's Blog

Stranger Still

It seems that if you download the entire NK Cubist Dining Set from v7, you get the new end table.

If you download the end table by itself, you get the old one.

So you can get it in version 7, but only by downloading the whole set again. Weird.

Well - Sort of

The corrected end table for the NK Cubist Dining Set is out, but for some reason is only showing in v6, so you'll have to go there to get it. Don't know why, but at least it is now available. Let me know if you have any issues with the set. I'll let you know when I get the next revision done.

Have a great Friday!

TSR V7!

well
everything looks really revamped here
and im loving it!
though im still getting used to it
haha
im particularly glad about one thing :D
when you purchase the tool to change the colour of your profile,
you can adjust it whenever you are bored of that current red one.
im not really used to the new gallery-like layout when you visit the download page
but it looks really cool
tsr is more than what i imagined it to be now! :)
thank you tsr!
really clever to revamp this very amazing website before sims 3 is due in weeks or a month (i think?)
im not trying to be sarcastic though it sounds like it. :)
btw, the said thing is that school term is on while TSR finished its renovation and was ready to launch it
awww damn.
i'll try to submit a creation; the usual - lots, as soon as i am free
i hope to come back to this website soon.
well off to doing my assignments. :/

zul_94. :)

Rock God Challenge

Hey Guys!

I was so stoked to see the Rock God Challenge has been published. I had a lot of fun creating it & Bjorn Singer's house "The Warehouse". I hope you have as much fun playing it as I did creating it!

Love & Hugs

:wub:

Shaz

Creator's Camp - Day 4

Hello, again, everyone. Today was yet another fun day. Right as the camp released for dinner, the TSR Flock headed back to the hotel for our meal. To say the least, the 6 hour meal was...well, I don't even think 'eventful' would cover it. Of course, what happens in the Red Room stays in the Red Room.

Right now, it's very late...just a wee bit this side of 1am, so 3am back home.  I certainly didn't expect the TSR Dinner to last that long...but, I'm eating my chocolate cookies and blogging for you all. You've got to love Cookies...chocolate, at that.

Tomorrow is the last day of the camp, and I am going to get selfish. I won't be writing anymore 'detailed' 'in depth' blogs about the game. I think with the past 3, and this one, there is more than enough information to satisfy your needs. So, please...no more questions about the game, as I won't be able to get answers for you anymore. If you asked a question on the last blog, check your guestbooks. Some of you still have not checked them from the first blog posting.

Anyway, on with the details!

The night sky comes with shooting stars, but I did not notice day time clouds.

There is no such thing as a 'funeral' option, you can stage a funeral, but that is it.

There is no underwear section anymore, but it may come.

Career and Life Span have nothing in common. If you have a longer life span, you will get more career 'opportunities' but nothing other than that.

There is no limit to the number of sims that can hold a single job title.

Sims are given random outfits at birthdays, but it is easy to change them into something else.

Sims cannot be invited to a townies party, but they can be invited to a community party with the right opportunity cards.

Every townie has a home, NPC's do not.

Be sure to watch your maid. Not all maids earn their wages.

If you tell your sim to relax on the bed, then sleep...they just crawl under the covers versus getting out of bed and climbing back in.

The maid put the left out food in the fridge for safe keeping.

I had a Sim holding the infant, and talking on the phone, and then after the conversation, sat on the couch with the baby.

Sims will still do what's in their action queue, even if you are looking at another sim all the way across town.

Holding ALT allows free rotation and removes the snapping of objects. It is possible, though, to create routing problems.

You can grab texture presets and put them onto ANYTHING you want to recolor.

Mailbox determines what the thumbnail for your lot.

In general, do not use more than 4 terrain paints.

Also, in general, do not use more than 4 different types of trees, shrubbery, etc.

No Gardners!

Clone Tool = Awesome! You can use it to replicate whatever object without having to find it in the build/buy mode.

Mean sims can 'Criticize Family' or 'Insult Mother'.

There is a 'randomize face' in CAS.

No more changing tables for infants/toddlers.

There are no curly hairs, but are some very long hairs.

You can put any stair railing on any stair case.

Sims can have different last names in the same household, but they share the household name.

I had one sim cooking, and the other eating, and they were carrying on a conversation.

Gossiping will actually clue you in on what's going on in the town.

Pop-Up will tell you combatibility between two sims.

Sims can stand around in a circle/herd of sims discussing random things.

TONS of shoes to choose from!

Depending on personality, some sims will share a bed regardless of relationship, and or use the shower/potty if someone else is in the room. 

That's it for tonight. I am sure that the other's are knocked clean out by now. As I said, dinner was an 'experience'. It's off to bed for me now. Don't forget to check your guestbooks, and please...no more questions! I won't have the means to get them answered! Thanks for reading and I hope that I've talked some of you into getting the game...it's going to be great!

Michelley Update. Haha does anybody even read these...? =D

Hope you all liked my new set of eye colors: Serenity!
I worked hard on them and I personally think I did an OK job.

I haven't been creating too much new stuff but I promise a new set of lipsticks is on its way! Right now, I am in midterm week...so that's really boring and nerveracking!

^^hmm I do like icecream!! Haha!

^^oh no! watch out!

have a nice day everyone and good luck on your midterms!

Mail

If you have tried to PM me about anything, I was silly and let my mailbox get filled to capacity without noticing. I've deleted some of them, so now I have room for any messages you might have tried to send. Sorry about that!

I'm also going to try to release my corrected  NK Cubist Dining End Table as a separate item. If that works out, it should show up on the 16th. Sorry this has taken so long to get to you, but I haven't been able to contact anyone. Hopefully this will work. If it does, just download the one that says CORRECTED in the title and let it replace the original. I still haven't had time to improve the bookcase, but I'll try to get to it this weekend.

I have a question for you. I am thinking about updating my About Me section. Except for any really personal stuff, what would you like to know? Or what do you think people that visit for the first time might like to know? If you have any ideas, let them fly. I'm not very good at that sort of thing, so I thought I'd ask for suggestions. You can PM or do a guestbook entry. Looking forward to hearing from some of you!

Some of you seem to like the floppy cushion living room. Only 20 more of them to go! I also have some other room sets that I still need to make pictures for. And one more car set. And a last small appliance set. Maybe I'll put the kitchen appliances into sets by color as well.

Lots to do, so I better get busy. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying reading about the Creator's Camp. Sims3 is starting to seem really interesting. But you probably won't need my 20 colors of sims things. Sounds like solid color recolors will be in the hands of everyone. So I'll have to concentrate more on unique patterns and meshes. I'm not very good at meshing yet, but I'm trying to learn.

Thanks for stopping by!

TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 5, 10:30

Before I ran off a little early yesterday to welcome Tug to the campus and prepare for the TSR dinner at the hotel, I spent some time with Ben Bell, Senior Producer of The Sims 3. A couple of us reporters at the event also got some time to throw some questions at him so rather than quote him word for word I figured I'd summarise some of the things I learned from him yesterday. I didn't grab a picture of Ben (you've all seen him from the videos anyway), so for this post you get to see the Atrium on campus (taken from EA's own Starbucks).

I asked Ben about his favourite features of the game. His top two would be the trait system which he personally spent a great deal of time on, researching behavioural stuff and building the stereotypical and exaggerated facial animations for each which you see when assigning the trait in CAS and during game play when that trait rears its head in the characters behaviour. He also loves the introduction of bicycles to the game, being a cyclist himself he loves to see Sims ditch the driveway and cars for a bicycle rack by the house!

I then went on to features that they talked about in game development but didn't make it into the final version. He said there were many but focussed on the video capture features. He's happy with the video tools as they are in the base game but is aware that there is much more they can do to improve on that aspect of storytelling and the use of the game for Machinima. Maybe that will get picked up on in an upcoming pack.

I was then keen to know about any feature of the game that caused much debate or controversy in the team. Apparently the layout of the town, Sunset Valley, went through a dozen or so designs before everyone eventually agreed or agreed to disagree on it. Also heavily debated was the needs system which replaces the old style of eating, sleeping, peeing and washing etc., even down to how it should affect the way Sims will get along on their own without human interaction. Then there was the User Interface, which Ben estimates is on something like version 30!

Lastly, to put Ben on the spot a bit by bringing up a rather contentious issue from the users, I asked him where he thinks the level of facial detail sits in the scale between game and too real for comfort, given that they have moved away from caricature and more towards portrait.  His facial expression said it all, it was clearly a big discussion point among the team and one of the hardest things to balance in game design. They wanted users to be able to make Sims look as close to their intended model or their imagination desires but without going too close to photorealistic.
The technology is clearly available to make Sims photorealistic but Sims 3 intentionally falls short to avoid what Ben called "total detail distraction", while managing to maintain extreme expressions and realistic movement. Sims 3 Sims, as detailed as they are, try to maintain the look of the Sims that came before them. If you look closely at the eyes for example, you see the "old simminess" as Ben calls it, in an attempt to preserve generations before them!

Hope you find some of that interesting. I'm off to hunt for coffee.

/Steve

Various fixes today

As usual, here is a rundown of today's fixes (only mentioning the main ones):

- SA/FA badge added to their respective creations both in browse and details view
- Recommended/Required items are no longer cut off in browse view
- Kitchen & Bath stuff pack is now listed as a stuff pack, not expansion
- Bigger images for featured items, artist focus and upcoming items (this is a work in progress!), your feedback is welcome on this one
- Tutorials pod image fixed in size and image added on the tutorials content page (so you know what you clicked on!)
- New login option added for those with problems logging in, just mark the checkbox next to the login button and give it a try

We're working on a thank you button in browse view, new pods for the minisites + much more to come, stay tuned! :)

Search facility - really good in v7

Let me say something really positive about the new site. Finally there is an option to search among the screenshots not just donwloadable items. There was one picture I wanted to save and I used to be mad at not having any other option than to scroll and scroll and scroll to find that particular shot. I just gave it up after clicking through 300 pages and not finding it. I tried several times, actually. Now with the new site I have found it in 10 seconds! Here it is, and I am still amazed how pretty it is. It is technically not too difficult, but the arrangement is just so... so... so... :))) One just have the desire to walk there! This was created by peach8111, here on TSR, who must be very talented.