Between the Light and the Darknes ~~~Chapter 34 - The End~~~

[Astral Faery]

Thank you!  I tried shooting yesterday, but I'm having a really hard time running large lots in my game, lately.  They run slow, and keep getting slower, then freeze and/or crash.  Today I'm going to move part of the chapter to a smaller set and seeing if it runs okay.  Plus, my AL disc is cracked and I'm not able to replace it at this time.  It's still running for now, but I don't know how much more I'll get out of it before it decides to quit running.  So... it may be awhile, lol.  But the end is near!

[vickylougrl]

Astral, I have the same problem.  I love downloading all these gorgeous lots that are furnished but they are just not playable in my game.  Try making a small lot and build and tear down as needed to see if that helps lagging trouble it is the only way I can do contests and any storytelling in my game.

Having a lot of sims on the lot also makes my game crawl too.  I usually use a sim for whatever shot I need move them out and go to the next.  If I have to have them back at any point I just summon them with a hack.  Another slow machine trick for me is I create a few clones of a character already dressed to play whatever part they have to play that way I don't have to change appearance and clothes in the lot, I just summon stand in clone to do their thing and then go back to being a downtownie.

[Stelio Kontos]

You know where I'll be by now.

Me: (Narrating) Somehow my camp still survives. Granted, a lot of amenities were destroyed from hanging from cliffs too often, but at least me and the fellow campers managed to escape with minor injuries. The portal to my fantasy goods warehouse still survives, but trust me, getting to a portal floating in mid-air from crumbling cliffs isn't exactly an easy task. Manageable? Yes. Fun? No.



Off-topic: Exactly how much CC do you have?
Somehow I seem to be having good luck running my game. Not exactly a stellar computer, but runs reasonably well. 1.52 GB of CC and I average around a minute from one lot to another. Gameplay is pretty good, with minimal stuttering and such. That is, when I go and play. (Haven't done so in a few weeks.) And even then, I really don't play all that much. It's mainly testing my phototaking abilities.

[Astral Faery]

Thank you, Vickie.  Some good tips.  I'm thankful I'm on the last chapter, because this whole story has been difficult to shoot.  From the annoying lunch room scenes where I need several people, to the cell scenes where it's difficult to move the camera around because they're so small, to Shirra's lot because it's huge and runs so slow.

I've always had problems with large lots, but not as bad as this.  At worst, they would just lag, but they wouldn't freeze or crash my game like they do now.  I DO have a lot of cc, but I've actually purged quite a bit and I'm having more problems than before.  And it seems like I got rid of things I was actually using, so I'm almost afraid to delete anything else.  I inadvertently deleted Kiana's skintone and Gylen's eyes.  I know I could just install one of my 20,000 backups, but that seems tedious to do for minor characters.  I do need to do some more house cleaning, though.

By the way, would anyone know how much free space is needed to run this game?  Like, twice the size of the game, for example?  Though I partially blame my downloads for the slowness, that can't be the only reason because the game on my second account runs slow, too, and that game is tiny.  I only have a handful of downloads in it, and it still plays laggy, though not as bad.

Thanks for hanging in there with me, folks.  Sorry it's taken so long.  The last chapter is another difficult one, as I'll need several extras called in for part of it, and some photoshopping for part of it, and the same old 'how the hell will I take a picture of that' part of it. 

[Zorom]

What do you mean by your "other account"? Do you mean another user account?

User accounts take up so much space-I say get rid of them! Because if you have two user accounts, and ya wanna play sims, you gotta install it TWICE-which takes up twice the space!! Grr! :O

[Sam the T-man]

You don't have to install it twice, so the extra space comes just from the different downloads and games for each one. I'm using Numenor's AGS, which I've linked to on here before. He's got a new one up now, you can find it under modding tools on MTS2.

@Ari: Okay, technical questions - how much RAM do you have, and how big's your hard drive? What's your graphics card like? What about the processor? All will affect your gameplay to a degree. Also, are you defragmenting your drive regularly? It would also be a good idea to find a utility program to check your registry for errors - I use Glary Utilities to do a "one-click maintenence" and it always turns up some registry errors. They can really bog down your game too - not to mention freeze up your whole computer. I've had it happen to me.

[Medagic]

Aww!  Great little happy ending going there.
You know, aside from the blood, gore, death, and tears. lol 
Really fantastic tho!!! I mean, for such a really interesting plot and complicated pictures, you did a really fantastic jobs with all pictures.  I know I couldn't do that.  (Although I do see where you were upset with one of the stabbing pics.  Shirra kinda looked like she was just poking Jondak, haha. )

[Astral Faery]

Zorom - lol, no I think my computer would have a heart attack and die if I installed TS2 plus all the ep's twice.  What's really cool about using a second user account, is that the game seems brand new.  All the default families and neighborhoods are there, untouched, just like when you install the game for the first time.  So I was able to give Brandi Broke (my favorite) a life twice.  And I keep my downloads to an extreme minimum on the second account.

Sadie - 2 GB RAM, 80 GB hard drive, graphics card -NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000, 1.80 gigahertz AMD Sempron, it's been defragged recently, and cleaned with ccleaner.  I know it's not fantastic, but it used to run much better, and I can't figure out why it's not, now.  I haven't made any changes.  And like I said before, the game on my second account (that I use for playing and creating sims for a friend) moves much faster with loading times, but gameplay is still choppy (and it used to be smooth).  Sigh.  Annoying.  I can live with slow for photoshoots, though it's a pain, but the freezing and crashing is what keeps me from wanting to get work done.

I'm hesitant to use AGS because I frequently use animations from all the ep's.  I'd really hate to get on the set just to find out what I want to do I can't.  But it might be worth checking into for playing purposes to make the game run faster - but I'd probably miss what I didn't have since I'm so used to all of it.

Medagic - You know that's not the end, right?  There will be one more chapter coming (eventually) to tie up some loose ends and close the story.  THANK YOU for your great compliments!  I really appreciate them and enjoy having you reading!

[hollymaniac12]

Wow...

I have absolutely no words to describe how brilliant that last chapter was. Even though my simming days have come to an end, and I hardly ever come by these forums anymore, I've always kept track of this story. I truly do miss my sims, but real life kicked in, and my world is not only insanely crazy, it's a complete and utter mess! Anyways, I absolutely cannot wait until the last chapter! Hurry up before my head explodes! (If it hasn't already).

-Holly

[Stelio Kontos]

The only thing I want from the final chapter of this story (Great, btw. But you've heard that a lot before.) is an excuse to play Free Bird as I read it.
*gets out e-guitar and tunes it*

[ilovejb3443]

I'm kinda anxious for the end, but then again I'm dreading it. I don't want it to be overr!

[Astral Faery]

Aw, thanks, Holly!  I'm sorry you're too busy to sim.  Maybe again someday.  I'm glad you've kept up.  One more to go.  Getting there, finally, lol!

Rock - would you be upset if I told you to play 'Jailhouse Rock' instead?  I mean, just because they escaped Shirra's castle doesn't mean they escaped danger.  LOL - I'm evil, I know.  Tune up your guitar, though, maybe you'll be able to play something. 

ilovejb - I totally understand.  That's probably why I'm not going faster on this last chapter.  It's...the last one.  Though I've fought myself through this story and hated it (a lot!) sometimes, in a weird way I'll be sad to see it go.

[steelguy]

As long as the final chapter isn't where Tim discovers it's all been a dream, we're happy. 

Take your time, I know it's hard enough writing stuff, without having to shoot pictures with them.

[Astral Faery]

NO!  It will not be 'oh it was all just a dream' bs ending.  I hate that crap.  It was hard enough to do that after the grand tournament.  I was so worried I would lose readers, lol!  I like to use dreams in stories a lot because they can be a very powerful storytelling agent, but I don't want to ever end a story that way.  It makes the whole story seem pointless.  I'm sure there will be a few people who aren't thrilled with the ending, but I'm hoping most will like it. 

It's...coming.  My whole family is sick AGAIN (2nd nasty illness in 3 weeks)- and me, too, and this one has all three of my boys struggling with their asthma, so lots of nebulizer treatments everyday are happenin' (like 9 a day), and my oldest is still home coughing his lungs out.  Plus appointments out the wazoo and whatnot to deal with, and oh yeah, hubby's MRI, upcoming EMG, and upcoming possible neck surgery.  Cripes.  It's a wonder anything ever gets done around this house!  Thanks so much for being patient.  Many of the shots are done, I just need a few more, but then there needs to be some photoshopping, too.  And with the severe lagginess of my game (and all the crappola in RL) I just haven't been up to it lately.  Someday...

[Sam the T-man]

Yikes O_O Hope things pick up for you Ari

And, I have to agree on the whole "turned out to be a dream" thing - in fact I'd say it's a cliche, and any writer worth his/her salt knows how to deal with cliches