Are These Updates Even Late Anymore?
Jun. 16th, 2022 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI mean, they're later than they should be, I need to fix my sleep schedule a bit -- but until then:
Work – Back to quiet days – had one credit card call that was resolved by rescheduling someone’s payment, then the rest of the time was obituaries and returned mail. *shrug* Not much going on as we wind our way to the official start of summer! Frankly, fine by me – I can deal with “bored” better than “stressed!”
Beanbags – Nice, comfortable, cool day, so yeah, it was out into the yard after work. I ALMOST had a good first game, but then I faltered at the very end, allowing Mom to get the win and leading me and Dad into a shootout where we were constantly tying each other for a few throws. XD And then Mom just annihilated me and Dad in the second game. Made up for it with the final game, though, where I finally got my groove back – final scores were me 3-3-W; Dad 2-2-3; Mom W-W-2. Not exactly egalitarian, but then again, Mom was on a losing streak for so long, it’s probably good that she gets to be champion a few times. :)
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike to take myself to the three-quarters mark in the Oxventure stream “Gnome Alone!” Having managed not to fall asleep on guard duty, things got interesting when Corazon heard some noises down his corridor. He promptly used Disguise Self to make himself look like a gnome and went to investigate, singing noisily about how he was a gnome all the way. XD Turns out, the noise was a party of twenty armed kobolds – who promptly accused Corazon of being a “Snaffler” and stealing away THEIR kin in the dead of the night! Corazon angrily denied being a Snaffler, and it came out that the kobolds had no idea that there was a whole community of gnomes also living in the caves. Corazon (claiming to be Gnomesman, the Gnome King, because of course he did) quickly sussed out that what was probably happening was some mysterious third party was preying on both groups, and managed to convince the kobolds to follow him back to the gym so they could talk to the gnomes. There was a bit of a kerfuffle when the kobolds arrived (not helped by the gnome elder not recognizing Corazon and then refusing to acknowledge his “king of the gnomes” nonsense), but the groups did agree to chat.
After a good hour-and-three-quarters of arguing and slinging around accusations, the gnomes and the kobolds finally accepted that the other group wasn’t to blame for what was happening, and they agreed that something that lived in the parts of the caves they hadn’t yet investigated was likely the culprit. Of course, since they hadn’t investigated those parts of the caves, they didn’t know what was in there. The Oxventurers plus Max (who had indeed come along with them, as had Shattershield – he was busy debating the gnomes and kobolds over gods and whatnot while he was laid up) quickly decided there was no use waiting around for any help from the cranky gnomes or kobolds and set out on their own to discover the source of the problem (Corazon making sure to tell Prudence to put some clothes on XD). They found the sign marking the border of the gnome’s investigation, and after a lot of debate about how they were going to track their progress so they didn’t get lost (eventually deciding to just rely on Max to remember the way back to Shattershield, as he’s good at finding paladins), Corazon cast Dancing Lights so he could actually see what he was doing, wowing a young gnome called Shed who’d followed them out of curiosity. Merilwen promptly made a pun about him needing to “gnome home” (or along those lines, I can’t remember the exact phrasing off the top of my head) –
Johnny straight up killed Shed because it was the five millionth gnome pun of the evening and they were TIRED. Merilwen was appropriately horrified. XD The gang quickly headed out into the cave system and found themselves in a nice big chamber, where Corazon, still in his gnome disguise, started singing a song about how defenseless a gnome he was. Which went on for a while. XD Johnny had him make an Intelligence saving throw for apparently no reason, which Corazon failed HARD – nat one! So he ended up just straight up FROZEN for a good few seconds as something shadowy peeled itself off the wall and into a side tunnel. He managed to come back to himself and sort of explain what he saw (complaining his nut had been trashed all the while), and the gang went after it –
Turned out it was a troglodyte, a creature in DnD which is a terrible humanoid lizard thing with a giant mouth, sharp sharp teeth, and a stench that can literally poison people. Oh, and it has natural camouflage like a chameleon, meaning it can blend in damn near perfectly with its surroundings. Which was to Prudence’s detriment as Johnny had one attack her and bite RIGHT into her shoulder, oooh. Fortunately, by this point they’d already rolled for initiative, and Corazon was able to pass his Constitution save against the stench, recognize them for what they were (thanks to Johnny allowing him to roll a Perception check in lieu of his bonus action), then sneak attack the bastard so hard that he very dead. I mean, that happens when a pirate rams his rapier so hard into your body he pulls it out as a kebab containing all your major organs. Which he then gives to the newly-recovered dragonborn to roast and eat. XD
It was around this time that the other three troglodytes peeled themselves off the wall – and managed to COMPLETELY WHIFF all of their attacks, because they are terrible. XD Egbert just saved against their terrible smell, and gave one of them a bit of an internal roasting – though, because he rolled low on the damage, he only made it suffer terrible agony instead of killing it. Which might be a problem, because Merilwen just MISSED her saving throw, and now she’s been poisoned by the terrible smell. . .you guys had better kill these things pretty quick in the last half-hour you have!
2. Continue writing “As Long As You Love Me”: Check – Victor’s explanation of what happened between him, Emily, and Victoria took a bit of a detour today. First, with Alice asking him about his music leading to him to explain how he doesn’t usually like to share his piano-playing with others, which led into him talking about his rather lonely childhood and how he was either ignored or bullied by his peers; then second, with the arrival of the pancakes, om nom. Gotta make sure my OTP has full bellies for the ride ahead! XD But yeah, Alice is trying to steer things back on track now, so “Prom Bride” or whatever you want to call it should happen next time I write!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Two-thirds check, as James uploaded another long build video featuring one of his Moonwood Mill lots today, which naturally I didn’t have time to watch. I DID manage to fit in both of his videos from yesterday, though –
A) First up, the Build/Buy catalog for Werewolves! All the new wallpapers, roof textures, columns, fences, floorings, beds, rugs, mirrors, gym equipment – just everything he could show us, including all the debug and live-edit items he could find. There some strong “industrial” and “reclaimed items” themes – big rusty beams for ceilings and factory clutter mixed in with tables with a wobbly leg supported by a book and a desk created out of an old filing cabinet, a crate, and a door. James was clearly all-in on the aesthetic, and it was great to see him having such fun with the items! This is a pack where the Build/Buy was basically made for him and his beloved factory builds. XD And they do look cool – they’ve gone all-out with the detail, which I appreciate.
B) And second, his process for how he made the starter home lot in Moonwood Mill! Starting with his initial build in the creepy “we’re still planning this so the map is a void and the world is like half-complete” version of MM, which involved quite a lot of futzing with the layout (platforms versus foundation, where does the chimney go, do I want archways or doors here) and figuring out what items he wanted to use (because starter home = budget – also, you can’t have too many items in a house or apparently it affects performance. This also applies to shit like WALLPAPERS. I feel like this says something about The Sims 4’s game engine, but I’m not sure what yet). Apparently these homes have to be relatively generic too – like, they need to fit into the world they’re being plopped in, but the big pack-specific items you save for community lots and the homes of the local pre-made Sims. And there’s four rounds of lot review to make sure it’s what the Sims team wants. Biggest changes to the lot were made in the first round (basically making the place a little more generic, making the bathroom a little smaller so it doesn’t jut out, etc), but remaining rounds were just little tweaks, like putting the pack-specific mailbox outside and adding a little shelf to the kitchen. It came out looking quite nice, honestly! But then again, James always does great builds. (And I wish I could openly ask “Hey, did EA pay you for these?” because THEY FUCKING SHOULD HAVE.)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – fortunately, just one ask reply to handle over on Valice Multiverse, yay!
Not bad, not bad. . .though I suspect my Saturday is going to be mostly watching Sims 4: Werewolves videos and seeing if it's a pack I want to purchase, or if EA's fucked up again and I'm done buying anything from them. I mean, I'm gonna be in limbo when it comes to actually playing until I know the status of my mods, so. . . *shrug* As it stands, though, right now I gotta get to bed. One more workday to get through! Night all!
Work – Back to quiet days – had one credit card call that was resolved by rescheduling someone’s payment, then the rest of the time was obituaries and returned mail. *shrug* Not much going on as we wind our way to the official start of summer! Frankly, fine by me – I can deal with “bored” better than “stressed!”
Beanbags – Nice, comfortable, cool day, so yeah, it was out into the yard after work. I ALMOST had a good first game, but then I faltered at the very end, allowing Mom to get the win and leading me and Dad into a shootout where we were constantly tying each other for a few throws. XD And then Mom just annihilated me and Dad in the second game. Made up for it with the final game, though, where I finally got my groove back – final scores were me 3-3-W; Dad 2-2-3; Mom W-W-2. Not exactly egalitarian, but then again, Mom was on a losing streak for so long, it’s probably good that she gets to be champion a few times. :)
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike to take myself to the three-quarters mark in the Oxventure stream “Gnome Alone!” Having managed not to fall asleep on guard duty, things got interesting when Corazon heard some noises down his corridor. He promptly used Disguise Self to make himself look like a gnome and went to investigate, singing noisily about how he was a gnome all the way. XD Turns out, the noise was a party of twenty armed kobolds – who promptly accused Corazon of being a “Snaffler” and stealing away THEIR kin in the dead of the night! Corazon angrily denied being a Snaffler, and it came out that the kobolds had no idea that there was a whole community of gnomes also living in the caves. Corazon (claiming to be Gnomesman, the Gnome King, because of course he did) quickly sussed out that what was probably happening was some mysterious third party was preying on both groups, and managed to convince the kobolds to follow him back to the gym so they could talk to the gnomes. There was a bit of a kerfuffle when the kobolds arrived (not helped by the gnome elder not recognizing Corazon and then refusing to acknowledge his “king of the gnomes” nonsense), but the groups did agree to chat.
After a good hour-and-three-quarters of arguing and slinging around accusations, the gnomes and the kobolds finally accepted that the other group wasn’t to blame for what was happening, and they agreed that something that lived in the parts of the caves they hadn’t yet investigated was likely the culprit. Of course, since they hadn’t investigated those parts of the caves, they didn’t know what was in there. The Oxventurers plus Max (who had indeed come along with them, as had Shattershield – he was busy debating the gnomes and kobolds over gods and whatnot while he was laid up) quickly decided there was no use waiting around for any help from the cranky gnomes or kobolds and set out on their own to discover the source of the problem (Corazon making sure to tell Prudence to put some clothes on XD). They found the sign marking the border of the gnome’s investigation, and after a lot of debate about how they were going to track their progress so they didn’t get lost (eventually deciding to just rely on Max to remember the way back to Shattershield, as he’s good at finding paladins), Corazon cast Dancing Lights so he could actually see what he was doing, wowing a young gnome called Shed who’d followed them out of curiosity. Merilwen promptly made a pun about him needing to “gnome home” (or along those lines, I can’t remember the exact phrasing off the top of my head) –
Johnny straight up killed Shed because it was the five millionth gnome pun of the evening and they were TIRED. Merilwen was appropriately horrified. XD The gang quickly headed out into the cave system and found themselves in a nice big chamber, where Corazon, still in his gnome disguise, started singing a song about how defenseless a gnome he was. Which went on for a while. XD Johnny had him make an Intelligence saving throw for apparently no reason, which Corazon failed HARD – nat one! So he ended up just straight up FROZEN for a good few seconds as something shadowy peeled itself off the wall and into a side tunnel. He managed to come back to himself and sort of explain what he saw (complaining his nut had been trashed all the while), and the gang went after it –
Turned out it was a troglodyte, a creature in DnD which is a terrible humanoid lizard thing with a giant mouth, sharp sharp teeth, and a stench that can literally poison people. Oh, and it has natural camouflage like a chameleon, meaning it can blend in damn near perfectly with its surroundings. Which was to Prudence’s detriment as Johnny had one attack her and bite RIGHT into her shoulder, oooh. Fortunately, by this point they’d already rolled for initiative, and Corazon was able to pass his Constitution save against the stench, recognize them for what they were (thanks to Johnny allowing him to roll a Perception check in lieu of his bonus action), then sneak attack the bastard so hard that he very dead. I mean, that happens when a pirate rams his rapier so hard into your body he pulls it out as a kebab containing all your major organs. Which he then gives to the newly-recovered dragonborn to roast and eat. XD
It was around this time that the other three troglodytes peeled themselves off the wall – and managed to COMPLETELY WHIFF all of their attacks, because they are terrible. XD Egbert just saved against their terrible smell, and gave one of them a bit of an internal roasting – though, because he rolled low on the damage, he only made it suffer terrible agony instead of killing it. Which might be a problem, because Merilwen just MISSED her saving throw, and now she’s been poisoned by the terrible smell. . .you guys had better kill these things pretty quick in the last half-hour you have!
2. Continue writing “As Long As You Love Me”: Check – Victor’s explanation of what happened between him, Emily, and Victoria took a bit of a detour today. First, with Alice asking him about his music leading to him to explain how he doesn’t usually like to share his piano-playing with others, which led into him talking about his rather lonely childhood and how he was either ignored or bullied by his peers; then second, with the arrival of the pancakes, om nom. Gotta make sure my OTP has full bellies for the ride ahead! XD But yeah, Alice is trying to steer things back on track now, so “Prom Bride” or whatever you want to call it should happen next time I write!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Two-thirds check, as James uploaded another long build video featuring one of his Moonwood Mill lots today, which naturally I didn’t have time to watch. I DID manage to fit in both of his videos from yesterday, though –
A) First up, the Build/Buy catalog for Werewolves! All the new wallpapers, roof textures, columns, fences, floorings, beds, rugs, mirrors, gym equipment – just everything he could show us, including all the debug and live-edit items he could find. There some strong “industrial” and “reclaimed items” themes – big rusty beams for ceilings and factory clutter mixed in with tables with a wobbly leg supported by a book and a desk created out of an old filing cabinet, a crate, and a door. James was clearly all-in on the aesthetic, and it was great to see him having such fun with the items! This is a pack where the Build/Buy was basically made for him and his beloved factory builds. XD And they do look cool – they’ve gone all-out with the detail, which I appreciate.
B) And second, his process for how he made the starter home lot in Moonwood Mill! Starting with his initial build in the creepy “we’re still planning this so the map is a void and the world is like half-complete” version of MM, which involved quite a lot of futzing with the layout (platforms versus foundation, where does the chimney go, do I want archways or doors here) and figuring out what items he wanted to use (because starter home = budget – also, you can’t have too many items in a house or apparently it affects performance. This also applies to shit like WALLPAPERS. I feel like this says something about The Sims 4’s game engine, but I’m not sure what yet). Apparently these homes have to be relatively generic too – like, they need to fit into the world they’re being plopped in, but the big pack-specific items you save for community lots and the homes of the local pre-made Sims. And there’s four rounds of lot review to make sure it’s what the Sims team wants. Biggest changes to the lot were made in the first round (basically making the place a little more generic, making the bathroom a little smaller so it doesn’t jut out, etc), but remaining rounds were just little tweaks, like putting the pack-specific mailbox outside and adding a little shelf to the kitchen. It came out looking quite nice, honestly! But then again, James always does great builds. (And I wish I could openly ask “Hey, did EA pay you for these?” because THEY FUCKING SHOULD HAVE.)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – fortunately, just one ask reply to handle over on Valice Multiverse, yay!
Not bad, not bad. . .though I suspect my Saturday is going to be mostly watching Sims 4: Werewolves videos and seeing if it's a pack I want to purchase, or if EA's fucked up again and I'm done buying anything from them. I mean, I'm gonna be in limbo when it comes to actually playing until I know the status of my mods, so. . . *shrug* As it stands, though, right now I gotta get to bed. One more workday to get through! Night all!
