Stilted Foundations (What I’ve seen so far)

 Yes, these are the foundations that come with the island paradise patch! I told myself a while ago I’d wait for Twallan to update his mods before I downloaded it but these features were far too tempting! Besides, I’m busy with my internship on weekdays (at least until August) so I won’t be simming long enough to be bothered by the wait.

I haven’t had the chance to look at changing the heights of foundations yet, but I did try out the new stilted foundations and placing lots on water. Technically, they can only ‘partially’ be placed on water but so long as you’ve snagged a teeny piece of corner you can push the lots pretty far out.

I’m still getting a feel for Dragon Valley so I decided to try building there first. I’ll be able to do some fun things with Island Paradise later on though. This was the spot I chose, just on the riverbank…

 The method for placing these is surprisingly intuitive, they’re placed just like normal foundations! The only thing you may still want to do is smooth out the land around it with the terrain tools, as there will probably be some distortion like what’s seen here where the platform kisses the bank.

 And this was how I set up the outside walls (this build has since been finalized and my sims are living in it, but it’s not very fancy since they’ve only been living in it for a couple of sim days so they’re no reason to take pictures yet).

You’ll need to make sure you add stairs or sims won’t be able to get up on the foundation (and subsequently complain about it). Gangplanks are coming with the expansion on Tuesday, so until then this is the only way (short of teleporting of course). A few flowers and shrubs should help hide the gap if you really don’t like the look of it.

Sims 3 Store Content Reviews: Archery Range & Violin

I was more than happy to indulge in Dragon Valley given the Celtic/fantasy vibe of the world, and the dragons were a neat little addition too! I’ll have to do a separate post about them, since there are a few different variations that do different things.

I’m sure many of you remember that violins and archery (along with swordplay/fencing) were mentioned in a store content poll some time ago. These were the two items that showed up in the Duke of Bows Renaissance Fair venue in the store!

Archery is attached to your Sims’ athletic skill. There are a few different ways to use the item: Practice Shot, Challenge Shot, and Challenge the Board. Under each category you can choose: Basic Shot, Quick Shot, Challenge Shot or Extreme Shot. Doesn’t seem like alot of content so unless you really just enjoy watching your sims pull back a bow (like I did) there may not be as much replay value.

Violins are actually a new type of instrument, and come with their own visible skill! Jack was absolutely horrible when he first picked it up, although the Lindsey Stirling esque playing style really made it interesting to watch. I’m not sure if the animation changes when he reaches a higher level yet (when you get a musician such as a guitarist or pianist to level 10, you’ll see a change in his/her movements as they play. I’ve never gotten that high on drums or the bass but I’ll assume that works the same way) but it’ll be interesting to see if and how it does. Will the sim’s movements become faster? or slower and more graceful?

Some will argue that not being able to use the violin with bands is a downside, although personally I couldn’t see violins in bands anyway. Still, it could’ve been cool.

Foundations on top of Foundations

Foundations are a tricky beast. You can do things with them using cheats (like that one with friezes) although wall warping from adding doors makes it undesirable right now. The good news is we’re getting more control over them in the upcoming Island Paradise patch, but it doesn’t look like we’re able to get around the warped wall issue as of yet. Only time will tell…

Here’s what I’ve been able to manage in the meantime:

See that sunken room?

Here’s a closer look…

You can create sunken areas like this (makes a great den, or at least gives you a ‘hole’ in the foundation that’ll allow basement access if you have room for stairs), but it’s a bit of a pain when you’ve got a 2nd floor and want to make sure that’s evened out. Also, I got around the texture issue by using stone as seen here. I still can’t put a door at ground level since things will stretch and warp but it beats nothing right? *sigh*

Although it’s not really fair to say things like that. While TS3 is still around, it’s our last chance to make it known that we want to break away from these limits. TS4 may be new and all but newer isn’t always better.