Behind the Scenes - 4.10
Feb. 8th, 2009 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orikesHey look! It's a two-for-one special! You're getting Sunday Picspam combined with Behind the Scenes "footage"! Okay, so maybe it's not that special and some of you would have preferred to get Behind the Scenes stuff and then also get Sunday Picspam. I figured it would be easier just to combine the two.
I was actually hoping to cover more in 4.10, but when I pulled the pictures I already had and estimated what I would need for plotty scenes and filler pics, I had over 220 slides. For most people this would mean a double update, but not for me. I've tried to do the double update thing and I fail every time. Once I've got one half finished, I can't wait. I upload it and then take a week or so to get the other half done. 4.11 will be coming before the end of the month, but I'm going to be gone next weekend and I still need to do some of the staged scenes.
So, on to the blather about 4.10!
I have a confession to make. Sometimes I throw things into the update without knowing where the hell I'm going. Miranda and Dean's fertility issues were one of those things. It made sense because it was how it was happening in game and it fit perfectly with things Stacie had already set up for Whedonberry, but I really had no resolution in sight. It wasn't until I was talking to Stacie after 4.9 that I realized that I needed to come up with something. If I suddenly just had her get pregnant, it would be a bit of a let down and be tossing away a really nice lead in for some fun plotz.
This also gave me an excuse to bring the other Bachelor Boys back into the storyline. Farnsworth had to come back, but I also really wanted Dwight, Lancelot and Scott back too.
Lancelot and Scott were both at the bar with the guys, but I was running out of room and couldn't work them in since they weren't at the bar with Dean, Farny and Dwight.
I think you can see Knightly here in the background of a couple of the bar pictures. Prof picked him out. He was getting his flirt on with a social group townie who was playing darts with him. Of course, he wasn't the most successful flirt of the night.
That distinction who goes to Scott who was rather clueless about his success. Admittedly, one of the blonds that sat down at his poker table is gay and another would prefer her Nummy Theo, but it's still rather amusing to see the clueless Knowledge sim end up making out the best with the ladies.
Dwight pretty much wrote himself in the scene. I knew that Farnsworth was going to be there and give Dean the kick in the ass he needed to stop feeling sorry for himself and start DOING something to fix the problem, but I wasn't sure who else would be there contributing to the conversation.
Once Dwight sat down at the bar that was all I needed. He makes some of the BEST facial expressions and he had just the right degree of snark to make say the things I needed said. I was rather absurdly pleased with the 'pregnant pause' comment and even more pleased that it could come out of Dwight's mouth. It seemed like the type of thing he would say.
It was fun writing an intoxicated Dean. Apparently I intuitively knew that he would be a Girl Drink Drunk. Stacie informed me that he is most definitely the type of guy to order a foofy drink.
He also had to be drunk to drop the "Will you impregnate my wife?" line. There's no way he'd ever think that was a good idea when he was sober, or at least not falling down drunk. But, I thought it would be a funny catalyst for everything that comes after it.
While they were at the bar, the Goopy Count showed up and promptly made me quite angry with him. I haven't found the time yet to give Stephen and Melissa their vampiric makeovers yet, so he still looks like a default vamp. He walked in and immediately zeroed in on Dean...
... Dean who was in no shape to deal with getting picked on by a complete stranger.
Don't make me hate you, Stephen. I've got a lot of respect for you as Count Jess, but you DO NOT pick on my favorite sims.
Okay, the fortune teller shop.
I'm wondering if anyone picked up on Madame Alrats being Starla the Atrociously Evil Witch before I did the foot reveal. Technically, they're not the exact same sim, but I extracted Starla to make sure I got everything exactly right for her disguise.
I have to confess that I really like Starla. She was a ton of fun to shoot in the scene with the Waltons and with Dean and Miranda's storyline. She's an over-the-top evil witch, but she gives some great faces.
As a side note, I've the shelf with the potions is from Caravan Sims (Sims Design Avenue now). I've had it in my game since Brody's poker game with Death. I downloaded it as simple set decoration but never realized that the potions actually DO things in addition to having animations built in so sims can take the potions down off the shelf. I think Fake-Starla ended up getting two points of charisma taking potions down off the shelf for me.
The set was a recycled one. I used the alleyway/warehouse set I had built for the finale of chapter three. The fortune teller shop was the run down office that Elijah, Aeric, Jeremiah and Meadow snuck through to get into the warehouse. I don't think I used any shots that would give that away, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.
Once again, I am exceedingly grateful for Jaydee's animation boxes.
The crystal ball is actually TwoJeff's crystal ball that you can use to find suitable matches for your sims. Since it actually looks like a crystal ball, it's great to use as a prop. For Starla's almost perfect animations, I used Jaydee's Freetime animation box and some 'Don't Wake the Llama' animations. I honestly couldn't believe how well they worked.
Even this one, where it's obvious what animation she's pulling, could have worked for a fortune telling scene. I don't know where the evil face came from that I used in the update, but it was just… perfect. Starla and fake-Starla have been very easy to work with for this.
As a side note, fake-Starla only exists in the dummy hood I have set up in AGS for staging scenes or filler scenes.
Harry, on the other hand, really does exist in the main hood.
Three is a number that's used often in myth and fairy tales, so I definitely wanted to have three witches show up at the Waltons. It made sense to me to use one good witch, one evil witch, and one neutral. Unfortunately, there are no neutral witch NPCs. The ones that appear in the visual teleporter are actually the spectral servants the witches can summon. Talk about frustrating.
So, I made a neutral witch of my own. I decided to make him male to add that touch of balance, and with a touch of amused inspiration, I named him Harry. Since I'm a huge fan of Harry Dresden and Harry Potter, it seemed like a fun choice to make.
Katelynn Pratt didn't get to do too much in this update, but I'm also pretty pleased with choosing her. There are three good NPC witches and three evil NPC witches that come with the game. I think Starla is the only adult of the evil witches (the other two are elders), so she was the obvious choice for me with the evil witch. There is another adult good witch, but she's a face one, S2, redhead. I wanted someone visually different from Starla and Harry, so I ended up choosing Katelynn. I think she has the Lucy Hanby face.
I also picked Katelynn and Starla for other visual reasons. I liked the idea of the evil witch being fair skinned and blond while the good witch was definitely darker looking. It's a minor thing, but I definitely wanted to turn stereotypes on their head just a little bit.
Okay, so the wedding. Ultimately, the wedding was done for completely plot centric reasons. Robi did roll up engagement and marriage wants for Ophelia, but she never reciprocated. It's not all that bad, though. He is the one she rolls up face wants for. All her other romance wants are generic, but his face shows up in her want panel quite often.
There's a lot of wiggle room in where this relationship is going. I know the response have shown that people are either worried about it turning out horrible or being the right thing for the two of them. To be honest, I have some idea on where it's going, but there's lots of room to maneuver there.
Here's another picture of vampire Ian just because. The look just seems to suit him.
The wedding reception was a pretty casual affair. I would have liked to include more pictures from it, like this one. Mary looking distinctly unamused by 'Don't Wake the Llama' makes me giggle.
There was also supposed to be a conversation between Robi and Audrey the gypsy, but I couldn't work it in. I do plan on bringing the gypsies back in again soon.
So, by now, anyone still keeping track would realize that the little girl I showed a picture of, Rachel, is indeed, Robi and Ophelia's. If you see her from the right angle, you can tell that she definitely got Robi's nose. I'm not sure how much of Ophelia's features she has at all, honestly. I've been holding off on growing her up until I get updates out far enough.
I'll also note that Rachel is completely the result of ACR. I set it up so Ophelia could try for baby without being married and she did so the moment Robi was on the lot with her. I haven't played their house too long yet, but I am curious to see if they have another baby. Robi does have that absurd 6 Married Children LTW after all.
Having a vampire in the house does lead to some rather interesting situations. I've had to invest in vamprocillen whatever for Ophelia. Every time I turn around, Robi is biting her and turning her into a vampire. I keep trying to tell him that this isn't in the plan, but he doesn't listen. He bites her, she has an aspiration hit because of her fear of being a vampire, then they both get an aspiration bonus because I cure her.
Of course, seeing this like this makes up for it completely.
Okay, so Lisa and Hugh. In the original hood, I was going to keep them in the house they were in and simply have Matthew throw money at them to remodel and expand the house. With the move to the new neighborhood, though, I decided to give them a completely different house. I wasn't really that happy with the starter I'd put them in and this gave me a chance to tweak the storyline a little.
I do have a bit of a problem with this house, though. It wasn't built by me, but I did extensively remodel it. For some reason, everyone's environment score drops when they're in the living room. I've made sure I've got paint on the walls and decent flooring, but there's something amiss in the house that I haven't figured out yet. I'm pretty sure there's enough light, so I don't know what it is.
HUGH! I don't know if I covered this in a previous BTS, but Hugh was named for Hugh Jackman who starred with Ian McKellen in X-men...
Okay, moving on.
I really, really wanted to find a reason to use this picture, but I just couldn't work it in.
Can I say again how much I love this couple?
I LOVE THIS COUPLE.
Even with all the headaches I've had to deal with getting Shelby's genetics fixed, I'm still so glad Elijah and I picked her to be his wife. He occasionally throws me those 'Woohoo with #' wants, but he hasn't even looked at anyone else since he and Shelby got married.
This is another picture I really wanted to use in the update, but ended up not using. It makes me melt, but the pictures I used instead worked better since you could see both Persephone and Oz's face.
Oz isn't the only one fascinated by the fish tank.
I upgraded my ram significantly last fall and when I remember to turn 'boolprop useshaders on' on, everything runs wonderfully and I can see the fish again. I've been a bit timid about it, though, because I know one of these times I'm going to have 30 sims over for a party and forget to turn the shaders off and make everything crash.
Moon did have a birthday party, but obviously I didn't include it in the update. It's become a real juggling act to figure out what to include and what to leave out. I figured it worked to have her in the scene with Brody and Aeric as they talked about the decisions he needed to make.
As you can see, Heather got the honor for Moon's birthday and the usual crowd was there to help celebrate.
This was from the old hood where slap dancing was all the rage. In the new 'hood, they're still smustling like crazy. I know Steve McQueen knows how to slap dance, but for some reason, he hasn't infected the 'hood with it yet.
Star, asserting her dominance...
Back on the subject of behind the scenes information, I really debated back and forth on the foreshadowing the witches gave to Star and Moon. I've been percolating the ideas for Gen Five in my head for a while now and when it came time to write this, I decided to go for it. When you write an ongoing story that's influenced by factors other than your own brain (like by the sims themselves) it can be a little hard to include concrete hints at the future like that. I'm pretty sure it's all going to work out, but it was a bit nerve wracking to drop it in.
Now for some regular old PicSpam!
I think I mentioned that Venus and Aeric had gotten pregnant again, right? Shocked the hell out of me, but I wasn't going to complain.
Especially when unexpected pregnancies give me this. Well, I will confess, I did cheat a little. I wanted a boy with Aeric's skin tone and Venus' eyes, but I was willing to take any child that was born with Aeric's coloring. After four green babies (two girls, two boys), I realized I'd screwed up Venus' genetics. I hopped out of the game, opened SimPE, and fixed her. Once I was back in the game, they gave me ...
... exactly what I wanted on the first try! Zephyr not only has Aeric's coloring, but he has the elf ears, alien eyes, and he's a boy! From what I can tell at this stage, he's got Aeric's eye shape and Venus' mouth, which is the exact opposite of what the girls got. They got their mother's eyes and their father's mouth.
Zephyr (who would have been named Sun if he'd been a girl), has a personality very close to his biggest sister. He's messy (2), outgoing (9), active (10), playful (10), and mean (0). The only difference between his personality and Star's is that she has a full 10 outgoing. Oddly, she's Gemini and he's a Sagittarius.
Sim zodiacs, you make my head hurt.
Since I HAD to find out what Zephyr looked like, that required playing the Waltons for a while. Star made me grateful that I'd remembered to put fire alarms in the house. If I hadn't, I might have lost her. I was busy with Brody on another part of the lot when the fire truck pulled up. Quick pause and zoom to the kitchen.
Of course, this is Star. She's not going to do things by half.
Also while playing the Waltons, I was struck by something. In addition to being the same original dormie, my Heather and Di's Beth both love their gardens. Heather was my second sim ever to get a gold gardening badge and she is always happy to shuffle down to the greenhouse and take care of her plants.
Luckily for her, she'll never grow old and she doesn't have to worry about useless, bitchy daughter-in-laws.
Finally, I leave you with the other birthday I played last night. I couldn't very well let Star be a teen for too long without her best friend. Lou had been pre-rolled to be knowledge months ago, so she's delighted to now have justification for all the skill wants she rolls up.
And there you go! Picspam and Behind the Scenes blather. I definitely plan to have 4.11 up before the end of the month, but next weekend is Running GAGG, a local little gaming convention I'm attending. It's time to indulge my other geeky habits. :)
I was actually hoping to cover more in 4.10, but when I pulled the pictures I already had and estimated what I would need for plotty scenes and filler pics, I had over 220 slides. For most people this would mean a double update, but not for me. I've tried to do the double update thing and I fail every time. Once I've got one half finished, I can't wait. I upload it and then take a week or so to get the other half done. 4.11 will be coming before the end of the month, but I'm going to be gone next weekend and I still need to do some of the staged scenes.
So, on to the blather about 4.10!
I have a confession to make. Sometimes I throw things into the update without knowing where the hell I'm going. Miranda and Dean's fertility issues were one of those things. It made sense because it was how it was happening in game and it fit perfectly with things Stacie had already set up for Whedonberry, but I really had no resolution in sight. It wasn't until I was talking to Stacie after 4.9 that I realized that I needed to come up with something. If I suddenly just had her get pregnant, it would be a bit of a let down and be tossing away a really nice lead in for some fun plotz.
This also gave me an excuse to bring the other Bachelor Boys back into the storyline. Farnsworth had to come back, but I also really wanted Dwight, Lancelot and Scott back too.
Lancelot and Scott were both at the bar with the guys, but I was running out of room and couldn't work them in since they weren't at the bar with Dean, Farny and Dwight.
I think you can see Knightly here in the background of a couple of the bar pictures. Prof picked him out. He was getting his flirt on with a social group townie who was playing darts with him. Of course, he wasn't the most successful flirt of the night.
That distinction who goes to Scott who was rather clueless about his success. Admittedly, one of the blonds that sat down at his poker table is gay and another would prefer her Nummy Theo, but it's still rather amusing to see the clueless Knowledge sim end up making out the best with the ladies.
Dwight pretty much wrote himself in the scene. I knew that Farnsworth was going to be there and give Dean the kick in the ass he needed to stop feeling sorry for himself and start DOING something to fix the problem, but I wasn't sure who else would be there contributing to the conversation.
Once Dwight sat down at the bar that was all I needed. He makes some of the BEST facial expressions and he had just the right degree of snark to make say the things I needed said. I was rather absurdly pleased with the 'pregnant pause' comment and even more pleased that it could come out of Dwight's mouth. It seemed like the type of thing he would say.
It was fun writing an intoxicated Dean. Apparently I intuitively knew that he would be a Girl Drink Drunk. Stacie informed me that he is most definitely the type of guy to order a foofy drink.
He also had to be drunk to drop the "Will you impregnate my wife?" line. There's no way he'd ever think that was a good idea when he was sober, or at least not falling down drunk. But, I thought it would be a funny catalyst for everything that comes after it.
While they were at the bar, the Goopy Count showed up and promptly made me quite angry with him. I haven't found the time yet to give Stephen and Melissa their vampiric makeovers yet, so he still looks like a default vamp. He walked in and immediately zeroed in on Dean...
... Dean who was in no shape to deal with getting picked on by a complete stranger.
Don't make me hate you, Stephen. I've got a lot of respect for you as Count Jess, but you DO NOT pick on my favorite sims.
Okay, the fortune teller shop.
I'm wondering if anyone picked up on Madame Alrats being Starla the Atrociously Evil Witch before I did the foot reveal. Technically, they're not the exact same sim, but I extracted Starla to make sure I got everything exactly right for her disguise.
I have to confess that I really like Starla. She was a ton of fun to shoot in the scene with the Waltons and with Dean and Miranda's storyline. She's an over-the-top evil witch, but she gives some great faces.
As a side note, I've the shelf with the potions is from Caravan Sims (Sims Design Avenue now). I've had it in my game since Brody's poker game with Death. I downloaded it as simple set decoration but never realized that the potions actually DO things in addition to having animations built in so sims can take the potions down off the shelf. I think Fake-Starla ended up getting two points of charisma taking potions down off the shelf for me.
The set was a recycled one. I used the alleyway/warehouse set I had built for the finale of chapter three. The fortune teller shop was the run down office that Elijah, Aeric, Jeremiah and Meadow snuck through to get into the warehouse. I don't think I used any shots that would give that away, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.
Once again, I am exceedingly grateful for Jaydee's animation boxes.
The crystal ball is actually TwoJeff's crystal ball that you can use to find suitable matches for your sims. Since it actually looks like a crystal ball, it's great to use as a prop. For Starla's almost perfect animations, I used Jaydee's Freetime animation box and some 'Don't Wake the Llama' animations. I honestly couldn't believe how well they worked.
Even this one, where it's obvious what animation she's pulling, could have worked for a fortune telling scene. I don't know where the evil face came from that I used in the update, but it was just… perfect. Starla and fake-Starla have been very easy to work with for this.
As a side note, fake-Starla only exists in the dummy hood I have set up in AGS for staging scenes or filler scenes.
Harry, on the other hand, really does exist in the main hood.
Three is a number that's used often in myth and fairy tales, so I definitely wanted to have three witches show up at the Waltons. It made sense to me to use one good witch, one evil witch, and one neutral. Unfortunately, there are no neutral witch NPCs. The ones that appear in the visual teleporter are actually the spectral servants the witches can summon. Talk about frustrating.
So, I made a neutral witch of my own. I decided to make him male to add that touch of balance, and with a touch of amused inspiration, I named him Harry. Since I'm a huge fan of Harry Dresden and Harry Potter, it seemed like a fun choice to make.
Katelynn Pratt didn't get to do too much in this update, but I'm also pretty pleased with choosing her. There are three good NPC witches and three evil NPC witches that come with the game. I think Starla is the only adult of the evil witches (the other two are elders), so she was the obvious choice for me with the evil witch. There is another adult good witch, but she's a face one, S2, redhead. I wanted someone visually different from Starla and Harry, so I ended up choosing Katelynn. I think she has the Lucy Hanby face.
I also picked Katelynn and Starla for other visual reasons. I liked the idea of the evil witch being fair skinned and blond while the good witch was definitely darker looking. It's a minor thing, but I definitely wanted to turn stereotypes on their head just a little bit.
Okay, so the wedding. Ultimately, the wedding was done for completely plot centric reasons. Robi did roll up engagement and marriage wants for Ophelia, but she never reciprocated. It's not all that bad, though. He is the one she rolls up face wants for. All her other romance wants are generic, but his face shows up in her want panel quite often.
There's a lot of wiggle room in where this relationship is going. I know the response have shown that people are either worried about it turning out horrible or being the right thing for the two of them. To be honest, I have some idea on where it's going, but there's lots of room to maneuver there.
Here's another picture of vampire Ian just because. The look just seems to suit him.
The wedding reception was a pretty casual affair. I would have liked to include more pictures from it, like this one. Mary looking distinctly unamused by 'Don't Wake the Llama' makes me giggle.
There was also supposed to be a conversation between Robi and Audrey the gypsy, but I couldn't work it in. I do plan on bringing the gypsies back in again soon.
So, by now, anyone still keeping track would realize that the little girl I showed a picture of, Rachel, is indeed, Robi and Ophelia's. If you see her from the right angle, you can tell that she definitely got Robi's nose. I'm not sure how much of Ophelia's features she has at all, honestly. I've been holding off on growing her up until I get updates out far enough.
I'll also note that Rachel is completely the result of ACR. I set it up so Ophelia could try for baby without being married and she did so the moment Robi was on the lot with her. I haven't played their house too long yet, but I am curious to see if they have another baby. Robi does have that absurd 6 Married Children LTW after all.
Having a vampire in the house does lead to some rather interesting situations. I've had to invest in vamprocillen whatever for Ophelia. Every time I turn around, Robi is biting her and turning her into a vampire. I keep trying to tell him that this isn't in the plan, but he doesn't listen. He bites her, she has an aspiration hit because of her fear of being a vampire, then they both get an aspiration bonus because I cure her.
Of course, seeing this like this makes up for it completely.
Okay, so Lisa and Hugh. In the original hood, I was going to keep them in the house they were in and simply have Matthew throw money at them to remodel and expand the house. With the move to the new neighborhood, though, I decided to give them a completely different house. I wasn't really that happy with the starter I'd put them in and this gave me a chance to tweak the storyline a little.
I do have a bit of a problem with this house, though. It wasn't built by me, but I did extensively remodel it. For some reason, everyone's environment score drops when they're in the living room. I've made sure I've got paint on the walls and decent flooring, but there's something amiss in the house that I haven't figured out yet. I'm pretty sure there's enough light, so I don't know what it is.
HUGH! I don't know if I covered this in a previous BTS, but Hugh was named for Hugh Jackman who starred with Ian McKellen in X-men...
Okay, moving on.
I really, really wanted to find a reason to use this picture, but I just couldn't work it in.
Can I say again how much I love this couple?
I LOVE THIS COUPLE.
Even with all the headaches I've had to deal with getting Shelby's genetics fixed, I'm still so glad Elijah and I picked her to be his wife. He occasionally throws me those 'Woohoo with #' wants, but he hasn't even looked at anyone else since he and Shelby got married.
This is another picture I really wanted to use in the update, but ended up not using. It makes me melt, but the pictures I used instead worked better since you could see both Persephone and Oz's face.
Oz isn't the only one fascinated by the fish tank.
I upgraded my ram significantly last fall and when I remember to turn 'boolprop useshaders on' on, everything runs wonderfully and I can see the fish again. I've been a bit timid about it, though, because I know one of these times I'm going to have 30 sims over for a party and forget to turn the shaders off and make everything crash.
Moon did have a birthday party, but obviously I didn't include it in the update. It's become a real juggling act to figure out what to include and what to leave out. I figured it worked to have her in the scene with Brody and Aeric as they talked about the decisions he needed to make.
As you can see, Heather got the honor for Moon's birthday and the usual crowd was there to help celebrate.
This was from the old hood where slap dancing was all the rage. In the new 'hood, they're still smustling like crazy. I know Steve McQueen knows how to slap dance, but for some reason, he hasn't infected the 'hood with it yet.
Star, asserting her dominance...
Back on the subject of behind the scenes information, I really debated back and forth on the foreshadowing the witches gave to Star and Moon. I've been percolating the ideas for Gen Five in my head for a while now and when it came time to write this, I decided to go for it. When you write an ongoing story that's influenced by factors other than your own brain (like by the sims themselves) it can be a little hard to include concrete hints at the future like that. I'm pretty sure it's all going to work out, but it was a bit nerve wracking to drop it in.
Now for some regular old PicSpam!
I think I mentioned that Venus and Aeric had gotten pregnant again, right? Shocked the hell out of me, but I wasn't going to complain.
Especially when unexpected pregnancies give me this. Well, I will confess, I did cheat a little. I wanted a boy with Aeric's skin tone and Venus' eyes, but I was willing to take any child that was born with Aeric's coloring. After four green babies (two girls, two boys), I realized I'd screwed up Venus' genetics. I hopped out of the game, opened SimPE, and fixed her. Once I was back in the game, they gave me ...
... exactly what I wanted on the first try! Zephyr not only has Aeric's coloring, but he has the elf ears, alien eyes, and he's a boy! From what I can tell at this stage, he's got Aeric's eye shape and Venus' mouth, which is the exact opposite of what the girls got. They got their mother's eyes and their father's mouth.
Zephyr (who would have been named Sun if he'd been a girl), has a personality very close to his biggest sister. He's messy (2), outgoing (9), active (10), playful (10), and mean (0). The only difference between his personality and Star's is that she has a full 10 outgoing. Oddly, she's Gemini and he's a Sagittarius.
Sim zodiacs, you make my head hurt.
Since I HAD to find out what Zephyr looked like, that required playing the Waltons for a while. Star made me grateful that I'd remembered to put fire alarms in the house. If I hadn't, I might have lost her. I was busy with Brody on another part of the lot when the fire truck pulled up. Quick pause and zoom to the kitchen.
Of course, this is Star. She's not going to do things by half.
Also while playing the Waltons, I was struck by something. In addition to being the same original dormie, my Heather and Di's Beth both love their gardens. Heather was my second sim ever to get a gold gardening badge and she is always happy to shuffle down to the greenhouse and take care of her plants.
Luckily for her, she'll never grow old and she doesn't have to worry about useless, bitchy daughter-in-laws.
Finally, I leave you with the other birthday I played last night. I couldn't very well let Star be a teen for too long without her best friend. Lou had been pre-rolled to be knowledge months ago, so she's delighted to now have justification for all the skill wants she rolls up.
And there you go! Picspam and Behind the Scenes blather. I definitely plan to have 4.11 up before the end of the month, but next weekend is Running GAGG, a local little gaming convention I'm attending. It's time to indulge my other geeky habits. :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 09:23 pm (UTC)I really do love to hear how things come together, and how ideas spark due to conversations with other simmer and the actions of the sims themselves. :)
*giggles* at Scott being clueless about his success with the women.
I love the setup with the witches, and I must say I adore the fact that Starla actually looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, until she cackles.
Re the environment score in Lisa and Hugh's house. I've had this before and there's actually a bug in the game that leads to a stink emitter becoming embedded in a wall. I ended up sectioning off the room to track down the wall section it was in, then bulldozing and rebuilding that wall section.
Yay for Zephyr having the genetics you were aiming for. He looks like a little cutie.
*nods* Beth really does love gardening. She got her gold badge incredibly quickly and maxed out her nature enthusiasm quickly too.
I love how much Heather and Beth have in common. *cheers that Heather will never know Marielle*
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:27 pm (UTC)I'll definitely have to try that with the house. I bet that's it. I hope that doesn't mean there's any other problems with the house.
<3 Beth and Heather. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 09:31 pm (UTC)Firstly, big squee at Hugh and Zephyr - hurray! It's awesome to see a kid inherit Aeric's skin tone, big yay for the Waltons. I liked the foreshadowing that the witches gave, so I'm glad you put it in. Future wodnerings ftw!
Louise is so purty! And drunk Dean will always be win win win.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 09:34 pm (UTC)Being vamped constantly is a pita when someone is dating a vampire, I know, but the pictures in the clown outfit *is dying*.
Also Clearly Rachel is just going to need to start breaking hearts if she's going to fulfill that LTW for her Daddy.
Clearly Star isn't scared by the fire, just by the fact that she got caught trying to burn down the house.
Zephyr <3333 So cute!
Could the problem with the living room be that there's no proper roof over it or something?
In conclusious Star and Louis are adorable together. Now they can set fire to things as a pair.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:24 pm (UTC)Heh. I'm hoping I can work the fire into an update. Star tipped the fireman to bribe him from telling anyone about the fire. No one else mothed it, so... ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 09:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 09:58 pm (UTC)My version of HeatherBeth in Loch Loki also likes to garden. And she's also a pretty awesome parent. Also, no horrible daughters-in-law as yet, but she'll only have one at the most, since she's got two daughters and one son.
Isn't it great the way the ideas can generate from so many different things? I love when things click in my head and point me in a fun direction.
The new Dresden Files comes out soon. I'm just sayin'. Also, there's a comic version of Storm Front.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:22 pm (UTC)I love how ideas blossom and grow. It's especially nice not working in a vacuum so I can have seeds like that planted. Stacie's great to bounce ideas off of. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-09 04:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-09 05:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:03 pm (UTC)Yay for Zephyr! I am so glad that you were able to get the genetic combo you wanted.
That picture of Ophelia in the clown outfit is win.
As for the environment score, is the floor plan of that house too open? I built a house with a fairly open floor plan recently and I couldn't figure out why the environment score was so low in one area. I decided to section off one part with a wall and archway and the problem was solved.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:19 pm (UTC)It is a pretty large room, but it's no larger than some of the rooms in my bigger houses. I'd say the living room is the same size as the one in the Turner house and definitely smaller than the one in the Legacina house. I think I'll give Di's idea a try and see if I've got a stuck stink emitter or something.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-09 01:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:18 pm (UTC)The last grand vamp I had was the stupidest vampire ever. It took forever for her to bite her husband Bade. Rebecca attempted to bite everyone else in the house but the only one that wouldn't refuse her was her infant son who had a memory of being a vampire even though he never actually became one.
Yay for Dwight making doofy faces, he's pretty good at it. Watch him talk about monsters/aliens sometime it's hilarious.
My experience with the environment thing is that usually knocking a wall or two down and rebuilding will fix it. Something gets stuck but fixes when the room is reformed.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-08 10:21 pm (UTC)Dwight's faces are made of complete win. :)
And I'll definitely try that fix. HOpefully it'll help. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-09 04:48 am (UTC)I did see Scott in the background of the boy's night out shots but I ended up commenting at the end instead of doing my usual blow-by-blow so I forgot to say something. I loved that scene though, it was full of hilarious lines. It's great that Scott was oblivious to all the female attention. He was pretty much like that in my hood until he met Marla.
Lou looks great as a teen. I wondered if she had rolled knowledge as she pestered the headmaster with all those questions.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-09 01:47 pm (UTC)Great picspam and behind the scenes - I loved it. Oh, and maybe I should have guessed who the clerk was in the store, but I didn't. But then, I'm not very observant. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-10 02:41 pm (UTC)I loved the scene at the bar. It was well written and it really showed how much the pregnancy issue was effecting poor Dean. Him asking the others to "Inpregnate his wife" was very LOL!
Robi biting Opie. LOL You'll have to keep count and see how many times she vamps and devamps. :)