OldSunset December and all its news!

What's up guys!! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

I'm passing by to share all the news of the latest version of OldSunset, are you ready? It was an above average month. I mean, I wasn't expecting anything grand for this time of year, given that I've spent the last 11 months emotionally involved with OldSunset and with all my other day-to-day responsibilities, like running a business, a healthy relationship and time. quality time with my family, a YouTube channel, a burgeoning Discord server, and all the other little things that come along the way. Thankfully I had support from extremely talented people along the way to pull it all off.

What kept my mind focused on seeking innovation and trusting the process to arrive at this day was the commitment that each of you kept with me, even in one of the most festive months of the year. You kept your support, you kept your time and most of all you kept the trust that I wouldn't let you down. So first of all thank you so much for this!! Thank you for allowing me, for another month, to take a few hours out of my day to dive headlong into this project.

We have some changes coming for the next stage of OldSunset.

And these changes start with a greater focus on increasing reality within the game. As always, my goal has never been to make the game easier, but even more challenging and rewarding! As you know, experience for me is an essential factor.

I started the month by reproducing a small Nectar Producer, with an area for tasting, producing and selling wines. She is great if you are looking for a profitable business. Just don't forget you'll need your own winery to make it flourish!

Training horses has never been easier than it is now. After all, with the new Oldsunset Equestrian Field, you can make them go further! Obviously, this is a Rabbit Hole but it has some objects outside that you can interact with and try new things!

Still in the rural region, we have a new lot that I call "lot for rent", but it is nothing more than a commercial room that you can rent to build your own business as a Boutique or sales store. Its look creates a complementary tie with the country house next door! It's almost like they're an extension of each other!

Now, let's get to the part that got me really excited! As you may know, I had built a gas station for OldSunset, which working together with a mod, would make it necessary for cars and automobiles to need fuel to function. I mean, you can drive around the city around 23 times before needing to recharge your car.

Okay, this is nothing new. The news is that for some strange reason, I spent the day listening to zombie apocalypse survival videos yesterday while working on OldSunset and suddenly found myself thinking, "What's the point of a single gas station, in such a big world?" So my first answer was: "Multiply the lots!"

And the second question: "What if each region had its own station? With a similar design for easy identification, but with its own visual characteristics?" and again the answer was, "Do it!" so before jumping into other news, OldSunset now has not one, but 4 stations!

For the rural region we created this post:

While I was here, there were some details that bothered me for years and probably few of you noticed. In this region, the connection between lots and the street was not perfect. At best she was "acceptable". So I took advantage of the fact that I was editing this area to make corrections to it. In theory, we lost the curvilinear view that there was, but at least the lots are correctly adjusted to the street.

Here are the next gas stations!

My initial intention was to make their interior playable, with cash registers selling food. But, as I couldn't develop a look that was consistent with real life, I ended up keeping them solely and exclusively with the function of fueling cars.

This is located in the night center of the city (the urban area full of buildings):

In addition to that, I was looking for replacements for taxis, buses and other visual aspects of the game. Then I came across something that fascinated me! So I said to myself, if I can have a bus station in The Sims 2 (even if it's decorative) why not do the same for OldSunset?

In the end, this is an initially residential lot (without interior) but that in the future, can be renovated to receive a family with a peculiar history!

I spent some time working on the idea of these lots and ended up not being able to complete the Port as I would have liked, BUT we already have a complete initial look and exterior for it. This is where you can dock your first OldSunset houseboat!

It's important to remember that it will still undergo reforms and adaptations in the future, but I didn't want to stop giving it to you. The initial design was much simpler, consisting of just a pier, and so I thought: "It can evolve and get better!" I'm thinking of integrating a restaurant into it in the future!

Here's a picture of the back of Porto. It has a large balcony upstairs and a long deck downstairs.

Looking at the overall body of work yesterday, I felt that with the new direction, I needed to fine-tune the neighborhood textures to represent this step towards more realistic gameplay. And look, I have no intention of turning this into something that differs from The Sims visual identity, I just want to enhance it! I want to make it visually better, more fascinating and so I created a custom texture for rock details and used it to give more shine and life to the grass, which was hardly highlighted before.

They are subtle changes. Should have a bigger impact for those who don't use ansel or reshade filters and even for those of us who do, it's still a change that adapts and works great! I removed all details from this area to present the difference:

It was a much more productive month than I thought it would be, and that makes me extremely happy. I hope you like all the news! 

Now let's understand a little better how the new mods affect the gameplay:

The new mod I added to OldSunset makes it necessary for cars to be fueled. Upon entering the game the first thing you will see is a notification:

Press any of the "Ok" buttons to enable the function within the game. Then you have some trips available with the car. You can click on it to check the fuel level and when you run out of gas, you can go to any of the stations established in OldSunset, clicking on the lot and selecting the "Visit Lot" option.

Upon arrival, your Sim will park their car in one of the spaces. These lots have gas pumps hidden inside the pillars of the building. And decorative bombs from The Sims 3 Speeding along the side. Don't worry about any of them, since you'll click on the CAR and then you'll have two new functions available:

Choose which type of gasoline you prefer and then click on it.

Your Sim will then perform a short animation and fill up the car. Having deducted just over 300 simoleons from the bank account. I know, the value is a little salty! Inflation isn't easy for our Sims either!

From now on Sims bills will also have a slightly higher value than you might be used to. Rest assured, all value will be reverted to infrastructure for future residents of OldSunset!

That's all the new stuff coming this month to the map. 

I hope you like it, enjoy it and face this challenge head on without using money cheats or trying to circumvent the game rules. Taking the opportunity, I would like to wish you an incredibly prosperous, bright and full of achievements 2023! Thank you for being by our side this year 2022. May 2023 bring many moments of joy to you and your whole family. Happy new year in advance!!

By: Boring Bones / Erick.