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Hello Skymyst! You're my buddy!
MiaSkywalker
Posts: 3,436 Member
@Skymyst:
I'm going to be honest with you - I requested you as my buddy this time. When I saw your buddy letter at the last exchange, I saw how much we have in common, at least in our Sims playing style. This time I requested you, and @ADWilson was kind enough to give you to me. You said you have trouble building, and I LOVE building! I may not be as experienced as many, but since I focus on fantasy and medieval, I thought I could make you some things you would really enjoy playing in, and some Sims you might like playing with.
At the very least, you can use them to populate your worlds as NPCs and NPC homes.
I searched all over the web for inspiration for fantasy and fairy tale houses. There were some great sites out there, many with good ideas. Some of them were real homes that looked like they were straight out of a fairy tale, others were paintings or drawings. Some of the latter were completely impractical; some because they would have been completely unlivable, others because there was no way to duplicate them using Sims building tools.
As a general rule, I should tell you that I've tended to forget to put in fire alarms and burglar alarms on the lots I've made for you. Since I make my own mods all the time, I have a mod that removes almost all chance of having a burglar, so I don't usually remember to put in burglar alarms. (Particularly since they tend to look really out of place on medieval lots.) I have also upgraded all applicable stoves and fireplaces to fireproof (unless fireproof is already built in to the stove, which seems to be the case with many of the ones I tend to use), so you don't have to have your Sims only make salads. You won't have to worry about any of these lots going up in flames. (Unless it gets struck by lightning or something, which I can't prevent!)
Another thing: My tester Sim has quite a lot of produce (no herbs), elixirs, and nectar in her inventory, so all of the homes I've made will be nicely stocked with all of these. Should save you a bit of grinding. She's maxed out in quite a few skills, including Nectarology, Cooking, Fishing, Handiness, and Alchemy, and she had many elixirs, fish, produce, and expensive nectars in her inventory, which I've placed in most of the lots I've made. There are also some high grade food platters in the refrigerators from when my Sim tested the stoves and ovens, as well as lots of fish and any produce I didn't use to make a garden. So at least your Sims won't need to cook for a few days, and you can skill up his/her cooking with a book or two at your leisure.
I have tested every lot pretty thoroughly, but only with an adult, which means there were some kid-only items that went untested. I don't generally play children (although the game my tester Sim is from, she ended up with quads - I guess both she and her husband really shouldn't each have both wished for fertility from a genie AND selected the fertility LTR!), so I don't have a child test Sim. I don't THINK any of those items will be a problem, but I'm not going to stake my life on it. (I did find some really strange problems with some of the beds, though. It appears that if you have a single bed pushed against an outside wall, and tell a Sim to relax or sleep on it, she will attempt to climb into it from outside the house. If the bed is on an upper floor, she will go all the way downstairs and outside, and will then have routing tantrums. So, you have to always push single beds against an inside wall, and if you don't want your Sims walking through a wall, make sure there's an object on the other side of the wall blocking them. Sims logic!)
Every toilet, bathtub, shower, sink, bed, chair, stove, skilling object, and fireplace has been tested. There were several times I found that I had to move some objects because they were unusable (once I even had to change two doors out completely, because for whatever reason, a specific door just would not work in those places - it would place fine, but my Sim couldn't route through it), and sometimes this was done after pictures had already been taken. So if you see discrepancies between the pictures and the final product, that's why. There aren't a lot of those, because usually I re-did the screen captures, but I've probably missed a few here and there.
I encountered one really WEIRD issue with having a fireplace on a particular wall in one of my builds, if I had any kind of stove or oven on the other side of that wall. For some reason, if there was a fireplace on the other side of that wall from a stove, the Sim wanted to use the fireplace to cook her food. Then she'd have a route tantrum because it didn't work. I ended up moving a cauldron into that spot instead of the stove, and moving the stove elsewhere, although it didn't satisfy my sense of aesthetics. But I could NOT get the stove/fireplace combo to work against that one wall. It worked properly with a stove if I used a DIFFERENT fireplace, but I really wanted to use that particular fireplace in that house. It just fit so perfectly with the feel of that place.
So... this is just an intro. I will post all your gifts up later.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. *whistles*
I'm going to be honest with you - I requested you as my buddy this time. When I saw your buddy letter at the last exchange, I saw how much we have in common, at least in our Sims playing style. This time I requested you, and @ADWilson was kind enough to give you to me. You said you have trouble building, and I LOVE building! I may not be as experienced as many, but since I focus on fantasy and medieval, I thought I could make you some things you would really enjoy playing in, and some Sims you might like playing with.
At the very least, you can use them to populate your worlds as NPCs and NPC homes. I searched all over the web for inspiration for fantasy and fairy tale houses. There were some great sites out there, many with good ideas. Some of them were real homes that looked like they were straight out of a fairy tale, others were paintings or drawings. Some of the latter were completely impractical; some because they would have been completely unlivable, others because there was no way to duplicate them using Sims building tools.
As a general rule, I should tell you that I've tended to forget to put in fire alarms and burglar alarms on the lots I've made for you. Since I make my own mods all the time, I have a mod that removes almost all chance of having a burglar, so I don't usually remember to put in burglar alarms. (Particularly since they tend to look really out of place on medieval lots.) I have also upgraded all applicable stoves and fireplaces to fireproof (unless fireproof is already built in to the stove, which seems to be the case with many of the ones I tend to use), so you don't have to have your Sims only make salads. You won't have to worry about any of these lots going up in flames.
(Unless it gets struck by lightning or something, which I can't prevent!)Another thing: My tester Sim has quite a lot of produce (no herbs), elixirs, and nectar in her inventory, so all of the homes I've made will be nicely stocked with all of these. Should save you a bit of grinding.
She's maxed out in quite a few skills, including Nectarology, Cooking, Fishing, Handiness, and Alchemy, and she had many elixirs, fish, produce, and expensive nectars in her inventory, which I've placed in most of the lots I've made. There are also some high grade food platters in the refrigerators from when my Sim tested the stoves and ovens, as well as lots of fish and any produce I didn't use to make a garden. So at least your Sims won't need to cook for a few days, and you can skill up his/her cooking with a book or two at your leisure.I have tested every lot pretty thoroughly, but only with an adult, which means there were some kid-only items that went untested. I don't generally play children (although the game my tester Sim is from, she ended up with quads - I guess both she and her husband really shouldn't each have both wished for fertility from a genie AND selected the fertility LTR!), so I don't have a child test Sim. I don't THINK any of those items will be a problem, but I'm not going to stake my life on it. (I did find some really strange problems with some of the beds, though. It appears that if you have a single bed pushed against an outside wall, and tell a Sim to relax or sleep on it, she will attempt to climb into it from outside the house. If the bed is on an upper floor, she will go all the way downstairs and outside, and will then have routing tantrums. So, you have to always push single beds against an inside wall, and if you don't want your Sims walking through a wall, make sure there's an object on the other side of the wall blocking them. Sims logic!)
Every toilet, bathtub, shower, sink, bed, chair, stove, skilling object, and fireplace has been tested. There were several times I found that I had to move some objects because they were unusable (once I even had to change two doors out completely, because for whatever reason, a specific door just would not work in those places - it would place fine, but my Sim couldn't route through it), and sometimes this was done after pictures had already been taken. So if you see discrepancies between the pictures and the final product, that's why. There aren't a lot of those, because usually I re-did the screen captures, but I've probably missed a few here and there.
I encountered one really WEIRD issue with having a fireplace on a particular wall in one of my builds, if I had any kind of stove or oven on the other side of that wall. For some reason, if there was a fireplace on the other side of that wall from a stove, the Sim wanted to use the fireplace to cook her food. Then she'd have a route tantrum because it didn't work. I ended up moving a cauldron into that spot instead of the stove, and moving the stove elsewhere, although it didn't satisfy my sense of aesthetics. But I could NOT get the stove/fireplace combo to work against that one wall. It worked properly with a stove if I used a DIFFERENT fireplace, but I really wanted to use that particular fireplace in that house. It just fit so perfectly with the feel of that place.
So... this is just an intro. I will post all your gifts up later.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. *whistles*
My Sims 3 Profile Page, since the forums don't connect to our Sims 3 profiles anymore.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Post edited by MiaSkywalker on
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Comments
Cozy Posey Cottage
This is a tiny 10x10 cottage, good for a single Sim with magical inclinations. (Two are possible, but it will be a little cramped.) Includes a tiny farm and a beehive to help your Sim be self-sufficient. Although there wasn't room for an alchemy station, there is an alchemy cabinet with many elixirs stocked for you to use. The refrigerator has many perfect fish in it, and a little bit of produce as well. (Not from your farm, it's what was left in my Sim's inventory after she planted the farm.)
The fireplace has been upgraded to fireproof, which is something I always do. I hate it when a fireplace randomly catches things on fire!
Although it's a small cottage, it is NOT a starter. I really do not know how to make starters. I just rely on the free real estate cheat.
Outside
Floor layouts
Second floor
Third floor
Because this house was so small, it was VERY difficult to get good pictures from inside. Therefore I did most of the screenshots from overhead.
I managed to get SOME images inside. Mostly of my Sim testing things.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Sugary Sweet Gingerbread House
At first my idea for this was to make a gingerbread house that would be appropriate for a wicked witch. You could still play it that way, but that's not really how it turned out. It's a good (*cough*) home for a family with a couple of kids, and there are skilling objects for witches and other magically inclined Sims in the attic. I took you at your word that you like color. It definitely has a lot of color!
Perhaps this house is a bit too... busy. I had fun building it, but I don't know that I would ever want to play it. Too much sugar.
The fireplace is upgraded to fireproof, and the stove is one that already comes fireproofed.
I also want to say, don't let this build fool you - most of what I made for you is not quite this colorful. Really.
Warning: Go no further if you are diabetic! May cause sugar coma without extra insulin!
Floor layouts
Second floor
Third floor
Attic
I'm sorry, I did some inside pictures while I was testing things, but I had to change a few things so drastically to get routing to work in several places, so I ended up deleting almost all of them. I was very tired at that point, so I didn't feel like redoing those. Among other things, a door I was using for two rooms placed just fine (without using MOO), yet my Sim couldn't route through them. The ones I replaced them with look different enough that you might notice... if you can get past all the bright, sugary sweetness at least.
(I don't expect a lot of you to want to actually download this - it is a bit much!)
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Fantasy House with Tower
NOTE: This build is very picture heavy, so I'm splitting the images between two posts.
All right, sometimes I stink at coming up with names for my builds.
This was built on a 30x30 lot. I built it for only a single sim, or perhaps a couple, and despite its apparent size, it doesn't really have room for children or additional roommates. A lot of the area is taken up by a farm, which includes most plants from the game in Perfect quality (including Bohemian, but no herbs), chickens for eggs, cows for milk (and milkshakes!), and a Mill Wheel for fishing.
The refrigerator has a lot of perfect fish in it, both from when my tester (with level 10 fishing) used the mill wheel, and what she had already had in her inventory. All fireplaces have been upgraded to fireproof. There are also a few special items; check the inventory of several storage items and you'll see some fun stuff.
Floor plans
First floor
Overviews
Main floor
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Tower
Third floor
Fourth floor
Fifth floor
Alchemy lab
Basement
Outside
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
🐸🐸🐸🐸 Wanderings Caravan
A 🐸🐸🐸🐸 caravan, for those Sims that dream of the open road. Uses Haute Hacienda and Drifter's Desire sets extensively, and tents from World of Wonder. Includes premium content: Book of Spells, violin, crystal ball, and humble harvest stands.
First off, I want to thank Ciane for the idea about using the benches as wheels. I had been using something else before, but this is MUCH better! (What I had been using were these deco things that went on the wall and looked like wheels, but were so small they didn't really look right.) It meant I had to redo all the outside shots, and then re-export the lot, but it was worth it.
While this is colorful, I don't think it's quite as over the top as the sugar house I built you. I studied quite a few caravans online before I started building this, and I think I got the feel as closely as I could, while still making it a usable Sims home. I used many items from the Drifter's Desire collection, as well as the Hacienda collection. I also used the tent pieces from the World of Wonder venue. As you see, I've taken you at your word that you like color by making a couple of colorful builds for you.
This is a very playful build compared to some of the others I've made for you, but I hope you like it.
This lot includes a chicken coop, but does NOT include a garden or cow, as a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 family wouldn't be able to pick up a garden and carry it with them, and the cow was too big to fit on the lot. Instead, I put in one of the humble harvest stands, so you can purchase whatever produce you wish. There is also quite a lot of produce and fish in the refrigerator on the lot, in case the harvest stand doesn't offer up what you want. Unfortunately, I couldn't do a lot about meat or cheese, so the refrigerator only has what was in my testing Sim's inventory.
The alchemy shelves - as in all of these builds - carry many elixirs; both those that my testing Sim had been carrying on her person, and those she created while testing the alchemy station. The wine racks in the cellar are full of the nectar that had been in her inventory, which should give your Sims some nice moodlets. There are a few extra things in the alchemy shelves you might find interesting or useful as well.
Once again, every single item was tested before I exported, which is why a few things might be changed from the pictures.
Outside
Layouts
Big tent
Small tent
Basement
Main house
Note: The guitar is no longer there; I replaced it with the stereo from the World of Wonder venue. When the guitar was there, my Sim had routing issues when I told her to play it; oddly, once I moved the guitar to the basement area, those routing problems didn't occur. You'd think a guitar in the basement would be more difficult, but strangely, it wasn't.
Big tent
Small Tent
Basement
If you're wondering about the shower - ever try inventing in a room that doesn't have one? Not a good idea.
Note: I just wanted to mention that the tent areas ARE covered. There's a way to do it, although it's tricky. I did it so that if you play with all seasons, you won't have snow INSIDE the tents in winter. That doesn't mean your Sims won't get cold, and they'll still have the Outdoors moodlets (good or bad), but at least the items in the tents won't be covered in snow and unusable.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Inverness Fantasy House
The name of this house is sort of a personal joke for me. There's an old story about a mythical castle named Inverness, which has three towers. However, under certain conditions a fourth tower will mysteriously appear, and while the tower exists, strange things can happen in the castle, and especially in the fourth tower. When I made this house, and gave it three fireplaces, the three chimneys immediately made me think of that castle. So, I named the house Inverness. Maybe that was a silly reason, but now I can't picture any other name for this house.
My inspiration for this house came from several fairy tale homes I found pictures of online. One of them was the Prince of Wales Inn in Canada, but my initial attempt at it turned out to be way too large, and not all that useful for a Sims house, so I scrapped it. I really tried to make this house look like it could come straight out of a fairy tale on the outside. Because you said that the Storybook set is your favorite, I used that set of furniture extensively. I left the second floor rooms empty, so you can do with them what you'd like. There's a small library/study on that floor, but that's it.
There are many little extras in this home. The garden is pre-planted with most plants and trees (including Bohemian), although no herbs. There's space in the garden for you to add more plants if you like. If you'll notice in most of the outside pictures, the garden shows just the seeds and fruits on the plots, not the plants. I didn't want the plants growing (and getting weeds and all) while I was testing the house, so I waited until I was done to have my Sim plant everything, and then she used her green dragon to grow everything up. Unfortunately, it took so long to actually plant the seeds, that half of them started growing while she was still planting others. That's why in the final building image (the only one that actually shows the plants), some of the plants are mature, and the rest are at the stage before. That's just how it worked out.
All three kinds of stoves are included in the kitchen. There is a nectar maker downstairs, and my test Sim is a master nectar maker, so several of the wine racks have some expensive nectar in them. I do not believe the value of the nectar affects the price of the house. (Seriously, the house would cost several million if it did. It's EXPENSIVE nectar.) The alchemy shelves near the alchemy station have many pre-made potions in them for you, including some that will add various occult statuses that you might be interested in. All fireplaces have already been upgraded to fireproof. There are cows and chickens, and a mill for fishing from. Just watch out for those sharks!
Some of the images for this were the first images I posted to tinypic, and I didn't really know how to use that site at that time. So... a few of the images are much smaller than I would have wanted.
Outside views
Floor views
First floor
Second floor
Third floor
Fourth floor (Attic)
Basement
Outside activities
"There sure are a lot of sharks!"
Various inside shots while testing
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Fantasy Whimsy
This is a smallish house compared to some of the others I've built for you, only 20x20. Once again, I wanted to give you the feeling that this house was pulled straight out of a fairy tale. Most of the furnishings are from the Make a Wish and Faire Folk sets. This house would work best for a single Sim, or a couple without children. Because it's on a hill, it isn't really expandable, so if you want to add more Sims to the family, you'll have to buy a second home. This house contains all three stove types: Standard, Bakery, and Wood fire. I try to put all three on a lot whenever I can; I love my Sims being able to cook different kinds of things.
This house, unlike most of the others I've built for you, doesn't have room for a garden or farm animals. If you want to add those, you might place this within a larger sized lot, and just make sure there's room on at least one side. As with all of my lots, the fireplaces have all been upgraded to fireproof. As usual, the refrigerator has lots of produce, the wine racks are full, and the alchemy shelves have lots of potions and other things in them.
Outside views
Floor overviews
Second floor
Third floor
Top view
Inside shots
Although this is rather a small house, I think it's nice and cozy for a single Sim.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
First, 7 & 8:
Haydar Aswas
Haydar Aswas had a rebellious streak when he was young, and left home before he was an adult. Because of his nature, he has never had to worry about earning a living or making his way in the world, although on occasion he's had to run from a magician who might otherwise have thought to put him in a bottle. Through the centuries he has learned to blend in - most of the time, at least - and rarely gives away his true nature to those he meets. He is still young for one of his kind, and has much to learn about the world.
Haydar wears a ring on one finger that protects him from being forced into a bottle; because this is such a dangerous possibility, he never removes this ring. It bears his family crest on it, and although he left home young (for a djinn, that is), he knows he will someday return. Purple is not only the color of his skin, it is his family's color, so he incorporates that color into every outfit he wears, in some way or another. He also still chooses to be a LITTLE flamboyant; he can't help it, it's the nature of his species.
Traits: Ambitious, Athletic, Brave, Charismatic, Loves the Outdoors
Favorites: Cheese-steak sandwich, Egyptian, Purple
Lifetime Wish: International Super Spy
I had intended to change his favorite food to Shawarma, but I forgot. Oops!
Outfits
Formal
Athletic
Sleep wear
Swim wear
Outerwear
His genetics are based on Gunnar Hannes, also from Aurora Skies. That Sim has beautiful cheekbones, but the hair and some other things they gave him... ugh. And WHY did EA feel the need to give every man in AS gloves in all outfits? Really!
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Deondre Guerrier
Deondre had been born wealthy, and had always been vaguely dissatisfied with his life. To the annoyance of his parents and elders, he tried to alleviate his ennui by a life of dissipation and wastefulness. One night at a gambling den he met a woman who told him she could give him something that would invigorate him for life. Intrigued, he went home with her. To his shock and initial dismay, she turned him into a vampire. After he grew used to it, however, the joys of his new life did indeed reinvigorate him. Now a century or so in, he is seeking something else.
Traits: Brave, Brooding, Charismatic, Irresistible, Night Owl
Favorites: Lobster, Dark Wave, Purple
Lifetime Wish: Super Popular
Outfits
Everyday
Formal
Athletic
Sleep wear
Swim wear
Outer wear
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Gyles Blaidd
His name means Warrior Wolf, or Wolf Warrior, I can't remember which.
Traits: Brave, Charismatic, Friendly, Genius, Loves the Outdoors
Favorites: Tri-tip Steak, Classical, Blue
Lifetime Wish: International Super Spy
Gyles' father passed away when Gyles was a child, and his mother began running with a dangerous crowd. Unable to watch her destroy herself, Gyles ran away at 14 to seek his fortune elsewhere. At 17, he noticed strange missing periods of time in his life, and sought an uncle to try to find out why. It was then that he learned the curse of his family: Lycanthropy. A medieval / fantasy Sim, Gyles will set your female Sims' hearts to swooning.
In the process of taking pictures of his two forms, he gained a point of Lycanthropy. I didn't skill him in any way; I figured you might enjoy doing that. (It's my favorite part of the game, anyway.) I thought about putting a bunch of meats in his inventory, since werewolves often get the wish to eat raw meat, but decided not to, as it would use up some of his money. Oh, and he has some lifetime points. Apparently he got wishes a few times to change to werewolf form, and I inadvertently fulfilled them as I was taking pictures.
I took quite a bit of time to make his werewolf form look identical to his regular form. The only differences are: larger ears, fangs, claws, lots of body hair, different hairstyle, and amber eyes. While doing this isn't difficult, it IS very time consuming, but I don't care much for the squished-face werewolf look. Also, his human form is a bit less stocky than in the pictures, and his werewolf form is more muscular. For some reason his werewolf form had been less muscular than his human form; I fixed that, which is part of why his Lycanthropy skill is almost to 2 now.
I don't know if you've ever played a werewolf, but they have some interesting abilities. Although they aren't my favorite supernatural Sims (witches and faeries are), I enjoy having one in a family, every now and then. I've also seen pictures of hybrid werewolf-faerie toddlers, and they're hilariously adorable.
I had originally intended to make him a werewolf-witch hybrid, but I'm not sure if you can play a hybrid without the Nraas Hybrid module. So, I decided just to leave him a werewolf, and if you have that module and want to make him a hybrid, feel free to do so.
Outfits
Formal
Athletic
Sleep wear
Swim wear
Outerwear
Werewolf form in everyday clothing
His genetics are based on Jakob Ingberg, from Aurora Skies. Obviously quite a lot has been changed, but I find that the men from Aurora Skies have excellent bone structure for handsome, masculine men.
==============================================================
Isamu Mikami
Isamu's family has always been different, although he didn't discover until his twelfth birthday how different they were. On that day, his parents spoke to him in private, and told him that their family had been entrusted by the gods to care for the land and the people many centuries before, and for that purpose had been granted great magical powers. They were never to use their powers to harm, but only to heal, and never to promote themselves in any way. If Isamu swore to uphold these ideals, the power would be granted to him, as it had to all of his ancestors before. Isamu promised to do so, and then felt himself filled with power.
Since then he has remained a guardian of the lands, caring for all living things around him.
He has some lifetime points, because he got the wish to play with magic WHILE I was having him play with magic. Silly Sim!
Traits: Ambitious, Athletic, Brave, Disciplined, Hopeless Romantic
Favorites: Dim Sum, Chinese, Red
Lifetime Wish: Physical Perfection
I probably should have replaced Ambitious with Good - it would fit the backstory better.
Outfits
Formal
Athletic
Sleep wear
Swim wear
Outer wear
And some pictures of him doing magic.
His genetics are based on Ari Wong from Aurora Skies.
I debated about this Sim for a while before making him. I wanted to make an Asian Sim, but wasn't sure whether to base him on Chinese, Japanese or Korean traditions. I finally decided on a mixture; I hope it doesn't offend anyone.
Btw, I had originally intended on giving you only Gyles and Haydar, but somehow I found myself making several more. I really do NOT know how that happened.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Reece Draíochta
Reece had a happy early childhood, growing up on his parents' farm. When he was six, a group of druids visited, and announced that Reece was destined to become one of them. His parents were sad, yet proud, and they told Reece to go with the druids and to be brave. He had cried, not wanting to leave his parents and his older sister and brother, afraid he would never see them again. In that, he had been right. His age had been extended from the training; when it was finally complete, his parents had already passed away from old age, and both of his siblings were grandparents, yet he was still a young man. He said good-bye to his remaining family, then set off to see the world.
Traits: Ambitious, Athletic, Brave, Genius, Hopeless Romantic
Favorites: Frog legs, French music, Irish green
Lifetime Wish: Perfect Mind, Perfect Body
Outfits
Formal
Athletic
Sleep wear
Swim wear
Outer wear
Reece playing with magic
Hayden's genetics are based on Adam Burch, from Aurora Skies.
==============================================================
Aeryn Llwyni
(Pronounced "Ay-ren Shoo-eenee)
Traits: Ambitious, Bookworm, Green Thumb, Loves the Outdoors, Natural Cook
Favorites: Firecracker shrimp, Classical, Purple
Lifetime wish: Culinary Librarian
I don't have a back story for her, I'm sorry. I wasn't originally going to include this Sim, but decided on it at almost the last minute.* You will probably recognize this as my testing Sim, Nessie Lochlan. Yes, the Nessie Lochlan from Dragon Valley, but considerably changed.
Other changes I made included clothing (her original outfits were very gray), and many tweaks to her face. For the most part, Nessie's bone structure is excellent, so I didn't have to change too much in her facial structure, I just changed aspects of her mouth, nose, and eyes. I also made her a witch. Did I forget to mention that?
Since she came from DV, she already had pointed ears. For those who have never played that world, almost every Sim in that town has pointed ears, except for the two Pleasantview Sims who were transported there. I always go through the town at the beginning of a new game in DV, and use Master Controller to set all of the townies to various supernaturals. I feel that's the intent of that world, so I make it so.
This is NOT the exact Nessie Lochlan I was testing with; that Sim has many maxed out skills, and I wanted to leave you with the fun of skilling her up yourself. What's the fun of playing if you aren't skilling? At least, to me that's the point of it; it's about the journey, not the destination. Also, she earns about 5 million Simoleons a week from royalties, and that's just WAY too cheaty for a new character. No, that wasn't cheated up. I have a mod that makes all royalties last 9999 weeks, her age has been frozen with the age freeze LTR, and she's written at least a hundred Masterpieces at this point. Those are all legitimate royalties, but I don't think it would be fun to play her as a brand new Sim. You wouldn't have any challenge with her.
So, I saved my Nessie to my Sim bin, and then created a new character using her looks/clothing as a template, with a few additional changes. Brand new, blank from scratch, no skills or relationships.
She might like being paired with one of those guys - what do you think?
Outfits
Formal
Athletic
Sleep wear
Swim wear
Outer wear
Oh! Something you might need to be aware of. Sometimes a supernatural Sim loses his/her supernatural aspect when uploaded or downloaded, I have no idea why. When I exported Reece, then brought him back into my game, he was no longer a witch, and I had to re-add his occult status. Unfortunately, that meant I had to redo all his clothing, because when you add an occult status to a Sim, the clothing gets randomized again. EA, why?
* I added her to the gift list because I didn't want to give you 13 gifts. Adding her makes it so you will have 14 gifts from me.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Sorcery Star Cottage
This cottage was built so that when viewed from above, the roof looks like a star. I came across a couple of different blogs that showed fantasy type houses in real life, and one of them had a roof configuration sort of like this. (But with only three points and not eight.) That gave me the idea for this one. I had a number of different ideas for what to do with this home, and this is what I liked best.
I recommend that you DO NOT attempt to modify the roof in any way. It took me a day and a half - no kidding - to get the roof decorations on all of the roofs. For two of them I had to do some really weird stuff, like temporarily creating a fake floor above and below where I wanted the gables to be, or they simply would NOT set into place. The other six gables went on easily, just not those two, and even now I have no idea why. So if you try to change the roof, or move some of the gables, you're going to be hating yourself. Trust me on this.
I think this is my favorite of all of the houses I made for you, just because it's so unique.
This is the house that gave me the fits with the stove and the fireplace. The round fireplaces that come with the old mill set must advertise something incorrectly.
Outside
Floor plans
More pictures
The farm, as is the case in the rest of these builds, has almost every non-herb plant in the garden (yes, this includes the meats). It also has a mill for fishing, a beehive, and chickens. It's 30x30; I don't think any of my gifts to you so far are larger than that, but I could be wrong. The wine racks are full of expensive wines, and there are lots of goodies for you, including many elixirs (and by many, I really DO mean many!), in the alchemy shelves.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Skymyst Magical Park
I consider this final gift my pièce de résistance. It might not be my best gift to you, but it's the one I'm proudest of. I've never made a decent amusement park before, and I think this one finally makes the grade. I started - and scrapped - three builds before I was satisfied, and this build took longer than any of the other builds I'm giving you. But since I was finally able to make what I had been visualizing, I'm happy.
One effect I was trying for was a large pavilion with the carousel inside. I didn't want to use walls with windows, I wanted something with a more lattice-work type of effect. The Amore fences worked perfectly, EXCEPT that normally you can't stack fences on top of themselves. So, I had to trick it. I created floors initially using columns in the inside area, and put the fences around them, and slowly built the tower up. When I was done, I removed the floors, and put the carousel in. It was harder than it sounds. For one thing, I had forgotten to tile the ceiling, and that meant rebuilding all of the floors from the bottom up, because otherwise the game won't let you paint a ceiling. Then there were issues with the roof decoration I wanted to add, and I had to redo the floors AGAIN. There were other issues, too many to remember. In fact, I am not sure I WANT to remember.
Everything in the building was tested thoroughly. I had to redo all the screen captures, because I decided to change something on the doors at the last minute, and it affected EVERY image I had done. Well, that was dumb of me. Especially since later, looking at the new screen captures and comparing them to the old, I think it looked better the first way. Just for grins, I'm going to show some of the funny captures I took of my Sim as she tested things, even though it was the previous look. Most of the inside shots it won't matter so much.
Because you said you like color, particularly purple and blue, and DON'T like things that are all white (whereas I often do), I added a lot of purple in this. Normally when going for the gossamer / fairy-like effect I was trying for in this, I will stick mostly with white and gold, and occasional highlights of lavender. I didn't do that for this, because I have the feeling you wouldn't care for it as much.
Your Sim can have a lot of fun in this place. Downstairs are a bunch of those whack-a-mole kinds of things, as well as the bubble machine, a bunch of chess tables, and a couple of painting easels. Upstairs there's a dance floor, and four different instruments to play. There are also stands for popcorn, cotton candy, and snow cones. Just remember that neither popcorn nor cotton candy will affect your hunger bar, but snow cones will. You can get decent buffs from all three of them, which is, of course, the point of having them.
On the top floor is the main attraction, the carousel. 'Nuff said.
Your Sim won't starve, either. The eating room downstairs has a baking oven, a wood fire oven, and a bistro oven. (Which, apparently, your Sim can't simply cook at, like I had thought they could. You have to assign a chef for it, and you'll probably need to place menus on the tables, which I did not do.) In case your Sim doesn't yet have a decent cooking skill, you can always use the buffet table. Just remember that the buffet table will cost you something like $250, which I personally don't find worth it, unless I want to feed a bunch of hungry Sims that are around me.
Your Sim MIGHT get tired. I tried to have my Sim leave an invigorating potion, but when she went home, it automatically went back into her inventory. Well, darn. I guess you can't leave things from your inventory on a commercial lot. Or maybe that's a function of one of the Nraas mods. Either way, I guess your Sim will have to have some potions on her already.
Outside pictures
You can see the lattice effect I was going for here.
Overviews
Second floor
Carousel floor
Inside
Second floor
Carousel floor
Testing Sim shots
First floor
Did you know that when making something at the wood fire oven, you can randomly lose what you're cooking? Your Sim will throw the dough up, and it will vanish. Seriously. Even with a 10 in cooking!
Making a chocolate pie.
Second floor
And now, testing the gyroscope (I think that's what it's called). I took a bunch of these because it made me laugh! I don't think I've had a Sim use one of these in a very long time. Probably not since right after they first came out.
Sims certainly get into strange positions in these things!
Something is seriously wrong with her dress here. Seems the devs mismanaged something when it comes to women wearing short skirts on these. Or maybe they did this so it doesn't expose her or something. It looks VERY strange, though.
Hm... what's she doing - casting a spell on it? I wonder what that's going to do....
Did she just... disappear in a flash of light? Oh, I wonder what's going to happen to her...
I hope you have fun playing on this lot, like my Sim had testing it!
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
And yes, I really did do a whole lot of gifts.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
I love the picture of your Sim looking in the horror mirror, it really made me giggle. I'm sure @Skymyst is going to love this cute, little house
The hanging peppers (aka Haute Hacienda Kitchen- Wall Chilies Sculpture) can be re-colored? I didn't know that. Silly me.
Sims 3 Blog: Have I Got A Story For You!
Sims 4 Blog: Addy Plays Sims 4
And I also missed the recoloring of the peppers, I ended up not using them myself for that reason
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Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
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Aw... shucks.
Also, until recently I couldn't build anything more exciting than a box with a roof on it, to save my life. I followed someone's advice on this forum (it wasn't advice being given to me directly, but I followed it nonetheless) to use floor plans or house images as inspiration. I found a few websites with some lovely (some even real life) fantasy type cottages, and tried to build them.
The first cottage here used these as my inspiration, particularly the first one:
I won't say it was easy; it wasn't. The difficulty for me, though, wasn't getting everything inside, it was getting my build to LOOK the way I wanted. Once I had the outside, only THEN did I worry about the inside. I figured it would take care of itself.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!