hatshepsut / Blog

Author: hatshepsut | Posted Jul 25, 2009 | 1 comments

I've decided to take a little time out from creating for a while.  I seem to be struggling a bit with creativity at the moment and I just need some time to clear my head and consider my future here at TSR. 

I still have a few goodies in my uploads folder so I'll be releasing those over the next week or 2 and I'll probably still be lurking around the site, just not creating.

Hopefully normal service will be resumed shortly.  Til then - be good girls and boys!

Author: hatshepsut | Posted Jun 6, 2009 | 2 comments

Well, I finally got my hands on the Sims 3 and boy did it bring back memories!  As soon as I heard the music fire up I almost felt like I was back at Creators Camp.  Time to refresh those building skills! 

I'm so glad that many of the bugs that held me back at Creators Camp have been resolved, in particular the problems I had placing roofs.  I can now proceed with some of the designs that I had to scrap 1st time around.  Yay!

So, what have I been up to since getting the game?  Other than bulldozing all the EA houses to make way for my own I've been working on my 1st planned upload to TSR.  I would have had it uploaded today but the submission system seems to be a bit wonky so I guess I'll have to be patient (not one of my traits!)  So for your viewing pleasure may I present - Fir Trees Grove.

Author: hatshepsut | Posted May 31, 2009 | 3 comments

Sims 3 mania is now in full swing and Sims 2 may be waving us goodbye but I'm not letting it go without a fight and to prove there's still life in the old dog yet I present to you my latest project - just an ordinary everyday high street (and yes, all these buildings are on one lot!):

More pictures are viewable in my forum thread.  It may be a little while before this little HUGE beauty makes it's debut.  I'm still debating whether or not to upload it with or without the custom content and I'm having too much fun play testing it!  So, is Sims 2 dead yet?  I think not!

Author: hatshepsut | Posted May 29, 2009 | 0 comments

Now you can finally find out just what I got up to at creators camp (well creations that is!)  The official exchange is now open for business and my early experiments with Sims 3 creation can be found here: http://www.thesims3.com/mypage/hatshepsut

As I was still finding my way around the game (bugs and all) and time was short these probably aren't my most awe inspiring creations.  I still feel that the best is yet to come but don't let that put you off.  You may well find a few things to give your new game that essential jump start so go on, take a peek.  After all what have you got to lose?!

Author: hatshepsut | Posted Jan 20, 2009 | 4 comments

I've finally arrived home after what seems like spending almost my entire life either on a plane or waiting for a plane.  Now looking forward to the onset of jet lag, oh joy!

I'll now attempt to answer some of your questions on build mode.  This is by no means a comprehensive run through, there were a lot of things that I just didn't get the chance to look at and some things may still change before the final version of the game is released.  We sure gave EA a few things to think about!

To start with the neighbourhoods are no longer customisable in that you can't create your own neighbourhood design like you can with Sim City 4.  To me the neighbourhood seemed to work more like it did in the Sims 1 days.  Lots are a pre-set size and already placed although you can move houses around the hood they must be placed on a lot of the same size on which they were built.

There is currently no stage tool and without the CFE cheat I would say that split level staircases are not yet possible.  There is also no ability to place staircases on a angle so diagonal stairs are out.  You can change stair direction just buy clicking and dragging the stairs although this is best used when placing stairs on terrain rather than between floors.  There are currently no shuttered windows in the game, window shutters are available as separate buyable objects.  The trashcan and mailbox can now be moved freely around the house and even recoloured however the door nearest to the mailbox will be treated as the main doorway and thumbnail that depicts your house will depend on the position of the mailbox.  There are no half walls in the game but there is a good range of new fences and even a nifty no maintenance hedge fence.  As you probably know, cars are included in the base game. Driveways are no longer tied to the road but can be placed anywhere at all on the lot.  There is no longer an animation for the car backing out onto the highway, it just 'teleports'.  You can also start building with the auto roof tool already enabled although I personally wouldn't recommend doing that unless you want roofs ending up in strange places!  There are also no pre-set dormer roofs.

You may have also read in Steve's blog about being able to grab walls and drag them.  Very useful if you want to add extensions to your house.  It even keeps items that are placed on/against walls in position as you drag the wall out and automatically keeps the decor - (wallpapers & floors).

I know that many of you were expecting many of the features of AL to be included here, however this is not the case.  Objects cannot be moved up and down walls for instance and it's back to one family per household although sims now have the ability to roam the entire neighbourhood and visit any house they choose.

Sims cannot yet run home business's.  You can still have/build community lots although these are quite limited and can't be owned or run by sims as in OFB.  The default hood comes with a town square area.  Many of the buildings here are not actual built lots but rather meshes instead.  You can't follow your sims into these structures although they can visit them to eat or learn skills.

Well that's about all my tired brain can think of at the moment.  As always if you have any questions feel free to ask me.  I'm sure there's still loads of stuff I've forgotten to mention!  I'm now going to sleep for a week!

ZZZZzzzzz

Author: hatshepsut | Posted Jan 17, 2009 | 1 comments

The final day at EA campus and a chance to finish off anything we might have been building/creating.  I also took the opportunity to upload a few furniture sets to the exchange and create a sim family for upload.  It was also fun to play the game a little more because I've been so busy with the building aspect of the game the gameplay side has been sadly neglected by me.

In the afternoon we all gathered together for some fun and games with a plumbob cookie decorating contest.  Sadly my efforts were somewhat pathetic to say the least but it's amazing what some people can do with a couple of cookies and a tube of icing!  Afterwards we were given the opportunity to see what everybody else had been working on throughout the week and prizes given for the best (and in some cases the most unfortunate) custom content.

Finally it was time to gather in the hotel bar for some farewell drinks with the guys from EA.  It was fun to catch up with everyone and discuss what we'd experienced through the week.

Before I sign off from the US and head back home I'd like to say a huge thank you to the guys and girls at EA for giving me this wonderful opportunity and for being so welcoming.  It's been a blast guys!  I've made some awesome friends here and would love to return again some day.  I also want to thank TSR, without you this wouldn't have happened.

Ok, mushy bit done!  Now, I'm off to do a bit of sight seeing!  See you all when I get home.

Author: hatshepsut | Posted Jan 16, 2009 | 1 comments

This time the day was spent pretty much entirely on the construction site!  My 2nd building project has turned out be a little more elaborate than the 1st as I learn more about the building toolls and just what can be done with the customisation tools.  Gone are the days of none matching furniture and it's so easy to recolour everything and that includes the walls and floors.  No Homecrafter tool needed here!  Everything can be fine tuned to just the shade that you want.

The landscaping tools are also more detailed.  As you place plants from the inventory they automatically change shape and in some cases size so that you never get a row of identical flowers/shrubs.  Much more realistic.  It is also easier to achieve more realistic effects with the terrain spray paint tool which now comes with both a circular and square paint brush in 3 sizes.  Not only that but you can adjust the hardness/softness of these brushes which makes blending terrain paints much more effective.

Some of you might be familiar with the new roof tool that came with Mansion & Garden Stuff.  That also appears here although one drawback is that there is currently no ability to adjust individual roof slope angles.  Ceilings can be placed in the same way as in Apartment Life but are currently uncolourable.

One of my favourite features is the ability to place objects on an angle without having to resort to cheats and your sims will still be able to interact with those objects.  Also by holding down the ALT key you can place things more freely (like using the snapobjectstogrid cheat).

After a hard day on the construction site it was time for dinner which turned out to be quite an event!  If I'm a little worse for wear in the morning then I'm blaming Steve and Tug!

If there's anything in particular you want to know about the building side of the game then feel free to pm me and I'll do my best to tell you about it.  I'll try and remember to write up a more detailed blog once I get home.

Author: hatshepsut | Posted Jan 15, 2009 | 2 comments

Today we were left pretty much to our devices.  Time to do some serious creating?  Nah!  After completing my 1st architectural masterpiece I decided it was play time!

I created my 1st married sim couple and moved into a cute little starter home.  Houses can now be bought either in a furnished condition or non furnished.   Single sims still start out with the usual $20,000 but couples get a little bit more. 

Before my sims even got into their home I got a message on screen telling me that the house was having some plumbing problems and did I want to accept the challenge of cleaning it up.  I accepted the challenge which was probably not the best idea for my poor neurotic sim.  Even after the mess was cleaned up and the bath and sink fixed he kept getting the urge to go back and check that everything was working ok! 

It's really fun seeing how traits affect a sims personality.  It really does make for a completely different game play experience.  One of my sims has a childish streak and one of his favourite things to do is goof around making silly faces in the mirror.  My neurotic sim is also a bit of a bookworm and loves to bore his neighbours to sleep!

sim pregnancy is also a little different.  The development seems more gradual and natural.  They can experience things like backache and feel the baby kick and it's neat being able to send your sim to the hospital for the birth.

Back to real life and in the afternoon was a trip to the EA store.  It was like letting a child loose in a candy shop!  Then it was back to the computers!  I decided to quit goofing around and get back to building.  Still so much to discover and so little time!  tomorrow we get to learn some more build/buy mode tips and tricks.  Looking forward to that! 

Oh well, back the to the grindstone!  tffn!

Author: hatshepsut | Posted Jan 14, 2009 | 2 comments

Day 2 and it was now time to get down to some serious creating.  Being primarily a lot builder I've been concentrating on that part of the game. 

While some of the build features we've come to know and love in Sims 2 are no longer available (the CFE cheat is for now a thing of the past), some of the new features help to make up for the loss.  For instance, if you don't like the default colour options for your windows and doors then no problem.  Choose from a wide range of pre-set textures which you can recolour however you want and apply them to almost any object. 

Landscaping and terrain tools are also more user friendly.  The trees and plants look amazing as they sway in the breeze and the water effects are cool. 

I guess a perk of being amongst the 1st creators to start using the game and pushing it to it's limits is that we're also helping to identify any bugs that may crop up and giving EA a chance to put things right.  I certainly gave some of the EA staff some headaches after managing to break the roof tool and wreck a perfectly good staircase.  Sorry guys!  I think the prize for the most hilarious glitch has to go to Padre who somehow managed to place a chair mid-air over the top of his house.  A neat effect I'm sure but I've no idea how he was expecting his poor sim to reach it! 

The afternoon brought a visit to the sound lab where the sound effects/voices and music are put together.  It was a huge thrill to meet the production team along with one of the voice actors.  To actually watch her doing the voice-overs to the animations was awesome.  Those that were brave enough had the chance to have a go right alongside her.  It was a lot of fun. 

Afterwards it was back to creating before going to dinner then back to the hotel.  Now let's see what I can break tomorrow!

Author: hatshepsut | Posted Jan 13, 2009 | 3 comments

After a long and thankfully uneventful journey I arrived in sunny California.  Following a night of exhaustion induced sleep in what must be the world's most comfy bed (I've gotta get me one of those!) I was ready and rearing to go and see what the Sims 3 is all about. 

First was a quick informal breakfast in the lobby of EA HQ.  It was a wonderful experience to meet everyone and although we'd never met before it already felt as though I was amongst old friends. 

After breakfast it was on to business with a tour of the EA campus.  Believe me, this place has everything!  Now I know where I want to work when I grow up! 

Followin the tour it was on to a series of Sims 3 demos showing the new create-a-sim features, and build/buy mode options.  Unfortunately I can't really go into much detail but I was amazed at the amount of customisation that Sims 3 allows.  You could easily spend half a day just customising your 1st sim and some of the new build/buy features are just darned neat!  However, you have to keep in mind that this is a base game and I'm sure so many more features will become available in time with future ep's. 

Finally came the chance to get some hands on experience.  I was having so much fun creating a shirt of many colours for my sim that I almost forgot about building!  But I did manage to produce the beginnings of a nice piece of architecture before it was time to pack up for the day. 

Time to head for that super comfy bed and dream about what day 2 will bring.