Wednesday, April 4, 2012

TOT Neanderthal Round 2: The Dars (actual post)

Welcome back to Round 2 of the Dars in my TOT Challenge.

As you probably know, I'm using Yumedust's defaults in this post rather than SugarandCaffeine's. See the previous post if you haven't heard...




Mila Dar receives a pregnancy bump, most likely her 2nd or 3rd... 
In other words, a baby is coming!

As most family sims go, Mila desperately wants yet another baby in spite of the rambunctious twins she's already been cursed  blessed with. Her husband, on the other hand, fears having a baby for whatever reason he may have (but he's a family sim!).


Regardless, Tung manages to bond with his current offspring and becomes best friends with his younger son, Tiim...


as well as his older son, Tukk.

Don't you hate how dark those eyes look today? No? Because I do... ):


Tukk's eyes look stunning up close, though. Dark blue, like his daddy's.


 Tukk receives an education about the caveman-approved phonetic alphabet while Tiim...


... learns to walk- that is, badly- from his waddling, expectant mother (how ironic). Neither of them have succeeded thus far, but I felt that it was important to point out that their parents are, at the very least, trying to teach them something...


Exhausted and sunburned from trying to teach a toddler to waddle like his pregnant mother in the midst of a heat episode, Mila, only mere inches away from the protection of the tree's shade, passes out underneath the cruel rays of the sun.


After awakening from a short and horrible nap, Mila wanders indoors to mope about an accident she had while outside (I didn't include pictures of that because she ended up being cruelly mocked by a modern townie next to a modern trashcan that was next to a very modern road near a modern sidewalk... it just didn't feel right).


 Overwhelmed by the disappointing rigors of caveman life, the poor woman passes out yet again.


Groggily getting up again, Mila fails to notice her sons cutely huggling with one another.


Mila rests her head in a comfortable, sparkling plate of bass pillow and goes back to sleep.


This is probably the 4th or 5th time Mila's passed out this round... and it's only the 1st day. *Facepalm*


Beddy-bye time for the twins. The night passes uneventfully by...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The next day, Mila successfully gives birth. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the usual prenatal convulsions, so you'll just have to be content with this iconic snapshot of the Sims 2 pacifier.


Of course, Tung, being a typical male, completely misses his newest offspring's birth and continues snoozing the morning away.


As though he subconsciously realizes that the universe has been disturbed, Tung yawns and stretches widely from his comfy position before continuing his morning nap.

What a supportive husband and father you are, Tung.


Alone in their humble abode, Mila relieves herself because she feels frustrated that she had to go through the birth alone.
Notice the spoiled bass; she's had a tough time lately, so she's been neglecting the state of her sad little Neanderthal home.


In any case, let me introduce the newest additions to the Dar Name:

Meet Mekazi (brown hair, brown eyes, Skin 4). She's the 1st girl to be born under the Dar household.


Looks like the Dars had a 2nd set of twins! Tunto is Mekazi's twin brother; he has the same coloration as Mekazi and had brown hair, brown eyes, and Skin 4.

Tiim, Mekazi, and Tunto all have the same coloration; Tukk, who has black hair and blue eyes, is the oddball in the bunch so far.


Following the birth of her latest set of twins, Mila tries to quell her starving stomach by chowing down on some long expired bass.
 

Of course, she ends up using the plate as a comfy pillow. 
I can't believe she still wants to have 10 kids. This family is going to be such a nightmare.


In a weak attempt at dragging herself to bed, Mila ends up passing out a second later. Tukk doesn't seem too troubled, however.


Tung tries to manage his ever-growing brood of children. Will he succeed? Only time will tell.


Success! Little Tiim finally learns to walk, hopefully without that pregnant-woman-waddle.


Another success! Mila finally manages to drag herself to bed...


...Only to wake up with a fearsome sunburn.

Of course, Tung gets to snooze safely indoors all day. Her life sucks.


Aw, cute. Tiim and Tukk share a sunburned hug. Still cute, even with the lobster-red glow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Life with the Dars has been  H-E-double-hockey-stick.

Look at that mess. It's horrifying. If there's 1 lesson the Sims franchise has taught me, it's to never have more than 1 kid... ever.

I guess I'll never ever become a grade school teacher, either.


Fire! Just what the Dars needed, another disaster on the wake.


 Tung jumps into the fray and tries desperately to smother the flames.


Mila, ever the handy sidekick, panics and does nothing at all to help her husband put out the fire.

A job well done, Mila... a job well done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Later that night, Tung takes a break from the chaos inside the hovel and tries to relax outside.

Mila has a similar idea on hand, but she fails miserably and ends up contracting a major heatstroke.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


 Refreshed the next day, Tung takes care of his gardening duties and tries to revive his much neglected plants.


Tung befriends his daughter Mekazi.
Daily life for the Dars continues as usual. Mommy's jabbering on the phone, Daddy's changing diapies, and little Tukk and Tiim are vying for attention.
Nothing too unusual.


Mila connects with Arok En over the phone and manages to become best friends with him. This might come in handy for any future betrothals between their offspring... ;)


Still on a responsible streak, Tung succeeds in teaching his eldest son Tukk to speak the language of Man.


Not wanting to be outdone by her husband, Mila quickly grows close to her new son, Tunto. I guess every parent has his or her favorite child- Tung befriended Mekazi 1st while Mila struck a bond with Mekazi's twin brother instead.


Yay! Tukk grows up well, breaking the mundane streak that's been suffocating this stupid round thus far. He probably wanted some attention, huh?

Don't you love his face? It's absolutely awkward.


Probably too exhilarated by this exciting turn of events, Mila, surrounded by expired bottles and a cranky baby, passes out once again.


Tiim grows up well, too. His face is slightly less contorted, but he grows into the similarly modern clothes. I guess I'll have to give them a positively prehistoric makeover...


 ... but 1st, a birthday meal! Celebrating with a slice of sparkly bass each, birthday boy Tukk and his mother somehow both catch an unfortunate sunburn... at night. How does that even make sense?! DX

Okay, now is the time for makeovers! Btw, the Dar kids are going to take after their mother and wear nose piercings as a family heirloom sort of thing...


Tukk looks pretty cute, considering that his cheeks are no longer puffy and distended.


 Trying to look tough, Tiim breaks out a pose and barely manages to show off a single muscle.

Personally, I like Tukk's makeover better, but that's just me. :P


In a completely unrelated event, Tung befriends his youngest child, Tunto.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The next morning, Tiim eats a delicious piece of largemouth bass in late celebration of his birthday since he missed out the other night.
I love how he's talking about soccer. It just makes no sense, considering the time period we're in...


Following his breakfast, Tiim wanders outside to flop on the ground like an insignificant weakling.

Too intent on fishing, Tung just ignores him. XD


Tung: Woohoo! I caught a fish! Go me, go me.


Finally taking notice of his wilting son after a few cheerful whoops later, Tung grudgingly graces Tiim with a bit of water.

What mercy he has, eh?
And now, this post shall eventually be continued... (again).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, only about... 20 more photos to go! DX This'll take all night...


 Mekazi grows into Mila's doppleganger! Btw, Mila finally warms up to her daughter and befriends the cuddly little tot.
 

Tunto follows suit, but he looks more like a dark-skinned Lex Luthor. :3
 It's good that Mekazi grew up before Tunto, just like their birth order.


The sunburned twins are having a blast at Red Hands (quite a fitting game, considering their lobster red skin). They've been friends ever since they were tots, so it's really cool to see them interact once in a while.


Tung begins divulging the secrets of taxidermy to his beloved little Tunto.
 "First, you take slit the bear's throat. Then, slide out the stuffing and..."
Tunto looks largely amused by the whole affair.


Young Tukk enjoys a dance with his svelte mother.


It seems like a night for bonding, eh? The littlest twins huggle sweetly...


... while the eldest Dars share a quiet woohoo into the early morning hours. Will there be more toddling feet to come?


Continuing the amorous/ friendly streak, Mila and Tunto become best friends.


Unfortunately, Tukk decides that he's had enough and chooses to be alone.
"Yep, just me and my lovely pond..." Don't you just love how stoic he looks? :D


Beginning a bad luck streak, Tiim prompt faints from overexposure to the burning rays of the sun.


Look, a fire! How fitting. I like how Tiim woke up just in time to watch his house burn down and suffer similarly from the heat...


... Nah, disaster averted (for now). This is the 2nd fire this round. Wonder how many more will be in the future...?


In spite of all the bad that's happened this round, Tung and Tunto still find time to bond. Best friends!


Tiim has a similar idea and whirls happily with his daddy.


The best friend virus strikes again! This time, it pulls Mekazi and Father Tung together.

***Okay, starting from now, I'll only record instances of Best Friends+ because it takes too much effort and time to track mere friendships.***


Whoo! That was a LONG post... well, this is the last picture: Mila finally gets off of her lazy (post-pregnant) butt and does some very neglected chores, earning herself a bronze gardening badge.

Thanks for sticking it out (or just skipping to the end of this post; that's fine too)! I'll try to take fewer pictures if possible... I think I'm addicted to recording, though.

Until next time, ciao!! :)







TOT Neanderthal Round 2: The Dars (precursor and explanatory)

After yet another LOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG hiatus, I bring to you The Dars in Round 2 of the Test of Time Challenge.

Now, this post may seem a little strange. Why, you ask? Well, I've been having a lot of trouble with differentiating amongst the colors in my current default set of eyes.

No, I'm not colorblind.

It just so happens that the colors look extremely similar in-game so that I keep mixing up who has what color of eyes. For instance, see this post.

Because it's become such a problem, I decided to search for a new default eye set...

My original set is SugarandCaffeine's @ MTS2. I really love how they look in-game (simple yet clear), but the color similarity is driving me nuts...

I tried Yumedust's eyes, and those look pretty good up close but horrible from faraway because you can't see the sclera at all, which just makes the eye look dark and lackluster.

The default colors that I used for Yumedust were:
Gray~ silver
Brown~ amber
Green~ chartreuse
Light Blue~ cerulean
Dark Blue~ starry

In this round, the Dars display Yumedust's eyes... to be honest, I was really disappointed and hated them in-game (some might disagree with me, but that's just my own opinion).

Right after I finished playing the Dars, I took out Yumedust's defaults and replaced them with Shady's Sparkling Defaults... They were pretty much the same as Yumedust's so I didn't like them at all in-game, but they were fine up close.

The comparison photos (in Bodyshop):


~SugarandCaffeine~ Closeup

~Yumedust~ Closeup

~Shady's Sparkling~ Closeup

  Of the closeups, I liked Shady's the best because of the realism. Not a big fan of Yumedust's because they were so dark...

 Now, for the faraway shots.

~SugarandCaffeine~ Faraway

~Yumedust~ Faraway

~Shady's Sparkling~ Faraway

Even though SugarandCaffeine's defaults are far from realistic, I still enjoyed them the most because the lighting was the brightest so that you can kind of tell what color eyes the sim has. Yumedust and Shady's are too dark to properly enjoy from faraway and under normal gaming circumstances (I'm not going to be getting closeup shots every single time, so SugarandCaffeine is still my favorite).

If anyone has a cool default eye to share, PLEASE let me know; I'm willing to try it out.

A preview of the coming Dar post: 



This is what Yumedust's eyes look like on Tung Dar; they're pretty nice to look at, but they're a bit dark overall.

Compare those to his normal appearance.

 I'm going to upload the actual Dar post right after this one, so please tune in to see the big difference between Yumedust and SugarandCaffeine... (as you know, I prefer SugarandCaffeine).




Tuesday, March 20, 2012

PABACC: The Genesis (or the Aftermath)

The Post-Apocalyptic Build A City Challenge

For miles around, the land has been scarred by an idiopathic series of massive tornadoes that had whipped up all that was once precious to the denizens of Ramsend River Valley, leaving behind a bleak, desert wasteland. What once was a flourishing little suburb in a town of greenery and fauna is now a desolate landscape of debris and sand. 
With only a few handful of survivors left in the aftermath, can they ever hope to rebuild Ramsend River Valley to its former glory?

Thursday, March 15, 2012

TOT Family Trees

Hi, peeps! Sorry for yet another long hiatus; I don't have any new gameplay posts yet, but I've recently been working on a new feature for the site: Family Trees.

 Right now, I only have the Ash Family Tree completed, but I'm going to post the other trees soon. It'll be cool to see the families branch out over time, so please check that link out from time to time.

I'm using Ancestry.com's Family Tree Maker to make these trees; it's a pretty good program in general.

Hopefully I'll have a new gameplay post by the end of this month- it's been hectic at school and home.

Edit: The Bal Family Tree is up.
         The Cor Family Tree is up.