Hood Tour #1: Strangetown | The Sims 2

After I showcased my spreadsheet and dashboard for Strangetown, there were a few requests for a tour through my hood, so I put this together. I hope you enjoy 🌵👽🔭

[@ZeroFrogsHere]

LOVE seeing hood tours from other simmers, it’s so crazy how different everyone’s hoods end up being!

[@merlee5942]

I love what you did with Nervous Subject. And you are so brave for having that many playable sims in one dorm! I think I would be pausing the game every couple of minutes 😂

[@TeaAddict]

I really loved this, I've never been into Strangetown personally but it was so fun seeing your take on everything. Mr Smith as a twisted Arthur Weasley is a stroke of genius lol, and the Beaker storylines!! Yes!! I love the things you can come up with in this game and in my opinion it's always a bit easier (and more fun 😈) to do the really dark storylines in your private off camera gameplay where your imagination can run wild 😄 so thank you for sharing! ❤

[@AniBats]

Thank you, Beth ❤ Haha yeah I agree, the private hoods are perfect for living out those dark storylines and experiment more without anyone watching 😂

[@Daniel-yr9zi]

I didnt know about Buzz and Lyla on the beginning too. A theory is that he sort of arranged sth with Olive to sort of have a revenge on Lyla for breaking up with him.

[@AniBats]

Oh interesting, that would check out!!! I can definitely see him wanting to get her out of the picture in order to get full custody of the boys, and yeah revenge as well. He could also be one of those who thought "if I can't have her, no-one will".

[@pinkcatacombs]

Yesss I think the story on the surface is that The Smiths are picture perfect and Mr. smith’s pollinating days are behind him and maybe it’s suggested like he regrets how he used to be and now he is trying to be a “normal” or human father. Butttt I also find him “icky” and marrying Jenny seems like he is continuing his pollinating ways and she’s being used the same as her father was but instead of abducting her he used her love to his advantage 👀

[@123Indigostar]

I just love what you've done here. ✔️

[@Alexandre2133]

Omg I was soooo CURIOUS to know how your Strangetown is!! 🥰

[@veronadragonn]

ooo i really do enjoy making strangetown townies into families and my fave one i’ve made so far is river, kendal and johnson being a single father with two teenagers :3

[@veronadragonn]

help me I have been rewatching this video again (I love strangetown) and I was wondering if there was any updates regarding to your strangetown

[@azayats5258]

I love having a separate military base and housing for Strangetown

[@TheGauld007]

I love that idea for same sex pregnancy. Your creativity skill is so high. And Crystal in the paranormal career… like Crystal ball… I’m so mad I didn’t think of that myself lol You’ve made the hood look so good and your Bella is SO BEAUTIFUL lol. Also yes a vid on you playing THAT many sims in the dorm is a must lol I can’t imagine.

[@AniBats]

Aw thank you, Thomas ❤ Haha exactly, also "Vu" reminds me of "Vue" (the french word for sight), so that makes me think of seers. She's actually collegues with Erin Beaker, and I'm thinking of making some sort of Medium business for them down the line, which would be pretty interesting combined with Erin being Loki's sister and Nero being basically a spirit at this point.

[@TheGauld007]

@@AniBats Omg yes a medium business is so Strangetown and such a good idea I've not seen before. You could incorporate so much there. Sims coming to find their "secondary aspiration", having Crystal go out and do some real life match making lol. That sounds so fun

[@irinairinaa211]

I would definitely love to see a series out of this. ❤ i just love the way you play with your sims and their stories ❤

[@lichan2728]

The darkest Strangetown I've ever seen ❤❤❤ fits the town perfectly 😊

[@relash1345]

That was such a cool video 🥰 I was so hyped when i saw this in my feed. Would LOVE to see a follow up video on where its going and what these sims are up to in the end

[@katatty]

Oh man, I love seeing what you've done with Strangetown! It's one of my favourite hoods, the stories you came up with are so much fun. Bella and Crystal are an interesting couple, it's so cute that they got together. & that dorm, omg! I would go crazy playing so many sims, but what an efficient way to get sims through college!!

[@tiaw95]

I’d love an update on this in a few months to see what’s happened to all the families! Also I love the idea of incorporating the townies as this is something I’ve never done in Strangetown 😊

[@nervosims]

OMG STRANGETOWN!!!! IM SO HYPED!!!! im sure your gameplay with this hood is as interesting as your pleasantview

[@emiec5678]

Loved this video !! Thanks for sharing your personal save ! If you ever wish to share more of it, I think we'd all love little updates from time to time to see how every character grows, they're so interesting !

[@AniBats]

Oooh that's is such a cool story for Jenny!!! I love it! ❤ I can totally see that being what's going on too Hahaha ✨ Nero the fabilous fairy Specter ✨ Yeah I don't think Genesis is particularly well mentally after all of this. I think the risk is very high that she won't connect that well to her daughter... Haha well it is chaotic but that actually makes it more fun for the young adults - I normally play in a very controlling way, and having many sims forces me to embrace the chaos lol 😂 Aw thank you so much, Émie, I'm glad you enjoyed it ❤

[@tyleranderson5596]

this is amazing! strangetown is my favorite neighborhood and im obsessed with your level of detail!

[@cartoonmouse27]

I love your sims videos they are so inspirational and make me want to play! It feels daunting to do playable townies but I really want to after seeing your hoods.

[@StoriesNStrategy]

I absolutely loved this video and tour of your Strangetown! ❤ Thank you so much for sharing! I recently added Strangetown to my megahood and it was so interesting to see your take on all of the characters in it and to hear your stories for them. I haven't played with the hood much in the past, so it's been fun getting to know all these sims that I've been watching in videos only, but I'm only one round in. 😊 This video was really inspiring! (as always 😊) I especially like your solution for the pregnancies for same sex marriages and how you made it part of the lore in Strangetown. Also loving the darker twists very much that you came up with for Nervous and the Beaker household. Especially with the change in looks for Nervous. That's a genius move for his storyline, being the son of the grim reaper, I love it. And I'm definitely going to take your advice and exchange the terrain now that I'm still at the start of moving buildings around and deciding what goes where! 😄

[@AniBats]

Thank you, my dear, I'm so glad that you liked it ❤🥰 Oh wow how fun that you're getting a fresh look at them now - I bet adding the town into a megahood is especially fun what with all of the different friendships/relationships/rivalries that can build across all the hoods. I find that Cassandra often gets isolated in Pleasantview, but I can really see her getting along swimmingly with the Curious brothers for example 👽

[@BellaDovah]

I loved this! Thank you for sharing it with us. I’ve never played Strangetown myself but definitely want to. I made notes while watching so I could remember what I wanted to comment for once! I love what you did with the bigger map and I’ll definitely have to remember to do that whenever I want to play. I also really love the way you laid it out in 3 sections - I found the different styles quite jarring but you made it make so much sense and well organised. I’ve always looked at the same-sex pregnancy mods and thought that could never be me, doesn’t make sense…but wow it does make so much sense in Strangetown! Love that idea!!! As for the retirement want - its a really annoying stubborn want. I play much more wants based but find I can’t revolve retirements around the want because it works too stupidly. Apparently, the only trigger for it is a sim having their first grandchild. Thats why it can roll before they are even elders. So if you don’t lock it in then, I think it’s extremely unlikely it will ever roll again. And of course, you might think a sim is ready to retire before they’ve even had a grandchild. So I’ve had to come up with a rule for that instead of paying attention to the want. What I do is, to prevent everyone having too much money, I say that everyone should retire as soon as they become elders unless one of the following criteria is met: they are a fortune sim, they still have loans to pay off, or they still have young dependents to provide for and don’t have much current funds. I found your take on PT9 really interesting, I always thought he was a sweet guy but that dark streak makes so much sense I think its headcanon for me now too! I’m also so pleased to see you using the hopeless romantic trait in that way🥰 I was just talking to you about how fun I find it to play loads of sims in one dorm and clearly we think alike! Love that. I’d really look forward to a follow up on this in the future😊❤️

[@AniBats]

Thank you, Gabby 🥰 Oh never? Wow I'm kinda jealous that you have the possibility of playing the Curious brothers for the first time in that case 👽 I would love seeing you having a first look at Strangetown, sitting down to play it and getting your first impressions, if you'd be up for it. Thanks! What normally has ended up happening for me is that I plop down houses along the sort of "high way" in the middle which just doesn't feel right. This way, there's plenty of space 😊 Yeah same for me! It would have to be something sciency combined with supernatural. I couldn't do it in Pleasantview Oh wow really, so the retirement want is triggered by the first grandchild and only then? Wow thank you for telling me - I would have been waiting for nothing 😂 I LOVE your Hopless Romantic trait! It's bringing such much-needed variety to the Romance aspiration, I adore it. Haha great minds think alike huh? ❤

[@BellaDovah]

@@AniBats That's a good idea, great to know you'd be interested, I'll keep it in mind - thanks! I've never played with any premade sims until about 2 years ago and I've only done Veronaville so far so there's lots for me yet to experience for the first time despite playing the darn game for 15 years😂 You're welcome! It might not be completely accurate but I'm pretty sure you'll be disappointed if you wait for that want to roll so yeah might want to come up with some custom rules for retiring! So glad to hear it🥰

[@antisocialbunbun]

Whaaat omg your story for nervous/Nero was so cool! I love that he floats wtf such a cool idea. I’m always impressed how you are so good at storytelling even when the game is paused and you’re just describing things, it’s always so vivid. I’ve never played strangetown but this really made me want to!

[@AniBats]

Aw wow thank you so much 🥰❤ That's so incredibly kind of you to say 🥺 I'm still a bit stunned that you've never played it since I think that if there's any of the premade hoods that I would guess was your favorite, it would be Strangetown. But hey that's really cool, then you could have a great first experience with this hood, I'm sure you'll love it!

[@sErgEantaEgis12]

Hi, I really like your work. I've been on military bases a few time and have friends and family who are military people so I like seeing military bases in The Sims 2.

[@sErgEantaEgis12]

Can we get a tour of the military base please?

[@AniBats]

Thank you 😊 Yeah sure, I'll include it in the next follow up video to this

[@kalika-1590]

i love this so much! the town looks amazing, i love ajays home the most but all the lots fit so well in the hood. I think strangetown gets overlooked a lot so i rarely see a story this fleshed out for it, but i love how dark you've went with it. If you're not planning to do let's plays for this hood it would be fun if you'd do a little tour like this every once in a while so we can see what happened later.

[@kalika-1590]

ah you just got to that in the last minute, yeah occasional check in with the hood would be great!

[@jamesy1005]

So cool! Thanks for sharing. I’m playing Strangetown and Tank ended up with an alien male character I made, I had been trying to find him a girl as he rolled straight but he had such bad attraction. So I thought I’d see what male attraction was like and bam, 3 bolts with him. It has been so cool to play out!

[@AniBats]

That's awesome! Finding a suitable partner for him is apparently not the easiest so creating a sim from scratch is a good idea. ❤ Interesting though that it was a male alien sim! I bet Buzz had a thing or two to say about that? 😂

[@indyavonside207]

OOh Ani I love what you done with the Strangetown sims and houses. Nero storyline is so epically cool and I can't wait to see where it goes. I thought I was only person crazy enough to play with 16 young adults at university. I love the chaos with the YA and it makes easier for me to see who they want to be with with that many of them at college. I have also had my stories changed because who I think they should be with tends to change when they so many possibilities. Thanks for sharing as always.

[@AniBats]

Thank you, Indy ❤ Playing dorms filled with playables is so much fun!!! Totally worth the chaos 🤭

[@sErgEantaEgis12]

If you feel like updating the basement of the Beaker house Crispsandkerosene made a naval cot that's chained to the wall and looks so good in prisons.

[@AniBats]

Thank you for the recommendation! I'm not currently using the basement for anything but I'll definitely keep that in mind for any future plotlines 😊

[@_P_a_o_l_o_]

This was so nice to see! Do you play differently when you are on your own, compared to when you record yourself?

[@AniBats]

Hmm, in general I play very similarly on my own, but a bit more quick paced. Recording my gameplay pushes me to explain what is going on, and as a result, that makes me stop and think about the individual sims more - their decisions and motivations. When I record Pleasantview, it is a lot more scripted than how I normally play, but that is because I have a specific story going on that I really love telling. My let's play of Downtown is going to be a lot more like how I play on my own I think.

[@1000rikkeful]

Thank you for the video. It is so much fun to see how you make arching stories from the ground. I feel bad for your Buck especially because he want to please general buzz. But at least he is less willing to hold back like your beau. I normally play it as if buzz believe Olive killed his exwife, but he is under investigation for the murder as they know each other. 😅 Did Ajay carry one of their boys? Who made the treatmen for crystal? Ajay with the help of if father inlaw? Or Circe? It might be fun to have her as the primary fertility/pregnancy doctor in strangetown. I like the idea of her interest in genetics. Love the appartments! So looks like renovated barracks❤ Did you roll to see if Gerald would notice the bouquet of flowers? Interesting to see the dice being busted out!

[@AniBats]

Interesting parallel between Buck and Beau! I think you're right, Buck has way more confidence than Beau does. He's playing nice with daddy right now, but I think things will probably change once he's at Uni and is reunited with Ripp (who always looked out for him while living at home). Oooh that's interesting! I love that there's so many ways to spin the story around Buzz, Lyla and Olive! He didn't - I didn't come up with that particular "rule" until very recently so I haven't used it much yet. But I will roll a D10 twice for them in future - once for Lola and once for Ajay 🤭 Hmm good question! I hadn't thought of who exactly it would be who created the treatment 🤔 It could definitely be one of them - or it could be Glarn maybe. It's an interesting thought! Thanks! ❤ No I just told him to look at them. I had kinda wanted to have one of the families part ways in some way, and after starting to play with them it very quickly became clear that it would be Gerard and Katelyn - not only was he a Family sim and she a Romance, they also had very low attraction to one another. I've had a lot of fun rolling dice lately though ❤ It adds that randomness element while still giving me the control to pick and choose when to use it and when to not.

[@SamellaFonseca]

I don't have much of habit to comment, so sorry for that in advance, but, as always, your gameplay and videos amaze me a lot, thank you for all of this. Strangetown is by far my favorite premade hood, can't say how many times I played in it before and now rs, so it was awesome to see what you did in yours. Cool ideas for the aliens, btw. And I love pairing Lola and Ajay, its one of my OTP, kinda. The Curious brothers are my fun too, so much babies, haha Also, Ani, may I ask if you plan something on buy mode CC? Love your style, some things always catches my attention here and there, but as a whole, I can't find or reunite as many from stairs, blankets and such. It was great seeing your Bodyshop CC some years ago, what about Buy mode and even build mode? But, hey, no pressure, ham? 😅 God bless your weekend ❤

[@AniBats]

Aw thank you so much, Sammy ❤ Yeah good point, I was always planning on following up with part 2 and 3 with build and buy mode too, but I allowed myself to postpone it because of all of the work it will entail. I do still want to do it though so I will take this as a push in the right direction. Thank you for that ❤ I hope you'll have a wonderful weekend as well

[@uviana239]

how do you play an active military career?

[@AniBats]

Much like how I play the active careers in my Pleasantview series, if you've seen it. Basically, Buzz Grunt owns the community lot, and I send him there right before his carpool arrives to play out his work day. I use the Simblender to summon in the other sims in the military career, make them selectable, dress them in their career outfits (with help of Tom's clothing tester) and have them interract and work on skills all day to simulate them working. For military, I've used Monique's computer to have them "work from home", the Intelligence career reward to "spy", the lie detector machine to practice their resolve, and of course the military career excercise course. There's also a gym, a meeting room (where I stage meetings by having them sitting and chatting) and a lunch room so they can sit down and eat TV dinner together. Using Merola's Time Control Clock helps slow down the time (I set it to 50%) to not have the day run by too quickly. Also banning all ages + NPCs with the visitor controller keeps the lot private throughout the day. Once Buzz's workday is up, he goes back home, and catches the carpool to "actually" go to work. I hope that helps ❤

[@emmachristina22]

Wait how are you able to play with so many sims at the same time in the uni?

[@AniBats]

There are several ways to do it. You could add the following cheats into your userStartup file: uintProp maxTotalSims 50 uintProp maxTotalHumans 30 uintProp maxTotalPets 20 There's also a mod by Boiling Oil called Unlimited Sims: www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=2139

[@emmachristina22]

@@AniBatsthanks a lot!!! 😍