Strangetown Extras: Now I'm just teasing you

[strangetomato]

I've been playing and writing a little, working towards the next Strangetown update, which should happen sometime this week. The next chapter involves a lot of characters in some small way, so I've been working my way around town and catching up with everyone. It's been a lot of fun. We'll get to see a lot of the characters that people have been asking about (yes, that does include Vidcund... many of you will be happy to know that I've been working on his story a lot lately, and have found an increased interest in him). I have a couple of fun surprises in this next one too.

We'll see a couple of new faces, including this guy:




Art hands! C'mon, everyone's doin' it!


Also, hair is a bit of a running theme. One or more people may be getting new hairstyles.

Comments

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

Well, since I don't play in any other 'hoods, I wouldn't recognize the guy even if he came up and said "Hey, how'ya doing? I'm so and so." before biting me on the ass. XD

BUT I will say I LOVE his outfit. Is it a Maxis that I've overlooked? If not I don't care I must have it.

Oooo... more Vid coming up in your next update!! *bounces in chair*

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well then, you'll be surprised, won't you? :)

That outfit is a Maxis outfit. It's a download from the official site. You can find it here. I used the original on Hal Capp and a recolour on this guy (from MTS2), who is also from Veronaville, so it much be a trend over there. :P

Yup. More Vidcund. He has new clothes too, which I'm very excited about. They suit him perfectly. He looks good, but he needs a new hairdo (and who knows... maybe he'll get one). I've already replaced his bowl cut with something equally nerdy, but a little tidier (that OFB hair). Like Pascal, I can't really picture him with good hair. These guys are nerds in the purest scholarly sense, and stereotype or not, that's a magnet for bad hair. They even came that way in the game, right? Now, with some feminine influence... that could change. ;)

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

Oh yay! I always wanted to know where you got that outfit. I must download it for my pimptastic Abhijeet Turner, who is having the time of his life at the Singles house!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It's a great outfit. I really want to do an alpha edit of it that has a tank under the button down, instead of the huge flashy necklace and the open chest. Then it can be useful for many more characters. I love the pants and the tucked in shirt. It looks so sharp.

Now, I just need to figure out how to alpha edit it. My SO insists that it's not that hard (which is easy to say for someone who models 3D characters from the ground up).

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's hard. I believe I've tried it before in an outfit I've edited myself. The alpha is the white/black image that comes in the package with the textures. I think all you have to do is make the part you want covered white. And, if you want it to look sheer or something, you could make it gray.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's how I understood it too. That doesn't seem hard at all, if I can just edit it in a photo editing program. I can grab a shirt neck from a mesh I like, and just drop it in there, and do the same for the textures too. I think, for the casual version, I'd remove the big bracelet too.

Hey, if it works out, I could maybe even post that on MTS2.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the recolours are here.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm so downloading that. Yeah, so... I've decided I don't care what my brother says and have decided to get some cc. I've even gotten some default replacement eyes! Doubt he will realize they are though, since they're just a little different. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh, which eyes are you using?

Be careful... once you start downloading cc, you can get really hooked on it (though I tend to see it as a positive thing, since it occupies the part of my brain that would otherwise be ordering books from Amazon.ca, so I figure it at least saves me some money *snicker*).

I actually went through a phase when I first started adding cc and was just downloading the most ridiculous stuff. I've since scaled it WAY back. I used to have a lot more cc hair, for one, but I didn't like how a lot of the longer meshes animate, and I prefer the Maxis textures, so I started over, with a new hair folder. Now I try to stick with things that match the style of the game, or that I really like for some other reason.

There's still a lot of content out there, even if you stick to Maxis-match. I'll bet people would be surprised at the size of my downloads folder, even though I appear to use mostly Maxis content.

Those edits/recolours of the Celebration outfit are great, since they include the H&M jeans and a pretty nice belt too.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I was originally going to use Lyran's since I like their cartoony style, but I really did not like the green and the light and dark blue looked a little too similar. So I ended up searching simgaroop's resource page and ended up finding Oepu's maxis match clothing, clicked it, and saw there were also some default replacement eyes there. They may not be as pretty as the lyran eyes, but they make them pop a little more nonetheless. So far, I really like them.

Oh, I know about having a downloading addiction... I used to! Which eventually made my game crash all the time. I'm only sticking to clothes that match the Maxis styles, and recolors, etc. Even with that, I'm VERY picky and only getting stuff that I think will work on certain sims. I haven't really looked into hair yet; everything I find is to overly detailed for me or too shiny. Plus, if I find some I like I'd probably go crazy. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Now, see... I think the difference between the light and dark blues is more distinct in Lyran's eyes than in the defaults. I also prefer that more olive green to the emerald green, since it seems more realistic. I'm not a fan of that eye colour on the aliens, though, so I gave Johnny contacts.

Those are nice defaults, especially if you prefer the default colours. They do add some nice definition to the eyes. I don't like how cloudy and vague the default eyes look. Those defaults seem to correct that.

I try to be picky about cc too. I go on massive culls every now and then too. What I really have a lot of now is hacks and machinima tools. I've been enjoying all the fixes from MATY and other sources. They really cut down on the annoyance factor.

My favourite hack is the one that stops the "what's this?" interaction when you buy something new. I've always hated that.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the olive green is a little more realistic but I'm just so used to the emerald that I didn't want to change it. I agree, Johnny (or anyone with green skin) definitely looks better with the different green. Yeah, they do correct that, which is why I decided to finally download them. Plus that and well, a recent sim secret revealed how many people refuse to read things that just use the Maxis eyes. Ugh, I can't stand how people are so shallow sometimes. But don't get me wrong, I did it more for me than that.

I've mostly been downloading separates like, the long shirts that actually cover a female sim's stomach from Hysterical Paroxysm. The game is seriously lacking in that category.

I need to get me some of those hacks. Especially the one about the vacation interactions(though multicultural dread pirate Tank and hula Maxis is pretty funny). That 'what's this' interaction is annoying too. I find the reactions to the inSim objects funny though. Like the sigh of disapproval to the lot jealousy and the genetic ones!