shay480's Blog

: November 2012

We sent him back.

POSTED ON 11/30/12

Jeb had a boy. Cute little rascal. But we let him go back to the home planet and moved on. Next night they came for Jeb again, and he dutifully ran to the yard to greet them. I managed to delete the space ship just as it was pulling him up. He's fine. It's like it never happened. I wish it would stop. I don't get why they keep coming after my family like this. I have one fairy in my game and that's just because I wanted to see the wings in action. She's just had a baby with one of my other sims, but I haven't seen it yet. Other than the fairy, just regular sims in my town. That's the way I like it. When the new wears off of Seasons I'll go back to building again and not be bothered by it all. When CAW gets fixed ... IF CAW gets fixed, I can make another world and get lost in that for a while. I enjoy creating. There's no room in my rl home for sculpting and painting, but on my computer I can do just about anything from right here in this chair. I get my workout at my job. :)

Unexpected weight gain.

POSTED ON 11/28/12

Dang aliens. They can't leave my family alone. I don't want aliens in my game. I don't want little green babies in my house. I'm not sure I can give it back and let them raise it though. They've abducted Jeb so many times he thinks that's his carpool. They've come for Trinity twice.

I always have a house full of kids. In this family, I just want a house full of animals and two good sims to love them. Is that so much to ask? I wonder if there's an option to turn them off. Will have to look into that.

On the bright side, I've figured out why nobody was driving cars. I have used Twallan's mods for ages without issue, but for some reason when we collect the abandoned cars every night we sweep up the necessary ones as well. I need to turn the mod back on to get rid of all the stranded wheelyhicles in the world, but then everyone will have to buy new ones again. I know the mod is updated. I check the site every couple of days. And this started before Seasons and always with updated mods. It must be something else that's interfering with my Twallans. No time to deal with it today. I'll investigate if I have the weekend off.

Party

POSTED ON 11/27/12

Went back into game today. I had just saved before the crash, so was able to do the party thing again. Got the house fixed up, moved the furniture, stored a few things to make room, and clicked on House Party instead of Gift Giving, so I missed out on that one. It wouldn't let me have another party because it said Jeb and Trinity don't know enough people to do this. Much later I noticed that all their friends had been reset from besties to barely acquainted. I don't mind using cheats in my game the least little bit, so I fixed that, but too late for Snowflake Day. That's fine. I can wait.

The Horsicorn family had their foal. Little guy named Helix. I got really tired really quickly of the "Where's my momma" business and aged him up. Limited game time means no time for hassle. I want to enjoy this game, not feel like I'm going to work every time I open it. My active sims always have the stuff I like the most, and they work at home so I don't have to wait. They don't need to sleep or eat a lot with cheats, so I get more out of the day. I have the Relativity mod, but haven't spent a lot of time working with it to get the kind of day I want. Every time the mods update I have a heckuva time remembering how they work so I can have things the way I want them. But it's all part of the fun.

At least I'm playing again. Normally I just build a house and shut it down. Or work on a world and forget to go to bed. :) But can't do that anymore until they fix CAW, which could be months.

Willow Ranch, the saga goes on and on and on.

POSTED ON 11/25/12

It's Snowflake Day, or whatever it's called. We decided to have a party. Made all the calls, cleared the living room, got the bartender on the way, stocked the bar with some of our finest nectars, rented some chairs and a jukebox - everybody showed up and it was all going so well! And then it happened.

Crash. To. Desktop.

Grrrr.

I needed to stop anyway. There really is more to life than this silly little game. Really. But only until I win the lottery.

Willow Ranch, continued.

POSTED ON 11/25/12

Stray dog on the lot! Looks like a cross between a greyhound and a grizzly bear. Good thing we're not looking to adopt just now. Troy Boy thinks he should investigate all the same.

Wild horse across the road! Too bad we're short on space. We'd take em all if we could.

"Woof woof woof woof woof!", barks Bonie. Can't tell now if she's training or teasing. Bella's got a bead on those leg bones though, so I'd buy some pants if I was her. I mean, what happens if she runs out of Scooby Snacks?

The neighbors must think we're losing it. We were such a nice, normal, quiet family in the beginning. Just Jeb and Trin and me. Now we're a menagerie with a Garden full of Grimcicles (Jeb's new book) and a dead chick in high red heels. But we're not Lambert Lambert. He and Elisha just had triplets. Two girls and a boy. And we thought our hands were full.

Looks like Bella might learn every trick in the book today. She's getting lots of treats from Bonie. Lavender has just one question: "How can a kitty cat get in on some of that action? She finally gives up and hits the sack. The big bed, of course. Bella prefers the sofa anyway.

Willow Ranch Review

POSTED ON 11/25/12

Our home now consists of 2 sims, 1 cat, 1 dog, 1 unicorn, 1 horse, and 1 Bonehilda, who has taken it upon herself to teach Miss Bella some tricks. Bella just thinks Bonie looks mighty tasty, so she's having some trouble with concentration.

Troy and Coco are expecting their first little horsicorn! It's been a long, cold winter, but Spring is around the corner and I can stop locking them in at night. This bunch is outside at 3 am and 14 degrees with no outerwear - Trin builds Grimcicles (9 to date) and Jeb writes books about it. He's quite concerned.

Tiana Beck and her crew have just moved into Ravensrock Manor (by RuthlessKK) - it's a gorgeous place out by the haunted sawmill. We love these Twallan popups! It makes us feel like we're more in touch with all those people we don't have time for with all these critters to love.

Is it just me, or does Bonhilda sound like a man? Being what she is, I guess, is bound to take a toll on the old vocal cords. Then again, maybe she was a female impersonator in her previous, erm, her real, uhm, you know, before. Or possibly she was Marlene Dietrich. That was a deep, smoky voice. In any case, she's one heckuva good dog trainer. And not a half bad toy-picker-upper either.

CAW

POSTED ON 11/25/12

I figured CAW would be a no-go for a while after updating to 1.42. I went ahead and did it anyway because I wanted to play Seasons over the weekend. After installing the game I can no longer install the world I worked so hard to finish for the game, but I did manage to install an earlier version of it that had no contact with Seasons or the patch. This meant adding the buildings to the world in-game, which was a hassle since I'd already put them where I wanted them in the version that won't install, but I am able to play, and that's what matters at this point. Who knows when or if they'll get it fixed -- hopefully soon, but I've already got a game going in "Pancake", which was the working title for the world I'd meant to call "Cafferty Isles".

I don't spend months on end creating worlds, so they don't compare to some of the ones I've downloaded. They are what I want them to be though, and that's enough. I make sure the homestead ranch house has suitable ranch scenery to sit in, and there are points of interest around the world to keep me interested in moving around a bit. There are 3 or 4 of my worlds in the game now, and it makes me happy to move through them, remembering all the work and love that went into them. And all the mistakes made along the way. :)

I like to start with the largest worlds and tend to use up most of the land without having it look square and blah. There may be too many lots and too many flat spaces, but there are tons of possibilities when it's done that way. If I keep an eye on lot sizes, there's room for all the new community lots, there are 2 or 3 town areas that can be used, and all the farm land I can stomach. I love country life and trees and water everywhere. My worlds are always islands because I can't deal with that distant terrain mess. The most recent two are each 4 islands separated by rivers, and they're large enough to ignore the ocean for the most part. I'm picky about terrain painting and sculpting, and so far all of the roads work.

What I have the biggest issue with is cars. Only my active family can use them. Everyone else in town rides bikes or walks. I really need to look into that.

More Seasons pics

POSTED ON 11/25/12

It only let me use 8, so here are the rest (I hope):

Lambert Lambert's house

Dunkin Manor

Converted barn

CiCi's back yard

Bella's ballgame

Cafferty Swamp

I love SEASONS!

POSTED ON 11/25/12

Some pics I just posted in a thread:

Troll Bridge (he lives under it)

Trinity's snowpuck

Trinity catches a snowflake

The Home Place in moonlight

The Old Mill

Snowgrim (Watch your back, Trin!)

She's sitting down, but still ...

Postcard Village

Poof!

POSTED ON 11/17/12

So, I worked like a dog to get my latest world finished and ready for Seasons, and it won't play. Crashes to desktop every time. None of my custom worlds will play. So I'm back in Sunset Valley, where I really don't want to be, but I would like to figure out how some of this new stuff works.

My game is registered, but no icon on my page for it. As someone on the forums asked, "Why would this even BE an issue?"

I'm tired and cranky this weekend. Not enough sleep, so can't really get into the game or even building. I did manage a few good houses for Cafferty Isles, so I guess I'll use them in SV until I can get back to that one. Got wings and pizza coming, then probably going back to bed for a while. This weather is weird and making people sick. fzzt.

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