Waffle

[dicreasy2]

Yeah I feel like waffling on about what I've been doing in game lately, so bear with me.

Where to start?  Well I guess the first thing I've been doing is faffing.  I've got a few things I want to do with regards to downtown.  For ease I used the normal downtown template when I rebuilt, and although I've altered a few lots, I've not really done much there at all.  I'm getting fed up with going to the same community lots so I'm working on making the other lots fit into the era.  I'm also working on the look of downtown as a whole.  My idea is that this is Simdon, the major city so I'm rearranging it all to look like a city.  I've also built the first of several facade lots which will hopefully give the impression of a busy and crowded city. 

One of the big things I've been doing with all lots is replacing the ceilings.  For months I've been using JG White's ceiling tiles, but with AL and the new ceiling feature, I've extracted the textures for the tiles I use most often and made them into floors using Homecrafter.  I'm now putting in these ceilings.  There's some clipping of curtain meshes, but the colours are lighter and they are easy to place, so It's not that bad a task actually.

I've also been doing some research on the Bastardy Laws of the nineteenth century as preparation for part of my plan for Joe.  To me they are fascinating because they say so much about society's attitudes at the time, especially since they seem to have been aimed at the poor and not the rich.  For example as part of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 all responsibility for bringing up the child, financially or otherwise, was placed on the mother.  Partly this was because the Act was passed to decrease the amount of money the rich were paying in poor relief and so by removing the father from the equation and placing all blame on the mother the theory was the shame would reduce the number of illegitimate children and thus the amount of money paid out. Partly is was because both the mother and child were thought of as being morally deficient, the father not so much.  This is why I'm afraid that Joe's parents probably won't want to get to know their grandchildren.  I see Maria as a Hyacinth Bucket, always trying to move up socially, and so she would not be happy that a 'little slut' had given birth to Joe's bastard children.  What can I say?  She's a bitch and I think you can see why Joe was motivated to act as he did trying to make a good marriage.  She's great to have in the story in order to explain some things, but I don't like her as a character very much.

Speaking of Joe's punishment I want to see if I can get some of the short term bits done this weekend. It should be fun to do, but I do need to build something for part of it

The urge to open up PSP and do some mucking about has also struck me.  As you can see I've made a new avi for here and Boolprop.  Actually I've made several for here:

    

I've got plans to make more once I find the pictures I want.  Oh and I've made my new banner for Boolprop.  I'll put it up once I've uploaded the first chapter with Eddie at the helm.

 

The thing I've been doing most of though is just playing.  I've finished the rotation in the main house, and I have to say that Eddie is a fantastic father.



This picture just makes me squee.  Beth and William are also fantastic grandparents.  I've caught Beth tucking Bertie in and William is always the first one there to feed him or change his nappy.  I know I shouldn't be surprised, but it is so nice to see.  As for Marielle...well she was the worst pregnant sim ever and she is the worst mother I've had in game too.  I know Bertie isn't very old, but she has not been in contact with him since he was born.  Honestly, she has not even walked into the nursery, she'd rather play the piano or read.  Now part of me is doing a dance of joy about this because it is as if she has read the script and is on the same page as me.  The other part would quite like her to at least make the effort.  Especially since she will soon have two kiddies.   Ho hum.

Another picture that makes me squee is this one:



Totally autonomous whilst they were visitors.  They are so happy, I love it.  I just need to shoot a few scenes with these two and then I will have everything I need for the next update.  I'm still thinking about doing a recap chapter first though, so I've got plenty of time to get what I need.  I was rather sad to finish this rotation in the main house since the next couple of rotations I've got to get plotty and start putting things into motion.  This one was nice and relaxing: just playing and getting the next generation on its way.

With the main house hold done I popped over to the Skinners where Harold and Emmy got old, and their youngest left for uni, before going to the Harrisons.

I'm thinking about putting up pictures of Theo and Doc's honeymoon here, because I doubt they will all make the update and I have some beautiful or funny ones I want to share.



Once they were back a sad event did occur.  Thomas didn't get to meet his great grandchildren I'm afraid.  I did think about speeding up Doc's pregnancy to get round this, but the Harrison houshold is one of the ones I play the full 5 days in rather than using InSim to change the ages, and I like the fact the twins are the same age exactly as Bertie.

SimNerd gave birth to two boys Andrew:



and Peter:



It looks like the tattoo skin lives on and I can't wait to see the boys grow up.

The last family whose rotation I've finished is Charlotta's.  Elle moved back from the Acadamie and married Joshua Ruben. 



As you can see the gardener managed to change into her formal wear but Elle's mother didn't.  It's  a good job I love Charlotta.

A few days later Elle gave birth to Helen.  I did try to upload a picture, but Photobucket now keeps crashing Firefox, and all babies look alike, so I'll just tell you that she has black hair, brown eyes and S3 skin.  I cannot wait to play the next rotation when these babies, and probably more that aren't even born yet, will grow up

I'm now playing Anne's house and I do have a ways to go, but this rotation is going well.  Not sure when the next update will be, I want to get this rotation done and Joe's ST punishment finished too before the next proper chapter.  If I do a recap then that might be out sooner.  I will probabaly keep you up to date with what's going on here though.

Comments

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I noticed the auto copy wasn't working a couple of weeks ago, but that's the only thing that hasn't worked until today. After it crashed Firefox for the second time I just gave up.

I never used to go to community lots, especially before I upgraded my RAM. Now I like using them for a change of pace, but I'm bored with going to the Palisade and Londoste all the time. It'll be nice to have more variety.

Yeah I don't really want Joe anywhere near those kids. He just doesn't deserve to be a father. I hope his punishment will make people cheer.

I felt like a change, so I grabbed some of my favourite pictures of my favourite sims. They've turned out pretty well I think.

So true, I think that Marielle has been taking lessons from PseudoBruty. It'll be interesting to see how she reacts to the new baby, and Bertie as he grows up. I don't think that she will change, but I still want to see.

I am definitely happier without ACR at the moment. My sims are still romantic and stalkery, just not to the point that they would rather starve and make out than eat.

Alexandra and Anthony make me very happy, as do Theo and SimNerd. I really am edging towards putting up pictures of the honeymoon here. I had a real blast playing it. I can't wait to see what the babies look like. I did some experimenting in CAS and whilst some boys were...interesting, others were jaw droppingly gorgeous.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

Between the CC-cull, the Compressorizer, and deleting a couple of neighborhoods, I'm hoping I can cut down on some of the load times. It wasn't so bad sending Becca back and forth, but I was only using Finn's Fins and the House of Stuff, so no insanely detailed Downtown lots or anything. SimNerd still does not appreciate public WooHoo in her photobooth.

PseudoBruty never changed. She never spent much time with Larch and Cypress, never dropped what she was doing when they came up to interact with her, and never did that for her grandkids, either. She was one of the more useless Sims I've ever seen.

The girls wear the SimNerd features better, I think. Especially the chin. It looks downright bizarre on the guys. Amusingly enough, that's not even MY genetic chin/jaw. Many years of expensive orthodontia FTW. But without her realizing that I was playing my SimSelf, my mom plopped down on the couch, looked over my shoulder, and went, "Hey, that's you! Damn, you really got your chin and nose there, didn't you?" so I am at least confident that she looks like me! Even if she will eff up your genetics for generations to come.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Culing CC does seem to help. My AGS where my dummy hood lives loaded so much faster before I put all the CC in.

I really doubt that Marielle will change. It's so funny because I was full prepared to feel bad about where the plot is going and to actually like her once I played her, but I really don't. She is just so annoying, and I HATE her want panel. She is constantly in low green because I refuse to indulge her want to make out with 3 sims and flirt with sims she has just met.

One of the best looking of the boys in my little experiment did have SimNErd's chin. He looked a little odd from the side, but from the front he was gorgeous.

My Dad came and stood over my shoulder the other day as I was here on LJ. He took one look at my avi and said "that looks just like you." There are features that I think I got spot on with my simself: her chin and mouth are uncannily accurate, but for him to recognise her as me from that little picture she must look more like me than I thought.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

My CC situation now is sort of, "I'd like to try Di's skins, but I HAVE NO ROOM." I got rid of most of fanseelamb's male shirts, because they have neither texture nor bumpmap and I was sick of them looking painted on, and the CC I got that I needed once, and am in the process of going through some of the furniture and getting rid of it (SimCredible bathrooms, yay, bedrooms, not so nice in-game), and went through and got rid of the badly-meshed or otherwise oogly hairs, and I STILL have more than I probably need.

...Even Archie's Want Panel isn't that bad. Becca's almost is, though. I loved when she was on a date with one guy, and rolling Wants for the LAST guy she was on the date with. That is not how we get Dream Dates, Rebecca!

It might depend on the other features--I know the male Sims who've inherited SimNerd's nose and chin look a bit odd. Not Cassius-odd, but odd.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I sneakily keep all my genetic CC apart from hair in my saved sims folder, because then I can pretend that it doesn't count towards my CC total. :P

I really must do a cull soon. I've got some windows I don't use and same with the hair.

Hehe oh Becca, Becca *shakes head*. Anne used to do that too and it always made me laugh.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

I was smart enough to keep all my Whedonari CC separate, so at least now I don't have to go through and delete the crappy siding, broken windows, boarded-up windows, beaten-up makeup, grungy wallpaper, etc. one-by-one. Didn't actually delete it, just zipped it and moved it to another folder.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I've never used the Compressorizer. Does it seem to work?

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

It's definitely shrunk the file sizes. I haven't gone through all of my CC yet, though, and it hasn't caused anything to break, so that's a plus.