Boredom = Uploads

Hum, funny, I could have sworn our Holiday break from work wasn't supposed to start until the 24th and we'd be returning on the 3rd. Nice long break, no?

So, why is it everyone but me got the memo that that included today as well? Well, actually it didn't, but we're a very small company and everyone who hadn't already taken the day off just seemed to find something else to do away from the office. Well, sure, I could have "found" some work to do, but why should I when no one else bothered to? Hum? I knew they weren't working and they were certainly not stuck in the office.

So, instead, I looked in my drafts folder for Presents and found two updates I hadn't done anything with.

So, at Lachesis Presents there's an update featuring Scott Phury, Actor.

And my TS3 vampire, Kendrick Daye.

These are just some game shots and impressions of the EP Late Night. As usual no story, just some bits you can expect from the game. I generally post these here for my blog buddies just to show them what's new and different in TS3.

I also try to just show off the silly things from the game as well.

Anyway...

Take care,
Lachesis

TS3 Activity at Lachesis Presents

Since I've been playing TS3 fairly regularly lately, I found a bunch of pictures in my screenshot folder that I take when something funny happens or just whatever takes my fancy. So I've started adding them in an organized (more or less) fashion to my Lachesis Presents site.

I'm also adding Sims and whatever else I may feel like as downloads. There are three Sims there at present, Leta, Mack and Kiku.

Anyway, if you're interested in The Sims 3, or just want to see some of what's available with the game and its expansions, World Adventures and Ambitions, you might want to check it out. It's pretty simple and quick to look at. I'm not telling stories per se, but the pictures do follow along the lives of the Sims I'm playing. I have four families in Sunset Valley I rotate through. I have it set up so that I play a household for 14 days, it was 7 but that wasn't long enough; for three of those days, story progression and aging are turned on. I'm hoping this will allow the world to move on without too much insanity, but at the same time allow me to have more than one family in the neighborhood.

I play with a custom skin default and custom eye default. That's all the custom content I use, except for a pair of jeans I got from Club Crimsyn. I do not hack this game, which means, I have to have to find ways around the bugs.

The two annoying bugs I've found are:

1. After playing tag or anything that causes autonomous running the Sim won't walk again, they only run. To fix this, I evict the entire family with house to the clipboard. I bulldoze the house left on the lot, then stick family and house back on the empty lot it came from.

2. When you change the active household, don't leave any garden produce, caught fish or leftovers in the refrigerator, it won't be there when you go back to the household. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping that putting it in my gardener's personal inventory will work since I don't lose the personal inventory any more.

Take care,
Lachesis

Temporarily Missing

Well, since I really must have new expansions on the day they come out, and since no store in my area felt it necessary to discount Ambitions the first week, I decided I had to get my money's worth out of it. So, I'm buried knee-deep in TS3 at the moment, but I will return with story updates.

It should come as no surprise I decided to play the Investigator career first. Below are a few pictures of Mack Stone, Investigator.

This is the Laundromat in Twinbrook, but your Sims can purchase either a cheap washer and dryer or an expensive washer and dryer for the home. If you keep their clothes clean, it improves their overall mood, and it's actually kind of fun. There's even a clothesline if you want to hang the clothes outside.

Yup, the chopper is a new vehicle. Mack's not exactly dressed to perfection for it, but that's how I dress him for his Investigator duties. I have to constantly change him from EA's stupid looking clothing choice. Since he works on his own time and not in a rabbit hole, he can wear whatever I put him in, not what EA thinks he should wear.

This is an autonomous Investigator action.

And this is Mack doing surveillance. The outfit is EA's and hum, yes, he's spying on those two women using his pom-pom bushes. I guess that 's hiding in plain sight. Seriously, some of the things EA comes up with are almost too strange for my warped brain.

Take care,
Lachesis

I don't usually do reviews, but...

As a rule, I prefer Lachesis Presents to allow TS3 to speak for itself, but the further into the game I've gotten over the past five days, the more I've realized this is not your typical Sims game. In fact, with very few changes, The Adventure Company could package it up and sell it.

Saying that EA has misrepresented this game might be a bit harsh, but I don't think they've made it clear that it's not a vacation spot for your Sims. At least it hasn't been anything like I expected when I bought it. Granted, my reading at the site had been cursory at best, but I don't like to learn a lot ahead of time. I want to play the game and figure it out. Granted, I hadn't expected Bon Voyage, but I most certainly hadn't been expecting a Broken Sword game either.

Anyway, check out my review here: World Adventures - Bon Voyage it Ain't if you're in the least interested in this expansion pack.

I'm now returning to Egypt, I left Galen in the middle of the Great Pyramid...

Take care,
Lachesis

Sims 3 Update - Finally

Well no surprise, I rushed out last night and bought World Adventures. It took me forever to get it installed because I didn't update the base game figuring the updates would be in with the DVD - nope, so if you haven't, update your base game before you install, it'll help save time. Also, I uninstalled Delphy's install hack - the only hack I have - and pulled out the folder with the small handful of non-EA cc. I had no problems, but I played without putting the stuff back, so Yuri, Leta and Aiden have EA skin and not my default replacement skin. *shudder*

Anyway, I've put Yuri's Journal up at Lachesis' Presents. Just a quick walk through of one of the tombs to give you an idea. It is a bit of a spoiler for the tomb located behind the base camp, so if you're not interested in a spoiler post, you might want to avoid it. :)

My game playing life started with Myst and Tomb Raider. From there, I've played a ton of Adventure Company games, all but two of the Tomb Raiders, Prince of Persia and every Myst game released. So, this EP is pretty much up my alley, even if it is very simple compared to the above. I did enjoy walking Yuri through the tomb. Unless there's a lot of randomness to this, however, I can see it getting to be the same old same old quickly. Frankly, I found Bon Voyage to have much more enjoyable vacation spots, but in all fairness, I did only go to Egypt for three days. I'll see as I get farther along.

Take care,
Lachesis

Really, They're Not Abandoned Sites

Added some in-game pictures to Lachesis' Presents for TS3, but not Sireta's Blog, just some fun happenings.

Added pose boxes to Stand, Sit, Lay, Kneel and Couples

And some TS2 fun - I really didn't know the dog could eat the homework. :) The girl in pink whose homework it is seems a little too happy.

Take care,
Lachesis

Sea of Moons is Back!

Guardian's Key has officially started! Part 1 - Mist Hollow I. Enjoy.

And everyone I know seems to have posted at least one update this past week. If I've been unusually absent from everywhere, I do apologize. I should be back on track next week. I just kinda got caught up in a Sims3 neighborhood I haven't even really taken pictures in, except a couple that were really strange. LOL

Thank you all for reading (and being patient with the six week delay between the end of The Search for Nanda and the start of Guardian's Key)!

Take care,
Lachesis

Another Addition to Sireta's Blog

Part 5 has been added. The picture above is not included in the update because I took it in the Riverview neighborhood not Sireta's. But I thought it was cool you could see the plane flying by and wanted to share it. Too bad Sims2 doesn't have similar because it would have been great in a scene for Out of Touch. :D

Thank you for reading.

Take care,
Lachesis

More Sims 3

Sireta's Blog, Part 4

Despite the fact I should be working on finishing up a set for Sunday's update which I'm having nothing but one problem after another getting what I want, I decided to procrastinate one more day and get this up instead.

Procrastination is bad, must move forward...

Take Care,
Lachesis

SoM is Back!

Finally, after more than a month SoM returns with Pollux, Part 9, Plans.

A couple of other things:

1. At Sim Haven I've posted a story called What's Behind Door #2? It's for the June 2009 Challenge "Starting Over."

I want to give credit for this wonderful Sim: He's Marcus "Marco Polo" Giovanni from GoS. I always make my own Sims, but he's just too perfect to pass up, so I want to give Simsun the proper credit for him.

2. Besides Sireta's Blog, I've set up a character in the free Riverview neighborhood in TS3. However, this is strictly a play neighborhood for when I'm too tired to do anything else. :)

Nick above wants to go into music profession, so, of course, he needs to know how to play the guitar. This is for Gayl, I wanted you to see how it's done now. Not bad really. As you can see, it's an acoustic guitar - no amplifier, no stomp box. While learning, he takes it slow, and actually looks at his hands. There are none of the spastic seizure-like movements and I've actually seen what could be him making C, D and E cords. Sorry, still no strap and he still can't sit down, but there is an improvement in the overall movements of the action. :D

Thank you everyone for reading!

Take care,
Lachesis

Sireta Updated!

Sireta's Blog has been updated.

Take care,
Lachesis

New Sireta's Blog

The Start of Better Things was posted at Lachesis Presents. Yesterday. Sorry, I forgot to post it here. :p

After spending all day yesterday playing, I have to say, to some extent I'm hooked. There are a lot of things to do when you don't know anything. I'm sure over time, I'll become familiar with everything, but for now, I'm not bored. Because you have less time in a day to things, it takes longer to accomplish even simple goals to advance at work. The reason for having less time is simple, you can't go downtown, spend eight hours, and then come home and spend those same eight hours over again doing something else. Twenty-four hours is twenty-four hours and everything has to be accomplished during that time frame.

This is not to say I've abandoned my play neighborhood at Sims 2. I haven't, there's still way more to do in Sims 2, but for now, this is just one more Sims neighborhood to play, and I'm actually enjoying it. I wish the characters looked better, but they are what they are. If I want better looking characters, I'll go back to Sims 2. :D I also wish I could play it so all the graphic features were utilized. There's one setting that I can use, the game runs fine, and everything looks so much better, even the landscape, but it causes my fan to run all the time, and the sound of that drives me crazy, so I settle for less. :(

My 2-cents on Sims 3: If EA tries, eventually it'll be a good game, and, of course, the community will eventually be able to make it even better.

There're lots more pictures for Sireta's blog taken, lots more story scribbled down, so I'll be following her for some time to come.

Take care,
Lachesis

Lachesis Presents - New Blog

Hey everyone, I've started a new blog, Lachesis Presents to tell the story of Sireta Aren who lives on the world of Dagon. But unlike our Sea of Moons characters, she lives on the continent of Tyr, which is to the east of Neith.

A while back, I mentioned a new project, this is it. My desire is to showcase Sims 3 in the way I know best - storytelling. This is not meant to be a review, for that there are many on the web, just look around. For those who are not sure about the game, or who just like to follow characters along on their journey, that's what this is.

This is Sireta Aren's blog, a daily, or not so daily depending on how it works out, account of starting out in a new home far from where she grew up.

It's a case where I play the game and tell the story, so I have no idea whatsoever what's going to happen. So, if you're interested in storytelling, the Sims 3 or both, follow along with Sireta and me as we check out what EA has given us.

I'm using no cc, no pose boxes, no preplanned story. I haven't turned off the plumbbob, headers or balloons. It's just what comes out of the box. I'm even using the in-game camera. :D

Take care,
Lachesis