DzMD

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

The Case for The Sims 3½

This post is inspired by SimmerErin's video below:

Yes, title chosen as a reference to The Lion King 1½. With The Sims 5 canceled, fans of the franchise are nervous about the future. The Project Rene side project isn't stirring much optimism, and EA followers are becoming increasingly convinced that the way to go moving forward is to abandon ship and embrace InZoi.

However, there is a way EA can restore hope. And it's been right under their noses the entire time: remaster The Sims 3!

The Big Deal

So what were some of the biggest concerns with The Sims 3?

Outdated graphics

This one is a given. Graphics would obviously need an overhaul.

Clunky UI

The improvements to UI in The Sims 4 served it well. A revitalized Sims 3 could learn a thing or two.

Crash tendencies

Part of this was its 32-bit architecture. Most Sims games can crash easily. Fixing those tendencies would make for a very robust comeback, however.

Tarantula Baby glitch

The aging system in The Sims 3 was not as advanced as that in 4, but was a huge step up from the game-breaking crises that the system in 2 could cause! That being said, Tarantula Baby is probably the least pressing issue. Still, it'd be nice to see it gone forever.

Pudding face

Old Rod Humble was a huge fan of Pudding Face. Not everyone else was. Life By You almost brought it back. Meanwhile, HystericalParoxysm at Mod the Sims made an "Anti-Pudding Mod" to fix the Pudding Face issue. With no more Rod, EA can address Pudding Face once and for all - without having to completely reinvent the wheel on Sims 3.

Hats are hair, rather than accessories

This one should be really easy to fix. Nowhere was this more of an issue than with the Swappernetters character pack for The Sims 3, which had Tabitha Pang having to choose between a non-canonical hat or a non-canonical hairstyle. It was impossible for her to have both hat and hair be canon.

This was not an issue in The Sims 4, though her lack of decent parkour gameplay or open world environment gameplay made Tabitha feel a little pointless in that game. Swappernetters took a lot of cues from the Mirror's Edge series. So in similar fashion, Faith Connors in The Sims 4...feels rather pointless!

32-bit architecture

Being designed to run on the earliest editions of Windows XP really hurt The Sims 3 in the long run. What self-respecting game of its caliber limits itself to only 2 GB of RAM? In today's world, that's INSANITY! The VM page file to support that drove the entire operating system to a creeping snail walk, especially for those with traditional hard drives!

A remaster opportunity like The Sims 3½ would be an excuse to address those problems - for both Windows and Mac users! It's disgraceful that old school Sims 3 got a 64-bit update, but only for Mac!

Lack of tick optimization, especially in Create-A-Sim

Waiting half of forever for the game to load was irritating. Waiting half of forever just to view a catalog of shirts to wear was downright aggravating! While there have been mods to fix the ticking issue, an official repair to this problem by EA would restore the faith of many players.

The Way Forward

By simply repairing these issues, the game could be remastered into something that would please most of the fandom. Add in nuanced animations for things like moving chairs and pizza around, the nice "little things" that added so much charm to The Sims 2, and include some AI updates like in The Sims 4, to make the pool ladder issue a non-issue.

Poof! Fixing these issues, releasing the remastered Sims 3 as The Sims 3½, and allowing those who downloaded the original game to freely update all their DLC that they've already purchased, would create a very robust open world game that could address most if not all of the issues that players had with classic Sims 3 - while also keeping the game relevant in an era where Rod Humble's Life By You went bust, and where The Sims 4 has lost all sense of direction.

The way forward, is to go back. As an added bonus, moveobjects on in The Sims 3's engine works on Sims themselves, whereas bb.moveobjects does not work on Sims themselves in The Sims 4.

Visualizing The Sims 3½

This demo won't attempt, as the InZoi set did, to recreate 90% of the entire character stock catalog of the Dozerfleet Megaverse. Instead, this small sampling pool shows what should be possible.

This is a picture of a custom Greenlandic world, used for a different demo.

And this is a similar world, approximately how it could look in a remaster, courtesy of Krea AI. Still not as photorealistic as InZoi, but a huge improvement over The Sims 4 - and quite obviously a step up in quality from standard Sims 3!

This is Anarteq, patrolling the waters near Iqaluit. Pretty peaceful, right? But what if the game were remastered?

The soul of the moment is still mostly intact, but that's a considerable bump in quality!

As the current Anarteq, Isitoq Sundue's committment to be a defender of the north is like the US Marines: fighting battles by air, land, or sea! (Ironic, since he's Canadian.) While he's weakest at air battles, he clearly needs to pay attention to what's happening on land. He can't do his job well by ONLY focusing on what's underwater. To assist him sometimes is his cousin Jissika, codenamed "Nemara" during underwater missions.

In this scene, Jissika is going for a jog in the woods, possibly somewhere not far from North Bay.

And now, she can do it in style!

For reference, this is Jissika without a game style training filter.

But that's enough about Anarteq for now. Let's get really crazy, and see what else this remaster could do!

This is George Mirafuentes, from the canceled Q-Basic Gorillas webcomic.

Looking fine, Ole Chap!

Qilantan Gorilloids themselves were the second-hardest thing to make particuarly well in that entire thing, second perhaps only to their ancient enemies, the Ice Chimps. This look for Col. Flix was barely adequate.

The AI's failure to understand what a guan dao is notwithstanding, THIS is a Col. Flix!

Topaz Division's big muscle, Burrpatch, was in a similar predicament.

NOW the Ice Chimps have an adversary to fear!

These samples can be downloaded as PDF files. The Anarteq demo is here, while the Q-Basic Gorillas demo is here.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

The Megaverse in InZoi - But There are Caveats

Featured: Tabitha Pang from Swappernetters, in the world of InZoi.

Dozerfleet Labs has been hard at work trying to use Krea AI in coordination with game screenshots from InZoi to imagine what the Dozerfleet Megaverse (Abrujanian Family of Timelines) might look like in the world of that game. At the time of this post, only a few renders are yet to be finalized from the Cherinob saga, Sodality series, and Gray Champion saga.

Once all character sets have been completed, recipe books may then be shared under a pending InZoi game tab. These recipe books will contain hypothetical data about what re-creating characters from various Dozerfleet projects in the game format of InZoi may entail.

What the recipe books will contain

  • Character concept art renders, made with Krea AI, and edited with Photoshop Elements.
  • Character bios
  • Links to characters' wiki articles
  • Descriptions of the characters' hypothetical Altered data, and how it could be translated to the game.
  • Characters' recommended personality, aspiration, and skill traits
  • A limited number of theorized pets

What the recipe books won't contain

Unfortunately, without the ability of the current tower serving as Dozerfleet Main to run the actual InZoi game, only the aforementioned content is practical to even pursue. So the following won't be found under the recipe books' sections:

  • Actual character files for download
  • Vehicles
  • Makeup
  • Gameplay objects
  • Clothing items, separate from characters wearing them
  • Custom VFX scripts for Altered characters
  • Real estate
  • Definitive Altered data tutorials
  • Official game DLC requirement lists
  • Custom content requirement lists

Site credits?

While the Sims 4 packs for DzMD qualify for IMDB pages, the InZoi recipe books, by virtue of not having any file downloads to associate them with, will not qualify for said IMDB pages. The complete collection of catalogs for hypothetical Zois could receive publication credit on LinkedIn; but would qualify for neither IMDB nor ICDB.

Altered life states: a logistical nightmare?

Altered characters will especially have a difficult time being adapted by fans to the game's format as anything other than aesthetic mods. Krafton has yet to confirm any intention to support Altered Life States in their game, the way that EA added an "occult" system to The Sims 4. In that game, the following entities have been able to be substituted:

  • Amphibioids: Mods, highly-altered Sim body shapes, rare in-game or custom skintones or skin overlays, and Photoshop effects.
  • Angels: Any combinations of Alien occult state, Spellcaster state, Armageddon Mod, or the Angel and Demon Traits mod. Glowing iris effects on Radiatrim are usually enhanced with Photoshop. Cherinob's "mesh" is a Photoshop blend mode filter.
  • Anitos: Altered skin
  • Botanoids: Plant Sim occult state, often maintained via mods.
  • Casteroids: Werewolves, with their head shapes modified to better resemble a beaver.
  • Centhuen Prototypes: Altered color irises and protruding centilegs are Photoshop effects. Otherwise, Centhuen Prototypes are usually normal Sims. Under certain circumstances, their abilities may be enhanced with the Armageddon Mod.
  • Cortascians: Usually portrayed by normal Sims.
  • True Centhuens: Mods, rare skin colors or overlays, insect accessory mods, and post-capture Photoshop effects.
  • Chemistry Manipulators: Mods, rare skin colors or overlays, and chemistry effects are post-capture Photoshop effects.
  • Emotion Batteries: Varying effects. May require custom skintones or overlays. Usually involve the Armageddon mod, and sometimes an Alien or Spellcaster occult state. Effects are almost always finalized in Photoshop.
  • Fire Elementals: Varying combinations of the Spellcaster occult state, or possibly the Armageddon Mod. Results are almost always Photoshop-enhanced.
  • Gwirdons: Standard Sims with green skintones. Compound eyes and proboscide are usually added with Photoshop, with their traditional mouths hidden. Treaders are sometimes portrayed by mannequins.
  • Jackaloids: Custom Sims with furry mods.
  • Kritchabloid Demons: Any combinations of Vampire occult state, Spellcaster state, Armageddon Mod, or the Angel and Demon Traits mod. Photoshop is usually employed for additional VFX.
  • Lightning Elementals: Charged Sims via cheats, Spellcasters, or else the Armageddon mod may be employed.
  • Lirquinwurs: Alien Sims, or a wall decoration standing in when they make only their heads visible.
  • Meethlites: Standard Sims with tiny noses and custom / dark skintones / overlays.
  • Microwave Mouths: Standard Sims with a Photoshop effect added to the scene.
  • Milthuen Prototypes: The TOOL mod helps them with sticking to walls. Otherwise, same protocols as a Centhuen Prototype.
  • True Milthuens: Similar protocols as with a True Centhuen.
  • Parakoids: Standard Sims with furry mods. Tails are usually Photoshopped.
  • Petroids: Standard Sims with rare or custom skintones / overlays. Additional effects are usually Photoshopped.
  • Phantomimics: Ghost effects are usually achieved using either the Nightstalker occult state, or else standard Sims run through Photoshop filters. Two versions of a scene, with and without the Sim, will be shot, to manipulate transparency. More rarely, a Ghost Sim can be used.
  • Phaelites: Standard Sims with custom / green skintones / overlays. Rarely, they can be Alien Sims, though this complicates their physiology too much.
  • Polymorphs: Altered skintones, like what becomes of Perchta, can be selected with rare or custom skintones in Create-A-Sim. Any shape-warping effects are done in Photoshop.
  • Qalupaliks: Heavily modified mermaids, usually turned into Kelpies using the Extended Mermaids mod.
  • Tariaksuq: Vampire Sims paired with furry mods to look more like reindeer. Jerry the Psycho Reindeer's eyes are a combination of Photoshop and the Supervillain eyes effect from the Armageddon mod.
  • Vampires: Usually made with the standard Vampire Sim occult state that comes with the game pack. However, there is very little consistency regarding their appearances, rules, and powers.
  • Water Elementals: Usually standard Sims, sometimes paired with the Armageddon mod. Most water effects are made later in Photoshop.
  • Wereaardwolves: Standard Sims with furry mods.
  • Weregoats: Usually Vampire Sims, but paired in their Dark Forms with numerous bits of custom content to appear more goat-like.
  • Weresalmon: Mermaids with additional Photoshop effects, especially for their face scales. Often paired with the Extended Mermaids mod.
  • Weresharks: Mermaids with Photoshop applied to them. Sometimes paired with the Extended Mermaids mod.
  • Weretigers: Werewolves altered in Create-A-Sim to look more tiger-like. Lava Tigre's lava and fire effects are done in Photoshop.
  • Werewolves: Utilization of the standard in-game Werewolf occult state that comes with the game pack.
  • Xomians: Purple Phaelites. Alien Sims usually suffice.
  • Xomified: What being Xomified means varies widely. Mos VFX are created with Photoshop. Most Xomifieds are portrayed by standard Sims.
  • Zeranites: Teleportation cheats. Zeran holes are visual effects added in Photoshop, often a very crude take on Doctor Strange-style magic portals.

The following have not been so easy:

  • Kaijin: Adaptation varies widely. Some can be made with only a few makeup or costume effects. Some can be kitbashed into existence from in-game clothing and objects. Other types are simply impossible in The Sims 4.
  • Minionoids: These have to be Photoshopped in when taking a quasi-solid form. Otherwise, they are like clouds of smoke, and need to be depicted as smoke using something like Andrew's Studio Effect Player.

To make adapting Megaverse Altered states into InZoi be on par with the difficulty level of adapting to The Sims 4, the following would be needed:

  1. Some or another form of werewolf.
  2. Some or another form of vampire.
  3. Some or another form of witch species.
  4. Some or another form of ghost.
  5. Some or another form of alien.
  6. Some or another form of merfolk.
  7. Furry mods
  8. An equivalent mod to Armageddon, that grants superpowers. Or an actual DLC that grants them.
  9. Technicolor skintones
  10. Plant-Zois

The sub-franchises: Will they adapt?

It is unclear, given Krafton's emphasis on realism, the extent to which it would have any interest in adapting any form of occult entities into the world of InZoi. While some have speculated on an emphasis on creatures from Asian lore, this too remains questionable. Western monsters would need mods, more than likely, to be adapted at all. If Krafton is open in the future to adapting the Megaverse, then the following properties would be the easiest for them to adapt:

  • Navyrope: Due to lack of superpowered characters
  • Blood Over Water: Due to very few supernatural characters
  • Extirpon: Due to the fact that, Emotion Battery characters notwithstanding, most everyone else is not a supernatural character. And most Emotion Battery effects would be fairly easy to replicate.
  • Swappernetters: Due to the futurism aesthetic of Chrome Kite construction projects, relatively low supernatural character count, and emphasis on characters using pragmatic skills and social engineering to accomplish their goals.
  • Corando's "Don't Lose Hope": Filforth notwithstanding, the most supernatural thing depicted is the meteor shower destroying Porbandar. Otherwise, the cast are all normal.
  • Sorbet: Zombies and two vampires notwithstanding, few supernatural events. Hadley's having to repeat the time loop would be easy to copy from the game's preexisting mechanics for rewinding time.
  • Cherinob: Angel and demon alt modes notwithstanding, HMCs would be very similar to Emotion Battery Marlquaanites, such as Extirpon. Unless employing fancy supernatural effects, they'd be no different than witches, gameplay-wise. Their HMC forms would mostly be entirely ordinary. Vanishing along the W Axis would be tricky to depict; but would allow them to have offscreen battles to compensate for the game's limitations.
  • The Bison: Grinodos notwithstanding, only the Bison himself counts as a "supernatural" being. He'd add very little new gameplay, and would mostly be an NPC for Zois to be scared of.
  • Path of the Ming-Cho: Due to lack of superpowered characters
  • Pilltar: The robots notwithstanding, a relative lack of "supernatural" characters.
  • Grillitan Diner: Main cast are all mundane human characters.
  • The Gray Champion: The main difficulty with this one would be John Domeck, Marge Ramirez, Miles Charleston, Ted Brackett, and Kathy Hibbins' Marlquaan abilities. Eqquibus being a winged reverse-centaur monster would also complicate matters. Otherwise, Boston is a pretty regular city. The SCALLOP agents featured would be cute. The Pang family is of Korean descent.

Meanwhile, Krafton would most likely not agree to adapting these properties:

  • Anarteq: Tons of characters based on various western indigenous mythologies. Each new type of character would require an entirely new mechanic for their occult physiology.
  • The Centipede and Fire Saga: Various superheroes and supervillains of multiple forms = lots of new occult states to define. Plus, heavy environmental destruction to account for.
  • Phaemer Village Peacekeepers: Multiple kinds of aliens to account for make doing so as complicated as making a Guardians of the Galaxy video game.
  • The Tale of Plum Bixie: Due to the rated M for Mature levels of violence.
  • Sodality: Huge "supernatural" cast, tons of environmental destruction.
  • The Horrorday Gang: "Supernatural" characters, violence, and gore.
  • The Slushy Show: Silly talking cartoon animals = lots of new mechanics to work out.
  • Camelorum Adventures: Lots of "supernatural" and otherwise altered beings to account for = lots of new mechanics. Plus, cartoon physics for characters that run on toonforce.
  • Volkonir: While henshin suits wouldn't be a problem, Gwirdons and kaijin would make for significant adaptation difficulty.
  • The Trapezoid Kids: Xiphonikian physiology makes very little sense in the game's world.

Project: Rene influence

A recent announcement from EA is that their work on Project: Rene will be utilized for remaking The Sims Mobile, as well as finding new ways to enhance gameplay for The Sims 4. The full-scale version of The Sims 5 is no longer happening. This means that, for what it counts, The Sims 4 is the last numbered title in the franchise to be happening for quite some time, for the forseeable future. Therefore, without a proper successor, Sims 4's spiritual successor is, in fact, InZoi. Newberry and Life By You having gone bust, and Paralives developers keeping quiet, it remains to be seen how many new life sim games actually are still coming.

It would appear that for all the disappointment from some gamers, there is a silver lining for DzMD. The Sims 4 packs under its banner can retain their relevance a little bit longer. With sufficient demand, a Sims 3 Anarteq set could justify its release in 2025 as well, for those retro gamers who really want one. There are no plans to restore any content from The Sims 2.

What about the real estate?

Without the ability to run InZoi from Dozerfleet Main, Dozerfleet Labs cannot, at this time, produce inside that game's format any real estate adaptations of any building - in either real life or The Sim 4. However, there are still plans to adapt some of the residential properties for House Flipper 2.

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

For those wanting more Anarteq gameplay

No official Sims 3 packs for Anarteq were ever completed by DzMD. The three packs for The Sims 4 are available now. However, Anarteq gameplay in The Sims 3 is arguably better - and with more for your Anarteq cast-themed Sims to do, given the open world.

Alas, most of the default neighborhoods that come with The Sims 3 don't really do justice to Anarteq gameplay. There are exceptions. Isla Paradiso is great for Tropic Mercenary setting gameplay, if you have the patience to re-create the cast there.

But what if you want to have your Sims on an Irish adventure, a-la Envoy to Lough Melvin? Rinn Fada by Conorsim and Ballinderry Ireland by FredBunny are near-perfect for this type of gameplay.

Yet, perhaps even more desired by players than this, would be proper Guardian of the Soo gameplay. Or, more specifically, gameplay centered around regions related to Guardian of the Soo, but not necessarily Sault Ste Marie itself.

Acadia by BabolatBuiltIt may work for Sault Ste Marie itself in a pinch, but works much better as a stand-in for North Bay and Yellek. It arguably looks more convincing than Copperdale! Failing that, the Sims 3 Store has Aurora Skies for download.


Jissika, heading toward the fair.

Entering the haunted house.

Gold Bridge can be simulated for either Envoy to Lough Melvin or Guardian of the Soo gameplay by Great Bear, a world created by Johnnywr.


Izzy goes for a swim.

Underwater gameplay can be simulated with Mermadia by Crowkeeper.


What else is at the bottom of the Great Lakes?

Mermaidia stands in excellently for the Great Lakes, leading to pretty epic shots.

Izzy and Jissika training to be like Toklo and Tulimak.

If you're really up for a challenge of an Arctic world, the nearest equivalent to Iqaluit, able to also double as Nordreichdun, is Saaqartoq by Nilxis Designs. Feel free to try any of these out, if you're still playing The Sims 3.


It's the closest to Greenland most of you will ever be.

The Dark Kingdom of the North: Nordreichdun. Notice: Krampus sucked most of the color out of the buildings.

Hopefully, a Sims 4 proper Arctic world will still happen. It's unlikely to be patched into either The Horrorday Gang Story Pack nor into the Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo Story Pack, but such a world would complement both story packs' gameplay nicely.

Friday, June 7, 2024

Sims 4 Story Pack collections almost complete

Dozerfleet Labs has been working at a fever pace to finalize the last few packs for the DzMD Sims 4 collection, before moving on to House Flipper 2 mods. Most of the packs still need their official handbooks. However, the utter mess that is compiling the packs is almost at an end. As of 8:40 PM EDT on June 7th of 2024, a compilation was made of the Sodality: Adaptation and Determination Story Pack.

This is a follow-up to 2020's Sodality: Instigation Story Pack, and includes all major highlights of continuity from Adaptation, Determination, Augmentation, and Vindication. At the last minute, Victor Nanale of the Kerpher Gang and the Phaemer Village Peacekeepers were added - with some notes about Keet Kabo features that couldn't be adapted.

The final pack, set to be compiled around Monday the 10th or around Tuesday the 11th of June of 2024, is the Anarteq: Envoy to Lough Melvin Story Pack.

After this final pack is compiled, Dozerfleet will no longer focus on creating mods for Sims games, nor supporting them. The official handbooks missing for key existing packs will be written and published, so each pack will have its official handbook. Trailers on YouTube are being considered for Magic of Movies and Memes Stuff, Ciem: Inferno Story Pack, Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo Story Pack, Ciem: Ash Cloud Story Pack, Anarteq: Tropic Mercenary Story Pack, and one for the Swappernetters collection of packs.

With all handbooks finished at that point, the packs will get IMDB pages, if they don't already have them. Wiki articles will be updated as well. Once research is completed on House Flipper 2 mods, the Dozerfleet founder will retire from game modding.

The comics still pending to be made with The Sims 4 include Volkonir 2008, Blood Over Water, Sniperbadger: Fall of the Critter Resistance, Ciem / Anarteq: Kahoopiliana, and Sorbet. Path of the Ming-Cho aims to be AI-generated.

With all comics and other Sims pack content finished, use of Sims software will be relegated to last-minute character design drafting, to house floor plans, and to rendering concept art for actions scenes too difficult to generate with standard AI generators. Basic character art will be AI-generated, until real costumes and models can be selected to replace the AI models.

As often as possible, Sims floor plan imagery will be replaced with photographs and video, though this may be a slow process.

The main bookstore on the main blog also intends to reinstate some old projects, and bring new ones to the storefront.

A 90 Has No Secant re-release is in consideration, along with re-releases for the Stationery Voyagers pilot episode "Scalding Inquiries," and the minisodes "The Wages of Cheating Death," and "Ties That Confide" that were written before that series was canceled. Gored By Them Things could also benefit from a re-release, as could the 2007 version of Ciem with minor revisions. Official releases of the fanfics A Centipede Lost in the Spiderverse, A Centipede Returns to the Spiderverse, and A Centipede Once Again Saves the Spiderverse are also up for consideration.

The Corando's "Don't Lose Hope" remake from 2022 remains to be completed and added, but has not been abandoned. This will be included with the other Sims comics.

While the future of Cone's Poetry Tire Swing is debatable, Trisola Poetry is set to get a book compilation, with new artwork. The Gerosha Chronicles: Art of the Early Earths would seek to do justice to the artwork made for those versions of Gerosh continuity that didn't survive beyond 2012. Camelorum Adventures: A Concept Art Repository would do this for Dromedeverse art from the early period of Camelorum development. Dozerfleet Academics: A Compilation of Curated Projects would be a review of all surviving high school - through - SWOCC Studios internship work by the Dozerfleet founder of note to have survived to the present day.

The Games and Mods of Dozerfleet Machinomic Downloadables would celebrate and provide commentary on a walkthrough of all Dozerfleet mods of note from the early days of making Sims 2 mods until the completion of the final 16 Sims 4 packs, and any commentary possible on House Flipper 2 mod research.

Making of the Mackleyverse: What Almost Was would explore the complicated history of Mutt Mackley, and his shows that never happened.

For-profit versions of releases for Ciem: Inferno: The Grand Tour and A Very Anarteq Tour of the Soo are being pursued, as tie-ins for their respective novels in the works. Percolation: The Complete Encyclopedia of Crossover Gerosha and Dozerfleet Crossovers is also still being pursued for completion, to discuss the history of Dozerfleet with Marvel: Avengers Alliance, as well as other fanfics, and the development of mythos for the Percolation Warriors saga.

Not to be forgotten, the Every Ape and His Brother parody song lyric collection is set to wrap up with the completion of the final album: The Man From '84. All albums will get their own booklet releases.

Saturday, May 25, 2024

Updates on the Story Packs

Dozerfleet is inching ever closer to the ending of an era, and the start of another one. Once the machinomics are finished, only some concept art panels and house plans will still require The Sims, any version of it, to remain a part of the operation. Once House Flipper 2 exploration is finished, the Dozerfleet founder will step down as the main mod creator at DzMD. Those wishing to operate through the brand for the brand may contact him to do so. Other games with Dozerfleet-related mods are possible this way, but the founder will not be creating for more game titles personally.

But before those final House Flipper 2 mods can be explored, let alone published, the era of Sims 4 modding must come to a close. This will usher in the final comics, which will then usher in the for-profit books.

To that end, the packs for The Sims 4 must be finalized, all 16 of them. With some reformatting touches, Into the Future Conversions and Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff were finalized in early 2024. The Horrorday Gang Story Pack and Sodality: Instigation Story Pack are getting add-on content before being finalized. The Swappernetters Story Pack Series is also getting a few add-ons of new material.

Otherwise, 2024 saw the compilation of Magic of Movies and Memes, with a pending official handbook. This is the final full-blown stuff pack by Dozerfleet Labs via DzMD for The Sims 4. Ciem: Inferno and Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo received completed compilations of their story packs, with the handbooks pending. On May 25th, Ciem: Ash Cloud also got a story pack tie-in compiled, also on a waiting list for an official handbook.

To complete the compilations and make the artwork, the following still need to be created:

  1. Ciem: Caldera Story Pack
  2. Anarteq: Tropic Mercenary Story Pack
  3. Anarteq: Envoy to Lough Melvin Story Pack
  4. Sodality: Adaptation and Determination Story Pack

Once those four are done being compiled, no new Sims 4 mods will be created for dowload as part of a pack set via DzMD. Instead, the "Holding Bay for Old Tray" folder will get emptied into the main Tray folder, to restore the in-game library. The game will be used for artwork generation almost exclusively from that point onward, until it is no longer needed for that purpose. This comes with many benefits, the most obvious of which being that folders no longer have to be screened for third party content.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Dealing with abandonware

Now that The Sims 2 is officially considered abandonware, the mods for it on DzMD are going to start coming down. A booklet will be released about the history of these mods, as best as that history can be reconstructed. In time, that same treatment will be done for The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval, as mods for those games will also be pulled from the site. Spore and MakeHuman will follow, and possibly Universe Sandbox too. DzMD will soon be reduced to a few archives of Sims 4 mods, a page about what could have been for Spider-Man 2, and a page for mods for House Flipper 2.

The Software and Crafts section has adopted the old StretchSkeleton Cheat Accessories Kit.

So far, the first Sims 2 item to be removed has been the Cast of Inception pack. More will follow. The Ghost Recon Sign and Snakes on a Plane seats are being considered for adaptation to Magic of Movies and Memes Stuff for The Sims 4. Most everything else in the Sims 2 roster will be discontinued indefinitely.

Monday, February 19, 2024

Old Sims 4 mod content to be fused into a new stuff pack

The Sims 4: Magic of Movies and Memes Stuff is now currently in the works here at Dozerfleet Labs. It will take select material from the canceled Megaverse projects for Cherinob, Volkonir, and Camelorum Adventures, and combine them with the Movies, Games, and TV section currently on the Sims 4 DzMD page into one single pack massive compilation. This measure, when done, will serve to reduce overhead for the blog and for the wiki. Multiple pages will be able to be fused into a single download page, with a link to the new stuff pack and a link to its instruction manual.

This furthermore reduces the Sims development section of DzMD to otherwise only needing Sodality: Adaptation, a few new features patched to the Swappernetters Supporting Cast Story Pack, an Anarteq Pack series, and a Centipede and Fire Saga pack series. For a total of nine projects that will reduce overhead and wrap up all Sims DzMD file export production.

As stated, once these final nine projects are finished, there will be no new content for The Sims 4 being released by Dozerfleet Labs. The new manual-dependent formatting setup being employed by DzMD for its Sims 4 setup will then be applied retroactively to archival of all projects related to Sims 3, Sims 2, Sims Medieval, Spore, MakeHuman, and Universe Sandbox content.

When all these old games are finished having their pages reformatted and their packs defined, the only still-actively-supported game on DzMD will be House Flipper 2. All Sims-generated content after that point will consist of the machinomics for Dozerfleet Comics. Once those are done, Sims 4 and House Flipper 2 will be mostly reduced to a handful of concept art for action scenes and CAD software for building layouts for story blocking.

All future character screen art outside those functions is now being generated with AI. As often as possible, shots of interiors are being made with actual photographs.

Mothballing the Labs, Records, Comics, and Studios divisions in the future will finally allow Dozerfleet to raise its Literature division to the forefront, allowing for-profit books a chance for release.

Features in the new pack will likely include most if not all of the following:

Дozerfleet entries Non-Дozerfleet entries
Cherinob
  • Cherinob
  • Levío
  • Filforth
  • Maurice
  • Cavalore
  • Gabriel
  • Michael
  • Dolondri
  • Noviden
  • Kritchobol
  • Riptchokal
  • Scorptisquid
  • Boris Heminski
  • Illie Sala

Cherinob 2
  • Greg Travin
  • Krystal Travin
  • Belay
  • Astirnah
  • Det. Rick Hallower

Cherinob 3
  • Soetera
  • Radjuatt
  • Pele
  • Andre Brinkman

Camelorum Adventures
  • BELF
  • Lemon Witch
  • Semaphore
  • Ion Boy
  • Cheshire Pig
  • Free Candace T-shirts

Grillitan Diner
  • Wes Sankey
  • Valerie McMaline
  • Reggie Schmelding
  • Bookie Rodriguez
  • Grillitan Diner Modern Sign

The Trapezoid Kids
  • The Trapezoid Kids decals
  • Karen Mindoche

Volkonir and the Knights of Cortascius
  • Knights of Cortascius outfit repaints
  • Vinny Mason
  • Kayla Tarington
  • Carlos Modi
  • Lenny Drae
  • Masato Yoneda
  • Dr. Hanom
  • Vanessa Kwan
  • Vantina Rumastik
  • Lenny Drae's Trailer
  • Kagy Village Apartments

The Blue Face Film Strips
  • 7779 E. Mt. Hope Hwy.

Star Flops: Curse of the Medium Side
  • Tiemess the Jithy Knord
  • Fin Shepherd
  • April Wexler
  • Baz Hogan
  • Claudia Shepherd
  • Nova Clarke

Sharknado 2: The Second One
  • "I Survived" Sharknado 2014 T-shirts

  • Will Boyd
  • Eden's Gate overcoat
  • Boyd Residence

  • Traitor's Bluff

Girls Incarcerated
  • Lavender female juvenile unit outfits
  • Burgundy Top

  • Arthur Callahan
  • Hikamora Saito
  • Dominic Cobb
  • Mallorie "Mal" Cobb
  • Ariadne Mavitch
  • William Eames
  • Robert Fischer Jr.
  • Yusef Ahmtabi

  • Franco Franchetti

  • Disaster Girl
  • Overly Manly Man
  • Overly Attached Girlfriend
  • Tay Zonday

  • SCP-811
  • SCP-053

  • Vito Corleone

Snakes on a Plane
  • T-shirts

  • Turtle Man

  • Ross Fretten
  • Luke Markey
  • John Penn
  • Stef Braithwaite
  • Vicken Symes
  • Fai Archer
  • Emo Rangers' outfits
  • Emo Rangers helmets