Chapter 15.2 out-takes and other animals

[dicreasy2]

Ok so this entry is a day later than I planned.  I've got the week off this week, and yesterday I was planning on getting the boys through their final year, but I opened the game, thought about it and had a panic attack that Simmouth was so not ready for anyone to holiday there.  So I spent the day building lots rather than playing.  I will share pictures later in the post.

Oh, also my last 3 chapter uploads have been downrated, a lot.  Day 6 of the BC has gone down from 4.69 -> 4.51; 15.2a has gone from 4.66 -> 4.46 and 15.2b from 4.62 -> 4.42.  It makes me laugh that people spend their energy doing that.  I mean really, either they really didn't like that Nerd won, and my new plots, OR they are sadsacks with no lives.  I will admit I might be getting a bit upset if I was still in the position where I was getting very little feedback at Boolprop for it, but as it is, I'll take what you all say there over the ratings system any day.  ETA I was just looking at my simpage for something and noticed that others including day 3 have been downrated too. 

I thought I'd share a bit about Marielle with you all.  I say a bit, but I have the potential to really start rambling about her so be warned.

My original idea when I was planning Henry and William's plot a year ago was to have the cow pushing Henry into taking more and more sinister action.  When it turned out she was the spitting image of Allyn, I had to get Henry another girlfriend to act behind the scenes.  In the mean time I had installed some new university degrees, and a set of new face templates.  Marielle was one of the new professors that the game generated.  I used Two Jeffs' Crystal Ball to find someone I could use and Marielle showed up.  I liked the idea of using a professor for various reasons, not least the fact that she would have access to things others might not, and would possibly be very good at helping to manipulate a cow mascot.

I really thought I had some pictures of the two of them together, but I can't find them.  Anyway, I had always decided that once Henry was arrested, Marielle would dump him, and he would marry Aphrodita.  I was planning on revealing her in a scene at the prison where she told him face to face that they were no more, but before I could shoot that, my neighbourhood when kablooey.  I didn't put the degrees back in when I rebuilt, and Marielle didn't regenerate: she was gone.

I didn't think much more of it, until everyone started wanting to know who this mysterious person Henry had been talking to was.  Luckily I still had the neighbourhood files sitting in my Sims stuff not using folder, so I went in and extracted her.  Now I needed to come up with a good enough plot to use her in.  My very first thought was to have her show up at Henry's wedding, but I couldn't think of a good enough reason as to why she would do that.  After all she had dumped him when he was caught, why would she reappear? It was only when I was thinking about what Eddie would be doing and I was toying with the idea of having an unhappy marriage in the family for a change that her name popped into my head.  It seemed so perfect: here was someone who was willing to be the legacy spouse at all costs.  What would happen if an heir, innocent when it came to romance, met her?  That's what I'm running with at the moment.

I have to say that she is a great sim to work with.  She has 3 nice points and can go from this: 

To this:


In a second flat.  Like Henry she gives me the faces I need, when I need them without having to use hacks.

Ok, onto some out-takes.  This one actually happened whilst I was filming 15.1, but I couldn't share it for obvious reasons.  Shooting in the pub was a bit of a pain all round, partly because every townie who showed up was in modern rather than Victorian clothes.  Anyway look who turned up:


"Hello, you don't mind if I stand here do you?"

Jamie about three months ago I made a comment to you about ACR and how certain sims were in my bad books because of it.  I can now finally reveal what happened.  Straight after I took this picture,  Eddie slipped off his stool.  I paused and looked at his queue, Marielle's icon was there with "Be made out with (ACR)" as the tooltip.  What?  Marielle he's not meant to know you yet, let alone be making out with you, and anyway I want the hearts of the first kiss!  I nixxed it pretty quickly.

Ok a couple more pictures of Marielle for you.



I found this when sorting these pictures last night.  I wish I had just moved the camera slightly.



Just to prove I'm not being totally, totally horrible, Marielle fell in love with Eddie first.  Normally I'm really disappointed if I don't get double hearts, but this time it works in my favour because I can write her as never loving him.

Speaking of falling in love:



Ya threw me a heart whilst doing a twirl, thank you Doc.

The feelings are reciprocated:



"Oh yeah, I see that heart there Theo."

I had to include this picture, because I love the look on his face here:


"Oh yeah, she's putty in my hands and I know it."

Ok let's get back to a not very happy relationship.

On the date where Joe proposed, Alexandra really did want an omlette, but as you can see he went with lobster.  I thought about trying to work it into the scene, but couldn't get the subtlety I wanted.


Filming this scene was a nightmare because of who was in the restaurant.



"Eating lobster whilst she has an omlette.  LEAVE HIM ALEXANDRA HE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU!"



"Oh so my neice is getting enaged, congratulations dear."



Also present were Spider Jerusalem, and James Austen.  They kept trying to greet both Alexandra and Joe whilst I was filming.  Thanks for that new feature in AL EA.

Whilst filming most the arguments this chapter, I did actually have all the sims argue, rather than using the animation portraits, basically because I needed the reactions too.  Anthony and Joe did a lot of arguing.



He looks good when he argues though.  By the way I am going to put his eyes up for download, but I was renaming the packages this morning, and I think I've got two of the blues confused, so I need to sort that out first.

The shot of Joe walking out with Anthony glaring at him was surprisingly difficult to get because this kept happening:
 

I was using facial overlays from decorgal's model hack, but they wouldn't stick.  One of the sims would just stop doing it for no reason.  I think it took me five or six goes to get that one shot.

Other things that didn't make me happy whilst shooting include this:


I knew that I had to keep an eye on Stanley because Marielle was on the lot and they have 2 bolts, but I didn't think I had to keep an eye on him and Carmen too.  I was too late to stop it, and it might cause me problemos later.  Thanks Stan.

Chaos reigned slightly at Alexandra's graduation party:


"Ah, the prfessor has just poked me, but I can't move anywhere to cry.  Not only that, but my face has glitched."



"See."

Continuing with the vague theme of arguing, this is what Eddie did when I told him to agrue with his uncle:


"You want me to do what?  I have 8 nice points, I don't do arguing."

Aww bless 'im, isn't he lovely? *feels bad about what she is doing*

A few random pictures now:



I love this picture of Eddie with the portraits of his father and grandfather in the background



A clser picture of Timothy for you.  I think that he has grown up very well.  I'm still not completely used to his skin and eyes though lol.



Poor Victoria started crying for no reason.  She was in gold, and no one had insulted her or anything.  Mind you I am having some odd aspiration things happening again (a family sim getting a negative memory of an engagement, whilst a romance sim gets a positive one).  I wonder if AL has re-borked them



Alexandra has also become a victim of the missing tattoo syndrome.  There should be a flower on her arm.  It was there with the outfit she grew up in.



Typical night in at the LS.  Theo and Eddie are playing cards, Stanley is canooddling in his undies with the girl he has just woohooed.

Like I said I had a bit of a building day in Simmouth yesterday.  I am getting a bit panicked about it, but that is mainly because I keep thinking of buildings I can add.  What I am going to have to do is get the main ones in there, and add the rest  once I have time.

Anyway, I finished tweaking the botanical gardens I downloaded and then built this, the spa building.


Spas were often the driving force in the development of a British seaside resort.  Holidays were first taken to benefit the body, and drinking water from natural springs was thought to do the world of good.  The upper classes started travelling to spa towns to take the waters to try to cure what ailed them.  George III for example popularised Weymouth because he went there hoping to cure his madness.  Of course it didn't work because drinking salty, slightly dirty water is not going to cure you of porphyria but he still tried.   His going there caused a waterfall effect with the aristocracy also going there and then being followed both to Weynmouth and to similar towns by the emerging middle classes.  It is actually rather interesting to see how spa towns fell out of favour with one social group as they gained favour with another.

Sea bathing was originally done to benfit the body too, and in fact the bathers didn't swim, but were rather immersed in the water by the attendants, know as "dunkers" because they held their patrons under the water.

I hve lots more facts about the development of British seaside resorts I'd love to share, but I will wait until I share pictures of the appropriate buildings I think.  Onto the tour of the spa:


Here is the reception.  I have split the building into male and female because the patrons would have been segregated in Victorian times.  I can actually mix the two genders because of how I have done this, since I might end up wanting to do that when shooting.




The female pump room.  The male side is identical, just with darker furnishings.   This is where the ladies would imbibe the water from the spring.  By all accounts it is not very pleasant to drink spring water  (I didn't try it when I was in Bath, but I have spoken to people who have), but it was an essential part of the visit.



A room for taking a private soak in the spring waters.



Massage room.



The plunge pool.



Outside, surrounded by a classical inspired courtyard is the hot spring itself.

I also built a small  park:



Looking towards the botanical gardens.



Looking back towards the pier.



The pond, and in the background the Spa.



This building next door is the other one I started: the Grand Hotel, but since I've done so little on it I will wait to share it with you.

So this is what Simmouth looks like now:



That's the botanical gardens and the lodge next to it in the foreground, the Spa and park just beyond that.  Then you can see the pier, shops and bathing beach along the sea front with the Grand Hotel and Theatre Royal on the opposite side of the road.  The little building right in the distance is the cottage William has bought for his son.  I've still got a lot to do, but it is shaping up.

Right that's it for now.  Since the cuts are effed up, this probably looks a mess, so sorry about that, I don't know if I can fix it.