Wednesday, April 29, 2020

New Header + New Posts + New Customer Content

MY LOCKDOWN START-UP

GOING HUNDY WITH THE SIMS 4 

It may not last and it's probably just me trying to avoid absolute boredom, but hey, look at that shiny new header. I couldn't drift from the Wonderland Tea Party theme but I thought I'd give it a refresh. 

On top of my new cc endeavours (see last post) I have also been posting on the forums as SimRomanovy - I could not for the life of me get back into my old account and SimRomanoff was taken (or did I use that in the past too?). Anyway it'll do the trick. See you out in the Simmerverse peeps. 

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Titanic Jump Dress for The Sims 4 by SR

ROSE'S TITANIC JUMP DRESS 
CUSTOM CONTENT EVENING DRESS - ROSE'S DRESS FROM THE FILM TITANIC - SIMS 4 CC


Super stoked with how this turned out. Went hundy on it and got it done. I think it looks great and is at least at the same level as my last (now lost) version of this dress years ago. 


Jess in a Yellow Dress - Titanic at 20: Rose's Dresses Ranked

Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for other edits. 


Below are not available yet, just some previews. 



A little preview some other Titanic outfits I am working on. It's fairly amateurish work so I am still working out some kinks. 

Getting Back Into Custom Content

CUSTOM CONTENTING IT UP 

GETTING BACK IN THE GROVE


So I used to make CC for the Sims. One of the dresses I made was based on Rose's dress from Titanic. Anyway I went to go download it and the link is dead! And I don't have the originals anymore! 

So I have decided to try my hand at it again - check out some initial progress below. not as good as my former work but for a rusty automaton like me I'm pretty happy. 




This didn't involve actually editing the model (I used to do that but heck idek where to begin now) so it it's all texture work. Wish me luck friends. The hope is to do a full Titanic dress collection and then maybe even do a Titanic film recreation. 

Truth be told I'll probably give up - especially once lock-down ends. Ón the subject of new initiatives, I may have a new job prospect irl, well its more a self-employed thing. Don't worry it's no pyramid scheme or essential oils MLM. I don't want to count my chickens but its something I have tried my hand at before and I have some savings coming off its term that I can use as startup. My mother ran a business before she retired and my brother runs his own business so I have some expertise to call on with start-up. I'll give more details once its actually happening. 

I'm such a dreamer though, so many plans never work out but here's hoping. It's kinda become possible only because my OE travel plans are gonna be on hold for at least a year due to the Covid-19 situation. But when one door closes another opens. 

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Inspired to Play: University Issues!

PLAYING THE SIMS
HOW DO I EVEN PLAY THIS GAME AGAIN?


So last night I started playing the Sims for the first time since February when tiny living came out. This is only two months - I've gone longer without playing. But this time it almost seemed like a new game. To help keep the novelty I didn't use "need/motive" cheats and actually play the game proper, wow does it take a lot to keep sims happy. 

Going to University with 4 classes was a huge mistake! Even worse I decided to go to University after building my Sim a beautiful detailed apartment. Why is this a mistake? Because when I came home the place was empty (doing some research has shown me that perhaps I accidentally "took" all the furniture with me or sold it as it wasn't in my storage). Apartments are a bother to save the plans of too so I never saved it to my library. I also don't have a save from before I went to Uni so it meant building from scratch again.

Anyway take a look at the finished product. 


Open plan kitchen/living/dining is perfect for apartments but In almost every build I do this. I just prefer the flow/feel of it. The living room space was the most awkward, despite having the window it still felt like a "dark corridor" space. In the end floor to ceiling mirrors as a feature wall made it seem a lot more spacious. 



I was so happy with how the little butlers pantry worked out. 




 I do love how much clutter the game has now. The stuff/game/expansion packs are what keeps me motivated to play for the novelty factor but I must admit the things I use most more than any features are all the "clutter" items to make a place feel lived in. 

Something new is putting the backpack on the bad as well as clutter on the chair. In my room in real life any free surface is always being used (my bed, my desk, my chair). I wanted to emulate this in game and using "bb.moveobjects" if you put an item on a table, when you go to move it, the object will float at the table height. This means if you use the right height surface you can move objects and rest them on "non-surface" objects like beds and chairs. 

I must say as much as I loved holiday events when they first came out, they have gotten rather tedious. It feels like there's a Holiday every day and when your at Uni, you cannot place the holiday objects which is really annoying bc it mean one holiday objective is always incomplete. 

Anyway my current Sim by the name of Owen, a psychology student, has a goal to get a partner as his New Years Resolution. Given that he failed one of his classes last term despite doing nothing but eat sleep and study I doubt he can afford time for a relationship. He can barely afford to go to the common rooms for food and relies on his roommates to order pizza or magically cook food in the non-existent dorm kitchen. 


Looking well pleased with himself I think. 


EDIT:

Getting mentioned by the Mares Nest brings back the memories. I recall being absolutely thrilled to be featured and trying to explain to real life friends how there was this blog that covered news of the online sims world. Back when I was heavily involved and making machinima and even dabbling in CC creation. 




Those were the days. I'm glad TMN is still going strong at least. I wish I still had my old videos and screenshots. It seems sad to say but my life really peaked back then. I've become such a basic adult nowadays. And this lock down has changed my plans - I've had to cancel travel plans and postpone moving (planning a 2 year OE basing myself in the UK) so now that's on the back-burner for the foreseeable future I'm having to face the sad reality that my ordinary life is distinctly ordinary (I can hear my first world privilege rising).

Going back to ParaLives, I agree with TMN that it does seem a worry that the ParaPeople (or w/e they are) haven't been revealed yet. But I shall hope blindly - when I look at all the Sims games I have bought over the years its really been more of a subscription service than a "pay once and play" game - so in many ways I am vulnerable to any suggestion of a better way. 

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

PARALIVES: EA Loses the Monopoly

PARALIVES

The Sims gets competition 


Just look at this screenshot - yes it’s from a game only in the alpha stages of development and it could be years before we see a full game release but isn’t it just stunning. 

A beautiful tease from the upcoming game ParaLives

Yes, this is a real game, no it is not the sims. Paralives is the kind of game all simmers want but cannot have because no one has ever gone into competition with EA when it comes to life simulation. Instead we let EA drain our pockets for continually lower quality games. They had us buying the same things on repeat, and they didn’t even have to give us the features we wanted but we kept coming back. Why? Because we had no choice. If we wanted a life and build simulation game Sims was all that was on offer. And to be honest Sims was not all bad, it gave us a space for our creativity to thrive. But the Sims got lazy, a natural byproduct of unchallenged monopoly. 

The promise of base game content rich gaming vs piece meal cash cow expansions


ParaLives looks to change the status quo - and I’m not saying this signals the death of Sims. If EA has any sense it’ll turn its vision towards the Sims 5 - not simply looking at it as a cash cow to be used to drain the dollars fork the fan base, but as the game that is going head to head with s game that is promising to be a game-changer. 

Build and customisation previews promise to outdo The Sims with an effortless style

ParaLives makes for gorgeous (much needed) competition and the game has a lot of promise. Will this game be he wind that topples the tired Sims empire? Or will it be the game that forges an even better Sims Game in the intense heat of competition?