#just way less often that i come back ts2)

[simsmadegeeky]

Just wanted to put out a quick note letting y'all know that retexturing all the default hairs in the sunshine system is not done and I will eventually be back at it.

I'm one of those people who often goes through intense periods of fixation before it tapers off either temporarily (TS2) or forever (Starfield). I can guarantee without a single doubt in my mind that I will always eventually get back to TS2. I've been playing it for almost 20 years at this point and I always come back.

I can't say when I'll be back to retexturing hair as I don't have much control over when the fixations end or begin.

But I wanted y'all want to know that I am still here and, I promise, I will eventually be back to retexturing. Thanks to everyone who follows me and likes my posts; it really does make me smile to see that people like my retextures.

[rockethorse]

Someone mentioned here the other day about how TS2 lots these days tend to be mostly CC-free, which I’d pretty much agree with; and how interesting that is to compare with how CC-heavy lots used to be, and how that was often viewed as a good thing - something I’d also agree with. And it got me thinking, about the shifting state of the Sims 2 community, and of the Internet & fandom spaces in general, so, I thought I’d muse with the rest of us oldbies.

Years and years ago, I felt that CC-free lot which utilised a bunch of different EP/SPs were less useful than basegame-compatible lots filled with CC, because if I wanted the CC-free lot exactly as it appeared, then all I had to do was download the CC*. Conversely, requiring me to own a bunch of expensive EP/SPs to play the lot felt way less accessible.

(*Listen, let’s just ignore the paid-CC issue for now, lol. Ignoring how I feel about either of them, paid CC is a different conversation to pirated DLC.)

But nowadays, most people have all the EPs/SPs, one way or another- whether that’s because you just slowly collected them all on disc over the years (like me), because you got the Sims 2 Ultimate Collection when it was made free, or because it became easier to teach yourself how to access them via other means. So using multiple EP/SPs is no longer the barrier it used to be.

At the same time, decent CC used to be quite rare. The post I saw mentioned that downloading lots was often something we relied on to find new CC in the first place, and I definitely remember that era - being so excited to get a house full of shiny new goodies you’d never seen anywhere else before. But now, with the advent of Sims communities on social media with a faster, more accessible, and more personal turnover rate than the old Sims forums, it’s become easier than ever to discover, share, hunt down, and catalogue old Sims 2 CC. In addition, as the community still dedicated to the Sims 2 grows a bit older and wiser, we’ve learned how to make the new CC we’ve always dreamed of - TS3 and TS4 provided/are providing us with a constant stream of new material via conversions, more people are learning to make new content by piecing together existing TS2 meshes and textures, and some are branching out into making completely new meshes from scratch.

So not only do most of us have access to all TS2 EPs/SPs these days, but CC no longer feels as scarce as it used to. Random CC packaged with a lot no longer feels like the jackpot it used to.

With all that in mind - I can’t speak for anyone else, but personally, when I make my lots CC-free, it’s not because I presume other people don’t want to download custom content. In fact, it’s almost the opposite - I know most people’s downloads folders are already bursting at the seams, and I don’t want to contribute more CC to that, or force people to go through and remove/replace a million ming vases either.

I think all of us have curated our own personal preferences and standards for the CC we use in our game, and I think we enjoy personalising the lots we download like this, whether they’re CC-free or not. So if we all do it anyway - swapping out certain items for the bespoke alternatives we prefer - I think it’s easier on people to download a CC-free lot and only replace the objects that jump out at them, happily leaving everything else EAxis or letting default replacements handle the rest, than having to comb through a lot for every instance of missing CC.

And it’s interesting how even though my attitude towards CC in Sims 2 lots has flipped, I find myself in the exact same position I was in years ago now with TS4 instead. While I enjoy building in TS4, I don’t find myself coming back to it for the gameplay, so I don’t really want to spend money on any DLC for it since I won’t get my money’s worth. So while I make my own TS4 lots CC-free so I can put them on the gallery, I’m back in the position of preferring people would just use CC that I have the option to hunt down and download for myself than to require I own a bunch of overpriced EPs and SPs to play their lot.

Time is a flat circle, I guess!

[adelarsims]

i need to share one Johnny Smith thought and get it out of my system because i can't stop thinking about it for two days already.

for some reason i remembered Johnny as a positive and lovable guy, probably because i myself was very young and positive back when sims 2 were just released, and paid less attention to underlying problems that weren't voiced too openly.

but now that i think about him, he's not as nice and cheerful as i used to think, and he's actually pretty bitter, has a lot of resentment and can be really snarky, especially when offered an unsolicited unhelpful life advice (like "just be yourself and everyone will like you" when he's well aware that he's disliked precisely for being himself, and also the person saying this has zero problem being accepted by anyone). i also think that he often cracks jokes when asked about his green skin and alien heritage, but those can be funny or really acerbic, depending on the context and who's asking.

he was smaller than others as a kid and was bullied at school (ts2psp). he often wants to pick up fights first (ts2 gameplay). he says that his life "went downhill" from the moment of his birth because of the way he looked (ts2psp, and he uses rather self depreciating description), and if saying that your life went downhill when you were born isn't bitter, then i don't know what is. he's more outgoing than shy as a teenager in ts2, but in ts2psp he's described as "restless and angsty".

at first i thought that he's become restless and angsty after he and his family were forcibly moved to Division 47 (top secret military research facility where they experiment on alien stuff, including Tycho) by Grunts, he hated it there and wasn't free to leave so i thought his personality changed because of that trauma of basically being a captive (ts2psp). but now i think that he was always restless and angsty, and now he just doesn't have the reason or energy to mask it because he doesn't have his friends around who liked him for him and who he was more relaxed around.

his personal bio in ts2 says that he wants to be a hero. i think he wants to be a hero because they come in all shapes and colors in comic books and movies and everyone loves them nonetheless. he wanted to be a hero, he wanted to burst in and save the day so everyone would accept and celebrate him. instead, he got a lesson on helplessness and dependency, and couldn't even save himself (he needed MC's help to get out of Division 47).

yeah, i'm sorry if it was all over the place. i just decided to bring my Strangetown into sims 4 and fell into the rabbit hole. i don't even know how to tag it.

[clouseplayssims]

Medieval Traits Project

So I know I’m supposed to take it easy, and I’m trying to do that, but there are limited ways for me to shut my brain up when it wants to think about THINGS.

That said, I haven’t forgotten about my interest in traits - specifically, I want all the sims 3 medieval traits in game. I’m fairly certain I can make the objects without fuss, but I would like for them to do something, you know? Trouble is I’m not sure what I even want some of them to do, or I have ideas but they might be out of my realm of experience. So I’m gonna try but I’d love to idea source a bit.

Under a cut because it’s long. Please keep in mind my intent is to just make the objects and then if I’m feeling squirrely try and make them function.

Adventurous

Ideally I’d like if a want to go to a community lot rolled up more frequently, or hiking wants. it would be super cool for a rabbit hole interaction of “go on an adventure” but again, I am but a simple creature and it makes me a bundle of nerves thinking about it. A boost to fun after completion would be top notch.

-Giving Discuss Adventures and Describe Exotic Locales social options.

Call of the Sea

Fishing wants rolled frequently, regardless of aspiration. If the rabbit hole thing is even possible, “go on a whale hunt” would be cool.

Chivalrous

I love the possibilities for this trait and romance sims. You have no idea. Now what can and can’t be done, especially by me... different story. Best option: if a sim is dating/married/engaged, all romantic options with other sims are unavailable. No flirty, no touchy, no thinking about touchy. If that can’t be done, then they take a mood hit for cheating. Single chivalrous sims would have a boost to any romance they begin.

-Give donate to the poor at mailbox option.

Creative Cook

Preparing meals is quicker. Meals are more filling (like the seasons crop bonus but always for these sims?) and give a medium mood boost to fun as well. These sims can also eat rotten food without penalty. Potential way to unlock whale stew only for them?

-Give Gush About Cooking social

Dedicated

Genuinely, I have no idea how to translate extra responsibilities to TS2.

-Give Complaint About Work friendly social.

Earthy

Better mood when outside - similar to loves the outdoors. Increased percentage of finding cool stuff hiking? (without breaking hiking mod) Finding bugs more easily than other sims? I’d love to tie this to Sun&Moon objects when it comes to herbs too, not sure how.

Eloquent

-Give Comfort with Well-Chosen Words, Pontificate Poignantly, and Give Inspirational Speech friendly socials.

Entitled

An available allowance via mailbox? Starting funds for careers less? I like the idea that these sims don’t get along with non-noble/royal sims unless they’re also entitled and it takes longer to build those friendships.

Evil

Not sure if it’s possible to give them a mood boost when they witness “evil” but boy howdy I’d love it so they always did the evil witch hand-rubbing grin whenever nonsense like a brawl or public woohoo went down.

Excitable

10 neat points and asked to clean levels of excitement about everything. Mood boost for socializing, cooking, or fulfilling a want. Would it get annoying? Maybe. Would it still be adorable? Obviously

Friendly

Friendly interactions are accepted more often.

-Give Compliment Garments and Say Kind Words friendly socials.

Fun-Loving

Mood boost when having fun. Wants to do “fun” things more often like juggle, jump on the couch, go to community lots, etc. Mood tanks when “bored” aka fun gets too low.

Good

Committing “mean” socials causes mood decline. Able to donate to the poor at mailbox. Other sims get a small mood boost when completing friendly interactions with these sims.

Greedy

Mood boost when they earn money. They can also borrow money without having to pay it back from other sims - small and large amounts.

Haggler

Wholesale prices available always? I like the idea that sims with the merchant trait have a harder time building relationships with haggler-traited sims. Not sure if they can haggle at sim-owned businesses or not, like... asking for the “offer at” lower price option?

Hopeful Orphan

The one that started it all. I had a sims in TSM with this trait and I’ve always wanted it in TS2. Not sure if the game can randomly send them information about their parents - the only thing I can kind of think of is the thing where you get products to “try out” from random townies.

-Give Ask About Parents, Tell Life Story, and Talk About Parents friendly socials.

Jokester

Funny social are jokes have greater positive effective. Mood boost for other sims after hearing jokes.

-Give Jest About Dragons, Jest About State of Kingdom, Joke About Peasants and Nobles funny socials.

Loves Family

I want this different from family-oriented. One should be more direct family, the other should be like... I just love my whole family I’m showing up to all their nonsense with a supportive banner.

-Give Talk About Family and Spread the Love friendly socials.

Scholarly

Wants to read books come up more often. Examine everyday objects? No idea how to include that.

Solitary

Positive mood boost when alone. If the rabbit hole thing can work, “go on a solitary quest” would be a nice option for them, just to make them different from loners. Negative mood when around crowds.

Unkempt

Can sleep anywhere - no naps, we sleep on the floor like MEN! Mood increase the lower their hygiene is. Can eat spoiled food without penalty. Not sure if they can generate some type of grunge overlay, but that would be a delight.

Vain

Gussy up increases mood. Possible mirror interaction to “Admire Beauty” that increases mood? Rolls mirrors wants a lot. Like. A lot a lot. Think of the normal pet wants in the game, replace them with various mirrors at assorted prices.

-Give Enthuse About Self, Extol Personal Virtues socials.

Whale Ate My Parents

Listen if we CAN do rabbit hole off the lot nonsense, WHALE HUNTING. Random mood tank in these sims resolved by going whale hunting to simulate whale rage. Shout At Ocean interaction would be a delight. If buying things like specific-priced deco that’s meant to signal to the player “go buy this whale bone” is possible that would also be a delight.

-Give Shout Out Ocean interaction, Talk About Whales, Share Whale Story, Discuss Whale Hunt social

Bloodthirsty

Rolls want to win a fight frequently. Will want to fight sims with lower relationships as well.

Compulsive Gambler

To make my addiction system easier lets build these addictions in my good dudes! Rolls want to play poker and darts frequently. Not sure betting between sims is an option, but would be cool.

Cowardly

Mood decrease when outside at night. Rolls more random silly fears because why not. Would love if they could do the “run away from fire” interaction just, because why not. Fainting too.

-Give Warn Sim About Monsters, Warn Sim About Darkness, Warn Sim About End Times socials.

Cruel

Not sure how to show off pent-up anger, maybe just mood boost when they’re mean?

Cursed

Random sad moods because they’re ~cursed~ and stuff.

Drunkard

Drunkard already exists, boom de-ada.

Fool

Skill slower, drop tasks? It would be so annoying, but so right for them.

Glutton

Hunger motive decreases faster and is harder to fill up.

Guild Enemy

Pay higher prices? Somehow?

Hubris

...no idea how to blinded by hubris in TS2.

Insecure

Not socializing with sims causes mood to lower. Bad social interaction super lower mood. Sometimes wake up with low mood/nervous.

Insomniac

Wake up frequently at night. Sleep less than other sims and sometimes fall asleep just because why not.

Licentious

Mood lowers considerable if they haven’t kissed or had woohoo in a while. Boost in romance socials.

-Give Compliment Ankles flirt

Misanthrope

Mood decrease from interacting positively from other sims. Autonomously behave meanly.

Morose

Negative mood if they have a long rest.

Puny

Can’t win fights, or it’s very difficult for them. Tire easily - they work out as long as long. Would love to tie it in to Sun&Moon objects where they are quitters who quit stuff sooner. We support them. Get drunk faster?

Uncouth

Autonomously insult other sims. Using “gossip” interaction always results in relationship decrease.

Weak Constitution

Already exists, huzzah!

Dread Pirate

Rabbit hole “lead pirate raid” option with chances of finding objects. Can “collect pirate tribute” from sims - sort of like unsavory charlatan interaction.

Famous

Decent relationship boost when meeting. Friendly socials accepted more often, and friends can be kept longer without needing to contact them every four seconds. Free drinks?

Guild Connections

Discount on furniture in buy mode - better wholesale discount than previous traits? Clothing costs lower?

-Give Discuss Fashion friendly social

Herculean

Sim will become muscular and remain that way. Higher change of winning games and fights?

-Give Boast About Strength and Heroic Speech friendly socials and Brag About Strength romantic social.

Industrious

Able to give money to other sims as charity, increasing mood. Recieve larger incomes from careers?

Natural Leader

Can cheer up other sims in bad moods?

Patient

Extra lock for wants/fears?

Satiated

Hunger bar fills up easier and decreases at a slower rate.

Seductive

Romantic socials are more successful. Possible to give them a sexy red aura? idk. Maybe they can sparkle we can lean directly into the nonsense.

Strong Constitution

Impervious to lower-level sicknesses. No pentalties from drinking or eating spoiled food.

Wise

Gain experience at work faster. Win more often in games?

-Give Impart Wisdom social.

[pforestsims]

A tutorial on how to add animation effect to custom TS2 hair using Milkshape & SimPe.

It's not meant for beginners but if you are resourceful it might just be enough.

Note: to make images more readable you can enlarge the page view in your internet browser.

Note 2: This is the manual / Milkshape way of doing it.

Sometimes, especially in case of high-poly, curly hairs where you need to use three hair bones per vertex, it’s just too time-consuming to do it by hand in MIikshape. Blender comes in handy.. OR you can use a free app called Cmar’s Mesh Tool Kit. It includes WSO tool that can automatically copy joint assignments from one mesh to another. Results may vary... Here’s the one WSO tutorial that I know of. Please note that it shows the old version of WSO, that didn’t have “Number of interpolation points” option - now it’s there, and I think it’s best to set this number as high as possible.

If you’d like to animate a few hair strands or a pony-tail, the manual way can give you far better results (if you know what you’re doing ;) ).

  1. Get the right GMDC

And by wonky look I mean: animated parts of hair will sink into sim's head.

2. Import it to Milkshape

Open Milkshape and import the original GMDC that you've found through Scenegraph search. Delete everything from Groups tab and import custom hair GMDC (do NOT include additional bone definitions!).

Hide the hair group (scalp) in the Groups tab. You don't want to mess it up! Then go to Joints tab (Btw, "joints" and "bones" are the same thing).

Save the file as .ms3d (milkshape file). Give it a descriptive name!

3. Add bone assignments

Selecting the right vertices in Milkshape can be tricky. Make sure you are viewing the mesh from different angles, and 3D view (with wireframe overlay enabled).

*I've described two ways to do bone assignments. First method (through Joints panel) only applies if you'd like to assign vertices to one joint. In case of hair it would be head bone. Non-animated short hairs are assigned to the head only.

To check bone weight values, select vertices and click "Show" button (it's located in Vertex Weights panel).

Have in mind that if you select larger chunk of the mesh the values will be an average and not very precise.

You can inspect the weights easily by ticking the "Draw vertex weights" box:

Double-click the hair joint name on the Joints list. Any assigned parts/vertices should be highlighted in green/yellow (if you see orange, the weights are probably set too high).

Rotate the hair in 3D view to make sure there aren't any accidental green spots anywhere. If you find any mistakes, click "SelAssigned" button in the Joints panel, then deselect the correct parts and fix the rest: click "Show" then change the second joint back to "none" (and Assign).

Have in mind that adding weights to high-poly hair will make it even more taxing for computers.

The front hair strands aren't very close to the face here. If hair is close to the skin, setting weights too high might result in hair clipping with the neck / face when sim moves!

Hair on an animated gif below has all the dangly strands assigned to front joint. I wasn't happy with the result. Minimal weights were set to "20", and that was a bit too much. Often it looks OK, but sometimes it doesn't. I'd start with 10 and increase it by 3 - 5.

Hair below has thin front strands assigned to f_hair, but side strands were reassigned to r_hair (right) and l_hair (left). You can see the movement is quite different.

After I did that second version I went back and tried to make the thin front strand a bit less stiff. I added l_hair weights in the upper section, to make it twist a little when it moves. Mixing two hair bone weights is not easy. It looks nice if done right, but I'm not sure if it's worth a hassle ;)

♢♢♢

In case of longer hairs, It's best to set weights to a bare minimum, so it won't look awkward when you assign it all to one hair joint (back or front joint - I do not recommend center hair joint, unless you're doing a mohawk or something).

You can assign each vertex to three bones (maximum)

When editing longer hair, start with highlighting the spine2 bone assignments (with "Draw vertex weights"). Shoulder area should have head and spine2 assignments*. If you don't know how to tackle three bone weights at once, stay clear from those parts.

* In some hair, you might also find neck bone assignments - that's not correct, you can remove these (or replace).

4. Export the file and update the GMDC

Make sure you export the GMDC edited in Milkshape as name.5gd NOT name.simpe or you might get visual glitches, very similar to alpha blend mode issues.

In SimPe, click on the GMDC resource you've edited and copy the filename. Then right-click on it and choose "Replace". Open your .5gd file, hit "Commit" button and save.

Open the game and test the hair.

♢♢♢

To make this tut I used Aelia hair by Clumsyalien, converted for TS2 by @platinumaspiration​

[midgethetree]

hi midge! it's been a long time since i've played ts2, but i wanted to come back because the ts4 just doesn't have the depth of gameplay ts2 has. i was wondering if you'd be willing to point me to the right collection of mods to use in order to recreate my old setup regarding woohoo and pregnancy -- i had acr for autonomous romance socials and risky woohoo, preg4all, trips & quads, and young adult and teen pregnancy enabled. with your rcc, i'm not sure what i can use to replicate all that!

Hello and welcome back!

autonomous romance socials: First, to clarify, sims can interact autonomously without ACR, just less often (and less casually, i.e. relationships generally need to be higher for Maxis versions). You can still use ACR with RCC if you want the ~drama~ of sims hooking up left and right or just the high level of configurability that ACR gives. If all you want is autonomous risky woohoo, there’s a stripped down version too. Let me also plug my romantic standards, which is a series of mods you can pick-and-choose from to improve the Maxis romantic interactions, including one (looser romance restrictions) which is meant to allow for more autonomous affairs and such without ACR (v2 does this even more).

risky woohoo: There is a risky woohoo addon included with RCC so Maxis woohoo interactions are risky too, if you decide you no longer need ACR or just want all woohoo to be somewhat risky. It comes in two versions, a basic version and one that takes into account RCC birth control (which is only relevant if you use RCC-extraoptions.package instead of RCC.package).

preg4all: With RCC just go through your neighborhoods and use an RCC adjuster to add a global alien token.

trips & quads: Perfectly compatible with RCC, RCC specifically affects conception and is compatible with birth mods like t&q.

YA pregnancy: Make sure the package you got from RCC’s Required - Base folder has YA in the name, and then voila your YAs can get pregnant. You'll likely also be interested in Uni-aging so your YA pregnancies will advance while still in the uni subhood (unneeded if you solely use college at home mods or have your pregnant YAs return home) and you may want some other mods from that link (don’t download YA-pregnancy as it conflicts with RCC and is already included in the YA versions, and you might want to use one of RCC’s abduction plugins with YA in the name instead of YA-alien-pregnancy if you want RCC to affect abductions). If you use the Maxis maternity outfits instead of a mod for pregnant sims to wear anything you might want this fix as well to enable them for pregnant YAs.

teen pregnancy: Make sure T is also in the name of the RCC base package you got. If you stick with ACR you can use that to allow teens to woohoo. You could also use woohoo teens to enable Maxis woohoo for teens, either instead of or alongside with ACR. Either way you’ll likely want  my pregnancy controller mod so teen pregnancies don’t delete themselves and my young enough for pregnancy fix so Maxis doesn’t mess up and think some of your teens are close to elder.

[pooklet]

Simblr Community Challenge by @amelettes

tagged by @lilith-sims !

How long have you been playing the Sims? - since late 2001/early 2002. i don't remember when exactly. i know that i had been aware of the sims since the game was released and desperately wanted to play it but we didn't have a computer i could play it on for a couple years. when i was finally able to get it, i was allowed two expansions. i picked livin' large and then spent fully a week debating whether my second ep should be house party or hot date, which had just been released. (fwiw i chose hot date.)

How long have you been a Simblr, and why did you become one? - since may 2010. @skulldilocks and i both joined then, back when having a simblr was mostly comprised of curating an image board of other ppl's pictures that you liked so you wouldn't have to comb through gos threads or livejournals when you wanted to look at them. it was basically proto-pinterest. i didn't start posting content on my simblr until i started playing ts3 in 2012, after a year-or-so break from the community. inevitably, i wandered back to ts2.

What type of Simblr are you? - content poster/off-topic garbage blog/cat gif hoarder. i don't rly post gameplay pics here, those go on dreamwidth, cuz i'm stuck in my ways and i like long-form entries. i never could get the hang of posting legacies and stuff on simblr one or two pictures at a time, it's just too piecemeal and easy for me to lose track of.

Which generation of Sims do you primarily play? - ts2! ‘tis my forever game, both cuz it’s the devil i know and cuz it holds such a special place in my heart for being the means through which i met my wife. :) we still play it together constantly and have as much of a ball with it as we did ten years ago (tho at the moment we’re both way into darkest dungeon). i rly enjoy ts3 as an occasional thing but often get overwhelmed by the hugeness of it, not to mention keeping two cc folders organized. i was interested in ts4 at first but the more i hear about it the less likely it is that i’ll ever play it lol. but i’m super pumped for paralives and if it continues to look awesome i’ll probs play it when it comes out!!

tagging: @skulldilocks obvs, @lilithpleasant who has likely already been tagged a billion times, @leaf-storm and @brattylulu​

[dramallamadingdang]

Time for replies!

These be for @princesspiratecat, @jennamaxon, @criquette-was-here, @nimitwinklesims, @eulaliasims, @greatcheesecakepersona, @alienbirthqueen, and @niamh-sims...

princesspiratecat replied to your photoset “Tree’ing a bit. :) Mostly to break up the monolithic terrain texture...”

This actually reminds me of where I live, Lake Arrowhead in Southern California when it's dry. Except I don't see a lake.

alienbirthqueen replied to your photoset “Houston, we have a terrain. :D FINALLY! OMG, what a ginormous pain in...”

this is so gorgeous!! it reminds me a lot of northeast california/nw nevada, which is where i grew up of course haha

Yeah, it’ll work pretty much for any desert-y place in North America. Like, anywhere from the Okanagan Desert in Canada, to the less mountainous parts of Montana down to New Mexico and west to the more interior parts of California, Oregon, and Washington in the US, and then down into interior northern Mexico. Mostly my inspiration for the look of the place is the Great Basin (so Alienbirthqueen is right on!) and Chihuahuan Deserts, though. Not so much the Mojave or the Sonoran because those are generally flatter (and lower in elevation and therefore much hotter/drier) and the vegetation is different. Like, there’re no saguaro cacti, which is the signature plant of the Sonoran, of course. But the Lake Arrowhead area (or the Lake Tahoe area) can work, too, given that I’m adding pines to break up lot-view textures. :) In that, it resembles my home turf in SW Colorado, as well.  

Except yeah, no water. The place may or may not have some on-lot water, though, which wouldn’t be big enough to be a lake. I’ll imagine it/them to be springs magically stocked with fish. But I haven’t decided on that yet. I mean, I DO like to build my fishing spots, but I’m trying to go for some authenticity here, trees notwithstanding. ;)

Anyway, basically any higher desert area that’s not a “sandy” place will do, at least with the season set-up I’m giving the place. (Which of course can be changed to make it whatever anyone wants.) It has spring and autumn...mostly because I like to use season-enabled trees/shrubs so that there’s a visual change with the seasons. I get kinda visually bored, if you will, otherwise. :) 

jennamaxon replied to your photoset “Tree’ing a bit. :) Mostly to break up the monolithic terrain texture...”

Rest rather green - much better in the second pic. For a moment, I thought you were frowning at the rubbish cart

Well, if we’re being all green and environmentally-conscious, rubbish is bad, right? :) But no, just frowning at the uber-green trees, I’m afraid. 

criquette-was-here replied to your photoset “Tree’ing a bit. :) Mostly to break up the monolithic terrain texture...”

Oh, this neighborhood makes me want to create this type of climate setting too! Somehow it feels like a place from a good old 90's road movie. Love the new texture for the pines. Looks way better!

Well, that would certainly be different for you! All your neighborhoods and pics are so green and European and pretty. Which isn’t a bad thing, of course, but I’d be very interested to see what you’d do with a more desert/wasteland sort of environment....

nimitwinklesims replied to your photoset “Houston, we have a terrain. :D FINALLY! OMG, what a ginormous pain in...”

Cool cool cool! It looks so much like your photo!

That’s what I was shooting for. But I tell you what, it was hard! I couldn’t figure out how TS2 decided which terrain images from the terrain default to paint where. It just seemed kind of random, and in some of my attempts, when put into TS2, the terrain was only using 2 (of the four) images in the terrain default, which looked really weird. So in the end, I put in an existing terrain, and then redid the road structure and resculpted most of the hills and such. Then, I still had to edit the terrain default to rearrange the images to suit this particular terrain to get it to look how I wanted. So it was more complicated than I’d envisioned. I could’ve probably put more time into figuring out what was going on with all that, but I just wanted to get ‘er done so I could start building.

eulaliasims replied to your photoset “Aw, c’mon, you didn’t really think I wouldn’t do rocks, did you? :)”

oh, this looks fantastic. I love the scrub--that's always something I've felt some desert neighborhoods need. it adds a lot!

niamh-sims replied to your photoset “Houston, we have a terrain. :D FINALLY! OMG, what a ginormous pain in...”

That looks fantastic! I love the scrubby scrubs- perfect for that environment!

Yeah, for this kind of desert -- the American kind, as in all of North and South America  -- there’s gotta be scrub. Pretty much the only American desert that doesn’t have scrub is the Atacama in S. America, since it’s like the driest place in the Americas. :) But even it has some scrub in places. I mean, this ain’t the Sahara or Arabian deserts! 

The lack of scrub really, REALLY bothers me in Strangetown, since that’s obviously supposed to be inspired by Roswell, NM. I am still going to play that neighborhood one of these days, but it has to undergo major terrain/deco renovation before I’ll be able to look at it without screaming bloody murder. :)

greatcheesecakepersona replied to your photoset “Houston, we have a terrain. :D FINALLY! OMG, what a ginormous pain in...”

Lovely! Now all that's missing is the Breaking Bad van :)

HAH!. Yeah, I’ve never watched that show (though it’s on our list to watch), but I know that it’s set in New Mexico, though I don’t know if it’s actually filmed there, so...yeah. :)

nimitwinklesims replied to your post “You sound like such a cool person! It's really nice to hear about...”

I often have a hard time keeping the classical composers apart (I'm embarrassed to admit), but Smetana's Ma Vlast always makes me cry -- it was played at my Czech grandfather's funeral... It's heartwarming to read that you like the Czech composers a lot. I'm Dutch but because of my děda I have a fondness for Czech things as well. Also, sort of related, I have played Händel's Harp Concerto at one point (when I was still taking harp lessons).

Yes, Ma Vlast is one of the best pieces of music ever written. IMO, at least. :) I’m not a person who’s into patriotism/nationalism, but I do tend to love music that has a concrete feeling for place, both physically and emotionally, and Ma Vlast has both. It’s why I love stuff that incorporates folk music from a particular country or area, because of that sense of place and time, and the Eastern European composers tend to do that really, really well, which is why I find myself drawn to them. Aaron Copland did that well, too, for American themes. Appalachian Spring (with its incorporation the Shaker “Simple Gifts” song) and the Billy the Kid and Rodeo ballet music and whatnot. Great stuff. I think that this is why I was ultimately drawn to film/TV scores, both in terms of performance and my own compositions. Film scores are designed to have a sense of place and character and sometimes history about them. So I guess it’s not surprising that that’s where I ended up spending more time, professionally speaking.

That said, for all that I am a classical musician, I’m not a walking compendium of knowledge about all of classical music. Certainly not now that I’ve been away from school/academia for *cough* like 30 years now! I have forgotten much of what I did once know, but frankly my knowledge was always pretty specialized. I know much about the body of work of specific composers in whom I have an interest, but much of the rest...I don’t care to know about it, frankly. All the baroque stuff? Meh. I mean, there’s bits of it that I like -- Handel wrote lots of good stuff, for instance -- but much of it just sounds all the same to me, and I’m just not interested enough to know more. Like, while I appreciate his technique and innovations and all that, I just don’t much like Bach’s music, for instance, and I took/take a lot of ribbing for that, but...I like what I like, and the rest of it I’m content to ignore. Which is pretty much my attitude in general, when it comes to music. *laugh*

jennamaxon replied to your post “You sound like such a cool person! It's really nice to hear about...”

The Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis is an outstanding piece of music. Real hair on the back of your neck stuff. If you like 20th C English choral - my recommendation would be Holst's The Evening Watch. I heard (and sung) it first at college. I was breathless after the first listen.

You know, Holst has a lot of good stuff that no one seems to know about. :) If the average person knows any Holst at all, their knowledge tends to begin and end with Mars and Jupiter from The Planets. Which is a shame. I need to listen to more of his stuff, myself, now that you mention it.

[plumbobpost]

Fanfic Friday: Spotlight on Skell’s Fortune & Romance

Sul sul!

Today Week of Woohoo continues with a very special twist. I have had the opportunity to ask Skell a few questions as part of a new series of posts about storytelling in The Sims community.

Skell’s Fortune & Romance serves as a prequel to the Pleasantview and Strangetown storylines in The Sims 2 from the perspectives of the Caliente sisters, hence the title which references their aspirations. Her story takes place in the time period between the first and second games and fills in the gaps between the contradicting timelines of The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3. Although the story is largely from Dina’s perspective, it features most of the iconic The Sims 2 characters ranging from Olive Specter to the Tricous to Bella and Mortimer Goth, establishing its own vivid mythology in the process.

In addition to writing, Skell has also created beautiful Maxis-Match content for The Sims 2 and is a frequent contributor to the Totally Maxis Tumblr and the fansite Garden of Shadows.

Without further ado, I’ll let Skell speak for herself.

You’ve said in the past that Fortune & Romance started out as your attempt to make sense of Maxis canon for the premade characters of Neighborhood 1, Pleasantview, and Sunset Valley. How did this evolve from your personal headcanons into a full-fledged story?

“I had played TS2 off and on for years before I was part of the fandom, mostly just goofing around but I had a lot of fun taking pictures and experimenting with posing. One day I discovered Strangetomato’s “Strangetown Here We Come” on TVtropes and was amazed at the way she fleshed out the premade stories from the game. Through her comment section, I discovered the whole fandom and started paying better attention to the premades. Eventually I came up with a backstory for Dina that I really wanted to write and share.”

Why did you choose Nina and Dina Caliente to be your protagonists? Did you ever consider different lead characters?

“It was always gonna be Dina because I was intrigued her backstory with the mysteriously inconsistent Michael Bachelor and the fact that she’s part alien. I wasn’t as interested in Nina until I noticed that she was shy (like me in RL) and also autonomously beating people up all the time. That’s when I realized she was gonna be a co-star and balance to Dina’s antics.”

Instead of ignoring Maxis’ characterization of Dina as a gold digger, you embraced it and made it a focal point of her character. Similarly, you fully acknowledge Nina’s romance aspiration while not making her a heartbreaker. How did you find a balance between their implied “villainy” in The Sims 2 and making them more sympathetic characters?

“I enjoy classic movies where Marilyn Monroe or Thoroughly Modern Millie is like “teehee I’m gonna marry a millionaire,” and it’s quirky rather than villainous. In those stories, she usually falls for a poor guy and chooses love over money (and often he turns out to be secretly rich.) Since Michael didn’t give her a “married a rich sim” memory, I wanted to write Dina the gold-digger as a modern version of that kind of story.”

“Maxis kind of setup Romance sims for “villainy” by not allowing for casual or open relationships, but of course that can be fixed with mods. With Nina, it’s interesting that she doesn’t really fit the “outgoing party girl” type. I think of her as a quiet person with a very intense energy. She needs lots of exercise and woohoo so that she doesn’t explode.”

There are a lot of unconventional relationships in your story. Nina and Servo. Olive and Ichabod. The Tricous. Even Dina and Michael. That being said, there is very definitely a theme of “love conquers all.” What motivated your approach to these relationships? How does that relate back to your attempts at reconciling Maxis canon throughout different games?

“I have a thing for mixed supernatural relationships. Dina and Mike bonding over their hidden supernatural heritages was always key once I figured Michael had a magic side. I knew I wanted to have Nina be intimate with a servo because that’s HAWT, but I didn’t foresee how intimate things would get until I figured out Servo’s character. The Tricous’ happy polyamory was my explanation for all the weirdness going on with their relationships and family tree. And I wanted Olive, Ichabod, and DJ make up this very loving and weirdly “normal” Unholy Family.”

Speaking of reconciling Maxis canon, you created your own version of Michael Bachelor in order to match his appearance in The Sims better and to create a resemblance between him and his famous sister, Bella Goth. Why do you think Michael was depicted so differently throughout the first three games? What did you draw inspiration from in creating “The Ultimate Michael Bachelor?”

“I think it mostly comes down to them wanting to use a familiar name for Bella’s brother/Dina’s husband in TS2, and carrying that forward. In TS3, I saw a boy who had his life all planned out for him by his father. In my headcanon, he screwed that all up and became the graduate of TS1 who had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. His relationship to Bella is the reason why he’s still single by the time he reconnects with Dina, who helps him find direction.”

There is an abundance of strong female characters in F&R, some of which were not originally portrayed that way. Why did you feel that it was important to write them as such?

“Well, because I’m a proud “SJW,” of course! But seriously, it’s less about being strong and more about seeing them as people?”

^Best answer that I could have asked for.

A large portion of Fortune & Romance is dedicated to the mythology of The Sims universe(s) and to supernatural sims. How did you go about the process of world building? Did you draw inspiration from different games in the series and/or from outside sources?

“My biggest worldbuilding is the explanation of where the supernaturals came from. The fairies are sort of fallen angel types who each have an animal form, and their magic rubbed off on human sims to create the supernatural life states.”

“I try to base the worldbuilding off things in game or aspects of game play. The fairy backstory was heavily inspired by fairy tales, in the way they morally test humans for punishment or guidance.”

Aside from premade supernatural sims such as the Smiths, Calientes, and Summerdreams, how did you go about deciding which premade sims were supernatural and which weren’t? How did you decide what life state they were?

“Bella has that awesome bio about being descended from “occultists, decadents, and mystics,” but then in TS3 the Bachelor family is uber-normal, so it eventually became that Jocasta is a squirellier version of Samantha from Betwitched.”

How has Fortune & Romance evolved since you started? Are there things you would do differently if you were to restart it?

“I was such a younger, different person when I started it, and yes there are many things I would do differently. (Michael’s skintone, for example. I tried to split difference between games with a custom skintone in between S2 and S3, but everyone assumes he was whitewashed to S2.)”

“When recreating families for TS4 I came up with a backstory for Dulcinea and Nestor’s relationship as well as a backstory for Don that explains how he got to be the way he is. I still can incorporate these things, but it would have been nice to bring them in earlier.”

With your story having reached a climax, many readers are wondering whether or not F&R will come to an end sooner rather than later. Not to spoil anything, but will the story continue after the party and if so, do you intend for it to last until the events of The Sims 2?

“I never intended for it to last until the events of TS2 because then it would be really depressing. There is more stuff planned for after the party though!”

Aside from writing Fortune & Romance, you have also created a variety of Maxis-match custom content. Why do you prefer working in this aesthetic? How do you feel it complements your writing?

“The game is cartoony, and I like to use that style to tell the story. I prefer to keep things heightened and silly rather than realistic, which very much fits into The Sims aesthetic.”

Speaking of Maxis-match, you have been working on a project for The Sims 2 that involves adapting Maxis-based custom content to blend in better with the game files. Would you mind elaborating a bit on The Maxis Match Repository Project?

“The TS2 repository project is made up of conversions/separates/or otherwise adapted Maxis which pull their textures from the ones that are already in your game, rather than creating new ones. This makes the files much much tinier. I also wanted to create a catalog where you can easily find it all in one place rather than hunt all over the internet. Check it out and don’t miss out on the gems in the back of your catalog!”

You’ve played every main game in The Sims franchise, and you’ve even made some very popular 2t4 recreations of the Calientes and Michael Bachelor. Do you have a favorite game for playing? Creating sims? Making Content? Building?

“I enjoy a lot of things about TS4. The game looks great and CAS and Build Mode are the best of any game. My favorite aspect is making sims, especially that you can share sims with traits/careers/skills so they have their own little story packaged with them. However, it is much more difficult for storytelling since there’s not even a way to pick up sims and move them around.”

“TS2 is still the best as far as premade sims go, and it’s the only one I make content for. I’m a bit of a control freak with my sims, and TS2 has been mastered by fans at this point where you can have ultimate control.”

Why do you continue to play The Sims? Do you feel that the games provide a creative outlet?

“I always loved playing with Barbies as a kid and The Sims really is the ultimate dollhouse. The first time I ever heard about TS1 I knew I HAD to have it. My aunt bought it for me while I was on vacation, but I couldn’t play it until we got home! During the car ride back home and I read that manual from cover to cover multiple times, so many ideas buzzing in my head.”

Any parting comments, teasers, spoilers, public service announcements, etc.?

“I’ve been on hiatus a long while and am just now getting back into the swing of things. I’m currently working on finishing up the chapter I started posting on Tumblr but never finished. It was FreddyAirmail who got me back in the TS2 spirit by asking me to help out with the Crystal Springs neighborhood project. It’s a community hood with houses based on each of the Stuff Packs, and I made the families for Teen Style and Family Fun!”

Thanks again to Skell for answering my questions. To those of you out there who aren’t familiar with her work, go check out her Tumblr and make sure to catch up on Fortune & Romance.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to visit my ask box. If you are interested, give Plumbob Post a follow, and reblog for anyone else who you think would enjoy this blog. Stay tuned for upcoming posts!

Dag dag!

 *Photo Credits go to Skell*

[zachsgamejournal]

PLAYING: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast

One moment I’m pissed, one moment I’m having fun, sometimes it’s both at once. I wish I could let myself put this game down and come back later--but I know I never would. So ONWARD!

Bespin

Because of real work, I haven’t put a lot of time toward this game. So I can’t really remember much of the last level of Bespin besides that I got lost a few times. There’s not much different about it than the earlier Bespin levels except it ends in Boss Fight!

Nooooo--I hated the boss fights from the previous games. As a matter of fact, I only beat one of them without cheating. I thought about cheating on this one--but I kept trying. I don’t know why, but I just kept at it. I figured the game had to be better design than previous entries, and I’ve read people claiming this game had great lightsaber battles--so  there must be some trick or strategy??

I went for rushing in, then rushing back with my saber swinginng. Basically, I let her strike and miss, then hopefully landed a strike after. It eventually worked. Such relief. I looked up online strategies and most of them suggested silly tricks taking advantage of weak AI or dancing around and getting lucky.

In the end, I just don’t think there’s much to the battles.

Cairn

So now I’ve snuck onto a asteroid base station (hmmm, seems familiar). These levels have a lot of confusing paths. The game doesn’t direct you where to go very well, there’s no map, and the path you’re supposed to take is often presented as incorrect. Case in point:

There’s these 5 story space pods in large hangars. There’s a platform and console at the top of the hangar. So naturally, I climb up through the pod to the top level. I see windows showing the platform I’m trying to get to. But the windows are off the ground, so i have to jump to get up on the sill. But the windows are so short I have to crouch. After 10+ tries, I haven’t been able to do it so I naturally think: This isn’t the way.

After watching a video I see it is the way. Why make it so hard when the answer is so obvious?

There’s a pretty interesting bit that involves navigating elevator shafts. A lot of waiting, but interesting none-the-less. Then there was a reactor level. There’s some insta-kill laser beams. While at first they were annoying, when I was assaulted by dark Jedi--I simply pushed them into the way of the laser and BOOM--my job was done.

This level was kind of interesting, as it was just your typical hallways. It was navigating utility spaces. Unfortunately, there’s a section that requires some tricky platforming. This was frustrating because:

a. The character movement is floaty and the walking-platforms were about a foot wide.

b. There’s so little platforming in the game, the player is properly trained to handle this challenge.

That aside, it wasn’t too bad a level. But I do feel that the game levels monotonous. Everything is evil-empire interior it seems. So it seems they had enough art assets for 3 levels and extended their uses across 20+

It’s really the most annoying thing to me: lack of diversity in levels. My feelings toward the gameplay rise and fall, but the levels just aren’t exciting me.

I keep wanting to compare this to Timesplitters. I love TS, and it was made around the same time. I thought TS2 had more mid-level story going on, but really not so much. (More so than TS1.) TS3 (Future Perfect) had really good level plots. It did a good job of breaking up the levels with cutscenes as well as having mid-level dialogue to help build the story. It’s things this game could really use. But most importantly, TS had great level diversity. Almost every level was a different time period and geographical location. So it made every level feel unique even though it was basically the same thing.

[simtrospective]

congratulations on your follower mile stone! I only recently started following your blog but I love that you share your thought process behind your sims and your posts. I really enjoy reading them! can I hear more about your inspiration to do a historical-vintage blog? what are your favorite time periods to recreate with the sims and why?

Thank you so much @wirefiish!

First, a little tangent: I started playing this series 20 years ago. There have been some gap years since then: my computer couldn’t handle TS3 when it came out so I only notched a few hours of total play time before sticking with TS2; I’d heard bad things about TS4 and myself wasn’t wowed by the base game so I put it aside for a long while. I’ve never had a simblr before this year (I started one in March, almost immediately deleted it, and then resurrected this account in May after someone on reddit asked me for a download + CC list of a sim I’d shared there; I needed somewhere to put all that info and so…). I never had any account for simming no matter which platform was popular: no Livejournal account, nor a Dreamwidth account, nor a GoS account, nor an MTS account, on and on and on. I only ever lurked the community though I felt like I knew everyone in it! But this year, I wanted to keep track of other simmers on tumblr who I liked, and I needed a quarantine distraction from work + panic, and so here I am. Operating this account has been an exercise, too, in managing myself and self-esteem: not letting myself fall into some of my kneejerk behaviors like trying to please others, apologizing (for nothing; for “me”), putting myself down, comparing myself to other people who I imagine are all perfect and talented and objectively better. My inclination, when I write wordy posts or give “too much information” about my sims is to delete and keep it simple, and that certainly gets me more notes, but… this is who I am. Not that it’s that deep! But it’s good to have perspective and behave accordingly: it’s just a blog with pictures of sims. It’s just a game. I felt like writing, it’s my little blog, who cares? I’m not doing it for notes or likes or whatever. What do I have to apologize for? What do I have to fix?

All this to say thank you that you are enjoying reading about my process. I enjoy writing about my process, whether mundane or not. I enjoy treating this blog like a blog when I feel called to do so.

Now, to your questions!

Can I hear more about your inspiration to do a historical-vintage blog? 

Sure! 

If you’d like to read more about my save and my plans for it, I have a link to that featured in my navigation menu. It is HERE for any and all who are interested and includes references and pictures I’m hoping to use as inspiration for world-building and character creation.

Basically, why I’m doing this is very simple: I like old stuff. I like vintage stuff. I like retro stuff. I love old photographs, old furniture, old music, old clothes, old movies. I love references and inspirations and art. I hate the internet. I hate my sims taking out their phones every two seconds and stuntin’ for the ‘gram and whatever else. I am forced to use too much internet and social media at work but in real life I have this blog and a neglected Pinterest account and a neglected reddit account and that is it and that has always been it, with the tumblr and reddit accounts only begun this calendar year. I’m not a luddite; I mindlessly scroll more than I should and I have favorite Vines (RIP) just like the other girls and how else can I stuff my game with CC if not over WiFi, but really, there’s so much of the *NOW* in TS4 that takes me out of and away from what I love about this series because it’s so invasive. This is where I could go on another tangent about how--through what EA, et al purports is endless gameplay possibilities--TS4 actually gives us less choice when it comes to overall gameplay but that is not the question I’m answering.

Beyond wanting to return my sims to a simpler time in terms of technology and their personal interactions, I’m totally doing it for the aesthetic. If I had my way, if I could choose the world’s aesthetic, the world’s advances in terms of, again, the technology in our pockets, it would span between 1920 and, like, 1995 and how exciting that I actually can build a little world that does just that. I can dress my little dolls exactly how I want and make some of them use the washboard! I can’t curate planet earth but I can make damn sure that all the teenage girls in Brindleton Bay wear circle skirts to the diner.

Also, related to doing whatever I want, I get to have the things I love, the world and gameplay I love but apply more progressive values to it. Yes, all the teenage girls in Brindleton Bay wear circle skirts to the diner but the teenage girl who prefers to wear a mechanic’s jumpsuit isn’t going to be looked at askance or be isolated or teased or made to conform or beat up or, best case scenario, need to shoulder the burden of trailblazer or need to shoulder the burden of being The Girl Who Wears A Mechanic’s Jumpsuit even if everyone thinks it’s cool, she’s just… herself. And yes, the world looks like 1955 but it isn’t 1955, or, it’s a parallel 1955. This girl wears a jumpsuit but her girlfriend wears a circle skirt and none of my sims bat an eye.

I also love, love, love looking at other simmers’ historical stories and gameplay. They’re consistently so clever with both CC and in-game content that it’s impossible not to be inspired, and that got my wheels turning.

And, lastly, I’m a CC addict. Limiting my aesthetic and applying rules to my save goes a long way to cull my collection and to keep me from going on a tear that might make my computer explode. It’s much easier for me to delete a bunch of dresses that aren’t appropriate for the parameters of my game than to delete a bunch of dresses because I “should,” because I have “too much stuff.”

What are your favorite time periods to recreate with the sims and why?

I’m partial to the 1950s because it is the easiest. It seems that so many creators make a lot of content that--even if it’s only described as “vintage”--is from the 50s. I mentioned circle skirts above. How many times have I done a broad search for vintage or retro and got circle skirts back? The 1950s isn’t my favorite time period, though; again, it’s just so easy to recreate. Lately I’ve enjoyed making a range of 70s sims and hope I can find a home for them all. I like, too, trying to fit content that I don’t usually use or which I think I don’t like into my version of a particular decade’s or era’s look because it often changes my opinion of the content (especially non-CC) so that I see it with new eyes/better appreciate it, and this practice helps me to hone my abilities and increase my comfort and familiarity with whatever time period I’m working with.

In real life, although I had a long art deco phase, my absolute favorite design aesthetic is mid-century modern. I’ve always loved it, and that love intensified and deepened a few years ago when I started writing my novel--not to sound like a jerk, but it’s true!--which is set in the mid-to-late 1960s. I started doing research and putting together inspiration boards which included, in part, house plans and interior design and for my tastes, I’m sorry, mcm just cannot be beat. I cannot get enough! TS4’s art style is so complementary to the mcm aesthetic that it’s impossible not to fall in love with how it looks in the game, whether it’s CC or not, so that’s my favorite in-game decorative period.

When it comes to clothing and fashion, I have a little bit that I like from every era, really, but if we’re speaking generally and I’m being forced to choose, I (think I) like best male/masculine looks and styling from the 1950s to about… 1963? 1965?, although I prefer a slimmer cut to the suits and pants; and feminine/female looks and styling from the 1930s and 1970s. I perceive a similar combined sensuality, ease, and sportiness in the 30s and 70s silhouettes as well as the prevailing attitudes and approach to fashion that speaks to me. I just love it--but I need more of it for my sims, so I can’t say it’s necessarily my favorite to try and recreate. Yet, anyway.

Thank you again for this question and thank you to all who read this entire answer!

[dramallamadingdang]

Hi there, I’m pretty impressed that you create and use a lot of high res textures and I was wondering whether you had run into pink flashing stuff because some people including me have been complaining about it since we play UC on Windows 10. I also use a Nvidia graphics card and Leefish said that the game doesn’t go well with these cards so if you don’t have any of these pink flashing issues, what graphic card do you use? Your advice might be helpful if I ever need to buy a new gaming computer.

I've privately answered these kinds of questions a number of times now; I hope you don't mind me publicly answering your questions so that, if I get more similar questions in the future, I can just point to this post. :)

Before I cut for length, I'll say that no, I have never experienced pink flashing, ever. That said, I am VERY conscious of what I put in my game, and I make content/playing sacrifices/compromises in order to have higher-res textures (within reason) without having, so far, such issues. I'll go into more detail about that and my machine and stuff behind the cut.

Also, I am a loyal NVIDIA customer after having had multiple issues (not related to Sims but to 3D rendering in architectural CAD) with AMD cards. I have never had issues with TS2+NVIDIA. This could, however, be due to the fact that I deliberately use older drivers and do not allow the drivers to automatically update.

So now, here's that cut...

My approach to this game, whether we're talking about computer hardware or content for the game, is that it's a game that was originally coded in 2004, meant for the sort of machine that most people had at that time. It makes sense to me that, from a hardware angle, a machine that's as 2004-like as possible would be the optimal choice for playing TS2, specifically. That being said, aside from occasional non-serious poking at TS3, TS2 is the ONLY game I play, so I am entirely unconcerned about my Simming machine being able to play other/newer games. This machine is "optimized" for playing TS2, making TS2 content (using Photoshop CS6 for the graphics editing), and dinking around on the internet to download stuff and interact with the community. That is literally all I do on it. I have other machines to do other things on.

Anyway, my Simming machine. It's a desktop because I'm not fond of laptops in general but especially so when it comes to playing games. It's an older HP machine that I bought as a refurb from Newegg about a year ago, for ~$120, including tax and shipping. It came loaded with 64-bit Windows 7 Pro (I won't touch newer OSs with a 99.5-foot pole), 4GB of RAM, had integrated graphics, and has a 3.0GHz Core2Duo processor, the latter of which is fast(ish) but its architecture is as close to "2004" as I could get in a "stock" machine. I then maxed out its RAM to 8GB and upgraded to a dedicated video card, in this case an NVIDIA GTX750 Ti with 2GB of DDR3 RAM (I think...or maybe it's DDR5; I can't remember), which was as powerful as I could get without also having to upgrade the machine's stock 375W power supply...which might be difficult/impossible to do because it has an HP-proprietary one. As I said, I installed the driver that came with the card and do not allow updates. (Once, I did allow an update and it FUBAR'ed the graphics in my TS3 game, although TS2 was fine. I'm not risking it, though. I rolled back to the old driver, which works, and that's what I'm keeping forever.) I did the CFF Explorer thing so that the game uses 4GB of RAM rather than 2 and used the Graphics Rules Maker to force the game to use all of my video card's texture memory. The latter, I think, is very important for avoiding pink flashing, Win10/UC bullshit aside.

Speaking of UC bullshit, my game is all installed from disks. I have all EPs/SPs installed, and I keep the CC to ~5-7GB. (It fluctuates. :) ) I neither have nor want the UC because I want zero, zip, zilch, nada chance of EA being able to "update" my TS2 game for me because any update would probably upset the apple cart and I would be very, very pissed. :) For my "backup," I have a pirated complete collection of the game, about which I have zero guilt because I've bought the full game on disk many times over now and, also, EA itself now gives away the game for free. I tested the pirated version so that I know it works if I should need it in the future if something happens to my disks, but my installed game is from legit disks.

Now we come to content, and here's where things get "personal." As I said, I make sacrifices/compromises to prioritize being able to use high-res textures on objects and walls/floors in my game because that's what I, personally, like. The primary sacrifice is that I am VERY choosy about what I download, particularly when it comes to hair and new objects with custom meshes. I do not download things mindlessly, and everything I download is checked for poly count and texture size(s) before I decide whether or not it goes into my game. In particular:

I am rigorous about poly counts/texture sizes for hair in my game because aside from things like high-res terrains/skies/horizons/neighborhood deco, they are the biggest drain on texture memory in my game. I allow myself only a certain number of high-poly (which I define as "more than 10K polys") hairs. In terms of helping with pink flashing, I have also been experimenting with using smaller texture images for hairs. (512x512 instead of the 1024x1024 that most of them seem to be. That's 1/4 the size/texture memory usage.) So far, in those hairs that I've messed with, I am not noticing much in the way of loss of quality in normal gameplay. Anyway, my rule is that, if I want to download a new high-poly hair, I have to delete one I already have. I don't think polys contribute to pink flashing, BUT they definitely contribute to general video card strain. AND, high-poly hairs tend to have large textures as well, so...double whammy.

For build/buy objects I tend to stick mostly with Maxis meshes and add-ons that people have made for them and older objects that were made for TS2, not those converted from newer games. This is primarily because such objects are low-poly with low-res textures. I can improve how they look with better and/or higher-res textures, but they remain low-poly. I also avoid useless, non-functional clutter (Exception: Plants :) ) because such things are often high-poly and do nothing. I would rather do this that have a bunch of high-poly AND high-res custom meshes in addition to higher-res textures for the Maxis objects. This means I have fewer choices when it comes to furnishing/decorating, but I am entirely willing to make that sacrifice for the sake of prettier/clearer/sharper textures in general.

The other thing I am conscious of is what I use in my general playing. For instance, I like using high-res terrains and (very) high-res skies and horizons and such. I like to take pretty scenery pics and use them as computer desktop wallpaper, for instance. BUT, I will often remove skies and/or horizons when I'm just casually playing a neighborhood that I don't take pics of. Those things eat a LOT of texture memory, and running out of texture memory is what causes the pink flashing. If I remove such things from neighborhoods when I'm "just playing," I can pretty much go wild with most other things. Or, if I want to leave in skies/horizons because I am, for instance, taking outdoor gameplay pics, I will often turn off neighbors in game so that only the lot I am currently playing (plus any visible-from-the-lot neighborhood deco, but that can be turned off, too, if you want to be really conservative) renders. Lot imposters do not. This reduces texture memory load as I play.

So, basically, it's all a balancing act. If I want pretties in one area, I have to settle for less-pretty in other areas, and I'm willing to do that settling. It's an old game, not meant to be high-poly/high-res, so if you want to force it to be high-poly/high-res in certain ways, you have to be willing to make such compromises because the game's age/limitations (regardless of the shininess of your computer hardware) are such that you really CAN'T have it all. I realize that the exact things I do in my playing won't suit everyone's playing/building/decorating style, but I'm pretty sure that anyone can make similar kinds of compromises in order to make prettier the things that are of primary importance to them.

[dramallamadingdang]

emeraldfalconsims replied to your photo

“You know…I think Sandy Bruty might be a little bit insane. All during...”

You know, it occurs to me that with the way sim genetics work and the way you've set up the experiment, you have a very real possibility of breeding some hair/eye/skin colors right out of the population entirely.

Oh, I think that’s inevitable, actually. Partly, it’s because of my “selection bias” from the start, in that I knew I was going to have four specific characters in the mix -- Goopy, Sandy, Ben, and Komei -- because they’re my favorite pre-made Sims. They, unfortunately, have lots of “duplicate” genes between them -- 2 S1s, 2 S2s, 2 blond(e)s, 3 with light blue eyes, etc. Then, for the other four, it was a conscious attempt to bring in all the other genetic traits (and I succeeded in that I’ve got an S3, an S4, and all the hair/eye colors represented, although I’m a bit light on dominant genes...which actually might be good thing) while also not duplicating face templates, having four of each sex, AND trying to represent all 5 aspirations available in the game. It was difficult, and I didn’t actually succeed with the aspirations, as I had no Popularity Sim. But I’ve fixed that in the Horde of Nine. Not deliberately, though, since I did end up randomly assigning aspirations. Anyway, those biases resulted in a rather limited gene pool where certain traits have a high chance of propagation while others have little chance.

So, all that said:

I'm pretty sure green eyes are going to die out quickly. They're recessive and only Andrea Hogan has them and she's been one of the weakest breeders of the bunch. To date, she's only had two children, and the non-alien one has his father's light blue eyes. Both her kids likely have recessive green genes, but those might not ever be expressed in their own offspring. We'll see what the second born-in-game generation brings...

For that same reason and because of how skin genetics work in the game, S4 skin might go fairly quickly, too...although it'll be helped by the fact that I only have default replacement skins in the game, no custom gene-expanding skintones. So, an S4 parent breeding with an S3 would have a 50% chance of having an S4 kid...but of course not nearly so high a chance if they breed with an S1. Sooooo, we'll have to see how Andrea's one non-alien kid, who's also S4, breeds and, more importantly, with whom he breeds. I'm pretty sure that'll be the only other kid Andrea has, besides Elizabeth the alien kid, as she's nearing the age where conception is impossible.

S3 could possibly be weak because only Orlando has it, and it can easily be "diluted" by breeding with lighter-skinned Sims...which is all that he's done, so far. Although one of those kids does have S3, so...

Brandi has gray eyes, also recessive, but she's breeding well with multiple partners, so I'm pretty sure those genes have been spread around enough to last for a while, at least as a recessive that might pop up randomly.

Red hair might not last long. Of the original bunch, only Komei has it, and the double-redhead alien kid of his (GUESS WHICH ONE?) likely won't be breeding. But, if I'm remembering right, I think it's possible for two blond(e) parents to have a redhead kid out of nowhere. I could be remembering wrong, though. Also, Komei, to date, has had kids with four different partners, only one of whom was also a redhead, so there's lots of recessive redheads around. If they breed with the multitude of blond(e)s and blond(e)-recessives, red might be OK. I hope so. :)

Sooooo, in the end, it's looking like I'm probably going to end up with a bunch of folks with:

The alien, S1, or S2 skin tone 

Alien or light blue eyes

Blond(e) hair, because of Ben and Sandy and their double-recessive-in-all-traits kids. Plus Marisa who had an alien kid with the blond-haired pollinator... with whom Sandy also had TWINS!) Lots of blond(e) genes floating around! (But at least I fixed Andrea's genes so that her genetic hair color is indeed black, not blonde. *eye roll* )

Also a good amount of brown hair, thanks to Brandi, Orlando, and the brown-haired PT, with whom Brandi had two kids.

ANYWAY! This is all very interesting to me for non-Simming reasons, too. (Warning: Lampooning creationism and a bit of politics ahead...)

I like engaging young-Earth Creationists (those who believe that the Earth is about 6000 years old because Genesis is a science book) in discussion/debate. They will often talk about "genetic information" by saying that evolution is impossible because it "requires an increase in genetic information, and that's impossible." (Even though it doesn't require such an increase in "information," -- whatever that is -- AND it's also not impossible to increase "information" -- if information = alleles -- anyway, via mutation. But that's all beside the point when it comes this.)

Anyway, I like to ask them to explain how post-Flood world human repopulation works from a genetic point of view. Since “genetic information can’t increase” and the Bible says that only Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives survived the Flood and no one else, you start with only 4 people of each sex (which I did, too). You also (presumably) limit them to holy monogamous matrimony, so only four possible breeding pairs (which I didn't do with my 8, so I have 16 possible breeding pairs). Also, the Bible's sample is limited not just to 8 people from the same ethnic background but the four men are a father and three sons (thus making 3 of the 8 starting individuals virtually genetically identical unless they were born to different mothers and...oh, hey, I did kind of duplicate that with Ben, Sandy, and Marisa! Go me!) So, from that, how on Earth do you account for the "increase in genetic information" required to have the sort of genetically-diverse human population we see now?

To date, I've gotten three answers:

"Goddidit" from those who have no other answer, which is always the answer when they can't answer a question. 

"Well, there might have been more people that survived somewhere" from those who don't perhaps realize that's not Biblical-literal at all, and also means that Godly genocidal global flood they love so much wasn't quite so global after all, so there goes their entire house of cards because the global Flood hypothesis is downright central to their entire theory...using that word in the non-scientific sense, of course.

And, my favorite, from those who tie themselves in knots so as not to invoke God in their creationist rhetoric in order to appear more "This isn't religion at all! It's science that ought to be taught in place of -- I mean, alongside of eviolution in public schools, all in the interest of ‘fairness!’" in their stance: "Those 8 people had 'more genes' to start with." Which, of course, means that 1) They have absolutely no idea what genes are or how they work and 2) Even if they were somehow right, then Noah and his family clearly weren't human, so...What? Humans as we know them today evolved (Or maybe "devolved," in their minds) practically overnight from those 8 super-non-humans even though God never said anything about creating any super-non-humans and, if he had, then the super-non-humans would all trace their lineage back to Adam and Even and they would be the ones made in God’s image, not us? But even if that was the case, then losing that extra "information" over time  -- in order to somehow allow for humans with non-Israelite genetics -- ought to result in increasingly less diversity, not more, so...Yeah.

It's just so entertaining! (Well, except for the part where this is what the current administration as well as the newly-confirmed Secretary of Education would like to see taught in our public schools as science. It’s downright terrifying.)

Still, here I am in my little Sim-scenario, watching traits decreasing in frequency and perhaps eventually disappearing altogether right before my very eyes in an isolated population of eight. And that's without monogamy and with adding "information" in the form of alien alleles, too. Because -- Guess what?! -- TS2 genetics are based on real-world genetics. It’s greatly simplified, of course, but still... There we are. Never let it be said that Simming isn’t educational. I mean, with the way the US is headed, it might eventually be a better teacher of genetics than the public schools. :P