(Thread and Sandpaper)

Sleepover Party Part 3: SPs

2014-06-07T17:46:11Z

( Ready to match the last of the Eaxis beds? I am!... )

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threadandsandpaper @ 2014-04-06T15:52:00

2014-04-06T19:52:18Z

What my userStartup.cheat looks like
( Read more... )

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threadandsandpaper @ 2014-03-23T15:50:00

2014-03-23T20:15:05Z

( IT IS SOOOOO EASY )

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Random Followers Gift Stuff

2014-03-17T10:46:33Z

( Wowsers! 150 Followers! Have some stuff! Totally random stuff! )

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Sleepover Party! Part 2: EPs

2014-03-05T00:00:22Z

( 13 EP matching beds this way... )

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Traits

2014-03-02T07:27:15Z

Well, I did figure if I mentioned my traits I'd have to post them
( by popular demand... )

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75 Followers Gift

2014-02-27T00:15:06Z

So here's the thing with follower's gifts... it isn't so much that i made the thing for you. I made the thing for me. The gift part is the bit where I get off my lazy butt and post something that may not be of interest to anyone but me. On to the arguably useless gift!

I have completely mangled the career system and replaced it with something I like better. I have default replaced several and added a few more to give me the number I was looking for (two dozen + two). Here is the list:

Adventure(Rewritten)
Agriculture(this career with the pay-grade changed)
Architecture
Artist (replaces Oceanography, doesn't require degree)
Athletic Business
Criminal
Culinary
Education
Finance (replaces Intelligence)
Inventor
Journalism
Law
Law Enforcement
Marketing (replaces Dance)
Medicine
Music
Politics
Paranormal
Programming (replaces Gamer)
Show Business (replaces Entertainment)
Science
Slacker
Retail Business Owner (replaces Artist)
Bar Owner (replaces Show Business)

Some notes about the changes in these!

All of the pay scales have been reworked. Some of them are pretty brutal (music for example). Most start out at about 500 a week, and max out between 2500 a week and 4000 a week.
I've added level numbers to all the career names, so you can tell if you are level 5,6, or whatever.
New Careers have career names, career descriptions, and new icons , but I HAVE NOT EDITED THE CHANCE CARDS. Be prepared for them to make no sense.
I spell poorly. There are errors here, but I'm incapable of catching them.
Most all the jobs go to work in their day clothes.

The last two careers are special. They are for OFB business owners. They fix the redundant time issue. I give the appropriate career to my business owner, but when the carpool comes I cancel it from the queue. I then send the owner to their lot and proceed as normal, bringing them home around the time their career ends. Back on the home lot I instruct them to walk to work. The business owner jobs pay $0 and freeze the sim's motives. They just hold the sim in stasis till they should return from work.

Download Them All

I'm sure some people will want those Owner careers as stand alone that doesn't replace anything. I did that too. These are cloned from Uni careers, so they won't appear in the paper for sims without a degree (less clutter that way). You'll need to assign them with the simblender or some similar hack.

Download Stand Alone Owner Careers

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50 Followers Gift!

2014-02-11T08:05:13Z

This is a set of highly functional wall overlays devoted to architecture. I've had a number of things like this in my game over the years but this is the first set that meets my standards.

It's single sided and flat. you either see it or you don't. No weird floating edges.

It's not select able, there is no view interaction. it will not get in the way of your play.

It's has a diagonal state. It can be placed on diagonal walls and still tile perfectly.

It comes in several widths to accommodate windows, doors and wall edges. These smaller sections also tile in almost any configuration.

They are super Maxis match. Yay! They also fit perfectly with my standardized moldings sets. Those are in this post with more to be released... maybe.

Download

Pretty examples:

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25 Followers Gift!

2014-02-04T23:33:15Z

Its a flat wall color free for all!!!!!

Important facts:
There are 1845 files in this download.
That's 615 colors with 3 molding options each.
The moldings are my maxis match creation, they look very nice both with and without ceilings.
These ARE bucket fill: but so is flat wall paint if you think about it.
They show up in the catalog in a relatively agreeable way, all three moldings for a color together, and groups of similar colors together.
The 3 iterations of a color share a name, so you can be certain that you are matching.
There will be spelling errors. I can't spell.

DOWNLOAD

I also have about a billion patterned walls that I've redone to match these. They are collected from around the community and I'm not inclined to go hunt down people's policies. I will upload them if enough people tell me no one is gonna yell at me for redistributing 'em. All of those files are credited to their original creators, would that make it okay?

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How to Make and Stack Lots

2014-02-04T11:16:56Z

Okay folks, I'm really hoping to blow somebody's mind here. To the tutorial!

Things you will need:
Sims 2, Duh
The Lot Adjuster
Numenor's unleveled walls (you should also get the other ones while you are there, VERY USEFUL)
An invisible fence
You will probably also want to do this. It makes it so the light direction in the neighborhood view match the light direction in the lots.

We are going to build a small residential lot that sits over two really tiny community lots. Why? So our sims can live over their store without having it IN THE HOUSE. It's also gonna be a fake row house, so you can place multiple copies next to each other to create one large complex. FANCY PANTS.

We'll start with the community lots. Place a 3x2 community lot on the map. Name it this: 0 -1RLB
*what that name means: the 0 kicks it to the top of the lot adjuster, -1RLB is -1 square from the right, left, & back. Naming like this makes figuring out what you need to do in the lot adjuster SO much easier.

Enter lot. Start by masking off the areas we will delete when we use the lot adjuster. in this case thats 10 square from the right, left, and back.

Next we build our tiny lot. It's an 8x8 square.

On top of our playable floor we need to build a dummy floor. This is what makes the lots stacked below and above appear seamless in the neighborhood view. Build an 8x8 second floor on top of the first. You can also delete the mask tiles, we are done with them.

We only want our dummy floor to be 4 clicks tall. In the open space beside the building make one tile of foundation, put a wall on top. Open the cheat console and type: boolProp constrainFloorElevation false. Create a floor tile above the wall then drag the floor across your the second floor of the building, like so:

Open the cheat console and type: boolProp constrainFloorElevation true. Delete all the floor tiles you just placed, the wall on the foundation, and the foundation. That's it for this lot, easy right? It should look like this:

For the residential lot what we really need is a 4x2 lot, but EAxis didn't give us one. Plunk down a 5x2 residential lot. This is important: make sure you place it in the same orientation as your community lot. The road on the same side! Facing the same direction! If you don't do this the shadows won't match up. Name it 0 -1LB -2R. Enter the lot and mask out the tiles we won't be using, that's 10 on the left and back and 20 on the right.

Now place some walls to represent the two 8x8 community lots that will sit underneath:

Alright, close up the space between the two community lots. That 2x8 corridor will be the access to the lot above. After you finish the tutorial and go back to decorate, that's where you will put the stairs/elevator. Also add those 4 little wing to the outside, those are our row house walls. they will give the illusion this lot is connected to the next. If you decide you don't want them, you can take them out even after you shrink the lot. For the time being just go along with it. You can also delete the mask tiles, we're done with 'em.

Now we have to do a funny thing. We need this wall to be exactly two clicks higher than it is. Using the change elevation tool, move one land tile up two clicks. Place a wall on top. Open the cheat console and type: boolProp constrainFloorElevation false. Put a tile on top of the wall and drag across your building, just like before. Turn off the cheat: boolProp constrainFloorElevation true.

*Wait! why did we just do that? Because the lot impostors (the neighborhood versions of your buildings) are proportional to your buildings, but sit slightly too low. If you don't do this, the residential impostor will clip into your active building when you play the community lots. VERY ANNOYING!

[There really should be a second picture here but in my infinite wisdom I forgot to take it, sorry.]

Now for the dummy floor. First delete all those floors you just made and the stray wall. DO NOT lower the elevation on that tile though, you'll need it again. Next build a copy of your first level on the second level.

Place a foundation on that elevated tile over to the side (the one I told you not to level). Put a wall on the foundation. Turn on the floor elevation cheat, place the tile, and drag it across the building.

Turn off the cheat, delete all those floor tiles, the stray wall, and the foundation. Level the little hill you made. Your building should look like the picture below. Now build your building on top. I'm just making the next two floors exactly the same and throwing a cornice fence on top.

Taa daa! I put windows in too. If you try to put any windows/doors on the first level you will notice the mask for them is incorrect, we'll fix that in the next step. I have continued the row house walls up the sides AND i've put windows in. That gives you the maximum possibilities later. You can delete the row house walls OR the
windows. I have also continued the cornice out over the row house walls.

To fix the masking problem we need the unleveled wall (you did go get it right?).

Delete the entire dummy layer. replace it with the unleveled wall. You don't need to turn the cheat back on, this is what they are for!

Do the same thing on the bottom level.

Apply door. Apply wall texture. Write down the name of the wall texture you use, unless you think you can just remember it smarty pants.

Time for another strange step. We are going to delete the walls on the first level that are redundant with those of the community lots but are not part of rooms we need for residential lot. Yeah, just copy the picture. Then replace those walls with an invisible fence. Two pictures for clarity.

Now go add the roof. Place tiles between the row house walls. Yes it's okay to put them all the way up to (but not over!) our boundary.

More weirdness! Place a row of floor tiles around the outside edge of your building on each floor that has windows. Just trust me on this one.

Holy Cow! We're done building! It should look like this:

CLOSE YOUR GAME! START THE LOT ADJUSTER!
Navigate to your neighborhood and select the lot named 0 -1RLB.
Hit the advanced button at the bottom.
Check the box next to Enable Shrinking.
In the main window enter -10 in the boxes next to right, left, & back.
Hit finish.
Hit restart.
Open 0 -1LB -2R.
Hit the advanced button at the bottom.
Check the box next to Enable Shrinking.
Enter -10 in the left and back boxes, -20 in the right box.
Finish.
Close program.

[Should there be a picture here? Yes. Is there? No. Fail!]

LOAD YOUR GAME.
Find your little community lot and enter it. Awwwww so cwute and wittle! Put a roof on (because I forgot before) it needs to be between the first and second floors NOT on top of the second floor.

Use the same walls you used for the residential lot. Go back to the neighborhood screen. Rename the lot some thing useful and put it in your lot bin.

To the residential lot! That looks more or less how I remember it... hey, wait.... weren't there some windows on the side there?

Oh, there they are. Inside. Which is a great place for windows. The lot adjuster sometimes moves objects that are on the edge of the lot back one space. Normally you wouldn't be able to put them back in place (at least not facing outwards), but remember that last weird thing we did? We put all those tiles around the outside of the building? Those will let us move them back into place.
*They also will let you put paintings/signs on the outside wall. As long as the tiles are there, the game will 'see' those spaces. When you delete them you will no longer be able to place things outside the building on the upper floors. You have been warned!!!!

When you've put the windows back you can delete those perimeter tiles. This is what you should have:

To the neighborhood view! Pull two copies of the community lot out of your bin. Arrange them and your residential lot like so:

Rename residential lot 0 M2L
*Thats move 2 left, but you guessed that.

CLOSE YOUR GAME! START THE LOT ADJUSTER!
Navigate and open 0 M2L.
Hit advanced.
Check the box next to Move Lot.
Hit the left arrow 2 times.
Hit Finish.

You are DONE.

Well, you still need to decorate. You could also add a second copy next to it, or go in and just delete the row house walls. SO MANY POSSIBILITIES! Here's an example of a similar set of buildings. 2 residential lots, 4 community lots.

The community lot can be more than one story! 2 residential and 2 community, next to 1 residential and 1 community.

You don't just have to build boxes! 3 residential, 4 community.

Its a whole urban enclave! 19 residential, 21 community. It's enough apartments for 46 families plus one building is a dorm that sleeps 8.

Some things to be aware of:

Once the two lots overlap they ground will look glitch-y. This is because the lot terrain and the neighborhood impostor are on the same plane. To fix it place floor tiles on all the affected terrain.
Because of this same problem you cannot have pools on spaces where two lots intersect. Well... you can but it looks BAD.
You can stack more than two buildings high, but it's not a good idea. Lots above the second have camera issues that make them unplayable. I assume this is an issue with any lot that gets too high.

Edited to fix typos and incorrect images.

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Return to the land of the Living?

2014-01-30T05:00:22Z

I have a simblr now. Nothing on it yet, but soooooon. Here: http://threadandsandpaper.tumblr.com/

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Well Crud

2011-11-27T20:07:33Z

In my typical fashion I goofed my last upload. I stuck the wrong files in the rar for Marvine's concrete stairs. The link in that post has been updated. Or grab it here.

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This That and Another Thing

2011-11-26T04:56:16Z

Well, the better part of a month ago I promised to upload a number of bits and bobs that have been languishing in my downloads folder. Promptness is not one of my strengths... better late than never?

( Content Dump )

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State of the Jane

2011-10-29T14:27:40Z

So its been a while since I posted and I wanted to tell the internet I still exist and am still working on things (albeit scattered-ly). I've been very busy with real life and the whole being an adult thing, so I haven't had a lot of free time.

In game related news: I've switched over to 64 bit windows and applied the ram usage fixes suggested at GOS. They have worked splendidly and I can now PLAY MY GAME. Whoot! No Crashes! This is both good and bad because I have more desire to make things (because now I can use them) but I also can actually play if I want (which means I'm not actively making anything).

I have a number of small completed things that I need to take pictures of, and I'll try to get on that this weekend since I will be traveling next week. I suppose I just wanted to say I'm alive and hurrah for games that don't crash anymore.

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I'm looking for....

2011-10-10T01:56:53Z

Thing 1: A better screen shot program.

I'm running windows 7. I am currently using Fraps, but I think it contributes to my game crashing. I just want something really light weight. All it needs to let me do is pick my screen cap key and the destination for the file. Any suggestions?

Thing 2: A very small neighborhood terrain or empty hood.

Roads fairly close together and not too many of 'em. Preferably with space for a beach lot or two. I'm not 100% happy with what I'm using and can't quite bear to install SC2 just for this.

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Sleepover Party!

2011-10-07T02:00:46Z

You need bunk beds. Yes. You really do. Everyone needs bunk beds. Edit: There is something wrong with the non-shiftable Kinder Kontainer Bed. I'm working on it.

( 9 base game matching bunk beds this way. )

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Getting a read on the community

2011-10-04T01:27:11Z

AKA: Is anyone gonna want this?

So I'm really neurotic when it comes to moldings on my sim walls. I made a very simple Maxis match-y crown and kick molding set that I have been slapping on ALL of the walls I download. I have literally thousands of these. The crown is designed to look good from above and below ceilings. Most moldings get cut off in a random spot and look weird. These don't. Every wall comes with three colors: white, light wood, and medium wood. I also have a clone of a wall writing mesh devoted solely to other colors (in case I want green molding).

And the question: Is there enough interest for me to bother uploading this stuff? And if I do, how much preview info do really I need to give?

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WIP: Shelf beds!

2011-10-04T01:16:44Z

I'm working on this and just wanted to share:

It's going to be a whole set of shelf beds slaved to maxis beds. Bunk beds for everyone! I've got beds done that match the craftmeister pine bed, courtly sleeper day dreamer, caress of teak, colonial bed, funkensnooz, and kinder kontainer crib. Still working on the somma, touch of teak, and zenu mediation beds. I'm already using them in my game 'cuz ALL my sims live in teeny weeny apartments.

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Low Down Dirty Sneak

2011-09-26T16:07:09Z

( The goodies are this way... )

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Anybody want to be my preview buddy?

2011-09-16T01:18:56Z

So, I want to share the stuff I make, but I hate taking preview pics. My game seriously takes over an hour and a half to go from desktop to CAS: when I boot the game I want to PLAY.

Anybody want to take my screenies for me? puhhhh-leeeeeease? I have a bunch of things done I could give you right now.

Thank you to anyone willing.

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Fixed meshes, plz re-download.

2011-09-05T03:39:30Z

The It Will Last Longer surface meshes weren't working, but now they are fixed. Please re-download them.

I never did figure out what exactly the problem was, but I re-cloned them from something else and they all seem to be working now. You can head over to the It Will Last Longer post and allow the new files to overwrite the old (same file name & GUID) or download just the fixed meshes here.

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It Will Last Longer

2011-09-03T19:52:29Z

Finished and working, finally. Yeesh.

( More info + download )

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Quick WIP

2011-08-29T02:19:32Z

Thanks everyone for the super warm reception! Nice comments make me want to make more stuff! This is just a quick WIP preview of the next thing coming down the pipeline.

This is a set of 36 paintings (6 sizes for wall x 2 matte options x horizontal and vertical rotations) + (3 sizes for surfaces x 2 matte options x horizontal and vertical rotations) all repositoried! Its based on the doggy dreams photo from the Ikea SP, but with the frame and photo now separately recolorable. Its mostly done; but I still need to do some catalog changes, decide if I want a few more options, and take pictures.

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Sweet Down Low

2011-08-28T00:56:11Z

This is useless without Apartment Life. If you don't have the ability to shift paintings up and down, walk on by. Yeah, its a niche thing, but someone wants it.

( what it is and the download )

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Baby Steps

2011-08-25T07:21:41Z

Adele's Moroccan Box in 32 Aelia Colors.

( open me )

This is the first upload! If I've screwed it up somehow let me know.

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