Moving

From now on, you can follow this blog at nikivanisimadventures.wordpress.com. Nothing much will have changed other than the location (if all goes well).

Dragon Valley and New Venue

I was already excited for DV when I caught a glimpse of all that CAS stuff! Now they had to go and release a supplementary venue that not only unlocks bonus content, it also presents you with the two items that won the community poll, the violin and the archery range!

I've been hearing that these items are tied to visible (not that hidden crud that only goes to level 3) skills. Archery is tied to your athletic skill, while violins are an entirely new musical instrument. Sadly, they're not compatible with LN bands. This is because they play entirely different music than what you'd hear in a jam session. Fine with me, I'd have hoped for a classical sounding tune or two but who's to say there isn't?

The dragons themselves seemed like a cute feature, although I'm really in it for the fantasy medievalish look. Anyone else finding the chamberpot hilarious?

In Game: Spray it, don't say it!!

What better way to test out the street art features than by setting ayour sim loose in their own home? Surely nobody's going to complain about a mural here and there? I mean you own the place!

Something I found odd is that you can 'tag' a wall with a small or medium mural, but simply painting a wall mural limits you to the small size. Anyways, Turnip painted several such masterpieces wherever there was a free space on the wall.

And several spaces on the floor as well...

Here's what it looked like with walls up...

And again with walls cutaway... she still wasn't finished at the time I took this, there are several murals waiting to be painted upstairs as well. Including Toue and Horace's room. I'm actually not sure who else is supposed to sleep in there aside from Toue anymore, both Horace and Nami seem to like chilling in there.

Oh and speaking of Nami...

Vani takes acupuncture very seriously

 Erm... very seriously....

 Um...

We're all dead aren't we?

Is that a pro bar in the pool?

Take a look at this screenshot from over at iSims. A couple of people have said that they spied not only some new outfits and hairstyles (although a couple of them may be from the base game) only a pool bar, but a little something about it.

If you look closely enough, you can see what looks like an NPC standing behind the bar, partially obscured by the column. There's also a stir stick, like those seen on the professional bars from LN, which I've been wanting to see make their comeback for some time now!

Courtesy of alexspoom13

  

The trailer doesn't come out until tomorrow, with the live broadcast happening on the 16th, but I'm hoping to at least see this confirmed. Who knows? Maybe the introduction of resorts will also bring us some new kinds of elevators if pool bars have indeed returned? Although if they have, I'm hoping they take the chance to include some updates. A few people on the forums have noted that it can be tough to get a bar to spawn an NPC, or maybe some extra options for all bars. Personally I don't care so long as we get more pro bar designs!

Also, I'm not sure but does this guy have a ponytail? I've kinda been hoping for more variations of ponytails for guys since I don't know, THE BASE GAME!?! I'm kinda hoping it's not one of those ones where one loose strand is swept up to one side, although if we get one like that it wouldn't be SO bad. I know, I'm being picky, but I've had this image of my dream hairstyle for guys (plus I tend to make sim versions of original characters and there are a couple of people I draw with a hairstyle like that).

Initial University Bugs

Thus far I've only encountered minor bugs with the smart phones (although I've had some problems with interactions cancelling, though I suspect that mood may have been a factor for certain cases since it started before University). My normal file seemed okay (except for Mila not being able to text her boyfriend for some reason), the HMO sims file had problems where not all sims had been updated to the smartphone, despite social networking being an option, it still said 'cell phone' in their pie menu. Everybody was updated properly when I saved them to bin, demolished/replaced the lot and household, and went back to play as normal. I'll be trying this with my other save file to see if other per-university glitches go away as well.

At first it looked like this could've been due to simport, but Toue's phone got an upgrade even when Nami and Vani's didn't. I'm guessing it was either due to the save being created before installing the new EP, or just a fluke. Whatever it was, I hope it's resolved now. Regular episodes and gameplay will resume as planned. Worst case scenario, same characters, different save file.

3 Days Left!!

There are but 3 precious days until University is released. Uh oh, something about that sounds familiar. Anyways, to make up for the lost Seasons stream, there will be a proper stream to introduce the University gameplay as soon as I get my copy in the mail.

I won't say too much yet but we'll be seeing some new traits, new careers and new looks for some of the characters. Majors (for the most part) have been decided amongst the characters (6 characters, 6 majors, one each). University terms are one sim week long, unless I opt to do two (two sim weeks). One term would be easier to digest  in one sitting, so I'll still do two (to extend gameplay) but they'll be split up into two separate episodes. Also, since there are 6 characters, I'll only be sending  3 characters per term.

Supernatural Pre-Stream Highlights

Here are some of the highlights of the last stream, in case you weren't around to see it. I'll be doing my next stream on the official HMO sims channel when Seasons arrives!

Vani's face has changed a bit, I tried to make her look more 'natural'

Here she is with slightly longer hair

Turnip wanted a box head, but a motorcycle helmet still protects her anonymity

Except when she's in sleepwear or swimwear

Gregg has become a werewolf (now with 20% more body hair)

What is that on Vani's back?

Of course, she preferred inky swirls to tinker bell wings

Nami looks pretty chill in his genie pose

I couldn't resist, oh the things that auto generate (lol)

Here he is again in his genie outfit (Vani insists it's glorious)

Is Toue flying?

And here's why... I settled on a different death though

I don't blame him.. that just looks nasty D:

As a genie, Nami can conjur any recipe that's installed in the game (and I have some PC installed)

Here I am flashing my wand

Witches seem to end up with alot of fishbowls doing this...

Turnip managed to starve in the first 20 minutes

Gregg manages to 'wolf' down an entire turkey (pun intended)

Toue passes out again...

Me, in my new outfit

Everyone mourns Turnip, even after she's been revived

Except for Toue...

And as usual, Vani and myself end up dancing together

Winter is Coming!

With the release of seasons fast approaching (and the fact that I've acquired new EPs and SPs since the last episode), now might be an appropriate time to remake some characters on air. Also, newcomers to the series will have the chance to jump in while I'm creating :D