Chapter 4.8 Behind the Scenes

[orikes]

Obviously, there are going to be spoilers in here if you haven't read both parts of Chapter 4.8. I've been working on this plotline for a very long time, so I'm probably going to ramble a bit now that I can finally talk about it.

It's funny. I've been working on this storyline for so long that when I asked for ideas on what people wanted to see next, I'd forgotten that no one else actually knew what was going to happen next. :}





I've always known that Ian was going to have a troubled life. There was just something about him that seemed dark and brooding. He just called out for having a troubled storyline. If I hadn't liked him so much, I might have made him into a villain. I know some people expected that since that's how others would have handled it and he was associated with Ophelia who could have ostensibly been considered a villain herself, considering who raised her. That route was too simple for Ian, though, and I don't think it would have done him justice. He was troubled, but he did love his family underneath his jealousy.

The specifics of his storyline, though, were up in the air. I had already seen the potential tragedy in his relationship with Lisa, but I hadn't gotten into the specifics of what would happen.

Then it hit me. I wanted to rebuild the Legacina house.

Pen got it in one with her comment on Boolprop. I spilled the beans to Stacie a couple of weeks ago, but ultimately, Ian died because I wanted to rebuild the Legacina house.

Okay, that makes it sound really callous, but I'll point again at the holes in my foot where I keep shooting it because I get caught up in a plot idea. It went something like this:

"I want to rebuild the Legacina house."
"Why would they rebuild? They've got a perfectly good house."
"It gets destroyed!"
"How does it get destroyed?"
"Kirstial goes on a rampage and burns it to the ground!"
"Why does Kirstial go on a rampage?"
"She got her powers back suddenly!"
"How did she get her powers back?"

And so on. The direction of Ian's and Kirstial's storyline fit together with the perfection of two Lego blocks. Two very painful Lego blocks.



Since I'd been planning this storyline for a long time, I'd been formulating ways that the entire extended family would be involved. There was a role for each segment of the family to play. Unfortunately, I realized that I was not going to have room to cover everything. As it was, I think with a double update, I only had room for about 15-20 more slides. There was no way to include everything I wanted.

Jeremiah was going to pick up on the danger to his family and get them all bunkered down in the basement. I was considering for a while having Nathaniel be out on the town and have his own brush with danger, but I decided against that early on.



There is power in the protection of your ancestors. Charlie and Victoria were going to come out haunting to ward their family from any danger. I really wanted to use this picture of Charlie, but again, there just wasn't room.



The only side family bit that really stuck was Micah's bit and Mercedes' birth. This picture and the two previous ones were all autonomous things that happened that would have fit with what was going on. The day I shot the scene with Micah on his balcony, concerned about a sense of wrongness, a storm came and set the treehouse on fire. The rain put it out, but it looked spectacular.

In the end, I cut it so Micah's part could stay a bright spot in an otherwise dark update. Also, I didn't want to have to cover the rebuilding of the treefort.



There were several scenes that got reshot because I didn't like how they came out the first time. One was Ophelia's conversation with Ian's urn. When I first shot it, she was wearing the initial outfit I had given her as an adult. Well, actually it was the second outfit. The first had a rib removing waist that I didn't notice when I downloaded it. This one had a nice waist and was the right color, but the heels were insane.



In the end, Ruby came to the rescue. I found a mesh I liked and she gave it the look I needed for Ophelia. I think this is a perfect outfit for her.

The ironic thing is, I ended up reshooting the scene with Ophelia in her funeral dress and not this one. Oh well. :)



Another scene I reshot was the one of Kirstial overlooking the city. Both scenes were shot on top of Hans Trap Door since it's the tallest playable building in downtown. Unfortunately, the first time I shot it, there wasn't anything around to actually make it LOOK like a downtown.



So, I moved the building and put a lot more set decoration around it. This time it actually looked like she was in the middle of a city as she reveled in her powers. There was a lot more set decoration around it than showed up in the pictures, but it definitely made me feel better.



This scene wasn't so much reshot as immediately restaged. As I was shooting it, I realized it wasn't working as well as I wanted. Initially I was going to have Kirstial hovering in the air in front of the store while she taunted them and then confronted Allyn when she came out. Unfortunately, it made getting good pictures very difficult. The idea was cool, but the execution was leaving something to be desired.

Not to mention the burning car didn't look nearly as cool as I was hoping.



So, I added more flame jets to the car and had Kirstial land when she actually started talking.

As a side note, the car eventually did catch fire. That was pretty funny because everyone inside the building came running out to panic over the burning car. Everyone was flipping out. I exited without saving and went back in to continue the shoot again.



The bushes at the main house also caught fire while I was shooting that scene.

Remember when I said Jenn was showing up everywhere? Well, yeah, she was here to panic over the bushes when they caught fire.

I promise I'll get you a new outfit ASAP, Jenn!



Here's another blooper. The pond at the Walton's house was frozen in the middle of summer. I finally figured out how to fix it, but it was a pain shooting around for the first couple of scenes at the Walton house. It was fixed by the time I shot the confrontation with Kirstial, but still.



In many of the houses, I turned free will off so I could stage what I needed. Unfortunately, that didn't prevent them from doing idle actions. As you can see, Elijah and Shelby both really like sports. :)



More bloopers! The house I stage the cover shots at has a blue screen out back. While I was shooting Kirstial, who was a walk-by that decided to be nosy?

Hi CECIL!

As a note with Kirstial's cover shot. I had to shoot it at night obviously, so what I did was get her posed, pause, go into build mode, then turn on daylight. It was the only way I could get the lighting right.



The funny thing? He did it again when I was shooting Ophelia. This time he was joined by Scott.



Probably the toughest thing to shoot out of the whole thing were the scenes with the wolves. The Pets Freewill cheat does NOT work. I tried everything I could do to make it work, but they always retained their autonomy. I could use the control cheat and the cancel action cheat, but they still did exactly what they wanted.



That didn't mean I was going to skip those scenes, though. The Star babysitting scene came to me late in the game, but once I thought of it, I had to use it.

Brody is part of the pack and he cares deeply about his family. It's a logical jump to assume the pack would respect his feelings and treat the family as part of their own extended pack. Therefore, they would agree to babysit the 'green pup'.



The run, though, that's been in the works since I thought of the rampage. The moment I knew Kirstial was going to go crazy with power, I knew there was going to be a confrontation with Brody in the woods with the wolves around him.

I've spent many, many nights roleplaying being a werewolf. I used to be the werewolf admin on a MUSH that used World of Darkness rules for supernaturals. I can still recite much of the Garou Lore. One of my favorite characters ever was a Glasswalker Ragabash. (Yes, I know that only means something to people who know the game.) I also spent about a year playing on an Anita Blake themed MU* where my character was a werewolf. As a result, I've got lots in my head about how to blend the mix of natural and civilized when it comes to werewolves.

I'm not as big a fan of vampires as I am werewolves, but a lot of what I do with them also comes from the same background.



Doc, thank you again for helping me out with the howl problem. I could have lived without the scene of the three surviving wolves mourning Barley, but being able to include it added just the right touch.

You can see in the upper part of the picture the lighting source I used. I hope it looked like light from the moon. :)



Moving on to some other things, Tamara did indeed age up. I kept Kirstial and Grimlock at the same age with Elixir, but Tamara I used and abused heartily. I know Doc has a fondness for her, but I'm still pissed at her for almost ruining Christian and Zoey's marriage. She aged up in the green. She'll be sticking around for a while, though. I still need for a few things.



That said, I think she looks okay as an elder. She still makes great faces.



There are certain scenes that absolutely had to include in this update. One is the scene where Dean was babysitting Louise. Sometime this summer, in the middle of playing the BC, the idea for this scene wedged itself into my brain and I just HAD to go for it. At that point, I desperately wanted Dean to win the BC, but it was still anyone's game. I think Farnsworth was even still in the game when I came up with the idea.

Regardless, I'm glad I was able to use it and it worked like I was hoping.



Buttercup was also always destined to play her role in this update. This was an idea I had for the Guardians a long, long time ago. It's one of the reasons why Romeo gave the advice he did to Zero right before he died. Even if your humans don't seem like they understand, keep at it. Eventually you'll get through to them and get them to do what they should. For Buttercup, she at least had Steve to help her get the message across. I like to think she would have eventually gotten through to them on her own, though.



Allyn. *sigh* I hated having to kill her off. I knew one of Matthew's employees would die, and I think she made the most sense. She at last had the most emotional resonance for what I needed to happen.

In some ways, I feel like I gave her the shaft. She was always good with the family even if she did try and flirt with Matthew that once. As an amusing side note, even though Persephone never witnessed the flirt, right after it happened, she rolled up the want to fire Allyn.



Ultimately, Allyn's death was needed to reinforce the idea that Kirstial was dangerous. Maybe I could have gotten across the idea with just the visuals and the words, but Kirstial needed to really have teeth this time around.



Knowing that I couldn't make it all bad, I had to include some points of light in the update. One of those was Oz being born. Life goes on no matter how much your grief hurts.



That said, Oz was actually born in the bedroom. Most of this update was shot in a dummy hood. The real Oz was born in the old house before I remodeled. I needed to know what he would look like so I could make sure I got the right baby in the dummy hood.

That said, the baby in the actual pictures is actually a little girl. I named her Ozzina. ;) She had the right coloring and that's all that really mattered for this.



I always knew that the family would hole up in the mausoleum. What I never really realized was how powerful it would be to show three generations surrounded by the portraits of the previous two generations. (Even though Shelby isn't blood, she's pretty integral to Generation Four, so she counts.) I was really happy with the way things turned out in there.



The scene with Grimlock finding Kirstial was also one I was happy with how it turned out. I do wish there was a way to show someone doing a fireman's carry, but the leap into arms interaction works really well if you can avoid the smiles of the participants.



Another scene I was really happy with was Lisa showing up to the funeral. I've known I was going to get her pregnant with Ian's child a long, long time ago. I really love her face template, stabby death nose or not. In some ways, I'm disappointed that Professor Kelly didn't pass more of her features on to Zoey and Victoria. They got a little bit of her forehead (Zoey was always clipping certain hairstyles), but that's about it.

Part of me was also glad to keep the Trottier last name around. It's funny how many T names I've ended up with the spare families (Thompson, Turner, Toyanaga, Thayer, and now Trottier). The only ones that break the trend are Walton and Whedonberry. Well, and Parker, but I tend to think of them as the Adrians.



Okay, the story book scene. There were a lot of very personal moments that worked their way into this update and this is one of them. One of my most treasured memories of my childhood is my father sitting down and reading me the Hobbit. Quite a bit of who I am today can be 'blamed' on his influence. He's the one that got me into Science-Fiction and Fantasy and he always encouraged my interest in gaming and comic books, even if he wasn't into them himself.

So yeah. This was a scene I'm glad I got right. There's a reason I gave Aeric Family as his secondary aspiration.



Probably the scene I'm proudest of is the confrontation between Aeric and Kirstial. Someone asked me if I'd had this planned since Aeric was born since the gypsies hinted at his potential when they tricked Brody into kidnapping him instead of Ophelia.

No, I didn't have the specifics planned out, but I knew there was something important behind Grimlock and Kirstial creating a child together. Aeric had a lot of potential and in the hands of those two psychopaths, he would have been very, very dangerous.

I'm really glad Apartment Life came out when it did because so may of the little things it brought along really helped me. Julia's transformation was the evil witch animation, while Aeric's was the good witch.



I did no Photoshop editing in any of the images of this update. Somehow, I was able to get exactly what I needed using what was available. Flame jets worked perfectly to make things look like they were on fire (and only one had to be edited out of a shot), and the electrocution animation worked for Ian and Allyn's death. My only regret is that Barley's death didn't have a similar effect.



For the final shot of Kirstial facing down Aeric, I simply moved her up close to him when he was at the apex of the witch transformation animation. The light worked amazingly well to look like she was being consumed by the blast.



The funeral. This one was tough. I was actually sniffling as I was writing it.

Hurle Memorial Cemetery has actually been built in the hood for a while. I think I built it last year when I got one of the Holy Simoly donation packs. The mausoleum at the cemetery uses a lot of pieces from that set. I didn't actually have any tombstones here, but I wanted the option in case it came up.

As a side note, 'Hurle Memorial Cemetery' is another reference to Isla Lostundo, my first neighborhood. The Hurle family was one of the founding families and was set up to be a rich, made-of-money family.



As I said with the storytelling scene, a lot of me personally went into some of these scenes. The funeral was one of them. I lost my mother back in January and we had a burial for her ashes in June. The whole feeling of loss and grief is still pretty close to the surface, but it was distant enough that I could write about it.



I remember something my grandmother told me years ago when one of my uncles passed away unexpectedly. "No mother should ever have to bury her children." It was a powerful statement and it stuck with me.

Because of everything that's happened in the past year, I think it was cathartic for me to write about a deep sense of loss among my little pixel people. It was a very hard thing to write, but it felt like it was the right time.



Of course, life does go on. Even when you're realizing exactly what mortality means, there's living happening all around you. All you have to do is look at the face of a child and know that even if it hurts, tomorrow's going to happen. And then the day after that, and so on.

Okay, that's getting a little deep for a sim story, but there you go.

As a side note, it was weird finding funeral outfits for the whole family.



Okay, now onto something else essential to the update. The house.

I've been sitting on a build mode set from cyclonesue at TSR for ages. I actually used a couple of pieces in Total PWNage when it was built. The set was downloaded specifically for this, though.

The smoking piles of rubble are the Uni bonfire. I burned about six of them and placed them around and on top of one another to give the semblance of rubble. I also got a burned out house set of paint from someplace else. The ground paint was a volcano set from MTS2.



So, I said goodbye to the original Legacina Hacienda. It really has been almost exactly the same house since Taylor and Professor Kelly's time. The two of them both got HUGE chance card bonuses within a day or two of each other when Vic and Zoey were teenagers. I tweaked little things here and there, but for the most part, the house has been exactly the same for over four generations.

It was time for a change.



And man is it a change. I'm not going to have room to do the new house justice in an a story update, so it's getting snuck into the BTS update. The design was based on a house plan I found and decided to sit on and use for this.

Again, AL came out at a very good time and I ended up using a lot of their build mode additions in this new house.

Before I go any further, let me clarify one thing, though...



No portraits were harmed in the making of this update.



The house didn't actually burn down, so I didn't lose any portraits. I'll cover their replacement in an update with a casual comment about someone having had them repainted or remade, but regardless.. Even if I killed Ian and destroyed the house, I couldn't lose generations worth of pictures.



There is no front entrance on the house. There are two side entrances. On the main floor is a large room for parties, a dining room, a kitchen, and the nursery. There are also two bathrooms – one a little larger and one with just enough room for a toilet and a stall.



The main living space was pretty important to get right. For the foreseeable future, the Legacinas are going to be an outgoing bunch and parties are important. While their old house worked fine, I think this room will work even better.

There's a stereo with plenty of space in front of it to dance, a pool table, a Don't Wake The Llama game and a dart board.



The far end of the room has a sitting area. I ended up using Holy Simoly's newest living room set for this one. I just loved the colors.

There's also a desk in this room specifically for the placement of homework. I'd rather have it in a den, but the den is on the third floor of the house.



On the first floor, there's also a nook specifically for Buttercup (or whatever future pet they get). It's right outside of the nursery, and even though it's in the main foyer, there's nothing that would wake a sleeping pup up.



This is a view from the top floor looking down the stair well. You can see all the way down to the basement from here. So, technically four floors. The house ended up a little bigger than I probably needed it to be, but my game seems to handle it fine and I love the way it works.



The second floor contains all the bedrooms. There are two master suites, two additional bedrooms, and then an extra bathroom. There's also a chess table up here and the door to the walkway that leads across to Steve's above-the-garage apartment.



Persephone and Matthew got a slightly more old-fashioned looking room. Again, I love Holy Simoly, so I ended up using one of their bedroom sets for this.



Right now, the girls bedroom is a little plain. I like the way it's decorated, but it's kind of simple and it's small compared to the others.



The boys room is much more interesting with more room. If Shelby and Elijah's third child is a girl (which I'm hoping for), I'll probably switch the girls into this room and give Oz the other room all to himself.



The bedroom I'm most proud of is Elijah and Shelby's. As I said, the house ended up being bigger than I expected and this room was unexpectedly too big. I really didn't know what to do with it, but then I was struck by inspiration. Their bed is on a platform separated from the room with one of the new fences in the AL expansion. They have a little sitting area with their bathroom off of that.

I figure a romance sim like Elijah would put a lot of attention into making his bedroom a really, really nice place. He'd want to spend a lot of time there, after all. ;)



You can't see it in the picture of the floor plan, but Steve has his own apartment over the garage. He's got a little sleeping area, and then a space where he's got a work bench and a train set. He's got his own bathroom up there. There are stairs leading up from the garage, but there's also an outdoor walkway clinking his room with the second floor.

I'd forgotten that Bigfeet came with all badges. For the first time, I've got some waterwigglers and other toys in the neighborhood. I figure Steve would be really happy about making presents for all the kids. Dean may be the cool uncle, but Steve would be a friend to all the neighborhood kids.



The third floor contains the study area, craft area, and the gym. I'm thinking of putting a sauna on one of the balconies. The upper balcony will get an expensive telescope eventually, but I'm probably going to leave that to next generation. Or maybe wait until Lou and Oz are teens.



There's not too much to see in the den, but I like how the book cases divide the study area from the craft area. Behind the bookcases are some easels, a flower bench (Persephone has a gold badge), and a pottery wheel.



The mausoleum also got a makeover during this. I could have left it the same, but I was never happy with the design of it. I ended up moving the entrance and I laid out where the urns and portraits are.



As you can see, there are lots of little balconies all over the house. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with most of them, but I liked the look. That upper balcony is where a telescope will go eventually.



The house also FINALLY has a hot tub of its own. It's not covered, so its vulnerable to lightning, but I really like the way the patio looks.

I still have some landscaping to do and I want to put some furniture out on the patio, but by the time I was done with what you see, I was exhausted. This is what I spent a lot of time doing right after the BC. You can see it hinted at in the picture of Oz and Louise playing in the nursery, but I wanted to show them off. :)



So, there you have it. This one has been in the works for a very, very long time and I feel so good to get it out there. In some ways, I should have waited to put out 4.7 until the BC was done, but I've always been weird about being patient. I could sit on a storyline like this for MONTHS, but I couldn't wait on uploading an update.

Now that it's done, the storyline will be getting back to some more of the mundane things. I'd really like to have most of gen five as teens and close to college if not already there by the time the legacy's second anniversary comes around. On one hand, I get intimidated by how long it's taken to get to this point, but on the other, I'm really happy with the way the story has been going and the reception it's been getting.

As I mentioned in the opening of this long ramble, I asked a while ago what people wanted me to explore further. At the time, most people mentioned things I knew were going to be touched upon in this update. It was a bit frustrating for me, because *I* knew where things were going and I'd forgotten that everyone else didn't.

So, that said and with the caveat that Kirstial's back story will be covered eventually, where do you want to see me go from here?

The future is wide open.

Comments

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

I'll probably comment more later, but just wanted to say: you sniffed, I flat out cried.

Pen is really, really good at nailing stuff like that. I didn't even realize I was marrying in Legacy Sims until she pointed that out.

We'll have to exchange views on werewolves at some point. I wound up doing a lot of werewolf research for my work on Professor Lupin.

Sorry about Cecil, but as you've probably already noticed, he's an attention hog.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

No apologies for Cecil, Prof. I think his outgoing points are a bit of a lie since he is one of the frequent walk-bys and he seems to like showing up in the welcome wagon. I think the shyness only shows up when he's faced with uncomfortable interpersonal relationships. ;)

I about died when Pen made the comment. I wasn't sure anyone would catch on and I only told Stacie because I couldn't keep it in any longer.

I'd love a chance to chat with you about werewolves. I've got a pretty jumbled mix of lore in my head from books I've read and the rpgs I've played, but there are always a few themes I latch on to. Especially the conflict of wild vs. civilized. There's also the dominance and rank issues of a pack that are always interesting to explore.

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

He shows up on community lots, too, which is awkward when he needs to be mysteriously missing. The Shy shows up when you play him directly as a slow drop in Social, but it doesn't matter, because the Fun drops so quickly that Red Hands is one of the few ways to bring it back up. (That, and Viewing something.) But he really hates losing friends and will go out of his way to keep the relationship score up. I think it's actually a Fortune Sim thing. To a Pop sim, it's friendship; to a Fortune Sim, it's networking.

One thing I found out is that most of the stuff people think of as "ancient" or "standard" werewolf lore is very recent, as in 1940s Universal Pictures. The infection on bite stuff definitely is, because generally, there's not enough left of a werewolf victim to become a werewolf. Chantal Bourgault de Coudray's *Curse of the Werewolf* is a terrific book and has a lot about this.

[penguingirl03.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go ahead and blame that knack for catching on to stuff like that on my social science training. I'm supposed to remember details and notice patterns. And Doc is pretty good at this too if I recall correctly. I caught onto the house as I was writing my comment and re-reading the story for a third time trying to take it all in. I was looking at the rubble of the house and thinking, "Man Ori's going to have a heck of a time rebuilding that" and then I remembered a throwaway comment you made about uploading the Legacina main house for posterity in your house thread over at boolprop and I thought, well at least she wanted to rebuild it. :-)

[fireflowersims.livejournal.com]

I promise I'll get you a new outfit ASAP, Jenn!
*snerk* Maybe THAT'S why she's showing up everywhere...

The pond at the Walton's house was frozen in the middle of summer.
How DID you fix it? The farmhouse that Roxy and Sabastien lived in retained a thin layer of snow throughout all the seasons. That's not a problem anymore ofc, but just in case it ever happens again I'd love to know what to do about it.

As you can see, Elijah and Shelby both really like sports. :)
Hee! Either that or they're ready to take on Kirstial.

I think Cecil wants some more screentime in your game.

WEREWOLVES FTW. I'm so glad you're using them so much, and I love what you do with them. ^_^ As I told you, that scene blew me away.

I feel really bad about Allyn's death, but you're right, it was extremely effective.

I was wondering how you did Aeric's effects there in his scene. They were fantastic.

Also, the burned-out house looked perfect. I was curious about how you set that up, too. (I still can't believe that was your motivation for killing off Ian, though! I almost want someone to write a humorous version of him finding that out).

The new house looks beautiful, though I will miss the old house. I can't wait to see more of it in future updates. ^_^ (I was going to point out that you had the wrong picture for the girls' room, but you fixed that). I'm so envious of your building skills, and this house is no exception.

I can't think of anything offhand that I want you to cover, but I will definitely try to come up with some ideas.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I can just see the expression on Ian's face, "SHE WHAT!?"

There was definitely more there than just wanting to rebuild the house when it came to Ian's death, but that was probably the catalyst that brought all the ideas I'd had into focus.

There's an option on the lot debugger to change temperature. I think I set it to normal and then did a force error on the lot. That seemed to fix it. I actually had to do it twice. I did it in the real neighborhood and then again in the dummy hood since I had to use a back-up from before the fix.

I was really worried about the burned out house looking right. THat's one of the reasons I used a lot of tricksy camera angles for it. The set from cyclonesue was a godsend, though. I also used it for the blown up chunk of fort in the BC finale.

The old house is still up for download if you want it. :) It really served me well, but I was more than due for a change.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

OK, so you'll cover Kirstial's backstory. I'm interested to see what happens to the relationship between Ophelia and Brody, or even Ophelia and Aeric. And how Aeric will deal with what happened to him with respect to his powers (something I'd guess you were planning to get to eventually anyway, as well as why Ophelia lied about Ian's urn). But also, what are the ramifications of what Julia did at the end of the BC, and even before then, when she was bringing unauthorized Sims over from other Legacies?

The new house looks really nice, and very playable. Holy Simoly has great furniture; I don't check there nearly as often as I should. It fits in nicely with the aesthetic you have going on in the new house.

I was wondering if the car actually caught fire. I thought about lighting something on fire during the Burning of El Chupacabra, but then realized that if there really WAS a fire, they'd all be mothing around it and I wouldn't be able to get any shots of them standing around watching it burn. Flame jets and creative camera angles FTW!

It's cool that you didn't have to edit anything between Aeric and Kirstial. Those witch transformations look really neat, and it was absolutely perfect for what you needed.

I really don't mind the SDN face template. It's so cute on the girls! But then I had four generations of mostly boys, and ARGH STABBY. It's also pretty chinless, which doesn't necessarily work out so well.

I do like Tamara/Christy, but not to the extent that I get all "Noooooooo!" when I see her show up evil. Now, seeing Stephan or Jeannie evil would probably annoy me. It's always nice to see how different people take on the same characters (whether they're premade like Malcolm, or just stock Dormies/Townies).

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I made the house a little too big, I think, but it works. The only trouble I have with it is the paperboy keeps trying to deliver the paper to the basement door that leads out back. I keep catching the neighborhood paperstealers sneaking around the back of the house to get it. (The related paper stealers like Brody, Aeric and Venus steal it and then just invite themselves in.)

I was surprised when the car caught fire. I'd had the flame jets going for a LONG time before it actually caught fire. The bushes I expected to go up quick, so I was prepared for the mothing there, but the car was fine for so long, it shocked me when it happened. Luckily, I'd saved at a good point, so I could just exit without saving and everything was right back where I needed it.

The witch transformations are really cool. I'm so grateful to Jaydee for making the expansion specific animation boxes. THey're a godsend.

[writeraissa.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I love the new house--I've been looking forward to seeing it since you mentioned you were doing a rebuild. My computer would choke and die trying to run something that big, though. It already chokes and dies running the one I've got the legacy family in right now, to be honest.

I'm impressed that you managed to get everything you needed with minimal photo-editing. I'll have to remember the witch transformation animations should I need to do any further zotz!ing.

I wouldn't mind seeing more of Shelby and Lisa, actually. They're very different, but they're still family, and I'm a big fan of family dynamics. Also, Venus and the Wolves. I think there are a lot of little plot seeds you could go with there!

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I already shot a scene with Lisa and I'm kinda disappointed I forgot to include Shelby in it. I will be definitely touching on their relationship, though.

I was surprised at the minimal photo editing as well. I figured I was going to have to use at least a couple of special effects edits, but when I was shooting the Aeric-Kirstial scene, I realized what I was getting would work perfectly. It helped with the flame jets that I was able to put them in the foundation and hide their bases.

I wish I could get you a better video card or something so you could play the larger houses easier. I know it's got to be frustrating. :}

[writeraissa.livejournal.com]

I've actually got a not bad video card. It's the RAM vs. CC that's killing me. I've got 1.5 GB of CC at the moment... and 2 GB of RAM. I've tried culling and culling and culling some more CC and I don't manage to get rid of very much. I had a scene in the main legacy house that I ended up having to use minimal characters for because the 6:30 PM walk-by caused a crash. And it really was a scene that should have had more people in it. But it's definitely NOT one I want to re-stage. There's nothing worse than getting the little spinny thing of doom, followed by "This Application has encountered an Error and must now close" during the middle of a rather heart-wrenching scene.

I'm probably getting more RAM for Christmas. That should help :).

[dgjamie.livejournal.com]

*Is in awe and extremely jealous of Orikes building skills* I will miss the old Legacy house because I guess we just got used to seeing everything happen there. You know, I'm not 100% sure of this, but I'm pretty sure that when most people want to rebuild a house they don't kill a spare to do it ;)

I forgot to mention this in the update but I loved Aeric reading the Hobbit to Star because funnily enough my Dad got me into LotR too.

I like your idea of all the different families reacting to the attack. It's a shame it didn't pan out, but you have to make choices obviously and I thought the chapter really worked as you had it so...

Lol at Cecil. I get the feeling he's aching to tell Kirstial and Ophelia off about the length of their skirts.

I'm not sure if I've mentionned this in the last five minutes or not, but just in case I haven't: SQUEEE Dean and Miranda More Squee. Ok I'm done :D

I was wondering how you did the whole Aeric power thing. These things are good to know indeed.

[fireflowersims.livejournal.com]

LOL when I saw that picture of him at Kirstial's photoshoot I was so thinking that he was just dying to express his opinion on the way the top of her dress is cut.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

"Madam, it might not be imprudent of you to consider, just for a moment, covering your bosoms. I am certain you do not wish to portray yourself as the common harlot."

[dgjamie.livejournal.com]

I'm now trying to think who Cecil should be more scared of for saying that Kirstial or Ophelia? It's coming up a draw in my brain.

[fireflowersims.livejournal.com]

Well considering that Kirstial's currently comatose... ;)

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Whoa, he would never use the words "bosoms" or "harlot." Not to her face. I think it's more the raised eyebrow and the thought,"I am exceedingly grateful that my club does not permit improperly attired females on the premises."

OR, "I trust you are not overly chilled."

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

As I told De, the old house is available for download if you want it. :) I'm guessing you're right and most people don't kill off spares to rebuild houses. I'm just really weird. ;)

It was fun trying to find the right bit of the Hobbit to quote. I just knew Aeric would be one of those dads who would use funny voices for the right parts. :)

If I'd included ALL the ideas I had for this, it would have been a triple update and my brain would have imploded. I'm really trying to learn where to let certain sims fade into the background. I love them all, but they don't all need to be front and center.

[marla2007wapi.livejournal.com]

This chapter was amazing. I loved getting a behind the scenes look at everything it took to get it all together.

The new house looks amazing. Really. Your building skills rock. I'm so jealous. :D

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I love doing the BTS updates. It's fun getting a chance to talk about how things came about, what was planned, what was unplanned, how ideas changed, and so on. :)

[honorkid54.livejournal.com]

So the WHOLE reason for Ian dying and causing readers to weep and moan was because you wanted to rebuild the house? Damn... not only is that crazy, but you pulled it off perfectly!

The house looks fantastic, by the way. I especially like that it's more modernized, and has a very modern feel to it, especially the mausoleum-- My mauseoleum is a bit of an Oriental Style, and I'm not too pleased with it. I also loved the bedrooms and furniture used througout the whole house. Holy Simoly is a site that I constantly check, and I love the furniture they have.

Hmm... I think I'd want to see a further relationship with Star and the wolves. Definitely.

Also, something that popped into my head and that I would LOVE seeing, even though I know you don't have the time for it as it is, is an asylum challenge with Kirstial. The first thought that popped into my head was that Jon was going to take her into an asylum filled with crazy monsters, and then that brought in that thought.

It feels though, at this point, like the dark shuttle in the tunnel is about to come back into the light. With the birth of Baby Trottier, I think that the sun will be shining down on the family again.

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Lovely chapter - I'll be commenting on the actual chapter when I have a little bit less homework.

Or when I, you know, want to avoid doing it.

Obviously, Kirstial's backstory, and the stuff that Grimlock said are things I'd like to see, and definitely why Ophelia lied about Ian's urn. I mean, we all want to see him return, but if you want to keep his death meaningful, you can't bring him back. Sadness.

I definitely want to see more of Star, because she just rocks. Will you be keeping her and her siblings in the inner circle this generation? Since it's just Elijah's kids, and Miranda's kids, and I guess Ian's kid, but that'll probably be a relatively small number, unless Elijah and Miranda both really surprise me.

One thing I'm curious about: the blue photoshoot screen thing: is it an actual screen? Just wallpaper and carpet? If you downloaded it, where did you get it? I never thought of using something like that, but it's a great idea. I'm considering adapting your cover idea in the future; let me know if you'd rather I didn't. Obviously, it would be at least somewhat different, but I like the small background pictures and one larger sim in the foreground, though I was thinking I'd cut it to four background pics.

[(Anonymous)]

So was the blonde baby you showed in a past sneak peak Ian's and Lisa's?

[leaths.livejournal.com]

I look forward to these behind the scenes posts almost as much as I look forward to the updates themselves.

I love the new house. Those AL windows are win. I don't build a lot of modern looking houses, but I've started building more just so I could use those windows.

As for what I want to read more about, well, I think I want to see more of Brody developing a relationship with Ophelia. I also want to see how the family handles the revelations of Persephone's and Aeric's powers.

[(Anonymous)]

Yay! This was super cool [;

The house looks AMAZING! I envy your building skills ;D I especially love the stairwell. Could you tell me where you got the stairs and railings?

Also, could you give me the (PMBD?) link to cyclonesue's set of broken windows?

[jamdoodle.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that was me posting above. I was too excited to sign in ;D

[avidreader7.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading part two, and then came here and read this, and I'm honestly speechless. You are so good! The writing and the staging and everything - it's flawless. I feel like I need to digest stuff before I can even comment.

Also, I love the new house! You have a real eye for building and decorating.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I love reading your behind the scenes posts. It is amazing what the end result of a tiny thought can be isn't it? Wanting to rebuild that house lead to this fantastic plot. Wow.

Haha, the idle animations for the hobbies can be really distracting and annoying when you are trying to shoot something at times.

The new house is just beautiful, and I can't wait to see the family all settled in, and rebuilding their lives.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I really need to spruce up the landscaping at the front of the house, but for the most part, I'm really happy with the house. I'm kind of hoping to use the next SP to fill out some neat stuff for landscaping. :)

[traciandrus.livejournal.com]

I read both updates. They were amazing.
Just got finished reading this.
The new house looks amazing. Are you going to upload it to the exchange? I would love to have it in my hood.

Well you answered that question. I was wondering how you did the car fire. Very neat.
Wonderful update. This story is one of my faves.

[penguingirl03.livejournal.com]

First off, gorgeous house! I love getting tours of the things that everyone builds it helps give me ideas plus it's nice to know where everyone is in the house.

It's cool that you managed to do a lot of this without photo editing it in. I would never have guessed that Aeric was using the witch transformation animation. You got some beautiful shots out of that one.

Glad to see your portraits were all ok. It was nice to see the one of Elijah, Ian, and Miranda as kids.

Oh and I meant to ask this earlier, but Opie wanted to keep Ian's urn so that she could have him to herself right? Did she know you could rez people and forget or was there something more deliberate there because I feel like she would have wanted to get Ian back if she could.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to give too much away, but I will say you're closer than some people have been about Ophelia's motivations for keeping Ian's urn. :)

I love that picture of the gen four kids together. I'm not as happy with the gen three one, and while I love the gen two picture, it's so much smaller that it's frustrating. I may be attempting some recoloring to get what I want. Y"know, when I get some free time. ;)

[ohturtle.livejournal.com]

Great updates. I keep meaning to comment as I've been reading your legacy since June time but have never registered at Boolprop.

The new house looks good, and it must be a useful way to rid yourself of excess money that has built up over the generations. Although the rooms look large in the top down plans (larger than I would normally build), the room shots don't appear to have surplus space.

I must admit I thought that Ophelia had plans to resurrect Ian out of guilt and that perhaps, because of the memory wipe that comes with resurrection (I think?) he would be turned against the Legacinas without realising their family ties. I'm wondering whether meeting his offspring might trigger memory gain though ;)

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I actually can't seem to acrue money like some people. Matthew went most of what the family had saved building his businesses. Luckily I can build up a decent amount just sending him out to HS Furniture Outlet. :)

The rooms of the house are probably a little bigger than I needed. I was building based on a floor plan, so it ended up bigger than I expected. Hopefully it'll still be fine. :)

[cl-legacy.livejournal.com]

Oh! I loved the old Legacina Hacienda but the new house is simply a stunner! :D You have such a talent for building houses it is flat out intimidating in itself. Aw, well, we all have our strengths.

And ahhh... building on a floor plan. Whenever I seem to try and build on a floor plan the rooms are always either annoyingly small and 'Ahhh sim stupidity I can't move!' or too big and cause my game to lag like crazy D:

Oh well! I suppose if I can't play lots like the Legacina one you can (and I can read your legacy!) :D

Still sobbing over Ian. He was always one of my little 'favorites'. Red hair and that bitchin' awesome name of his. I'm so glad that he had time to father a baby before he died.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the comment. :) It's kind of cool to think of someone looking at the older stuff in the journal.

I've found that when I build from a floor plan, I try and convert it based on the furniture I know is going to go in the room rather than a direct conversion of the plan itself. For example, if I know I want a 1x3 table in the dining room, I need to make the dining room 5x7 squares big. For bedrooms, I try and do even numbered squares on the wall I know I'll put the bed. That way the bed can be centered. Then it's just a matter of fitting the boxes together.

I suppose I do tend to build bigger than I should, but I hate not having enough room. Small houses bug me. :}

:)

[cl-legacy.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the smallish house - but when they get TOO small I start throwing items around the room in rage D: