Hey all, thanks for your comments and feedback on my last post! I’ve decided to go with the Tamo eyes and skins. The Aikea Guinea ones were great, but it was time for a change.
Progress on the homes and families in Ely Corners is moving slowly but steadily. This past week I worked on a new family and their home, and also began a new home for the Deshannons (I decided that Doug is no longer the town’s farmer).
For the new family, I was inspired by Velvet’s jazz paintings and baufive’s Salvaged/Antiques set, so I created a jazz musician/music teacher/recording engineer/coffeeshop owner (Sims have to play mutiple roles in Ely Corners, since it’s such a tiny town) named Jerry Dufreyne, and his wife, a sculptor/painter/collector named Bianca. They have one child, a boy named Kitt, but I have a feeling they’ll have another kid at some point, since Jerry is Family-oriented.
Jerry Dufreyne
Bianca Dufreyne
Kitt Dufreyne (I keep wanting to call him “Ernie†for some reason)
I didn’t go with a 1920s Sears home for this family, since I thought the jazz paintings and antique furniture would look cool in a more “industrial†space. So they live in a renovated schoolhouse from about the turn of the century (not exactly industrial, but it has that vibe). I still haven’t worked out the chronology/history of my town, but in my mind, the schoolhouse was probably a town hall of sorts at first, back in 1900 or so when the town was just a few farmhouses and a general store.
The old schoolhouse/town hall – now the Dufreyne residence
In that last pic you can see Jerry playing his stand-up bass outside. It bugs me that if there isn’t enough space in the house, Sims will just drag their instruments outside and play in the yard. In their underthings.
I do like that instruments are portable, because it’s nice to have street musicians and such, but if I place an instrument in a house and not in inventory, I wish it would just stay in the house. Anyway, minor grump.
What really caused a problem was that Jerry dragging his bass outside glitched him, apparently, because after putting it away, he couldn’t move.
I ended up using the “moveobjects on†cheat to put him back into the house, but he kept having routing issues. Later on, when he was playing his bass outside again, I saw the Deshannons across the street and thought I might as well have Jerry meet them. Well, he got stuck again and couldn’t even leave his lot. He had contracted Sims2-itis!
’
As you can see, Bianca could leave with no problem. Poor Jerry!
I switched over to the Deshannon house, using the “Make Active (Dreamcatcher)†option of Twallan’s Story Progression, which is awesome because you can just click on another lot and make them active without having to go through all of that Edit Town rigamarole.
The Deshannons weren’t at home but were standing around in the lot next door, which I had designated as a local watering hole because I planned on putting the pub there. Since there’s nothing there, however, they all just stood around looking like ninnies.
After I made them active, they came to life a little bit but were still on the empty community lot. I thought making Jerry inactive might cause him to reset or something and quit having route failure, but he kept on waving and shrugging across the way.
I ended up moving the Dufreynes out of their house, deleting that version of them, and then moving the binned copy of them back into the house. I also deleted the stand-up bass, so Jerry is no longer a bassist, at least not at home (I’ll probably put one in his recording studio/school/coffeeshop). Instead, he plays piano, because even though they’re also portable, Sims have enough room to play them indoors. Yay.
Here are just some random pics from playing this fun family (I kind of like that my Sims don’t have any jobs or school for the moment).
In this first one, I had seated the family in the living room so I could snap some pics, but they were all startled by the doorbell ringing. I don’t remember ever seeing a whole family freak out about the doorbell before…it was weird. Well, Bianca stayed calm, but Jerry and Kitt practically jumped out of their skins.
Since I haven’t worked out school yet, here’s Kitt practicing his writing. Since there is no computer in the house, he’s using Buzzler’s Scribbling Pad. I like that it looks like he’s doing homework! In the background, his dad is studying up on Handiness.
Here’s Bianca sculpting a chair in clay. I turned what would have been the dining room into her studio since the sculpting station takes up so darned much space.
My Sims eat a lot of “Quick Meals†when I’m just messing around with them like this, because cooking takes too long, so here are Jerry and Kitt eating cereal for breakfast. I think Jerry is longing for a fancier meal…sorry, buddy.
This is just a random “decorating†shot of the living room (and the TV room beyond):
I’ve been killing off paparazzi and tourists when they show up, using Twallan’s Master Controller, because I don’t really want any Sims in town that aren’t mine (although I’ll have to relax that rule and allow mailmen/paper delivers, I think). I’ve installed Shimrod’s No Tourists/Paparazzi mod, so hopefully no more will generated. I am being a total control freak with this town! I also killed the magician that showed up, as he has no reason for existing. I found an interesting note about magicians – apparently EA had plans for them which didn’t pan out, but they left them in the game anyway. Perhaps they’ll serve a purpose in a future patch/expansion, but I’m not really holding my breath on that one.
And here is my snooty rich family, the Chapeltons, just standing around that empty community lot. At least they brought books to read. Even the mailman has joined in. I really need to build that pub so my poor inactive families will have something to do when I’m not playing them…
That’s it for now…I’m working on the Deshannons’ new home, so I’ll probably post that in the next day or so. And I need to build the Chapeltons’ homes (there will probably be two or three of thouse). And the pub. And the recording studio/coffeeshop. And…I’ll be busy with Ely Corners for quite some time.
Jen another glorious read. I really love your writing like and I like to read aboutt he goings on in the town you are creating.
I also have a question, I am using Tamo’s faces too and I was wondering if you are using any bodies to match? I am struggling to find some that do not leave that ugly line under the chin. Perhaps I will have to live with EA bodies unless you can point me in a better direction?
Did you try using “resetsim” on poor old Jerry to see if that helped with the routing issue?
Looking forward to more more more! xx
“Jen another glorious read. I really love your writing like and I like to read aboutt he goings on in the town you are creating.”
Hmmmm that should have read “writing style”. Had a dyslexic moment there and my head got ahead of my fingers. Whoops!
Heehee, I know how that goes! I use HystericalParoxysm’s body skins, and I really like them. I don’t see too much of a line under the chin, though I admit I haven’t examined all that closely. As for “resetsim”, I should have tried that, but I couldn’t remember how to do it. For all my fiddling around with the game, I am a bit technically impaired at times…heh. :) I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time.
*cautiously walks in*
Hi, Jen! I’ve been a lurker for awhile now, and I loved your posts since I found your blog in Oct. (I think). Then it dawned on me…maybe I should say something? D’oh! Anyway, Ely Corners looks fabulous, and Tamo’s skins look awesome. :)
Question: what video card do you have? I’m sure that’s a tiresome question for you, but I have to get a new card and whenever I look at your pics, I get major graphics envy. Thanks for answering! :)
Hi Cheezy, welcome and thanks for leaving a comment! My video card is an Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT, which I bought specifically to play Sims 3 since my original card was fried. It’s a year old at this point, though, and my textures get a little blurry sometimes, so I might be in the process of frying this one, too. :-/ Sims 3 seems to be pretty rough on graphics cards. I’ve been fairly happy with this card, but there’s probably something newer and better out there. :) This chart might be helpful: http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:System_Requirements/MTS2_Recommendations
By the way, your blog looks awesome!
That’s a great read! Giggled all the way through it! This is such an interesting project, I’m loving living vicariously through you with it. LOL
I was inspired by you and tried to re-do Barnacle Bay a couple nights ago. I got thoroughly p’d off with trying to move lots around, though, and having them actually work. Any new lots I placed in the town seem to either sink or rise when I place a home on them. :P How do you DO it without going NUTS??? LOL
Thanks, WebbyMom! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Sorry to hear about your frustrations with redoing Barnacle Bay — this game can be a major pain in the patootie sometimes, especially when we’re just trying to customize it to our liking! Arrgh. :-/ Not sure why you were having the sinking/rising problem — where were the lots coming from? Sims 3 seems to be very finicky about terrain….that’s one of the reasons I’m building my town from the ground up. It’s pretty time-consuming, though, and I do have my “going nuts” moments (like with Jerry getting stuck). So I don’t know, I guess this game just requires a lot of patience and persistence (not helpful, I know, LOL).
The lots were just lots from the same town. I was moving them out of the downtown area and into the countryside bits. I found no troubles on pre-existing vacant lots, just with vacant lots I’d put down to move homes onto.
However, since writing this morning, I found a trick I may try. If you place a lot and the whole thing raises up or sinks, you can type “SetImportedTerrainOffset [value]” into the cheat console, where “value” is positive to move one way and negative to move the other. I may try that in the future.
However, I think that what you’re doing is better – bulldoze and re-build from existing lots. Just not sure I have the patience (or time!) to do that, although the idea really appeals to me. :)
Interesting cheat! That is a good one to know about. Let me know if that works for you. I hear you on the patience thing…usually I can focus on one project for only so long before I get tired of it and move on to something else, so that’s why I’m starting very small in Ely Corners — probably only 10 families and half that many community lots. So far it’s working well — I’m not sick of it yet, anyway!
I love how this town is turning out, Jen. Didn’t realise that you’d bulldozed everything and were starting from scratch (or have I got that wrong?)! The school house conversion is wonderful, inside and out – and I can’t wait to see the watering hole when you finally build it – I imagine your sims feel the same way – *snigger*.
Thanks, Lily! You have that right, I loaded a completely empty Riverview template and am starting over from scratch. Filling up a whole Riverview is a daunting prospect, which is why I’m starting with just Ely Corners first! And I figure I’ll just expand it slowly from there. LOL on the watering hole…I need to get on that!
I know glitches are evil and one should not laugh, but the picture of Jerry waving after you switched families was too funny :D
Your building/decorating skills are amazing, do you intend to put these lots for download? I hope you do.
Hiya Ani! I was laughing at Jerry waving, too! Sometimes with glitches all you can do is laugh…otherwise we would cry. ;) Thanks so much for reading and for your kind words. Your blog is inspiring me a lot. I hadn’t planned on putting these lots up for download as they’re full of CC, but I might try to do CC-free or low-CC versions and put those up.
Jen – Thanks for the body skin link :) I have downloaded them and will try them out in the morning. Thanks for getting back to me.
Cool, lemme know how they work for you!
Jenba, sweet family, the Dufreynes (little Kit/Ernie is adorable!). I love that school house conversion and I’m glad you felt inspired by the paintings :). I like the ‘outside bass’ playing – lol! Too much, and yes, it is a pain.
Hmm, you and Lil’ have a serious bias against celebs and paparazzi *snickers* should make for some interesting sim deaths *cough* vanishings, in your town.
I’m really enjoying the tale of your town-in-progress and hope you continue. I’ll be coming back *no cameras or pads* attached (I’d hate to be disposed of).
Heehee. And thank you, Velvet! Those paintings are awesome. I plan on putting some of the others in the recording studio/coffee shop, too.
Ah, I remember ‘My Three Sons’! It used to be on in the mornings after Garfield (about 15 years ago, mind). They sure don’t make TV shows like that now. I dunno why, but when I saw the name of the family, I immediately thought ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ for some reason. Great update, Jen, and a belated Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and any other holiday I might have missed!
Hi Scally! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, too! :) I used to watch My Three Sons when it was on syndication in the 70s/80s. I couldn’t even tell you any of the storylines now but for some reason Ernie was imprinted on my brain. Guess I’ve always liked the nerd glasses… And heh on Shawshank — I’ve always loved the name Dufresne. (I had to change the spelling though so I wouldn’t be TOO much of a copycat. ;))
I like their home. For some reason, it reminds me of the clock tower from Back to the Future. ;O) Sorry to hear about Jerry’s issues though. Perhaps using the “reset sim” cheat would have fixed him?
Your sims look so board out in the community. Give them something to do, woman!
Also … that link you provided regarding the magician? It doesn’t work. :O(
Heh, I thought about the clocktower from BTTF, too — the one I used is very similar and is stuck at almost the same time as the one in the movie. I guess it was struck by lightning? ;) I fixed the magician link — thanks for catching that! I missed it when I was doublechecking my links.
As always, seeing a new post from you just lights up my day. I usually open it in a new tab, and finish all my other browsing, saving the best for last. I appreciate the tips and links you always put in, giving such great ideas for making the Sims fresh.
I hadn’t played a bit for 2 months. The best fun in Sims I ever had spawned from a 10 kid challenge so I’m doing one of those. I started in a population-less Sunset Valley that had been cribbed (MATY) and am using Twallan which populated my city lickety split. In Generation 2, I plan to take my chosen from the 10 kid challenge and do another challenge, perhaps that stupid one, I can never remember what its called, where you can only control one person in the household. I hope to have each generation do a different challenge.
My game likely looks eerily similar to yours now. I liked the skin/eyes so much I had to try them out for myself.
Gethane! Wow, I feel honored that you enjoy my blog so much. I’m basically just posting random stuff so I’m glad that you are getting something out of it! What you’re doing in Sunset Valley sounds awesome — what a great idea to do a different challenge each generation. Sounds like a good way to keep from getting bored with any one challenge. I think it’s the Surrounded by Idiots challenge where you only control one person — I remember enjoying that one in Sims 2. Hope you keep having fun with your game!
Hey! I’ve been reading your blog for a long time now, but I never commented… I don’t know why (:
But anyways, I absolutely love your blog and your houses. You have the most amazing decorating skills! Ely Corners look incredible. It even inspired me to try my hand at a town… I quickly gave up on that as my skills are, well, not great! But I love your blog.
Welcome, Anna! Aw, thanks so much for your comment, and I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog! Keep at it with your town and with building…my skills left something to be desired at first but I just keep working at it and looking to others for tips and inspiration.
Oh I love this. The story is so cute and funny and I’m really loving all the pictures. That one of them freaking out about the doorbell had me giggling bright and early in the morning. What a wonderful way to start the day.
Thank you, RD! That doorbell thing had me giggling, too. Silly Sims. :)
I love Jerry! he is so handsome! as always Jen you are great! <3
Aw…thanks, Lorna! :) I like Jerry, too…it’s harder to make male Sims look unique and attractive, I think. Mine all tend to look the same. Anyway, glad you like him!
I love the schoolhouse look of their home, very neat! That stinks that Jerry got glitched and couldn’t move though. :( I wonder if it’s because he went to the driveway both times? My current generation Fountleroy mom (and her daughter) play instruments and they usually run out onto one of their decks to play and never have any problems.
Ooo, I’ll have to remember to snag that scribbler pad. I hate that you need to have a computer to write, since they’re either crazy expensive or they break after 2 uses. *shakes her head*
I’ve never seen a magician in my game at all. And I’m up to generation 6 in the Fountleroys and gens 2 or 3 in my other families. *blinks*
I look forward to seeing the other homes in Ely Corners!
I’ve only seen the Magician appear on almost empty worlds, oddly enough. There was one who showed up in Plumbridge when I had only one Sim living there. Very strange. And yeah, that scribbling pad is pure awesome!