(Quick note: As you can see, I’ve switched over to a different WordPress theme. I haven’t figured out how to get my “Recent Comments” working again, but otherwise I think everything is here. I liked my old template quite a bit but wanted to update to something more recent and also make my archives/categories easier to navigate — they now show the posts as excerpts instead of full posts, and there are five per page instead of one. Anyway, let me know if anything looks weird or wonky or if you’re just having a bad day and need a cookie.)
Work continues on Plumbridge Island in little bits and pieces. Building lots and creating Sims in between tinkering with Create-a-World breaks up the tedium somewhat. Plus it helps me to develop the atmosphere of my world a bit more. So over the past week I’ve been working on the Royal Palace, home of the Mittendorf family. I’m still not done with all of the decorating, but I’ve finished the exterior and most of the landscaping. Much like the Plum Point Lighthouse, the Palace is one of the major landmarks of my world, so it was extremely satisfying to see it take shape.
As you can see in the first pic, I overdid the foliage a bit, but I wanted to convey a sense of mystery and privacy. The trees get in the way when I’m playing though, so some of them might have to go. It’s too bad, because I love me some trees!
I didn’t plan very well for a big backyard, so I put the swimming pool in the front of the house (hence the need for so much privacy in the front yard). You can see a little glimpse of it beyond the fountain.
Here’s the palace “garage”. Since cars are banned on Plumbridge Island (except for service vehicles), it holds only bicycles, one for each member of the household. The royal family should really have their own horse and carriage combo, but since those don’t exist yet, they’ll have to provide their own locomotion.
Since there isn’t a mod that I know of which will force Sims to ride bike all of the time (like in Shang Simla), I figure I’ll just have to make sure every resident of the island is assigned to a bicycle as their preferred mode of transportation. I’m sure I’ll still see taxis and cars motoring around town, but hopefully not too much.
Here’s the back of the house, which needs a bit more furniture, but allows you to see more of the cool roof pieces by Goggalor as well as the handy-dandy clocktower roof by Cyclonesue, part of a nice FREE set which I will also be using on my town hall.
And now for the royal family! I had a blast creating these guys and can’t wait to play them.
Here’s His Serene Highness Roth, Sovereign Prince of Plumbridge. He has No Sense of Humor, as evidenced in the above pic, but he gives me fun facial expressions sometimes. I really enjoy his “we are not amused by how amusing you are” look:
His wife, Princess Yvonne:
Their teenaged son and daughter, Prince George and Princess Daphne. I liked Daphne’s little prim way of sitting; it’s too bad her hands are melding with her dress.
Here’s a close-up of Princess Daphne, the elder of the two:
And a close-up of Prince George:
They have a little sister, Princess Claire, who, unlike her stoic father, has a Good Sense of Humor.
And where would any royal family be without their servants? Here’s Quincy Renaud, their bodyguard, sometimes butler, and sometimes handyman:
And this is his mother, Alberta, the housekeeper and cook:
Well, that’s it for now. This weekend I plan on placing more lots and trees, and maybe doing some more building. Or maybe I’ll just run Felix around France. Or play Simsville, which you should really check out if you are into Sims 1 nostalgia!
Happy Simming! :-)
Intriguing! You’re so good at this sorta thing, jenba. I’m really liking your royal palace. And the royal family are all good looking sims … especially the prince. *wiggles eyebrows*
But you’ve been quiet in LL lately! Where ya been?!?!?!
Ange!!! It’s great to see ya. :-) I haven’t been in LL lately because I’m locked out for some reason. I’ve e-mailed EO and she’s not sure why. So who knows what’s going on. But I haven’t been able to access it for months. :-( I miss you guys! Hope all is well with you and that you’re having fun with whatever you’re doing! E-mail me if I’m missing anything big over there…haha.
A short time ago we all found out that if you don’t use a certain web address, none of us could get into LL. Did she give you the direct address?
Hm, she e-mailed me the link, and when I clicked on that link, I couldn’t get in. So maybe it was the wrong one? Can you send me an e-mail with the right one?
Oh, this looks amazing! Wonderful to see some more of your Sims too. I love Roth…those facial expressions are classic!
Their palace is stunning. It’s a shame you might have to remove some trees but I’m sure it will still look lovely.
Thanks so much, Carla! It’s too bad the trees aren’t a little more transparent during gameplay, but then I suppose it’d be a pain to get the right angle for pictures — they’d keep disappearing! Ah well. :-)
Wow, what a brilliant house Jen, I can’t wait to see what you do with the interior! I always love your style and just quietly: you can NEVER have too much foliage! :)
Hehe all inspired by your CAW attempts I decided to give it yet another go… first time I actually made a section of land halfaway decent, so I try to go into edit in game… crash! (well actually I’m not sure it was a crash, I might just have to wait a veeeeerrry long time for it to load, but that time is longer than I can be bothered with). So yes, I failed. Again :(
On the plus side I am consoling myself with making a custom rabbit hole school and living vicariously through your hood building attempts :D
Got the e-mail update for this entry too (yey!).
Hey Linda!! I had that some problem with Edit-in-Game — it’s not the speediest thing to boot up (I could never wait long enough for mine to do so). But LunarFox advised me to remove my Dccache folder from My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 before opening CAW. I tried that and EIG ran like a dream. However, I didn’t have the custom content I wanted, so I ended up just exporting my world and building that way. (Note that you have to put the Dccache folder back in place before playing your game if you want your CC to show up.) That way I can create my families and put them in their houses, and also take pictures of my world more easily. When I’m done with my bout of building, I copy the buildings/families into the bin and uninstall my world so it’s ready for the next iteration. This has worked well so far. So you didn’t fail, it’s just that darned Edit-in-Game!
Here’s a really helpful thread for CAW-related stuff: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/152074.page I usually avoid the official boards, but the CAW folks who post there are really helpful and doing some brilliant, inspiring things.
Ooh, a custom rabbit hole school? I would love to hear more about that! I’ve been wanting to build one of those myself. Have you seen the new school set at ATS?
Daphne’s pose makes me so jealous. They really improved that natural kind of look while sitting in TS3.
The family and the villa are spectacular. So perfect. Thanks for letting us have a peek into your cool game.
Hi Francesca! Thanks for the nice comment. I agree, I like the way they look when they’re sitting in TS3, especially when they cross their legs like that. (Prince Roth was doing it, too!) But some of the other animations are just wacked out and not natural at all (like when they roll their eyeballs back into their skulls). I avoid taking pics of those. :-p
Nice! One again, your building talent leaves me speechless, and in awe of your patience. I always get about halfway through building some mega-gargantuan thing that I think will look cool, and then I get frustrated with it and/or can’t be bothered decorating it.
Your building and decorating skills will forever make me jealous! And the royal family looks quite nice. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of my sims sit like Daphne, so I may have to get around to updating my game/AwesomeMod and get back to playing a bit. :)
Oh wow! I am just so in awe of your building skills! I love the outside of the building. I wish you didn’t have to remove any of the trees. They help make the place look so stately.
Your sims are so handsome. There’s so much character in their faces but they still look very realistic and so appealing. Princess Yvonne is one beautiful sim.
Your royal family looks awesome ! And you clearly have a taste for decorating and mixing colours !
I sent you an email. Did you get it?
Nope, not yet. But I can get into LL now! I’ll send you a message from there.