The Conell Dynasty: Take Two

[Serena Darrin]

Chapter Forty-Nine: All Grown Up and Ready to Paint:

Our newest addition, Iila, was settling in nicely,




while Knight was still fishing in our pond.




Iila and Knight get along really well, though.



I still wasn't at my 25th Ice Sculpture, though I was getting close,



but Mom called me into the kithen.

It was my Young Adult Birthday!




Tomorrow, I start my career as a professional painter, and I can't wait.  No more school, just me, my muse, and the brush!

- - -

Dakell's Traits:
Artistic, Good, Loves the Outdoors, Savvy Sculptor, Photographer's Eye
Lifetime Wish: Renaissance Sim

Dakell's Wardrobe:

Everyday:


Formal:


Sleepwear:


Athletic:


Swimwear:

[Juxtaposition]

You did a good job on Dakell's clothes, I like the textured green in his sweater and pajammas partiuarly well.

The pets are cute, especially Knight coming out of the fishing pond, it's very close up so you get a clear view of how cute Knight really is.

[Serena Darrin]

You did a good job on Dakell's clothes,

Thank you!

I like the textured green in his sweater and pajammas partiuarly well.

I don't think you can tell from these pictures, but it's the same pattern as his bedspread.

The pets are cute,

The pets are quite cute. I'm really happy I splurged on Pets -- there are two cats in my place in real-life (one cat's mine and one cat's my roommates), and I've been waiting for the chance to have Pets in the Sims.

especially Knight coming out of the fishing pond, it's very close up so you get a clear view of how cute Knight really is.

Thank you!

[Serena Darrin]

So, I just got Seasons. I've been playing this off and on, but work is eating up my time.   I actually went back and am also playing some of the old challenges (just for a different approach to my sims games,) and I'm really enjoying them.

Anyway, back on topic. . . I got seasons, and I'm loving it. It installed into my Dynasty without too much trouble.  Elisha might just now get a break from her garden when Winter comes, and I fully intend for her to grow pumpkins to carve.  When it installed, it started in summer, so I'll have to wait a bit to see winter . . . but the Toddler outerwear looks -so- cute!  I'm way ahead of myself (that's the other reason I'm not updating, because I just don't have the heart to go through a huge backlog of screenshots), so Gen 6 has his outerwear, and it's adorable.  I'm going to have to give the various elders outerwear when Winter comes, but that's alright.

[Serena Darrin]

Gah!

So, after a few plays with Seasons installed, my Gen 5 disappeared!  At first, she was invisible but her square wasn't.  I went back to a previous save, and she was still invisible -- and her spouse was glitched too.  I don't want to re-start; so I'm doubling back one more save.

That means that I loose some progress, but I'll take that, regardless.

Edit:  The internet saves me!  I did a quick search to see if I could find anything new, and I found this

So, taking a hint from the internet, I took a chance, tried changing her clothing, and boom, problem fixed -- she had been in her career outfit (and not the right career outfit, at that!)  That means I don't have to double back, which is always nice.

I'm hoping to get back to posting some screenshots tomorrow, now that work's let up. 

I'm also looking forward to seeing what the summer festival looks like now that I have Seasons installed.

[Serena Darrin]

Chapter Fifty: Graduation Day:

The cats were settling in nicely, and the entire family (including me) doted on them quite a bit.





Aunt Celeste took me downstairs almost immediately, so that she could start work on my own portrait and sculpture.



It's a good thing that the cats were so well-behaved. They were left alone for an evening while my entire family came to see my graduate!

It was really nice to see everyone all dressed up – mother and grandmother – all of the elders of the family don't usually get the chance to wear their formal wear.






I know I cheered after I graduated.  I couldn't help it! No more school, just me and my muses – I know mother's worried, but it will work out, I'm sure.



Besides, I already have lots of paintings that I can sell to be a professional painter. I didn't sell the ones I made as a child or a teenager, because I thought someone might want them.

When we came back, Great-Aunt Celeste hung my portrait in the Museum.  . . .



I can't believe I was once that small!

 

[Serena Darrin]

Gaah!

So, I just got Showtime.

However, between Showtime and the 1.50 patch, my ice sculptures disappeared!

I'm loading an earlier save, but this still -sucks-.  This is what glitched out my last game, too. *pouts*

Edit:  Apparently I caught it early enough this time.  One save back still had all my sculptures. *sigh of relief*

Now I get to poke around with Showtime, too! 

[cathyknits]

It might be as simple to fix as clearing caches - my photos and sculptures in my current Dynasty have been vanishing occasionally, but clearing caches has brought them back.

[Serena Darrin]

It might be as simple to fix as clearing caches - my photos and sculptures in my current Dynasty have been vanishing occasionally, but clearing caches has brought them back.

You must have replied just as I was editing! Sorry about that! 

Anyway, I did clear my caches and no luck.  But, I just found out that my previous save still had the sculptures intact, and I'm only going back about half a Sim-day.   Now, as soon as I get Sim Morning (so I can see what I'm doing), I'm going to drop the Showtime Lots into this file, and have some fun.

[Serena Darrin]

Still here, folks!

I've been distracted by a few things in RL -- and I've been still fiddling with Uni.

I haven't been playing the dynasty much, but I'm expecting that to change soon. 

[Serena Darrin]

Ok.

So I didn't play this for a while, first because I was distracted by University Life; and then RL decided to throw some problems at me . . . and then I discovered that I couldn't use UL in my dynasty.  I wanted to send my Gen 6 to Uni, but my file's just too big. 

So, I was disappointed and didn't play for about a month.

I'm still very much ahead of myself in screenshots (as you can probably guess by my reference to Gen 6!) but I haven't been playing and I haven't had the desire to write this; since I was annoyed I couldn't use UL in this. (It's a file size thing.)

But, I've booted up The Sims for the first time in a few weeks, and I'm back playing the Conells -- and I'd forgotten how much fun this is! 

Though my load times are now disgusting.  I often set it to load and then wander off to do housework.   I'm wondering how bad if/when I get to Gen 8.

[cathyknits]

I think Juxtaposition mentioned taking up to an hour to load the De D'Onlyns near the end. Keep your caches clear, I guess, and disable memories...

[Serena Darrin]

I think Juxtaposition mentioned taking up to an hour to load the De D'Onlyns near the end. Keep your caches clear, I guess, and disable memories...

Yeah, I seem to remember something similar. 

I suppose it's a good excuse for me to do housework, if nothing else! 

[Serena Darrin]

Well, speaking of memory issues, I started getting the dreaded 'Error 16' save.

*sigh*

When I dug into it, I realized it was because The Sims seemed to think I didn't have a lot of space on my hard drive. 

So, I went through, deleted some old files, stuff I wasn't using, and that took care of it.

Still annoying, though. . . I lost a few Sim Days and some pretty important events.

[Serena Darrin]

Wow.  It's amazing how much a new job can hit your simming time.

After wrangling the error 16 problem, I decided that the absolute last thing I wanted to do was look at my Dynasty.

Then I got a new job, got my hands on a copy of Shadowrun Returns, and started my own blog . . .

So I finally came back to The Sims (I still have to get Island Paradise.  It actually looks interesting and I'm hearing really good things!) and I was having serious trouble with my dynasty.  The Error 16 problem was gone (yeay!) but I had the bug from the Pets patch (I don't know why it only started being a problem now), with the spiral staircases.

I ended up having to re-model the entire Dynasty house. *grumble*.  I did, and I swapped everything over to the straight staircases with some creative renovating.  I'm not as happy with the look of the house, now, but it's better then all the sims whining about how they can't get to work/school/etc.

So no, I haven't given up on this.  I just haven't been playing in a while.  I find my simming goes in cycles.