Em's Random Sim Pics and Projects

I think I have my graphics options set up to the maximum. I have a laptop, so I think the options are kind of limited. I noticed as soon as I got it that the colors were different. I couldn't see as many subtle differences, like between white and really light colors anymore. It kind of stinks.

I've had a similar experience, Em. What looks like a nice match on my puter screen, might not appear the same on others'.
I'm thinking I'm at the highest, best settings for my game and monitor.
I've noticed, for example, the main peachy color of this forum looks far less bold on my main puter than it does on my secondary.
Or when I've attempted to create a certain colored ensemble for one of Ari's Sims and in her game it looks way different than it does in mine.

Weird stuff.

I've been doing a lot of random things here and there whenever I find time to play, which is only in little spurts.

I've been thinking about working on the next installment of Penelope's Journey, since it's been a long time. I've been putting off working on it, because I've got like a flashback/ dream sequence that's spread out over a few different locations. So I know that's going to take some time. I did try building a lot for it. Here is my first attempt...



I liked it, but it didn't look quite like what I was going for, so I looked up some pictures online for inspiration and ended up changing it to this...



That's as far as I got with that before I moved on to something else.

I've got these characters that have really been calling to me strongly lately. They were characters from this story I started writing when I was a teenager, half my lifetime ago . . . Long ago I was trying to figure out their pasts and kept going backwards. Eventually I came up with their grandparents while playing TS1 and the grandparents became my main characters in Arrendale Heights. I've been trying to figure out their connections and making sure no one is dating their second cousins or anything like that. Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, since I really don't have time to really work on anything. I'll have to share pics later as I'm running out of time now.

I definitely like your second attempt (mucho), Em. Nice job ... handsome structure.

It's so interesting to hear how writers work through things in their heads. My mind simply does not think like that.
No characters ever call to me.
Perhaps if they did, I'd be afraid of the voices in my head ...

Please keep us posted. It's so neat that you may be writing a story conceived in your youth!

I like the second attempt too Em.

It's funny I always have things going through my head of things my Sims would say - but I'm not in play or in a position to use it to tell the tale.

Maybe now that I'm playing more - I can use that gift more.

It will be nice for a new installment of Penelope's Journey Em.

Thanks, ladies. I wasn't sure if I liked it after the changes or not until I went back and looked at both screenshots again. I know I really do need to work on updating Penelope's Journey again sometime, but I'm not sure when I will attempt to work on it again.

Ok, so they don't literally call out to me, like voices in my head. I just get reminded of them and start thinking about them. I've been sketching out family trees, trying to see where I can fit characters in, seeing what happens if I try to shift them around. It's like putting together a puzzle.

I think all of the stories on were conceived (at least partially) in my youth. I don't have so many new ideas these days. Too many old ones to finish first, I guess.

I'm looking forward to reading more of your playing updates, Hunter. It will be fun to see what your sims have to say.

Ok, here are some other pics I was going to share before I had to go. This is how my new Arrendale Heights is shaping up. I'm copying it in a new neighborhood. I've had a heck of a time getting all the lots to fit in the way they used to. They're the same lots and the same terrain, so I don't know what the deal is.



I started creating some of my third generations sims. In one family the mother is the daughter of two of my original sims, I made her from the make a baby option in CAS then extracted her with simpe and edited her slightly in bodyshop to pretty her up a little...sometimes born in game sims look a little funny. I made her a husband from a sim I downloaded from somewhere. He was a little rough around the edges originally with facial mask scars and funky hair, but once I changed the superficial things, the sim underneath had just the look I was wanting to pass on to the kids. Breeding them together in CAS, I got Shane, looking pretty much like I would have imagined him, probably better than I could have made him myself.



Then he met Jessi, another sim I got in CAS from a sim I made and a townie I extracted. And aren't they just cute together? Somehow they ended up with almost identical personalities. They're both Aquarius. She's knowledge and he's family. They have triple chemistry.

Em wrote:

I liked it, but it didn't look quite like what I was going for, so I
looked up some pictures online for inspiration and ended up changing it
to this...

I like the second attempt better, too. If you give me a choice between dark and brooding and something brighter, I will choose the latter every time.

Hunter aka V wrote:

It will be nice for a new installment of Penelope's Journey Em.

Em wrote:

And aren't they just cute together?

Most definitely.

Thanks for sharing them with us!

I like the way your new AH is shaping up, Em. Lookin' good so far.

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I made her from the make a baby option in CAS then extracted her with simpe and edited her slightly in bodyshop to pretty her up a little...sometimes born in game sims look a little funny.

You know, I've never thought about this. A lot of times, Sims born of parents who are very customized, often look peculiar.
What a great idea to extract with SimPE, then pretty up in BodyShop!
This may seem like a silly question, but when you put the altered Sim back in the game, is anything lost (personality, history, etc)?
Or is it the same, exact Sim otherwise ... or just a beautified clone of itself?
(Remember, I'm an old lady who remembers very little and confuses easily. )

That young couple is absolutely PRECIOUS, Em. I agree!
Thank you for sharing what's going on in your Sims world with us.

Thanks for the positive feedback, ladies!

Sugah, after you alter the sim in bodyshop you have to recreate them as a totally new sim in CAS to have the new face in the game.

Even if you were to use the sim surgery option in Simpe, you would have to create a new "dummy" sim in CAS from the sim you edited in bodyshop, in order to copy the new face to the original sim using sim surgery. Afterwards you could delete the new dummy sim from the sim bin. In that case it would be the exact same sim, just with a different face. I've done that before once or twice.

The way I'm doing it with my AH neighborhood is, I go into a different neighborhood make my parent sims in CAS, then use the make a baby option until I find a face that I like, one that is close to what I want as possible or just the best looking one I can get. If they're good looking enough I could stop there, but if there are some weird facial things that I can't fix with the sliders in CAS, then I save the kid(s) that I want (as adults), usually delete the parents and then save the family. Then I extract them, edit them in bodyshop and recreate them in my main AH neighborhood, the one I want to play them in and make them as a new sim from scratch. If they just had all of the sliders in CAS, like they do in bodyshop, I wouldn't even have to go to all that trouble. I'd just make them in CAS and be done with it.

I don't trust my story characters to have babies on their own. Partially because their faces are very customized and I know the kids are probably going to be funky looking at least half of the time, but also because I want them to have the same kids that they had when I played them in TS1 (order, gender, hair color, and general look at least)

You have some great lots and sims in your game Em!

Thank you, Deb. I'm glad you like them.

Here's a lot I was working on awhile ago.



For something that is coming very soon...



I just need to think up some titles and get around to uploading and linking it and all that good stuff.

Very medieval, Em. I like it. Can't wait to see what is evolves into.

OMG, Em! It's awesome! I just love how you can send us back in time with your stage settings.
Don't tell me you are working on Penelope's Journey again?!?
I'm so excited!!!

Thanks! I've been working on it a little bit here and there and I think I've finally got another update ready. I just have to do a couple of finishing up touches and upload it. I haven't been that interested in working on this story lately, but it's been so long, I thought I should. Plus, there really wasn't much more that I had to do to get it done.

Since only a few chapters have been completed, I can go back and review those I've read already (awhile back).
This way, when I read the latest excerpt of Penelope's Journey, it'll all be fresh in my mind again.
I have no doubt it takes a lot of time & tenacity to get every stage set up perfectly & all the screenshots taken to your liking, in addition to thinking up the storyline and posting it all for us.
It's a lot of work, isn't it?

I admire you Sims storytellers, I really do.
I don't think I'd have one fraction of the patience it takes to tell a tale as beautifully as my Sims Scribes friends can.

All I can say is WOW!!! It is just awesome, I love all the little details you put into it. Amazing!

Thanks, Adrianna. I've been trying to put more detail into my settings. For this story, being set in another time and place, I think it's especially important. I've been collecting downloads for it for a long time.

I should have mentioned that the lot isn't finished. I plan on doing more with the part behind the buildings, but I need to figure out what I need for the rest of the chapter and how to lay it out. I'm trying to see how much of the village I can fit on one lot.

Thinking up the storyline is something I did years ago. Now I just have to remember it and fit it together so the details of different versions of it fit together right. Everything I've done so far was already written a long time ago, so that has been very helpful to me getting anything done. I just had to polish it up a bit and proofread. My punctuation isn't the greatest. I'm always changing commas. I'm almost to the end of what I had written out previously, so I'm not sure what I'll do when I get to that point.

Setting the scene, getting sims to the lot and in costume takes ages. A lot of pictures I ended up taking over completely because the first versions didn't look as good as I would have liked. Some of them I ended up using, I would probably should have redone, because of small details or because they could have been better, but I think it's probably good enough as it is.

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I plan on doing more with the part behind the buildings...

Wow, really? I think it looks exceptional the way it is, but I can understand how consolidating your set needs to one lot makes things far more convenient for you.
Is that what you're going for? Seeing how much you can place on one lot, so you don't have to jump from stage to stage/lot to lot, Em?

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My punctuation isn't the greatest. I'm always changing commas.

Mine isn't the best, either. I never know when I've used too many commas or not enough.
A lot of times I do the "... thing" just so I don't have to think about it, Em.

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Setting the scene, getting Sims to the lot and in costume takes ages.
A lot of pictures I ended up taking over completely because the first versions didn't look as good as I would have liked.

Like I said, I don't have near the tenacity and patience ... let alone the creative ability and mindset ... to do what you do, Em.
That's why I can appreciate it and admire your storytelling skills and ability to set the stage so beautifully.
It's not within me to do so!!!

Keep up the good work! I look forward to the next chapter of Penelope's Journey.

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Wow, really? I think it looks exceptional the way it is, but I can understand how consolidating your set needs to one lot makes things far more convenient for you.

It's not for the look of the lot. It's because I'll need more sets. I can either do it there or on another lot, but this one might be better, because it's already more filled in with the buildings I've already made. I think I'm going to use the back sides of the buildings across from the market and pretend they're the fronts of some different buildings.

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Like I said, I don't have near the tenacity and patience ... let alone the creative ability and mindset ... to do what you do, Em.
That's why I can appreciate it and admire your storytelling skills and ability to set the stage so beautifully.
It's not within me to do so!!!

Aw, thank you for the compliments, Sugah. You have more tenacity and patients for taking screenshots of your downloads though. You definitely put in the time and attention to detail there. When I was making clothing downloads to go along with AH, I did not put much energy into my preview shots. I'd just snap some quick pictures in CAS, because I just didn't have the interest in setting them up in game with posing my sims and setting up with backgrounds and all that. I probably wouldn't have bothered with them at all if I had to go through all of it. I'm sure they would have been a million times better looking, if I had though. Setting up a scene for a story is fun and interesting to me, setting up the scene to showcase items isn't so much. So I have to admire what you do to make your downloads look the best.

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Keep up the good work! I look forward to the next chapter of Penelope's Journey.

I uploaded it last night! Check the sim's scribe section, if you missed it.

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You have more tenacity and patients for taking screenshots of your downloads though. You definitely put in the time and attention to detail there.

I actually think one of the reasons my screenshots resemble eachother so much is that I don't put as much time as I could into them, Em.
As I said, I'm not that patient. I usually use the same corner of a little stage I've set and just change out a few things.
If I put more time and energy into showcasing my recolors, they might look a bit more impressive, perhaps.

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Setting up a scene for a story is fun and interesting to me, setting up the scene to showcase items isn't so much.

Maybe that's it. Maybe setting the scene for a story is far more fun and interesting.
I DO think a nice, thought out presentation for showcasing our creations IS very important, but it's not terribly exciting to do, is it?

I have not had a chance to re-read the first few chapters you'd already written of Penelope's Journey yet.
I want them to be fresh in my mind, before I read the last.
I should definitely have some time this weekend and will most assuredly leave a comment.
Looking forward to it, Em!

*patience* Your quote just pointed out my typo to me. I must have been trying to reply too fast.

I like the stage you set up for your downloads. They always look great to me.

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I DO think a nice, thought out presentation for showcasing our creations IS very important, but it's not terribly exciting to do, is it?

With all the work it takes just to share downloads, zipping them up, linking them, etc, I probably wouldn't have shared mine if I had to take more time on the previews too, though I know I should have. I'm tempted to go back and retake the clothing shots, but I don't think I'm going to waste the time on it now.

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I should definitely have some time this weekend and will most assuredly leave a comment.
Looking forward to it, Em!

Thanks! I look forward to reading your comments.

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Here's a lot I was working on awhile ago.

The lot is great Em, looks really "mid age" where do you find all those "old stuff" I like the idea with an old neighborhood, I one's did a whole Fallout neighborhood (not the same I know), but It was annoying that even if I had every thing right with stuff and clods, on my sims, the other like Npc's and the neighbor Sims that the game control, was living and had clods from the year 2000 , and in the end it was not fun to play, so how is that working in your game?

Well I liked your pictures

Thanks, Jackie! I set that lot up for a story I've been writing. I haven't really played it like I would a normal sims neighborhood. I just use lots like that to take pictures. It would be hard to make a whole neighborhood in a different time period without having sims in modern clothes show up and to really play it without using any modern appliances or electronics. It would be fun though. I've been collecting download in this style for a long, long time, so I don't remember where I got most of the things from. I know I got at least some of it from Mod the Sims 2. That's usually the first site I check when I'm looking for something.

Thanks for looking at my pictures.

It's been a long time since I've really been able to sit down and just play the sims. My laptop was getting pretty old and slow and it seems like it would take hours just to get through one sim day. It was so slow playing that it really wasn't worth the time to try. Now I've got my new laptop and the game is so much better and runs faster than it EVER did before for me, so I've been able to actually play more.

I downloaded ACR awhile back, but didn't actually get to play much after installing it until recently. I think I'm going to have to adjust the settings because my sims are going wild. I have a mother and her teenage daughter going after the same guy and two twin sisters who were sharing a boyfriend. It was getting kind of freaky watching them take turns flirting with him and kissing him. He would end up woohooing with both of them in the same day, sometimes one right after another. And neither of the sisters seemed to mind or get jealous about it at all. It was kind of





This is Chase Platz (not named after my son. Actually he was named long before I ever dreamed I'd have a son named Chase.) and the twins, Joy and Felicity London. I decided I wasn't happy with their situation, so I kept inviting other potential mates for them over, hoping one or maybe both of the girls would find someone else. Preferably both because I was starting to find Chase kind of creepy. For one thing, he's a romance sim to start with, also I've never been terribly partial to red hair on men. He's not a terribly attractive sim to me, especially when it comes to his personality.

Last night when I was playing, I moved them all into the dorms, since they're young adults and bought them an exercise bike so they could earn the body points they need for school. I noticed Chase was having a lot of athletic wants, he always wanted to play catch and toss the football (in addition to wanting to find a third sim to woohoo with.) and he loved riding the exercise bike.

Now with my new computer I'm not used to fast speed being so fast. I used to have to play it on 3, just to make time pass by at a decent rate and I could still pause it on fast on not miss much. Now 3 speed is really fast and I was playing at that speed and totally missed what happened next. Chase was on the exercise bike and I noticed his needs were getting in the red. I probably should have made him get off and get something to eat, but I thought he's not that low, I'm sure he'll stop exercising on his own and I must have switched my attention to another sim. The next thing I know I see a flash on the screen and red icons above the head of some townie in the dorm's cafeteria. I hit pause and think, what's going on. I notice Chase's icon is gone. I look around, but I don't see any tombstone or urn. I check Joy and Felicity's memories and don't see any memories of his death. I teleport in Chase's teenage sister to check her memories, just in case, and see that she does have a memory of Chase's death. Oops.

I could have exited without saving, but I decided to go ahead and save the game. Even Joy and Felicity didn't show any signs of mourning. I don't think I'm going to miss him either. I don't like to kill of sims on purpose. I guess this was just meant to be.