Thursday, 30 September 2010

Yay and Nay

I has good news to report- thanks to some helpful suggestions from lovely Simmers, my game is now crash-free once more. Yayyyyyyyyyy!

This info, provided by Rad *waves*, has proved so useful to me that I've shoved it into a little guide below for people having similar problems. Check it oot if you're game is a bit crashtastic too.


In other news, I've been Simming up a storm since my game was fixed as I'm trying to keep future chapters of the legacy on a fairly organised schedule. It's partly cause I loves my current legacy family so much, and partly because there's a lot of things I want to get done before Late Night comes out. I don't think it's going to happen though :/

Is it just me, or has this EP crept up proper fast? I've still got a bunch of careers to explore in Ambitions and a load of other shiz, and I just know that when Late Night comes out I'm gonna be so overwhelmed with the awesomeosity that I wont have enough time to do everything. This expansion just seems like a whole mess of joy in one- apartments, musical instruments, the band and celebrity careers, nightclubs, vampires, THE SMUSTLE.

I honestly hope the next EP after this is such a total pile of wank that I wont want to buy it, and I can have more time to catch up...



Do you like my pretty picture? I took it as the avatar shot for my Simbot family on TS3.com, but the bloody thing wont upload! D:<

For some reason the file size is over 90MB, which is somewhat ridonkulous. Is there a way to purge a file of all the unnecessary crap before uploading?




I have the same problem with the lovely Darwin here- he's just one man, yet his file size is nearly 60MB O_O The boy has a big package, just not in the way one would hope... Methinks I can fix it though by stripping off all sims3.pack CC, but what of my marvellous Simbot family? I don't know how I'm gonna get them uploaded :/








Narrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhh.

How To Stop Your Game Crashing (Hopefully)

Error code 12, crash to desktop... do these horrors sound familiar to you? You thought it would be easy- just buy a sexy Sims game, shove it on your PC, and play- but oh no. It's not always that simple.

If you're suffering from the dreaded CTD, there are things you can do to prevent it. Now this is not a cure-all fix; I can't guarantee it'll solve your woes, but it's worked for me so hopefully it'll work for you.


1. Download and install the CFF Explorer.

2. Go to C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Game/Bin and look for a file named TS3.exe. This is the base game file however, so if you have an expansion you need to find the file for that EP instead, e.g.- for Ambitions it can be found in C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 Ambitions/Game/Bin, and it's called TS3EP02.exe. 
Once you've found the file you require, first make a copy of it in case things go all tits-up, then right-click and select 'Open with CFF Explorer'.


3. Once the file is open look on the left hand side for a section called 'File Header' and click that, then click the blue box on the right where it says 'Click here', as shown in the picture:


4. Another window will open. Click in the box next to where it says 'App can handle > 2gb address space' and click 'Ok'.


5. Save your modified file and overwrite when it asks you to.
Now, this should be simple, but I encountered problems. I'm the admin of my computer, yet it wouldn't let me overwrite the file- it kept saying I didn't have permish or some shit. If you find yourself having this problem as well there is a way around it, which is to start again with the file, but before you modify it drag it out of the Sims folder to the desktop or summat, then follow steps 3-4, save it, and move it back.


And that should be it! Hopefully this will help stop your crashing issues- it's definitely worked for me. Just remember to repeat this method every time you patch your game or install an expansion pack.


Ta-rah!

Monday, 27 September 2010

Nurgh!

I'm getting quite hacked off now...

As you may know, I'm always quite skeptical when it comes to patching my game, and this is made even worse when my worries end up being founded. When I was playing Barnacle Bay it was all good- no weirdness that I can remember. Now however when playing my legacy game I'm having uber problems. I've been attempting to play my game since about 6pm, and I've already had at least five crash-to-desktops. What the fudge is going on?

I went back to my olde preventative methods from when I had my shit computer, i.e.- saving every ten minutes. But apparently the demons in my game are too strong for me now, because twice it's crashed whilst it was in the middle of saving.

I'm about ready to pull my hair out in frustration.
Imma have some white chocolate Toblerone to make myself feel better...

As Promised:


Chapter 9: The Good, The Bad, and The Creepish



Love Hearts

So I've just been into my legacy game- first time Simming with my new wirelessnessness, which was hampered slightly by my cat's desire to sit on my lap at all costs- even if it meant me balancing the keyboard on her head as she attempted to sleep...

Anyways, you'll be pleased to know that the new chapter of The Heart Family Legacy is a-go. Not til tomorrow mind, so don't get too excited- but it is coming (well, it's 1am, so it'll be today, just much later today... it'll be after I've at least had a sleep, pretty much).

Some of you are probably wondering what has caused the delay in its release, and quite simply it was because I just found some other things I'd rather do than Sim or write for a while. Shocking I knows. Yesterdae though I was checking on the Heart Legacy blog, and after reading all the loverly comments people had left me, I suddenly felt the urge to crack on with the legacy just take over me like a sexy disease. Well, that and the fact that the whole copy/paste issue that takes up most of my time when organising the pictures is now much, much easier, due to my awesome wireless mouse with shortcut buttons. I'm in geeker heaven right now ^_^

Anyways, to the sometime point of this post. After fannying about with the pics for a while I had the real want to play my game again, so off I went into Twinbrook to catch up on the Heart household. Whilst I was there though I came across something very strange...

In between the last time I played my game and now I've patched, so I can only assume that's what caused it. And now before you go 'arrrrggghhhh has something gone wrong is the legacy ruined?', fear not- the weird occurance is actually something good for a change.

Has anyone ever seen this before?















Now maybe this is just me; maybe this was all in the smallprint and I missed it, but if not- what is it? What, we now have levels of attraction back in the game? Is this like a precursor to Late Night?











Whatever it is, it's cool :D



HOLY COW! After typing all this I finally just clicked what it is. My bloody mods of course *slaps self* That was the other thing I changed when I patched my game- I updated my mods.

This is just more excellence by Twallan. 
Pah, and here was me thinking EA had actually added something we'd been asking for. How silly am I?

...Don't answer that.

Friday, 24 September 2010

Barnacle Bizzle, Fo Shizzle

 Hello all, and welcome to Captain FuryRed's tour of Barnacle Bay. 

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Thursday, 23 September 2010

Holy Fuck Me Friday

Major MAJOR love to Alexurt right now, for she has gifted me Barnacle Bay! I'm uber happy about this cause, although I bitched about the price of it and shiz- which I stand by- free stuff is free!

I know you can get it from MATY, but I've never had much luck downloading from there so I think the legit approach would have been my only way of getting my grubby mitts on it. 
Alexurt is the most generous Simmer EVAR, and I owe her like a million glomps.


Also, there's someone else wishing to express their gratitude...




That's right- Captain FuryRed is moving in. I'll be sure to post some pics of Captain Fury's Adventures in Barnacle Bay for you all to admire... that is as soon as it downloads : /

I appear to be having a problemo.. When I go to the Barnacle Bay page in The Store and click on 'Download' the launcher opens and that... and then nuffink happens :o I'm concerned cause I want it like NAO, and I don't know how to make it work. Whyyyyyyyyyyy can't EA ever make things simple?

Oh penis I think I need to patch.


Edit- have patched and it's now downloading! I'm strangely thrilled :D

Wednesday, 22 September 2010

Global Spelling Epidemic

I think there's a spelling mistake sick sickness taking over the world, with regards to one word in particular:

DEFINITELY

It's not 'definately', but everyone I know spells it that way, and I find it very strange... I actually used to spell it 'definately' myself until handy Firefox informed me with wavy red lines that it was wrong.


Psst, I haven't forgotten about the next chapter of The Heart Family Legacy, and Cassidy hasn't forgotten about you...


I think my mouse is failing on me yanno, which is making Simming very difficult as I oft times have to click at least fivefuckingtimes before the damn thing registers >: ( Between this and that weird flashing-lights-in-the-corner-of-my-eye issue which made me unable to see properly for a little while, I'm behind on the olde legacy. And of course there's the fact that I've defected from the Sims to my beloved television once again as I generally veg out and watch back-to-back episodes of BB USA...

Ahem. I'm looking for a nice wireless mouse/keyboard combo. Know of any good ones?


As you were.

Thursday, 16 September 2010

Squeeeeeeeeee, As They Say

The build up to Late Night goes on, and I for one am as giddy as a walrus. I've just been catching it up with all the info that's out about it and it's looking goooood, and the following in particular got me all tingly inside:


Mebbe it's just me and the fact that my Simmies don't often listen to the radio, but were there actually any real songs in Simlish in the base game?

Anyways, the song underlined in red is the one I'm most intrigued about. I loves Hadouken!, and I'm wondering how this is going to work in Simlish...

And The Bitch Goes On, And On, And On...


One

Declaration of War (not really)

Mares... you are dead to me now.


Just joshing!

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

A Can Of Worms

This is something that's been in the back of my mind for a while now but I've so far resisted posting it because I don't want to mix up any bad blood. Increasingly these days though I find myself feeling less like Nice Fury and more like Say What I Feel Fury.

So here goes...



Monday, 13 September 2010

Some People Have No Shame


Now you may have seen this lady around on the forums and, like me, your initial reaction might well have been 'eek, spelling disaster!' Now luckily I'm not one to reply on the forums just to criticise others, and fortunately I think before I speak (or type).

If you don't know what I mean by now, check out her signature.


Fair dos right? Ha, not for some.


Perhaps the fact that she scrubbed her post could be seen as a omission of guilt, but FUCKINGBOOHOO JARSIE because the quotes know all.


What a cunt.


Now I'm used to her pathetic attempts to justify her life by tearing down others, but this is just too much. Jarsie's unforgiveable comments towards Sara actually made me feel a bit unwell.

Jarsie is a sad, self-indulgent, spiteful little oxygen-thief, and if I knew her in real-life I would have found it hard to resist the urge to shove her back inside her mother.


Go to hell Jarsie- *no one* cares what *you* think.

Saturday, 11 September 2010

Game For A Little Picture Spam?

These be pics from my legacy game, but I'm not about to give anyfink away story-wise. Instead, this is about the new legacy house.



Now I'm not really one for building; every so often in my legacy circumstance will require a house, but generally I wont bother. I'm not very good at it :P

This house though I'm quite proud of. I think the shiny graphics help ;D



It's not fully finished because, as is custom for my legacy, my Sims never have quite enough money to get anything done. It's a work in progress yanno.



We're gonna start the tour with the backdoor because it's one of the aspects that took the most work. Can you tell why? This house is on a foundation, but the door isn't... *SHOCK HORROR*



I miss split levels- they were like my favourite aspect of building in Sims 2 cause I like my weird up and down houses. It sucks that we don't have that option in Sims 3, but with a little cheating it does become possible.



The back door of the building leads to a small foyer, and then sliding glass doors take you into the main portion of the house.



There's also a side door in the foyer that leads down to the basement.



Round to the front of the house now and this is the main hallway which I rather likes.



Mm, like I said- work in progress. This house will really come into its own with some nice clutter methinks.



This is the, I don't know, chillax room and the end of the hallway.



It overlooks the swimming pool, which is my favourite room in the house.



Nice seating area to have a glass of rosé and toffee waffle in... ;)



This bit is kind of incomplete. Y'see, the reason I've been after the Asian Fusion set from The Store recently is because I want the bamboo plant to fit in this window section, but I'm not buying 1000 Simpoints to get something for 25 : /

Edit- thanks very much Bitten for the giftage ^_^ Loves you too, and I haven't forgotten about that surprise I mentioned ;)



This is another part of the build that took a bit of time cause, as you can see, there's a foundation around the pool but not at the end where the windows are.

I loves the constrainfloorelevation cheat- it makes me warm.



On to the kitchen now- a nice clean space with one of RD's murals to brighten up the room.



And of course there's a marvellous view of the pool on the one side (and some fruit for your five a day).



Utility room, also in need of clutter. I need more paintings too- I'm sadly lacking.



Formal dining room with plenty of seating for future generations.



And again some more of RD's pretty murals.



I love this room ^_^ It's the guest bathroom.






And this here is the main bathroom.






Upstairs bathroom number one.



And the other one. With eight Sims currently living in the household I need this, though to be honest the Sims get so glitchy and stuck I just tend to drag their needs up >: /



The only mostly decorated bedroom- Cassidy's room.






And its adjacent living area.


That about concludes the tour! There's a bunch more rooms but as I said they're not finished, boo. Still, it'll give my Sims something to do over the next eight generations.



Now, you may think there was a point to me showing you all this, like maybe I'm putting the house up for download or summink? Well no, you're wrong, you can't have it, it's MINE.

I've used a bunch of store content as well as tonnes of custom, and I really can't be arsed making a massive list of it all so people can enjoy the house properly. Howevers, if you don't care about that and you just want the shell of it to decorate yourself then I can do that, though there are a good few store windows and one set is custom.



Something you can have though is this...



Mort Moissoneuse and Wolfie Schneider are yours to enjoy forevar.
Be good to them (well, to Mort at least).


Total Laundry Spaz

Chapter Eight: I Heart Simbots


Blog

Storyboard

Thursday, 9 September 2010

SQUID ON YOUR HEAD! SQUID ON YOUR HEAD!

My mistake, it's just a new EA hair...


I'm fully expecting this look to be hitting the catwalks of Milan any day now.

Seeing Green


Hello children. Today I bring you EA's lessons on custom content making or, as they call it- content.

This collection of goodies looks nice enough doesn't it? No wonky meshes or monster-making errors that I can see. Ah, but there is just one problem...

It isn't fucking fully CASTable!



Can you believe that in this day and age of Sims 3, EA would release items that aren't even completely CASTable? Well, actually you probably can...

This is taking the piss a bit though because all these items are from The Store, so people are paying money for this crap. What's more, I think the creators have a personal vendetta against me...

You know what I hate? The colour green. I fucking hate it. You know what the main unchangeable element of these items is? THE COLOUR GREEN. It's a conspiracy I tell you >: (



On this light you can change the colour of the moon but not the stars and the little fairy gal. WHY? Seriously, why? What half-arsed moron decided to work on making part of the content decent, and then just thought 'fuck it, no one will care if it isn't completed properly!'



The real shame of it all though is this gorgeous light fixture from the Haute Hip set, which I spent my hard-earned (lol) Simpoints on. It's fully castable, except for the fucking green bit!

I realise that, for most of you, the odd unchangeable part wont make much of a difference, but for me it means there's a whole load of items that I can no longer use, cause I can't make them all matchy-matchy with everything else. I'm only glad that all the store content I have is giftage, otherwise I'd be even more annoyed.

But you know what, that's not even the fucking point. What did it say on the box for The Sims 3? 'Customise Everything'.

'Customise EVERYTHING'.

Oh, but then we bought the game and found out that actually that wasn't true, because you couldn't CAST fences or stairs or railings or gates. Nice. Now with this store item issue it's just another example of them saying one thing and doing another, and it's nothing new I know but it doesn't make it any less irritating.

A lot of people are paying money for store items, so if they're not fully CASTable it should fucking well say so in the description.



Oh, and on another subject that's only half related- what the fuck is this all about? How can EA charge for this?! Maybe I'm just crazy, but all the towels in my house aren't made out of fucking alluminum. I guess EA must be really hot for that static shock feeling.


So yeah. If you too are hacked off by the lack of CAST I'd stay away from the Castle Interior set cause that's the main culprit :/



In other set news... I really want the BahHaus one, so much so that I've even been toying with the idea of buying Simpoints just to get it (crazy I know). Howevers, it'd cost me £14 to buy the Simpoints to get it, and it's just not worth it.

I realise you can get it from MATY, but I had a look around on there and it didn't pan out- links not working and the like. So, if any of you have a reputable source, or if you'd just like to email me a copy of the file (and Asian Fusion if poss), I'd very much appreciate it. *bats eyelashes* :)


Also, I'm leaning towards buying High End Loft Stuffs, but I'm unsure. For Sims 2 me and a friend used to just buy half of the expansion and stuff packs each and trade over, but his lack of computer leaves him Simless and me on my own :( Is HELS worth the eight English pounds it would cost me?

Thanks to all. Ta-rah!