i tried to build a museum in the sims...
Today we're going to try and branch out a little bit and I'm going to build, believe it or not, a community lot in The Sims 4. Now there is some context to this and I'll explain it in a second, but long story short, we're building a museum in Newcrest, so let's just get started. So basically, for the past couple months I've been trying to rebuild all of Newcrest because right now, obviously it's completely empty, so I've been slowly trying to fill it up with lots. I started off with houses because that's what was easiest for me, and now I'm working on the community lots. I want to have like, a museum and a library, and a gym, and a bar, and a park, and I've done a couple of those now. This is the museum though, this is gonna be a science museum in Newcrest.
I had a couple goals for this, number one: I wanted it to be base game only so that everybody could download it and use it, and number two: I wanted it to be a science museum because I was looking to have a spot to put all those weird items that we can't ever fit anywhere, like the observatory and that giant telescope, and all this stuff that's like, really hard to fit in your sims games, I wanted to make sure there's a spot that you could come and use it if your sims needed to, so I made this. And it is really big and it's also still like, a regular museum, like it has all the art and requirements and stuff, but it also has like, a lab upstairs. So if you need to come use it, you totally can. And admittedly, this took me a long time to build. I actually did an entire stream building a different museum that then I decided I hated and bulldozed, so um, that one no longer exists. You're not gonna see footage of her because she is dead, so. Like I said, it took me a while, it's kind of embarrassing how long it took me to build this, but I'm just not very good at building community lots, and I know I always say that and everybody's always like, "No Kayla, you're wrong, you totally are," I know the truth, I know that this is not my comfort zone, and I think part of the problem as well is that when you try and look up reference photos of things like this, like the museums in real life are either absolutely beautiful, built a long time ago, so many carved bricks and like, really fancy architectural details that you just can't pull off in The Sims, or they're a big concrete cube. And you can't do either of those in The Sims 4 because they look silly.
Like, you can't have the fancy architectural brick detail work because it just doesn't exist, and then you can't just do a big giant cube because it looks dumb in The Sims. I feel like it's a lot easier to swallow a building like that in real life, like just a big concrete cube because you see it everywhere. And you look at it from like, a person scale, so when you're standing on the ground, it looks fine, but then you come into The Sims and you zoom all the way out, and you look at it from this like, bird's eye view kind of scale, and it just looks silly. So that's why I struggle with community lots all the time. Always. But this one, I feel like we managed to make it work in the end and it helped once I got this done because then I had sort of an idea for the library that's gonna be next door, so this is the 50 by 40 lot in Newcrest, and then next door there's going to be a library. This lot also kind of has like, a park on the side of it because it's so big that I had a lot of side yard that I kind of wanted to turn into a park space, and again it has like, all these skill-building items inside, there's a whole kids room with like, all kinds of kids skill-building items.
Definitely a good spot to come if you need to like, use a computer, or use a telescope, I mean, all the bases are covered. It just took, you know, embarrassingly long to get there. Also, the entryway was really difficult for me to do. I really struggled to figure out like, the scale of this space and like, how I wanted the entryway to look. Uh, we managed to get there in the end, but I left in all of the struggles of me trying to figure out the space because I figured that it was good to see, you know? Because I'm not that good at building, I think a lot of people think that I am, and I am sometimes, but this was not one of those times, so. It took me a while. I did manage to make like, a sort of fancy entryway though with like, fancy stairs, and I used platforms a lot for it. It does
come together in the end, it just took me a while to get there. I think that happens a lot with builds though, like once you figure out the front and like, the vibes, then it all sort of starts falling into place, but that beginning part where you're trying to figure out where everything's gonna go, that's the hard part. That's the part where when you look back at footage of it, you're like, oh my God, get it together, figure out what you want to do, why do you keep changing it! But once you actually find what you like, then the rest of it just falls into place. This is the part where it hasn't fallen into place yet, so if you think it's weird, don't worry, I did manage to fix some things. It still looks weird at the end, but less weird, which helps. Now I'm going to tell you more about the build later, but I have a couple life updates for you that I want to talk about first because this is a speed build, and that's what I do. Talk about myself. So number one, I'm going to my cousin's wedding this week.
I'm posting this... I think maybe on the day of the wedding? I forget what my schedule looks like, but I'm going to be gone for a couple days at my cousin's wedding, and I'm actually really excited about it because I haven't seen my family in so long, obviously, I'm sure many of us are in this similar position, so I'm really excited to go to the wedding and like, see everybody. Also, Dan gets to meet most of them for the first time which is kind of fun because Dan's met a lot of my family, but most of my cousins like, are very spread out all over the country, and it's hard to get together with people when like, they all live in Oregon and like, all these places everywhere far away. So Dan hasn't met most of them yet, he's met my aunts and uncles, he's met my grandparents, but my cousins are harder to get a hold of. So no pressure. Gotta meet 'em all at once. I feel like a wedding -- this happens to a lot of people though, like meeting the family at a wedding. Because that's like, one of the only times everybody's all together, you know? Because most of the time everybody's busy and spread out, but like, a lot of people come back for the wedding, so that's a good chance for people to meet everybody. I think that we've all been through this kind of thing. I met most
of Dan's family at his great-grandmother's 90th birthday party, so similar situation. Everybody's all there. Everybody's all in one place for like, once because it's a big event, you know? And I think it also helps because the focus isn't on you, you know? Like, when you're meeting your partner's family, it's not fun when like, you're the reason everybody's together, but when you're there for like, someone else's wedding, you're not the main event, so there's less pressure on you for it, you know? Because you're not the whole reason everybody came to it. I think I am personally a bit nervous though, I've only been to two weddings ever before. Well, I went to a couple when I was like, a little kid. Like, I was my uncle's flower girl and like, stuff like that, but
those don't count because that was like, 15 years ago. More than, oh God. That was a long time ago. Um, but I've been to one of my other cousin's weddings, and I've been to a friend's wedding, but that's it as an adult, and I just feel a bit nervous about like, wedding etiquette. I truthfully -- I still don't know what I'm gonna wear, and I -- I'm -- it's not that big of a deal, it's fine, I have a couple options, but like, I still don't know for sure what I'm gonna wear. And so I'm a little bit scared about that. These kind of events are always scary for that reason, you know? But it doesn't matter that much, it's fine. I just -- I think everybody feels that way, everybody feels like, awkward in a fancy dress that you don't normally wear, like it always feels wrong and different, so I think we've all been in that situation, but uh, I'm leaving in a couple days and I still don't know what I want to wear, so. Maybe I'll bring like, two options. I didn't buy anything new because I already had a couple things, like things that I wore to the other weddings, I probably can't wear the dress that I wore to my other cousin's wedding because like, that was the last time I saw most of these people, but I could wear the dress that I wore to my friend's wedding because these people don't overlap, see? That's kind of what I'm thinking, but I'm still undecided, so I'll bring both and we'll see.
No, I shouldn't wear the -- I shouldn't wear the other one for my other cousin's wedding, that's not a good idea. Maybe I do know what I'm going to wear then. Yeah, I don't know why I'm telling you about this, you can't even see the dresses, nor do you care about them. I'm not taking advice, by the way, by the time you see this, it's going to be too late anyway, so. Doesn't really matter. The other fun life update is that Sasha is coming to Orlando, which is going to be before the wedding, but this is going to be a busy week because you all know Vixella, you know her, you love her, she's a simmer. But her family is coming to Orlando, they're driving to Orlando next week, and she's gonna stop by my house while they're on their way down here, And I'm really excited because I haven't seen Sasha in so long, and like she's one of my very best friends, and I just, I really can't wait, so um, that's big.
I haven't seen anyone in a long time, but now -- but now, it's happening. She's going to stay at my house for a night, and here's the problem that I'm having: I don't have space for her, so I used to have a a guest bedroom because I had a roommate for a while and then she moved out, um, and then I just like, had a guest bedroom for a bit, and then Dan moved in and so um, now it's his office, it's where his desk is. So I still have a bed, like I have a mattress. We donated the bed frame, but we kept the mattress, and so I still have the mattress in my garage, and so I'm thinking about just like, putting the mattress in the living room and then being like, here you go Sasha, but there's not really space. Even if -- like, there's not really a spot to move the couch to, like I could put it where the couch is, but then where does the couch go? I could put it up here on the floor probably, but like, how do I get it upstairs? These are all concerns that I still have to figure out, and I'm running out of time to figure out, so I don't know. It'll be fun. Sasha's gonna love to sleep on my floor on the mattress, looking forward to that. Yeah, I don't have like, an air mattress because I never needed to buy one, like I've not really had people stay that aren't my family, so. And I have the mattress,
so I haven't really needed to buy one, and then obviously like, pandemic happens when really nobody came to stay ever, so like, um, an air mattress would probably be ideal for this, though the mattress is gonna be more comfortable. It's just a question of where and how to set it up. I also went to Target and I bought some new towels, I bought some like shampoo and conditioner to leave in the bathroom in case they need it, I don't know, I want to be a good host. I've not hosted friends ever before, so this should be fun. Anyway, you totally don't care about any of those things, these are like, super like, non-issues as well, like they're gonna be fine, I'm just -- I'm just talking out loud about how I'm gonna solve both of these problems -- the dress and the mattress debacles -- because it helps to talk it out, but I'm not actually that worried about it, nor do I need suggestions, it's gonna be fine, I mean I can get my dad to help me carry the mattress, like it's not a problem, so it's okay. Actually, one last thing, speaking of my dad. I wanted to tell you about this because I feel like it's good to um, normalize and help uh, those of you that might be concerned. My dad
actually had his third dose of the COVID vaccine this week, he had his booster shot on Wednesday. They're giving a lot of immunocompromised people the booster shots now, I mean he had his first doses of the vaccine like, longer ago than I did because he got them kind of early, and so now it's kind of, in time for his booster shots, so you might not be like, anywhere near your booster shot timeline yet, I know that like I have no idea when they're gonna tell me to get a booster shot, but I will be there as soon as they do. But my dad had his booster shot this week, um, no symptoms, was totally fine. I mean he didn't have any symptoms from the first dose of the vaccine, but this third dose, no symptoms. I mean he got it, it was done, his arm didn't even hurt. Like, he was okay, but most importantly he is protected from COVID, so if you have the ability to get vaccinated, I really would appreciate it if you did that. Um, I know we've talked about this a lot, but you know, for example,
my dad has cancer. I'm really worried about COVID, um, and I would really appreciate it if those of you who could get vaccinated did because that would help keep everybody safe, yourself included, obviously. So, yay vaccines. Yay science, and here in our science museum in Newcrest. I did want to tell you one weird thing I noticed about the science museum. So I hung up a lot of these paintings -- these you might not recognize, the ones on that far right side of the building, those like, space looking paintings and prints and stuff, those are base game.
Uh, you can get them from debug. The way that you can get them in game is if your sim uses the telescope or the microscope, they can get like, prints of what they see. And so you might like, get them as a collectible in your inventory. Uh, but if you want, you can access them from debug to get them in build mode, and so I put those up because I was like, this is a science museum, that's totally appropriate, like, makes complete sense, but I realize that they don't count as wall decor for the museum requirements, so you can see the museum tells you that you have to have like, 10 wall decor items as one of the requirements. Well, for some reason, those debug paintings didn't count, which is weird. I mean, I get it, they're not from build mode, but like, they are wall decor, and they are paintings that you can access in game. Um, I guess you have to cheat to get them in a museum, but I was surprised
by that. I like -- I kind of was fascinated to see they didn't count, but we had plenty of things, so it was fine. Like, we have lots of paintings everywhere, so it's -- 10 is not a hard number to achieve, but I tried to make like a couple different exhibits here, so that far right side had like, the science-y paintings, like the space ones all together in one space, and then in this room, I put the music artwork because I wanted to have like, all the music things in one place, and then upstairs we kinda have a couple more like, modern art sections. And I kinda liked that about it, I feel like it makes sense to sort of separate the exhibits in that way because that was -- that would be how you would see it in real life, obviously, but this museum's a lot bigger than the ones that you usually would find in The Sims 4, so I wanted to try and do something to make it seem organized because I feel like the other ones -- the ones in Willow Creek are kind of just -- they just have paintings on the wall, like a bunch of different random ones, and that's it.
Which we love, but when you have this many, I feel like you don't want to stick the random, I don't know, cell prints next to the guy in his trumpet, you know? So. The other problem that I was facing was trying to figure out what couches I wanted to put in here because I knew I wanted to have seating, but I was so, so undecided about how I wanted to put the seating. Because I was thinking about putting ottomans, but then all the base game ottomans were like, not really the right style, like they felt too traditional and I wanted it to be like, a little bit more modern because that's the whole vibe of the museum, so I was really unsure of what I wanted to put.
I ended up using those base game couches in that like, gray and white swatch, but they're not my first choice. Like, I think that I would rather they were a different color scheme, but I really didn't know what to do instead. Like, I felt like we didn't have many other choices, so that was annoying, but I think it all works out in the end. It's kind of ugly inside the museum, like there's definitely some weird choices, and you'll see when I post the library speed build as well, in like a week or two, the library definitely has some weird interior choices as well. It's like they built a modern museum of science, and then that was 20 years ago. Is kind of what I'm getting from this. Which is okay, I mean that happens all the time. Things get outdated. But that's definitely what it feels like, like they
tried to make it modern in like, 1995, and so now it's not really as modern as they intended. D'you know what? It's kind of like, Tomorrowland at Disney. Like, Magic Kingdom has this section that's supposed to be like, the future, and they call it Tomorrowland. And the architecture in there is very much not the future, but they tried. They just tried like, 30 years ago, and so it looks a little outdated. That's kind of what these are giving me,
but maybe not as bad, because the future of stuff in Tomorrowland is -- I don't know, it looks like -- picture like, a future movie from the 70s, like that's what it looks like. That's always the problem with this kind of thing because it's never gonna last. Like, you try and make something futuristic, it's always gonna look weird and outdated no matter what. I think this about ultra realistic game graphics in The Sims as well. So hear me out, I think they tried to do this in The Sims 3, like they tried to have more realistic graphics in The Sims 3 ,and now you look back at The Sims 3 and you're like, ooh, that looks horrible. But it's because they tried to do it in 2009 and the tech just wasn't there yet, you know? Like, the sims' faces really do not look very good. That's not their fault,
but it just -- The Sims 3's graphics I don't think aged very well. And I love The Sims 3, don't get me wrong, like that is my favorite game of all time, I'm dead serious. But it really did not age well I don't think, and I worry about The Sims 5 possibly trying to be like, super realistic when it comes to graphics because it might look really good today and we might be super impressed by it now, but is it going to hold up in like, 15 years? Are we gonna look back on The Sims 5 and be like, eugh. That looks horrible. And that's why I like The Sims 4 because it's supposed to be more cartoon-y, it's not trying to be realistic, like I think that the graphics of The Sims 4 really do hold up because they aren't trying to be something that they can't be. And d'you know what else, realistic graphics just are kind of eerie sometimes. Like, thinking about
The Last of Us, it's this game -- it came out last year, you might have heard of it. It's a really small indie game, um, The Last of Us 2, anybody? The Last of Us, the first one's like, one of the most popular games of all time, and they had a sequel come out last year and it's awesome, like the graphics are so good, but the humans in it look so realistic, it's kind of eerie. And I think it's because of the fact that the graphics are there, like their faces look so good, but the animations in these just can't match real life. Like,
it's not up to par with like, how their faces move and how their lips move when they talk, and so like, you look at it and it's like, uncanny valley, like kind of scary because you know it's not real, and there's like, something off about them. It is kind of freaky, to be fair, it's a freaky game about like, an apocalypse, so that doesn't help either, but um, it is kind of weird to look at those sort of realistic graphics, they're kind of scary sometimes. D'you know what? I feel like a game like The Last of Us, you probably can't get much further from The Sims, like that jump from those kind of games is a pretty big one. I like that game, I didn't play it, but my boyfriend did, so I watched him stream it.
So I've like, seen the whole game, but I didn't -- I didn't play it myself. I don't think I would like to play that game, I get really stressed playing games. Like, I've played Life is Strange, which is also kind of a choice based sort of game. Not as hard to play at all, but inLife is Strange, even the smallest things cause me so much stress because that's the kind of game where like, your choices impact the future of the game, so in Life is Strange, um, you might have a simple choice like, just simple in conversation with one of the other people in the game, but it has ripple effects, and so those choices completely change your gameplay experience all the way until the end, and so it's -- I don't know, I get so stressed. I'm really indecisive just in general, and when you know that what you're saying could impact like, the rest of the game, it makes me nervous. I like my little safe sandbox games like The Sims, I feel a lot safer in this space than I do in like, other games, where my actions don't have consequences.
We're kind of close to wrapping up the speed build portion of this now, you'll see that I cut out a bunch of it, like the bathrooms and a couple things, and it's just because of how indecisive I was being, speaking of indecisive. I spent so long doing the smallest things, like the bathrooms, it was genuinely embarrassing. Like, I had -- I had to delete the footage, no one needs to see that. My poor Twitch stream had to see it live, and that's more than they deserved. So this museum did take me two streams to finish as well, which I mean, is a long time, so. No way we could have kept that all the footage in the
speed build, it would simply be a very long and nightmarish one. Could you imagine watching like, a two hour long speed build of me just like, doing the bathrooms, doing something else, being like, mmm, the bathrooms are weird, going back and changing them again, like no one deserves that. You already had enough of that with the front of the building, okay, we don't need to relive that on the interior. And like I said,
this build is, in fact, base game only and it's on my gallery, so if you want to download it, you totally can, it's available for you. It's called Newcrest Science Museum. Um, I'm gonna slowly, obviously, rebuild all of Newcrest and all the lots, I'm slowly putting them on the gallery so that you can grab them too if you want to use them. I'm not done yet, I still have like, about half of Newcrest left to finish. I have a couple more community lots and a couple more houses, plus all the sims I still need to make. I've been putting off the sims and the community lots because those are not my strong suits, so. No one's surprised by that. Uh, I think I'm really
good at building a little suburban house, but the rest of those things are not my finest abilities. Now, that is the speed build kind of wrapped up here. I'm gonna pop into game though and give you a tour of the whole thing, it's just easier to see that way. So you can see, this is the progress we've made so far in Newcrest, and down here is where the science museum is. No spoilers, about the rest of it. But this, my friends, is the museum. Oh, I should have brought a sim here so you can see the fountains and the ducks, hang on. Okay, Brandie is here. Oh, well now the weather's bad. We just can't win. So here's the fountain, I put ducks in it. And also obviously the fountains are there, I just
think this is adorable, like I love the vibes of this. The entry has a big astronaut statue, which is also base game. A lot of people didn't believe me because they've never seen it before, but this astronaut statue, you get it when you max the astronaut career, or level nine of the astronaut career. It's a reward, but sized up. It's like a reward, see. Okay, anyway, this is the park. There's like, a little pathway, there's a couple kids toys, we have that observatory. In the back, you can keep going down that pathway, we have a couple chess tables, of course. Uh, there is a rocket ship very close to the building,
truthfully, but that's okay because it's The Sims. I feel like in real life, that's probably not the best idea, but you know, Sims 4 it's fine. And then inside, you can walk up these big fancy steps into the inside. There's like,
a check-in desk, or like, a reception desk, basically. We've got another astronaut statue, and then you have a few directions you can go, so if you choose to go to the right, this will take you into that like, more science-y section where we have like, all of the rocks and geology stuff, there's some prints, space, you know, all the things you might want. Uh, if you choose to go to the left, down here is that music section we were talking about.
There's also the bathrooms downstairs, there's two bathrooms in here. And then through here is the kids area, they have like, everything you could possibly need: toys, science tables, lots of things to skill build, and also a small kitchen. Because I was picturing the kids coming here for like, summer camp, or daycare, or something, and so I wanted to have like, a small staff room for like, who I'm picturing the daycare workers to be here all day, and they can like, you know, keep the kids lunch boxes in the fridge, and then give it to them afterward, you know? And then if you go up the stairs, up the big staircase, that takes you to the second floor. There's a few more paintings up here, there's like some modern artwork on this side, there's also some like, landscape work over here. A couple interesting things, like a typewriter, you know. And then through this door is the lab, so there's three microscopes you can use
and a couple computers, if you need one. There's also a bathroom upstairs if you need one, and then down the other side, there's a small like, art studio? So this place is in general like, pretty functional if you need to come here all day. I'm picturing like, playing a legacy challenge and not owning an easel and wanting to come here to use theirs, you know? So all the bases are covered, like skill-building-wise, which I appreciate because I -- this is the kind of thing that I like to use in my own personal gameplay, I feel like there's not really a reason to come to the museums most of the time, but when you actually put stuff that like, you wouldn't have in your house, because let's be real, you probably don't have this in your house. It makes the space like, more reasonable to come to, there's actually a draw for it, so that was the concept, and I think I pulled it off. I hope that you enjoyed this video, I love a good speed build, I can sit here and talk all day, as we all know. So I think on that note, I'm gonna go, and I will see you all tomorrow. Bye everybody.
Also, if you like the hoodie that I'm wearing, check out lilsimsieshop.com. Grab your own today! I'm sorry, I had to plug it at least once. [ JAZZY OUTRO MUSIC ]
2021-09-28 21:02
