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Happy Flash-Of-Sunlight Memorial Day!
May. 31st, 2021 11:12 pmYes, the bad weather finally let up a little bit today -- it actually got above 60F for a high, and we had a BRIEF clearing of the clouds mid-afternoon, and a more thorough one this evening. Seems like the rain has finally rained itself all out and we're due some much nicer weather for the next few days! Just in time for me to go back to work, yaaay. . . At least tomorrow I get out early again! Small mercies.
Ah, but I can't really complain about the long weekend -- I had a pretty good time of it overall, even with the weather, and I got a fair bit done today:
1.Either edit some more on "Londerland Bloodlines" or work some more on the HypnoKink magic system: Check on the latter – I had a thought about said magic system last night that inspired me to work some more on it today. Namely, that Elder Gutknecht specifically references a spell to send Victor and Emily Upstairs mid-movie. This didn’t really jive with my “magic is specific abilities awakened in one by major life events” idea for the hypnokink verse, so I took another look at what was established in Corpse Bride, Alice: Madness Returns, Alice Otherlands, and my own Forgotten Vows Verse magic system to see what I could do.
And what I could do is kind of reverse how magic works in the Forgotten Vows Verse for this one. In FVV, everyone has magic available to them, in varying amounts. You can only learn as many spells as your personal magic can support, but within that limitation you can learn any spell you want – spells are universal. Magic almost always requires the sacrifice of some sort of reagent or the like (and when it doesn’t, it generally requires something specific be done – even the simplest shield spell makes you hold your hands up!) We also have some people with natural talents – that is, they can perform a spell without the necessary reagents or the like, simply by concentrating. It’s not precisely common, but it’s a thing that happens.
In THIS verse, it’s more like everyone has natural talents, and ONLY natural talents. Everyone TECHNICALLY has magic available to them, but it needs to be “awakened” by a major life event, and said “awakening” informs what you can do with it. You can’t learn any other abilities – what you get is what you get! Varying power levels still exist, so some people have a few minor things they can do, others one major thing (variably well), still others a mix. There’s a handful of very powerful people who, thanks to very significant life changes, can do just about anything with their magic, but they’re pretty damn rare. (Elder Gutknecht, of course, is one of them – it’s part of how he got the entire village Below Upstairs for the wedding.) Spells here serve as refinements, tweaks, and ways to offset the cost of people’s natural abilities – everyone can use their talent through pure concentration, but depending ON said talent, it can take a lot out of you. (Victor learns this the hard way when he manages to will himself back to Elder Gutknecht’s tower, only to immediately need to sit down.) Also, the pure concentration method generally only does one specific thing – using a spell can “adjust” your talent to produce a different-but-similar effect! Which is why the Ukrainian Haunting Spell exists – usually you have to send yourself along with a target up to the Land of the Living. The spell means you can just send the person alone!
. . .Okay, sorry for getting rambly, but I’m having more fun than I should trying to hash this out, and I needed to babble. XD I THINK this covers everything, but we’ll see as I continue to poke.
2. Keep up on YouTube Subs and the latest OXBox RE8 video which should post tomorrow; see if I can also take care of the list videos in the Watch Later: Check – no RE8 video, but that’s because OXBox never uploaded one. Can’t penalize myself for something that never happened. Took care of everything else, though –
A) Actually started with a new video from Plumbella reviewing the new Dream Home Decorator pack. Her thoughts? CAS for young adult/adult females is great, but for males and other age categories, it’s lacking – also apparently no new traits or aspirations; the Buy portion of Build/Buy is also really good – she likes the sectional stuff – but she’s a little tired of the midcentury aesthetic, and the Build portion is also lacking; and the gameplay is pretty fun – a solid structure with enough variety in that structure to keep it interesting (your list of tasks to do is the same each time, but the type of renovations and your clients likes and dislikes are always different) – but DAMN THE PACK IS BUGGY. Apparently Sims will levitate into the ceiling sometimes, or the special slideshow just won’t work, or the camera won’t cooperate if you’re doing an underground build. . . As Plumbella titled the video, she’s not angry, just disappointed. Basically the pack has a lot of good in it, but it’s got to have its bugs patched before it’s really playable. So probably best to wait on this! (Gigs, hopefully it should be in better shape by your birthday.)
B) Then it was over to the Subs to catch up on James Turner:
I. We’ve had Sims 1 and Sims 2 – time to rebuild that one house in Sims 3! And this time, James decided “screw a flat lot – let’s build this sucker on a hill!” Took him a few tries to find a world with a hill that didn’t have a truly FRIGHTENINGLY steep slope, admittedly, but he eventually was able to place his lot and – with the help of moveobjects and terrain editing cheats – get the house built! Again, it came out nice – he was able to get it to match the general style of the base S1 house, with some obvious differences (like the outdoor deck now being on a stilt foundation), and even match some of the colors better with Create-A-Style (when it wasn’t lagging. . .I’ll admit, the ability to at least eyedrop wood tones and whatnot from various furniture pieces to get swatches to match better wouldn’t be bad in the current generation. I just fear how buggy and laggy full CASt would be). He was reasonably pleased with the end product, though he thought the build looked a little dull, color-wise. And, sadly, pool tables need WAY more room to function in S3, so while the table itself fit into the little outdoor room, it wasn’t able to be used. Ah well. . .at least they have them. I get the feeling that we’re going to have some depressing music pop up in the Sims 4 version when it comes to filling that space. . .
II. And then the challenge has been put on hold briefly because James is an EA Game Changer, and thus it is time to start the Dream Home Decorator LP! “3 Brothers” isn’t going anywhere, but James didn’t think the boys were ready for this pack – so after a brief community poll, he introduced Hazel Monet, a Sim created by a fan on Twitter to do the renovations! She will apparently be marrying into the main Bigwallet clan at some point, but for now, she’s just fixing up people’s homes. And occasionally stealing from them, as James gave her the “Kleptomaniac” trait. XD She is a Rags-to-Riches Sim, though James was nice enough to give her an unfurnished apartment in San Myshuno so she has a roof over her head. She’s mainly using the public bathrooms and stealing food from other Sims to survive as she builds up her own capital with room renovations. Her first gig was a renovation for Candy and Yuki Behr – she redid what I believe is Yuki’s room, giving it a black-and-white makeover as Yuki indicated she liked the color black. New bed, new bedside tables, new desk, some new bits of décor – the clients were very appreciative! They were less appreciative of Hazel then climbing in their bathtub to fix her stink problem, admittedly. XD But Hazel got paid for the gig, a nice little bonus from getting immediately promoted, and a little globe décor item that she stole.
And, uh, a bunch of other stuff from the client’s home, because the bugs are indeed real with this pack. James accidentally deleted a wall in their house and then couldn’t put it back even with “undo,” then a bunch of stuff that got moved to the Behr’s household inventory actually ended up in HAZEL’S inventory instead. Whoops. James deleted them out and reset Hazel’s cash – after bills, her apartment now has a bed, some lights, a stolen globe, and some magazines given to her by her job. Uh – fun? :P But yeah, this should be an interesting LP to follow, especially as we get to see more of the bugs. . .
C) Then, this evening, since the RE8 video from OXBox never materialized (looks like they’re doing “Biomutant Mondays” for the time being – sponsored content to pay the bills! Maybe RE8 will land on a different day), I instead checked out the list videos in my WL:
I. “7 Ways Biomutant is the Weirdest Game You’ll Play This Year (Sponsored Content)” – well, may as well see what they’re paying the bills with, right? XD Basically, the game is “humans have gone extinct, and a new world of mutated rodents has risen – but now they’re dealing with tribal wars and things eating the World Tree that keeps everything nice, and you as the chosen one need to deal with it.” From having a narrator basically with you every step of the way to translate dialogue and comment on your adventures, to having your moral choices influenced by actual devil and angel sprites, to gathering globs of DNA-wrecking goo to mutate your character into having toxic vomit or the ability to bounce enemies on mushrooms, it’s definitely a bit of a weird one. XD Looks nice and colorful though, and if you’re a fan of open-world action RPGs, it’s probably worth a go.
II. “7 Sequels to Huge Games You’ve Never Heard of Somehow” – weird spin-off and sequel games in big franchises that have flown under the radar, mostly because they were a) released for ancient cell phones, b) released for now-long-defunct handhelds, or c) barely games – I’m looking at you, Mario Family. Seriously, who thinks a “game” where the player customizes an embroidery pattern which then needs to hook up to a special version of a sewing machine that costs $600 is a good idea? Apparently the people at Nintendo! We also have a Doom RPG for cellphones circa about 2005, a couple of Elder Scrolls games for Java-enabled cell phones (now THAT’S old), and Uncharted: Fight for Fortune, a Hearthstone-style collectible card game for the PSVita. Yeah, not surprised THAT one’s fairly obscure. XD
D) Then it was onto Call Me Kevin playing a little Kingdom Hearts III, as sponsored by the Epic Games store and their current sale! Kevin is apparently not particularly familiar with the series, but he didn’t let that get him down as he played through most of the Hercules section, running around with Goofy and Donald to try and save the citizens of Thebes from Hades causing a volcano to erupt. Hercules himself didn’t actually seem to do that much – flinging the gang on a statue of himself toward a little girl that needed rescuing (this somehow did not crush her), then vanishing until he was required to hold up a building so Sora and the others could fight some Heartless before saving a family. And in the big boss fight, he threw a big rock. [slow clap] Kevin was not impressed – and was equally not impressed by the fact Sora and the others were constantly just letting the villains WALK AWAY. Like, no attempt to attack at all. But he had Goofy on his side, so everything was all right – at least until he realized how altruistic Goofy was, and started making plans to kill him so he wouldn’t have to do any more shield slide sections. XD
E) Then finally it was time for GrayStillPlays and another GTA V stunt board! This one was based around rocket-boosted cars making incredible and incredibly stupid jumps. Leaping from tube to tube at a ninety degree angle? Yup. Leaping over a small wall into a wall ride that has almost an immediate transfer and then multiple jumps? You betcha. Boosting through a tiny gap between two walls where the slightest error will cause death? Why not? Having to do a loop-de-loop and then rocket your way across an UPSIDE-DOWN ROADWAY WITH ONLY THE SMALLEST PLATFORM TO LAND ON? How else are you supposed to end a board? XD I don’t know if Gray had to break out the controller, but he DID have to swap into first-person mode a couple of times (notably on the loop-de-loop), so – equivalent amount of pain? Somewhere up there on the scale, anyway.
3. Play Sims 4 andeither work some more on the Ice Cream Conery or start the Brown-Kosperov cycle of Newcrest Adventures: Check! I did indeed go back to the Ice Cream Conery to finish it off – put some chess tables and children’s activity tables on the bottom level, along with some cork boards, a display stand for extra treats, and – after searching for AGES – a magazine rack (it apparently came with Get To Work but I couldn’t locate it in any of the “Decorations” categories). Also a fish tank and a plant just to fill in one blank wall. And outside I customized a couple of signs, then put some picnic tables around the back with some fun lights. I’ve saved the lot to my own Library for now – I am planning on putting it up on the Gallery if anyone wants to download it in the future. :)
4. Get in a workout: Check! Back on the bike for 25 minutes, and – since I was in a Sims mood – watched the English Simmer review the “Wonderful Whims” mod (a mod with the attractiveness, impressions/personalities, and other non-sex-related systems of “Wicked Whims” – basically it’s the SFW version for anybody who doesn’t want the sexy stuff/can’t use it for fear of being banned off YouTube or Twitch) and FakeGamerGirl listing some tips and tricks people might not know for The Sims 4 (I found the “make a male Sim as a female Sim first with more masculine features to make them look better” interesting, but was unimpressed that it apparently took her SIX YEARS to figure out Sims can have more than one outfit in this game). Interesting stuff – I’m planning on getting “Wonderful Whims” at some point in the future, so seeing other people show it off and talk it up is good for figuring out what I’m getting into!
5. Work on tumblr queues: Check – spent some time this morning hunting down a couple of posts I would like to reblog in the future and putting them in the drafts for Victor Luvs Alice. Hey, it counts toward this item! XD And I DID get the text done for this week’s Newcrest Adventures posts too, along with sticking the Wyrd Sisters Podcast The Last Hero episode in the drafts (actually another reblog this time, as they DID post this one to the tumblr). So I’m in good shape!
Whew! Probably for the best I didn't have another hour-long LP video to somehow jam in there. XD And now I have to wrap things up with my final DW comment and head to bed. Hoping tomorrow isn't too much of a clusterfuck. . .even if it is, it'll at least be a shorter one. Night all!
Ah, but I can't really complain about the long weekend -- I had a pretty good time of it overall, even with the weather, and I got a fair bit done today:
1.
And what I could do is kind of reverse how magic works in the Forgotten Vows Verse for this one. In FVV, everyone has magic available to them, in varying amounts. You can only learn as many spells as your personal magic can support, but within that limitation you can learn any spell you want – spells are universal. Magic almost always requires the sacrifice of some sort of reagent or the like (and when it doesn’t, it generally requires something specific be done – even the simplest shield spell makes you hold your hands up!) We also have some people with natural talents – that is, they can perform a spell without the necessary reagents or the like, simply by concentrating. It’s not precisely common, but it’s a thing that happens.
In THIS verse, it’s more like everyone has natural talents, and ONLY natural talents. Everyone TECHNICALLY has magic available to them, but it needs to be “awakened” by a major life event, and said “awakening” informs what you can do with it. You can’t learn any other abilities – what you get is what you get! Varying power levels still exist, so some people have a few minor things they can do, others one major thing (variably well), still others a mix. There’s a handful of very powerful people who, thanks to very significant life changes, can do just about anything with their magic, but they’re pretty damn rare. (Elder Gutknecht, of course, is one of them – it’s part of how he got the entire village Below Upstairs for the wedding.) Spells here serve as refinements, tweaks, and ways to offset the cost of people’s natural abilities – everyone can use their talent through pure concentration, but depending ON said talent, it can take a lot out of you. (Victor learns this the hard way when he manages to will himself back to Elder Gutknecht’s tower, only to immediately need to sit down.) Also, the pure concentration method generally only does one specific thing – using a spell can “adjust” your talent to produce a different-but-similar effect! Which is why the Ukrainian Haunting Spell exists – usually you have to send yourself along with a target up to the Land of the Living. The spell means you can just send the person alone!
. . .Okay, sorry for getting rambly, but I’m having more fun than I should trying to hash this out, and I needed to babble. XD I THINK this covers everything, but we’ll see as I continue to poke.
2. Keep up on YouTube Subs and the latest OXBox RE8 video which should post tomorrow; see if I can also take care of the list videos in the Watch Later: Check – no RE8 video, but that’s because OXBox never uploaded one. Can’t penalize myself for something that never happened. Took care of everything else, though –
A) Actually started with a new video from Plumbella reviewing the new Dream Home Decorator pack. Her thoughts? CAS for young adult/adult females is great, but for males and other age categories, it’s lacking – also apparently no new traits or aspirations; the Buy portion of Build/Buy is also really good – she likes the sectional stuff – but she’s a little tired of the midcentury aesthetic, and the Build portion is also lacking; and the gameplay is pretty fun – a solid structure with enough variety in that structure to keep it interesting (your list of tasks to do is the same each time, but the type of renovations and your clients likes and dislikes are always different) – but DAMN THE PACK IS BUGGY. Apparently Sims will levitate into the ceiling sometimes, or the special slideshow just won’t work, or the camera won’t cooperate if you’re doing an underground build. . . As Plumbella titled the video, she’s not angry, just disappointed. Basically the pack has a lot of good in it, but it’s got to have its bugs patched before it’s really playable. So probably best to wait on this! (Gigs, hopefully it should be in better shape by your birthday.)
B) Then it was over to the Subs to catch up on James Turner:
I. We’ve had Sims 1 and Sims 2 – time to rebuild that one house in Sims 3! And this time, James decided “screw a flat lot – let’s build this sucker on a hill!” Took him a few tries to find a world with a hill that didn’t have a truly FRIGHTENINGLY steep slope, admittedly, but he eventually was able to place his lot and – with the help of moveobjects and terrain editing cheats – get the house built! Again, it came out nice – he was able to get it to match the general style of the base S1 house, with some obvious differences (like the outdoor deck now being on a stilt foundation), and even match some of the colors better with Create-A-Style (when it wasn’t lagging. . .I’ll admit, the ability to at least eyedrop wood tones and whatnot from various furniture pieces to get swatches to match better wouldn’t be bad in the current generation. I just fear how buggy and laggy full CASt would be). He was reasonably pleased with the end product, though he thought the build looked a little dull, color-wise. And, sadly, pool tables need WAY more room to function in S3, so while the table itself fit into the little outdoor room, it wasn’t able to be used. Ah well. . .at least they have them. I get the feeling that we’re going to have some depressing music pop up in the Sims 4 version when it comes to filling that space. . .
II. And then the challenge has been put on hold briefly because James is an EA Game Changer, and thus it is time to start the Dream Home Decorator LP! “3 Brothers” isn’t going anywhere, but James didn’t think the boys were ready for this pack – so after a brief community poll, he introduced Hazel Monet, a Sim created by a fan on Twitter to do the renovations! She will apparently be marrying into the main Bigwallet clan at some point, but for now, she’s just fixing up people’s homes. And occasionally stealing from them, as James gave her the “Kleptomaniac” trait. XD She is a Rags-to-Riches Sim, though James was nice enough to give her an unfurnished apartment in San Myshuno so she has a roof over her head. She’s mainly using the public bathrooms and stealing food from other Sims to survive as she builds up her own capital with room renovations. Her first gig was a renovation for Candy and Yuki Behr – she redid what I believe is Yuki’s room, giving it a black-and-white makeover as Yuki indicated she liked the color black. New bed, new bedside tables, new desk, some new bits of décor – the clients were very appreciative! They were less appreciative of Hazel then climbing in their bathtub to fix her stink problem, admittedly. XD But Hazel got paid for the gig, a nice little bonus from getting immediately promoted, and a little globe décor item that she stole.
And, uh, a bunch of other stuff from the client’s home, because the bugs are indeed real with this pack. James accidentally deleted a wall in their house and then couldn’t put it back even with “undo,” then a bunch of stuff that got moved to the Behr’s household inventory actually ended up in HAZEL’S inventory instead. Whoops. James deleted them out and reset Hazel’s cash – after bills, her apartment now has a bed, some lights, a stolen globe, and some magazines given to her by her job. Uh – fun? :P But yeah, this should be an interesting LP to follow, especially as we get to see more of the bugs. . .
C) Then, this evening, since the RE8 video from OXBox never materialized (looks like they’re doing “Biomutant Mondays” for the time being – sponsored content to pay the bills! Maybe RE8 will land on a different day), I instead checked out the list videos in my WL:
I. “7 Ways Biomutant is the Weirdest Game You’ll Play This Year (Sponsored Content)” – well, may as well see what they’re paying the bills with, right? XD Basically, the game is “humans have gone extinct, and a new world of mutated rodents has risen – but now they’re dealing with tribal wars and things eating the World Tree that keeps everything nice, and you as the chosen one need to deal with it.” From having a narrator basically with you every step of the way to translate dialogue and comment on your adventures, to having your moral choices influenced by actual devil and angel sprites, to gathering globs of DNA-wrecking goo to mutate your character into having toxic vomit or the ability to bounce enemies on mushrooms, it’s definitely a bit of a weird one. XD Looks nice and colorful though, and if you’re a fan of open-world action RPGs, it’s probably worth a go.
II. “7 Sequels to Huge Games You’ve Never Heard of Somehow” – weird spin-off and sequel games in big franchises that have flown under the radar, mostly because they were a) released for ancient cell phones, b) released for now-long-defunct handhelds, or c) barely games – I’m looking at you, Mario Family. Seriously, who thinks a “game” where the player customizes an embroidery pattern which then needs to hook up to a special version of a sewing machine that costs $600 is a good idea? Apparently the people at Nintendo! We also have a Doom RPG for cellphones circa about 2005, a couple of Elder Scrolls games for Java-enabled cell phones (now THAT’S old), and Uncharted: Fight for Fortune, a Hearthstone-style collectible card game for the PSVita. Yeah, not surprised THAT one’s fairly obscure. XD
D) Then it was onto Call Me Kevin playing a little Kingdom Hearts III, as sponsored by the Epic Games store and their current sale! Kevin is apparently not particularly familiar with the series, but he didn’t let that get him down as he played through most of the Hercules section, running around with Goofy and Donald to try and save the citizens of Thebes from Hades causing a volcano to erupt. Hercules himself didn’t actually seem to do that much – flinging the gang on a statue of himself toward a little girl that needed rescuing (this somehow did not crush her), then vanishing until he was required to hold up a building so Sora and the others could fight some Heartless before saving a family. And in the big boss fight, he threw a big rock. [slow clap] Kevin was not impressed – and was equally not impressed by the fact Sora and the others were constantly just letting the villains WALK AWAY. Like, no attempt to attack at all. But he had Goofy on his side, so everything was all right – at least until he realized how altruistic Goofy was, and started making plans to kill him so he wouldn’t have to do any more shield slide sections. XD
E) Then finally it was time for GrayStillPlays and another GTA V stunt board! This one was based around rocket-boosted cars making incredible and incredibly stupid jumps. Leaping from tube to tube at a ninety degree angle? Yup. Leaping over a small wall into a wall ride that has almost an immediate transfer and then multiple jumps? You betcha. Boosting through a tiny gap between two walls where the slightest error will cause death? Why not? Having to do a loop-de-loop and then rocket your way across an UPSIDE-DOWN ROADWAY WITH ONLY THE SMALLEST PLATFORM TO LAND ON? How else are you supposed to end a board? XD I don’t know if Gray had to break out the controller, but he DID have to swap into first-person mode a couple of times (notably on the loop-de-loop), so – equivalent amount of pain? Somewhere up there on the scale, anyway.
3. Play Sims 4 and
4. Get in a workout: Check! Back on the bike for 25 minutes, and – since I was in a Sims mood – watched the English Simmer review the “Wonderful Whims” mod (a mod with the attractiveness, impressions/personalities, and other non-sex-related systems of “Wicked Whims” – basically it’s the SFW version for anybody who doesn’t want the sexy stuff/can’t use it for fear of being banned off YouTube or Twitch) and FakeGamerGirl listing some tips and tricks people might not know for The Sims 4 (I found the “make a male Sim as a female Sim first with more masculine features to make them look better” interesting, but was unimpressed that it apparently took her SIX YEARS to figure out Sims can have more than one outfit in this game). Interesting stuff – I’m planning on getting “Wonderful Whims” at some point in the future, so seeing other people show it off and talk it up is good for figuring out what I’m getting into!
5. Work on tumblr queues: Check – spent some time this morning hunting down a couple of posts I would like to reblog in the future and putting them in the drafts for Victor Luvs Alice. Hey, it counts toward this item! XD And I DID get the text done for this week’s Newcrest Adventures posts too, along with sticking the Wyrd Sisters Podcast The Last Hero episode in the drafts (actually another reblog this time, as they DID post this one to the tumblr). So I’m in good shape!
Whew! Probably for the best I didn't have another hour-long LP video to somehow jam in there. XD And now I have to wrap things up with my final DW comment and head to bed. Hoping tomorrow isn't too much of a clusterfuck. . .even if it is, it'll at least be a shorter one. Night all!
