Friday the 13th Catch Up
There has been so much news recently, and I've been so busy between projects and real life I haven't had a chance to post it. So here are some of the exciting things we've seen.
Patch 1.36
There were persistent rumours after the French official site leaked 1.36 patch notes suggesting EA planned to update Late Night and Showtime lots so that builders could merge their functions. This would lower the enormous number of entertainment lots that players had to include in their worlds. Nobody quite believed that EA would make such fundamental and positive changes to a previous title, but thankfully EA rose to the occasion and the patch came out confirming the leaked notes. Even though we have the patch, the notes that came with it are a little vague. Saliently, they tell us that:
- Showtime Performance Venues will be accessible as Late Night bars.
- Showtime Venues can now receive gigs when the appropriate stage objects have been placed.
- Late Night venues can now receive gigs when the appropriate stage objects have been placed.
So what does this mean? Firstly it means that if you place a Late Night bar on a Showtime venue, a mixologist NPC will come to that bar, and the player can get drinks and food from it. The drinks seems to be a selection of those served at the cheapest Late Night venues, leaving the drinks from high classic bars exclusive to those. Secondly, it means that Showtime professionals like Magicians can now get gigs at Late Night bars if the Showtime stage objects are set up correctly.
However, the changes go even further, as MTS member velocitygrass has discovered and others have confirmed. Graveyards, Fishing Spots, and Beaches work will provide Showtime gigs, acting like the Big Park lot did. Pools, Gyms, Libraries and Dive Bars now provide gigs as if they were Showtime Coffeehouses. Hangouts and Dance Clubs work as Live Venues. Finally, Art Galleries, Late Night lounges venues, and Horse Ranches provide Private Venue gigs.
This is fantastic news, a HUGE burden off builders' collective shoulders, and it's a credit to The Sims Studio that they are responding to customer concerns about their product's design.
Briefly, the change is not without some negative consequences. There is conflict between what time Late Night lots are open, and what time Showtime gigs are booked for. Sometimes gigs on Late Night lots cannot be completed because they are booked outside of the times the lots are open. Hopefully this might be cleaned up in a later patch - if not, there should be a tuning mod that takes care of it eventually.
SimGuruBritt's Blog on Moonlight Falls
In other news, we've had a few more glimpses of Moonlight Falls thanks to a blog by SimGuruBritt. We can see some lovely building in these shots, including neat new CAW assets. The palette of the world looks muted and classy, and the lighting has some interesting tones. I'm very excited to see this world when it arrives.