strangetomato | Sims Talk: All kinds of nonsense

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sims talk

Sims Talk: All kinds of nonsense

Like the subject line says, this post is a little all over the place, so here's a little summary for you, before you waste your precious time reading it. I will ramble about the following topics (which I have organized into a neat list for you):

- cool sim communities
- actually finding an elusive download (tip: drag your search "net" across the ocean floor, destroying everything in your path... or use google)
- a request for votes on Jaxy Rai's new hairstyle
- creating a tee shirt recolour with the J/R/O painting on it
- another cool download (+ a spoilery hint about a new character)
- ACR
- plans for May

Recently, I joined a number of new (or new to me) sim communities:

weheartoverlays - a community for sim storytellers and moviemakers to share tips and turtorials about posing sims and using the various animation hacks.

simfic50 - Members of this community create pieces of sim fiction (between 200 and 2,000 words), based on their table of 50 prompts. Membership is open to anyone, but you must applying and be approved before you start to post.

sim_mania - A community which presents "Mini Challenges for the Creative Simmer". The creators of this community strive to keep it fair, friendly, and fun. Sounds good to me.

So, lots of interesting things to check out there!

I was thinking of posting a WCIF post on

thesims2, for a conversion of the short messy male Maxis hair for females (as seen in this simsecret post - see No. 004.), but then I decided that I would try to find it myself. I was convinced that I could find it if I searched hard enough, and I was right. It took a lot of digging, but I finally located it. It feels good to do something all by yourself.

I needed the hair for Jaxy Rai. She's getting a haircut. In my search, I found one other style that might work, as well as one I already had, so I'm going to ask for some reader participation here. Which hairstyle do you prefer for Jaxy?

Short messy Maxis male hair - this mesh has some issues, but it's still pretty cool. You can find it here.

Maxis male fauxhawk hair - I like this one a lot, with the ultra short sides, even if this mesh is also a little wonky. You can find it here.

Athena Hair by HystericalParoxysm at MTS2. This looks nice, but it seems a bit too soft and feminine for Jaxy. I'm not sure about it.

What do you think?

In my continued experimentation with recolouring objects, I created this shirt, which features the J/R/O artwork as a logo.

I like how it looks, but the image came out really blurry. It might have something to do with re-sizing. I'll offer this for download if I ever work it out and get it to look clearer. The original artist even suggested that he might fiddle with it and make a version with a nice bold black outline for the shirt, so I'll probably pester him to do that.

My simself is working Decorgal's Custom Modeling Poses Overlay Hack. (She must be wondering if she should audition for one of those Sim Top Model things... check out the furrowed brow.)

I love how the Baggy Untucked Tees for Adults by kaylynn06 at MTS2 gives her more realistic proportions. It makes her chest seem flatter, and rightfully so, but I could still trim a little more off there. I'm a pretty thin person, but not in that elusive "small waist, big tits" sort of way, and my arms are definitely not that thin. Very few females have arms that thin.

Like that baggy tee mesh, I'm also very impressed by these Men's H&M Jeans Converted for Women, also by kaylynn06. Some girls just wear big, masculine jeans. I don't want all of my female sims to be super girly, and these are perfect for a new character that I'll introduce in the not-too-distant future (probably pretty soon, because I love her already).

Here's a little sneak peek, not that it gives too much away (... or does it?). It's a nice shot of the jeans, anyway.

On ACR...

I'm thinking of adding it to my game. Maybe. It seems like I'll be able to control what I need to control, but I still have my concerns about what it could mean for my Strangetown. I'd probably have to put Ophelia on the pill, for starters. From my readings on ACR, a family sim with two (ready, willing, and able) potential mates could be a lot of trouble. Romance and popularity sims also seem to have more active ACR sex drives, so that's double the (double) trouble. Chemistry is a big factor with ACR, and I know that Johnny and Ripp would both like to do more than just blow hearts at Ophelia. (Must refrain... from making... dirty metaphors...)

Now, about my plans for May... I was thinking of challenging myself to post something every day in May. That could be an extra, a short story, drabble, photo shoot, sim discussion, challenge entry, or maybe even a tutorial (I've always wanted to make one of those... any suggestions for topics?). I'll probably fizzle out before the month is over, but I'll give it a try.

With stories and things, I have that Grunt-Pleasant short story to do at some point, the Prosperity Challenge (which is in a halted mode right now, while I consider starting a new Llama Spit Cove, designed myself using Sim City 4), and a new project to be posted on simfic50. I have no idea about the new project yet. I'm still in the brainstorming stage. I'm thinking of trying something original, so I'll lose my crutch of writing about Maxis sims (and probably my audience too, in the process).

So, as I said, this post was all over the place, wasn't it?

Also, I apologize for being severely neglectful of answering the comments on my last Strangetown update. I've been out of town for work all week, but that's really no excuse, since I was puttering around for a few days before that. I'll get to it, I promise.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I think there should be something that could be changed in the BCON files in SimPE but I've never fiddled with them. Some sims are more active than other's I have sims that go days without utilizing ACR even though they are in proximity to their one and have plenty of free will time in order to do so. I have other's that get active more than once a day, even if neither timer should be kicking in yet. Age/personality/aspiration all tie in I believe.

I think you're probably right about the style thing, and it being more of a "rock" sort of look. All good points.

It's more the blurriness that's an issue with the tee shirt for me. If you get any closer than the distance shown in the photo, it looks really blurry. I'm sure I can fix it if I work around with it some more.

I agree with you about the problem with matching Maxis tops and bottoms. There is a lack of decent top halfs. It doesn't make sense that the H&M Stuff included jeans, but no decent tops to match with them. The men desperately need some longer untucked shirts to go with the H&M jeans. For the females, I don't mind using the "untuckables" tops, and just tucking them in with the H&M jeans (since I do love those jeans, and females can pull off a tucked tee or tank better than males can).

That was an excellent analysis of the new character's bedroom. You noticed almost all of my clues, and you have interpreted them correctly (the only thing you missed was the fact that she's a city girl - you can see Sim City out the window). I love making the home reflect the sim who lives in it. It's a lot of fun to think of those details, and it helps to develop the character.

It's your experiences with ACR that make me think I might like to use it, really. It hasn't seemed to make things really crazy and unpredictable, but it has thrown you some interesting plot developments, like the thing with Ripp and Helena, and it gave you a couple of unplanned babies, which I like. Do you set every house up with the settings you want or do you just go with the default ACR settings. How strict are you about it?

I remember having some issues with Pescado's romance mod when I looked into it. Aren't all family sims set tp be super jealous, for one thing? It makes sense in most cases, but maybe not all. Does that mod look at things like niceness as a factor too? No instant loves should be added. I've been meaning to do that for a while. That would have prevented the whole Tank/Ophelia flirting fiasco (where I accidentally saved after they fell in love, because they left the lot).

I guess the family sims are just hoping to get down to breeding as quickly as possible. I'd have to keep a very, very close eye on Ophelia. I wouldn't want to have to run a paternity test (though I think the skin colour would give away the father's identity).

It should be fun. I see no problem with finding a topic to chat about or making some little thing to share every day. I have another couple of poster designs in mind. I'm going to do some posters for the bands. (I just wished they'd update SimPE for K&B Stuff. They posted an update, but now it seems to be taken down again.)

Honestly, pretty much if they're left alone for more than 5 seconds.

Yeah, that sounds about right. I still haven't reinstalled it after the FT update because I'm rather enjoying keeping control of things. I might put it back in once I finish up my current legacy story (hey, you can really only work a one-child handicap if your sims are trying for a kid every ten minutes) just for my self sim and her hubby. The day I was uninstalling the objects for my FT install, the two of them headed for a bed seconds after I removed it from the lot. Hell, part of the reason I hooked them up was because they hooked up on their own... and apparently tried for baby on a community lot all on their own. Hell, until then, I didn't even know you could Try for Baby in a hot tub.

Hmmm... maybe I'll just turn off the option for a bit and put it back anyway.

I love that Kara hair. Which character do you use it on? I'll go take a look. I've had a glance at some of your stories already, but I need to actually sit down and read some of them. They look very interesting.

Those hair meshes seem to have little holes or gaps in them around the hairline. You only see the flaws from certain angles, so I was able to hide it for the photo. It's not a huge problem. I could easily live with it, but those meshes aren't perfect, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

I agree. A masculine hairstyle might be suitable for any number of female characters. I wish I could find more male to female conversions. Be sure to let me know if you see any.

I vote for the first hair style for Jaxy. She seems to enjoy it. :D

Good luck on your May efforts! Now that I'm free of school I also need to post a bit more. Maybe I should set myself deadlines, although I don't think I could keep up with an 'everyday' attempt.

Hmm. If you're reading, it might be a bit of a spoiler to say who I use it on. :)

It's the second (or third depending on how you count) hairstyle I use on Heather Walton, a dormie turned zombie that becomes important in the story.

The little holes and gaps in meshes drive me nuts. I've got a beautiful hairstyle on a sim right now that I absolutely love and is perfect for her, but from the right angle there's a gap at the back of her neck. I can probably fix it in photoshop for the story, but it's still a pain.

Oh! Complete tangent...

I've been meaning to ask you what camera mod you use? For the most part, I've gotten pretty adept at using the in-game camera mode, but there are a few spots where I realized some improvements wouldn't hurt.

I use GunMod's Camera Mod 3.1 There are three versions available. I use the GCM-31-A.RAR : No Fade No Clip Version.

You will love using this camera mod. I was pretty adept at using the in-game camera too, but it is just painful to use compared to the camera mod. It's much more user-friendly.

It's testimonials like yours that make me hesitate about ACR. I don't mind a little infidelity and random romances (especially for the younger generations, who I haven't planned out as much), but I don't want to see everything going completely wild. I'm of two minds on the matter. I want some of the random factor, but not too much of it.

I love posing things and using those animation boxes to create scenes, but I'm also very fond of just setting up the scene with the natural animations and interactions, like just having two sims talk to each other. Those can be just as good. Some photos that are set up with poses look really static, stiff, and awkward to me, especially some of the user-created poses (that model one has some odd things going on with the legs in some poses, for example). I suppose the key is knowing which pose or animation to use in each context. It's so wide open. I love experimenting with that stuff.

More than anything, I get obsessed over getting the right angle on a scene. The camera mod makes that a lot easier for me.

I just downloaded the camera mod too and I do love it!
Sometimes I feel like such a stalker looking at my Sims so close though. Like I'm actually a fly on the wall watching their every move. It's so fun.

Just adding my vote for the faux hawk style on Jaxy... I like the first style all right, but the faux hawk is way cute and unique without being too feminine. And I think I'm going to download it to use in my game as well :)

For Jaxy’s hair, I like the second one the best. The first looks too strange and the third is too feminine.

I like the fauxhawk the best for Jaxy. The first option is too butch for her, the third is too girly. She's rather wild and also doesn't strike me as someone who spends hours and hours in front of the mirror. So the 'slap some gel on pull fingers up and through done!' thing seems the best fit.

I think I like the first hair for Jaxy.

The new characters room looks like what I want my new room to look like! Except.. without the florencent yellow/blue cat picture. (I just got done painting and the paint on my hand looks like the paint in the room)

I actually like the Athena hairstyle on Jaxy. Of course, I use the male version of the mesh a lot on my male sims, so I'm probably a tad biased.

As for hair conversions, Buffybot has some conversions of Raonjena's male hair meshes at DL Mulsow's under Buffybot's Bits (I think I spelled all that right), but they're still very feminine despite being conversions.

I like the second hairdo, it seems to fit Jaxy the most.

I love your stories, by the way. :)

I'm all for the Maxis male fauxhawk for Jaxy. It just seems to work better. Even if she likes her hair super short and she is kind of boyish I would still think that she would put some effort in her style. That's it. She has style of her own. I just can't picture her being messy out in public. Maybe the first hair when she sleeps or something? That's my two cents.

I really like the Messy Short hair on her, it fits her personality a lot. :) I don't think ACR would work for a controlled story like Ndainye said. It just seems off, having them attack each other all the time. Especially Ophelia's dirty self. (I'm a little mad at her after her little stunt with Ripp.) I can't wait to see the new character! She looks cool. :)

I like Athena too, but not so much for Jaxy. I just threw that one in the mix since it was the right length, but I don't really see myself using it for her.

My story is not as highly controlled as you might think. I make a lot of decisions based on game details, like chemistry, and I do follow through on a lot of random happenings in the game, if they work with the overall vision of the story (and the characters and relationships, most of all). In many ways, I probably don't need ACR to spin ideas for me, since I tend to follow ACR-style plotlines all on my own, with all the random hook-ups and such, but I think it might be useful for newer or younger characters that I don't have ideas for yet. A little element of surprise is always good (but just a little).

However, there are some chemistry-based matches that I would not like to see happen for plot-logical reasons that ACR will not consider. For example, Ophelia has two bolts of chemistry with Pascal, and the fact that he's Johnny's uncle makes this completely out of the question story-wise (not to mention the nature of the characters themselves), but ACR would probably have them interacting, even though it's ridiculous. Maybe that sort of thing happens in Pleasantview, but here in Strangetown, we have standards of conduct.

I'm leaning towards the fauxhawk too (and most voters seem to pick it). It's a nice compromise. I do think that Jaxy wants something pretty butchy, but she does have a well developed sense of style, so the second option seems better for that.

Woohoo is always a pretty central feature of gameplay for me, so ACR would change that too much for me, but it depends on the character too. Some of them never do it, but others do it more frequently. (I love your story about playing in the airport. *snicker* Did you scandalize anyone?)

I think that you can completely control the pregnancy thing, with the risky woohoo feature, and the "pill". I like that idea. I also really like the idea of the booty call feature. I can see Ripp making good use of it.

Thanks. Some of the posts might be pretty basic or small, but I think I can do it. It's Spring. I have more creative energy to spread around.

One more for the fauxhawk, huh? I think you're on the winning team here. I don't think the first style is necessarily too masculine, but I agree with all of the comments that Jaxy might prefer a more stylish 'do.

Yeah, Marie really rocks that cut, doesn't she? In platinum blonde, no less. I do like that HP hair, but I'm leaning towards the fauxhawk too.

The new character with the boy jeans is a musician too. There we go with the shared brain cell thing again. I hope it really means that we have great minds, and not something more sinister... (And how cute of you to try to be as ~cool~ as me. *snort*) I'm looking forward to see the new characters. That's always interesting. These sim worlds just spread out like crazy, don't they?

Yeah, I did see your post. I'll probably go take a look at some of those links. It's probably enough to work with until InSIM gets updated. I REALLY want to install FT now that you're doing it. If you're over your fear, then I should be too, right? *snicker*

I haven't seen anything that is partly shaved like that. I could see Jaxy going for one of those skin-head type looks, like the bangs with a shaved head or something. Or buzzed off like Britney. I found a conversion of that military style that Buzz and Tank have, but that doesn't work for Jaxy either.

I do think that ACR might have enough options to control it the way I need to, and it can always be removed, so I'm still considering it. I'd have to give it more thought before I take the plunge.

I seem to be getting a consensus on the fauxhawk. I was leaning to that anyway, but I may be able to use the first one also. You'll understand when you see the circumstances of her haircut.

I'll try not to burn myself out with posting so much. :P I was posting more frequently anyway, and I plan to do more recolours and stuff, so I think I'll be able to pull it off.

The new character is not necessarily a Maxis transplant, but she's not original either (very few of my original characters are fully original anyway... I mash up Maxis stock for many of them).

I think that romance sims are less likely to "try for baby" with ACR, but with three bolts, I'd still worry a little.

I could see using both the first one and the fauxhawk. One for when she just wakes up, or doesn't bother to style it, and one for shows (or dates ;) I'd love to see her and Zoe on a date!)

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Sims Talk: All kinds of nonsense

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