Em's Random Sim Pics and Projects

That´s a cool lot

Ooh this is just gorgeous! I love the little huts. And the plants you picked out are just perfect - everything looks very authentic. I love the texture of the sand - is it a terrain paint?

Em,

That is one fantastic get away lot :))) This roof is what gave me such a fit but I see that you have mastered it :))

It is a fantastic lot and you put so much detail into it and it shows!!

I agree with the consensus; this is a great lot. I hope you consider offering it for download when you finish it.

Ari wrote:

Ooh this is just gorgeous! I love the little huts. And the plants you picked out are just perfect - everything looks very authentic. I love the texture of the sand...

Jen wrote:

That is one fantastic get away lot ... you put so much detail into it and it shows

Elle wrote:

I hope you consider offering it for download when you finish it.

You know I'm all about beach lots, Em.
These huts are sooo cool. What a great job you've done!

This would make a perfect Bon Voyage beach lot.
I could see my Sims frolicking in the sea, sunning themselves & playing in the sand all day here.
Love your attention to detail and great job with the conical roofs!

Thanks, everyone. :D

Yes, the sand is terrain paint. It must have come with a lot I downloaded, because I have a ton of terrain paints that I have no idea where they came from.

Is that the trouble roof, Jen? It gave me some problems too. I think I finally ended up adding columns temporarily on the outside of the building, so it would let me drag it where I wanted to.

I could offer it for download, but I deleted the road and sidewalk when I built it. They came back later somehow . . . maybe I moved the lot at some point. Now there are a bunch of trees in the middle of the road. I don't know if doing that might cause any problems down the road. Also it's missing some vital things, like a bathroom and kitchen. I built it to be a set, not necessarily a functional lot, so I'm not sure how well that would work for others. If those issues aren't problems, I'd be glad to share.

Bon Voyage is definitely on my list to get. Especially for this project, it would be great to have!

I personally wouldn't care if it had all the amenities - I could add those myself. And I think MTS2 has a replacement mailbox that you can buy from the catalog just in case you delete yours - but I can't seem to find it now. Eventually (I don't know when because I have SO many projects going on at the same time - but I thought it would be fun to have an island lot and put Sugah's beautiful Tita and my Lelei together in it roaming around in their sarongs. They could have banana and papaya trees for food, or maybe some fruit trees and a juicer. Maybe a little island store where they sell tropical fruit. So if you get around to it, I'd download it, but definitely no rush because who knows when I would actually play it. There are hundreds of things I want to do with my game - but aren't there always?

I really do need to add a bathroom though. I could use the always fun squat anywhere toilet, but I think they would really have a bathroom or outhouse at least. Do you (anyone) generally prefer furnished or unfurnished lots. I didn't share the interior pictures, even though I already had the huts furnished and decorated.







After I made this lot I started on another one, for the same story, until Chase took over my game and started enforcing his own decorating ideas . . .



He was not very happy when he found out I removed the rocks when he wasn't looking.

I didn't delete the mailbox or the trash cans, they're hidden behind the huts, so that's not a problem. I think I have the replacements, anyway, just in case. I like the idea of adding banana and papaya trees. Ulli gave me the link, but I don't think I got around to downloading them. I like the idea of having a fresh fruit market. That would be cool. I kind of want to add the waterfall shower (I don't remember if I downloaded that one yet or not, but I don't think there's room. I might have to make a second neighboring lot and pretend they're all in one.

Ha ha ha - I love Chase's idea of decorating.

I think they're cute as is. You can leave them decorated or not - it's totally up to you - whatever is easiest.

You did a really good job with this lot, Em, and I agree with Ari. Furnished or unfurnished, I like it!

Thanks, ladies.

Astral Faery wrote:

Ha ha ha - I love Chase's idea of decorating.

I think they're cute as is. You can leave them decorated or not - it's totally up to you - whatever is easiest.

I totally agree!

Autumnelle wrote:

You did a really good job with this lot, Em, and I agree with Ari. Furnished or unfurnished, I like it!

Thanks, Toni.

I signed up for Sim Story Creation Month at Simspiration. You make a sim story creating goal hat you have to complete in the month of March. My goal was to take the pictures for two story updates for any of my stories (I have three going on, as usual, not including gameplay and challenges) and to write the text for at least one. So partially as part of that (and partially in addition to that) I've been working on more lots / sets.

My first group of pics are for a new/old story I'm working on. It's kind of like Arrendale Heights, generation 3, which I should not start on since I'm just starting generation 2 and maybe the characters and timeline won't match up. But that's okay, because it can stand alone. I just feel so drawn to the characters and this story sometimes, because I feel like I know it so well. I should since I actually came up with them first, back when I was in high school. Now I'm getting really excited about the look of it and the sets!

I edited the island lot above, playing around with an "ocean waters" hack I have and with lot adjuster to make the lot a little bigger, so now I have an ocean that sims can wade into.



The sim testing it out is the late Octavia from my Royal Kingdom challenge. I know a couple of people were interested in what she might look like younger.



Here's a picture of her unedited with lighter hair.



Here's an exterior shot of the lot above that Chase added all the rocks too after I edited it with lot adjuster and added the ocean waters. I need some pics of the inside too. I had a lot of fun decorating it. I used some "asylum" downloads from GOS to make it really grimey on the inside.



And lastly for this project (so far) I needed to make some docks.





Also, Penelope's Journey, which Sugah asked me about has been on my mind too. For the next part I had the challenge of making an abandoned temple or temple ruins, which I was not sure I had the right cc to make. I managed to come up with this. It's not exactly how I pictured it, but I like it and I think it will work.





I've been doing pretty well on my goals too. I just have a few more pictures to take.

Wow, Em! I always wonder how you find the time to get so much done. Your docks and ruins look awesome! Octavia is a very unique young lady - I like her catty eyes - they make her look like she's got secrets to tell - but she ain't telling! I definitely prefer her with darker hair, though. I am behind on everyone's stories again. Good job for making goals and tackling them!

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I always wonder how you find the time to get so much done.

By neglecting my child, my schoolwork, and especially my house! Those pics were from over a month or two, so I do a little at a time. Lately I've had to take a break to catch up on other things. I don't think I've even played at all since I posted.

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they make her look like she's got secrets to tell - but she ain't telling!

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By neglecting my child, my schoolwork, and especially my house!

It's funny because it's true.

Oh and I forgot to add sleep to that list.

Ari wrote:

... but I thought it would be fun to have an island lot and put Sugah's beautiful Tita and my Lelei together in it roaming around in their sarongs ...

I love how you furnished the hut's bedroom & sitting area, Em.
You did a fine job. Looks great!
Chase's boulder additions were a charming, innovative touch.

Octavia is a beauty as a younger woman.

Your docks are superb! I absolutely LOVE them!!! BRAVO!!!
The ruins look terrific, too. Wonderful job!

Ari wrote:

I always wonder how you find the time to get so much done.

Em wrote:

By neglecting my child, my schoolwork, and especially my house!

Thank you for sharing what's been going on in your game lately, Em.
Good luck with your Simspiration goals!!!
I absolutely have no idea how you will work that into your already phenomenally full schedule!

Thanks for all of the lovely comments, Sugah.


The Simspiration challenge was over at the end of March. I finished it. I tried to make a goal that wasn't overly ambitious and I got lucky because I'd already written part of one of the episodes for their last challenge and I'd had a couple of pictures already taken for the second one. So that helped. And I worked on a lot of it during spring break when I was recovering from whatever bug I had and Chase actually napped, because he wasn't feeling well at the time either. :(

I decided to use my Amazon credits and ordered Bon Voyage, thinking I really need those beautiful water effects for my new story, but unfortunately I found out afterwards that lots don't automatically have pretty water, just because they're on the ocean, they have to be beach lots. I think I knew this at one time but forgot. I'm so bummed. I'm thinking there must be someway to get ocean effects on non beach lots, some kind of mod I could download or some way to hack it. I've been searching with no luck. If anyone knows of any secrets to make my lots into beach lots or where I could find any information on this, I would appreciate it. I really don't want to have to try to recreate the new lots I built before I installed Bon Voyage. I'm trying to figure out something.

Thanks for the tip on Hunter

Beach lots are difficult. I've tried many that ought to be beach lots without success.

In the meantime, if you can ever get a beach lot to work, you might take a look at this

You're welcome.

Thanks for the download. I tried it out with my surfer sim, Will, who I'd moved onto a beach lot I placed to test it out and it worked great. Very cool. I had the song "Surfin' Safari" in my head the whole time. :D I'll share some pics later when I'm at my own computer.

I just want a way to make my already exisiting lots to have beach waves. I don't even care if they have all of the interactions, like swimming and sand castle building. I just want them to look pretty for screenshots. I found a mod at Simlogical, but I can't seem to get it to work. Maybe it's just supposed to give the beach interaction options, but not the waves, which is the opposite of what I'm wanting. The description wasn't very detailed. :/

Ahhh for the days of treeware! Nowadays you shake the box and out comes a dvd. That's it!

I went and looked in the Prima guide to Bon Voyage and it told all about beach lots. There is a subcategory of plain lots that's beach lots. They have to be in between water and a road, and at least one tile of them has to overlap water. Depending on where the water line is, you can or cannot build on certain areas of beach lots. There are however "Ground covers" "Water covers???" that allow you to have different types of water. That's it in a very small nutshell, the Prima guide only devotes around 3 pages to beach lots and, of course, you'll have to do your own building unless you can find premade beach lot properties.

I see that you're a TA - with students all of your own. You're in a house in my hood with Caleb and Jen, and going by the name of Em Sim (Knowledge/Capricorn Education - how appropriate!/Nature) Your avatar has made it to level 3 (Substitute Teacher)

I never would have thought to look for a special kind of lot . . . or have known that there was a thing as specialty lots if I haven't read it, probably online. It might have been mentioned in the little booklet that comes with the game, but it certainly does not tell you much. Once I figured that out I was able to create new lots with beaches with no problem. If all else fails I will just have to stage the scenes that are on the water on newly created lots and the scenes that require the buildings and scenery created on the lots I've already built before I installed Bon Voyage.

Are the "ground/ water covers" the same thing as the terrain paint that's been around since the basegame came out or is that something new? If that's their solution, I could have saved my money. LOL I need to explore the game some more, for sure, because I have no doubt there are some interesting new objects for me to make use of.

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I see that you're a TA - with students all of your own. You're in a house in my hood with Caleb and Jen, and going by the name of Em Sim (Knowledge/Capricorn Education - how appropriate!/Nature) Your avatar has made it to level 3 (Substitute Teacher)

Sounds great! For a long time I've considered myself a professional TA. Since for the last 8 years I've done the same thing a TA would do at a major university, but for most of that time I was not in school.

In my game, I named my simself Em D'Sim (so very close to the name you chose!). She got engaged to townie Benjamin Long, so I decided to combine their names and started calling her Em DeLong (that's the name I use on my livejournal blog and on my secondary facebook account - since it became her professional name as the producer of the sim soap opera Arrendale Heights). However, they never actually got married. He turned into a vampire who could only be up at night and she got involved in raising and breeding pets, so they drifted apart and eventually went their separate ways. lol It will be interesting to see what becomes of her in the various sidekick challenge neighborhoods.

MTS2 does have some pre-made beach lots. I know nothing about them, but here's a link

http://www.modthesims.info/browse.php?tag=beach+lot&go=Go&gs=1&f=143&gs=1