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General Chat and Say Hi -...
Forum: General Chat
Last Post: Mrock
31-10-23, 02:40 AM
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Purplepaws Recolours of 2...
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24-05-23, 08:32 PM
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HeartSpirit Recolours of ...
Forum: CC Fixins
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17-05-23, 09:00 PM
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Sims 2 CC Making, Schedul...
Forum: Site News
Last Post: maxon
11-04-23, 09:34 PM
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John Lewis Patterns and P...
Forum: Walls, Floors and Terrain Paints
Last Post: maxon
02-03-23, 03:45 PM
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Polgannon Progress Report...
Forum: Polgannon
Last Post: Mercer
12-02-23, 02:34 PM
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Polgannon News 1 - Dec 20...
Forum: Polgannon
Last Post: maxon
03-02-23, 04:28 PM
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Stroke Paintings
Forum: Buy Mode Objects
Last Post: maxon
02-02-23, 03:48 PM
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Shaker Autumn Panelling
Forum: Walls, Floors and Terrain Paints
Last Post: maxon
30-11-22, 10:14 PM
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3. Early Days - Goths
Forum: Tales from Little Carping
Last Post: maxon
14-09-22, 08:14 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 574

 
  Purplepaws Recolours of 2003 VW Bug - plus some new recolours
Posted by: maxon - 24-05-23, 08:32 PM - Forum: CC Fixins - No Replies

I was talking once more to Calibrat over at the Sim Crafters Discord about these colours for a model of the 2003 VolksWagen bug.  

   
Colours L-R: Mellow Yellow: Harvest Moon; Cyber Green (back); Galactic Blue (front - this is the Mesh file); Tornado Red; Reflex Silver.

Oddly, Purplepaws seems to have made the recolours as clones rather than actual recolours.  This may be simply an error: they were made pretty early on after all.  Anyway, the Galactic Blue colour is the original mesh and I remade the other colours into proper recolours.  This has two effects: 1. it tidies up the catalogue for these cars since you only get one version in the catalogue itself with the other colours available as regular recolours and 2. it reduces the filesizes of the recolours quite a bit.  These files have not been compressed so might end up an even smaller size if you compress them.  I have used the original names of the colours in the filenames - by which I mean, the colour names as designed by Volkswagen themselves as detailed in the picture caption.  That's the first rar file below.

I also, for fun and because they are SO easy to do here, made some more recolours (if you would like them).  These are also original colours (for the most part) from VW except for the purple and hot pink.  I made those because who doesn't want a purple or hot pink VW bug?  That's the second rar file below.

   
Colours L-R: Black Magic Pearl; Malibu Blue; Metallic Orange; Purple (back); Spice Red (front); Bright Green Pearl; Campanella White; Hot Pink


.rar   0H - MTS - Purplepaws - VW Bug RC.rar (Size: 507.42 KB / Downloads: 85)

.rar   max_Purplepaws_VWBugRC.rar (Size: 12.28 KB / Downloads: 88)

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  HeartSpirit Recolours of Oxygen Kitchen from Parsimonious
Posted by: maxon - 17-05-23, 09:00 PM - Forum: CC Fixins - No Replies

So I was talking to Calibrat about this set of recolours for Parsim's Oxygen Kitchen - quite an old set now but nice.  The set was originally up at asSIMilatedSims (I think that's correct) but the site is long gone.

The recolour set was missing some items plus, as can be seen in the picture below (bottom), the lights must have been made before ceilings were put into the game.  I originally just did a couple of recolours for Calibrat but I've made a few extra adjustments to the set so have put them all up here so people can DL the small corrections and additions if they want to and, of course, to make the set available again for those who want it.

   

Changes and additions include:

New recolours of the slatey grey colours for the 

  • dishwasher
  • island counter
  • counter with drawers
Moved the light down the wall a bit so it fits under the ceiling
Recategorised that hanging plant so it appears in Decorative>Plants instead of statues.  This mesh is actually by Yggsdrasil but was included in the recolour set
Provided a dirty state for both counters and the cooker
Renamed the files because the originals were just things like 'counter' and 'dishwasher' - I added the prefix HS_ParsimOxygen_BlackRC_ to help with identification of the origin of the file. If you have the originals, you'll have to delete them
Upgraded some of the textures to DXT3 to improve the rendering


.rar   HS_ParsimOxygen_BlackRCs.rar (Size: 1.01 MB / Downloads: 82)

.rar   OxygenKitchen_OriginalMeshes.rar (Size: 1.47 MB / Downloads: 86)

The original set is here though I have included the meshes in the rar file, including the Yggsdrasil mesh.  The blind is by Sims Divine and the mesh is included too as well as the recolour for the set.  The painting is just a recolour of the in-game Nature's Perfection picture (the four frame job)

This picture shows how the lights looked originally with the ceilings

   

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  John Lewis Patterns and Plaster Walls
Posted by: maxon - 02-03-23, 03:45 PM - Forum: Walls, Floors and Terrain Paints - No Replies

This is my entry for the SimPearls Wallpaper Makes the Room contest for February 2023

   

Swatch
   

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  Polgannon Progress Report Feb 2023
Posted by: maxon - 11-02-23, 12:13 AM - Forum: Polgannon - Replies (1)

   
(most hated man in Polgannon)

So Polgannon.  I’ve been doing a lot of work on it.  For those of you who have played the neighbourhood (and solved the crime! or tried to anyway), you might think it’s done and dusted and wonder why I’ve been working on it.

Well...

I’ve been thinking about this for ages and it has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.  Late last year, I finally launched a new project with Polgannon and its follow-up story Market Bannaby, to convert it into a new format.  I have some very modest financial backing to get me started.  This is going to be a sort of interactive story. 

The work I have done on it has been in developing the end of the story which was (naturally) left open-ended in the Sims version since what I was providing there a neighbourhood to play from the murder of Blaise forward.  Your own version of Polgannon, if you would.  I’ve also done a lot of work on the characters to develop their tales, especially Ruan and Margaret who were deliberately left somewhat blank as characters in the Sims version.  And I have been working on the supernatural theme for the story (yes, there was one) which got somewhat lost in the Sims version because I couldn’t work out how to make it work in the Sims neighbourhood.  It’s the same story but a fuller, more thoroughly realised version of it.

   

I don’t want to say too much about it all at the moment as I’m not sure I can even do this.  But I’ve been having an awful lot of fun planning things and writing stuff.  The aim is to produce something commercial (though I’m hardly expecting it to make my fortune).  I have even set up a Patreon page for the project (NB I am NOT currently looking for Patreons but will post the link later if you’re interested.  I’m not sure I’m going to use Patreon anyway since it doesn’t allow for a zero cost basic level membership).  There’s probably going to be a dedicated website down the line too.  For the time-being though, information about Polgannon will be posted at tflc in this section and also on my Polgannon tumblr here.

There, I did it, I finally made The Annoucement

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  Sims 2 CC Making, Schedules and Creativity – a retirement story
Posted by: maxon - 09-02-23, 04:34 PM - Forum: Site News - Replies (2)

I’ve been meaning to post this message about changes with me and progress with Polgannon since December but have been finding it difficult to work out what exactly I want to say.

There are a couple of things here: I want to post about what’s happening with Polgannon, which I’m excited about, and to announce my ‘retirement’ from making stuff for Sims 2.

   

Let’s take the latter first.  I’ve been involved with the Sims community since the first game and have been making stuff for Sims 2 from the beginning.  The first version of Polgannon was for Sims 2.  However, I have not really played at all in the last two or three years.  I can’t anymore, I no longer find playing interesting.  I’ve been making simple CC for the last few years but that’s been about it.  I decided finally that I should stop – mainly because I want to concentrate on what’s going on with Polgannon and other stuff in my life (piano is being neglected). 

This does not mean though that I won’t be around because I’ve made a number of friends in the Sims community over the years and I don’t want to lose touch.  It’s also a fact, since deciding to stop that I’ve been making some new walls and pictures. 

This is a bit of a conundrum.  I think what I’m trying to say – or perhaps more importantly tell myself – is that I want to stop ‘officially’ making stuff for the Sims so I’m not always telling myself I need to do something.  I think there’s a good chance I will, in fact, make more stuff for the game but as something I just want to do that day.  The reason I like making walls for the game so much is that I just love messing around with colours and patterns.  It’s a go-to activity when I get stressed or just when I want to do something creative without being serious about it.  So I think I still might be doing more of that but won’t be doing much else – and not on any kind of schedule.

See the Polgannon section for updates about that project.

Isn't that picture hideous?  It's a quick glimpse of stuff I've done over the years.

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  Polgannon News 1 - Dec 2022 Solution
Posted by: maxon - 03-02-23, 04:28 PM - Forum: Polgannon - No Replies

I posted this on the Polgannon tumblr blog in Decxember 2022 HERE

Polgannon News 1 - December 2022
I have a couple of things to report about Polgannon and, to some extent, something to say about what I’m doing at the moment and will be doing in the future.  I’m going to put the update into two posts to break it all down a bit.  

Polgannon, Hall of Fame and the True Solution!  

   

Polgannon Stream
Earlier this year, Tea Addict – a much loved member of the simming community and Sims 2 streamer – played through Polgannon live on her Twitch stream channel (linky).  I attended most of the streams providing background encouragement and the occasional bit of help.  I really, really enjoyed it.  I’m not kidding.  For me, it was a lovely experience seeing people having fun with something I’d made.

TeaAddict and her cabal of watchers looked at the murder scene, deplored Blaise, collected information from all the residents of Polgannon, went through all the evidence and motives and discussed the many shady and dreadful characters – suspecting many along the way.  However, they worked very, very hard, TeaAddict did her homework(!), they sorted through the evidence and, collectively, they (streamer and watchers) came to a successful conclusion.  Hurrah!  The streams are a lot of fun: lots of laughing, tea drinking and pointing collective fingers at sus characters.  

So following on from that..

Hall Of Fame
Following on from that, the true solution to Polgannon has now been in the public domain for some time.  For this reason, I am now closing the Hall Of Fame with TeaAddict and her stream community members the last on the list of successful solvers. 

This is the final list of successful solvers of Polgannon's mystery (or the ones who contacted me with a proposed solution that was correct):  HERE,   Congrats to them.

This does not mean you cannot contact me, if you want to have a shot at the solution by yourself.  I will still respond with a breakdown of why you are wrong (or possibly right) but I will not now add your name to the list of glory.  Sorry.

The True Solution
Tea Addict has now uploaded all of the streams to her You Tube Channel and you can go and watch them if you’d like to.  If you really just want to know whodunnit, you may want to skip to the final broadcast in the series with the solution:



The point where they actually got to the solution is from about 1hr:20mins.  They’re searching for the murder weapon and find it!  They knew it was there somewhere because it’s in the CC collection for the neighbourhood!  This lead them, bearing in mind the evidence they had uncovered, to the correct conclusion about who it was who murdered Blaise Penhaligan on All Hallows Eve!

TeaAddict’s UTube Channel where you can watch the whole series (along with other things she’s done and is doing) is here.

And her Twitch channel is here.  She broadcasts 2-3 times per week.

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  Stroke Paintings
Posted by: maxon - 02-02-23, 03:48 PM - Forum: Buy Mode Objects - No Replies

These are some recolours of the A, B and C Stroke paintings.  

The yachts was the first picture I thought of doing something with - it's an image from one of those phone picture games I was idly playing to pass some time a little while ago while waiting for an appointment.  I thought when I finished the puzzle: 'you know, that's a pretty nice image.  Looks like a nice watercolour.'  So I used that image and then decided to make a small set of it - the pictures are unrelated but are ones I have collected in recent months that I liked.  

   

There are six paintings in all; two for each painting ('cos I'm a bit tired of having recolours for just the blue one).  They are, from r-l, top-bottom: Sweet Peas; Sea Yachts; Sun on Landscape then Wild Women; Lily Pads and Lake Eyre Coastline.


.rar   max_StrokePaintings.rar (Size: 372.41 KB / Downloads: 129)

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  Shaker Autumn Panelling
Posted by: maxon - 30-11-22, 10:14 PM - Forum: Walls, Floors and Terrain Paints - No Replies

This is my entry for the SimPearls' Wallpaper Makes the Room November 2022 

The prompt was "warm and cozy" and having fiddled around a lot with various graphic bits and pieces I decided on entering the gold full panel and half panel wall as seen in the picture (swatch for the contest at the bottom).  But the set was popular with the people I showed it to when it was in progress and so I decided to make a full set using the shaker panelling as the base.  

   

There are now six base colours: black; green; blue; red; cream and gold.  For each colour there is a full panelled wall, a half panelled wall (both of these are found in Panels in game) and a full wallpapered wall using the same crown and skirting (found in Wallpaper).  All cost $8 per panel.

   

As is usual with my walls, they are designed to work with the ceilings in game so the crown will appear to be a little large at the top if viewed from above or without a ceiling showing.


.rar   max_ShakerPanelsWalls.rar (Size: 891.59 KB / Downloads: 224)

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  3. Early Days - Goths
Posted by: maxon - 14-09-22, 08:14 PM - Forum: Tales from Little Carping - No Replies

So you might be wondering why Mercer was so bad, what happened to Cecilia and how did the Sororah sisters end up with one dad apiece.  It all started in October 2004.  I managed to get a whole lot of play in in Little Carping, before the release of University in March 2005 when, finally, I brought in some new characters so the following stories are about the early residents of Little Carping.  The Goths, Vaughans and Phoebe Sororah all moved on quite considerably during that very brief time just after the game released and the arrival of the University expansion.  It’s kind of strange writing up these stories more fully after so much time.  The original events were much more fragmented of course, and I kind of melded the sims responses into a story for each family based on my interpretation of what they did.  When I talk about Randolph’s response to Cecelia’s boredom and frustration below, for instance, he did actually have the gall to lecture her one evening.  If I had been Cecelia I would have punched him but she just apologised at the time.  Still, Cecelia’s frustration stuck at home looking after Gunther, as a knowledge sim, was very apparent at the time.

--------------------
 
The senior Goths quickly settled into a large square house (based on their house in TS1) on the most exclusive road (Buckingham Road) in Little Carping.  They had almost no money left after the purchase of the house and grounds and much of the interior was not even furnished but they still just managed to buy it.  Randolph though thought that it was important for them to live in a property commensurate with his social standing and Cecelia’s for that matter – Randolph had married in Cecelia, a scion of the Crumplebottom family of course.

   
 
The house has an impressive entry with two story windows and a double stairway to the upper level.  To the right is a large dining room at the front and a kitchen behind.  The kitchen had some furnishing (in blue!) but the dining room was unfurnished at first.  To the left of the hallway is the lounge (or drawing room probably for the Goths), furnished in red and cream.  This was also unfurnished at first.  Behind that is Randolph’s study and then across the back of the ground floor is a music room (nothing in there at first, LOL) and the downstairs bathroom.  Just in front of that is a set of stairs which lead to the cellars.  Going upstairs, there is also a large landing space with five bedrooms to the sides.  The master bedroom is at the front of the house to the right with an en-suite bathroom.  There is another large bedroom on the left frontage.  Three smaller bedrooms are at the back of the house.  Only two rooms had beds at first – there was nothing else up there apart from bare wooden floors and one small wall light on the landing – they couldn’t even afford to decorate the walls.  Randolph and Cecelia got depressed just going to bed.
 
I’ve always liked having sims earn absolutely everything they have – I don’t use money cheats all that often.  In buying the plot of land and building the shell of the house, the Goths were practically broke.  They had one toilet and a fridge, counter and sink downstairs and a bed and crib upstairs.  There were several rooms where the windows had not been put in and the upstairs landing had no bannisters (so watch your step in the one light dark up there – sadly sims don’t fall off edges).  So although Randolph had a place to live that was sufficiently impressive and reflective of his status as a representative of the Goth family, they were flat broke and he had to get to work pretty quickly. 
 
   
 
Randolph naturally went to see his father

  • “I need a job, father”, he said, “or Cecelia and I won’t be able to manage.”
  • “You will need to learn the ropes my boy, if you’re to be any use to the firm” said his father
and so Randolph started at the very bottom in the mailroom at the family firm and started bringing home a small salary with which to keep the family afloat.  For the first few years, they were living hand to mouth buying food and paying bills and occasionally buying some décor or furniture to open up a bit more of the house to use.  Most evenings were spent studying for the skills and knowledge Randolph needed for work leaving little time for his wife and son.  After that, he also had to spend quite a bit of time socialising and pressing flesh to develop the necessary friendship network in order to advance.  And advance he did, as time passed, Randolph was a success at work, earning several promotions in rapid succession.

   

In the meantime, Cecelia stayed at home.  She spent most of her time reading cookery books with the aim of not incinerating her entire family at dinner time.  She did wonder why she had spent all that time at school studying hard and doing well when what she ended up with was caring for a small child all day, doing the housework and not a lot else.  Little Carping offered her little in the way of distraction and entertainment.  The only community spaces at that time were a grocery, a clothes shop and a – albeit nice – little park.  “There only so much shopping and strolling I can do,” she complained to Randolph one evening, “and you can’t have an intelligent conversation with a small child.” 

   

“I really think, as my wife, you need to remember what I am trying to do for our family,” Randolph responded pompously, “I need to come home to a quiet well-ordered house and to be able to get on with preparing for work.” 
Cecelia then became pregnant again and barfed all over the place – apparently Randolph didn’t need to spend absolutely all his time pursuing knowledge and skills.  The physical toll of the pregnancy, her constant hunger and tiredness, plus looking after Gunther’s needs, meant she hadn’t time to get round to everything and much of the housework got left undone.  Randolph was often doing his studying surrounded by dirty pots from breakfast which meant the socialising he had to do was done outside the house since it was not a pleasant place to invite people over.  Cecelia was miserable and found herself thinking back to when she was at school.  “I was such a good student,” she thought, “I enjoyed it so much.” 

   

Poor Gunther was stuck between a bored and increasingly fractious mother and a father who had no time to spend with him. 

On the other hand, Randolph’s success meant more money coming into the house in wages and a series of bonus payments.  This meant that completing the build by inserting windows and the occasional door and decorating and furnishing more spaces was possible.  They furnished the lounge (in the aforementioned red and cream) and bought a TV so Cecelia had at least something to watch and pass the time.  They bought an easel to stick in the study though that appealed more to Randolph than Cecelia.  He needed the creativity points.  They were even able to afford a new bed for Gunther when he aged up which was fortunate as Marianne arrived shortly after.  She was a brown haired, grey-eyed baby like her mother.

       
 
Then, while partially furnished (they may have had the piano by then), they invited the Headmaster of the local public school (one Vince Walter*) over and Cecelia gave him Mac n Cheese for dinner (not burnt).  Both Randolph and Cecelia schmoozed for all they were worth and Gunther showed Mr Walter the piano.  Gunther got into the local public** school – probably more on the Goth name than how impressive the Goth residence was at the time I should imagine.  The Mac n Cheese was probably good though – Cecelia is pretty clever and practical after all and she had several points in cooking by this point.

So Cecelia was bored and being lectured to by her ambitious distant husband with a small baby to look after, Randolph was out most of the time with work concerns and Gunther went off every morning in his natty school uniform.  Randolph tried not to show disappointment in Gunther’s slow academic progress.  Because he was a bit slow.  Poor Gunther.
 
* This is the early days of the game remember, so I still had all the regular Pleasantview townies in the game.  I got rid of them all later
** yeah, I know private school in America but I’m British so I’ll call it public school.  Actual schools for the public are called state schools here.

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  Vet Clinic Tiles
Posted by: maxon - 30-06-22, 06:45 PM - Forum: Walls, Floors and Terrain Paints - No Replies

This is my entry for Sim Pearls Wallpaper Makes the Room for June 2022.  The prompt was to create two walls for a Vets Clinic - I made some nice blue tiles as a full wall and a half tiled wall with a pets hospital-themed paper at the top.  Plain skirting and crown for easy cleaning because vets need to be hygienic.  There's also an extra wall in there not entered in the contest with a plain plaster top to complete the set (not pictured).  As is usual with my walls, the crown is set to a height to show properly under a ceiling - this makes the crown appear a bit high when viewed from above.

   


.rar   max_VetsClinicWalls.rar (Size: 104.35 KB / Downloads: 131)

Swatch for Contest:
   

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