Bloopers, Glitches, Cute and Funny Screenshots

We’ve all had them. Those moments where something happens in your sims game that you just have to break out in laughter. Whether it’s a really funny glitch, or just something random that is really funny. Going through my screenshots and memories, I found quite a few pictures of moments like these, and thought it would be great fun to collect all of them in a post, adding to it as more of them happen. With each of them, I’ll add a little description of what’s going on, or how it happened. Anyway, there’s really very little introductions needed for these, so.. browse and Enjoy! Everyone can always use a good chuckle! (Some of these are actually a series of pictures, but that only makes them better.)

Just a quick aside that I just updated the “Home” page of this blog with lots more information. Added a list of current projects, challenges, and planned challenges, as well as a couple notes on plans regarding the soon-upcoming Sims 4. (58 days!!)

Also, I just posted a new chapter for Spectres, and am working on another now!

I’ve also done a re-vamp of the site menus, and added navigation links to the challenge blog chapters, so it’s easier to move around the blog. 🙂 Plus, there’s now a “featured posts” section on the top of the homepage where I’ll keep the newest chapters of each challenge, and any highlighted posts!

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Katie’s Diary

Day Five:

Waking up today, I can truly say I felt a bit better.. other than being extremely hungry and lonely. I reflected a while on what I’d been through the past few days, and chatted with both myself and Norman. Things couldn’t be much drearier.. but at least I was alive… And definitely hungry. I waited as long as I possibly could before eating yet another cold can of soup – I still really wasn’t sure what to do with those supplies I’d pilfered from the bistro. With a satisfied belly, I set out for the junkyard to try to find some more tools for inventing.

Need some tools – but somehow, I doubt a pipe is going to help….

I found a whole lot of scrap, and an old screwdriver and claw hammer, which both seemed like they would be a big help… but not much more. With a determined sense of inspiration, I tried to invent something else.. anything would have been good.. but all I did was manage to set myself on fire again. Being that it was already dark, despite my now rather ragged clothes, no way was I going to go out to scrounge some new threads. Sighing deeply, I threw some darts at the wall for stress relief.. and then threw some more after I broke the toilet AGAIN! Well, at least I’m getting better at unclogging it!

Finally, near tears of frustration, hunger, loneliness, and a sense of pure hopelessness, I curled up in my little cot bed. I couldn’t even muster up enough energy to read the cookbook or a novel or play darts. I ended up simply crying myself to sleep.

Day Six:

So I guess it is true. Things somehow always look a bit better in the morning. Stalling for time before eating my one meager meal of the day, I once again pedaled through the fog and complete, eerie silence for the junkyard. It was practically becoming my second home! I managed to find a nice set of wrenches Ol’ Jim had apparently stashed in the bathroom cupboard (who would have thought to look there??) and quite a bit more scrap. I ended up taking three trips to bring home all the little bits of junk I found in my bike basket, and stored things neatly away in my invention bench. I also took a short trip back to my parent’s house to get some of my other clothes to replace the rather singed ones I had on.

Then, wearily, I sat myself down for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with my faithful Norman as my companion. He didn’t have much to say, but talking to him seemed to make me feel considerably better, and, after cleaning up my bowl again, I stubbornly set myself to the task of inventing.. anything. After yet another fire mishap (perhaps I should give it a rest with the gas powered blowtorch!), and the second shower in a can hastily employed in two days, I did finally give up for the day. I set myself down for an entertaining read of “A Magnetic Attraction,” which raised my spirits considerably. I then picked up the cook book and read as much as I could by torch light before finally being too tired to make out the words anymore. I did, however, feel that I finally learned some things about cooking.

Learned Cooking

How I wish I’d taken those cooking lessons my mother had always wanted me to take.. but there had always been tomorrow to take them. Now, those tomorrows were gone… and I was left to another lonely night of sleep.

Day Seven:

So… today makes a whole week of being in extreme survival mode – all by my lonesome. Well, except for Norman. But he doesn’t even move – or talk back.. so does he count? I suppose he has to, for what’s left of my sanity’s sake! After some deliberation, I decided that I wasn’t going to take my usual junkyard trip, but instead really dedicate myself to inventing something.. anything. So, to get myself started on my day in a better way, I decided to try making peanut butter jelly sandwiches.. on crackers. Tasted a little odd, but certainly better than the horrible canned soup. As a bonus, it was far more filling!

After a pep talk with myself and Norman, I set myself to “determined” mode, and practically attacked the inventing bench. I had plenty of scrap and tools, so those weren’t an issue.. and I was convinced that if I just fiddled around enough (and avoided the blowtorch for a while!), I’d have a brainstorm. Luckily, it turned out I was right.

Yay! A widget!

Turns out I managed to make some sort of Tentacled Wind-Up Thingy. Fairly useless, but cool nonetheless. Perhaps the next thing will fix phones and radios? Wishful thinking, but it’s all I have right now. I set back to work, and, with thoughts of being able to disassemble things a bit easier, I eventually made a Smasher widget – I’ll try it out later. With a little more tinkering, I even made a little doggy-robot looking toy.

Made a toy!

At least Norman won’t be all alone anymore! And I raised my inventing skill, as a bonus. All these successes left me feeling pretty good about myself, .. well, until I broke the toilet again. Fixing it was satisfying, however, and I feel much better at handiness. I celebrated by playing darts until I was exhausted, and settled in for as comfortable a sleep as I’ve had.. well, in a week.

>> Next

Being that I’ve been going through my screenshots and memories, it suddenly occurred to me that I have a whole lot of pictures of saves that – for whatever reason – I just haven’t been able to let go of, even though they serve no “real” purpose. Sure, they might occasionally pick up an achievement, but they’re not for any challenge or .. well, anything other than randomly playing sims for fun. –And some of them have stuck around for ages before getting dumped for whatever reason – or haven’t gotten put away at all! One such household is the Syun family, who have been around since shortly after Showtime came out. They were (I think) the second family I played, the first one created in the Starlight Shores Showtime world.. and they have somehow struck my fancy, and I just keep coming back to them. It started out pretty small: the dad, Xueiliang (since I don’t have sims up, I’m not entirely sure that’s how it’s spelled.. I’ll fix it later if I’m wrong..) .. who wishes to be a chef.., the mom, MeiRan (means beautiful orchid in korean), an acrobat, the daughter (started as a child), Danika, and the son, Jaysun, who started as a toddler. Things have changed since then.. but those four are all still around. Being that this particular save has been around since 3/12, some of the screenies aren’t the best quality, but oh well! I’m (obviously) not going to post all the ones I have, but I’ll try to pick and choose the best shots and memorable moments for this family.

Anyway, here’s some pics!

The first shot I have of “The Beautiful Orchid”, MeiRan, performing for tips.

Xue, signing up for the Culinary career.

.. Then, I adopted two cats and a dog. Squiggles and Lady (destined to be mates), and Dracca the dog. First thing off, Danika picked up fleas from Lady.. and so began Dani’s obsession with animals! (sorry this pic is dark!)

Then, Lady passed on her fleas to poor Dracca…

And Jaysun got potty trained!

Here’s a shot of Mei with Jaysun:

And Xue with Dracca:

Mei getting strong and a promotion to boot:

And at her very first audition for a gig:

Then, I got tired of that dinky starter house, cheated for funds, and moved them to a nice house on the other side of town… which they’re still living in (although I did move the house to a bigger lot in the last couple weeks.. the house still has the same general shape, although the decor has been upgraded a time or two, and after the lot move, a barn was built). Here’s Xue holding Squiggles (the male cat) halfway between the new kitchen and living rooms.

With their Asian theme, I put a martial arts academy in town, and sent Mei to learn SimFu:

Followed rather shortly by their first burgular:

Mei gets promoted again in their garage/ laundry/workout room:

Xue fixing the invariable toilet clog:

Yet another broken toilet, this time in the upstairs bath:

Mei’s first excellent gig:

Xue teaches Dracca to sit:

Jaysun, now a child, has an accident… lol! (guess that potty training needs a refresher course!)

Xue in the kitchen hitting level 5 cooking:

Mei becomes a celebrity:

Then gets another promotion:

And, finally, Lady and Squiggles are expecting!

..That’s all for this post – but never fear, there will be more!

Got five more achieves last night, including my third platinum.. yay!! Haven’t gotten any today (yet), but I did get considerably closer to several before my sim game decided to crash while putting on an addition to a house.  Luckily, I don’t think I lost too much. Anyway, that was just a quick update. On to more interesting things!

I’m busy working on and testing lot prices and upgrades and requirements for unlocking for a helpful table-type resource for NiF’ers. I have some early prototypes up on it on the mod the sims post on the challenge, but my goal is to have it on this website for everyone to be able to refer to. So If I don’t get to updating my challenge stories for a couple days, that’s where I am. Those are next on my list after this! 🙂

Just for the sake of my OCD, I sat down and took a long look at the way this blog is shaping up.. now that it is actually getting some  content, and starting to at least go somewhere. Last September (2012) I posted a brief outline of the challenges I was working on or planning to work on. Things are the same on some of them, but way different on others. So, for the sake of .. continuity..? .. perhaps, I’m going to run through a list of what I’m still working on, or getting started on. (some of these have been scattered through other blog posts on here, not just that September one.)

Beyond all that, my current goal is to make sure to post a chapter section in each challenge at least once a week. That being said, that goal will have to include “catching up” on the stories I already have started – because for most of them, I’ve kept playing even though I slacked off on blogging. I made sure to keep what I call “play journals” – notes of what was going on each day/week so I know where the story went, and can find the pictures in order through my memories and screenshots. The challenges not currently linked below… will be soon. All part of my “reorganizing sims” campaign I started on a couple days ago.. hehe. Meantime.. at least the few people who follow my blog will know where things are going!

Projects

• “Project One” – Cataloging and organizing all my items in Sims 3. I’ve finally gotten a fairly comprehensive set of “Collections” set up for these, and they’re about half full. It really does save me a lot of time when doing theme builds (which tends to be most of my builds)… so I do want to get this done. However, it’s extremely boring and time consuming, so I tend to work on it in little spurts when I get annoyed over not finding something or other. And the Sims Store keeps complicating matters by adding new content all the time.. 0.o .. so I keep having to add more stuff. This is not a project I have any intention of publishing or blogging about, just a little personal mission of mine.
• “Project Two” – Sunset Valley Remodel – This is a fun one, but again, it’s been very time consuming, so I tend to work on it in bits and pieces. I’ve put hours upon hours of work into it, however, so I have no intention of stopping until it’s done. I’m finally starting to get some of the finished product up onto the exchange, though, and expect to see more soon. I really like the look of what I’ve got done, and all the pending ideas for builds I haven’t finished or started are really exciting. (the not started ones are very few in number.. the town is mostly built up, I’m just doing a lot of testing and refining now…)
• “Shady Oaks Trailerhood” Project – this is a new project for me, and one I’m more or less just dabbling in at the moment. Whether it actually ends up in a publishable custom world.. well, we’ll see. Being a perfectionist has it’s downsides.. and if it doesn’t turn out well, it will likely just get scrapped. However, I figure I’d mention it, and as it’s being worked on, post some pictures and such.. just because I can.
• “Mystery” Project – This was mentioned last September too. I just have had it “shelved” for quite a while. That’s not to say I haven’t still been thinking of it.. I’ve got half a small notebook and a few computer files of lists of ideas for this, and I’m still working on it. Suffice it to say.. I’m dabbling with creating my own Sims 3 Challenge.. in the form of a story. And it involves Gnomes. Those are the only clues you get. 😉 I have recently resurrected the affiliated game-save file, though, and there’s a good possibility I’ll start blogging about it soon. (I just really want to get some other stuff caught up on here first.)
• More projects?? Nooo.. I have too many things going already!! However, I will mention that I am also still working on collecting achievements/badges. Have some 170ish badges left to go (I’ll update this with an exact number when I get back in game here in a few..)

Challenges

• “Spectres of the Past” (NiF/Apocalypse) – My most important/story driven challenge to date. It’s long overdue for me catching up on the story, since my game save is WAY ahead of what I have blogged (but never fear, I have it journal’ed and lots of screenshots taken to write with!)
• “Falcon Apocalypse” Challenge – Yeah, I know, this one should probably have a better name.. but I never came up with one, and have been calling it this for long enough that it just stuck. The family name is “Falcon”, and it’s a straight-up Apocalypse challenge, so that’s where the name came from. I’ve been playing it for quite a while now on and off, and have a nice daily journal on it in my sims notebook, so it shouldn’t be too hard to set up a mini blog following what’s going on with some pictures. Not going to write a story about it, but a gameplay journal with pictures is easy enough to do, and fun to look back on.
• “Castaway Shores” NiF Challenge – This is the newest of all of these challenges.. and one I’m really looking forward to. I’ve been missing the “NiF” challenges for such a long time, and the whole idea of doing one in the Island Paradise world as a castaway was too much to resist. I have the very beginnings of the story published now, and plan to continue with it as time allows.
• “Those Crazy Irish” MacRae ISBI Challenge – This is the oldest of all the challenges I still have running. Or, well, recently unearthed. ISBI stands for “I’m Surrounded By Idiots” and it’s a fun little exercise in being as “hands off” micromanaging my sims as I think I could possibly stand. Easy to play (except for always wanting to fix things going wrong when I can’t because the rules forbid it!!), it’s a good break from other challenges and daily life stresses, so I finally pulled the save out of my backup file and am busily updating it. Overall, it’s by far the funniest game I play, so it makes for a fun story with silly pictures.
• “All My UN-Natural Children” Supernatural Orphanage Challenge – the premise of this one hasn’t changed much in the last year. It’s a victorian-themed “Supernatural Orphanage” challenge – to be blogged in commentary style. Daughter picked this challenge out for me to do and helped make the characters – I wanted to really get to know the new supernaturals. Major goal is to survive generation one and get all the munchkins married off with an heir – but I may extend it to a 5 generation challenge just for fun. I keep having trouble getting my game to not crash with mods in the last few weeks (months) and since it’s an over-stuffed household, it’s sort-of on “hold”. Fairly sure I’ve still got all the old pictures and such laying around, though, so I’ll see if I can’t get them posted here soon.
• “Gardner LTW” Challenge – This one I’m working on side-by-side with my daughter’s Sims 2 LTW Challenge, and scoring against each other, so I don’t work on this one all that much, just when we’re both playing together. I may end up posting a “little” scorecard for this, but it won’t be really blogged about. We’ve complete the first generation, and are just getting started on the second generation, so there’s a long way to go yet.
• Random Legacy Challenge – completely un-started, I have too much going on already. Since I plan to put it in Sunset Valley, this will not get started until my “Sunset Valley Remodel” project is fully complete (see above for more info on that).
• 50 Foals Challenge – This will be the next challenge I start when I have a slot open up for it. I keep myself to only five challenges actively running at a time (plus the one with my daughter).

I really missed my “Falconvale” “Nothing is Free” challenge, and I really wanted to get a new traditional “Nothing is Free” challenge going (rules on Mod the Sims here) – as opposed to my “Spectres”  challenge, which is combined with an Apocalypse challenge. Plus, I had just gotten the Island Paradise expansion, so the thought of building my own Island Paradise had plenty of merit. Coming up with a story for such a world wasn’t a real stretch of imagination, either… a castaway was completely obvious. So.. Castaway Shores was born. I gutted the town, and “fished” around for an appropriate starting lot, which took some doing.. originally, I picked a land-locked one, but that seemed like a stupid idea, so I moved him to a beachy lot.

My founding character is a guy, named Micah McCloud. His traits are: Loves to Swim, Loner, Handy, Excitable, and Eco-Friendly. His favorite music is Island Life, he loves Grilled Salmon, and he likes the color red. With all that being said, that’s pretty much all you need to know to start reading!

I always wanted to go back to this, in fact, I think I still have the file. But I just don’t play Sims 3 anymore. Maybe someday.

From my original page on this story: “First of all, I know it’s mis-spelled.  I did it on purpose.  Poetic license! Second, the title will be explained in due time.

I came up with the idea after downloading a beautifully evocative world called “Silent Hill” (yes, based off the games) from the Sims Exchange – found here if you’re interested.  I promptly tossed the idea out and kept looking.  Hours later, after coming back to the idea many times, and finally having a brainstorm session with my husband where the story was fleshed out some more, I finally decided this was what I was going to go with.  I really wanted to get another “Nothing is Free” challenge going (rules on Mod the Sims here) .. and this time I wanted to START with a story, not the challenge itself.  (I started with the challenge last time, and then had to come up with a semi-lame story after the fact when I decided to start blogging it.)  However, this was where the complications showed up.  For the story to work, I’m going to have to get a bit.. well.. creative.  The world is a lovely sad and ruined world, perfect for a lonely sim who thinks they just might be the last sim alive to try to rebuild humanity… er.. simanity.  However, that means the play is going to be a bit more complicated.  I’ve always wanted to try an Apocalypse challenge (rules found on it’s wiki here) .. but never been brave enough to actually start one.  I read over the rules fairly carefully, and if I modify several key things (the big one is going to be the fact that there ARE no rabbit holes to start with in the world – and I’m going to make a really tough choice to also force a NO OTHER SIMS! in the world to start with as well.)  Not to completely spoil the story, I will let you discover that as we go.. but this challenge could very well end before it begins if the random chance gods of sims don’t help me out before my founder dies. (yikes!)“

This is the only Sims 3 game I’ve attempted to go back to since Sims 4 came out. I still have the save file, but the issue is still the same. I was going to need to force the save past bugs with cheats, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to just for the sake of the story. Maybe someday.

Chapter 1.1 < | > Chapter 1.3

Day Four, Micah McCloud’s Adventure Journal

The fourth day dawned bright and early, and with the return of the sun, I felt my spirits rise. I pulled the mirror out of the outhouse, and set it up behind it on a board. Why I would need a mirror.. I don’t know.. but for now, it worked to help me shave with the unfamiliar straight razor from the toolkit. I had no desire to end up looking like some scruffy island reject, and some self-care seemed definitely the order of the morning. I caught up on my journal, had a breakfast of my last anchovy, and set out to fish some more up.

However, as I was heading to my boat, I was thoroughly startled by the ringing of my cell phone. Scrambling for my pocket, I fumbled with the buttons, and, shaking, I whispered a scratchy “Hello?” Unfortunately, I was just in time to hear the click of the other party hanging up. Disappointed, but curious, I put the phone back into my pocket and headed out fishing. I didn’t fish for too long due to the rain starting back up, but I did catch some more anchovies and a jellyfish.

When I came back to what I was now thinking of as “my” beach, I ate a soggy and slightly burnt fishy breakfast, then set out to upgrade my bathroom. The handiness manual had outlined the way to make it clean itself, so I followed the directions scrupulously. Before long, I had a self-cleaning bathroom.. what a luxury!

Then, I studied a cookbook until I learned cooking – perhaps now I wouldn’t burn my fish for dinner. With the rain still coming down, the darkness seemed lonely, so I studied the stars and once again looked for any ships on the horizon. Feeling lonely, I crawled exhaustedly into my tent, and fell into a sound sleep.

Day Five, Micah McCloud’s Adventure Journal

I woke to MORE rain, and had a lonely soggy anchovy for breakfast… but at least it wasn’t burnt this time! With some extra driftwood, I built myself a makeshift couch, coffee table, chess board and chair.

Ooh.. a rock!

Then, the rain suddenly cleared, and I took my bike out to explore the island a bit more. I found a gem, a rock, and a flower. I also managed to explore all the roads, and once again marveled at the perfectly laid out, albeit empty village.

Exploring the island

An idea to build a town here slowly started growing in my brain. I wondered who owned the island, and how to buy it. I was loving the island life, and college didn’t hold any appeal for me anymore, so I thought perhaps my savings to pay for that could go towards this land I’d found. The island was beautiful, and would make a nice place for a town.

Shark!

Knowing my food supply was low, I saved enough daylight time to fish, and .. yay! .. I caught a nice-sized tuna. A large shark visiting my beach convinced me to head back in early.

Learning Charisma

Once I got back home, I studied a charisma manual in the darkening evening, and once the sun went down, I searched the galaxy.  I’d all but given up on ships, so the stars were what I studied. One of them appeared to be moving… towards me…

Sparkly lights…

Help! I’m being kidnapped!

Home again.. with a friend?

… Uhhh… aliens! Once they left, I went to bed, exhausted.

Day Six, Micah McCloud’s Adventure Journal

After last night’s adventure, I slept in, and the sun was well on it’s way across the sky before I managed to wake up. I had roasted tuna for breakfast.. what a treat! I was raining.. AGAIN.. what a day. Then, exploring my beach, I discovered what looked to be a fossilized shark tooth to add to my collection.

Chatting with Fransica

Then, suddenly, my phone started ringing. I was less surprised this time, and quickly answered it with a scratchy “Hello?” I turned out to be Fransica, from college, trying to get a hold of me. How the phone worked way out here, I’ll never know, but we chatted for quite a while. She promised to notify the proper authorities, and do some research on the island I’d landed on. I hoped I wouldn’t have to leave my new island, but there was nothing to be done one way or the other, now. The cat was definitely out of the bag.

After we hung up, I checked my phone battery, and saw it still had plenty of time left (thank goodness for the long life battery I had!), then decided to spend some time playing chess. I also tinkered with the bathroom some more, but didn’t upgrade it or anything.

Struck by lightning!

Once it got dark, I looked for stars again.. and suddenly, I was struck by lightning! Deciding this was the last straw for the day, I cleaned myself up in the bathroom, and went to bed in my tent.

Chapter 1.1 < | > Chapter 1.3