Mac's 'Hood

I've imported Shanti into my neighborhood and given her a career, a favorite hobby, and a LTW of dance. Since my wife has taught for over 20 years in major Ballet schools (not the storefront "Tap Toe and Baton-Twirling" variety) I do tend to make my favorite sims dancers. BTW, she regards the barre animations with tolerant amusement. Her students could never get away with that!

I was happy to see that she was submitted with an outfit by Milano, who is one of my all time favorite sims clothing designers. She is no longer designing sims clothing but has turned to designing websites. If she does websites half as well as she designs clothing... (!)

Here she is.


I do change her hairdo to a proper dancer's bun for her athletic outfit. Her outfit is "Prima Ballerina" by Beutelratti on MTS2
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=275895

(Carole's sweater is one of a MTS2 set by krehata
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=379510

She is living in a wonderful house: 7 Dove Road by devagirl2 on MTS2 http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=379901

This creator has contributed many superb houses, especially starters. This is a 2br 2ba with a working driveway on a 1x3 lot! Roomy, well-designed and very playable.

Shanti's full name is Shanti Adrian - my neighborhood has a lot of celebs as well as sims that just intrigue me - for those I give some variety of the creator's name as a last name.

Shanti recently met Carole Hunter - (a Devil Wears Prada type of fashion editor) and they have become good friends. Recognize her? She is a Hunter creation!


She also met and was tutored in creativity by Maksim Cnmerkovskiy


and recently had a chance to greet a celebrity visitor, although she was starving at the time!


One of the hacks that I rely on is Monique's hacked computer on MTS2
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=64137. This allows one to pick a career, to study non-bookcase subjects and get paid for writing articles on them, chat on line, use a really good e-mail system, and deposit money in a bank or get a loan. I don't use kaching or familyfunds, but instead start my sims with a loan to furnish their house. At the beginning they are laboring under a mortgage but later they can save and get interest for the house of their dreams.

Speaking of non-bookcase abilities, my wife does a wonderful Glynnis Johns-like parody of the Practice Romance that has me ROFTL!

There are other hacks I use to cycle through LTW until I get the one I want and to set hobbies.

Just one soapbox item: I am pleased that Adrianna used an anatomically correct skin for Shanti. I find the barbie-doll skins much more offensive than realistic ones.

I am primarily a player - and by now a very experienced one - since the very first Sims 2 came out. I bought, installed, tried, and uninstalled Sims 3!

The reason that the Sims became so popular is primarily due to the talents of the creators who have expanded the experience way beyond anything EA ever envisioned. They have my sincere and everlasting thanks!

This was great to see Shanti, in your game, she is such a doll, I like her a lot too, and play her a lot in my hood...

Quote :

The reason that the Sims became so popular is primarily due to the
talents of the creators who have expanded the experience way beyond
anything EA ever envisioned. They have my sincere and everlasting
thanks!

Well said, the maxi creators had a dream and a big deal of Sim 1 and Sim 2 have their soul and humor in them, Sim 3 comes from a cooperation, that makes war and sports games (Sorry but they do) Ea is a enormous game factory, and they do a lot of games, but in the end its the small game makers, that do the most interesting games, (well in my opinion) and even if there was a big different when EA came in and buy Maxi, they still used the creators, of the game... but in Sim 3 they have make the game with out the maxi team... and I don't like Sim 3 its quit soul less...

Well this was fun, good to see the tutorial worked, and that you have fun when you plays Mac, I got too, and I use to play evry day and I am not tired on that yet!

Thanks for this, and I am glad you decided to stay with us, it is so much more fun if we are many

When Will Wright created the very first SimCity, he went from company to company trying to sell it. They all asked "How do you win?" "You don't" "Goodbye"

Finally he found (created?) a company, Maxis, to publish it and the rest is history... SimCity 1 thru SimCity 4, SimAnt, SimFarm, and a whole bunch of others. Sims 1 and Sims 2 being the most successful culmination.

From what I understand, Will Wright had nothing-zero-zip to do with Sims 3 and it shows.

BTW, Will Wright is in my neighborhood - married to Scarlett Johannson

Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for all of the lovely pics of Shanti, I am so happy that you like her so much.

Quote :

I was happy to see that she was submitted with an outfit by Milano, who
is one of my all time favorite sims clothing designers

I do love her stuff too and glad that it is still getting used. She is just fantastic

Quote :

Just one soapbox item: I am pleased that Adrianna used an anatomically
correct skin for Shanti.

Well I didn't know that it was but hey that's a plus. When I got that skin tone it only showed with clothes on....

I just love her house and I am going to check out the link you provided, thank you so much for that. I think it is wonderful how you incorporate a designer's name into stuff and very neat.

Quote :

This was great to see Shanti, in your game, she is such a doll, I like
her a lot too, and play her a lot in my hood...

Thank you so much for your continued support of my girls Jackie, it means a whole lot when others love them just as much as you do when you created them.

I appreciate your support so much Mac and I am so happy to see that Shanti loves to dance because that is how I envisioned her in my game since she is so tall and slim.
Big Hugs!

Quote :

Mac: Finally he found (created?) a company, Maxis,

I think he created maxis! and yes he have made a lot of cool games, the first I played was a "National park Sim" and that was a cool game...

Quote :

Mac: BTW, Will Wright is in my neighborhood - married to Scarlett Johannson

If you meet him tell him I said Hi Just joking, but he is a cool guy, thats for sure

well hope you have an update soon about Adrianna's Shanti!

Jen@ Thanks for your warm words

well hope you have an update soon about Adrianna's Shanti!

I run a huge neighborhood, over 200 families! I rotate them, playing one season at a time, so normally I would not expect to be playing Shanti until the late fall. She may, of course, get involved with some of the other sims.

I think however for Shanti, by popular request plus my own curiousity, I'm going to have to make an exception and reawaken her some time in July!

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful comments and support - I'm off on holiday now for a couple of weeks - no laptop - no sims!

Have a wonderful holiday Mac, and yes its hard to be apart to our Sims , so I hope you will have a lot of other things to do...

Mac, thank you so much for sharing Shanti's story with us!
She is such a lovely Sim.

The dance career is one of my faves, too. Good choice!
Love that ballerina suit by Beutelratti...niiiiice!
I, too, am a fan of Milano's fashions. Her lovely work will be missed.
I'm going to have to check out devagirl2's homes, as I love well designed starters on smaller lots. Thank you for that info.

I'm so glad you started a thread here.
Looking forward to following Shanti's virtual world in your game.

Enjoy your holiday! I hope you are having a great time!

200 families!! How on earth did you keep them all straight? Very clever idea to play out a whole season at a time, though. I might try something like that - start with just a few families and build the neighborhood up - and try to keep playing it. At least until my ADHD kicks in.

I absolutely love the house you picked for Shanti and am very happy you provided a link - because I intend to download it and check out some others, too.

Loving the idea for the hacked computer. I'll download it as soon as I figure out which one I need - I'm assuming it's one of the BV ones. I like the idea of sims taking out a loan to buy their house instead of using a money cheat. I usually tend to be one of those 'do it the hard way' when it comes to money.

Nice to see what you're up to in your game, so far.

Been away on holiday. Glad you like some of my references. Regarding the 200 families, I keep them on a spreadsheet. OMG! What a geek!

Maksim Cnmerkovskiy!!! I'm a DWTS fan - and love Maks! How great to see him in your story!!!

You're not a geek Mac. I think that's an awesome idea, in fact, I have a notebook with all of my Sims Lovelies that I actually play in a game. There are about 30 of them that live in a model "hood" and I have notes about each - their personalities, their tastes, who they've dated - everything. Not geeky at all.

It's awesome that you've used Jen's Shanti and my Carole. I know I always appreciate seeing my Ladies in game - and I can see that Jen does as well.

It's always so much fun to see how others play your Sims and how different they are than they are when we ourselves play them.

I'm with you, I prefer anatomical skins - but it's so hard always getting what you want facially. I use a wide variety of skins, but know that in game I always wish my Simmies looked.......naked and not like Barbies.

Milano is a gifted creator for sure. I will join in with those who will miss her creations.

I thank you for posting Shanti's story with us.

mac wrote:

Regarding the 200 families, I keep them on a spreadsheet. OMG! What a geek!

OMG. That's....AWESOME! What a cool idea. Hmm...

Since there seems to be some interest, rather than just horrified fascination , this is what is in my spreadsheet, column by column, households are separated by blank lines:

x or blank : Signifies marriage of adjacent sims.

Name of sim, also markers: * indicates possession of magic lamp, $ indicates bank account on computer, + indicates career award

Gender M or F

Age: B,C,T,Y,blank for adult,E

Aspiration

Zodiac

Career/Hobby

Career level

Residence, along with rough place on map: (ne) (s) (e), etc

Like1/Like2//Dislike

Thus a couple might be:

x John Doe $+ M Fortune Aries Business/Dance 8 Green House (c) For/Creat//Fat
x Jane Doe * F Family Pisces Athletic/Arts 4 Fit/BlH//Stk
Kid Doe F C
(note that the editor here suppresses multiple spaces, so things don't quite line up)

John and Jane Doe live in Green House in the center of the map, He is a fortune/Aries sim at level 8 in the Business career. His hobby is Dance. His likes are Formal and Creative, he disklies fat. She is a family/Pisces sim at level 4 in the Athletic career. Her hobby is Arts. She likes Fit and Blonde Hair, she dislikes stinky.
He has a bank account on the computer and has the business reward. She has a magic lamp. I sometimes use $- if their bank account is negative (a loan).

These all print out in landscape format. I normally print out all my sims, then go through marking in changes as I play. I save each household at the end of its current season, or between playing sessions and sometimes more often. After I finish a page, I save the entire \My Documents\EA Games\...\Sims 2 onto a backup disk (or a special folder if you want).

Playing tip: If you have a huge neighborhood, loading time is quite long, I'm currently around 35 min. When I shut down my computer at night, I hibernate it. (XP : Yellow button on the left of the shutdown screen - hold down the shift key). Hibernation saves the current state on disk prior to shutdown. When you restart your computer, the current state is reloaded, along with your sims game.

When I want to do something else with my computer or prior to hibernation, I minimize the sims window with
WindowsKey-M.

I hope that all (some) of your find these ideas useful.

OMG that is awesome!! Thank you so much for sharing your ideas with us.
I like Ari followed your link on the "hacked" computer, I absolutely love it.
I think it is just awesome when we can all share ideas and neat things with everyone else.

I am going to start playing my Sims families by the seasons too, I think it is a fantastic idea. I am not going to be as brave as you and play as many families but I have quiet a few I am very fond of. What a very neat idea to keep from getting burned out on them or forgetting where you were last time if you are like me and stay on one family for quiet some time.

I look forward to your future stories!

Wow....I'm at a loss for words. That is really cool, how you have everything so organized. I don't know if I'll ever get a neighborhood that big (or if I'd want to), but I'm having fun playing on rotation and seeing what my families get up to on their turn.

From now on, I'm going to post the doings in my neighborhood here, rather than under the sims I'm playing. For previous info on the sims contributed to this site that I've played, see Brogan, Laurinda, and Tiona.

Please note that my 'hood is huge - I play each sim for a season then move on. It might be 6 mos or so before I come back. It has been largely populated by all manner of celebs: Movie stars, Musicians, Sports Figures, Politicians, etc. I'm starting to include interesting "designer sims" like Brogan, Laurinda, Tiona, and Jeremy, as well as several of Hunter's as well.

My latest sim is Jeremy, who I've set up as a geek (thus Gique). He's very neat, very shy, very smart, and very nice.
He's a virgo. His LTW is to be a Computer Game Designer. He's reached level 5 in Gamer (Flag Capturer) and also has a prime hobby of games.

Several people welcomed him to the neighborhood


They are: The supermodel Kim Bassinger, the late (alas) Brittany Murphy, and Stephen Fry.

About Stephen Fry: Most of you know Hugh Laurie from 'House'. Years ago (1990) he appeared as Bertie Wooster in a British television series "Jeeves and Wooster" This was a dramatization of some of P.G.Wodehouse's stories.

Bertie (Hugh Laurie) plays a spectacularly vacuous upper-middle-class twit. Stephen Fry plays Jeeves, his "Gentleman's Gentleman" - long suffering but always urbane and unflappable. Bertie gets into scrape after scrape and Jeeves always - but very tactfully - rescues him. "Very good Sir"

The lunch went fine, although no outstanding interest. Kim has eventually become a friend.

After his first day of work. Jeremy brought home a fellow worker: Margaret Phillipine. She is an neighborhood sim, an NPC if you will. They have hit it off very well (2 lightinng bolts). One of the joys of the sims is the unexpected and unintended consequences. Jeremy asked her what turned her on:


She is turned on by stink! How do you spell "Geek Heaven". They have advanced to Best Friend and seem very enamored with each other.



I've moved on to another sim now: Frederick Chopin. As I run the sims on Sugah's or Hunter's sites, or if they show up as I play other sims, you'll find out here.

How awesome, Mac! I love seeing Jeremy in your hood and I'm so happy you wanted to download him. Margaret is a true cutie and they have hit it off well.

Mac, I'm so glad you'll be sharing your Sim antics with us.

Quote :

From now on, I'm going to post the doings in my neighborhood here, rather than under the sims I'm playing.

I love it that you have "all manners of celebs" in your game.
It never occured to me to have famous faces just roaming about the hood.
Cool idea!!!

It's so neat seeing Ariana's beloved Jeremy in your game.
I think the career path and personality you've chosen for him are both so fitting.
I wonder what his personality and career are in Ari's game, just out of curiousity...

Quote :

She is turned on by stink! How do you spell "Geek Heaven".

I agree with Ari. Margaret is a cutie.
I love it when this sort of thing happens naturally for two Sims.

Thank you for sharing with us. "Very good Sir!"

I was playing John Malkovich when Kristi March came by - see Kristi (March) from sim of the month club. Kristi is a Family/Scorpio with a career in Pet Care. She shares a house with Alison Hunter (nudge nudge wink wink) - a Popularity/Aries sim with a career in I.T.

It took John quite a while to get Kristi to accept a flirt, but here it is.

John Malkovich! Fascinating!
Where would you say you find most of your Celeb Sims, Mac?

Do you have a regular 600x450 shot of John and Kristi together, rather than the thumbnail?
I'd love to see the bigger in game version.

Hi Sugah

I'll to find a larger shot. The moment has passed so I'll be stuck if I can't find one - or invite her back and do it again.

Most of my celebs come from MTS2 - Vera Marina, in particular, is a genius!!!! Also, early on, I got a few from the EA Sims2 site.

Also check out:

http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Content_List:Main_Page

which has celebs from many sources. Not only celebs, but characters from series, etc. By now some of the links are obsolete or gone entirely, but take a peek.

I not only have celebs, but characters - like from Harry Potter - including the Dursleys. A few anime, and I did hope to link up Jessica Rabbit with Jeremy Gique!

mac

BTW, MTS2 is pretty quiet for Sims2 these days. The premier sites for Sims2 now are Sugah and Hunter I'm looking forward to some lots from Caleb_71, especially the more modest starters.

There aren't too many celebs coming down the pike nowadays. For the most part I've shifted over to "interesting" sims. My main sources are here and Hunter. SimTR also has some very stunning femsims.

How flattering that you also have Kristi in your hood, Mac. I think what you chose for her is perfect.

My original Jeremy was a family sim with a job in law enforcement, but I've also made him a knowledge sim because it fits that sexy nerdy persona he projects - LOL - besides knowledge is sexy, that's why I married a geek in real life.

I look forward to seeing more of your sims. I wonder if Jeremy and cute little Margaret will have babies?

If you've found the thumbnail, the larger shot will be in the same neighborhood folder, Mac.

Here is the usual path: C:\Documents and Settings\NameofYourPuterHere\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\NeighborhoodNumberHere\Storytelling
You will see some pics entitled thumbnail_ and some entitled snapshot_.
The snapshot one is the larger image. The size will depend on your in game camera setting size.

Vera Marina IS a genius. I have seen her work and I completely agree with you.
Gonna check out that Simswiki link you provided, too. Thank you.

Jessica Rabbit...Now that takes me back! And with Jeremy? Verrrry intriguing couple!
But what will become of pretty little Margaret?

I can definitely see your Jeremy as a Knowledge AND a Family Sim, Ari.
No doubt about it.

You don't have to be a real person to be a celeb. Here Vernon is working on his logic while Petunia is working out



Vernon reached the pinnacle of his career as Business Tycoon but then got demoted because of a bad result on a chance card: Moral: When you reach the top, forget about chance cards - they just aren't worth it.

Petunia is a Protector of Whales in the Oceanography career - one step from the top. Their son Dudley is now off to college - very much a mechanic and tinkerer.

Petunia has the culinary hobby and Vernon has the Film and Lit hobby. Vernon has already written one book: "Surviving Potter". (You don't have to be a high official to write a self-serving revisionist history) :nannybooboo:

He is now working on a sequel "Financial Wizardry - it's not Really Magic"

"Surviving Potter" lol