Mac's 'Hood

On page 17 of this thread, Shanti Adrian gave Carole Hunter a magic lamp with two charges (Shanti had used one herself - for lifelong happiness - of course). Carole used one for the same thing, and one remains. Meanwhile, Carole's affection for Logan Varner cooled quite a bit - from 2 bolts to none, and she had 3 solid bolts with Shanti! Shanti has moved in with her and they've bought a new house together. They bought a Beach Terrace house - on MTS2, designed by Keef1973. These are reasonably priced row houses - lots of space inside, small lots outside, very playable: http://www.modthesims.info/d/463474 The house shown is one of a Beach Terrace (n)a - all 1 wide row houses. There are also some Beach Terrace (n) houses - two storey 2x2 - a bit cheaper but also very well done.

Carole is now level 7 in the Fashion Editor career - she is a bit of a Devil Wears Prada type, but obviously has a heart as well. Carole Hunter was created by... Hunter, of course. She was the very first of Hunter's sims I downloaded. Shanti was created by Adrianna, and one of my first downloads from this site. She's a level 6 Dancer. Both she and Carole have dancing as a hobby - here they're warming up.


On page 10 of this thread, "Ahnold" got his comeuppance for real-life transgressions. Here he's enjoying his very first grilled cheese sandwich. Only 199 to go! Actually, he's exploring all of the varieties of grilled cheese - English cheeses, French cheeses, Swiss cheeses, even Austrian cheeses. Grilled Stilton on dark rye -- yum! He's at the top of the political career - neat helicopter - but hasn't maxed out his fitness hobby. He's doing a lot of jogging so that the grilled cheese sandwiches don't catch up on him. Rather indifferent luck on the romantic side, although he did meet Eliza Dushku at Bill and Gaga's wedding (page 18) and they have two bolts together - who knows? BTW, when I left Arnold he only had 190 grilled cheese to go!

There are lots going on in your hood Mac

I have never had a sim with that grilled cheese obsession. 190 to go oh my I would get so tired of grilled cheese...

And that Patric .. what are you going to do with him?

Wow, Mac, Patrick sure is a busy fellow!

I totally missed Valera and Grace buying a house together - woot woot! Good for them. They look very happy.

LOL at "Ahnold" and his sammiches. Come on, Arnie! You can do it! It's fun to have a sim with Grilled Cheese aspiration once in awhile.

The ongoing tale of "chick magnets"... Francesco Toni came home with Goldie Hawn - they're both athletes. They got on - 3 bolts.


Then Patrick (just mentioned above) came home with her - yup, he's an athlete, too. Yup, 3 bolts!


What I didn't mention is that Goldie is living with Sylvester Stallone, and they're engaged. "You guys mess with my Goldie, and I'll punch your lights out!"

I love the goings on of all of your celeb (and nonceleb) sims. Arnold and the grilled cheese and Stallone getting protective of his woman are hilarious. Seeing She Ra also cracked me up. Your game looks like a lot of fun!

MTS2 has been in maintenance mode today, so I can't check out the beach terrace houses right now. I fully intend to, Mac.
Thank you for providing the link for us.

Sir Mac wrote:

On page 10 of this thread, "Ahnold" got his comeuppance for real-life transgressions. Here he's enjoying his very first grilled cheese sandwich...He's doing a lot of jogging so that the grilled cheese sandwiches don't catch up on him...BTW, when I left Arnold he only had 190 grilled cheese to go!

Em wrote:

I love the goings on of all of your celeb (and nonceleb) sims. Arnold and the grilled cheese and Stallone getting protective of his woman are hilarious. Seeing She Ra also cracked me up. Your game looks like a lot of fun!

Thank you for sharing, Mac. It's always fun to catch up with your many Sim antics!

Ari's Krista March (March 2010) and Janet Goode (www.Simstr.com) met at Nerissa's and Nathaniel's wedding (see page 9 of this thread). They found they had 3 bolts so have moved in together. They look like a very happy couple!


Meanwhile Captain Hook and Jacqueline Moineau (Ari's Anastasia), a pirate wench met to celebrate "Talk like a Pirate Day" (See On the Fly, page 10) and have two bolts - that's enough. Hook's hook gives some concern when the he's amorous, but all ended well...


And he even does pretty well with a Champagne glass


Here they are together, dreaming about pirate sayings, like "Arrrrgh!" "Avast!" "Hoist up the sheets and spanker!" (OK, that can be a nautical term for setting sail, if you had other thoughts, you only have yourself to blame)


They are a happy couple


Katherine Heigl got a lamp, but is so close to her LTW of Chief of Staff that she gave them the lamp.


BTW, pirates saying "Arrrgh" started with Robert Newton as Long John Silver in Disney's 1950 production of Treasure Island.

Thank all of you for your comments and praise. Storytelling, even in my limited form, and an audience for my corny jokes, adds so much enjoyment to my game.

Now for the bad news... My game is crashing so much that I'm going to put it on a diet - moving out over 60 families, houses and all and probably getting rid of a lot of never used clothing. For the most part, the families I am moving out are early celebrities - often not well done - who have achieved level 10 careers and LTW. I'll be putting them into another 'hood but still playing my current 'hood - somewhat reduced. The ones I move out will be starting over with no friends but I've done that before and recovered. It'll probably be some time before I post tidings of my 'hood again.

Hilarious updates Mac! I don't know what it is about the scruffy guy that we women find so attractive...but I confess to hankerin' after my fair share of them back in the day!

My Francesco (love his last name! ) and Patrick better watch out! They messing around with the wrong finacee!

Do you play with ACR Mac, 'cause your simmies seem really 'frisky!'

Krista and Janet are so sweet together!

And it's great to see Anastasia again! I always liked her. And how appropriate that the pirate would 'hook up' with the Captain! (pun intended)

ilikefishfood wrote:

Do you play with ACR Mac, 'cause your simmies seem really 'frisky!'

ACR???

mac wrote:

ilikefishfood wrote:

Do you play with ACR Mac, 'cause your simmies seem really 'frisky!'

ACR???

Autonomous Casual Romance. It allows your simmies to 'get close' I mean 'reeeeeal close' without having to be in love. It can also be set so that they engage in romantic behaviour autonomously...and I DO mean engage! I have the autonomous feature disabled. I can't handle my simmies taking matters into their own hands...but it can be user directed, and my simmies therefore have a much more realistic lifestyle, if you catch my drift. Ari and Em let their simmies do their own thing, and believe me honey, they do! lol!

The amazing modder TwoJeffs has just retired from the community, but his site moderators have taken it over so that all of his wonderful mods remain available for download.

Mac wrote:

Well, Roger Federer proposed to her and now they are living together.

Oh, my! What does Mirka think of this? And who will the twins live with? Funny, Federer never struck me as the philandering type!

Mac wrote:

BTW- time passes - Bill was the very first US President younger than I. It'll happen to all of us eventually!

I started noticing when I was in my late teens, actually, when all the child actors/actresses I knew grew up right in front of my eyes. It started make me think about me getting so much older (I was a really serious teen). I won't even talk about the shocks I got in my twenties and now my thirties.

Mac wrote:

I've become really fond of them, they're a sweet couple.

Em wrote:

You definitely have some interesting juxtapositions in your game, Mac. It's a lot of fun seeing the celebs together in your game.

Mac wrote:

Right away she adopted a little white kitten Snowflake. Awww...

Too sweet!

Mac wrote:

I was demonstrating CAS for Maikki, who now has around 25 sims - all created by herself in the default 'hoods.

I love that the two of you play together. I hope she decides to share her game with us one day.

Mac wrote:

I won't be simming for a few days - just got a new 'puter: i7 Pentium, muscle graphics card, bigger monitor, oh my!

Congrats on the new PC, Mac! I am sure it will do wonders for your game.

Mac wrote:

...she is a bit of a Devil Wears Prada type,

Mac wrote:

He's doing a lot of jogging so that the grilled cheese sandwiches don't catch up on him.

Mac wrote:

"You guys mess with my Goldie, and I'll punch your lights out!"

Mac wrote:

Now for the bad news... My game is crashing so much that I'm going to put it on a diet - moving out over 60 families, houses and all and probably getting rid of a lot of never used clothing.

I am so sorry to hear this, Mac, but as you pointed out starting over can be a good opportunity to thin out your game. Good luck with everything!



You have quite the soap opera going on in your 'hood. I love the updates, Mac. Keep them coming!!!

ilikefishfood wrote:

The amazing modder TwoJeffs has just retired from the community, but his site moderators have taken it over so that all of his wonderful mods remain available for download.

I think that my simmies are snacking on each other too much already. Probably due to my bias in assigning zodiac and likes/dislikes. I tend to have a lot of Aries,Scorpio,Pisces, and Gemini. They tend to like hair colors, creative, logical and they're all very career oriented. The dislikes are for the most part stink and fat, which nobody is.

I think I'll pass on ACR, although it does look intriguing. SimBlender :TinyTree: (as close to the potted plant I could get) is another story - I use it extensively - mainly to set LTW and occasionally to free up career awards - useful if sim moves and leaves reward behind.

Well, things haven't worked out like I thought they would... Can't do much without crashing. Scrolling the main map is instant crash! Sooo...

I'm starting all over - I'm importing sims into a brand new neighborhood - starting with those from this site and from Hunter's. Celebs will follow. I'm setting them up with the same personalities and careers but of course they are all at the bottom of their career and have zero relationships. Maybe Bill and Gaga will link up again. As for Ahnold "He'll be back!" - but feasting on grilled cheese from the git-go. This neighborhood is going to be compact, with small, efficient lots, no scrolling to get anywhere!

Saddest part is leaving some in-game sims (promoted from NPC) behind. I was sooo fond of Nerissa and wanted to see how Simone turned out. Nerissa was one of my very favorite sims. (If any of you sims geeks know how to identify and retrieve a family from the data files, rather than in game, Nerissa and I will be eternally grateful!)

But... There will be be new adventures, new laughs. The electronic chips will fall in brand new and doubtless amusing ways! There will probably be a delay while things get up to speed, but you haven't heard the last of mac's hood!

I would say it is to do with your graphics card and/or drivers. You need to know the model of your graphics card 6770, 6750 or other and download the latest drivers from here. Be prepared to drop the game graphics properties when running a high resolution.

If all else fails, you should be able to access the neighbourhood file in SimPe, and clone your favourite simmies. They'll show up in Body Shop and CAS and you just re-create the family.

If you need to know how I can write out a step-by-step guide. It's pretty easy actually.

Thank you both for your help. I had already downloaded the most recent drivers and cut my game graphics way back. I think my hood just got too big. I think just maybe it's time to start over anyway.

Toni, if you don't mind, I would appreciate your walking me thru the simpe steps to recover Nerissa and a couple of others.

Here you go Mac! Hope it helps...click on the pic to go to the tute!

Here are Nathaniel and Nerissa, rescued from oblivion! I did notice that not all sims are listed, in particular, their child Simone.


They'll just have to have another child, and it will be named Toni or Tony, depending on the gender!

Thanks for the link and the tip!

Aaaaaaaaaaw! They are so cute!

Don't know why Simone didn't show up. The simmies display in alphabetical order....even babies show up. That's strange. But I think it's nice that you're gonna let them have another baby. I know that's not really your thing!

I'm so glad you found my tute helpful. I did it just for you (never mind the date on it...I back-dated it so it wouldn't interfere with my ongoing story).

I'm home from work today, so I figured I'd whip up some instructions to help out my friend Mac!!! NOTE: You are actually mentioned in step 5!

Of course, now I can share it with others too ...they'll just all have to wonder who Mac is!

EDITED TO ADD: By the way Mac...look at this neat tutorial I found to help make a neighbourhood last longer: Reinstall? Why? Rose/Miros's Thoughts on the Subject (and other Musings)

All sorts of unhappiness... I've had to completely recast my neighborhood. The old one was crashing under every possible situation. Couldn't even open up a lot. I've created a new neighborhood, with every dwelling visible without scrolling. Lots of apartments, 1x3's, 3x1's etc., but only about 10-12 different dwelling types. When Jen finishes her redecorated church, Loftis, I'll surely make an exception. 7 Dove road http://www.modthesims.info/d/379901 is getting quite a workout, as are the Beach Terrace Houses from MTS2.

Now for the people: I have 53 men, of whom 35 are celebrities (including some fictional, such as Harry Potter) and 18 are contributed sims, mainly from this site. I have 58 women, of whom 21 are celebs and 37 are contributed sims - from this site, Hunter's, and a few from SimTR. They are all starting from scratch, level 1 career, no friends or even acquaintances. There are 4 married couples: Nathaniel and Nerissa Broadswood-Smythe (my favorite), Ron and Nisa Weasley (Nisa is a perky, elfin redhead from SimTR), Bill Clinton and Lady Gaga (of course). and Beren Erchamion and Luthien Tinuviel from the Silmarillion - couldn't break them up!
The Asters are here: Valera (the bookish author), her sister Zoe (the dancing girl) , plus their cousins Don (the black sheep) and Lenora (the aspiring doctor). I've added two new but distant cousins - Echo Aster (who shares a house with Robin Rianna) and Tatiana (an up and coming poet). I've kept most of Hunter's, including Carole Hunter (another favorite of mine), Reiko Ryoshi, Trinity Huntsman, Analize Cazadora, and Taylor Yeager. More of hers may yet be added. Among the guys, there's Marcello and Nico Genni (will Nico get Sandra Bullock again? - she's included - we'll just have to wait and see), Logan Varner, Patrick Driann (the chick magnet) Geoff Webster, Devin Briggs, Francesco Toni, Brandon Fish (will he get Heli again?) Jeremy Gique, Adam Kitts, Ashton Redfield, Kostos Nevis,and Ari Linares. Also Shanti and Tiona, Krista (March), Chaya James, Tovia, and Ella Warne . The creators are here, too: Sugah, Milano, Delphy, Ari, and Hysterical.

Ahnold is here again, starting all over in his politics career and all over on his 200 grilled cheese!

Alas, I was unable to resurrect Simone, Nathaniel and Nerissa's little girl. Nathaniel and Nerissa have to establish themselves in their careers, pay off their loans, and then maybe have some kids. The first-born will be Toni or Tony, depending on gender, in thanks to Toni for helping me resurrect Nerissa using SimPE!

I'll be starting up now, but it may be some time before I have some stories to tell. Lately I've enjoyed playing with the sims contributed on this site more than with celebs. They all seem like old friends - both the sims and their creators!

Mac,

I am so sorry to hear about your game sweetie. There is nothing worse than losing your families that you have put so much of yourself and time into.

When Jen finishes her redecorated church, Loftis, I'll surely make an exception... oh that is the biggest compliment ever :)))

Wow!!Lately I've enjoyed playing with the sims contributed on this site more than with celebs. They all seem like old friends - both the sims and their creators!

Awww, that is the hugest compliment to any creator to see that others enjoy their work.
You are the best about supporting everyone here!!

That link to the beach house is fantastic, makes me want to create one as it has been a while since I have.

I can't wait to see how your stories unfold this time around :))

On the one hand I am soooooo sorry! I know what it's like to be attached to simmies. Buuuuuuuut, you can also look at it as the perfect opportunity to start a leaner, cleaner hood.

I'd recommend:

1. Cleaning out your DL folder while you're at it. Ditching clothes and hair and objects you never use.
2. Pick a few 'must have' mods and consider getting rid of the others.
3. Snag a primo set of default skins and eyes, and you don't have to clog up your DL's with a whole bunch of custom skins unless they're totally irresistible. If you don't use the skins that come with downloaded simmies, they'll still show up nicely in your game.
4. I have one set of default eyes and some wonderful contact-sets that show-up under makeup. They give you a ton of variety without having to have a million genetic eyes in your game.
5. Write protect your objects.package file in the game files to avoid corruption. You'll have to go into the folder of each EP and SP...and then into \TSData\Res\Objects..right click on the 'objects' file and make sure the 'read only' box is checked.

The objects.package file is a game data file containing information including icons, game objects, some characters and skins...if it gets corrupted it can cause all sorts of borkiness.

6. I also HIGHLY HIGHLy recommend BO's no Sim Loaded mod. If scans a lot as its loading, and zaps all the things that can make a lot/hood buggy, most of which are invisible to the player but which are quietly messing up your hood like:

Trashed controllers, including: Scenario Controllers, broken or expired Pregnancy Controllers, Lost Fishing Spots and stuck Move-outs, Fridge-tiles, and kickybags.
Fried Tokens, including: Attraction Markers and ALL Attraction Memories (both visible and invisible).
Denied Rumours/Gossip.
Fixed Sim states, i.e. Invisible Sims and Frozen Visitor Motives.

Phew! Okay...that's all I can think of right now.

I'm thrilled so man of my simmies are gracing your new hood, and touched that Nathaniel and Nerissa's baby (whenever you let that happen ) will be named after me. If you want to get really fancy...Toni is actually short for Antoinette!

[ASIDE: I totally refused to accept Antoinette as a kid. I'd always been called Toni, and had just learned to spell it when my grandmother showed me this loooooong 10-letter word and said, "Antoinette. That's your real name."

I took one look, and sad, "No it isn't."

Ha haaaaaaa! I was about nine or so when I accepted the Antoinette, but the only people who ever called me that was my grade school teacher, a lovely French boyfriend I had once (he pronounced it beautifully), and my mom when I was in trouble! )

Somewhere on this site (I haven't been able to find where), I posted a hack which allows sims to fight burglars on their own. They can only do this if there is no burglar alarm present - then the cop comes instead. Well anyway, I was playing Shanti in an apartment in my new 'hood when a burglar arrived. She had no alarm, and had had a bad week, losing her job already. He had already stolen her TV and her ballet barre. Out of desperation, I had her attack him. I didn't expect her to win - she only had two body points after all. But... she beat him, he surrendered, and she found all of his booty in her inventory. Don't mess with a ballet girl!

I'm so proud of her for kicking his butt and getting her stuff back...hahahaha!

I am very sorry to hear about your game, Mac. It is heartbreaking when we get attached to our simmies and then lose them. That has been the reason why some of my projects never started up again after a big loss. It was just too hard to start over without them.

I am pleased as punch that you put some of my simmies in your new hood. That makes a gal proud. Thanks ever so much for that!

That is very odd about Simone not showing up. You are looking alphabetically by first name, yes? And you're sure her name was Simone? Sometimes I get a blank box instead of a portrait thumbnail, but those work just as well. But everyone in the hood should show up - even stray pets. Sadness that you have lost her.

The anyone fight burglar hack was discussed in our SIMply Schmoozin' thread, about mid way down the page.