A Pixel Nomad

The Sims 3 Mods, Skins, and Fun #TS3 #TheSims3

Someone asked me if I used any mods for The Sims 3, and at the time I used absolutely none (no real reason, I just didn’t have a use for them) so I decided to look into them a bit. One of the most popular ones is NRaas Industries, which is actually a whole lot of mods depending on what you want to adjust in your game. There is the ever popular decensor which removes the mosaic from your naked sim bodies, as well as Mastercontroller which does a number of interactions to manage the population of your town. I decided to install a few of them and see how enhanced my game play was. There are even mods that help take care of generally known bugs that EA hasn’t gotten around to fixing. Installation went smooth, you just need to read the installer section and it’s pretty simple. I started up the game, and it recognized that I had mods, and loaded without any issue.

Mods are not required to play, but they sure do make things easier. There’s also a difference between mods, cheats, and skins. All of which can enhance your Sims 3 gameplay.

Once I had installed the mods I wanted to try out I decided to go searching for skins. Not the ones that are hosted in the exchange on the Sims 3 web site (there are a lot of great ones there) but at Sims fan sites like Mod The Sims. Of course as always when you install 3rd party mods or skins into your game you’re going to want to make sure it comes from a reliable source known for having a clean record, you don’t want to accidentally install a virus while downloading these. I picked out a few skins that caught my interest and went back to playing the game, while I count down the days until Sim City releases (which I am oh so excited about).

I still haven’t used the built in game cheats yet to give my sims any money or the like, but it’s easy to see how the Sims community helps make the game better.

A Genie in Starlight Shores #TS3 #TheSims3

The Sims 3 is such a large game with so many expansions that it’s quite easy to ‘miss out’ on some aspects of it. I have a steady family I normally play, but last night I was in the mood for something different, so I created Ellithia Reveur, a genie.

The genie race is quite unique. If you don’t have a lot of time to cook or clean, they’re also perfect. You can summon meals from thin air. This was exciting to me – you’re given a drop down list of every single food item in game, and you can summon anything you want, at perfect quality. My genie is a vegetarian so that left a lot of things off of my personal menu, but it was still fantastic to see food I’ve never gotten to try before.

You can also instantly clean the house, or your sim – or any other sims you happen to be around. So why not go make your town a cleaner place!

I’ll admit, I can be a bit.. predictable, when it comes to creating my households. My female sims are almost always writers, or photographers. This time I decided to explore an entirely new career choice. I became a ‘sing-a-gram’ novice.

This meant that I was self employed, basically. It’s a profession rather than a career in the games choices. While I was out and about during the day I’d get a random message that so and so had just earned a promotion, and how about I go deliver a sing-a-gram to them. Then a few minutes later I’d get another message saying that so and so was feeling down, how about I go cheer them up.

Doing these sing-a-grams would give me experience towards the next level of the career, where I’d get more options. There are also events called ‘SimFest’ where people put on acts like magic, singing, acrobatics, and juggling. You can stand around and watch these shows, or when you’re good enough at a skill you can participate. The crowd judges you! It was awesome. I even got to go up on stage during a magic show and the magician cut me into a bunch of little pieces and then put me back together. Talk about thrilling.

I’ve applied to a few gigs, and was booed off stage after my first hour of a two hour show. Not exactly great for my ego, but hey that’s alright. Eventually I’ll show them. I’ll show all of them! Then they’ll be sorry that they ever booed me.

You also get to create a stage name for yourself. My stage name is ‘Sugah Sugah’ – and you can change it at any time should inspiration finally strike. As a professional singer you’ve also got the option to just randomly break out in song, or to sing for tips. So I’ve been heading to the lounges and setting up my microphone and trying to earn a few dollars from random passers by.

Being a genie has certainly helped cut down the mundane tasks that my sim would be burdened with, and given me the ability to explore some options of the game I’ve never played with before. So far, it’s a lot of fun. Ellithia has been to the Summer Festival twice now, and performed once. I’m still doing a few small sing-a-grams on the side but I’m getting gigs.

When your house hold is two or more sims, and you’ve got the talent, you can also use the SimPort to bring your sims to perform at other peoples cities! On that same note you can use the SimPort to request performers to come to your cities, and these are all requests done through your friends list. So if you happen to be on my Sims 3 friends list (you can find me there as stargrace) please come visit my city and perform!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Farms of Marseille Joins the Alliance #WurmOnline

Marseille is looking pretty nice these days from the water. I was graciously given some 50 ql lamps, and I can see my way around the village at night without any issue. The shipyard is completed, and I’ve started building a sailboat as well as a corbita.

Because the town is nestled into the mountainside I found that I had very little room for growing crops. These are important as a ship builder, I need wemp for rope and I need cotton for sails. Plus those crops I did grow were being eaten by the small handful of horses and deer I’ve got. So the best solution for me was to deed a second place in behind Marseille, in the wooded area. I’ve been working at flattening the Farms of Marseille for a little while now, and I’ve created a 2×2 farm house in the area too. For now the area has a guard as it’s pretty dangerous back there still, but I’m hoping to be able to remove the guard eventually. Setting up a second deed means that I had to create another character, one that could start out as premium and then drop it if I wanted. I’ve begun working her as a Vynora priest. Whether or not I’ll actively keep the character I’ve not decided. I still have two characters (and two deeds) over on Deliverance, and having four characters and four places to run (even when they are all in close proximity) is a bit of a hassle. For now she has one month of premium, and we’ll see how that goes. In the mean time I’m quite happy with how all the deeds are coming along. Moumix has been gone for the month for work, so it’s been a little lonely, but Kasul gave me a fantastic gift of a brand new brass compass -which I will go into more details about shortly. Especially the reason of why a good compass is important.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

EA Games, I Just Don’t Like You #SimCity

I love sim city. I’ve played pretty much every version of the game since it started – but I have a problem with EA and their latest sales pitch. See, I’m a firm believer that the game should come with THE GAME. All aspects of it. If I’m going to shell out $60 for a video game I want it to include the whole game and not have to micro transaction my way to unlocking the rest of the game. So. For $60 you get the game. It’s apparently a limited edition and comes with a heroes and villains set.

Then there’s the ‘deluxe’ digital edition. That one comes with Heroes and villains, a French city, German city, and a British city.

That’s a lot of money to spend. I mean that’s almost $100 CAN (and they tax at Origin, too) for a single video game. Digital.

Yes, I pre-ordered the game. No, I didn’t get the deluxe. I simply can’t afford to spend that much money on three extra city sets. If I could afford it I’m sure I’d be all over it. Either way, I’m sad that in order to get this content we’ve got to shell out more money for an already expensive game. The details of what each city has as far as bonuses include things like special buildings to draw in more tourists and items that will make your citizens happier with you as mayor.

I played the beta and enjoyed the game enough to go ahead and make the pre-purchase, I just wish that it actually came with all of the content.

Adventures Through Telon #VGD #Vanguardsoh

Level 40. My shaman switched from bird to bear, and it’s been going pretty well. I’m thinking once my partner in crime (Hampooj, level 40 death knight) reaches level 45 I may switch back over to my blood mage. The shaman is a fun class but it’s not really my *favorite* class, they have a combination of spell and melee and you can choose to buff particular aspects. They seem more of a ‘jack of all trades’ healer. My blood mage on the other hand is a pure spell caster (cloth wearing to boot) and also my highest level crafter. Thus I have a bit more attachment to her.

I started out adventuring in Qalia but the sand there is just so bright, it hurts my eyes. So we moved back to Thestra and off to the northern part of the map to deal with skeletons and undead. While I was struggling to find quests to complete from 35-39, 40 seems to be one of those magical levels where a lot of content opens up. It should (hopefully) bring me fairly close to 50 – although like I mentioned above by then I may switch back over to my blood mage. Then there’s also my disciple who has been sitting at 50 for quite some time now (I haven’t leveled anyone to the cap of 55).

I noticed the store has gotten a few more items in it as of late, but I’ve been pretty good about not spending all of my station cash. I’ve saved up quite a bit from the last triple station cash day, although I did purchase a mount for my level 50 character – I noticed there’s also one for level 40. I’m debating picking that up for my shaman, it’s just not really a colour that I enjoy and if I’m going to spend station cash on something I want to make sure it’s something I’ll use. The mount in question is a giant flying dragon / lizard type creature, and a shade of green that I don’t particularly care for. Still, flying around Telon is an amazing action all in its own. I really enjoy being able to explore out of reach areas that way.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!