Back at university again

 Here is the next chapter, where Oliver Freddy and Inge return to university for their 6th semester..

Chapter 6.1 - January 2024 - The nerd, the loser and thank you for the fish...

Quick Summary:

 

Inge just barely gets time to set foot on the lot of their dorm before she receives a message from Jefferey Dean about missing a party invitation..

The other students occupying their dorm arrive, and Oliver Freddy quickly walks over to Liz Tarry to have some friendly chat before asking her for a sample of her DNA.. he's going to need it to maybe, hopefully, one day figure out if its possible to create human/plant hybrids.. a pretty insane idea don't you think? :P

Liz is hesitant of his question at first, but once he has taken the sample she is happy that her DNA is now in his hands.. perhaps a little to happy...

Oliver Freddy continues the science-ing to make his first successful clone of a living thing, Ansgar the Anchovy. Even though the clone looks like a goldfish at first, it will probably find its anchovy form a little later..

Inge then spends her time playing games at the Student Union, before getting another party invitation from Jefferey Dean. It's of course a swimsuit party in the middle of winter, because, well, why not.... Inge is excited about the invitation, but in spite of a couple of the guests even removing their swimsuits, Inge is left with the feeling that the party never really takes off and she starts to question if she's just not enjoying it like she used to because she's 'getting old' (even though she's only 21...).

 

PS: Somebody dies in this chapter, but it's not a very prominent character, and in some way a version of this character may just exist for all eternity anyway.. :P

Starting a new year - almost a year "to late"...

 Yeah, so I finally got a new chapter posted again, starting (but not necessarily kickstarting) the story again. So... after last years christmas party over at the Holmesen-Fredriksen household, we are now back at Ranveigs home, where her oldest son along with his girlfriend is going back for their 6th semester at university.

Chapter 18.1 - January 2024 - Family, lessons and a staircase

That's really the gist of what happens in this post.

Robert Bråge as a teenager is still undecided about his future. Does he want to go to university and study science like his brother, or does he want to live a more free lifestyle and become and author? And perhaps maybe he is ever so slightly jealous about his two year older girfriend Margrethe getting start taking drivers lessons soon this upcoming summer. ;)

Inge makes sure to spend her last day in Sunset Valley for now wisely, hanging out in the park with her youngest sister and father. 

The relationship between Oliver Freddy and Inge is as strong as ever, and Inge definately has their future mapped out... Maybe their relationship is going a little bit to strong for Ranveig still, but she has no choice but to settle with it...

..and then the kids are off again to start another semester of long hours of studying, partying and silliness..

  ;) 

 

As a 'bonus' I have added a couple of youtube videos, because I just got this idea to use Suno AI (which I have used to generate 'The Bushweeds' songs) to also make some theme songs for the Sims and the towns. First one up is Ranveig Motorsens theme:

 

 ..and second one up is the theme for the current town, Sunset Valley:

..and if you read the post that is linked to near the top, in there is also a short youtube video of Inge and Emmy in the park. :P

World Adventures - Shang Simla

 It's been a while since I've said anything on here, and I'm not yet motivated to continue the story line fully yet. Or, I am kind of motivated, but there's a little to much else going on right now to want to commit myself to story telling, so game wise I just want to mess around and do stuff that doesn't require any thinking or planning or keeping track of multiple sims story lines...

So I sent my simself to Shang Simla to meet the locals, and in doing so I thought it was kind of boring how the place didn't have a nightlife-esque hangout and how the towers on each corner of the Forbidden City were all seemingly empty.

So I built a restaraunt/bar/disco in the east tower. I left the exterior unchanged, with no advertising or other such ugly looking things to pollute the look of the historic area, so one kind of has to know it's there to figure out that there's actually something inside. ;)

This is your view after entering through the front door. Some lightweight walls have been put up to seperate the tiny restaurant area from the hallway and the stairs leading up into the tower.

The tiny restaurant. The rug is a diner. The restaurant itself only has four eating spots, the two chairs by the bar and the the ones by the table on the right. The bar is only for decoration or to serve as an eating spot.

View from inside the bar. A restroom is found behind the white door to the left (it's behind the staircase).

So where's the actual bar and the disco? Well... to find that, you have to walk around to the backside of the tower and locate an anonymous looking staircase down into the basement...

Your view from the foot of the stairs after walking down. Doesn't look like much..

..but as you turn right around the corner, youæll notice there's a pretty big bar there. Dimly lit in a comfortable flame light, just the way I like it. ;)

As you walk up to the bar and turn around, you'll notice what appears to be a dance floor and a couple of tables with dining chairs on them. Not the biggest place, but I wanted it to fit under the foundation of the tower, with the exception of the toilet and staircase area, which does extend outside of it.

The view from the dance floor reveals the location of the restrooms.

Top down view of the tiny restaurant.

Top down view of the basement. I haven't tested it yet to see if it fills with people.

Christmas in July..

 Yup, it's christmas time! ;)

Finally I finished this chapter.. which I have been postponing and sort of dreading to do for a while... because it was always the plan that it should involve the most difficult topic of all - romance! I really don't like writing romance, it's terrifying... :P


..but here it is..


It's a long chapter too, so it comes in two parts.

Chapter 13.2 - December 2023: part III – Christmas Magic With You - this is the first part.
Chapter 13.2 - December 2023: part III – Christmas Magic With You (continued). - this is the second part.

Page number part I: ~ 7-8 pages, not counting images.
Page number part II: ~ 6-7 pages, not counting images.

Quick summary part I:

The chapter begins on christmas morning with Beate wondering about why her father was sleeping on the couch yesterday, so she tracks down her mom (who is busy cleaning the house for the upcoming christmas party) to ask her about it.

The day continues with various objects breaking, a strange bathroom situation and Martin doing a good job at playing the part of the grinch in this story as he appears to grumpy at near everything from christmas decorations to their tenant Tay taking a shower in the bathroom down in the basement...

Like I said.... but anyway, after a while the guests finally arrive and the party can begin. Beate has a plan in store...

..and well, I don't want to give spoilers, but towards the end of part one it certainly looks like the part is about to fail.. so.. well, it didn't really go 100 % according to the plan, but maybe it turned out good anyway.... ;)

In part two is where you will find the attempt to execute the plan, before the party continue with the usual gift wrap opening.. as usual, maybe, not everyone is going to be happy about what they got, but that's just how it is..

Then towards the end of the second part another secret that isn't really a secret is revealed, before its time to go home and get some sleep...

Well, I think I just died...

Ok, so pardon the dramatic headline, but seriously.

I just found a way to make Edit in Game work again!

It was a method I have seen before, but was skeptical of using, since it involved a piece of code with some.. inappropriate language in it, however.. after landing on this youtube video in portuguese (but with english subtitles), which was linked to from this Reddit post, I decided to give it a try... after all, I had nothing to lose... (and I already had a back up of my work on an external SSD, so if anything should go wrong...)

Proof that it worked. This is my unfinished city of Wad Nahadau.. as you see on this picture, there are many lots missing. I have finished building all the lots though, saved them to the library and put them in a save file for playtesting, but never actually saved them to the word file itself. Only the lots that I made while still using Origin.. before the EA app came along and ruined it...

So yeah, now it's time to start the lot placement. It's gonna take a long time though, as there are many, many lots to place.. and I hope I can make it work. Of course, it did crash while saving after this screenshot, so I'll have to see.. Maybe if I try it with smaller batches, though it's kind of not recommended.

What I did:

1) Downloading and installing Origin from this link. https://taskinoz.com/origin/
2) Turn off the EA App if it's running. Opening Origin without logging in.
3) Locating the local.xml file in My Computer/Program Data/Origin (turn on hidden files to see the folder).
4) Opening local.xml in Notepad to insert the following code (without the vulgar url as suggested in the portuguese youtube video):

  <Setting value="true" key="MigrationDisable" type="1"/>
  <Setting key="UpdateURL" value="http://someadress.com" type="10"/>
  <Setting key="AutoPatchGlobal" value="false" type="1"/>
  <Setting key="AutoUpdate" value="false" type="1"/>

I inserted the code near the bottom of the file, but before the line that read

</Settings>


5) Then I logged in to Origin and waited for a while for a notification telling me Sims 3 was added to the library.

6) Clicked Origin in the top left corner and disconnected to go offline.

7) Created a new directory called 'Worlds' in my Documents folder outside the regular Electronic Arts/CAW directory.

8) Opened CAW and the world file I want to edit, and chose Save As to save it in the newly created Worlds folder. Remember to delete the file path and leave only the world name before saving, or you'll just be saving in your regular folder again...

9) Closed CAW and reoponed it again to open the newly saved .world file.

10) Opened it in 'Edit in Game' and was happy that it worked.

New chapter posted, finally..

Chapter 13.1 - December 2023: part II - The Curious Family

So... after a long break I actually opened my game to play again.. wanting to continue with the story.. However, I had to.. or wanted to.. do a chapter that was a little leisurely where perhaps not to much would be happening to ease myself back into it..

So..  for this chapter, I will be sort of picking up where I left off before I did this entire Bushweeds tour thing, that is with the couple Bhavan and Beate. The change here, which was planned all along though, is that I will make a jump to the household of Beates family - The Curious family. A family that I know very little, pretty much nothing, about.. so the reason for doing this was to maybe get to know them a little better. Though I ended up following Beate for most of this update anyway. ;)

In this update it is clear that Beate has some wishes for the future.. which I plan to have fulfilled - to the best of my ability - in chapters that follow, but none of them will be fulfilled here though. :P

For most of this update, Beate goes to hang out at the Red Rendezvous with her friend Smaragd, where she reveals her plans for the future and spots a celebrity she wants to impress...

The chapter is posted here:

Chapter 13.1 - December 2023: part II - The Curious Family

Hope you enjoy it.

Just some pictures.

 

After the riots ended, welcome to the post-apocalypse...

                                                    ..atleast we still got music....

 

 

...heading for a new world?

 

                                                                    Destruct/rebuild....