Saturday 31 January 2009

Mushaboom

Round 12: Days 56-60

Julian Sitko was new to Sullivan. He loved his new apartment but he'd have to do something about the decor. No time for that now though. He was hungry so he headed downtown for a meal at a small diner.

Friday 30 January 2009

The denial twist

Round 12: Days 56-60

Almost as soon as Stan, Xanthia and Araminta had moved into their new home, Xanthia was ready to give birth to the newest little Benton.

She was in Araminta's bedroom when she went into labour. Araminta didn't know how to help and called out for her father, but he didn't come.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

No answer

Round 12: Days 56-60
Maria was quite lonely since Anton's death. She was glad to have Emil, even if he constantly reminded her of his father.

Girl inform me

Round 12: Days 56-60

Pregnant Collette has taken her parents up on their offer to move in with them. The last house was too small for grandparents, mother and baby, so they've bought a brand new house.

Moving into the new house had tired out Collette, so the first thing she did when they'd finished was relax on her brand new bed. The bedroom she'd chosen was right across the hall from another bedroom, which would become her son's nursery.

Monday 26 January 2009

Men's needs

Round 12: Days 56-60
As usual, Magdalena's friend Araminta had come home with her after school. After Magdalena finished her homework, the girls spent most of their time giggling and dancing to the stereo in the dining room.

Heavy heart

Round 12: Days 56-60
Now that Betsy was a little older, she was able to appreciate Joseph's guitar skills almost as much as Vivienne. Sunday mornings in the Carmody house were often spent holding impromptu concerts in the living room.

Joseph had been a little concerned about approaching middle age recently and Vivienne had suggested a new hairstyle for him. His old style might have been okay when he was 18 but he was approaching 40 now. Joseph was rather horrified by his new cut - it looked like it would take some getting used to.

Sunday 25 January 2009

Black and blonde

Round 12: Days 56-60
When Arianna woke up on Sunday morning, she missed her brother and twin sister and started to wonder if maybe she should have worked harder at school and gone to college with them. She was also unemployed. The law firm she worked at during school was happy to keep her on as a teen but were unwilling to pay her adult wages now, unless she went to college and earned a degree. Which definitely wasn't happening.

Nothing special

Round 12: Days 56-60
Brandon started this round with a bit of bad luck. He was late one too many times and was fired from his job in Counter Intelligence. His workplace was pretty far from the farm but the higher-ups did not accept that as an excuse. At least the farm was still profitable and Leontine was still employed.

Overhauled Exeter and family housing

As always, these pics are thumbnails so click for the larger version if you would like a closer look.

We'll start with the family housing first. Disclaimer: I didn't build or decorate these.

Family housing is set a little way back from the rest of the university. All five houses are identical. You can see the house where Augustin and Hanna are currently living here. You can see from here that each house currently has a hot tub. I will probably pull those out - it's not realistic to me that the university would provide that! Augustin and Hanna's has complely different furniture now, as you would have seen in their update.

As you can see, the interior is very small but it's fully decorated. I tend to pull everything out of fully decorated houses and replace it with different stuff but it's nice to be able to leave it if I have to.

Upstairs, there's a small bedroom which just fits two cribs and a changing table. For one baby, it would be plenty of room but it's a tight squeeze for James and Naomi.

And there's an equally small bedroom for the students themselves too.

I also had a go at building a beach for Exeter yesterday. Everything is fully functional but it doesn't feel finished yet. I left it for now because man...beach lots are SO annoying! The weird stairs are an attempt to avoid the enormous stairs that you usually get on a beach lot, which I hate. I'm not completely happy with them but it's an improvement on the beach lot I had in my previous hood.

Arianna drove down here last night, so you can see it in action later when I post the Moretti update.


The beach from the hood screen, in the day and at night. The large building is the gym. The building right across the street from the beach is the Old Brick, as seen in this entry. The little building right next to that is Isaac's store. Then from top to bottom, there is the Ball & Biscuit (one of Pascal's pick-up joints), Be Real nightclub and a little diner that I haven't used or named yet.

This is an exclusively residential part of town that hasn't been touched much in the overhaul. Elias and Nathalie's new house is at the top of the screen.

Central Park is still the focal point but the view from the lot is now much more interesting, as it's bordered by skyscrapers on one side and an extra community lot on the other. Blue Velvet is a club I've used a few times (it's where Mina and Pascal met) and is on the left and right next to it is Sparks Sports Park, which is a Maxis lot and will probably get a name change. I haven't used it yet.
This is an area that has changed quite a bit. None of the original apartments I had here have remained, apart from Pascal's old building in the lower right. And the only reason that's still there is that I forgot to demolish it. His new building is the browny-red one right next to his old one, so he didn't move far. Nor did Floyd and Drusilla, who live in the white building across the road - their old place was just down the road a bit.

Thursday 22 January 2009

Round 11 Summary

I've decided to do a summary after every round, to list all the major events in Sullivan and link to the posts where they happened. I stole the idea from one of your lovely blogs, I'm sure! Whoever did it, I always liked it and am going to try it with my own little hood.

Births: 5 (Betsy Carmody, Emil Collins, Samson Clarke, James Novak, Naomi Novak)
Deaths: 1 (Anton Collins)
Engagements: 2 (Anton & Maria Collins, Pascal Lachance & Mina Collins)
Marriages: 1 (Anton & Maria Collins)
Break-ups: None
Graduations: 1 (Mina Collins)
New residents: 1 (Aphrodite Harper)

Total population: 46 Sims (24 female, 22 male)
Babies: 3
Toddlers: 4
Children: 2
Teens: 4
Young Adults: 5
Adults: 27
Elders: 1

On your own

Round 11: College (Augustin and Hanna)


Last update: Augustin/Hanna

Augustin Novak and Hanna Gottlieb were another couple who had decided to skip the dorms and get their own place on campus.

You just don't do it for me, friend

Round 11: College (Ben, Caterina, Filippo, Mina)


Instead of living in the dorms, Ben Nihill and his girlfriend, Caterina Moretti opted to pool their scholarship money and rent a little house on campus.

Wednesday 21 January 2009

Tomorrow

Round 11: Days 51-55
Galen and Georgette have been experiencing marital difficulties (caused by issues known only to them) but are still together, at least for the meantime.

Galen and Georgette had both been somewhat distracted lately and it had completely slipped both of their minds that rent was due on Monday, not Friday. Claudius Atkins knocked on the door early Tuesday morning to collect payment. For once, he wasn't a complete jerk about it.

Apart from when they would sometimes meet in their tiny bathroom, Galen and Georgette avoided each other.

Galen would go up to the loft and play guitar...

...while Georgette ate a lonely breakfast downstairs.

While a pregnant Georgette (unbeknownst to Galen)was sleeping the day away...

...Galen was working out on the balcony.

Phoebe the Rosella seemed to be getting more attention that Galen and Georgette were getting from each other.

One night, that all changed. Galen realised Georgette was expecting and that he didn't want their child being raised in an unhappy home.

They started spending more and more time together from that moment on.

Unfortunately, Georgette was on maternity leave and Galen still had to work. Georgette found herself waiting outside on the front step most of the day, hoping someone would pass by that she could talk to.

If she was lucky, someone would wander by who had time for a quick game of chess with her.

Georgette was still napping a lot of the day, which left her too rested to sleep much at night.

It was on one of these sleepless nights that that baby finally made his appearance.
Galen was too tired to realise what was even going on!

They had already agreed on the name Samson Luc if the baby was a boy, so Samson Luc was his name.

Galen (finally) joined his wife in the nursery to celebrate the birth of their new son.

The celebration didn't last long, at least for Georgette. She was really enjoying her job as a paralegal but without warning, she was demoted to Legal Biller.

It was nice to be working with her friend Charlton again, who was still languishing as a Legal Biller but she couldn't hide her disappointment.

She moped around the house pretty much all evening. Galen had been demoted the same day but he didn't take it nearly as badly as Georgette. He was probably getting used to it, as he'd been jumping from Battle of the Bands judge to Roadie and back again for quite a while. He had almost given up on ever advancing.

Georgette did at least manage to pull herself out of her funk and attend to Samson when he cried.

Georgette had the day off the next day and she quickly realised that stay at home motherhood was not the right lifestyle for her.

There were only so many times a day the baby needed to be attended to. She was glad this was just her day off and that she had a job (albeit one she hated) to go back to in the morning.

Notes:
  • I really wish you could read Sims' minds. I have no idea what made Galen have a change of heart. I was all ready for them to divorce this round. Good news for Georgette and Galen but not such good news for Collette. If she'd known about the problems they were having, I'm sure she would have been hoping they'd break up. So I'm still not sure what will happen with Collette.

Street lites

Round 11: Days 51-55

One family who was not at all bothered by Exeter's makeover was the Drapers. Elias and Nathalie had already been planning to move and purchased a little house not far from the first one they bought right after they graduated college.

After they'd moved all their furniture in exactly as they wanted it, none of them wanted to do anything but relax. Poor Elias was due at work in 3 hours but he planned on taking advantage of his free time until then.

Tuesday 20 January 2009

Custom content - updated 7/12/09

Another question came up in Comments from Mao and CissieMae: where do I get my Sims' clothing? So I thought I'd start another post about it and add in some info about other Body Shop stuff in my game too.

I try to avoid photoskinned stuff unless it's exceptionally high quality and anyone who can be creative with Maxis meshes gets into my Bookmarks list too.

On with the links, starting with clothing!

MTS2: Some creators I really like are fanseelamb, kaylynn06, migamoo, Sentate and dustfinger.
TSR: Favourite creators here include Confide, Lianaa, Maak, Shannanigan, Sims2Sisters, Ulkrhsn and Xandher (pay, as you all would know).
Club Crimsyn
All About Style (lots of stuff for everybody, even guys and elders)
Liana Sims 2 (mostly free, with some donation stuff. All the donation stuff is free eventually)
Maxis Dream (lots of stuff on Maxis meshes but also a lot of Maxis style things on custom meshes)
Modish Kitten
Phasmatic Sims
Fashion Twist
AnnaMariaSims2
Uptown Chic

My non-default maternity wear, seeing I know everyone is always looking for it comes from Liana Sims 2 and All About Style, almost without exception.

I get a lot of hair from Rissa Styles but also from various creators at Mod The Sims and Garden of Shadows. If a Sim's hairstyle is not from any of those places, there's a high chance I won't remember where it is from! But you can ask anyway and you might get lucky! ;)

Almost all of my make-up is by Bruno. The rest of it is little bits and pieces that have come with Sims I've downloaded.

My wrinkles, which I start using on my Sims when they turn 45, are by Onah and you can get them here.

I've been asked about the tattoos some of my Sims have and they are not skintones or make-up, they are all overlays from MTS2. You can get them for yourself at the following links.

Real Body Overlays - Tattoos Updated 12/10/2008
Maxis Tattoos that Really Stick!**Updated 10/22**
Sailor Jerry Vintage Tattoos that Really Stick!!!

SpaceDoll's Further Adventures in Tattoos that Really Stick!!!
Acid Wings...GoS Tattoos

rikkulidea at LJ has updated some of the tattoo boxes I linked to above so that the tattoos stick for good! She hasn't fixed them all but it looks like she's planning on it. You can get them here. She's also made a new set of tattoo overlays that I have not tried yet.

I'm not asked about objects as often as about Body Shop stuff but there are a few things that come up quite a bit.

The first is the custom arches, chairs and cakes I use for my weddings. They are all fully functional and are by Eris3000 at MTS2.

It's Your Day! New Wedding Collection!
It's Your Day! Set One of 6 Delicious Wedding Cakes

A Day to Remember! The Final Six Wedding Cake Collection

Pose hacks
come up a lot here, so if you're looking for pose boxes in general, this will be a good jumping off point for you. If you want to know where I got an exact pose, feel free to ask in the post where you see it. I usually remember what box I've used.

I make very liberal use of Jaydee's pose boxes. The Photo Poses Animbox is the one I use most often, for my family portraits but the others are really handy for setting up certain pictures.
Decorgal has some really great pose hacks and overlays. I use the Custom Modeling Poses Overlay a lot. I love, love the Prop Hack but am yet to use it for anything on the blog. But it's fantastic and you should check it out!
XM Sims also have some pose objects, which I'm not sure many people are aware of. They are under the Simmer Valley Misc. section. I haven't found much use for them yet but I think if your stories involve a lot of action/sci-fi/fantasy plots, they will be useful. There are some boxes with more generic types of poses too.
eletrodj at MTS2 also has the Cup of Poses v1 and Cup of Poses v1.2, both of which I've used a little bit too.
ClubCrimsyn has a pose hack with some sitting and lying poses too, which I am yet to try out.
uys at LiveJournal also has a fantastic post with the most comprehensive list of pose hacks I've seen yet. I found a whole ton that I'd never seen before.

As I always say in Comments, I never mind if anyone wants to ask me where I downloaded a particular item. I might not always know but if I can help, I'm happy to. So don't be shy!

Monday 19 January 2009

Houses, apartments and other lots

Mao asked me in Comments if I had any recommendations for good places to download apartments. I thought I would share the links here, where everyone can benefit, rather than burying them in comments. It's not an exhaustive list, so if I remember any more, I'll add them to this post.

I share my game with my sister and she ends up downloading quite a bit of stuff which I then steal for my game, including a lot of apartments. One of the sites she has discovered is Lifestyle4Sims. She's discovered most of her lots from the updates at Reflexsims Forum. They put up a whole load of updates everyday and I actually find them almost exhausting to go through.

Hannah's lots at Seriously Amused Sims are all lovely. The dorm where Justina and Cedric lived at college and some of the tiny houses I use for rentals at Suffolk are all from here.

I get a lot of my apartments at MTS2 and TSR but in all honesty, I find it too exhausting to search either of those places most of the time. I have found some really nice buildings at both of these places though, when I take the time to look.

Another thing I do is I regularly check the Sim Pictures forum at Sims 2 Community. There are some very talented builders there, many of whom do not have their own sites. Some posts at MTS2 but others post in LJs that I never would have found out about if I didn't check S2C first. The builders often have links to their profiles, LJs or other sites in their sigs.

I have many lots from Sims Crossing but they are usually unrecognisable by the time they get to my game. I strip almost all of the custom content when I install them. Not too many apartments here yet but they have a couple.

Another great place I've downloaded lots is Beatdoc16's Sim Escapades. This is where Sullivan Village Centre comes from.

Apple Valley Downloads is where I got the building Rob and Patience are currently living in. I also have most of her other lots waiting for residents in the hood, or in my lot bin. Very nice stuff and very playable too - she tends to use smaller lot sizes, so no lag problems.

Rise

Round 11: Days 51-55
Pascal was yet another victim of Exeter's facelift, as his apartment building was also due to be demolished.

He was a little annoyed at having to move, seeing he hadn't really lived in his last place that long but he found he liked his new apartment much more than his old one anyway, even if it was a little bit smaller.

He spent his first afternoon fielding phone calls from his sisters. Where they planning on picking up where Emmy left off? Pascal certainly hopes not.

The next morning, Pascal decided to venture out of his unit and meet the neighbours. He managed to briefly meet the girl next door but she was just rushing out the door to work. Pascal sometimes forgot that not everyone had work schedules as forgiving as his. Since he was promoted to assistant coach, he'd had 3 days off in the middle of the week.

He needed some new clothes anyway, so he headed to H&M, hoping to find some more flexibly employed people.

He met this lumberjack girl, whose name he didn't quite catch and things end where they usually end with Pascal.

Back at home, one of his neighbours, Sky Hightower, has arrived home from work, just in time to be bombarded with Pascal's flirting.

Sky didn't take much convincing. They were alone in the lobby, so they woohooed right there on the couch.

Virginia Watkins had become a bit obsessed with Pascal of late. She would drop by at all hours and hang around outside his door or in the lobby until he came out to greet her.

Pascal had no intention of getting serious with Virginia but inviting her into his bed every time she dropped by probably gave her somewhat of a mixed message.

It was a good thing Pascal was due at work on Friday morning. He got himself into a lot less trouble there. He had been a bit discouraged there lately. He was trying to get promoted but so far, he didn't have the right amount of charisma.

After work that day, Pascal struck up a conversation with an elderly man outside his building. The man's name was Tobin and he worked in some sort of scientific job. He heard about Pascal's interest in Science and offered him a job as Project Leader. It would have been quite the opportunity for Pascal, seeing jobs like that were usually only available to Sims who'd been to college. It just wasn't right for him right now though, so he politely declined.

Pascal had other things on his mind anyway, because he'd invited Mina over for a home-cooked dinner.

Pascal cooked the soup, while Mina got in the way.

He had planned on asking Mina to marry him and was so nervous he couldn't concentrate on a thing she was saying to him. So he decided to get it out of the way and ask.

He had nothing to worry about in the end, because she said yes!

They stayed up talking and dancing all night and surprisingly, for two Romance Sims, didn't even woohoo. Mina finally went home at a quarter to 3 in the morning, while Pascal dragged himself into bed. He had to be up in a few hours for work!

Notes:
  • Sims and that couch woohoo. Good lord...
  • I've recently decided that some career tracks will be available only to college-educated Sims. Of course, Uni has four careers like that but I've never been happy that you can apparently become a lawyer, teacher or doctor without a degree but you need one to become an actor. Whatever, EAxis. That's different in my hood now. The following careers will now require a college degree:
Architecture
Education
Intelligence
Journalism
Law
Medicine
Natural Science
Oceanography
Politics
Science
Any Sims who don't go to college but get an LTW to enter one of these careers will have to settle. Not everyone gets to work in their dream career, so some of my Sims won't get to either.

  • I wanted to roll up something more interesting for Pascal's wants, so I had to fulfill his long-time want to get engaged to Mina. It was a want for her too, so she got a nice 5000 or 8000 point boost, whatever it is.