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.

The Bushweeds first music video, Nightmare Lullaby

 So.. I have still had some more fun generating songs using Suno for what I imagine is now going to be 'The Bushweeds' second album. I'm not to pleased with their first album as it was rushed a little because the idea for it, name, album cover and song titles, was already there before I know about generating music with AI...

So for the second album, I want to do a different approach. My aim is (or was) to generate some 80 minutes of music that would eventually be cut down to around 40-45 minutes of music by 'killing a few darlings' and getting rid of the worst sounding tracks. For the time being, that process has stopped at around the 45 minute mark because I ran out of ideas for topics to make songs about... :P

Well, anyway, there are some useable songs in there, and for one of them as soon as I heard, I just almost instantly thought I had to make a video for it.. 

So I have since then spent almost a month or so figuring out how to make animations for the game to record this video.. Now again, I'm still not 100 % happy with this product, mostly because I filmed it in to low of a resolution, something which I didn't really think about until ZeeGee posted this video on the sims forums.. which looks a lot more crisp and clear then mine.. but at that point I was already more than halfway through this project and didn't want to re-record everything.. so I just continued in the same vein.. but if I should do this again (which is not at all given, seeing as how this was pretty work intensive to create these clunky animations in a low resolution...), I will of course try to make it look better, the best I can make it. ;)

Anyway, enough talk.. here's the video... captions are available.

In the below section I will reveal what is the topic of the song. If you didn't get it yet and want to figure it out for yourself, stop reading now and listen to the song a few more times. :P 

Now that you've listened to the song and watched the video I'm going to assume that you understood that the song was about stage fright, and actually what inspired the song was this early chapter where I posted about the band where it was concluded that Gerda was suffering from stage fright since she played the first part of their concert with her back against the audience. 

 She has since dealt with it since they've had a few more concerts since then and most importantly, gone on tour in support of their first album, but of course, still with every show there's gonna be some nerves in the backstage area before they go on stage.. that's just an inevitable part of life as an entertainer... ;)

..and that was it for now. Hope you enjoyed the song. Until next time.

Sunscreen and nostalgia..

So I just somehow noticed there was a Steam sale for some old titles, and just in the nick of time I managed to take advantage of that to (re)buy a couple of games I used to play, the games where my interest in anything Sims related began... ;)

..and that would be, of course, Sim City 3000 and Sim City 4. I used to spend hours playing this, especially the former back in the day, so this is good trip down memory lane for me.. I have always enjoyed more chill games of this type. I was never to much into the action or shooting games, really..

I haven't revisited Sim City 4 yet, but that is on the agenda once I'm satisfied with playing Sim City 3000.. the goal is atleast to reach 1 million inhabitants before moving on. ;)

..and yeah, earlier this year I noticed that in 2013 I was actually 'clever' enough to have bought Sim City 2013 too.. at full price.. then somehow forgotten I had done so.. completely! Though upon noticing that I do remember playing it some.. perhaps with a slight feeling of disappointment with it, atleast at first, having an online/multiplayer mode if I'm not mistaken.. and to small city maps.. 

Though I think Sim City 4 originally also had some form of online play in the beginning, which is just stupid for a game like this, the Sim City series probably peaked with Sim City 4...

Cities Skylines does look tempting, but as I haven't actually played Sim City 4 that much, I want to complete that game first, before considering moving on to the next generation of city simulation...


Ah, I do wish I had gotten a Steam account earlier, since judging from other peoples comments about it, it seams to be superior to the EA App.. but I've never considered myself a hardcore gamer, and so I didn't know about Steam until I saw people discussing on the Sims forums, and by then it was already to late, I had already walked straight into EAs trap by buying Sims 3 and most of the expansion packs on Origin already..

..and then came the EA app to begin messing things up. Just recently though I did get the World Adventures expansion pack for Sims 3, because it was on sale, but rest assured.. from now on, I have used the EA app for the very last time. I'm not gonna use it ever again.... and I hope that Steam will be as good of a platform as I am expecting it to be.. well, it can't be worse than the EA app, can it?

The Beginning Of All Things That Will End..

Chapter 12.9 – The Bushweeds Autumn Tour 2023: part IX – The Beginning Of All Things That Will End.

Well hello again world. Here is the next chapter about the band, now as they head further south for the second to last concert of their tour...

Of course, their morning begins with the usual party spirit, before they have to get into the car again to drive for their next destination - good old Sunset Valley. ;)

The following day the band decides to split up to hang out at different locations on their own, seeing as how they have virtually (ha, virtually, get it..?) lived on top of each other for the past week or so..

Kajsa, beign the most avant-garde and interested in art pays a visit to the Sunset Valley Art Association (founded in 1904) to do the smustle dance and paint what she thinks could be their next album cover...

Sam goes to Amundsen and Co. Cartoon Store (the local nerd hangout...) to play arcade games, where he is noticed by the young aspiring politician Ingrid Kråkesen-Karlsen who just happen to skip work for the occasion...

Gerda being more of a collector goes to the local junkyard to look for treasure or trash...

Merete decides to go fishing at the Åtindbugen Fisherman huts, but since she didn't bring any bait, she has very limited luck getting anything special...

Then its time to head for tonights concert which will happen at the Garage pub. Will they get an audience this time...?

Yes they will, for a change! The powers that be found a way to hold a hand over them and finally give them the audience they deserved! However, they do act a little strange, preferring to watch the band from the side of the stage instead of directly in front, but atleast they're present and paying attention!

..and I'm not exaggarating when I'm saying the bar was chock full of people that night, with more things happening during the night than I could pay attention to or even cover without making the update atleast twice as long - probably! Not everyone chose to watch the concert though, as the stage is located in the basement and some visitors never went down there, but stayed in the bar on the ground floor.

So how did I do it? Well, the trick that I tried first, by setting every other venue and location to 'No Visitors Allowed' had no effect - the bar was just as empty as ever, but...

..then I discovered that if I click on the venue, select NRAAS -> Master Controller -> Invite Over - I got the option to invite sims to the lot by the usual categories (Gender, Career, First name, Last name, etc.), so I invited as many as I thought necessary, which was probably quite a few to many, because the place was literally packed, and not just in sims 3 terms, no it was actually pretty packed! So now I know that this works, and that I can successfully invite over a little less sims next time. ;) Cheerio!

The thirsty cave...

Chapter 12.8 – The Bushweeds Autumn Tour 2023: part VIII – The Thirsty Cave.

Next chapter about the band "The Bushweeds" autumn tour posted at the Bewickton blog.. this time with a concert as they head to the venue known as "The Cave" to play for the night.

The venue is literally a cave located in a former bomb shelter under the Newstead Park, now being run by students volunteering to keep this legendary rock club alive! ;)

"The Cave" here is based on a real place called "Hulen", which translates to as you may have guessed.. "The Cave". I used to spend my years there when I was a student myself and a much younger punk then I am now.. ;)

Sam had never seen such a venue before. This place was definately something special.. dark, damp and just the right amount of dirty.... looks like the perfect place for vampires and other such dark and twisted late night individuals... totally not me being nostalgic about a different time..

..then it was time for the band to play their concert, another one in a long line of concerts with not much of an audience. Even the paparazzo seemed to find the restroom signs more interesting than the band...

..but I think I've found a trick now which I'll try next time, to set all the other venues and hangout places to "No Visitors Allowed". That should hopefully generate a little more traffic... poor band, driving for miles and miles to play for empty rooms!

Not very surprising this takes a toll on their patience, and Sam and Gerda ended up fighting with each other after Sam accused her of skipping the line at the bar...

Turn the page...

The band travels on, now they're going down south and back to the coast. This next chapter is the beginning of their longest travel distance between gigs on the tour, not counting their return trip back home from Sunset Valley at the end of the tour.

Chapter 12.5 – The Bushweeds Autumn Tour 2023: part V – Turn the page..

..and of course, I couldn't make a series of posts about a band on tour without referencing this song.. ;)

                                            - Metallica - Turn The Page (Bob Seger cover)

On a long and lonesome highway
South of Onebega*
You can listen to the engines moanin'
Out this one-note song
You'd think about the woman
Or the girl you knew the night before

But your thoughts will soon be wanderin'
The way they always do
When you're ridin' 16 hours
There's nothin' much to do
And you don't feel much like ridin'
You just wish the trip was through

Here I am, on the road again
There I am, up on the stage
There I go playin' the star again
There I go, turn the page

 

Click here (or the chapter up above) to go to the Bewickton blog and see the full post. ;)

* Not the correct lyrics, of course, and there's one syllable to many, but this almost works..

Wad Nahadau, The Bushweeds and stuff..

So.. it's definately time for an update here now. In the town of Bewickton the local folk punk band The Bushweeds had since we last saw them at Palash and Sofias wedding gone into town to try and get a record deal.. to, unfortunately, no success at all..

Meeting up with a representative of Orange Music Records it had to go as it went..

The meeting ended with an argument, and they got no deal.. Blast these capitalist major labels and companies! It's the same story as it always is.. so the band was no a little down and desperate, but by next summer they had managed to pull things together enough to record and release their debut album, completely self funded..

An important milestone in the bands history, no doubt, but they couldn't rest on their laurels now, as they had ambitions of course. This was just the beginning of their journey, since of course, they wanted after all to spread their music far and wide.. so they had to know do their best to make arrangements to get live shows to go on their first little tour to gain followers.... all of which is easier said then done without a record label and a marketing apparatus having your back, but they still scraped together a few tour dates the following autumn...

 

..and this of course, is where the city of Wad Nahadau comes into the picture. It's their fourth tour date, and their set to play at a venue called "The Cave", which is a former bomb shelter, now turned into a concert venue run voluntarily by students in the city..

The only issue here was that the city of Wad Nahadau, which is a project I started sometime in 2022 (I think, I don't actually remember when I started it.) This was a time when we were on Origin and not he EA App, and everyone could use 'Edit in Game' from the 'Create a World' tool without any problem..

 

At one point I realized that I had made the terrain of the town a little to hilly and thought I should perhaps find a way to flatten it a little, as it made building on the lots in the downtown area a little difficult, and it probably didn't look it's best.. I also needed to take a break from town building as it it really is a lot of work.. and of course, in the meantime here came the EA App to mess everything up...

Since I couldn't use Edit in Game I could no longer save whatever I built on the lots to the town itself, and if since I had already started on the downtown area, redoing it's terrain would also mean deleting the lots and everything on them, which would now leave me with a downtown area of empty lots.. that didn't feel like a good option and I wasn't to motivated to work on this project for a while and it was left alone for a good while until.. The Bushweeds was set to play their for their upcoming tour, which meant that I had to resume work and try to finish it as soon as possible, since I really don't want any delays to my story telling..

So it was back to work on the downtown area and the town itself. It doesn't look so hilly when seen from above, but it is a quite the hill in the centre of the picture above the highway tunnel that goes under the downtown area..

It was quite a lot of work in such a short amount of time, since late December of last year and until now, but I will count the major parts of the town finished for now, and what is left is "only" to fix a self illumination problem with some of the buildings and to keep refinig the distant terrain I just made.. but for now, my perfectionist self will just need to accept some of these shortcomings and continue with my game and story telling.. so yeah, coming soon.. the Bushweeds on tour! Finally...

The last bus route... for now?

 Finally, the fourth and last of the bus routes is here! This is bus route #4 that will take you to the west coast of the nation and on board a ferry to Yellin County where you will find the town known as Bewickton.

Just don't mind the drama that seems to be happening at the bus station right now..  I uh.. I don't know what that is about, but I hope they are uhh.. ok...

This is the town of Bewickton and what will greet you as you approach it's downtown area. Officially founded in 1853 by C. Twinbroke, though it has been in existance for a lot longer than that, the town has a rich culture and nightlife for its size.. emphasis on rich... perhaps due to it's relatively close proximity to the nearby county capital of Cyme Ixotic, also well known for being home to many of the nations celebrities, rock stars and other creatures of the night...

So for now you have the option to take the bus there and familiarize yourself with the aforementioned nightlife and some of the buildings of the town.. and later someone from another town may travel there to visit their relatives for their summer holiday and you may actually get to see some people too.. Until next time. ;)

Sprottenham Sims

I originally had this post on my profile at the sims forum, and I thought it would stay there permanently, until one day I logged on and found it gone and wondered why it was deleted.. until I realized that posts on ones profile actually go away by themselves after a certain amount of time.. luckily I had the Forsythe.. umm, foresight to keep it in a text file on my computer, and since I just stumbled across it now looking for something else, I thought.. why not post it here.. ;) So, without any further ado...

..or, well, not quite yet, because first I have to give a....

...SPOILER ALERT....

If you haven't read the story before, some sims that haven't yet been born so far according to what is posted on the blog will be presented below, and/or they will have switched houses or be in different age groups..

The blog postings are currently in the year of 2021 in their storyline. The post below is, I believe is early or mid 2022.

Now... without further ado....

Sprottenham households:

 
Chitrakaar-Bråheim

Parents: Gaute Chitrakaar-Bråheim, Leya Chitrakaar-Bråheim.
Kids: Bodil Chitrakaar and Orinder Chitrakaar-Bråheim

Leya is the 3rd oldest, and 3rd youngest, child of Deepak and Laranya living in the town of Bewickton (to be introduced later). She is the middle child of the five siblings (Udisha, Palash, Leya, Bhavan, Nitya). She has two kids, Bodil together with Glenn Hoddelås, and Orinder with Gaute, with whom she is also married. Leya sings the 1st alto voice in the choir, The Sirens.
Gaute has another child, Robert Bråge, with Ranveig Motorsen from Sunset Valley.

Jensen/Rasmussen

Leya, Gaute and Bodil used to live with Solvej Rasmussen, Patrik C. Jensen and their son Rune Rasmussen, but moved out because it was getting a little to cramped. The couples are still good friends with each other.
Patrik plays football with Sprottenham Totspurs. Solvej sings the 1st soprano in The Sirens.

Jiggens/Flansbarne: 

Baturney Flansbarne is a politician and a former circus director. Agathi Jiggens is a crime/horror writer. They have two children, Ruben Jiggens and Iselin Flansbarne.

Slettemoen: 

Anne-Gerd Jørgensen, Dimitov Slettemoen (nee Berbersen), Kari Slettemoen.
Svenn Slettemoen (standing in front), Harald Slettemoen (being held).
Anne-Gerd and Kari both sing 2nd alto voices in The Sirens. Dimitov is a football player on the Sprottenham Totspurs.

Xie-Luo: 

Jingguo is an ambitious police man. Dongmei is a bit of a coward, but works in the military. Leo is their oldest son. The toddlers Jiang and Hung are twins.

Vanderfjert: 

Ramger Vanderfjert is a former football player on the Sprottenham Totspurs. Gabriela Vanderfjert (nee Bedoya) sings the 1st alto voice in The Sirens. Tatiana Maria is their oldest daughter. Jess and Astrid are twins.
 

Vaddelmyr: 

Christoffer Vaddelmyr and Selma Vaddelmyr (nee Gunnerud) and their daughter Jorunn. Selma sings sings the 2nd soprano/1st alto voice in The Sirens. Both Selma and Jorunn are slobs.
 

Dahl-Blankblomst: 

Daniel and Leni Dahl-Blankblomst has two kids, Torgeir (baby) and Jonn (toddler). Daniel is a the goal keeper at the Sprottenham Totspurs. Leni sings 2nd soprano in The Sirens.
 

Klinemann: 

Jørgen Klinemann and Chansa Klinemann (nee Beaudoux) has two daughters, Samira (child) and Celine (toddler). Jørgen is also a football player at the Sprottenham Totspurs. Chansa sings the 1st soprano in The Sirens.
 

Hoddelås 

Glenn Hoddelås lives with his girlfriend Maiken Strøm. Glenn is Bodils father and a former football player of the local team...
 

Borsønn/Ås 

Most commonly referred to as the Ås family.
Parents: Odin Borsønn, Frigg Ås.
Children back row: Tor Odinsønn, Hoda Odinsdatter.
Front row: Hermine Odinsdatter, Balder Odinsønn.
By far the richest and most powerful family in all of Sprottenham...

Bergersen 

Agnar, Gunn-Rita and their teenage daughter Nikoline. Agnar hates art, Gunn-Rita is an art lover... Nikoline is a science geek. The guy in the back is Remy Langlo, some random dude that moved in with them...
 

Froosh 

Fagidi and Fragen Froosh. Fagidi is a complete doormat and retired military. Fragen is a retired teacher of the old fashioned type. They are sworn enemies of each other, but used to be married for many years and have one daughter, Gretzel.

Trazlacat 

Parents: Gretzel Trazlacat (nee Froosh) and Lamshey Trazlacat.
Children: Hannah and Nils Trazlacat. Nils is the boyfriend of Nikoline Bergersen.
 

The Rollcagers: 

Left to right: Lothar Maier, Ria Simba, Leon Maneval, Jet Rēshingugāru.
A household of vehicle enthusiasts. Their favorite past time is hanging out in the garage fixing and upgrading cars, burning rubber and playing cat and mouse with the police...

Gudmestad-Klinsmo 

Robert and Sandra Gudmestad-Klinsmo. Robert is the biggest criminal in town, and a sworn enemy of the Frigg/Ås family. Together with Sandra he has a son, Mark.