Job Hunting....

We just moved to another state since my hubby was transferred through his job, so now I'm job hunting vigorously. As a result, I have felt the need to ban myself from all of my gaming until I am successful in the hunt. I do, however, have more lots to upload and plenty of future Simming plans, so once I am gainfully employed, I will probably come back with a vengeance. In the meantime, enjoy your gaming and think of me! *sniff* 

Upcoming Submission News, May 9th, 2011

I mentioned something in my blog at my Isle of Aaru site that I would have a couple of new lots up by now, but due to some custom content packaging issues with those lots, I am slightly delayed and will be working on a fix sometime this week (after I get back from a business trip on Thursday, most likely). In the meantime, at least the new junkyard has been submitted to TSR and is pending publication. More laterz!

ISLE OF AARU UPDATE

Community lot version now available!

Since the empty version has been available for over a week with no reported problems from its users, and since all my community lots have been published by TSR, I have decided to make the community lot version of the Isle of Aaru available for download!

If you are one of the kind users who tested the empty beta and have played it enough to not want to have to start all over again with the other version, I have also made the community lots with unusual sizes available at my site in the downloads section so you have access to every single community lot between what's published there and here at TSR. I placed those two lots at my site because they likely won't fit into the worlds the majority of TSR members are using.

Also, I DID build a small park to place near the waterfall, believe it or not! It is actually a campground available here at TSR. Apparently tents do not like to function properly if built into a world prior to being exported from Create-A-World, but it works perfectly fine if downloaded separately and placed into an installed world in the actual game, so no worries.

Many, many thanks to all those who have provided such wonderful feedback.  Have fun!

NEW WORLD RELEASED! Beta of Isle of Aaru released.

Hello everyone!

After what felt like a lifetime of testing, I have finally decided to release a beta of my new world, the Isle of Aaru. Right now I am only releasing the version without the community lots, since I'd rather release the full version after my community lots have all been published at The Sims Resource. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy my beta of the empty version.

Download the world and see complete pictures and information here: http://canuckdiva.weebly.com/index.html

Enjoy!

Oh, Geez...

Yup, I finally have a new lot published. Has the world stopped spinning?

New World Coming Soon!

Hello guys,

A bit of good news. My silence here was a result of a battle with Create-a-World followed by a battle with uploading my new world to the official site via the launcher. Since I'm determined to upload my world somewhere, I've put my fight with the launcher aside and decided to create my own website to promote the new world. I'll have the new world posted for download on the new site shortly, but I'm waiting until after all of my community lots in the world are uploaded here (there's a method to my madness). In the meantime, enjoy my upcoming community lots and peruse the gallery for pictures of the new place.

Ciao, amici. :)

Doubly Dead/Death on Vacation!!!

I wasn't exactly trying to fulfill the paranormal category of the photography skill, but now I think I might go for it since I managed to get Doubly Dead and Death on Vacation back to back. Here's how I did it:

One of my Sims managed to collect all the canopic jars as well as all of the pieces to reconstruct a sarcophagus. She reconstructed the sarcophagus and was able to summon a mummy to join her household by clicking on the completed sarcophagus, since she had all the right canopic jars in her inventory. Mummy joined household, wanted to go on vacation, went to Egypt, then accidentally lit himself on fire when trying to light a fire in the fire pit at base camp. Interestingly enough, my Sim (who accompanied him on the trip) was unable to put him out the way she could when normal Sims in her family caught fire in the past, so her mummy had no choice but to just die. I mean, there was absolutely no hope for this guy, considering his mummy-like wrappings. :(

The good side of this was I got a picture of him in ghost form begging the Grim Reaper for mercy before the Grim Reaper took him away for good (getting the Doubly Dead picture), and then the Grim Reaper hung out a bit and cooked some lettuce over the fire that killed said mummy (getting the Death on Vacation picture). Talk about dousing a paper cut with lemon juice. Ouch!

Create a World

A big THANK YOU to all of you who have been posting comments on my creations in my absence! 

I know, I know....I made all these promises about making at least one item a month at some point last year, but, well, I couldn't predict that the Create a World tool was going to be made at the time and, naturally, it has consumed me since I decided to actually dive into it around the beginning of this year. So, yeah, that's where I've been. 

How many of you out there are also experimenting with this tool? I'm enjoying it, learning a lot, and CERTAINLY can't wait for my world to be complete, but my GOD, I wish I knew about some things the first time through. I just discovered, after months of hard work on the world I wanted, that my world was too small to allow for the camera and Sim routing to work the way I wanted it to (meaning where the camera can/can't go and where Sims can/can't walk). This resulted in a completely new start on a new world this week. Yeah, it's sad after all the work I already did, but I can't say some good hasn't come out of this. I actually think I like the terrain of World #2 a LOT better, and I made sure to do the majority of both my camera- and Sim-routing early on in the process before even starting to lay down my roads. Now I know exactly what my Sims are going to see, where they'll be able to go, and better yet, where my roads will actually be able to fit within routing boundaries. There will no doubt be a little tweaking once the roads are laid down, since I will probably have to adjust some terrain to make sure my roads are smooth, but the tweaking will be minimal.

As I said, I've been learning a lot. :) 

So out of curiosity.....

1) What kinds of things would you want to see in a new world? Certain lot sizes? Different terrain paint? Etc., etc.

2) If you are also using this tool, what have your challenges been?

Pending, Pending Away...

So I submitted this week's lot a couple of days ago, and it is still pending. This isn't completely unusual, but just thought I'd mention that I really have submitted something for the week and it just needs a little more time to go through, so hang tight! I think its approval might be stalled because it's a renovation of a Maxis lot. I mention its Maxis history in the description, and since I've seen contests here involving remodeling of Maxis homes, I thought it would be okay, but maybe not. We shall see! And yes, I totally forgot I had that lot planned for TSR before mentioning my desire not to build anymore based on a specific neighborhood. Oops! Oh well. It may be a remodel of a Riverview lot, but it is 20x30 and will fit in Sunset Valley, as well....

I'm Baaa-aaaaaack!

Funnily enough, work hasn't slowed down for me yet (it normally does this close to Turkey Day), but I've missed being here over the past few weeks and can't hold off any longer. :) I've just submitted my first TS3 community lot, which is pending approval right now. It fits really well into downtown Riverview - I had the plan a few weeks ago to give Riverview a complete makeover, including its center, but now that a tool for creating your own 'hoods has been announced, I think this is the last lot I'm going to make that has one particular neighborhood in mind. I'm planning on building my own neighborhood once that tool comes out, and when I do, I'm going to make sure all of my lots are a standard lot size (such as 20x30 or 40x40). If I DO end up making the size of a lot unusual, I'm going to make sure it's a size that fits in either Sunset Valley or Riverview as well. That way, no one will be forced to download my neighborhood to use my lots (if I even decide to put up my neighborhood on TSR, that is). Anyway, those are my plans for the future, and I hope you all will enjoy my upcoming community lot!