LH Babble

[thelunarfox]

Not a breakthrough like that. Looking back on your last journal where Corbin came up in a conversation with these two, that's interesting. It makes some sense!

Now you can get back to work.

[laura]

Yes, OMG, it was subconscious all along, lol!

Oh, and I wrote in your babble thread too - don't know if you saw that or not

[laura]

Ugh, break my heart, these Sims! My vote for who needed the biggest hug, by the way, was for Corbin. Though I guess you don't really need much of an excuse to want to hug Corbin, lol!

[laura]

Question for LH fans:

I'm trying to put together labels for each of my major storylines, but I'm wondering what to include or not include. I'm asking this of you guys, since these labels are mostly for you to use

For example, Mariah's story - I've included everything that relates to Mariah, obviously. I've included the ones where Micah appears, relating to their story together. I haven't included Micah on his own if it has nothing to add to their story or his character development (which I'm not sure if there were any, lol!). I've also included all the ones including James as it relates to Mariah's story.

But, what about the ones with important character development for James, but not having to do with Mariah? There are a good few, especially involving April - I guess April has a way of cracking him open Do you think those entries would belong in Mariah's story tag, or not?

[laura]

Don't you hate it when you think you'll just take a quick picture of Lake City, before you load up a house to play, so that you might make a revised map, except that Lake City is SO FREAKING GARGANTUAN that it crashes your computer all to hell, so bad you have to turn the damn thing OFF so it can recuperate? And you really should know better by now, because Lake City ALWAYS crashes out your computer, so you don't know why you thought it wouldn't this time, as if this time was special or something. And what should have been a quick snapshot ended up costing you an hour of play time! Don't you hate that?

[blackcat]

Done that... my downtown crashes my computer, too, if I zoom the camera right out... and there are a couple of other things that I know will freeze the game or the whole computer... but I still do them because, maybe, this time it won't... common sense tells me that if I want to experiment with things, I should do it when I've finished playing, because then if it crashes, too bad... but, no, I still make it crash when I've got other things I want to do.

[somuchsong]

Argh, yes, I hate stuff like that! None of my subhoods cause consistent crashes but if I spend too long on the hood screen, placing deco or lots or swinging the camera around incessantly trying to get good pics, my computer generally doesn't like it and I either start getting graphical glitches or I crash. :\

And I never learn my lesson.

[laura]

Blackcat, yes, experiment when we're DONE playing for the session! Now that's the thing to remember, lol!

Carla, mine does that too, if I try to move the camera too fast or too wide

Now, on characters:

I just love it when two characters appear in my head and write themselves a whole conversation like magic! Some characters are just like that - I don't even have to write them, they just write themselves. All I have to do is stick them in the same room together, and they play off each other like magic! Love it!

I can't tell you who these two are though, because it's a secret! I've got a lot of fun stories planned for the coming LH spring, which you're going to need because the winter is going to be so awful, lol!

[thelunarfox]

Okay, about those extra story lines, like the ones for James that don't contain Mariah, maybe you should put those in a separate little "extras" section? Or you can just link to those stories at the bottom of the Mariah stories. Like "For more James, see here" if that makes sense.

I'm glad you're putting up a page for story lines. It'll make it easier to revisit old favorites or to just read back.


Also, lol! That's your super hope hopefulness for you. "Maybe it'll be better this time?" I do that too when I refuse to believe something won't work.

[laura]

Lunar, I think that's a good idea, like "further reading on James" and then I can just link to the "porter" tag, which will bring up all of his entries.

But then I'm running into the same problem with Tyler, in relation to Summer's story. He had quite a few entries on his own while they were fighting. Or I guess all the turmoil she put him through when they were broken up kind of does have to do with her story, doesn't it? Hmmm...

I can't really just link to the "jackson" tag on that one though, because the way I set that up, it could refer to Tyler, Beau, or their parents.

And then there's some of Hayden's character development in relation to Summer's story. Some of Hayden's pieces I have put in, but others I left out.

Oh, I'm making this much more complicated than I need to probably, lol!

[thelunarfox]

For the story lines, you're linking to special tags for those?

I have to admit I always wondered about you using last names for the tags. I imagine it's handy, but would get messy if you wanted to link to stories just containing Tyler. And I'm no help, because I'm all-- "Give them all tags!" I'd probably give someone like Tyler his own tag, probably just his first name.


Also, yes, I'd consider Tyler's stories part of Summer's story.


lol, it gets complicated. You story is very much life stories. There aren't really beginnings or endings, just a flow.

[laura]

Okay, so I think I figured it out, lol! I included any time Tyler was talking about Summer or their relationship. But any character development that has nothing to do with Summer was left out, since it's technically not part of Summer's story. (There was only one or two, like the helicopter one, lol! And a few from when he was younger, before they were dating.)

But I linked to the "jackson" tag at the end of her story paragraph, so if anyone was really curious about him, they could dig through it.

ETA: on another note, a lot of what makes up the story (and what I include in the tag or not) has to do with whether I consider it a typical "romance" story, or a non-genre story. The romance plot has to do with the evolution of the relationship, whereas the non-genre story has to do with the evolution of a character and personal growth.

I do have a couple typical romance plots in LH, I think. Like Dallas and Lucy, for example, you know, a couple overcomes obstacles to be together.

But Summer's story really feels more her own, about her own development and personal struggles. And Tyler's just along for the ride. Which is probably why the poor guy's so wrecked, lol!

[laura]

Yes, true, the last names do get really messy - both with larger families, like the Deppiesses, and the Phoenixes, or when my girls get married and take their husband's name. And to be honest, if I started over I probably wouldn't do it that way again, lol! I think it would be hell to try to fix at this point though. I wouldn't even know where to start. So I just keep adding more, different tags, like these

[laura]

Pardon me while I SQUEE over this pic a bit!

*heart-farts for the Buchanan family*

Okay, that's all ;D

[somuchsong]

Awww! That's adorable.

Is that a pose box pose on Micah or an in-game one? I don't recognise it.

[laura]

They're both using the decorgal box, and I think I have them each in at least two poses, lol! Micah is probably the "leg crossed to knee" and the "slouch with hands on lap" - there might be another thrown in there though, I can never be sure, lol!

[somuchsong]

Ah, I thought I recognised Mariah's pose as one of the "male sit" ones on the decorgal box but didn't pick Micah's at all. I haven't yet tried to combine those, except by accident! I should play around with them a bit more one of these days and see what I can come up with. That picture looks really great.

[laura]

I often use the male and female poses, all mixed up, interchangeably - whatever works, lol!

You can mix between most pose boxes too, and I'm just starting to experiment with that. As long as it poses without leaving an action in the queue, it can be combined with another. And in combination with OMSPs, there's really no limit to the kinds of scenes you could set up.

Thanks! My favorite part of this one though, is how it looks like he's holding Mariah's hands underneath Quinn's legs I've got a few more that I'll post with my extras at the end of the chapter.

[laura]

And so was written the biggest pain in the ass update I ever wrote!

It wasn't even just the writing, now that I think of it, but even the shooting, four separate scenes, took me a good eight hours, plus another hour or so in photoshop. (Okay, okay, maybe I indulged myself in playing April and Beau just a little... and played the hospital a bit, lol!) But I felt like I had to drag this one through the mud to get it into shape!

Some come easier than others. Don't know why. Maybe it's the story? Maybe it's my brain?

[blackcat]

Ugh, I know the feeling... for me, at least, in my drag-through-the-mud one, the number of different scenes and locations in the update was what did my head in! It was the one where Kyle overdosed, and when I planned it out in my mind, I didn't think of the practical implications of having 5 or 6 different locations in one update. I also didn't think ahead enough to take the pictures for the update during previous visits to the same lot - which I could have done, given that it was mostly storytelling with very little gameplay, and only a couple of pictures on some of the lots anyway.

So I'm trying to take the pictures for this thing, in the order that it happens in the update, jumping from lot to lot, teleporting sims in and out... and my game keeps crashing when I transition lots, and I forget to freeze the time so its dark when its supposed to still be sunset... and then its taking so long, that it's sunrise when its still supposed to be dark... and to cap it all off, I ended up having to watch one of my favourite sims 'die' repeatedly because I couldn't get the last picture right. And, ironically, my favourite picture from the whole update, was the one I never used (yet ).

I didn't time how long it took me to make that update, which is probably a good thing, because my usual response to anything new lately is 'I don't have time!!!', and I'd hate to think how much I spent on it... I'm a bit more organised now (just took pictures for three unrelated scenes on the same lot, during a single play session... now just have to be careful no one changes their clothes... lol... ), but I'm never going to have that many places in one update again!