Could it be that they haven't met anyone from the greek houses yet? Seems a little silly, to me, to want to join this group of people you don't even know. Apply LURK MOAR to greek housery, get a feel for the occupants first, maybe?

I don't actually know if meeting/befriending greek house inmates will do anything, but, it seems like a logical thing to try.

I'm still trying to get used to the idea that my (new, as of July) computer can handle a decorated hood. I downloaded these to check out the alien fly by, and I just had three in quick succession! They sort of fly in, hover over the henges for a moment, then fly away again.

Now I need to figure out how to use them... It's so strange to be adding decoration, rather than removing it.

That's been done, as well as 'shrinking' the walls to foundation height. I say go for it!

I know I've replaced some exterior walls with greenhouse walls, I did that in the July challenge. (My entry is here, if you're curious.)

---

The real reason for my post, which I'd somehow forgotten: I playtested the cells a bit, and they seem to work well. Lock the door once the Sim is inside, of course. There's room for a sink/shower if you'd rather not the sim stink up the joint, they can read/dream in bed to raise fun, and social bunnies pop by now and then to raise that. The only real issue seems to be food, which is solved by macro>eat and inventoried meals.

I left my test sim mostly on free will, though I queued up the occasional macro>eat to keep the sim alive, and the sim lived long enough to be fired for not showing up to work, with no signs of an early demise yet. Aspiration is low, but seems to need a fear fulfilled to drop below the final line into failure, as it's been holding steady for some time now. Sim keeps whining about stuff, and occasionally stares wistfully out of the window. I didn't actually expect the sim to realise they were trapped in a 3x3 cell...

I was pondering 'hidden' rooms the other day, and then this house was posted. The tower was perfect! In fairy tales, if there's ever a tower, it's because there's a princess locked up in it. Why not lock sims in towers? (If you use macrotastics, and prepare inventory food, prisoners can hypothetically macro>eat within the cell, and get by. Though, dishes would have to be disposed of somehow...)

I haven't playtested the cells yet...

I built this lot on the flat lot uploaded by Mootilda. I don't really have much to say about it...

Two double-bed bedrooms, two single bed 'cells' (that could be converted into cauldron rooms if needed) and a two cot nursery. Five bathrooms - two off the nursery with bathtubs, three with showers. (Plus toilets in the cells.) I converted the center of the courtyard to a simple pool. The exterior walls are all in place, and mostly still external, though I did wall in the front porch area.

Cost: ~$105,000 (Unwanded)

Exterior:




Upstairs:


Some upstairs areas of note:






Downstairs:


Dining room:



Download it HERE (Note: I have all EPs. AL required.)

Even if the migration path is clearly marked and devoid of mountains and things that want to eat you, that's no guarantee that it'll be at all useful.

I had one with a very clear path on the mini-map... leading directly out to sea. I couldn't even see the nest from the shore, the 'migrate this-a-way' line just kept going, way past the chomp point.

Yeah, I quite like cell. I'm not exactly sure why, but, yeah. I do like the fact that, in order to get a part from a creature, you need to find a creature with that part. No getting arms from limbless slugs, like in creature stage, for example. And it's pretty simple, swim into X to attack/kill/eat it. The best part is after you've put the omnivore mouth on there. And the lack of parts is made up for by the fact that, here, bonuses stack. (For speed at least, being the only thing in cell with a point value.)

As for creature, I've been known to keep a creature game running for weeks, getting parts (over pretty quickly), accumulating DNA, and tweaking my creature. One I had played so long that everyone on the map was either my bestest friends or dead. (I started out going for green, before I decided I wanted the red benefit. I literally had to kill every remaining creature in order to scrape in at the top of red.)

I didn't buy it, and I won't buy any EPs, but I'll certainly acquire them. (Part packs are more iffy, though the creating is my favourite part, above all of the stages.)

But, why? It was an uphill battle convincing my 12 brother to play all the stages (but in the end he had no choice, that's needed to unlock future stages) and, I just don't get it. Why wouldn't you want to play them all? Cell and creature are my two favourite stages, including space.

As to the topic, is anyone here honestly surprised that there'll be expansions for Spore? In fact, didn't they already confirm that there would be, even before the game itself was close to release?

On my first run through Grox space I did notice a few non-Grox worlds slipped in among the very large Grox empire. A couple of them may have had pre-space civilisations on them, all I noticed was that I could pause on one or two of them and not get attacked. (Though most were close enough to Grox space that they'd come over and get me if I just sat around in space.)

Tell Maxis that -- they're the ones that coded it so that putting three different mouths gives the 'Cerberus' achievement.

Definitely! I entered three last month. (Though this month I'll be lucky if I even enter one, and I might as well forget about next month entirely. Busy Faizah is busy.)

Wow, mitchellcjs, that's awesome! I was half planning to do an apartment complex, where each stupid platform level becomes the landing for each apartment, but, man. I can't compete with that. I love the striking colour scheme, especially the exterior, with the bold balcony railing against the neutral walls. Also, way to use diagonals to your advantage! I hated the diagonal walls and doors of the original house, they just seemed so pointless and in the way, but this lot actually works.

Nope, pretty sure I've been playing on Easy this whole time. (I am weak and such, apparently... I just wanted the Sandbox game I'd heard Spore was going to be.)

I had to fire up the game to double check, and I'm not seeing this in my game.

I get this instead:

Wait, more than one? How? I thought the uber turrets were one per planet?

Print Screen button + standard Windows Paint. (I'd prefer to use GIMP, but it's been intolerably slow since installing my new tablet...)

Yes, but remember, the BBS sheep are EAxis' target audience, the only ones who'll put up with the game fresh out of the box, SecuRom and bugs included. Which reference would they infer from Tabula Rasa? (Also, I'm reasonably convinced that that's the reason for the other 'Harry Potter' style spell names. Well, it's a toss-up between that and EAxis laziness, but, gee, they'd never do a half-arsed job, right? Ha!)

Done. Thanks!

I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to this lot... I chose it because I hated it, but I've realised that what I hated about it was largely the internal walls (and those platforms) which are all removable.

If anyone can upload a completely flattened lot (either via lot expander or a recreation of the house on a flat lot) I'd be happy to edit the first post to link to it, with proper credit of course. I'd do it, it doesn't sound too difficult, but I have AL, and I'm wary of AL being listed as something that it might not work with.

Alright, October's House is up!

Yes, it's the Curious brothers' home this month. I won't be evil, it's not a requirement to keep those awful platforms, though, if you can, by all means, do!






Rules, copy-pasta'd from last month:

1. No CC.  Please indicate needed expansions and stuff packs so people who wish to download your lot know what to expect.  Pictures are required, either available for download, on a slideshow, or posted in this thread.

2. By entering this challenge, you agree to take constructive criticism.  If you wish to judge someone else's entry, you should be respectful but honest.

3. Your lot does not have to be Awesomespec, although it is encouraged.

4. You may move internal walls and add external walls but you may NOT move original external walls.

5. Lots may be furnished, unfurnished, or partially furnished.  You can even upload both furnished and unfurnished versions.

*PLEASE NOTE* Since this is an Eaxis-designed lot, it may or may not have level edges.  Place at your own risk.

New for this lot:

6. At least one telescope must remain on the roof.

7. (Optional) Keep the platforms.

Download a flat version of the lot, provided by Emma: Here.

You could also grab the original lot by removing your My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder, starting up the game, and kicking the brothers out.

I found making a witch quite simple.

Go to community lot.
Wait for NPC witch to show - shouldn't take long.
Macro > Socialise (or otherwise befriend) NPC witch.
Ask to be taught the ways of darkness/path of light.

If you don't want to wait for the 'right' alignment witch, you don't have to, you can study to your preferred alignment, be it good, evil, or neutral. You can even change your mind and study from maxed evil to maxed good or vice versa, if you feel like it.

Anyone have any thoughts as to October's lot? Getting to be that time... (I may have an idea or two...)

I think I always had a problem with the order the teen achieved those goals. There must be a reason I wait until the teen has an A+ before getting them a job? I don't know, but I do know that I've always had them get the overachiever thing, still as teens, if they max school before career, so...

If they got the A+ after the top level of their career, try quitting their job and getting a new one, and see if they get it on maxing that one.

I'd be interested in a good tutorial or three myself, so far I've been 'learning' by taking things apart, which has taught me new places to hide stuff. Then there was that tip at the start of the vehicle thread here, building an inner skeleton to make the parts 'sink' slightly. (Which I later used on my Starbug, posted in the same thread.)

Also, that that one diamond-shaped +health part (I am terrible with names...) makes good boxes, if you flip it around.

But mainly I've been taking things apart and seeing if I can put them back together. I love that I can do that, I have to say. Have a bit of a tinker, see what they did there, educational and fun.