Gothique Library CARNAGE!

As I stated in my previous post, Willow loves to visit new places to cast fire blast spells, just to see what happens.  This episode is no different.

In the little town of Dragon Valley, there are two libraries.  One that shipped with the world and the other is one I purchased from The Sims 3 Store entitled "The Gothique Library".  It seems to go well with the theme of Dragon Valley and witches.  So, Willow decides to travel there as she has never been there before.

The Gothique Library fortunately has a body of water nearby and is situated near a river so Willow knows that if she does set herself on fire, she will be able to extinguish herself quickly.  Of course, the same would go for any other sim that would be set alight too.  All they would need to do is jump in the river, or so you would think...

Willow proceeds to cast a fire blast spell on the steps of the library and a few more around the bottom of the steps, just for good measure.

Soon enough, some sims come running but instead of trying to put out the fire, they do what comes more naturally to them, they scream and shout, wave their arms around in the air and jump up and down.

Soon enough, one sim is engulfed by the flames and shortly after, another bites the dust.

Willow watches as the Grim Reaper reaps yet two more souls, cackling away like the evil witch that she is.

- Minicart (Jules)

 

The KEY to the INNERMOST CHAMBERS

 

After sleeping the night in a tent at a nearby campsite, John returns to the tomb to continue on his quest to obtain the spear from the treasure chest.

But first, John must enter the large room which holds a treasure chest, some floor panels and a movable statue.  This room is also full of traps so John must be guided on the green or jade, path in order not to be hit by the darts.

First of all, John opens the treasure chest which contains a star key and even though he does have a few skeleton keys in his inventory which would open these star and moon shaped keystones, one can never have enough keys, especially when you're an adventurer!

John proceeds to move the statue and after placing this on floor panels together with standing on some other panels, he eventually manages to "hit the right button" and a staircase opens up allowing him to move deeper into the tomb.

As John descends the staircase, he sees a locked door with a star keystone.  He immediately places the star key into the lock and the door opens, revealing a dive well and 3 treasure chests.  In front of the chests however, there is a large boulder.  No problem for John as he has Pangu's Axe to annihilate it!

The treasure chests hold some money, ancient coins and a dive well fragment.  Nothing really of any large value but still treasure all the same.

John dives into the dive well and searches through the pitch dark depths.  He finds a secret tunnel which he swims through and comes out into a long corridor which holds some coffins.  One coffin is blue, another green and the rest are white.  John decides to open the green coffin first as it is the colour of jade, which seems to be the theme of this tomb.  John is correct in looking in this coffin as he finds a Key to the Innermost Chambers of the First Emperor!

Walking to the end of the corridor, John goes through another door which leads him to a floor panel which he can stand on.  This unlocks a secret door to the corridor which he has just been in which contains the 6 coffins.

John proceeds to look in another coffin or two.  Will he find more treasure or will he find a mummy?

- Minicart (Jules)

BURNING to DEATH!

After Willow extinguishes herself in the river, she returns to the police station to find what looks like four remains of sims, albeit no names are attached to these lumps of charred bodies.  Confused, Willow decides to travel to the local school, somewhere she hasn't been before.  New places always hold excitement for Willow.

She proceeds to cast a few fire blast spells around the main door of the building and before long, a few sims gather, screaming and shouting and waving their arms about as usual.  Willow is having a lovely time casting spells and consuming Essence of Magic Elixirs in-between.

Just lately however, Willow isn't really paying attention to where she stands.  She seems more content in casting fire blast spells and tends to stand in the midst of blazes whilst she casts the next spell.  This really isn't a good idea but Willow being Willow does what she wants.  To her own detriment I might add.

This occasion is no different.  Willow casts yet another fire blast spell in the midst of an inferno and catches herself alight yet again!

This could be the end for Willow.  There is no water around apart from a fountain that is unusable and she isn't able to put herself out.  The only water she can see is a river quite far away.  Willow jumps on her broomstick and makes her way around the roads to the river.  Running across the field and up the mountain, she decides it would be better to turn around and make her way to a swimming pool.  

Screaming and waving her arms in the air, she finally arrives at the sims house, only to be saved by the householder who happens to have a fire extinguisher.

Willow goes home to freshen up and as she is a bit of a sucker for punishment, she decides to return to the school where various sims are still there shouting and screaming and a couple of fires still burn brightly.

Willow again proceeds to light a few fires and catches a few sims alight.  It seems her aim is getting better.  She decides to stand and practice some magic while all mayhem breaks loose.

Not one, but two sims burn to death in this blazing inferno that Willow has created.

Once the Grim Reaper has reaped the souls of these two unfortunate sims, Willow proceeds to show him an internet cat video.

- Minicart (Jules)

Gardening in The Sims 2

 

I really enjoy gardening in The Sims 2.  It is somewhat different to what we had in The Sims 3 and now, in The Sims 4.

First of all from build mode you have to place earth dirt, one square at a time, just like laying a foundation.  Then the Sim can fertilize each square before digging and planting the seeds.

There wasn't much to choose from by way of seeds.  When starting out, a Sim can only plant tomatoes, however, once a gold talent badge had been acquired for the gardening skill, a Sim could then plant tomatoes, cucumber, strawberries, pole beans, peppers and eggplant which was the majority of seeds available.

Purchasing a ladybug loft will keep all the bad bugs away from your plants and having a compost bin allows your Sim to compost all kitchen waste, and even the newspaper, to use for fertilizing the earth next time you want to plant something.

Gardening seemed a lot harder in The Sims 2.  If you overwatered your plants, they would drown and die.  Talking to your plants kept them happy and vibrant, allowing their health level to increase, but this could only be done once you had a gold talent badge for gardening.  Once this is achieved, it is a lot easier to keep your plants happy but until your Sim gets to that point, keeping your plants happy is hard work.

There were three trees available in gardening in The Sims 2, namely Ambrosial Lemon, Ambrosial Orange and Ambrosial Apple, all of which can be purchased fully grown from the gardening section in build mode.

These trees need to be trimmed, which is something we didn't have again in future The Sims releases.  Trimming your trees keeps them happy and of course, as with all plants in The Sims 2, talking to them keeps them healthy and all plants then give great quality fruit and vegetables.  All produce can be placed in the refrigerator for future use and if you have a juicer, fruit and vegetables can be placed in there for a fresh and healthy drink!

Bushes, such as rose bushes, and hedges all bought from build mode would grow, spurting out little shoots that had to be trimmed.  This is something that we never had again in The Sims.  Weeds would also grow not just within plants but on the grass too.

I have quite a few little snippets of gardening in The Sims 2 so decided to pop them all in a video.

Do you enjoy gardening in The Sims 2?  Or perhaps you prefer gardening in The Sims 3 or maybe 4, or maybe a mixture of each?  Let me know in the comment section below!

Cheers!

- Minicart (Jules)

SEARCHING for the Spear

 

After returning to the elderly sim with the activated key, John is told to re-visit the tomb of the first emperor to search for a spear.

John heads back to the tomb and makes his way to the locked door.  He places the key into the keystone and the chain of the door breaks, opening up a couple of rooms that hold treasure chests.  John can see that the spear is in one of the treasure chests from the glow emanating from it.  Unfortunately, there is a fence that John cannot pass.

A treasure chest lays in front of him and so he proceeds to open it, hoping that this will allow him entry to the room with the spear.  Alas no, but two secret doors open, revealing two more rooms that John will need to investigate.

He enters the smaller room, checking for traps on the way.  After finding a trap on the floor and the wall, he places his hand in a hole in the wall which activates a switch, opening up a staircase going down, deeper into the tomb.  This switch also activates two more traps in the walls.  This tomb is full of dart traps so John must be extra careful of where he treads.

Heading down the stairs, he comes to two doors, one blue and the other green, with a plaque on the wall.  The plaque reads that the First Emperor always said that the path of the righteous is paved with jade.  As jade is green, John realises that he must go through the green door.  He also realises that the rooms have green walkways.  Obviously this must mean that John should stay on the green path to avoid the dart traps.

John makes his way through the green door which activates and disables a few more traps and also opens something else in a darkened room where John has not been before.  This must be for something else later on in the adventure.

John stands on a floor plate which activates something else but John is unaware of what it is.  He then makes his way along the corridor and up some more stairs where he stands on yet another floor plate.  This opens a secret door which leads him back in the small room upstairs.  He has come full circle and needs to sleep.

As he makes his way through the secret door, he gets caught by a dart trap and collapses (after walking around the tomb to find somewhere where he can collapse) for a few minutes.

Needing desperately to sleep, John makes his way back to a small camp site, avoiding the zombies as he goes, to rest for the night.  In the morning, he will continue his adventure.

- Minicart (Jules)

Willow CATCHES ALIGHT!

 

In the last episode of The Evil Witch of Dragon Valley, Willow created an inferno at the Police Station and then went on to the Bistro to see what mayhem she could cause there.

Quite a lot of Sims turned up to this spectacle of fire, even bringing their children and babies, which they left on the grass with a bottle while they jumped around, waving their arms in the air and screaming at the sight of the blaze.  With babies crying and children screaming, the Bistro turned out to be quite a mess of flames and burned Sims.  However, this didn't deter them from asking Willow if she would pose for a photograph in between the fires going out.

Willow, being an evil Sim, takes great pleasure from seeing others suffer and she tends to take her time with casting fire blast spells as she is very busy heckling other Sims and laughing maniacally at the suffering she bestows upon them.  Because of this, unfortunately no-one died so Willow decided to return to the Police Station to see if she will have better success there.

She casts a few fire blast spells but unfortunately no-one turns up.  Maybe Sims are getting more wise to Willow's antics and have decided to stay away.  I suppose you can't blame them really but I'm giving them too much credit as, whilst Willow returns home to feed her beloved familiar cat Tabitha and of course, the cow plants, a Sim turns up at the Police Station to do the usual jumping about and screaming.

Willow decides to go back to the Police Station and cast a few more fire blast spells.  A couple more Sims turn up, much to Willow's delight, and she casts a few fire blast spells at them as well.

I have said this before, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword and this could be very true in Willow's case with regard to fire.  Willow tends to stand in the midst of blazes when she casts spells sometimes and this time is no exception.  Whilst casting her final fire blast spell in the midst of a blaze, she catches alight.  There is no option to "extinguish self" and she just stands there with fire billowing from her back.

Is this the end of Willow Mendip?

- Minicart (Jules)

CAUGHT in a DART TRAP!

John proceeds to descend the stairs in the tomb of the first emperor and stands in awe of the vastness of the chamber.

On entering, John is told that he has searched the tomb and to report back to the elderly Sim.  However, John decides to search further before returning to report on what he has found.

A pushable statue stands at one end of the room and a locked door is visible at the end of a small corridor.  Two treasure chests lie in the middle.  Hopefully John can retrieve a key to the locked door from one of these.

The player (yes, me!) looks around for traps but doesn't find any.  Now, when looking for traps, it is advisable to move your cursor over the ground very slowly in order for the cursor to recognise any traps that may be there by turning the cursor into a little star.  If you go too quickly, traps can be missed.  Unfortunately in this case, the player moved a little too quickly.

John proceeds to walk towards the first treasure chest but unfortunately gets caught in a dart trap!  This puts him to sleep for a while but doesn't harm him any way.  This is very fortunate for John as if you have ever played The Sims 4 Jungle Adventures, traps like these can poison your Sim and having been given just a few hours for it to get worse, you must purchase an antidote via computer otherwise your Sim will die.  This antidote costs 1,000 simoleons so unless you are rich...

After awakening, John looks (very slowly) to see if there are any other traps of which he finds three more.  He then opens the treasure chests one by one, to see what treasure he can find.  Unfortunately, the key to the locked door isn't inside either of these treasure chests but he does find an artefact and some ancient coins.

John then pushes the statue on to the floor plate behind it and a staircase opens up to a room below on the other side of the chamber.  John proceeds to go down the stairs and enters a corridor which contains two floor plates that he can stand on.  Each of these plates opens up another staircase to the first room where he finds more ancient coins and disarms the dart traps.

As John can do no more until he obtains a key to the locked door, he reports in to the elder Sim who is most pleased with John and gives him a key to the First Emperors Secret Rooms, the key to the locked door!  However, there is a snag.  The key will not work unless it has been blessed with an incantation.  John needs to speak with Ho Sung Kim who will bless the key and then return to the elder Sim for more Simoleons and further instructions.

After completing this part of the adventure, John is told by the elder Sim to re-enter the Tomb of the First Emperor to retrieve an ancient spear.

- Minicart (Jules)

Police Station INFERNO!

As we all know, Willow is very fond of fire.  There are a few places in the little town of Dragon Valley where she has lit fires and killed quite a few Sims.  However, there are some places that she hasn't experimented with, one such place being the Police Station.

Now, one would think that lighting fires outside of the Police Station would be a very silly thing to do.  But, we are talking about The Sims and Sims police aren't the brightest of bulbs in the pack.

So, after playing with Tabitha for a while and chatting with the butler, Willow makes her way to the Police Station.  

After lighting a few fires outside, quite a few Sims come running, waving their arms about in the air, jumping up and down and screaming, as per usual.  Willow continues to light fires about them, consuming Essence of Magic magical elixirs inbetween to fill her magic bar until she receives a telephone call from her agent.

An opportunity of a radio commercial is being offered for simoleons and fame.  Willow accepts.

She then continues to light more fires at the Police Station, setting Sims alight and fire blasting bushes and dead leaves with the fire blast spell until the area looks like a blazing inferno.  Leaving these poor Sims to get on with putting out the fires and/or burning to death, she then pops along to the Business Office to record the commercial.

Unfortunately, no-one dies at the Police Station so after recording the commercial for Llama Musk perfume, Willow decides to venture to the Bistro.  Another venue she hasn't tried out yet, but she won't be eating there...

- Minicart (Jules)

Kids Stuff 2

 

Following on from my video "Kids Stuff", I have captured more things that kids done in The Sims 2 which we don't have in The Sims 4 and most things that we never actually got again, even in The Sims 3.  Simple things like playing games with friends and siblings such as cops 'n' robbers and running to greet a parent home from work were little details that made The Sims 2 so great.

All of these little snippets I have placed in this video entitled "Kids Stuff 2", even if only for posterity.  I am sure that I will get even more bits and pieces and odds and bobs as time goes on.

I hope you enjoy this little video and that it brings back some good memories for you if you ever played The Sims 2 or, if you've never played this version of The Sims, that you enjoy watching some cool stuff from an old, but still very popular, game.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Cheers!

- Minicart (Jules)

TOMB of the First Emperor

The opportunity for work that John must fulfil in China is getting a little long-winded.  He has sparred with a couple of Sims, namely Maya Wang and Shen Su but the opportunity has still not completed.  He calls for a third Sim to hopefully complete the opportunity but by this time, John is too tired.  Cancelling this opportunity is now a better idea as John still has a small adventure to complete before he returns home.

He needs to give some common relics to an elderly Sim which he does so and then is given a task to retrieve a relic from Hui Young Kim which was loaned to her years ago.  John is able to recover the relic and gives this back to the elderly Sim who in turn, gives him a key to the Tomb of the First Emperor which is where the Terracotta Army is situated.

So now this small favour for an elderly Sim has turned into a decent adventure!

John travels to the tomb and enters via the stairs below the terracotta army statues.  A small room below contains a few decorative items and a keystone on the wall.  Here, John proceeds to place the key in the keystone and immediately a staircase opens into another room below which holds treasure chests and a locked door.

It seems that what looked like a very small tomb is in fact a large one and hopefully full of treasure.

- Minicart (Jules)

For WHOM the BELL TOLLS!

 

In the last episode, we left Willow at the Day Spa, casting fire blast spells and generally having the time of her life.

Now while Willow is having so much fun with her fire blasting shenanigans, she doesn't even think if the Sim she is setting alight is even a friend or maybe the spouse of a friend.  In fact, she doesn't seem to care.  She just casts these spells haphazardly, one after another, consuming Essence of Magic elixirs inbetween to refil her magic bar.

As I have mentioned before, the term "sitting duck" is prevalent in these situations and this day is no different.  One Sim decides to pass out.  Obviously passing out is not something that one chooses to do, it just happens.  So, if you have a weak stomach, you really shouldn't be in the vicinity of fires started by an evil witch.  This particular Sim however doesn't take heed to such advice and becomes another "sitting duck", or in his case, a "sleeping duck".

Luckily for him however, a do-gooder proceeds to extinguish the fire which engulfs the poor Sims body, not realising that he himself is burning alive as he tries to help the poor soul on the ground.

Whilst the fires are burning, Willow decides to practice some magic with apparently, not a care in the world.

As the fires are extinguished with the presence of the Grim Reaper, Willow realises that she has killed one of her best friends and fellow witch, Suzy Sackholme, along with her partner.  For once, this causes Willow to mourn, which is something that is very rare.

Maybe we should take pity on Willow or maybe she got what she deserved.  

- Minicart (Jules)

Martial Arts Tournament

 

John has an opportunity at work which he must fulfil in China.  He needs to set up a Martial Arts Tournament with a spar contender, namely Maya Wang but unfortunately she isn't available at that moment in time.  So John decides to see what other adventures there are in store for him.

He secures an "adventure" from the board at base camp.  Now, I wouldn't call fishing for koi an adventure but John does what he is asked, earning more simoleons and gaining some fishing skill.

He returns to the base camp and finally secures a tournament with Maya Wang.  After a lot of fluffing about, she arrives at the base camp and John proceeds to spar with her.  Luckily for John, he wins the sparring match.  Normally, once an opportunity is executed, a message will show to say that he has to return to work to complete the opportunity.  Unfortunately, this didn't happen so I assumed that John would have to spar with another Sim.

He proceeds to call another spar contender and Shen Su arrives at the base camp.  John spars with Shen and again wins the match but unfortunately it seems that John is still not yet done.  How many times must he do this?  Hopefully no more than 3 but then I could be wrong.

John will continue with this quest next time but if it's going to take too long, he feels that cancelling this opportunity would be best.

It's a pity if this happens though as this could secure a promotion at work for him.

- Minicart (Jules)