Clusterfuck of Activity Friday
Dec. 2nd, 2022 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickBeen juggling more than I anticipated between my tumblrs and keeping up with social stuff and my webcomics, unfortunately -- not exactly how I wanted to spend my Friday evening! *shakehead* Let me give you the round-up:
Work – Another pretty quiet day of duplicates, with a bit of the GL and a big check to put on for flavor. All right, though things really did start to drag by the end. But I have made it to the weekend, and next week I’m only working every OTHER day, so w000! XD
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – a final day on the bike to finish off the week, along with a James Turner video that just came out – “I asked 15000 people which Sims 4 packs to buy in 2022!” Yeah, James had a whole multilayered poll thing that ran for a while asking people to rate all the Sims 4 DLC – all FIFTY-NINE pieces of it – and all non-base-game worlds (so anything that wasn’t Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, or Newcrest). Kits and Stuff Packs just got straight up single-number scores (Kits out of 5, Stuff Packs out of 10), while Game Packs and Expansion Packs were ranked on gameplay, build/buy, and CAS, along with their world if they had one. The results were pretty fascinating, with one of the most shocking results to me (and James) was My Wedding Stories ranking in the top five of game packs. Yes, that broken piece of shit made the top five, while my beloved Vampires was seventh. How? Simple – people like Tartosa as a world better than Forgotten Hollow, and think MWS has better CAS assets. When you rank this shit by actual gameplay, MWS goes STRAIGHT to the bottom, where it belongs. *shakehead* Anyway, if you’re curious, bests and worsts:
A) Kits – Worst is Bust the Dust (another example of something being released broken with the terrible dust system); best is Everyday Clutter (build Kit with more clutter items, but note it is ALSO a very recent release, so that may be skewing things)
B) Stuff Packs – Worst is My First Pet Stuff (the expansion to an expansion, which was rightfully torn to pieces); best is Tiny Living (I guess everyone really loves those micro-home bonuses! Probably also a lot of the build items, which are good. Paranormal Stuff, which I EXPECTED to be the winner, came second)
C) Game Packs – Worst via overall score is Journey To Batuu (James pretended to be upset because he has a soft spot for the pack, but the fact of the matter is it’s an advertisement for Disney parks and Star Wars and it’s not even a good one because there’s not that much to do); best via overall score is Dream Home Decorator (confused because while it worked better than MWS, it was also known for bugs and is basically “Build Mode: The Pack?” Everyone loving its actual build mode additions while having decent CAS and gameplay gave it the win). If you want to focus on gameplay only, worst is My Wedding Stories (released broken, and as it turns out the expanded wedding stuff wasn’t actually that fun or meaningful); best is Parenthood (because everyone likes character values as a passive feature and it did add some good stuff for family players) – oh, and all of the occult-focused packs make the top five (Werewolves is second, Vampires is third, and Realm of Magic is fifth under DHD)
D) Expansion Packs – Worst via overall score is Get To Work (showing its age and had the absolute worst world with the horrible Magnolia Promenade); best via overall score is Cottage Living (cottagecore is in, the gameplay is fun (though Finchwick Fairs are bugged), and it also scored the best for worlds! Seasons, the previous champ, is now second). If you’re focusing on gameplay only, worst is Island Living (because the world is gorgeous but there’s not a lot to DO), while best is Seasons (understandable, as Seasons affects EVERYTHING and has all the cool holidays and stuff – Cottage Living then becomes second!)
So there you have it. I don’t know how scientific it all is, but it took James a lot of time, and it really does show that the community is apparently willing to forgive a LOT of gameplay glitchiness if the world is gorgeous or Build Mode is good. I think that says some concerning things about the community. (Concerning things I am a part of, as part of me STILL debates if I should get High School Years just for the build mode. . .)
2. Continue writing gift fics: Check – did Nebby’s today now that I had her prompt – a Medievil/Corpse Bride crossover, with the protagonist of the former, Sir Dan, getting the help of the Burtonsville Land of the Dead residents (plus Lizzie) to aid him in rescuing his love interest from the second game, Kiya – an Egyptian mummy princess who has unfortunately ended up back in the Egyptian afterlife with her asshole pharaoh husband. Lizzie is, of course, only too ready to go and smack this guy’s head in. XD Fun times!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Back to two-thirds check today – while Kevin didn’t upload a particularly long video, I got to YouTube late enough that I couldn’t watch all three uploads (I had important Sims 4 stats to tell you!). But I got some good stuff watched tonight –
A) First up, the Call Me Kevin upload of the day – “Stardew Valley but I made a cult to run my farm!” Yes, today we returned to Stardew Valley, doing kind of the opposite of Hermit’s challenge – Kevin instead used the multiplayer mode to form The Standard Jim Pickens Cult and use a bunch of his community members to tend the giant Not A Cult farm! He had a farming team for turnips, kale, and melons; a fishing team that went around and fished up everything they could find from every spot they could find; a mining team to get minerals and geodes and whatnot; and I think one guy on mushrooms. :p The cult was very eager to follow the Dear Leader, presenting him with loads of furniture (and then organizing it into a cult meeting area), building lots of paths around all their houses to make it look like a proper village (Jim provided fancy museum rock “street signs”), and helping Jim try to win the Egg festival by blocking all the NPCS (one called Abigail managed to slip through and win regardless, leading to the cult just stalking her endlessly). XD And it all paid off, with loads of money from fishing and farming, and the creation of THE BIG MELON, a giant melon that SOMEHOW grew in the middle of all the other melons (not even Kevin could figure out what was going on). Jim promptly ended the cult so he could live off the profits. XD It was weirdly wholesome in how everyone was so eager to just jump right in and do silly things for Jim – Kevin even admitted that a lot of the time he felt more like a project coordinator than a cult leader. He even let them have nice sap and fishing rods! XD And a good time was had by all.
B) And then it was over to GrayStillPlays and “When Mentos and Coke become a ticking time bomb,” aka Gray plays Drop and Explode: Soda Geyser! Yes, someone made a dumb mobile game about the Mentos-and-soda thing. XD The game is all about upgrading your soda geyser to reach new and bigger heights by giving yourself more Mentos tabs, larger amounts of soda to work with (going from a pool, to a truck, to a giant flask, to a VOLCANO), and adding more and better multipliers so you can put as many Mentos into the soda as possible and just blast your geyser upwards. First level is reaching the height of a giraffe, last one is reaching the height of the moon. Also you can change your soda color to disturbing levels of neon if you so choose. XD Gray delighted in the soda destruction, even if it forced him to do math to pick the best multipliers. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check-in-progress – got two thread replies from one of my partners, plus three ask replies to finish sorting out on Valice Multiverse. On the plus side, got another prompt sorted for gift fics, as the one person who always gives me a brief just gave me the choices to pick from, yay.
And that's that, basically. Now time to wrap everything up for tonight and hit Saturday, where I hope to get some stuff out of my Watch Later, play through Spookfest in my Valicer save, and maybe even get some more done on "Londerland Bloodlines!" Night all!
Work – Another pretty quiet day of duplicates, with a bit of the GL and a big check to put on for flavor. All right, though things really did start to drag by the end. But I have made it to the weekend, and next week I’m only working every OTHER day, so w000! XD
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – a final day on the bike to finish off the week, along with a James Turner video that just came out – “I asked 15000 people which Sims 4 packs to buy in 2022!” Yeah, James had a whole multilayered poll thing that ran for a while asking people to rate all the Sims 4 DLC – all FIFTY-NINE pieces of it – and all non-base-game worlds (so anything that wasn’t Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, or Newcrest). Kits and Stuff Packs just got straight up single-number scores (Kits out of 5, Stuff Packs out of 10), while Game Packs and Expansion Packs were ranked on gameplay, build/buy, and CAS, along with their world if they had one. The results were pretty fascinating, with one of the most shocking results to me (and James) was My Wedding Stories ranking in the top five of game packs. Yes, that broken piece of shit made the top five, while my beloved Vampires was seventh. How? Simple – people like Tartosa as a world better than Forgotten Hollow, and think MWS has better CAS assets. When you rank this shit by actual gameplay, MWS goes STRAIGHT to the bottom, where it belongs. *shakehead* Anyway, if you’re curious, bests and worsts:
A) Kits – Worst is Bust the Dust (another example of something being released broken with the terrible dust system); best is Everyday Clutter (build Kit with more clutter items, but note it is ALSO a very recent release, so that may be skewing things)
B) Stuff Packs – Worst is My First Pet Stuff (the expansion to an expansion, which was rightfully torn to pieces); best is Tiny Living (I guess everyone really loves those micro-home bonuses! Probably also a lot of the build items, which are good. Paranormal Stuff, which I EXPECTED to be the winner, came second)
C) Game Packs – Worst via overall score is Journey To Batuu (James pretended to be upset because he has a soft spot for the pack, but the fact of the matter is it’s an advertisement for Disney parks and Star Wars and it’s not even a good one because there’s not that much to do); best via overall score is Dream Home Decorator (confused because while it worked better than MWS, it was also known for bugs and is basically “Build Mode: The Pack?” Everyone loving its actual build mode additions while having decent CAS and gameplay gave it the win). If you want to focus on gameplay only, worst is My Wedding Stories (released broken, and as it turns out the expanded wedding stuff wasn’t actually that fun or meaningful); best is Parenthood (because everyone likes character values as a passive feature and it did add some good stuff for family players) – oh, and all of the occult-focused packs make the top five (Werewolves is second, Vampires is third, and Realm of Magic is fifth under DHD)
D) Expansion Packs – Worst via overall score is Get To Work (showing its age and had the absolute worst world with the horrible Magnolia Promenade); best via overall score is Cottage Living (cottagecore is in, the gameplay is fun (though Finchwick Fairs are bugged), and it also scored the best for worlds! Seasons, the previous champ, is now second). If you’re focusing on gameplay only, worst is Island Living (because the world is gorgeous but there’s not a lot to DO), while best is Seasons (understandable, as Seasons affects EVERYTHING and has all the cool holidays and stuff – Cottage Living then becomes second!)
So there you have it. I don’t know how scientific it all is, but it took James a lot of time, and it really does show that the community is apparently willing to forgive a LOT of gameplay glitchiness if the world is gorgeous or Build Mode is good. I think that says some concerning things about the community. (Concerning things I am a part of, as part of me STILL debates if I should get High School Years just for the build mode. . .)
2. Continue writing gift fics: Check – did Nebby’s today now that I had her prompt – a Medievil/Corpse Bride crossover, with the protagonist of the former, Sir Dan, getting the help of the Burtonsville Land of the Dead residents (plus Lizzie) to aid him in rescuing his love interest from the second game, Kiya – an Egyptian mummy princess who has unfortunately ended up back in the Egyptian afterlife with her asshole pharaoh husband. Lizzie is, of course, only too ready to go and smack this guy’s head in. XD Fun times!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Back to two-thirds check today – while Kevin didn’t upload a particularly long video, I got to YouTube late enough that I couldn’t watch all three uploads (I had important Sims 4 stats to tell you!). But I got some good stuff watched tonight –
A) First up, the Call Me Kevin upload of the day – “Stardew Valley but I made a cult to run my farm!” Yes, today we returned to Stardew Valley, doing kind of the opposite of Hermit’s challenge – Kevin instead used the multiplayer mode to form The Standard Jim Pickens Cult and use a bunch of his community members to tend the giant Not A Cult farm! He had a farming team for turnips, kale, and melons; a fishing team that went around and fished up everything they could find from every spot they could find; a mining team to get minerals and geodes and whatnot; and I think one guy on mushrooms. :p The cult was very eager to follow the Dear Leader, presenting him with loads of furniture (and then organizing it into a cult meeting area), building lots of paths around all their houses to make it look like a proper village (Jim provided fancy museum rock “street signs”), and helping Jim try to win the Egg festival by blocking all the NPCS (one called Abigail managed to slip through and win regardless, leading to the cult just stalking her endlessly). XD And it all paid off, with loads of money from fishing and farming, and the creation of THE BIG MELON, a giant melon that SOMEHOW grew in the middle of all the other melons (not even Kevin could figure out what was going on). Jim promptly ended the cult so he could live off the profits. XD It was weirdly wholesome in how everyone was so eager to just jump right in and do silly things for Jim – Kevin even admitted that a lot of the time he felt more like a project coordinator than a cult leader. He even let them have nice sap and fishing rods! XD And a good time was had by all.
B) And then it was over to GrayStillPlays and “When Mentos and Coke become a ticking time bomb,” aka Gray plays Drop and Explode: Soda Geyser! Yes, someone made a dumb mobile game about the Mentos-and-soda thing. XD The game is all about upgrading your soda geyser to reach new and bigger heights by giving yourself more Mentos tabs, larger amounts of soda to work with (going from a pool, to a truck, to a giant flask, to a VOLCANO), and adding more and better multipliers so you can put as many Mentos into the soda as possible and just blast your geyser upwards. First level is reaching the height of a giraffe, last one is reaching the height of the moon. Also you can change your soda color to disturbing levels of neon if you so choose. XD Gray delighted in the soda destruction, even if it forced him to do math to pick the best multipliers. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check-in-progress – got two thread replies from one of my partners, plus three ask replies to finish sorting out on Valice Multiverse. On the plus side, got another prompt sorted for gift fics, as the one person who always gives me a brief just gave me the choices to pick from, yay.
And that's that, basically. Now time to wrap everything up for tonight and hit Saturday, where I hope to get some stuff out of my Watch Later, play through Spookfest in my Valicer save, and maybe even get some more done on "Londerland Bloodlines!" Night all!
