Swappernetters Story Pack Series

The Swappernetters Story Pack Series is a series of CC packs aimed at re-creating the Swappernetters timeline in other games. To date, however, only a pack for The Sims 4 and a smaller, retro Sims 3 version of this pack has been made available for download from DzMD. A retro pack for The Sims 2 has been considered; but no such pack has ever been officially released.

Plot
Inspired by such works as Dying Light and Mirror's Edge Catalyst, young Tabitha Pang and her new friends must deal with the fallout of the Sodality of Gerosha being dismantled. Before they can reassemble these old heroes, they must first destroy an infrastructure known as "the Tug" - which is preventing their allies from being able to enter Arkansas and liberate it. The Chrome Kite rules with a diamond-tipped titanium fist. Crumbling old Little Rock architecture is slowly giving way to advanced Meethlite construction appropriated by the Icy Finger after the fall of the Hebbleskin Gang. Wherever and whenever possible, the Chrome Kite oligarchs begin enslaving the masses beneath a false veneer of a utopic, shiny city of futurism - with plans to expand that into all of the western territories of the fallen United States!

As the Swappernetter society tries to take down the Tug, and preserve public knowledge of a time and culture from before the Chrome Kite assumed control, exiled allies in the west try to forge a new Sodality: one that can stop Icy Finger expansionism in its tracks!

The era of lots and lots of superheroes has ended. The old ones have fallen. Their efforts have mostly failed. Evil has not yet triumphed; but it will take faith, innovation, and cunning to defeat evil this time - with or without superpowers!

Swappernetters Character Pack for The Sims 3
As it wasn't until late 2014 that Dozerfleet Labs had a copy of The Sims 4, all Swappernetters development beforehand was done with The Sims 3. As such, the following early version of a Swappernetters pack came to form, as described below:

Sims 3 description
The year is 2029. The Sodality of Gerosha is no more. Its members are scattered to the wind. Some are in hiding, some have been imprisoned, others, under house arrest. Residents in the Icy Finger-occupied state of Arkansas will now have to fend for themselves. And they now have the means: Swappernetters!

Storytelling motivation
Before late fall in 2014, with Dozerfleet Labs acquiring The Sims 4, development was already underway for what would be the fifth season of Sodality. In 2015, that was revealed to be Vindication, which took inspiration from trending shows like Orange is the New Black and Agents of SHIELD. It also took inspiration from rumors regarding the arrival of Captain America: Civil War in 2016. Instead of a Sodality civil war, the season adopted for a passive surrender vs. active resistance approach to how the Sodality's members would deal with government betrayal.

This would only affect who went to prison, versus who would become a fugitive, and why each character would choose the path they took. While this moral dilemma does lead to the dissolution of the Sodality of Gerosha, it does not make them enemies of each other. Instead, it merely leads to them fighting the same war but from different angles, each reaching an understanding of why the other's angle is necessary.

Yet, as members of the Sodality start having families in the wake of the Hebbleskin Gang's downfall, they realize a bit late that the choices they make will affect the future of their children. In spite John's urging that Hea go on the run with him, Hea won't endanger her employer's life by doing so. Because Hea and Marge tried to scheme their way into negotiating surrender, however, they failed to account for the Screwworms' sheer recklessness. The plan is compromised by a surprise attack, which forces once-innocent Tabitha to improvise dangerously in order to save herself. One simple act of nascence regarding an obscure law, however, results in her being sent to juvie.

Three years later, Tabitha finds that the world has changed for the far worse. And this time, there's no Sodality of Gerosha to save anyone! She is rescued by a rogue SCALLOP agent: Shaniqua Tamery, after nearly being fed to Affadidah's "zombies" by the prison staff - who are then promptly punished by Maurice for ignoring a direct order from God to not make any attempt on Tabitha's life while she is incarcerated.

Returning to Little Rock on foot, Tabitha is quickly embroiled in the local civil war between Swappernetter society and the brutal Chrome Kite regime - puppets of the Icy Finger and Rappaccini! She gets hired by Trista Clarion as a "Frontliner" - similar to a "Runner" in the Mirror's Edge universe.

It was seen as a bold move at the time to shift focus in the Gerosha universe to Tabitha, as the focus before had nearly always been on Stan, Shalia, John, Hea, Donte, or Candi.

While sneaky, fast, cunning, and agile, Tabby was not a particularly physically strong or imposing character. Nor was she emotionally secure. She certainly didn't wield Hester's Locket the way her mother did, nor did she have Candi's abilities. She couldn't command lightning from the power grid like John, fly like Donte, nor buy the future with Lohtz's treasure like Stan and Shalia were able to. She couldn't crush someone beneath a cruise ship like Extirpon. But she and her new friends were to bear the power of inspiration, to get the public to do for itself out of reverence for God all that which superheroes could no longer do.

From there, emphasis switched to expanding the new world Tabby was in, especially regarding developing backstory for her new friends - and giving her a motive to save Little Rock other than simply "because it's the right thing to do." The thought of the Chrome Kite executing her mother in prison any given day, simply for her past association with John, becomes a constant source of emotional stress and character motivation for Tabby. Her hatred of how they tried to murder her in prison several times while she was still a minor also tempts her to be fueled by a lust for revenge, which she must overcome.

Mechanical motivation
The development of Swappernetters in Sims 3 was for more than just storytelling advances, however. There was a strong desire to play around with Into the Future, in the hopes of creating a true dystopian magipunk setting. The dystopia in the actual game was one centered around pollution and littering, rather than around police states and foreign enemy occupation of land being secured by way of space magi-tech. All the same, great lengths were taken to push a world where Tabitha and her friends were constantly in need to look over their shoulders, in fear of a centralized government force with malice on its mind - hiding behind a veneer of architectural futurism and "progress."

Having Roy Bernald become an understudy of John Domeck in the hopes of replacing him as the Gray Champion, while having the horse Fellertooth by his side, was both a nod to Kicked Deer's pet wolf Fellerfang, and a desire to take the horse Sim type introduced with the Pets expansion and make it worthwhile.

As far as gameplay, what this pack did most was inspire a desire to define how the Chrome Kite would wish to design its architecture - namely, with lots of glass and curved corners / walls. Feathertop was given more definition as an Icy Finger villain, to further advance the integration of Hawthorn mythos into Gerosha mythos. Giving jetpacks to Chanticleer and some of the Hgs furthermore took advantage of Into the Future, by giving the jetpacks a storytelling purpose outside of the game's main purpose - and outside of being merely a tool for Drop-In and Korsicht to utilize in the Centipede and Fire Saga.

Oddly enough, the most difficult part about this set - aside from finding hand accessory flash drives for the characters to hold during runs - was finding a hat-and-hair matchup that would look good on Tabitha.

File creation
While Sim versions of most of the main cast for Swappernetters came to exist by June of 2015, serious efforts to make them into exports for DzMD didn't come about until December of 2017. However, progress on that was mitigated by aging hardware - as well as efforts to learn how to convert objects to The Sims 4. Those efforts would later pay off, in the form of The Sims 4: Into the Future Conversions Stuff. Miscellaneous other objects would also be converted, allowing for Trista to inherit a trashed home and renovate it with the Twirlflame Trio's help. Even before Eco Lifestyle came out to assist with this, the conversions helped convey the house's disrepair when Tabby and her friends started living there part time.

A zip file was created to house the Twirlflame Trio's DzMD Sims3Pack files on June 28th of 2020, and was followed up by a second file on July 4th of that year to add the other characters that would appear in the Sims 3 content pack's final cut.

Swappernetters Story Pack Series for The Sims 4
As parkour poses became available and disk thrashing with 32-bit games became more of an annoyance, Sims 3 gameplay was eventually all but completely abandoned for making Swappernetters screenshots. As such, this meant that an update to Sims 4 was inevitable. However, making the Swappernetters Story Pack got very long and complex. As such, it was split into four packs making up the Swappernetters Story Pack Series; the packs being the Frontliner Story Pack, the Chrome Kite Story Pack, the Supporting Cast Story Pack, and a Screwworms and Other Villains Story Pack.

Distribution
The Sims 3 version's download page was completed on July 5th of 2020, completing the set for that version. Among developments being made for hosting other projects, the Sims 4 series of packs was met with many obstacles. However, the Frontliner Story Pack was finally available for download on August 7th of 2020. On September 18th of that year, the Chrome Kite Story Pack became available. This was followed by a Screwworms and Other Villains Story Pack on September 20th, and the Supporting Cast Story Pack dropping on September 25th.

Some of the marketing was a little misleading at first glance regarding which characters were included and which weren't. Plum Bixie features on the cover, having joined the Sodality Western Militia. Technically, she's actually included in the Task Force Black Rat Character Pack for Sodality instead. Her new husband, Amado Marcones, does feature in the pack. Likewise, Tiffany Sterlie having taken over for Vince Finton as Navyrope is displayed on the cover; but Tiffany herself is absent from the Swappernetters Supporting Cast pack. Both John Domeck and Roy Bernald (the latter dubbed the "Gray Rancher") feature on the cover, but Roy is the only Gray Champion that is included.

Since they're not Frontline Bosses nor Frontliners nor Free Agents, Steve Trussel and Francine Smith are included in the Supporting Cast Pack rather than the Frontliner pack. The Eddie Pintal version of Extirpon features in the pack, even though his career as Extirpon doesn't begin until almost the end of season 2 of Swappernetters. Prisoner versions of Hea Pang, Jissika Sundue, and Marge Ramirez feature in the pack, though the political prisoner version of Ivalu Molgaard was omitted. Samantha "Dollschief" Steel is included, even though she isn't a major character in Gerosha mythos until after the events in Swappernetters.

Since Sims 4 doesn't natively support horses, even with Cottage Living installed, Farasi the Horse by Necrodog is highly recommended for players wishing to have Fellertooth appear in any capacity. While the story pack was made before the release of Cottage Living, that pack could prove useful for depicting the Western Militia's hideout ranch. Shaniqua Tamery is not depicted on the cover for the Supporting Cast pack, but she's included in it. Anda "Extirwraith" Hirano is perhaps the second-most physically and Marlquaan-ly powerful character included in the Supporting Cast pack, in spite getting only a small amount of ad real estate. In spite not being able to match either version of Extirpon in raw power, her secret weapon is total Tug immunity - something very few Marlquaanites can ever hope to have.

The Screwworms and Other Villains Story Pack takes great lengths to re-create Feathertop for Sims 4, as he's set up to be a possible future leader of the Icy Finger following the downfall of Rappaccini in the Epic Battle for Little Rock. Frotchimar features even more prominently on the cover than Rappaccini himself does, while Bliksemhek and Lady Chillingworth do what they can to also establish their significance. Complications regarding additional third party CC meant that Sicklesaw was omitted from this pack, in spite a strong initial desire to include him. Likewise, the Stagtar Squadron was omitted - for the same reasons that a proper Story Pack for the Pilltar trilogy has been delayed.

The Mercury Troopers and Microwave Mouth Corps were lucky final entries into the Chrome Kite Story Pack, as their reliance on various additional third party content made their presence in the pack doubtful at one point. All six major heads of the Chrome Kite appear in the story pack. While not truly loyal to the regime, Officer Geoff Throba is included, as he's playing both sides in the conflict.

The Frontliner Story Pack is the only one in the Sims 4 story pack series of Swappernetters that features real estate in addition to characters. Tabitha, Sarah, Tobias, Beauregard, Clarion, Kamhold, Hassler, Atroce, Triflow, Jordan, and Chanticleer all feature prominently. The pack includes a download for Trista's home, as well as a copy of Kamhold's hideout. The only misleading detail in the Frontliner Story Pack cover, is background features of content lifted from The Sims 4: Into the Future Conversions Stuff, as its included in that pack instead.

The only major real estate location for the heroes not included in the Frontliner pack was Pete Hassler's location, as that was a highly modified apartment from Eco Lifestyle which required extensive dependence on TwistedMexi's T.O.O.L. mod - and had a tendency to cause bugs.

Future editions for other games
Ambitious modders may consult Dozerfleet staff on the blog or [mailto:bulldozerbegins@gmail.com by email] regarding permissions / insights into making the cast of Swappernetters for other games. No GTA mod currently exists; but such a mod should be theoretically possible. PC versions of most post-apocalyptic games, including Dying Light and Dying Light 2, may be capable of supporting Swappernetters gameplay.

While Plum Bixie is considered a part of the Task Force Black Rat Pack, her character arc does partially coincide with the Swappernetters timeline. Far Cry 5 players may have difficulty in Arcade with playing as most characters in Swappernetters. However, players with access to a Little Rock map can play Arcade as Plum Bixie, even without special mods, just by setting the Deputy's appearance to match Zize's.

A future Paralives version of this series has not been ruled out either.