Do to updates to the game, changes in the forums resulting in the potential need to reupload screenshots, the amount of time I haven't been able to spend in game, and the length of time between chapters, I've decided that it would be better to reset my story.
Additionally, I look back and feel like a lot of things just don't reflect the way I want this story to start and the save I'm using has actually gotten fairly old. This save for this story is actually 2 or 3 years old and has been through multiple game updates. Certain things I've done in this save were accomplished by glitching things that weren't intended, hence the inconsistencies manifesting with the patches fixing these bugs. I've been looking over so much to get back into things and I'm starting to see that this might be my best option moving forward.
Most importantly, the biggest reason I've made this decision is because I accomplished some things by glitching not just the game, but the mods I was using.
One major advantage of a reset with a new save is that things moving forward should have a longer life, sims won't suddenly look different, and I now have access to more extremely useful mods and have developed more familiarity with using these mods. I will also be able to make another attempt at staying more consistent with my story.
Because finishing this story is important to me, I will endeavor to do everything I can to make this worthwhile. I will kick start things in May for MerMay 2025. I've put together enough stuff that trying to prepare for this.