Sims Talk: All kinds of nonsense

[strangetomato]

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.

Comments

[ndainye.livejournal.com]

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.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

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.