No, no, no, time it goes too fast!!

These last months have flown by, much, much too fast. It's already New Year's Eve, it can't be! I'm not ready to write 2012 instead of 2011, heck I still write 2010 occasionally!! Ah well, c'est la vie, but I still feel like someone turned my life up to speed three and forgot about it.

For awhile I've been having computer issues, crashes and refusing to start for hours, I thought it might be the graphics card failing and a week before Christmas the whole thing died on me. Turned out I was right and I went out and bought a new one, which would have been great if the PSU hadn't been too weak to handle it... yeah, didn't think to check that first.

It's now finally running smoothly again, but I've been without a computer for the entire holidays and haven't been able to play The Sims 3 or try any of the games I got for Christmas.

Well, New Year's Eve is for New Year's Resolutions so let's make one to actually manage my time in a better way than I am currently.

Augh!!

So, it seems EA borked almost all CC with the newest patch and Pets, which well, was to be expected I suppose, they did have to change a lot of coding to enable all objects for the animals. I don't think people are right to shout and cry about EA being villains because of it, of all games I've played The Sims is by far the one that is most open to modding. Still, I do think they might've been fair to give like a head's up a few months ago.

Well, I've been working on the story, but progress is slow, university is taking up a lot of time, I'd forgotten how much effort studies take. I did ace my first exam on computer game history and genres, this next one is harder though, computer systems, stuff like binary code and assembly language, which is cool and all, but I doubt I'll ever use it again.

Popping In

Anybody else hate the new blogger interface? Looks so cheap and impersonal. Had it looked like that when I signed up I wouldn't have signed up at all.

Anyways, have been busy, I'm working with a program called Multimedia Fusion 2 for my university course right now, it's so much fun. Very easy, but I wish we had more than two weeks to actually make a game with it because I know I could make something cool with it.

I'm waiting desperately for the Pets expansion, but promise to have another update soon. It's just that my mind is also kicking me to write a gritty sci-fi-ish story, with lots of sex and violence, probably because I found so many downloads that would look so cool, but wouldn't fit in my current story world.

Life Changes

I'm making some big changes in my life right now. I'll be taking a leave from my current job and starting a university course in computer game design. It feels kind of like I'm going sky diving. My nerves are ice skating on a roller coaster, but I'd regret it forever if I didn't take the leap now.

I have no idea how much time I'll have to do things other than study, but hopefully I'll be able to organize my hours so I'll have time to both study games and play them.

As for writing I write when I can, when I'm up for it etc. I have the next chapter in the works, I had meant to write more during my summer vacation, but things came up as they're wont to do. But it's getting there. I've been taking a lot of pictures for the next chater and some for other uses. Here's a newer version of Darcy's photograph of herself and her parents which is mentioned in chapter 2.

Story Update: The End of the World Ch.3 A Night Adrift

OK, it's not technically Sunday anymore where I live, but I'm pretty sure it's Sunday somewhere in the world and that's good enough for me.

Finally, after a very long, quite unplanned hiatus, we finally get to see where Darcy's got off to.

The End of the World Ch. 3 A Night Adrift

Almost There

Well, this chapter is taking quite some time, real life has been sucking all life out of me lately. I've been absolutely sick and tired of everything and hopefully I'll get into the university course I've applied to so I can do something else for awhile.

The pictures are all done, and the chapter is finished in my head now, so hopefully after the Midsummer holidays I'll be done and my goal is to have the next chapter up on Sunday.

Re-Shoot

I only just got TS3 re-installed and have been getting a lot of new content what with Generations coming out and also a lot of cool cc and I realised, while getting back into the game, that I needed to re-do some stuff for The End of the World.

When I created the characters of Darcy and Daniel I had a slightly different idea of why they had moved and it was more about money issues, a completely different story from what grew out of my writing, and I realised that the pictures would tell a different story from the one I wanted.

So Darcy got a slightly altered look, hopefully a little more urban and they got a better car. Also, in addition to making Gull's Nest a tad bigger, I changed and added some stuff around the garden. So I'm in the process of re-shooting and shooting pictures for ch.3 at the same time, but it'll soon be done, finger's crossed.

Why Me?!

I've been having a lot of issues with my very new computer, it keeps crashing and giving me a blue screen with BSW on it (big scary words) and I have recently had some help trying to fix it, which means I have nothing left on my computer, I will be re-installing and trying to get my game back up and running, but the problem is that the blue screen of doom still happens and I just don't feel like doing all the work of installing TS3 on this computer again before I have had another go at fixing it.

I do have a load of pictures for the next chapter and I might get around to it, but RL has been just too real recently, that and I wasted a lot of time on Dragon Age Origins I guess and also on The Sims Medieval, which was fun for a few hours but quickly started feeling like I was just following a bunch of orders.

Really Off Track

Well, I'm really off track recently, much stress at work and I've been sick off and on. Yeah and I sprained my ankle this week, so painful! I just feel very tired and down, and so I have just not been in a writing mood at all, this doesn't mean I'm not going to continue writing on The End of The World, I will, I just think it'll be a while before I'm back in the game again.

I'm very exciting about The Sims: Medieval actually, I think it looks like a lot of fun. Today though, I came across the trailer for The Sims 3: Unleashed, which looks to be an absolutely amazing ep, with cats, dogs, racoons, skunks, snakes, deer and horses! October is ages away! Generations looks nie, but nowhere near as exciting!

Sick of Stress and Sick from Stress

No update yet for awhile I'm afraid. I was sick the week before this one and this last week work has been just hellish. A third of my co-workers were gone last week and things were really stressful. I've had a stomach ache and tension headaches since last Monday all due to stress and I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better now, but I've had very little energy and just lain in bed watching Vampire Diaries all weekend when not sleeping, so I haven't got any writing done at all.

Lighting Mods and Weather

I'm going back and forth between wanting to add a lighting mod to my game and then deciding not to. I try it and then go back, which makes the game look dull and plastic, but the tweaks in the mod are too many and I don't want all of them.What I'd really like is to mod the ini files in Barnacle Bay myself, but I have no idea where to start.

In any case I feel like adding the mod would hinder the screen capturing somewhat because you can't control when there's going to be a misty day, if there's a weather expansion I'm sure there will soon be a cheat/hack to change weathers just like there was for Seasons and that would be perfect.

So does this put me in the weather camp? Because I was in the Pets camp... I think I'd actually like Weather this spring and then Pets for fall if they can't combine it, but obviously they won't, how would that make them any money?

Story Update: The End of the World Ch.2 Too Much

Well, there's more involved in getting these things put together than you might imagine before starting out, I am really enjoying the process so far, but I have to fight not to get too drawn into building and redecorating.

I've been re-touching Barnacle Bay and slowly re-styling the inhabitants to suit the story and more my taste. I want it to blend nicely and feel slightly less prestine and cheerful.

What I learned while writing this chapter is that I rely a lot on what happens in my game to tell the story, not that I actually play Darcy's family, but as I leave free will on while forcing them to interact with the world around them they sometimes surprise me and end up taking the story in completely new directions.

The End of the World Ch.2 Too Much

Gender Bias

I like to consider myself a modern woman, with a clear cut view of what equal opportunity means, discrimination is horrible and I don't like stereotypes.

But I still want a male butler, doggone it!! I mean is it really too much to ask that after you've hired and fired your seventh pretty, blond, shapely manequin of a woman you could get just one middle aged, balding, fat guy!?! And what is it with those creepy female butlers looking like clones from a seventies sci-fi movie?

Gees! Even creating my butler in CAS and sticking the character in the butler bin via the Master Controller I still kept getting the manequins... duck it, I'll just leave the Goldbeard's butle-less for now, they won't be featured all that much in the story anyways, not yet in any case.

Story Update: The End of the World Ch.1 Gull's Nest

I'm currently working on various new ideas for my story, which means I'm creating Sims and building/rebuilding parts of Barnacle Bay to better suit my taste and the story. I'm also trying to write out some profiles and figuring out what else I need to do about the story blog. So recently I haven't had time to write the actual story, isn't that a little ironic?

Ah well, thankfully there are no readers yet, which means I'm kinda talking to myself at the moment... doesn't that feel just a little awkward... Anyway, for any eventual future readers, first chapter of The End of the World, Gull's Nest is now up.

Breaking New Ground

A blog without posts is like a post without logs... or something equally silly.

I thought it looked a little empty, so I decided there was a need of a small post just to get myself into the right mindset.

My intent is for this to be a hub of sorts in case I act on my notion to write more stories using The Sims 3 as a medium. I have one in the works which will begin as soon as I wrangle blogger into submission. I still have a few things to figure out.

The story is called The End of the World and it will be a drama series with some adventure and mystery thrown in.