It is never a bad time to play The Sims 3 [SSLP]
So Let's Play it.
Ah, town selection. One nice but ultimately tricky thing about Sims 3's expansions is that each comes with its own town with specialized lots that let you take full advantage of the features in said expansion. The problem with that, however, is that they generally cater ONLY to that expansion.
There's some crossover, mind you - Appaloosa Plains here is the town that came with Pets (as indicated by the bone pond), and junkyards and fire stations show up here and in a handful of other towns if you have Ambitions installed. This is true of a few other lots, but most of the time you end up having to place the lots you need yourself if you're not playing the town that came with the expansion they're from. We'll be using a customized version of Sunset Valley, the base game's town, customized to cater to every expansion.
Now we get to play what I can only describe as a fusion of hidden object game and Sims 3 object vocabulary lesson while the game loads.
Finding stuff nets you some Lifetime Reward Points, which you can spend on permanent upgrades for your Sim as well as a handful of other things. Points are good!
Each save is effectively an instance of one of the game's towns. As such, the game has to do quite a bit of loading when you're starting fresh in a town, allowing us to earn points hand over fist. 1,250 isn't really much in the grand scheme of things, but we'll at least be able to get our first reward a little faster.
I had to go to the title screen to get a few screenshots, so I got to hoard more points on the loading screen. Not a bad haul.
Title drop!
Ah, now here's the meat of the game, eh? We're only going to be making one Sim to start, just so we can stay focused on things and because we are NOT going to give half of our hard-earned loading screen bonus points to some other Sim.
We're gonna start off mundane, but nothing's stopping us from becoming a mystical, magical being, nor bumping uglies with one and having a weird baby as a result. Or just getting one to move in with us.
This is where you come in! Our Sim needs a name, gender, and appearance. Those sliders on the bottom indicate our Body Weight, Muscle Size and Muscle Definition, so it would be most helpful to include those. If you know what's available in the game, great! If you don't, that's fine too. Either way, describe what you want our Sim to look like I'll do my best to create something like it.
Our Sim is also going to need an Everyday, Formal, Sleep, Athletic, Swimwear and Outerwear outfit.
Perhaps more important than that is our Sim's personality, which includes Traits, Favorites, and a Lifetime Wish. We're not going to worry about the Lifetime Wish for now, though.
Traits can be blessings, curses, quirks or just plain gimmicks. Some are arguably more interesting than others, but they all dictate the Sim's behavior and desires in life. Suggest up to five, please. A full list of traits can be found here.
Ah, Favorites. These are mostly just for flavor. Eating our favorite food will give us a buff to our happiness, as will listening to our favorite music.
Brace yourself for a list! A Sim's favorite food can be Autumn Salad, Cheesesteak, Cobbler, Cookies, Dim Sum, Fish and Chips, French Toast, Fruit Parfait, Goopy Carbonara, Grilled Cheese, Grilled Salmon, Hamburger, Hot Dog, Key Lime Pie, Lobster Thermidor, Mac and Cheese, Ratatouille, Pancakes, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Spaghetti, Stu Surprise, Sushi, Tri-Tip Steak, Waffles, Crepes, Egg Rolls, Falafel, Frogs Legs, Shawarma, Stir-Fry, Cheeese Tofu Steak, Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich, Spaghetti with Veggie Sauce, Tofu Dog, Tri-Tip Tofu Steak, Vegetarian Dim Sum, Vegetarian Fish and Chips, Vegetarian Grilled Salmon, Vegetarian Sushi, Veggie Burger, Vegetarian Lobster Thermidor, Aloo Masala Curry, Ceviche, Chili Con Carne, Firecracker Shrimp, Firecracker Tofu, Mushroom Omelette, Porcini Risotto, Potato and Truffle Torte, Vegetarian Chili, or Pumpkin Pie.
A Sim's favorite music can be Classical, Electronica, Indie, Kids, Latin, Pop, Chinese, Egyptian, French, Roots, Soul, Rockabilly, Hip-Hop, Country Music, Dark Wave, Disco, Rap, Rock, Geek Rock, Beach Party, Island Life, Epic, Spooky, Western, or DigiTunes.
These are colors. What can I say?
Since this thread is starting on June 26, our Sim's astrological sign is Cancer. This has a slight effect on romance, but it's not really important.
In closing, we need to figure out our Sim's name, gender, appearance, outfits and personality. Go ahead and provide as many or as few of these if you like.
Anyway, post among yourselves. I'm gonna rack up some more points.
Last edited by Lizard Wizard on Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
I think for the moment, I'll keep my vote simple. I'm voting for black hair and to have Easily Impressed as one of our personality traits.
Edit: I may as well vote for freckles as well. Those have a serious disadvantage in sim genetics.
Edit: I may as well vote for freckles as well. Those have a serious disadvantage in sim genetics.
Last edited by The Flying Twybil on Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
Name: Yaoi Mandel
Gender: male
appearance: kinda like howie mandel, but with blue anime hair, and some cool sunglasses
outfits: hmm, give him a track suit for one of the outfits
traits: supernatural fan, over-emotional, Neat, loser
food: cobbler
music : spooky
color: purple
nice thread liz wiz!
Gender: male
appearance: kinda like howie mandel, but with blue anime hair, and some cool sunglasses
outfits: hmm, give him a track suit for one of the outfits
traits: supernatural fan, over-emotional, Neat, loser
food: cobbler
music : spooky
color: purple
nice thread liz wiz!
Whoops, just realized I forgot to include a trait list! That might be useful, so it's in the OP and also in the punctuation at the end of this sentence.
Name: Hyacinth Pines
Gender: Female
Look: Brown hair with green highlights, let you pick the rest.
Outfits: looks like someone that goes outdoors a lot, gets dirty. Sturdy looking clothes that fit the weather.
Music: Roots
Color:Green
Traits: Clumsy, green thumb, born loves the outdoors, natural cook, and vegetarian.
Gender: Female
Look: Brown hair with green highlights, let you pick the rest.
Outfits: looks like someone that goes outdoors a lot, gets dirty. Sturdy looking clothes that fit the weather.
Music: Roots
Color:Green
Traits: Clumsy, green thumb, born loves the outdoors, natural cook, and vegetarian.
Name: Nobunaga Oda
Gender: Female
Look: Long black hair and red eyes, slim
Outfits: Newsboy caps and military-looking outfits
Music: Rock
Color: Red
Traits: Adventurous, Ambitious, Charismatic, Dramatic, Evil
Gender: Female
Look: Long black hair and red eyes, slim
Outfits: Newsboy caps and military-looking outfits
Music: Rock
Color: Red
Traits: Adventurous, Ambitious, Charismatic, Dramatic, Evil
Name: Lay Potatohead
Gender: Male
Appearance: Lumpy and potato-like, i.e. like most other Sims in this game but moreso; bald, with pale skin like a peeled potato; beady eyes
Outfits: Brown and frumpy
Color: Brown
Music: Roots
Traits: Couch Potato, Gatherer, Green Thumb, Irresistible, Loves the Cold
Food: Potato and Truffle Torte
Lean into the game's aesthetic.
Gender: Male
Appearance: Lumpy and potato-like, i.e. like most other Sims in this game but moreso; bald, with pale skin like a peeled potato; beady eyes
Outfits: Brown and frumpy
Color: Brown
Music: Roots
Traits: Couch Potato, Gatherer, Green Thumb, Irresistible, Loves the Cold
Food: Potato and Truffle Torte
Lean into the game's aesthetic.
We should have an easily impressed hopeless romantic who loves the outdoors, so they can fall in love with everybody they meet, sit outside their true love's house and stare longingly at them. Possibly also Virtuoso for serenading the true love, although I'm willing to settle for showing up with a boombox by their window.
Sometimes, you just have a real winner of an idea from the start. Using my memories and the tools in front of me, I set out to create the spitting image of a mid-80s Howie Mandel of magic and mystery. Might change the name, though...dfkg wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:11 amName: Yaoi Mandel
Gender: male
appearance: kinda like howie mandel, but with blue anime hair, and some cool sunglasses
outfits: hmm, give him a track suit for one of the outfits
traits: supernatural fan, over-emotional, Neat, loser
food: cobbler
music : spooky
color: purple
nice thread liz wiz!
I have never seen Howie Mandel in my life.
He's not quite a loser and not quite insane, but it wouldn't be Howie without ADHD, right?
I'm keeping the wish rather generic. The only thing that's for sure is that Yaoi Mandel is going places. Hmm...Mandel? Yaoi Mandel?
YES.
This seems adequately shitty.
Holy shit.
Yup, those are some ghosts all right. Do your thing, Yaoi.
Yaoi's thinking about how he wants to be a journalist.
There we go.
House is haunted, better check the stove
Oh, fuck that. We're not going to college today. I murder her with mod commands. It'll probably be fine.
Howie wants to learn to write, among other things.
Wait, what's this stuff by the gravestones?
Neat!
...who the fuck?
Nah, I think I like these ghosts. Well, the one in the cowboy hat at least.
The other one just kinda...leaks everywhere, but they're a package deal unless someone knows how to get rid of only some of them.
Oh, great, it's the welcoming committee. This is embarassing.
Really? This is when you decide to spawn the time portal, game?
Yaoi's getting on great with the neighbors. He wants to make friends with SOMEONE, and he wants to befriend a supernatural being. Luckily, I know how to crack this guy wide open.
Good.
Immediately after this, Yaoi got the inexplicable urge to take a photo.
Hey, there's a swingset next door. Good to know.
THERE'S A SWINGSET NEXT DOOR!
Hmm, something just occurred to me. I think blue ghosts are the ones that leave puddles everywhere. Is our pal...?
Oh wow, yup.
This seems like the best use of our loading screen bonus bounty, then. Yaoi even gets a few points out of mopping, since cleaning something was one of his wants.
Don't mind me, just grinding on this ghost a little.
I decide it might be a good idea to try and entice the ghost into even more conversation with some food. No fire, thankfully.
Aha, I was right! The ghostly form of Esteban seems to be attracted by our piping hot-
Oh, well okay then.
Don't mind me, just spiffing up the kitchen a bit.
A precious gem should grease the wheels of friendship, especially for an Easily Impressed sim!
A few hours of good clean fun later, and the friendship pops. Yaoi has earned some rest.
Aww.
While Yaoi sleeps, I make a few alterations to the living room and kitchen. The computer is necessary for pursuing Writing, and the stereo plays rock music.
Good morning, Yaoi. Go learn to fucking write.
Finally.
Among more trivial things, Yaoi wants to join the Writer career and pen a novel.
Joining the Writer career is a simple matter of filling out some paperwork at City Hall. What I didn't know at the time is that this has no benefits to speak of. It doesn't even have a weekly stipend or add to our royalties if we do get a book published.
Since Yaoi's been good, I let him visit the Summer Festival in the park to celebrate.
wait, is that-
Oh, hell yes.
Got a lizard!
Small animals have a tendency to escape if kept in Sims' pockets for too long, though, so it's time to go home and get this bad boy into a terrarium post-haste.
Good job, stinky.
Yaoi watches the lizard, and the lizard watches back. Maybe we should give him a name.
What good pals they make.
Okay, back you go. That's enough bonding for now.
This is when I realize that the Writer career does basically nothing, so we're going Magician. It seems pretty on-brand for our mirror universe Howie Mandell, after all.
Doesn't mean we can't write, though, especially since we've already put in the time to get a skill point in it. What are we gonna do, NOT write a shitty sci-fi novel?
After a few hours of that, I have Yaoi try to practice his magic tricks, but the game seems to be bugged and Yaoi
can't find the room to do it no matter where we try it.
And suddenly, at the end of day 2, Yaoi finds himself adrift on the waters of indecision. Will writing alone be enough to pay the bills? Can we possibly be trusted to randomly stumble into spending money if it isn't?
Oh hey. Newspaper.
Sweet. We have a job now, and it looks like we'll be in pretty good shape for a promotion. Beyond that, though, what else should Yaoi's goals be, whether short-term or long-term? Adopting another craft, perhaps, whether it be a fine art or something more bizarre like alchemy or inventing? Should he, shall we say, attempt to get his love on? Or something entirely different?
Fire away with your suggestions and tune in next time for the continuing adventures of Yaoi Handel.
Absolutely learn anything and everything occult. Also attempt cooking as often as possible.
Yaoi should try to become as supernatural as possible. Vampire-werewolf-fairy-warlock go!
I vote for doing this, in by which I mean heading to some public place to mingle. See if we can find ourselves a werewolf or vampire to start.Grumpy Turtle wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2020 5:14 pmYaoi should try to become as supernatural as possible. Vampire-werewolf-fairy-warlock go!
Edit: Let's also bring along our ghost friend!
Really? Damn. I guess Yaoi will need to get roommates of all types then. He should also try to become a warlock, because stage magic just isn't enough.
Ah, damn, I forgot about that. I know using mods and hacks you can definitely mix up life states though.
I still say we find a place to mingle to meet some more supernaturals.
I still say we find a place to mingle to meet some more supernaturals.
Just a fair warning, folks, but today’s update is gonna be a long one!
Before we go any further, it’s important that we cover a few things I glossed over initially. First off are Wants. Some people may claim that they’re supposed to be called Wishes, but these people can be safely ignored. They are Wants.
It is important to understand the anatomy of the Want Grid if we are to understand how to capitalize on Wants. Any number of passing fancies will queue up in the top portion, known as the Wanna Box. For example, “I wanna learn the writing skill.”
By left-clicking on such a passing fancy we can shunt it to the Gonna Quadrant, where it will occupy one of our four squares until we accomplish or give up on our dreams. In this way, our previous example becomes “I’m gonna learn the writing skill.” Make your sim do the thing, and hey presto, you’ve got some points in the bank! Carrying out your sim’s Wants is the key to making them OP as fuck, and a little happier along the way too!
Starting in Sims 3, sims get moodlets from any number of objects, interactions, happenings or environmental circumstances, which have a positive or negative effect on our Mood, measured by that thing on the left what looks like a personal massager. They also offer some nice flavor text, honestly. I call them buffs and debuffs just as often as I call them moodlets.
Stack positive moodlets and your sim will be more succcessful at their career, as well as building skills faster. If you’ve got a high enough Mood score that the business end of the massager-looking gauge is filled, your sim will passively generate Lifetime Happiness Points.
It’s important to know how to prevent negative moodlets, but that’s really something that just comes with far too much experience. The moral of the story is take care of your sim and be lucky, and you’ll be in good shape.
All of this is to say that mood, along with reaching certain skill levels, is important to earning promotions at work. Yaoi’s job doesn’t start until tomorrow, though, so more on that later.
nice clipping, idiot
With no car to our name, we travel by taxi. It beats walking, I guess.
It’s worth noting that, for whatever reason, The Sims 3 refuses to acknowledge newer graphics cards. It’s a known and apparently fairly widespread issue, and I cannot be bothered to do the copious text editing that would actually be needed to fix it. In short, the game runs like shit at times, and when we hurtle across town into another lot it can take a WHILE to load things in.
That’s better.
Yaoi’s first order of business is to chat up this lady, for some reason. It doesn’t really go anywhere, but at some point Yaoi senses the full moon and freaks out, which is...certainly a thing that happens. It’s worth noting that a full moon gives all sims a +40 moodlet, so that’s nice.
It’s always a good idea to check the stock at the alchemy store daily, as unique stuff tends to pop up. The Bottled SimBot Converter is tempting, but seeing as it would stop Yaoi from breeding, it’s a non-starter.
I opt for an entry-level alchemy skill book that ends up languishing in Yaoi’s inventory for roughly two weeks and counting. But what’s that over there?
I’m sure that’s fine.
Neat!
In the base game, the only way to get gems cut was via paying a mail-in service. The gemcutter lets you cut out the middleman AND the fee for the low, low price of 975 Simoleons, or in Yaoi’s case, the low, low price of going to the alchemy store. Every cut gives us some gem dust, too.
We’ll unlock more gem cuts to cut gems into as we cut more gems with the gemcutter, but for right now we just have the plain jane emerald cut. I opt to save the Vampire’s Eye for when we have more options.
Oh hey, I’ve seen those before. Never used one, though.
hrrg loading
“Hmm...money.”
Yeah, that’s zombies for ya. They come out of the woodwork on full moons to be a general nuisance and can apparently turn other sims into zombies for 48 hours, but I’ve never seen the latter happen.
We make our way into the club, which, uh...sucks? Yeah, sucks is the word I’d use. There’s nobody around, despite the game insisting this is a “Hotspot”.
This kid believes this is a safe and secluded spot to do his homework. That’s how dead it is here.
Yaoi goes home and feeds his pet lizard, displaying more joy and wonderment than he did at the club before crashing into bed.
Usually a sim will sleep until their energy is full, but if you have a job it’ll automatically jostle them awake two hours before work.
The carpool always arrives an hour before work and your sims will always try to hop in the moment it arrives, but you can let the damn thing wait until the last minute if you really need to eat like Yaoi here.
The tight timing of it all leaves us no time to stack any buffs, and it makes us late, but not by much. The only real consequence of this is our job performance taking a minor hit, and since it’s our first day it’s empty anyway, so big whoop.
Oof. Thanks for reminding me to adjust sim lifespans, game.
You can shift your sim into one of several gears while at work, which I think are all fairly self-explanatory. I opt for the one that will let us make some friends.
Free job performance? Of course we’ll take it!
At some point in the workday we are interrupted by a flowery little jingle to tell us that we have met someone the game deems us to be compatible with. Cool.
Aaaaaaaaand by the end we’ve left with some dollars in our pocket and a debuff on our soul.. Funnily enough, I always thought this one was just caused by working at all, but I guess the description wasn’t ham-handed enough for my deafening intellect.
We spend a little time cashing in mundane tasks for good boy points,
jazz up the computer desk a bit, and
oh
Fucko here wakes up starving at midnight, so I put on some of his favorite music.
Fitting. Yaoi wants to improve his cooking skill as a result of this failure, which is pretty cute.
The morning is still young, so we crack open our job book. Yaoi seems to find it riveting, getting the Entertained moodlet as his fun levels climb.
It even digivolves into a stronger version of itself since we’re having so goddamn much fun. The duration of both of these buffs extends the longer your sim is having fun to a maximum of eight hours, so it’s actually a pretty darn good idea to have your little dude or dudette blast video games into their eyes before work.
Brushing your teeth isn’t the most powerful buff, but every little bit helps that performance bar go up.
As does completing opportunities!
We’re still falling short in the skill department, though, but we easily put a dent in that at work and manage to polish off that last bit of progress as soon as we get home. Promotion, here we come!
There’s a little green outline around our co-worker, and if memory serves, that means…
Ah-ha!
The ol’ daily grind can lead to some uneventful days in The Sims, particularly when it’s a one-sim household. Jobs are goddamn time vampires in this game.
Yaoi’s hard work finally pays off, though, and we reward him with a bedder bed. In addition to not being a heinous piece of shit, the higher energy rating on this bed means sleeping won’t take up quite as much time.
After work I punt Yaoi over to the alchemy store and he ends up meeting a vampire, but he’s clearly got other things on his mind, like sticking his dick in a fairy.
I’m starting to hate these ghosts.
As a complete side note, never trust the time estimate the game gives while sleeping. Sims are absolute weenies about sleep and will invariably linger for far too long even once their energy is full, so just cancel that shit.
Case in point.
Oh, dear. Yaoi’s going to take a bit of a hit to his mood for the next few days, which is fine because it’s the weekend.
We also nab a handy, dandy flying vacuum. Sure, it’s silly, but it’s also a ridiculously fast vehicle.
I decide to drag Yaoi out to the park in hopes of meeting some spooktacular types, but no such luck.
Doesn’t stop us from getting a tan, though.
Desperate for thrills, chills and spills, I decide to send Yaoi into the catacombs at the local graveyard for a bit.
Neat! We won’t be able to plant this unless we get to level 7 in the gardening skill, but it’s bound to be something good.
Sun rises, sun sets.
A ghost wakes us up at 1am, so I have Yaoi be a good Yaoi and work on his writing.
There’s no better day than a day off to socialize, so we attempt to invite Victoria over.
Yeeeeeeeeah, we’re gonna need to cultivate our relationship a little bit more.
Fine. We’ll check out a park instead. It’s wildly uninteresting and we immediately go home. The Sims 3, everybody!
A good chunk of time is spent chatting Victoria up on the phone.
With his cooking slightly improved, I decide to have Yaoi feed himself a pot of goopy carbonara, just a few rungs up the pasta ladder from mac and cheese.
Absent-minded sims have a small chance to literally forget what they were doing at any time. This includes cooking.
Yaoi is definitely not going to put out this fire without some nudging.
That’ll cover the counter, but not the oven. Thanks, insurance.
I fucking hate ghosts.
Despite all this bullshit, Yaoi goes to work in a pretty good mood, and we take the opportunity to get a little closer to our co-workers.
Socialization is performed, bars go up, and we learn that Victoria has a mate. I think this might also be when we learned that she has the Hopeless Romantic trait?
In-roads have been made, but we should probably play it safe. Get that friendship bar scooted way, way up before we risk making a move.
On the other hand, free fairy dust!
Fairy dust: gives you the get-up-and-go to fix your computer so you can play Madden.
An extra wrinkle is added to the job in the form of stories - just interview sims and then sit down at the computer to write about ‘em.
We also get an opportunity that involves reading five days’ worth of newspapers. The newspaper kinda sucks.
What doesn’t suck, however, is fixing the sink that we left spraying all day at work and earning our first handiness point.
Our next day of work is as eventful as ever, but does give us a spiffy new outfit.
At this point I decide to be cheeky and try to land an interview with a vampire, who immediately leaves. Okay then.
Vicky’s more interesting anyway.
Work, work. We really need to finish that article if we want promoted.
Eh, what the hell.
Awwww.
All right, Yaoi, do your thing!
Yaoi wants to see a movie, and who am I to deny him that?
Good times are had by all, and a smooch shared outside of the theater.
lmao
Who says daily drudgery doesn’t have its benefits?
....where’s Agama?
Great. Apparently Yaoi shoved his lizard into his pockets while I wasn’t looking.
Work isn’t super eventful, but at least Yaoi makes up for spilling an embarrassing amount of his own pet lizard out of his pockets by earning a skill level.
It’s been a hot minute since the trip to the alchemy store, so I-
Hell yeah, free honey.
Oh, word?
get out of the rocking chair you fucking dunce
Yaoi has the Inappropriate trait, which among other things lets you get away with a lot of things while visiting another sim’s house without being kicked out. Thus the sponge bath.
Oh hey Beau.
Let’s just ruin this guy’s day real quick.
“Fuck you, you uninteresting sack of shit. You look like the developer hit the random button in Create-A-Sim and called it a day.”
“I’d interview you, but houseflies are more buzzworthy. Now have at you!”
Okay, maybe fistfighting was a bad idea.
Look at this disgusting man just packing away the burnt macaroni.
Yaoi desperately needs to feel clean after that.
Y’know what, Yaoi, you’re right. You do deserve a nice rest after that relaxing bath.
Begone, cuck.
We do get up after an hour or two to ask to spend the night- otherwise we’d get kicked out in the wee hours of the morning.
Oh hey, it’s our boss.
I do not blame you one bit, buddy.
“What say you and me take this party somewhere a little more upstairs?”
Well, that’s that pesky pre-existing relationship taken care of. Yaoi ruins yet another marriage.
Move it, Brownie Bites, we need to get our sleep on.
Thank you.
In the morning, Yaoi decides to raid this poor man’s fridge so he can get up to some cookoldry, because at this point, why not?
Beau seems to want to sleep. We can’t have that.
Move it or lose it, Pillsbury Beau Boy.
Now, shall we?
I have nothing to add to this.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the coup de grace.
Yaoi Handel’s life is rapidly becoming a wild success.
Oh, uh...sure? I mean, it’d be hard not to at this point.
Hi, Beau.
Hey, where’d Beau go?
Yaoi’s work here is done.
The next day, I send Yaoi out to buy some recipes. We’re not qualified to make cobbler yet, but that won’t stop me from buying the recipe!
This, however, we can make.
In theory. Do it again, doofus.
Maybe a better oven will help you not fuck up.
Haha, nope!
Disaster cookies aside, we invite Victoria over for a private wedding ceremony, because apparently you can’t get married in someone else’s house. Believe me, I tried.
Fairy: married.
Since Beau is one of our worst enemies (we even declared him a nemesis during our little visit), you’d think I wouldn’t want him around.
Leaving him alone, however, means we don’t get to take all his money!
We are going to keep this man exhausted, starved, and out of our house.
Shush, Beau, we’re trying to sleep.
This update is getting a wee bit long (partially because I played too much goddamn Sims), so from here on out it’s just gonna be a few highlights.
Looking at Vicky’s skills, I wind up jumping to the conclusion that she should switch jobs and join the athletic career. I did not, in fact, realize that several of her traits lend themselves nicely to the journalism career.
Also, y’know, the lifetime wish might’ve been a bit of a hint.
I also buy her an easel, not realizing that Artistic helps with writing as well as painting. No harm in keeping it, though.
Yaoi, you dunce.
Hell yeah. Journalism.
In addition to various magical pranks, one of the more interesting things fairies can do is project auras. One of the more useful ones currently at our disposal is the Aura of Creativity, which boosts skill gains in creative pursuits such as writing, painting and any number of musical instruments.
Here we see Yaoi digging through an unloaded texture for something to write news about.
I was not joking.
Yaoi also managed to make some good cookies for once!
Put a little honey on any dessert, and…
Bam!
Unfortunately, Beau managed to eat something, and I’m not gonna send him out into the world and wait for him to starve again. The first attempt already took three days, for pity’s sake, so fuck it. Deathtrap time.
C’mon, pal, die already. We don’t have all day, here.
Fuck that guy.
...I think Beau did that.
Time flies and flies, and Yaoi earns yet another promotion at work.
And Victoria starts her new job!
...uh, Victoria? Did you forget you were at work? I’m pretty sure that would be Yaoi’s thing, if anyone’s.
OH. Okay, yes, that makes sense. This tiny haunted crapshack is no place to raise a child, though.
The Handels are movin’ out!
...phew, that was a long one. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to unwind from writing this gigantic Sims 3 update by playing some more Sims 3.
Before we go any further, it’s important that we cover a few things I glossed over initially. First off are Wants. Some people may claim that they’re supposed to be called Wishes, but these people can be safely ignored. They are Wants.
It is important to understand the anatomy of the Want Grid if we are to understand how to capitalize on Wants. Any number of passing fancies will queue up in the top portion, known as the Wanna Box. For example, “I wanna learn the writing skill.”
By left-clicking on such a passing fancy we can shunt it to the Gonna Quadrant, where it will occupy one of our four squares until we accomplish or give up on our dreams. In this way, our previous example becomes “I’m gonna learn the writing skill.” Make your sim do the thing, and hey presto, you’ve got some points in the bank! Carrying out your sim’s Wants is the key to making them OP as fuck, and a little happier along the way too!
Starting in Sims 3, sims get moodlets from any number of objects, interactions, happenings or environmental circumstances, which have a positive or negative effect on our Mood, measured by that thing on the left what looks like a personal massager. They also offer some nice flavor text, honestly. I call them buffs and debuffs just as often as I call them moodlets.
Stack positive moodlets and your sim will be more succcessful at their career, as well as building skills faster. If you’ve got a high enough Mood score that the business end of the massager-looking gauge is filled, your sim will passively generate Lifetime Happiness Points.
It’s important to know how to prevent negative moodlets, but that’s really something that just comes with far too much experience. The moral of the story is take care of your sim and be lucky, and you’ll be in good shape.
All of this is to say that mood, along with reaching certain skill levels, is important to earning promotions at work. Yaoi’s job doesn’t start until tomorrow, though, so more on that later.
nice clipping, idiot
In the hopes of adding some supernatural spice to Yaoi’s life, we’ll check out the ol’ alchemy shop. Sadly, our watery Texan friend ceases to exist when he’s not haunting us. He’s not even in our relationships tab!The Flying Twybil wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:51 amI vote for doing this, in by which I mean heading to some public place to mingle. See if we can find ourselves a werewolf or vampire to start.
Edit: Let's also bring along our ghost friend!
With no car to our name, we travel by taxi. It beats walking, I guess.
It’s worth noting that, for whatever reason, The Sims 3 refuses to acknowledge newer graphics cards. It’s a known and apparently fairly widespread issue, and I cannot be bothered to do the copious text editing that would actually be needed to fix it. In short, the game runs like shit at times, and when we hurtle across town into another lot it can take a WHILE to load things in.
That’s better.
Yaoi’s first order of business is to chat up this lady, for some reason. It doesn’t really go anywhere, but at some point Yaoi senses the full moon and freaks out, which is...certainly a thing that happens. It’s worth noting that a full moon gives all sims a +40 moodlet, so that’s nice.
It’s always a good idea to check the stock at the alchemy store daily, as unique stuff tends to pop up. The Bottled SimBot Converter is tempting, but seeing as it would stop Yaoi from breeding, it’s a non-starter.
I opt for an entry-level alchemy skill book that ends up languishing in Yaoi’s inventory for roughly two weeks and counting. But what’s that over there?
I’m sure that’s fine.
Neat!
In the base game, the only way to get gems cut was via paying a mail-in service. The gemcutter lets you cut out the middleman AND the fee for the low, low price of 975 Simoleons, or in Yaoi’s case, the low, low price of going to the alchemy store. Every cut gives us some gem dust, too.
We’ll unlock more gem cuts to cut gems into as we cut more gems with the gemcutter, but for right now we just have the plain jane emerald cut. I opt to save the Vampire’s Eye for when we have more options.
Oh hey, I’ve seen those before. Never used one, though.
hrrg loading
“Hmm...money.”
Yeah, that’s zombies for ya. They come out of the woodwork on full moons to be a general nuisance and can apparently turn other sims into zombies for 48 hours, but I’ve never seen the latter happen.
We make our way into the club, which, uh...sucks? Yeah, sucks is the word I’d use. There’s nobody around, despite the game insisting this is a “Hotspot”.
This kid believes this is a safe and secluded spot to do his homework. That’s how dead it is here.
Yaoi goes home and feeds his pet lizard, displaying more joy and wonderment than he did at the club before crashing into bed.
Usually a sim will sleep until their energy is full, but if you have a job it’ll automatically jostle them awake two hours before work.
The carpool always arrives an hour before work and your sims will always try to hop in the moment it arrives, but you can let the damn thing wait until the last minute if you really need to eat like Yaoi here.
The tight timing of it all leaves us no time to stack any buffs, and it makes us late, but not by much. The only real consequence of this is our job performance taking a minor hit, and since it’s our first day it’s empty anyway, so big whoop.
Oof. Thanks for reminding me to adjust sim lifespans, game.
You can shift your sim into one of several gears while at work, which I think are all fairly self-explanatory. I opt for the one that will let us make some friends.
Free job performance? Of course we’ll take it!
At some point in the workday we are interrupted by a flowery little jingle to tell us that we have met someone the game deems us to be compatible with. Cool.
Aaaaaaaaand by the end we’ve left with some dollars in our pocket and a debuff on our soul.. Funnily enough, I always thought this one was just caused by working at all, but I guess the description wasn’t ham-handed enough for my deafening intellect.
We spend a little time cashing in mundane tasks for good boy points,
jazz up the computer desk a bit, and
oh
Fucko here wakes up starving at midnight, so I put on some of his favorite music.
Fitting. Yaoi wants to improve his cooking skill as a result of this failure, which is pretty cute.
The morning is still young, so we crack open our job book. Yaoi seems to find it riveting, getting the Entertained moodlet as his fun levels climb.
It even digivolves into a stronger version of itself since we’re having so goddamn much fun. The duration of both of these buffs extends the longer your sim is having fun to a maximum of eight hours, so it’s actually a pretty darn good idea to have your little dude or dudette blast video games into their eyes before work.
Brushing your teeth isn’t the most powerful buff, but every little bit helps that performance bar go up.
As does completing opportunities!
We’re still falling short in the skill department, though, but we easily put a dent in that at work and manage to polish off that last bit of progress as soon as we get home. Promotion, here we come!
There’s a little green outline around our co-worker, and if memory serves, that means…
Ah-ha!
The ol’ daily grind can lead to some uneventful days in The Sims, particularly when it’s a one-sim household. Jobs are goddamn time vampires in this game.
Yaoi’s hard work finally pays off, though, and we reward him with a bedder bed. In addition to not being a heinous piece of shit, the higher energy rating on this bed means sleeping won’t take up quite as much time.
After work I punt Yaoi over to the alchemy store and he ends up meeting a vampire, but he’s clearly got other things on his mind, like sticking his dick in a fairy.
I’m starting to hate these ghosts.
As a complete side note, never trust the time estimate the game gives while sleeping. Sims are absolute weenies about sleep and will invariably linger for far too long even once their energy is full, so just cancel that shit.
Case in point.
Oh, dear. Yaoi’s going to take a bit of a hit to his mood for the next few days, which is fine because it’s the weekend.
We also nab a handy, dandy flying vacuum. Sure, it’s silly, but it’s also a ridiculously fast vehicle.
I decide to drag Yaoi out to the park in hopes of meeting some spooktacular types, but no such luck.
Doesn’t stop us from getting a tan, though.
Desperate for thrills, chills and spills, I decide to send Yaoi into the catacombs at the local graveyard for a bit.
Neat! We won’t be able to plant this unless we get to level 7 in the gardening skill, but it’s bound to be something good.
Sun rises, sun sets.
A ghost wakes us up at 1am, so I have Yaoi be a good Yaoi and work on his writing.
There’s no better day than a day off to socialize, so we attempt to invite Victoria over.
Yeeeeeeeeah, we’re gonna need to cultivate our relationship a little bit more.
Fine. We’ll check out a park instead. It’s wildly uninteresting and we immediately go home. The Sims 3, everybody!
A good chunk of time is spent chatting Victoria up on the phone.
With his cooking slightly improved, I decide to have Yaoi feed himself a pot of goopy carbonara, just a few rungs up the pasta ladder from mac and cheese.
Absent-minded sims have a small chance to literally forget what they were doing at any time. This includes cooking.
Yaoi is definitely not going to put out this fire without some nudging.
That’ll cover the counter, but not the oven. Thanks, insurance.
I fucking hate ghosts.
Despite all this bullshit, Yaoi goes to work in a pretty good mood, and we take the opportunity to get a little closer to our co-workers.
Socialization is performed, bars go up, and we learn that Victoria has a mate. I think this might also be when we learned that she has the Hopeless Romantic trait?
In-roads have been made, but we should probably play it safe. Get that friendship bar scooted way, way up before we risk making a move.
On the other hand, free fairy dust!
Fairy dust: gives you the get-up-and-go to fix your computer so you can play Madden.
An extra wrinkle is added to the job in the form of stories - just interview sims and then sit down at the computer to write about ‘em.
We also get an opportunity that involves reading five days’ worth of newspapers. The newspaper kinda sucks.
What doesn’t suck, however, is fixing the sink that we left spraying all day at work and earning our first handiness point.
Our next day of work is as eventful as ever, but does give us a spiffy new outfit.
At this point I decide to be cheeky and try to land an interview with a vampire, who immediately leaves. Okay then.
Vicky’s more interesting anyway.
Work, work. We really need to finish that article if we want promoted.
Eh, what the hell.
Awwww.
All right, Yaoi, do your thing!
Yaoi wants to see a movie, and who am I to deny him that?
Good times are had by all, and a smooch shared outside of the theater.
lmao
Who says daily drudgery doesn’t have its benefits?
....where’s Agama?
Great. Apparently Yaoi shoved his lizard into his pockets while I wasn’t looking.
Work isn’t super eventful, but at least Yaoi makes up for spilling an embarrassing amount of his own pet lizard out of his pockets by earning a skill level.
It’s been a hot minute since the trip to the alchemy store, so I-
Hell yeah, free honey.
Oh, word?
get out of the rocking chair you fucking dunce
Yaoi has the Inappropriate trait, which among other things lets you get away with a lot of things while visiting another sim’s house without being kicked out. Thus the sponge bath.
Oh hey Beau.
Let’s just ruin this guy’s day real quick.
“Fuck you, you uninteresting sack of shit. You look like the developer hit the random button in Create-A-Sim and called it a day.”
“I’d interview you, but houseflies are more buzzworthy. Now have at you!”
Okay, maybe fistfighting was a bad idea.
Look at this disgusting man just packing away the burnt macaroni.
Yaoi desperately needs to feel clean after that.
Y’know what, Yaoi, you’re right. You do deserve a nice rest after that relaxing bath.
Begone, cuck.
We do get up after an hour or two to ask to spend the night- otherwise we’d get kicked out in the wee hours of the morning.
Oh hey, it’s our boss.
I do not blame you one bit, buddy.
“What say you and me take this party somewhere a little more upstairs?”
Well, that’s that pesky pre-existing relationship taken care of. Yaoi ruins yet another marriage.
Move it, Brownie Bites, we need to get our sleep on.
Thank you.
In the morning, Yaoi decides to raid this poor man’s fridge so he can get up to some cookoldry, because at this point, why not?
Beau seems to want to sleep. We can’t have that.
Move it or lose it, Pillsbury Beau Boy.
Now, shall we?
I have nothing to add to this.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the coup de grace.
Yaoi Handel’s life is rapidly becoming a wild success.
Oh, uh...sure? I mean, it’d be hard not to at this point.
Hi, Beau.
Hey, where’d Beau go?
Yaoi’s work here is done.
The next day, I send Yaoi out to buy some recipes. We’re not qualified to make cobbler yet, but that won’t stop me from buying the recipe!
This, however, we can make.
In theory. Do it again, doofus.
Maybe a better oven will help you not fuck up.
Haha, nope!
Disaster cookies aside, we invite Victoria over for a private wedding ceremony, because apparently you can’t get married in someone else’s house. Believe me, I tried.
Fairy: married.
Since Beau is one of our worst enemies (we even declared him a nemesis during our little visit), you’d think I wouldn’t want him around.
Leaving him alone, however, means we don’t get to take all his money!
We are going to keep this man exhausted, starved, and out of our house.
Shush, Beau, we’re trying to sleep.
This update is getting a wee bit long (partially because I played too much goddamn Sims), so from here on out it’s just gonna be a few highlights.
Looking at Vicky’s skills, I wind up jumping to the conclusion that she should switch jobs and join the athletic career. I did not, in fact, realize that several of her traits lend themselves nicely to the journalism career.
Also, y’know, the lifetime wish might’ve been a bit of a hint.
I also buy her an easel, not realizing that Artistic helps with writing as well as painting. No harm in keeping it, though.
Yaoi, you dunce.
Hell yeah. Journalism.
In addition to various magical pranks, one of the more interesting things fairies can do is project auras. One of the more useful ones currently at our disposal is the Aura of Creativity, which boosts skill gains in creative pursuits such as writing, painting and any number of musical instruments.
Here we see Yaoi digging through an unloaded texture for something to write news about.
I was not joking.
Yaoi also managed to make some good cookies for once!
Put a little honey on any dessert, and…
Bam!
Unfortunately, Beau managed to eat something, and I’m not gonna send him out into the world and wait for him to starve again. The first attempt already took three days, for pity’s sake, so fuck it. Deathtrap time.
C’mon, pal, die already. We don’t have all day, here.
Fuck that guy.
...I think Beau did that.
Time flies and flies, and Yaoi earns yet another promotion at work.
And Victoria starts her new job!
...uh, Victoria? Did you forget you were at work? I’m pretty sure that would be Yaoi’s thing, if anyone’s.
OH. Okay, yes, that makes sense. This tiny haunted crapshack is no place to raise a child, though.
The Handels are movin’ out!
...phew, that was a long one. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to unwind from writing this gigantic Sims 3 update by playing some more Sims 3.
It's a worthy note that if any location looks uninhabited, that's because the game rarely brings sims to locations you aren't presently in already. Usually if you wait around for an in-game hour, especially on weekends, you should have an absolute flood of people come by.
But just, like, seriously, if your Sims don't get married not but an hour off the first date. Like, how normal. Psh.
(I kid, but this game's relationship pacing, or lack thereof, has always been quite ridiculous. They knew each other for what, all of four days maybe?)
But just, like, seriously, if your Sims don't get married not but an hour off the first date. Like, how normal. Psh.
(I kid, but this game's relationship pacing, or lack thereof, has always been quite ridiculous. They knew each other for what, all of four days maybe?)
I winced when you sold that tombstone, years of Sims 2 have taught me that this is the absolute worst thing you can do.
(In Sims 2, deleting a tombstone shredders a dead sim's data and parts of it will randomly attach to other sims. Then you get toddlers wishing for 20 simultaneous lovers and cats deciding they're human.)
Hooray for Yaoi's newfound love!
(In Sims 2, deleting a tombstone shredders a dead sim's data and parts of it will randomly attach to other sims. Then you get toddlers wishing for 20 simultaneous lovers and cats deciding they're human.)
Hooray for Yaoi's newfound love!
...welp. For reasons that will become obvious, it’s time for a much shorter update.
Okay, so this place isn’t terribly spacious, but there’s at least a LITTLE more room for stuff. What’s important is that there’s a room for the baby. That spot by the entrance could be better utilized, though…
Jewels and jewel cases, together at last.
These fuckers are sad about Beau dying, so we’re gonna have to eat a debuff for the next couple of days.
For some reason, Yaoi wants to go to France.
Equally for some reason, Yaoi has the opportunity to deliver one of his books to a D-list celebrity to earn some fame of his own. Celebrity status has a few perks, but also tends to attract paparazzi and subjects your sim to potential scandals if they’re not careful. Yea or Nay to celebrity status?
Yaoi got a WEE bit more handy during the few days I was attempting to starve Beau, so now he wants to upgrade things. So, y’know, just let him hit the stove with a hammer until it cleans itself.
In fact, Yaoi’s gonna have a lot more time for upgrading objects as well as actually pursuing the supernatural, because if there’s one thing he’s learned, it’s that he hates the ol’ daily grind.
Wait, sorry. What Yaoi actually learned is that he fucking hates ghosts.
Though the Ghost Hunter profession has hours listed, they’re not so much a requirement as they are a suggestion. Yaoi’s not going to get pulled into the Ghostbusting HQ at the stroke of 5; he’s just going to have the option to report in to local hauntings and bust some ecto-ass.
...damn, this motherfucker made sushi while I wasn’t looking. Good job, Yaoi.
Just gonna go ahead and make a slight adjustment to the spare bedroom.
Since Yaoi’s gonna be making his own hours, he’s gonna have time for alchemy sooner or later. And if we’re gonna do alchemy, it would behoove us to do some gardening as well. The problem with this is that zombies will come to attack our plants if our garden isn’t properly fenced in.
We’re, uh, gonna need to get some income streams up and running soon.
Victoria wants to learn the charisma skill, while I want Yaoi to learn some alchemy. Now seems like just as good a time as any for both of these to happen.
...oh, right. You actually have to use an alchemy station to discover recipes.
I have no earthly idea where all of these alchemy ingredients came from, but we’re plantin’ em, dammit.
Just in time for the autumn frost, too! Our plants won’t die, but we won’t be able to do anything with them until things are a bit more hospitable. At least Yaoi got some good progress towards a point of gardening skill.
Or rather, Yaoi can’t. Victoria saunters pregnantly over to our fledgling garden and…
Zip!
Zap!
Zot!
Fairies have the ability to cast Bloom on growable plants, making them instantly grow by one stage and improve by one step in quality. I’d forgotten this was a thing, so thanks, autonomy!
And way to go, Yaoi!
The toilet’s a little broken, so Victoria shrinks herself down to a more spritely size to take care of business. Just gotta keep an eye on that magic meter.
Vicky also wants to booby-trap the shower with some fae shenanigans, so we do that. Fairies can do all sorts of neat things, but it costs some magic.
Vicky also wants to read a pregnancy book, so we have Yaoi be a dear and get one.
Jesus Christ.
Since he’s already out and about, we’re gonna have Yaoi swing by the alchemy store to learn a touch of alchemy.
Before long we learn the recipe for Vial of Bliss, which calls for any food ingredient. Vicky finishes learning how to be charismatic, so I decide to set her to the task of writing a romance novel.
As for that ingredient...yoink!
Damn, things just keep happening today. That’s a real romance novel, by the way.
I swear to god, these idiots.
Oh hey, bustin’ opportunities!
I mean, we do have to go home and take care of our pregnant wife, but it’s practically on the way there anyway.
So as not to make a COMPLETE inconsiderate ass out of Yaoi, I take the liberty of vomiting the pregnancy book into the domicile from his inventory.
It’s hard to definitively say whether or not bustin’ makes Yaoi feel good, but it does fill his pockets with souls.
I haven’t looked at any guides to confirm this, but I have to imagine that the final romance novel will be a bomb-ass romance novel. That seems like how the game would work.
Apparently you can sell spirits to the science facility, but I opt to sell them directly out of my inventory this time instead. I really, really don’t know the practical difference, but I should try it some time.
Eh, fuck it. The other job’s, like, right there.
Hey, new vampire buddy! Neat!
After some hard-earned rest, Yaoi sets to banging on the stove again.
Flush with accomplishment, he grabs a shower, and…
...oh no, he’s hot. Regrettably, the dye seems to go away on its own quickly. Or at least it did when I wasn’t looking, somehow.
Vicky’s not the only qualified writer in this house, dammit.
Oh fuck!!!
Yaoi proceeds to literally forget that his wife is in labor before shitposting.
Huh. Interesting traits. In any case, this baby needs a name. I literally can’t do anything until she’s named, so I’m leaving the game running. I have to sleep now.
Last edited by Lizard Wizard on Thu Jul 02, 2020 3:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
this ownsGrumpy Turtle wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 6:37 amI winced when you sold that tombstone, years of Sims 2 have taught me that this is the absolute worst thing you can do.
(In Sims 2, deleting a tombstone shredders a dead sim's data and parts of it will randomly attach to other sims. Then you get toddlers wishing for 20 simultaneous lovers and cats deciding they're human.)
Jazz Handel, obviously.
I'm proud of our boy for finally learning how not to burn cookies.
I'm proud of our boy for finally learning how not to burn cookies.
I will never cease to be amazed at how haphazardly this series is programmed.Grumpy Turtle wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 6:37 amI winced when you sold that tombstone, years of Sims 2 have taught me that this is the absolute worst thing you can do.
(In Sims 2, deleting a tombstone shredders a dead sim's data and parts of it will randomly attach to other sims. Then you get toddlers wishing for 20 simultaneous lovers and cats deciding they're human.)
Voting for this as well. She also needs to master the dance skill for it to be truly appropriate.
Ah, heck, all this Sims 3 is making me want to start up another Dynasty run.
THIS. This owns. Use Jazz Handel. Do it. It's awesome.
Jazz Handel is born.
...also, is it me or does this picture perfectly encapsulate the run so far?
...also, is it me or does this picture perfectly encapsulate the run so far?
It does.Lizard Wizard wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 3:35 am...also, is it me or does this picture perfectly encapsulate the run so far?