Winchester 2.0 or no? Hint: It's gonna be a yes.

Somewhere in the early 2000's, I created a town I absolutely loved in The Sims 2 called Winchester Isle.  I tracked down the terrain, found my default replacements, started a blog, downloaded more custom content, played the game, downloaded more custom content, had my computer crash, got a new computer, put in my most recent version of Winchester Isle, updated the blog a bit, but it didn't feel the same.  I stopped playing for quite some time and then my computer crashed again and I got a netbook.  Anyone who's been through netbooks knows that it is not meant for any kind of sims gaming.  By the time I got a laptop and decided to get a sims game later on, I went to The Sims 4, much later than most, and played that primarily.  I still miss my Sims 2 game and I still have all the disks in my closet but I got the The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection through Origin and as of 2pm on Wednesday April 15, 2020, I have redownloaded it to this laptop with the intention to create a new neighbourhood.

I don't have a terrain picked out.  I don't have any default replacements.  I don't have anything planned for this new replay so it's time to start from scratch! 

First things first: default eyes and skintones.  Happy searching for me since a good amount of where I would find custom content in TS2, no longer exists.  This should be fun.

Stuff to Download: posters and...yeah

Just putting a couple of things up for your downloading pleasure. I had already put these up on my LJ, I think but I definitely had them on GOS.  Anywho here are two sets of posters by Brian Despain and Katie Cook.  I just took the textures and slapped them on the "Surfing Around the Universe" poster from TS2: University.  Enjoy!

Seven Robots by Brian Despain

Don't mind me, just some interesting posts I've seen

Tutorial for Changing Facial Expressions without stopping a sim's queue by skellington7d @ LJ
GOS Art Nouveau Theme
GOS Alternative Asia Theme (because those stuff were downloaded in the past couple months so I will no longer have them in my game :( )
"Surf's Up" Surfing Interaction and Set by maybesomthingdunno @ MTS

Wall Decals by deele4952 @ N99
TS3 to TS2 Deco Conversions by HC @ N99
Manly Enough Collection by Nabilia and Trapping @ Nabilia's LJ
Pinegultcher Windows and Doors, Maxis Matrix and Craftsman Expansion Set (Garage Door, Half Walls), Tall Cul-de-Sac Fences by tbudgett @ MTS
Pocket Door, Brick and Iron Fences, Fancy Fancy Fences by Leeseter @ MTS
Hanging Clocks by Tinkle @ BPS
Chest Freezer by Tinhouse @ BPS
One Tile Vanities by tbudgett @ MTS
Boho Chiceria Bedroom @ Fairywitch Sims
Pokemon Posters @ Keoni's Sim Stuff

Posebox Hack from Decorgal
[ On The Floor ] - Pose Box by Screaming Mustard @ MTS
Badge Scholarship by Cyjon (also requires: Smarter EP Check)
HoodChecker 1.0 by Mootilda @ MTS

Excel Nerd Post

So in my (unwanted) hiatus from my desktop computer, I've started to revamp my Excel sim tracking file.  It's ridiculous how much I love to track my sim and neighbourhood stat.  And of course as I go, I'm always learning something new.  But now, I'm running into some...problems.

1) Nothing on my main sims page can actually be sorted because once I try, it messes up the formulas that count the totals (like sims by age group, gender, interests, etc).

The purple columns are my hidden columns that do my calculations to report to my summary page.  When I try to sort, it messes up my calculation for the purple columns.  This is just one section of them for this page.  While trying to be efficient (and also heralding my laziness), I use the titles in the calculations as well as the source for drop down lists for other columns.  I want to be able to sort the other information but leave the purple columns alone.

2) Trying to get the maximum of a column and report who this maximum value belongs to.  Currently, it gives me the maximum value in the column and then the lowest name in the name column.

A - "=MAX(D:D)"  Makes perfect sense, look in column D and look for the largest number.  It does that part fine

B - "=LOOKUP(C90,D:D,J:J)" And apparently this is where I went wrong somehow.  I'm trying to tell it do is to look at the result from formula A, find that row, and report the first name in the row.  Liam quite obviously is not right.  He's only at 118 not 226.

The result I'm looking for is for the "LOOKUP" to pull up Laurel's name.  Maybe I need to find a better forumla but I don't know what it is yet.

3) Other issue, getting formulas to could things without including the values of dead sims.  I found a work around for now, seen in the first picture.  See the "ma" and "fa" results?  I just wanted to be able to count the amount of males alive and the amount females alive.

Other things I'd like to do:

• On another page, pull out the sims who are in a specific career track so they can be nice and orderly on another page.  I have something similar working with the sim owned business, since apparently they now have a "Business License"
• I'm really starting to consider having a search page but that seems like it will take quite some time to figure out how to make that work
• Condense the amount of pages I have in the file.  Do I really need 15 pages?  I so need to learn how to condense.
• Seriously tweek the much nicer version of the sims page with the pictures so that if I change the info on one page, it will automatically update the other one.

No this is not an update

This is a cleverly (or not so cleverly) hidden note to myself and anyone else who might be able to help me.

My computer has decided to give up the ghost on Saturday that just passed.  From my friend's assessment via the phone, the motherboard has crashed which may or may not mean my hard drive will have to be reformatted, possibly before I get anything off of it.

Some of the sims I actually did save some of my sims previously (I wish I had managed to get a lot more).

Adam Winchester (already dead), Annie Winchester (dead), Benjamin Winchester, Bethany McCarthy (dead), Brandon McCarthy (dead), Cheryl Winchester, Catherine Thayer, Chris McCarthy, Christina Zappa, Craig McCarthy, Drake Thayer, Holly Bendett and Maddie McCarthy, Jaanai Ross, Laurel Chalmers, Rachael Chalmers, Teneesha Ross, Damien Ross, Davis Chalmers, the Li family (not including the new baby Liam)

I'm missing some of my favorites like Carrie and AJ, Claudio and the new baby on the way (baby never got a chance to even be born in game)

At the very least, I have my tracking system established, which I really like.  I'm planning on keeping the Maxis Match-ish hair

Bodyshop:
Eyes: Jess the Ex from LJ
Skintone: Pooklet, the one with like 55 shades

Objects:
BV Travel Photos with the multiple sizes
Posters from either base, Uni or NL that have slid down the wall
Blakeboy's Modular Sofas

Hacks Needed:
Stuff from Simlogical, which I believe has closed now.
Cyjon Hacks
Pescado's Hacks from MATY
InSimenator
Sim Blender (I need a link for this one because apparently the site is convinced that this computer has a virus and refuses to let me in)
InTeen
ACR
New College Scholarships by jfade@MATY (new to me)
Look at Me Hack by maybesomethingdunno @MTS
Freezer Clock by Treeag @MTS
Greener Grass Mod
Posebox List

I'm going to have to go on Custom Content Hunt (yay for being able to start from scratch for the downloads folder).

Does anyone know if it's safe to put Bodyshop items like skintones and eyes (both genetic and default) in the Saved Sims folder?

Any suggestions for good facial templates?  Not necessarily too far off the Maxis templates by the face with the nose squashed against the face that is almost as wide as the face has to go!

There is some one out there on either LJ or DW (or maybe even blogger) that has a vast collection of neighbourhood objects but I can't remember who (not criquette from MTS).  Anyone know where to find it?

So the big question is, if the Winchester Isle is gone, should I start a completely new neighbourhood or try to come up with a plausible reason why a neighbourhood of 88 sims has been downgraded to 19 sims with majority of the children sims completely gone.

Thanks for your help Carla

UPDATE:
I was able to check my iPod and found that I do have a copy of Winchester Isle from April, including downloads, camera configurations and userstartup.cheats.  Just have to wait until the computer can get fixed.  I'm going to have to redo some work like changing my default and genetic skins and eyes again and changing the skintones and eyes of certain sims to work with it.  Less work for later :D

Time is Getting Away From Me...Le Sigh

I was at a decent point before the previous round ended, that I had played so far ahead of my actual posting.  I actually had more time to play before and sort of pre-posted.  Now, I'm kinda stuck.  I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I was coming up to Wednesday last week and realized, I wasn't prepared to post anything.  I delayed the update until Sunday and still didn't have it up until Monday afternoon.  The post that was supposed to be up today, was missing everything!  A song, pictures of the family, memory of what happened when I played them etc.  I decided that I was just going to go to the household after that I had all of the info for and at least a story in my head but I am still not ready. 

I'm doing more than I was before...which really still isn't that much when I see how much other people are juggling but the only time I have to play my game is on the weekend.  And other interests of mine are starting to get back my attention.

Also, the way I wanted to write for Winchester Isle, hasn't really been showing, except in a few of the entries that I have done (behold the pimpage: Carrie James' Update, AJ Davison's Update, the first Université de Gingé Update and Ajjanagadde-Winehouse Update - which still didn't even feel like the update ended properly)

Therefore, I'm putting myself on a self imposed hiatus.  I'm not giving up Winchester Isle, I'm just going to take a break, mostly from the blogging aspect of it.  When I'm ready I hopefully will be back to my once a week schedule and not the erracticness of last summer and fall posting.  Maybe I'll post some of the other stuff I wrote, or drabbles of the Winchester Citizens on my other blog (sorry, can't remember the address of it off the top of my head but you can find it under my profile if you actually wanted to read any of it).

Université de Gingé: Shadow of Doubt

Previous Update / Next Update

Claudio Sterns - 19, Shannon Li - 19, Jaanai Ross - 19

it's holding me
it's got me down
i'm no stranger
stranger to the shadow of doubt