What I've been up to.

[dicreasy2]

It's a bit late I know, but Happy New Year everyone.  I hope things are going well for you so far this year. 

I've been pretty busy with my game so I thought I'd share what I've been doing, and of course that means picspam.

First thing I've been doing is playing the main house through their rotation.  I've still got about half a day to play, including Bertie's birthday and most of what I have been shooting is pretty plotty, but I do have a few pictures to share with you.



How good is that?  Ok so normally I hate it when pregnant sims pass out in their food, but this is Marielle we're talking about here.  Hehe.

How she doesn't love this man I don't know:




Gratuitous shot is gratuitous.


The Legacys now have a dog.  I'm slightly disappointed in her colouring since her sister has lovely dark brown markings on her face, and Sally is pure white.  Mind you given the fact that her mother is Lulu the black lab that's pretty cool.  Here are some very sweet pictures of Bertie and Sally:




It's funny, but I swear that Theo knows exactly where the camera is all the time.



I did have to pop into Theo's house for a bit.  I tried to go into it to do something only to find the lot kept crashing before it finished loading.  I had to move them out, bulldoze it and move them into a new version of it.  That meant I've lost the portraits so I had to resurrect Thomas and get his portrait painted before killing him again.  I've still got a few portraits to get painted, but I did have a laugh whilst I was there.  I've installed some replacements for all the car pools, and it looks like Frederick now goes to work in an Egyptian war chariot:



I especially love the fact that the driver is in a Victorian riding habit.


I've also been shooting a pub scene, which means I have some pictures of the boys to share:




"You really shouldn't be in a pub alone Alexandra."

"Poppycock, I'll do what I want."





Eddie became the first sim I've had to defeat the Unsavoury Charletan.  I love this guy.



Cherryh liked the piano.  I've put in new alien eye defaults and I think they look lovely.


The second thing I've been doing is making a start on Simdon.  I did make a start earlier using the downtown I already had, just moving things around and changing the existing buildings, but I really wasn't happy with it, so I did an experiment in my AGS to make sure that putting in a new downtown didn't cause the game to create lots of extra downtownies, and I've created a template of my own in SC4 and started building.

This is what I've got done so far:



These are all community lots.  That's the Natural History Museum at the top I downloaded from MTS2  Then there are some shops, an office building, a restaurant, and a club.  Finally that's the Diagon Alley lot from MTS2.  I loved how it looked in the last Sim Spade so decided that it would be nice to have it in the neighbourhood to shoot on if needed.

Only one lot of shops is completely finished, a dress shop, shoe shop and milleners:





The actual clothing racks and fitting rooms are behind the door.




This is the rich area of the city where Alexandra and Anthony will live.  That's a clone of their current house/apartment I've just tweaked a few things to make it play better and look better.  The other smaller houses are where Evie will be moving to.



And this is where the slums will be  I didn't build any of these lots, they're from MTS2:



There will be other areas of housing for the middle classes, but I've not started blocking them out yet.


The last thing I've been doing is writing and shooting Joe's Punishment.  I'm writing the final part at the moment, but I've been creating new sims for it.  I went a bit overboard with the seating in the arena, so I needed a few more you see.  I will have a huge out-takes post once it's done, because it has been a blast to shoot, but for the meanwhile here's some picspam from it which isn't too spoilery:

One of the things I'm thinking about doing is getting rid of the shiny custom skins and heavily shaded eyes some simselves have, so I've taken the opportunity to see what Timothy will look like in game once I've made my changes.

Here's Timothy as he is in the legacy:



This is what he looks like in Punishment:




Personally I think that it is an improvement..



Since two of the sims I added were Bee and Becca, I teleported over Indy and Di so I could set them all as family.  Indy tried to steal the gnome, but was defeated by the wall and the pretty brunette.




Yeah I think she'e very pretty.  No I'm not telling you her name: I'm sure you can all work it out.

I've modernised quite a few of my Victorians for the finale:










So that's what I've been doing in my game.  I've still got lots I want to get done, but I am making progress.

Last thing I want to say is thank you to the person who made the Marielle secret.  I did make me smile, and I promise she will be made to suffer at some point, just not yet.

Comments

[lauriempress.livejournal.com]

It's not too late until Feb 1. Happy New Year to you, Di!

I loved all the pictures, especially of Beth and William young and modern. Bethany (at least I'm assuming that's her that you aren't naming) is quite handsome. I just about laughed when I realized they were going to be at their biological donor's punishment. It's perfect in my mind since his actions had the potential to be cruelest to them, and they were completely innocent. But then they have a real father in Anthony. I must admit that I couldn't put a name to all the modern Victorians. It's all right though, the ones I need to know I'm sure you'll let us know in the punishment chapter!

Now as for Timothy. I do like the difference the skin makes. And how the eyes aren't so shaded. However, the color of the original eyes are so lovely I hate losing that. Having said that, though, I also know what trouble the eyes were giving you in picture taking, so I say do what works best! We'll love Timothy anyway!

Lauri

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Thanks, it's nice seeing them all young again, and it was fun thinking about what they would wear.

Yes that is Bethany, I think she is really very pretty. I felt I have to have both her and Christopher there to witness the finale. I haz plans for the main legacy and it makes sense to me that they would want to see the man who harmed their mother so much be punished. Plus he is not their father, Anthony is.

The new modern Victorians going down the page are; Allyn and George; Vi and Thomas; William and Beth; Anne; Enid and Frederick; Evie; Hannah and Charlotta.

Those eyes were the nearest I have to the original, and they are such an odd colour I don't feel confident in my ability to recreate it. It is much easier to take pictures of him now and his eyes aren't freaking me out. I think I will change him, his siblings and his mother in the legacy too.

[lauriempress.livejournal.com]

Did you switch out the original picture of Evie? I definitely remember seeing Christopher next to her before.

L

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Yeah I meant to upload this picture originally, so I put it right.

[gintasticnecat.livejournal.com]

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE MUSEUM?! Well I know what I'm doing before I go to bed tonight, scrap the scene I was going to shoot. SimGin must live there!

I agree with you and Lauri, I prefer Timonthy without the customness. I'm not a fan of shiny skins, and I have always been a little freaked out by those eyes. And I'm loving all the modernisations! William and Beth are awesome forever and ever. Eee, yay for punishment!

And what's this? A 3 doors down song I don't know? Good god, clearly I live in a hole.

[gintasticnecat.livejournal.com]

And there's Imperial too! Squee. Di, you wouldn't mind terribly if I plopped that and the NHM in my game would you? Just so I can go "real life is sim life, tee hee hee!"

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Yes, go download away. I saw it a little while ago and was waiting until I started working on Simdon properly to download it. The first sim I am planning on sending there is SimGin.

He does look much better without the shiny skin and eyes i think. I did get used to the eyes as I played to a certain extent, but I prefer him with these ones. I'm going to change him in the legacy too I think.

My brother downloaded the album the other day. I'd never heard of them, but it's a great album.

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Marielle sleeping in her food = yay.

The chariot is hysterical.

Seeing Timothy without his custom stuff feels odd, but I agree that he does ultimately look better - it just takes some getting used to. I don't play with custom skins, myself, but I like custom eyes. Speaking of, where are your alien eyes from?

Bethany = beautiful, and I can't wait for Punishment!

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I did giggle when Marielle passed out in her food.

Yeah that chariot made me laugh too. All the other vehicles I had seen were up to that point hansoms or carriages, and then Frederick gets a war chariot.

I'd changed him n bodyshop before, but because it looked so odd I hadn't worked up the courage to change him in game. Doing this has allowed me to get used to him with the new genetics, and I do like them.

My new alien eyes are found in this thread; http://www.digitalperversion.net/gardenofshadows/index.php?topic=2305.0;

They're part of the Rensim Mayday set, and I think they are so pretty. Nice and black and shiny.

Bethany is so lovely, especially given who her father is. Punishment is coming along. Have you got a simself I can put in the audience for the finale?

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the eyes - I'll look at them!

I haven't uploaded a simself yet, but I have made one. Give me half an hour to get bodyshop working and her uploaded, and I'll give you a link.

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Here she is: http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/sim_detail.php?asset_id=1490646

I also posted elsewhere but no one responded: I've uploaded my Apocalypse house to the exchange here (http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot_detail.php?asset_id=780797) - would you be willing to extract six sims for me? Basically, everyone who's a teen or younger - Alexander, Willow, Anya, Winifred, Rupert, and William. I'd do it myself, but no SimPE for Macs. *sigh*

If you can't, that's fine, but if you can, I'd be seriously appreciative.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Excellent, thank you.

Of course I'll extract your sims. It must be such a a pain having no version of SimPE for your Mac. I'll let you know when I've done it.

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you so much!

Seriously, I can live without most of SimPE, but I just wish someone would write a program to let us Mac users extract our sims. Maybe one to let us recategorize clothing/accessories/hair colors as well. Other than that, most of the main functions can be done with other downloads, like the insiminator or the sim blender.

If there's anything I can do for you, let me know, though of course I'm limited to what I can do on my Mac.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Right they are all up on my simpage now:

http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=2545813.

Any problems let me know.

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Thank you so so so much! They all work, though the four with custom hair look very odd without any hair. Feel free to take them down now, since I've saved them all. Thanks so much!

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Okay, I was wrong - apparently I am having a problem. For some reason, the four with custom hair - who don't have hair at all in those downloads - won't let me ADD hair to them. Like, the hair just doesn't appear in bodyshop. For some reason, it does for Xander and Rupert, who don't have custom hair.

The only suggestion I have is maybe for you to send them to the mirror and try and reupload them with regular Maxis hair? I tried a whole bunch of things - turning them into adults and then adding hair, adding hair immediately (which gave me absolutely nothing in the hair category), putting the downloads in saved sims instead of downloads...nothing seems to work, and I honestly am not sure why. I suspect it would work if they came with hair, but since they didn't, it doesn't seem to be. *sigh*

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Can you add hair to them once they are in the game, in CAS?

I've had it before with sims I didn't have the custom hair for and it won't let me add hair to them in bodyshop, but will in CAS.

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can. Huh, that's interesting. Alright, as long as I can add hair in CAS, that's the really important thing. Thanks!

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

No problem.

I had a real panic before when that happened with a sim I'd made in bodyshop then deleted the custom hair. It was only when I clicked on her in CAS and realised that I could add hair to her there that I stopped panicking.

I'll take them down now as you've got them. If you want any more extracted in the future let me know.

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

It's kind of odd, really, though it makes you realize how much you associate a sim with their hair. At least, I do that. Thanks again!

And I probably will want more extracted in the future, though not for another generation - this should be everyone until they start having kids.

[hurrikaty.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I just hate SimPE all together. It always use to work on my computer, always, but I never really needed it for anything. It was just a fun thing to have. Then, I finally NEED it for something, and lo and behold, it has stopped working. I try to do anything and it just freezes and stops responding. I can get as far as about the main screen and that's it.

It's probably my computers fault for having crappy RAM.

[governess-anne.livejournal.com]

Marielle seems to look better face down in her food. If only there weren't sparkles around her. She doesn't deserve any kind of sparkles. But I suppose she has to live if you have a plot idea for her.

The shops look absolutely awesome! They are built very well, you should be proud of yourself. And Frederick going to work in a war chariot cracks me up. I'm laughing as I write this.

I agree with you when you say that you think that Timothy looks better in Punishment.

Everyone looks great in modern dress. You chose well, as you always do.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

She does look better face down. The sparkles are because Beth is wonderful and has kept the fridge stocked with fresh food for ages now. Marielle doesn't cook and Beth refuses to, so they are living off of left overs.

Thank you. They are simple buildings, but are effective, and do look real.

I still can't believe the chariot, it makes me giggle a lot.

I definitely like Timothy better like this.

It was a lot of fun thinking about what everyone would wear actually.

[governess-anne.livejournal.com]

Beth is wonderful, she's one of my favorite spouses actually, and a good mother as well, unlike Marielle.

You're right when you say that the shops look real. I need to practice some more when it comes to making things look real but this... this is inspiring.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I love Beth to bits and I think I am going to get a bit sniffly when she dies. William too come to think of it.

I have a stack of history books I refer to when downloading, building and writing. In one of them there is a print of a woman in a shoe shop and I have always wanted to try to capture that in my game. I think I have with this lot. :D

[tatdatcm.livejournal.com]

Simdon looks like it is coming along quite nicely. Good thing that you were able to download a few lots from MTS2. Saves a bit of labor on your part. Did you have to mod the lots at all?

Timothy definitely looks better with the new genetics. He looked very doll-like before with all the shiny.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I'med with what I've built so far, but I've got lots to do. Most of the lots don't need too much doing to them, which is good. Just a few adjustments to get rid of any electronics and things that aren't period authentic.

Yeah he looks like one of my sims now I think, rather than someone else's

[leaths.livejournal.com]

Frammit! Firefox crashed and ated my comment. Oh well, I didn't have much to say, but I was pointing you to these Victorian neighborhood decorations in case you hadn't seen them. They're at MTS2. (http://nene.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=281674)

Oh, and I was also saying that Timothy looks much better with the makeover. His shiny skin always seemed a little out of place with your other sims.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I hate it when that happens.

Thanks for the link. I did have them in my game but I discovered that the creator had never heard of scale when I went to place them in my neighbourhood. It's a shame because they are nice buildings.

Yeah I agree about Timothy he looks like my sim now, whereas before he didn't, not really.

[hurrikaty.livejournal.com]

Wooooah, Bethany grew up gorgeous. Surprising, considering what her dad looks like. Then again, everything always does look better on girls in the Sims.

I have to admit, I also find those shiny skins and creepy shaded eyes just.. creepy.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Bethany is beautiful I agree. She has only a few features from her father.

Shaded eyes creep me out when sims do anything other than look straight ahead. Even the ones without the black blobs look like the eyeballs are rattling about inside the heads. Freaky.

[avidreader7.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks for the gratuitous shot. :) So nice!

I love all the modern looks, and can't wait to see the punishment! Also, Bethany is gorgeous. :) And I like Timothy's look much better now! The eyes and shiny skin were too much, I think.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I had a feeling you'd like the gratuitous shot. ;)

It was fun modernising everyone, and there are a couple other sims I've not shown. I really did go overboard with the seating: there are over 50 sims on the lot and there are still about 60 empty seats on the lower tier (I'm not worrying about the top one).

Bethany has turned out to be a very beautiful woman.

Yeah I really do prefer Timothy like this. I will change him in the legacy too.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

Marielle sleeping in her food makes me giggle.

Timothy does look good with the less-shiny skin and the less-shaded eyes. Some of those eyes just don't work well when the facial expressions are exaggerated.

And Nummy Theo always looks nummy.

Simdon looks great! I love how much effort you put into making everything Victorian--all the little details show how much you love what you're doing.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I had a good giggle over that too.

I definitely prefer Timothy with these genetics, and his eyes no longer freak me out when he looks to the side, or opens his eyes wide.

Nummy Theo is nummy indeed.

Thanks, I am having fun building Simdon, but it will take me ages to finish it I think. I mean I've not finished Simmouth yet. I think I will probably be playing this neighbourhood for years yet so I might as well make it somewhere I want to play. :)

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I mostly go, "I need a Downtown." *plunks down default Downtown* "Yaaay, Downtown."

I am thinking about using a new list of names for Loch Loki when I get it rebuilt and add in Downtown, Bluewater, and Uni, though. I mean, Goopy? Seriously? Abhijeet I don't mind, because I had a TA with that name back in college, but Goopy, and all the last names that defy pronunciation... Blech. Why not REAL names, like Pierre or Sergei or Javier or Harry? Why do we get Sims saddled with names like Goopy Kody or Pong Depiesse? No point in adding that for Riverblossom Hills purposes now, since I don't replace a lot of Townies, but for a whole new neighborhood? Yeah, I'm so totally there.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

This is the first custom downtown I've attempted. Normally I go with the default downtown too.

Sounds like a good idea about the names in Loch Loki. Some of my townnies and dormies make me go "huh?" A lot of the time it is the combination of first and surnames that gets me. Nawwaf Lew? Pamela Ajjanagadde? Ti-Ning Livingstone? Pong King? Yeah, that's enough examples I think.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

I haven't installed BV, so I'm at least free of Ti-Ning and Dongsool. I mean, I get that they're trying to be all multicultural or whatever, but what's wrong with multicultural names everyone can pronounce?

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree. Some of the surnames look like random collections of letters to me.

[hurrikaty.livejournal.com]

Nawwaf?! That is definately a new one. o_O

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I know. I've not quite worked out how to pronounce it without sounding as if I'm coughing, or barking yet.