Day One Of Weekend (Long)
Dec. 5th, 2020 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickHow'd I do on the old to-do list?
Room Clean: Completed, and a tiny bit faster than usual thanks to it not being particularly dusty in my room! I had the dusting completed right before lunch, did the Swiffering and vacuuming afterwards, was pretty much done by 2:35-ish. :D Always nice when it doesn't eat up the whole day.
Plumbella Marathon: Check, despite an iffy moment with the lights flickering shortly after I started. We got through:
1. Rating all the Game Changer builds! Blind, because – well, because people are dicks if she gleans ANY INSPIRATION from her friends’ stuff and thus she doesn’t watch Sims content from them anymore. :( At any rate, she made it clear she didn’t think any of the builds were actually bad, just she personally likes family homes and is easily impressed by fancy roofing. XD I was amused to see her bottom home was James’s oatmeal-colored starter. As he said himself in the comments, part of the problem there was him getting screwed over by a late terrain paint change that made the dirt under the house the SAME COLOR as said house, so. . . XD Her favorites were apparently a couple of Deli’s builds, including the onsen bathhouse. If nothing else, I’ve gotten a very good look at what’s in the pack!
2. Building a little cinema for Mt. Komorebi! Plumbella hosted a speed build of her building the movie theater (actually a bar in-game, why is “movie theater” or similar not a lot type EA), and it’s really nice! She made excellent use of the new platforms to create a proper “stacked” look for the seating, did a nice “refreshments” area in the front and a little picnic/play area around the back, and generally created a cool build! Especially for someone who doesn’t do a lot of community lots. :)
3. Playing another round of Sims 1 Expert Mode (8 Sims, 3 speed only, one in-game week) – this time with her parents! The three of them created their family – Mum, Dad, Jesse and her two siblings, and two aunts and uncles – and set to work. The early days were okay (lots of swimming in the pool), but it didn’t take long for the kids to be taken away to military school (Dadbella kept forgetting to send them to regular school – and then Jessie’s brother went and yet STILL got taken away, to their confusion), and after they were gone. . .well. Let’s just say that’s when they chose to get rid of the fire alarm. XD In the end, there was ONE survivor of the whole mess, and that was Jesse’s aunt Netty. Someone ring her and tell her the good news. XD
4. Playing some more The Sims Medieval – the kingdom is under attack by a spirit army! No, seriously – after setting up a new church and making Shepherdess Jesse, The Saint of Hens to run it – Jesse chose a quest about opposing an evil sorcerer trying to take over Plumboro, and it turns out said sorcerer’s methods are to mind-control the populace and raise an army of ghosts! Court Wizard Severus Snape is doing his best to free the citizens and engage in “Mind Combat” with the enemy, while Jesse the Great raises an army to defend the borders against the spirit army (with Real Jesse adding that she hates war because it’s essentially working-class people dying for the rich, so let’s not glorify this), but Jesse had to end the episode before the quest ended, so we don’t know how this is all going to turn out. She hopes to get a new episode out sooner rather than later! (Oh, and heir to the throne Bloody Mary has become a child – hell, this all kicked off on the kid’s birthday. Suddenly naming her that seems a bit prophetic, eh Plumbella?)
5. Talking about some of the stuff that Sims 4 doesn’t do particularly well, and suggestions on how to fix or improve upon these features in the future. This video’s notable in that I SEMI-agreed with her on a lot of points. Like having multiple worlds in one save file – she feels it’s one of those “too much choice leads to not being able to effectively choose something to do” situations; I’m all for the system but I can see how it could annoy people (specifically with townies from one world showing up in another). So I could get behind her “you can travel to other worlds but there’s slightly more in-game effort involved” idea. Same with game packs – she’s of the opinion that they should go and their concepts folded into expansions. Which, yes, I can agree with her on most points – but then she specifically name-checked vampires and spellcasters, and my opinion on the occults has ALWAYS been “THEY deserve game packs because that allows you to mix and match your occults as you please, and that hyperfocus actually did the vampire life state a WORLD of good.” So yeah, the whole video for me was “I can see where you’re coming from – I’m just coming to it from a slightly different direction.” *shrug* Proof that the “best way to make a Sims game” is always going to be highly personal?
This still leaves me with one video of hers to watch, but that one was literally posted today, sooo. . .still!
Londerland Bloodlines: . . .half-check, because I did write on it, but not as much as I was expecting to. What happened is this -- I left off last time at the very end of one of the conversations you can overhear the thugs having if you sneak in and don't end up slaughtering everybody. I was just shy of the final line of the convo, which I was going to use as a jumping-off point for the next page to write. Helloween's LP of his Malkavian didn't have him listening to said line, and he moved away fast enough that it didn't appear in the subtitles. "Fine," I thought, "I'll just pull up another video to hear it!"
TOOK ME A GODDAMN FUCKING HOUR TO FIND A VIDEO OF SOMEONE PLAYING IN A WAY THAT WOULD ENABLE ME TO GET THAT DAMN LINE. Every video I found was either "person went in a different way and often was killing everyone, so the conversation wasn't even triggering" or "person went in the same way but either skipped over the conversation or didn't have subtitles on, making it easier for me to understand what the guy was saying." *facepalm* I was just about at the end of my rope when by SHEER LUCK I came across a video where the LPer was in the right spot AND listened to the entire conversation -- which in fact continued into a phone call the guy made to his "woman," which I was also planning to reference. So I've gotten all the dialogue I need from that video, and I managed with that to write about 400 words (which is the Terry Pratchett Approved Minimum, apparently, if I believe this one tumblr post I found) about Alice overhearing the guy, figuring out where the office she needs to get to is, and wondering how she's going to get there when the only way down is to cause something of a racket. I know this is at least partially because I'm on my period, but UGH, I was SO FUCKING MAD. . .kinda glad now that I'm taking a break from the story to focus on gift-fic -- I think I need one! But I DID get something written, and that's the important thing.
Sims 4: Check, though I didn't actually play Victor and Alice and family. Instead, inspired by Plumbella's cinema build, I went back into my own Luxury Lane Cinema (a movie theater that I renovated out of a build by my friend Nebby on tumblr) and started playing around with platforms there to do the "stacked seats" thing! Mine came out different than hers - I did staggered platforms the Sims should be able to use as steps -- but I was pretty decently pleased with the end result once I'd gotten everything how I wanted it and fixed the whole "for some reason the roof goes away over some of these platforms?" issue (with more platforms on the flat roof XD). I also made a giant glass roof as rain protection for the outdoor cinema area, and turned the seats THERE into another set of staggered platforms, and updated the decor and lighting a bit. Think it came out pretty all right! :D Have to playtest it by sending some Sims there. . .maybe after the Liddell-Van Dorts are done with their vacation?
Other: And in the category of "things I didn't specifically plan for," we have --
-->Helped Mom out on the puzzle this morning with my breakfast smoothie -- didn't make MUCH progress, but she's been plugging away at it and has managed to fill in most of the pumpkins, yay
-->Paid off my credit card and did some clean-up on my bookmarks, getting rid of a bunch that I don't use anymore, go me
-->In the middle of the Plumbella Marathon, while trying to find that video that had the full incidental dialogue between the thugs from the warehouse for “Londerland Bloodlines,” I came across a video on Beckett in the Unofficial Plus Patch version of Bloodlines – namely, the revelation that, if you’ve prioritized maxing all your disciplines by the time you speak to him about the sarcophagus, he’ll teach you AN ENTIRELY NEW ONE – if you’re any clan but Gangrel, he’ll go ahead and teach you Protean; if you’re Gangrel, you get Celerity instead! That is cool – I’m thinking that, if and when I get back to my latest playthrough with the Tremere I made to test out the game on my new PC, I might try that. :D I already took the background that allows her to learn Thaumaturgy really quickly. . .
-->Got the Valice Multiverse sorted quickly -- just two asks so far. We'll see where it goes!
-->Storm today was icky, but fortunately it looks like we missed the worst of it. Had some snow, but it didn't last as long as they said it might and ended up turning back over to rain, yay~ Winds are still howling, though -- hopefully it'll be over by morning!
And that's about it -- gonna answer my comments, keep an eye on tumblr activity, and take a moment to chill. Which will probably involve wandering around the Fallout 4 section of Nexus Mods, as per usual. XD Tomorrow: Clear out the non-Sims-related/non-podcast videos from the Watch Later list; catch up on Kevin and Gray in the Subscriptions; play Fallout 4; write up all my current notes for said playthrough; watch the next episode of Jon's YOLO run. Again, a reasonable-looking to-do, but we'll see how it all goes down. Night all!
Room Clean: Completed, and a tiny bit faster than usual thanks to it not being particularly dusty in my room! I had the dusting completed right before lunch, did the Swiffering and vacuuming afterwards, was pretty much done by 2:35-ish. :D Always nice when it doesn't eat up the whole day.
Plumbella Marathon: Check, despite an iffy moment with the lights flickering shortly after I started. We got through:
1. Rating all the Game Changer builds! Blind, because – well, because people are dicks if she gleans ANY INSPIRATION from her friends’ stuff and thus she doesn’t watch Sims content from them anymore. :( At any rate, she made it clear she didn’t think any of the builds were actually bad, just she personally likes family homes and is easily impressed by fancy roofing. XD I was amused to see her bottom home was James’s oatmeal-colored starter. As he said himself in the comments, part of the problem there was him getting screwed over by a late terrain paint change that made the dirt under the house the SAME COLOR as said house, so. . . XD Her favorites were apparently a couple of Deli’s builds, including the onsen bathhouse. If nothing else, I’ve gotten a very good look at what’s in the pack!
2. Building a little cinema for Mt. Komorebi! Plumbella hosted a speed build of her building the movie theater (actually a bar in-game, why is “movie theater” or similar not a lot type EA), and it’s really nice! She made excellent use of the new platforms to create a proper “stacked” look for the seating, did a nice “refreshments” area in the front and a little picnic/play area around the back, and generally created a cool build! Especially for someone who doesn’t do a lot of community lots. :)
3. Playing another round of Sims 1 Expert Mode (8 Sims, 3 speed only, one in-game week) – this time with her parents! The three of them created their family – Mum, Dad, Jesse and her two siblings, and two aunts and uncles – and set to work. The early days were okay (lots of swimming in the pool), but it didn’t take long for the kids to be taken away to military school (Dadbella kept forgetting to send them to regular school – and then Jessie’s brother went and yet STILL got taken away, to their confusion), and after they were gone. . .well. Let’s just say that’s when they chose to get rid of the fire alarm. XD In the end, there was ONE survivor of the whole mess, and that was Jesse’s aunt Netty. Someone ring her and tell her the good news. XD
4. Playing some more The Sims Medieval – the kingdom is under attack by a spirit army! No, seriously – after setting up a new church and making Shepherdess Jesse, The Saint of Hens to run it – Jesse chose a quest about opposing an evil sorcerer trying to take over Plumboro, and it turns out said sorcerer’s methods are to mind-control the populace and raise an army of ghosts! Court Wizard Severus Snape is doing his best to free the citizens and engage in “Mind Combat” with the enemy, while Jesse the Great raises an army to defend the borders against the spirit army (with Real Jesse adding that she hates war because it’s essentially working-class people dying for the rich, so let’s not glorify this), but Jesse had to end the episode before the quest ended, so we don’t know how this is all going to turn out. She hopes to get a new episode out sooner rather than later! (Oh, and heir to the throne Bloody Mary has become a child – hell, this all kicked off on the kid’s birthday. Suddenly naming her that seems a bit prophetic, eh Plumbella?)
5. Talking about some of the stuff that Sims 4 doesn’t do particularly well, and suggestions on how to fix or improve upon these features in the future. This video’s notable in that I SEMI-agreed with her on a lot of points. Like having multiple worlds in one save file – she feels it’s one of those “too much choice leads to not being able to effectively choose something to do” situations; I’m all for the system but I can see how it could annoy people (specifically with townies from one world showing up in another). So I could get behind her “you can travel to other worlds but there’s slightly more in-game effort involved” idea. Same with game packs – she’s of the opinion that they should go and their concepts folded into expansions. Which, yes, I can agree with her on most points – but then she specifically name-checked vampires and spellcasters, and my opinion on the occults has ALWAYS been “THEY deserve game packs because that allows you to mix and match your occults as you please, and that hyperfocus actually did the vampire life state a WORLD of good.” So yeah, the whole video for me was “I can see where you’re coming from – I’m just coming to it from a slightly different direction.” *shrug* Proof that the “best way to make a Sims game” is always going to be highly personal?
This still leaves me with one video of hers to watch, but that one was literally posted today, sooo. . .still!
Londerland Bloodlines: . . .half-check, because I did write on it, but not as much as I was expecting to. What happened is this -- I left off last time at the very end of one of the conversations you can overhear the thugs having if you sneak in and don't end up slaughtering everybody. I was just shy of the final line of the convo, which I was going to use as a jumping-off point for the next page to write. Helloween's LP of his Malkavian didn't have him listening to said line, and he moved away fast enough that it didn't appear in the subtitles. "Fine," I thought, "I'll just pull up another video to hear it!"
TOOK ME A GODDAMN FUCKING HOUR TO FIND A VIDEO OF SOMEONE PLAYING IN A WAY THAT WOULD ENABLE ME TO GET THAT DAMN LINE. Every video I found was either "person went in a different way and often was killing everyone, so the conversation wasn't even triggering" or "person went in the same way but either skipped over the conversation or didn't have subtitles on, making it easier for me to understand what the guy was saying." *facepalm* I was just about at the end of my rope when by SHEER LUCK I came across a video where the LPer was in the right spot AND listened to the entire conversation -- which in fact continued into a phone call the guy made to his "woman," which I was also planning to reference. So I've gotten all the dialogue I need from that video, and I managed with that to write about 400 words (which is the Terry Pratchett Approved Minimum, apparently, if I believe this one tumblr post I found) about Alice overhearing the guy, figuring out where the office she needs to get to is, and wondering how she's going to get there when the only way down is to cause something of a racket. I know this is at least partially because I'm on my period, but UGH, I was SO FUCKING MAD. . .kinda glad now that I'm taking a break from the story to focus on gift-fic -- I think I need one! But I DID get something written, and that's the important thing.
Sims 4: Check, though I didn't actually play Victor and Alice and family. Instead, inspired by Plumbella's cinema build, I went back into my own Luxury Lane Cinema (a movie theater that I renovated out of a build by my friend Nebby on tumblr) and started playing around with platforms there to do the "stacked seats" thing! Mine came out different than hers - I did staggered platforms the Sims should be able to use as steps -- but I was pretty decently pleased with the end result once I'd gotten everything how I wanted it and fixed the whole "for some reason the roof goes away over some of these platforms?" issue (with more platforms on the flat roof XD). I also made a giant glass roof as rain protection for the outdoor cinema area, and turned the seats THERE into another set of staggered platforms, and updated the decor and lighting a bit. Think it came out pretty all right! :D Have to playtest it by sending some Sims there. . .maybe after the Liddell-Van Dorts are done with their vacation?
Other: And in the category of "things I didn't specifically plan for," we have --
-->Helped Mom out on the puzzle this morning with my breakfast smoothie -- didn't make MUCH progress, but she's been plugging away at it and has managed to fill in most of the pumpkins, yay
-->Paid off my credit card and did some clean-up on my bookmarks, getting rid of a bunch that I don't use anymore, go me
-->In the middle of the Plumbella Marathon, while trying to find that video that had the full incidental dialogue between the thugs from the warehouse for “Londerland Bloodlines,” I came across a video on Beckett in the Unofficial Plus Patch version of Bloodlines – namely, the revelation that, if you’ve prioritized maxing all your disciplines by the time you speak to him about the sarcophagus, he’ll teach you AN ENTIRELY NEW ONE – if you’re any clan but Gangrel, he’ll go ahead and teach you Protean; if you’re Gangrel, you get Celerity instead! That is cool – I’m thinking that, if and when I get back to my latest playthrough with the Tremere I made to test out the game on my new PC, I might try that. :D I already took the background that allows her to learn Thaumaturgy really quickly. . .
-->Got the Valice Multiverse sorted quickly -- just two asks so far. We'll see where it goes!
-->Storm today was icky, but fortunately it looks like we missed the worst of it. Had some snow, but it didn't last as long as they said it might and ended up turning back over to rain, yay~ Winds are still howling, though -- hopefully it'll be over by morning!
And that's about it -- gonna answer my comments, keep an eye on tumblr activity, and take a moment to chill. Which will probably involve wandering around the Fallout 4 section of Nexus Mods, as per usual. XD Tomorrow: Clear out the non-Sims-related/non-podcast videos from the Watch Later list; catch up on Kevin and Gray in the Subscriptions; play Fallout 4; write up all my current notes for said playthrough; watch the next episode of Jon's YOLO run. Again, a reasonable-looking to-do, but we'll see how it all goes down. Night all!
