Heh

So, I've decided from now on when I send legacy kids to college I'm going to determine their major based on one of three things: 1) If they roll a Want for a specific major, I'll go with that (if they roll multiple ones at the same time, the leftmost wins), 2) If they don't and there's a clear choice based on personality, I'll pick that (like June declaring Psych in the Greenes... it just seemed to fit her really well), or 3) I'll pick randomly. It's way too easy to go "Oh, I'm going to make them do Job A, so I'll go with the major that goes with it"... and I miss all the earlier job levels if I do it, so I'm going to tend to want to not do it, though sometimes it'll work out that way.

Anyhow, I was giving Abigail a semester to roll up the Want before I chose something randomly (since I didn't have a clear idea of what she'd go for). A day into the semester she did... and she also rolled up a Fear which I swear I've never seen before:


I'm not sure what's so scary about Political Science, but apparently she really, really doesn't want to major in it. :)

(Incidentally, if you're wondering about the homogenous seasons, I'm advancing them manually so all households stay the same... I figure I'll do it once a week (measuring by the legacy house). The main 'hood just started winter so she's getting a bit of autumn time before I go back there.)

Twilight Dreams opening credits

Although I do think it came out interestingly and actually scans more or less like an opening sequence, there's a few bits that I'm not happy with, and I'm already planning a revised version.

I'd like to clean up the video if possible (I still am not sure where that weird artifacting came in and so I'm not sure that it is possible), clean up and add to the visual thoughts Miho has on the couch, regularize the size and timing of the flashing imagery that happens a bit after that and possibly change it a bit, and add a quick non-Miho sequence of either video or images to show some of the minor characters in lieu of some of the reading. I'll also probably throw the lyrics on as subtitles... I couldn't decide if I wanted to or not since this song's in English and all but now I think it'll work.

However I probably won't do it until I've gotten into the second volume, although we'll see. I have another video project between now and then that will be harder to do and I'd like to concentrate on that one first, because if I can make that one come out well, revising this one will be a breeze.

All in all I actually am fairly happy with how it came out, despite that long list above... it's all tweaks, not major changes. I'll probably leave the original up for comparison even after I do a new version, too, because really it's pretty close to what I wanted. :)

Twilight Dreams Episode 2 & Bonus

Episode 2: Neighbors

Bonus Video: Opening Credits

*twitch*

That's my eye, twitching. Periodically I get weird eye tics, usually short-lived (a few hours off and on, say). This time it's lasted a couple days, and as you can imagine it makes it hard to concentrate on anything. It's not a constant twitching but it's frequent enough to be really distracting.

But in the meantime I'm at least thinking about the video. I've got the basic filming done, and the shots done for Episode 2 (and a few for episode 3, actually), and am trying to decide if I need more shots and/or filming for the video... I think I may need to just put together the basics and figure it out from there to be sure. I have a couple ideas that I'd need more shots for but I actually might be doing it with what I already have depending on how compositing works out.

It's a pretty short video so you'd think it'd be easier to envision, but I guess I'm feeling kinda uncertain about it.

Anyhow... still hoping to have E2 out this week, despite the slowdown from my eyes bugging me. That might mean 'this weekEND', but close enough.

this week...

...I hope to get episode 2 of Twilight Dreams out, as well as the first video, though between insomnia (which you might think would let me get more done, but no, trust me, it doesn't work that way, at least not with this sort) and recovering from a cold I am not sure how much I can concentrate. I've got about... 1/2 of the stuff shot I need to, or so, actually a bit more I suppose. The episode will almost certainly come out, it's the video (which I'd like to release at the same time but may delay) I'm less sure about, mainly because there's some bits of it I'm not 100% sure on how they'll look.

I've also got some more Saints and Sinners playtime/photos but am definitely not ready for an update there... I played Aaron (middle child) through to teen and he's looking good for heir despite rolling Pleasure on me but his younger brother is not yet a teen and I want to wait at least that long until I pick, since that's going to give me a much better idea of what he'll look like. I'm sure I'll get more play in this week but since the update process involves a lot of photo editing (cropping and captioning) I'm doubtful there'll be another actual update this week. Still, we'll see how I feel... it is only Tuesday.

I need to throw together some custom university students and see if the game's going to make any more on its own (I don't have a no student regen type hack in place, unlike with the town itself... I figure I'm more likely to marry people off to students on average and I don't want to be forever making new ones). I have a replacement live.package and it's got some really strange names in it, I'm realizing, but at least the people I make can be named really average things to help make up for it. And I changed one of the professors' names already because I thought it was very odd... and I might change another duplicate one although I'm kinda tempted to not since there's something funny about having two professors with the same first name.

Bleah. Anyhow, to give you an idea about the state of my insomnia, I'm off to at least take a nap right now, and yes, it's mid-afternoon here.

Saints and Sinners: A Custom Genetic Legacy

Saints and Sinners is my custom genetic legacy: 13 generations of Uglacy followed by 13 generations of Prettacy. It has a Catholic Saints name theme, which should be fun around the time I hit 'Q', and I've got some ideas in mind to keep the legacy family from acquiring a boring amount of cash on hand, including making Generation M restart on a new lot (since they'll be 'founding' the Prettacy half).

Generation 0 ~ Founding generation, Akio Kimura

Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Generation A ~ Aaron Kimura

Chapter 1 [Last large-graphic chapter]
Chapter 2 [Extra length, still smaller in Mb!]
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Twilight Dreams Episode 1

Welcome to Episode #1 of Tasogare Yume: Twilight Dreams! Twilight Dreams is an episodic anime-inspired Sims story.

Read here.

misc progress notes

Despite insomnia, cramps, toothaches, etc. I have managed to do a few things:

• Finished up building the main Twilight Dreams neighborhood. Well, mostly; there's one lot that's only partly developed but it doesn't need to be more than it is for now.


• Populated the neighborhood, including with a few generic non-important people so my walkbys aren't always feature characters.


• Improved the dithering issues on clothing. Can't fix 'em entirely (like I said, even the Maxis stuff does this to me) but they're better, although there's still one or two things I might yet do another tweak on. I managed to get charcoal working okay, even, although in some cases 'okay' is better than others. I had to totally desaturate it to make it work, though.


• Made sure there's a second copy of everything, including neighborhoods, in my archive directory. I should (and will) burn some stuff to CD but I really need to organize what I have in archives first, since there's actually multiple copies of a lot of stuff.

Still gonna be a bit before I have anything to release but in the meantime, have a picture:

Okay, so, "no charcoal" it is.

I cannot make any of the charcoal clothing not dither into craptacularity.

Seriously, I've spent the last several hours working on the charcoal versions of several things and except for in one single case I've yet to come up with anything that works. The other colours, yes, I can improve, but charcoal? No.

I do not know how the hell they make their own clothes work, either, considering if I directly re-import what they export I also get dithering problems. *eyeroll*

I'm still going to revise the non-Charcoal colours and fix a couple minor flaws while I'm at it. But I give up on the charcoal. Srsly.

I SWEAR I did not used to have this bad a problem. I don't know if Seasons/BV changed things or if it's the new drivers/vidcard or some combination thereof, or if I just never tried to make dark clothing like this other than tshirts before, but... grr... so frustrated.

okay, I think I got it figured out

So, apparently if I check the item by running Photoshop's DDS filter and make sure it doesn't dither poorly, I can predict if it'll look okay in-game, provided I do then go and do my other workaround.

I'll work on rebuilding the clothes soon, using this method. In the meantime, I've removed the links to the downloads and put a note up about it.

In other news, the backstory neighborhood is built and populated fully, and I'm ready to start working on the new one.

I'm probably going to bed soon, though.