September 8, 2017

This Blog Is Still Here?

Wow it has been ages since I put EA / The Sims behind me, I had thought I closed this blog entirely when I opened the replacement site, only to find it was here all this time lol. Well it is empty now. I cleared out all the old dead images/links/posts/comments/ pretty much the baby and the bathwater.

About 8-9 days ago I decided to play with SIMS 4...gasp**! I know right. Those who read this and followed me at all know the melt down I had after Sim City and more and more broken Expansions came out for SIMS 3, then all the announced cuts from SIMS 4...toddlers, pools...no color wheel, no idea why they thought this was a good idea.I called it quits...we wont even mention Bioware/StarWars. EA and I have not been snuggle buddies in a long as time.



However I decided to give it ago. I expected to hate everything. I didn't find it a drastic engine improvement, movement and routing maybe, emotions are...well they tried...multitasking, not bad. Overall runs very well, fairly quick, lack of open world sucks, loading screens suck...they still cant code in vehicles worth a damn, apparently after the really struggled coding it in SIMS 2, they gave up with a half ass method in SIMS 3, and ran and hid under the cover ins SIMS 4. Overall the features are good. But I still think SIMS 3, with an upgraded engine with  a 64bit version, would have been enough.

But too late for that. And so here we are. The good they finally implement many of the core base game features that should have been there on launch and overall the game is very enjoyable. Needs pets and weather to feel completion to me. I like the idea of the game packs with actual occult, and features, keeps down the bloat for those who wouldn't want them, and should also make them more money then just random lamps and chairs.

I also like the fact the DEVs seem to be engaging modders now, and providing some file formats etc, should have done this ages ago...and if you ask me...and you didn't, they should release actual supported tools for the community. Look at fallout and others that have gone this route...much better approach, and give more back to the modding community which drives these types of games. However python...argh...not a fun at all..I know people love it. I'm a microsoft fan boy I guess.

So does this mean I have forgiven, or moved on...nah. SIMS 4 is coming along nicely but I am no where near convinced to shell out a couple hundred bucks to give things a deep trial. I don't own any of them, and my access to them was only for a short time...I don't really believe in pirating games, even EAs. Pirate, TRY, like and buy....yeah I have done that.

I did experiment modding a bit. I have a tradition, my first real mod of SIMS 2 was a readable book, Harry Potter I believe. SIMS 3 was a readable Spider-Man comic book...not sure if I public released that one...can't recall. So in that tradition I made a couple mods. A Readable Book, LOTR, Spider-Man Comic Book, River Song Empty Journal, and a Readable Novel Size Book. 4 mods. Mostly new UV Maps, some size tweaking, etc. All seem to work fine.

Here are a couple screen shots I took, first early prototype testing page new UV. Second LOTR readable book.




And a third image showing my sim having just finished writing in Rivers Journal.



So nothing complex or exciting I am afraid. As far a the future, don't expect one likely. I don't plan on buying SIMS4 and all the damn expansions anytime soon, and I no longer have access to the laptop that had it on it, so I expect I wont be able to release the couple small things I fooled with, at least not for a while.

But one never knows.

As far as all the SIMS 3 content, it has joined all my SIMS 2 content in a dark corner of a backup harddrive somewhere, I may post some of the mod information on here at some point, for reference, might link some of the just decor objects that didn't require code....but I dunno, I never promise unless I am sure, or something really drastic happens. So no guarantees.

No one knows the future, especially me...who knows eh?

UPDATE
Okay so I decided to upload the old site data back here after all, for reference purposes....its proving to be a lot of work lol I had more mods than I thought. You will see mods poping up, dated back when they were last updated or there abouts. I have some more template stuff to do and links to add for easier navigation, as well...god I am my own worst enemy lol. There are over 70 mods for Doctor Who alone, so ...umm yeah..back to it.