strangetomato | Strangetown extras: Preview of "next generation" LFT student

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extras: shwc

Strangetown extras: Preview of "next generation" LFT student

It might be a while before another Strangetown chapter surfaces, but I am working on it, just so you know. I'm thinking of doing a shorter "extra" chapter 23.5, but even that might not show up before the weekend. It's a busy time for me, and we have family coming to stay with us for the weekend, so there is plenty of tidying up to do in preparation for that. That darn housework cuts into my simming time. If only maids were as cheap and easy to obtain in real life as they are for sims, I'd have Remmington Harris doing my chores instead.

I just wanted to share one photo with you, mostly just to get excited about the Free Time Skirt & Stockings outfit converted for adults by cloudlessnights on MTS2. I love that Free Time outfit to bits. BITS! Fair isle, argyle, sweater vests, knee socks, and skirts... these are a few of my favourite things!

She's pretty happy for someone caught in the rain, don't you think? It must be the fabulous outfit.

And who is this pretty gal? Why, she's one of the "next gen" of LFT students that will be starting their studies when Buck and Jill go to university. I figured that I would work some new characters in, and these may seem familiar to some of you. I decided that sims from any neighbourhood might go to LFT to study. That makes sense, right? I don't intend to go crazy with crossovers, exactly, but I do want to expand on the little bit of dabbling in that area that I've been doing. You can never have too many characters, right? (We'll see about that one.)

If you know her, feel free to call out her name. She's not shy.

ETA: I found some more Free Time conversions on the Sims Resource by aikea guinea: teen male and teen female Free Time "Tech" outfits converted for adults (same as above, but includes the male versions too... and your guess is as good as mine about why they are called "tech." outfits) and Teen female "Bohemian" outfit converted for adult females. Hooray!

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*GASP* I would have never found out about that conversion. *loves it and downloads*

Bottom is adorable! I never really play Veronaville, so I haven't even seen her as an adult/young adult. I can't wait to see her in the story. Can I ask what her aspiration is?

Well, Maxis sort of dropped the ball on the Caliente sister's DNA. Dina's blonde/blonde, Nina's red/red but their ancestors appear brown or black haired. I'm sure it was supposed to be dyes, though, that's usually what I change 'em to.
Funny thing? Dina has a high Nice quota! And if you look at their background, there's one picture that hints at them having been abused by their mom. It's subtle enough that I've rarely seen players refer to it, but that's what it looks like to me: Dina is walking away from mom crying and rubbing her arm, while Nina is scowling and putting her arms up like she has to defend herself.

I MUST HAVE THAT OUTFIT THEN! I need to get back to playing the game, actually. The minor characters makes the story more interesting, and you get to dream up new backstories/issues. Sounds like a lot of fun to me! ;)

As for Bottom... I think she always looked rather tomboyish as a child. I've never really played her family and never saw her as a teen or adult. So it's rather nice to see her aged and girly like this. She's rather pretty as a YA!

Edited 2008-03-19 06:38 (UTC)

I love those outfits! Thank you for the link. Are they teen outfits in FT?

I also love the idea of sims from other neighborhoods going to La Fiesta Tech. Bottom's a good choice. :)

I always thought that they were meant to have dyed hair, and it's not like they couldn't have set it up to be like that, since that has been available as an option since the base game.

The Caliente's also have alien ancestors, don't they? They have an interesting backstory, and I really haven't given it much consideration. I do recall that photo with their mother that you're talking about... that might be worth looking into.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have never played Dina Caliente, not even once, even though I've played with Pleasantview a couple of times. She just rubs me the wrong way. If she makes her way into this story, even in an indirect way (you might see her child with Mortimer, for example, at some point in the future), I'll try to give her a fair chance.

Do it - get the outfit. ^_^ Everyone should have it. I love those conversions that open up meshes for different age groups, and it allows those of us who don't have the EP to use the clothing, which is even better.

Dreaming up backstories is a lot of fun, and I really like taking the personality of the Maxis sim children and trying to decide how they might behave when they grow up. Children don't seem to get a whole lot of thought in the Maxis backstory, as a rule (like Jill - it's not surprising that some people find her boring. She doesn't really have any story given to her by Maxis).

Yeah, you might be right. It could be the hair mesh that they use on her (the child braided hair). I like this girly, yet sensible, look for her. Her Maxis bio says that she often gets into trouble while looking for attention, but maybe she will grow up to be more respectable and responsible... I say, yes she did. She's a knowledge sim, and wants to work as an Educator.

I agree. I love these conversions. I think that anything that can be used by teens, should be a YA mesh anyway, if not an adult mesh too (since many of them seen appropriate for adults too, especially in these youthful times).

There was no gender swap. Maybe I said that in a way to make it confusing. Bottom is actually a girl in Veronaville. I didn't do any switching of the genders with these newcomers. I was doing that with my prosperity 'hood, so that's why music_simbol was wondering if I'd do it in Stranegtown too, I guess, but I want to keep things more true to the actual setup of the game.

Doing the actual gender swap would be easy, though, since I'm just cloning sims with SimPE and recreating them, based on their character profiles. If I wanted to gender swap, I could just click the button in CAS.

I hope you feel better!

*grins* Well, I'm more than happy to spread the good news.

I don't play Veronaville much either. I've don't some minor dabbling, and that's about it. I've played Pleasantview the most, if you can believe that. I've only played Strangetown a little before this story, and then it was mostly just one family (Nervous Subject). I've played through Pleasantview in its entirety a number of times.

I chose knowledge for Bottom's aspiration. It seemed to work. She's fairly serious.

Ooh, conversions!! KNEE SOCKS!! Now if I can just get someone to make a roller derby style outfit, I would soil myself. (I'm more than a little fascinated by roller derby right now so. . .). I was just getting ready to go over to MTS2 and look for recolors/conversions. Hee hee!

Did you change Bottom's name? (I love the idea of a parent naming their kid bottom, it's just a bit mean!)

You've caught the cross over bug! Mwuahahahah.

I love the conversions as well. I have my selfsim in one of those outfits.

Funny, I`ve always interpreted that pic as the outcome of a fight. Nina has won and their Mom is praising her but then in the next pic Dina is marrying Michael Bachelor and Nina`s crying. It`s obviously a contrast to the first pic.

I`ve always wondered why since Nina is a Romance sim and it would make no sense for her to be so heartbroken over her sister`s wedding. But then, because I actually play the Calientes quite a bit (and dislike the way they are bashed and called sluts/skanks all over the comm while everyone loves sleazy Don) have noticed that Dina has no reaction whatsoever when told to mourn the urn of her ex-husband while Nina actually cries! Hidden love triangle there, perhaps?

Anyway, I guess the sisters always competed with eaxh other over the years.

The Caliente's also have alien ancestors, don't they?
Yes, they do. I think an alien grandfather. Maybe we can blame the whole medium skintone and blonde/red hair on that?

"each"

That makes sense too, and it probably does represent the rivalry of the sisters, rather than parental abuse.

I dislike things like that too. The old double standard for sluts of the male and female variety. I think, if anything, Nina is a far more sympathetic character than Don, since he's stringing poor Cassandra along, and Nina is just doing her thing.

My dislike of Dina isn't so much about her appearance as her gold digging of poor old Morty, who I really like, and I hate to see him being taken advantage of. I also get fairly bent out of shape when I hear people say that their children end up being ugly because of Mortimer's bad genes, when he has far better genes than Dina. Mortimer is a good looking guy... he's just old.

Oooh, a love triangle? I do love those.

Nothing really explains the dark skin tone and red hair thing (blond with dark hair does happen in real life, but it's rare... I have doubts about the red). It's just a sim thing. Any real reference to race seems to have been left out of the game.

It would be fun to use SimPE to give the Calientes some dormant alien genetics.

You're welcome. I'm happy to share. Those are teen girl outfits in FT, but I don't know why they didn't make them accessible to all ages, since it's hardly a teen specific look.

I think it will be fun, and I don't see any reason why they couldn't go to LFT instead of Sim State or whatever. They're from different neighbourhoods, not different planets (and even Stella went to LFT)! I always did plan to do a little intermingling with Peasantview (like with the Pleasant twins - they'll likely make an appearance beyond Ripp's dreams). I like Bottom. I think she'll be a fun character to work into the story.

Hooray for knee socks! I'm a big fan. I wore argyle knee socks like that a lot when I was a bit younger (now I usually just wear tights). That mesh is closer to something I would actually wear than most Maxis clothing. I was crossing my fingers that someone would make this conversion, and now I'm really hoping the teen males get the same treatment. There are some really nice new meshes for them too. I may find a good outfit for Buck. That's totally his style.

Roller derby, hey? That's fun. That would be a cool outfit, and didn't they add roller skating with Seasons? Why not have some roller derby action?

Nope. Still Bottom. I like that name. Even for fairies, it's pretty weird. She can join the club that the Grunts have going, with their unusual names. I'd imagine that her friends probably just call her B, or something like that.

Of course I caught the bug, seeing how much fun you have in Peculiar! Crossovers are so much fun, and I totally have the bug. I like to think of the Maxis 'hoods as one whole network of towns, so why not? The Goth thing comes built into the plot of Strangtown and Pleasantview, so that's how I got started thinking about it. And the Pleasant twins are even on the TV! I'm going to try to keep it realistic, as if those characters remain in the other 'hoods, or perhaps move to Sim City. There won't be a whole bunch moving to Strangetown anytime soon, or anything like that. Who would want to move there? *snicker*

I'm such a big conversion fan, especially since the newer Maxis meshes have been so well made. That's very much like something I would wear too.

I'm wearing knee socks RIGHT NOW (turquoise with green an pink polka dots--not all cotton though, so they're not my favorite pair).

Speaking of conversions, I found the adult male punk outfit (chains/tattoos) converted for females (teen/adult) and teen boys. I think Peculiar needs some punkers (future teens, that is). And the flamenco dancer dress for teens (I kind of have ideas for both the dress and the girl punker outfit).

Yes, roller skates are in Seasons. In fact, I'm planning to show off Peculiar's new roller rink in an update (probably in this round, too, I'm not entirely sure yet. . .). The only snag is, sims with high body points get inline skates. NOOOO. I need old school skates.

The best thing about cross overs is, if you "finish" a major story arc in Strangetown, you could shuffle over to another neighborhood and hatch a fresh idea that could end up back at Strangetown. Perpetual motion storytelling.

You're wearing birghtly coloured polka dotted knee socks right now? Sweet. Is the rest of your outfit that colourful too? All of the socks that I do wear are knee socks, though most of them are grey to wear under jeans and stuff (I have plenty of colour in the rest of my clothes, so that keeps things simple). (Also, I agree with you about the inferiority of non-cotton socks.)

With that mesh, I really hope someone does one of those conversions where they seperate the top from the bottom to make two meshes. If I knew how, I would totally do it myself. It would be so nice to have that skirt as an option for the bottom with other shirts.

Oh, cool! Where did you find it? You're talking about that base game mesh we gabbed about in one of your prosperity updates, right? I really like that one. And for females too? Sweet. I also quite like the flamenco dancer dress. Was that conversion on MTS2?

I have yet to play a roller rink. There are so many things I haven't done with this game yet. It's crazy. But that just means I'll have something fun to experience later. Sims with higher body points get different skates? I guess it makes sense, so they can get all hardcore about it. *snicker* Extreme sports!

Yeah, that's true. It does open more possibilities if things are coming to a dead end and things like that too. It might be more meaningful if the events in Strangetown have an effect beyond that tiny little town too. And, if need be, a character could just up and leave for a while.

The rest of my outfit isn't so great. Red plaid sleep pants, gray t-shirt (with orange trim), gray/blue plaid fleece robe (mens) and big Eeyore slippers (the kind with the stuffed toy head on them, nearly killed myself on the stairs while wearing them).

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=226380 (punker outfit) Good quality, too (though I'm still poo-pooing the tattoos).

(I grabbed some of the hairs pictured on the models, too--girl mohawk and "no hat" hair shown on the boy)

There is so much I've never done with the game, too. Just today was the first time I ever looked at the La Academie Tour college (the one that "goes with" Veronaville). I cloned off a few rental properties (one has two little houses on one lot--love that). I also really looked at the Sim State students. One guy has a great look (not a pure template face). I think he'll get cloned at some point.

I'm telling you, the cross over thing will (eventually) breath new life into the all but dead Nocheat. (and the other day I was working on my master directory for Nocheat and I realized that hoods been around since 2005. Good lord, where does the time go).

*boggles* That makes absolutely no sense. Mortimer's got face #2 with like 0.1 percent tweaking along the jawline. It's the classic Barbie/Ken face!

Speaking of crossovers and conversions, have you seen this awesome mega-hood that Hysterical Paroxysm put together? All the Maxis made hoods in one!

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=278072

I'm testing it out today.

... *faints* *runs to download*

*cackles* :D

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Strangetown extras: Preview of "next generation" LFT student

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