Thought Organization
Sep. 15th, 2010 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI have rather a lot I want to talk about (that's a change, huh?), so let's try and break it up into sections so I don't miss anything:
A) Sims
1. Completed Neighborhoods
This is just to let ya'll know that there's a![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eurekasims update featuring Emmett. Nothing too special -- he's learning fishing, maxed creativity, and I finally have him starting his Servo, Captain Nemo. XD Incidentally, Free Time-wise, he's a Knowledge/Family who's predestined hobby is Nature. I appreciate this, as it makes him very into gardening. :p
2. In-Progress Neighborhoods
Also known as, let's talk about Inkwell Secundus. I have some families in the family bin now -- care to meet them?
Cheshire Cat -- you saw him in the Inkwell post previously, but he's here for completeness. As I mentioned before, he's just hanging out until I make the Liddells, since I plan for him to move in with them. I just wanted him to have his own last name. He's pretty much just a premade Sim I got from Mod the Sims (back when it was Mod the Sims 2).
The McFlys! Dave is holding Marty -- please tell me he looks appropriately Dave-ish. It's hard when Marty's siblings get no pictures in any of the books I own. Anyway, Dave's a teen and Linda a child in this version -- I started thinking about the math, and decided it might be more logical than the Twin Oaks Park McFlys, where they started out the same age. You see, according to the novelization, Dave's twenty-two while Linda's nineteen. Three year age difference, meaning just enough time for Dave to be a teen first. Of course, I'll be having him glug down some Elixir of Life once they get the points for it to even things out slightly.
The Van Dorts! I sort of love how Victor has to sit on the floor there. Oh, and tell me Victor is not the most adorable toddler ever. I DARE YOU.
Anyway, you can tell these guys were all cut from the same cloth. William, in fact, is simply the result of me fiddling with Victor's model (you can see pretty clearly in the film that Victor does more or less take after his father). I wish I could have given him sideburns with the mustache, but apparently you only get one kind of facial hair in The Sims 2, and the mustache was more important. Nell was rather tricky to pull off -- I really had to chunk up the lower half of her face, and I agonized over her hair. What saved me on the latter front was me remembering the riding hats I'd downloaded with riding habits from MtS.
And here's Doc Emmett, the only Sim so far to have a home. He's living in the Temporis Dorm (the smallest premade dorm from the Lots & Houses bin) of Academie Le Tour with an array of colorful dormies. Incidentally, attaching it to Desiderata Valley seemed to give the game carte blanche to give all the college townies weird-ass names. One of Doc's dorm-mates is Irfan Wilkie. He also has a professor named Pong King, and found a girl named Asia Trottier (whom I think is the same "Sim" as his TOP-counterpart's nephew Keith is in love with) hot. Oh, and there's one townie running around with the name Hyun Louie. I am going to die of laughter before actually getting to do anything with these guys.
Anyway, a few stats on this particular Doc: 2 Sloppy, 4 Shy, 7 Active, 5 Serious/Playful, 7 Nice for personality (which makes him a Pisces), his aspirations are Knowledge/Family, he's a Physics major, and his One True Hobby is Arts & Crafts. I discovered this within the first few SECONDS of actual gameplay -- his first autonomous action was to paint, and up came the message! XD Oh, and his Lifetime want is currently "Graduate 3 Children from College" -- I have a hack that can reroll it, and I've been desperately trying to get "Become Mad Scientist" or "Max Out 7 Skills" so I can actually fulfill it. (His original one was "Become Media Magnate.") I finally stopped on that out of frustration. I suppose it doesn't matter so much, as you can get PermaPlat a bunch of other ways, but I do like fulfilling it when I can.
I plan to make Alice's family tomorrow. Speaking of which. . . .
B)Alice: Madness Returns
Read my article today -- good portion of it was on the "family" atmosphere American McGee tries to keep at Spicy Horse. Apparently they're a rather unusual company. There was also some talk about the game, natch. They working on it at a pretty good clip, according to the article -- they're about halfway done. It had some new pictures, including a few more of Alice from the front. I'm starting to get used to her new look a little. And like I said, her hair looks more its proper color -- at least, it appears to have a reddish tint.
I'm a little worried, though. This article spilled the beans that Alice's family was apparently murdered, and this game revolves around Alice uncovering buried memories to figure out who's responsible. This feels like a retcon to me -- we SAW that damn cat knock everything over in the opening of the first game. And while I know all sorts of games probably do that all the time, it still bugs me. Maybe it's because I don't think Alice's parents NEED to be murdered. Taking away the fact that it was just a terrible accident seems to remove something from the story, for me. I dunno. Any thoughts from those of you who've played the first Alice? Does the story have the same impact on you depending on whether the Liddell's deaths were an accident or murder?
On a different note, the official site updated today. There's some new screenshots and concept art -- we get to see Alice's stolen Pepper Grinder in action against some -- in my opinion -- grotesquely cute teapot enemies. There's also a new teaser trailer. This one, in my opinion, works a LOT better. It feels more like the trailer for the first did. Except for the fact that Alice looked -- off-model to me. It could still be the new animation style.
C) Who Wants Powers?
Okay, I've been meaning to talk about this. Not many people responded to my post on the subject, but I'll work with what I got. Here's what I was dancing around in that post: I saw a video in which someone, in response to a vid collaboration challenge, had Victor be a necromancer of sorts -- that is, in his presence, the dead pop back to life. (He can't control them, though, making this sucky.) I thought this was cool -- and then I realized something.
How many of you would give Victor a power that DIDN'T relate in some way to death or corpses?
My idea was, when you're giving a character who, in their own canon, doesn't have powers -- magical or mutational -- you tend to give them powers that would "fit" or otherwise reference their canon. Like Victor above -- can you really see him without a power that wouldn't make a reference to Corpse Bride? Hell, look at my own ideas:
-->Tie-Twister Victor retains his ability to go to the Land of the Dead and back again
-->DGVictor has the ability to "die" and leave his body as a ghost temporarily; also, undead creatures tend to feel a bit friendlier toward him
-->I turn Victor into the Grim Reaper in an idea for a Victor/Victoria/Emily fic
-->Secundus!Victor takes a different tack -- he doesn't go into reanimation. Instead I play up the butterfly theme with him, which is also a central part of the movie
The odd man out is "Corpse Mask" -- Victor does gain powers for a while, but they're from The Mask's Mask, so he ends up acting a lot more like a time-displaced Stanley Ipkiss. Of the two that wrote in,mayhemmanaged06 gave him a healing factor and immortality -- sort of a flip of the usual death-related powers. tea_holic went with good old necromancy.
As for Alice, as Ally ended up pointing out, there's really TONS of powers you could give her. There's growth/shrinking at will, communication with and control of animals, creating illusions, all sorts of stuff. The illusions thing was actually mentioned in that vid collab thing: Someone did a nasty "nightmare" variant with Disney's Alice. Mayhem gave her the ability to shapeshift into a cat, which also makes sense. The girl seems to have natural affinity for them. Me, I seem to have stuck to her video game origins and made her able to summon up her weapons from apparent thin air. Back when Alice was being considered as a Rift character, though, I DID have the idea that she'd be able to travel through mirrors as her power. That also comes up in my fanfic, where it's a good way to get to Wonderland.
As for the "worst power ever for Alice" -- both participants guessed it. Pyrokinesis. Horrible person that I am, it was the first thought I had after watching the Victor video and thinking what I'd do for an Alice one. Really, though, talk about torturing the poor girl.
Doc -- actually, Doc's my wildcard. Though I've done just about everything to him in my various AUs, I don't think I've EVER given him the obvious -- time control. The closest I've come to thematically appropriate is X-Doc's electricity control (which, when he's pissed off enough, includes lightning), and Clockwork's weather control and Fae-granted mechanical powers. Though Mayhem's idea of a magic-based AU of the movies intrigues me a bit. . . . Anyway, the only person I gave a thematically correct power to is X-Marty, who can stop time. Weird, huh?
Okay, that should just about cover it. And even if it doesn't, I've really prattled on for long enough. Expect a shorter entry tomorrow.
A) Sims
1. Completed Neighborhoods
This is just to let ya'll know that there's a
eurekasims update featuring Emmett. Nothing too special -- he's learning fishing, maxed creativity, and I finally have him starting his Servo, Captain Nemo. XD Incidentally, Free Time-wise, he's a Knowledge/Family who's predestined hobby is Nature. I appreciate this, as it makes him very into gardening. :p2. In-Progress Neighborhoods
Also known as, let's talk about Inkwell Secundus. I have some families in the family bin now -- care to meet them?
Cheshire Cat -- you saw him in the Inkwell post previously, but he's here for completeness. As I mentioned before, he's just hanging out until I make the Liddells, since I plan for him to move in with them. I just wanted him to have his own last name. He's pretty much just a premade Sim I got from Mod the Sims (back when it was Mod the Sims 2).
The McFlys! Dave is holding Marty -- please tell me he looks appropriately Dave-ish. It's hard when Marty's siblings get no pictures in any of the books I own. Anyway, Dave's a teen and Linda a child in this version -- I started thinking about the math, and decided it might be more logical than the Twin Oaks Park McFlys, where they started out the same age. You see, according to the novelization, Dave's twenty-two while Linda's nineteen. Three year age difference, meaning just enough time for Dave to be a teen first. Of course, I'll be having him glug down some Elixir of Life once they get the points for it to even things out slightly.
The Van Dorts! I sort of love how Victor has to sit on the floor there. Oh, and tell me Victor is not the most adorable toddler ever. I DARE YOU.
Anyway, you can tell these guys were all cut from the same cloth. William, in fact, is simply the result of me fiddling with Victor's model (you can see pretty clearly in the film that Victor does more or less take after his father). I wish I could have given him sideburns with the mustache, but apparently you only get one kind of facial hair in The Sims 2, and the mustache was more important. Nell was rather tricky to pull off -- I really had to chunk up the lower half of her face, and I agonized over her hair. What saved me on the latter front was me remembering the riding hats I'd downloaded with riding habits from MtS.
And here's Doc Emmett, the only Sim so far to have a home. He's living in the Temporis Dorm (the smallest premade dorm from the Lots & Houses bin) of Academie Le Tour with an array of colorful dormies. Incidentally, attaching it to Desiderata Valley seemed to give the game carte blanche to give all the college townies weird-ass names. One of Doc's dorm-mates is Irfan Wilkie. He also has a professor named Pong King, and found a girl named Asia Trottier (whom I think is the same "Sim" as his TOP-counterpart's nephew Keith is in love with) hot. Oh, and there's one townie running around with the name Hyun Louie. I am going to die of laughter before actually getting to do anything with these guys.
Anyway, a few stats on this particular Doc: 2 Sloppy, 4 Shy, 7 Active, 5 Serious/Playful, 7 Nice for personality (which makes him a Pisces), his aspirations are Knowledge/Family, he's a Physics major, and his One True Hobby is Arts & Crafts. I discovered this within the first few SECONDS of actual gameplay -- his first autonomous action was to paint, and up came the message! XD Oh, and his Lifetime want is currently "Graduate 3 Children from College" -- I have a hack that can reroll it, and I've been desperately trying to get "Become Mad Scientist" or "Max Out 7 Skills" so I can actually fulfill it. (His original one was "Become Media Magnate.") I finally stopped on that out of frustration. I suppose it doesn't matter so much, as you can get PermaPlat a bunch of other ways, but I do like fulfilling it when I can.
I plan to make Alice's family tomorrow. Speaking of which. . . .
B)Alice: Madness Returns
Read my article today -- good portion of it was on the "family" atmosphere American McGee tries to keep at Spicy Horse. Apparently they're a rather unusual company. There was also some talk about the game, natch. They working on it at a pretty good clip, according to the article -- they're about halfway done. It had some new pictures, including a few more of Alice from the front. I'm starting to get used to her new look a little. And like I said, her hair looks more its proper color -- at least, it appears to have a reddish tint.
I'm a little worried, though. This article spilled the beans that Alice's family was apparently murdered, and this game revolves around Alice uncovering buried memories to figure out who's responsible. This feels like a retcon to me -- we SAW that damn cat knock everything over in the opening of the first game. And while I know all sorts of games probably do that all the time, it still bugs me. Maybe it's because I don't think Alice's parents NEED to be murdered. Taking away the fact that it was just a terrible accident seems to remove something from the story, for me. I dunno. Any thoughts from those of you who've played the first Alice? Does the story have the same impact on you depending on whether the Liddell's deaths were an accident or murder?
On a different note, the official site updated today. There's some new screenshots and concept art -- we get to see Alice's stolen Pepper Grinder in action against some -- in my opinion -- grotesquely cute teapot enemies. There's also a new teaser trailer. This one, in my opinion, works a LOT better. It feels more like the trailer for the first did. Except for the fact that Alice looked -- off-model to me. It could still be the new animation style.
C) Who Wants Powers?
Okay, I've been meaning to talk about this. Not many people responded to my post on the subject, but I'll work with what I got. Here's what I was dancing around in that post: I saw a video in which someone, in response to a vid collaboration challenge, had Victor be a necromancer of sorts -- that is, in his presence, the dead pop back to life. (He can't control them, though, making this sucky.) I thought this was cool -- and then I realized something.
How many of you would give Victor a power that DIDN'T relate in some way to death or corpses?
My idea was, when you're giving a character who, in their own canon, doesn't have powers -- magical or mutational -- you tend to give them powers that would "fit" or otherwise reference their canon. Like Victor above -- can you really see him without a power that wouldn't make a reference to Corpse Bride? Hell, look at my own ideas:
-->Tie-Twister Victor retains his ability to go to the Land of the Dead and back again
-->DGVictor has the ability to "die" and leave his body as a ghost temporarily; also, undead creatures tend to feel a bit friendlier toward him
-->I turn Victor into the Grim Reaper in an idea for a Victor/Victoria/Emily fic
-->Secundus!Victor takes a different tack -- he doesn't go into reanimation. Instead I play up the butterfly theme with him, which is also a central part of the movie
The odd man out is "Corpse Mask" -- Victor does gain powers for a while, but they're from The Mask's Mask, so he ends up acting a lot more like a time-displaced Stanley Ipkiss. Of the two that wrote in,
mayhemmanaged06 gave him a healing factor and immortality -- sort of a flip of the usual death-related powers. tea_holic went with good old necromancy.As for Alice, as Ally ended up pointing out, there's really TONS of powers you could give her. There's growth/shrinking at will, communication with and control of animals, creating illusions, all sorts of stuff. The illusions thing was actually mentioned in that vid collab thing: Someone did a nasty "nightmare" variant with Disney's Alice. Mayhem gave her the ability to shapeshift into a cat, which also makes sense. The girl seems to have natural affinity for them. Me, I seem to have stuck to her video game origins and made her able to summon up her weapons from apparent thin air. Back when Alice was being considered as a Rift character, though, I DID have the idea that she'd be able to travel through mirrors as her power. That also comes up in my fanfic, where it's a good way to get to Wonderland.
As for the "worst power ever for Alice" -- both participants guessed it. Pyrokinesis. Horrible person that I am, it was the first thought I had after watching the Victor video and thinking what I'd do for an Alice one. Really, though, talk about torturing the poor girl.
Doc -- actually, Doc's my wildcard. Though I've done just about everything to him in my various AUs, I don't think I've EVER given him the obvious -- time control. The closest I've come to thematically appropriate is X-Doc's electricity control (which, when he's pissed off enough, includes lightning), and Clockwork's weather control and Fae-granted mechanical powers. Though Mayhem's idea of a magic-based AU of the movies intrigues me a bit. . . . Anyway, the only person I gave a thematically correct power to is X-Marty, who can stop time. Weird, huh?
Okay, that should just about cover it. And even if it doesn't, I've really prattled on for long enough. Expect a shorter entry tomorrow.
