Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Satisfying My Craving...

What I am very disappointed about with The Sims 4 is the fact that there are no toddlers in the game.

One of the many differences between the original The Sims and The Sims 2 was that our Sims would grow from babies to toddlers to children then teens and adults through to elders and die of old age, as this picture shows:





This was something that we didn't have in the original The Sims and was I think, the main selling point for the second generation of The Sims franchise.

This feature of the game continued on in The Sims 3 with the addition of the young adult life stage added into the base game, whereas with The Sims 2, we gained this particular life stage with the first Expansion Pack, University.

From what I have read on the internet however, the fact that toddlers were not added to The Sims 4 have left some Simmers happy of the situation as they didn't like the toddler life stage and others, like myself, unhappy because of the deletion of something that we have been so used to over the last ten years.

Having toddlers in the game means two things for me - playing with families and custom content. As I like to play families and create toddler clothes, the deletion of the toddler life stage was a double whammy.

Of course, the non addition (or should I say, the deletion) of toddlers in TS4 not only creates a void in the lifespans but also the loss of interactions such as teaching to walk, talk and potty train. In addition, we have less custom content in the way of toddler clothing, toys, cribs and baby changing stations to name just a few.

It would be nice to think that EA/Maxis will put back what they have taken from us in a future Stuff or Expansion Pack or even a free patch together with the option to age up the toddlers after a few hours or a couple of days, for those who do not wish to have them in their game.

Meanwhile, my craving for creating custom clothing for toddlers has taken it's hold and so I spent some time over the weekend making Polar Bear themed pyjamas for toddler boys for The Sims 3.

I also decided to make a video to 'showcase' the outfit and so that you can see what it looks like in CAS:






And here is the image:





These toddler pyjamas are available for download over at The Sims Resource if you are still playing The Sims 3 and would like them for your game. Click on the link below to be taken to the download page:


I hope you like these pyjamas for toddler boys and I really do appreciate any feedback, good or bad!

Take care and have a great day!

~ Minicart (Jules)


Friday, 26 September 2014

Unleashing Ones Creativity

My Bird and Bunting pyjamas for girls are now available for download over at The Sims Resource.

Creating custom content for The Sims 4 takes me back to TS2 days as the way of creating is basically the same.  It's just a pity that EA/Maxis hasn't released a 'Body Shop' and wallpaper and floor tool, like they did before.  Of course, in a way, that doesn't really matter as there are fantastic modders and programmers out there who make tools available for us so that we can continue to release our creativity making custom content for fellow Simmers.

At the moment I am using Color Magic and S4PE together with Photoshop and have made a few items, all of which can be downloaded at TSR.  However, once the TSR Workshop for The Sims 4 is released then I will be using that.  I don't know how different it will be compared to Color Magic and S4PE but it may mean that I will have to endure another learning experience.  But that's okay because I enjoy learning stuff...

Back to my Bird and Bunting pyjamas - I created the bird for the top in photoshop with shapes and the pen tool and ran each shape/colour through my felt style action script to create this:







I then created some buntings with different patterns:





I used this to hand-tile a pattern and then defined that in Photoshop and used the pattern for the bottoms:






Here is an image of the end result:



 
I had a lot of fun creating these pyjamas, as I do with all the things I make.

Since creating for TS4, I decided to make a small video for each item to show what the content looks like in CAS.  This is something else that I really enjoy doing and these videos seem to be quite popular.

So, here is the video I made to 'showcase' my Bird and Bunting pyjamas:




You can download my Bird and Bunting Pyjamas for girls over at TSR via the link below:

DOWNLOAD HERE!

I hope you like them and I really do appreciate any feedback, good or bad.

Take care guys and have a great day!

~ Minicart (Jules)

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Neglecting, Procrastinating and Blowing Up Computers

Oh, here I go again, neglecting my blog for nearly a year.  Well actually, it's been nearly 10 months....

Lots of things have been going on during these few months; my computer blew up, I've been unwell and of course we have the release of The Sims 4 which has kept me busy making new stuffs and of course, playing.

There's also the YouTube channel which has also been keeping me busy, with The Evil Witch of Dragon Valley, The Davenports and Custom Content for The Sims 4 videos.  The Barrington-Smythe Legacy is no more it seems, since my computer blew up. 

However, having received The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection for free from Origin (it was up for grabs a few weeks ago), I think I may start afresh.

Even though I played the original The Sims, The Sims 2 is still my favourite out of the first 3.  Of course, we also have all the expansion and stuff packs for TS2 which makes the game even more awesome.

Having said that, The Sims 4 is awesome too, (apart from a couple of things which I am unhappy about such as no toddlers, no family tree, no change of name after marriage, to name but a few).  I love the fact that the dating scenario is back from TS2 (as per my previous post of January this year).  I'm sure TS4 will get more awesome once we have expansion packs and stuff packs and hopefully weather, pets, holidays, open restaurants, etc.


I'm actually really looking forward to seeing what EP's and SP's EA/Maxis come up with for this Simlish sequel.  Hopefully the old favourites as well as some new ones.  I'm also curious for more information on 'The Sims 4 Premium' service as briefly seen in The Sims 4 Gameplay Walkthrough Official Trailer in July and which you can read about on Gamespot if you haven't already read/heard about it.

I know a lot of people say that TS4 has cartoonish graphics but I love the graphics in this game and the fact that I have more control over my sims than I did in TS3, much like in TS2, which is probably one of the reasons I love it.

Feel free to check out my first look at The Sims 4:



I'll try not to leave it for another 10 months before I post on here again....

~ Minicart (Jules)