Saturday 23 June 2007

I’ve been promising a tutorial on how to flag custom skins using SimPE to make them inheritable according to the game’s genetics system. Before I offer that, however, I think it will make more sense if I first explain a bit how the genetics system actually works.

Monday 11 June 2007

For ages I have wanted to add a little icon next to each chapter to show the current phase of the moon. The moon hasn’t been as important to the story lately as it has been in the past (which shows how long I’ve wanted to do this) but it’s not insignificant. Also, it’s cute.

Thursday 31 May 2007

I don’t know how interesting or how germane this is, but since I am revealing the elves’ castes on the bio pages, I should probably give a short characteristically long-​winded description of their caste system. If nothing else, it will give those of you who are so inclined the occasion to find out what caste the babies would have if certain elves married certain others.

Saturday 5 May 2007

I have been known to kill Sim babies merely because I did not like the skin they inherited*, but that was before I learned how to change skin and eye colors of existing Sims using SimPE.

* By “did not like” I mean “could not stand children with red teeth”.

In the interest of sparing others’ Sim children from unnecessary death, here is how I do it. There may be an easier way with SimSurgery, but I like to fiddle with my Sims’ genes anyway, so this technique is fine for me.

Saturday 5 May 2007

I have been asked at least three times how I get my Sims to look so unique and/​or how I get such a variety of faces, so I think it’s time for a post about how I create them. I still don’t quite see what’s so special about them, but I’ll share what I do and call it “tips”.

Sunday 22 April 2007

Devin seems to have been clicking around in my old family tree of Lothere again , reminding me that I have been meaning to get my new project stable enough to announce it. So a few last-​minute tweaks and an epic battle with character sets later, here it is: The Who’s Who of Lothere.

Sunday 8 April 2007

We have seen some of the disadvantages of attempting to locate my story in a real location. One of the advantages is that the valley and its landmarks really exist, in a fashion. Therefore, keeping in mind that the distances are four times as they appear, I can show you some “photos of Lothere”.

Saturday 7 April 2007

Devin has unwittingly reminded me that I have been wanting to put up some maps of Lothere.

First of all, where is Lothere? We know it’s in Britain, and I hope it’s clear that it’s in the border country between England and Scotland—which border was frequently changing at this time period. I have also hinted that it’s west of Northumbria. And, for the serious detectives, I have placed it south of Carlisle, since Carlisle was called Leol at that time, and I have mentioned Leol once or twice as being on the way to Scotland.

That’s enough information to put it in the Lake District of northwest England. However, I have been deliberately vague about its exact location, because it is impossible to fit it anywhere in the real world. I’ll tell you the story of how it evolved so you can how I painted myself into this corner.

Thursday 5 April 2007

Any Star Trek fans among you? Those of you who are will surely remember the classic episode “Mirror, Mirror”, in which the Enterprise crew meets with their doubles from a parallel universe. However, in this universe, the peace-​loving Federation is replaced by an evil Empire, torture is regularly used as discipline, and Mr. Spock has a goatee.

Why do I ask?

Tuesday 27 March 2007

Now that we have seen the outside of Egelric’s castle, we can have a look at some of the interior.