how to build a sims 4 save file from scratch!🗺️🏠🍊the sims 4: save file diaries 1
Estimated read time: 1:20
Summary
In this engaging episode by Aluhhsim, viewers are introduced to the concept of creating a Sims 4 save file from scratch. The video delves into the process of setting up a brand new world using the 'seriously blank save file' method, which wipes clean all pre-existing lots and townies, offering a fresh canvas. Aluhhsim provides a detailed walkthrough of how to organize different neighborhoods, create diverse lots, and populate them with custom families. The video is peppered with creative ideas, like designing street names and setting up a Pinterest board for inspiration. Overall, it’s an inspiring guide for Sims 4 players to build their own tailored save files.
Highlights
Aluhhsim introduces a new video series called 'Save File Diaries'. 📔
She starts by setting up a clean Sims 4 world using 'seriously blank save file'. 🌍
Discusses mapping out neighborhoods with distinct income levels. 💰
Emphasizes the use of Pinterest boards to gather ideas and themes. 📋
Tips on placing lots and families to maintain game consistency. 🔄
Key Takeaways
Begin your Sims 4 save from a blank slate using 'seriously blank save file'. 🎨
Plan and map out your neighborhoods creatively for a realistic touch. 🗺️
Use Pinterest for visual inspiration to fuel your Sims design journey. 📌
Personalize your world with custom families and well-thought out storylines. 👨👩👧👦
Consider adding layers of realism by naming streets and lots thoughtfully. 🏘️
Overview
Aluhhsim is kicking off an exciting new series on her channel where she takes us through the journey of building a Sims 4 save file from scratch. This first episode paints a vivid picture of the beginnings—wiping the slate clean with the 'seriously blank save file' to remove all lots and townies, thus creating a truly fresh start. It's a creative endeavor akin to painting on a blank canvas.
The process involves considering the realistic layout of neighborhoods, complete with distinctive characteristics. Aluhhsim plans her neighborhoods like a storyteller, figuring out where the low-income housing will be, where families will settle, and where the more affluent will reside. It’s strategic urban planning but with Simlish flair!
A unique aspect of her methodology is the extensive use of a Pinterest board to assemble inspirations for aesthetics, lot designs, and even detailed interiors. Through this, she ensures every lot and household has a unique story and function, making her virtual world vibrant and alive. This video not only serves as a tutorial but also as a source of inspiration for fellow Sim enthusiasts looking to create personalized virtual universes.
Chapters
00:00 - 00:30: Introduction In the introductory chapter, the host welcomes viewers to the channel and introduces a new video format, inspired by other YouTubers such as Silly and Wolf X Dreamer. The host intends to share personal save file diaries, a concept inspired by content from other creators. The chapter emphasizes the creator's fascination with this style and the intention to incorporate it into their channel.
00:30 - 02:00: Setting up the Save File In this chapter, the focus is on setting up a save file in a game. The presenter outlines the process they use to establish a new save file, starting with creating a brand new world. The chapter suggests a relaxed and informal approach to the setup, encouraging the audience to get comfortable as they follow along with the steps.
02:00 - 04:00: Creating the Save File In this chapter titled 'Creating the Save File,' the process of starting a game with a completely clean save file is described. Instead of beginning a new game, the chapter suggests loading a pre-existing blank save file that has been designed to have all lots and families removed. This clean slate allows players to start with no pre-set townies or lots, offering a fresh start for building and customizing in the game. The chapter introduces the 'seriously blank save file' as an updated method to achieve this, ensuring all elements are cleared for a new experience.
04:00 - 07:30: Planning the Neighborhoods The chapter titled 'Planning the Neighborhoods' discusses the process of setting up a game save that involves neighborhoods. The speaker explains that when downloading certain packs, there might be notifications about missing content due to the world's inclusion. However, it's mentioned that these messages can be ignored to proceed with the game even if some content is missing. They also promise to provide a link in the description, emphasizing that the tool is useful because it allows players to start with completely empty lots, free of Sims. Instructions include bulldozing all lots and disregarding the message about missing content to ensure the neighborhood is ready for planning.
07:30 - 11:40: Using Pinterest for Ideas In the chapter 'Using Pinterest for Ideas,' the narrator discusses the advantages of utilizing Pinterest for creative inspiration. The content emphasizes the ease of starting a project from scratch without pre-existing constraints. The narrator explains the process of creating new saves to preserve the original work while experimenting with new ideas.
11:40 - 14:30: Building and Placing Lots The chapter 'Building and Placing Lots' discusses the process of saving changes under a new save file named 'Alis Sim save 2024'. This ensures any modifications made will only affect this new save and not the original file. The speaker mentions having developed a map outlining how the save file should be organized, and plans to walk through this layout in the video.
14:30 - 17:30: Placing Families and Renaming Lots This chapter discusses the planning and distribution of different types of residential areas within a virtual world, specifically focusing on the neighborhood of Willow Creek. The narrator outlines their intention to categorize the areas based on socio-economic status and housing types. Foundry Cove is designated for lower-income, more rundown homes. Courtyard Lane is planned to house more family-oriented homes and an apartment. Pendula View is envisioned as an area with more upscale lots for wealthier families.
17:30 - 19:30: Adding Details and Storylines In this chapter, the focus is on expanding the game's map by adding new elements such as a retirement home in Willow Creek. This decision was inspired by observing Kai's design, which aims to bring together town Elders and add diversity to the types of characters in the game. Additionally, in the caad quarter, all residential areas will be grouped alongside a mayor's house, indicating a structured plan for the game’s save file. This indicates a thoughtful approach to game design, ensuring diversity and organization in the game's layout.
19:30 - 18:30: Conclusion and Future Plans The chapter discusses plans for transforming lots in "The Sims 4" game. Specifically, the park lot in Willow Creek is intended to become the mayor's house. The general idea involves categorizing each lot to serve different purposes, like a family lot, apartment, or non-residential space. These plans are currently presented in an overview and visual diagram.
how to build a sims 4 save file from scratch!🗺️🏠🍊the sims 4: save file diaries 1 Transcription
00:00 - 00:30 [Music] hello hello everyone and welcome or welcome back to the channel so today I am giving you guys a bit of a new video style I haven't never done this before but I think I really want to start sharing some of my save file Diaries I've seen a couple of different YouTubers do this such as silly and Wolf X dreamer I'll go ahead and put them either in the description or on the screen depending on which I remember but I've really been obsessed with watching these recently I find them so inspiring and just like fun to have on in the
00:30 - 01:00 background or things like that so today I thought I would do one of those and for this video specifically I'm kind of going to be taking you through how I'm actually setting up my save file and kind of a little bit step by step but I guess a little kind of more informal so if that sounds like something you're interested in then make sure you grab yourself a drink a snack a blanket get comfy and we'll just get right on into it so the first thing I'm going to do to start off my save file is actually create a brand new world so I'm just here on the loading page and I'm going
01:00 - 01:30 to go ahead and instead of clicking new game I'm going to hit load game because I want all the lots to be completely wiped no families no Lots no nothing so what I'm going to use for this is seriously blank save file seriously Sims blank save that's what this is this is the older version so ignore that this is the newer version which is updated with all the world so pretty much this is just the save file that will have all the lots and townies completely wiped so it's a fresh slate so I'm going to go
01:30 - 02:00 ahead and click that and then you can see there's a lot of required packs but this is just because um there's like worlds included and stuff but you if you do download this you can just ignore that and hit play and then just play the save with missing content um I will go ahead and make sure I link this in the description because honestly this is so handy because bulldozing all the Lots you can also click okay and just ignore this message it's just telling you that you don't have all the packs but it just makes sure that all the lots are complete empty there's no Sims there's
02:00 - 02:30 no weird names there's no houses and this applies to literally every single World here which is honestly just so perfect for someone who's trying to build a save from scratch so it really just kind of allows you to think outside the box and whatnot and so the first thing I'm going to do is make this a different save so I'm going to hit save as and what this will do is it won't override anything from the original save it's just going to create a new one and so I'm just going to go ahead and call
02:30 - 03:00 this Alis Sim save 2024 and then I'm going to hit okay and so pretty much now what that means is that any changes I make here will only affect this save file and not the seriously blank save file and so pretty much I'll go ahead and put it up on the screen now but I actually have created this whole kind of map for how I want my save file to be laid out for this video I'm just kind of going to take take you
03:00 - 03:30 through Willow Creek cuz I don't have the other worlds figured out just yet but pretty much in the neighborhood of Foundry Cove that's going to be the bit more lowincome the a little bit more beat up houses and then over in Courtyard Lane there's going to be more family homes plus like an apartment and then in pend pendula view I don't know if that's how you say it but that's going to have the more fancy Lots uh the more well-off families over in stage Estates I'm
03:30 - 04:00 thinking or stage Estates my apologies I'm thinking I'm going to do a retirement home maybe I saw just Kai do this and I feel like that'd be a really cool thing for Willow Creek and then I can kind of have all the town Elders all in one place um and it'll just allow for a variety of different Sims and then over in caad quarter I'm going to have all the residential lots plus a mayor's house so with the way my safe file is going to be I want to have a mayor or a
04:00 - 04:30 politician for each town in The Sims 4 and so the lot that is originally the park in Willow Creek is going to end up becoming the mayor's house and so that's kind of the general overview you can see on the picture whether you can read it or not I'm not entirely sure you'll see that I've just kind of laid out the general ideas that I'm thinking of for each lot so like if I want it to be a family lot or an apartment or a not residential
04:30 - 05:00 what's the word a community lot things like that I've just kind of written that in the box and then you can see down in the bottom left I've got a little Legend So if it's got a little red heart that means I've actually finished the build and it's complete and if it's got a little star that means it's in progress and then anything else just hasn't even begun it's just my original thought so that's kind of the map and plan that I have for this and then also along with that I have a whole Pinterest board where I have either the reference photos
05:00 - 05:30 I want to use of builds I want to create or just kind of the general aesthetic and Vibe so you can see here that this is my Pinterest board for the world of Willow Creek so pretty much it's either Vibes like I mentioned or things that I want to build so in this case this is a direct reference of one of the houses I want to build and I'm thinking I'm going to put it in the more middle class area or there's things like this one's just a general Vibe because I wanted to put a diner in there so I've put that there as
05:30 - 06:00 kind of a reminder cuz I wanted it to be a diner SL Cafe same with this another kind of like Vibe sort of thing and just certain things like that also this one because I want to have like a little shopping plaza where you can easily change the lot type to be something else I'm even seeing this here where I actually think putting in a little movie theater could be super cool so I'm going to go ahead and put in Willow Creek and save it to my file or my um my board o I also think laundry mat could be really
06:00 - 06:30 good for this so I'm going to go ahead and put that on Willow Creek ignore my other boards those are I have a lot of Pinterest boards so just ignore those so yeah that's kind of how I'm going about it and how I've kind of laid it out and then if I want to like say for example I know that I want this apartment here to be in the more middle class area so I'm going to leave a note on Pinterest saying middle class area if I could spell and then I'm just going to save that and then here it'll just put a little note so I know what I was thinking when I saved that photo and
06:30 - 07:00 so that's just kind of the overview of my Pinterest board and how I'm using that to help bring some life into my save file okay so coming back into the Sims 4 I'm going to show you now what I'm doing with this brand new world because I'm not doing it where I build in the world I'm saving the Lots from a different save that I have and then am dropping them into here and I do this because if I'm play testing I don't want your Sims to be like aging up or accidentally dying or anything like that
07:00 - 07:30 so I have this to make sure everything's perfect and then if I'm play testing I can do that in a different world just to make sure there's no issues so I'm just going to go ahead and open up the gallery and this is like my behind the scenes Gallery you know but I'm going to go ahead and click on my profile so you guys can see what it would look like if you were doing this and then I'm just going to go ahead and click view catalog because I know that all of the houses that I want to have in my safe file are up on here for the most part so for example this house right here is house
07:30 - 08:00 for a band also a little plug I do have a speed bill for this I have a speed build for pretty much all the uh lots I'm about to place so you can find all those on my channel if you're interested but I'm just going to go ahead and place the lot and I know that This one belongs on the de hovo lot so I'm just going to go there and click the check mark make sure it's furnished and place it so doing it through this way actually kind of takes a little bit longer than if you were to go into the lot and then enter build mode and then go to the gallery that sounds very confusing but I'll show
08:00 - 08:30 you what I mean in just a second just because when you place Lots from the gallery when you're in this view of the world I don't know why but it just takes an extra long time that you don't have to go through loading screens or anything so maybe that's kind of the trade-off but to me going into build mode and placing it there seems to go a lot faster so I will show you that in just a minute but now you can see that the very first lot is placed and I know that this house works and whatnot so I've placed it and I also know the
08:30 - 09:00 family that's going to be living here but we'll deal with that in a little bit so I'm first just going to show you the second way that you can place a house so the second way is by going into like clicking on the lot then hitting the build icon down here in the bottom right and then it's going to take you through a loading screen just to bring you into the lot which you can see was pretty fast obviously it's going to vary like per computer but then you're just going to go ahead and go back to the gallery and we're just going to repeat those steps so I'm going to go inter viw
09:00 - 09:30 catalog and wait for it to load because apparently it's very slow and I already know the lot that goes here it's this simple base game starter something like that I don't know if that's going to take a long time though so I'm actually just going to go into my personal Gallery here we go it's the realistic base game starter and I'm just going to go ahead and place that furnished and then it says it's going to replace the lot which of course is okay because there's absolutely nothing on this lot and then it's going to load and then look it's placed and it places fine
09:30 - 10:00 everything's like normal as it should be no issues and so yeah that's kind of how you can place it in that manner and then I'm just going to go back to manage worlds and repeat all those steps for all the other lots that I have built for and I will check back in once I have done that okay so now I have placed every lot that I have built for my save file already at least for the world of Willow Creek and so this is what the map is looking like I have pretty much this
10:00 - 10:30 whole area complete I do have this house almost done which is the BFF house Renault I just have to finish doing the interior but the exterior is completely done so I'll have to add that in here and then all of these will still need to be filled up but next thing I want to do is I want to go ahead and place all the families that I have so if I've done these Sims for the houses that are here like in Crea a Sim I'm going to go ahead and place those which I know I have for a couple of them some of them I have to save to the gallery still but others I
10:30 - 11:00 know I have like for this house this house and this house so I'm going to go ahead and do that and the way you can do this is once again like the exact same way that you've been doing it so I'm just going to go ahead and click on this one but actually this is the one without CC so you know their faces look you know like generic Sims faces but in my save file I probably go ahead and place it with the CC version and if you want to find the CC version you can go ahead and and click on this little icon here which
11:00 - 11:30 includes custom content and then you can see the families that would otherwise be hidden and then so now they'd look a little bit cooler because they've got some nice little skin details but for my save none of the Sims are going to have custom content hair or clothes or anything like that it's just going to be skin details so your Sims will be fully clothed and fully haired if you have all the packs I guess I don't have all the packs but I'm no longer making this a pack restricted save file unfortunately
11:30 - 12:00 I do want to do one of those in the future but I really want to get my money's worth for this save because you know I spent a lot of my hard-earned money on here and so I'd really like to you know get use out of the packs but the first thing that we actually need to do is cancel that and make sure we hit control shift C and we're going to type in the cheat free real estate space on and then what this is going to do is make it so that like any family can
12:00 - 12:30 purchase any house even if they don't have that correct amount you can see here they only have 20,000 I don't know what's happening with the picture and this lot is very much not that but I'm just going to go ahead and move them in regardless okay I don't know what was up with that but I fix it here's the family here's their funds and here's the price of the house so now I'm just going to move them in even though they don't have those funds but it's okay because we use a little cheat and so now this family lives in here if the icon would load but you get the gist and so I'm just going to do that for the rest of the houses
12:30 - 13:00 that have families and then I will be right back okay so now that I have all the Lots place that I've built already and all the families that I've created placed in their houses I'm going to go ahead and start renaming the Lots so the goal for my save file is to make it very realistic I want there to be the areas of low income middle class income and then I guess High income along with various um what what's it called the various Community Lots there we go and I'm kind of basing it from
13:00 - 13:30 where I'm from like rural Ontario kind of area rural Canada but it also could be like Rural America I just can't speak to the accuracy of it because I don't live in America but I do live in Canada so that's kind of what I'm basing it on or just whatever pictures I find but pretty much a way I want to make this super realistic is by giving each of the houses or little neighborhoods like a street name and then the houses can have a street number and so for now I think I think I'm going to base it off of like
13:30 - 14:00 what the little neighborhoods are called so this one's called Foundry Cove so I'm thinking I might want to go with like Founders Road or Founders Lane as the street name and I'm kind of thinking that could work but I'm just going to read the little blurb and maybe I can get some ideas from there so it says Southern Willow Creek Foundry Cove has lock to the characters residents enjoy modest homes with a canal nearby fishing in an active
14:00 - 14:30 railroad interesting okay well I think for now I'll just go with Founders Road I kind of like the name of that so I'm just going to go ahead and do it like this Founders and then Road and so then it's going to update here and then I just kind of have to decide the numbering system maybe I'm trying to think because usually it goes like even odd even odd but if I did that what would this be I
14:30 - 15:00 don't want it to be like Founders Road one because that feels unrealistic to me so I'm going to have this be like Founders Road 12 maybe and this one can be Founders Road I guess 13 let's see Founders Road [Music] 13 did I save that yes I did and and then this one will be Founders Road
15:00 - 15:30 14 I might also make these three digigit numbers um that one's 13 so then this one will be 15 which is actually the BFF household okay and then same for this one here which will be number 16 but if you guys have any name suggestions for like the streets or like numbers or what you think sounds realistic but by all means let me know
15:30 - 16:00 because I would happily take your suggestions we'll just consider this like a placeholder name for now um but yeah I think that's looking pretty good I do like the realism of that so I'll keep that for now but like I just said if you have any better suggestions on street names and things like that you can go ahead and let me know in the comments below and so for any of the lots that don't have anything or that I want to have like no for in the game I'm
16:00 - 16:30 just going to go into the info panel and then under this little description here I'm just going to put what I want it to be so for this one I know it's going to be the BFF Rena house with Renault cast these are just simple notes that I know I'll understand so if you don't understand them I do apologize but it's just like quick little thing so I know what I want this lot to be and yeah I can also like include a storyline here like I know for example that this is a gang dad and uh teen daughter mom died by enemy gang
16:30 - 17:00 and I know all the spelling's incorrect there but it's kind of hard to say with the way my mic is laid out right now it's blocking my keyboard but pretty much for anything I know where there's a plot like I know that this Sim is going to have to um kick the bucket because it's just supposed to be these two sims also they had CC Hair so I'm going to have to replace those you can they won't be bald in the save but that's another
17:00 - 17:30 way you can go about it if you don't want to you know draw it out like I did cuz I just use like an app on my iPad to do my hand little notes but if you don't have that you can by all means just go about it this way and you could also just for ease of naming like change this title instead of it being like the road thing or whatever it's going to be in the final like I know this lot is going to be the mayor house so I might just change the title of it and then when I hover over it I know what I want it to be and so that's kind of just the general overview of how I'm going about
17:30 - 18:00 creating my save file I don't think there's going to be anything else for this video but I will need to go ahead and you know adjust relationships and edit things like that but I don't think I'll do any of that until I have the world complete just because I really want it to be interwoven and things like that if this was helpful for you guys please let me know and if you do want me to continue doing a little save file update series or things like that by all means let me know in the comments below because I think I'd be really happy to make some of those so yeah I hope you
18:00 - 18:30 guys have enjoyed have a wonderful rest of your day night wherever you are and hopefully I will see you all in my next video bye guys