All work and no play...

...makes William a dull and unhappy boy. I have been working simultaneously on my Roman, Japanese and Scottish neighborhoods; and have mostly been in the building stages of them all. I have actually gotten to the point where I dread booting up the Sims2 just because I know that I'll be building instead of playing. I just want to play the MCC, with a couple of add-ons, so I think I am going to go back and retry it with my original English medieval neighborhood again and I'll set it during the high middle ages so I don't have so many content issues, with the exception of some default medieval stuff actually being Tudor/Stuart period.

So, Edo period Japan, 17th-18th century Scottish highlands and Ancient Rome are officially back-burnered and we're moving back to medieval England. I don't have to build as much, because there are plenty of lots available for download that are perfectly period appropriate. I don't have to scrounge the web for content, because there is much more medieval content than Japanese, specifically Scottish or Ancient Roman. As a bonus I can always add a Scottish sub-hood and still use all of the good Scottish stuff I have found.

I don't know if I'll be rebuilding Wessex again, although I kind of like the area. I may narrow it down to Devonshire and be placed firmly in England, but between Cornwall and Wales. I can also now change my icon at the keep to my SCA arms, because it'll match my Sims stuff. I wonder if anyone could make a shield or something with them on it, that would be pretty cool.

 

 

Scottish too

OK, so I started on a Scottish neighborhood too. The main 'hood is in the highlands with, so far, one other highland sub-hood and a lowland sub-hood.

I apparently have Sims2 related ADD, but really it's because my daughter was doing it "wrong" by not adhering to a historical period and theme like I would have. It makes things slower for building my other neighborhoods, but I figure I have the time.

My Scottish Highlanders are set in the late 17th-early 18th century, so that should make things interesting when I get around to making the more "civilized" areas of the world, like Paris, which I intend to make for a university out of deference to the Auld Alliance.

It's also the Jacobite era, so that will make things interesting scenario-wise. Like my Tokugawa/Edo era neighborhood it's a time of great social change, so apparently I like to model that in the Sims2. I suppose I'll have to try and find some British Red-Coat uniforms eventually too...

Now I Am Kind of Torn

Since my Sims2 game blew up on me again yesterday and I still really want to do the MCC, do I still want to go all exotic with adapting it to the Roman Empire theme? Particularly considering the lack of Roman stuff I complained about after I started it. Don't get me wrong here, it's a good challenge and I appreciate a good challenge, but it's also a lot of work and I hate making all of these poor sims and watching them poof into non-existence.

The same exact argument can be made, to a slightly lesser extent, for my Japanese neighborhood. Not a great amount of stuff themed particularly to them, although more than the poor Romans, and I get sad watching them disappear; not that this SHOULD be an issue anymore, now that I have sworn off the no-CD hack.

Now, I also get a bit of history oriented ADD from time to time, so I was also thinking of adding a Norse themed neighborhood, just because my daughter Ember has been playing Skyrim again instead of the Sims2 and I got so much cool Viking stuff for her, and I am a big fan of the Vikings.

Or maybe I could do it with medieval Scots? I am Scottish by descent after all- a Highlander actually, only the 3rd generation born in this country (the USA). Now that's what my daughter Ashleigh is doing, but she isn't doing it "right". She has a lot more anachronism and fantasy than I would, plus she's not playing a challenge. I am the only one playing challenges in the house. I guess it's the old wargamer in me.

My wife Mona calls the Sims2 her "virtual dollhouse" and there is some truth to that. She makes pretty lots, peoples them with pretty, well-dressed Sims, and then moves on to another challenge. She rarely plays any of her Sims for very long, but sometimes we can get her to make stuff for us, or at least decorate our houses.

I digress though, I think the MCC would be easiest to play if I did 12-14th century England or France. So much of the medieval content available is best suited to the high middle ages and western Europe. Some of it CAN be adapted to other times and places, and it'll fit in just fine, but a lot of it is just as out of place as the taxi dropping you off at your new house.

Scotland might be easy to do, because it's like England, only poorer and colder with some plaid thrown about for good measure. I worry about the Vikings because really all of their clothing comes down to one mesh, endlessly recolored for the men, and damned little for the ladies. Norse style build sets are pretty much non-existent and there aren't a whole lot of deco items either. Some Skyrim conversion stuff is OK, but mostly it's not really.

Lastly, when it comes to the Scots, would it kill someone who knows how to make meshes to make some realistic Highland menswear instead of the ren-faire stuff that is out there.

Scottish Medieval Names- The Pics

You know how it is, pics or it didn't happen.

I batch created 3 sets of Townies to get 90 of them to choose from, then made my test Sim know everyone. The MacSorleys I made, the rest are random.

I assume A-G is representative enough?

Scottish Themed UI Text

I made a Scottish themed UI Text too, again, not in keeping with the theme of the blog, but it's for my Daughter. Available here.

Medieval Scottish Names

I created a medieval Scottish names file too. Not really in keeping with the theme of the blog, but it was something I could easily do and my family wanted it. Download it here. Remember- you can't rename the live.package file and you can only have one.