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Post by heredoncove on Oct 21, 2009 22:03:31 GMT -5
Random question yes but I think it could work. How and when do you get to background work?
Because each families' updates are suppose to take place in specific season. I find myself setting them up for their next update. So I'll go in for two days and see if they get promoted, see who ages or raises their business ranks, etc.
I try to do this once per season especially if their update isn't in that one.
So how do you guys do it and what do you do?
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Post by laura on Oct 22, 2009 0:16:14 GMT -5
Hmmm, background work... Do you mean actually playing and building businesses, decorating houses and getting promotions and such? Or the gameplay stuff that inspires the update? I haven't been doing much background work lately - I haven't really needed to. The small amount of gameplay I've done just in shooting a scene has been enough to inspire future scenes, and so on. In fact, lately I've been collecting so much random gameplay and story-driven inspiration, that I have pretty much the whole rest of my current chapter/season well sketched out. (I won't say written, because it's just notes, but very detailed notes, complete with dialogue and everything, lol!) I've been pretty inspired by my story lately, I guess. Though, in a recent update, I kept seeing the same want pop up from one Sim, over and over again, that didn't quite mesh with the ending I had in mind. So it inspired me to go and change my ending for one of the stories. (Without giving too many spoilers, lol!) It's like he was telling me, "Now don't forget what I told you I wanted." (And he's right, I had skewed slightly off course from what I knew he wanted.) I also got a whole mini-update out of Hayden and Ryanne, just while I was in there to change Summer's hairstyle, lol! I do have one family coming up (the Watts family) that I need to go in and waffle around a bit before I get to setting up their actual update. Even then though, I already have a pretty good idea where things are going, I just don't know how I'll tell the story. Does that make sense? I don't know if I even answered your question - I'm tired and rambling, lol!
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Post by raquelaroden on Oct 22, 2009 5:34:08 GMT -5
My characters for my story are pretty much strictly posed....that game file is like a big dollhouse village, and I just put them where I want them and into particular poses that suggest certain emotions or that go along with dialogue or action in the story.
So...as a result, my background work takes the shape of building "sets" for them. In the future, it might involve getting them to certain points in a career or in pursuit of a lifetime wish/aspiration so that they will have access to a particular interaction or object that I can't cheat my way to in the game. I don't use any mods.....I'm too scared of what they'll do to my game (but I might cave in soon....maybe after my legacy file is complete).
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Post by thelunarfox on Oct 22, 2009 8:26:02 GMT -5
My updates are all kinds of weird anyway, so I don't do much playing to find out the background stuff-- to age them or get them promotions. Pretty much everything I do is story driven now. So I'll basically hop in to take screen shots, and might get an idea when I'm playing with them for a bit (like the last time I hopped in to visit the cult!).
Kinda like Laura's inspiration from changing Summer's hair style. LOL! Love that.
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Post by Stacy on Oct 22, 2009 9:46:10 GMT -5
I had to play Seth some to get him enough lifetime happiness points for the teleporter (yay for hacks that sped up LTH gain by a factor of 10) and get his gardening up and have him find a life fruit seed and grow it and plant two more.
I just did it as the story required it.
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Post by girlyesterday on Oct 23, 2009 8:44:26 GMT -5
Like Lunar, my stories are also story driven. I don't play those specific sims other than when I need to pose them. Although, I do work on their relationship levels as that tends to bring up additional animation options. For example, Hope and Ethan are actually going steady in my game and Hope and Mallory are best friends, same with Hope and Crista. Her relationship level for Talbot is pretty low (on acquaintance).
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Post by heredoncove on Oct 23, 2009 22:55:20 GMT -5
Most of my updates are story driven but they are very vague stories. While most start from what I think they might be dealing with they often keep branching out from the Sims. For example, while I knew I was going to make Sam a widow the relationship with him and Rachel was born out of gameplay so I sat and thought about how it fit.
I guess I do background work more in terms of life progression but not the stuff that I would normally focus on. Like I would aging a toddler to the child stage so that they because their bday is in winter but their update isn't. Or seeing if a business's rank raises from 3 to 4 so its not stagnant for a year although that could be case
I also just added this online adult education aspect to my game and the Sims who go have to get to a certain number of skill pts. I could just do it while taking pictures for their updates but sometimes I have the extra time to play another house when I do the update house.
Does that even make sense or is it crazy lady rambling? LOL
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Post by monqiue on Mar 1, 2010 7:19:56 GMT -5
I use to not do that much background work when it came to gameplay. Other than ROS and building house or business and stuff. But as my game progresses and I see things shape up it becomes more and more.
I am tweaking my aging system so that will add a little more background work. I am going to start making sims pay taxes so that also is a little more background work.
Another thing that I have started to do a little more is mini-updates which I consider background work. I find that they are a prefect way to set up storylines and story progression. There are going to be a lot more of those in my upcoming updates.
I've also started using Flashnotes which is great. It allows me to have a place where I can keep my notes all together. Instead, of pieces of paper laying around. I have found that it is great for writing down what I would like to happen in certain stories and major storylines. I find that the biggest challenge for me is keeping storylines goings because I have a tendency to forget.
Rambling over.
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Post by applevalley on Mar 21, 2010 18:46:39 GMT -5
I guess my "background tasks" are part of my gameplay and thus a part of my updates. So if I change a sim's look, most times this makes it into the update-same thing with promotions, business perks, etc.
I also take out taxes, so I tend to do this when I'm playing the spokessim using the family funds cheat. I do the same thing with school tuition payments, I use the family funds cheat. I'm not a strict economic system player-so I don't have a sim set-up to recieve payments. I keep track of the taxes with my excel sheet and then think about upgrades needed at that time. If the school needs updating, then Johan gets a blanket amount of simoleans and when he goes to the school we do the updates then. Once the money is gone-it's done.
My blogger account has a draft post with the rotation and posting schedule. I have started keeping this open as well as my excel sheet while I play. I keep a few notes on the blogger post-such as age transitions that need to happen since I play with aging off to avoid any uneven aging thanks to some families getting a bit more play time than others.
Also, my updates and gameplay are a bit more blended. For example, today I was playing the Dawson family-which was due for an update, however I noticed that I wanted Jolie to hang out with Ilila and I also had an upcoming mini-update at the art gallery. So I sent them to the art gallery. While they were browsing, I teleported in the sims I needed for the mini-update and took a few photos of the mini-update. Thus from one play session I got two different updates. I do this especially if an update takes place on a community lot.
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