Castle Canyon

[Simbody]

So glad you are enjoying the sims. I have been playing the Miner's a bit and they are a fun group :D That Autumn seems to start some trouble so you have to keep an eye on her. I had all the family upset over something, not sure what but someone made a gesture that was perceived as more than just friendly and every adult was in a tizzy over it!

I'm also working on my Apocalypse blog, I'm just trying to find the right pictures for the next 3 chapters, they are written just not published because without pics they are rather boring. Hopefully things will start to get more interesting, but some how I lost a week worth of events. I only have 3 weeks written and my sim is in week 4. I guess I will have to stretch some events out a bit to make the story work. :)

Plus with summer here my girls and I stay pretty busy. I have lots more free time than when in school for the computer, but still not enough to do everything I'd like so I break it up :)

Friday S is having a birthday party. I have booked a local pavilion at the splash park and we are going to have a splashing good time. I've been busy planning that and getting supplies in order. We have lots of water games to play as well as the splash park, and a large playground and ball field to play at and I think the adults that are coming as as excited as the kids are!

Then a week later we start our VBS, so I've got to finish up my lesson plans and get all my supplies in order.

[Regina]

Man oh man, I hadn't thought until you mentioned it, Reg, Castle Canyon WOULD be absolutely perfect for horses and such! There's so much open space! This is one of the reasons I love Castle Canyon. Amy last Saturday we took a spontaneous day trip up the river to a place that all these years I've wanted to go but never have, up to the sand dunes. Now much of our scenery really isn't all that great, in fact much of it is just downright underwhelming to me, but dog-gone if I didn't see a lot of places along the river that reminded me of your Castle Canyon world, except the grass in those areas was much darker green. And the dunes here? I've seen pictures of the dunes but never actually the dunes. They're absolutely HUGE and there are lakes in the flat areas! The lakes were so sandy and calm. If I had known about them we would have taken swimming clothes. The whole thing was just awesome.

[Simbody]

Just wanted to let you all know that Castle Canyon seems to work just fine with Pets without needing updated.

I started with a vanilla game and then re-installed Riverview and Castle Canyon before testing it and I haven't yet tested a previous save, but plan to here in a few minutes so I will update with that information as well.

I found it rather easy to add in the equestrian centers and the pet parks. I did change one large residential to community and may have changed a smaller one as well but overall I think there I plenty of empty lots to accommodate the new pet features. The wild horses like the hatchery and I added a hitching post to mine to give them food.

Other residents are getting dogs and cats without food dishes but I plan to go through and add them to some houses. I even have a ranch house in the making to add to the world. I just have some minor touches to finish up and the pictures to take.

Parsimonious is in the process of finally hosting worlds so my worlds will be moved there eventually, at least Liberty Bay will be since it doesn't use Riverview rabbit holes. I haven't decided if I will edit Castle Canyon to remove the Riverview items or not, but I would like to use the new warehouse lot. So the old saloon lot may actually become a watering hole :cowboy: I may just make them anyway and upload them as alternatives :cheesy:

Sorry thinking out loud. I'm off to finish the lot and test a previous save. Then I'll look at just how I would want to update the world if at all.

[tontrin]

Cool! Thanks for the update!

[Regina]

Awesome! Yeah, I think Castle Canyon is a PERFECT town for wild horses and the like. :D

[Simbody]

Well I am happy to say that even a previous save works just fine. Animals even spawned quickly. Within a few sim day I had a stray on the porch of my Legacy family.

Off to school for now, but hopefully I will have time tonight to get more done. I think it will be best to only offer the new lots instead of remake the world. I know that not everyone is as thrilled about the animals as I am. I live where animals roam freely through town, even wild horses (though they do stick to the outskirts and the cemetery) so it doesn't bother me to see them roaming everywhere. I do find it odd to see parrots and the like but hey it's a game its supposed to be fun, not true to life! :MrGreen:

[Regina]

Ooh, that's good! I spent a little bit of time the other evening reading around and I was thinking you probably shouldn't need to rebuild. It's my understanding that having a pet with a hunting skill will start more generating on their own and such.

I'd imagine it would seem very strange having animals show up in certain areas but goodness, there are other places with wildlife practically everywhere. There are skunks, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, deer, antelope, wild horses, etc. in our area as well. Granted, I can't see the wild horses or antelope from my house and normally don't see deer from here but there are places VERY close where sightings are frequent.

[tontrin]

Definitely there are places where you see animals everywhere, like in my yard. It's not odd to see elk, deer, and other animals here. I'm looking forward to getting back to playing Castle Canyon with Pets; it is such a cool world and will go so well with Pets. I actually got Pets installed and have been able to look at the new town and see what objects came with it. That's about as far as I've had time to go, but everything looks pretty good. I really am more excited about this EP than any other. Also, I'm looking forward to making more of my Harvest Moon sims with animals included. :D

[Regina]

You're ahead of me, Tonya! I haven't tried to install it yet! I'll have to have a horse rancher Sim in Castle Canyon just because I can. :D

[tontrin]

Oh, yes, I've been waiting for horses for so long now! A horse rancher would be awesome in Castle Canyon.

[Regina]

Last night I got Pets installed just in time to install Castle Canyon. Somehow or another I managed to download a new copy of Riverview (twice, even) and I had just enough time to place a few Pet lots and play for a little over half a Sim day.

I think Tontrin's Skye Bigwater is perfect in Castle Canyon. I decided I didn't want to go full-blown into a horse ranch with a brand new Sim so removed his charismatic trait and gave him Animal Lover with the LTW to adopt six strays.

Amy, Castle Canyon is one of the few towns I have downloaded that I think will actually be able to accommodate Pets (and other expansion packs) well. I was easily able to plop one of the pre-built Equestrian centers and training grounds. Empty lots in the middle of town got the dog and cat parks.

I haven't actually seen any animals yet but did hear at least two dogs (one small and one large) barking in the distance. Apparently Skye heard them too because he immediately rolled a wish to befriend a stray and another for adoption. I'm posting a couple of screenshots. Skye built a small house and just because I could I had to use all Pets furnishings in it.

I am hoping to be able to steal away some time to play this afternoon. I do this, that, and the other thing all Sims related but it's just not the same at all.

[tontrin]

Awe, I'm so glad you're getting enjoyment out of Skye in Castle Canyon! That is a great match.

[Simbody]

That's great Regina! It's funny but I play CC more than any other world, even over the other 2 I have built. I really like that I can add so many new lots to the world as well, yet it has enough stuff to enjoy without having too just to play.

I have one ranch house built, I have a couple of sims on it both with animal related LTWs it has plenty of room to accommodate a family of sims and a zoo full of animals. Hopefully I will be able to add to the world in the form of new lots to place in CC.

I am going to try to update a new version that will use the Pets EP. However, I don't want to mess with the old one so I will have 2 different options to accommodate those that don't want the EP but want to enjoy Castle Canyon. I will make them 2 different world files, so both can be in the game alongside the other, so no need to loose the stuff you have going to enjoy the new version. Also, it might be a month or 2 before this does happen. Just when I see a break in the school work a new week comes with even more stuff to do than the last. This week I'm going to be swamped, but I've also caught a bug. I'm feeling rather ill tonight. That cold I have been trying to avoid has finally caught me :alert: I hope I feel better tomorrow, but I have a feeling I will feel much much worse :(

[Regina]

I'm so sorry you're sick! I've been feeling run-down for over a week and felt like Friday I'd come down with something. Today I'm back to just feeling tired and run-down. There are nasty bugs going around, though. I hope you feel better soon.

I was thinking before I get too far into things I want to update some of the houses with Pets and Ambitions items so if I manage to do that I can upload some of the updated houses for you. Twallan's been working on a FAQ for Story Progression and I was reading that yesterday while waiting on the 850-meg updates to download. He has that thing set so that Sims with the right Ambitions jobs will move into the houses with those objects to use them. There's one Sim in the town that is a "dog person" so I'd love to give her stuff and let her have a dog. She was absolutely NOT impressed that Skye likes ALL animals.

I also have not been impressed that I haven't seen a single stray dog, cat, or horse and nary a deer or raccoon.

If, however, you want to find some awesome rare stuff just go to the cemetery. Skye found a chinchilla there the second day. I'm going to be really miffed if these animals die off quickly because chinchillas live for over twenty years.

Thanks to Twallan's Consignment mod Skye will make a good living off the various things he's been collecting. His career is Angler but seriously I wish they'd put one in there for junk collector since that's what most of my Sims do. :MrGreen:

Here are a couple of pictures:

He's enjoying the view out his bedroom/kitchen/living room window. :D

   

He adores this bird! I think I'll have him sell it on consignment, though, since I was reading they end up dying after just a few days. (I'll definitely need a mod to kill that "feature".)

   

[tontrin]

Oh, and it's such a cute bird.