The Ward Family, Part 1

I'll admit, the above picture is here solely for Drew's benefit.

Fortunately, working on this blog is fairly simple, non-time-consuming since I just take pictures while playing anyway, and I can actually sneak time in to do it during any lull at work. So, since I have it easy with this, I thought I'd take this opportunity to post something for a change. I'm sorry that Guardian's Key and Wake the Dead have suffered lately, but I do hope to get back into the Sims2 game before long and build the set that I need for the next GK update.

Last week I did pick up Late Night and even though, surprise, surprise I didn't start by creating a vampire, I have been playing it. I'll post my stuff on Scott Phury, Actor, before too much longer, I hope.

Gage Ward and his family are the longest existing TS3 family I have. After I created both Gage and Meggie, I spent some time messing around with Sunset Valley checking out what kind of playable characters EA had put into the game. During that time away from them, Gage and Meggie met and when I came back, I got a popup that said that Gage wanted Meggie to move in with him. So, okay, in she moved.

Over their time in the game, Gage has become an Astronaut and Meggie is an acclaimed Romance Writer. Gage also has a lifetime want to have three Visa Points in three countries. We're in the process of working on that. Needless to say, they've also become rather rich. Meggie is also a perfect gardener and has planted every plant available in the game and takes them to the consignment shop to sell. Between that, her writing, his salary, and the money he gets adventuring, they have a boatload of the stuff.

Above, is Gage with baby Grant, and Hamilton and Meggie. Birthday time for Grant.

Hamilton's a pretty terrific kid and he really likes his brother. Meggie has red hair, Gage and Hamilton brown, I'm still trying to figure out where the black hair for Grant came from since Gage and Meggie are first generation for the genetics.

Okay, I love the read to kids ability in the game, and I've found if you do it enough, you can really give a head start on their future.

Hamilton reading in bed. Hamilton's a genius and a virtuoso just to name a couple of his traits. Seriously, he's the kind of kid I would have hated in school, and once he becomes a teenager, which you'll see eventually, he's even more "one of those kids." He's rich, handsome, talented and really well liked. Also with Late Night the game gave him one celebrity point - apparently teenagers can be celebrities even if their parents aren't.

Meggie and Grant.

I told him to sit there while I was waiting for someone to go to the bathroom so they could go out to eat. You'd think he was telling me to shove it, wouldn't you?

Just a cute dad and son picture.

A better picture of Hamilton. He has his dad's looks, but his mom's bright green eyes.

I just love the family fun things to do. Hamilton's tossing a baseball with a neighboring kid, Gage is reading to Grant and Meggie's barbecuing.

Another day, but this one's here because of Hamilton on the trampoline. It's a favorite in the family.

Grant liked to do this autonomously.

Another Grant birthday. I was experimenting with Meggie's hair - this did not last long after this picture was taken.

One of the first things Grant did when he grew to a child.

TV watching time, don't think Grant's too happy with Hamilton talking through the show.

No explanation for these, they're just pretty pictures.

Read more!

The Ward Family, Part 2

Ah, my all-time favorite part of this game, adventuring. Yes, I do believe in many ways World Adventures is my favorite expansion. But that's because it combines my two favorite things: adventure games and The Sims.

Beware, pictures galore of one trip Gage took to Egypt.

Typos, you gotta love them. Notice the second to the last sentence:

"A fee paid in Simoleons will be paid upon disbarment of the final trap." Yup, the lawyers are going to just toss that puppy out. :) We won't comment on the overuse of the word "paid" either.

Really should have given Gage the "Brave" trait. Every time he sticks his hand in one of those holes and comes back with creepy-crawlies he freaks. Fortunately, it doesn't stop him from sticking his hand back in. I have enough times something freaks him out and I have to have him meditate to drop the moodlet so he can move forward.

Zenport, it's really cool, actually. The best way to adventure is to start with China since it will give you everything you need to adventure in the most effective way. Zenporting allows a Sim to move around quite freely in and out of the tombs.

Wandering around that basement to "disbar" the traps. Note, traps are not always to easy to find.

"Ward, Gage Ward. Breaking and entering is my new pastime." Yup, you break into this office to get into that laptop.

Hey, Lara Croft never stripped to her swimsuit to traverse a puzzle. Maybe it would have kept her boots from being soggy.

Yup, Gage, this place was pretty cool, but gee, I'm sure you've been in other tombs - wait I know you have.

Pretty, but really, I'm not sure it's that impressive. There are neater places to be found in the three countries.

Good body skills really can come in handy. Gage is athletic, and I believe he's maxed out on body skills, but pushing walls can still be a challenge for him. At least, they don't seem to snap back and smash his hand any more.

As I said, always be on the look out for traps.

Hey, he's a Sim. Got to keep those social points up. So, a call home once the tent is set up in the tomb is imperative. Hope he has free overseas roaming charges.

This is an autonomous action when in Egypt.

However, in this case, I think there must be more than just water in that canteen since he took the swig after seeing this poor soul. Guy didn't even get the goodies before the tomb fell on him.

You can grab this hammer in China during an adventure and it's the only way to get past these boulders, so once again, it's a good idea to start with China.

Yup, he really did do this autonomous athletic trait move after breaking that boulder. Boys.

Whoops. See, I said always watch out for those traps. I missed this one and had him moving the statue from the wrong side.

An apple, a Shower in a Can and a tent for a good night's sleep and he'll be good as new. Since Meggie has perfect apples growing in her garden, I make sure Gage has a number of them before I send him on his adventuring ways. They're free, easy to make sure he has and when perfect do as well if not better than the dried food blocks you can get in the Market Place.

I think there are things in this EP that EA has excelled at. And the tombs are absolutely part of that.

What's an adventure game without something to shove/pull around? Add a maze, and you've got the perfect combo.

Yup, the man's scared to death of creepy-crawlies, but he'll stick his arm in a sarcophagus without thinking twice.

Back out of the tomb, and wow this looks like a great place to fish. He caught a mummy fish.

I love the lighting in this game.

The same table during the day this time. Gage is going home today. I actually took this picture because of the way the sand dunes are reflected in the glass, but it turns out I love his wistful look as though he's really starting to miss his family and wants to get home.

Thought I'd have Gage take a picture of the snake charmer.

Ah, yeah, and these are the results. Sometimes EA's just: "Huh?"

Lastly, there are a number of these "magic gnomes" that you find throughout the game. This is just a quick example of what they do. As far as I can tell, except for popping up in odd places and changing positions, I can find no real use for them. I should also mention, outside of moving the one from the table above because he's in the way when they grill, I never touch him.

Take care,
Lachesis

Next up: Scott Phury, Actor, and some initial impressions of Late Night. I'm getting ready to see about creating a Vampire, so we'll see where that goes. Also, I have lots and lots more pictures I've taken of the other families living in Sunset Valley.
Read more!

Been Gone Too Long

This picture is straight from the game. I just happened to look out the window when I was getting Sam Sekemoto up to get ready for school. It's the entire picture of what I've used for the banner.

I haven't been here in quite a while, but I've been playing TS3 quite regularly. I decided that since I see and run across interesting things and have fun with the game, I'd share it with anyone interested in TS3 or just Sims in general.

Unfortunately, I find legacy style storytelling to be boring for me to do and I prefer TS2 and all the hacks and custom content and poseboxes for my storytelling needs, so don't expect to see any real stories here.

But when I just sit down and play, that's when I break out TS3; and that is played without hacks and the only custom content I use is default skin replacements from: TummyZa at Garden of Shadows and Aikea Guinea at Club Crimsyn. I'm looking for a good default eye replacement. I have one I've begun using, but I'm still not 100% happy with it.

I do buy from the TS3 store - that's a bit of an expensive indulgence I just close my eyes and do. I know it's overly expensive and problem-prone (not the content, the site), but recently they've come up with the Daily Deal and I check that every day and pick up things usually at half price. Still expensive? Yeah most likely, especially when there's just the same kind of great custom content out there there's always been for free. But, honestly, for once I want to play without the hassle of cc that doesn't work, isn't compatible, the crazy long load times or whatever else I've faced in the past. This is my fun-time hobby and I keep it as simple as possible. :)

Originally, I was playing one family in a neighborhood because I like the idea of story progression within the NPC's but not with characters I'm playing. But I began to really miss my play characters interacting with each other and with Late Night coming out, I knew I'd hate it more. So recently I figured out that if I play four households on a seven day rotation leaving aging and story progression off for four of those days and turning it on for three, I could get the best of all worlds. So by the time I get back to a family, they have a limited number of days where they can be free to do something stupid. :) With that in mind, I moved my households from Riverview and Timbertown into Sunset Valley were they all live happily, if sometimes strangely, together.

Anyway, along the way, I've taken pictures of odd, strange and fun things that I've decided to finally put up. So following is some major picture spamage. I've divided it up into this and two other posts. This one includes a few shots from my longest playing, but fewest pictures family Gage and Meggie Ward. If you're wondering what happened to Sireta, I'm afraid she was deleted in a fit of must start over frenzy.

Following along shortly will be pictures from playing Yuri and Leta's house and then my private eye, Mack Stone, who seems to have a ton of pictures.

Eventually, I'll put up pictures from Leighton and Kiku Sekemoto and their family, but for some reason, I don't have anything from them, and I know they do crazy stuff.

I've also added for download Mack Stone and Kiku.

As you'll see, I've added Ambitions to my game and I will be getting Late Night as soon as it comes out. I don't have the stuff pack, however, and I don't plan to get the next one either. I do hope to be a bit better at keeping this site up and running with the odd picture or download here and there than I have been to date.

Hope you enjoy what I've stuck here and get a chuckle or two. Maybe someday I might even try to tell a small story, but at this point in time, that's doubtful. TS2 takes all my time and imagination for that.

Take care,
Lachesis

Gage Ward is an astronaut who's lifetime desire is to have three visas in all three vacation spots. The beautiful pictures you can get from World Adventures never ceases to amaze me.

The game actually decided that Gage should marry Meggie. While I was off playing Leighton, they apparently became friends and fell in love. I thought a private wedding on the beach would be perfect, and it made for some beautiful pictures.

Gage and his son Hamilton. I pick names by randomly sticking my finger into a name book.

One game benefit I discovered very much by accident with Gage. Early on he was repairing his boss' stereo and he was shocked once, but since he didn't seem to be suffering any serious damage I told him to continue. Well, next thing I knew, the Grim Reaper showed up, and the poor guy was a ghost. I was so shocked and trying to figure out if I should go back or just continue playing I didn't get any pictures, then suddenly Gage was no longer a ghost and a popup came from the Grim Reaper thanking Gage for the flower. WTF? He had no flowers in his inventory. I started looking and that's when I learned about the death flower. Apparently, the seed he'd picked up at the cemetery was a death flower seed, and that was all he needed.

Now, he carries a death flower with him wherever he goes. :)

More later...
Read more!