Sunday 20 November 2005

More on family portraits

I guess this is somewhat of a sequel, so if you want the first part of this tutorial - ie., how do you get those Sims posed so nice anyway? - you'll be wanting to read this.

Another question that has come up at least once and probably will again is about the hanging portraits I do with the antique camera.

You can see here that the Bentons have an older family portrait (from before the boys came along and when Xanthia was still alive) hanging above their mantelpiece.

Friday 18 November 2005

Playable NPCs

I've talked a bit on here about my playable NPCs (which I sometimes refer to as non-playable playables). I originally got the idea from Laura and Shana and it's something I find really fun.

Playable NPCs are generally either a) ex-partners of my regular playable Sims, b) current partners who aren't quite serious enough yet to actually move in with whichever playable they're involved with or c) townies who have started a romance on their own, via ACR.

I don't write updates about them and I don't always play them. Sometimes I do but usually, I just pop in and age them up so they stay in sync with the rest of the hood. However, all offspring of playable NPCs attend school with my playables. Also, any of them can become regular playables if they happen to pair up with one of my Sims and either move in with them or get married.

I'm planning on including playable NPC age-ups in my birthday posts from now on though so I thought it might be fun to show you the families I have currently. This post is going to live in the side bar and be my catch-all post for any future playable NPCs too. If I add to it, I'll make a note of it in my regular updates so you'll know to check this thread, if you so desire.

First, we have Corbin and Pamela Gray. Corbin works as a host at Sophie Gentry's restaurant The Claudette and Pamela is the early childhood teacher at Sullivan Primary School. They have two grown daughters; Julia is married to Sam Whitney and has a daughter Penny and Lucy (now playable) is married to Edward Lachance and has twins Colin and Gwen.

Next up is the Jacobson family, which consists of Claudio, his wife Virginia and their daughter Alice, who is now away at college. Claudio's daughter Matilda lives with her husband Miles and their daughter Phoebe.

Here we have Jairus and Vanessa Gentry and their huge family. Jairus works in the gaming career and Vanessa is the hostess/manager at Tate's Grub Hub. They have four grown children; Oliver (now playable) is married to Sophie, his twin brother Sebastian is dating Adelaide Sitko, Louisa (also playable) lives with her boyfriend Justin Moretti and her twin brother Eddie is dating Lauren Carmody.

Former teen townies Amber Dawn and Elmer Miguel fell in love autonomously, so I moved them in together. They live in a small house in Sullivan, with their sons Joaquin and Matias.

Zane Hamilton is Amar Hamilton's younger brother and currently works as an executive assistant. He lives with his wife, Chloe. Chloe works as a surveillance operator for the SCIA. In 2040, they welcomed their son Cole and second child Cary arrived in 2043.


Jean-Paul Tang and Gisele Couderc are high school sweethearts and recently moved into a house in Sullivan. They are both freshmen, and commute to Suffolk University for their classes.

Melissa Hollmo (left) lives in Sullivan with her girlfriend Celeste Day. Melissa works as in the Oceanography career, while Celeste is a librarian. They don't have any kids but are thinking about starting a family in the future.

 
Dane and Amanda Bar live in Sullivan and each used to date a playable - Dane was once Lauren Carmody's boyfriend, while Amanda is Brendan Lachance's ex. Dane is a librarian, while Lauren is still looking for work. 

Sunday 13 November 2005

Family portraits how-to: Version 2

I wrote the first version of this almost two years ago and looking at my blog stats, I can see that it's been very popular! But I have learnt tons about posing since then, from other Simmers and just from trial and error and some of it was a bit outdated (and WTF was with my terrible example pictures?!?) I thought it was about time I compiled some of my new knowledge here.

First up, you'll need some pose boxes! These are my current favourites:
Decorgal's Custom Modeling Poses Overlay - if you don't get any other pose boxes, get this one! It is the only one I know of that will allow you to change a Sim's facial expression and can be used in conjunction with any other pose box.

The facial expressions don't work with children but you can edit the box so that they do if you follow the instructions here. If you're scared of SimPE, you could also just download this box which contains all the facial expressions enabled for kids. I preferred to just edit the original box, because seriously, I have enough boxes in my game without adding another! But that's totally up to you.

The Custom Prop Hack is a lot of fun if you want your Sims to be holding purses, umbrella, wine glasses or a ton of other different things.
Giu has made some really wonderful pose boxes, including some sweet poses for families.
I'm also totally nuts about MayPink's boxes (link now updated). Lots of poses for couples, as well as some good poses for single Sims.
This hack by Squinge contains all the game animations/poses for toddlers. It's not a box - you just make your toddler selectable and choose the pose you want from the menu.
This list at GOS is updated fairly frequently and contains a ton of links to different pose boxes. If you ever ask me in Comments where I got such and such a pose, I will probably tell you the name of the box and then direct you to this list. If you know the box you're looking for, it's not nearly so overwhelming!

Other essential items:
OMSPS - OMSP stands for One More Slot Package. These are what will enable you to place your Sims close together but they're also handy for decorating. I use these shiftable ones and I also like these angled ones.
Look at Player - Look at Player does exactly what you'd expect and instructs the Sim to look in your direction. This won't work with all of the pose boxes but it's very handy nonetheless.
The Freezer Clock - Even if you've got your Sim in a pose, it sometimes doesn't stop them from trying to carry out an action (or stop a visiting Sim from trying to carry out an action on them) and it can completely ruin your picture and make the whole process very frustrating. This will freeze specific Sims or freeze the game clock for you. Get it here.

A word of warning about Freezer Clock: be very, very careful when using this in a house with pets, babies, toddlers or children. If you freeze all adults/teens and leave the kids unfrozen, the social worker/animal control might come to collect your children or animals. I learnt that the hard way and had to quit without saving!

Okay, now that you have everything you need, it's time to set up your picture.

Each Sim you want in the picture needs to have their own OMSP to stand on. So put some down, enter the move_objects on cheat and place each Sim on an OMSP.

Then select each Sim's pose from the pose box. Some boxes are self-explanatory, some are only numbered but after you do these for a while, you get to know what's what. Before I use any pose, I choose a facial expression from Decorgal's custom modeling box - her poses are overlays, which means you can use them in combination with other poses.

Once your Sims are posed, enter the cheat boolprop snapobjectstogrid false - this lets you place objects (and Sims!) anywhere you like, rather than within the specific tile limits. You might want to use boolprop allow45degreeangleoforotation true as well, which will allow you to rotate objects (and Sims!) diagonally. Sometimes poses look better on an angle.

Now, you can start moving your Sims together to get them posed as you like. The cheats should give you almost complete freedom in moving your Sims around.

Once everyone is posed, make sure they're all looking your way by selecting each Sim, clicking on them and then choosing "Look at Player" from the menu. Freeze them with Freezer Clock once they're looking the right way.

An alternative to Freezer Clock (kindly shared by Maisie) is to pose your sim and then use one of the EA "Pose..." interactions to get the sim to look at you. They will look at you immediately and they will stay looking at you until you tell them to stop. If you want your sim's facial expression to be anything other than the basic smile, you'll still need Freezer Clock - the EA pose will override any other facial expression you've set for the sim. For family portraits though, you usually want your sims smiling, so it is a very handy tip indeed! Thanks again for sharing it, Maisie!

A couple of examples, for you, so you can see this in action.

These are the easiest family portraits to do. None of the Sims are touching and they're all standing up.

Couple poses are not quite as easy but with the cheats on and with everyone on OMSPs, you should be able to line up the Sims so that you don't have any arms poking through stomachs or anything!

Edit: Not a MayPink pose! It's from this box. Thanks Mandie, for pointing that out!

Here, I'm using one of Giu's poseboxes to have Finn hold Keira on his shoulders. I'm 99% sure Victoria's pose with her arm around Finn is from the same box. Araminta and Declan are both using poses from Decorgal's modeling box. Caitlin is using an in-game pose (accessed by clicking the selected Sim, as long as you have BV).

Most pose boxes are only enabled for teens, adults and elders. Some are enabled for children as well but it's kind of a pain to use them. Even though the poses are enabled for kids, they're still designed for adults, so the kids will usually be floating above the ground once you pose them. Some sitting poses work just fine for kids but you'll have to experiment to see which poses they are. I'm normally happy to just use the in-game poses for kids.


Posing Sims who are holding babies or toddlers can be a bit tricky. First of all, you need to choose a facial expression for them before they pick up the kid. To get them to look at the camera, try having another Sim walk into their line of sight. The Sim should move their head and follow the other Sim with their eyes. When the Sim's head turns the way you want it, freeze them with Freezer Clock!

If you're lucky, the toddler or baby may also move their head to watch the walking Sim and you can get everyone facing the camera. I don't mind too much when that doesn't happen for me, because even in real life, it's hard to get kids that little to sit still for photos. ;) And I'm all about realism in my game!

Now that you've taken a lovely family portrait of your Sims, wouldn't you like to have these hanging on your Sims' walls? Of course you would! Read this for a better way of using the antique camera!

I hope this has shed some light on portrait taking for you. As always, any questions in Comments are welcome. :)

Tuesday 8 November 2005

Tutorial for geneticising skins

This is mostly for snarkysims because she asked me about this yesterday in my custom content post but I figured it may be of interest to others so I'm putting it here where everyone else will see it too.

Snarky asked me if I could put up a post with a little tutorial showing how I geneticised my skin tones. I used a text only tutorial when I did and I was just about to make my own one with some pictures for guidance, when I found this great tutorial by Quinctia at LiveJournal. If you're just looking to geneticise a set of skin tones, you'll want Chapter 6 but if you're still a little bit lost with Sim genetics in general, Chapter 2 will give you a good rundown.

If you're still lost, I'm happy to help you out further.

Sunday 30 October 2005

The Sullivan Education System

The way I run the education system in Sullivan has got complicated enough to warrant more than a short mention in the Rules & Regulations page, so I'm finally sitting down to write it all out here. None of this will be news to regular readers but some of this stuff was buried in individual updates, so it'll be easier to have it all in one place, for me and for anyone who wants to refer to it for their own games.

In Sullivan, careers are much more tied to education than they are in an unmodded game so this post deals with the workforce quite a bit too.

Saturday 15 October 2005

Hacks, hacks and hacks

I was asked in Comments a while ago about my hacks and seeing that's one area of custom content I haven't addressed here yet in its own thread, that's what I'm going to do now!

These are the absolute essential hacks that I could not play Sullivan without:

Wednesday 28 September 2005

Play Schedule

January 2047
Birthdays
Mia Benton turns 1
Cary Hamilton turns 4
Amy Clarke, Theo Nihill and Willow Novak turn 12
Charlotte and Marcus Lane turn 18
Matthew and Simon Lane graduate
Max Nihill turns 60
Family updates: Gottlieb 1 and Romilly 1

February 2047
Birthdays
Lucy Lachance is due 
Family updates: Collins 2 and Gentry 3

March 2047
Birthdays
TBD
Family updates: University A and University B

April 2047
Birthdays: 
Audrey Benton is due.
Piper Gentry turns 1
Family updates: Novak 4 and Draper-Moretti 1

May 2047
Birthdays: 
Family updates: Romilly-Royce-Nihill 1 and Gentry-Sitko 1

June 2047
Birthdays:
Family updates: Lachance 1 and Nott-Novak 1

July 2047
Birthdays: 
Family updates: Clarke 2 and Carmody-Gottlieb-Royce-Nihill 1

August 2047
Birthdays:
Family updates: Novak 3 and Benton 2

September 2047
Birthdays: 
Family updates: Moretti 2 and Lane 1

October 2047
Birthdays: 
Family updates: Carmody-Moretti 1 and  Halmi-Whitney 1

November 2047
Birthdays:
Family updates: Hamilton 2 and Novak 1

December 2047
Birthdays: 
Family updates: Novak 2 and Benton 1

January 2048
Birthdays: 
Byron and Noel Collins, Colin and Gwen Lachance, Richie Moretti and Penny Whitney turn 4. 
Andrew Clarke and Patrick Ashton turn 12.
Everett and Grace Benton and Jacinta Nihill turn 18. 
Sylvia Draper, Alice Jacobson, Aurora and Bianca Moretti graduate. 
Zaria Royce-Nihill turns 60. 
Family updates: Royce-Nihill 1 and Nihill 1 - Steve (53), Olivia (51), Theo (13)

February 2048
Birthdays: 
Baby Lachance turns 1
Family updates: Kirby 1 and Moretti 1

March 2048
Birthdays: 
Family updates: University A and University B

April 2048
Birthdays: 
Family updates: Carmody-Moretti-Romilly 1 and Gentry-Moretti 1

May 2048
Birthdays: 
Family updates: Ashton 1 and Gottlieb 2

June 2048
Birthdays:
Family updates: Sitko 1 and Gentry-Lane 1

July 2048
Birthdays:
Family updates: Collins 1 and Lane-Stern 1

August 2048
Birthdays:
Family updates: Lane 2 and Draper 1

September 2048
Birthdays:
Family updates: Moretti 3 and Lachance 2

October 2048
Birthdays:
Family updates: Carmody 1 and Clarke 1

November 2048
Birthdays: 
Family updates: Lachance-Nott-Romilly 1

December 2048
Birthdays: 
Family updates: Carmody-Romilly 1

Wednesday 24 August 2005

Banners

Seeing I actually know how to make banners now and already have ideas for others, I thought I'd do like Laura and make a post for all previous banners, in case any of you ever feel like a stroll down memory lane. :)

I'll probably try to make at least one per round now, so each time I change the banner, I'll update this post. Click each banner for the full size version.

#1 (credit should go to my sister for this one) - Nick, Steve, Olivia, Finn and Victoria.

#2 - Tessa and Dominic.

#3 - Adam and Athena.

#4 - Evan and Ione.

#5 - Emma, Jessica and Lauren.

#6 - Josh and Connor.

#7 - Oliver and Veronica.

#8 - Claudia and Daphne.

#9 - Steve and Olivia

#10 - Audrey and Jack

#11 - Edward and Lucy

#12 - Josie, Andrew, Patience and Patrick

#13 - Ramona


#14 - Calvin, Evan, Rebecca, Edward and Abigail.


#15 - Kit.

Friday 3 June 2005

Gameplay Posts Index

I've put up a fair few posts now with information about my game and how I play. Previously, they were all in my sidebar but it was looking very messy and started to bother me. So I've decided to organise them all into this post to make the front page a little more streamlined. :)

General
A note about aging and the Sullivan calendar
Sullivan Rules and Regulations
Tracking and organisation

Careers and Education
Choosing careers
Community lot schools
Getting into university in Sullivan
Maxis scholarships, expanded some more
The Sullivan education system (needs a BIG overhaul!)

Genetics
Expanded genetics
Personality points that make sense

Personality and Relationships
Assigning hobbies to sims
Sim personalities and birth control

Sim Photography
Family portraits how-to - basic posing tutorial
Framing pictures with the in-game camera - an easier way!

Miscellaneous
My ROS file

TS3 and TS4 Blogs

Blogger didn't like my old list of TS3 and TS4 blogs (too long, apparently!), so here's a new one!


A Pair of Brown Eyes
Aperture Valley
Around my Sims
The Edith Prescott Mystery Series
Freedom Shores
The Lakeside Files
Pine Hollow
Postcards from Sierra Nova
Roochey Sims
Simdale Valley Post
Sims for Breakfast
Simsarabim
StorySkippers Anonymous

Thursday 2 June 2005

Other TS2 Blogs

Apparently, I read too many blogs for Blogger's liking, because when I tried to add new links to my old list in the side bar, it wouldn't let me! So instead, I've made this list, where I can link to as many damn blogs as I want to. ;)

I've only included blogs here that have been updated in the last six months or so and blogs where the story is complete.


Around Aleaton
Apple Valley
Barchester County
Colliding Stars (complete)
Malston
Millwood
New Maximiliana
Lakeside Heights (complete)
Richmond Sims
Riverdale Up To The Minute
Sessions ~ Studio Time
Sim-a-long
SimsVille
Strangetown, Here We Come
Wellington

Sunday 24 April 2005

Downloads

Below is a list of everything I've ever created and shared here at the blog. It's not much but I figured I would collate it all anyway.

You are free to do almost whatever you want with any of the stuff on this list. Just don't upload it and claim it as your own and please don't upload it to any paysites, even with credit.

Hair

Lots
Sullivan Primary School (the original version)
Kirby Market (original version)
Sitko Faculty of Science (link to thread at N99)
Exeter Aquarium (link to thread at N99)
Business Career Lot

Objects
Miscellaneous

Wednesday 23 March 2005

Clothing - adults

OK, get ready because there are a helluva lot of creators making stuff for adults and I seem to download from all of them! ;P

Wednesday 16 March 2005

Clothing - elders

How crap is the Maxis elder clothing? Most of it is awful! It's hard to find elder stuff - I have more stuff for toddlers than I do for male elders - but these are the creators whose things I'm currently using in my game.

Tuesday 15 March 2005

Accessories - jewelry, glasses, etc.

I'm doing this one super quickly because I know that Sari wanted to know where I got Patience's earrings from (they are by Alkaloid at MTS, by the way), so I wanted to get this post done before I completely forgot anyone asked. I remembered where I got most of my accessories off the top of my head, except for those earrings!

I'm just going to list the creators, rather than categorising them by the type of item, because there really aren't that many!

All About Style
LianaSims2
Pronup Sims
Selzisims
MTS: alkaloid, HystericalParoxysm, icedmango, Rainella, tamo
TSR: Shannanigan

Clothing - teens

Here's the next installment in my custom content series: clothing for teens!

Friday 11 March 2005

Clothing - toddlers and kids

I've been trying to get a little of this done every day, so over the next few weeks, you'll be seeing several custom content posts from me. I'm going to attempt to keep up with this, adding new creators and sites as I find them. I don't download nearly as much as I used to, so hopefully it won't be too overwhelming to keep up with. I'm going to start with toddlers' and kids' clothes.

I figured out where most of my stuff was from using debug mode in CAS. With some things, that didn't give me any clues at all and I don't remember where I got them either. So this isn't a complete list but it's fairly comprehensive.

Monday 7 February 2005

Tracking and organisation

This could probably be subtitled "A Glimpse Into the Mind of a Complete Nerd".

I've been toying with doing a post about how I keep track of everything in Sullivan and I'm finally getting to it. This will be an opportunity for you all to either a) take some of my ideas, adapt them for yourselves and join me in my nerdery or b) point and laugh at the crazy person. ;) Up to you!

My tracking system is multi-faceted and I have two ways of tracking some things. The whole thing is basically set up so I have to do as little maths as possible. It probably looks a bit strange to some, but it really works for me.

First of all, I use Flashnote to track everything and I cannot recommend this program highly enough! It works just like Notepad, only you don't have to save and instead of having hundreds of text files that you have to open individually, everything is organised under sub-menus in the sidebar.

Here's what my Flashnote looks like currently:


Up the top, I have my Play Schedule and Aging, with Aging Threshholds at the top.


Wednesday 26 January 2005

Sullivan Hood Council


Zaria Royce-Nihill
Age: 54
Day Job:
Congresswoman
Council Position: Governor
In office since: 2035








Sarah Moretti
Age: 37
Day Job:
Master Architect
Council Position:
Town Planning Representative
In office since: 2031









James Novak
Age: 67
Day Job:
Owner of Novak Motors
Council Position:
Commerce  Representative
In office since: 2031









Tatiana Lachance
Age: 59
Day Job:
Education Minister/Principal of Sullivan Primary School
Council Position: Education Representative
In office since: 2035








Evan Moretti
Age: 53
Day Job:
Chief of Police
Council Position: Public Safety Representative
In office since: 2031









David Sitko
Age: 60
Day Job:
Chief of Staff at Lukas Novak Memorial Hospital
Council Position: Health Representative
In office since: 2031









Eliot Lane
Age: 56
Day Job:
Chief of Armed Forces
Council Position: Defense Representative
In office since: 2031









Connor Novak
Age: 29
Day Job: Reconnaissance Communicator
Council Position: Intelligence Representative
In office since: 2035