Strangetown Extras: Johnny Smith gets a tan

[strangetomato]

So finally, someone at EAxis decided to think of the aliens when they designed a game feature. The tanning that sims can get with BV (which I think is pretty cool) actually works on the alien skintone. I almost jumped for joy when I saw it. After seeing them mess up so badly with the heatstroke in Seasons, I was expecting the worst, but instead, I got a tanned Johnny Smith.

Here he is, posing next to the rock shaped like Will Wright's head, just like they have back in Strangetown. Doesn't he look pleased? I find it sort of funny that the hue changes like that, making him more olive coloured (like that popular default replacement skin). I still prefer the mint green, but this is nice for some variety, and he really does look tanned.

I sent them off on another vacation, just for fun, since I'm still playing around with the BV features. Ripp really gets off on the new dances too, so I figured I'd do him a favour and get him to learn them all (then he can amuse me with which dance he chooses in different situations).




As you can see, Ripp got himself a bit of a tan too. He's as dark as Tank is, if not even darker. I would have expected him to burn instead, since he's so pale.

Yeah, Ripp... hang loose, indeed.

(Phi went sunbathing too, but didn't tan. That doesn't seem very fair.)




The beach vacation really seemed to agree with Ripp. Check out that goofy grin!

Comments

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

Yay! I was hoping he'd be more emerald, but still! Wheeeeee!

I'm gonna refrain from commenting about Phi's lack of tannage. I'm still pissed enough about S4 vamps to cause head explody.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I figure that staying green at all is a victory, no matter what hue it is. When the aliens get heatstroke they get all blotchy (and partly non-alien).

Yeah, the lack of tan for the S4 skin is lame. Maybe I'm wrong, and I just didn't tan her enough, but she didn't get any darker. Why not, EAxis?

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

They're lazy, I think. *grumbles* I don't think the S3 skin shows a tan either, but I could be wrong. I do know Lazlo sure didn't get any darker when I made him sunbathe... and sunbathe... and sunbathe... nothing!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, dothesmustle says that it can happen with any skintone, so maybe it just doesn't happen every time.

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

They actually do get tans, one of my sims with the s4 skins has a tan at the moment!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Okay, well I feel better now. I must have canceled the sunbathing before she was done. It wouldn't have been fair if she was left out completely.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Hi, this is tarlia_chan. I got that account together with my fiancee to make a journal about our giant merged hood. This is it. :)

Anyway, there's three possible outcomes for sunbathing: Tan, burn or nothing. You were just unlucky. All skintones will tan just fine. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info! :) I really want to see a burn now. I wanted Ripp to burn so badly (that sounds sadistic, doesn't it?), just so Johnny could give him a lecture about using sunscreen. That would have be so funny.

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

Ok, my squirelly wrath has been placated. :D

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

The *real* kicker, though, would be seeing if she (or someone else) could *burn*.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, they do put on lots of sunscreen before they lie down. (I would have laughed so hard if Johnny had, but Ripp had not, and then he burned.)

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

What's the problem with S4 vamps?

I'm glad you asked!

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

THIS is the problem with S4 vamps. I mean, really. What the flying f*ck, Maxis?!

I ended up getting this replacement from MTS2, and I'm very happy with it. Now they just look a bit pale and ashen- you know, dead, yet still recognizably a darker skin tone than smurflike. It's loverly. :-3

Re: I'm glad you asked!

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Whoa. That looks really stupid. What were they thinking... obviously they weren't, it's just shoddy workmanship. Gah.

The replacements look good, though!

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

That first picture of Johnny is such a vacation picture. I could pull that right out of one of the scrapbooks I have.

If Ripp couldn't get any hotter..he just did. Foxy tan, Ripp.

Ophelia didn't burnt or a tan? Usually as soon as one of my sims stops sunbathing, they often get some kind of change in their skintone.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, really. I can see Johnny taking really standard vacation pics like that too - insisting on getting a shot with the landmarks and all that.

Yeah, the tan is nice, isn't it?

I was disappointed about Ophelia. Maybe I canceled the sunbathing interaction before she was done (which is possible, since it takes a while), but I didn't see any change. It would be a let down if they somehow decided that the darkest skintone couldn't get any darker. I'll have to try it again at some point.

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

Yes! I definitely see Johnny doing that. He'd also take family protraits and would probably force Ripp to do something about his hair.

Also, on a more random note, I saw the tracker thing in your user info, and I found myself. I got all excited for no apparent reason.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Johnny Smith does everything the proper way. It must be something he picked up from his Mom. He likes to do it up right. I could see him building and painting a white picket fence too.

Well, that's a good reason to get excited. I even get excited when I see myself on there (I'm the loner out there in the North Atlantic ocean). I like having that tracker thing. It's not creepy like tracking exactly who is reading my journal, but I get an idea of how many people are visiting. I'm surprised to see so many.

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

Have you sent them to play around on the pirate ship yet? That is the BEST, lol!

I could watch Ripp Grunt play pirate for hours, lol!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the pirate ship was fun. Ripp had a good time.

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, mmmm.... I don't much care for tans in real life, but Ripp and Johnny make 'em look good. :9

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

How long do the tans last?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I think it's three days. That seems to be correct (I had to send them to the far east, just to get rid of the tan, since I needed them tan-free for the story).

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I like a tan on some people, but only a natural tan (I HATE fake tans). I think it really looks nice on Johnny because it makes his golden blond hair stand out even more. It would be cool if their hair lightened in the sun too. And they got some freckles.

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

That would be cool indeed. Like highlights on the hair, and a little sprinkling of freckles on the nose and cheeks and shoulders. :)

[kin-thalas.livejournal.com]

BV is fun. He, and I never expected a green skinned to tan! Looks good though.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I think the tans work as some sort of overlay to the normal skintone, so it probably works the same on any skintone (even custom skins). That would also explain why Johnny changed his colour slightly, with the tan having a brownish hue.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

I was a bit sleepy when I first saw this entry last night so I didn't pay attention to the text.

So of course, that pic of "Tan Johnny" made me thing you had actually downloaded an alien replacement skin, and I was really surprised!

Now that I'm awake, I'm still surprised, because I had no idea that aliens could get a tan too. I thought that their green skin lacked melanin pigments and all! :D

That's a pretty neat feature and I wonder if it works with custom skins, though. There's a lot I still need to try out with Bon Voyage ^^.

But I did try the pirate ship and it's made of awesome! So many goofy faces and silly animations in there!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I think the tan is actually some sort of overlay thing, and it's applied to all skintones, including custom. You should try it out to test the theory with one of your own aliens. :)

Yeah, the pirate ship was a lot of fun. I love the animation for digging up a crab in the sand too. Ophelia got pinched by a crab and it was so funny. I wish it was more reactive, though, like if something catches on fire. I would have loved to see Ripp and Johnny trying to help get the crab off of her.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

O_O So HOT! *does grabby hands* And that's coming from a person who's not really attracted to Johnny. :P
On a serious note, I'm glad that it didn't turn out to be fucked up like the sunburnt/overheating alien skin. My aliens thank you for trying this out.
:Makes mental note for Hector and Balthazar, since they're intergalactic space travelers and all that. Haha, who am I kidding, it's for my own personal enjoyment!:
I haven't even tried going to a vacation lot yet, because I've already been overwhelmed with all of the bon voyage people escaping to my sims own homes and spreading all of the silly interactions already. (PT has now found out that his one true hobby is to just "hang loose" all day.) Can't imagine how it'll be when they actually go on one, I really need that hack that makes all of that stop.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

You know, I felt the same about Johnny at first, but I've grown to find him quite adorable.

I'm very pleased by how the tanning works. It makes sense for it to be something added over the skintone like that.

"PT has now found out that his one true hobby is to just "hang loose" all day."

*snicker* I can relate. Ripp is already up to half in his games enthusiasm from autonomously playing his handheld. Sometimes those persistent activities become hobbies in themselves.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

I've never had an alien get heat stroke (that can happen with season's right--hell I don't know that any of my sims have had heat stroke). Did you get a pic?

Hmm, I might have to abuse one of my aliens now. Mother XYZ IS in the bin. . .

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I posted a pic of Johnny with heatstroke in my first set of outtakes (What? You mean you don't remember?! *cries*). If you want to have a look, there's a tag for outtakes. To sum up the problem, the areas that get flush turn really pinky, and look like they belong on a lighter, human skin.

Since I have Strangetown set to all summer, I have to deal with heatstroke every now and then, if the sims are outside for very long, or working out (or even making out) for too long.

Honestly, most of my heatstrokes were make-out related. Too much making out under the hot sun. *snort*

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

OK, now I have to try and replicate this in my game. I even had Jules make out so much his partner SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUSTED and still didn't notice any heat stroke.

I think I'll experiment on XYZ and see what I can get.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I have never seen that spontaneous combustion thing. Is it really rare?

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

I think it was a glitch (fixed with a patch, perhaps?)

Now that I have all those MATY hacks, I think I have a temp fix. I haven't seen any of my sims even top their thermometer for a LONG time (used to see them top out while in the hot tub).

Sadly, I didn't SEE the combustion, just the urn (and smug Jules).

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look for that hack. I hate the heatstroke thing. It's too easy to end up at the top of the meter. If it's summer, and someone makes out with someone, takes a shower, and then goes to bed, it's a recipe for heatstroke.

Oh, Jules and his wang of death. *snicker* Too good.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Are you using the whole director's cut?

I was lazy this time and just lobbed the whole thing in there. Some of the stuff (like the macro things) don't really work unless you MAKE them work, so I figured just leave them (that way I'm not accidentally removing something beneficial, like some of those anti-redundancy deals).

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Really? You're using the whole thing?

I went through it all and picked out the ones I wanted, but I still don't know what some of them do, so I have to revisit it at some point.

If you have the romance mod, you probably have that weird thing where the sims will only dance with members of their preferred sex (if they have one). I thought that one was a bit restrictive.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about your issue.

I'll have to check that out (my m/m couples are more interested in serenading one another than dancing--in fact, I don't think there's even a stereo at the PAP house--no t.v. either).

Perhaps I'll pull the romance out and yank the macro stuff too (it's a little annoying having it in the menus).

[simfulacts.livejournal.com]

Ripp's probably enjoying all the nearly-naked ladies everywhere at the beach.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have no doubt that this is one of the reasons for the smile. ;)