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.

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I like the first one on, Jaxy. The messy short hair style. :) The faux hawk is cute, but the first one is better. I'm not a fan of the Athena style by HP, even though I love her other hair styles..

Hmm...I kind of like the Athena hair for Jaxy. I think she works the chapstick lesbian look, particularly since she's still in makeup and whatall. I'm not so fond of the super-dyke hair on her.

ACR definitely makes romance more interesting.

The Athena seems a bit too styled for Jaxy. I like the wash and wear appeal of the first one.

I like the Athena, but only on certain sims, and I do like some of her other styles better (like the Kara hair, which I use on Jayne Doe).

Hmmm. Opinions seem to be varying already. I'll be interested to see which side wins out.

"Chapstick" lesbian works as a description for Jaxy, since it's not quite lipstick, but she's not exactly super butch either. Like many people, she falls somewhere in between.

I really like some of the elements of ACR, like the risky woohoo, and sims woohooing and trying for babies on their own. If I do add it, I will be very strict about setting up each household to the settings that work with the story.

I agree with you about the hair thing. Although I still think the first one would be good as well.

I love ACR, but I'm constantly canceling out actions when my sims want to "relax" on the bed... or couch..

How often do they decide to "relax" like that, in the run of a sim day?

Honestly, pretty much if they're left alone for more than 5 seconds. I don't find it annoying though for some reason, I still think it's kind of funny. The only thing that sucks is that when you cancel out of the action, sometimes it doesn't cancel until they get to the bed and lay down. The wait is kind of annoying, but other than that I don't really mind it.

I'll probably find it funny too, but it will piss me off if they get really out of character (but they do that anyway with the free will on, so I should be used to it by now).

I think you can set the ACR timer too, which changes how often they want to knock boots.

I quite like the fauxhawk on Jaxy. While the male messy hair is nice, it seems a bit too masculine for her. I agree with the 'chapstick' comment. She's into makeup and the like, so I'm sure she wouldn't mind getting into gel too. Athena doesn't do anything for me either.

You and your self sim. :P The shirt looks pretty good, thou I'm sure you want to make it perfect. Look forward to seeing the finished product.

Those jeans look really good on whoever that is. Some girls do like wearing looser jeans, so it makes sense to have that option. Plus, the jeans from base game always seem off to me as the knees are really skinny. Yeech!

I'd be careful with ACR. Though I have it in my stories, I also turn free will off most of the time, preventing any random hookups. I also have all females on the pill and my sims don't have the option of trying for a baby. As long as you're willing to go along with the possibly outcomes, then have fun. Just make sure you keep an eye out for the hookups that may ruin your story.

Posting everyday could be cool. Doing that for month is on my to-do list, but I'm always afraid it'll end up as stupid random posts. But, you're is kinda cool. Little fics and such between major chapters. Nice idea.

All over the place can be good every once in awhile. :)

I think I like the first Jaxy hair style too!

About ACR... I had it once, took it out. Put it in again, took it out. Meh... you're right about the Family sims and the several "hots for" mates. I had sims getting pregnant all over the place, and seriously sometimes it seemed to be with just whomever seemed to be around. I had affairs and love children out the wazoo.

I'm sure I could have tweaked the settings to make it more Maxis-like, but there are a *lot* of settings on that thing, and just when I thought I had it right, nope... I still have Payton Place going on. ((rolls eyes))

So I dunno... it's a neat concept and it does work. I just had to keep my sims isolated... no pairs of couples living under the same roof... especially if they all had high chem among them, because they'd all share each other's spouses.

Posing sims is fun, isn't it? Although I can get extremely frustrated and short-tempered when I *know* I can get a certain look and either can't remember what ani-box it's in, or can't get my carpal-tunnel plagued hand to maneuver the mouse just so, ~~or can't get my almost 3 and 4 year olds to be quiet~~ so I can figure things out. :p.

I try to take really good pics, but sometimes I know they can be better. I get so jealous of some of the ones I see!

((hugs))

If you don't cancel all the actions and let the sims get down to business at least once every 24 hours then they won't constantly be horny, unless you have the lot set to brothel.

Really? So, sims have libidos that increase and decrease? Interesting. And weird.

I like the first style the best I think, while I like the Athena I don't really think it's her.

I think with a highly controlled storyline you might have issues with ACR. I wouldn't play without it but I love letting my sims take control of the game in most situations. Maintaining relationships boundries isn't that difficult as long as there are any loose wheels running around. I rarely have issues in established played households it's just when sims that don't get played all that often show up they tend to cause havoc since their timers have been dormant too long.

I quite like the second haircut, the faux hawk. Not only is my favorite Maxis hair, but it is in-between the more "manly" messy cut (and I don't think Jaxy is that tomboy-ish) and the Athena hair (more feminine and "sophisticated", and I also don't consider Jaxy like that, not with that language at least!). Plus it looks fun and more umm... rocker-ish (I'm suffering from adjetive-ammnesia tonight),

I think that's a good try for a t-shirt. I like how it looks, although I guess the design would stand out more with a black border.

Hmmm... new character. I like the jeans too! I usually put complete outfits to my sims because the Maxis jeans and tops are hard to match. They look odd, or they show the belly (and in men it looks awful), especially the H&M ones.

May I play detective (or psychologist) with the new character pic? From what I've seen from her bedroom, she's into hot guys (from the calendar), art (from the easel, although that painting is pretty bad :D)and at least she supports the alien side of your story (from the poster). And she's a mess too!

I love when Sim bedrooms have personality, regardless if they have Maxis stuff or lovely custom content.

About ACR... A lot of people say they make their sims act more umm "slutty". I haven't seen that in my game. My sims woo hoo a lot, but they tend to focus on their chosen partner and are actually pretty faithful when they are engaged, going steady or married. Rose Mary Broke is a romance sim, married to Buck (a family sim). She only has one bolt with him, yet she constantly rejects other sims with higher chemistry. With Buck on the other hand... they keep woo hooing like bunnies, and she's already "on the pill" because she's on her third pregnancy already.

I suggest you get "romance mod" and "no instant loves" from Pescado at MATY. I read that ACR is designed to work with these mods too. Perhaps that's what makes my sims more faithful. Oh! One silly side of ACR is that Family sims tend to be more horny with it! So watch out for Ophelia, Nervous and Buck when you install it! :D

The posting all over the month is a neat idea. I'd be glad to read new stories or just talk about the game ^^.

I think I like the faux hawk the best. The first style is cool, but quite butch, and I agree with all the others on the girly-ness of the Athena. I suppose it's because I use that first style on a lot of my male sims, so to me it automatically says "guy".

I've had ACR for a few months, and I like it, but woohoo does become more of a central feature of the game! Also, it makes the game a bit racier to play. I was at the airport killing time not long ago when two sims got naked (sims-naked, they aren't terribly anatomically correct in my game) and started making out on the bed. I wasn't really thinking anything of it, but my husband was scandalized that I was playing this in public! Oops.

I haven't had anyone get accidentally pregnant yet, but I don't have many family sims. There's only one teen boy in the neighborhood, and he's become the town bicycle. Three different teenage girls have woohooed with him completely out of the blue - sometimes via the charming Booty Call option (two of them were sisters...). I don't have inteen, so no teens will be getting pregnant. I am positive unwanted pregnancies are totally preventable if you pick the right settings for each sim.

I'm lucky if I post once a week, good luck with your May goal!

I definitely prefer the faux hawk. The first style is too masculine for her, and the third just isn't one of my favorites.

Yeah, I use the Kara hair on one of my more prominent characters, so I recognized it right away on Jayne. :)

By the way, what is wonky about the converted male meshes? I kind of like the two you linked.. They'd be good for the right type of character.

Not a fan of the first one (seen that hairstyle IRL too many times, so it seems blah, whereas Jaxy is not a blah sim). The fauxhawk works, and the Athena do might be nice. I was bummed that one of the choices was not the 'Britney' shave, which I think would look hot on her, tbh. Maybe I just have a thing for
the nearly bald look on women.

ACR does have its problems, but you can turn down the "chances of baby" or "risky woohoo" ratios- which is like taking the pill.

That's the nice thing about ACR. You have so many options at your fingertips.

Yeah. That resets their ACR timer, right? It makes sense that if they don't get some, they keep seeking it out.

Yeah, the makeup thing is a good point. Jaxy would probably style it a bit (although... the messy hair is styled too, when you think about it).

Do I overuse my simself? Am I an annoying simself pusher? :P Probably... but who else in my game would actually wear a J/R/O tee shirt? The shirt really looks very blurry if you get any closer than that shot, so I'd like to at least try to make that part of it better.

Those weird base game bell bottoms with the pinched in knees have always bothered me. A lot of base game meshes do. Thankfully, the quality of the Maxis clothing has increased a lot since the base game. Now their clothes is easily better than most cc, at least in my opinion (since I have no time for photo-skinning, weird unnecessary folds in the textures, super skinny waists, etc.)

I like having the option to use looser jeans, and I think it really works for this character. She wears a tank top with it. It's no-nonsense and slightly tom-boyish, but still feminine. It's a nice change from all the girly styles.

I keep the free will off when I'm shooting a lot of scenes for the story too, so it might be fine (although, that doesn't control what the townies and visiting sims do). There are only a handful of pre-planned romances that might get ruined by ACR. Anything that is already established seems to be safe (since the partner is set as "the one", so the sim tends to focus on them). More concerning for me would be that everyone has to have a sex drive. My Nervous Subject, for one, isn't exactly looking to get laid once a day... at least not at this point in the story (and maybe not ever. Once a day is a lot).

I think I can do the post-a-day thing, at least for a little while. I was getting close to that last month, so we'll see how it goes.

I can vouch for the coolness of the HP hair (that pixie hair) and the "boy jeans" (I JUST put the boy jeans on Zoey--for the LFT show--she looks great). (and I like seeing more new characters coming in, I'll be introing three in my next updates, too--more of that "great minds thinking alike" thing, huh?)

But for Jax's new look, I like the fauxhawk (oh and I'm so downloading that for my game, cause I want to be cool like you *snort*)

Oh, if you're not completely sold on ACR, I'd like to direct you to the Keumongo. It's an object (found on MTS2, I linked to it in a recent post). Supposedly it's compatible with FT. I can tell you, I used to use it (with seasons) and it worked fine for elliminating jealousy. It's supposed to be a "by lot" item but it seemed to just squash jealousy in general. I used it in Peculiar before I got inSim. I'm thinking of trying it FIRST (once I get FT installed). If it works, I'm going to hold off on ACR (I'm thinking of what kind of drama ACR could wreck on Nocheat--where there's already too much soap opera shit going on--and it makes my blood run cold--that and going through the whole setting up of it).

So, you thinking about installing FT?

I've resigned myself to the fact that once it gets here (shipped Weds) I'll be powerless to NOT install it. I'm currently gathering up all the downloads I'll need and making sure I have needed tutorials memoried. (then just clone a few sims, back the whole mess up and GO)

With ACR the sim sex drive is controlled by their timer, which can be viewed by looking at their token stats. When a sim utilizes their ACR driven woohoo options their timer is reset which puts them in idle until the timer goes off again. Most aspirations timers are around 24 hours. Once the timer goes off the sim starts looking for an appropriate target for their advances, canceling actions just makes them start looking again pretty much puts them in a loop.

Exactly a sim that's not getting any will keep looking but a sim with a healthy sex life will be more likely to put it on the back burner for awhile.

Is it possible to set the timer to longer than 24 hours? Once a day seems excessive for some sims to me.

I do like the athena hair on Jaxy, but I think that the fauxhawk is more her style.

Whoa, a new post every day? That's gonna be crazy! I hope you don't get tired talking about the sims afterwards! I have no clue who that new character could be. It's another Maxis transplant, right?

I obviously can't have ACR on my computer with me sharing it with my brother and everything, but I would be as afraid as you are with it. Especially with my selfsim. She'd probably have like, 230294 Ripp babies! ...Hmm, maybe since they're both Romance sims they'd use protection? I don't want to know. O_o :sigh: Three bolters.

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Sims Talk: All kinds of nonsense

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