Adventures in China

For once in my fucking life, I'm actually following through on getting some pictures up here! I played all day yesterday, and got some pretty neato shots of my new household. I also installed the three expansion packs I own but had yet to install on my new computer, World Adventures, Late Night and Ambitions. It made me realize just how much I miss that game, and how much fun it is to find the right angles and capture every moment.

I made a household of three lovely ladies and moved them into 103 Forest Drive in the wonderful town of Anne Arbor, which can be downloaded over here. It's a fantastic city, it's got one half rural and one half urban so it's a wonderful balance of all of the features of Late Night without having to live in the urban sprawl if you don't want to. It requires Late Night, Ambitions, World Adventures and Generations to run though, you have been warned.

Without further ado, here is my new household!

This here gal is Grace Hesdox. Her traits are rebellious, dramatic, virtuoso, perfectionist and lucky. Her lifetime wish is One Sim band, mastering all four instruments (guitar, upright bass, drums, piano). Favorite colour purple, favorite food autumn salad, favorite music songwriter. Her star sign is Scorpio.

She is currently playing the drums in her music room, which used to be a bedroom with two single beds. I converted it and added two more doors, one connecting it to her bedroom and the other connecting it to her bathroom.

This gal's name is Kaleigh Olivend, and she wants to be a Master Mixologist, which means owning a professional bar and mastering the mixology skill. Her traits are star quality, party animal, natural cook, charismatic and heavy sleeper. Star sign Sagittarius; favorites are hot pink, key lime pie, and hip hop.

She is currently mixing drinks at a professional bar which I added to the house in place of an island with bar stools.

And here we have Nadia Ramlin, who we will be spending a fair bit of time with today. Since her lifetime wish is Martial Arts Master, mastering the martial arts skill and obtaining Grad Master rank in tournaments, her first wish was to take a trip to Shang Simla, so off she went. Her traits are loves the outdoors, shy, disciplined, genius and athletic. Her favorites are turquoise, egg rolls, and Chinese.

I tried to get some good shots of her training with the training dummy in the Phoenix Academy of Martial Arts. There are a bunch more shots like this, with her in various belt outfits.

Earned her white belt. I tried to get some fancy shots with the mirrors, but the mirrors on the opposite wall blanking out the background fricked it up a little.

I decided to have her go purchase the martial arts book from the local market to get things done a little quicker.

Through this reading she earned her yellow belt!

Bonus shot: I never realized that at this angle it looks like she's rubbing her belly and her ankles are broken.

Back at the Academy playing around with board breaking, since that's what a yellow belt unlocks.

 Doing this she earned her orange belt.

Somewhere in there Nadia spent the first night in the base camp, but I sent her out to the tent camping site for her second night. In this here screenshot we see my game's wonderful inability to load the basic grass texture. I have no idea why, but the base grass texture will not load in any town. I'm pretty sure it's different in Anne Arbor and Shang Simla, but it won't load in either place. I've got all of my graphics settings at their hightest, but that's most likely the problem.

On the last day of her Shang Simla adventure, Nadia was called upon by this missy whose name I cannot find and did not write down. She wanted Nadia to explore the tombs below the Halls of the Lost Army and bring her back a relic. She then provided the key for this adventure to ensue.

So off Nadia went.

The following is a photo montage of her journey through the Halls of the Lost Army.

 Finally, the relic!

Good bye, Hall of the Lost Army. Quest complete.

She seemed happy to receive her  relic, and rewarded Nadia with Visa points and ancient coins.

Getting in a little more training time before her vacation ended at midnight.

I forgot to take screenshots of her arriving home and the first couple in-game hours after that, but here's a picture of Grace playing her piano from when I remembered to start taking pics again.

Nadia running on the treadmill in her room. She joined the athletic career, so she's gotta get her skill up.

I placed her relics on display in her room as well.

In the meantime, I sent Kaleigh out to buy the mixology books from the local book store...

...and Grace played guitar out front. I have no idea why, but it won't let her play guitar in the house. The game sent her out front from all the way upstairs in her music room. There's even a nice space on the landing upstairs, but apparently it's not big enough. So she plays guitar outside as the sun sets behind her.

Again, my game is demonstrating it's inability to load the base grass texture.

Kaleigh reading her mixology books after getting home from the book store.

Nadia makin' everyone some autumn salad for dinner.

There is so much detail in this autumn salad. Turning up your graphics settings is fucking fascinating.

The gals eating dinner together out back.

Grace heading to bed. Wall objects added by me.

And Kaleigh heading to bed. Again, wall objects added by me. I tried to inset a little bit of their personalities and aspirations into each of their bedrooms.

I missed getting a shot of Nadia going to bed, but she hit the sack just before them.

Kaleigh had to get up first, for her first day on the job in the film career. 5:00, rise and shine!

Kaleigh showing off her work uniform.

At 6:00, Nadia woke up...

...as well as Grace. It's the first day on the job for both of them too, but with Nadia in the athletic career, her shift starts at 3:00, and Grace's job in the music career has her starting at 3:00 as well.

Nadia's bedroom, and her makin' her bed.

That's it for now! I plan on getting some more pictures done tonight.

See you then!