I did edit all my darkness shots, basically I just removed a bit of the light to get rid of any lines or patterns you might see. Some may have ended up too dark (grim) but then I liked the effect of almost not seeing him.
I use gimp for photo editing and they have a "levels" slider wher you can basically drag to lighten or darken the picture overall. Not sure how it's different from just darkening it with a filter or adjusting the brightness slider down. ive never compared the effects before. I use levels all the time when my picture is too bright or too dark rather than the brightness shadow...I should probably figure out what the difference is.
The other things i did were first make the sub-basement the size of the entire lot so I didn't really have to worry about walls up or down for most shots. I also took some picture really close but with the walls down and the camera pointed up so it was just the smokey basement background. When I get home, I'll find some sample shots to show what I mean.
Check out Raerei's Fortress for Builds, Short Stories, and maybe some longer stuff.
oh yes @ra3rei mentioned a good tip that I neglected to mention Making the basement HUGE so you don't really see the walls anyway, and putting the walls down for times when you don't need to show the floor. Then it's just pure blackness by default
Thanks guys. Unfortunately there isn't much room to expand the basement because the house is basically surrounded by water! What I ended up doing was having her go as close to the wall as possible and taking the standing shots and then into the middle of the room for the floor shots and keeping the floor or wall out of the picture so there isn't the seam where they meet. They came out pretty good and I don't think I need to edit them. My problem now is the 6 shots that I took basically tell the story I want to tell for the chapter with one more I need to take next time it's night and she can go upstairs. I've got to think of a way to make it appear like time has passed while she was wallowing in self pity in the darkness. Like 4 years?
okay so killing sims by cooking fire is a lot harder than i thought. lol when i want a fire, its impossible to get one!
If you have debug cheats or something like that enabled then you can just shift+click on them and choose how you want them to die. I've had one sim die in a grill fire outside but that wouldn't make for very exciting screenshots if that's why you're trying to make the fire. Sims 2 was super easy to make a cooking fire. I did some searching for you and found this...
"I did a little digging around and stumbled upon this cheat:
stats.set_skill_level AdultMajor_HomestyleCooking 1
So I put my sim in front of the stove and used this cheat after every time she scrambled some eggs so her skill in cooking would go back to 1. The result? After three tries, she was a crispy piece of delicious sim toast."
Thanks guys. Unfortunately there isn't much room to expand the basement because the house is basically surrounded by water! What I ended up doing was having her go as close to the wall as possible and taking the standing shots and then into the middle of the room for the floor shots and keeping the floor or wall out of the picture so there isn't the seam where they meet. They came out pretty good and I don't think I need to edit them. My problem now is the 6 shots that I took basically tell the story I want to tell for the chapter with one more I need to take next time it's night and she can go upstairs. I've got to think of a way to make it appear like time has passed while she was wallowing in self pity in the darkness. Like 4 years?
Ah - I have a little pond upstairs so I feel your pain. I ended up in the sub-basement thought without any issues from the water, but I bet a pools are different since they take up the full basement height.
As for making time pass....alternate the shots with completely black screenshots - so they look like snapshots between the darkness? You probably can't show what's going on up above? I supposed exterior house shots might work to show what's going on up above without spoiling what's happening with the family - especially if you get the autumn and winter mods to alternate seasons... I guess basically I'm recommending that you intersperse those 6 shots with "time passing" shots. Another option would be to add headers to each picture to show the time. They do that in books often with chapter headers. "Three months later." If you're writing around those six shots that might work better. If it's wordless then the images would probably work best.
There's probably other ways to show time passing I'm not thinking of but it's late and I should be asleep.
Oh - And I have an heir! And it's not a multiple! A single baby! Woot!
Check out Raerei's Fortress for Builds, Short Stories, and maybe some longer stuff.
Ah - I have a little pond upstairs so I feel your pain. I ended up in the sub-basement thought without any issues from the water, but I bet a pools are different since they take up the full basement height.
As for making time pass....alternate the shots with completely black screenshots - so they look like snapshots between the darkness? You probably can't show what's going on up above? I supposed exterior house shots might work to show what's going on up above without spoiling what's happening with the family - especially if you get the autumn and winter mods to alternate seasons... I guess basically I'm recommending that you intersperse those 6 shots with "time passing" shots. Another option would be to add headers to each picture to show the time. They do that in books often with chapter headers. "Three months later." If you're writing around those six shots that might work better. If it's wordless then the images would probably work best.
There's probably other ways to show time passing I'm not thinking of but it's late and I should be asleep.
Oh - And I have an heir! And it's not a multiple! A single baby! Woot!
Yay congrats on the nooboo! I ended up alternating the "darkness" shots with black and white shots of her with Edric when he was younger. I was mourning the seasons expansion because it would have been easier to show the house in different seasons... didn't know their were mods! But looking back on it that would have made like 16 exterior house shots! Instead I just added in the chapter notes that she'd been in the darkness for 4-5 years.
It's kind of ironic, I wanted to take the challenge into more story-telling and less of a challenge and now I've written several chapters that are supposed to span like 10 years or more but have actually been a week in gameplay if that? I put a chapter note on the last one stating how old the heir actually is because I didn't want anyone thinking I'd completely forgotten the challenge rules! LOL
I find the balance between story and challenge to be an interesting one. Some of my stories are focused on the challenge, others on the plot. And I tend to play around as I write as well, looking for that sweet spot.
I find when you ignore the challenge, the story goes on for ever! That might be good, but I like go finish things.
Check out Raerei's Fortress for Builds, Short Stories, and maybe some longer stuff.
Okay. I couldn't resist. I started with this challenge and I will play for a while now. For my story I start playing with my future ghost as a kid and until young adulthood it will take a while. I built already the house. If somebody is interested in it here it is:
@Rainydayz179 here's the one I took to me they could be in the room as an alseep non-heir.
-1 point every time your ghost sim is in the same room as an awake, non-heir
But maybe @CitizenErased14 can confirm? No point loss if the ghost is in a different room as an awake non heir, and no point loss of the ghost is in the same room as an asleep non heir.
Check out Raerei's Fortress for Builds, Short Stories, and maybe some longer stuff.
Okay. I couldn't resist. I started with this challenge and I will play for a while now. For my story I start playing with my future ghost as a kid and until young adulthood it will take a while. I built already the house. If somebody is interested in it here it is:
@Rainydayz179 here's the one I took to me they could be in the room as an alseep non-heir.
-1 point every time your ghost sim is in the same room as an awake, non-heir
But maybe @CitizenErased14 can confirm? No point loss if the ghost is in a different room as an awake non heir, and no point loss of the ghost is in the same room as an asleep non heir.
Ah yes, if the non-heir is asleep it's fine! They just can't be awake in the same room together
Cool. Now I know. And I get 2 points back! I'm at 945 since I'm on the 2nd generation.
@CitizenErased14 Question about the points for keeping friendship levels up... Do I still have to work on it even after the next heir is born? I've assumed the answer is yes since I still had to work on his career. It's pretty easy with a phone call or two but I thought I'd ask.
@CitizenErased14 Well it would involve an alien and if the idea I had wouldn't break any of your rules. I was thinking it might be interesting to have more than one ghost (if that wouldn't break the rules) and without giving away too much I suppose your Grim Reaper encounter rules with them meeting the sim "naturally" might make part of my idea undoable. Would having an elder living in the house die naturally count?
Okay now I am super intrigued @JLBDreamer !!More than one ghost would not break the rules Having an elder in the house die naturally is okay, though by the normal challenge rules you wouldn't be able to START with an Elder in the house.
But don't forget that you are free to bend these rules to make them work for your story. So do whatever you'd like!
@Rainydayz179 Omg I am so late answering you, but yes, once you make the friendships you must keep them!
Yea it's a bit late seeing as how I just finished the last chapter before the spinoff. I'm glad I assumed correctly. Once the new heir took over and made friends I usually just kept the previous heir's relationships up through phone calls unless they called wanting to stop by the house. I actually liked your friendship rule so much I made it part of the legacy.
@CitizenErased14 I guess I'll have to do it then if you are intrigued.
Well, the elder wouldn't start and I guess my final question would be are there any kind of deaths against the rules? Like say a sim "accidentally" dying because an alien didn't keep his specimen's needs filled? (whistles innocently)
Oh and would it be against the rules if the YA was technically moved into the house before the death? Or would I have to move them in after the death?
@CitizenErased14 I guess I'll have to do it then if you are intrigued.
Well, the elder wouldn't start and I guess my final question would be are there any kind of deaths against the rules? Like say a sim "accidentally" dying because an alien didn't keep his specimen's needs filled? (whistles innocently)
Oh and would it be against the rules if the YA was technically moved into the house before the death? Or would I have to move them in after the death?
Hahaha any kind of deaths are fair game! And I think it would be okay for the YA to technically be in the house first. As long as he or she isn't aware that the person who died is now a ghost (unless you're tweaking the rules a little bit. Which is okay to do!)
@CitizenErased14 Well the person would be aware of the death if they remembered it happened... Yeah I have kind of an odd twisted black comedy story in mind.
Comments
I did edit all my darkness shots, basically I just removed a bit of the light to get rid of any lines or patterns you might see. Some may have ended up too dark (grim) but then I liked the effect of almost not seeing him.
I use gimp for photo editing and they have a "levels" slider wher you can basically drag to lighten or darken the picture overall. Not sure how it's different from just darkening it with a filter or adjusting the brightness slider down. ive never compared the effects before. I use levels all the time when my picture is too bright or too dark rather than the brightness shadow...I should probably figure out what the difference is.
The other things i did were first make the sub-basement the size of the entire lot so I didn't really have to worry about walls up or down for most shots. I also took some picture really close but with the walls down and the camera pointed up so it was just the smokey basement background. When I get home, I'll find some sample shots to show what I mean.
My Twitter
Current Story: https://simslegacy2020.wordpress.com My 2020 Legacy Story - A 10 Generation Legacy Challenge
Sim Choice Awards 2018! || My Full Wordpress || Twitter: Jmaraasims
If you have debug cheats or something like that enabled then you can just shift+click on them and choose how you want them to die. I've had one sim die in a grill fire outside but that wouldn't make for very exciting screenshots if that's why you're trying to make the fire. Sims 2 was super easy to make a cooking fire. I did some searching for you and found this...
"I did a little digging around and stumbled upon this cheat:
stats.set_skill_level AdultMajor_HomestyleCooking 1
So I put my sim in front of the stove and used this cheat after every time she scrambled some eggs so her skill in cooking would go back to 1. The result? After three tries, she was a crispy piece of delicious sim toast."
My Twitter
Ah - I have a little pond upstairs so I feel your pain. I ended up in the sub-basement thought without any issues from the water, but I bet a pools are different since they take up the full basement height.
As for making time pass....alternate the shots with completely black screenshots - so they look like snapshots between the darkness? You probably can't show what's going on up above? I supposed exterior house shots might work to show what's going on up above without spoiling what's happening with the family - especially if you get the autumn and winter mods to alternate seasons... I guess basically I'm recommending that you intersperse those 6 shots with "time passing" shots. Another option would be to add headers to each picture to show the time. They do that in books often with chapter headers. "Three months later." If you're writing around those six shots that might work better. If it's wordless then the images would probably work best.
There's probably other ways to show time passing I'm not thinking of but it's late and I should be asleep.
Oh - And I have an heir! And it's not a multiple! A single baby! Woot!
Yay congrats on the nooboo! I ended up alternating the "darkness" shots with black and white shots of her with Edric when he was younger. I was mourning the seasons expansion because it would have been easier to show the house in different seasons... didn't know their were mods! But looking back on it that would have made like 16 exterior house shots! Instead I just added in the chapter notes that she'd been in the darkness for 4-5 years.
It's kind of ironic, I wanted to take the challenge into more story-telling and less of a challenge and now I've written several chapters that are supposed to span like 10 years or more but have actually been a week in gameplay if that? I put a chapter note on the last one stating how old the heir actually is because I didn't want anyone thinking I'd completely forgotten the challenge rules! LOL
My Twitter
I find when you ignore the challenge, the story goes on for ever! That might be good, but I like go finish things.
https://www.thesims.com/de_DE/gallery/741D356A16C211E68A36BF2BECDC9E24?category=all&searchtype=ea_origin_id&sortby=newest&time=weekly&searchquery=mariafuchs488&max=50&maxis=false
Sucker for pain - Evina's story
@Rainydayz179 I've gotta catch up on your story this week!
Hope the challenge end of things is going well
Things are going good. Sorry there's so much to catch up on, I'm doing daily updates.
My Twitter
-1 point every time your ghost sim is in the same room as an awake, non-heir
But maybe @CitizenErased14 can confirm? No point loss if the ghost is in a different room as an awake non heir, and no point loss of the ghost is in the same room as an asleep non heir.
That is an awesome ghost house....sooo pretty!
Too funny. Looks like I get 2 points back!
My Twitter
Cool. Now I know. And I get 2 points back! I'm at 945 since I'm on the 2nd generation.
@CitizenErased14 Question about the points for keeping friendship levels up... Do I still have to work on it even after the next heir is born? I've assumed the answer is yes since I still had to work on his career. It's pretty easy with a phone call or two but I thought I'd ask.
My Twitter
I still have one other story to set up and one to restart so I'm trying to avoid the temptation.
@JLBDreamer Hahahaha well if you ever give in I'd love to see what you come up with
But don't forget that you are free to bend these rules to make them work for your story.
Yea it's a bit late seeing as how I just finished the last chapter before the spinoff. I'm glad I assumed correctly. Once the new heir took over and made friends I usually just kept the previous heir's relationships up through phone calls unless they called wanting to stop by the house. I actually liked your friendship rule so much I made it part of the legacy.
My Twitter
Well, the elder wouldn't start and I guess my final question would be are there any kind of deaths against the rules? Like say a sim "accidentally" dying because an alien didn't keep his specimen's needs filled? (whistles innocently)
Oh and would it be against the rules if the YA was technically moved into the house before the death? Or would I have to move them in after the death?
Hahaha any kind of deaths are fair game! And I think it would be okay for the YA to technically be in the house first. As long as he or she isn't aware that the person who died is now a ghost (unless you're tweaking the rules a little bit. Which is okay to do!)