Sims Talk: Free Time

[strangetomato]

So, I've finally joined the Free Time party, and I'm liking it just as much as I thought I would.

The first thing I did was adjust the One True Hobby of my characters to something that made sense. I followed the tutorial that simgaroop posted, and it's very easy to make this change using the Lot Debugger.




Johnny discovers his interest in sports (he's only just realizing that now? *snicker*). Though he's tossing a football, he's actually more into the other type of football, aka soccer. The cool, international sport of choice. Seriously, doesn't Johnny seem like a soccer player to you? Works for me.

I used Gadwin Printscreen to take this screencap, and, let me tell you, I'm not likely to switch over to screencapping my images anytime soon. Sure, it looks clearer, but do I want to exit the program every time I take a photo? No. Do I want to have to open up every image and centre it in GIMP on the correct format that I want the photo to be in? No. Are the shots that I take with the in-game camera clear enough? Yes. So why go through so much trouble? *scratches head*

The reason this is all squashed and distorted is because I set Gadwin to take the caps at the same format as the in-game camera, but because I have a wide-format screen (yeah, I'm spoiled), it just squished the full screen image (instead of adding extra information to the top and bottom like the in-game camera does... which also took some adjusting to). Not acceptable. And the pause lines are annoying too - though there's a hack to remove them, right? To get what I want, I'd have to figure out the right format for my screen, and then go into GIMP with every image to crop it to what I want. Maybe I'm just lazy, but I don't think I'd have the same motivation to do sim stories if I had to go through that for every image if it's not necessary.

Anyway, back to Free Time.




I gave Ripp Music and Dance, which makes more sense than Arts and Crafts. He is in a band, and known for busting moves on people almost every day.

Unfortunately, he's going to have to lose his signature guitar, since the custom instruments hack causes all guitars to stop increasing enthusiasm levels, and not just the custom ones (I thought I might get away with just switching them in for photos, which I suppose I could still do, though it's a lot more annoying to have to remove and add them from the game every time I need them). So, I may have to just suck it up and give every musician the very same guitar. *sigh* Why is there only one texture for the guitar? They are options for all the other instruments!

Ophelia got Nature as her hobby (although the florist bench is considered an Arts and Crafts thing, so she'll have two hobbies). I didn't get a screen cap of that. Johnny and Ophelia both had Music and Dance when I started the game. They do like to dance, but I didn't want that to be their main hobby, since they already had hobbies suggested by the game for me (Johnny has the sports career LTW, and Ophelia rolled to want to buy a florist bench out of nowhere).

Then there were the secondary aspirations. Ophelia got knowledge, and Johnny and Ripp both got family. There was an immediate change in the chemistry level in the house.




As I suspected, there was a boost from the secondary aspiration. Oddly, though, it was only to Ripp. Hmm, I wonder why. I think the most obvious reason could be the fact that Ripp and Ophelia have better chemistry with each other if aspirations are not taken into consideration (having 2 bolts with each other, despite completely opposing aspirations), so with this leveling of the playing field, Ripp gets a little edge on Johnny. I'll play around with turn ons to see how close it is... oh wait, I don't have InSIM anymore. I knew this would come up.

Wait... that's not it. I just remembered. It's the romance aspiration reward thing. Ripp gets a boost in chemistry with everyone! Very sneaky, Ripp. I haven't checked to see how he reacts to other girls in his little black book, but right now, Phi is the only one that's showing as triple bolt (my first in all of Strangetown, by the way).

The effects of this chemistry increase are already very evident.




Ripp: Oh, I hate to see you go, but I LOVE to watch you leave.

Phi: You're actually following me, you know, so I'm not really leaving.

Ripp: Yeah... I can't really help that.




Phi: Why don't we, umm, sit over here... on the couch?

Ripp: *is happy*



So, now I'm thinking that ACR is probably a very bad idea.

Another odd change in my game is with dancing. It became a lot more... homophobic? No, it's more like it's based strictly on sexual preference now. Guys who like girls don't dance with guys, and so on.




Johnny and Ripp, for example, no longer like to dance with each other. Oh, they still initiate dancing all of the time, but then they decide that they don't like it. It makes them seem very... conflicted.

(As a side note, Johnny is the exact same colour as the siding on the house!)                     




Nervous and Ophelia do not like to dance with each other either.




Pascal and Nervous, however, do enjoy dancing with each other. A lot. Hmm... how interesting. (Keep in mind that I have not done anything to influence their sexuality in the game yet. Nervous doesn't even register chemistry for anyone. Pascal is pre-set to like females... supposedly.)

I think this dancing thing might be caused by the MATY romance hack, which I decided to add with the updated hacks. It doesn't say anything specific about it on the hack description thread, but it does say this:

"Sexual orientation of a sim now actually matters! A very straight sim will decline homosexual interactions and vice-versa."

That makes me think that dancing is grouped as a flirtatious activity, even though it has no effect on romance in-game. I'm not impressed. I like having everyone dance with each other, regardless of gender and sexuality (even if they do sometimes grind up on each other suggestively *snicker*). I'm not sure if the romance hack is really what's causing this. Can anyone confirm this for me?



Then we have Buck, who is enjoying his new sewing machine very much. Actually, it's not new. It's a hand-me-down from the Smith family (it used to be Kitty's and Jenny gave it to Jill in a moment of wishful thinking). Now it's Buck's.






This makes all of the trouble with updating hacks and figuring out the no-cd crack totally worth it. I love Buck and I love to see him rocking the sewing machine like nobody's business. Free Time is great.

I was a little hesitant about secondary aspirations for these two. I'm leaning towards popularity for Jill and fortune for Buck, since he's so reasonable about money, and hard-working. The wants to buy things would match up with him wanting to decorate the house too, so I think it works. I'm still working my way around to the other characters. Tank's hobby is fitness, and his secondary aspiration is fortune. Frances got music and dance (because of the piano playing), and his secondary aspiration is knowledge.



I'll leave you with one of my favourite new social interactions, the sweet talk.






It's just too cute.

ETA: I removed the MATY romance hack, and my sims are dancing normally again. I think it really did have something to do with the increased strictness about sexuality in romantic interactions with that hack. I like the idea of the different aspirations behaving differently about jealousy (though I have some issues with that too), but I really dislike that it makes the sexuality of sims even more rigid than it is now. Things aren't always black or white when it comes to sexuality, so MATY can keep its romance hack.

They aren't about to let a silly hack ruin all their fun!

Comments

[music-simbol.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I sooooooooo wanna get this EP, but my lappy can barely take sims as it is. *le sigh* Everything looks good thou, and screen capping is so overrated in my opinion. There are some that don't require you to minimize out, like Irfranview, but with the cropping and such you'd have to do, I'm too lazy to do all that.

And yeah, if Ripp and Phi have 3 bolts now, you might want to stay away from ACR. Those two may not leave the bedroom. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

From what I was reading, I didn't expect to have to minimize every time I took a screencap. I actually said WTF out loud when it happened. Even without that, the processing is annoying. So Gadwin definitely gets the boot. I may try another program, if it doesn't exit the game every time, but I'll probably only use it for things where I actually need a pic of the menus, or some special high-quality thing, like the photo recolours.

No doubt. Between one's desire for babies, and the other's desire for the process, there would be little time left in their schedule for anything else. I'm just waiting for the autonomous flirting to happen now. Rip has surprised me so far in this game by not doing that, but maybe with three bolts...

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I say stick with the way you usually take the photos. It would kind of bug me if they had that little red border around like that all the time. Your photos were great before, so why change the way you do them now?

Anyway, that is great that you were able to find a hack that changes the destined hobbies! The destined hobbies don't really bother me that much since I rarely pay attention to the enthusiasm bar, but the ones that you picked for them are great!

With my sims, the majority of their destined hobbies are cuisine: Blair, Frances (makes sense with the grilled cheese secondary lol), Maxis, and Tank (of all people!) and sports. The only ones that I say kinda fit are Marina with the science and Bunker with tinkering. Oh, and Guy with his arts and crafts! He's already got a bronze sewing badge. :)

It must be that thing you put in that made the game all of the sudden seem slightly homophobic. Because from experience, it is definitely not Free Time's fault! Hehe, ACR is a definite nono now that Ripp and Ophelia have three bolts AND Ripp has family as secondary (I made him that way too- along with Tank having Fortune secondary). It's a good thing that they're in college at the moment because if they weren't and you wanted to try it out... It would be babies galore! I've never seen that smooth talk interaction. It is cute!

But let me tell you, the best thing that came with the aspiration points I think is the Grandma's comfort soup that the family Sims have. I'm tempted to make at least one person in every household have family as a secondary because it's great that curing sickness can be that quick now!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's how I feel too. I'm happy with the way the photos were. They could be a little crisper, I guess, but I think they're clear enough. I'd have to crop them to remove the border, and that would take a lot of getting used to the format of the screen cap and planning for cropping. It sounds like a nightmare. I have a good handle on how I take photos now, so I don't feel like having to re-learn it all, and make it harder in the process.

The One True Hobby thing isn't really a big deal, since they can gain enthusiasm in any area, but I like that they'll gain it faster in their chosen area.

The game assigns the OTH according to personality and interests, so after a while, you can predict it pretty easily. It also runs in families, so you can end up with many that are the same.

Yeah, it's not Free Time that did that. It's definitely the romance hack from MATY (see my edit above), so I removed it. I have no time for that sort of rigid sexual typing. Especially for something like dancing. How restrictive does the creator of that hack want the game to be, exactly? It's really not my style, so I'm not going to use it.

Yeah, I'm going to pass on ACR for now. As much as I'd love to flood the game with babies from those two (I've seen good things, from my previous experimentation), I have to reign them in for the sake of the story. I could always put it in and try it on a cloned test "family", since I have some of those, but I probably won't bother for a while.

That's cool that you picked the same secondary aspirations for Ripp and Tank that I did. They seem to make sense to me, anyway, with the way they've developed in this story.

I love the smooth talk interaction. It's unlocked at the highest level of the romance aspiration rewards. It can remove the furious state from the recipient, so it's very useful if you're playing with normal jealousy.

I really like that comfort soup too. I love having new foods in general.

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you got Free Time! You'll love it!

Wow I can't believe Ripp and Phi are your first 3-bolters! O_o!!! I can most usually get 3 bolts when I want them (like I say I'm very adept at making a CAS who has 3 bolts with all three Curious brothers (wink). But if you're talking naturally in the game, no CAS's and without altering aspirations or turn ons/offs... yeah, two is usually as good as I can get too. :D

But yeah, that Romance aspiration benefit comes in handy sometimes! I think it gives another bolt... so if there was one there will be two, two turns to three and so on. Bet Ripp will love it!

Free time alters the fun levels for sims. That could be why your Ripp and Johnny stop dancing. Based on personality (I think) when a Sim's fun level gets full, they just stop doing whatever fun thing they were doing. It can get very annoying if you're trying to have a dance party!

I don't know about the romance mod. (shrugs) It might be having a hand in it too. But I do know that the Prima Guide confirms Free Time affects a Sim's Fun need. I suppose so they won't constantly keep gravitating toward the fun items in the house and will do other stuff as well. Maybe?

Pascal is definitely pre-set for females (wink) All the Curious brothers are, just like all the Grunts. Just a little though. Like juuuuussst barely. It only takes one flirt or romantic interaction from a male to set Pascal to prefer both. :P

Have you installed Bon Voyage yet? If and when you do, I expect we'll see the trio on vacation as a side note. Squee!

Have fun!!

((hugs))

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I finally took the plunge too. I've been drooling over this EP since I first heard about it. I'm just super cautious about these things.

Ripp and Phi aren't my first three bolters, but they're the first in this particular hood, which has very few CAS sims, and I don't generally design sims to be perfect for each other anyway. I also realize that it was a lie. Frances' parents have three bolts (entirely a coincidence, but they did have the same aspiration), and I think that Edie Worthington and Val Prospero do too, maybe. If Ripp and Ophelia have compatible aspirations, they're always three bolts, but I didn't want to change them from what the game sets them out as.

Yeah, that's how it works, isn't it? One extra bolt. Wow. Ripp has a page on his relationship panel with all two bolt matches, so they all become three bolts now? o_O Yeah... no ACR for my game, though it would be one hell of an experiment.

The dancing issue was definitely the romance hack from MATY (see my added comments above). I do see what you mean about them spending less time doing fun things. I like that this helps them to spend more time doing hobbies, instead of just watching TV.

Now, I know that Pascal is supposed to be slightly set for females, but why is he not rejecting Nervous for the dance when the hack so clearly sets it up that way? Very curious *teehee* indeed.

I did install Bon Voyage too, so I'll have to try that out soon. Free Time was a bit more exciting for me, so I looked at that first. So much fun!

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

I love Sweet Talk! I'm glad you've joined the rest of the world! :)

HEHEHEHE @ Nervous and Pascal. I think I'm starting to ship them now. ;)

I didn't know that the secondary aspirations affected chemistry! That seems to fit though. ARGH! I am still a little peeved at Opheila. Even though I love her so.

Will we see Frances soon? Please? I can't wait to see him! Will he be doing ballet as well as piano? (HEHE, Frances in a leotard!) ;)

Did you add ACR? I'm a little confused as to whether you did...

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Sweet talk is sweet. I've been dying for new romantic interactions. I like the variety. Now if they could just add some new forms of kissing and hugging, I'd be satisfied. (And so nice to be like the rest of the world... finally! :P)

Isn't that funny about Nervous and Pascal. I think their cover might be blown. I promise that they haven't interacted at all yet. It's certainly interesting to see them behave that way.

I'm not sure that the secondary aspirations do have an impact on chemistry. I'd love to know for sure. With Ripp, it was mostly the romance reward thing, so I can't tell for sure. (And you shouldn't stay mad at Ophelia... she's only human.)

I don't know if Frances is quite the ballet type, but who knows. I want to get him the grand piano from Bon Voyage. He'll look so good playing that. It's so classy.

No, I didn't add ACR. I see how I worded that sort of oddly now. I was saying that I really shouldn't add it now, with the new chemistry situation.

[hidden-kitten.livejournal.com]

I have Gadwin set to take a picture from a selection I choose. I ahve to set the size, though, since its autoresize thing is crappy. It doesn't work like that in Tab mode, though. I do like the ingame cam better. If only there was a screencap program that just took a 600x450 pic expanding out from the centre of your screen. AND SAVED BY NEIGHBOURHOOD AUGH
In any case, FT's a blast!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I's love to have something just like you described! Even better if the frame of the area that would be captured was visible and outlined as you worked, and it worked from the camera mode. That would be ideal. I'm going to stick to the in-game camera and use Gadwin for when I need the menus or something really crisp. I'll reformat how it captures, since I don't want it all squished together like that.

I know. I love Free Time. I'm so excited to finally have it.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

I really should check my f-list before replying to older entries. You already installed Free Time! :)

I'm glad everything is going all right with your game, and that you had no trouble giving your sims their new OTHobbies.

You know what's the most annoying part of taking screenshots? Forget the red lines (that can be erased with a mod)... it's the little action icons on the left side of the screen. I can't make a close-up without making sure the icons are hidden (going into buy mode) and I often forget about it and ruin some pics. I only take screencaps for "photoshoots" or special pics, but I prefer the in-game camera all the way. I don't care if my pictures are blurry with it.

Yep, that romance reward does incread a Sim's chemistry. When I installed Free Time, my guinea pigs were Ripp and Helena. To my shock, they both had three bolts of attraction (they used to have two) and couldn't stay away from each other (and this was before ACR). I love the smooth talk interaction! It's very, very cute!

I agree that FT changed something with the "Fun" meter. I also had an issue with my sims not being able to play a game or watch TV for long before going somewhere else. I found a mod that fixes that issue, so they keep doing their fun activity until you tell them to stop. Let me search for the site I got it from. In my game they still dance with each other, though.

Free Time is amazing and I'm still not done exploring everything it has to offer.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

I've read your edit. Ummm... so the romance mod does change more than the jealousy settings, and making them a bit "smarter" romance-wise (aka they won't try to flirt with someone who hates them). But now I wonder if my lack of free will drama is also due to this hack.

I'm gonna take it out too. Let's try and see how they react without the romancemod, especially now that I'm playing a huge family reunion! :P

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

...Yea I woulnd't install ACR now. I mean, you *can* adjust the autonomy, but I wouldn't take the risk. (Though, it doesn't support uni pregnancy.)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's too risky, and I can see them being obsessed. I still want to have some control over them. Following their wants does much the same thing that ACR does, but I can control it, so that seems safer.

I do like the risky woohoo feature though. Is it possible to just add that?

[amaryssobellus.livejournal.com]

Like you I like to give the sims the secondary aspiration, depending on the personality they've shown me or I've given them (with the clues they send out of course). Same thing for the OTH, some I have to give them a certain one because that's what they've shown before and others I like to be surpised by because they haven't shown me anything yet.

How does Gadwin Printscreen work? Do you have to actually press PrtScn to get the screen cap?
Your pictures are really nice and crisp without the screen cap look. Why mess with a good thing?

Oh and since Ripp and Phi have such good chemestry does that mean that a change in the group's dynamics will be coming soon? I would think with Johnny about to be inseminated that would happen anyways.

ETA2:
I think the dancing issue is because of the MATY mod. I had that in my game and the same thing happened. I since have taken it out and everyone's dancing just fine.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I agree. I'm more likely to go with the flow with sims born in-game, and you don't get much of a choice anyway, since hobby interest is set once they become a toddler. For characters in a story, you already have a personality ans interests developed. I love how the secondary aspirations give a new layer of complexity to characters, though. There are a lot of different combinations.

With Gadwin, it can be the Print Screen key, or you can set it to one of the F keys. There are some options. I used F1, so I could still use the PrtScn separately. You're right. I really have no issue with crispness, so there is no need to rock the boat. I was just testing it out.

There might be some change in the group dynamic. It will be changing in the next update, for sure. (And Johnny might not be pregnant, remember.)

It's definitely the MATY romance mod. I added some comments above, where I had taken it out to test, and everything was fine. I can't imagine why anyone would want to limit who their sims can dance with. To each their own, I guess, but it doesn't float my boat.

[saunasims.livejournal.com]

The reason I've been so quiet is because the gorramn SecuRom ended up making my game crash *and* making my decent computer run at the speed of a frozen snail. Four minutes into play time, BOOM! every single time. That was after two (2!) reinstalls of the game itself, removing all my hacks, defragging until the system was pure blue etc etc.
At the point where I was close to tossing the whole thing out the window I instead decided to go with one last desperate ploy: I saved the absolute essentials, then reformatted. I now have a lovely very empty computer, and I'm going to give the game one more chance. I'm reinstalling (including Kitchen & Bath now yay!), but using no-cd right from the start. That should keep the SecuRom legal virus out.
Note the irony: I've never used a no-cd for Sims before, ever. EA's being as sharp as a sack of wet mice. 'esu christe. Keep your fingers crossed for me? :(

[saunasims.livejournal.com]

Oh! And and. The picture taking program I use is SnagIt 8. That lets you take pictures from inside the game (as long as you start the program up first). I have it set to take pictures when I press Prt Scr.

[simpathology.livejournal.com]

For photos, stick with what you know. I use the in-game camera myself with the GunMod camera hacks (now.... and like you said not long ago, I'm trying to figure out just why I didn't get them earlier! I love it!) and only use a grab program for the special events and things that amuse me in the panels. I'm using MGrab to get shots like this and this, but keeping to the in-game for everything else. They've always turned out well for me, even before upgrading to a new vid card.

And welcome to the dark side of FreeTime. I'm still debating on reinstalling ACR, but the boost is helping out my romance sims so it really may not be needed. And I'm ignoring the romance mod all together. I let them fail or succeed on their own merit XD

And I can remember links. Really *headdesk*

[katsuko]

Aha! I knew I could find this link.

If you're interested in a possible program to grab things outside the game (kinda like me and my moments of 'seriously, guys, wtf are you smoking to have that want?'), I tracked down the link for MGrab. I like it, and I don't have to minimize anything. I set it up (.jpg files, save to a separate folder in the MGrab folder for me to get later, use the '_000' numbering system) and all I need to do is hit the Print Screen key and it autosaves it into the folder. No fuss, until I'm ready to resize.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

(didn't read other comments to see if this was asked answered, too lazy)

Did you put ACR in yet? If so, how much of a chore was it?

(personally, I'm going to try the other hack first, the one I used to use)

Any othe weirdness to report?

I'm so encouraged by your success. *sigh of relief*

(but I still have to keep my copy of FT down on the living room table, if I bring it up to the computer room I won't be able to stop myself)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't take the plunge with ACR, but I'm still thinking about it. Maybe I'll let you take the lead on that one, and see how it goes for you (if you do decide to try it).

I tried that LizzLove's no jealousy hack, and that works fine. I'm not sure I want to stick to no jealousy (but it's good for community lots). I may try to other one as well.

Nothing weird yet, besides that dancing thing (and that was the MATY romance mod - I took it out, since it's obviously not for me).

Yes, that's right. Let out a big sigh of relief. I don't regret my worries at all, though, since my game may have been borked if I have jumped in head-first (like with the patch - yikes!).

You have your copy already? Oh, you want to install it, don't you? *snicker* Everyone's doing it... (says the one who has had her copy lying around for over a month.)

[simfulacts.livejournal.com]

I waaaaaaaaaant it! *cries about being a Mac user*

I love my Macs, really! But I wish it were a little more game friendly and that I didn't have to wait for Eps and Stuff Packs.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It is really sad that they take so long to port the games to Mac. Shame on them. I'm sorry that you're left out of the fun.

[vega-pleiades.livejournal.com]

I think the best way to explain why Pascal and Nervous still enjoyed dancing is because they are universal soulmates who should always be together no matter what :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that just might explain it. It even defeats the mod that is supposedly more awesome than them. :P The mod was wrong.

[jessicus.livejournal.com]

Ripp is romance with family as secondary? I wonder how that plays out.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Ripp is just a beautiful mess, isn't he? I love the idea that he'd have such conflicting drives, and it seems to make sense with his history and motivations. I'm very interested in seeing how it plays out in the game. I see some potentially confusing situations ahead for him.

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

So, now I'm thinking that ACR is probably a very bad idea.

I know exactly what would happen if you did! You'll leave your attention off of Ripp and Phi for one second. ONE second, and you hear "BOIIIIIIIIING." Then you see Johnny doing the "I was just cheated on face." Which is kind of like: D:

I'm glad you installed Free Time, I find it very fun to play. I'd love to see Ripp doing the Ballerina idle action. XD

Ophelia making omelettes(or maybe pancakes?) in the last picture: very cute. :D

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, Johnny would do that if he was allowed to, but I usually turn jealousy off in their household, just in case. (Though, the non-jealousy things seem sort of flawed in university, so Johnny has done that "BBOOOIIINNGG!!!" thing a couple of times, and gave Ripp a decent smack down. :P Too funny.

I love Free Time so far. It adds so much to the game, and I love the new objects and everything.

I almost forgot about the ballerina idle animation! *snort* That's going to be funny. The music hobby seems to have the most animation associated with it. He'll tap his legs and whistle too, which seems to suit him.

I think she's making omelettes. It was very cute. She had to walk almost through Johnny and Ripp, but she didn't whine about it, she just went about her business, as if to say, "Oh, dancing in the kitchen, huh? Nothing unusual here..."

[muslemura.livejournal.com]

How cute is Buck with his sewing machine? *squees a little*

Three bolters are deadly with ACR involved, at least most of the time. You just know it's a matter of time before they're 'Relaxing' together... What I love the most is the fact that they decide the number of babies themselves - and sometimes they really surprise you. I have a Pleasure/Romance couple who gave me two girls all by themselves :) You can turn autonomy off (but then what's the point?) and make a lot of custom adjustments though. I haven't bothered fiddling around with it. I'm lazy *lol*

As for Ripp's second aspiration: he's perfect as romance/family. I was playing around in CAS this weekend and stumbled upon Ophelia's face. Of course I just _had_ to make her and Ripp (who I just happened to have in my SavedSims folder) a couple. Let's just say that their children are beautiful (and very messy) and that Ripp is a great parent who never spun a fear of having a baby and even lost his fear of changing diapers at one point. *sigh*

All your secondary asp. choices sound good - I really wish my laptop could handle another EP...

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I love Buck and his sewing machine SO MUCH. That was something that I had envisioned since I first heard about FT. I could just see Buck in his own home one day, making quilts and curtains to decorate the place.

I know what you mean about the autonomy being the whole point of ACR. That's what the A stands for, afterall. I don't think I'd put it in unless I was willing to accept the consequences. For Ripp, that would mean that I was going to allow him and Ophelia to do their thing, so we'll have to see how that all works out first.

I've played around with a cloned Ripp and Ophelia family before myself. Here are the children that they had:



Ripp is always a good parent when I play him as one. The house becomes a total mess, but the kids get a lot of attention, so they're happy at least. He does fear those diapers, though, doesn't he? He sort of just hands them over to Ophelia, pretending that he has no idea what to do. *snicker* As if to say, "Do you really trust me to do this myself?"

[my-simsession.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think you take great pictures now. I don't see how you can improve. Just using the basic in-game camera it can be a pain to get certain shots so I can't imagine how much more work it can be to have to jump through all kind of hoops to get a picture.

Ooo, Ophelia's got it bad for the luv machine, has she? Ophelia does seem to be one of those sims who seems to have bolts with just about anybody. If I ever start Strangetown over again for any reason I just have to make her a romance sim. She has some kind of attraction to damn near everybody now! :)
Buck looks really sweet at that sewing machine.
I doubt I'll get either BV or Freetime anytime soon. I was worried about adding Seasons and I think I've got about as much going on now as my computer can handle. I'm not that interested in BV but Freetime does look like it's got some fun things.
Off topic, I finally friended you back to my sims journal. I forgot about it before. >__< Sometimes I think I'm brain-dead.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I think they're fine as they are too. I'm sure they could be better, but I'm happy enough with things the way they are, so why go to so much extra effort, right?

The luv machine. *snicker* I can just see Ripp using that to sign his name.

Ahh, but if Ophelia was a romance sim, she wouldn't have bolts with the Curious brothers, would she? (Ripp would love it, though, and Johnny too.)

I love Buck. Love him.

I'm not that interested in Bon Voyage either, but I had it, so I installed it. I think it might have slowed things down a little, but it's still too early to know for sure.

Thanks for friending me. ^_^ You didn't have to friend me back, just out of principle, but it will be useful if you want to follow the story.

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Not much to say that wasn't already said, except I'm glad you're not keeping the ACR hack. It doesn't seem right for your story, and I would hate to think of Ripp and Johnny feeling inhibited about dancing together. :)

Also, Buck and his sewing machine are cute as a button! Love that old fashioned treadle machine. The sweet talk interaction looks adorable, too. This EP seems like so much fun.

Just a little whining -- I wish LJ would not pack up all the comments like this... or at least have a way to expand all of them at once.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was the MATY romance mod that was causing the dance issues. I never did install ACR. You're right, though. ACR is probably also a questionable option. The romance mod is getting no love at all from me, with its rigid sexuality structure. Bah. And for dancing too... oh, please. If Johnny and Ripp want to dance, they are going to dance. (And they clearly do want to dance. They do it all of the time. It was just weird when they were each asking each other to dance and then rejecting it in turn. It made them seem like they had split personalities.)

I really dislike the presumption of that romance mod. It's very either/or about sexuality. The game handles bisexuality in a very limited way anyway, so why take it to an even more ridiculous extreme? Just because someone is more involved with one sex, it doesn't mean that would negate their attraction to the other. I understand why they made the game mechanics work that way for the sake of simplicity, though. I wonder if they'll improve it with Sims 3? I'd love to see some kind of sexuality meter (but they're removing the meter system, anyway, aren't they?)

I love that the sewing machine is an old fashioned one. There are a lot of nice old looking things in the EP, like an old TV, an a record player (which they turn on with a remote control - LOL).

I like the "packing up" of the comments for neatness, but I agree that there should be some way to expand them all at once. It makes it very hard to navigate, and I "lose" comments by forgetting where they were located.

[80sfiend.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to install FT, I got it for my b-day. :D But I want to wait for InSim to be updated for it cause I really love it!

Also, popularity as a secondary aspiration for Jill is perfect I think. :)

Also, I love Buck's sewing machine. So cute. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm addicted to InSIM too. I really hope they update it soon.

I thought popularity would be good for Jill, and maybe it shows how much she's really like Johnny. I think that knowledge/popularity is an interesting combination, and it works for Jill, at least in my mind.

Isn't that sewing machine the greatest thing? Buck is going to spend so many hours working on things at the machine. It's going to be fun.