I used a 3 x 3 lot, and the gravestones were not showing up anywhere when I myself checked on the lot. That was after I'd had them respawned and 'move to' the cemetery, and saved the residence lot after moving them.

But the problem is solved. All are accounted for now.

Glad to hear it! I'd be having a coronary if all my graves disappeared haha.

I "made" a "sim" in CAS today but I'm not sure how right it was to do. A close friend of mine committed suicide on christmas day and I've not been so good at dealing with it so far. Trying to do anything at all with my day, which I'm also not very good at right now, I opened my game, and after staring at hood view for whatever amount of time, I made him as I remembered on our last meeting. I never enjoyed the idea of making people into sims, but it's quite incredible how well a sim can resemble the real person, all down to clothes and all those beautiful facial quirks each one of us has. I even used one of those silly costume hairstyles for the first time in 14 years of playing the game, I gave him that Maxis ninja mask for everyday hair - because he also wore one on the last picture I received of him. It was funny. It made me chuckle. We had a big distanced friendship, meeting all over Europe, and there's not many clear pictures I actually have, and I think my initial call to do this was to preserve him forever before my memory of his face inevitably begins to fade.

So there he is now. I don't know. I don't think playing god with the life of a real person, one that is quite deceased and has no choice over their future at that, feels right at all. Maybe I did a really morally weird thing. But he is now a part of my neighbourhood, my happy place. He always wanted to do so many things at once, learn so much, create. Huge stuff and weird stuff and exciting things no one understood. Maybe I will move him in and turn his aging off completely and just let him explore, play, do all those quirky experiments he talked about. Have fun with everyone in town, get all the jobs available one by one, make all positive memories and vacation goals, spend 5000 sim hours stargazing, birdwatching, dancing. Be there forever and ever, make as many friends as possible. Grow with me, hopefully, for the years to come.
Maybe he would enjoy that.

Is it wrong to put someone based on a dead loved one into a story? If so, Louisa May Alcott did very, very wrong by her sister Elizabeth. But generations of women will tell you that she did only right.

You cannot help your friend live again, but you can remember them and keep them alive in your heart. And keeping them alive in your sims game can be part of that. I don't think your friend would want you to be miserable about him forever. I think he would want to be remembered with love.

The first really big divorce to be has happened in Thalia, and it's a whopper:

Roosevelt Joseph has always been a charmer, and the ladies like that. It didn't take him long to start cheating on his wife Ida, even when she was pregnant with their twins. At present he has 2 if not 3 girlfriends.

Ida learned about one of them, and was furious. It was only by Roosevelt begging for her forgiveness that allowed him to stay as her husband until that day when they were both invited to a party his late father was giving before his death.

Because Ida herself was cheating on her husband.

Someone seemingly forgot about keeping this all a secret and all his extra marital lovers were also invited to Elijah's farewell party. (I suspect Elijah did as a final gesture of "You don't get nothing but a raspberry from me!").

Ida's boyfriend was also there.

The first flirt by Roosevelt made Ida incensed. The first flirt by Ida to her boyfriend made Roosevelt angry beyond belief.

So right now they're furious with one another and to make matters worse Ida is pregnant for a third time (the result of Roosevelt begging to be forgiven the first time) and it's looking pretty grim.

Also, Roosevelt's father did not have any life insurance and Roosevelt himself doesn't have any money. If he gets kicked out of the marital homestead, he might well be homeless.

His son Frank won't take him in because he's Ida's boyfriend. (Elijah lived with him)

His other son has a growing family. The Boarding House is full.

Ida really doesn't care what happens to him. She suspected he was a bum (he's a getaway driver in the criminal career, if that tells you anything about his morals) and regrets ever marrying him.

Our truck at work was late the other day so I took a "personal" day and just played the sims the rest of the day to disassociate from my life.

I'm down to just a few households before I head off to play my university sims. I chose to play the Williams household since they're the last family in my cult that I need to play. Its the "main" household as it also holds their temple/church on their property in the back. The household includes the leader of the church, Meghana Williams and her husband Adam, along with their 3 children Jericho*, Halley* and Bellatrix*. Adam's sister Peyton and her daughter Leia* also live with them. Leia and Jericho are teenagers that are married and live together upstairs with their newborn baby, Nova. (*They're all the result of alien abductions so they're not all necessarily biologically related to each other)

On the first day they celebrated baby Nova's birthday. They kept it pretty small (since there's already so many of them lol) and just invited their brother Aaron over to join them. Aaron brought over his son Janus. Then the next day Leia celebrated her birthday. She isn't going to go to college since she has a baby and frankly her LTW doesn't require it. (Her husband Jericho will head off to college in a few days since his LTW requires a law degree.) There must have been something in the punch because during these get together Halley and her boyfriend Janus snuck off to woohoo and is now pregnant. Then Leia and Jericho also did the same after she aged into an adult and she is now also expecting.

I ended up playing them an extra day since I had a trip lined up for Meghana and Adam. With them both turning into elders they decided to finally treat themselves to a vacation since they could never afford it before. Now that the church is starting to get extra income in they decided to splurge a little. One of their members (Malcolm Landgraab IX) has a beautiful vacation home that they got to stay in.

When I play this household, I play them normally for 3 days and then another 2 days with aging off/no work to play them getting together for church. During their next church session they'll be having 3 wedding ceremonies! I swear I didn't plan it this way but 2/3 of the William triplets are engaged and the other one is in a relationship & now expecting with Halley. (It's pretty much implied that they have to get married within their community. ) I've never had a triplet wedding! I wonder how I'll go about it? Should I do one at a time? Or all at once? (Will my game bug out lol?)

Update: I had the triple wedding and it didn't go as expected.... I don't know if it was because Halley is pregnant and her mood was very low but she left Janus at the alter in front of both of their families. She had just accepted his engagement so I was very confused. And to make it even more awkward, they were the second ceremony so the night had to continue and Ophelia and Tovio's ceremony went on afterwards, trying to appear as if nothing had just happened. It was such a huge scandal that it made the party a disaster.

Now I'm not sure what to do with Halley & Janus. She's still a teenager so maybe she just got cold feet and needs some more time? She'll be the first sim in their community to have a child out of wedlock. Maybe she could be the first sim to "escape" the cult? She'll have to get a job first in order to save up and run away. Poor Janus, how embarrassing! I was already making plans for them to stay at his parents during the newborn phase with the baby.

Camille Ercan got her mother's inheritance early and used it to pay off the remainder of the house loan. If you had asked me when they bought this house if they'd be able to pay it off one day, I would have laughed! That's how broke they were. (They were essentially forced to buy this house because they outgrew her mom's basement.) They used the rest of the money for Eric to go back to school to get his masters degree so he can go higher in the teaching career.

The quadruplets are almost done with high school and will be heading off to college afterwards. Well, all except Carol. Carol just had a baby so she'll be staying back. The rest (Glen, Rick, and Daryl) will be heading off to sim state. They're so excited to have their own dorm rooms! They've always had to share one big room their entire lives. Daryl is following the footsteps of his father and wants to go into the education field. Glen wants to own a business one day so he'll be majoring in business.

Angela Pleasant brought back Stinky Skunk from hiking. It promptly sprayed a Mascot and an Evil Mascot who came to cause trouble.

Kara Ercan opened up the first ramen shop downtown and is finally having its grand opening! She had a tea house before but since her husband went to culinary school she's going to utilize him as much as she can. She sold the tea house and started from scratch again. Its pretty tiny and its outdoors but it's perfect the way it is. For now she hired someone to be the hostess but once their daughter is of age she'll be replacing the hostess. Kara is the server and her husband Justin is the chef. I'm actually really enjoying running it, its super cute!

When Kara and Justin aren't at the shop, they're at home spending quality time with their children, Sabrina and Justin II. Justin's LTW is to get to the top of the culinary career so he also has a part time job at night at a fast food joint. He's hoping the ramen shop will help him achieve his dreams eventually.


Alissabella Harris has returned from Sim State and is back at the family home. Its a bit crowded but her older sister Miranda and niece Anna will be moving out in a few days. Miranda is engaged so she and Anna will be moving in with her fiance and his family. Alissabella is in the military and is enjoying her new adult life.

Her younger sister Dimitria will be starting culinary school soon. She has a son, little Darien who's a toddler. His dad isn't really involved at the moment, so it definitely got really awkward when Alissabella called him over to woohoo and they went to mess around in the hot tub while Dimitria was inside taking care of their son.

Miranda and Anna moved out after Anna aged into a teenager. They moved four houses down into the Morgan household. I'm sure there will be a wedding planned in no time.

Not much, just in the preliminary stages of making the most impressive lot I've ever made, one I didn't even think was possible until yesterday:

One of my poor founder sims, Sasha, died of pneumonia (first sim I've ever had to die by illness) while her partner Misha was sound asleep and unable to plead with the Grim Reaper. All her possessions went to her mother, who (quite autonomously) is currently in a relationship with Misha's brother. Misha is currently mourning all over the lot and hoping to see her ghost which stubbornly refuses to appear.



In plantsim news (who appear to be popping up all over town due to the overwhelming amount of large gardens present), Emlyn decided to grow a plantbaby and instead ended up with twins! No word yet on how she's going to raise two toddlers, manage the farm, and run the local grocery store at the same time. Interestingly these are the first children born (grown) in the town since it's founding 14 rounds ago.

I finally finished my first year at Sim State University. I have two sims at the Troak dormitory. Then I have six sims at the Plaza dorms and Lyra Landgraab is all "alone" at the Landgraab dorms. (Alone, as in no other playable sim is living with her) Lyra just recently wed Malcolm Landgraab IV before heading off to Sim State, that's the only reason she's allowed to stay at those specific dorms. (Otherwise she'd be over at the Troak dorms aka the broke dorms) He's attending to the family business after graduating from Sim State himself, while she's on campus earning her degree in education.

Lyra's cult mate, Alice Williams is over at the Troak dorms with Frederick Reyes. Frederick and Alice are also both sophomores. Alice is following in the footsteps of her mother by also wanting to dedicate her life to science. When she isn't studying, she's working part time to get a head start on paying off her school loans.

Frederick Reyes is a theatre kid with a LTW to woohoo 20 sims, he's working on #9 right now.

At the Plaza dormitory we have seniors; Vilko Robinson, Marshall Morgan, Kate Harris and sophomores; Emette Davis, Marissa Morgan (Marshall's younger sister) and Noah Robinson II (Vilko's younger brother) They're pretty calm for the most part, well except for the first couple days when the younger ones moved in. Kate and Vilko had been hooking up and once Noah moved in, Noah and Kate hooked up causing some issues with his brother Vilko. You know how it is, when one sibling has something the other wants it too!
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I keep going back and forth on what I'm going to do with my alien cult. I can't exactly have the 2nd generation get abducted too since there's only 4 possible pollinators in the game. But the "origin" of the cult is that every original member got abducted to have their own alien spawn. I was hoping to keep it going with each generation but I'm already at 30 members so I need to try to keep it exclusive for a little while. There are some non alien members so I'm trying my best to get them together. Also I have some custom likes/dislikes in my game and if a sim has an alien in either of those categories then it means that they want to either join the cult or leave the cult, if they're already a member.

Here are a few random pictures. The first one is of one my sims getting stood up at the altar. The next two sets are two businesses that recently opened up in the Downtown district. Blossom's Ramen Shop (Named after Kara's grandmother) & Petyr's Holiday Shoppe.

Today in TS2; my Sims got stuck in traffic.

Oh my! Did you mod the traffic density or use model cars?

More progress on the fully underwater yacht lot:



And yes, I tested and all the lot markers for passerbys and cars work properly when placed above ground, and since Sims you move in spawn by the mailbox, they don't get stuck underwater. I feel these findings would also be useful if someone wanted to make a house under a highway or some kind of sky build.

Criquette's Busy Road Deco placed on top of the roads, to give the effect of a busy road. Used in conjuction with hexameter's invisible 'hood traffic.

I wish I knew how to increase spawn rates for the neighborhood automata traffic.

Do you like visitors walking past the smelling trashcan by the door? I would move it some place else to decongest the entrance.

The game really wants the maibox by the road despite no mailman coming by bicycle or car in the game. There are a couple interactions where they walk to global slot 3B, which is is behind. Then they worship the mailbox.

I intend to move the transhcan, I am far from done with the lot. And I know how walkbys interact with the mailbox. I actually tend to make extra walkby routes to simulate other lot entrances

How did you get the lot to work?

In what way? Making it fully underwater? Moving the portals?

The Ercan funeral home, along with the local cemetery have been quite busy lately.....

Aubrey (McCarthy) Morgan passed away in her childhood home on January 18th, surrounded by her loved ones. She is survived by her 5 children; Sean, Avery, Kaleah, Margot and Kit and her 12 grandchildren. Aubrey had the LTW to marry off 6 children but unfortunately suffered two miscarriages along the way so she didn’t quite make it. She spent most of her life raising her children and then helping them raise their children. She just had that natural motherly instinct. Aubrey will be laid to rest at Hope Cemetery next to her husband Kody Morgan. With Aubrey now gone, that makes Frances the head of the household so it will now be renamed to the Worthington household.
Hannah (Harris) Williams passed away peacefully at her home on January 22nd. Hannah and her twin brother Casey Harris were born in Bluewater Village to Emma and Jamie Harris. Hannah was a successful concert pianist and played until the very end of her life. She also loved being a grandmother and enjoyed having them over to teach them to play the piano. Hannah was born and raised in Bluewater Village to one of my favorite sims (Emma Davis) so I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for her. She had a bit of a wild journey before settling down but that’s what life is all about, the journey right?

Hannah’s very first love as a teenager was Jake Williams but for some reason eventually went their separate ways, he was a little older so I’m sure the timing just wasn't right. To get over her heartbreak she started dating a lot. So much so that somewhere between the sneaking out and the dates she ended up getting pregnant by Anthony Landgraab and decided she was too young and gave the baby up for adoption. (That baby girl is now Laura Ari)

She left to Sim State and majored in music but her wild ways caught up to her again during her senior year. She got pregnant right before graduating from Sim State. Although she managed to graduate, things with her baby boy’s father didn’t work out so they split up. She later had her first pair of twins, Camille and Seth, with Avgeni Harris. They also didn’t work out and eventually parted ways after a failed engagement.

The reality was that Jake Williams still had her heart after all this time. Somewhere along the way she got invited to one of his get togethers (while he was newly married) and they rekindled their romance. It wasn’t pretty and it was the talk of the town for a while. Jake had just gotten married to a townie and had opened an appliance store so people were wondering if he’d lose the business. They both called things off with their partners and they wasted no time getting married. They had Brett right after their wedding and Hannah decided that was enough children and baby daddies and focused on her music career.

Hannah is survived by her four children, Noah, Camille, Seth and Brett; 19 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. She will also be laid to rest next to her husband Jake Williams at Hope Cemetery.
Wanda and Stephen Tinker have recently passed away in a “freak accident” by the bridge over the water. (I had been playing with their only daughter without even realizing she had parents out there so I killed them off.) They leave behind their daughter Melody and their 4 grandchildren.

For the first time in quite a while I've just played the game without messing about with CC or creating anything or doing screenshots. Just opened the Curious household and played.

Currently, the boys are working on their skills and on getting promoted, while juggling famliy life with (soon) 4 alien kids, all the restult of abductions (two slightly cheaty ones, but eh). Vidcund only has his first kid, now a child. Lazlo has a toddler from the first immediate abduction, and is pregnant with his second. Pascal has one on the way. Curiously (get it? XD) they've so far not had to hire a single nanny. The boys are either pregnant or one of them have a day off work, so there's always someone who can stay at home.

They just had a visit from the principal. A couple smoozes and a show-and-tell around the house (he didn't even want the lobster dinner they'd prepared), and Vidcund's kid is now enrolled in private school. Took barely an ingame hour (I guess the principal was in a hurry - normally he eats first )

The underwater bit. I have a lot I'd like to do that to.

Okay, so it's a little complicated, but if you are familiar with codes, and a few utility mods, and comfortable with SimPE and lotadjuster it's fairly straightforward.

So first thing's first you need to create a flat island using modifyneighborhood terrain. Technically you can do this step with SimPE, but you need to make it sufficiently above water or you get that glitch where the entire world turns into sand from the lot view.

Regardless, you then load the neighborhood or subhood in the newest version of SimPE and right click on the hood geometry file. This will open a new panel that allows you to place roads and modify terrain. You need to make a road along where you wanna place your lot. Save it, and enter the game again. Place down a lot but importantly do not enter it. It needs to be in the highlighted green, or blue state for what comes next to work.

Next you go back into SimPE, and lower and smooth the terrain of your little island below the waves... From here you can go back in game and enter the lot to find it fully underwater. You then either save or start building. The camera can't drop below sea level, and the pond remover doesn't work on sea water, so for the moment you can't really easily use the underwater space unless you were playing like mermaids and don't mind staring top down (through a reflective warping filter if you use a sea default mind you)

Regardless, from here you can go back in SimPE and delete the road, you can use the lot adjuster to remove the lot road and from there you can build whatever you want.

Make swimmable portions of the water using the floor tile trick people use for swimmable ponds (cannot recommend the invisble tile tool from triple magic enough for this), you can make docks using the deck tool, use the modded ocean fish spawner so the lot can be fished at, make boats, oil rigs, decorate the ocean floor, make tiny islands and use a blocker or invisible fence to keep sims from wandering underwater, etc... Just make sure to use the Portal Revealer mod to move the portals somewhere more appropriate. And remember that wherever the mailbox is, new residents will spawn, the moving cutscene will place the taxi, and walkbys will head to it before they head to another portal.

Oh! And the SimPE terrain tools (though not the road tools) are a bit buggy. You may have to fix terrain holes and improper elevation of beach lots, and lots with large terrain variation by moving them somewhere else and back again or removing and replacing them. It's not that huge a deal, but since it can be tedious, esp with lots sometimes being unplacable where they appear they should be, and you have to do it each time, might be wise to plan ahead how many ocean lots you'll need and make them all at once. And remember, if you move a house with sims in it to the lotbin it unlinks their relationships and leaves dangling character references, so don't do that while fixing this. Either move them along with any gravestones out beforehand or move the lot rather than removing it.

Thanks.

So you can't use a beach lot?

Grim is working overtime it seems. He deserves a raise!