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Rainy Miserable Wintery Saturday
May. 29th, 2021 11:38 pmTemperature peaked at 51F according to our little temperature gadget whatsit -- and it was cloudy and raining pretty much all day. Ugh. . .I had hot chocolate tonight! Hot freaking chocolate at the end of May! New England weather continues to confuse and irritate me. . .really good thing I had no "beginning of summer" plans for this weekend!
I did, of course have my to-do list, though:
1. Clean my room and do the big "sheets and blankets" laundry load: Check! Started the cleaning shortly after 11 AM, ended shortly after 2:30 PM (admittedly, this is partly because we watched a Taskmaster episode with lunch and thus I had a longer “lunch break”). The laundry, naturally, took rather longer, but it was all done before I needed my bathrobe or blankets again, so – can’t complain! Done for another two weeks!
2. Watch the Sims-related videos and episode 2 of the OXBox RE8 playthrough in my Watch Later; do best to keep up with YouTube Subs as well: Two-thirds check – AGAIN I have had to push the OXBox RE8 playthrough back a day, but I blame that on not realizing that I was going to have a lot less time for videos today thanks to the room clean. On the plus side, because of Kevin’s “every other day” uploading, I was easily able to keep up with Subs, and the day largely had a nice Sims theme to it –
A) Started with The Red Plumbob’s latest across-the-whole-main-series comparison – Sims and school! Hilariously, Sims 2 has the best school bus – Sims 3’s bus involves Sims teleporting on, and then the turning radius is so hilariously wide that it ends up running over the sidewalk with its rear end. I do think Sims 3 has some good stuff, though – namely, Sims can copy each other’s homework, and there’s prom and graduation events for teens. Also boarding school, but I find that less interesting (especially since you don’t have to do anything but pay to qualify, unlike Sims 2’s private school). At least Sims 4 has school projects with Parenthood?
B) Then it was onto Carl’s Sims Guides – and turned out he’d just uploaded a second video, so I ended up watching them both:
I. Summing up some of the stuff featured in the Dream Home Decorator livestream! Mostly how the career works (including what the hell is the deal with “before” and “after” pictures – turns out it’s a montage you put together for the “reveal” event that closes out your gig!), with a look at how some of the new objects work and a mention of the new “likes/dislikes” system! Nice to have it all summed up in about eleven minutes. :) Carl was hopeful about likes and dislikes adding some personality to Sims, but feels the pack itself definitely appeals to builders – if you’re not interested in the career, might be one to get on-sale. Personally, I find myself intrigued by the career (I like renovating stuff), so we’ll see!
II. Discussing the “likes/dislikes” system and if it does help give Sims more personality! Answer – sort of. Your own played Sims – yeah, no problem! It does affect their autonomy, and they can actually gain likes and dislikes through gameplay (doing something for a while in a good mood may make them decide “I like this activity,” for example). The issue comes in through the OTHER Sims – none of the NPCs/premades were set up with likes or dislikes (except possibly Johnny Zest, as he was the tester NPC for the career in the livestream). They can have ones randomly assigned if you ask them about it, but Carl ran into an interesting problem where, on the “activity” side, the same five activities kept coming up ALL THE TIME. He thinks the limiting factor might be children having fewer activities available to them. Sounds kind of annoying, but part of me wonders if he just had a REALLY bad streak. . .I guess we’ll find out?
C) Then it was onto Plumbella’s video regarding the new update! She is a fan of the new likes/dislikes system, though she wishes that sims aging up would have ones randomly assigned to them that you could maybe later change if you wanted. She is NOT a fan of the fact that adding the new hair colors to some hairs has apparently made Sims’ TEETH glitch out. O.o The hell is that?? And she is pleased with the bunk bed update that lets you put more under them, but rightfully dragged the Sims team for releasing them and then patching them later, instead of waiting until they were sure the damn things were properly fixed. *sigh* This game sometimes. . .At least I could confirm that Victor and Alice in the Chill Save were spared glitched teeth right afterward!
D) Then, this evening, caught the second episode of James Turner’s “same house across all four Sims games” series – he did the base build in Sims 1, now it’s time to see the house in Sims 2! And – it looks nice! Really nice, in fact :) The S2 variation encountered a few problems in building – James had to change lots at the beginning because his original pick was too small to contain the entire house, then shift the whole thing a couple of tiles over because he couldn’t put either the fence he wanted or the pool table room on the side (a process that is a LOT longer in Sims 2 than in Sims 4). But he got there in the end, and recreated the original house pretty well! With a few upgrades, including putting the house on foundation and adding an outside deck; redoing the roof slightly to look nicer; putting a trash compactor along with a bin into the kitchen; and, uh, adding lights. Because he forgot that in the original build. XD But yeah, it turned out well, and is a worthy successor to the S1 house! Next time – Sims 3, and Create-A-Style! This should be interesting. . .
E) Then it was time for GrayStillPlays and more GTA V stunt races! Today’s treat? A difficult parkour course – featuring riding over rainbow parachutes, up various super-steep ledges, over tightropes, doing sideways chassis-slides, very controlled leaps, and hitting all the fruit stands – mostly in a freaking BOX TRUCK. Or a moving van, take your pick. Though, funnily enough, despite some very early trouble in actually getting through the first part of the course (driving over the parachutes, then around the ring of a canister), Gray actually ended up taking to the box truck and doing pretty well with it! Better than he does with most of the cars in these things! And that was WITH climbing up steep hills into tightropes AND doing a sideways maze-dodge. His helicoptering skills still leave something to be desired, of course. . . But hey, he made it! And that’s always the most important part. :p
F) And a quick compilation of all the emotion stings in The Sims 4, because it popped up in my recommended and I got curious. I gotta say, the music for each one really does encapsulate what the emotion is all about!
3. Download the hotfix for MC Command Center for the latest patch, then play Sims 4 andeither build more Ice Cream Conery or visit the Chill Save: Check! I downloaded the newest MC Command Center before watching my videos, then updated my mods folder before downloading the latest update and starting up the game! And I decided I wanted to set some likes and dislikes, so I went ahead and hit the Chill Save for a day! Alice Likes Blue and Red for colors, Classical and Spooky for music, and Painting and Writing for activities – she Dislikes Gray, Backyard Music, and Programming (I – wasn’t really sure what to give her for an activity dislike, but I don’t see her as a programming-type girl). Victor Likes Blue and Green for colors, Classical and Singer/Songwriter for music, and Gardening and Piano for activities – he Dislikes Yellow, NuDisco Music, and Acting (went with that last one as it’s a performing thing and I headcanon Victor as hating that).
As for actual gameplay – most of the day went by in doing homework and attending university classes off-lot, but a few interesting things occurred:
A) Victor expanded his garden – I had him plant an apple tree, then some grapes and snapdragons. Most of this will be coming up in the fall, but it’s good to plan ahead!
B) Their friend Felipe dropped by for a bit, with Alice getting to know him a bit better – he’s Family-Oriented (which is good, as thanks to MC Command Center, he and his wife just had a kid)
C) They both gained the Close-Knit Lifestyle, which means they have a hard time making new friends, but are very close to anyone they already know well – seems legit
D) They went on a date! Sent them to Club Calico over in Brindleton Bay – a lot of flirting and some swimming in the pool got them Gold status without issue, though they did have to spend the latter part of the date napping. XD
So that was all nice – I’m all in favor of taking more cute pictures of my OTP. Granted, no one’s going to see them for a bit – I still haven’t posted the wedding update on tumblr, mostly because July 7 is a Wednesday this year and if there’s any update I should post on their ANNIVERSARY. . .but still. It’s good times. :)
4. Work some more on the notes for the HypnoKink Verse -- possibly figure out a name for it: Check – no official name for it as of yet, but I did feel like I cracked the code for Victor’s backstory! Namely, how it differs from the FVV “standard” – in that verse, Galswells was fully aware of Victor attempting to marry Emily and considered Victor irredeemably damned because of it. In this one, he doesn’t see the wedding ceremony – he instead flees the village entirely after the corpses start filing into his church, seeking the help of another pastor from another village about a day or two’s travel away in re-sanctifying the place. While he knows Victor was with the undead horde, he doesn’t know for what purpose and is willing to entertain the idea that Victor can be saved with some sort of cleansing ritual, which Victor submits to just to keep the peace. However, his angry declarations of Victor being damned unless he submits to “God’s ultimate judgment” or something along those lines make it over to Sandford, where they are still misinterpreted by the Everglots as Victor having killed himself, allowing Victoria to act on her growing feelings for Christopher.
The other major change to this verse is an expanded role for Gertrude Carter, aka Alfred’s wife – she’s the one who shows up at the Van Dort house after they find the Everglots gone, to thank Victor for what he did because it proved to her Alfred’s waiting for her in the afterlife. This proves to Nell and William Victor’s not insane, and he avoids the whole “multiple psychiatrists” mess (they instead snap into “damage control” mode to keep the story from spreading too much further and making the Victorian equivalent of the tabloids). And, when she dies, it turns out she rewrote her will to give Victor her house! Though thanks to her children objecting and some legal squabbles, it’s determined the wording means he can’t claim it as a residence until he gets married. So he doesn’t actually move in until he and Alice get married (specifically, when they return from their honeymoon). This is solely to keep Victor living in his parents’ house until the marriage, because I have a funny bit in the “wedding” story that I want to keep. XD Ahh, this is a lot of work on a backstory to a verse that is almost entirely hypnokink stuff, but it is fun! Want to try and refine the different magic system some more next. . .
Additionally:
->Answered a PM from my FF.net friend; good to have that out of the inbox!
->And currently doing the RP thing over on tumblr -- have an ongoing thread with a friend at the moment~
So yeah, pretty solid Saturday, good to have the cleaning done. I even got cake at the end of it -- Mom made a banana cake because the bananas in our little basket were opening at the top when I was trying to get one of them off. Pretty good! :) Still, gotta keep planning for the days ahead --
1. Continue working on the Hypnokink Verse Notes
2. Watch the two OXBox RE8 episodes in my Watch Later, and Jon's Fallout 4 YOLO episode -- if possible, fit in Subs
3. Play Alice: Madness Returns and finish up Chapter 5 of the game
4. Get in a workout
5. Prep for tumblr queues
Feels at least semi-reasonable for a Sunday where I don't have to go to work the next day -- no cleaning means more time for videos, and A:MR won't take long because of my determination to finish the game on its tenth anniversary, sooo. . . Longplay YouTube Sunday activate!
After I answer my DW comment, of course. :p Night all!
I did, of course have my to-do list, though:
1. Clean my room and do the big "sheets and blankets" laundry load: Check! Started the cleaning shortly after 11 AM, ended shortly after 2:30 PM (admittedly, this is partly because we watched a Taskmaster episode with lunch and thus I had a longer “lunch break”). The laundry, naturally, took rather longer, but it was all done before I needed my bathrobe or blankets again, so – can’t complain! Done for another two weeks!
2. Watch the Sims-related videos and episode 2 of the OXBox RE8 playthrough in my Watch Later; do best to keep up with YouTube Subs as well: Two-thirds check – AGAIN I have had to push the OXBox RE8 playthrough back a day, but I blame that on not realizing that I was going to have a lot less time for videos today thanks to the room clean. On the plus side, because of Kevin’s “every other day” uploading, I was easily able to keep up with Subs, and the day largely had a nice Sims theme to it –
A) Started with The Red Plumbob’s latest across-the-whole-main-series comparison – Sims and school! Hilariously, Sims 2 has the best school bus – Sims 3’s bus involves Sims teleporting on, and then the turning radius is so hilariously wide that it ends up running over the sidewalk with its rear end. I do think Sims 3 has some good stuff, though – namely, Sims can copy each other’s homework, and there’s prom and graduation events for teens. Also boarding school, but I find that less interesting (especially since you don’t have to do anything but pay to qualify, unlike Sims 2’s private school). At least Sims 4 has school projects with Parenthood?
B) Then it was onto Carl’s Sims Guides – and turned out he’d just uploaded a second video, so I ended up watching them both:
I. Summing up some of the stuff featured in the Dream Home Decorator livestream! Mostly how the career works (including what the hell is the deal with “before” and “after” pictures – turns out it’s a montage you put together for the “reveal” event that closes out your gig!), with a look at how some of the new objects work and a mention of the new “likes/dislikes” system! Nice to have it all summed up in about eleven minutes. :) Carl was hopeful about likes and dislikes adding some personality to Sims, but feels the pack itself definitely appeals to builders – if you’re not interested in the career, might be one to get on-sale. Personally, I find myself intrigued by the career (I like renovating stuff), so we’ll see!
II. Discussing the “likes/dislikes” system and if it does help give Sims more personality! Answer – sort of. Your own played Sims – yeah, no problem! It does affect their autonomy, and they can actually gain likes and dislikes through gameplay (doing something for a while in a good mood may make them decide “I like this activity,” for example). The issue comes in through the OTHER Sims – none of the NPCs/premades were set up with likes or dislikes (except possibly Johnny Zest, as he was the tester NPC for the career in the livestream). They can have ones randomly assigned if you ask them about it, but Carl ran into an interesting problem where, on the “activity” side, the same five activities kept coming up ALL THE TIME. He thinks the limiting factor might be children having fewer activities available to them. Sounds kind of annoying, but part of me wonders if he just had a REALLY bad streak. . .I guess we’ll find out?
C) Then it was onto Plumbella’s video regarding the new update! She is a fan of the new likes/dislikes system, though she wishes that sims aging up would have ones randomly assigned to them that you could maybe later change if you wanted. She is NOT a fan of the fact that adding the new hair colors to some hairs has apparently made Sims’ TEETH glitch out. O.o The hell is that?? And she is pleased with the bunk bed update that lets you put more under them, but rightfully dragged the Sims team for releasing them and then patching them later, instead of waiting until they were sure the damn things were properly fixed. *sigh* This game sometimes. . .At least I could confirm that Victor and Alice in the Chill Save were spared glitched teeth right afterward!
D) Then, this evening, caught the second episode of James Turner’s “same house across all four Sims games” series – he did the base build in Sims 1, now it’s time to see the house in Sims 2! And – it looks nice! Really nice, in fact :) The S2 variation encountered a few problems in building – James had to change lots at the beginning because his original pick was too small to contain the entire house, then shift the whole thing a couple of tiles over because he couldn’t put either the fence he wanted or the pool table room on the side (a process that is a LOT longer in Sims 2 than in Sims 4). But he got there in the end, and recreated the original house pretty well! With a few upgrades, including putting the house on foundation and adding an outside deck; redoing the roof slightly to look nicer; putting a trash compactor along with a bin into the kitchen; and, uh, adding lights. Because he forgot that in the original build. XD But yeah, it turned out well, and is a worthy successor to the S1 house! Next time – Sims 3, and Create-A-Style! This should be interesting. . .
E) Then it was time for GrayStillPlays and more GTA V stunt races! Today’s treat? A difficult parkour course – featuring riding over rainbow parachutes, up various super-steep ledges, over tightropes, doing sideways chassis-slides, very controlled leaps, and hitting all the fruit stands – mostly in a freaking BOX TRUCK. Or a moving van, take your pick. Though, funnily enough, despite some very early trouble in actually getting through the first part of the course (driving over the parachutes, then around the ring of a canister), Gray actually ended up taking to the box truck and doing pretty well with it! Better than he does with most of the cars in these things! And that was WITH climbing up steep hills into tightropes AND doing a sideways maze-dodge. His helicoptering skills still leave something to be desired, of course. . . But hey, he made it! And that’s always the most important part. :p
F) And a quick compilation of all the emotion stings in The Sims 4, because it popped up in my recommended and I got curious. I gotta say, the music for each one really does encapsulate what the emotion is all about!
3. Download the hotfix for MC Command Center for the latest patch, then play Sims 4 and
As for actual gameplay – most of the day went by in doing homework and attending university classes off-lot, but a few interesting things occurred:
A) Victor expanded his garden – I had him plant an apple tree, then some grapes and snapdragons. Most of this will be coming up in the fall, but it’s good to plan ahead!
B) Their friend Felipe dropped by for a bit, with Alice getting to know him a bit better – he’s Family-Oriented (which is good, as thanks to MC Command Center, he and his wife just had a kid)
C) They both gained the Close-Knit Lifestyle, which means they have a hard time making new friends, but are very close to anyone they already know well – seems legit
D) They went on a date! Sent them to Club Calico over in Brindleton Bay – a lot of flirting and some swimming in the pool got them Gold status without issue, though they did have to spend the latter part of the date napping. XD
So that was all nice – I’m all in favor of taking more cute pictures of my OTP. Granted, no one’s going to see them for a bit – I still haven’t posted the wedding update on tumblr, mostly because July 7 is a Wednesday this year and if there’s any update I should post on their ANNIVERSARY. . .but still. It’s good times. :)
4. Work some more on the notes for the HypnoKink Verse -- possibly figure out a name for it: Check – no official name for it as of yet, but I did feel like I cracked the code for Victor’s backstory! Namely, how it differs from the FVV “standard” – in that verse, Galswells was fully aware of Victor attempting to marry Emily and considered Victor irredeemably damned because of it. In this one, he doesn’t see the wedding ceremony – he instead flees the village entirely after the corpses start filing into his church, seeking the help of another pastor from another village about a day or two’s travel away in re-sanctifying the place. While he knows Victor was with the undead horde, he doesn’t know for what purpose and is willing to entertain the idea that Victor can be saved with some sort of cleansing ritual, which Victor submits to just to keep the peace. However, his angry declarations of Victor being damned unless he submits to “God’s ultimate judgment” or something along those lines make it over to Sandford, where they are still misinterpreted by the Everglots as Victor having killed himself, allowing Victoria to act on her growing feelings for Christopher.
The other major change to this verse is an expanded role for Gertrude Carter, aka Alfred’s wife – she’s the one who shows up at the Van Dort house after they find the Everglots gone, to thank Victor for what he did because it proved to her Alfred’s waiting for her in the afterlife. This proves to Nell and William Victor’s not insane, and he avoids the whole “multiple psychiatrists” mess (they instead snap into “damage control” mode to keep the story from spreading too much further and making the Victorian equivalent of the tabloids). And, when she dies, it turns out she rewrote her will to give Victor her house! Though thanks to her children objecting and some legal squabbles, it’s determined the wording means he can’t claim it as a residence until he gets married. So he doesn’t actually move in until he and Alice get married (specifically, when they return from their honeymoon). This is solely to keep Victor living in his parents’ house until the marriage, because I have a funny bit in the “wedding” story that I want to keep. XD Ahh, this is a lot of work on a backstory to a verse that is almost entirely hypnokink stuff, but it is fun! Want to try and refine the different magic system some more next. . .
Additionally:
->Answered a PM from my FF.net friend; good to have that out of the inbox!
->And currently doing the RP thing over on tumblr -- have an ongoing thread with a friend at the moment~
So yeah, pretty solid Saturday, good to have the cleaning done. I even got cake at the end of it -- Mom made a banana cake because the bananas in our little basket were opening at the top when I was trying to get one of them off. Pretty good! :) Still, gotta keep planning for the days ahead --
1. Continue working on the Hypnokink Verse Notes
2. Watch the two OXBox RE8 episodes in my Watch Later, and Jon's Fallout 4 YOLO episode -- if possible, fit in Subs
3. Play Alice: Madness Returns and finish up Chapter 5 of the game
4. Get in a workout
5. Prep for tumblr queues
Feels at least semi-reasonable for a Sunday where I don't have to go to work the next day -- no cleaning means more time for videos, and A:MR won't take long because of my determination to finish the game on its tenth anniversary, sooo. . . Longplay YouTube Sunday activate!
After I answer my DW comment, of course. :p Night all!
