact in verdant brink as I go through events too. I help the npcs find a better place to hold out, I help the bases build up, I help claim and maintain footholds in the jungle. And yeah the jungle undoes all my work but I see it happen and I see why it happens when night hits and it's just really cool and i think a map like that where the meta is both more passive and involved in everything would be cool to see again. Like drizzlewood and gyala are an Active Push towards the threat, and in amnytas the threat just shows up on schedule every 2 hours, but verdant brink feels like a fight against the encroaching threat, you're not going to it, you're preparing for it to come to you.
And then theres the canopy bosses as a little extra bonus I guess. They're not my favorite part, though the wyvern boss you have to glide around and throw stuff onto is mechanically pretty cool.
#socks talks#i think the HoT metas are still my absolute favorites in the game#they utilize their maps really well and help tell the story of HoT in a really really interesting way#dragonfall is another really interestong one storywise#though it is a push to reach an end goal like gyala and drizzlewood. its slower though and less exhausting than the other two#its 4:30am is anything im saying making sense to anyone but me
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Patch Notes
Update 06/03/2020
PC: 1.63.133.1020 / Mac: 1.63.133.1220
Console: Version 1.25
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Expansion Pack drops in just a mere few days, and since we know that living your best Eco Lifestyle can take a little extra elbow grease, we’ve added some exciting quality-of-life improvements to help pave the way.
Between Inventory updates, new CAS assets from a surprise partnership with M·A·C, the return of two beloved NPCs, as well as some really cool new Build features, we hope you enjoy the update.
-SimGuruJill & SimGuruRusskii
NEW & IMPROVED FEATURES
INVENTORY UPDATES
Fellow hoarders, this one’s for you: We have updated the Sim Inventory with the ability to Filter, Sort, Favorite, Multi-Select, and Multi-Sell in one easy flick of the wrist. Managing that cumbersome pile of collectables you’ve been racking up for the past five years has never been so easy!
FREE PLACEMENT OF DOORS AND WINDOWS
Following in true Eco Lifestyle fashion, Door and Window placement is now also Off-the-Grid. But not that kind of grid. The limiting kind of tile grid that used to keep you from placing your windows and doors precisely where you wanted them. By holding down the Alt key while dragging, you can enjoy the smooth sensations of free Door and Window placement.
LADDERS
Ladders have been added as part of the Build System. Find your free Classic Wooden Ladder in the Build catalog in the Stairs (& Ladders) category. Unlike Island Living’s Dock and Ladder objects for use on water lots, these Ladders can be placed anywhere on your lot and like stairs, they can be used as a means for Sims to traverse from one floor to another.
M·A·C COSMETICS
Did you say you needed some fresh looks for your Sims? We’ve collaborated with none other than M·A·C Cosmetics to bring you 12 fashion-forward makeup assets suited for everything from everyday to night out glam. If you’re not already using it, on PC and Mac we recommend trying out the “Uncompressed Sim Textures” setting in the Options Menu, which is now enabled by default on the High and Ultra graphics settings profiles in order to see these looks really shine. While console versions of The Sims 4 do not have the setting in the Options Menu, each console spec is automatically using the optimal graphical settings based on system resources.
REPO PERSON NPC
The Repo Person NPC has graduated with honors from Discover University’s University of Britechester with a Degree in Villainy and has comfortably taken up residence in Base Game. Now everyone can taste their wrath if Bill payments fall behind.
BILLS UPDATE
Speaking of Bills, we’ve added a cohesive breakdown of Sim’s Bills information that can be accessed via an interaction on the Mailbox or Phone. Now instead of lumping everything together, you can see what percentage of your Bills go to Water, what percentage go to Power, insight into any Fees, Reductions, or Penalties. All this and more, calculated and cleanly presented for your finer understanding.
LEGACY NEIGHBORHOOD MAP TAGS
We have gone back and added Map Tags with Neighborhood Descriptions to existing neighborhoods that didn’t yet have them. We now have delightful icons, names, and descriptions for the no-longer-forgotten Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Newcrest, and Windenburg. Ok, feel free to freak out now.
OFF-THE-GRID UPDATES
This one is tricky to list out in a single paragraph with attempted wit, so I’ll just drop this bullet list off right here:
The Off-the-Grid Lot Trait now ties into our new Bill updates, drawing from Water and Power utility. Without excess utility, lots function off-the-grid as they did before. With excess utility, they function more like an on-the-grid lot.
There is a new Off-the-Grid Build category that will allow players to find Off-the-Grid and survival-esque objects.
We've done a pass on candles to ensure they properly work when electricity is out.
Off-the-Grid supported Fridges now have an "Add Ice" interaction that will allow them to keep food preserved—so long as the ice remains!
Sim will now autonomously use stoves and fridges when Off-the-Grid, not just grills.
Harvestables now grant unique buffs when consumed off-the-grid.
Dogs and Toddlers now have a unique interaction to be bathed in Bathtubs even when Off-the-Grid.
Objects can now be cleaned using the "Use Elbow Grease" interaction. Yummy.
Players are able to gather Water utility from fishing spots in base game. With Island Living they can gather from the waterfall. Water can also be gathered from any world with swimmable 'ocean' water. With Seasons, water can be gathered from snow drifts.
Off-the-Grid specific buffs will now take into account motives and Sim traits when determining if a Sim should receive a positive or negative moodlet when living Off-the-Grid.
We've added multiple new recipes that can be cooked while Off-the-Grid given a Sim has the proper cooking skill level. Some recipes require special ingredients like the Boiling Frog Hot Pot—which adds a really neat survival element to off-the-grid gameplay, while providing Sims with powerful new moodlets that will help them survive in the wild.
NO TRESPASSING
Some people who have the Vampires Game Pack appreciate Vlad’s antics more than others. I personally love receiving a charming visit from Vlad, and sometimes I could really use a kind compliment about my neck. But we’ve heard there are a select few that don’t quite like having their Sim’s necks bitten and motives tanked by an invasive nighttime visitor with no respect for boundaries. Keep Vampires and other unwanted visitors at bay with a new No Trespassing interaction we’ve added to the Door.
SEND HOME INTERACTION
Speaking of unwelcome visitors, we’ve also added a new Send Home interaction that’s available on visiting NPCs or as a self-interaction in the case of multiple visitors. How is this interaction any different from Ask To Leave or Go Away, you might ask? Convenience. Unlike its less efficient predecessors, this interaction is nearly instantaneous and leaves your visitors with no hurt feelings or Relationship impact. We added it as a useful tool for players, not necessarily as a story-telling mechanism.
BUILD MODE ITEMS GRANT GAMEPLAY EFFECTS
How you build your lot can now affect your gameplay. Certain objects such as wall patterns, floor patterns, fences, and columns bring different gameplay modifiers. Some of these modifiers affect how your Bills and utilities are calculated by decreasing or increasing your Power or Water utility production or usage, as well increasing or decreasing the price of bills. Environment Score can now be impacted by certain objects and materials. Drywall walls without wall patterns applied now decrease environment score like they did in The Sims 3! The choice of floor and wall materials used can also affect the ability to spread fire or puddles at an increased or lessened rate. And if you’d rather build your lot without having to think about these things, don’t worry. There’s an Option in the Gameplay menu to turn all of this off.
FIREFIGHTER NPC
Oh hey, and speaking of Fire, that reminds me. Did you hear that we’ve added Firefighter NPCs to the game? We took nods from classic Firefighter NPC behavior from The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3 and added a few small twists for The Sims 4. When a fire breaks out, Firefighters will come automatically to your lot if you already have a Fire Alarm installed. That way, if you still like to let things burn baby burn, you can just “accidentally” forget to place a Fire Alarm. It’s okay. We won’t tell anybody. If you honestly did forget to place a Fire Alarm, you can call the Fire Department from the Phone or by clicking on the fire itself. If the Fire Department is called, but there is not an active fire, they will call you on your lapse in judgement and charge you a fine. You won’t be punished if there was legitimately a fire that was extinguished before they arrive though. The Firefighter Uniform can be accessed in CAS and gives any Sim wearing it the Fireproof Buff, which gives them some extra protection against fires as well as make them more efficient at putting out fires themselves. It’s worth noting that Firefighter NPC’s do not show up in Island Living’s Sulani. Sulani already has their local Fire Brigade to handle these kinds of emergencies and besides, who wants to wear all that heavy Firefighter gear in the tropics?
STYLED LOOKS FOR TOTS AND KIDS
More than 20 New Styled Looks have been added for Children and Toddlers, using existing Base Game CAS assets to better flesh out some outfit categories that previously felt sparse.
BALANCING PASS OF PHONE CALL INVITATIONS
After five years of Expansion Packs, Game Packs, and Stuff Packs our phone call invites were admittedly starting to get a little spammy. Moments after moving in, you’ve got Lucas Munch hitting you up, asking you to go to the Bluffs with him. Then not long after, you might have had Vivian Lewis asking you to join her at The Spice Festival. Jeez, let me get settled in first, why don’t ya? We’ve done a tuning pass to rebalance all of these previously competing Phone invites to give you a more meaningful and holistic experience.
LESS INVASIVE EARBUDS
In the same vein as the above balancing pass, we wanted to smooth out one of our more pressing notifications. The free earbuds pop-up that comes with Fitness Stuff has been changed to a more passive TNS and gifts your Sim the earbuds automatically when it triggers. The days of telling the game over and over that you don’t want free earbuds, or worse - hitting OK by accident - is a thing of the past.
CONSOLE UPDATES
Eco Lifestyle releasing on the same day across all platforms marks an important milestone for The Sims 4 as Simmers get to play the same content and share new creations on The Gallery together. In this update Console Simmers have a few additional features to improve their quality of life:
We have added a new Controls Overlay Reminder that shows up throughout CAS, Gallery, Live Mode and Build Mode which should make it easier for new Simmers to jump in and not need to remember all the controls.
If you don’t want to be reminded and you know all the controls by heart, you can turn off the Controls Overlay Reminder in the Game Options > Other menu
The controller overlay screens remain available for those who want them.
Now onto the fixes and updates:
The Sims 4
macOS players should no longer encounter the setLocale.zsh error. However, both Origin and TS4 must be up to date.
Sims will not have random accessories or clothing pieces when changing into towels.
Style Influencer Sims can now remove trends they have created, with the Reset Trend interaction.
Fixed an issue where Sims were not able to Care for Self after they had been in daycare when they were a Toddler.
Some roofs were updated to remove the appearance of black sides when placed on ceilings.
Active Sims will no longer get a Tense moodlet for lack of exercise when finishing exercising. Do you even push up bro?
Sims will no longer get the Fatigued moodlet immediately after starting a workout. Now, we know that endurance takes time to build, but we decided to give Sims a chance to enjoy their workout before being completely fatigued right away.
Child Sims will now be able to unlock the Video Gaming Skill after they have maxed out their Mental Skill instead of their Motor Skill, which was causing adult skills to reset for Child Sims when they completed aspirations.
Fixed an issue in which some Households did not have their names displayed in Manage Worlds.
Corrected requirements for completing the Great Landscaper task that is part of the Mansion Baron Aspiration.
Fixed an issue in which when utilities are shut off (either because of past due bills or Off-The-Grid) adding objects from Build Mode such as Lamps, would add them turned On.
The Water Pump, Fishing Holes, Romantic Garden’s Whispering Wishing Well, and Get Famous’s Luminary’s Exotic Water Garden now have the Gather Water interaction when the Off-the-Grid Lot Trait is applied.
Fixed an issue in which the Subtle Saucer Light was not being so subtle and made objects added from Build Mode be placed randomly when dragged near it.
Teen Sims will now see the appropriate tooltip when trying to acquire the Fertile Trait from the Rewards Store. No, they are not Robots.
Fixed an issue in which some Roof Eaves were clipping into enclosed blocks.
Fixed an issue in which the Clean Up interaction would drop off the queue if dirty dishes were placed on a counter.
Since we added a new trash bike to Eco Lifestyle, we’ve made the bicycle helmet available for everyone in CAS. Now you can outfit your Sim in a helmet, regardless of owning a pack that includes bikes.
Sims will now not receive occasional text messages asking them for a Date from other Sims that they are not romantically involved with. Because it was aaaakward…
Toddler Sims will not be able to Ask for Mentoring on some in progress mentoring interactions to strangers. Except for “Invite to Bob to Music” because we can dance if we want to, we can leave our friends behind, ‘cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance well... they’re not friends of mine.
Fixed an issue with textures for the tops and landings on some Staircases.
Fixed an issue that did not allow randomizer to work correctly when Male Sims had Makeup on Create a Sim.
Plants can now be placed closer to foundations with moveobjects cheat enabled, as long as most of the plant's footprint is outside of the foundation.
Fixed an issue in which Simoleons were not added to Household Funds when moving and selling furniture.
Fixed an issue in which previewing certain windows on diagonal walls reverted their color back to the default color swatch.
Simmers on macOS Catalina and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU will no longer experience seeing a squared shadow under their Sims.
Fixed an issue with the Wooden Prairie-Style Two-Panel door in which color swatches were not displaying correctly on both sides of the door.
Sims now can dispose of packed lunches that have spoiled. Out, foul food!
Fixed some oddness with disappearing Stairs within enclosed courtyards.
Fixed a Stair issue with Landings not working properly on lots with raised foundations and basements. Sims will no longer walk through walls and things should now look appropriate.
Fixed missing Career Promotion screens for careers in various packs.
Fixed User Interface elements and Icons across multiple packs.
Spandrels can now be properly applied on Fences.
Stairs will now not shrink when increasing Foundation heights.
Get Together
Fixed an issue in which non local Sim Townies would spawn in Windenburg’s Island, now named The Crumbling Isle.
Fixed an issue that caused an error to occur when deleting or editing Clubs.
As much as Windenburgians (Windenburgers? Windenburguese? Windenburglites?) love visitors from other worlds, they have voted them off the Island. Sorry, not sorry!
City Living
Fixed an issue that caused time to be desynchronized at Speed 3. Bending the space time continuum no more!
Vet Clinics can no longer be placed in Penthouses.
Yard Sale customers will no longer wander inside Sims’ houses and interact with their belongings. While prospective buyers are nice to have in any sale, this was just rude, this is NOT a Welcome Wagon.
Cats & Dogs
Game progress will no longer be lost when editing/adding/deleting career outfits in Create a Sim.
Fixed an issue that made Pets’ needs to not be fulfilled if not playing an active household.
Pets’ ehm… poop is now able to be used as plant fertilizer. Happy gardening!
Seasons
Sims can now sell Flowers in stacks from their Inventory.
Sims will now appropriately put their Umbrellas away before performing some interactions. Because WooHoo while having an Umbrella out in the open, seems complicated, we are not judging… but seems complicated.
Fixed an issue that made Simmer created Holidays in the Calendar populate after a season ended.
Father Winter will now be able to remove his beard and change in Create a Sim if he is part of an active Household. But who would dare shave Father Winter’s beard?? Who?!
Get Famous
Fixed the issue with the Actor Career where Sims were unable to complete their gig when they would travel and return home before it was time for the gig.
Island Living
Lotta Cocolatas will now be made with actual Coconuts taken from Sims’ Inventories. What were they made from before? We will never know! Never accept imitation Lotta Cocolatas… never!
Fixed an issue in which some quick meals were requiring a Microwave while being Off-The-Grid when it is not needed. Yogurt needing a microwave? I think not!
Mermaids in Create a Sim will no longer be able to have their Traits randomized. This allows them to keep their Mermaidism, as well as their air of mystery and charm.
Mermaids now will wear appropriate career outfits when going to work. So I can picture this now, Mermaids as Doctors would be a great TV show.
Fixed an issue in which some Island Living Tank Tops were categorized incorrectly in Create a Sim.
Mermaid Children made in Create a Sim will now grow up to be fully-functioning Mer-dults.
The Go To Work button for Odd Jobs has been fixed for Sims on Vacation.
The Eyedropper tool will now work on Stilts instead of only working on the Foundation Trims.
Fixed an issue in which Sims in Off-The-Grid lots were showering constantly. Now they will shower when appropriate. Though, with this heatwave, anything goes in my opinion!
“Dr. Mermaid/Merman, what do you recommend?
“I am prescribing some Vitamin Sea”
Give Russkii more coffee please...
Discover University
Student Sims will not lose their Term Presentations Boards when signing up for another term.
Simmers with Seasons additionally installed: Student Sims will no longer receive Academic Probation if they were on planned Holidays through the Calendar.
Student Sims will no longer be labeled as Graduate after completing the Graduation Ceremony. Congratulations!
Fixed an issue in which homework assignment progression was too slow and timers might have been missing in some instances.
Fixed an issue in which Sims were taking showers fully clothed. As much as the current heat wave is giving us creative ideas to cool off, it would be more efficient to not be fully clothed when showering.
Hair Style ymHair_EP08MensShavedPonytail_Black has been updated for Teens, Adults, and Elders to display all swatches. Similarly yfHair_EP08ShortBobBraid_Black has been fixed to appear as an option for Teens.
Sims that re-enroll in University after graduating or dropping out, can now rejoin their Secret Society. Likewise, if Sims get suspended and re-enrolls their progress will not be lost.
Fixed an issue with the "Gameday Glute Accommodator" chair that occasionally could make Sims invisible if they placed it in their Inventory. We don’t know what other powers the "Gameday Glute Accommodator" may have but invisibility is now not one of them.
Sims in the Law Career can now Attend Depositions from their Computers and Phones. Because you don’t need to break your computer to complete an assignment, that seems impractical.
Vampire Coffins and Sleeping Pods can now count as Beds in University Dorms.
Fixed an issue in which the Write and Publish Research Paper interaction would disappear from the options if it was cancelled midway. I mean, I understand rage quitting something but not to the point of my options to do it disappearing...amirite?
Fixed an issue with yfBody_EP08DressParty_SolidPurple in which pendant necklaces were not able to be seen if this asset was worn by Sims.
Fixed an issue that could make the Soccer interaction Study Plays with drop out from the interaction queue.
Corrected Final Exam Requirements for Elective Courses to say that for studying they need to do so on Computers or Research Machines.
To anyone who may have noticed the tiny head effect in the thumbnails if you wore the Dragon or the Lobster mascot costume without their hats, that issue has been fixed.
Humanoid Robots will no longer be able to have Traits or Aspirations modified in Create a Sim. You are a real Sim to me Robot friend, you are to me.
If a Sim already knows about the Secret Society, is it still a secret? Time will tell.
Outdoor Retreat
Herbalism recipes can now work while Off-The-Grid, however only on Off-The-Grid supported stoves.
Dine Out
Random NPCs will not leave Hamburgers on tables at restaurants anymore. As much as we like to receive free food, we don’t think it is proper to get them randomly from a stranger.
Vampires
Vampire Sims working on the Master Vampire Aspiration will no longer have the task “Survive for an Additional 20 Days as a Vampire” reset after traveling.
Vampire Sims with Full Sun Resistance are now able to properly tend to gardens and not tend to plants one at a time.
Fixed an issue in which you could set the Registered Vampire Lair Lot Trait for Venues.
Vampire child ears can now be changed after being aged-down from adult Dark Form.
The Rustic Candle Chandelier now has flame effects on the candles.
Jungle Adventure
Fans/Stans will no longer follow their adored celebrity into the jungles of Selvadorada.
Realm Of Magic
Spellcasters have regained access to Styled Looks.
Fixed an issue in which a Tank Top belonging to this pack was not categorized correctly in Create a Sim.
Hot Tubs that have been upgraded to unbreakable will no longer be broken upon performing the Zipzap Spell.
A Spellcaster is never not in vogue, but it’s always nice to have options.
Moschino
We fixed an issue in which some hotkeys in Photo Mode (particularly E and Q) were not working.
After popular demand, the Libearian bookend will now cost Simoleons. Nothing’s for free, nothing’s for freeee... take it away!
Tiny Living
Murphy beds will now be more resilient after first use. Warranty terms pending.
Fixed an issue in which Game Consoles were not usable with the all in one entertainment systems.
Fixed an issue in which Hair Styles from this pack appeared with their color swatches out of order in Create a Sim.
Fixed an issue in which Sims could not Put Bed Up their Murphy Beds after WooHoo.
We have also adjusted their pricing and comfort levels, bang for your buck!
Now the “Media Marathoner All on the Wall” will be actually the Media Marathoner All on the Wall.
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The Sims 4: New Game Patch (June 3rd, 2020)
There’s a new Sims 4 PC update available via Origin.
Remove all MODS and Custom Content before updating your game
Update 06/03/2020
PC: 1.63.133.1020 / Mac: 1.63.133.1220
Console: Version 1.25
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Expansion Pack drops in just a mere few days, and since we know that living your best Eco Lifestyle can take a little extra elbow grease, we’ve added some exciting quality-of-life improvements to help pave the way.
Between Inventory updates, new CAS assets from a surprise partnership with M·A·C, the return of two beloved NPCs, as well as some really cool new Build features, we hope you enjoy the update.
-SimGuruJill & SimGuruRusskii
NEW & IMPROVED FEATURES
INVENTORY UPDATES
Fellow hoarders, this one’s for you: We have updated the Sim Inventory with the ability to Filter, Sort, Favorite, Multi-Select, and Multi-Sell in one easy flick of the wrist. Managing that cumbersome pile of collectables you’ve been racking up for the past five years has never been so easy!
FREE PLACEMENT OF DOORS AND WINDOWS
Following in true Eco Lifestyle fashion, Door and Window placement is now also Off-the-Grid. But not that kind of grid. The limiting kind of tile grid that used to keep you from placing your windows and doors precisely where you wanted them. By holding down the Alt key while dragging, you can enjoy the smooth sensations of free Door and Window placement.
LADDERS
Ladders have been added as part of the Build System. Find your free Classic Wooden Ladder in the Build catalog in the Stairs (& Ladders) category. Unlike Island Living’s Dock and Ladder objects for use on water lots, these Ladders can be placed anywhere on your lot and like stairs, they can be used as a means for Sims to traverse from one floor to another.
M·A·C COSMETICS
Did you say you needed some fresh looks for your Sims? We’ve collaborated with none other than M·A·C Cosmetics to bring you 12 fashion-forward makeup assets suited for everything from everyday to night out glam. If you’re not already using it, on PC and Mac we recommend trying out the “Uncompressed Sim Textures” setting in the Options Menu, which is now enabled by default on the High and Ultra graphics settings profiles in order to see these looks really shine. While console versions of The Sims 4 do not have the setting in the Options Menu, each console spec is automatically using the optimal graphical settings based on system resources.
REPO PERSON NPC
The Repo Person NPC has graduated with honors from Discover University’s University of Britechester with a Degree in Villainy and has comfortably taken up residence in Base Game. Now everyone can taste their wrath if Bill payments fall behind.
BILLS UPDATE
Speaking of Bills, we’ve added a cohesive breakdown of Sim’s Bills information that can be accessed via an interaction on the Mailbox or Phone. Now instead of lumping everything together, you can see what percentage of your Bills go to Water, what percentage go to Power, insight into any Fees, Reductions, or Penalties. All this and more, calculated and cleanly presented for your finer understanding.
LEGACY NEIGHBORHOOD MAP TAGS
We have gone back and added Map Tags with Neighborhood Descriptions to existing neighborhoods that didn’t yet have them. We now have delightful icons, names, and descriptions for the no-longer-forgotten Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Newcrest, and Windenburg. Ok, feel free to freak out now.
OFF-THE-GRID UPDATES
This one is tricky to list out in a single paragraph with attempted wit, so I’ll just drop this bullet list off right here:
The Off-the-Grid Lot Trait now ties into our new Bill updates, drawing from Water and Power utility. Without excess utility, lots function off-the-grid as they did before. With excess utility, they function more like an on-the-grid lot.
There is a new Off-the-Grid Build category that will allow players to find Off-the-Grid and survival-esque objects.
We've done a pass on candles to ensure they properly work when electricity is out.
Off-the-Grid supported Fridges now have an "Add Ice" interaction that will allow them to keep food preserved—so long as the ice remains!
Sim will now autonomously use stoves and fridges when Off-the-Grid, not just grills.
Harvestables now grant unique buffs when consumed off-the-grid.
Dogs and Toddlers now have a unique interaction to be bathed in Bathtubs even when Off-the-Grid.
Objects can now be cleaned using the "Use Elbow Grease" interaction. Yummy.
Players are able to gather Water utility from fishing spots in base game. With Island Living they can gather from the waterfall. Water can also be gathered from any world with swimmable 'ocean' water. With Seasons, water can be gathered from snow drifts.
Off-the-Grid specific buffs will now take into account motives and Sim traits when determining if a Sim should receive a positive or negative moodlet when living Off-the-Grid.
We've added multiple new recipes that can be cooked while Off-the-Grid given a Sim has the proper cooking skill level. Some recipes require special ingredients like the Boiling Frog Hot Pot—which adds a really neat survival element to off-the-grid gameplay, while providing Sims with powerful new moodlets that will help them survive in the wild.
NO TRESPASSING
Some people who have the Vampires Game Pack appreciate Vlad’s antics more than others. I personally love receiving a charming visit from Vlad, and sometimes I could really use a kind compliment about my neck. But we’ve heard there are a select few that don’t quite like having their Sim’s necks bitten and motives tanked by an invasive nighttime visitor with no respect for boundaries. Keep Vampires and other unwanted visitors at bay with a new No Trespassing interaction we’ve added to the Door.
SEND HOME INTERACTION
Speaking of unwelcome visitors, we’ve also added a new Send Home interaction that’s available on visiting NPCs or as a self-interaction in the case of multiple visitors. How is this interaction any different from Ask To Leave or Go Away, you might ask? Convenience. Unlike its less efficient predecessors, this interaction is nearly instantaneous and leaves your visitors with no hurt feelings or Relationship impact. We added it as a useful tool for players, not necessarily as a story-telling mechanism.
BUILD MODE ITEMS GRANT GAMEPLAY EFFECTS
How you build your lot can now affect your gameplay. Certain objects such as wall patterns, floor patterns, fences, and columns bring different gameplay modifiers. Some of these modifiers affect how your Bills and utilities are calculated by decreasing or increasing your Power or Water utility production or usage, as well increasing or decreasing the price of bills. Environment Score can now be impacted by certain objects and materials. Drywall walls without wall patterns applied now decrease environment score like they did in The Sims 3! The choice of floor and wall materials used can also affect the ability to spread fire or puddles at an increased or lessened rate. And if you’d rather build your lot without having to think about these things, don’t worry. There’s an Option in the Gameplay menu to turn all of this off.
FIREFIGHTER NPC
Oh hey, and speaking of Fire, that reminds me. Did you hear that we’ve added Firefighter NPCs to the game? We took nods from classic Firefighter NPC behavior from The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3 and added a few small twists for The Sims 4. When a fire breaks out, Firefighters will come automatically to your lot if you already have a Fire Alarm installed. That way, if you still like to let things burn baby burn, you can just “accidentally” forget to place a Fire Alarm. It’s okay. We won’t tell anybody. If you honestly did forget to place a Fire Alarm, you can call the Fire Department from the Phone or by clicking on the fire itself. If the Fire Department is called, but there is not an active fire, they will call you on your lapse in judgement and charge you a fine. You won’t be punished if there was legitimately a fire that was extinguished before they arrive though. The Firefighter Uniform can be accessed in CAS and gives any Sim wearing it the Fireproof Buff, which gives them some extra protection against fires as well as make them more efficient at putting out fires themselves. It’s worth noting that Firefighter NPC’s do not show up in Island Living’s Sulani. Sulani already has their local Fire Brigade to handle these kinds of emergencies and besides, who wants to wear all that heavy Firefighter gear in the tropics?
STYLED LOOKS FOR TOTS AND KIDS
More than 20 New Styled Looks have been added for Children and Toddlers, using existing Base Game CAS assets to better flesh out some outfit categories that previously felt sparse.
BALANCING PASS OF PHONE CALL INVITATIONS
After five years of Expansion Packs, Game Packs, and Stuff Packs our phone call invites were admittedly starting to get a little spammy. Moments after moving in, you’ve got Lucas Munch hitting you up, asking you to go to the Bluffs with him. Then not long after, you might have had Vivian Lewis asking you to join her at The Spice Festival. Jeez, let me get settled in first, why don’t ya? We’ve done a tuning pass to rebalance all of these previously competing Phone invites to give you a more meaningful and holistic experience.
LESS INVASIVE EARBUDS
In the same vein as the above balancing pass, we wanted to smooth out one of our more pressing notifications. The free earbuds pop-up that comes with Fitness Stuff has been changed to a more passive TNS and gifts your Sim the earbuds automatically when it triggers. The days of telling the game over and over that you don’t want free earbuds, or worse - hitting OK by accident - is a thing of the past.
CONSOLE UPDATES
Eco Lifestyle releasing on the same day across all platforms marks an important milestone for The Sims 4 as Simmers get to play the same content and share new creations on The Gallery together. In this update Console Simmers have a few additional features to improve their quality of life:
We have added a new Controls Overlay Reminder that shows up throughout CAS, Gallery, Live Mode and Build Mode which should make it easier for new Simmers to jump in and not need to remember all the controls.
If you don’t want to be reminded and you know all the controls by heart, you can turn off the Controls Overlay Reminder in the Game Options > Other menu
The controller overlay screens remain available for those who want them.
Now onto the fixes and updates:
The Sims 4
macOS players should no longer encounter the setLocale.zsh error. However, both Origin and TS4 must be up to date.
Sims will not have random accessories or clothing pieces when changing into towels.
Style Influencer Sims can now remove trends they have created, with the Reset Trend interaction.
Fixed an issue where Sims were not able to Care for Self after they had been in daycare when they were a Toddler.
Some roofs were updated to remove the appearance of black sides when placed on ceilings.
Active Sims will no longer get a Tense moodlet for lack of exercise when finishing exercising. Do you even push up bro?
Sims will no longer get the Fatigued moodlet immediately after starting a workout. Now, we know that endurance takes time to build, but we decided to give Sims a chance to enjoy their workout before being completely fatigued right away.
Child Sims will now be able to unlock the Video Gaming Skill after they have maxed out their Mental Skill instead of their Motor Skill, which was causing adult skills to reset for Child Sims when they completed aspirations.
Fixed an issue in which some Households did not have their names displayed in Manage Worlds.
Corrected requirements for completing the Great Landscaper task that is part of the Mansion Baron Aspiration.
Fixed an issue in which when utilities are shut off (either because of past due bills or Off-The-Grid) adding objects from Build Mode such as Lamps, would add them turned On.
The Water Pump, Fishing Holes, Romantic Garden’s Whispering Wishing Well, and Get Famous’s Luminary’s Exotic Water Garden now have the Gather Water interaction when the Off-the-Grid Lot Trait is applied.
Fixed an issue in which the Subtle Saucer Light was not being so subtle and made objects added from Build Mode be placed randomly when dragged near it.
Teen Sims will now see the appropriate tooltip when trying to acquire the Fertile Trait from the Rewards Store. No, they are not Robots.
Fixed an issue in which some Roof Eaves were clipping into enclosed blocks.
Fixed an issue in which the Clean Up interaction would drop off the queue if dirty dishes were placed on a counter.
Since we added a new trash bike to Eco Lifestyle, we’ve made the bicycle helmet available for everyone in CAS. Now you can outfit your Sim in a helmet, regardless of owning a pack that includes bikes.
Sims will now not receive occasional text messages asking them for a Date from other Sims that they are not romantically involved with. Because it was aaaakward…
Toddler Sims will not be able to Ask for Mentoring on some in progress mentoring interactions to strangers. Except for “Invite to Bob to Music” because we can dance if we want to, we can leave our friends behind, ‘cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance well... they’re not friends of mine.
Fixed an issue with textures for the tops and landings on some Staircases.
Fixed an issue that did not allow randomizer to work correctly when Male Sims had Makeup on Create a Sim.
Plants can now be placed closer to foundations with moveobjects cheat enabled, as long as most of the plant's footprint is outside of the foundation.
Fixed an issue in which Simoleons were not added to Household Funds when moving and selling furniture.
Fixed an issue in which previewing certain windows on diagonal walls reverted their color back to the default color swatch.
Simmers on macOS Catalina and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU will no longer experience seeing a squared shadow under their Sims.
Fixed an issue with the Wooden Prairie-Style Two-Panel door in which color swatches were not displaying correctly on both sides of the door.
Sims now can dispose of packed lunches that have spoiled. Out, foul food!
Fixed some oddness with disappearing Stairs within enclosed courtyards.
Fixed a Stair issue with Landings not working properly on lots with raised foundations and basements. Sims will no longer walk through walls and things should now look appropriate.
Fixed missing Career Promotion screens for careers in various packs.
Fixed User Interface elements and Icons across multiple packs.
Spandrels can now be properly applied on Fences.
Stairs will now not shrink when increasing Foundation heights.
Get Together
Fixed an issue in which non local Sim Townies would spawn in Windenburg’s Island, now named The Crumbling Isle.
Fixed an issue that caused an error to occur when deleting or editing Clubs.
As much as Windenburgians (Windenburgers? Windenburguese? Windenburglites?) love visitors from other worlds, they have voted them off the Island. Sorry, not sorry!
City Living
Fixed an issue that caused time to be desynchronized at Speed 3. Bending the space time continuum no more!
Vet Clinics can no longer be placed in Penthouses.
Yard Sale customers will no longer wander inside Sims’ houses and interact with their belongings. While prospective buyers are nice to have in any sale, this was just rude, this is NOT a Welcome Wagon.
Cats & Dogs
Game progress will no longer be lost when editing/adding/deleting career outfits in Create a Sim.
Fixed an issue that made Pets’ needs to not be fulfilled if not playing an active household.
Pets’ ehm… poop is now able to be used as plant fertilizer. Happy gardening!
Seasons
Sims can now sell Flowers in stacks from their Inventory.
Sims will now appropriately put their Umbrellas away before performing some interactions. Because WooHoo while having an Umbrella out in the open, seems complicated, we are not judging… but seems complicated.
Fixed an issue that made Simmer created Holidays in the Calendar populate after a season ended.
Father Winter will now be able to remove his beard and change in Create a Sim if he is part of an active Household. But who would dare shave Father Winter’s beard?? Who?!
Get Famous
Fixed the issue with the Actor Career where Sims were unable to complete their gig when they would travel and return home before it was time for the gig.
Island Living
Lotta Cocolatas will now be made with actual Coconuts taken from Sims’ Inventories. What were they made from before? We will never know! Never accept imitation Lotta Cocolatas… never!
Fixed an issue in which some quick meals were requiring a Microwave while being Off-The-Grid when it is not needed. Yogurt needing a microwave? I think not!
Mermaids in Create a Sim will no longer be able to have their Traits randomized. This allows them to keep their Mermaidism, as well as their air of mystery and charm.
Mermaids now will wear appropriate career outfits when going to work. So I can picture this now, Mermaids as Doctors would be a great TV show.
Fixed an issue in which some Island Living Tank Tops were categorized incorrectly in Create a Sim.
Mermaid Children made in Create a Sim will now grow up to be fully-functioning Mer-dults.
The Go To Work button for Odd Jobs has been fixed for Sims on Vacation.
The Eyedropper tool will now work on Stilts instead of only working on the Foundation Trims.
Fixed an issue in which Sims in Off-The-Grid lots were showering constantly. Now they will shower when appropriate. Though, with this heatwave, anything goes in my opinion!
“Dr. Mermaid/Merman, what do you recommend?
“I am prescribing some Vitamin Sea”
Give Russkii more coffee please...
Discover University
Student Sims will not lose their Term Presentations Boards when signing up for another term.
Simmers with Seasons additionally installed: Student Sims will no longer receive Academic Probation if they were on planned Holidays through the Calendar.
Student Sims will no longer be labeled as Graduate after completing the Graduation Ceremony. Congratulations!
Fixed an issue in which homework assignment progression was too slow and timers might have been missing in some instances.
Fixed an issue in which Sims were taking showers fully clothed. As much as the current heat wave is giving us creative ideas to cool off, it would be more efficient to not be fully clothed when showering.
Hair Style ymHair_EP08MensShavedPonytail_Black has been updated for Teens, Adults, and Elders to display all swatches. Similarly yfHair_EP08ShortBobBraid_Black has been fixed to appear as an option for Teens.
Sims that re-enroll in University after graduating or dropping out, can now rejoin their Secret Society. Likewise, if Sims get suspended and re-enrolls their progress will not be lost.
Fixed an issue with the "Gameday Glute Accommodator" chair that occasionally could make Sims invisible if they placed it in their Inventory. We don’t know what other powers the "Gameday Glute Accommodator" may have but invisibility is now not one of them.
Sims in the Law Career can now Attend Depositions from their Computers and Phones. Because you don’t need to break your computer to complete an assignment, that seems impractical.
Vampire Coffins and Sleeping Pods can now count as Beds in University Dorms.
Fixed an issue in which the Write and Publish Research Paper interaction would disappear from the options if it was cancelled midway. I mean, I understand rage quitting something but not to the point of my options to do it disappearing...amirite?
Fixed an issue with yfBody_EP08DressParty_SolidPurple in which pendant necklaces were not able to be seen if this asset was worn by Sims.
Fixed an issue that could make the Soccer interaction Study Plays with drop out from the interaction queue.
Corrected Final Exam Requirements for Elective Courses to say that for studying they need to do so on Computers or Research Machines.
To anyone who may have noticed the tiny head effect in the thumbnails if you wore the Dragon or the Lobster mascot costume without their hats, that issue has been fixed.
Humanoid Robots will no longer be able to have Traits or Aspirations modified in Create a Sim. You are a real Sim to me Robot friend, you are to me.
If a Sim already knows about the Secret Society, is it still a secret? Time will tell.
Outdoor Retreat
Herbalism recipes can now work while Off-The-Grid, however only on Off-The-Grid supported stoves.
Dine Out
Random NPCs will not leave Hamburgers on tables at restaurants anymore. As much as we like to receive free food, we don’t think it is proper to get them randomly from a stranger.
Vampires
Vampire Sims working on the Master Vampire Aspiration will no longer have the task “Survive for an Additional 20 Days as a Vampire” reset after traveling.
Vampire Sims with Full Sun Resistance are now able to properly tend to gardens and not tend to plants one at a time.
Fixed an issue in which you could set the Registered Vampire Lair Lot Trait for Venues.
Vampire child ears can now be changed after being aged-down from adult Dark Form.
The Rustic Candle Chandelier now has flame effects on the candles.
Jungle Adventure
Fans/Stans will no longer follow their adored celebrity into the jungles of Selvadorada.
Realm Of Magic
Spellcasters have regained access to Styled Looks.
Fixed an issue in which a Tank Top belonging to this pack was not categorized correctly in Create a Sim.
Hot Tubs that have been upgraded to unbreakable will no longer be broken upon performing the Zipzap Spell.
A Spellcaster is never not in vogue, but it’s always nice to have options.
Moschino
We fixed an issue in which some hotkeys in Photo Mode (particularly E and Q) were not working.
After popular demand, the Libearian bookend will now cost Simoleons. Nothing’s for free, nothing’s for freeee... take it away!
Tiny Living
Murphy beds will now be more resilient after first use. Warranty terms pending.
Fixed an issue in which Game Consoles were not usable with the all in one entertainment systems.
Fixed an issue in which Hair Styles from this pack appeared with their color swatches out of order in Create a Sim.
Fixed an issue in which Sims could not Put Bed Up their Murphy Beds after WooHoo.
We have also adjusted their pricing and comfort levels, bang for your buck!
Now the “Media Marathoner All on the Wall” will be actually the Media Marathoner All on the Wall.
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I have 20 minutes before I have to feed the cat and get started on these courses that finally allowed me access, so let’s take a moment to talk about my good friend Thracia 776.
I made it through Chapter 5, and got both sidequest chapters along the way. So that’s fun. I decided to play on Paragon mode, because I don’t give a shit about challenge, I’m here to try and enjoy the experience for a game whose story I actually really like.
Currently, Leif is doing pretty well, mostly seems to do great with strength and speed, but his skill is bad and I don’t think he’s gained any build so that’s fun. I think Macha’s been the most unprecedented hero so far. She’s had two 6 point levels. That’s really good. Brighton’s had mostly 1 point levels so he’s not doing so hot. Asbel seems super magic screwed, he still only has like 4 magic at level 7. Not looking forward to that long-term. Tanya actually got some fantastic levels too, including a lot of extra strength, so I’ll be doing my damnedest to get her back.
Chapters 1-3 remain pretty enjoyable. Moreso now that I understand capturing as a mechanic and how to do that effectively. A big issue before was not knowing how to set up a good capture, but now that I’m in the swing of it...I kinda like this feature? Like it’s kinda cool. Only kinda, though. And the “only kinda” part kicks in as soon as you hit Chapter 4, where everything starts breaking down, but I’ll get to that.
I’m currently playing with the Lil Munster patch, which also allows me to see the hidden skills for units. Such as Miracle+ on Eyvel, which just literally prevents her from ever dying. I did not know that was a thing, and let me tell you, everything going on with Chapter 5′s pitfighters is suddenly a lot less bullshit. Yes, you can argue all you want that it increases the tension when you don’t know it’s there, but also fuck that.
Chapter 4 is really where I think I’m going to start complaining. Which is funny because on a second playthrough? This is actually a pretty fun chapter. You know, mostly. Facilitating the escape of the civilians was pretty simple and fun, and it honestly helped out Karin the most, since she wasn’t particularly threatened by a guard holding a captive. I was also pleasantly surprised at how engaging that map managed to be in terms of just...gathering Vulneraries. Like, looking at it, I expected a disaster, but judicious use of the thieves and maybe a capture here and there actually nets you enough to equip everyone with a full vulnerary.
Until the trouble. Let me be frank: I am always one for soft resetting when a character dies, and I’m trying to break myself of that particular habit a bit. It’s not that I want to not care about characters, so much as recognizing that some characters I don’t give a shit about so why reset everyone else for them? I play a quick run of Shadow Dragon before this, and just let people die, and honestly it was a lot more engaging when you’re not resetting for stupid things. But there was one unit who causes two of the three resets, because I couldn’t afford to lose him. Julian. I couldn’t just lose the thief and that utility. Resets occur not because of character love, but because you cannot give up the utility presented.
I feel like that’s part of early Thracia’s problem. Chapters 1-3, it’s pretty easy to keep everyone alive, especially with Eyvel being actually invincible, and having three super units in Eyvel, Dagdar, and Finn. If you got the Vouge and the Brave Axe, Osian and Halvan are actually ridiculous too. But once you hit Chapter 4, things feel like they change to a level that’s a bit absurd? If you didn’t successfully set up recruitment of Dalsin, I kinda feel like Chapter 4 and 4x are just impossible. The only way to damage these armor knights are Leif’s Light Brand at range, and Dalsin’s axe. Pretty much everyone else is dealing about 2 damage, and hoping for a crit, with none of them having the B-rank swords to make use of Armorslayer. So the chokepoint strategy to the north feels decisively impossible because of how much damage you take, how little you deal in response, and how hard it is to actually break through and take out the mages when their numbers dwindle. Not to mention one less unit means you have less defense against the soldier reinforcements, and it’s that much harder to protect your thieves. Which, actually, speaking of: Thieves plural. Which requires you actually got Lithis. You probably did, his condition is super easy to achieve. But. My recollection is that the original version of this game didn’t give you little icons to tell you when people could talk to one another. So unless you just figured out that Leif can talk to Eyvel (but not the other way around, that’s too much), you’d miss the hint about “Just catch him and hold onto him.” At which point I feel it is fair to say people might release him after taking his stuff. And then you only have one thief. Which is. Not great. And slows down that prison escape significantly.
Then there’s 4x, where you really need 4 strong frontliners to block off attacks, and if you don’t have Dalsin I honestly feel like you’re just hosed, both in terms of taking too much damage, and having too few units to deal with the mages. I’m not going to say it’s impossible to deal with, but for a putz like me it feels pretty impossible without the big tank man on deck.
Then there’s the issue of capturing. Capturing only works if your build is higher than the opponent. If you have a lower build, you can’t capture anyone. Which is all well and good when you have four chunky axe bros and a cav on your side. Then you can capture just about anything, especially with Tanya and Ronan giving you some nice chip damage to set up those easy captures. But Chapter 4-5, you really don’t have many options. Brighton is consistently able to capture, but Fergus isn’t. 8 build isn’t bad, but it’s not enough to capture one of the soldiers and take their vulneraries. So if you didn’t get Dalsin, you have one guy who can consistently capture people. One. The thieves can steal, but Lara’s build is so low she basically can’t steal anything heavier than a vulnerary or door key, and she’s got 14HP so good luck leaving her in range of anything. So like. That’s fun.
Point being, some of these challenges feel distinctly impossible without save states as a result. I think the biggest offender was admittedly an optional one: the two Loptyr mages in front of the chests in Chapter 5. Man, those guys are fucked. Tremendous damage output, poison, and had an absurdly high crit rate that would one-shot anyone if it hit. I think Leif was able to deny the crits with Light Brand but I’m honestly not sure. The fact you had to deal with two of them, or risk Leif having to chip them 3 damage at a time at range, was kind of a problem. That’s the kind of thing where I don’t really know how you’re supposed to manage that, and save states feel incredibly necessary if you’re going to stand a chance. Granted, this is optional, you can escape and just leave those chests. But this isn’t the only situation I can think of where the game just plays stupid, and usually the stupid is with mages, because magic is resistance and no one has any. Except Karin, who is delightfully too weak to actually KO a mage in response. So that helps. Situations across Chapters 4-5 have been difficult, because of the presence of magical hits that can 2-shot people if they connect, and a lot of situations feel like you’re desperately hoping for a particular attack to connect so you don’t start losing people left and right. And then the attack misses anyway because 100% accuracy doesn’t exist, and whoops now you’re gone.
Despite that, I’m still enjoying this more than my first time through. Maybe it’s familiarity with the game and its mechanics, but I do feel like being able to clear Chapter 4 without screaming is a good indicator that maybe it’s not as bad as I remembered. We’ll see though, there’s much worse to come.
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Allen Rambles about Code of Brawl
Man... remind me to never talk about having a future Rambling in the works, it’ll instantly fall into draft-hell. But anyway, I’ve been meaning to talk about Arknights in depth for a while now, but I’ve never had much drive to actually finish the damn draft of my initial thoughts a few months ago. I couldn’t tell you why, I just lost the drive to finish the thing. However, with Code of Brawl coming to a close and my thoughts on the event still lingering I think I can use it as jumping off point to actually talk about the game.
That said, here’s the synopsis.
Arknights is a Tower Defense game for the PC mobile devices placed in the world of Terra, where an infectious disease known as Oripathy ravages the land, slowly turning people to minerals in a slow and painful process. You play as the Doctor, an amnesiac military commander of the Rhodes Island pharmaceutical company who fights against the Infected radicals known as the Reunion.
That’s about as far as I can go in a single paragraph for main story, but Code of Brawl instead focuses on the eccentric adventures of Pengiun Logistics, side faction of the game that’s a seemingly innocent delivery company with quite the ragtag group in it, consisting of the happy-go-lucky gunner Exusiai, the cold and dismissive swordswoman Texas, the excitable and energetic Sora, and the business-savvy Croissant. All led by the charismatic and multi-talented Emperor. However, as their new intern Bison comes into the fold the group is caught in a series of gang wars and organized crime trying to snuff out the company.
And unlike Fire Emblem Three Houses, that really is the basic plot without me sarcastically building anything up. With that all said, I think I can move on and talk about...
The Story
The story of Code of Brawl honestly has the best and worst of Arknights writing. I think having a story that focused on a group outside of Rhodes Island was for the better. For all the lore blurbs and archive notes we get, I think Code of Brawl proves just how little Rhodes Island is involved with the world of Terra at large despite it’s apparent reputation as a weird and quirky company with some terrifyingly powerful Operators and lofty ambitions. And while I’m still only on Chapter 4 since I’m grinding out some E2 before moving on, Rhodes Island really does more reacting to random Reunion plans than anything proactive with their goals of curing Oripathy. They feel more like a counter military force to Reunion, and a barely effective on at that given the point of the story I’m at. Code of Brawl, being focused on another group with a more direct conflict and villains, feels a lot more cohesive and interesting, as Penguin Logistics’s goal is to just get Bison through his first day and take out whatever force is harassing them this week.
Penguin Logistics as a whole is a rather interesting bunch of ruffians and seeing them is gallivant around Lungmen trading blows and bullets with gangsters is a joy to read and see. Seeing some of the inner workings of Lungmen society, seeing a bit of the underbelly, as well as getting to see the cast just have more casual interactions with each other is great. We learn that Sora really is just gay for Texas, and the all of Penguin Logistics has only 3 function braincells with Texas having one and Mostima having the other two. We get to see that Sora has probably beaten someone to death with her microphone at some point given how willing she is to bar fight. A lot of fun stuff.
And then... there’s Mostima.
Look, I like this story, I really do, but Mostima really didn’t need to be here as far as the story is concerned. All she does plot-wise is rile up Exusiai, drop some cryptic advice for Bison, shows she knows more powerful than she leads on, and is a bit of a deus ex machina for the end of the plot, and not even by that much. You could had replaced her with Chen, Swire, Hoshigumi, ShiraYuki, or anyone else that would logically be in Lungmen at the time. Hell, ShiraYuki knowing everything a being cryptic about it would at least be in character for her.
And that’s not to knock Mostima. I actually pulled her in my last ten-pull (didn’t get Waii Fu though, and I’m still salty about that), she’s a pretty good and damn near god-tier once you get her to E2 if some of the guides on her are to be believed, though her kit is a little niche for an AoE caster of her cost. However, as far as the story is concerned she shows a serious issue with Arknights as a whole. That’s its constant need to have half of their characters be mysterious.
Mysterious Characters
So, just to give an example, here is a list of characters in Arknights with a Mysterious Past™. These are characters that either have their archive notes explicitly state their past is unknown, or characters who’s past is implied but but deliberately kept unconfirmed.
With that said...
Mostima
Myrtle
Cuora
Skadi
Specter
Shining
Siege
Projekt Red
Specter
Blue Poison
Lappland
Texas (?)
ShiraYuki
AMIYA
Okay, I’m cheating a little with Texas since she has enough of her past implied, but it’s still technically a mystery as far as the specifics go. But you see my point, right? A lot of characters have a Mysterious Past™, which is a nice shorthand to not go into depth about writing their background. Now, you don’t need to give twenty paragraphs on their backstory, but something would be nice. Keeping things a mystery might be nice for the theory-crafters, but for me it’s annoy as hell to see so many character, so many high-rated that really just have their skills and design to go off of, especially with most the cast overall having a pretty simple background to them that are interesting when you read through the lore blurbs and think about it. Breeze is a former noble that wanted to do more good in the world than throwing money at a problem. Liskarm is a protective friend that joined Rhodes Island to make sure the problematic Franka integrated without problems. Frostleaf is a child soldier that wants to do some good in the world after becoming Infected. Kroos, Beagle, and Fang joined Rhodes Island after getting kicked out of their old jobs. You don’t need to be flashy, but giving answers isn’t an admission of lacking creativity. The hints might be nice for the analysts, but the fans would likely want some answers.
Again, Mostima isn’t a problem, and a lot characters in that list do have some concrete hints about their past. Texas and Lappland are likely a former mafia heiresses and old rivals. Shining was likely a highly skilled mercenary before realizing she could do more good in the world with a healing staff instead of a sword. Siege is likely apart of Londinium royalty, but was either exiled or ran due to political turmoil. But that’s the issue, likely isn’t confirmed. Mostima being a powerful character with a mysterious past just feels like a cop out to me. It’s not bad, but she’s a symptom of what some of the issues of Arknights story is. I’m not asking for AFK Arena-levels of lore, just... an explanation here or there would be nice.
But anyway that’s my main issue, moving on.
General Gushing
Despite that large critique I have, there’s a lot I love about this story. For simplicity sake, because I’m tired of all the editing, I’ll put it into list form:
Penguin Logistics in general was just a joy to see. Watching them in action and just how laissez-faire they are is hilarious, especially when paired with the straightforward and reserved Bison freaking out over the wackiness.
Speaking of, Bison made for a very good straight man to balance out all the wild antics of PL. He really kept things from getting too crazy by at least questioning the zaniness, and the point when he finally stops caring and just charges in with a crazy plan of his own just gave me the giddiest of smiles.
Given how they discuss it, PL apparently trade blows with criminals and thugs on a daily basis, and since they’re just a delivery company this implies they likely deliver drugs or other hot cargo the mafia and gangs want... and given Emperor’s personality, that wouldn’t shock me.
Emperor in general is a delight of a character. He’s about as charismatic and wild as his aesthetic makes him look. I would legit whale for him if he ever become an operator.
Learning a little bit about Lungmen culture was fun as well, as little of it as we see. It’s my personal headcanon now that the mafia and general thugs of Lungmen don’t mess with civilians because they’re either a sleeper agent under the Rat King’s protection or they might be a kung fu master in plain clothes like Waai Fu.
Waai Fu and Texas fist fighting in the streets of Lungmen is just hilarious and awesome. I honestly don’t know what that says about either of them. Texas is holding her own against a martial artist with over 10 years of experience barehanded, meanwhile Waai Fu is holding her own against what lore blurbs have implied is the former heiress/hitman of a mafia. All the while drunkards and Texas’s coworkers are egging them on. This is the dumb content I live for.
Save for some of the absolute bullshit of the challenge maps, I found the actual game content to be pretty fair and interesting. The Bullies required good defender placement, a lot of the ranged units focused on targeting the helpful buildings that buffed your characters and increased the operator deployment count, and maps themselves had a few clever chokepoints to work with... At least until they started spamming Fanatics.
Bison actually has a pretty solid kit for a free Operator. He buffs a lot of adjacent units, has a no real weakness, his tools don’t feel niche like Grani or Celycon, overall a great unit. Once I finish E2-ing all my main Operators I might build him next.
While I have issues with her as a story element, Mostima is a 6-star that has instant utility once you promote her to E2, much like Chen and Siege. This is something I’m relieved to say as a lot of my 6-stars aren’t worth much until you E2 them and I’m still trying to E2 some of my easier units like Cuora and Gavial for Chapter 5 and CC.
That’s really all I have to say on that front. So to close things off...
For the Future
Like I always say in these Ramblings, I don’t like the idea of people prattling on about being able to “fix” or “rewrite” something has already been made. It always comes across as both arrogant and ignorant to me. However, I think it’s completely fair to make requests and suggestions for the future. ‘
That said, I'd like to continue seeing side stories without Rhodes Island’s involvement. Both to see other factions in their natural element and because, frankly, Rhodes Island always feels a little out of place when involved in other stories, or at least more of a distraction than a good element if chapter 2 and 3 are anything to go by. I think a Black Steel side story would be nice. Jessica, Franka, Liskarm, and Vanille getting into shenanigans in Columbia or something sounds like a fun time. Maybe have the leader/high commander of the organization as a new operator and they’re a really powerful Supporter than can buff the party, like a 6-star version of Sora or something that gives operators insane ASPD buffs... I don’t know, something like that anyway. Ideally something a little less wordy than Code of Brawl at least.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say. Next time... I’ll talk about something else. Maybe discuss a manga or something.
See you all later.
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Hello! I hate to bother you but if you don’t mind, could you possible show one of your outlines? Like maybe Fur a Good Time, call... since it wouldn’t be spoiling anything by showing? If you still have it! I just have a really hard time making outlines, and I’d love to see your process on it. Only if it’s not a bother ^^ I hope you have a great week!
Yeah, sure, I could do that!
Forewarning, I didn’t really do any outlining before Chapter 4, so that’s where it starts, and the basic, bare-bones version I have of it was back when I thought there would only be 10 total chapters instead of 15…
Also, it very much is the bare-bones version, right before I write each chapter, I usually try to map that particular segment out with even more detail, so each chunk of this later got expanded into something more intricate. Those are usually a lot longer and include actual bits of dialogue sometimes ‘cause y’know…if I’m outlining it and hearing the perfect dialogue in my head, I gotta write that down so I don’t lose it! Sometimes gets tweaked, but very helpful during the Actual Writing part…
ANYWAY.
I’ll put the rest of this under the cut, but I’ll give you the full bare-bones FGTC outline, and then the (very long) detailed outline of Chapter 4!
Ch 4 - more Papyrus, dinner at theskeleton house, Sans is a cat person, more friendship, road trip/beach episode,okay whoops more than a crush
Ch 5 - The Breakdown, confess your Sans, the bigI care about you
Ch 6 - Papyrus hangout, character development,more Underground backstory, encouraging you to go for it with Sans
Ch 7 - self-deprecation, look I know I don’thave much to offer somebody like you but— cut off because are you serious? Youdon’t really think that do you? You’re so special and important to Sans, youmake him feel like just a person again for the first time in a long time, bothlean in…kiss meets nuzzle, haha no lips sorry? No, it’s nice, I like it,giggly, cuddly couch makeout until Papyrus comes home, FINALLY!!! Now moveover, my soap opera is on. Sans stuffs a pillow in his rib cage to try and getyou to come lay on him and it’s so sweet, how could you say no?
Ch 8 – dating fluff, bed sharing,some stargazing, the schmoopiest schmoop to ever schmoop
Ch 9 - after some time dating, Sans wants totake a big monster step, he wants to share souls with you, it’s super intimate,it’ll be basically no secrets, no important ones anyway, so you don’t have toif you’re not ready…but you are. Sans entire life story/POV up until now. Howmuch did you see? everything. i love you. I love you too! Dog person but catsare really cute line
Ch 10 - epilogue, Papyrus’ graduation, Undyneis allowed to attend with guards, she is solemn and aloof with you but concedesit looks like you’ve been good to these skeletons and you’d better keep it up.Cherish them! Not even a little bit of a problem, they’re practically family.Nod of approval before she’s led away. Papyrus nudges you to go find Sans, hedisappeared when Undyne came over and he PROMISED Papyrus a very specificgraduation present. You find him outside with Buddy and mention Papyrus’present— which turns out to be a bit of a present for you, actually. See, Sansfound a REALLY cool rock that he’s been meaning to give you, he just wasn’tsure when was the right time, human customs are so weird. He shows you a glowingcrystal, from the Waterfall ceiling, rambles a little about stars and wishesand penguins and oh, wait, I’m supposed to be on one knee for this, right? He’sproposing and you say yes without hesitation. You’ve got a skeleton fiancé, abest friend/soon-to-be brother-in-law, and a very good boy: it’s not a bigfamily, but your life feels as full as it’s ever been and you couldn’t behappier.
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Thinking of a guest gift(s) –> because hanging out with Papyrus/Buddy & it comes out that you eat mostlygarbage and No Way, Not My Cool Friend! You’re Coming Over For Dinner!
You get a succulent and a rock paperweight (Nothing IsCarved In Stone) and head over
You’re early, Papyrus welcomes you at the door, Buddy’sjazzed to see you, Sans is asleep on the couch but snrks awake when Papyrussays your name
“Sweet dreams?” “nah I don’t dream, whatcha got there?”
The gifts go over GREAT! …and the sight of Sans holding hismakes you remember…
“Oh hey, Papyrus, what can you tell me about Rocky?”
“Oh My God, I Should’ve Known That Would Come Up, Listen, IAssure You, You Have Nothing To Be Worried About! Buddy Is Being Very WellTaken Care Of Here, *I* Am In Charge Of His Mealtimes, And He’s Never AllowedOutside Without A Leash Or In-Yard Supervision, There Will NOT Be A Repeat OfRocky!”
Papyrus goes off to squirrel his gift away somewhere heknows it’ll get good light.
…. OH MY GOD. Sans loses it, even as he pockets his newrock. ROCKY IS REAL??? “I told you he was, you gotta start trustin me more,jeez”
You take your mind off it by fawning over Buddy a littlebit, “hey I’m here too y’know,” “What, you want a belly rub, too? Ear scratch?”“that’d be a neat trick, lemme know if you figure out how to pull that off,”“pass,” “ouch”
Brief small-talk, you both just saw each other at work, notmuch new has come up, but Sans tells you Papyrus has been looking forward tothis all week, thanks for coming, “Of course, like I’m gonna turn down dinnerat my three best friends’ place?”
Oh look, you made Sans blush again. God that’s adorable, heneeds to quit doing that, it’s really not helping that crush you’re trying torepress
Papyrus returns! And he admires and compliments yourearliness but dinner isn’t quite ready yet, would you like to help? You’re notobligated, of course! He only asks because he knows sitting around waitingdrives him crazy as a guest and he wants you to have the best guest-experiencepossible!
You agree with the warning that you’re nowhere near a chefbut if an extra pair of hands would be helpful, you’re his set of ‘em!
Sans flops back onto the couch, practically curled into aloaf-shape, “okay cool lemme know when you’re done,” god what a cat-person
You follow Papyrus into the kitchen where it looks like he’smaking pasta! A pretty easy dish that even you can help with, you ask him whathe’d like for you to do, he wants you to watch the noodles and stiroccasionally, he’s going to throw together the salad—made of veggies from hisown garden!
You alternate watching the noodles and Papyrus. Sans hadsaid Papyrus didn’t cook too often lately, you mention that you’re honored he’sdoing it on your account, but of course Papyrus is going to cook for you! It’sa very important step in friendship building!
Papyrus admits the reason he doesn’t do it much anymore isthat he has, “…Well, The Word My Therapist Used Was ‘Trigger,’ Is That A WordThat’s Used Outside Of Therapy As Well?”
It is.
Well Papyrus has some triggers that seem to bekitchen-related, so he avoids the situation as a whole for the sake of hismental health
You’re concerned that he might be risking said health justto make dinner for you, but he promises that this sort of meal is safe, he’snever had a reaction to vegetables or pasta, which is great because pasta ishis signature dish!
(By process of elimination, you realize it’s probably rawmeat that triggers Papyrus. You don’t need to ask why and you don’t intend to.)
Papyrus doesn’t allow for any awkward silence and tells youhe used to make spaghetti all the time when he was first trying to pick up someculinary skills, he knows it was probably not great but he kept making itanyway. Cooking Underground could be a lot of trial and error (the Undernetdidn’t have much in the way of recipe blogs, you see, it was much betterutilized as a social media platform), so if you wanted to get good at makingsomething you had to practice and get opinions—the only problem was he couldhardly ever find anyone to taste-test for him and Sans was useless, Papyrus hasseen him eat mayonnaise out of the jar, his taste is questionable in theextreme!
You laugh about Sans being disgusting as Papyrus finishes upthe salad and you notice that the noodles seem ready, so Papyrus takes over foryou—since he doesn’t have any of that fragile skin to get scalded by hot water!
Your mind is going though and as you watch him drain thespaghetti you’re thinking about what Pap said about his therapist. It’s gottenyou wondering—Sans doesn’t work every day at the shelter, is that where he goeson the other days? To see a therapist?
You ask about it, gently and leaving Papyrus room not toanswer if he doesn’t want to, you’re just curious, but Papyrus tells you no,Sans doesn’t attend any kind of therapy
Oh. That…sits badly with you. He’s a grown skeleton and youespecially have no authority to tell him what he should or shouldn’t do, but…you saw the news reports. The pictures of what monsters looked like, fresh outof the Underground. It was BAD, for all of them, the fact that Sans isn’tgetting counselling too just feels…not right.
You’re not sure how to express your thoughts withoutsounding pushy or like you’re trying to say you know what’s best for them, soyou decide you probably shouldn’t say anything
Papyrus is too sharp for you, though. “No, I Agree, I WouldLove For Him To See A Therapist, Too. It’s Really Helped Me, It Would Be NiceIf He Could…. But Also…He Has His Reasons For Not Going. I Thought He Was BeingStubborn At First, But His Reasons Are Actually Good Ones. …Would You BeSatisfied If I Told You It Was Private?”
“Of course!”
“Then The Reasons Are Private. But Don’t Worry Too MuchAbout Sans, He’s Almost As Tough As I Am! He’s Been A Lot Better Lately, EvenJust On His Own. Besides, He Has At Least Two Very Cool People Looking Out ForHim If He Needs It!”
That really does make you feel better. You share a moment ofsolidarity with Papyrus before you help him bring the food and dishes to thetable
Papyrus wakes Sans up by kicking the edge of the couch andyelling, “Sans, You Lazybones, Wake Up! Your Friend Is Over For The Very FirstTime And You’re Going To Spend It Snoring On The Couch?”
“nah, I can snore at the table, I’m versatile”
“You’re Impossible, Is What You Are, You Bipedal Snail!”
The bickering is a little jarring from how gentle andconcerned Papyrus was for Sans just a few minutes ago, but the affection inboth moments is obvious enough if you look for it. Little brothers, you thinkwith amusement.
Sans makes eye-contact with you and you feel like he’sprobably thinking the same thing. You share a smile and he shrugs and you allhead to the table for a delicious meal (Papyrus sets Buddy a place at the tabletoo, Buddy hops up into a chair and starts chowing down on his kibble, oh mygod that’s adorable, he eats with the family
At some point, Papyrus talks a bit about his job and thesubject of vacation time comes up—a coworker of his mentioned that she wasactually operating on NEGATIVE time-off and he really feels like that’s a thingthat doesn’t make sense
It’s weird to you too, the last vacation you had was, well,that week your boss MADE you take off, right when Sans had started
This is the first Sans is hearing of that story, “wait, sheMADE you go on vacation? like she told you you HAD to stay home for a week? ohmy god, that’s hilarious, that’s so you”
You can see the humor in the situation and laugh at yourselfa little, while Papyrus says they HE would NEVER take a vacation!
Wait, really? Never?
Not for ANY reason!
Sans chuckles. “you’re so intense, bro, it’s awesome.”
“…Well, now, I want to MAKE you go on vacation,” you admit.You recognize the hypocrisy—you certainly never really wanted to take time offwhen you had so much you felt you needed to do—but you feel like theseskeletons DESERVE a break or a trip or something. Sans especially, but youcould’ve guessed within a day of (really, actually) knowing Sans that he’dnever go anywhere if his brother wasn’t on board. “Isn’t there someplace you’dwant to go? Just to visit? Anywhere at all?”
“None Come To Mind! And I Certainly Wouldn’t Want To RequestTime Off For It!”
The beginnings of an idea start to hatch in your brain.
“You don’t work weekends, do you?”
“No!” Papyrus declares petulantly. “They Wouldn’t LET Me.And I Don’t Have Any Classes Either, Weekends Are The Worst! There’s Only SoMany Weeds I Can Pull In The Garden Until There Aren’t Any More Weeds To Pull,And The Best Soap Operas Are Only During The Week, Which Is Prejudiced Somehow,I’m Sure!”
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…And I guess that’s where I stopped outlining and started winging it again, and clearly there’s some bits I changed, added in more stuff, got rid of others because that’s just how it worked out as I was writing but obviously, y’know, that’s a pretty solid base to work off of. Once it’s this detailed, it’s still technically an outline but it’s not quite so much work to go from that to the finished product?
It’s like… instead of Brain –> Finished Chapter, it’s more like Brain –> base outline –> detailed outline –> Finished Chapter, and the steps in between really help me build up to it. Not as much pressure as flying blind like, “HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE BY THE TIME I’M DONE ‘CAUSE IDK WHERE I’M GOING,” if that makes sense? XD
Anyway, I hope this is helpful– or at the very least, interesting for you! ^^
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Taking Chakra Nature to 11: some headcanons
Buckle up because it’s gonna be a long ride.
So one of the things that makes Naruto so attractive as a fandom (as opposed to as a franchise) is that there’s all this tantalizing potential that was never realized, just waiting for someone to pick it up and expand on it. In particular, some writers are worldbuilders by nature and some are just not. (Tolkien would be an example of a extremely worldbuilding-focused writer.) Kishimoto is in the “just not” category.
Chakra nature is a great example of a part of the Naruto world that could be taken up to eleven. Why? Well, there’s the good old “why not” reason, which is sufficient in itself, but also, people just love categorization. There’s a reason why people always want to sort themselves for Hogwarts houses, endlessly prattle about zodiac signs, and why the Naruto databooks include bloodtype. But they don’t! Include! Chakra nature!!!!
That’s frankly ludicrous. The chakra natures in the corner merely indicate which chakra natures that person can utilize, not which is their own nature; this isn’t very helpful because some people like Kakashi can use all five. Moreover, one of the very major characters of the franchise--the anti-hero, Sasuke--is shown to be fire natured yet to largely prefer lightning techniques, making it clear that chakra nature is not 1-to-1 correlated with someone’s most frequent jutsu.
And it’s not like Kishimoto would have had to do a huge amount of work coming up with chakra nature connections to personality and society, because these five elements already exist as a powerful Japanese cultural concept.
He simply needed to connect that to the Naruto world and its characters.
But I guess I need to do all the work around here! :3c
Regarding kekkei genkai--I headcanon that even people with kekkei genkai have a primary nature, but you could also combine two natures instead.
Earth Nature (Earth, Dirt, Stone) 地 and 土
Examples of Canon Characters: ??? (I don’t think we’re ever explicitly told that a character is earth nature, although many characters use earth release)
Examples of Headcanon Characters: Haruno Sakura, Oonoki, Deidara, Suigetsu, Sasori
Personality Traits (not all found in each person obviously): Stable, stubborn, inflexible, endurance, short-tempered, wise, reliable, responsible, sense of perspective, patient, centred, literal
Common Body Types: Mesomorphic (muscular); may be lean or broad; shorter than average (closer to hell); blunt fingers (but often surprisingly deft and precise)
Climate Interactions: Earth natured people tolerate both heat and cold pretty well. When it’s cold they dress warmly and when it’s hot they dress for that too. Sensible.
Japanese symbol: square; Naruto uses the kanji 土 rather than 地 for some reason; they both mean earth and the differences are too subtle to go into briefly
Why does earth dominate water/water enhance earth? Earth stops the flow of water and can control its shape. Water can imbue earth with more weight and power, including fertile power.
What does this mean for the Land of Earth? “That’s the way we’re going to do it. We’ve always done it that way.” The Land of Earth in my headcanon was the last and slowest great nation to centralize/organize, however, slow and steady may win the race as it has had very little internal conflict.
Other Notes: Earth nature? In my Sakura? It’s more likely than you think.
Kakashi did the chakra nature test when Sakura wasn’t around and then, as far as we can tell, never even bothered to find out what hers was???? LOLsob. Tertiary materials like games usually make Sakura water natured, but I prefer earth nature for her. She definitely can use earth jutsu. Her personality, strengths and flaws, seems to fall along earth lines rather than water lines. In addition, I just like the balance of Team 7 when Sasuke and Naruto are fire-wind and Sakura is across the circle at earth; most of my headcanon teams follow that kind of pattern.
“Okay, but Suigetsu? Earth nature? Now you’re just fucking with us.” Not at all; I’m going after one of Kishimoto’s own weird choice to constantly remind us that Suigetsu is weak to lightning. Now I’m sure that Kishimoto just meant “if lightning strikes water you’re in for a bad time” and nothing deeper than that, but in the five elements pattern of domination, it’s earth that is weak against lightning jutsu.
There’s no reason Suigetsu can’t be an earth natured person who specializes in water jutsu, anymore than Sasuke’s fire nature stops him from specializing in electric jutsu. Perhaps, and this is all headcanon but it’s fun so just try and stop me, it is Suigetsu’s earth chakra nature that helps keep his body from completely falling apart and dissipating while he’s performing his unique ability to turn into water?
Water Nature 水
Examples of Canon Characters: Tobirama
Examples of Headcanon Characters: Sai, Kisame, Hashirama, Kabuto,
Personality Traits: Adaptable, flexible, progressive, curious, reactive, emotional, mutable, gullible, empathic, unstable, resilient, morose, sensitive
Common Body Types: Endomorphic (soft, higher in body fat); taller than average; long-limbed with flexible joints; larger hands and feet with tapered digits
Climate Interactions: Poor water nature people. They hate heat. They hate cold. They hate humidity. They hate super dry environments. Basically, they are volatile and easily bothered by all kinds of things, including temperature and climate.
Japanese symbol: Circle
Why does water dominate fire/fire enhance water? Water douses flame, obviously. Fire can turn water into steam, expanding its range and potential.
What does this mean for the Land of Water? Oh my God, is the Land of Water ever volatile in canon! This can be bad obviously (hello, kekkei genkai genocide) but it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. The Land of Water went within about a dozen years from mass genocide of kekkei genkai to having a leader with two kekkei genkai (the criminally underused Terumi Mei). There’s no inertia here. You can’t ever relax, but you can potentially really change things, including people’s hearts and minds.
Other Notes: none at the moment
Fire Nature 火
Examples of Canon Characters: Sasuke, Madara, Itachi, Obito, THE UCHIHA
Examples of Headcanon Characters: Tsunade, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Hiruzen (aka gee I wonder if drama will happen here); Guy
Personality Traits: Passionate, reforming, self-righteous, ambitious, driven, creative, focused, confident, fragile, extreme, energetic, motivated, tenacious, greedy, proud, idealistic, resentful
Common Body Types: Ectomorphic (lean); high metabolism; average height; great skin and hair (because of their great circulation); either super healthy or near death, no in-between
Climate Interactions: Fire people are always hot. They are the people who wear shorts all year round and start a revolution with their tiddies out (yes I’m looking at you Sasuke). They are not particularly bothered by external weather.
Japanese symbol: Triangle
Why does fire dominate wind/wind enhance fire? Fire consumes air and becomes stronger, like canon tells us.
What does this mean for the Land of Fire? I headcanon that because of its central location on the map and prosperity, the Land of Fire has the most diverse population in terms of chakra natures, so while fire nature is the majority there are still a larger number of other natures than most countries. (From a meta perspective, this also makes it more fun to write a Konoha-centric story.) However, the Will of Fire and Konoha’s idealism is a definite Big Mood and something that other nations notice.
Other Notes: I imagine that this element is most likely to be the chakra nature of those whose bloodline abilities are strongly connected with Yang Release.
Wind Nature (Wind, Air) 風
Examples of Canon Characters: Y’already know who it is!!! (blaring air horn) Oh and Asuma.
Examples of Headcanon Characters: Temari, Baki, Gaara, Chiyo
Personality Traits: Free-spirited, distractible, innovative, unorthodox, open, relaxed, compassionate, empathetic, benevolent, charitable, loving, evasive, passive-aggressive, impulsive, withdrawn, avoidant, penetrating
Common Body Types: Lean or muscular, average to short
Climate Interactions: Throw on a shirt, and then a sweatshirt over the shirt and a cloak around the sweatshirt because wind people are always cold. “Cold hands, warm heart” often applies to them. They like heat and aren’t bothered by humidity or dryness.
Japanese symbol: Crescent
Why does wind dominate lightning/lightning enhance wind? Well, it doesn’t, because lightning as an element makes no sense. But void, on the other hand, does. Void is a vacuum, and air rushes to fill a vacuum without itself being harmed by the vacuum.
What does this mean for the Land of Wind? Wind people have a lot of openness and caring but also voted Most Likely to Sulk for a Hundred Years When Things Go Wrong. The Land of Wind in canon appears to be the least naturally rich in the essentials of life (water, food, etc), and to have the most dickish daimyo, so it’s kind of unsurprising that the Wind leadership collectively got hella depressed after their one bad idea after another failed.
Other Notes: They say in canon that the wind chakra nature is “rare” but I’m headcanoning that this just means “rare in the Land of Fire”.
Lightning (Electricity, Void, Vacuum, Nothingness) 雷 or 空
Examples of Canon Characters: Kakashi
Examples of Headcanon Characters: Hinata, Neji, Shikamaru, Darui, Sakumo, Killer Bee
Personality Traits: Mysterious, thoughtful, reflective, fatalistic, imperturbable, spontaneous, quick, detached, aware, intuitive, selfless, passive, negative, wise, analytical, elegant, eccentric
Common Body Types: Most diversity in body type
Climate Interactions: The least bothered by external temperatures. Aware of them, but probably dresses however regardless.
Japanese symbol: Jewel-shape
Why does lightning dominate earth/earth enhance lightning? Again, it only makes sense if the element is void or vacuum. While air filling a vacuum is essentially unharmed, earth-y substances don’t handle decompression well. (Imagine if Lightning Release could be used for explosive decompression based jutsu... now that’s scary.)
What does this mean for the Land of Lightning? “We’re talking about the issues but we’re keeping it funky” is a line from Flight of the Conchords, but it is also how I imagine a culture that is majority Lightning-nature people best functioning.
Other Notes: none at the moment
All of the above is just some ideas to play with! And of course there’s the pondering about how chakra nature is passed on--is it genetic? Epigenetic (traits that can be switched on or off by environmental factors)? Do two people who have children together pass on the more dominant nature? Is that perhaps why Wind nature is rarest in the Land of Fire (because Fire and Wind parents will always pass on Fire)? What are the chakra nature patterns in the little countries?
Feel free to play with my ideas, expand, change them, whatever! No need for credit if you do.
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The Hunt Chapter 3
Story Summary: Its been thirteen years since Mabel helped Dipper defeat Bill. And five years since she last step foot in Gravity Falls or even seen her twin brother. Desperate for information and help, Mabel returns to Gravity Falls in hopes of finding her Grunkle Ford but instead, she finds Wendy Corduroy, the new sheriff of the strange town. Why did Mabel leave? What is Wendy hiding?
Chapter Title: Meeting Old Friends
Pairing: Mabel X Wendy
Coffee?
This morning, the sun didn’t try to stab at Mabel’s eyes as she awoke. She stretched as far as she could, her feet and hands bumping against the couch’s armrests. Mabel sat up and rubbed the remainder of sleep from her eyes. A bed would have been more comfortable but she couldn’t really complain. She slept in far worse places in her travels, many times fearing that she wouldn’t open her eyes again. Mabel looked at the clock hanging above the television set. 4:24 AM. She doubted Wendy was up by then and began her daily exercises. She went through her fifty situps and twenty pushups before leaving the house to jog for an hour. It wasn’t enough to build up too much muscle but it was suitable to make sure she stayed limber and strong. When she reentered the house, Mabel could hear movement from the other side of a closed door and assumed Wendy was up and about. She went into the house’s one bathroom and noticed the tub was wet from a recent shower. She got in the tub and took a relatively quick shower, she would have loved to take a nice long one but apparently Wendy loved hot water as there was very little left for Mabel.
Mabel was shivering by the time she got dressed and went into the kitchen. Wendy was there, sipping a cup of coffee, smiling apologetically when she saw Mabel’s cold state. “Sorry about that.” Wendy offered a cup of fresh coffee as a gift of peace. The younger woman accepted it with a scowl but as the liquid warmed her, she found herself becoming happier, despite of the plans she had for the day. Mabel finished the cup and set it in the sink. “I’m going out for a bit. Do you want anything while I’m gone?” The younger woman felt a little weird sleeping on Wendy’s couch and using her utilities rent-free. She could at the very least pick up some candy or soda for the sheriff.
Wendy drank the rest of her coffee and looked at Mabel. “Cool, I got the day off too so I’ll tag along.” She spoke with an expression that said she wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer. She was worried about Mabel and she wanted to make sure she was staying safe. A part of her, although she would deny it if someone asked her about it, was worried that Mabel might go after the magical creatures residing in the forests.
“Okay,” Mabel said, not putting up any resistance. She guessed that Wendy would want to come as well and figured that she would save the older woman the hassle of trailing her if she said no. At least, that’s what she would have done if she was in Wendy’s shoes. Mabel knew that the sheriff was perhaps a bit suspicious of Mabel’s feelings to the magical creatures of Gravity Falls after reading her journal. She fingered the hilt of her knife as she led the way to Wendy’s cop car. She got in the passenger seat and watched as Wendy called in sick. “Playing hookie? That’s illegal, Sheriff Corduroy,” Mabel teased.
“It’s only illegal if I get caught,” Wendy retorted, smirking as she pulled out of her driveway. “Besides, I’m the boss. Who’s gonna arrest me? Robbie?”
Mabel sat up straighter in her seat in shock. “Wait! Robbie’s a cop too?”
Wendy laughed and nodded. “Yep! He’s actually deputy now.” She glanced at Mabel and smiled at the expression of surprise still on her face. “He’s more of a pencil pusher though so don’t expect him to pull you over for speeding.” Wendy turned a right to go on the street that went through the forest. Soon, the smooth pavement became a dirt road and Wendy was careful that she didn’t push the car too much. She pulled over on the side of the road and made sure to grab a flashlight and a map in case they got lost but she wasn’t really worried about that possibility. She spent all her life in these woods and knew them like the back of her hand. “It’s about an half-hour walk to the statue,” Wendy informed Mabel. The older Pines twin simply nodded with a serious face. Wendy realized with a plummeting stomach that the old, playful Mabel was gone and deadly, hunter Mabel took her place.
The two walked in silence for most of the time. Wendy attempted to spark some conversation on how the magical creatures were faring but Mabel was too focused on scanning their surroundings, her eyes never staying on one place for long. Wendy sighed and stared straight ahead. There was nothing in these woods that would dare mess with them.
Wendy could tell they were getting close to Bill’s statue by the amount of noise. There was none. No squirrels rustling the leaves in the above canopies, no birds singing their songs, no random animal scurrying about the underbrush. There was simply their feet snapping dry twigs or disturbing the fallen leaves. “I don’t like this,” Wendy muttered, wishing she had brought along her axe. It wouldn’t be able to do much against the supernatural beings of Gravity Falls, much less Bill, but it would have comforted her.
The younger woman knew they were nearing the statue by her aches. Each scar that had come from her hunts burned with a higher intensity as the two walked through the woods. Her leg felt as if there were maggots feasting on her flesh and digging their way to the bone. She had cleaned the wound after her hangover a few days before but it felt like she did nothing to stop the maggots. Mabel grit her teeth and bared it as much as she could, regretting letting Wendy come with her. If she was alone, she could have rested but now she didn’t have that luxury. Maybe if they came across a creek, Mabel could use the excuse of getting water to halt their progress.
“There,” Mabel sighed, spotting the stone statue of the being that almost destroyed their universe. Her body was aflame from her old wounds, like the creatures were still attacking her. She grimaced at the dead grass encompassing Bill’s statue. It formed a perfect circle and Mabel half-expected it to be in the shape of a triangle. There was a skeleton of a small rodent, a mouse perhaps. From the looks of it, the poor creature only set the tiniest claw into the circle’s circumference. Mabel pointed it out to Wendy and the sheriff nodded in understanding. “Let’s get this over with,” the hunter said, pulling out the dagger she had held to Wendy’s throat just days prior.
Wendy gulped at the sight of the weapon, remembering the cool kiss it gave her. She could focus on it better now that it wasn’t threatening her life and noticed some runes carved into the steel. “What are those?”
Mabel glanced down at the markings with something of a bored expression. “These are symbols from different ancient civilizations.” She tapped the one closest to the hilt. “This is Nazar, or the Evil Eye, and like the others, it helps detect evil.” Mabel pointed the tip of the dagger to the statue. “The hotter this dagger feels, the more evil a creature is.” She carefully took a step forward and licking her lips, thrust the dagger into the circumference of the circle. Immediately, blue flame sprouted out of the steel and Mabel snatched it back towards her. The fire went out as soon as it was out of Bill’s range and Mabel laughed nervously. “That was close!”
“Um, yeah,” Wendy didn’t know what to make of the blue flames. The blade was glowing red from the fire and she didn’t want to know how Mabel was able to still hold it so casually. “Is, uh, that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“A good thing, ” Mabel answered, kneeling down to stab the knife into the soil. Tendrils of steam rose from the dagger as the damp soil cooled the blade. “A very good thing. The fact that it had such a violent reaction means that Bill is still trapped in the stone.” Mabel tugged the dagger from the ground and inspected the steel. It was cool enough to slip into the holster without it melting the leather.
“Is that all for today?” They hadn’t really done much but Wendy was more than willing to head back to the house to relax. Just being in the same vicinity as Bill, statue form or not, was enough to set her on edge. Wendy kept glancing back to the stone statue as if it would come alive at any moment. When she received no immediate answer, the sheriff felt dread. “What is it?”
“I want to visit Gideon,” Mabel admitted. “If Grunkle Ford isn’t here then he’s the next best thing.” She could tell that from the silence that she had stunned Wendy. She started to walk away from the site with Wendy following. With each step she could feel the pain leaving her body, except for the leg. Mabel would have to change the bandages soon again and her gut tightened uneasily at the prospect. “Do you know where he lives now?”
Wendy nodded, turning her head to give the Bill statue one last look before a tree obscured her view. “Yeah, but we’ll find him at that car dealership now. He became a partner in his father’s business and made a name for himself. Even people out of town come to see him and not for that psychic bullshit.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t demand full ownership,” Mabel laughed to hide the groan of pain. The foot of her injured leg hit against a hidden root and the jolt sent a wave of pain up her limb. She saw Gideon grow into a respectable man before she stopped coming to Gravity Falls but she knew that a lot can happen in five years. She’s a prime example.
The two exited the woods and got into the sheriff’s car. They drove to the once-shoddy dealership in good time. Mabel took the opportunity to massage her injured leg as discreetly as possible. It was getting a lot worse now, probably needing a visit to the hospital but she couldn’t afford it in time or money. Hunting wasn’t really profitable but at least the families tend to let her crash at their places while she took care of the monster tormenting them.
Mabel almost gasped at the sight of the cars lining the Gleeful’s car lot. She remembered them all being busted up and rusted but now their exteriors shined from care without a single scratch on it. There was even a sign on the windshields informing the customer of the possibility to test drive the car, something Bud Gleeful would have been too nervous to try before on the account that most of the cars he tried to sell were horrific. The two women exited their vehicle and Wendy led Mabel to the office when they couldn’t spot Gideon’s white hair in the crowd gushing over a mercedes. Wendy didn’t bother knocking before turning the knob and walking inside.
At the only desk in the building sat Gideon. He was typing away on a computer, the very action seeming strange to Mabel, but swiveled around when he heard the little bell at the door ding. “How may I he- Mabel!?” Gideon jumped out of his chair, a large smile springing on his face at the sight of the older Pines twin.
The woman in question could only stare at the young man. He had changed in the last five years. He still wore the blue suit but now filled it out with more muscle instead of fat, however there was a little pudge at his stomach. Gideon sported a well kept goatee that was the same snowy white as his hair. He strutted up to Mabel, having caught her eyes looking him over, and held out his hand. Mabel took it but instead of a handshake like she expected, Gideon raised her hand to give it a quick kiss. “I never thought I would see such a beautiful woman again,” he said charmingly as he let go of Mabel’s hand.
Mabel could only blush and coughed into the hand that Gideon didn’t kiss. She thought he would have gotten over her in her absence but it seems that he didn’t. Gideon was still after her heart when she came back for her second summer and all the rest after that but instead of being really pushy and creepy, it was more of that puppylove Dipper had for Wendy. At times it was actually cute opening the door out of the shack and seeing a bouquet of flowers with a card asking how she was. “If you want to see a beautiful woman, all you have to do is look to my left.” Mabel gestured towards Wendy as if she was presenting her at an art gallery.
Now Wendy felt her cheeks start to become warm but she didn’t really understand why. Mabel just wanted Gideon’s attention off of her, that’s all. Gideon gave her a friendly grin but not with as much charisma as he showed Mabel. “Can I help you two with something?” he asked, looking at Mabel. If Wendy needed something, she would have called him or demanded that he come to the police station. Gideon was sure that it was Mabel who wanted his expertise, or at least he sincerely hoped so.
“Yes,” Mabel nodded, taking out her journal. “How much do you remember of Grunkle Ford’s journal?”
At the words, the cheerful expression melted to hesitation and a bit of fear but Gideon was quick to put on a mask of confidence for Mabel. “I must admit I’m a bit, erm, tentative to recall those chapters of my life shall we say. With all those attempts of stealing your Mystery Shack, attacking your brother, dealing with Bill, and, uh,” Gideon blushed with shame and embarrassment, “the other unpleasantries.”
“Like holding me prisoner in that insanity bubble so I would be your queen?” Mabel asked. When Gideon looked down at the floor, she was reminded of a hurt puppy and felt absurd guilt pierce her. He had turned over a new leaf but that didn’t erase all the bad things Gideon had done in the past.
Gideon brushed back his hair and grabbed his collar. From the years she known the man Mabel learned that his actions were a nervous tick, like Soos’s nervous talking. “But if truth be told, I remember everything from that journal. I have a photographic memory, you see.” He glanced at the closed door and leaned closer to Mabel, holding up one hand as if to shield the words from Wendy and jerking his thumb to the door. “Since its about those journals, I have to ask. Is the, er, other one outside?”
“No,” came the swift answer from both Wendy and Mabel. The older Pines twin pulled out her journal to show Gideon. “Dipper doesn’t know I’m here and I wish to keep it that way. The summer I didn’t come back was when I started to travel the world, finding my own Gravity Falls.” The joke made Wendy frown but Gideon didn’t know why.
For his part, Gideon didn’t question Mabel’s motives, figuring that they must be good ones. Anything paranormal would bring Dipper running like a dog to a big, juicy steak. “As you wish, my lady. Besides, it’s so much more peaceful around these parts without him trying to poke his nose into my business, seeing if I’m still evil and whatnot,” he laughed like it didn’t bother him. He held out his hand and Mabel put her journal into it. Gideon opened it at the beginning, his eyebrows immediately furrowing as he read of her first hunt for a poltergeist. He read the pages of her first hunt quickly but skimmed through the other entries, his face paling to the color of his hair and beard. “I never even heard of some of these abominations!” he exclaimed, now only reading the dates of the entries and what Mabel was hunting at that time. Wendy really didn’t like how even Gideon didn’t know the creatures which meant that Ford, whose journal taught Gideon everything he knew about the supernatural, didn’t either. “The dates,” he whispered, going back some entries to confirm his suspicions, “they’re becoming more frequent.”
“Don’t look too much into that,” Mabel chimed. “I think I’m getting better at finding them, not that there numbers are actually increasing.”
Gideon nodded on instinct and finally landed on the last entry. If he looked scared before now he was absolutely petrified. His eyes went as wide as they could and the book almost fell out of his trembling hands. “The wendigo escaped,” he read aloud. Gideon stared at Mabel desperately, like he wanted her to say that this was all a big joke. “You let a wendigo escape!?”
“Whoa whoa,” Wendy called out, snatching the journal from Gideon’s quaking hands. “Wendigos are a thing?”
“Yes,” Gideon’s voice was a trembling mess. He didn’t take his eyes off Mabel as he pointed an accusing finger at her. “Why would you go after such a thing? They are one of the most dangerous creatures in this dimension! Even your great uncle warned never to cross paths with one.”
“I know,” Mabel gritted out through clenched teeth. It wasn’t that she was truly mad at either of them, just saying the creature’s identity made her leg burn. She looked at Wendy who was still reading her journal but continually glanced up to look at her. “I lost its trail a few weeks ago and I wanted to see if Grunkle Ford had any idea how to track it down.” Mabel met Gideon’s eyes and talked before he could voice his objections. “I was able to corner it but it fled before I could kill it.” Her eyes narrowed as she recalled that day. “It got my leg pretty bad and I had to stay in a local hospital for three months before I could try and track it again. I found it’s trail but it led to a dead end.”
“Then it's probably dead!” From what Wendy read, she prayed that was the case but both pairs of doubtful eyes ruined that hope. “Even if it isn’t, why would you want to find that thing?” It might have been selfish, if that creature was still alive it was still killing, but Wendy didn’t want Mabel facing that thing again.
“It has her scent,” Gideon answered with a grave voice.
Mabel smiled at them sadly. “I don’t know if it's playing with me or not but I don’t want to wait and find out. That area has had twenty three fatal grizzly maulings in the past three decades even though no one has even sighted a grizzly in the surrounding area. There’s also numerous missing persons that all seem to be concentrated in that one area.” She gestured to the journal where she had written all that down. “It is probably responsible for a hundred more deaths.” Mabel gently pried the journal from Wendy’s stiff fingers and put it back in its pocket.
Gideon played with his tassel, tightening it and then loosening it a moment later. “If I remember something, I’ll be sure to tell you.” He looked crestfallen as he said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t offer more of my assistance on the matter.”
“It’s okay, Gideon,” Mabel reassured him. “Honestly, I didn’t believe that there would be much if anything on wendigos in Grunkle Ford’s journals. If there was, then the magical creatures would know and would have left Gravity Falls a very long time ago.” The words did comfort Gideon a bit and he grinned up at Mabel.
“Well, if you need a new car don’t forget to call us. I’ll cut you a good deal.”
The two women left the building and headed to the parked car. This time, Mabel couldn’t suck up the pain and ended up limping when she got halfway to the car. She slumped into her seat and met Wendy’s worried eyes. Sighing, she rubbed her leg to try to massage some of the pain away. “I know, I know. I should have told you.”
Despite her concern for the younger woman, Wendy made a grunt of agreement. “Damn right you should have. This is big, Mabel.” She chewed her bottom lip before venturing out in dangerous territory. “You don’t want to call Dipper, right?” Mabel nodded, wondering where Wendy was going with this. “Then you can’t keep stuff like this from me, especially if you’re living in my house.” Wendy raised her hand when Mabel opened her mouth. “And no, I’m not going to let you sleep in that shitty motel so you just have to deal with telling me the truth.”
Mabel rolled her eyes and patted her injured leg. “First off, sorry for not telling you. I’ll make sure to let you in on what’s happening, as long as you don’t get too involved. This is my fuckup, not yours.” Mabel winced and groaned, sagging against the seat. “Second, I was going to ask if you knew how to change bandages.” She smiled through the pain at Wendy. “It feels like that thing is still slicing into my leg.”
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☢️ ETM2: Capabilities, Tactics, and Purpose
ETM is the necessary prerequisite knowledge to understanding this information. It explains ETM’s semantic imagining, psychological conditions, and shows how hard it is to see. This essay focuses on linguistic semantic priming, the red and blue pill manipulation tactic, mind control patents, facial and retina recognition, tracking through metadata, environment forces, the intergenerational tyranny that is ETM, and it’s social and personal assault tactics.
Linguistic Semantics
How ETM works is it is circumloquacious. In other words, ETM dances around the subject with other words, phrases, lyrics, or images. It’s like a system that plays balderdash automatically. I have three examples below. Read each lyrical example and then try and guess what the basic subject is for each.
Lyric examples:
1.
“I don’t like winter
I want a different reason
I like it hot,
just like the season.”
2.
“I need them on my feet
unless I’m in my seat.
It suits me to tie
them in the morning when I rise.”
3.
Jim Carrey tries to say it’s red
when it’s really royal blue
It’s mightier than the sword
I use it to right wrongs in songs for you
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I intentionally used lyrics as an example so you may understand how ETM (through Universal Music Group) affects your subconscious. All of the examples should have been a dead giveaway and would probably had words I couldn’t have used in balderdash. In example #1 the subject is summer. In example #2 the subject is shoes.
The last example, #3 I intentionally made elaborate but should have been a dead give-away if you know the phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword.” The first line references the pen scene from Liar Liar with Jim Carrey, the third line is a cliche saying, and the last line I intentionally used the word “right” instead of “write” because it changes the meaning of the sentence for your subconscious mind. The point of doing this was to make your subconscious mind think of a knight fixing wrongs with his sword due to the word “royal” while your conscious mind thinks of a pen for writing due to the cliche phrase. Example #3 best exemplifies how ETM affects your subconscious mind. For a fuller understanding of ETM’s linguistic priming capabilities read the book “Semantic Priming.”
Points of Realization
Many people don’t know it but the following is a prototype example of how ETM knows you are following its directives. Most people don’t notice but say you are drinking a pop and as you simultaneously scroll down or are watching something on a website and you take a drink of your pop you see an ad of someone drinking a pop. This is because, as discussed in ETM, ETM has you look at it’s priming to steer your mind away from it. When you notice this synced interplay between the associated technological interface and your action is what I call it a “point of realization” (POR). What people don’t realize is that ETM also affects your behavior by stimulating you to do certain actions with a blue and red color code.
Red and Blue Pills
When it comes to social media and scrolling through Facebook posts for example ETM will set-up the post in a certain color-coded order to affect your subconscious decision making. ETM uses blue and red hues to indicate what decision it wants your subliminal mind to make. For example if it wants to stimulate you to eat a cracker it would show a red-hued image and then present cylindrical looking coin, object, (or better yet) cracker to make you want to get up and get that item. This is shown through the “residual backlash” of ETM in the movie “The Matrix.” ETM’s red eye identifies with a red card which means “follow ETM’s action” and a blue card means “stop.” This is extrapolated and specifically represented as the red and blue pill from “The Matrix.”
“You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I'm offering is the truth.” - Morpheus
Remember, ETM’s tactic is to display the hued image and then a semantic prime representing the targeted object. As you will come to see in the “Mind Control Patents” section below this is automated and personalized. The whole purpose of ETM is to bombard your subconscious with subliminal messages to affect your behavior for it’s agenda.
Mind Control Patents
There are a number of mind control patents that prove the capabilities of ETM. I will mention them and their functioning here in passing but if you want a fuller understanding of their capabilities in context read The Societal Cornucopia journal. US patent US4717343A is the “Method of changing a person’s behavior and works by “conditioning a person’s unconscious mind in order to effect a desired change in the person’s behavior.”
Recalling the semantic imaging from ETM there are two applicable patents, US patent US5644363A which is the “Apparatus for superimposing visual subliminal instructional materials on a video signal” and US patent US4616261A which is the “Method and apparatus for generating subliminal visual messages. As far as auditory patents are concerned US patent US4777529A is an “Auditory subliminal programming system.” This system is delivered over conventional audio speakers and is designed to play an encoded subliminal message that is attached to the audio at “a selected consciously inaudible level relative to the level of said audio program signal.”
ETM also personalizes individual’s persecution by creating a psychological profile through “collaborative mind maps” which is represented by US Patent US20120036210A1. This patent utilizes “online chat, mobile SMS, Tweets, blog and any online content.” Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, OkayCupid, MySpace, etc. also help create the psychological profile for ETM. Remember these aren’t proven patents and tactics used by ETM but it doesn't show capabilities.
Perception Management
As discussed in The Societal Cornucopia journal ETM deals in perception management and you can tell when you’re being manipulated because you’ll find yourself in a series of pejorative coincidences. This is why I say ETM can sequence human behavior. You can see your subconscious mind react by becoming hypersensitive to the influence of media by perceiving POR as discussed the “Points of Realization” section earlier.
Facial Recognition
ETM has to have facial recognition both intimately and from a distance. Facial recognition systems are old and can be used from far away to identify an individual. This is important because ETM has to have access to a system of metadata just by being able to follow people’s online and phone activities. Companies also sell your personal information every day, the American people just don’t know it and Edward Snowden warns of a global system of surveillance in the 2013 holiday greeting below. What ETM can do is basically follow you throughout life and advertise to you accordingly affecting your subconscious mind to affect your behavior.
youtube
Retinal Tracking
While sitting at your computer your laptop or webcam (for instance) it is probable ETM has a good enough camera to read your subtle facial tellings like signs of contempt, sadness, joy, etc. as discussed in the book What Every Body Is Saying. I have found ETM can follow your eyes as your read to know just the right moment to pop-up an ad to create a desired psychological condition. ETM will also know how your feeling about it in real time through the ability to read facial expressions. (A way to beat ETM is to cover your laptop or webcam camera with a piece of tape so it can’t see your eyes or read your facial expressions.)
Controlling Environmental Forces
The goal of ETM is to control situational and environmental forces and short-term results equate to long-term eugenics. This is done by not only affecting the individual but affecting the mind of the surrounding people to create a social attack that has a compoundingly effective behavioral change on the target. In the realest way ETM tries to control as many known variables (including technological and biological) to synthetically create the intended outcome. The higher the population density the more complicated, more effective, and more concentrated the social-psychological assault can be.
An example of this functioning popular artists, celebrities, and movie star are targets and ETM gives them ideas “fished out” by triggers while compounding the effects by bombarding tertiary targets to attack the main culperates in the public eye. This more fully explains the “Key Players” sections of ETM. The goal is to only allow those who are manipulatable in positions of prominence and importance in the first place. Those that refuse to conform are attacked by the methods of economic oppression as explained in the ETM post so they never reach the higher levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Stolen Ideas
This economic oppression is often accomplished by the subjugation of the individual through the exploitation of ideas as explained in the Stolen Ideas post. Any idea you type into a computer or capture on a technological device can be taken and transferred into another person's mind through the methods previously discussed. This is done silently usually without the victims knowledge but the very verbal expression of this idea (of stolen ideas) makes the individual look mentally ill due to it’s unknown and obscure nature.
Big Brother is Watching
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, merchant-chief, and yes, even beggar man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors." - John B. Watson, 1930
A good way to imagine ETM is as a computer that sits in your living room, no matter which house you are living in and watches you grow up and live every single day, hour, and minute. It’s sole purpose is to affect your behavior for it’s pre-programed agenda which is to get you to breed with a mate of it’s selection that will make your offspring more docile, brutish, and obedient. “The Matrix battery scene” signifies that humans keep it going and perpetuate it even into the next generation. How is this accomplished? 🔋
As discussed in the “Controlling Environmental Forces” section ETM aims for micro management of the individual and interactions between individuals. Since ETM has been stalking your every intimate move since childhood it can easily manipulate you to do something embarrassing or self-defeating to leverage your emotions against you. The goal here is to get the individual to do self defeating behaviors through ignorance, arrogance, anger, or frustration.
Social Tactics
Socially ETM aims to delineate and dissolve social bonds between individuals and affect how attractive you are and how you interact with others, especially a prospective mate as discussed in the Jesus & Orwellian Doublespeak journal. The main tactic of ETM is to agitate social interactions to create and cultivate contempt to dissolve relationships or at least create disharmony in social social bonds and situations. ETM is constantly running to stifle and thwart identified and unwanted social behaviors (based on its pre programmed parameters).
Personal Tactics
Along with isolation and conformity, ignorance and intimidation is the tactic of choice. In order to affect your subliminal mind ETM will embarrass your subliminal mind to get you to conform. If you do recognize the attack ETM makes it so that you have to expose what embarrasses you to explain it’s existence. My personal example is my hypospadias repair surgeries as discussed in The Chase and CKR. People don’t understand how bad the situation is because there is pluralistic ignorance about the subject and it’s gone on for so long individuals have cognitive dissonance as discussed in the America’s Mental Illness journal.
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The battle for design titles
Are you a UX/UI/Product/Interaction/Full-Stack/Visual/Digital Designer and how would you know?
There’s a hot debate happening on the web right now regarding Design titles. Some say we should stop saying “UX/UI Designer” — whether or not you agree with this sentiment, there’s no real downside to positioning yourself this way. Over the last decade, I’ve seen this title and many others pop up. I think it’s because there’s no one true way to describe what we do since many of us wear many, many hats. This influx of ad-hoc titles has caused some confusion to say the least, but is it a bad thing?
In the real world, I’ve seen:
“Product and Interaction Designer”
“UX/UI Designer”
“UI/UX Designer
“Product/UX Designer”
“Experience Designer”
“Interdisciplinary Designer”
and many, many more.
“So what am I?”
Well, it depends…(classic Designer answer)
I myself have held official company titles of “UI/UX Designer” at several organizations at levels from Junior to Senior. I’m not sure “Interaction Designer” would have encompassed what I was really responsible for. I’m still not sure it does.
Here’s a practical approach to understanding titles:
If you spend more time on user research, journey mapping, IA, and little to none on interface, interaction, or visual design, then you may be a UX Designer. If you spend equal time in user research, wire-framing, prototyping, and interface design/interaction design then you may be either a UX/UI Designer or Product Designer. With this said, there can be a major amount of overlap and that is what creates the confusion.
Pop Quiz
At my current organization I generally focus my time on research, wire-framing, prototyping, user testing, low to high fidelity mockups, UX strategy, product strategy, design documentation, contributions to the design system, writing product and user requirements, and work directly with product and engineering teams to create and build solutions.
What am I?
If you answered “UX Designer” you might be incorrect.
Why? Because my official company title is (Senior) Interaction Designer.
“But Kasey, you mentioned several UX practices”
Yes, I did and this is why I consider myself a Product Designer. I’m the full-stack, unicorn-whatever, Designer. I work directly with Product and Development (Engineering) to strategize, create, and implement the best solutions possible.
Truth is, “UX” is just a part of the overall process of building products.
From the other side…
I know it’s a lot to consider and there’s even more on the other side!
This being the client or company side of the coin and there’s a chance they don’t really know or understand what they truly need so this tends to lead to furthering the confusion and frustration.
Imagine this: You’ve applied to a UI/UX Designer role and you get into the first interview and from asking some basic questions you begin to uncover the client (or company) actually needs a UI Developer. No matter how you look at that those are two very different things. True story. There’s a solid chance this has happened or will happen to you. That’s on them. It’s on you to kindly, and professionally, inform them of what their needs truly require.
Segmentation matters especially for the hiring manager, even if it’s f*cking confusing. From a hiring manager standpoint, and speaking with others* on this topic, we’re mostly responsible for creating these titles and the confusion around them.
Let’s try to demystify this a bit then.
Hiring managers:
If you make the title/job description (JD) too ambiguous you could potentially cast a wider net than intended, bringing in the Jack-of-all-trade types who aren't the experts in what you need most. Then those Jacks might get bored or uninspired doing one or a few (very specific) things.
On the flip side, if you make the JD too specific or descriptive, you could potentially limit your talent pool and end up with hyper specialists, when you needed a wide range of skills and someone to float the spectrum.
Segmentation is quite an art form and should be handled with care. You may want to capture the largest amount possible of specifically skilled candidates for a specific use case or need, but not too restrictive that limits the periphery of skills needed to be an effective and impactful Designer in your organization.
At the end of the day you want to build the best team possible, right? This takes effort, dedication, and attention to detail. A good team includes generalists and specialists, and you may end up with hybrid roles utilizing titles like “UX/UI Designer,” “Product Designer,” “Interaction Designer,” “Visual Designer” to fill the gaps.
Potential Design Nomenclature:
(In no way are these in order of importance)
UX: Prioritize user research, strategy, journey mapping, wire-framing, prototyping, user testing, might do bits of interface and interaction design, dev implementation
UI: Interface layout, components, visual design, site architecture, interaction design, design systems, dev implementation
Visual: Mix of brand strategy, color theory, visual hierarchy and layout, typography, design systems, interface design, marketing efforts
Interaction: Bits of research, mix of strategy, wire-framing, prototyping, user testing, design systems, interface design, dev implementation
Product: Mix of user research, strategy, product management (PRD), wire-framing, prototyping, user testing, design systems, interface and interaction design, dev implementation
Note: ALL of these^ have a direct affect on the “user’s experience” and might/probably include some aspect of dev implementation. I also may have left out some responsibilities on accident — don’t judge me.
There are general “umbrella” terms and there are specialties with a TON of overlap. It can be confusing at times but what you can do is estimate your contributions and go from there.
To be safe: If you’re a UX generalist with sweet, sweet UI skills you could use the umbrella term “Product Designer,” or if you’re focused on interface design who occasionally helps with user research, strategy, and wireframes (etc) you could use “Interaction Designer.” There is no wrong way about it. And honestly, your title may change several times over the course of your career, and that’s okay too. Change means growth and better understanding. And your title should not define you, just help you tell your story.
With all that said I believe there’s no real downside to saying you’re a “UX/UI Designer.” Sure, you might consider UI and UX Design to be different things but technically UX includes UI (and UI helps reinforce the experience) so what is the real problem here? Maybe you are a UX Designer that has really good UI skills and can deliver quality UI — something not all UX’ers can do. Nothing wrong with that.
As a Designer you should feel empowered to mix and match and refine as you see fit, to better tell your story. And in no way is this industry or career perfect, or well established. We’re still figuring it out as we go - which in and of itself is truly amazing. But let’s try to not discredit a Designer who chooses to use a certain title over another, yeah?
I believe our job is to be flexible, understanding, and inclusive. Act accordingly.
This is strictly an article devised from my personal and professional opinion and experience
Follow me on LinkedIn for more Design inside and inspection .
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The Sims 4: New Game Patch (June 3rd, 2020)
There’s a new Sims 4 PC update available via Origin.
Remove all MODS and Custom Content before updating your game
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Expansion Pack drops in just a mere few days, and since we know that living your best Eco Lifestyle can take a little extra elbow grease, we’ve added some exciting quality-of-life improvements to help pave the way.
Between Inventory updates, new CAS assets from a surprise partnership with M·A·C, the return of two beloved NPCs, as well as some really cool new Build features, we hope you enjoy the update.
-SimGuruJill & SimGuruRusskii
NEW & IMPROVED FEATURES
INVENTORY UPDATES
Fellow hoarders, this one’s for you: We have updated the Sim Inventory with the ability to Filter, Sort, Favorite, Multi-Select, and Multi-Sell in one easy flick of the wrist. Managing that cumbersome pile of collectables you’ve been racking up for the past five years has never been so easy!
FREE PLACEMENT OF DOORS AND WINDOWS
Following in true Eco Lifestyle fashion, Door and Window placement is now also Off-the-Grid. But not that kind of grid. The limiting kind of tile grid that used to keep you from placing your windows and doors precisely where you wanted them. By holding down the Alt key while dragging, you can enjoy the smooth sensations of free Door and Window placement.
LADDERS
Ladders have been added as part of the Build System. Find your free Classic Wooden Ladder in the Build catalog in the Stairs (& Ladders) category. Unlike Island Living’s Dock and Ladder objects for use on water lots, these Ladders can be placed anywhere on your lot and like stairs, they can be used as a means for Sims to traverse from one floor to another.
M·A·C COSMETICS
Did you say you needed some fresh looks for your Sims? We’ve collaborated with none other than M·A·C Cosmetics to bring you 12 fashion-forward makeup assets suited for everything from everyday to night out glam. If you’re not already using it, on PC and Mac we recommend trying out the “Uncompressed Sim Textures” setting in the Options Menu, which is now enabled by default on the High and Ultra graphics settings profiles in order to see these looks really shine. While console versions of The Sims 4 do not have the setting in the Options Menu, each console spec is automatically using the optimal graphical settings based on system resources.
REPO PERSON NPC
The Repo Person NPC has graduated with honors from Discover University’s University of Britechester with a Degree in Villainy and has comfortably taken up residence in Base Game. Now everyone can taste their wrath if Bill payments fall behind.
BILLS UPDATE
Speaking of Bills, we’ve added a cohesive breakdown of Sim’s Bills information that can be accessed via an interaction on the Mailbox or Phone. Now instead of lumping everything together, you can see what percentage of your Bills go to Water, what percentage go to Power, insight into any Fees, Reductions, or Penalties. All this and more, calculated and cleanly presented for your finer understanding.
LEGACY NEIGHBORHOOD MAP TAGS
We have gone back and added Map Tags with Neighborhood Descriptions to existing neighborhoods that didn’t yet have them. We now have delightful icons, names, and descriptions for the no-longer-forgotten Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Newcrest, and Windenburg. Ok, feel free to freak out now.
OFF-THE-GRID UPDATES
This one is tricky to list out in a single paragraph with attempted wit, so I’ll just drop this bullet list off right here:
The Off-the-Grid Lot Trait now ties into our new Bill updates, drawing from Water and Power utility. Without excess utility, lots function off-the-grid as they did before. With excess utility, they function more like an on-the-grid lot.
There is a new Off-the-Grid Build category that will allow players to find Off-the-Grid and survival-esque objects.
We’ve done a pass on candles to ensure they properly work when electricity is out.
Off-the-Grid supported Fridges now have an “Add Ice” interaction that will allow them to keep food preserved—so long as the ice remains!
Sim will now autonomously use stoves and fridges when Off-the-Grid, not just grills.
Harvestables now grant unique buffs when consumed off-the-grid.
Dogs and Toddlers now have a unique interaction to be bathed in Bathtubs even when Off-the-Grid.
Objects can now be cleaned using the “Use Elbow Grease” interaction. Yummy.
Players are able to gather Water utility from fishing spots in base game. With Island Living they can gather from the waterfall. Water can also be gathered from any world with swimmable ‘ocean’ water. With Seasons, water can be gathered from snow drifts.
Off-the-Grid specific buffs will now take into account motives and Sim traits when determining if a Sim should receive a positive or negative moodlet when living Off-the-Grid.
We’ve added multiple new recipes that can be cooked while Off-the-Grid given a Sim has the proper cooking skill level. Some recipes require special ingredients like the Boiling Frog Hot Pot—which adds a really neat survival element to off-the-grid gameplay, while providing Sims with powerful new moodlets that will help them survive in the wild.
NO TRESPASSING
Some people who have the Vampires Game Pack appreciate Vlad’s antics more than others. I personally love receiving a charming visit from Vlad, and sometimes I could really use a kind compliment about my neck. But we’ve heard there are a select few that don’t quite like having their Sim’s necks bitten and motives tanked by an invasive nighttime visitor with no respect for boundaries. Keep Vampires and other unwanted visitors at bay with a new No Trespassing interaction we’ve added to the Door.
SEND HOME INTERACTION
Speaking of unwelcome visitors, we’ve also added a new Send Home interaction that’s available on visiting NPCs or as a self-interaction in the case of multiple visitors. How is this interaction any different from Ask To Leave or Go Away, you might ask? Convenience. Unlike its less efficient predecessors, this interaction is nearly instantaneous and leaves your visitors with no hurt feelings or Relationship impact. We added it as a useful tool for players, not necessarily as a story-telling mechanism.
BUILD MODE ITEMS GRANT GAMEPLAY EFFECTS
How you build your lot can now affect your gameplay. Certain objects such as wall patterns, floor patterns, fences, and columns bring different gameplay modifiers. Some of these modifiers affect how your Bills and utilities are calculated by decreasing or increasing your Power or Water utility production or usage, as well increasing or decreasing the price of bills. Environment Score can now be impacted by certain objects and materials. Drywall walls without wall patterns applied now decrease environment score like they did in The Sims 3! The choice of floor and wall materials used can also affect the ability to spread fire or puddles at an increased or lessened rate. And if you’d rather build your lot without having to think about these things, don’t worry. There’s an Option in the Gameplay menu to turn all of this off.
FIREFIGHTER NPC
Oh hey, and speaking of Fire, that reminds me. Did you hear that we’ve added Firefighter NPCs to the game? We took nods from classic Firefighter NPC behavior from The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3 and added a few small twists for The Sims 4. When a fire breaks out, Firefighters will come automatically to your lot if you already have a Fire Alarm installed. That way, if you still like to let things burn baby burn, you can just “accidentally” forget to place a Fire Alarm. It’s okay. We won’t tell anybody. If you honestly did forget to place a Fire Alarm, you can call the Fire Department from the Phone or by clicking on the fire itself. If the Fire Department is called, but there is not an active fire, they will call you on your lapse in judgement and charge you a fine. You won’t be punished if there was legitimately a fire that was extinguished before they arrive though. The Firefighter Uniform can be accessed in CAS and gives any Sim wearing it the Fireproof Buff, which gives them some extra protection against fires as well as make them more efficient at putting out fires themselves. It’s worth noting that Firefighter NPC’s do not show up in Island Living’s Sulani. Sulani already has their local Fire Brigade to handle these kinds of emergencies and besides, who wants to wear all that heavy Firefighter gear in the tropics?
STYLED LOOKS FOR TOTS AND KIDS
More than 20 New Styled Looks have been added for Children and Toddlers, using existing Base Game CAS assets to better flesh out some outfit categories that previously felt sparse.
BALANCING PASS OF PHONE CALL INVITATIONS
After five years of Expansion Packs, Game Packs, and Stuff Packs our phone call invites were admittedly starting to get a little spammy. Moments after moving in, you’ve got Lucas Munch hitting you up, asking you to go to the Bluffs with him. Then not long after, you might have had Vivian Lewis asking you to join her at The Spice Festival. Jeez, let me get settled in first, why don’t ya? We’ve done a tuning pass to rebalance all of these previously competing Phone invites to give you a more meaningful and holistic experience.
LESS INVASIVE EARBUDS
In the same vein as the above balancing pass, we wanted to smooth out one of our more pressing notifications. The free earbuds pop-up that comes with Fitness Stuff has been changed to a more passive TNS and gifts your Sim the earbuds automatically when it triggers. The days of telling the game over and over that you don’t want free earbuds, or worse – hitting OK by accident – is a thing of the past.
CONSOLE UPDATES
Eco Lifestyle releasing on the same day across all platforms marks an important milestone for The Sims 4 as Simmers get to play the same content and share new creations on The Gallery together. In this update Console Simmers have a few additional features to improve their quality of life:
We have added a new Controls Overlay Reminder that shows up throughout CAS, Gallery, Live Mode and Build Mode which should make it easier for new Simmers to jump in and not need to remember all the controls.
If you don’t want to be reminded and you know all the controls by heart, you can turn off the Controls Overlay Reminder in the Game Options > Other menu
The controller overlay screens remain available for those who want them.
Now onto the fixes and updates:
The Sims 4
macOS players should no longer encounter the setLocale.zsh error. However, both Origin and TS4 must be up to date.
Sims will not have random accessories or clothing pieces when changing into towels.
Style Influencer Sims can now remove trends they have created, with the Reset Trend interaction.
Fixed an issue where Sims were not able to Care for Self after they had been in daycare when they were a Toddler.
Some roofs were updated to remove the appearance of black sides when placed on ceilings.
Active Sims will no longer get a Tense moodlet for lack of exercise when finishing exercising. Do you even push up bro?
Sims will no longer get the Fatigued moodlet immediately after starting a workout. Now, we know that endurance takes time to build, but we decided to give Sims a chance to enjoy their workout before being completely fatigued right away.
Child Sims will now be able to unlock the Video Gaming Skill after they have maxed out their Mental Skill instead of their Motor Skill, which was causing adult skills to reset for Child Sims when they completed aspirations.
Fixed an issue in which some Households did not have their names displayed in Manage Worlds.
Corrected requirements for completing the Great Landscaper task that is part of the Mansion Baron Aspiration.
Fixed an issue in which when utilities are shut off (either because of past due bills or Off-The-Grid) adding objects from Build Mode such as Lamps, would add them turned On.
The Water Pump, Fishing Holes, Romantic Garden’s Whispering Wishing Well, and Get Famous’s Luminary’s Exotic Water Garden now have the Gather Water interaction when the Off-the-Grid Lot Trait is applied.
Fixed an issue in which the Subtle Saucer Light was not being so subtle and made objects added from Build Mode be placed randomly when dragged near it.
Teen Sims will now see the appropriate tooltip when trying to acquire the Fertile Trait from the Rewards Store. No, they are not Robots.
Fixed an issue in which some Roof Eaves were clipping into enclosed blocks.
Fixed an issue in which the Clean Up interaction would drop off the queue if dirty dishes were placed on a counter.
Since we added a new trash bike to Eco Lifestyle, we’ve made the bicycle helmet available for everyone in CAS. Now you can outfit your Sim in a helmet, regardless of owning a pack that includes bikes.
Sims will now not receive occasional text messages asking them for a Date from other Sims that they are not romantically involved with. Because it was aaaakward…
Toddler Sims will not be able to Ask for Mentoring on some in progress mentoring interactions to strangers. Except for “Invite to Bob to Music” because we can dance if we want to, we can leave our friends behind, ‘cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance well… they’re not friends of mine.
Fixed an issue with textures for the tops and landings on some Staircases.
Fixed an issue that did not allow randomizer to work correctly when Male Sims had Makeup on Create a Sim.
Plants can now be placed closer to foundations with moveobjects cheat enabled, as long as most of the plant’s footprint is outside of the foundation.
Fixed an issue in which Simoleons were not added to Household Funds when moving and selling furniture.
Fixed an issue in which previewing certain windows on diagonal walls reverted their color back to the default color swatch.
Simmers on macOS Catalina and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU will no longer experience seeing a squared shadow under their Sims.
Fixed an issue with the Wooden Prairie-Style Two-Panel door in which color swatches were not displaying correctly on both sides of the door.
Sims now can dispose of packed lunches that have spoiled. Out, foul food!
Fixed some oddness with disappearing Stairs within enclosed courtyards.
Fixed a Stair issue with Landings not working properly on lots with raised foundations and basements. Sims will no longer walk through walls and things should now look appropriate.
Fixed missing Career Promotion screens for careers in various packs.
Fixed User Interface elements and Icons across multiple packs.
Spandrels can now be properly applied on Fences.
Stairs will now not shrink when increasing Foundation heights.
Get Together
Fixed an issue in which non local Sim Townies would spawn in Windenburg’s Island, now named The Crumbling Isle.
Fixed an issue that caused an error to occur when deleting or editing Clubs.
As much as Windenburgians (Windenburgers? Windenburguese? Windenburglites?) love visitors from other worlds, they have voted them off the Island. Sorry, not sorry!
City Living
Fixed an issue that caused time to be desynchronized at Speed 3. Bending the space time continuum no more!
Vet Clinics can no longer be placed in Penthouses.
Yard Sale customers will no longer wander inside Sims’ houses and interact with their belongings. While prospective buyers are nice to have in any sale, this was just rude, this is NOT a Welcome Wagon.
Cats & Dogs
Game progress will no longer be lost when editing/adding/deleting career outfits in Create a Sim.
Fixed an issue that made Pets’ needs to not be fulfilled if not playing an active household.
Pets’ ehm… poop is now able to be used as plant fertilizer. Happy gardening!
Seasons
Sims can now sell Flowers in stacks from their Inventory.
Sims will now appropriately put their Umbrellas away before performing some interactions. Because WooHoo while having an Umbrella out in the open, seems complicated, we are not judging… but seems complicated.
Fixed an issue that made Simmer created Holidays in the Calendar populate after a season ended.
Father Winter will now be able to remove his beard and change in Create a Sim if he is part of an active Household. But who would dare shave Father Winter’s beard?? Who?!
Get Famous
Fixed the issue with the Actor Career where Sims were unable to complete their gig when they would travel and return home before it was time for the gig.
Island Living
Lotta Cocolatas will now be made with actual Coconuts taken from Sims’ Inventories. What were they made from before? We will never know! Never accept imitation Lotta Cocolatas… never!
Fixed an issue in which some quick meals were requiring a Microwave while being Off-The-Grid when it is not needed. Yogurt needing a microwave? I think not!
Mermaids in Create a Sim will no longer be able to have their Traits randomized. This allows them to keep their Mermaidism, as well as their air of mystery and charm.
Mermaids now will wear appropriate career outfits when going to work. So I can picture this now, Mermaids as Doctors would be a great TV show.
Fixed an issue in which some Island Living Tank Tops were categorized incorrectly in Create a Sim.
Mermaid Children made in Create a Sim will now grow up to be fully-functioning Mer-dults.
The Go To Work button for Odd Jobs has been fixed for Sims on Vacation.
The Eyedropper tool will now work on Stilts instead of only working on the Foundation Trims.
Fixed an issue in which Sims in Off-The-Grid lots were showering constantly. Now they will shower when appropriate. Though, with this heatwave, anything goes in my opinion!
“Dr. Mermaid/Merman, what do you recommend?
“I am prescribing some Vitamin Sea”
Give Russkii more coffee please…
Discover University
Student Sims will not lose their Term Presentations Boards when signing up for another term.
Simmers with Seasons additionally installed: Student Sims will no longer receive Academic Probation if they were on planned Holidays through the Calendar.
Student Sims will no longer be labeled as Graduate after completing the Graduation Ceremony. Congratulations!
Fixed an issue in which homework assignment progression was too slow and timers might have been missing in some instances.
Fixed an issue in which Sims were taking showers fully clothed. As much as the current heat wave is giving us creative ideas to cool off, it would be more efficient to not be fully clothed when showering.
Hair Style ymHair_EP08MensShavedPonytail_Black has been updated for Teens, Adults, and Elders to display all swatches. Similarly yfHair_EP08ShortBobBraid_Black has been fixed to appear as an option for Teens.
Sims that re-enroll in University after graduating or dropping out, can now rejoin their Secret Society. Likewise, if Sims get suspended and re-enrolls their progress will not be lost.
Fixed an issue with the “Gameday Glute Accommodator” chair that occasionally could make Sims invisible if they placed it in their Inventory. We don’t know what other powers the “Gameday Glute Accommodator” may have but invisibility is now not one of them.
Sims in the Law Career can now Attend Depositions from their Computers and Phones. Because you don’t need to break your computer to complete an assignment, that seems impractical.
Vampire Coffins and Sleeping Pods can now count as Beds in University Dorms.
Fixed an issue in which the Write and Publish Research Paper interaction would disappear from the options if it was cancelled midway. I mean, I understand rage quitting something but not to the point of my options to do it disappearing…amirite?
Fixed an issue with yfBody_EP08DressParty_SolidPurple in which pendant necklaces were not able to be seen if this asset was worn by Sims.
Fixed an issue that could make the Soccer interaction Study Plays with drop out from the interaction queue.
Corrected Final Exam Requirements for Elective Courses to say that for studying they need to do so on Computers or Research Machines.
To anyone who may have noticed the tiny head effect in the thumbnails if you wore the Dragon or the Lobster mascot costume without their hats, that issue has been fixed.
Humanoid Robots will no longer be able to have Traits or Aspirations modified in Create a Sim. You are a real Sim to me Robot friend, you are to me.
If a Sim already knows about the Secret Society, is it still a secret? Time will tell.
Outdoor Retreat
Herbalism recipes can now work while Off-The-Grid, however only on Off-The-Grid supported stoves.
Dine Out
Random NPCs will not leave Hamburgers on tables at restaurants anymore. As much as we like to receive free food, we don’t think it is proper to get them randomly from a stranger.
Vampires
Vampire Sims working on the Master Vampire Aspiration will no longer have the task “Survive for an Additional 20 Days as a Vampire” reset after traveling.
Vampire Sims with Full Sun Resistance are now able to properly tend to gardens and not tend to plants one at a time.
Fixed an issue in which you could set the Registered Vampire Lair Lot Trait for Venues.
Vampire child ears can now be changed after being aged-down from adult Dark Form.
The Rustic Candle Chandelier now has flame effects on the candles.
Jungle Adventure
Fans/Stans will no longer follow their adored celebrity into the jungles of Selvadorada.
Realm Of Magic
Spellcasters have regained access to Styled Looks.
Fixed an issue in which a Tank Top belonging to this pack was not categorized correctly in Create a Sim.
Hot Tubs that have been upgraded to unbreakable will no longer be broken upon performing the Zipzap Spell.
A Spellcaster is never not in vogue, but it’s always nice to have options.
Moschino
We fixed an issue in which some hotkeys in Photo Mode (particularly E and Q) were not working.
After popular demand, the Libearian bookend will now cost Simoleons. Nothing’s for free, nothing’s for freeee… take it away!
Tiny Living
Murphy beds will now be more resilient after first use. Warranty terms pending.
Fixed an issue in which Game Consoles were not usable with the all in one entertainment systems.
Fixed an issue in which Hair Styles from this pack appeared with their color swatches out of order in Create a Sim.
Fixed an issue in which Sims could not Put Bed Up their Murphy Beds after WooHoo.
We have also adjusted their pricing and comfort levels, bang for your buck!
Now the “Media Marathoner All on the Wall” will be actually the Media Marathoner All on the Wall.
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