Someday Picspam, Tuesday Style

[orikes]

It's that time again! Everyone needs their weekly dose of Picspam, right?



"How lame can you be!? Calling this Sunday Picspam and then posting it on a Tuesday. God, can't you do anything right? How could you possibly be MY author?? I don't even get a starring role, when I'm obviously the most important sim in your whole hood. How much of a loser could you be?"



I'm probably giving Mercedes a bit of a bad rep, but she really does pull some of the best spoiled brat faces I've ever seen in game. I think it's a combination of the high outgoing and very low playful and nice. She really does think she's all that. I think she's going to be dangerous as a teen.



I'm actually hoping to do a Pseudo Sideline about Mercedes and her adopted sister, Porsche. Well, more about Porsche than Mercedes, but still. Since Porsche was adopted at the end of a seasonal rotation, I figured I'd squeeze some extra time in and took their little family on vacation. Kiley'd had a pretty consistent want to buy a vacation home, so I obliged.

(As a side note, are their any pre-built vacation homes that don't suck completely? The worst is that only beach lot in Twikkii. Man that house sucked. I finally just deleted it and replaced it with some lots Jenn pointed me towards.)

So, the Turner girls spent a few days in Takemizu, getting to know one another while I rebuilt and redecorated their little vacation home. I was thinking of letting Micah and Genesis use it for a grandparent vacation, but I really would prefer a beach lot. I may see if I can get them a cabin up at Three Lakes instead.



In other news, I played the Parker/Toyanaga/Thompson house for a while.

Really, I've mostly been procrastinating. I've got almost all the pictures I need for the next update, but I'm stuck on how to actually play out one particular scene. I think I figured out what I wanted and went into the game to play and realized the house I need to use as a set is still completely undecorated from the move. Ugh.

I've finally started writing a little bit, but I've been dragging my feet which meant sneaking in some playtime.



Their house is an interesting one to play, especially now that all the adults are verging on elderhood. Comet's still an adult, but the next time I play, it'll be time for her birthday, leaving the house with Chastity, four old men and one old woman. She's still got a little way to go before college, though I may send her a little early.

I want the house to stay in Toyanaga hands, which means that Alpha or Beta will be coming back to start a family. I'd rather not have Adrian and Adrian die on me the moment I get the twins back to start their families, even if I need the room. I will say I am hoping that Andrew dies early. Still can't stand him, even if he hasn't cheated on Comet in the new hood. He aged up barely in the green, so hopefully he doesn't have too long left.



Kyle, on the other hand, aged up permaplat. He, I adore. I realized I hadn't shown a shot of his new elder outfit. Thanks to Marina, he did get to keep his lays t-shirt. I'm not sure who did these elder outfits, but it's a t-shirt with a jacket over it. I basically cut and paste the texture from the Lays shirt onto the new texture and it worked perfectly. I somehow lost the collar, but it seems to work for my purposes.



One of the other things I decided to do while playing the Parker/Toyanaga/Thompson house was to get Adrian and Adrian their flower shop back. For the hell of it, I sent them along with Kyle and Chastity down to the new shop.



I've gotten good at running businesses*. See that "Best of the Best" award? They got that from the second 'customer' to walk in the door before they'd even gotten their first simoleon. I cracked up as I got the BoB award and THEN got the message that they'd earned their first simoleon.

*With the help of "Business Runs You" from MATY. I did it the hard way with Matthew, so from here on out, I'm doing it the easy way.



One reservation I have about BRY is that point where a sim is stuck on the sales badge level where the best option they have is 'Hard Sell'. I always worry when I see that one in action since it usually seems to blow up in my sim's face. If you've got an iffy customer, nothing sends the stars into the toilet quicker than some uncontrolled 'Hard Sells'.

Dean actually fell for it here, but he still looks rather unhappy about the whole thing. Luckily, I eventually got Chastity to Gold Sales badge and after that I only had to watch her energy levels. Dazzle seems to go much smoother, but makes their energy drop like a rock.



I love the variety of customers that you get when you run a business. So far, they've gotten many of the playables in the door, as well as a number of the townies and social townies.

I grin like an idiot any time any of the transplanted Legacy Sims show up. I did have one simself I had to send home because she was being very contrary, but so far, she was their only problem customer.



It's also interesting to watch uncontrolled relationships in action. David Ottomas and .. townie boy whose name I can't remember.. were interacting almost exclusively with each other. I'm wondering if David's gender preference got set to gay in this version of the hood. Regardless, I'm not sure how successful he was being. They'd do some ++ interactions, then one of them would try and do something a little more like a hug or a tickle and get a --. Back and forth, back and forth.

I'm tempted to log into the lot I dropped the Ottomas' on and see what David's relationship score is like.



Since she's not permaplat, I did a crystal ball drop for Chastity. She got George McCarthy here.

I like George. I'd kinda forgotten about him, but this reminded me of him. I always loved with Marina did with him in the Fitzhughs. He and Chas only have one bolt and while they were delighted to become friends, they didn't really seem to have much chemistry. I think I will be keeping him in mind for someone else this generation, though.



While I have been procrastinating, I HAVE been working on the update. In my AGS copy of the hood, I went into the Walton house to shoot a pick up scene and found this. Aeric, dancing with his pregnant wife. I'm not sure that's good for the baby, Aeric...



I also had to go into Ian's lot and shoot a scene with him. Mmm. Ian...

I did have a glitch happen in his house that was driving me nuts. I'd turned off freewill in the house to shoot the scenes from 4.9 where it's revealed that he was brought back as a vampire. After that, the house somehow got stuck on freewill off, even though I turned it back on. Both he and Mary would just stand there. I finally had to move them out and move them back in. This, of course, meant I had to completely redecorate the house again. Ugh. I like decorating, but trying to recreate something you've already done is a pain in the butt.



Finally, I leave you with this. This was from De's birthday pictures, but I have to say this was completely ALL them. He was talking about fashion and suddenly she started talking about weddings and marriage. De, your simself is made of win.

At this point, I'm not even going to make a guess on when the update will be ready. Hopefully soon, but I've already screwed the pooch on my original estimate.

So, how are you all today? :)

Comments

[fireflower314.livejournal.com]

George McCarthy is utterly darling. He's definitely one of my all-time favorite NPCs, and I really hope you use him 'cause I can't wait to see what you do with him.

All the kids seem to be made of win! I can't wait for a better look at them in future updates.

The Ian glitch sucks. I had that happen to one of my Sevenwaters households, and I was so annoyed at the time because I hate wasting time redecorating. Also, quality vacation houses, you has links to them? Share plz?

simDe indeed pwns all, even in chibi form. He'd better enjoy being a bachelor while he still can, 'cause it looks like she's going to drag him back down the aisle once she ages up. *laughs forever*

I cannot wait for your update!

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Whether or not I use George is going to depend on chemistry, probably. I have an idea for who I'd like to hook him up with, but it'll depend on whether or not they click. I do like him, though.

I'll try and find the link to the beach lots I downloaded tonight when I get home. Be warned, though, placing beach lots is always a pain in the arse. I placed them and tried to enter to do a little remodeling, and it crashed my game. I finally tried entering a non new lot and it worked fine. Then I was able to enter all the others. They can be tricky to place.

[dgjamie.livejournal.com]

Yay for Picspam!

Mercedes definitely does look like a handful. I've always find it's the low nice high playful ones who tend to be bratty though. They'll do about two seconds of homework and then throw a fit because they want to go plaaaaaaaaaay.

Hehe, I still love Kyle's shirt. And it amuses me that you are torturing Comet's husband.

Ugh. The Ottamases. That is all. I think David Ottamas is seriously sexuality confused in my hood having been dropped for Lark as well as her youngest brother several times. So maybe he's the same in your hood.

The De and Cassius thing still makes me LOL!

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that I've pictured Mercedes as a spoiled little princess since before she was born. The fact that she's turning out exactly how I hoped kills me.

I don't mind playful kids. I know I'll get them to do their homework eventually and as long as you're not forcing them to do serious stuff, they're a blast.

And I'm not torturing Andrew. I'm just letting him take care of himself, which he does not do a good job at. :)

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Well, at least you didn't fall victim to the OFB bug. Once I did Five Top Businesses twice, "Start a New Business!!111!!" seems to be my solution for every problem. It is like crack, I swear.

Mmm, Ian. I'll bet the Terror Twins would find him eminently seduceable and juiceable.

Oh, SimDe. She never gives up, does she?

I'll look forward to your chapter whenever it gets here. I owe some comments anyhow and I can get caught up in the meantime.

I'm slammed with work right now--one pile of papers after another--but I'm happy because I finally have Penelope engaged and I'm not worried about saving her if I need to, and I'm excited for her wedding. I'd go out and buy her and her fiance a Crock-Pot if I could.

PB

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Hehe. OFB Crack.

I bet the Terror Twins would love to juice Ian. I'd probably rather they didn't, though. Unless you really want them to. ;)

I do hope to have the update out soon, but the writing is coming a little more difficult than I'd hoped. I'm forcing myself to get some of the slides done just so I can have some forward movement. I'll edit them to acceptable levels later.

LOL... I love the idea of you buying Penelope and her fiance' a crock pot. I know he'd love it. ;)

[wtsims.livejournal.com]

All the Maxis vacation houses need editing, but there's a small, suitable-for-a-couple home in Takemizu (I'm PRETTY sure... ISTR it having one of the Asian gates, and it's got a little spotty rock walkway and a diagonal door if that helps) that all I did was rearrange and redecorate the interior. I think everything else needed some amount of structural change, though I didn't tear anything down entirely.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I think the house you're referring to is the one that Kiley bought. I ended up shifting the walls upstairs to make it work better and I completely remodeled the kitchen/dining room area. I think I left all the exterior walls as they were, which is unusual for me. ;) I did add more windows, though. Window placement in Maxis Made houses usually drives me nuts. There are either arent' enough or they're placed in really weird ways.

[wtsims.livejournal.com]

Hrm, no, this house is a single-story. I don't remember what other ones there were there.

My biggest problem with Maxis houses are usually the kitchens and the number of bathrooms. The kitchens are nearly always too small especially given the fact that without mods you can't use corners for anything but decor and only one item fits on any given counter. The bathroom counts make sense for real-world houses but don't work very well for Sims unless you at least partition them off. Some of the houses look good but I sometimes think they were built by people who never actually tried to play a family in them.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I would bet that last bit is COMPLETELY true. There is no way anyone could have ever actually played some of the houses they've made. They look nice, but are completely unplayable.

I honestly end up gutting most houses I download to some degree or another, and it's the same for Maxis Made houses. I try and keep a little bit of the original character, but they must be playable to be.. y'know... played. :)

[ndainye.livejournal.com]

Yay picspam!!

I think I've removed and or highly edited just every lot in all three of the vacation hoods. There may have been one or two lots that were workable as rentals but mostly they suck.

Have fun with Mercedes, it sounds like she has Delphy's personality spread. Highly contrary.

As I'm going to be doing some businesses this go around as well it's always fun to see what other people come up with. I still need to decide exactly what businesses I need to have Elisha create.

I don't know if it's the same thing or not but my vampires stand around doing nothing 90% of the time. Once they get their motives topped off and their tokens maintained they are very likely to just stare into space until told to do something.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I need to poke at Three Lakes and see what's available. I know that I'd like a couple of 'lake' beach lots there. I still havent' decided whether Perse and Matthew are taking the grandkids to Twikkii Island or Three Lakes.

Hmmm. Now I'm wondering if I should have messed with their motives and seen if that helped at all. Ah well. Too late now and I've got the house mostly redecorated.

[leaths.livejournal.com]

Yay for picspam.

I love how Ian even looks brooding while he's probably "browsing the web for...music and dance," or something similar.

Monica is the only vampire I've played with any regularity, but I've been having issues with her standing around once her motives are filled too. It drives me nuts, so she usually ends up at a craft table all night long.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

There is just something about Ian that says 'Angst', isn't there? Yummy yummy angst. He was actually sending an e-mail in that picture.

Hmm. That's a good idea on the craft benches, though. I might put Ian to work building me some stuff. Right now, his house is only used for staging scenes, but with that whole immortality thing, there's no reason NOT to play him a little.

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, on vamps standing around--why doesn't that happen to me? Maybe I just tend to direct my sims a lot anyhow. Mainly they're just a tad tedious because they're the only ones up at 4 am with nothing to do. If I don't watch Lucy, she'll go out in the yard and Trim things. Count Whoopie is a compulsive cleaner, too--I have to be careful with him because he will Rake Leaves and Dispose of them perilously close to sunrise. But I don't think my vamps just stand around any more than any of my other sims. Maybe it's something that happens with later EPs?

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Yay for picspam, no matter what night of the week it appears.

Maxis houses are nearly always sucky. In fact I can't think of one I've not had to improve in order to make it playable. At least one bedroom needs to be big enough for a double bed Maxis.

Your buildings always look so beautiful, and that flower shop is no exception.

Re the vampires standing doing nothing, I sometimes have this happen on normal sims too where the motives are full, and I have motive decay turned off. I assumed it was because they have no needs to fill, so the AI doesn't kick in with something for them to do. Vamps needs don't decay after sunset, so if after you'd finished with them their need bars were chock full, maybe that's why they just stood there. Moving them out would cause their needs to reset.

[(Anonymous)]

To prevent having to completely refurnish a house, Inge has a Stay Things Shrub at Simlogical. I've been using it for months, no hiccups and it saves a lot of hassle.

http://www.simlogical.com/sl/Sims2Pages/Sims2_MiscHacks.htm

[jenga218.livejournal.com]

Sunday, Tuesday, it's Wednesday here, but who cares!?! Pseudo picspam is always welcome!

Have fun with Mercedes! The kids are all great - I can't choose a favourite, so I can imagine how you're feeling!

Mmm - Ian. Lea is right - he does look like he's brooding. I can't comment on the vampires-standing-around thing, because I've never played one.

~Jane~

[katrisims.livejournal.com]

Tuesday picspam yay! And possible sideline with spoiled brat, yay too. =)

I like George the cashier, too. I think a spare or a sparespawn will find a good spouse in him in my legacy at some point. I'm curious to see what you end up doing with him, if you do end up doing something.

And aww, Dwight is so cute when being confused!

[lauriempress.livejournal.com]

Just a thought about vacation houses. Have you tried the ones that came in the house bin with BV? I use the biggest one for my simself's house in my legacy, and I've used the smaller ones a few times too. Most of the changes I made to them were furniture arrangement. Or adding a sauna or adding walls into the master suite for a nursery. The wall paper isn't awesome so you might want to switch those, but structurly, I find them playable.

Lauri

[cori-chronicles.livejournal.com]

So cute!!!

[horroridiot.livejournal.com]

Wait, is Venus pregnate with baby #4 or was that when she was pregnate with Zephyr????

[legionary27.livejournal.com]

Mercedes is doomed; everything is going to think she's spoiled even if she isn't. The author's first impression is so important in sim stories. Reps are hard to change. Just ask Toast's simself.

Ian probably deserves to be angsty. He's had a rough few years in your game.

All cute pics. (esp Venus/Aeric and De/Cassius) Looking forward to the update when it's ready.