Finally, it’s here! A replacement for all those modern images that our Sims insist on talking about! A few easy files to drop in your download folder (and one harder one that’s totally optional), and you’ll be on your way to far more soothly speech amongst your medieval Sims.

All image files use clipart gleaned from the Internet that are free to use, and the text files are my own creation. One down note, they do get a bit blurry close-up, I don’t think there’s much I can do about that with what I have for images.

Of course, your Sims will still use the same animations while chatting, so you'll still have knights doing air guitar, unfortunately.

A big, big thanks to Sunni of PBK who worked with me on figuring this out!

Base Game Interests

These files will change the basic interests that all Sims have. You know them far too well. It’s time for a makeover!

Politics

Icons dealing with Affairs of State and the doings of the Royals. Included are, from left to right, a guard tower, an English-style crown, a shield with a Chancellor’s key on it, another crown, and a castle.

Money

Images of currency and other forms of wealth. Includes a large jewel, various coins, two rings, bars of gold, and a chest full of treasure.

Environment

Perhaps medieval Sims didn’t concern themselves with issues of conservation the same way we do, but they did live in close contact with the natural world. Here are images dealing with the great outdoors, including a butterfly, trees, a hillside, some cut logs, and a heraldic-style rose.

Crime

Wrongdoing and outlawry have always been around. Sims who wish to converse about this will discuss topics such as a gallows, a set of shackles, a jailer’s key, a headsman’s axe, and a gaol.

Entertainment

Images of general Revelry and Gaming populate this topic. Such pictures include a jester’s hat, a pair of dice, some chess pieces, a carnival mask, and a bullseye.

Culture

For the Culture interest, I’ve chosen to focus on the art of music, specifically, although there were many arts practiced in the time period. These images include a lute, a dulcimer, a harp, a psaltery, and a set of pan pipes.

Food

Ah, nothing beats a hearty repast! Except, perhaps, chatting about it afterwards. Sims may discuss beer, sausages, bread, cheese, and a cooking cauldron.

Health

A troubling topic for many medieval Sims, what with the dreaded [strike>Guinea Pig Disease[/strike>, er…Black Plague hanging about! These health-conscious types will discuss a bottle of medicine, a fleam for bloodletting (this is the stylized heraldic version), a skull, a plague doctor, and yes, the Maxis mortar and pestle, which looked better than anything I found that was free.

Fashion

Ah, there will always be those of us concerned with outward appearances, specifically, the kinds and type of garments one is wearing. Includes images of a pair of boots, a tunic, a ball of yarn for knitting, an old fashioned flat iron (probably not period, but not modern, at least) and some washing hung on the line.

Sports (Warfare)

When thinking of medieval sport, the mind turns quickly to jousting. While I found that jousting lances do not show up well at these sizes of images, it lead me to think of war games in general. So I have rechristened this interest as Warfare, in my mind at least. (And in your game, too, with a mod explained further below). Images include a siege tower, crossed swords, a knight on horseback, a mace, and a catapult.

Travel

Yes, I skipped one, that will be explained below. Meanwhile, perhaps you and your Sims will enjoy a chat about journeying to far lands. Conversation topics include a sailing ship, a compass rose, a map, a crossroad signpost, and a ship’s wheel.

Work

All folk must labor hard if they are to get by. Some like to chat about it as well. They may discuss such topics as a town hall, a windmill, a market stand, a sheaf of wheat, and a farm.

Animals

The beasts of the forest are ever on the minds of some Sims. Species of interest include a deer, a fox, a bear, a rabbit, and a raccoon (yes, I know that raccoons are native to the New World, good clip art is hard to find).

School

School? In the Middle Ages? Well, it wasn’t very common. Those who did get education got it at the hands of private tutors, or at a monastic school. That got me to thinking. Since the church was such a big part of medieval life, and since I was having trouble finding images for medieval schooling, why not change this interest to one in Religion, instead? So I present two versions of this interest, as I did finally find some good images, and as I know not everyone plays a neighborhood with a Christian or Christian-esque religion in their game, or might not be comfortable with such a mod. One is Education, the other is Religion. You can only have one version in your game, however.

First up is Education, which features images of some rolled-up scrolls, a piece of parchment with a quill pen, a mortar board (commonly worn in medieval universities), an abacus, and a book.

The other option is Religion, with pictures of a church or cathedral, praying hands, a holy book, a chalice, and a stained glass window with a dove. While these images are strongly evocative of the Christian religion in particular, I did avoid using images of a cross that would make it very specifically Christian. With imagination, it could be made to serve other similar Sim-faiths.

Toys

Another one that I found hard to find appropriate images for, so please forgive my touch of whimsy in some of the choices. Suitable pastimes for your younger sims include a wooden practice sword and shield, a rocking horse, some blocks, a sand castle, and a doll. (Yes, I did just replace an image of 3 blocks with an image of 3 blocks. I think mine is nicer.)

Sci-Fi (Fairytales)

Er…science fiction? Pray tell, what is that? Well, in lieu of images of medieval aliens, I’ve substituted some fine mythical creatures instead. Your Sims will delight in talking about a fairy, a satyr, a mermaid, a centaur, and a frog prince.

Paranormal and Weather

I’ve left these two alone, as weather is weather in any period, and as none of the images in the Paranormal section are terribly modern or anachronistic. That, and I was tired of hunting through clip art. Forgive my weakness.

Oh, yeah, and I may have changed a few other images, here and there….

So there you have it! 18 Interests with 5 images each, for a total of 90 brand-new images for your Sims to babble about! Each zip file contains 2 files, one to change the actual speech bubbles, and one to change the images in the Interest panel on your menu bar. Choose your flavor of either Religion or Education, then just drop it anywhere in your download folder. To go back to the Maxis versions, or to swap with another speech bubble mod, just remove the file!

Choose one:

Download Education Version

Download Religion Version

Free Time Books and Novels

These files will change what your Sims think and talk about when they are reading or discussing books. One version will just change thoughts for the basic game books (Children, Cooking, Drama, Mystery, Romance, and Sci-Fi), and the other version works with my Plot Element Replacement Pics to provide your custom-made novels with new images.

Maxis Books

Children

These images are fairly random, but then, so were the ones in the original file. A dog, a castle, a king in an over-sized cloak and crown, and a cat.

Cooking

Similar to the cooking interest pics, these ones include a bowl of soup, three loaves of bread, a wheel of cheese, and some wine bottles.

Drama

Hard to find medieval-esque clip art of Drama in its original meaning, here, so I opted for another meaning entirely. Here is a book of plays for your sims, who can discuss the theater masks, Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, and an actor who is mid-speech.

Mystery

How to convey Mystery without fingerprints and magnifying glasses? Well, you could discuss a lit candle, a dagger, a bloody handprint, and a bottle of poison. No, I don’t know what a candle has to do with anything, it just seemed to fit.

Romance

Ah, romance! For your Sims who dwell on tales of courtly love, we have a knight a-horseback, a lady playing a lute, a minstrel with a mandolin, and a princess.

Sci-Fi

Again, we’ve replaced science fiction with fairytale images. These include a dragon, an ogre, a wizard, and a unicorn.

Custom Novels

These images are identical to, and synched up with, the images in my “A Novel Idea” plot replacement pics. This means that when you choose your 5 icons when starting a book, those will be the images that will appear when your Sims read and discuss the book later! Most images are the same as in the interest topics, above, with a few substitutions. The images are as follows:

Sheaf of wheat, crossed swords, rocking horse, rabbit, mortar and pestle.
Trees, ship’s wheel, rings, quill and paper, mermaid.
Treasure chest, sailing ship, raccoon, plague doctor, mask.

Map, shield, frog prince, market stand, deer.
Logs, harp, fox, fire, crown.
Knight, gallows, fleam for bloodletting, doll, coins.

Chess pieces, centaur, butterfly, blocks, barrel.
Cheese, catapult, bullseye, mug of beer, axe.
Chains, castle, bread, bear, windmill.

I’ve provided two versions of the FreeTime mod. One will change both the Maxis books and the custom novels, and the other will just change the books, leaving the speech images unchanged for novels, for those who may be using another set of images, or just don’t want it.

Choose one:

Download FreeTime Mod for BOTH Books and Novels
Download FreeTime Mod for Books ONLY

The Optional Tricky Part!

Yup, custom names for your interests. Unfortunately, does not change the pie menu options when changing topics, but still fun. However, it does take a little more than just putting the file in your Downloads folder.

As you can see, I had a little too much fun renaming the majority of my Interests while I was making these files. It was great, until I realized that in order to make the changes work, I’d have to call the file “Live.package”. Yup, you probably recognize that name. I did. It was the same as any Name Mod file has, and it had to go in the same place, the top level of the Download folder. So it would overwrite the naming mod. Problem.

Now, if you don’t have a naming mod, or any other mod that calls itself Live.package, you have no problem. You can simply download one of the files below and put it in your Download folder (but not a subfolder).

For those of us who can’t stand life with Sims named Goopy, but still want my cutesy new names, it’s a fairly quick edit in SimPe to merge the two files together. PLEASE, be smart and back up your files first, though. I am not responsible for messing up your naming mod. If you can’t use SimPe, or have some other reason for not doing it yourself, send me a polite PM, and I’ll probably be nice and do it for you.

1. Extract my file to somewhere [em]other than[/em] your Download folder.
2. Open this new Live file with SimPe.
3. Use the Extract function to extract both Text lists.
4. Close my file.
5. Open your existing Live file with SimPe.
6. Use the Add function to add both lists to your file.
7. Save your existing file.

Of course, while you’re in there, you are welcome to change any and all of the names, yourself. Perhaps you prefer “Affairs of State” to “Governance”, or you refer to Animals as “Woodland Creatures” or “Beast of the Forest”. Go crazy, have fun. Just remember to Commit and Save, and DON’T change the numbers.

If, for some reason, you grow tired of my little titles, you can easily remove them from your file, as well:

1. Open the Live.package in SimPe
2. Select one of the Text Files that has the lists of interests
3. Use the Delete function to delete the Text file
4. Repeat for the other list of interests
5. Save your file

These come in two flavors, for two different game configurations, a total of four options. There are files for people who have the Pets expansion, and for those who do NOT have Pets. I didn’t change any of the Pet interests (yet), but you need the Pet version for the standard titles to show up at all. Each one of these has an option for either the Education version of the interests above, or the Religion one. Choose the one that matches your other download.

Choose only one:

Education with Pets

Education NO Pets

Religion with Pets

Religion NO Pets

And that’s it, for now! Sometime soon I plan to work on the Hobbies part of FreeTime thought and speech, but I have other projects that have been shoved to the back burner that need to get finished first. If you have any questions or problems, please, let me know. As always, you are free to use this as a base for your own versions, if you so choose.
Enjoy!