Em's Random Sim Pics and Projects

Hey Em - I came across this while I was looking for medieval stuff, and I wondered if it might be useful to you. It's a large collection of Greek armor, and weapons and stuff.

There is also an impressive Persian set. I hope you don't mind me posting the links here.

Em wrote:

I want to make one outfit look different ways, be changed for different situations, but still look like it's the same clothing, So this is what I've come up with so far for the girls.

Very neat idea, Em, and I really like what you've done so far!

Em wrote:

If the rolled up pants on had a mesh with sneakers or even barefoot, it would be better.

Tim wrote:

I'll see what I can do...Doesn't seem like it would be a difficult item to do.

How'd it go, Tim? Any luck?

Loved the frisky teens in the corridor shots! Those teen hormones can be so distracting!

Chase's house is very festive! Like you I'm a little concerned about his aspiration choices. Romance?!

Looks like you've got your hands full with all that hood-juggling. lol! How do you keep track?! Do you write down who is who and all that?

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Sapphira, Natalie, and Reese are some of your prettiest sims ever, Em

Thanks! I'm pretty fond of them too, especially Natalie. I'm trying to find some different hair that works on her, because a lot of styles don't look good. I did a temporary makeover on her when I was playing around, testing some things. I'll have to see if I took a pic, because she looked pretty cool in a different style. Reese I can't get used to how she looks without her glasses. I wanted to update her look when I did my time jump, but she just didn't look right to be without the glasses.

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Being the object that so many men desire must be tiring, indeed.

I'm sure!

Thanks for the links, Ari. Those are some cool finds.

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Loved the frisky teens in the corridor shots! laughin Those teen hormones can be so distracting!

It only got worse after that. Jealousy started to kick in. Luckily there are no beds in the school. On another lot I had to chaperone a pair of them. I was like, "oh no, you are not even remotely there yet!"

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Like you I'm a little concerned about his aspiration choices. Romance?! affraid

At least he doesn't know what all it entails. I explained the aspirations in simple terms. "This one likes to learn things. This one means they like to make money . . . have friends . . . fall in love, etc." Maybe he just liked the picture with the heart. Thankfully, he hasn't been too interested in actually playing them, just making the people and their houses. He did want me to make the pets have babies.

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Looks like you've got your hands full with all that hood-juggling. lol! How do you keep track?! Do you write down who is who and all that?

I've always had several hoods going at once. Most of these I've had versions of since I started playing the game. My "Royal Kingdom" and "Founders' Challenge" hood, I'm not very good at keeping track of everyone's details. I load up Simpe when I need to look up a name. I keep all of the houses on the same season, so I know who's been played and who needs to be played. "Arrendale Heights" and my "Penelope's Journey" hoods are just for storytelling. I've had these characters in my head for years, so they're hard to forget. And I have notes from when I was writing the latter and not yet simming it. "New Eden" is kind of prosperity/ legacy style hood, just for playing. It's a remake of the first Sims 2 neighborhood I ever made, so I've had some of those sims around for a long time (I haven't played that hood in about a year though, and not much in the few years before that either.) Then I have another hood called "Waterside Park" or something like that I've used for miscellaneous challenges and testing. Chase's sims live there, as do our "Sugah Babies" (our simsibs from Hunter's +plus mac, Toni, and Jen, who I moved in, but yet to play.). There are lots of sims I used in challenges there, I can't even remember all of them.

So keeping track. Either it's in my head or once I look around the hood a little bit, most of it comes back to me pretty quickly.

I've been playing my Royal Kingdom Challenge neighborhood lately.  I would share this in my challenge thread, but I'm not feeling up to going through all the pictures, figuring out where I left off and what happened just right now, but I thought I'd at least share some pics of my cute couples and sims that have been growing up.

My three princesses got married to a set of brothers.  Two of the triplet princesses ended up married to two brothers from another set of triplets.  The other sister married the triplet boys' older brother.







And they're on their way to being the parents of multiples themselves.  In one case so far, multiple multiples.    I think I'm going to have to readjust my triplets and quads hack percentages again.   

The other brother in the set of triplets has a male lover.  (His father had the want to have a relative married and the want to have a relative joined, which I thought was very sweet.  I discovered that the want to see someone joined gives fewer aspiration points than seeing one married though . . .  )



A match has been made for the princess's younger brother, the future king.



One of my merchant girls grew into a very lovely adult indeed!  This beauty is Antonia.   I've already found a handsome soldier for her to marry.



Just for fun, my resident priestess / love goddess, who's not an official resident of the hood (she's more like a placeholder sim), procreated with a mortal in the hood who would prefer to remain anonymous.  



I named them Apollo and Artemis, since those were the twin names that came to mind and I think the way they grew up, their coloration, especially, really fits their names.  (I also sped up the pregnancy and their aging)

Maybe it's the hair, but Artemis looks a lot like a young Octavia.

I hear ya with the multiples hack.  Sometimes you end up with babies coming out of your ears!

Antonia is just lovely!  I love her eyes.

Em wrote:

I discovered that the want to see someone joined gives fewer aspiration points than seeing one married though . . .  )

I didn't know this - how odd and disappointing.

Your golden and bronze skinned twins, Apollo and Artemis definitely look like demi-gods!

Very much enjoyed seeing your Royal Kingdom Challenge pictures! I think my favorite picture is of the young couples' First Kiss. I love the pink hearts  

Mac wrote:

Maybe it's the hair, but Artemis looks a lot like a young Octavia.

It probably is the hair. I hadn't thought if it before you mentioned it, but in my hood Artemis and Octavia are actually related. Octavia would have been Artemis' great-grandmother. I don't know if there's any genetic relationship or not since I made Octavia as an elder in CAS and her daughter as an adult. It's possible that I used the make-a-baby feature to generate Octavia's daughter, but it's also possible that they were two randomly selected sims that I gave family relationships to. I don't remember now.  

Ari wrote:

I hear ya with the multiples hack. Sometimes you end up with babies coming out of your ears!

  I wonder if multiples are more likely to have multiples themselves or if it's coincidence. I don't mind it so much if some are predisposed to having multiples. I'm seriously thinking about limiting the number of pregnancies some of these sims are having. But on top of that, I'm having a lot of other sims around the kingdom having twins.

Ari wrote:

I discovered that the want to see someone joined gives fewer aspiration points than seeing one married though . . . )
I didn't know this - how odd and disappointing.

That was my reaction too. I never knew this before, because pretty much all of my sims have been straight. I'm seeing it now as I'm playing these challenge hoods where I'm trying to avoid adding new sims or using townies, so when the number balances get off I'm allowing more gay and bi sims. For as liberal as the game is in this regard it is disappointing that joined and married would be treated differently.

First kisses are so cute, aren't they? I have more of my Royal Kingdom Adventures in this thread.

How awesome that the princesses married brothers! Talk about keeping it in the family!  They really are lovely girls!  

Love you boy couple! They're both cute as anything!  

Ooooh Antonia is gorgeous! I love that hair. It's what my sim-self wears by the way.  

Isn't the resident priestess supposed to be a vestal virgin?!!!  

Apollo and Artemis are cute though. Do they live with their mother still?

I have no extra-baby hacks, and I still have too many twins for my liking. I can't even imagine what I'd do with triplets!!!

Great to catch up with your simmies Em. Especially the princesses.  

ilikefishfood wrote:

I have no extra-baby hacks, and I still  have too many twins for my liking.  I can't even imagine what I'd do with triplets!!!

Even one toddler can be a handful! (And I'm telling you???   )

Even twins in a family more or less bring the family to a halt. I use the nursing hack and while they are babies mom ends up being primarily a cow!  When they're toddlers, taking care of them, teaching them is pretty much a full time job. I've gone to the point of saving just prior to the birth event, then redoing if it's twins. I also try to have at least one parent platinum so he/she can use the smart milk and the thinking cap without any fear of failure.

Em wrote:

My three princesses got married to a set of brothers.  Two of the triplet princesses ended up married to two brothers from another set of triplets.  The other sister married the triplet boys' older brother.

That is so cool! I love it!

Em wrote:

And they're on their way to being the parents of multiples themselves.  In one case so far, multiple multiples.    I think I'm going to have to readjust my triplets and quads hack percentages again.  

EGADS! Multiple multiples??? WOAH!
I'd be pulling my freakin' hair out & adjusting that hack faster than you could say "We've got stock in Pampers", chica!  

Sir Mac wrote:

Even one toddler can be a handful!

Ain't THAT the truth?!?

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This beauty is Antonia.

How lovely, Em!
You know who she reminds me of? A darker, more exotic version of Meadow Thayer somewhat. What a pretty girl!

I thoroughly enjoyed catching up in your game antics thread.
Will try to visit your Royal Kingdom thread SOON.

 

Toni wrote:

How awesome that the princesses married brothers! Talk about keeping it in the family! laughin They really are lovely girls!

 Yeah, unfortunately there aren't a lot of dating choices for them. Hopefully by the next generation everyone won't be first cousins with each other.  I may have to keep my fingers crossed on that one.

Toni wrote:

Love you boy couple! They're both cute as anything!

I love them too. I think I'm going to spoil them. I already moved them into a cute little beach house.

Toni wrote:

Ooooh Antonia is gorgeous! I love that hair. It's what my sim-self wears by the way. sunny

Is it? Cool. I think it's one that's new too me. It came up right away when I was changing her appearance and I really liked it. I need to take a picture of all of the sisters together. They're all so uniquely pretty. (Uniquely from each other.)

Sugah wrote:

How lovely, Em!
You know who she reminds me of? A darker, more exotic version of Meadow Thayer somewhat. What a pretty girl!

I hadn't thought of that, but I can see it.  

Toni wrote:

Isn't the resident priestess supposed to be a vestal virgin?!!! affraid

Apollo and Artemis are cute though. Do they live with their mother still?

Either that or the goddess herself. As the goddess, I'm pretty sure she can get away with doing whatever she wants. Yes, they still live with her. I think they're still teens.

mac wrote:

I use the nursing hack and while they are babies mom ends up being primarily a cow! When they're toddlers, taking care of them, teaching them is pretty much a full time job.

I use the nursing hack, but if there are more than two babies (or more than one, even) I don't make her do it alone. I think it's perfectly acceptable to supplement with bottle feeding from the other parent (or anyone who is around to help. And I don't even bother teaching toddlers. I used to do the smart milk and at least get them potty trained. Now I don't even do that usually. Sometimes I still potty train some, when it seems more convenient that dealing with changing diapers.

My Royal family had four adults in the household when the triplet princesses were born and it was a full time job for all of them to take care of the girls and themselves. I recently played a household in another neighborhood where things are very rustic. I want to see if I can build up a sim neighborhood/society/economy starting from next to nothing. One couple had triplets to take care of with no help and in just a one room shack. They did pretty well during the infant years. They got into a rhythm where the dad would change the diapers, the mom would nurse them one by one. They'd put them to bed and have time to either sleep or take care of their other needs (like eat and shower) before it was time for the next round of diaper changing. The toddler years were rougher, since I couldn't keep the toddler's fun levels up and the parents were running out of food and then everyone caught the flu. They have survived so far and the kids made it to childhood somehow.  

Vesta, the darker complexioned princess (and the romance sim, go figure!) had quads, then decided to get pregnant again right away.   (Against what I thought was better judgement). Then, of course, she had twins. When I moved her out of the castle, because it was too crowded. I had the queen (her mother) go with her to help. Then I also moved in a lower class girl as hired help. (I don't know how long she'll stay. She seems to hate the job.) So, somehow with four adults, hopefully they'll manage. I don't know that I've played them much since the twins were born.

Speaking for myself (anyway) and maybe others, those of us who have had kids in RL aren't as put off by hordes of toddlers as those, like myself, who haven't had kids.    Just a guess.

Great family picture! And, that's a lot of toddlers!  

I'm not sure about that, mac. I did the 7 toddler challenge long before I had a child. (Note: 1 child, singular. I could not handle hordes of children or toddlers in real life. I couldn't even fathom the thought of a second child until mine was 3 years old, but then the timing after that was never any good.  ) Plus, Sugah seemed pretty put off by the idea of multiple multiples and she's had RL children.  

I guess I get bored by making my sims have perfect easy lives. I like the challenge of making them struggle and it's kind of fun when the game throws something at me unexpected. It always seems to do so at the most inopportune times.

But I would be perfectly content if my sims just had single births (or at least no triplets and quads) for awhile.  

Em wrote:

Vesta, the darker complexioned princess (and the romance sim, go figure!) had quads, then decided to get pregnant again right away.    (Against what I thought was better judgement). Then, of course, she had twins. When I moved her out of the castle, because it was too crowded. I had the queen (her mother) go with her to help. Then I also moved in a lower class girl as hired help. (I don't know how long she'll stay. She seems to hate the job.)

Can't say as I blame you for moving the Baby Factory (Vesta) out due to her overcrowding the castle with all of her royal rugrats.  
And I can't blame the lower class hired help for hating her new job as nanny to that passel of wee prince & princes.  

Em wrote:

Plus, Sugah seemed pretty put off by the idea of multiple multiples and she's had RL children.

 

Truth be told, at one time I didn't mind all the infants/toddlers, Em.
It is because I am so rusty and verrrry out of practice playing that I am not equipped to play Sim households filled little ones terribly well.
In fact, when we first did the Passel of Poppets challenge over at Planet the Sims, I actually enjoyed it and fell in love with the family and all their kiddos.
I don't recall minding their overlarge brood of pixel pixies.
Some day, when I get to focus on just PLAYING again, I might welcome bigger families into my hoods.
In the meantime, I am not quite adept enough to take care of more than one or two rugrats at a time efficiently. (I still like to train the wee ones as much as possible before the morph.)  

Em wrote:

But I would be perfectly content if my sims just had single births (or at least no triplets and quads) for awhile.

 

SimEm wrote:

Good news Em! I got this mesh done for you...well...I take that back...I still got to add the 2 different style shoes...Shoot forgot that. I should be able to get the shoes by tomorrow...maybe tonight...If you want to send me your email I can send it to you when it is done. Right now it just has tennis shoes.

Oh, wow, I totally forgot about this. Thank you so much, Tim! If it just has tennis shoes, that would work for me. My characters are on a deserted island, so they wouldn't have a change of shoes. (Unless it's Gilligan's Island  ) If you want to e-mail me you can use my yahoo.com address. My username is mlek1313.

I forgot about the Passel of Moppets challenge. As I remember though, don't you prefer to have your sim kids one at a time so you can focus on each one and teach them their skills and all that? I rarely ever both with teaching them their toddler skills. It's not worth the effort to me.

I think my favorite sized families are 5-6. Any less and I get a little bored. 8 or more starts to get a little too hectic.

I've been meaning to share what's happening in my game. I've been into playing very rustic hoods lately. I'm trying to build up my sims' society from scratch. I want to start them out with next to nothing and build up their neighborhoods. I'm trying to create a closed economy where the items in the sims houses are "made" by themselves (or other sims in the hood) and where money doesn't come from no where like from typical jobs in the game. I think the idea comes from playing the Royal Kingdom Challenge. I like that the peasants live off the land and the merchants have businesses, and the royals collect taxes, but I'm never sure what to have my nobles do, especially since their position seems so arbitrary. I started something like this once before, but I decided to restart it so that I can play with more intention. The first time I didn't make one of my couples have enough children and that caused some difficulties later on.

So I started a new hood and created 8 sims, 4 male adults and 4 female adults. I made sure each of the default skin colors and hair colors were represented once for each gender and gave them a roughly even mix of eye colors and aspirations and random personalities. I wanted to make sure I used all of the genetic options because I don't plan on having any outside breeding later on and it will be interesting to see if any of the traits become more or less common in the population.



I moved them all into a temporary lot for a brief period of time to see who got along with who and what pairs had the best chemistry and let them help me decide who should pair up with who.

I ended up with James and Raya,



Ian and Lana,



Al and Celeste,



and Henry and Felicity.



I made a really simple lot and placed it in the hood four times, so each couple would start out with the same resources. The lot is a beach lot with a small pond for fishing. It has a small one room house. Each house is furnished with a double bed, a crib, a bookcase (in the future, if I was to start over, I'd leave out the bookcase. No one has time to study anyway.), one counter, a grill (I used one that looks like an open fire), a refrigerator (I have a hacked one that started out completely empty, so they have no food to start out with), a shower and sink (I used ones that look primitive, like rain buckets), and a toilet (I used an invisible one that can be used outside, alternatively I would have made a separate outhouse). I also added a light for my own benefit and for the benefit of taking visible pictures, since my lighting hack makes nighttime super dark.



The goals of my first generation sims are to fish for food (and for money) and to have lots of babies.

They cannot get outside jobs (from the newspaper) and they cannot hire any type of service sim.

They can store the fish they catch in the fridge, keep them in their inventories, give or sell them to other sims, or sell them from their inventory for simoleons. They can also sell anything they find on the beach or by digging for treasure.

They are only allowed to buy certain things from the buy catalog. They are allowed to buy one bed per sim in the household (or per two sims in the case of double beds). It has to be one of the cheapest beds though. They can buy additional cribs so there is one in the household for each infant and toddler in the family. They can make structural changes to their house, build walls, floors, ceilings, add doors etc. They can buy hobby benches, easels, sewing machines, pottery wheels, etc. They can buy plants, trees, garden plots, fruit trees, etc. They can buy community lots, items necessary for home or community lot businesses, buy pets, pet supplies, and telephones (but only temporarily to open businesses, adopt pets, or things of that nature. I don't mind having them invite sims over, since they can't walk to each others houses and waiting for the right sim to walk by when you want them to can be troublesome, but I don't think at this point they should have the technology to chat on the phone.)

In order to "unlock" other items from buy mode, the sims have to earn talent badges. The toy making bench unlocks hard furnishings. I've decided bronze will allow for tables and chairs to be created. More advanced items like counters, dressers, better beds will require higher levels. The robot making bench unlocks electronics and appliances. The higher the badge, the more complex the electronics. The sewing machine will allow for different clothes, curtains, upholstered furnishings (in combination with the basic chairs). Paintings from the easel can be traded for paintings from the catalog and maybe nicer wall paint. The pottery wheel can unlock other decorative items and maybe plumbing too (maybe if a sim has good mechanical skills). For games, I think a sim should have a decent amount of creativity points. I still need to layout all of the exact details. But I don't want the details to be too cumbersome. I want them to be intuitive, so I don't have to constantly refer to a list of rules or worry about breaking my own rules.

Right now I'm on my third generation. The original founder's grandchildren are becoming teens and I've only had one sim just, finally get a bronze toy making badge. He opened a business and has been selling quite a few chairs already.

You should have an email now Em...and what an interesting idea for a sim hood! Looking forward to seeing more about this!

Way to go, Timster!!!  

Yes, Em. I tend to panic when my Sims have twins.
I do prefer one babe at a time so I can have their parents focus on training them.
You don't think it's worth it?

Woah! Talk about "back to basics"!
Trying to live as much as possible off the land, using only the natural resources given to them, buying only certain, simple things from the catalog unless badges are earned, etc., etc.
What a cool idea! How creative!

Em wrote:

I still need to layout all of the exact details.

Might this be a challenge, once completely worked out and penned, that could become one others may want to give a whirl in our Challenge Arena here?  

I like Raya's 'island girl' hair. Where did you find that?
Oh, and Felicity's, too?

Some of you have such great imaginations when Simming.
Fun stuff!

Thanks, Tim!  

I find the training tedious. It takes so long and if my sim family has a lot of other things going on, they run out of time. There doesn't seem to be any benefit to the youngsters having learned their skills after they've grown up either. I do tend to do potty training more so than the others. If for no other reason than to spare my sims from changing so many diapers.

Sugah wrote:

Might this be a challenge, once completely worked out and penned, that could become one others may want to give a whirl in our Challenge Arena here?

I could do that. I'm kind of play testing it now. I kind of have to remind myself to push them to work towards unlocking more things, because I tend not to make my sims do things unless it fulfills their needs or wants and these sims seem obsessed with birdwatching and sunbathing and chatting about hobbies. I am starting to miss all of the pretty modern conveniences and decorations. I may need to keep them more on task or switch to a more modern hood for awhile. I desperately need to update my stories. It's been months. Now that Tim has made this awesome mesh for me, I need to work out the problems in that story and visit my islanders.

Raya's hair is called New Sea Shangri-la. The flower is a separate accessory. Bodyshop doesn't say where it's from. Felicity's hair is labeled as being from Peggysims.

I agree, Em. Training the wee pixel people is rather tedious.

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There doesn't seem to be any benefit to the youngsters having learned their skills after they've grown up either.

That's what I wanted to know.
When they're trained, don't they grow up better?
I thought a message comes up when all toddler skills are achieved,
but I can't recall what it is for the life of me.
I don't play nearly enough anymore to remember much.  

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I could do that. I'm kind of play testing it now.

Yaaaay!  
I'd love it if you'd start a dialog going with Elle (our Challenge Arena Queen  ) about it once you've tested it and have fine-tuned the rules.
How exciting!

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...and these sims seem obsessed with birdwatching and sunbathing and chatting about hobbies.

 

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Now that Tim has made this awesome mesh for me...

What have you two been up to? Can you post images?

Thank you for letting me know about Raya and Felicity's hair.
So glad you have you back in here sharing again, Em.  

Sugah wrote:

When they're trained, don't they grow up better?
I thought a message comes up when all toddler skills are achieved,
but I can't recall what it is for the life of me.

I'm not sure, but you're probably right. My sims rarely max out their skills or get to the tops of their careers either. I guess it's not my playing style to put a lot of focus on those types of things.

I haven't done much with Tim's mesh. I just hopped on bodyshop briefly to see what it can do. It's really cool because there are two layers. One layer is the body/ underwear layer and the top layer is the teen track suit from the game and it's totally alpha editable.

So just real quickly, playing around, first is the original outfit, second is the outfit with the sleeves cut short (after I cropped the pants, I got the inspiration to make them fringed. So, theoretically, I could even add holes and tears to them if I wanted!) With the third one I removed the jacket and the shoes (the top that shows up is the default undies that were on the mesh. I didn't get around to changing anything on the textures yet, but I could make that layer match the shirt you can see peaking out from under the jacket in the original). Now I can make them go barefoot and jacketless with the "same" outfit (or I could say do I scene where someone is in various stages of dress! Which would be cool for a scene where I have characters getting ready for bed.) This is what I was needing for my story where I wanted a group of sims to be stranded on an island. They wouldn't have brought any clothes with them, but now they aren't stuck wearing the exactly the same thing all the time, in a realistic way.  

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I'm not sure, but you're probably right. My sims rarely max out their skills or get to the tops of their careers either. I guess it's not my playing style to put a lot of focus on those types of things.

Maybe I need to focus on something ELSE other than my Sims maxing out skills and getting to the top of their careers.  
Perhaps my gaming style would be far more creative if I branched out and away from the same old, same old.
I see so many of you play in such unique ways.
I wish my imagination was half of what some of you Simmers are blessed with!!!

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One layer is the body/ underwear layer and the top layer is the teen track suit from the game and it's totally alpha editable...

Now I can make them go barefoot and jacketless with the "same" outfit (or I could say do I scene where someone is in various stages of dress! Which would be cool for a scene where I have characters getting ready for bed.) This is what I was needing for my story where I wanted a group of sims to be stranded on an island. They wouldn't have brought any clothes with them, but now they aren't stuck wearing the exactly the same thing all the time, in a realistic way.  

That is so neat, Em! And way to go, Timster!  

Bravo, you two!