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.