Silverdrake's Blog
:
October 2011
Happy Samhain!
POSTED ON
10/31/11
A beautiful Samhain to you, and may your beloved ancestors be close, and may your jack o\' lanterns scare away those not so beloved.
I\'ve been thinking about the acquired pet traits - wouldn\'t it be fun if sim-people could acquire traits through their activities and choices? That way, someone could start out with a trait when born, but instead of choosing them at birthdays, their conversational and activity choices would give them dynamic traits. So a person could start out shy, but overcome shyness. A person who dates lots of people might acquire the commitment issues trait, but if they fall in love with one person, they could lose that trait later on. A person who reads lots of books would acquire the bookworm trait and so on. It\'s not too much different from the way it is now, but the ability to gain and lose traits would make the game more interesting.
I\'ve been thinking about the acquired pet traits - wouldn\'t it be fun if sim-people could acquire traits through their activities and choices? That way, someone could start out with a trait when born, but instead of choosing them at birthdays, their conversational and activity choices would give them dynamic traits. So a person could start out shy, but overcome shyness. A person who dates lots of people might acquire the commitment issues trait, but if they fall in love with one person, they could lose that trait later on. A person who reads lots of books would acquire the bookworm trait and so on. It\'s not too much different from the way it is now, but the ability to gain and lose traits would make the game more interesting.
Nouveau Riche and Various Other Musings
POSTED ON
10/29/11
I like Ranch dressing as much as the next person, but admit to a twinge when I see \"Ranch\" in a house de-scrip-tion (why does it keep changing that to \"deion???). Working for some good ol\' boys during my sojourn in Montana cured me of any romantic notions about the west, not to mention the persecution of the Indians, the rabid annihilation of wolves, coyotes, pumas and black-footed ferrets, and all that eating of dead flesh. So I\'m a fish out of water in Appaloosa Springs. I can\'t bring myself to like the place, despite its lovely views and fall trees and wild horses.
I\'d almost thought they\'d make the Pets town like the horsey area just down the river from me, for better or for worse. It\'s a rather hoi polloi area, and I can imagine the conflicts between the old horsey set and the new import-export money. I\'m thinking that one of these days, if I break down and buy Generations, I\'ll try to build a world and fill it with houses that have not the slightest whiff of \"ranch\" about them.
So it\'s a bit out of character for me to build something like Nouveau Riche, my latest house. I shouldn\'t be surprised that it\'s proven to be more popular than my other houses (though how hard is it to click that Recommend button?!). Still, my sims towns will need a makeover to accommodate horses, dogs and cats. I need to get out of Appaloosa Springs, but the thought of updating all those houses with pet beds is a little daunting.
I based Nouveau Riche on a designer home, sans stable. It was a challenge to build into a slope - I left room around the edges so that the lot can be placed in other towns with just a little smoothing.
It\'s a little TOO neutral for someone who loves color as much as I do, but the white kitchen is kind of refreshing, and it will certainly give the maid a lot of work.
That\'s Emmit Preston from Hidden Springs, btw - isn\'t he cute? Why are the HS people so much cuter than the AS residents???
All that aside, the house has no CC or stuff packs, or even store items, but does have WA, AMB, LN and Pets furnishings. I\'m sorry it doesn\'t include the dead Bunion family, but feel free to murder your own sims.
Ye Olde Pyle
POSTED ON
10/25/11
I\'ve been wanting to build a Jacobean mansion, and since I\'m not really into the western theme of Appaloosa Springs, I decided to build a home for my family with a stable. I did try to put it on a smaller lot, but I just wasn\'t able to cram a 2-stall stable and manor house into something smaller than 50x50, sorry. It does fit nicely in Appaloosa Springs. I do wish more world builders would include regular and larger lot sizes or leave room for them. Maybe my next house will be a peasant hovel on a 10x10 with sleeping quarters over the cow shed, lol.
There is only one store item, and that is the cupboard in the dining room - it\'s perfectly fine if you don\'t have it.
The stable has room for two horses, and includes a hayloft/tackroom and a bedroom for a groom, aged relation or wayward teenager.
There\'s a balcony over the carport, where your sims can paint en plein air away from trampling horses.
The fully-stocked library has a pet bed so that one can revel in old money dogginess. There is also a butler\'s room next to the dining room, a wine cellar, and fenced garden (so the horses don\'t raid your carrots!). Contains furnishings from WA, AMB, LN, and Pets.
There is only one store item, and that is the cupboard in the dining room - it\'s perfectly fine if you don\'t have it.
The stable has room for two horses, and includes a hayloft/tackroom and a bedroom for a groom, aged relation or wayward teenager.
There\'s a balcony over the carport, where your sims can paint en plein air away from trampling horses.
The fully-stocked library has a pet bed so that one can revel in old money dogginess. There is also a butler\'s room next to the dining room, a wine cellar, and fenced garden (so the horses don\'t raid your carrots!). Contains furnishings from WA, AMB, LN, and Pets.
Playing with my dog
POSTED ON
10/20/11
I had a little more time today to try out Pets. My sim wanted to adopt a dog, but there was no way to adopt the dog (my RL dog) that I had created in CAS (or CAH as it\'s called now). So I made a household with his sim and placed him into my sim\'s house. Kind of a shame that she didn\'t get the satisfaction of adopting. Maybe there\'s a way to pre-load the adoption bin.
Here we are training. He c o c k s his head just like that irl. BTW, this ban on a perfectly legitimate verb and common surname is RIDICULOUS. It just draws attention to the prurient usage.
Going for a walk. Then we went for a walk in real life, lol. I was like, noooo, not the retractable leash! I hate it, because my partner uses it, and so my dog thinks he can just wander all over the place when I walk him with a 6\' lead. Luckily, he doesn\'t do that backtracking, wandering side to side, and entangling the leash in the Sims.
Playing with a neighbor\'s dog. It\'s cute, because he does that same bowing when he finds a playful dog in real life. However, in the Sims, this behavior gave him the playful trait, which I\'m not sure about. In real life, he doesn\'t play with people AT ALL. Actually, playing with my sim dog is more fun, because my sim dog fetches and plays tug of war, so maybe I\'ll leave it that way.
He got fleas - surely this would be an excellent opportunity for an Advantix or Frontline product placement? And why is there no doggie bath? My sim had to buy a bathtub and put it in her yard, because she and the dog had routing failure when trying to use it inside. I remember having exactly this problem in Sims 2. I can see building a doggie beauty parlor in my future.
Here we are training. He c o c k s his head just like that irl. BTW, this ban on a perfectly legitimate verb and common surname is RIDICULOUS. It just draws attention to the prurient usage.
Going for a walk. Then we went for a walk in real life, lol. I was like, noooo, not the retractable leash! I hate it, because my partner uses it, and so my dog thinks he can just wander all over the place when I walk him with a 6\' lead. Luckily, he doesn\'t do that backtracking, wandering side to side, and entangling the leash in the Sims.
Playing with a neighbor\'s dog. It\'s cute, because he does that same bowing when he finds a playful dog in real life. However, in the Sims, this behavior gave him the playful trait, which I\'m not sure about. In real life, he doesn\'t play with people AT ALL. Actually, playing with my sim dog is more fun, because my sim dog fetches and plays tug of war, so maybe I\'ll leave it that way.
He got fleas - surely this would be an excellent opportunity for an Advantix or Frontline product placement? And why is there no doggie bath? My sim had to buy a bathtub and put it in her yard, because she and the dog had routing failure when trying to use it inside. I remember having exactly this problem in Sims 2. I can see building a doggie beauty parlor in my future.
First Look at Pets
POSTED ON
10/19/11
I received Pets this evening, and just had time to install it, run down to the stable, and grab a screenshot:
So far, so good. I did have to remove a bunch of gameplay mods and will have to sort out which causes a crash on town-loading. The updated Twallan mods all work fine (though he doesn\'t seem to have story progression up yet).
I also had to decide if I wanted to drop one of my simself\'s traits so I could have the animal lover trait - what a dilemma! I decided to drop vegetarian, because it doesn\'t seem to do much except make you sick when you eat meat, which is stupid, imho. It should probably be rolled into the Eco-Conscious trait. Maybe I can find a mod that replaces ALL the meat in the game with veggie versions.
So far, so good. I did have to remove a bunch of gameplay mods and will have to sort out which causes a crash on town-loading. The updated Twallan mods all work fine (though he doesn\'t seem to have story progression up yet).
I also had to decide if I wanted to drop one of my simself\'s traits so I could have the animal lover trait - what a dilemma! I decided to drop vegetarian, because it doesn\'t seem to do much except make you sick when you eat meat, which is stupid, imho. It should probably be rolled into the Eco-Conscious trait. Maybe I can find a mod that replaces ALL the meat in the game with veggie versions.
Distractions
POSTED ON
10/08/11
So I\'ve been swallowed up by Glitch
, but I\'ll be back when Pets arrives at my doorstep. :)
