Sims 2 has nearly come of age

[ritaxis]

I know I am out here in dangerous anorak land, but I've been following the progress of Sims 2. FOr me the game is not worth playing until fans can make architectural features and archane items of furniture.

This is not a simple thing. Maxis had not released tools that would make it possible to attach 3d and texture files to the game's programming. But there are serious modders among the Sims fans, and even before Sims 2 came out there were forums and communitites dcevoted to hacking and modding the game. So they've been working on the problem even as Maxis is probably also working on the problem -- I mean Maxis repeatedly promised such tools but they've been pretty quiet about it lately, so I assumed they've been running into problems.

A month or so ago the first hacks -- lockable doors, other patchy type of things -- showed up. Somebody figured out how to make other paintings than the game originally allowed. And, a triumph of monumental proportions -- earlier this week I saw the first "retextured" Sims 2 items. It's just a little thing, introducing new colors and patterns to the skins of some of the 3d objects in the game, but it took hard work to accomplish.

And today I read that Maxis has released the tool for importing wall, floor, and "ground cover" textures.

We're on our way.

I'll be buying Sims 2 sometime in the forseeable future, I guess . . .

Comments

[sciamanna.livejournal.com]

Yep! :-))

And you probably will. The architectural side will lag behind a bit longer, I suspect, but recolours are out there and meshes will surely follow. And the relationship/interaction side is just so much more complex... (and people are hacking this too, for the moment career paths only but I guess new Aspirations, Wants etc. will appear at some point.)

...and I'm not playing it at all because I've been mugged by a heavy-muscled muse! Which would be unalloyed delight if it wasn't that I'm also extra-busy with paid work... (So what are you doing commenting on people's LJs? Well, waiting for the kettle to boil, of course...)

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

One of the things that's slowing me down, actually, is the relationships. I don't think I really want to play a life simulating game: I think the pleasure I would get out of that is already taken care of by writing. Not that I never play that side of the Sims, but I just don't focus on it.

I realized today I'm still not ready, though. I'm slower on a lot of these things than other people -- not "an early adopter," I guess.