Simmish Cultures

I was asked to give a little bit more detail about my simmish cultures and heritages of my simmies. I love learning about different cultures and since the world is full of them, here are a few of the current cultures in my hood. There will be more cultures as I delve deeper into my simmies lives and build the corresponding locales for them to visit as well. Feel free to steal/borrow/use these in your games as well. I hope to start adding downloads of the buildings in the future for those who are interested in recreating the locales in their game.

Inherited Cultures
These are cultures that I inherited from other simmers when their sims moved to my hood.

Sokitumi-Nicole Humphrey was originally from Sokitumi, an island nation that had several goddesses including the famed goddess of love, Goddess Lahubutaniya and the god, Anghj. This simmer did an excellant job of fleshing out Sokitumi from native words such as Melihari (hello), government names (Peaceful Regency) and a beautiful background. To hear this simmer discuss Sokitumi it seemed like a magical society untouched by modern spoils. You can check out Nicole's former blog and Nicole and Lyndon's conversations for more insight on this culture. I created Sokitumi on one the islands of my tropical subhood which uses the Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey. Sokitumi is also the only tropical island where the default Maxis tropical vacation clothing makes sense.

Simborough-Sandy Warwick and Jadhira Shazad arrived in Apple Valley after a Gender Swap with Simborough. Simborough is a FSBS hood and because this simmer is from the UK, that's what I envisioned Simborough as. You should browse through the website and learn more about Simborough's multicultural hood.

Native Cultures
These are cultures that I developed for my simmies based on gameplay options. Most of these are a result of Bon Voyage and not wanting to use the standard vacation hoods that shipped with the game.

Kimikuria: this is my "asian" vacation hood using the Ellis Island from Amber's Journey. It's loosely based on the east asian countries like Japan, China and Korea. Kimikuria is the land of zen gardens, old wise men, and mahjong . The lots are mostly the oriental series downloaded from wolfsim68 at TSR. The lots that I built use the same exterior wallpaper and roof color so that all the lots are uniform in apprearence. Li Yoo is originally from Kimikuria and the Warwick family spent three simyears there on assignment. The name was chosen based on the "asian" sound of it.

Hacienda Bay: this is the hometown of the Herendez family, starting with Alfonzo and Margurita Herendez (Greymount TS1, Apple Valley TS2) who immigrated from the bay. It is loosely based on the caribbean islands like Puerto Rico with it's british colonial style buildings, lush plants and ocean views. Currently this is only one lot in my "tropical" vacation subhood. I am in the process of rebuilding it since my first version will not "place" on the neighborhood thanks to the fact that it's a beach lot. The goal is to make it one complete island as my tropical subhood is the Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey. I don't remember exactly how or why I chose this name since it was during TS1 days (2004).

Tiki Isle: this is the hometown of the Kent family, starting with Toby and Veronika Kent (Greymount TS1, Apple Valley TS2) who immigrated from the isle. The isle is loosely based on the caribbean islands of Cayman Islands and Jamaica. The isle features a rich culture in terms of food, dance and "juice" exports. Currently this lot is in the planning stages and will eventually take up an entire island in my tropical subhood (Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey) as well. This name was chosen based on the shipped Tiki sets with the game.

Ozian: this is the birth place of Elphaba Mendenhall, who was born with a rare skin disorder that made her pigment a bright green. For those familar with the Wizard of Oz and Wicked, then you will recognize Elphaba as the Wicked Witch of the West. This place doesn't exist in the game yet, but I might consider creating this locale for Anthony and Susie to explore.

Thaindia: this is the hometown of Jadhira Shazad and I'm very excited to be starting the building of this island that is loosely based on the south east asian cultures like Thailand, India, Singapore and the Phillipines. Currently it's a single island set as a "asian" vacation subhood. I've included a sneak peek of one of the structures on the island. This name is basically a combination of Thailand and India :P

Starr Grey Administration Building

I've been begging for a lot tour and just realized that I haven't given one of my own recently. Here's a brief lot tour of the Starr Grey Administration Building following it's remodel. The building was originally designed by Wolfsim68 as a bank and was retrofitted to operate as the administration building. The building is named for the first spokessim of the hood-Starr Grey, who was the spokessim for years of Greymount (~2003)

The county council recently alloted a nice chunk of simoleans aside to remodel the administration building. Li Yoo headed the project and offered to give the tour before the building was reopened to the public.

But first she needs to get rid of some pests.

Here's an aerial view of the first floor. There is the gift shop and archives library, conference room and offices for county members Carmela Herendez and Rebecca Wilsonoff. There's an empty office as well.

An aerial of the second floor. County Council President Fiona Kent's office, a small wedding chapel and a auditorium for press conferences. Also a few snacks and the loo.

The Gift Shop sells deposits on vacation trips. The gift shop has posters of different travel locales (in addition to the Bon Voyage posters, I also use posters from MTS2 and I am currently creating similar vacation destinations to match). If a sim purchases a poster, this is thier indication to me that they would like to travel to that location. The cost of the poster serves as thier deposit for the trip.

The Archives Library is a little corner with some books and computers for research. Eventually, Jadhira Shazad would like to see a public library for the hood, but at the moment there isn't a need for it.

The offices contain a desk and chairs for visitors and there's a photo outside the door for easy identification.

Carmela's office is where residents would go for complaints on neighbors and questions about cultural events.

Rebecca's office is for financial situations, loans and tax payments for example.

Upstairs is the county council president's office which has the best view.

Fiona's office is for the remainder or if residents simply want to talk to the top woman.

The Conference Room is for county council meetings or legal proceedings such as adoptions and divorces. Legal proceedings will start to be moved to the law office once I finish remodeling it.

The Auditorium is for press releases and speeches

The Wedding Hall is very simple, just the basics for a low key wedding.

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I'm not satisfied with the building yet, I want a custom Apple Valley flag and simlish signs for outside. Also, I feel that the wedding hall is too fancy for a simple place to get married. I would like it to look more courthouse like in apprerance. I'm also debating adding a courtroom since I have law offices on another lot.