Dreamy Stars

Overview

Whether it is you are looking to start a legacy/sim story or you just want some tips to improve, I am here to share some of my tips that I recommend doing.

What is a Legacy?

A legacy is where one sim family is played over generations, passing on genes, money, and whatever else. The key number of generations is 5-10, although it has been known to get beyond that number. The “official” rules for legacies at located at LegacyChallenge.com, although you obviously don’t have to follow those cheat-free, hack-free rules

What is a Sim Story?

A Sim Story is anything you make of it! My take of it is a story, usually told with a set number of sims, where you write a story with pictures from The Sims 2. It’s almost like a children’s book with all of the pictures. Also, YOU tell the story, not your sims like in a legacy. But sometimes, legacies get told in a type of “story” mode, but I’ll get to that later.

No matter what you choose, it is always awesome. However, when your story or legacy gets read by a picky reader, they may not read another update due to the pictures or the writing. So, I am here to share some of my picture and writing tips that will surely get some more readers!

Picture Tips

Pictures could make or break a story or a legacy for some picky people. For some, all of these problems could have them turning away from your good legacy! Now, sometimes I don’t even follow these suggestions (as you can see in my own pictures) so it isn’t like you have to follow any of these. But maybe you will want to take these to heart so they are worth mentioning.

Problem: PlumbBob

Ah, the PlumbBob is very precious. The color of it can tell what kind of mood the sim is or if he or she is platinum. However, the pickiest people have a thing against it. In a legacy setting, I really don’t see a problem with it. It just shows that you’re playing! However, in a sim story, it may not be welcomed. But if you want to either make your pictures look “better” in a legacy or sim story, you’ll have to get rid of it.

Solution: Delete

My simple solution for this is if you have someone who is outside of your shot, select them before you take the picture. I myself do this a lot when I’m too lazy to get rid of the plumbbob.

If you have Open for Business or anything higher, you can just use a cheat. After getting the cheat box (CLT + Shift + Alt), all you have to do is put in plumbbobtoggle and they will disappear.

If you don’t have an EP that is OBF or released afterwards, you’ll need to go through Boolprop testingcheatsenabled true. When you type that into the cheat box, you Shift + Click on the plumbbob and select Force Error, and it should go away. However, to get it back, you’ll need to either save and return to the family or restart the game completely.

While we are on the topic, if you want to get rid of the headlines (like thought bubbles and such), you need to enter in the cheat box “showheadlines off”. I usually don’t turn these off though, except for filming. For a story, I guess it could be helpful, but for a legacy, it could add onto it.

Problem: Low Graphics

I don’t know why, but sometimes people would like to see a good story with good, clear pictures, than just a good story. However, there is a solution, even for those low end computers.

Solution: Temporary Fix and Settings Change

First off, if you have good graphics in the game, but horrible pictures, it could be due to the settings. An easy fix is to go into options and changing your picture quality to medium or high, and the size of your picture to medium or large. I use medium size and high picture quality.

For those who don’t have such great graphics, there is a temporary fix. This is more for stories because the lag could be ridiculous just for a good legacy picture. When you update your graphic settings, they update without having to press play. So what you can do is get everyone exactly the way you want it to be, pause, then go into your graphic settings. Change them to medium-high and apply the changes. Once they are done, you can snap the picture, return them to normal and continue onto your next shot!

Problem: Walls

Those stinking walls! When you play, they get in the way. When you take pictures, they get in the way! But instead of having them down and taking the picture of your family around the “Don’t Wake the Llama” table playing a good game and seeing some weird guy going to the bathroom two rooms down or like in the picture, having two people play chess with a building in the background, there’s a technique to this.

Solution: Camera Mode

When you press TAB when you play, all of a sudden, all of the things on the bottom go away. There is a trick to using this mode. First, before you hit tab, put the walls up and pause the game to where you want it. When you’re ready, press Tab. Now, you want to get as close to the action as possible! Using the keyboard, move the camera around to get to the right spot to take that perfect picture! Here are the keys:

Q: Move Down
E: Move Up
W: Move Forward
S: Move Back
A: Move Left
D: Move Right
Z: Zoom In
X: Zoom Out

After messing with all of these, you can get right into that kiss, making you feel like you’re there. This mode is also very helpful to get those close up shots on puppies and other things that are really tiny. The other good thing about this mode is that it makes anything transparent solid so your stairs and ceiling lights won’t be see through.

Of course, your angle is never going to be perfect. But the key thing to remember is to be relatively eye level with your sims. Don’t look down on them or up at them, causing some weird angles (Unless if it’s on purpose :P). Also, don’t zoom out too much, because that looks weird (again, unless if you do it on purpose for an effect). But sometimes, you might have to, like the bathroom scenes. You make the bathrooms for your sims, not for the room to take pictures, so those angles tend to be odd in the first place.

To give you an idea of what the angles would be like, here are some pictures:

Also, you don’t have to play with the walls up. Just remember to put them up for a picture.

See, if I had just put the walls up in the first picture, it would make it look more real.

Problem: Lighting

This isn’t much of a “problem”, more of something to look out for. Now, the game usually doesn’t get too dark to be unable to see, but sometimes it is nice to be able to see a nice lighted shot of whatever is happening at night! … unless of course it’s supposed to be that dark.

Solution: Add Lighting!

The solution is quite simple: Just buy lights! If your sims can’t afford it, well then it also has a symbolic message: That they are broke. And don’t forget that you can always move the lights around for just a couple of shots!

Problem: Small Pictures

This problem only comes up when you try to upload it on your own, and not through the Sims 2 website. There is a very easy fix for this.

Solution: Check your file names

When you decide to upload your pictures, make sure you select the snapshot titled pictures, and not the thumbnails. The thumbnail pictures are for thumbnails in your game, while the snapshot is your actual shot.

Writing Tips

Now, I know for a fact that writing can annoy a lot of people very quickly. Now, I won’t tell you how to write, because I’m not a professional about it either. But I will give you little tips to help the writing part.

Chat speak

What two wonderful words. You find that you are always loling on your phone and the forums, perhaps you’ll brb? Or maybe you know 133k or whatever it was again. Well, if your English teachers won’t let you use it in a paper, you shouldn’t use it in a legacy or a story. While no one will hassle you for using the occasional chat speak on certain words, a whole story in it could get annoying. But it is always better to spell out words than to abbreviate them. But of course, if your character says LOL, well, then of course it’s okay!

Spelling and Grammar

No one is perfect at either, I even stink at it! But spell check and grammar check could be your best friend! On Firefox, there’s even a spell check built into it! But you could always copy what you are writing into a program that has it, or just write it on there.

Capitalization and Punctuation

Always, always, always obey those capitalization and punctuation rules! If someone sees someone not following the rules too many times, they may just turn their heads! Of course, accidents happen, but don’t make a habit of it. People will take you more serious if you follow the rules in the real world, so why not just carry that thought over?

Conclusion

With all of these tips, your head must be spinning! Now, while I’m not as picky as others (I will read anyone’s story or legacy, I just may not comment on it), I know there are some that are extremely picky. But with all of these tips, I’m sure you can at least take some and at least try them out for yourself. I know I could also follow some of these!

Playing the Sims 2 and sharing your stories with someone else is wonderful and quite fun. However, you need to know how to take the pictures and how to store them! There are three ways to do so – Through the game to upload directly to The Sims 2, through the game to upload to an outside source and be able to upload it to the forums or website, and through print screen. In this article, I will go through all three ways. I am writing this article with a Windows Vista computer and I haven’t had any experience with all of these steps in a Mac. Therefore, there may be some differences that I cannot cover. If you have Windows XP, the only difference would be the Documents folder is named My Documents.

Method 1: Upload to the Official The Sims 2 Site

This is perhaps the easiest method out of all of them, but you can only share it through The Sims 2 website.

So, after you have taken all of your pictures, you will need to select story mode in the IU on the bottom.

Afterwards, you need to put together your story by selecting them and adding them to a list.

Then, you select “Edit Story” from the top.

Afterwards, you can add your dialogue to your pictures. You can edit it two ways, either way works.

Afterwards, you have to select the little thing on the bottom that says when you highlight it “Package to TheSims2.com”.

After logging in with your username and password from the site, it will upload and you now have your story on your sim page to share with the world!

Method 2: Use the Camera in the Game and Upload Elsewhere

In case you didn’t know (you never know! Some people might be new to the game and don’t know this!) to take a picture in the game, you press the little camera icon in the corner.

Or you could just use the keyboard shortcut, which is pressing “C”.

To retrieve the pictures, all you have to do is follow these steps.

So, after either minimizing or exiting your game after playing (You can do either, this won’t break it), you need to go to your Documents folder. Then, you need to select the folder titled EA Games.

After that, you need to choose The Sims 2. (There may or may not be any more folders there, depending on what you play)

Once in there, you’ll find many more folders. The one you want is titled Neighborhoods.

Afterwards, you’ll get a bunch more folders, except this time with weird names. You’ll want to choose the folder that corresponds with the neighborhood you took the pictures in. To help you, these are the premade neighborhoods:

N001: PleasantView
N002: Strangetown
N003: Veronaville
G001: Riverblossom Hills (Sims 2 Seasons)
F001: Desiderata Valley (Sims 2 Freetime)
E001: Belladonna Cove (Sims 2 Apartment Life)

Any other folders will be all of the custom neighborhoods that you created, in order that you created, except for tutorial. That’s completely different. I wouldn’t recommend touching it unless if you took pictures while playing the tutorial. Actually, I don’t even know if you can do that…

If you took pictures in Download, a Bon Voyage Neighborhood, Bluewater Village, Uni neighborhood or something similar (Something attatched to the main neighborhood), you’ll find it all under the main neighborhood. You can also find any pictures your sims took if you have the appropriate EP.

So select your neighborhood.

Now, you get another folder to choose from! You should have a bunch of files that you don’t want to touch. The folder you want to choose out of here is Storytelling.

Now you have all of the pictures! But, it is probably a mess and not in order from when you took the pictures! There is a simple fix for this. What you need to do is sort the pictures by Date Modified. If the option isn’t there, then right click that top bar and select date modified.

Now all you have to do is scroll down and find your pictures that are all together and in order of when you take them! This is especially useful for when you do a legacy. When you do a story, you may not take them all in order, but at least they are together!

You can organize them in different ways to suit your needs. The only thing to remember is that it is easier to move it from the EA folder into your own. So no matter how you decide to organize your pictures, at least remove them from the EA folder. To give you an idea or even a way (if you like it, that is) to organize, I will share the steps on how I do it myself.

So first you should set up your new folders according do your tastes. My style is adding a new folder to my Documents folder, then creating subfolders to organize it further. For example, in my legacy, I have a folder for the legacy, then in that folder I have folders for each update and that is where all my pictures are.

So, once you get your new system of folders ready, you can do this move two ways. You can have two windows open, one in your Storytelling folder and the other at your new location. You can then select all of your pictures (By Shift + Click or dragging your mouse to create a box, highlighting all of your pictures) and then drag them all to your new location. Or you can use one window and select all of your pictures (by the same method) and then doing right click and selecting cut (or CTL + X) then going to your new location and right click paste (Or CTL + V). To simply make a copy of your pictures, use the second method and use CLT + C or copy instead of cut.

Now that you have them in their own little folder without anything else, make sure they are organized by date modified. Now you get to organize them in the order that you want them to be! If this is a legacy, all you after to do is go through all of them, renaming the file names to whichever method of ordering you want. I usually just rename them all numbers. So my first picture is named 1, second is 2, etc. If it is a story, date modified may not help so much if they are out of order in the first place, but you can still order them the way you want them to be.

Whew, when you completed that step, you are ready to upload it!

To upload your pictures, you have to find an image host. SimsFans offers one but you can also use Photobucket.com. It is really up to you on where you want to host them!

To display them on the forum, you will want to use the BBS code. This is simply [img](url here)[/img]. On Photobucket, they automatically give the code to you. To upload it to a website, you’ll need the html. This code is < img src=”(url here)” >.

And once you’ve done that, your all ready to do whatever you want to do with them! While it may be a long process, it is nice and organized and you’ll be thankful when you can find all of your pictures.

Method 3: Use Print Screen

Print Screen is another way to take pictures. This is actually a longer process than method 2. However, it is still worth sharing.

With Print Screen, you find a key on your keyboard that says “Prnt Scrn” or something close to it and press it when you have your shot.

If you are on a laptop and the Print Screen is under another option, then you will need to find your Function Key, possibly labeled “Fn” (It may be different depending on the brand of the laptop). If the Fn key is the same color text as the Print Screen, then you’ll need to hold down the Fn key then the Print Screen button to take the picture.

Afterwards, you’ll want to minimize the game and paste it into a paint program like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or even MS Paint. But this is where it gets long. Every single picture you take, you must minimize every single time to paste it somewhere. By using this method, you take a “copy” of your screen, so then you must paste it; otherwise you’ll lose the shot. After saving it, you can organize and upload it just like how I explained in method 2.

Conclusion

No matter what method you decide to use, you can be sharing your stories and legacies in no time! If anything was unclear, be sure to PM me (phoebe91) with any questions you have and I will be happy to help!

So, Spencer began to get lonely so he decided to hire a maid. Turns out, he hired Kaylynn, the perfect companion.

Anya began to make friends too, especially with a boy named Chandler.

Spencer and the Maid hit it off right from the bat. They went out on a date and found out that they were both Family sims.

They both got engaged and married quickly. They didn’t want to waste time with petty things such as a wedding when instead they could be making a new family.

Both Anya and Kaylynn both got makeovers soon afterwards.

But before Kaylynn came into the picture, the nanny thought she belonged in Spencer’s heart. Boy, was she heart broken when she learned she was getting fired by the infamous maid nonetheless.

Just for the summer time, Laelia decided that she needed a makeover too.

With the money that Kaylynn brought in, they managed to get a new pool.

The girls even liked to have her around.

But of course, Spencer and Kay loved each other.

She was also a really good cook, always making turkeys.

But of course, that would be because she got pregnant!

The family’s dog, Lucy, soon grew up out of her puppy stage also.

Kay soon adopted another puppy since her LTW is to raise 20 puppies/kittens.

Spencer managed to reach the top of the Entertainment career too, even with raising his two daughters.

Another bump for Kay.

Her dog grew up quickly to a young gentleman. Oh yes, and his name is Jake.

The two dogs loved each other so much they decided to experiment.

By the end of summer, Anya grew up into a knowledge teen.

However, she hated her look and instantly got a makeover.

And the first thing she did afterwards was repair the piano.