Sims storytelling help

[baratron]

OK, this isn't actually a question for JM, but for the storytellers here.

I've just started using the TS2 storytelling - my unfinished story is here (because of the gay content, I didn't want to put it up on the official site - yes, call me a wimp if you want, I don't care). I recently learned that photographs in TS2 are saved whether you save the game or not, so you can set up horrible scenarios and have everyone die tragically without actually having to keep the sims dead - cool . As you can see if you flick through the story, I've left it on a bit of a cliffhanger.

The next chapter, essentially, will be Max's nightmares, so I want to set up lots of nightmare child-related scenarios. So I need to find out the easiest ways of doing them, bearing in mind that I have no patience.

1) What is the best way of making your sim look horrified? I don't think gross-out will work because both the boys are very Sloppy, but I suppose I could boolprop Max into extreme Neatness just to take the photo. Anything else?

2) What is the best way of teleporting vast quantities of sims into the lot and setting them up for photos? Inge's Teleport shrub + Merola's Mind-Control mirror, and lots of pausing? Or should I make a backup of the Neighbourhood and actually move the sims in, then switch back to the true Neighbourhood later?

3) Where can I obtain a playable Nanny? If you say MTS2, please give me some indication of where on that sprawling site .

4) Is it possible to take photographs of alien abduction? I've never actually seen it happen in my game (due to lack of patience, I used boolprop to make my sim alien pregnant), so I don't know whether it goes straight into the cut scene or if you have a few seconds to snap pictures.

5) What's the easiest way to move babies around for photography purposes? Does move_objects on work? Or do you have to make them selectable with the Mind Control mirror?

I think that's it for now - fortunately, VS is up today, so I can snag a copy of TwoJeff's triplets & quads hack. I think for a very buff, not very paternal guy, getting pregnant with multiple babies has to be among his worst nightmares .

[veilchen]

As for the actual movie-making, there I can't help you, the best one to ask would be Reggikko (but you already knew that, right ) As far as multiple sims transportation...Inge's shrub will tansport them in, even with the game on pause, but Merola's mirror only lets you control only one non-family sim at a time (unless he changed it). As soon as you click on another sim-icon, the previously controlled sim drops away from the side panel (where the family members are displayed). So if you want to keep them selectable without making them controllable first over and over again, you might be better off using a photo-op house and move them all in and then back out. To keep all these sims happy/unhappy/desperate, you might want to use Merola's painting as well. JM calls it cheating, but for movie-making purposes its ideal. It lets you fill/drain needs, aspiration, interests etc. at will, getting you the moods you would like to have.

Reg is usually here in the evenings, but I'm sure she would not mind if you PM her.

[JenW]

You can get some good shocked looks when they're looking through the telescope during the day...if you just want a face shot, you might be able to crop it enough, or if you're good at photosplicing and stuff you could stick the face on their body in another picture.

You can move babies around with move_objects on, no problem. And any other Sim, for that matter.

Playable nannies...check the Exchange, I've seen lots of Sims extracted from the game with SimPE there. If there aren't any there, you could use Sim Surgery in SimPE to clone one of them. If you want to make your own nanny, Morague has unlocked the nanny outfits on Variousimmers.

If you turn the cutscenes off (camera options, I think) you should be able to take pictures during an alien abduction. There's hacks around too that will let you have an abduction any time you want.

Jen

[Venusy]

If you turn on boolprop testingcheatsenabled, then you could try Shift+clicking on the active sim, then spawning the "Reaction Tester". You should be able to find a shocked animation using that. Actually, I think the career reward for Art (the camera) might have the same option to do that, but I'm not sure.

[reggikko]

1) What is the best way of making your sim look horrified? I don't think gross-out will work because both the boys are very Sloppy, but I suppose I could boolprop Max into extreme Neatness just to take the photo. Anything else?

As someone else said, Paul's reaction tester. I use it frequently in my little intros to the chapters to get what I want. Also, if you want to slow them down, type slowmotion 5 into the cheat window. When you're done, type slowmotion 0. I don't use the slo-mo in regular play (I keep one finger on the pause button at all times!), but it's especially good for capturing a specific facial expression. The reaction tester has all facial animations that are in the game.

2) What is the best way of teleporting vast quantities of sims into the lot and setting them up for photos? Inge's Teleport shrub + Merola's Mind-Control mirror, and lots of pausing? Or should I make a backup of the Neighbourhood and actually move the sims in, then switch back to the true Neighbourhood later?

You can use Inge's teleporter plus to add teleported Sims to the family. When you are done, you can make them townies again. For playable Sims, use the Mind-control mirror. As Veilchen said, though, it will only allow you to control one unplayable Sim at a time, so there's lot's of queue, pause, switch, queue, pause, etc involved. Inge also has a plumbob hider.

3) Where can I obtain a playable Nanny? If you say MTS2, please give me some indication of where on that sprawling site .

I would suggest extracting one in SimPE and just merge her in with the family. When you're done, you can always use the teleporter to make her a townie, or just move her out.

4) Is it possible to take photographs of alien abduction? I've never actually seen it happen in my game (due to lack of patience, I used boolprop to make my sim alien pregnant), so I don't know whether it goes straight into the cut scene or if you have a few seconds to snap pictures.

Again, be quick with the pause button and you can do it. The best tip I can give you for picture taking is anticipation. Be ready for the reaction or shot that you want.

5) What's the easiest way to move babies around for photography purposes? Does move_objects on work? Or do you have to make them selectable with the Mind Control mirror?

I would use move_objects for babies. Even if you made them selectable, I don't think they can do much.

I think that's it for now - fortunately, VS is up today, so I can snag a copy of TwoJeff's triplets & quads hack. I think for a very buff, not very paternal guy, getting pregnant with multiple babies has to be among his worst nightmares .

I would also recommend LordTyser's picture tutorials. The first one is here:

http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=9454&asset_type=story&user_id=437345

Now I'm off to read your story!

[RainbowTigress]

If you use the expensive telescope, you can use debug cheats to get your sim abducted.  (You can do this with the cheap telescope, but there is no reaction to it as with the expensive one, your sim just gets sucked up in the sky.)  Since my video card is not capable of cut scenes, I have never seen them, but I can get a lot of pictures of the sim's expression as well as the other sims gathered around.  Unless they are knowledge sims, family members will be horrified and have a bad memory.  Maybe you could disable cutscenes in your video preferences to be able to take these pictures.  I'm not sure if you can take pictures of a cutscene since I've never had them.

[baratron]

Thanks all . Think I'm a long way off the LordTyser school of sophistication, but the next chapter should be a big improvement. The Reaction Tester is particularly useful, although some of the animations I don't actually recognise as belonging to an interaction in the game.

Someone really needs to write a complete guide to the boolprop TestingCheats, including the various things that can be spawned. Then hide it somewhere, so that only clueful people can find it, not the BBS kiddies who think it's a good idea to give their sims Death Tokens.

Now I just want to know whose stupid idea it was to make the cameraman mode "raise camera" and "lower camera" buttons Q and E, and how many times on average people accidentally quit the game while trying to take photos. (Yes, I KNOW it says "Do you really want to quit without saving?", it doesn't always help! That's why I keep backups.)

[witch]

Now I just want to know whose stupid idea it was to make the cameraman mode "raise camera" and "lower camera" buttons Q and E, and how many times on average people accidentally quit the game while trying to take photos.

D'oh! Do you have any idea how long I've spent zooming in and out trying to get the correct height for a picture? And there are buttons!

*puts head back in sand*

[Sandilou]

Hit that tab key so that you can get some real close ups.  It's easier to manoeuvre and produces some interesting angles.

[witch]

Sandilou, I do use tab for my lot shots but have difficulty controlling the camera. I might, god forbid, go back to the sims manual and have a proper look at keyboard shorcuts again. 

Baratron, I like your story, sweet and not at all threatening to bbs gayphobes IMHO. Might I suggest a little conflict along the way, maybe Mitch suspects Max of having a relationship with his female study buddy before he knows Max is gay? Mitch's gaydar says Max is gay but Max's behaviour contradicts this. Or Mitch spacks out a bit and drinks too much fruit punch at a party? Gets into a fight?

[buddha pest]

You can move babies around with move_objects on, no problem.

i tried to move a baby with moveobjects on one time, and she disappeared into thin air.

good times.

[baratron]

Baratron, I like your story, sweet and not at all threatening to bbs gayphobes IMHO. Might I suggest a little conflict along the way, maybe Mitch suspects Max of having a relationship with his female study buddy before he knows Max is gay? Mitch's gaydar says Max is gay but Max's behaviour contradicts this. Or Mitch spacks out a bit and drinks too much fruit punch at a party? Gets into a fight?

Or both .

I was going to say that now that they've graduated, it would be far too much hassle to send them back to University - but I could go back to a really old backup. Hmmm. Improve current not-very-good chapter vs the amount of hassle required to do so . I guess I'm too much of a perfectionist to leave something really crap lying around (she says, completely ignoring the current state of her web site).

Something funny that happened today - I was trying to get a shot of Max walking in on Mitch & a girl friend kissing on the couch, and Max just wandered in, waved, and went off to clean the bathroom. I tried this several times and he just had no interest in throwing a tantrum. Somewhat confused, I removed the Romance mod - I hadn't expected the Romance mod to make a difference because Max is Popularity aspiration, not Romance - but even then he still just waved at them and went off to clean up! Only when I got Mitch to initiate Making Out while Max was standing there watching did he get the dagger above the head omg my partner is having An Affair reaction! And then much slapping occurred, which was funny. Silly sims - they make-a no sense.

[baratron]

Le bump, to say I've completely redone Chapter 1 - I've added 36 more photos and a whole load more plot. There is now delicious, chewy angst, thanks to the ideas from witch! I think the plot is a bit teenage girly, but it is a college story, so maybe that's acceptable. But I definitely don't want to post this on the Exchange now!

A sneak preview of Chapter 2 is here. See if you can guess what's going to happen. All the photos are done (I think), I just need to string them into order and write some text to go round them.

Constructive criticism welcome, though you don't need to tell me that all the outside shots are a bit dark. Believe me, I know! I spent ages fiddling with the lighting, trying to adjust it for each shot to light up the sims' faces while keeping the lights themselves out of shot. As it is, I think there are a few continuity errors - but you can probably ignore them? My new rule is "Never have a party outside in the dark". But the house these sims lived in at college wasn't big enough for the party to just be inside, and I didn't want to have to reshoot the entire story in another house. (In retrospect, it would've been easier if I had. Oh well).

The story itself is nowhere near perfect. I've run through that party scene more than 10 times to try to get the best shots (Poor Mitch had to faint 6 times before I'd got a complete set of pictures!). Actually, the photos you see here aren't necessarily the best individual shots, but they're the most coherent set. I could've put in better photos if I didn't care about continuity, but I do I'm really annoyed that I missed Max & Peyton's kiss - you can tell this by my comment on photo 17. What happened was that I took a lovely shot of them kissing with Mitch running across ready to slap, then managed to delete it with the stupid trashcan thing in TS2 that doesn't delete the right photos half the time. Argh. Having done it 10 times already, my actors and I were all too frustrated to try that any more.

I also managed to delete a beautiful shot of Mitch playing the guitar behind his back that was just perfect. Nothing to do with the story, but it was a great shot - he was looking at me and pouting so prettily, and I managed to get the camera angle just right and zoom all the way in. All you spiky-haired-boy-lovers would've drooled - I know I did. But then the stupid trashcan deleted it, and I hadn't yet copied all these photos over to my backup Storytelling folder. Gah. Have to try to set that up again, except (I know) it won't be the same...

Seriously, if you notice any continuity errors or if there're any bits that could've been said better, tell me. I have Max speaking in American phrasing because his college jock clothing says that to me - so there's a "gotten" in there! (It just seemed natural for him to be to saying "gotten" rather than "got" the first time, although I managed to suppress it the second time - should I change that?). Mitch I'm unsure about - I don't think he's any nationality in particular. Payton speaks in British slang, hence his use of "snog", which is very English. My sims don't live in the real world, so they don't "come" from a particular country - and even if they did, there's no reason they have to come from the same country?

Hmm, well - bed now.

[scoob]

I have to say I love it! I read the original story and the remake and both were good, but the redo is better. I can't wait for chapte

[reggikko]

I love the rework of the chapter, Baratron. That Mitch is so cute. He reminds me of a young Pascal Curious.

[taichikitten]

What a fun story you've got going there, Baratron!  Both Mitch and Max are very handsome, though I have to admit that Mitch really is a cutie.  I'm interested in seeing what happens with them next.

[veilchen]

Nice work Baratron, that was a lot of re-working you did, but it was well worth it. Good job with the fry-guy outfit shot, that thing cracks me up.

[witch]

baratron I love it! Bit of tension & drama, we all know the path of true love never runs smooth. How on earth did you get the shot where Max is picking up Mitch? I wondered how you'd get him in the house when he was passed out on the lawn...

[RainbowTigress]

I'm thinking it was a Hug -> Leap into Arms action on Mitch's part.  Very creative!

[witch]

I'm thinking it was a Hug -> Leap into Arms action on Mitch's part.  Very creative!

D'oh!

[baratron]

baratron I love it! Bit of tension & drama, we all know the path of true love never runs smooth. How on earth did you get the shot where Max is picking up Mitch? I wondered how you'd get him in the house when he was passed out on the lawn...

boolprop TestingCheatsEnabled true from Neighbourhood screen lets you fiddle with sims' motives, as well as personality and skill levels. I got Mitch to pass out by knocking his Energy all the way down into red (with three red arrows), then once he was unconscious/asleep dragged it up a bit so that he could wake up.

The really ingenious bit was getting Max to bend down as if shaking him awake - I couldn't figure out how to do that at all, but my partner pointed out that picking up the left-over drinks cups would make the sims bend down. It took about 12 attempts to get the 3 sims in the picture doing what they were supposed to be doing at the same time!

Fiddling with photos like this really does add something to the game, but it's a bit exhausting - I have ideas for stories involving 3 of my families now, and I can't play the game normally until I've taken all the photos from the right backup versions of the Neighbourhood. Keeping all the backups straight is a bit... effortful. I'm even thinking of going all the way back to my first Strangetown to write what happened to the Curious brothers, but I probably can't be bothered.

[veilchen]

Now don't tease like that, that's not fair. Now I'm going to be wondering what the brothers were up to. Shame Baratron.

[bluecatvon]

haha! i love the story! mitch and max are both hot to me, too bad they're both gay...haha! can't wait to see the next chapter!

[baratron]

Well, one of the joys of using the Maxis premade characters is that if you don't like what someone's done in their story, you can do it a different way . Speaking personally, the way the Friends family was set up, I was sure they had to get together - but that's in my game.

Chapter 2: Strangetown nightmares.

It actually came out a lot darker than I was intending - I haven't written a horror story in some years, but this is getting close. Haven't decided whether this is the final draft or not - I could tweak it to be much more horrific. As it is, I was trying for PG-13, although I'm not really sure what falls into that category (I'm not even certain about the British equivalent 12A), and I'm not sure this story makes it even after I rewrote the bits that were shamelessly adult (like what exactly Max is covered in after the alien abduction). Parts of the story might be triggery for the recently bereaved, or women who've had a bad experience giving birth, or people who are childless-not-by-choice. (To avoid the triggery bits, you could try viewing the story from gallery mode.)

Hopefully I've made it clear which parts of the story are "real" and which are "nightmare" - let me know if you think it needs a bit more work. Is it scary? Did you enjoy it?

More comments in my livejournal.

[reggikko]

Hopefully I've made it clear which parts of the story are "real" and which are "nightmare" - let me know if you think it needs a bit more work. Is it scary? Did you enjoy it?

I'm loving this story. One of the hallmarks of a good story is wanting to see what comes next and you've definitely got me hooked. I loved how you set up the nightmare scenes. Be sure to keep updating us.