Strange Tomato (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strangetomato) wrote2008-05-04 04:35 pm
strangetomato) wrote2008-05-04 04:35 pm
Entry tags:
Sims Talk: Free Time
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 thatsimgaroop 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!
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!
no subject
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)
no subject
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.)
no subject
Good to know you're having no issues with LizzLove's. I'll try the keu(whatever) thing first and report back.
I've never used that MATY romance mod. I don't use the whole director's cut. I pick out the dozen or so things that I really want and leave the rest out. Some of those mods look like they'd take the fun right out of playing.
I have FT and the potty pack. I'll toss them both in at the same time. I have a lot of prep to still do before installing. I have to clone off some sims and make backups.
OH, did you get simPe working again? Crap, I have to get a new one of those, too. Man, the work we go through for this stupid game, huh?
no subject
Yeah, I tested the LizzLove thing with J/R/O and they had no issues. They were happy campers. So that one works, at least.
I'm the same way with the director's cut. There are a lot of fun-reducing nitpicky things that seem to have a very limited appeal. I guess that's the nature of the director's cut. The director has very specific tastes, and they don't always match what the common gamer wants. Some of that stuff is great, though. I wonder if we use the same ones. I just added the yellow pee hack, and the Specter estate is just rotten now. So gross.
There is a lot of prep to it, isn't there? I was working on it on and off throughout the day, and then installing and testing took a lot of time too. It's a long process.
I used SimPE to extract some sims, even though it isn't supposed to be used with K&B. I've heard that extractions aren't an issue, though. I haven't been able to update it for K&B yet, but I'm working on it.
no subject
Hee, you have yellow pee. It is so gross but that's why I like it. As for what I use from the director's cut it's mostly fixes and annoyance stuff. I can't live without the "don't do dishes in the bathroom sink" and the fix for the damn espresso/punch cups (so they don't fling them about or wander to the end of the earth to sit the cup on a bedroom end table). I also recommend the "no puddle rage". It keeps the neatniks from getting furious over puddles (Pascal was having some good flaming thoughts about Percy before I got that one). I also recommend the "fire extinguisher" and "lot skilling" ones.
In case you thought I wasn't dorky enough, I'm making ANOTHER checklist of things I need to do/have before installing. This new list includes names of sims I want to clone out before taking the plunge.
no subject
Though... it's the funniest thing. I can almost never get the chemistry to match the Maxis chemistry when I make clones of J/R/O (I may have gotten it right once). Even when I give them matching interests, like they have in Strangetown, and the right zodiac signs (which don't match the personalities). It's very odd. Do they have some kind of special built-on chemistry? It's very odd. Have you ever noticed anything like that?
We seem to like the same MATY hacks. I really like the fitnessforall hack too. It allows townies to get fit or fat. (I don't think I have fire extinguisher... what does that one do?)
*snicker* I love making lists too. What a bunch of dorks.
no subject
You could always make a new Strangetown and use it for your testhood. Then you should get the "maxis weirdness" that may or may not be present. The only weirdness I've ever noticed with maxis sims (like Strangetown) is how Pascal seems set to love Nervous (though I've since learned he's set to love whoever happens to reach that level first).
Ooh, townies can get fit or fat. I might have to add that one. I like size variety. The fire extinguisher (not it's real name) one makes it so sims will autonimously try to extinguish fires. It was helpful when I was still playing my apocalypse challenge. I've never had a sim die from trying to fight the fire, either, though I think it depends on their personality whether they'll whip out the extinguisher.
no subject
You can make another copy of the original hoods and rename them, can't you? So that you can run numerous Strangetowns at the same time, for example? Do you know how it's done? I looked into it a while back, but I couldn't find the directions on how to do it.
Yeah, size variety is good, and it makes the fat and fitness turn ons/offs more relevant. I'll have to add that fire extinguisher hack too. I need to go through all the MATY hacks some day to see if there are any more I'm missing out on.
no subject
Hmm, I was going to say that making another copy of the same hood is as easy as getting another copy, giving it a new name and slapping it in there then I got to wondering about character files. . .hmmm, might want to do a MATY search for that one.
Speaking of MATY, there's a big fat thread there that gives descriptions of all the different hacks/mods. Someone even made a downloadable "word" doc of it (which I have on my desktop). It's not 100% complete but it helps.