Cross-Forum Fervor! Let's Play The Sims 3!

[beatbandito]

Can't I just... sit and read a book about being athletic?

[nosimpleway]

The only skills left that you can sit and read a book on are gardening and charisma. The rest you have to actually do.

(For the record: Cooking, Logic, Handiness, Gardening, and Charisma have skill books. Fishing, Guitar, and Cooking have books that expand the skill without directly improving skill levels.)

[nosimpleway]

The Talking Team gave me some specific ideas of what they wanted out of their Tyrano Lair, but all I've got from you guys is "something gothic, with private bedrooms, in tower form".

The game engine can't do flying buttresses (I think, maybe the patch added them and I just haven't found that option yet), so this is what I've got so far.

Looking at it now I don't like the windowed facade as much as I thought I would, so I'll probably move some of those next time I play.


There's lots of empty room for furniture and stuff inside, with wrought-iron chandeliers and candelabra providing most of the light. The computer desks are on the far side of the central support structure (which has a bathroom inside).


The kitchen and bedrooms are on the second floor. There's enough room for another staircase up, once I put a third floor in to meet your request to live in a tower. Again, the bathroom is in the center.

To add in the future: curtain walls, better landscaping, screenshots of the cliffside behind the house with the moat around the outside. But I didn't want to spend all of the house's money right now. (It's Friday in-game, so in a couple of game-days Ada and Zara will get their fat royalty checks.)

Actual game-progress update is forthcoming, but between this and the new Tyrant base I already spent all day playing, so

[Blossom]

The Talking Team gave me some specific ideas of what they wanted out of their Tyrano Lair, but all I've got from you guys is "something gothic, with private bedrooms, in tower form".

I am quite shocked that this is the extent of the feedback. Allow me to offer a suggestion:

[Classic]

Once you've finalized a floor/furniture plan, you can delete most of the lower floors without consequence. Presto: Floating Buildings.

[nosimpleway]

I am quite shocked that this is the extent of the feedback. Allow me to offer a suggestion:

Nice callback.

[Silversong]

Yay, I got my chandeliers! Can I do more work on charming insects? Maybe work my way up to woodland creatures?

[nosimpleway]

It's the weekend! A fine Saturday to sleep in, a fine day to...


...to... er... stand in the bathroom and call your friends on the phone.


Anyway, Silver has an Opportunity to read five newspapers. She gets on that.


Meanwhile, the trend of the few days of gametime is that everything breaks. Maybe the patch added a flag to everything that can break that it will the next time it's used? I dunno, but every toilet clogs, every shower geysers water, the dishwasher explodes at least once, and the computers throw sparks and smoke every time someone finishes with them. Beat has a field day repairing everything, enough for the game's first skill challenge!


Every skill has at least two Challenges, and completing as many of them as possible is one of the victory conditions for the LP. So all of their belongings exploding actually gives the Bronto house an edge in the competition!

How much stuff has broken?


Enough to get two skill challenges for fixing it all...

[nosimpleway]

Beat has also developed the Athletics skill by hitting the gym, so that's going well.


Er... mostly well.


Zara's worn a bit thin on game design, so takes his mind off things with some painting. He still digs the Moonside aesthetic.


I promise that not the entire update is about Beat.




Other people get Opportunities too, and Mongrel makes his requisite cameo.

[nosimpleway]

Now that he's headlining the band, Brent has to put in concerts while at work as part of his career advancement. He can do it on his days off, too, if he happens to fall behind.


While Brent's at work, Beat makes dinner, then indulges in a bit of character-appropriate dickery. He sets the bowl of macaroni on the counter, then... stands there. None of his famished housemates can reach their tasty dinner. Silver and Zara and Ada all complain, and Beat laughs diabolically. (He did get the Fiendishly Delighted moodlet out of the manufactured ordeal...)


Once Brent gets home and to bed, his phone starts ringing...


The newsroom manager at the Sunset Valley News Network hates logical thinking. Guess Silver's working at a FOX affiliate.


So Silver invites her over for breakfast.


Since being friends with your boss is a requirement for Silver's career path, hey why not.




Fiona goes to sit down, and Brentai is still standing where they were, but they're still talking. Just one of those weird things a Sim game does sometimes.


You can guess where this is going.

[nosimpleway]

This took an unnecessarily long time to complete. The laptop is RIGHT THERE why won't it let him complete his Opportunity? I was about ten seconds away from throwing up my hands and saying HEY GUYS FREE LAPTOP when I remembered to put it in the family inventory instead, allowing Beat to reap his rewards.


Brent has spent most of the day seducing Fiona McIrish, so much so that she stays for dinner.


And hey, don't forget that the grim spectre of death hangs threateningly over us all!


After dinner, Brent makes his move, and...


...yeah, like he do.


Whoa there, tiger.


WHOA THERE TIGER

[nosimpleway]

Fiona does in fact stay the night.


Leading to a bit of oddness when Silver gets to work and finds that, despite her boss being back home on the sofa with a book, Silver can still talk to her and develop their relationship. Fiona doesn't leave for another hour.


Once she's out of work, Silver unwinds by watching a movie at the local theater. Esmond Scrimshaw: Hippo Wrestler is getting good reviews, but what the paper really needs is a critique of whether Facekicker 4 lives up to the series legacy.


Apparently Fiona dropped by while Brent was at work, and Brent got a little confused between what's on and off the record. Dick jokes are for private time, Brentai!


The notice from last night was spot-on about the imminent demise of Bessie Clavell.

[nosimpleway]

And that'll wrap the game, except for all this money burning a hole in the household collective pocket...


I rearranged the windows, paved some walkways in the front yard, added a couple decorative pillars and stair railings, and built half the curtain wall. Soon there will be a 3/4 enclosed courtyard, maybe a half-wall between the paved areas at the base of the hill. The patch doesn't make moats, drawbridges, or even regular bridges any more viable, but the water that's present wraps all the way around the cliff. If someone wants to pick up the Fishing skill you can stock the pond with piranha or sharks. Or both.

Silver: LAPs 9984, Long-Distance Friend
Wishes: Have 8 Friends +1500, Write 5 Articles (3/5) +1000, Get a Promotion +1000
Skills: Charisma 6, Writing 5, Guitar 5
Opportunity: Today's (And Tomorrow's) Current Events (read 5 newspapers, currently 4/5 and the fifth is in inventory; she was just too tired to read when she got home from the movie)

Ada Bee: LAPs 2824, Extra Creative
Wishes: Write 5 Best-Sellers +3000, Write a Book Worth at Least $750 +3000, Write 10 Novels (6/10) +3000
Skills: Painting 7, Writing 8
Opportunities: A History of One (write a biography of Mongrel Grongrellson)

Beat Bandito'toole: LAPs 54,170, Fast Learner
Wishes: Discover 15 Stars (11/15) +900
Skills: Handiness 10, Logic 10, Cooking 6, Athletics 3

Zara: LAPs 12,309, Acclaimed Author
Wishes: Make 10 Vidyagames +3250, Finish Current Project +675, Make a Game Worth $3000/wk
Skills: Logic 4, Painting 7, Writing 8

Brentai: LAPs 16,740, Long-Distance Friend
Wishes: Meet Someone New +300, Go on a Date with Fiona +350, Reach level 8 of Guitar skill
Skills: Logic 6, Guitar 7, Charisma 4

Cash on hand: $610
Lot Value: $62,377
Skill Challenges Completed: 2

Meanwhile, in an alternate dimension...

[Mongrel]

Well Buge, where's my bio?! Huh? Huhu?

[Büge]

Once upon a time, a boy built a boat.

The boat sank

The boy went home

The boy died.

The end.

[nosimpleway]

Since it's only possible to work on one book at a time, you'll have to wait until Ada publishes How Anna Masionne Got Her Groove Back before she can start on your project.

[beatbandito]

I am totally carrying you guys.

[nosimpleway]

You're getting a lot done mostly because you don't have a job, you lazy bum.

[beatbandito]

It IS pretty dumb that there are all sorts of handyman opportunities, events and actions but no consistent source of cash from it. Maybe I could win some money in the chess racket?

[Mongrel]

Once upon a time, a boy built a boat.

The boat sank

The boy went home

The boy died.

The end.

I's the b'y that builds the boat
And I's the b'y that sails her
I's the b'y that catches the fish
And brings them home to Lizer.

Chorus: Hip yer partner, Sally Thibault
Hip yer partner, Sally Brown
Fogo, Twillingate, Moreton's Harbour
All around the circle!

Sods and rinds to cover your flake
Cake and tea for supper
Codfish in the spring o' the year
Fried in maggoty butter.

Chorus:

I don't want your maggoty fish
They're no good for winter
I could buy as good as that
Down in Bonavista.

Chorus:

I took Lizer to a dance
As fast as she could travel
And every step that she did take
Was up to her knees in gravel.

Chorus:

Susan White, she's out of sight
Her petticoat wants a border
Old Sam Oliver in the dark
He kissed her in the corner.

Chorus: