The Sims Bunker began as a way to relieve extreme stress, anxiety, and depression from being a single mom in college, when the original “The Sims” game was released in 2000.

I was going to school in the competitive field of advertising and found that The Sims were great as almost a psychological spa treatment, where, if I “entered” for 3-4 days as a raw, nervous, depressed, wreck of a person, I would be recharged creatively for several months or more, until life got too hectic again and I needed another “treatment”.

I also found that The Sims allowed me to be creative, when I was too burnt out, from being creative professionally, to function. There are probably few feelings worse to an artist, than feeling so wrung out that a shower seems impossible, let alone an actual creative project!

Decorating a room or designing a house in The Sims 4, then staging screenshots, is just as creative to me, as creating an original photograph or digital collage, it’s just a different medium. It’s “post-photography“, if anything ever was, and gamers have had this figured out for decades!

The Sims Bunker is simple:

Step 1: Download & install The Sims 4. It’s literally free. You don’t have to spend money, as long as your computer or gaming system is good enough to play the game. This part probably takes the longest, so do this first! If it’s already installed, fire up the game since it takes so long to load for most of us! If you play with mods, update them now! This part can take an hour (more if you’re installing all the DLC, which costs money!)

Step 2: Decide where you want to be for the next 3-4 days and set up your PC or gaming system for optimal relaxation. Pick a cozy spot where you can comfortably use a game controller, a mouse or your track pad. I also light lavender candles, cuz I’m extra and I like to engage all five senses like they would at a spa! It helps me clear my mind and stay in the moment!

Step 3: I know this part sucks, but try to FORCE yourself you have a shower. It’s not mandatory, I’ve definitely gone trash panda chic in the Sims Bunker a time or two, but trust me, you’ll feel better and enjoy this more if you start off fresh and clean. Plus, this gives the game time to load/download/install and for your scented candles to fill the room. (Disclaimer: don’t leave candles unattended! *cough*)

Step 4: After showering, put on your favourite, most comfiest clothes. (Preferably clean ones! If you’re having executive dysfunction, choose clean over comfort!) This could be pajamas or sweat pants, satin or flannel, it doesn’t matter! Be naked if you want! The only people who are gonna see you for the next few days are the people who live with you, and possibly Uber Eats drivers!

Step 5: Gather your softest, fluffiest blanket, your favourite pillow or Squishmallow, and TWO beverages of your choice. (I do not recommend alcohol, the point of this is hydration because this is a marathon, not a sprint, but you do you.)

Step 6: Grab a snack. (More on snack selection at a later date, but basically you want something you can eat with one hand, because you’ll be using your other to play the game!)

Step 7: GO PEE! You don’t want to have to get up just as you get into the game! Getting up = IRL interruptions!

Step 8: Get comfy and immerse yourself in Sims (or a similar game) for as long as your schedule allows, or until you feel like doing something else! For me, the process usually takes about 3-4 days.

Like I said, it’s pretty simple, but somehow magic!

When I come out the other end, my mind is clearer and whatever problem I was having or state I was in when I started seems to have a solution or has dissolved!

So, The Sims Bunker became a way of life.

Now, when I’m burnt out from life, professional or just in general, I retreat to The Sims Bunker, immerse myself in a game for a few days, and usually all is well!

I’ve been doing this for 25 years, since The Sims game franchise began, and I’m pretty sure that without this neutral outlet, my bipolar, anxious nature would have gotten the better of me by now, to disastrous results!

This site is where I chronicle my Sims stories and mental health journey through gaming, the way I used to on LiveJournal, Patreon, and Twitter/X. Hopefully it’s of benefit to someone somehow.

The first group is casual Sims players, who only play the game two or three times per year, in longer marathon sessions, to clear their minds, in the spirit this website, and all my previous writings/posts about The Sims Bunker on various other platforms. Most of these players play the free, base version of the game with very little, if any, DLC. Most of these same players, as far as I’ve been told over the years by the ones who have engaged somehow, have been following me for a long time online through other channels, for other reasons, and my therapeutic application of The Sims is just “one of the things” they’ve come to associate with me.

The second group is more obsessive/hardcore (lol) Sims players, like myself, who follow all the Simfluencers on YouTube, read the Subreddit regularly and may even participate in its Discord server at some point, and buy most, if not all of the DLC (but we all collectively agree “fuck Batuu”.) These players don’t come from my existing community, but got here by googling some variation of a Sims challenge. They read the “The Moody Family Cult Challenge” page and maybe my main page about what The Sims Bunker is, but then they never come back. Or they probably only come back to re-verify certain aspects of the challenge or print out/save the rules to try it themselves. That page gets the most direct traffic and almost all of it comes from Google.

The third group are my Facebook friends, who have either never played any iteration of The Sims, or stopped playing the game a long time ago and remember it fondly. These folks visit exactly once per year, every November, when I participate in Extra Life by playing Sims for 24 hours, because I link my Extra Life page with my total donations over the years when I make my initial post there about the event and again when I post to kick off Game Day.

All three of these groups come here for the promise of Sims content, as little content as there may be on this site. I mean, there are only three pages and a barely updated blog!

But, because almost everything in the world has to be crappy in 2026, especially in the United States where The Sims is made, our beloved franchise has been sullied. Their parent company, EA (Electronic Arts), has been bought out or sold to Jared Kushner (Donald Trump’s son-in-law) and the Saudi fucking government for an astronomical amount of money. So much money in fact, that I don’t think there’s even a snowball’s chance in hell that any ethical company could ever afford to buy the game from them in the future. Even if we all boycotted and tanked it, which it appears The Sims community is mostly trying to do in response, the new owners are not likely to sell it at a loss.

I think do think the boycott is working, though, or at least doing something. I now get an e-mail about once every three days from The Sims, trying to entice me back into playing the game or buying new DLC. Previous to the buyout, I only got one or two e-mails per pack total, but maybe that’s also because I always bought the pack so they knew not to send me more e-mails idk All I know is that they’ve full on spammed me about Spongebob DLC, the Royalty DLC, and the log-in events associated with them, to a degree that I’ve never personally seen from The Sims before.

So Where Does This Leave Me?

The biggest YouTube Simfluencers have switched over to other games, leaving the EA Creator Network and vowing not to purchase any new Sims DLC. Some however, are still playing with the DLC they already owned pre-buyout and creating content with it, which I disagree with because they’re still creating content that may entice new players to the game who are unaware of or wouldn’t care about the EA sale.

Personally, I am choosing to not play any of The Sims games or DLC I already owned pre-buyout, and obviously I won’t be buying any new DLC, because it just doesn’t feel good to me anymore. I believe the ride is officially over and it’s time for me to let the franchise go.

I haven’t fired up The Sims since Extra Life in November 2025 and have no intentions of ever doing so again. I will be backing up my save files “in case of a miracle”, uninstalling the game, and removing the Sims stickers from my gaming laptop (seen above).

My main event for Extra Life Game Day this year, knowing full well it would be my last year playing Sims for the event because the buyout was announced a few week prior, was my Sunny & Harold Sims, created in the likenesses of me and my partner, having a wedding because it was a big milestone event and I knew I could never top it. It seemed like the most appropriate way for me to say goodbye to the franchise that’s been my favourite game and one of the cornerstones of my mental health for the past 26 years.

I guess I’ll never get to have played a Sim from birth through to death like I was trying to do with my first legacy family headed by Mya Moody, or complete my own Off-Grid Cult Challenge headed by Charlie Moody, but I’m fine with that. It’s just a game and none of it is real. (Unlike the reality that the game’s new owners want women subservient and The Rainbow Mafia and all our allies to “disappear”, among other atrocities…)

So What’s Next?

Last time I checked, I had put around 1900 hours into The Sims 4 since 2014. But a little known fact about me, is that I have also put 1775 hours into Animal Crossing New Horizons since it came out in 2020. So really, for the past 6 years, “The Sims Bunker” has mostly been me choosing to play marathon sessions of Animal Crossing over The Sims 4 anyway.

Pivoting the focus of this smol website into more general gaming makes sense, and the spirit of the Sims Bunker is still there:

• I still largely play when I’m burnt out and need to rest and replenish my brainmeats.
• I still encourage adults, especially women, to do the same because I think it’s important for some of us to have permission to do so, if only from some strange woman on the internet.

This site has always been about me giving adults the permission and justification they need to just pause, do something fun, low risk, high reward, and creative every now and then without feeling guilty about it.

So my plan, over the next little while is to archive and re-write my written explanation of what the Sims Bunker is on the main page and remove The Moody Family Cult Challenge from the menu at the top of every page. It’ll still show up in Google results when people search for Sims challenges, it just won’t be the main feature of SimsBunkerDotCom any longer. Finally, I’ll be designing a new, less Sims-centric logo.

The site will always be called Sims Bunker, and I will always refer to my extreme gaming mode for curing burnout, depression, and anxiety as being in “The Sims Bunker”. The Sims Bunker is a state of mind not tied to The Sims franchise exclusively, but to the specific set of stimuli that games like it provide. This site will be about those games.

Switch-ing Focus On Deck

I am fortunate enough to have a pretty decent gaming laptop, as well as both a Steam Deck, and I just upgraded from a coral Nintendo Switch Lite to a shiny new Switch 2. (I qualified “Nintendo” even though it’s sort of redundant for most people, in case my mom is reading this. )

The latter means that, for the first time since N64 (also Nintendo, mom, from the ’90s ), I can play games on my TV, which has made playing my usual games an entirely different experience. For the first time ever, I can actually see Stardew Valley, that I have about ~900 hours put into on Steam Deck but only 70 hours on my Switch because it was literally too small for me to see! I can actually see details in Animal Crossing that I didn’t even know were there! (I plan to make a post about the upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition of Animal Crossing specifically, eventually!) And when a dragon attacks in Skyrim, I can actually see the whole dragon!

I find Animal Crossing extremely helpful for my social anxiety, specifically. I bring my Switch to parties and other social events where there will be many conversations around me, because I find that if I focus on Animal Crossing, it also allows me to listen better in chattery environments. I can actually narrow down the voices and focus with my ears, on one conversation and potentially participate, whereas without the game in my hand I have a terrible time trying to follow what’s going on in the room. I assume this is due to my general neurodiverence. (I have bipolar disorder, general anxiety disorder that was recently reclassified to social anxiety disorder, c-ptsd, and agoraphobia. My son also thinks at base level I’m autistic because they were recently diagnosed as having ASD and we’re pretty much the same.)

Upgrading to a Switch 2 meant that I could show my partner, Harold, what I’ve done in Animal Crossing for 1800 hours for the first time, by playing on the TV! It also means that somehow – and I’m not sure how yet – I can record an Animal Crossing island tour video for the first time and put it on YouTube to share here! I’m very excited to show off my plans for 2026’s “forever island” overhaul, and the end result once it’s finished!

Theoretically I can stream using the Switch too, but I have 0 interest in that if I’m being honest. I feel like that would be truly boring content and I’m not putting on makeup to play Animal Crossing! That defeats the purpose!

Stay Tuned…?

I can’t promise there will be new content here regularly, in fact it’s highly doubtful. I’m extremely busy IRL and divide my free time between social events, and many different interests and projects. Currently, I’m in the very delicate, preliminary stages of writing a book, and after many false starts over the years, I’m trying not to get distracted and abandon the project by getting sucked in by another one. This site is another one…

That said, the one “pressure valve” I’m allowing myself during the writing process is playing Animal Crossing, which is why I treated myself (invested in my mental health, more like it) when I randomly saw an “open-box” Switch 2 at Best Buy for $200 less than everywhere else. It was the very same day Nintendo surprised everyone by announcing the recent Animal Crossing 3.0 update and Switch 2 Edition of the game, years after announcing there would be no more updates, so it felt like a sign to upgrade.

I’m not much of a talker for making compelling gaming videos, but I am a documentarian and compulsive sharer of my own life, so that may include occasional blog posts here with screenshots of Animal Crossing builds and Happy Home Paradise/Hotel rooms I’ve done, custom design codes I’ve found to create those builds or that would make a great build in general, maybe some of the wacky “adult” dialogue my villagers come up with, and possibly the “beautiful mind shit” that I put into planning an island overhaul on paper in a notebook.

Will anyone visit or be interested enough to read any of this? Probably not. I expect no one to care but me – maybe the few gamers in my Discord could be enticed to read the occasional post – and I have no goals or expectations with any of this. Like most of my projects, it’s just a natural byproduct of what I happen to be doing anyway and will or won’t happen regardless of audience.

On Saturday, November 8th at 8am, the fun and festivities begin!

Saturday, November 8th marks my 6th year participating in Extra Life Game Day, the day gamers around the world play video games for 24 hours straight to raise funds for children’s hospitals.

My charity is Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto!

As I do every year, I will be playing The Sims 4 for 24 hours, beginning at 8am Saturday morning until 8am Sunday morning. (Chances are, I’ll actually go longer than that, because I always do, but 8am-8am is the goal.)

As I play, I will be live skeeting both Game Day and gameplay on my Sims Bunker Bluesky account! Not streaming, but using short text, screenshots and gifs from the game to tell my Sims’ stories, as well as updating the world in general about my Game Day progress with photos!

This year, instead of playing my Sims Legacy Family as I have for most previous years, I’ll be playing Sims created in the likenesses of myself and my partner Harold. I had them commissioned from photographs of us in 2021 but rarely play them because I never know what to do with them and I’m scared of jinxing myself or manifesting more than I can handle IRL! (True story! ) Their names in the game are Sunny Moody and Harry FromBarrie!

If we raise my main goal of $400 US for Sick Kids, SUNNY MOODY AND HARRY FROMBARRIE (SIMS!) WILL GET MARRIED and have a fairytale forest themed wedding!

A Sims version of Michael Stipe will be our officiant and Kurt Cobain & Courtney Love will make their appearances as our best friends and Sims Of Honour!

Our Flower Pal and Ring Bearer are still TBD!

Musician suggestions to fill those roles, and the roles of guests, are welcome on social media!

Throughout the event, there will be wedding and romance themed gameplay with each milestone!

Think of donating like electronically clinking your wine glass at a wedding to make the bride and groom kiss! Even $1 helps! And it goes to a good cause instead of a fancy party!

If we raise my stretch goal of $500 US:

After the wedding
SUNNY MOODY
AND HARRY FROMBARRIE
WILL GO ON A ROMANTIC
HONEYMOON GETAWAY!

Location and details TBD!

–> DONATE TO EXTRA LIFE HERE <—
SO WE CAN HAVE A HONEYMOON!

As I do every year, I will be chronicling Sunny Moody & Harry FromBarrie’s epic Game Day wedding adventure hopefully starting from a date extending into their honeymoon, in story form with screenshots and cute or funny gifs, on my Sims Bunker Bluesky account, just like I used to on Twitter before it became X! (Bluesky finally allows gifs! I finally feel I have a platform to do this again! HALLELUJAH!)

That’s also where I’ll be updating with what’s happening IRL throughout Game Day! Follow along as I talk about pizza and binging on junk food, while struggling to stay not just awake, but stay energized, because IRL Sunny is now 46-years-old and this event is getting harder to pull off each year! I was 40 when I started Extra Life as a non-parental, single unit and it’s crazy to me the difference in energy between then and now! Holy crapples!

To see how I’ve done in previous years, click here!

I think it’s especially important for women to make space in their days to do play video games, if only to make space for us in this industry in general, but also because I feel like a lot of us have a tendency to get caught up in whatever our primary occupations are, and we go so hard at everything, that gaming allows the brain to rest & flow on its own, without much force, with achievable goals (if you find the right games). It can also release anger & frustration while not hurting anyone or yourself by either allowing you to let it go by way of passive, casual games, or by releasing it by being competitive & aggressive, like in games where you have to kill things or play against other people.

I think it’s important for women to take time for themselves on a regular, if not daily, therapeutic basis in general because so many of us traditionally haven’t. I was not encouraged to play video games as a child, even tho I liked them, because my grama thought they were lazy and for boys, and that she was instilling a healthy work ethic in me, when all she was doing was giving me an adult complex that it took a lot of therapy & time to come to terms with & learn to fucking relax! Now I get a lot more done and I’m a lot happier!

I don’t care if the game is Candy Crush on your phone every day, or something crazy competitive pew pew pew like Overwatch, it doesn’t matter what the game is, as long as your brain is engaged in a fun, low stakes activity with achievable goals, that you can do comfortably, in your own home or office.

People keep asking me why I’m so “okay” now, and honestly, figuring this out and allowing myself time & space to play guilt-free when I need to has been part of my mental healthy journey and why I began this site. I literally think it’s needed for my brain to be calm, productive & happy. Maybe you need it too. YMMV.

A few days ago, I decided to choose a Moody Family Cult household in Brindleton Bay that I hadn’t played yet, essentially starting from scratch. I had pre-made 13 families to move into the town originally and I felt like an easy challenge, so I chose Shelly Moody because she was a single Sim, living alone in a tiny house, and a single Sim is easier to manage than a whole family, especially when your whole town is off-the-grid. I also only had 5 unplayed households left to play to choose from, most of which were single bachelors and bachelorettes, and I wasn’t in the mood for romancing. I thought at the very least, I could make her interested in Charlie or Faith and I could force a love triangle, which sounded typical, but interesting given the story’s current context that Charlie (cult leader) and Faith (his 2nd in command) are currently engaged and they’re both friends with every single person in the cult. I was curious about what would happen if I caused a rift, would the game be smart enough for the rest of the cult to have opinions or feelings about the ensuing drama and possible breakup? Would they shun the newcomer?

Well, I never found out because I never got that far!

The reason I chose Shelly to play right out of the gate on Day 1 of my Sims Bunker Extended World Tour Spring 2024, was because when I clicked on her household in world view, there was a curious little symbol in the upper right-hand corner of the box with all of her financial and household information. I had no idea what it was (I should have taken a screenshot!), so I decided to play her household and find out!

Shelly…had an INFANT.

So that’s what that symbol meant! She had an infant! Why didn’t they fucking say so?? How the hell did she get an infant when I created her household in 2020 and Growing Together wasn’t even released until 2023?? I mean obviously there were infants in the game prior to and without the Growing Together expansion pack, the pack just made them playable, but I was pretty sure that either without it, you couldn’t create infants in Create-A-Sim, and/or B, that I simply wouldn’t do that to myself! But I guess you can and I did! Wtf was I thinking bringing an INFANT into an off-the-grid commune that may or may not be a cult!?

But honestly?

Playing Shelly and baby Brylee was actually some of the most fun I’ve had in this challenge and not a lot of the gameplay was hindered or made more difficult in any way by being off-the-grid! The biggest challenge, as with pretty much every household in this challenge, was getting that Handiness Skill up to level 9 so Shelly could craft a BATH TUB and keep herself clean enough to stay motivated to do other things! And actually the baby kept her Social Needs up most of the time and gave her all kinds of positive moodlets, which actually helped her overcome her initial grubbiness!

Toddlers Suck, But Infants Rock!

I’ve actually never been able to relate to a Sim more than I related to Shelly Moody through taking care of Brylee through her infancy up until she was a toddler. Sims have idealistic career paths (for the most part, they introduced layoffs recently, wtf?), marriages, and families, even the art career, which you’d think, me being an artist I would relate to it, but no, not really. There’s simply a large portion of this game that I really enjoy, I just don’t feel any relation to it. I don’t know how it feels to be famous or magical; or sell a painting for more than $1000; or go skiing, explore a jungle, or go camping; and the toddlers in the game are 10,000% more annoying than my actual kids ever were, so I’m really guessing at how those things would feel. But the babies made me fall in love hard. These Sims made me feel something for the first time in my 24 years playing the game.

In the beginning, life with an infant was difficult because, like a real baby, tiny Brylee’s sleep patterns weren’t predictable yet. Once she moved from a bassinet to a crib (I used a playpen instead, not sure why ), it was easier to “sleep when she sleeps”. Once they had a routine, I could better predict how many tasks Shelly could get done in the time Brylee was asleep.

While sleeping, infants recharge slower than adults, so it was actually fairly easy to stay ahead of her. Shelly could pee, shower, make food or eat, and craft three wooden bath tubs at the woodworking table while Brylee was asleep or playing with toys, for at least $4500 every 24 hours.

Pro Tip: When playing an infant in this challenge, make sure you breastfeed or you’ll be running empty bottles to the garbage can constantly because it’s better to not have a sink. Not having a sink means more garbage, more garbage means more Bits & Pieces and Scavenging For Parts through recycling, both of which are extremely useful for upgrading things and crafting candles. But do it after you have the ability to bathe or your Sim is gonna have a bad time…

What I loved the most about taking care of an infant in this challenge, was how fast Shelly’s Parenting Skill went up doing interactions with baby Brylee, like having “tummy time” and helping her sit up and stand, because of the added skill bonus you get from living in a tiny house. (All the Sims in this off-the-grid cult challenge start off living in tiny homes because they all started off with such meagre funds.)

The thing I loved the most about playing an infant in general, was introducing her to new foods. I thought that level of detail was great, and so wholesome, and typical of The Sims franchise. It was very endearing. My only wish was that the baby should have made a sour face when she tried lemon. I was disappointed after trying them all that there were really only a few animations for all the foods.

All in all, I loved playing an infant so much, that I played Brylee on Long Lifespan, which I think ended up being ~30 in-game days, and I did not feel the urge to age her up into a toddler any earlier than her actual birthday. I have toddlers in other households and find them pretty annoying after a while. I always want to give in and age them up early because I play on Long Lifespan and toddlers are cute, but mostly fucking annoying in this challenge. Because I’m not cheating in this challenge either, aging them up early is not an option and is just part of the pain of the whole thing. My stupidity for making 8 person households with multiple pets and toddlers!

I knew not killing everyone in such complex off-grid households was possible, or The Sims folks wouldn’t have made a whole expansion pack based on Eco Living and off-the-grid lots, but I couldn’t guarantee the kids wouldn’t get taken away! So far, none have and everyone’s a B or better student! It probably helps that none of the adults have jobs! But Shelly and Brylee already have a much closer relationship with each other than the households that started with toddlers being the youngest. Shelly’s Parenting Skill is also much higher because of the tiny house bonus and the fact that the game makes you interact with the infant so regularly just keeping her fed, clean, happy, and diapered.

It was nice that Brylee was playable and not basically a piece of interactive furniture, like the babies are in the Base Game. I found that as long as there were multiple toys on the ground, I could more or less keep her happy by having her alternate between playing with all the toys in her vicinity all day, in between naps and feedings. While she did that, Shelly was busy – you guessed it – crafting wooden bath tubs! Because so far this community *cough* cult runs strictly on a handcrafted wooden bath tub economy, with a bit of entrepreneurial knitting thrown in for the Sims who enjoy it!

Speaking of knitting, adding the ability to knit infant onesies was much appreciated! I assume that was an addition to the Growing Together pack, or is a result of the pack existing. Shelly never found the time to get into knitting and Plopsy because wooden bath tubs was so profitable and efficient, which is what you need when playing with an infant while having no stable source of income, but in one of the other households I played directly after her, I noticed onesies were a thing! Good to know for future babies!

I guess it’s safe to say that Growing Together is one of my favourite expansion packs for The Sims 4! I think I’d rate it in my top 5 so far, with the understanding that I’ve barely played any expansion packs all the way through as intended expansions. I’ve usually used the items, clothing, aspirations, and sometimes careers, while mostly ignoring new worlds, venues, and storylines. Maybe it’s because it’s such a small pack relatively speaking, I was able to play it so thoroughly.

Combined with the Parenthood game pack, Growing Together is a solid investment in your Sims library!

I’ve done so much Simming the past 4 days that I’d love to show you a billion screenshots of, but unfortunately the super fast SSD drive I was using to run the game on and store screenshots, decided to start spitting errors at me instead of Sims, and I had to reformat it, losing all of 2024’s raw content!

I then spent the next ~3 hours uninstalling & reinstalling the game, and another hour reinstalling mods and saves. Thankfully The Sims saves your actual Sims files to C:// drive! But what a pain in the ass! And as far as hard drive failures go, I’ve definitely lost way worse! Like years worth of data and original art! Some Sims screenshots are nothing to cry over. It’s just a game! The loss of a 6 month old drive really sucks though. If anyone has any recommendations on GOOD SSD drives, I’m all ears because my new laptop’s built-in hard drive is tiiiiiiiny! Contact me on Twitter with recommendations, if you have any!

We have a new logo! And I revamped the whole site to be more in line with what my original vision for it was! I’m very pleased with it so far! (But I wish I could get off of Twitter/X, still trying out alternatives. )

Well, it’s been a minute since I updated this site, not that anyone goes here anyway, but I’m currently preparing to hit the Sims Bunker for a few days, so I thought I’d post an update before I did.

“Preparing” to hit the Sims Bunker involves tying up loose ends in my work, finishing commitments, and setting aside a solid chunk of time to dedicate to taking care of myself and my mental health!

Right now my brain is badly in need of a vacation!

Spring and summer are super busy times for me socially. There’s BBQs, bonfires, private parties and music concerts in the city to go to! And this summer is shaping up to be no different!

I just came off a 3 week run of events a couple of days ago, and my social battery is more or less depleted. It’s time to jump into The Sims and I am so ready for the mental break! I have ONE more social engagement to get through tonight and then it’s smooth Sim sailing until the end of the weekend! w00t!

The Moody Family State Of The Union

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to immerse myself fully in the world of Charlie Moody and his disciples, but like I mentioned, it’s been even longer since I posted an update on them, so let me catch you up to speed.

When I first started playing The Moody Family, I was having a hell of a time keeping everyone clean because you need a Handiness skill of 7 to craft a wooden bath tub, and the skill needs to be maxed out at 10 to craft a wooden toilet!

In the meantime, everyone was stuck with peeing in dirty bushes, which made them extra dirty and miserable, and less likely to want to craft anything!

The best solution to this I found to not having tubs yet, was getting my Sims to shower in the rain during the spring and summer. This, unfortunately, lead to one of my teens being hit by lightning! She was okay, but she was actually DIRTIER afterwards!

For my mermaids, who were drying out as fast as if we were playing in the Sahara, I had to utilize the community pool with them daily if I wanted to keep them happy! It takes a long time for mermaids to hydrate this way, to it was pretty tedious and time consuming! And their hydration decays faster than a regular Sims’ hygiene, I’m pretty sure! I was so relieved when one of them was finally skilled enough to craft a tub and soak in the water! FINALLY!

Meanwhile, Back At The Farm…

I had to make an executive decision at some point last year, regarding the community garden lot.

I had built a BEAUTIFUL community garden and stocked it with every single fruit and vegetable in the game. All my Sims had to do was plant and maintain everything.

Charlie and Faith Moody planted the whole garden and I expected the rest of the community to take care of it from then on autonomously, when I was playing various families. That did not happen. I think the family you were currently playing was expected to tend the garden, which would have made tending the community garden a full time job for all of my Sims.

Since I have other goals in the game, and Country Living was released, I decided to bulldoze the 50×50 community garden lot and move Charlie and The Moody Family HQ to the same lot to start a farm!

Since the Horse Ranch expansion was also released during this time and wine/nectar making became an actual profession, I decided to make the cult’s economy wine-based. At least until I’m able to get them established in cannabis growing and selling.

So far, Charlie has some chickens, a cow, a llama, and a tiny greenhouse full of grapes! His compound also has several dew collectors and wind turbines to gather water and electricity! That means that select items, that ordinarily wouldn’t work off-grid, actually do! I’ll make a separate post at some point with items I’ve found that work off-grid or with limited electricity, that are fine for this challenge! (And why!)

Love Is In The Air!

Charlie decided he needed some help running the cult and recruiting members, so he enlisted Faith to be his assistant!

So, Faith and her sister Gemma moved onto the Moody Compound, and I dunno if it was the shack’s close quarters, or if Charlie’s just that enigmatic of a leader, but Faith soon found herself falling in love with him. Gemma likes Charlie, but ultimately could not care less.

Faith is now hoping that Charlie will ask her to marry him, but first, he has to realize she’s even a viable candidate. Currently, Charlie is solo polyamorous and is tied down to no one! What will Faith have to do to change that?

Dead Dog Society

So I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that my dogs keep getting sick from getting in fights with squirrels in the pee bushes. One of them even died!

The original rules of The Moody Family Challenge that I set out in the very beginning, said that if a pet gets sick, they either have to get better on their own, or they simply have to die.

The reason for this was because The Moody Family’s only transportation at the time, were bicycles, and the whole town of Brindleton Bay, with the exception of the Lounge, was off-the-grid, so I couldn’t move in a pre-made veterinarian. Plus, I didn’t want to lose the real estate or have to put in an NPC.

Currently, the town has no NPCs!

So, I put a pre-fab veterinarian in Newcrest and allowed them to travel there with a sick dog once, but I found the experience completely inauthentic to the story, and decided I needed a new solution.

Enter: Robin Moody

So, the good news is that I’m bending my own rules to allow for Robin Moody to become a veterinarian for the community. She’s been given a free community lot right beside her house, but I didn’t give her any Simoleons to start her business.

My goal for Robin is for her to slowly earn enough money to purchase and build everything she needs to open a veterinary clinic. I’m not sure if anything needed for a vet clinic works off-the-grid – I kinda doubt it, there are scanners and things – but I’m fully prepared to give the lot electricity and water if it’s absolutely necessary. Although, I still plan to do everything in my power to have an off-the-grid lot, by having her invest in dew collectors and wind turbines.

Due to the expense involved in starting a vet clinic, I expect that this subplot is going to take me a while to achieve, especially since Robin’s doing it by selling one $700, hand-crafted, wooden bath tub at a time!

We Have Cult Puppies!

I found another way for the cult to make money: breeding puppies!

Or at least, they would if I could sell the damn things! As of the last time I played, the mechanic for selling or surrendering pets appeared to be broken! Same with adopting mini goats! What the actual!

Hopefully it’s fixed before I login later tonight!

Putting Kids To Work

Scrambling for money in your off-grid challenge? Kids can knit! And some of them really like it! Then they can gift those knitted items to a teen or adult Sim to sell on Plopsy! Or just use them in your decor, as anything handmade fits the cult aesthetic perfectly!

That’s It!

I guess that’s all the updates I have right now. My last social engagement of the week is almost over, I’ve been writing this on my laptop as I sit at a table in a public square in downtown Barrie, Ontario, Canada with about 20 other people who, are all laughing and socializing. The sun is just setting and the heat of the day has dissipated.

When I get back to my partner’s house after this event, I have to pack up all of my stuff from spending the night here, then we’ll both make the half hour trek to my house in Elmvale where I’ll be for the rest of the week.

When I get home, I plan to put on my comfiest black & white striped pajama pants, my biggest, coziest, pinkest SunnyGrrrl t-shirt, and snuggle into my fluffy pink blanket, which was the best $30 I ever spent on Amazon!

Then I’m gonna settle in for a full week of working from home, eating snacks, sleeping weird hours, and being in and out of the Sims Bunker. I hope whatever you have planned for the week is successful or fun, and if not, feel free to join me in the Bunker!

Challenge Updates:

I had to update the challenge a little for a few reasons.

1. Plumbing: the handcrafted bath tub the challenge was formerly limited to just doesn’t always work off-the-grid. Sometimes it works and other times it just doesn’t. It must be a bug. Technically it doesn’t say it’s functional off-the-grid in its description, so I had to work under the assumption that that’s its default and it was a bug that it actually worked at all with that lot trait. The handcrafted toilet still works off-the-grid reliably though, so my workaround has been to update the challenge so that once 1 Sim from the household has achieved level 10 Handiness skill and has crafted a tub, the player is then free to purchase a tub or shower from the off-the-grid plumbing category in Build Mode. Since we broke the “nothing from the plumbing category” rule, I see no reason not to also purchase sinks, but I think in the spirit of the challenge, they should be limited to natural materials like metal, porcelain, and wood. And since the handcrafted wooden toilet still works for now, I think the challenge should be limited to using that for Sims to not have to potty in the bushes.
2. Careers: out of the blue, Faith got a call to join the Stylist career at level 5 and when I was trying to get the notification off the screen, I accidentally accepted it. Since the pay only amounted to $560/day and Faith was already making enough money to mostly keep herself and Gemma happy making $350 per crafted mirror, I didn’t think it would make a major difference in gameplay, so I decided not to have Faith quit the job and see how far I could get in a traditional career while living in an off-the-grid community. I’m still undecided as to whether or not it affected gameplay negatively or if that was the best decision, so I officially changed the rule on careers to reflect current gameplay. If all adult Sims in a household had careers that start at level 5, I think it would be too much money and make the game go too fast for me, so I’m limiting it to just Faith right now, or possibly just 1 Sim per household can have a full-time job.
3. Veterinarians: Faith & Gemma’s dog Abigail got really sick and started vomiting everywhere and wouldn’t stop for days. The amount she was throwing up took 1 Sim mopping up behind her the whole time to the point of exhaustion, until another Sim took over, in order to avoid a permanent negative buff on all Sims for having trashy surroundings. I didn’t care if the dog died, but the only way to get rid of the negative buff or prevent it in this scenario, was to take the stupid dog to the stupid vet. I downloaded a random vet clinic from the gallery and popped it into Newcrest, then pretended Charlie let Gemma drive the Moody Family’s psychedelic bus to take the dog to be cured. In all other instances of pet illness I’ve seen so far, they’ve eventually gotten better on their own and their symptoms, while often annoying, were surmountable. The dog vomit was impossible to deal with and making the game extremely unpleasant, so I broke my own rule and changed the official challenge rules to reflect that specific circumstance.

Challenge Tips, Tricks & Surprises

• I found an advantage to not having a sink: if you don’t have a sink, your Sims will put their dirty dishes in a trash can. If you have a kitchen trash can with trash in it, you can click on it and select “Rummage For Bits & Pieces”, which gives you bits & pieces you can use to make candles. Candles can be sold or used off-the-grid, so they could be valuable. If you have a Bee Box or several, you can collect and use their bee’s wax to make candles, rather than spending money on candle wax. As much as I hate the constant whims to buy Bee Boxes in warm seasons, I do like the idea of the bees and I’m very interested to see if you could actually make a functioning candle home business this way.
• Even better, if you let the trash get full before you rummage for Bits & Pieces, your Sim will leave a pile of trash on the ground that you can rummage through to find precious upgrade parts. Since Sims have no access to computers in this challenge, this is the only way I’ve found so far to get upgrade parts.
• I am obsessed with my bills now, and watching my water and power output to make sure my plumbing and appliances keep working. Each house is supposed to be fully functional off-the-grid, so buying things like dew collectors and wind turbines is necessary, as is upgrading appliances and plumbing to be more efficient. Also important is using eco-friendly building materials in the construction of your house to reduce your neighbourhood’s carbon footprint and your utility bills.
• I think the Natural Well and Geothermal lot traits might be too powerful for this challenge by making lots sustainable immediately and without challenge, but I haven’t changed the rule yet because I haven’t figured out what *is* needed for a lot to be sustainable yet.
• Faith has been increasing her writing skill for her job by writing in her journal. Slow, but effective.

Story Updates

Faith met Charlie this weekend while she was looking for signatures to repeal a Neighbourhood Action Plan and they really hit it off, so Faith asked Charlie to take her to the Romance Festival where they drank flirty sakura tea and had their romantic futures read by the Love Guru. They also had their very first kiss and Faith asked Charlie to be her boyfriend. She’s looking for her soulmate and thinks Charlie might be it, while Charlie’s just looking for another Moody Family Cult member and is likely monogamous to no one.

Shortly after Faith & Charlie’s outing to the Romance Festival, Faith came skulking around Charlie’s yard and started watering plants. Charlie thought it might be nice to have someone around to water his plants, so he asked her to move in with him. He didn’t know her teenage sister Gemma was part of the deal, and, disgruntled, he moved himself to the 2nd floor and put the girls in the basement. And that’s where things stand with them right now.

Cult Progress

I completely fucked up the cult/club mechanic by misunderstanding how it worked and inviting Sims to join willy nilly. I didn’t know there was a limited number of people who could be in a club and now I’m not sure how to kick them out without causing issues with their relationships. You can only have 8 Sims in a club, so I’ve gotta figure out how to delete the club and start over, only inviting the heads of key households to officially join the cult.

If Faith and Charlie end up being soulmates and getting married, then I’ll have Faith start her own identical cult/club on Charlie’s behalf to invite 8 more. It won’t be the whole community by a long shot but 16 cult members in white robes bowling will look fucking awesome once I get it all figured out.

To Do

• I still have to create cult holidays.
• I still have to play the rest of the families and make their homes self sustainable.
• I want Charlie and Faith to start a retail business to sell their handcrafted goods.

So that’s all the poop that’s fit to scoop right now! Follow along with the Moody Family on Twitter!

After debugging and repairing the game (the latter took ages), toggling the off the grid lot trait on and off, putting the tub in household storage and back again, we determined not being able to use the tub off grid except to wash the dog was a new bug. Someone suggested I try gathering water or snow, so I did both and it gave me enough stored water to bathe everyone.

So, the workaround for this bug is that my Sims are just gonna have to keep gathering water if they want to stay clean and hydrated. At least with gathering water, the tub works as if the lot had water and power, so you have the option to take a bubble bath, which gives your Sim a playful moodlet. You can also take a bath with “soaks” which gives various positive moodlets, but they cost $60 Simoleons each and currently that is not within anyone in the cult’s budgets.

As far as the rest of gameplay, Gemma has only been able to complete her homework ONCE in 3 seasons and is a “C” student, which is my worst performance to date. Usually when I play teenagers, I make sure they have an “A” average and do all of their extra credit assignments. Right now Faith & Gemma are so poor that I’ve actually been selling Gemma’s extra credit projects rather than doing them.

The main other thing I’ve had Faith doing to earn more money is crafting and selling mirrors. They cost $87 Simoleons to make and you get $350 Simoleons for selling them. I find this more profitable and easier than going off my lot to use the phone to take an odd job that may only net me $150 Simoleons and will take twice as long to complete as a mirror.

Faith & Gemma did end up voting in and getting the community garden planted…and then, because I misunderstood how the community lots worked, I tried to “add” the maker space by voting it in, but when I did that, the maker space REPLACED the community garden. Whoops! So now I have to go in and add all of the marketplace and maker space items to the community garden so the lot can be all 3. So annoying, but I have to do it before I switch families because saving $750 Simoleons to get a woodworking table for a new household is a massive challenge, especially if it’s a family, so I need to play Faith & Gemma until they can vote for the community garden again, and THEN they may need to replant all of the plants, I’m not sure. I really hope not.

There was a week in there where, every time I invited a neighbourhood Sim to Faith & Gemma’s house, that Sim would steal Abigail’s food dish and and Faith’s books. Every time. I couldn’t figure out why this was happening, so finally I just locked my front door and never invited anyone over because replacing those 2 items was costing me $85 Simoleons each time and when you’re scrambling for $20 Simoleons, that’s not an easy expense to just absorb.

Finally, I realized that the NPCs in the game had voted in a Neighbourhood Action Plan (N.A.P.) called “Sharing Is Caring” where all items are essentially communal and everyone can steal everyone else’s shit. Since none of my Sims actually have any shit, I figured out how to repeal that pretty damn quickly. Faith had to repeal the N.A.P. and get 5 signatures to get it to go through. Now, next Monday in the game, Faith & Gemma have to vote in a new N.A.P. and for the community garden. I think it’s currently Wednesday in the game, so until I can do those things on Monday, I’ll be playing Faith & Gemma and just improving their lives and house the best I can.

Faith hasn’t introduced herself to Charlie yet and Gemma has little interest in cult life. Gemma’s hard to keep happy because she doesn’t seem to be happy doing any skill building activity. Not swimming, not bowling, not reading a skills book, not knitting. All she really does is sulk, which I find hilarious.

This challenge is definitely a slow burn, I’ll tell you whut. I think it will be until I get all the households indoor plumbing and then I can focus on the actual cult part of the game. I’m terrified of playing my big families because I have no idea how I’m gonna keep everyone happy and functional with so few items and Simoleons. I’ve never had a toddler or child be taken away before, but I’m afraid it might happen in this challenge, which gives me a smidge of anxiety. Whatever happens, happens, though!

Well.

Today that handcrafted tub decided to glitch out and not work properly off the grid anymore. For whatever reason, I can give m fucking DOG a bath, but my Sims can’t bathe because there’s no plumbing off grid.

On Sunday when I was playing Charlie Moody, he crafted and used a tub with an off the grid option to take a “quick and tepid bath”, but now that option is gone? WTF is going on? How do I even begin to fix this?

I also found out today that my 1st community venue cannot be a garden/marketplace/maker space. I voted for it to be a community garden and planted everything, then I voted to make it a maker space and the garden disappeared! The maker space took its place! So, I have to go in and redo the marketplace/maker space on the community gardens tab and revote to create a community garden. I dunno if I’ll have to replant everything. I sure as hell hope not! UGH! Aggravation!

So, I’ve decided to take a break from the Sims Bunker for now because all it is at this very moment is aggravation. Instead, I’m gonna make Rice Krispy squares and either work on my knitted scarf or make granny squares.