Simmfully Productive Saturday
Sep. 24th, 2022 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickIn that I feel I may have been most productive in my Sims game. XD I mean, I did get other stuff done, like my writing and clearing some videos I wanted to watch, but I really got busy in that today. Allow me to show you via the mechanism of the to-do list:
1. Continue writing "As Long As You Love Me": Check – still in the “Are You Ready For It” snippet, with Victor having done his best to explain Alice’s “the universe protects me and makes it so I’m always encountering evil people who need to die for their crimes” deal to Victoria and Emily. They’re semi-convinced about the reality of it now (especially after Victor telling them about Tannen and how Alice killed Icarus’s biker gang), but pointing out that he doesn’t necessarily need to go back to her, he can just leave Hill Valley if he wants to avoid the life his parents have planned out for him. . .but Victor knows that he’s being called by the universe. And he’s finally broken out the big guns of telling them about the good times, about how close he feels to her already. If trying to tell them that it’s the will of the universe doesn’t work. . .maybe admitting, if not in so many words, that he loves her will do the trick.
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs and continue clearing out the Watch Later: Two-thirds check – I got what I wanted to watch out of the WL, but given it was two videos over an hour BEFORE I started doing my write-ups, I ran out of time to get through both my Subs videos. Tomorrow, Call Me Kevin! But for now –
A) First up this evening, straight from the Watch Later where it has been sitting patiently since the tenth, was the latest “3 Ways To Play” from OXBox, featuring the new “Shadows In The Water” pirate island mission that Jane and Andy played on stream a little while ago! You know, the one where they killed both targets (the militia leader and the pirate queen) in one go with a cannon, overloaded the satellite control unit cube the rogue militia were poking at (a Providence asset that was distracting them from throwing their annual plot-important gala), and found the grave of LeChuck? XD Time to see some of the OTHER ways this mission can be completed, this time with the help of Mike and his ultimate chaos. XD This was an epic in two parts:
I. “Hitman 3 Pirate Island: 3 Ways to Play | POISON! BOAT ACCIDENT! BETRAYAL? (Part 1 of 2)” – the gang goes after Noel Crest, the militia leader and first of their two targets! Andy, naturally, arrived in his beloved “classic pirate” get-up, and was very sad when it didn’t allow him access to the pirate compound, forcing him to knock out a guy and change into a much more “Hulk Hogan” style-get up. He played it in his usual methodical manner, sneaking around all the bases to collect as much intel as possible and avoiding notice. And using his delicious fish to distract people so he could knock them out and either steal their clothes or hide them in a box. XD He not only discovered Noel’s second-in-command, Owen, and was able to knock him out and steal one of the keycards necessary to get into the actual control cube (get them both and it’s essentially considered deactivated), he also found one of Akka’s, the pirate queen’s, allies dead in one of the militia's holding cells! Apparently the guy died of a heart attack instead of being murdered, but it was still very incriminating. Andy took a photo when prompted by the game, snuck back into the pirate compound, and put it on Akka’s desk, where she found it later and was enraged. She called a meeting with Crest, went through some pleasantries, took him to a high tower so he could look out over the ocean – and then PUSHED HIM OVER THE EDGE OF THE RUIN, killing him for Andy! Nice. Andy wasn’t impressed with how long it took, but still, nice.
Jane, meanwhile, arrived in the classic black suit and went for a different tactic – poison! Namely, she discovered the opportunity to poison Noel by taking advantage of the fact that he is a picky eater and will only accept dishes served by this one particular chef, and that chef has a bit of an oversleeping problem thanks to her sister messing with her alarm. It did take quite a while, but that’s only because it took Jane a while to find the right hut that the chef, Sri, was sleeping in – she actually found the kitchen first, knocked out the chef in there and hid him in the freezer, and pre-prepared and pre-poisoned the meal while searching her out. Also stopped by the karaoke bar and distracted everyone so she could steal the master key without any trouble and use it to unlock all the doors giving her trouble. She eventually found the woman in a hut actually RIGHT NEXT TO the damn kitchen (figures), turned her alarm back on, woke her up, and then tailed Noel until he finally decided to go and see if he could get any food. He happily sat down once he heard Sri was back in the kitchen, and Jane just quietly watched on as Sri put a few finishing touches on the meal (apparently the reason he likes her so much is that she’s the only one to go easy on the cumin), served it to him, and then he pretty much immediately died from the lethal poison. Nice.
And Mike? Mike arrived in the clown suit, wandered around the main village (after being asked to make a random fisherman a balloon animal), picked up a fish for later, found the slap-fight area and promptly joined in on that, got the private meeting with Noel and realized too late that you can set him on fire, but you have to puncture the oil barrel he’s smoking next to BEFORE the meeting (much like Jon of Many a True Nerd, only he didn’t reload to try it), wandered around some more familiarizing himself with the area, came across the secret cave entrance into the militia base, took out the two guards over there (one quietly, one – less quietly; and as he left them alive, once they were found he gained “Hunted” status with the militia), found the control cube, BLEW UP THE CONTROL CUBE WITH THE PALE DUCK HE’D BROUGHT ALONG, then went back to wandering around, found a pair of shears and a good opportunity to lob them into Noel’s head – except that a guy was watching him, and even Mike knew that was a bad idea, found his way down to the beach, discovered that a hanging rowboat was highlighted and realized there might be a way to shoot it down, found a good spot under a hut in the water, waited for Noel to come by, and shot the boat down perfectly on his head. Also he picked up an entire tool kit on his travels and kept making jokes about this being Fyre Festival. XD Fantastic. :D
II. “Hitman 3 Pirate Island: 3 Ways to Play | MORE POISON! ELECTRIC MAYHEM! HOOK HORROR? (Part 2 of 2)” – the gang goes after Akka, the pirate queen and second of their two targets! And Andy and Jane had to catch up to Mike in destroying the control cube. Again, they all had their distinctive styles – Andy, having already seen that Akka has a drinks cabinet in her office that she regularly drinks from, and finding himself a nice big fishing hook, decided that he was going to poison her drink with emetic poison and then kill her with the hook because it felt like the most piratey thing to do. XD He backtracked to her office (taking a moment to stop at the security office and erase all recordings as he’d gotten tagged by a camera re-entering the compound), managed to sneak in and poison her glass, then went onto the ledge to wait for her arrival. . .and ended up having to wait through TWO NPC routine cycles, as it turns out that when she comes into her office, there’s only a 50% chance she’ll go for the booze – the first time she arrived, she actually just sat right down and started conducting business with her underlings. Andy was patient though, taking his time and taking a few pictures for Diana, and eventually she came back around and finally took a drink. She stumbled off to vomit in the bushes, with Andy on her heels – there was a SLIGHT complication in that she attracted the attention of a passing guard, but Andy just knocked him out, slit her throat dramatically with the hook, and left her in the foliage. He grabbed her keycard, rendering the control cube safe, then backtracked all the way to the hut where he’d left his GOOD pirate costume, and left the level using the cool submarine he’d grabbed the key for while in the hideout. Five stars, silent assassin. *nods approvingly*
Jane, meanwhile, had liked her poisoning so much that she decided to do it twice! After infiltrating the pirate compound by dumping one guard in the ocean (nature’s hiding place) and knocking out another, stealing his outfit, and putting him in a box, she found the biochemist studying the frogs and flowers on the island and agreed to catch some frogs for him. This involved going across the rope bridge to the militia’s side of the island – fortunately, all she had to do there was knock out a guard on said bridge, steal his outfit, and dump him into Nature’s Hiding Place before crossing over. XD She snatched up two frogs, went back into pirate mode, and gave one to the biochemist who gave her – an EMETIC gas grenade made from frog farts. As the frogs themselves are a LETHAL source of poison, Jane was unimpressed. She kept her spare frog and headed back into the compound, finding her way into Akka’s office and coming across the drink that Andy had already discovered. She squeezed the frog into that, then just waited around until Akka took a sip and promptly expired. :D With that taken care of, all that was left was the control cube – Jane swapped back into her militia disguise, wandered around the base until she found the ladder leading to the secret underground high-tech spot, then managed to sneak up to the cube itself, disable its safety measures, and overload it, turning it into so much junk. She ran for the rope bridge, went back to pirate to pass through there safely, and also exited the mission via the submarine once she was back on the beach. Hilariously, she took longer than “I have to wait around for ages here” Andy, and only got two stars and the title “Trapsmith” thanks to throwing a few people into Nature’s Hiding Place to drown. Ah well.
And Mike? Mike started off his section by throwing his fish into the face of one of the participants of the slap fight just as he was going to get slapped. XD One reload to avoid death by angry pirates later, he once again wandered around until he could find a way into the pirate base (totally missing the parkour section Jane had used to climb into the watch tower, but making good use of the lethal starfish he’d picked up there), then started investigating and found his way into the hostage hut! Where he met Agent Smith, who asked for a hand in escaping the place. Mike was willing, but unsure how this would benefit him. . .until he realized the cage was an electricity trap. He was more than willing to poke around then. XD There was a brief sticky situation as he tried to knock out some of the guards around the place, but kept attracting new ones to wake them up and making the area even more hostile, but he managed to ride that out without being rumbled by hiding himself and one of the knocked-out guys in some tall grass. :p Some poking around later, he managed to knock out the guys in the security room and erase the recordings, then found his way into Akka’s office – killing and knocking out the guards outside – where he finally located the cage key. He headed back to the hostage hut, released Agent Smith and his fellow hostage, got the guard outside knocked out AGAIN, then created the water leak just as Akka came around. She went in and threw a shitfit about her missing hostages while Mike watched from the shadows – and the minute she entered the cage, he hopped in, hit the car battery, and watched with glee as her skeleton lit up. XD He swiped what he could from her corpse, took a moment to shoot the guard watching over the other hostage (who, thanks to having a bag on his head, had been captured again rather quickly), and then exited the base without issue and just went back to his boat to exit the mission. Fulfilled a lot of challenges, but also killed a lot of non-targets, so the game only gave him one star and the “Trapsmith” title, which annoyed him. XD I do so love him and his chaos. Favorite part of these “Three Ways To Play” videos!
B) And then it was over to the Subs for GrayStillPlays and “When you evolve cats 1000 times in GTA 5” – Alex made another “playing as animals” board for him to try out! It wasn’t just cats, either – first board saw Gray playing as the world’s derpiest falcon trying to make it through a Flappy Bird-style course with gaps both high and low – and occasionally blocked by pallets or guys with flamethrowers he had to grenade in the third-most cursed manner possible. XD And windmills, because you always have to have the windmills. After that was a GTA V-specific Spleens doing a rather difficult tightrope around some of the houses by the beach – avoiding a fire-spewing barbecue, trying not to fall into pools, avoiding a trio of idiot women throwing bricks to “help the cat stuck on the fence,” and VERY CAREFULLY taking a railing to avoid falling onto the balcony and getting eaten by the eager rottweiler following Spleens every move (though fortunately he could be distracted briefly by mauling a smoker blocking Spleens’ way). And after THAT, the board took a turn for the environmental, with Gray turning into a tightrope-running panther who had to maul a bunch of loggers on platforms above the ocean to get the grenades they needed to break the wall in front of the first checkpoint (and turn into the most cursed twisted-up shambles of an animal to throw a grenade ever), then run up a slope while desperately avoiding all the trucks and jet-skis being churned out by the windmill blender over to the SECOND checkpoint. The “fighting back against deforestation” theme continued with the next board – made by Alex’s friend Petey – in which Gray was a chimp who had to drive motorcycles across platforms and do awesome jumps while also 360 noscoping bulldozers and logging equipment hanging from helicopters with grenades. As you might imagine, this took some doing – though fortunately every time he managed to blow something up, it stayed blown up so he could continue on to the next level of hell. XD And the final board featured the return of our beloved Meaty Bits the deer, currently spewing fire thanks to some bad vodka. Gray, in the form of a a female deer, had to ride Meaty around a final arena full of loggers to again find the guy with the grenades to blow up the wall leading out (in the process becoming the second-most cursed twisted-up shambles of an animal to throw a grenade – or ride a deer – ever). And with one final boot of a man off the ramp to freedom, Gray and the flamethrower Meaty finished the course! Excellent Gray pain with a good message to boot. :p
3. Play Sims 4 and do some building (either updating the Chill Save Houseor another project): Check, with me dropping back into the Chill Save to update the Valicer farmhouse! Though I had a brief false start because first I had to get everyone OUT of the house so I could fuss around with it to my heart’s content. The first time I loaded up the game, I had Smiler bat-teleport down to in front of the chicken coop, and had Victor jog out to meet them there while I waited for Alice to finish her beef wellington already. . .but just as she finally consented to take the last bites, I came back to Victor and Smiler to see Smiler insulting Victor again. *huffs* I promptly exited without saving, frustrated, then resolved to try again, THIS time sending Victor and Smiler to different spots and having Smiler do some push-ups while I again waited for Alice to finish her supper so I could send her outside. This worked out much better, with Victor and Smiler instead sharing a quick kiss before Smiler did their push-ups, aw. :)
Anyway – got the Sims out of the house, had Alice turn on all the lights so I could see properly, then got to work! The main changes I made to the house consist of the following:
A) Kitchen – I moved all the mounted fish to one of the side walls so I could put proper cabinets above the counters and a range hood over the stove; changed the color scheme of the cabinets and counters to a darker wood; changed the color scheme of the curtains from orange to a more matchy cream and brown; traded out the old dining table and chairs for a new bigger round table and more comfy chairs; put the VIP bucket (I believe from Alice and Victor’s first gold date) on its own little side table in the corner.
B) Main Entrance & Back Entrance – moved the archway leading into the main living room over a few squares so I could add in a shoe rack and a wall-mounted coat rack (not that you can see the latter with walls cutaway, but. . .) and moved the umbrella stand slightly in the main entrance. Back entrance got a “wipe your feet” rug, a free-standing coat rack, and three pairs of wellies from one of my custom content stuff packs. Plus I moved one of Alice’s paintings in there for a little color.
C) Living Room – replaced the two-seater couch with a three-seater one from the Paranormal Stuff pack, changed the color scheme on the “Mega Living” chair from blue to yellow to match the chair Smiler picked up at the flea market.
D) Study – moved the insect collection that basically took up the entire left wall (facing the house from the front) into the barn, on the mezzanine level upstairs to free up some space. Hope to do something else with that level soon!
E) Upstairs Bathrooms – changed what was previously Victor and Alice’s en-suite to a “public” bathroom as it was a pain in the butt for them to have to walk through their bedroom to get to the shower. Reoriented both bathrooms so that the toilets are back-to-back on the shared wall, and the shower and the tub are both “vertical” against the back wall (that is, the shower is facing the door when you come in, instead of being next to it, and the bath is up against the right wall). Shrunk all the bathroom shades, including the downstairs one, after realizing I could shrink them one more than I already had and have them fit on the bathroom windows PERFECTLY (which contributed to reorienting the shower, as now I didn’t have to worry about it clipping into the shade!). Added some bath essentials clutter and a bathrobe to “Smiler’s” bathroom (the yellow/black/purple one); used moveobjects to get the bath clutter into the shower in “Victor and Alice’s” (blue/white) because it looks better that way.
F) Karaoke Room – made the entire room bigger so it could fit more stuff, as that was the main problem I had with it – the fact that it was just big enough for Smiler’s karaoke machine and nothing else. It has now become “the party room” – I sold off Smiler’s old bar that was on the porch and replaced it with a new glowy bar in that room; added a card game table with fun colorful chairs; some ottomans under the windows for Sims to sit down on; and put up some fun pictures and posters (including moving Alice’s latest cool playful painting in there). I WAS going to put in a bubble blower, but it was JUUST too big. I am NOT discounting getting one later, though!
G) Victor and Alice’s Bedroom – Now that the door to the bathroom was out in the main hallway, I was able to move their desk into a somewhat better position in the corner. Also got a painting tarp rug for Alice’s art corner, and swapped the Silver Love Day Date rose with the little dragon statue Victor had made (from their dresser to the side table outside, which already had flowers on it, so it felt more natural). There’s sort of an invisible wall of sorts now diving the room into “bedroom section” and “study section” – I dunno if I’ll put a real wall up, but maybe I’ll throw up a divider at some point.
H) Outdoors – put little woven rugs in front of both the front and back doors for feet-wiping. Replaced Smiler’s bar area with a little sitting area – two long couches and a freestanding trellis plant thing. Turned the dirt front path into one with actual stone flooring (though it took me a while to find one I liked) and put the two little wedding present flower columns at the front to sort of mark the boundary. Changed the wind farm from a straight line into a sort of pyramid shape behind the barn and put the water collectors around it so all the eco stuff was in one place. Bought a large animal shed so the gang can eventually get a cow (as no one is doing knitting or cross stitch in this family, I don’t see the point of a llama). Future plans include further expanding the greenhouse and fencing in both the cow shed and chicken coop properly.
I) Miscellaneous – updated a few curtain colors and used moveobjects on to put curtains on windows that wouldn’t otherwise take them (also discovered I had to move one window over slightly when I realized it was way too close to the arch into the downstairs main hall); put a nice rug under the séance table. I also TRIED to repaint the house a nicer color, but the game wouldn’t let me, saying in one of the rooms there was an object affected that couldn’t be moved to the household inventory. *grumbles* Well, the INSIDE is nice, that’s what counts.
Yeah, quite the busy day for remodeling! And I wouldn’t even consider myself fully done yet. . .but I had to stop there, lest I get too involved and just keep looking at cool rugs forever. XD Maybe next time I can do a little more, as well as actually play the family!
4. Work on tumblr drafts: Check – forwent the usual dash-and-tags catch-up on Victor Luvs Alice to get right into it today (mostly because there wasn’t much to catch up on, and I got to tumblr a bit later than normal thanks to having to change my sheets and other distractions), and got all the posts for the upcoming Love Day Chill Save update done (three before lunch, one after). Not bad at all!
Additionally:
-->We did get to go out to play beanbags this afternoon, as it was a bit warmer and less windy than yesterday. Ended up being a game of me and Dad trading wins while Mom tried to get her scores above 18 and failed. Final scores were me 2-W-2-W-2; Dad W-2-W-2-W; Mom 3-3-3-3-3. Ah well – maybe tomorrow, Mom!
Not too shabby, but yeah -- I could have spent a LOT more time just glamming up that farmhouse. :p I like building in Sims -- especially when it's directly benefiting my polycule. :) Ugh, if only I had more time to just indulge in my Sims playing. . .
But no -- tomorrow is Sunday, and I must prepare for the workweek ahead. And also make sure to get in my weekly dose of Fallout as well --
1. Keep up with the FO4 Playthrough Progression
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, Jon's F:BOS playthrough, and more AT4W if possible
3. Play Fallout 4 and finish Pickman's Gallery
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
We'll see how it all goes! I tend to get a bit lost in FO4 too when I play. . .but hopefully I can keep it to just murdering Pickman already tomorrow. XD And seeing Jon's adventures as Cain in the ghoul city. :D Night all!
1. Continue writing "As Long As You Love Me": Check – still in the “Are You Ready For It” snippet, with Victor having done his best to explain Alice’s “the universe protects me and makes it so I’m always encountering evil people who need to die for their crimes” deal to Victoria and Emily. They’re semi-convinced about the reality of it now (especially after Victor telling them about Tannen and how Alice killed Icarus’s biker gang), but pointing out that he doesn’t necessarily need to go back to her, he can just leave Hill Valley if he wants to avoid the life his parents have planned out for him. . .but Victor knows that he’s being called by the universe. And he’s finally broken out the big guns of telling them about the good times, about how close he feels to her already. If trying to tell them that it’s the will of the universe doesn’t work. . .maybe admitting, if not in so many words, that he loves her will do the trick.
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs and continue clearing out the Watch Later: Two-thirds check – I got what I wanted to watch out of the WL, but given it was two videos over an hour BEFORE I started doing my write-ups, I ran out of time to get through both my Subs videos. Tomorrow, Call Me Kevin! But for now –
A) First up this evening, straight from the Watch Later where it has been sitting patiently since the tenth, was the latest “3 Ways To Play” from OXBox, featuring the new “Shadows In The Water” pirate island mission that Jane and Andy played on stream a little while ago! You know, the one where they killed both targets (the militia leader and the pirate queen) in one go with a cannon, overloaded the satellite control unit cube the rogue militia were poking at (a Providence asset that was distracting them from throwing their annual plot-important gala), and found the grave of LeChuck? XD Time to see some of the OTHER ways this mission can be completed, this time with the help of Mike and his ultimate chaos. XD This was an epic in two parts:
I. “Hitman 3 Pirate Island: 3 Ways to Play | POISON! BOAT ACCIDENT! BETRAYAL? (Part 1 of 2)” – the gang goes after Noel Crest, the militia leader and first of their two targets! Andy, naturally, arrived in his beloved “classic pirate” get-up, and was very sad when it didn’t allow him access to the pirate compound, forcing him to knock out a guy and change into a much more “Hulk Hogan” style-get up. He played it in his usual methodical manner, sneaking around all the bases to collect as much intel as possible and avoiding notice. And using his delicious fish to distract people so he could knock them out and either steal their clothes or hide them in a box. XD He not only discovered Noel’s second-in-command, Owen, and was able to knock him out and steal one of the keycards necessary to get into the actual control cube (get them both and it’s essentially considered deactivated), he also found one of Akka’s, the pirate queen’s, allies dead in one of the militia's holding cells! Apparently the guy died of a heart attack instead of being murdered, but it was still very incriminating. Andy took a photo when prompted by the game, snuck back into the pirate compound, and put it on Akka’s desk, where she found it later and was enraged. She called a meeting with Crest, went through some pleasantries, took him to a high tower so he could look out over the ocean – and then PUSHED HIM OVER THE EDGE OF THE RUIN, killing him for Andy! Nice. Andy wasn’t impressed with how long it took, but still, nice.
Jane, meanwhile, arrived in the classic black suit and went for a different tactic – poison! Namely, she discovered the opportunity to poison Noel by taking advantage of the fact that he is a picky eater and will only accept dishes served by this one particular chef, and that chef has a bit of an oversleeping problem thanks to her sister messing with her alarm. It did take quite a while, but that’s only because it took Jane a while to find the right hut that the chef, Sri, was sleeping in – she actually found the kitchen first, knocked out the chef in there and hid him in the freezer, and pre-prepared and pre-poisoned the meal while searching her out. Also stopped by the karaoke bar and distracted everyone so she could steal the master key without any trouble and use it to unlock all the doors giving her trouble. She eventually found the woman in a hut actually RIGHT NEXT TO the damn kitchen (figures), turned her alarm back on, woke her up, and then tailed Noel until he finally decided to go and see if he could get any food. He happily sat down once he heard Sri was back in the kitchen, and Jane just quietly watched on as Sri put a few finishing touches on the meal (apparently the reason he likes her so much is that she’s the only one to go easy on the cumin), served it to him, and then he pretty much immediately died from the lethal poison. Nice.
And Mike? Mike arrived in the clown suit, wandered around the main village (after being asked to make a random fisherman a balloon animal), picked up a fish for later, found the slap-fight area and promptly joined in on that, got the private meeting with Noel and realized too late that you can set him on fire, but you have to puncture the oil barrel he’s smoking next to BEFORE the meeting (much like Jon of Many a True Nerd, only he didn’t reload to try it), wandered around some more familiarizing himself with the area, came across the secret cave entrance into the militia base, took out the two guards over there (one quietly, one – less quietly; and as he left them alive, once they were found he gained “Hunted” status with the militia), found the control cube, BLEW UP THE CONTROL CUBE WITH THE PALE DUCK HE’D BROUGHT ALONG, then went back to wandering around, found a pair of shears and a good opportunity to lob them into Noel’s head – except that a guy was watching him, and even Mike knew that was a bad idea, found his way down to the beach, discovered that a hanging rowboat was highlighted and realized there might be a way to shoot it down, found a good spot under a hut in the water, waited for Noel to come by, and shot the boat down perfectly on his head. Also he picked up an entire tool kit on his travels and kept making jokes about this being Fyre Festival. XD Fantastic. :D
II. “Hitman 3 Pirate Island: 3 Ways to Play | MORE POISON! ELECTRIC MAYHEM! HOOK HORROR? (Part 2 of 2)” – the gang goes after Akka, the pirate queen and second of their two targets! And Andy and Jane had to catch up to Mike in destroying the control cube. Again, they all had their distinctive styles – Andy, having already seen that Akka has a drinks cabinet in her office that she regularly drinks from, and finding himself a nice big fishing hook, decided that he was going to poison her drink with emetic poison and then kill her with the hook because it felt like the most piratey thing to do. XD He backtracked to her office (taking a moment to stop at the security office and erase all recordings as he’d gotten tagged by a camera re-entering the compound), managed to sneak in and poison her glass, then went onto the ledge to wait for her arrival. . .and ended up having to wait through TWO NPC routine cycles, as it turns out that when she comes into her office, there’s only a 50% chance she’ll go for the booze – the first time she arrived, she actually just sat right down and started conducting business with her underlings. Andy was patient though, taking his time and taking a few pictures for Diana, and eventually she came back around and finally took a drink. She stumbled off to vomit in the bushes, with Andy on her heels – there was a SLIGHT complication in that she attracted the attention of a passing guard, but Andy just knocked him out, slit her throat dramatically with the hook, and left her in the foliage. He grabbed her keycard, rendering the control cube safe, then backtracked all the way to the hut where he’d left his GOOD pirate costume, and left the level using the cool submarine he’d grabbed the key for while in the hideout. Five stars, silent assassin. *nods approvingly*
Jane, meanwhile, had liked her poisoning so much that she decided to do it twice! After infiltrating the pirate compound by dumping one guard in the ocean (nature’s hiding place) and knocking out another, stealing his outfit, and putting him in a box, she found the biochemist studying the frogs and flowers on the island and agreed to catch some frogs for him. This involved going across the rope bridge to the militia’s side of the island – fortunately, all she had to do there was knock out a guard on said bridge, steal his outfit, and dump him into Nature’s Hiding Place before crossing over. XD She snatched up two frogs, went back into pirate mode, and gave one to the biochemist who gave her – an EMETIC gas grenade made from frog farts. As the frogs themselves are a LETHAL source of poison, Jane was unimpressed. She kept her spare frog and headed back into the compound, finding her way into Akka’s office and coming across the drink that Andy had already discovered. She squeezed the frog into that, then just waited around until Akka took a sip and promptly expired. :D With that taken care of, all that was left was the control cube – Jane swapped back into her militia disguise, wandered around the base until she found the ladder leading to the secret underground high-tech spot, then managed to sneak up to the cube itself, disable its safety measures, and overload it, turning it into so much junk. She ran for the rope bridge, went back to pirate to pass through there safely, and also exited the mission via the submarine once she was back on the beach. Hilariously, she took longer than “I have to wait around for ages here” Andy, and only got two stars and the title “Trapsmith” thanks to throwing a few people into Nature’s Hiding Place to drown. Ah well.
And Mike? Mike started off his section by throwing his fish into the face of one of the participants of the slap fight just as he was going to get slapped. XD One reload to avoid death by angry pirates later, he once again wandered around until he could find a way into the pirate base (totally missing the parkour section Jane had used to climb into the watch tower, but making good use of the lethal starfish he’d picked up there), then started investigating and found his way into the hostage hut! Where he met Agent Smith, who asked for a hand in escaping the place. Mike was willing, but unsure how this would benefit him. . .until he realized the cage was an electricity trap. He was more than willing to poke around then. XD There was a brief sticky situation as he tried to knock out some of the guards around the place, but kept attracting new ones to wake them up and making the area even more hostile, but he managed to ride that out without being rumbled by hiding himself and one of the knocked-out guys in some tall grass. :p Some poking around later, he managed to knock out the guys in the security room and erase the recordings, then found his way into Akka’s office – killing and knocking out the guards outside – where he finally located the cage key. He headed back to the hostage hut, released Agent Smith and his fellow hostage, got the guard outside knocked out AGAIN, then created the water leak just as Akka came around. She went in and threw a shitfit about her missing hostages while Mike watched from the shadows – and the minute she entered the cage, he hopped in, hit the car battery, and watched with glee as her skeleton lit up. XD He swiped what he could from her corpse, took a moment to shoot the guard watching over the other hostage (who, thanks to having a bag on his head, had been captured again rather quickly), and then exited the base without issue and just went back to his boat to exit the mission. Fulfilled a lot of challenges, but also killed a lot of non-targets, so the game only gave him one star and the “Trapsmith” title, which annoyed him. XD I do so love him and his chaos. Favorite part of these “Three Ways To Play” videos!
B) And then it was over to the Subs for GrayStillPlays and “When you evolve cats 1000 times in GTA 5” – Alex made another “playing as animals” board for him to try out! It wasn’t just cats, either – first board saw Gray playing as the world’s derpiest falcon trying to make it through a Flappy Bird-style course with gaps both high and low – and occasionally blocked by pallets or guys with flamethrowers he had to grenade in the third-most cursed manner possible. XD And windmills, because you always have to have the windmills. After that was a GTA V-specific Spleens doing a rather difficult tightrope around some of the houses by the beach – avoiding a fire-spewing barbecue, trying not to fall into pools, avoiding a trio of idiot women throwing bricks to “help the cat stuck on the fence,” and VERY CAREFULLY taking a railing to avoid falling onto the balcony and getting eaten by the eager rottweiler following Spleens every move (though fortunately he could be distracted briefly by mauling a smoker blocking Spleens’ way). And after THAT, the board took a turn for the environmental, with Gray turning into a tightrope-running panther who had to maul a bunch of loggers on platforms above the ocean to get the grenades they needed to break the wall in front of the first checkpoint (and turn into the most cursed twisted-up shambles of an animal to throw a grenade ever), then run up a slope while desperately avoiding all the trucks and jet-skis being churned out by the windmill blender over to the SECOND checkpoint. The “fighting back against deforestation” theme continued with the next board – made by Alex’s friend Petey – in which Gray was a chimp who had to drive motorcycles across platforms and do awesome jumps while also 360 noscoping bulldozers and logging equipment hanging from helicopters with grenades. As you might imagine, this took some doing – though fortunately every time he managed to blow something up, it stayed blown up so he could continue on to the next level of hell. XD And the final board featured the return of our beloved Meaty Bits the deer, currently spewing fire thanks to some bad vodka. Gray, in the form of a a female deer, had to ride Meaty around a final arena full of loggers to again find the guy with the grenades to blow up the wall leading out (in the process becoming the second-most cursed twisted-up shambles of an animal to throw a grenade – or ride a deer – ever). And with one final boot of a man off the ramp to freedom, Gray and the flamethrower Meaty finished the course! Excellent Gray pain with a good message to boot. :p
3. Play Sims 4 and do some building (either updating the Chill Save House
Anyway – got the Sims out of the house, had Alice turn on all the lights so I could see properly, then got to work! The main changes I made to the house consist of the following:
A) Kitchen – I moved all the mounted fish to one of the side walls so I could put proper cabinets above the counters and a range hood over the stove; changed the color scheme of the cabinets and counters to a darker wood; changed the color scheme of the curtains from orange to a more matchy cream and brown; traded out the old dining table and chairs for a new bigger round table and more comfy chairs; put the VIP bucket (I believe from Alice and Victor’s first gold date) on its own little side table in the corner.
B) Main Entrance & Back Entrance – moved the archway leading into the main living room over a few squares so I could add in a shoe rack and a wall-mounted coat rack (not that you can see the latter with walls cutaway, but. . .) and moved the umbrella stand slightly in the main entrance. Back entrance got a “wipe your feet” rug, a free-standing coat rack, and three pairs of wellies from one of my custom content stuff packs. Plus I moved one of Alice’s paintings in there for a little color.
C) Living Room – replaced the two-seater couch with a three-seater one from the Paranormal Stuff pack, changed the color scheme on the “Mega Living” chair from blue to yellow to match the chair Smiler picked up at the flea market.
D) Study – moved the insect collection that basically took up the entire left wall (facing the house from the front) into the barn, on the mezzanine level upstairs to free up some space. Hope to do something else with that level soon!
E) Upstairs Bathrooms – changed what was previously Victor and Alice’s en-suite to a “public” bathroom as it was a pain in the butt for them to have to walk through their bedroom to get to the shower. Reoriented both bathrooms so that the toilets are back-to-back on the shared wall, and the shower and the tub are both “vertical” against the back wall (that is, the shower is facing the door when you come in, instead of being next to it, and the bath is up against the right wall). Shrunk all the bathroom shades, including the downstairs one, after realizing I could shrink them one more than I already had and have them fit on the bathroom windows PERFECTLY (which contributed to reorienting the shower, as now I didn’t have to worry about it clipping into the shade!). Added some bath essentials clutter and a bathrobe to “Smiler’s” bathroom (the yellow/black/purple one); used moveobjects to get the bath clutter into the shower in “Victor and Alice’s” (blue/white) because it looks better that way.
F) Karaoke Room – made the entire room bigger so it could fit more stuff, as that was the main problem I had with it – the fact that it was just big enough for Smiler’s karaoke machine and nothing else. It has now become “the party room” – I sold off Smiler’s old bar that was on the porch and replaced it with a new glowy bar in that room; added a card game table with fun colorful chairs; some ottomans under the windows for Sims to sit down on; and put up some fun pictures and posters (including moving Alice’s latest cool playful painting in there). I WAS going to put in a bubble blower, but it was JUUST too big. I am NOT discounting getting one later, though!
G) Victor and Alice’s Bedroom – Now that the door to the bathroom was out in the main hallway, I was able to move their desk into a somewhat better position in the corner. Also got a painting tarp rug for Alice’s art corner, and swapped the Silver Love Day Date rose with the little dragon statue Victor had made (from their dresser to the side table outside, which already had flowers on it, so it felt more natural). There’s sort of an invisible wall of sorts now diving the room into “bedroom section” and “study section” – I dunno if I’ll put a real wall up, but maybe I’ll throw up a divider at some point.
H) Outdoors – put little woven rugs in front of both the front and back doors for feet-wiping. Replaced Smiler’s bar area with a little sitting area – two long couches and a freestanding trellis plant thing. Turned the dirt front path into one with actual stone flooring (though it took me a while to find one I liked) and put the two little wedding present flower columns at the front to sort of mark the boundary. Changed the wind farm from a straight line into a sort of pyramid shape behind the barn and put the water collectors around it so all the eco stuff was in one place. Bought a large animal shed so the gang can eventually get a cow (as no one is doing knitting or cross stitch in this family, I don’t see the point of a llama). Future plans include further expanding the greenhouse and fencing in both the cow shed and chicken coop properly.
I) Miscellaneous – updated a few curtain colors and used moveobjects on to put curtains on windows that wouldn’t otherwise take them (also discovered I had to move one window over slightly when I realized it was way too close to the arch into the downstairs main hall); put a nice rug under the séance table. I also TRIED to repaint the house a nicer color, but the game wouldn’t let me, saying in one of the rooms there was an object affected that couldn’t be moved to the household inventory. *grumbles* Well, the INSIDE is nice, that’s what counts.
Yeah, quite the busy day for remodeling! And I wouldn’t even consider myself fully done yet. . .but I had to stop there, lest I get too involved and just keep looking at cool rugs forever. XD Maybe next time I can do a little more, as well as actually play the family!
4. Work on tumblr drafts: Check – forwent the usual dash-and-tags catch-up on Victor Luvs Alice to get right into it today (mostly because there wasn’t much to catch up on, and I got to tumblr a bit later than normal thanks to having to change my sheets and other distractions), and got all the posts for the upcoming Love Day Chill Save update done (three before lunch, one after). Not bad at all!
Additionally:
-->We did get to go out to play beanbags this afternoon, as it was a bit warmer and less windy than yesterday. Ended up being a game of me and Dad trading wins while Mom tried to get her scores above 18 and failed. Final scores were me 2-W-2-W-2; Dad W-2-W-2-W; Mom 3-3-3-3-3. Ah well – maybe tomorrow, Mom!
Not too shabby, but yeah -- I could have spent a LOT more time just glamming up that farmhouse. :p I like building in Sims -- especially when it's directly benefiting my polycule. :) Ugh, if only I had more time to just indulge in my Sims playing. . .
But no -- tomorrow is Sunday, and I must prepare for the workweek ahead. And also make sure to get in my weekly dose of Fallout as well --
1. Keep up with the FO4 Playthrough Progression
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, Jon's F:BOS playthrough, and more AT4W if possible
3. Play Fallout 4 and finish Pickman's Gallery
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
We'll see how it all goes! I tend to get a bit lost in FO4 too when I play. . .but hopefully I can keep it to just murdering Pickman already tomorrow. XD And seeing Jon's adventures as Cain in the ghoul city. :D Night all!
