#i don't want a star on my save file i want to play in post ganon hyrule!!!!!

[saruin]

i'm SO SO excited for the new love pack. Don't much care for the dating app and Wicked Woohoo already comes with turn on/turn offs but i'm still so excited!!

So much so that i can't even hear the people whining about it anymore. People making posts literally begging others to not buy the new pack are so strange to me, like...sucks to be you but i love the sims 4 and i have no problem buying the packs i want, and not buying those i don't.

Like how is the fact a nostalgic piece of furniture being in the new pack a problem? I don't get it.

EA has done a lot of dumb shit (like the hot tub for the 25th anniversary, or the star wars pack no one wanted, or that survey in general that they never even stuck to anyway)

but really? a bed? Console players get forgotten and people are whining about the bed not being free??

Same! I don't interact with a lot of game play gimmicks but I'm always excited to see bb and cas items when it comes to the bigger game packs. Plus they're bringing back a lot of animations that have been missed since sims 3, so excited.

People have been complaining about this game since before it was released, I'm not gonna let that affect me buying every single dlc on console. Should things have been implemented sooner? probably but so what, they're here now and that's not a bad thing.

In my opinion, pc players let the glitz and glamour of mods dictate how they think the game should be developed, like you said, console users are all but ignored. A pc player hates a aspect of gameplay? they can mod it to be better or mod it to completely remove it from their save file. I don't have that luxury, I gotta wait for a lot of things to be implemented or fixed. It's not a complaint, just an observation; if I wanted to play on pc i could, I just choose not to lol

Also the developers put their whole pussy into the meshes and textures of the Journey to Batuu pack. Say what you want about the gameplay but everything in that pack LOOKS. GOOD. I will die on this hill.

[fateinthestars]

COMPLETED: The Star Crossed Myth Mansion in Sims 4

Way back in November last year I finished building the Star Crossed Myth Mansion in Sims 3 with aid of @star-crossed-mid 's blueprint post

NOW: I have also finished building the mansion in Sims 4 for those of you who want it for that game as well/instead!

DOWNLOAD LINK

(I used Sims 4 Tray Importer to save the file. I don't know whether you need that to add it back into the game, but details here just in case. Please tell me if this doesn't work!)

A few notes before I get to the tour and comparisons between the Sims 4 house and the in-game mansion:

Uses items from the following expansion packs: Discover University, Island Living, Get Famous, Seasons, Cats & Dogs, City Living, Get Together, Get to Work, Dine Out, My First Pet Stuff, Romantic Garden Stuff. (Note: The cushions in Aigo's room are from the current login rewards event thing)

The sims 3 version of the mansion was rather tight at the back so this time I made sure to make it have a slightly larger footprint so that the dining room should now be walk aroundable by the sims. The slight changes I made to the shape of the house also meant I was able to make Tauxolouve's bedroom less cramped.

The Sims 3 version of the mansion was on five floors, with just Hue's room on the fifth - unfortunately Sims 4 only supports four floors above ground so I've had to take some creative liberties with where Hue's room is (It's attached to the end corner of the fourth floor rather than being in the roof).

That said: Sims 4 allows for two basements, so instead of a really cramped reflecting pool room behind the main staircase, that is now a large basement area.

Some items were placed where they are with the bb.moveobjects on cheat so if anything chucks itself in the family inventory when you first place the house, please turn that on and use the screenshots below to put them back into place. (It shouldn't do this but if you decide to change part of the build, it might).

Hopefully that's covered everything. 😅 Oh! And I actually did part of the garden area this time!

Tour and comparisons between the Sims 4 House and the Mansion in-game under the cut. (So loads of images in this post)

And if you're asking will I also make the Gods to go with the house? The answer to that is the same as for Sims 3: I still hope so.

The Outside of the Mansion

Garden Gazebo

Basement

Reflecting Pool Room

Ground (First) Floor

Living Room/Parlour

Stairway/Halls

Leon's Room

The Baths

There wasn't really anything of the style of this statue to put in the middle - though if you've unlocked the Artist Career awards (I think it's for level 9?) the dancing lady statue thing could maybe go on the plinth if you want.

First (Second) Floor

Scorpio's Room

Ichthys' Room

As per the Sims 3 house some creative liberties had to be taken here - though I think maybe this one works better? (Thanks again to @pwamisaurus for some suggestions)

Krioff's Room

Partheno's Room

Tauxolouve's Room

I'm way too ludicrously happy about how this one turned out in Sims 4 😅

Second (Third) Floor

Dui's Room

Zyglavis' Room

Kitchen

I've only seen the kitchen mentioned in some of the special stories and no picture so far. If it comes up I'll change it but I seem to recall Teo saying 'is that that weird room with all the gadgets?' so I'm taking it it is at least an advanced Kitchen.

Toilet

No idea whether there is actually one of not. But yeah just basics here so you can play a game of the sims properly if you wish.

Third (Fourth) Floor

Aigonorus' Room

Teorus' Room

Unlike the Sims 3 one I actually put the lighting on the wall in this one!

Karno's Room

Dining Room

Balcony

The balcony in this one should hopefully be a better size, and yes I sort of attempted the canopy thing this time.

Huedhaut's Room

As I said this isn't really in the right place, but it's a constraint of Sims 4 amount of floors. Hopefully it works where positioned here and hey - glass roof like it's supposed to have! (I've also just realised I didn't search for any jugs but those can be placed if you like - hardest part here was the bookcases, and yes this is one of the rooms that the moveobjects cheat was used for)

[simtleman]

Come get dazzled by the silver screen at the ORPHEUM THEATER!

So after updating all my freaking mods for the new Horse Ranch update (which I couldn't care less about, tbh... the only good thing that came with it for me was— you guessed it!— painted ceilings), here I am once again with a brand new building for the Vintage Save File I'm working on: let me take you on a tour through the stunning Orpheum Theater!

I OBVIOUSLY couldn't do a Vintage Save File set in Del Sol Valley without including a proper theater where your 1920s, '30s & '40s sims could go watch Golden Age films, get mesmerized by their favorite movie stars' glamour and perhaps even take their dates and get lucky while sitting in the back seats?

I have to say just building the front— mainly the marquee, which I did manually— took me about a solid 3 hours, so apologies if the rooms I decorated last seem a bit uncluttered... I was simply ready to move on to the next build by then lol

Below you can see the tickets window (somehow I always seem to find a way to implement @surely-sims's CC into my builds, I just can't help myself... it works too good around my aesthetic!)

And the main hall, in which you'll find @ravasheencc's Film Reaper Movie Theater posters that will allow your sims to watch actual movies through a rabbit hole. I don't know if you noticed, but I also finally found the courage to download and play around a little with @twistedmexi's TOOL mod (the lights frames are rotated) after getting inspired by some of the content by @come-hell-or-high-water. The way he/she (?) pays attention to the tiniest details in his/her screenshots made me want to take mine a step further, so thank you @come-hell-or-high-water!

There's only one movie room, but it has two stories and a beautiful balcony on the second floor you can access to if you go upstairs, through the main hall:

Upstairs is also where the toilets are located (look at those gorgeous red velvet carpeted ceilings... 9 freaking years I've waited to be able to do that, EA!):

And, of course, it wouldn't be a cinema without a projection room, would it?:

Next to the theater you'll find a kinda shabby parking lot, in which Dito Dalton (see my previous post) takes care of some of his businesses every now and then, if you know what I mean:

And last but not least, if you go through the back you'll find a very small yet cozy home that belongs to the household who owns the Orpheum Theater:

Who are the members of this household, you may ask? Ah, you little inquisitive mind! I'm afraid you'll have to wait for my next post to find out... but let me tell ya, they have a great background story and will be a great townie addition to this save file :)

Anyway, that's it for today! Hope you guys like this new building and we shall see where this crazy project that's taking most of my spare time lately takes me next lol

[auxiliarydetective]

↬ OC Verse Trading Cards

Here it is! The reason (well, one of the reasons) for why I've been so inactive lately. I saw this super cool trading card template by @squea and @buttertrait and thought it was super fun, so I wanted to make something similar for my mutuals and myself. And, as you can see, I rediscovered my love for art deco on the way, so it's very art deco lol

You can find the template to make your own cards here - and I explicitly encourage you to make your own, because I was kinda hoping I would get to see cards of you guys' OCs and we could collect them all in a binder like this one. It would be really fun! (The number next to the name is the power level btw - I wanted to imitate a set of Star Wars trading cards I used to collect as a kid) Make sure to @ me when you do and tag your post with #ocversetradingcards!

I tried to make the template as accessible as possible so that even beginners should be able to use it without any issues. So, I color-coded the layers!

The red layers are ones you shouldn't touch. They make up the main frame of the card. The orange layers are ones where you can play around with the colors, but that's for advanced photoshop/photopea users. The green ones are the ones where you put in text! Edit those freely. Blue ones are ones you have to select and move as a batch - if you don't know how to do that, check below the cut ^^

You'll need to download these fonts:

Park Lane (name & power level)

Market Deco (main text font)

Artisual Deco Black Italic (blog url)

Below the cut, you'll find a tutorial for the template and a list of the image resources I used - Quick info for everyone, including the more experienced Photopea users: Save your image at 50% quality. The template is a big file and the exported image will also be pretty big if you don’t save it at a lower quality. 50% is what you can see above and I think it's a nice size-quality ratio.

Tutorial Time

Opening the File

Step one: Get either Photoshop or Photopea. Photoshop costs money, Photopea is free and runs in your browser. Take three guesses which one I use. Yeah, it's Photopea. As such, this tutorial will be Photopea-centric, and I also have no clue what the Photoshop interface looks like, so I can't really help you if you work on Photoshop. But I'm told they're essentially the same, so...

Step two: Download the fonts listed above from the links in this post.

Step three: Click on the link above to go download the template. It's a bit of a big file, so I put it into a zip file for you. Don't worry, you don't need a special program to open it. Photopea will do that for you.

Step four: Open Photopea. Click on "File" -> "Open..." and select the "TradingCardTemplate" zip file.

Step five: Click "File" -> "Open..." again and select the zip files for the fonts. This will import them to Photopea. There are also preview images included in at least one of the zip files for the fonts, so just close the windows for those projects when they pop up by clicking on the little "x" next to their file name. You only need the "TradingCardTemplate.psd" tab to be open in your Photopea window.

Great! Now you're all set to edit!

Editing the name, power level and blog url

I decided to group these together because they function essentially the same way

Step one: Select the typing tool. It's the little "T" symbol in the toolbar on the left side of your screen.

Step two: Select the layer of the text you want to edit. The blog url one is in plain view. For the name and power ones, you need to open the corresponding folders first. They're the green layers in the folders!

Step three: Click on the text you want to edit. It's easiest to aim for the middle, that way you have the least chances of missing. The typing tool is a bit finicky with that sometimes, especially if the text is small.

Great! Now you can use your keyboard to delete the placeholder text and replace it with your own! The power level will only fit two digits and picking "00" will look bad. Your OC should have at least some power. They need it to breathe.

Changing the size of the name text

As you might be able to tell, the basic text size only works for fairly short names. So, you might have to make it smaller for your OC's name to fit

Step one: Enter your OC's name as described above.

Step two: Select the text as you would anywhere else in your browser.

Step three: Above the little tag where it says "TradingCardTemplate.psd", there's an options bar. You'll find a box there labelled "Size" with a box that says "150px" and a down arrow next to it. Click on the down arrow and a slider will pop up. Play around with that slider until your text has a good size. Then click on the checkmark.

Step four: Switch to the transformation tool. It's the cursor with the directional cross next to it, at the top of your left-hand tool bar. Move your text so that it aligns well with the left side of the frame but make sure it's below the middle.

Step five: You now have to select two layers at once. The text layer and the frame for the name tag. Do do that, either press and hold your control key on your keyboard while selecting the other layer or toggle the control key using the on-screen keyboard at the bottom left of the toolbar. If you use the toggle, don't forget to untoggle it after.

Step six: On your horizontal toolbar above your project window, click on the icon that's a horizontal line with two boxes centered on it.

Congrats, your text should now be centered!

Adding in your OC picture

Step one: Open the "Picture" folder and select the layer beneath "Add picture here". This will make sure your picture will be in the right spot. Also make sure to click on the eye next to the "Pattern" layer tag to make it go invisible.

Step two: Select "File" -> "Open & Place..." and pick a nice image.

Step three: Once the image has been imported, make sure you change the zoom percentage to 100%, that way the image doesn't look pixely or weird. Click on the checkmark.

Step four: Resize your image so your OC fits nicely into the frame. The image should fill the entire space inside the frame and can stick out as much as you want.

Step five: Right-click (or press and hold, if you're on mobile) your image' layer and select "Clipping Mask".

Perfect! Now your image should no longer stick out of the frame. Feel free to adjust your image's coloration, brightness etc. by selecting "Image" -> "Adjustments" and your preferred action.

Changing your stats bars

This works the same for each bar and I tried to make it as simple as possible.

Step one: Open the corresponding folder.

Step two: Select the set of three blue layers together. You can do this by selecting one layer normally, then selecting the other two while holding your control key or while having it toggled using the built-in on-screen mini keyboard at the bottom left of your screen. If you use the toggle, don't forget to untoggle it after.

Step three: Switch to the transformation tool (the one at the top of your left-hand toolbar, it's a cursor with a directional cross) and move your layers. By moving them to the right, you'll reveal more of the gold underneath the overlay. More gold = higher level of the corresponding stat.

Great job! Now adjust the bars to your liking.

Saving your project + card image

To save the project: Click on "File" -> "Save as PSD". This will download the current project under the same name as the file that you downloaded it as. So, it will be called "TradingCardTemplate (1)" or something similar. Make sure you change the name in your files so you know which is which. Alternatively, you can also change the name of the project by double-clicking the little square that currently says "TradingCardTemplate" and type in your new name. If you save again now, it will show the new project name! Make sure to save your project if you want to be able to recover it and/or work on it later!

To save the card image: Click on "File" -> "Export as >" and pick your preferred image file type. I suggest JPG for best results. Make sure to turn the quality slider to 50%, then hit the save button. This will download an image file of your chosen type, under the same name as the project name. To change that name, refer to the bullet point above or go to your files :)

Advanced: Changing the BG color of the pattern

Step one: Select the pattern background of either the name tag, power score or picture and turn it to 100% opacity.

Step two: Color-pick the current background color of the pattern.

Step three: Click "Image" -> "Adjustments" -> "Replace Color..." and click on the colored rectangle in the new pop-up. Replace the default color with your color-picked color. Now use the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders to get a new color that you like. Note down your slider values for later so you have them for the other elements.

Step four: Color-pick your new color and select the corresponding solid background layer. For those layers, click "Edit" -> "Fill..." and make sure you have "Foreground" and "Normal" selected, your Opacity is 100% and you have "Preserve Transparency" checked.

Step five: Don't forget to turn the opacity of your pattern layers back down to 60%.

Congrats! You have your colors changed! Repeat this process for the other two patterned elements.

Extra advanced: Changing the card's background color

NOTE: I DON'T recommend this. You can do it, but it's a lot of work.

Step one: Select the background layer and change its color to the new color you want. You can do it with the "Hue/Saturation..." adjustment, with the "Fill" edit as described above, or whichever way you want. Color-pick your new color.

Step two: Open the smart object PSDs for the frames for the frames for the picture, the name tag, and the power counter by double-clicking on the preview image of the layer.

Step three: Select the lowest colored layer of each and change its color to the same as your new card background color. Click on "File" -> "Save (Smart Object)". Close the project windows.

Step four: Open the folders for the various stat bars and select the "Color Overlay" layers. Change their colors the same way you did for the other layers. Warm colors and high-saturation colors will most likely not look good here and you might need to find a different way of making the stat bars look good. Playing around with the "Brightness/Contrast" adjustment layers above might help, but I can't promise anything. This is the main reason why I don't recommend changing the card background color. The stats bars are adjusted to the background color.

There we are! Either your card looks very pretty now or you understand why I don't recommend this. Either way: Good job!

Resources from Freepik:

Corners by tartila Power counter frame Picture frame by pch.vector Stats bar by tartila Pattern

Taglist (we're bringing out all fandoms today): @starcrossedjedis @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene @bravelittleflower @box-of-bats @fluffle-system @wheresmybloodynauglamir @nanukanal @supermarine-silvally @cody-helix02

[ghostoffuturespast]

@reilleclan-blog since you asked...

I try not to make my VP process a secret, there's literally nothing to hide, all the tools I use already come with the game, I utilize techniques anyone can learn, I don't do any fancy post-editing (other than rotating), and I think VP should be accessible for everyone.

I took these shots at "Star Lake", which is technically an out of bounds asset - you drive over this thing in the Star Ending of the game in the tank with Panam, so it requires some cheese in order to get to this location. I got inspired by a couple other bloggers here with their trips down to "Langley" (@arachnophobic-larantula & @mynonsenseistingling) and decided to go on a road trip myself. I spent about five hours exploring out of bounds and went all the way from the SoCal Border Checkpoint up to the Oil Fields. (I'll post my tourist photos another time. Technically, I'm still stuck behind the fence at the oil fields, but I'll figure it out later.)

If you need some detailed instructions on how to cross the border in vanilla versions of the game and get to Langley (and yes, you do need the fortified ankle cyberware, double jump will not cut it), this video is helpful:

If you're trying to get to Star Lake, once you cross the border follow the road south and when you get to the intersection head east. If you roughly follow the curve of the border wall and the ridge that splits thae map between in bounds and out of bounds, you should bump into it.

It was dark when I got to the lake, so the lighting actually wasn't optimal but I stopped because the ground was shiny. It took me a minute to figure out what the heck I was looking at, but funny thing about this lake is that it's just a reflective texture suspended over the lake bed, it's not even water. You can drive and walk through it.

Once I realized the lake was just texture, I walked in, popped open the camera, and started swinging the thing around and playing around with all the effect settings and the poses just to see what I could get. And that's the process for all my VP. I mainly rely on whatever lighting I can find, intersting locations, angles, and juxtaposition, because those are the techniques you have the most leeway with on console and in vanilla photomode.

Anyway, the shot on the left was one of the first pics I took at this location. With how dark the water is and the limited amount of light, I realized that a shilouette style photo was only gonna work at a distance. But I wanted to see what else I could get, so I went the opposite direction of what I thought I wanted. I turned V around so her back was facing the moon towards the light, pretty much maxed out the exposure and brightness settings, bumped up the contrast a smidge, cycled through the poses (Night City Strut is always a favorite), put the field of view down to 15, rotated the camera angle 90 degrees, adjusted my camera to frame the shot how I wanted. Boom. Photo on the right.

P.S. If you do venture out of bounds, make a save file from before you cross the broder (do not overwrite it just in case you need an easy exit out) and save often and keep multiple save files while you are out there. You will die and you will get stuck and there is no fast travel. Also, make sure you have a decent amount of eddies on hand, insurance kept charging me everytime I called a vehicle. Fucking rat bastards...

[captainsophiestark]

Summer Fic Recs!

Did I read as much as I wanted to this summer? Very much no. Did I still get to read some great stuff? Hella yeah! Here's a roundup of all the wonderful things I got to read this summer from a bunch of wonderful writers! Go check them out and send some comments, reblogs, and love their way!

If you want to see what else I've read, you can find my fic rec masterlist here

Rec's below the cut!

Star Wars

No Pairing

Filed Under: Incident Reports by @ghostofskywalker

This is tied with another similar fic by the same author for probably my favorite fic of all time. It is SO funny and written in such a fun and creative format! Basically it's a roundup of incident reports that resulted from Clone shenanigans at a favorite bar. 10/10 fantastic read.

Operation: Rest and Relaxation by @ghostofskywalker

Literally one of my new favorite platonic Star Wars fics. Short, fluffy, funny, and absolutely perfect. The 212th’s general and reader’s Jedi Master needs a nap and, to quote the fic, “Obi-Wan Kenobi was many things, but attuned to his own self-care was not one of them.” Hijinks ensue.

Top Gun

Multiple Pairings

Week One by @jupitercomet

One of the biggest crimes of my hectic schedule is that I don't do a great job of keeping up on all the amazing, FANTASTIC fic this author is writing. Check out any of her stuff and you won't be disappointed, but this one had Rooster, Hangman, and Bob, pranks, and a Formula 1 AU. Literally what else could you ask for????

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Reader

The Trial Run by @jupitercomet

I think this series is also in an earlier rec post of mine, but it's fantastic. I'm not completely caught up, but I'm going to be ASAP. Very soft and sweet, and I'm a big fan of reformed frat boy Bradley in this AU (even though he's still sort of going through the process lol)

Marvel

Xu Shang-Chi x Reader

The Compass Part 1 & Part 2 by @never--doubt

Absolutely adorable soulmate AU! Shang-Chi is one of my favorite ever characters, and this is a very sweet two part fic with the reader and him getting closer as friends and also as soulmates! Literally what more could you ask for?

Miguel O'Hara x Reader

i'm not cute by @sunflowersteves

A very very very sweet and fluffy fic with the grumpiest version of Spider-Man. Exactly the adorable domestic vibes I needed to read after seeing this movie. Bonus, I actually understood the Spanish without needing translation, which I'm personally happy about!

Tony Stark x Reader

A Bed Big Enough For Two by @trekkingaroundasgard

I don't usually read for Tony but I'm SO GLAD I read this! Some ADORABLE hurt/comfort that focuses on the comfort with a Tony Stark this is so in character in the absolute best and most endearing way possible. Nicola, you're amazing

Stranger Things

Steve Harrington x Reader

Absolutely Smitten by @starryeyedstories

Absolutely amazing and adorable and funny and so so good! I love Steve so much lol, and watching him work with a coworker he has a crush on in his peak dorky Scoops Ahoy era is incredible. Great appearances from Robin and Dustin too. Very very fun and fluffy.

The Vampire Diaries

Klaus Mikaelson x Reader

salvation by @starlightsalvatore

Literally such a sweet fic, similar to the scene where Klaus saves Caroline from the werewolf bite but with (imo) a more fun twist and attitude for the reader. Very sweet with a great sprinkling of humor, too. The lines "Playing with werewolves, are we?" "Thought it was a golden retriever" will live in my head forever lmao

Bridgerton

Benedict Bridgerton x Reader

Not For Him by @iwritefandomimagines

This was a heart-achingly adorable fic for Benedict, with a very fluffy ending and a very helpful appearance from Antony "shitstirrer" Bridgerton to get his brother and best friend headed in the right direction. FANTASTIC read.

[wroteonedad]

We Need to Talk About Katy Perry & The Sims

Listen, I think I am throwing myself down some form of rabbit hole when it comes to Katy Perry and the Sims, but this is something that needs to be studied in the history books. The whole Katy Perry franchise stuff in the Sims 3 specifically feels like a fever dream, I really thought my brain had just made it up. I was watching one of those videos about celebrities and their random endorsements and how they just end up doing the most random things, like all those apps inspired by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood all those years ago. Then there was the other rabbit hole on how celebrities will just end up doing the most random things; this was a video posted by Mike's Mic which I'm going to drop below in case you want to see it all. I mean think about it,,, does anyone remember when Ariana Grande had a skin available to buy on Fortnite and when Travis Scott performed in Roblox? A literal fever dream I fear.

But Katy Perry feels like a literal social experiment to me. She went to the other side of the world in order to pump out the Sims 3 franchise with all this content heavily inspired by the California Gurls music video, but for what reason other than to be extra? I still don't know if these packs were anything more than a cash grab, but alas. Let's delve into the history of Katy working with the franchise.

The Sims 3 Showtime, the expansion pack without Katy Perry was released 6 March 2012. The expansion pack featured a brand new town to live in, new jobs that you could go along with your Sim to, and of course a bunch of new objects and outfits. It introduced the concept of being famous in the Sims franchise through being different types of performers where you could earn money through busking, attending people's homes for private performances and ultimately haggling with event managers to ask them if your Sim can perform a set at their venue. Depending on your celebrity status, it can effect if the manager will say yes or no. I know this pack like the back of my hand because I would always make my Sim become a singer and had to deal with every form of rejection for the longest time before I got my Sim up to a 4 star celebrity (and then the laptop with that save file on died so I don't remember what happened after that).

The Katy Perry collectors version of Showtime was released on the same day and included the 'Ultimate Stage' venue to perform at. The collectors edition also came with Katy Perry style objects, hairstyles, costumes and performance props all using the concept art from Katy's second studio album Teenage Dream.

The trailer for the collectors expansion pack is insane by the way because it is literally just an animated version of Katy on the 'Ultimate Stage' as she ironically performs The One That Got Away which shows items from the pack and some other relationships happening. It all feels very glorified and perhaps a little bit icky. However, did I own this collectors edition pack? Of course, and I did love it.

On 5th June 2012, Katy Perry then decided to go further into the lore of The Sims and release Sweet Treats, which wasn't an expansion pack and it wasn't a stuff pack, it was just a pack. The pack featured a bunch of different types of items to the point it never went under a theme as to what type of an expansion pack that really was.

Despite this pack not featuring a town, it did on the other hand feature three new venues which you could add to your Sims town. The first example is The Bonbon Lawn Park which you guessed it, is completely filled to the brim with huge cheugy pieces of candyfloss surrounding the area and gingerbread themed park items for the children to play on.

Next up is Patty's Natural Baths which is also ironically the most natural looking premade lot to use for the town. It is just a public pool which is decorated with a couple of gingerbread home frames to spruce up the area a little bit. I think it's cute, it's not over the top and is more just themed with more pastel colours which I think makes the area look more inviting and exciting.

Lastly, the worst building of them all. The Cake Pleasure Dome which makes me feel sick just from looking at it. The walls and floor covered in sickly colours, giant lollipops placed around the entire lot and a lot that is so spacious, but with so much empty space around it. As if the lot was not used to its full potential, the vision was there, but it gives me nothing but the ick.

The outfits for the pack feel more like they are made for the expansion of Showtime, but were items that simply didn't make the cut maybe because there wasn't enough room on the disc to include it, I'm really not sure. As if that wasn't enough, but you have the choice to completely bulldoze your home and recreate it into a real walk in gingerbread house.

The pack states that there are 28 different types of clothing and hairstyles with only two of these pieces being for male Sims, perhaps this makes sense or it really doesn't. The hairstyles I kind of get, my Sims just wouldn't be slaying in the right way with giant cupcakes in their hair.

I am not kidding one bit when I say that every piece of furniture is also all ice cream, gingerbread, diabetes infused pieces and just an eyesore to the eyes, but when discussed in the context of Teenage Dream then it does start to make sense, a little bit.

Further into the lore of Katy Perry,,,

The literal in game Sim of Katy Perry featured which comes with no personality traits, hot pink hair and was created just for promotional purposes in the game. It feels as though the game simply created an empty skin NPC character which someone could tweak with if they chose to do so. Studying these packs, I feel like I have come up with more questions rather than the answers. Apparently, going deep into the lore, Katy Perry has said that she loves The Sims franchise, and she did record an entire simlish cover of Hot N Cold for The Sims 2, so I do believe her but I do feel like her involvement with The Sims could have simply stopped there.

Actually no I'm lying, she even came back to record Last Friday Night in Simlish for Sims 3 too. You are so welcome.

In terms of The Sims and celebrity lore, while Katy Perry put her whole pussy and more into pushing the franchise, there are actually a ton of other celebrity endorsements and appearances in the game that I really just need to talk about at the end of this post;

The Black Eyed Peas have an ENTIRE storyline in The Urbz: Sims In The City, please don't ask why but they do. In one version of the console game, you gain yourself reputation and have Will.I.Am as your mentor to help you become the coolest person on the street, don't believe me? CallMeKevin has an entire segment about his gameplay on YouTube.

Andy Warhol has an entire NPC which is made in tribute to him in The Sims: Superstar,,,, but as it turns out the expansion pack features many tributes to different celebrities both living and dead.

The pack also featured Marilyn Monroe, Avril Lavigne and Christina Aguilera ??? I'm just as stunned as everyone else here.

Millie Bobby Brown has a Sim which can be downloaded from the gallery in The Sims 4, but she also appeared in the game as the events coordinator for the Positivity Challenge. Her Sim would give your Sim a box of kindness and you could gain more decorative rewards by being nice to your neighbours.

Thanks for coming down this rabbit hole with me, I hope we all learned something new and fun today.

[rayewritesfantasy]

15 Questions

Thank you @thewriteflame for tagging me, sorry I didn't get this done sooner.

For this I have decided to make two separate posts, each focusing on one of the two main characters from Sea of Stars.

This will be the Juliet version, and I'll do Tynan afterwards.

Additional note: The Social Butterfly is a fictional blog which Juliet's sister subscribes to within Sea Of Stars. I thought it would be fun for Juliet and Tynan to appear as interview subjects on there after the events of the story.

...

The woman who walks in to the study room I rented in Edinburgh Central Library is somebody who has appeared on countless news articles, talk shows and interviews since the news of the so-called Hidden World of myths, monsters and magic became a known part of what everybody thought was just a mundane world with jobs and taxes and worrying about putting food on the table.

She smiles and waves at me, like we're old friends instead of merely strangers meeting for the first time after a few emails and a quick video chat to co-ordinate this interview. She walks with purpose and I rise to shake her hand as soon as she gets within range. Her grip is firm, palms slightly rough and I note the dirt beneath her thumb nails.

Juliet Northwood is magnetic in the way she holds your gaze. Wavy chestnut hair, tied half off her face, eyes that seem to gleam golden in the sunlight streaming in, and an almost imperceptible smattering of freckles across her nose. A feature I never noticed in all my research for The Social Butterfly, a popular student blog run by myself and three others.

Our readers submit the questions when we announce our next guest.

"Beautiful weather, isn't it?" She asks as she adjusts her floaty skirt into the chair.

"Yes, unseasonably warm as well." I agree as I find a blank page in my notebook.

"Shall we just begin?" She asks, a touch of awkwardness in her smile as she plays with her right sleeve.

"Oh, of course. If there's anything at all you don't feel comfortable answering, you just let me know and we'll move on."

She nods as I click my pen.

Are you named after anyone?

She smiles, leaning forward on her hands, "Oh, not anybody real! My brother chose my name because he likes Shakespeare. He intended it to be spelled the French way. J-U-L-I-E-T-T-E. But my father, who actually filed my birth certificate spelled it without the extra T-E."

I nod my acknowledgement as I scribble the answer down.

When was the last time you cried?

That seems to strike her as funny because she chuckles, tucking an escaping strand of hair back behind her ear. "Last night. I was watching The Longest Ride with my husband. Got to the part where Ira passes away and wept like a baby. These kinds of film always get to me."

Do you have kids?

Her fingers tighten just a little where they've come to rest on the table. "No. I can't have them."

The answer is direct and I take the unspoken direction to move on.

Do you use sarcasm?

She grins at that, all awkwardness from my last question gone.

"No, I would never. Why would you think that?"

The tone drips with sarcasm and I can't help but snort with amusement.

Fair enough.

What's the first thing you notice about people?

She sits back, considering it as she sips the coffee placed in front of her. "Usually I notice their expression. If they're smiling or frowning. If they look tired. It helps to know what kind of person you're going to end up talking with and how you should proceed, no?"

I have the sudden urge to ask what exactly she gathered from my face when we first had a chat on a video call three days ago, a precaution on her part, so she would know who to look out for today.

But I'm being paid to interview her for a new section aimed at curious young people who want to know more about the witch who possibly saved the world. And such questions aren't going to earn my pay.

What's your eye colour?

She blinks as though taken aback, "Um, I think they're hazel? Tynan says so anyway."

She leans forward, widening them so I can see.

"Oh yeah, hazel. But they have gold around the iris. That's really cool." I tell her, hoping it isn't weird to say so.

She nods, "Yours are pretty too!"

Scary movies or happy endings?

"Happy endings, always. Life has enough drama without movies being dismal too, don't you think?"

I laugh at how earnestly she says it, but assure her that I do totally agree.

Any special talents?

"Aside from the obvious?"

I nod, hoping that we won't be thrown out for a display of magic inside a library.

"Oh! I'm a good baker. I make bread and sweet treats as gifts for everybody I know. Nobody has complained yet."

Where were you born?

"France. Just outside Marceille. A neighbour helped my mother through labour."

Well, that raises some questions that she never signed up to answer. But I stick with the ones I have written down.

What are your hobbies?

She has an almost childish glee at this one, "I love gardening. I was repotting herbs before I came here this morning. I mentioned the baking already, so there's that.

That explains the soil under her nails.

"And I scrapbook. I find it really helpful to gather my thoughts at the end of the day, and it's nice to make little memories of the nice things. I also love fiction and crossword puzzles. All kinds of cozy things really."

Have you got any pets?

She gives me a smile like she's letting me in on some great joke, "No, but I do have my husband."

Ah yes, the infamous Tynan. He has been known to do some unusual things when he gets bored of being interviewed. I'm mildly concerned what he has planned when I talk to him after we get done here.

What sports do you play/have you played?

"I used to play tennis against my best friend when we would holiday with her grandparents in Cornwall. It was always fun, even though she always won. Does hiking count? I do a lot of walking around Scotland. Just seeing the sights, you know?"

How tall are you?

She shrugs, "5 foot 7. Just a few inches above average. I wouldn't want to be taller or shorter though. This is a comfortable size to hug people."

Favourite subject in school?

"Ah, well I didn't go to a conventional school, but when I went to lessons at the campsites, I always loved astronomy and literature the best. The stars have so many secrets and writers have a magic all of their own. Both are wonderful things."

Dream job?

She ponders it for so long that I think she expects me to move on, even though this is the last question.

"I think I'd like to be a gardener. I could sell my little seedlings and plants. And maybe even make different things for holidays. It would be nice." She decides at last.

I smile at her as I finish writing my notes. "Well, that was all of the readers questions. Thank you for doing this."

She waves an elegant hand, "No need to thank me. It was fun. The questions were unexpected. Thank you for having me."

"Any advice on my impending interview with your husband?" I ask in what I hope is a joking tone.

She sobers a little, her smile just a little tighter. "Do not thank him. You don't want him thinking you might owe him something. He swore to me he'd behave, but don't risk it, okay?"

A little daunted, I accept her hug and watch her wave as she walks back towards the door.

Thanks for reading, hope this was as enjoyable to read as it was to write. I'm looking forward to doing the Tynan one now.

Tynan version here:

[krypticcafe]

❧ About Our Staff

Our lovely staff consists of one person! Yep! One! The manager, the barista, the bartender, the waiter, the cashier, the one writing all of this:

Yours truly, ✎ Kryptid

❧ General

✎﹏Name(s): Kryptid, Kryptic, K.C.

✎﹏Pronouns: They/Any

✎﹏Age: 18+

✎﹏Orientation(s): Nonbinary, Panromantic, Greyspec-Questioning

✎﹏Race/Ethnicity: Southeast Asian-American

❧ Description:

✎﹏Just a local cryptid writing for fun (and spite), I started this account just to lurk on Tumblr and save my favorite fics. Initially, I started writing as a joke with my "When you call them 'babygirl'" headcanons. But then I got really salty about reader culture, especially in COD fanfic, so now I try my best to write as neutrally as possible and for readers who just wanna get represented a little more. Tall, buff, chubby, masc, neurodivergent, POC, people who just want to be absolute powerhouses, people who just want family dynamics, people who want to explore darker themes without glorifying them, etc. Variety is a huge thing for me.

Oh yeah, this account is actually supposed to be kept quiet from people who follow me for my art on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. It's not supposed to be secret, but it's not supposed to be super public. Yet. I guess.

❧ Fun Facts:

I've played all of the CoD Modern Warfare games and I can guarantee, I'm very mid at online multi-player, but the campaigns slap :')

I started taking drawing and writing seriously in like... 2016, so it's been 7+ years.

Used to rp online a lot for about 5-6 years, but now I get really nervous haha... I might try again.

CoD faves are: Ghost, Soap, König, Roach, Gaz, Horangi, Farah, and Krueger in no particular order. And no, I will not pick.

Slasher/DBD faves include: Pyramid Head and Ghostface. Simple 'n basic.

Star Wars faves are: Poe Dameron, Din Djarin, Ahsoka Tano, BB-8, R2D2, Leia Organa, Boba Fett

Marvel faves: Peter Quill, Rocket Raccoon, Peter Parker, Gamora, Nebula, Mantis, Miles Morales, Deadpool, Daredevil

Slenderverse faves: Hoodie, Masky, Splendorman

❧ Interests

Hobbies:

Drawing

Writing

Animating

Video Editing

Reading

Gaming

Active Fandoms:

Call of Duty

Marvel

Slashers/Dead By Daylight

Marble Hornets/Slenderverse

ARGs (Mandela Catalogue, Vita Carnis, Backrooms, Gemini Home Entertainment, Channel 58, Walten Files, etc)

Anime (mainly Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man)

SCP Foundation

Etc.

❧ Before You Interact:

I'm cool with people sharing their thoughts, ideas, headcanons, even ocs with me!

I'm best at gender neutral, masc, and dom readers, stuff like that

I post on my own schedule, and I pick whatever I feel like writing

Don't just dm me saying "hi" and nothing else, because it doesn't really... give me much to respond to.

DNI if you support p*dophila, b*stiality, r*pe, inc*st, homophobia, transphobia, or if you're an asshole in general.

DNI if you're younger than 16. My content is on the mature side.

[slumbering-shadows]

Day 2 of the misadventures of Coryn in Pokemon: Violet!

I wandered around aimlessly for a while trying to decide what I wanted to do, mostly just focusing on filling out my pokedex. The most noteworthy catchs of the day were a little Charcadet and a Whooper!!! I love the designs they're both so cute. I named Charcadet Sparky, and Whooper Goober, and promptly added them to my party. After some leveling for the newcomers, along with a freshly evolved Fletchinder, I figured I might be able to take on my very first gym! So I made a beeline for the Bug gym, catching every new Pokemon I could find on the way.

Kicking around the olive was fun only in that the idea of a gigantic fucking olive is hilarious to me. Otherwise it felt a little pointless? I'm not sure how playing glorified soccer qualifies me as a trainer. I kind of just accidentally somehow kicked it almost immediately to the end using skyrim horse tilt logic, I guess. Made it to and through the gym battle fairly easy, one shot the first two opponents, although her Terastilized teddiursa kicked my ass pretty bad. I won purely because he got poisoned from attacking Goober and the tick damage got him just in time.

First gym defeated! Wohoo! Time to venture onward! Spent some time leveling up, and made my first picnic.

hehe bubbly whooper

My depth perception is so bad y'all I cannot make a sandwich to save my life. The card said it was 3 stars and I feel like I'm being mocked.

Spent a lot of time beating up Klawfs because they gave me lots of yummy exp. Caught my own Klawf. Beat up more.

GOOBER BIG. clodsire is so fucking shaped I love him.

Grabbed myself a Combee from near the bug gym and lucky me it was a female! Beat up some more crabs and very quickly got her evolved into a Vespiqueen. Onwards, to the Grass gym!

she was waiting for me at the grass gym. Nemona this is not a coincidence, you are stalking me. do I have to file a restraining order. She says she's not gonna fight me rn to prove she wasn't stalking me which made me a little sad because I still have the all consuming desire to beat the shit out of her stupid fucking duck. Oh well.

undertaleflashbacks.jpeg (ps: my frames are now cotton eyed joe. where did they go.)

I'm not sure if they were trying to make this guy annoying as hell but they did. Anyway my Vespiqueen one shot all of his lame ass pokemons. He screamed "avant garde" at me and I don't think he actually knows what that word means. I think he should have given me extra money for having to deal with him.

After that i realized it was very late so I went to bed! Will post day 3 progress tomorrow :)

[surely-galena]

Just thought of something after seeing the occasional Hatoful Boyfriend post on your TL, but...what do you think would happen if MC/Rosa, who we saw give a (or in a lot of players' cases, multiple) no-hold barred beatdown-type debate to a pigeon in an event, found out about Hatoful Boyfriend? 😅

Hello, exhausted-impact!!

[WC: 1.6K ] I'll be putting this under a cut so people can scroll through faster that way, haha

//mild spoilers for hatoful bf and holiday star

And okay, here's my take on MC/Rosa and Hatoful Bf (with obligatory disclaimer that these are just my opinions):

But first, a semi-tangent--

I honestly think Luke, bird friend extraordinaire (okay, one bird friend) would get into the game first. Just for fun, and because his life is stressful enough that maybe the haha funny pigeon dating game could provide some escapism for him. He's going along with it, maybe sending screenshots to the NXX members (maybe a suspicious Shuu line goes to Vyn along with the caption "is this you??")

Several things happen, one at a time.

The first is Nageki, because going into that one blind... it changes things, you know? Especially since I think Luke, with his desire to be the martyr and/or hero, would find himself relating a little too much. That's when the screenshot sending slows down.

Things continue to get darker with Shuu's endings. Anghel's route is unexpectedly emotional (because I don't know, I think Luke would vibe with Anghel).

And then the BBL route / true end hits.

The moment Ryouta finds, you know, the box, is when Luke stops. He makes a save and sends a text to MC, like, hey. you gotta see this.

And because they've had a history of playing video games together (even if a lot of them do seem to be action/fighting based), I think they'd also be down to go through a VN?

So here's where MC comes in.

"Ah," MC goes. "The pigeon dating sim."

"Yeah, yeah, roll your eyes all you want," Luke says, and then makes her start all the way from Ryouta's route.

Going through the first half of the game (the bird routes) doesn't actually take that long, it's maybe an hour or so for the first one, and then if you skip through seen lines for the rest then it's maybe half an hour per route (if you're reading aloud. Because I want MC to voice all of Hiyoko's fantastic lines and Luke to switch back and forth between voicing the rest of the birds).

I mean, MC saying lines like these aloud is just a fun concept in general:

For the sake of their vocal cords, I'm going to say that the first half of the game takes about 2-3 days, depending on how much free time they have.

Here's a quick rundown of how I think MC is going to find the routes:

Ryouta: Sad, but a really good opener. If MC knows about Luke's illness at this point, she'll probably make some parallels (i.e. childhood friend dying) and be even sadder.

Kazuaki/Nanaki: She respects that the teacher rejects Hiyoko, but is overall mostly intrigued by the file room conversation and the blacked out photo.

Sakuya: I think she probably wants to bop him on the head half the time, but she's still able to relate to his struggles and understand him as a character. Even if she really wants to make him treat his half-brother better.

Nageki: Luke gives her a content warning before that particular twist and they're both left feeling kinda sad afterward. He's a sweet bird, and MC was really looking forward to befriending him, but at least he found peace :')

Yuuya: Honestly Luke's favorite main route because of the whole secret agent thing and he won't shut up about it. MC just listens to his whole spiel and is thoroughly entertained by it all. She also loves the best end.

Shuu: MC definitely puts two and two together and gasps at the roast bird delivery scene. They both crack up at that triple 'yes' option, but overall Shuu is probably the bird MC wants to debate/fight the most. "Suspicious people like him should not be in a school in the first place," she says. "Suspicious birdies," Luke corrects, and she elbows him in response.

Okosan: MC's just kinda "huh??" throughout this one, but in a good way. Okosan is the most similar to the pigeons she's debated, so possible mixed feelings on that end, but the best ending leaves her smiling and shaking her head, because a) what was that?? and b) oh of course that happened. Totally makes sense. At the same time, part of Okosan does remind her of Peanut, so her feelings about his route are more positive than not.

Anghel: She loves the boss battle in this one. She also ends up wanting to protect Anghel almost as much, if not equally as much as Nageki. She calls out his name expectantly every time they hear the glass breaking sound effect after this.

Azami: This one is just a fun route! I think MC's a bit of a romantic, so she'd probably enjoy getting Azami back with Rabu. But her girlboss side would also adore Hiyoko and Azami starting a gang together. Either way, it's also mildly refreshing to not think about being murdered by Shuu or other Hawk Party agents.

Okay, time to move on to the second half of the game / true end.

MC is really intrigued by the fulfilling the promise option. Because they're playing on Luke's version, she'll already have seen it, but she hasn't clicked on it until now.

Luke has only seen up to the box scene, so they both get to go in mostly blind. MC is already semi-invested up to this point, but as the story unravels, she finds herself even more intrigued. It's also hard not to draw uncomfortable parallels from H5N1 to the NXX drug.

I think the things that are going to hit MC the most are Hiyoko's murder, Nageki's backstory, Sakuya's arc, and the part where the birds essentially use the power of friendship to bring Ryouta back. Also the scene with Nageki vs. Hitori's shadow.

For Luke, I'd definitely say that the shadow scene hits hard as well (especially when Nageki reminds Hitori of his second promise).

Oh!! And after the credits roll and the epilogue hits, Luke is probably overjoyed to see Yuuya alive. MC is cracking up over how he genuinely believed Yuuya died, but overall she's really happy that hope ultimately prevails in the end.

For NXX found fam agenda purposes:

Let's say MC decides to drag the rest of the NXX members into playing through the game all over again just to see their reactions to the bait and switch.

Artem is only mildly interested at first. Vyn is amused, but MC asked so of course he's in (and it's not like he's going to miss out on time with MC). Marius just thinks the concept is hilarious and that's why he also agrees.

Super quick bullet points, but here are various reactions for each member:

Artem: Doesn't really understand the hype until he gets to Nageki. From that point on, he's always looking out for "the library bird" (to MC's delight). He ends up really liking Sakuya's character arc and the whole murder mystery later on, and the fact that so much foreshadowing is done in the first half. It also helps that the sci-fi aspects intrigue him. He drafts a review on his Mockingbird blog, but never posts it (mostly because Mockingbird playing a bird dating sim is just going to lead to commenters making a bunch of the same jokes). His favorite character ends up being Anghel.

Marius: Somehow, he always picks out the right beans for Legumentine's and MC is completely bemused by it. The parts that hit hardest for him are the Yuuya half-brother/egg twist and the scene where Yuuya sacrifices himself for Sakuya (because brother parallels). At the same time, he's also yelling at Sakuya to be nicer to Yuuya. Oh, and he's genuinely shocked when Shuu gets shot near the end.

Vyn: Starts psychoanalyzing Shuu from the moment he meets him because he's still not over that one text Luke sent. Actually ends up guessing a lot of emotional beats/plot points by accident, but MC refuses to confirm or deny his predictions. His favorite character is Hitori because he finds him intriguing.

Actually on Hitori, it's up to you if you want to imagine an NXX version of Hitorigate (but milder), but I imagine that if it happens, MC is probably going to be pretty neutral XP

Oh, and then they all find out Holiday Star is a thing.

More quick bullet points on that:

MC immediately wants to adopt Miru and Kaku

Luke gets really excited at the Miru and Kaku tank scene

Vyn finds out that he has a new favorite character (it's Albert. Not just because they share the same name (although that is part of the reason), but also because of the Ogier parallels haha)

Marius' favorite story is Absolute Zero -- because of the comic aspect, but also because he finds Tohri hilarious

He also ends up accidentally memorizing the Pretty Coore catchphrases

Artem and Vyn both find The Day the Night Slept to be their favorite parts, but for slightly different reasons

Vyn gets to jump back onto the Hitori analysis train (pun unintended?)

Artem just thinks the dream symbolism is really interesting. Also, he's really vibing with the storybook framing

The part where Yuuya is working with Leone JB to jump into the rest of the cast's dreams only solidifies him as Luke's favorite character

Also MC, Marius, and Luke all go "HE DID NOT" when the King drops the "are you going to break another egg?" line

Marius really, really loves the art style for The Day the Night Slept and adores how the King is painted

You know the picture book scene where everything is just scribbles? Marius points at Artem and goes "that's how you draw"

MC cracks up at Shuu's "become sashimi" line and can't stop laughing for a full five minutes

But it's also an emotional rollercoaster because she tears up at the lighthouse scene

Thank you for the ask! It was definitely interesting to think about (as you can probably tell by the word count) :D

Have a nice day!!

[ilearhmajeste]

Give yourself the chance to hear what the oracle of delphia has to sais to us to day.mehGrub

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Julian no I'm fine over here but I'm watching a towel, a too bars all I got.

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[connorumodeling]

DFX 452 Post 6:New Ideas, Storyboard, Ect.(Mar 1, 2024)

Hey, I am back. It has been a while, but I have been working and also go some new ideas. This post will include things like, new blog format, reformatting, storyboarding, edited the walls a little, Made the save point star (from Undertale), and new decisions.

New Blog Format:

I Have been thinking, and thanks to group critiques, and I found a format that I want to try for blog posts. I want to have some in-between blogs to help focus on, and capture, what I am currently working on the specific day I am working on it. For example, if I am working on lighting for the windows on Sunday, then I will make a mini blog post focusing on the lighting, on Sunday. I think this will heavily benefit me for time capsuling more of my work, while also going into more detail on what is currently being worked on.

Reformatting Outliner:

For some reason my Maya file for the Judgement Hall was messed up. There were extra models in the scene, and the organization of the outliner was messed up so I had to fix it, format it better, delete extra models, and more. Now it looks better, cleaner, and should be easier to work with for me, and any client that could use the model in the future.

Images of Cleaned up Maya File:

Storyboarding:

I have been busy thinking of how I want to storyboard my demo reel. I took some paper, watched different scenes, from different movies, demo reels showing off environment, and animations, to do research. I made a draft storyboard, on paper, of some of the main shots I want. This will be revised and tidied up once it gets closer to making the demo reel, but I am happy that I now have an idea of what important shots I want in it, even if the sketches are basic. There is a reason why I am a digital artist over a non-digital one... my drawing skills. I remake it when the time comes and either scan it or make it in Photoshop, but at this stage, it is good as it is.

Image of basic storyboarding draft:

Wall Edits:

I realized that the walls were too thin and It was affecting the overall appearance of the scene, when the windows were connected to them, so I extruded out the walls for the future window redesign.

Extruded Walls:

Save Star Model:

I also decided to add another item model to use in the scene. If anyone reading this has played Undertale then you know what this is. How can you keep resetting/coming back after death? well the save star of course! this is a pretty iconic thing in the game since it is how someone saves their game. Here is a reference of it's shape:

I decided to model a basic version of it to show off in my Judgement Hall scene. I started with a cylinder, got it to the size I wanted, the took a set of vertices. I then selected them and selected the next set of vertices every 2 sets, then I scaled them down to get the star shape. This is what I got.

After that I added surface shaders, and also made another version then took a render:

Now the star, in the 2D game, twinkles. I want to emulate that, if time allows, for the demo, by animating it(the model I choose) rotating continuously, or twinkling. I will fiddle with that later, but I just wanted to have the model done, and there are more pressing matters to deal with, like finishing the updates to past models, and finish the ceiling. If I do decide to have them moving in the demo, then I will make a post involving me messing with getting the animation right.

New Decisions:

After seeing what others are presenting, and taking feedback, I have decided that it might be a good Idea to start messing with Unreal Engine 5 for this project. This week, I am going to import what I have so far into Unreal and see how it looks. I will test out lighting, and the camera to see if I find it better than Maya's tools for delivering the renders I want. I will also see what textures would transfer and what ones would not, because i would have to remake textures that don't transfer, and depending on which ones, it might take to long for what time I currently have, and maya might be the better option. This will be a basic test to see which program would be the better option to work in for shots, lighting, and rendering.

Conclusion/TLDR:

I have taken a look at a new format for these blogs which involves possibly updating it more frequently. I have also made a basic draft of my storyboard for important shots for the demo reel in the future. I have extruded the walls so the scene looks less flat, made two different models for the Undertale save star, and will fiddle with Unreal Engine 5, later down the line, to see if it would be better for certain things, like camera movement and lighting, than Maya for the demo reel. I am on break, so I have way more time to focus on updating this project so expect more updates this coming week as I finish up remodeling some past models, make celling, and (if the week isn't over by then), take a crack at fixing my lighting, or testing the Unreal Engine 5 exporting.

[kurt-wagner-official]

Post #97: Fallen Angels issues 1-8

I've never read this miniseries before and I don't really know anything about it other than it stars Berto and a bunch of really weird new characters, which is more than enough for me. After all the stress and distrust of their recent arcs, this mini opens with the New Mutants just hanging out and playing soccer. But like all good things around here, it soon comes to an end when Sam trips and collides with Berto, slamming his head into a goalpost. On reflex, Berto lashes out with his power and knocks Sam unconscious. Ashamed, he runs away to his room. He goes to Max's office to ask for advice, but he's already taken Sam to the hospital. Berto sees his own student file on the desk and opens it to find a letter that Xavier had typed up about him saying that he fears Berto may follow in his father's footsteps. Berto decides that he's too evil a person to remain at the school, and he leaves a goodbye note and runs away. I actually really like how stupid and overdramatic this plot hook is, because kids are usually stupid and overdramatic. We've seen the New Mutants struggling with a lot of really complicated drama lately and struggle to figure stuff out, which can make us forget that even in really simple misunderstandings teenagers can also have way too hard a time figuring themselves out. As Berto walks the streets of Manhattan drowning in angst, he stumbles across a girl being mugged and jumps in- but his powers suddenly fail him, leaving him at the muggers' mercy.

Berto and his new friend are getting beat up when another girl, Ariel, opens the door to the building next door and the girl, Chance, runs in. Berto, whose angsty inner monologue has declared that "Cain is no more evil than I," just gives up, until Warlock appears and saves him, having tracked Berto down. He says that if Berto won't come back to the mansion, they'll be outcasts together. It's not the first time they've had an interaction like this, but it just always warms my heart to see these two interact. Berto is just always so openly friendly and affectionate to Warlock, it's adorable. Berto goes to check on Ariel and Chance, but the door leads to an empty room. Back at the mansion, Max is explaining the Berto situation to Moira, who he had called to help him out with all his end of term paperwork. She brought along Sean's daughter Theresa and Jamie Madrox. Max enlists Moira on therapy duty for the other kids, which is long overdue, and Theresa and Jamie head to the city to try to track down Berto and Warlock. But when they eventually find them, so does somebody else- a weird guy with pet lobsters, who tells Berto that he needs to come with him. Then the Vanisher shows up, and Theresa attacks him cause he's evil. In all the commotion, a door opens up and Ariel and Chance, who are friends with the lobster guy, tell Berto to come with them. He does, and Warlock and some of Jamie's duplicates follow, but when Theresa tries to she finds the door leads into a restaurant and the others are nowhere to be found.

It turns out Ariel and Chance are members of Vanisher's gang of thieves that Tabitha (Boom-Boom) recently left. So is the lobster guy, whose name is Gomi, and Don and Bill, his lobsters that he talks to psychically. Vanisher wants Berto in his crew, the Fallen Angels, and because he's decided to embrace his life as a tragic villain, he accepts, on the condition that Warlock can stay too. The Jamie dupes stick around too, to keep an eye on things. Jamie Prime and Theresa, meanwhile, have no idea were everyone went off to. Jamie suggests they get dinner while they wait for his dupes to bring Berto and Warlock back to them. We get some more hints of Jamie's past; he lived on a farm as a child, and when his parents died, he just kept living there with dupes as his company, which fucked him up in ways he doesn't realize. It's also time to start getting origin stories from the new guys, starting with Gomi. He's not actually a mutant, but a cyborg. He and his lobsters were test subjects for college kids obsessed with superheroes, and they gave the lobsters sentience and Gomi some psychic powers. Eventually the three of them ran away and joined up with these guys. We don't get much info on Ariel yet, just that she's not a mutant, but an alien, and she can open portals through doorways. To demonstrate, she opens one into then X-Factor building to check on Tabitha, who's bored and decides to go through and rejoin her old friends. Just then, Theresa and Jamie arrive and demand an explanation. But as they're taking the conversation outside, Ariel opens another portal, and everyone's on an alien planet.

They immediately get attacked by an alien dinosaur, except for Vanisher, who vanishes. Berto gets a sudden boost of power and beats the dino single handedly, while Ariel and Chance run off in search of their targets- two mysterious mutants on this planet. They don't find anything except Vanisher, who says he was just on his way to check on them, and they head back to the camp, where Theresa and Jamie are flirting while Tabitha sits there pouting in jealousy. Berto and Warlock have also wandered off, where they run into Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur, the mutants Ariel was looking for, and bring them back to the camp to introduce them.

Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur (two previously established characters with the powers of being an ape man and being a sentient dinosaur, respectively) decide to come back to Earth with everyone cause why not. At this point, the characters seem to realize that their book has no plot and they're only halfway through, so they hang out in the living room for half an issue until Vanisher says the new mission is go steal a bunch of food so the dinosaur doesn't eat them. They all wander off in pairs. Theresa points out to Jamie that they are completely failing their mission of recovering Berto and Warlock, and Jami says they probably can't convince them to come back so it's better to join the gang of petty thieves to keep an eye on them. No wonder these guys haven't gotten membership in any of the big teams yet. Eventually, Tabitha and Gomi run into a rogue Jamie dupe who doesn't want to rejoin Prime. They kidnap him and bring him to Theresa and Jamie, and they all have a little philosophy debate about the nature of life. It's mostly a gag, and implied to be because of the way everyone's powers have been acting weird, but it actually lays the foundation for a ton of Peter David's work on Jamie down the line. The scene is broken by tragedy when Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur, who got bored, show up to hang out with everyone, and Devil Dino steps on Don the blue lobster.

The next issue picks up after Don's funeral, where Berto and Warlock comfort Gomi and Bill and Berto gets one of his best moments ever talking about how all lobsters go to Heaven. Devil Dino is wracked with guilt, and Berto takes this as another opportunity to wallow in his own "evil nature," saying Devil Dino is a better man than he. Ariel and Chance have a cryptic conversation about their evil plans for all the mutants they're collecting. Bill gets into a fight with Devil Dino, which Berto breaks up, before suddenly everyone's mutant power disappears and comes back. During the disappearance, the rebel dupe stays separate from Jamie, and they decide to stay separate as brothers. Everyone's freaking out about all the weird power stuff recently, and they assume it must be X-Factor stalking them, so when Ariel suggests she take them all to her home planet, they all agree, to her delight.

Everyone's hanging out on the planet Coconut Grove, which resembles a mall in a cartoon more than anything else. The guy in charge, Unipar, keeps following them around wiggling his fingers evilly, making cryptic comments about how he likes mutants. I'm starting to think this is the guy Ariel is working for. Jamie's rogue dupe is getting even weirder, and has now split into another dupe that doesn't want to be absorbed, leaving us with three different Jamies. Vanisher calls a meeting to discuss what the hell they're all doing, when suddenly all their powers start going crazy again. Jamie, using the mini Cerebro that Moira gave him to track Berto, discovers that the reason for all this is Chance, who it turns out is a mutant with the power to turn other mutations on and off. Unipar shows up to collect the mutants, including Chance, to Ariel's anger. To Chance's horror, Ariel eventually lets them take her only friend off, before she too is captured. It turns out she's also a mutant, with the power of persuasion, which explains why everyone keeps acting weird when she wants them to. But it's tragic news for our heroes, who are now all captured.

Everyone except Bill, the green robot cyborg, who sneaks after his captured friends and starts plotting revenge. A lot of writers have tried to replicate the cool badass Wolverine Alone moment from the Dark Phoenix Saga, but this one just set a bar that none, including the original, can never touch. Everyone else is stuck in a cell, where Unipar tells them they'll all be dissected to uncover the secret of mutation, which the Coconut people almost never achieve. Warlock does get a nice moment; his mutation is to have the capacity for compassion, but even with dampeners on the cell, he still cares for Berto. He asks Theresa why, and she says that love is a learned behavior, and he doesn't need his mutation any more. The scientists kill one of the Jamie dupes and drag the other two and Berto off. Then, Bill shows up, beats up all the guards, and frees them. After some debate, they decide to take Chance and Ariel with them. Elsewhere, the distraction of the riot gives Berto and Jamie and chance to break free. The independent dupe sacrifices himself and lets the other Jamie absorb him to heal both their injuries, and there's a big teamup where Chance masters her powers to boost all the other Fallen Angels. Ariel convinces Unipar to let them go, and they all head back to Earth. Berto finally realizes that he really sucks at being an edgy villain, mainly because he keeps being supportive and protective of everyone around him. He decides to return to the New Mutants, which delights Warlock. Theresa and Jamie decide to stick with the Angels for a while and try to guide them on a path of good, which I'm sure will work great. And that's it for the book.

This was one of the weirdest books I've read in a bit. Not because the plot was incomprehensible but because it mostly didn't exist. For being the lead character, Berto didn't really do all that much, but for the time he was on the page, we got to see a new side of him as a reluctant leader, something that doesn't really come up when he's with Dani and Sam but will become a bigger part of his character in the 2000s. And like I said I'm always happy to see him hanging with Warlock. It was nice for Jamie to have a bigger role in a book, even though he doesn't yet much resemble the great character Peter David turns him into. Most of the other characters weren't that great, except Gomi and the lobsters, who are now some of my favorite deep cut X-characters ever. If Marvel ever hires me I'm resurrecting Don. When I was reading about this book I found out that it was originally going to be published when Berto disappeared for a while during SWII, but there were delays and it got rewritten for this point in the series, which makes that whole thread make a lot more sense. I'm not at all against weird books with no plots, but this one definitely could have been a few issues shorter. I wish Jo Duffy had stuck around the X-office longer, cause she's a good writer and with a little more time to adjust to this franchise I think she could have written a great ongoing X-book. But alas, this is the last we see of the Fallen Angels. It was nice, but I miss the main New Mutants book and I'm glad to be headed back.

[indefinitelyjaded]

Current Save - Super Sim

This is the save that I've been playing most often, lately. In addition to the usual Super Sim rules (with which, admittedly, I've been a little fast-and-loose), I've also decided I must play the Careers and Aspirations in order of pack release. I'm doing the same with Skills, but with looser restriction - I can build them whenever, but I have to master them before I move on to the next pack. Also, for the Careers that have branch options, I'm using cheats to demote myself back down after completing one branch so I can complete both.

As of right now, I'm still working through everything Base Game: I'm in great shape with the skills; just have Comedy (Level 9) and Gardening (Level 8) to finish.

Careers I've completed (all branches): - Astronaut - Culinary - Painter - Tech Guru - Writer Currently, I'm in the Oracle branch of the Criminal career (Level 7), and I haven't done the Boss branch yet. Aspirations I have left are: - Deviance > Public Enemy (currently working on this one) - Family > Big Happy Family - Family > Successful Lineage - Love > Soulmate - Nature > Freelance Botanist - Nature > The Curator - Popularity > Joke Star - Popularity > Party Animal (Thank heavens for James Turner's new Super Sim Tracker tool!) I'm saving the Family aspirations for last, because I really don't enjoy playing with large households (and especially babies. Fun fact: infants came out in, what, March? - and I still haven't played with them!); my single Sim is enough to take care of, sometimes! I'll be able to knock out Soulmate then, too, as the only thing I have left to complete that one is to get married.

Speaking of getting married... my Sim is currently engaged - to a man who is already married. Yeah, that autonomous proposal capability they added to the game works flawlessly! The worst part is, I have all the marriage options available, which makes me think I could probably go through with marrying him while he's still married to his first wife. (Nothing against poly folks - that's just not the story I want to tell here.)

And speaking of my Sim... meet Stella Waters, my totally-not-self-Sim.

And here is Stella with her married fiancé, Dexter Townsend (sigh):

(Went on a date to a restaurant - Dexter's wife ends up being the NPC assigned to the Host role. Pretty much nobody else got seated, because she was too busy stomping over to our table to slap him every 5 minutes. As if restaurants aren't glitchy enough all on their own.)

Stella still has some romantic relationship with a few other Sims from doing the Serial Romantic aspiration, so maybe she'll end up marrying one of them instead... though I don't think Don Lothario is really parent material, not to mention he's currently engaged to Nina Caliente, thanks to me ("I found a ring in ___'s bag" pop-up).

I'm going to try to take more screenshots of this save file and post periodic updates as I continue. I don't really care if no one ever reads this; it'll be nice to have for me to look back on and remember things I might otherwise forget (like literally everything in my Not So Berry save).

[desultory-novice]

What do you think of the theory that Marx and Kirby are childhood friends, which is why Marx used *kirby* of all people to manipulate and betray?

For a different theory, do you think it's possible for Void to store energy if it's not enough to reincarnate? If so, then both theories I've had about Kirby's possible energy origin could be true.

For the Void thing, I don't see why not! Especially in sealed form, it always kind of looked to me like Void was storing up energy. That energy can be dispersed and coalesce into things like the friendship heart and friend platforms, as it was in the beginning of Star Allies, or reabsorbed later! (Honestly, I always thought the Jamba group had been working on the Void thing for ages anyway!)

As for the first theory... I'm completely smitten by it and a huge devotee of it! Even though it was born from a (official) Kirby gag manga...it makes a lot of sense?! Lemme explain!

It feels a bit like an expansion on the "lost copy ability helper" theory. That being that there is a "Helper" for every copy ability in Kirby Super Star, except for Mic, Crash, and Sleep. But the idea is that if you COULD have turned these into helpers, they would follow Kirby around and help him save the day! And Marx would be the "Sleep" helper! (if you buy into the Noddy theory - even if you don't, you could say he's all three, because he's got the hat, is loud, and EXPLOSIVE!) But he's foe, not friend!

I've seen it said that Marx is a funny character to get fixated on because he appears only twice (one of those times is the pre-game cutscene) in the very last sub-game and has something like four lines of dialogue total. That it's silly because Marx has no "character" to speak of. But even before Star Allies came out, Marx has always been a subject of fan art and fan appreciation. What, then, were fans basing his character off of?

...Well, I think some of the bond between Kirby and Marx ties into the "0%/0%/0% Theory" (which I was going to save for another comic, but I'll go ahead and outline it here. I may have brought it up before, in which case...I don't apologize because it's a damn good theory.)

...

In short, due to the expansion chip “Kirby Super Star” (SNES) used, it was a very volatile game cartridge. Meaning that if you put it into the SNES wrong, or wiggled it or such, you might lose your data. A lot of people would turn the game on after completion only to be greeted with 0% 0% 0% (representing the three save files.) It was a relatively easy game (as long as you weren't going for full completion on GCO) so people would just beat it again.

What began to happen in the fandom thanks to that is the idea that the game was resetting ITSELF. And what's the last thing that happens before that reset? You fight Marx. (Marx who made a wish to get control of Popstar and failed to get his wish. And Galactic Nova is implied to be immortal sooooo...RESET TIME) And as much as I love Milky Way Wishes that (infamous) ending is...a bit anti-climactic? Marx + Galactic Nova explode, Kirby flies home, Kirby has a nap. The END. It's like something is MISSING....

...The idea became that what is missing is Marx himself. You can't "save" Marx. You can't stop him. Or talk him out of it. Or even talk TO him. You're just stuck in this time loop of fighting him again. And again. And again. And every time you fight him, his power inevitably goes berserk and sends him crashing into Nova... And the tragic cycle begins again.

There was a desire, at least in some fans, to want to SAVE Marx. (Anyone getting “Undertale” feels here? Because I think you can draw some “Undertale” parallels with Marx and Kirby and “Milky Way Wishes” being played out hundreds, possibly hundreds of thousands of times.) Even if they weren't friends to begin with, they have to know each other VERY WELL after X number of time loops they're stuck in, never able to escape this sad, inevitable conclusion.

I brought up in my Magolor's theme park post that there's a lot of pretty fanart of Magolor with those blue flowers that mean "I forgive you." 

There's an equal amount of fanart that portrays Kirby reaching out and grabbing Marx (saving him) to keep him from falling to his doom in Milky Way Wishes, and I think the timeloop/friends theory is the reason. This time...This time, we can prevent Marx from his fate...!

But while it's a brilliant little theory (and breaks this old fan's heart - I love me some tragic time-travel stories) it’s a little complicated to explain, so I think skipping back even further and setting them up as friends before Milky Way Wishes is an excellent way to reframe the accidental friendship the two of them had "built" over the years since Super Star was released.

It keeps the tragedy of the situation, that of two friends locked in battle, in a nice easy to consume way. If you like the additional idea from said manga that Kirby forgot about him for years, it makes it even more tragic on Marx’s part, and helps fuel why he wishes for what he did - and why he trusted that Kirby, of all people, could get it done. Or maybe that he chose Kirby to do this because he wanted Kirby to be there when he made his reveal?

It’s been questioned before, “Why didn’t Marx just summon Nova himself?” Especially if he’s that powerful? Then Kirby would never get involved and Marx would basically get his wish. If he’s already bitter at Kirby for some reason, it makes perfect sense why Marx wants Kirby there as opposed to just getting what he wants ALONE. (He’s tired of being alone!)

Frankly, outside of the "manipulation" thing, there's really no reason Kirby WOULDN'T be friends with Marx! We know that Kirby is himself someone who loves to play games and be silly. In the various manga, they’re often a total (adorable) troublemaker themself! The fact is, Kirby and Marx would probably have quite a few things in common! (Marx just takes his jokes further and has less interest in lazy, boring days. But even if "keep him fed" from Star Allies is a mistranslation, there's still enough associations with Marx and food that you imagine he enjoys eating enough to have that in common with Kirby too!)

So, yeah. What this boils down to is Dess cares a whole heck of a lot about the Marx + Kirby friendship and all its complexities, bruised feelings, misunderstandings, and eventual redemption! It is probably my second favorite "relationship" in Kirby. (First being my OTP, of course!)