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Not A Great Start To The Vacation
Aug. 4th, 2023 11:55 pmMy parents were having a really bad day with all their online stuff, and me -- well, just look at the "work" section below --
Work – Well, I THOUGHT I was going to get a quiet last half-day at work, with doing a reasonably meaty GL and then updating the main template for said GL going forward (gotta do that periodically every time we switch to having a new campaign year). . .and then a lady called in with a credit card update, and I discovered shenanigans. Involving her, another donor, and our processing company making a very interesting mistake. Spent a good portion of the rest of my day firing off an e-mail to our database people and the credit card company to get it fixed – the database people are doing their job, as far as I know, but who knows what’ll happen with the credit card people. *heavy sigh* Not my problem til I go back a week and a half from now, but STILL. Not how I wanted to end my time at work!
Sims 4 – As we had another little patch the other day (bugfixes, mainly for the new EP Horse Ranch), I decided to hold off on moving back to my main save and instead stay with my building save and on the “mucking about with the Gutknecht Bend VITD build” (AKA the wrecked version of the Gutknecht Bend house I did earlier, that features as the lair in my “Valicer In The Dark” AU idea) train! Here’s what I accomplished –
A) I added more broken window frames around the house, and adjusted the height of all of those on the main living quarters down slightly – I left them up higher on the tower portion of the build to sell the idea that the tower was the original construction, and the rest of the house came later.
B) I popped on the “showdebugobjects” and “showliveeditobjects” cheats for a look at all the stuff they give you access too (mostly all the set dressing objects used in the world) – it’s a pretty extensive catalog! And what really surprises me is, while most of them are just called **DEBUG**, a few have actual descriptions and names! Hell, a few even have prices – $4! How bizarre. . .I ended up using some fake walls and a fake – I dunno, it’s a little tower with a shallow indentation and a shelf on the front; I don’t play enough in Windenburg to identify what it’s supposed to be – to mark out the fake “edge” of the lot on the left, as the lot itself is a bit big for what I intended. (Then again, the whole neighborhood is a bit more rural than I intended too, but – no getting around that. Besides, Six Towers – where the house is supposed to be located in Duskwall – used to be a swanky neighborhood, so maybe a lot of the lots actually do have green space around them. . .)
C) Speaking of which, I ended up moving the whole lot over to the right, so the fake “road” I built was closer to that edge of the lot, as that felt more natural to me. Also added a little terrain paint around the edges of the road to look like dirt and/or old cobbles – thought it might be too bright when I first started experimenting, but I liked the look of it in the end!
D) Speaking of dirt, I also made sure to add a handful of cracks on the walls and floors, some grody water stains in the bathroom, and cobwebs around the lot (including in some of the lights). Plus I rearranged all the various candle chandeliers on the lower and middle floors and deleted a bunch of them so each room except the hallway only has one, making the place darker and gloomier. Want the place to look like it’s been run down and abandoned for a while, after all!
E) That being said, I did also add a proper sink to the kitchen (the Cottage Living big chonky one that matches the counters), a dining table and three chairs to the dining room (granted, the chairs are clearly cobbled-together messes), and some wall lights to the top floor of the tower (since I can’t hang ceiling lights in there – no ceiling under the glass dome! Because you gotta have your basics.
F) However, I was curious about something, so – after doing an initial save – I popped over to the Victor Van Dort who lives in this save in Brindleton Bay to test something. Namely, when you use the Realm of Magic cauldron to cook food (which is something everyone, even non-spellcasters, can do), 1. do you need a fridge on the lot, and 2. do you need ingredients if you have the “Simple Living” lot challenge enabled? After checking, I can say that the answers are 1. no, you do not need a fridge, and 2. yes, you do need ingredients (mac & cheese, specifically, requires flour (for the pasta) and cheese). Good to know they didn’t just forget the cauldron when doing Cottage Living and the new lot challenge (as they have other objects in the past) –
But confirming it didn’t need a fridge to make food led me to go back to the build and delete the fridge from the lot. XD Hey, if you can get mac & cheese, and later chili, without it, then I can get rid of it and save a little on the lot price! I also got rid of the more expensive weights machine in the gym, leaving only the cheap punching bag – that’ll do for workout equipment for now!
G) And I updated the lot type from “Residential” to “Haunted House Residential” (because the lot, and Duskwall in general, are supposed to be haunted af); added the “Creepy Crawlies” (bug and bat attacks may happen in the house), “Filthy” (stuff gets dirtier faster), and “Grody” (Sims can get nauseous after eating or drinking in the house) lot challenges; and the “Private Dwelling” (deters all but the most determined Sim visitors – good for a house that’s supposed to be largely warded so no one can find it) lot trait. *nods* So THAT’S all set now!
And yeah, that’s where I’ve left it for the time being, other than rearranging some furniture a bit. I like how it’s coming along, and the general run-down feel of the place. :) If I do ever start up my “Valicer In The Dark”-themed save, I think this will do nicely as a starter lair for the gang. :)
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – last day on the bike this week, with more Sims 4 stuff to take me into my first vacation weekend –
A) Finished off “Trying to throw a gold rated party! High School Years (Part 41)” by James Turner! Killing Kenta with cheats definitely proved not to be the way to go about forcing him not to be a teacher, as the game was perfectly happy to let his ghost continue instructing Class 2. James shall have to figure out another method to get this jerk out of his school. XD Anyway, Addison went around getting to know every teenager currently in the school in a desperate attempt to make friends that might invite them out somewhere, while Breanne attended class and career day (which seemed to feature a chef, a military officer, and a mobster this time). Once that was done, it was time to head back home, where Breanne finished her school project with the help of Addison and the visiting Hilary (who’d come over asking to be best friends with Breanne – she said yes because James had multiple best friends enabled through mods) –
And then it was party time! :D Yes, in order to complete the second tier of her teen aspiration, Breanne hosted a mid-week pre-Summerfest (James’s version of Winterfest – he’s Australian, remember?) bash with pretty much everyone she knew, with James wedging a piano and a pop-up bar into the living room for everyone to use. The party went reasonably well – Addison and Hilary took care of the “flirting” goal for her, and decamped to the hot springs to try messing around (unfortunately, Addison having to clean the springs after they initially got in, only to encounter very mucky water, killed the mood, and James’s second attempt to complete the action never actually fired properly), and Breanne fulfilled the main goal just by thanking all of her various guests for coming, guaranteeing a gold. Unfortunately, her new potential love interest, Haven, never showed up, and she was so tired she actually ditched her party halfway through and went to bed. XD But she DID successfully throw a gold-level party, got a nice boost in Charisma out of it, and advanced her aspiration to the final level – get 250 followers on social media!
. . .she already has more than that on Social Bunny AND Trendi, so James isn’t sure why the heck it isn’t completing. I suspect she may have to get that many followers on BASE GAME social media? I dunno, the episode ended before he could figure out what was wrong. *shrug* Hopefully the problem will be resolved in the next episode (though I have to watch the next part of Addison’s “Dine Out Reloaded” series first). But at least she’s in a good place to COMPLETE her aspiration, unlike Addison! We can only hope he’s figured out a solution to “Addison is not being invited to sneak out anywhere” as well by the next episode too!
(Oh, and if you’re wondering what was going on with the parents – Reginald got another raise, nearly died from overheating because James forget the heat was on in the house, and went for a jog with Obi; Kevin did some more working out himself and led another class for his yoga club. It’s not really about the parents anymore, especially since this series is starting to wind up by this point. :P)
B) Watched “Hidden Career Rewards [Early Expansions] You Need To Know About | The Sims 4 Guide” by Petey Plays It! Yeah, I had some time to kill after finishing up the above, so I went for another one of Petey’s guides, detailing some of the cool stuff you can get from the new careers in the early expansions (once again ending on the Island Living/StrangerVille combo). As you might imagine, the Scientist career from Get To Work pretty much dominated the list with all the cool inventions and serums. XD But we also got things like politicians being able to ask for bribes (and getting embarrassed about it); food critics being able to improve terrible or normal-quality dishes (with a sprinkle of salt); those investing in social media being able to get LOADS of followers from livestreams (and then lose them again by nattering on about sponsorships); conservationists being able to film nature documentaries (with cross-pack compatibility with Get Famous’s video-editing station!); and military personnel being able to order people to clean, salute, give them twenty (push-ups), or spar with another Sim (shockingly skillfully). Fun stuff, and a good look at interactions in careers you might overlook otherwise!
2. Continue writing “The Joker And The Queen”: Check – did this right before my workout, finishing up my current scene. With everyone having been lovingly reunited, the question of “where have you BEEN” came up from the various parental/family units – and Thirteen’s response of “quasi-governmental facility” prompted more than a few raised eyebrows. And when Alice and her compatriots all got out of the van to introduce themselves and suggest talking it over more comfortably at the nearby picnic spot, Rita couldn’t resist showing off her super speed to blast over there – only to be bested by Gayle using her Galactica portals to get over there just as fast. XD Yeah, as you might expect, everyone has questions. (Except Rita’s little brother Scott Jr., who just thinks all of this is really fucking awesome. XD) Fortunately answering them can be done off-screen! Ahhh, fun times. . . And this means I’ve reached another good break point if I decide I want to do more “Valicer In The Dark” stuff over my vacation. :P
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Full check at last, thanks to only Gray uploading today, and that upload being short enough to pair with yesterday’s video even if I did get to it a little late –
A) First up, yesterday’s Josh Way – “A Tour of My Handheld Gaming Devices!” Josh taking us through all the various portable gaming systems he’s acquired over the years as he feeds his gaming hobby. I did NOT get all the names of all of them (particularly the weird Chinese ones he uses to emulate old games, which were just strings of letters and numbers for the most part), but I can tell you that his favorite for retro emulation on the go is something called a Miyoo Mini Plus (which looks like a knockoff Gameboy with a bigger screen); his favorite for more modern emulation is the Steamdeck (a bit fussy to set up, but if you like Steam games, it’s your handheld), and his most-played/favorite overall is his Switch (the system he started with, and the one he still finds the easiest to just pick up and play – his current model is a Switch OLED, with an OLED screen and very cool clear controllers on either side). Even as someone whose gaming tastes are basically “almost all PC with the occasional phone/iPad mobile game,” it was a cool look at what’s out there for the people who want to emulate and play all the things!
B) And second up, today’s GrayStillPlays – “When your head becomes bigger than the sun,” aka Gray plays Layer Man 3D! It’s a return to the old “run the course and collect these specific things” mobile game format, only in this one, you collect head layers, to make your head as big and round as possible so you can later stretch out those layers into a sort of slingshot cannon thing and shoot yourself over the path of score multipliers to hit the giant devil/Viking ax-man/robot on the loose creature at the end. Oh, and you can dress up as Ash Ketchum with either a Pikachu tail or a multicolored pony tail. And if you don’t shoot yourself far enough, you bounce over the multipliers and glitch wildly, like you’ve been possessed by the spirit of either Slenderman or a Bethesda game. :p Gray had a lot of fun collecting layers (either by grabbing them or absorbing the souls of those with less layers than he had), earning ridiculous amounts of money, and then pouring that money into ridiculous amounts of upgrades. VERY satisfying. XD I’ve kind of missed these games – fun to do something just so silly once in a while!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A, basically – nothing’s happening on Valice Multiverse, and I’ve already got Victor Luvs Alice sorted for tomorrow. Maybe we can call getting all of Moose’s messages answered on here a substitution check. :P
So yeah, not the best day, but at least I got some stuff done, and am finally caught up on the Subs side of tumblr! Now it's time to see about clearing out the Watch Later again. . .and getting back to the Chill Valicer Save in Sims 4, and continuing with "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland," and getting some more tumblr posts drafted and -- yeah, got plenty to do during my time off. :p But first, I gotta wrap up the social thing and then head to bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings -- night all!
Work – Well, I THOUGHT I was going to get a quiet last half-day at work, with doing a reasonably meaty GL and then updating the main template for said GL going forward (gotta do that periodically every time we switch to having a new campaign year). . .and then a lady called in with a credit card update, and I discovered shenanigans. Involving her, another donor, and our processing company making a very interesting mistake. Spent a good portion of the rest of my day firing off an e-mail to our database people and the credit card company to get it fixed – the database people are doing their job, as far as I know, but who knows what’ll happen with the credit card people. *heavy sigh* Not my problem til I go back a week and a half from now, but STILL. Not how I wanted to end my time at work!
Sims 4 – As we had another little patch the other day (bugfixes, mainly for the new EP Horse Ranch), I decided to hold off on moving back to my main save and instead stay with my building save and on the “mucking about with the Gutknecht Bend VITD build” (AKA the wrecked version of the Gutknecht Bend house I did earlier, that features as the lair in my “Valicer In The Dark” AU idea) train! Here’s what I accomplished –
A) I added more broken window frames around the house, and adjusted the height of all of those on the main living quarters down slightly – I left them up higher on the tower portion of the build to sell the idea that the tower was the original construction, and the rest of the house came later.
B) I popped on the “showdebugobjects” and “showliveeditobjects” cheats for a look at all the stuff they give you access too (mostly all the set dressing objects used in the world) – it’s a pretty extensive catalog! And what really surprises me is, while most of them are just called **DEBUG**, a few have actual descriptions and names! Hell, a few even have prices – $4! How bizarre. . .I ended up using some fake walls and a fake – I dunno, it’s a little tower with a shallow indentation and a shelf on the front; I don’t play enough in Windenburg to identify what it’s supposed to be – to mark out the fake “edge” of the lot on the left, as the lot itself is a bit big for what I intended. (Then again, the whole neighborhood is a bit more rural than I intended too, but – no getting around that. Besides, Six Towers – where the house is supposed to be located in Duskwall – used to be a swanky neighborhood, so maybe a lot of the lots actually do have green space around them. . .)
C) Speaking of which, I ended up moving the whole lot over to the right, so the fake “road” I built was closer to that edge of the lot, as that felt more natural to me. Also added a little terrain paint around the edges of the road to look like dirt and/or old cobbles – thought it might be too bright when I first started experimenting, but I liked the look of it in the end!
D) Speaking of dirt, I also made sure to add a handful of cracks on the walls and floors, some grody water stains in the bathroom, and cobwebs around the lot (including in some of the lights). Plus I rearranged all the various candle chandeliers on the lower and middle floors and deleted a bunch of them so each room except the hallway only has one, making the place darker and gloomier. Want the place to look like it’s been run down and abandoned for a while, after all!
E) That being said, I did also add a proper sink to the kitchen (the Cottage Living big chonky one that matches the counters), a dining table and three chairs to the dining room (granted, the chairs are clearly cobbled-together messes), and some wall lights to the top floor of the tower (since I can’t hang ceiling lights in there – no ceiling under the glass dome! Because you gotta have your basics.
F) However, I was curious about something, so – after doing an initial save – I popped over to the Victor Van Dort who lives in this save in Brindleton Bay to test something. Namely, when you use the Realm of Magic cauldron to cook food (which is something everyone, even non-spellcasters, can do), 1. do you need a fridge on the lot, and 2. do you need ingredients if you have the “Simple Living” lot challenge enabled? After checking, I can say that the answers are 1. no, you do not need a fridge, and 2. yes, you do need ingredients (mac & cheese, specifically, requires flour (for the pasta) and cheese). Good to know they didn’t just forget the cauldron when doing Cottage Living and the new lot challenge (as they have other objects in the past) –
But confirming it didn’t need a fridge to make food led me to go back to the build and delete the fridge from the lot. XD Hey, if you can get mac & cheese, and later chili, without it, then I can get rid of it and save a little on the lot price! I also got rid of the more expensive weights machine in the gym, leaving only the cheap punching bag – that’ll do for workout equipment for now!
G) And I updated the lot type from “Residential” to “Haunted House Residential” (because the lot, and Duskwall in general, are supposed to be haunted af); added the “Creepy Crawlies” (bug and bat attacks may happen in the house), “Filthy” (stuff gets dirtier faster), and “Grody” (Sims can get nauseous after eating or drinking in the house) lot challenges; and the “Private Dwelling” (deters all but the most determined Sim visitors – good for a house that’s supposed to be largely warded so no one can find it) lot trait. *nods* So THAT’S all set now!
And yeah, that’s where I’ve left it for the time being, other than rearranging some furniture a bit. I like how it’s coming along, and the general run-down feel of the place. :) If I do ever start up my “Valicer In The Dark”-themed save, I think this will do nicely as a starter lair for the gang. :)
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – last day on the bike this week, with more Sims 4 stuff to take me into my first vacation weekend –
A) Finished off “Trying to throw a gold rated party! High School Years (Part 41)” by James Turner! Killing Kenta with cheats definitely proved not to be the way to go about forcing him not to be a teacher, as the game was perfectly happy to let his ghost continue instructing Class 2. James shall have to figure out another method to get this jerk out of his school. XD Anyway, Addison went around getting to know every teenager currently in the school in a desperate attempt to make friends that might invite them out somewhere, while Breanne attended class and career day (which seemed to feature a chef, a military officer, and a mobster this time). Once that was done, it was time to head back home, where Breanne finished her school project with the help of Addison and the visiting Hilary (who’d come over asking to be best friends with Breanne – she said yes because James had multiple best friends enabled through mods) –
And then it was party time! :D Yes, in order to complete the second tier of her teen aspiration, Breanne hosted a mid-week pre-Summerfest (James’s version of Winterfest – he’s Australian, remember?) bash with pretty much everyone she knew, with James wedging a piano and a pop-up bar into the living room for everyone to use. The party went reasonably well – Addison and Hilary took care of the “flirting” goal for her, and decamped to the hot springs to try messing around (unfortunately, Addison having to clean the springs after they initially got in, only to encounter very mucky water, killed the mood, and James’s second attempt to complete the action never actually fired properly), and Breanne fulfilled the main goal just by thanking all of her various guests for coming, guaranteeing a gold. Unfortunately, her new potential love interest, Haven, never showed up, and she was so tired she actually ditched her party halfway through and went to bed. XD But she DID successfully throw a gold-level party, got a nice boost in Charisma out of it, and advanced her aspiration to the final level – get 250 followers on social media!
. . .she already has more than that on Social Bunny AND Trendi, so James isn’t sure why the heck it isn’t completing. I suspect she may have to get that many followers on BASE GAME social media? I dunno, the episode ended before he could figure out what was wrong. *shrug* Hopefully the problem will be resolved in the next episode (though I have to watch the next part of Addison’s “Dine Out Reloaded” series first). But at least she’s in a good place to COMPLETE her aspiration, unlike Addison! We can only hope he’s figured out a solution to “Addison is not being invited to sneak out anywhere” as well by the next episode too!
(Oh, and if you’re wondering what was going on with the parents – Reginald got another raise, nearly died from overheating because James forget the heat was on in the house, and went for a jog with Obi; Kevin did some more working out himself and led another class for his yoga club. It’s not really about the parents anymore, especially since this series is starting to wind up by this point. :P)
B) Watched “Hidden Career Rewards [Early Expansions] You Need To Know About | The Sims 4 Guide” by Petey Plays It! Yeah, I had some time to kill after finishing up the above, so I went for another one of Petey’s guides, detailing some of the cool stuff you can get from the new careers in the early expansions (once again ending on the Island Living/StrangerVille combo). As you might imagine, the Scientist career from Get To Work pretty much dominated the list with all the cool inventions and serums. XD But we also got things like politicians being able to ask for bribes (and getting embarrassed about it); food critics being able to improve terrible or normal-quality dishes (with a sprinkle of salt); those investing in social media being able to get LOADS of followers from livestreams (and then lose them again by nattering on about sponsorships); conservationists being able to film nature documentaries (with cross-pack compatibility with Get Famous’s video-editing station!); and military personnel being able to order people to clean, salute, give them twenty (push-ups), or spar with another Sim (shockingly skillfully). Fun stuff, and a good look at interactions in careers you might overlook otherwise!
2. Continue writing “The Joker And The Queen”: Check – did this right before my workout, finishing up my current scene. With everyone having been lovingly reunited, the question of “where have you BEEN” came up from the various parental/family units – and Thirteen’s response of “quasi-governmental facility” prompted more than a few raised eyebrows. And when Alice and her compatriots all got out of the van to introduce themselves and suggest talking it over more comfortably at the nearby picnic spot, Rita couldn’t resist showing off her super speed to blast over there – only to be bested by Gayle using her Galactica portals to get over there just as fast. XD Yeah, as you might expect, everyone has questions. (Except Rita’s little brother Scott Jr., who just thinks all of this is really fucking awesome. XD) Fortunately answering them can be done off-screen! Ahhh, fun times. . . And this means I’ve reached another good break point if I decide I want to do more “Valicer In The Dark” stuff over my vacation. :P
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Full check at last, thanks to only Gray uploading today, and that upload being short enough to pair with yesterday’s video even if I did get to it a little late –
A) First up, yesterday’s Josh Way – “A Tour of My Handheld Gaming Devices!” Josh taking us through all the various portable gaming systems he’s acquired over the years as he feeds his gaming hobby. I did NOT get all the names of all of them (particularly the weird Chinese ones he uses to emulate old games, which were just strings of letters and numbers for the most part), but I can tell you that his favorite for retro emulation on the go is something called a Miyoo Mini Plus (which looks like a knockoff Gameboy with a bigger screen); his favorite for more modern emulation is the Steamdeck (a bit fussy to set up, but if you like Steam games, it’s your handheld), and his most-played/favorite overall is his Switch (the system he started with, and the one he still finds the easiest to just pick up and play – his current model is a Switch OLED, with an OLED screen and very cool clear controllers on either side). Even as someone whose gaming tastes are basically “almost all PC with the occasional phone/iPad mobile game,” it was a cool look at what’s out there for the people who want to emulate and play all the things!
B) And second up, today’s GrayStillPlays – “When your head becomes bigger than the sun,” aka Gray plays Layer Man 3D! It’s a return to the old “run the course and collect these specific things” mobile game format, only in this one, you collect head layers, to make your head as big and round as possible so you can later stretch out those layers into a sort of slingshot cannon thing and shoot yourself over the path of score multipliers to hit the giant devil/Viking ax-man/robot on the loose creature at the end. Oh, and you can dress up as Ash Ketchum with either a Pikachu tail or a multicolored pony tail. And if you don’t shoot yourself far enough, you bounce over the multipliers and glitch wildly, like you’ve been possessed by the spirit of either Slenderman or a Bethesda game. :p Gray had a lot of fun collecting layers (either by grabbing them or absorbing the souls of those with less layers than he had), earning ridiculous amounts of money, and then pouring that money into ridiculous amounts of upgrades. VERY satisfying. XD I’ve kind of missed these games – fun to do something just so silly once in a while!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A, basically – nothing’s happening on Valice Multiverse, and I’ve already got Victor Luvs Alice sorted for tomorrow. Maybe we can call getting all of Moose’s messages answered on here a substitution check. :P
So yeah, not the best day, but at least I got some stuff done, and am finally caught up on the Subs side of tumblr! Now it's time to see about clearing out the Watch Later again. . .and getting back to the Chill Valicer Save in Sims 4, and continuing with "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland," and getting some more tumblr posts drafted and -- yeah, got plenty to do during my time off. :p But first, I gotta wrap up the social thing and then head to bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings -- night all!
