2016

Legacy Family? Still Going Strong!

stargrace January 24, 2016 3Comments

It has been a little while since I posted about my Sims 4 legacy family, but they’re still around and I still play them. When I last left off, there was Jessica with her daughter Emily, and Alfonzo had passed on and turned into a ghost. He was buried in the family crypt in the back yard, and comes over frequently – as a ghost, of course. Making use of the bathroom and even helping himself to cooked meals in the fridge. Somehow he manages to keep up his relationship with his daughter even from beyond the grave.

Emily is about to have a birthday and will soon see herself as an adult. She has a boyfriend, Tristan, who will hopefully be continuing the family line with her. Jessica is about to become an elder, and spends most of her day writing books with titles like “Farty Arts: It’s all about the gas”. I’ve managed to upgrade the house quite a bit. If you remember, Jessica started with almost no coin, and was living in a sleeping bag and a house without windows (or a door). Now they have a modest mansion with three bathrooms and five bedrooms. Not bad for this mother daughter team.

I’ve never made it to 10 generations before in any of my legacy Sims games, but I’d really like to. The problem is it takes so much time to go through a single sims life. I know I could shorten it so they don’t live as long and they age faster, but I’d like to keep as many of the default settings as possible.

Emily hasn’t joined a club yet, but her mother joined the Avante Guard club. She went to a few meetings and enjoyed the chatter very much. I’m thinking Emily may just start up her own club, and what their activity will be, I have yet to decide. Have you created any clubs yet? What are some of your favourites? Let me know in comments!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Gaming

Exploring my Steam Library: Aviary Attorney

stargrace January 22, 2016 0Comment

This was another game that sat in my steam library without being played over Christmas break, and let me tell you, Aviary Attorney is a fantastic little gem. You go around listening to suspects and collecting evidence to prove your case in court. Then you stand in front of the jury and try to convince them by cross-examining the witness and bringing your evidence into play. Of course there are a number of twists and turns along the way and a whole lot of puns to tie it all together.

What stands out most about this game for me personally is the artwork. I just could not get enough.

If you cross-examine a witness and the jury thinks you’re trying to stall or you’re not asking the right questions, you’ll lose favor with them which will hurt your case. I managed to win my first one – but not without a lot of eye opening moments along the way.

Knitting Yarn

Finding Inspiration

stargrace January 21, 2016 0Comment

Sometimes there are so many pattern options on Ravelry that you’ll spend hours combing through them instead of working on your projects. If you’ve got the winter blues (or you’re just feeling poorly) this can be even more apparent. This week I’ve been struggling to figure out what I want to work on next. Since I’m such a new knitter (I’ve been knitting since September 2015) there are lots of techniques that I haven’t mastered and lots of projects that are still too difficult for me. I’ve been feeling my way around trying to find the ‘best for me’ learning path, but it can be a frustrating experience. Take double knitting as an example. No matter how many times I practice I seem to get all wrapped up in the technicalities of it and by row 19 I’ve messed up so much that the original image is too hard to figure out. Frustrating, right?

I’ve got three WIP on the go right now. One is my second BKAL sock, the ones that are rainbow. I finished the first one last week and I adore it. The second is my baby blanket that I’ve been working off and on for the past few months. It’s an easy pattern but I get bored of it. The third project is my 2016 Sherwood MKAL which I love, but I have been feeling a bit lethargic so I put it aside in order to prevent mistakes. I’m almost up to the chart knitting portion and I’m excited for it but I’m also scared. It will be the first time I’ve attempted to read a lace chart pattern, and while they don’t look that complicated, I’m sure it’s very easy to make mistakes.

My queue is pretty barren too. I’ve got a newborn vertebrae in there that I’d like to knit with felici, along with the hue shift afghan but I don’t want to start that until my baby blanket is done. I’ve never knit mitered squares before, and I know I have a learning process to go through. I also have a simple shawl on there in the hopes of using up my Cascade Yarn kid seta, and I have the skywalker shawl in there which I’m hoping to do with a new batch of shadow lace from knitpicks that I bought from someone who was destashing – if it ever gets here. Mail has been a bit persnickety lately.

I also found someone who was destashing some hiyahiya interchangeable bamboo needles in the small size, and I decided to snag those while I could. I don’t expect that they’ll get here for some time yet (I’m not even sure if they’ve been sent at the time of this post) but I know I just need to learn some patience.

In the meantime I completed a quick headband this week while I took a short break from everything else. What inspires you when you’re feeling under the weather? What motivates you to pick up the needles and keep going on a project that may be putting you to sleep? Do you spend more time browsing patterns and FO on Ravelry and Instagram or do you discipline yourself into getting those projects done? Let me know!

Gaming

Today in my Steam Library: Stonehearth

stargrace January 18, 2016 0Comment

I got this game for Christmas but am only now finding the time to be able to play. It’s an adorable strategy game that plays like Dwarf Fortress. You start with some minions, assign them jobs, and attempt to survive in a fantasy setting. You can play in normal mode where your village will be attacked or you can play in peaceful sandbox mode where you won’t have to worry about invasions but you still have to worry about basic survival.

Unfortunately the tutorial lasts for only about 5 steps, but the game is pretty intuitive if you just press all the buttons and fumble your way around. I started out by assigning one villager as a farmer, another as a carpenter and a third as a soldier. Then I had them gather basic materials like wood and stone, while the farmer started a carrot farm, soon followed by corn. The carpenter crafted items that were required by the housing, such as tables and chairs for the dinning hall. The soldier went on patrol but seemed fascinated with only the farm area of their town and before long two zombies ran in and killed 3 out of my 7 citizens. A tutorial for combat would be nice, it was the only portion I had issues figuring out.

It is an early access game, so you should keep that in mind as you play through but I really had a great time watching the adorable little minions do their thing. There are some issues with creating your own buildings, but I never ran into them personally. My minions leveled up a few times and I was happily building away when along came another invasion, this time three zombies. I decided to stop playing right there and switch to peaceful mode until I could figure out the combat portion of the game.

All in all, a nice relaxing way to spend an evening.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Questing in Dromund Kaas

stargrace January 17, 2016 1Comment

Well, I certainly didn’t hold out long. After reaching level 10 as a non-subscriber I decided to subscribe for a month. This eased my mind when it came to all of the restrictions that F2P players get stuck with, and it allowed me much more enjoyment while playing. I re-created my Sith Inquisitor as a Twi’lek which was what I wanted to create from the start. I picked Artifice as my craft with archaeology and treasure hunting to supplement it. After that, it was back to questing in Dromund Kaas. I enjoyed being out of the desert of Korriban, the landscape of barren wastelands has never really appealed to me. One thing I noticed is that my UI had turned off tracking for all quests that were not main story quests. I turned this back on so I didn’t miss anything, and that’s how I found myself level 25 in the level 15 area. None of that matters since the game levels you down to an appropriate rank and I’ve always been a fan of games that had this mechanic.

I’m playing my character as an egotistical daredevil who knows that she’s great at what she does. It’s an odd experience for me, but I’m loving the story options so far.

Next up? Balmorra!

Legacy Family? Still Going Strong!

Exploring my Steam Library: Aviary Attorney

Finding Inspiration

Today in my Steam Library: Stonehearth

Questing in Dromund Kaas

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