esme's Rebuilding Diary: Rebuild 5, Entry 3

[esmeiolanthe]

I have gotten all my sims extracted and redownloaded all the cc I need to recreate them. (All but Aren, who is a. dead and b. a complete template face, so I used the template and didn't worry about it.) I even coaxed all the information out of SimPE, over the course of many seesions, much swearing, and far more tedious look-it-up-and-type-it-out than should have been necessary. I rebuilt all the sims in the new 'hood, using the extracted sims and aging up as appropriate -- Georgiana is a Teen now, for instance, and Nanki-Poo and Deadeye were extracted as Toddlers but are now Children. I couldn't age up some people -- Rebecca and Pong are now Elders, but their late-in-life daughter Melanie is a Child, and CAS won't allow that, so they had to be made as Adults. I got the most logical family groupings together, although that means that some name changes are in order. It's way easier to set Cecil and Jo as siblings in CAS and then change Cecil's name with the SimBlender than to force family ties with SimPE.

Speaking of which, I learned how to create family ties in SimPE, following this tutorial here. Now, that tutorial demonstrates the method by creating invalid relationships that will break your game, but the basic method is fine.

Even though I don't have houses for everybody -- or for anybody, really, except Sally, but more on that later -- I decided to go ahead and restore some stuff with SimPE today anyway. I started with Abhijeet (Leila's husband), because he is first on the list alphabetically, and things were going mostly swimmingly. (I couldn't read a couple of the interest category titles, but I don't care so much about that, and I couldn't figure out how to set badges, so I'll just use the Sim Manipulator or the SimBlender. Both are super easy.) Anyhow, I eventually got to the relationship tab and went to set Abhijeet's relationship with one of his friends.

SimPE wouldn't let me.

After experimentation (using Old Adam) and cursing, I figured out that it wouldn't let me because they hadn't met. So I used the Sim Blender to summon Old Adam's daughter Lisa to the lot, used the AL "High Five" gesture to make them acquainted, dismissed Lisa, saved, and went back into SimPE. No problem with setting a relationship between Old Adam and Lisa now. So then all I had to do was repeat the summon-high five-dismiss for all the relationships in the 'hood.

All 492 of them.

Okay, probably only about 250, since families made in CAS all knew each other already, and I didn't care enough about the neighbor's relationships with cats and dogs enough to figure out how to restore those. But it still took me all. Freaking. Day. Seriously, my mouse hand hurts now, and I think I'm getting a callous from the scroll wheel. I did adjust names and ages while I was at it, but not badges. The information for badges is on a different tab of the spreadsheet, and it was confusing enough as it was. The newly Elderfied folks still need new wardrobes, and I'll need to resend some Teens to Uni. Fortunately, all I'd done at Uni was move them into a dorm, so that's not too hard.

I don't have anywhere to put most of them, because although I've been building a lot, I've been peculiarly unmotivated to redecorate the same house the same way for the third time this calendar year. I can't think why... I have built several community lots, and downloaded some more. I redecorated Sally and Troy's house back more or less to how it was and moved them in. I also gave Cecil and Allyn and the kitties a completely new house, which is what I'm going to do with most of these families, I think. There will be a big tornado that sweeps through town, and people will have to move or rebuild from the ground up. Tornados are notoriously fickle, sparing one house while flattening the one next to it, so it will work. Two households down, fourteen or fifteen to go. (sigh)

I am proud of how the shiny new downtown area is looking, Isn't it pretty?



Of course, this is in my rebuilding 'hood and I have to do all the hood deco all over again in the real one, so it doesn't look as nice. (sigh again) So that's what I've been up to, and that's why you haven't seen any stories out of me in a while. I can't play yet! (cries)

Comments

[lorinsv60.livejournal.com]

The meticulous side of my personality could totally get into all the attention to detail that you're doing for your rebuild, but I'm afraid the reality of how involved it really is would end up doing me in. As it is, I'll continue to enjoy reading your diary and appreciate the lengths you're going to get your beloved Sims and game back to where it was, and I hope you will be very pleased indeed with the results of your hard work!

Oh, and your downtown IS very pretty! :)

*cheers Esme on*

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

Funny, I feel like I'm doing the minimum to get my game back to where it was. I mean, Dmitri wouldn't be Dmitri anymore if he wasn't best friends with Frederic and couldn't spend time making snapdragon bouquets with his wife. I'm sure it will all pay off in the end, when I go to play and it's exactly like I never did anything at all, but GOLLY is it a lot of work!

Thanks for the encouragement! :D

[katrisims.livejournal.com]

Wow. You've been doing a LOT of work, Esme! Phew. *hands Esme cookies*

The result so far is looking pretty, I hope you'll be pleased with the rest of it too. :)

You can do it! *\o/*

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

*takes cookies and hoards them, cackling* Mine, all mine! :P

Thanks for the compliment and the encouragement! *high fives Katri*

[joandsarah.livejournal.com]

All 492 of them. O_O You are far more particular than I am lol. I think I did the main friends for my major sims and that was it. Good going though. My shops look nice there and they all fit lovely along that road.

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

That 492 IS just the main friends for my major sims! Old Adam has four daughters, four sons-in-law, and twelve grandchildren. That's 20 relationships right there for Old Adam to each of those relatives, plus 20 more for them back to him, plus the relationships among the different siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and in-laws. I refuse to allow Old Adam to not know his grandchildren. I'm glad I practice such strict inbreedi -- I mean, such strict population control, or it would be even worse.

Your shops don't look nice with that road - - that road looks nice with your shops! I specifically designed the road to work with your shops, and built more shops to go with your shops, just because I like your shops so much. :D Thank you again for them!