Mac's 'Hood

mac wrote:

Arnold, your flings may last an hour, a day, a month, or years, but Grilled Cheese is forever

Valera and Zoe Aster have had a cousin come to town. Meet Lenora. She's a Knowledge/Cancer Medicine/Science sim. Quite a contrast with Valera, the aspiring author and literature type and Zoe, the 100% dancing girl. They came over to welcome her and Valera immediately got them going discussing her latest Gothic novel.


Humphrey Bogart also came to visit. Although he's married to Ingrid Bergman, he and Lenora really hit it off. As he left he was heard to mutter "We'll always have Simsville"


Here's Lenora leaving for her first day of work as a med tech. The CDC has already been called in to investigate an epidemic of hypochondria. It seems to affect only males and the epidemic's hotspots do seem to move about the city. It has been rumored that a certain EMT truck is involved, but that is just rumor.


BTW, in real life have you noticed that somewhere on the side of each of them you will see "Professional Ambulance Services". Sort of makes you wonder about the other ones... Scary! Hmmm...

Thanks to Ari for an unending series of lovely ladies! And did I mention that Nico came home from work with Lenora and that they just might have something going?

I love your rotation of storylines Mac...

Your line about the Arnold cracked me up!!

Ari does create some of the most beautiful models and they always look so fantastic in game too :)

Oh gosh, guys, you sure know how to boost a gal's ego. Thank you so much, Mac and Jen.

I am happy you gave her a home, Mac. She looks happy, and I like that you made her related to Zoe and Valera. That is so cool.

You may notice, Ari, that Lenora has a more or less contemporary - if attractive - everyday outfit. I couldn't not use the wonderful outfit you supplied her with so I made that her formal gear.

Maybe Lenora (and her cousins Venera and Zoe) need a ne'er do well brother to round out the family - a pleasure/slacker type (maybe one of the guys in your Medieval neighborhood might fit the bill).

Again, and again, and again...

mac wrote:

You may notice, Ari, that Lenora has a more or less contemporary - if attractive - everyday outfit. I couldn't not use the wonderful outfit you supplied her with so I made that her formal gear.

Anytime someone posts a pic of a sim that I made is a huge compliment. It doesn't matter to me what you dress her in - the fact is you are enjoying her in your game - and that's just darned awesome!

mac wrote:

(maybe one of the guys in your Medieval neighborhood might fit the bill).

Oh? Did you have your sights set on anyone in particular? Name him and he shall be yours.

Astral Faery wrote:

Oh? Did you have your sights set on anyone in particular? Name him and he shall be yours.

I do love the dress you had Lenora in, it's just that I have a problem with those enormous cuffs - they remind me of the court dress during the Japanese shogunate - any assassin would fall on his face before getting close enough to do any harm. I'm keeping it around for when she needs to go formal.

Maybe Don has the appropriate lack of moral fiber and might be good for a ne'er do well brother.

As my wife would say "He's one handsome doggie-woggie of a man!"
Mind you, I'll probably make him a Pleasure/Slacker (but I won't give him a Grilled Cheese LTW )

LOL! Yes, Don lacks any moral fiber. At all. In fact, he's perfect as ne'er do well brother. I can upload him sometime tomorrow.

EDIT: Well, it's tomorrow, lol. I'm up early today and got Don all ready to go. He's dressed in his Medieval tunic, but you can change it, of course.

Astral Faery wrote:

Well, it's tomorrow, lol. I'm up early today and got Don all ready to go. He's dressed in his Medieval tunic, but you can change it, of course.

The next time my game crashes, I'll start it up again and put him in as a Pleasure/Slacker (or maybe Criminal) sim. I'll probably make him a brother to Lenora and thus a cousin to Valera and Zoe. Undecided whether I'll make him compatible.

Mac wrote:

Arnold, your flings may last an hour, a day, a month, or years, but Grilled Cheese is forever!

That's greatness, Mac!
And not a bad likeness of Arnie, is it?

Mac wrote:

...As he left he was heard to mutter "We'll always have Simsville"

Awww...Gotta love Bogart.

Sir Mac wrote:

Thanks to Ari for an unending series of lovely ladies!

Lady J wrote:

Ari does create some of the most beautiful models and they always look so fantastic in game too :)

I could not agree more, you two.
I remain honored to have her on our creative team.

Mac wrote:

...they remind me of the court dress during the Japanese shogunate - any assassin would fall on his face before getting close enough to do any harm.

Thank you for sharing what's been going on in your game, Sir Mac.
It is always highly entertaining to read your witty comments & see your motley assortment of Sims schmoozing together.

mac wrote:

The next time my game crashes, I'll start it up again and put him in as a Pleasure/Slacker (or maybe Criminal)

Sounds like me Mac. I run my game for days on end...because it takes so long to load. It gets shut down by crashes and power outages. lol!

Looking forward to seeing what mischief Don will get up to in your game. I hope beautiful Lenora has her head on straight, 'cause that lothario (pun intended) is apparently irresistible to the sim ladies!

ilikefishfood wrote:

Sounds like me Mac. I run my game for days on end...because it takes so long to load. It gets shut down by crashes and power outages.

I can't help the power outages other than getting a UPS with a battery, but I've learned to save my game a lot. One thing you can do, assuming that you are running XP (there may be solutions for other Operating Systems)

When you turn off at night, minimise the sims (windows key-M) then Hibernate your computer - you do this by clicking on the yellow "Standby" button on the closedown menu, but hold down the shift key.

This hibernates your system - it shuts it down, but saves a memory image of what's running. When you start up again (and it only takes a couple of minutes) , the sims will be an item in your tray at the bottom - click it and you're up and running.

I do find that when I'm in a house and want to do a different sim, clicking on a nearby house to run it is less likely to cause a crash than going back to the main map. I sort of plan my 'hoods and sequence of play that way.

BTW, I'm just starting up Don Aster (he's been visited by both Johnny Cash and a Water Nymph). He's a Libra and will have trouble making friends - more to come.

Let me introduce Don Aster. He's Lenora's brother and cousin to Valera and Zoe. He's a Libra/Pleasure Slacker/Crafts sim. Currently at level 4 of the Slacker career. He's really the black sheep of the family, although he's certainly a handsome doggie-woggie!

Here he is entertaining a couple of neighbors who came to welcome him (the third wanted nothing to do with him at all!) They are: Johnny Cash - with his back to the camera and Daphne Nymph, who's an Aquarius/Pleasure Slacker/Tinker sim - currently at level 9 in the Slacker career. He has since made friends with both of them and has one bolt with Daphne.


I told you he was the black sheep of the family - here's his sister Lenora's reaction.


Things didn't get much better with his bookish cousin Lenora.


But surely he'd get along with his dancing girl cousin, Zoe. Well...


He did entertain Jenn's Shanti Adrian and Maksim, her dance teacher who just came in a very creditable second in this year's Dancing with the Stars. Great dancer, good teacher, good choreographer.


Shanti was at least receptive to a flirt from Don, although no bolts at all either way. She had better be careful, though.

LOL! That's hilarious that his family wants nothing to do with Don. I suppose it serves him right - if he's anything in your game like he is in mine, ha ha.

lol! That is funny Mac!

Daphne looks pretty. Who is she? Is she a celebrity?

Thanks for the tips (above).

I play in windows mode, so I just minimize my game when I'm going to bed...I've found my computer doesn't always respond well when I let it sleep. It sometimes gives trouble waking up...I just set my monitor to go off after about 10 minutes of inactivity. I've found minimizing all windows when I'm done for the day/night is enough to keep lots of RAM free.

I agree with you about going back to the main neighbourhood screen. Like you, I have my lots well-aligned and play from one to the next, sometimes playing for days without ever exiting to the main hood...and now with the feature that came with one of the last EPs that allows you to go to a new neighbourhood without going back to the main hood screen, I'm having a much better time, flipping from uni to downtown to my shopping district etc.

My DL folder is just heaving, and my game is heavily modded, so I just roll with the occasional crashes. The main reason I keep my game going all the time, is because it takes SO LONG TO LOAD!!!! Nearly 8GB of over 45,000 files, will do that to ya!

ilikefishfood wrote:

Daphne looks pretty. Who is she? Is she a celebrity?

Daphne Nymph (my name) was a download from somewhere - either MTS or maybe the EA site so long ago that she's no longer listed. If sweet young things dressed in leaves turn you on just go to ModTheSims and do a search on the keyword "Nymph". I just did so and might just be tempted to add another to my overloaded hood.

There is also some Nymph clothing if you want to make your own. http://www.parsimonious.org/ has a lot of stuff and tends to be oriented toward nymphs, fairies, and other such creatures. (Yes, you really do need more stuff for your download file)

It takes me a bit over 30 minutes to start over - I always restart my computer because I think that Sims 2 may have a memory leak somewhere and I want to get a clean slate again. Then around 20 min to load the main then 10 more to load the neighborhood. Creating a sim, choosing more clothing, adding a new house all add to memory use and hasten crashes. I try to hop from house to house but my residences are not as well-organized as I'd like . I play each family for one season and and am happy if I can get thru 3 or 4 before a crash. I do get a lot of reading done in between.

mac wrote:

Yes, you really do need more stuff for your download file

Naturally!

mac wrote:

I do get a lot of reading done in between.

Because I play in windows mode, I use my load time to....wait for it.....download more stuff!

Oh by the way, I've got a 40+ minute load time, but only 10 or so to the main screen, and 10 into lots. Subsequent lots load a wee bit faster.

By the way, I use a tiny, free software called Free RAM Pro...that shows how much RAM is being used up, and....allows you to clear it! No need to shut down!

And you're right...loading the game...I start with some 2800MB, and by time I reach the main menu, if I have no other applications open, I'm usually down to less than 1000MB...and don't even ask if I've got my internet browser open...sometimes, it drops to about 100MB!

Lady A wrote:

That's hilarious that his family wants nothing to do with Don. I suppose it serves him right ...

Too funny, Mac!

Sir Mac wrote:

It takes me a bit over 30 minutes to start over ... Then around 20 min to load the main then 10 more to load the neighborhood.

Lady T wrote:

Oh by the way, I've got a 40+ minute load time, but only 10 or so to the main screen, and 10 into lots.

Woah!
I need to time how long it takes for my game (and lots) to load one of these days.
Of course, I don't have near the downloads - nearly 8GB of over 45,000 files (Toni) !!!
But I'm curious to learn now...

Thank you for sharing what's going on in your game with us, as always, Mac.

Added later @ 11:05am:

I just loaded up my game to take some snapshots of a recolor I did yesterday.
From start to finish, loading time was less than 6 minutes.
It took 4 minutes to get to "choose a hood" and 2 more minutes to choose a hood, a lot & to completely load the lot.

I have no idea how many downloads I have in my folder, btw.

Sugah wrote:

I have no idea how many downloads I have in my folder, btw.

Oh, but I must know! I need to know how many files allow a game to load in 6 minutes!

All you need to do, is go to your Sims2 folder, right click on the Downloads folder, and select properties. It'll scan it quickly, and give you the size, number of folders and number of files.

You've edju-ma-cated me, m'lady. I had no idea it was that easy to learn the amount of downloads!

I have 1.76 GB and 4575 files.

Sugah wrote:

You've edju-ma-cated me, m'lady. I had no idea it was that easy to learn the amount of downloads!

I have 1.76 GB and 4575 files.

That's a tidy little stash you've got there Sugah! Well done!

Toni, you make me seem like such a small operator - I have 8.6 Gb, only 24745 files.

Running, however on a 4-year old computer, however. Still running strong. How many files did you say you had when you were having trouble?

I could get rid of a lot of clothing - looked interesting at the time, but...

mac wrote:

Toni, you make me seem like such a small operator - I have 8.6 Gb, only 24745 files.

Running, however on a 4-year old computer, however. Still running strong. How many files did you say you had when you were having trouble?

I could get rid of a lot of clothing - looked interesting at the time, but...

7.6 GB - 48,916 files...and that's post some pruning on the weekend! I compressorize all my files...which reduces their size significantly...it'd be even worse if I didn't!

I also have a few little bits and bobs that I downloaded while I was pruning! *cough* I haven't unzipped, compressorized and added them to my game yet though. Thought I'd try to have my DL folder shed a few more pounds first...as a recent crashing problem I had seems to have been caused my the amount of stuff I had jammed into it. Aaaaah...the trials of a download-aholic!

Well you guys have me beat by 2 or 3 times! I have 2.52GB - 305 folders and 6114 files.

Astral Faery wrote:

Well you guys have me beat by 2 or 3 times! I have 2.52GB - 305 folders and 6114 files.

Addiction is a horrible thing!

I'm surprised that you don't have more, except that maybe specializing in Medieval, you only have the related and appropriate files.