Table-Of-Contents Post: Hat's Almighty Comeback

[hat_plays_sims]

Well.

That's been a whole minute, hasn't it?

I'll save the State of the Hat for behind a cut at the end, people are allowed to not-care about me personally, but, y'know. I'm not dead! I logged into Mediafire! How about that horse! Apparently there are people out there trying to use Mediafire without Firefox (and thus, uBlock Origin, Noscript, and a Photobucket embed fix) because I hear people can't see my images!

I got an imgur account and a Sims File Share account. Replacing old images and adding mirror links is gonna be an ongoing project.

But you should be able to see all these!

1. Splish Splash: Mermaid (Mostly) Separates
2. Hair Dump XIV: A Hair Dump Story (ladies)
3. Hair Dump XIV: A Hair Dump Story (gents)
4. Cross-Pollination 2: Skellified!
5. Buy Mode Blitz: SDA Castle Kitchen
6. Buy Mode Blitz: SDA Castle Bathroom
7. Buy Mode Blitz: Atavera Conga Drums
8. Buy Mode Blitz: Chris Hatch Functional Baby Clothes Rack
9. Buy Mode Blitz: Crocoabura's Dark Project Money Chest
10. Buy Mode Blitz: Toolregame/GRAT's Social Welfare Table
11. Buy Mode Blitz: Heget's Karaoke in Kamelot
12. Buy Mode Blitz: Hysterical Paroxysm's Primitive Scroll Phone
13. Buy Mode Blitz: Basegame Exerto Punching Bag and Honeywell Hanging Bag
14. Buy Mode Blitz: TOYS

This may leave you with the confusing question, "What is Buy Mode Blitz?"

Buy Mode Blitz is a project I've been working on since... 2015? Though I was mostly organizing it then. Anyway. I don't know about you, but my game is full of great meshes that:

a) I use all the time, regardless of how many recolor options there are
b) I love but never use because they lack recolor options
c) I want to like the mesh but all the recolor options are, in some way, not to my taste
and/or
d) I love but never use because their only recolor options are boring or out-of-period

Buy Mode Blitz is me rolling up my sleeves and going "Well then let's fucking fix that."

Maybe I only intend to give a thing one recolor, maybe only three, maybe twenty, 32, 40, 60, 82, 174, the number varies wildly depending on what, exactly, the thing that needs recoloring is. The only thing required for an object or set to get chucked in Buy Mode Blitz is that I am Not Satisfied with the state of its recolors.

And I have such a backlog.

What am I going to do with such a backlog? Follow me, we're entering the realm of cut texts now.

What I'm planning to do is, I want to not go on hiatus. I want to release something every month at least, maybe every other week, I want that backlog there so that even if I don't want to make anything or interact with anyone, there's still content from me. Sure, the real driving force behind Buy Mode Blitz is to Have Stuff, but I also want to share stuff. Fingers crossed. If I don't reply to anything other than "Hat, that's the wrong link!" I'll still try to have another post at the end of the month. And another at the end of next month. And one at the end of the month after that.

What am I going to do about comments? I dunno. Right now everything anonymous commenting (forgot my settings for a minute there) is still screened. Going through and checking the 85 comments in my inbox is... well, I'll see what I have the spoons for, going forward. You'll get to find out with me! It'll be an adventure. Ideally I want to go back to 'everybody can just comment,' but hey! I'm about to post a ton of stuff! We'll see how that goes!

(Also, although comments make me happy? They don't motivate me the way they do some creators. I'm just gonna make stuff cos I want the stuff, and I'm more likely to have the spoons to share when I don't feel overwhelmed. I will not be responding to every comment basically ever again, and if you feel like you ordinarily have some obligation to leave a comment? Know that I watch the downloads numbers go up and that makes me happy too. This is a no-pressure-to-interact zone, because I may contain multitudes but I am not that big a hypocrite.)

For those of you interested, State of the Hat!

... uh yeah so it's basically 'internal screaming,' sorry.

Horse in the hospital! Pandemic! My sister and her family are still living with us! I don't know why because her husband doesn't like me OR mom! My nephew was very excited to start school but is STILL angry he doesn't get to GO to school like they do on TV! My niece is a darling girl who does not understand "You're scaring the cats, sweetie, get out of their space" !

It is very everything all the time, and I'm tired and I need new glasses and a trip to the dentist, but even if my wallet said 'okay,' covid says 'that's cute.'

On the other hand, my general lifestyle before the plague was 'work from home, leave the house once a week for errands,' so the biggest change for me on that front was 'draft a mask pattern that allows for nose, chin, and glasses to exist in harmony.'

Do I still want donations and tips?

You bet your sweet bippy I do.

I'm trying to think of something I can do for donors? EDIT: I'm trying to think of something I can do for donors specifically because I acknowledge that I am not always capable of getting requests and commissions done in a timely fashion, so I'm not taking them anymore. So I'm looking for useful feedback there. I keep thinking things like... specific dollar amount and you can see my to-do list, or vote on the next post from a list of options, or bribe me to get the thing you know I've got done posted...

I dunno. Not commissions and not pay content, but I am open to a bribe.

Also.

Anybody want to help me test a chemistry mod?

Comments

[bunnyboo]

I'm so excited that you're creating again! Your CC was what inspired me to make a medieval hood, and I enjoy your historical asides. Welcome back!

[(Anonymous)]

Tips and Donations? Does that mean that you're finally going to give me my request after I donated to you years ago? I still never received anything, you just went MIA for years until the whole thing with mediafire and I contacted you. I get that life happens, but it's still pretty rude to take someone's money that was kind enough to donate to you and not hold up your end of the bargain, for 4 YEARS. That's a long time.

-child_of_air

[mortia]

Welcome Back! What an amazing post to wake up to :)

[hat_plays_sims]

And I'm not proud of that. I do definitely need to go through the whole blog and make it clear that I'm open to suggestions and bribes, not requests, and that if someone has a time limit, it's best not to ask me to do a thing. What was it you wanted? I can't remember if it was an invisible buffet table or an invisible food judging table.

Invisible buffet table tablecloth

Invisible food judging table tablecloth.

They haven't been tested. If you want more pieces invisible, just cut them out of the texture. I don't know if the food judging table ribbon is pulled from the base color or the current recolor, but best to leave that visible so you can see who won.

[beatricecrumplebottom]

I feel bad about adding to your inbox of overwhelmingness, but I just wanted to say I'm happy to see you around again, thank you for your amazing contributions to the community, and I hope some of that stuff causing the internal screaming settles down/moves out/whatever the best solution is. <3

[the_acme_catalog]

Hat! You're back! We've all missed you very much. Looking forward to the new content!

-rugrat0ne

Chemistry mod testing

[hobbesed]

I may be up for helping test a chemistry mod. I delved into Sims2 chemistry quite a bit as I developed my Secondary Aspiration mod (https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=643015). Currently I'm using Cyjon's Debugger to query the chemistry between Sims. What is your chemistry mod going to do?

Re: Chemistry mod testing

[hat_plays_sims]

Oh hey I use your mod!

My chemistry mod is, more properly speaking, a turn-on/turn-off mod. Simler90's variations made me want one of my own (cos none of theirs fit my playstyle as well as I wanted), and, uh, a lot of the turn-ons are pretty frickin' broken as shipped. Even the old Tunaisafish version I was using because it allowed for alien chemistry? Only allowed for alien chemistry using maxis or default-replacement genetics (which is no good with, for instance, a multi-PT mod that uses custom genetics).

My goal, at first, was to replace the inherently broken stuff, and then change the Vacation Local turn-ons (which are Stink, Fit, and Makeup), then eliminate the really fleeting turn-ons like perfume and clothing state, and make it so the Alien trait also checked for Midgethetree's Reproductive Capabilities Controller and Sophie-David's Mirror of Discernment alien tokens. Then it was to upgrade the aesthetics a bit, then I thought 'well what if I grouped the similar supernaturals together so I can also do checks for some of the new trait-based lifestates?'

... And then I accidentally ended up with twelve different combinations. (Not all of them are functional variations, most of them are just contemporary versus period icons.)

And while I have done some testing, it's arguably been pretty basic testing, and I would certainly appreciate someone who understands BHAVs better than 'well, it's not causing jump bugs' to look things over.

If you're still interested in taking a look, drop me a PM?

[(Anonymous)]

AAA I'm so glad to see you back after all this time!!!
I can't wait to see what new amazing stuff you make :D
Thank you for everything you've made prior to this too. I use it literally every time I play sims!
-Meowingcookie

Welcome back!

[curiousb]

Just wanted to say welcome back, Hat - you were missed. And even if you never create anything ever again, I’m still very glad to see you. :)

[delonariel.livejournal.com]

You're back! It's so good to see you and to hear that you're safe even though it's a trying time.

[nixed_sims]

Hat!! Welcome back! It's so good to see you again, and even more so in these shitty times. Know that you've been sorely missed. <3

[ocelotekatl]

Welcome back! We've missed you.

[(Anonymous)]

(Anonymous because I don't have a dreamwidth but am on PBK and Tumblr)
But welcome back! You're one of my fav Sims 2 creators, and despite not knowing you, I was a little lowkey worried since your last post was after the 2016 election.

[(Anonymous)]

Welcome Back!

I can't wait to see what your new chemistry mod looks like.
Midge made a really great edit as well.
But there was still something missing from hers.
So I wonder what changes you will make.
Maybe I will have the mix and match (if I ever figure out how these mods work)

- Norica -

[(Anonymous)]

Welcome back, Hat! It's so nice to see you after such a long time. And so many goodies! I thank you, but my downloads folder does not!

Niam_h (PBK)

[2fingerswhiskey]

So happy to see you back after so long - you're honestly one of the people I look up to the most in this community in terms of what you can do with retexturing and such. I still use all of your hairs! :D

!!!

[rabit169]

Hat! I'm so happy to see you're back and doing okay-ish!

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, perhaps a disclaimer about that would be good, otherwise people will expect something, especially when money is involved and a lot of people are unemployed and hurting right now. As for my request, actually, it was neither, what I wanted was some bathtubs that didn't have the faucet showing, so that I could pretend sims are filling the baths with water from buckets. I think you asked me which bathtub I wanted and I told you I didn't care- just something somewhat plausible, and something wooden.

At this point I could actually do it myself, but with an 11-month old running around I seriously have very little time to myself anymore, as she refuses to nap more than once now. :/

Welcome back, Hat!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm so happy to see you back, mostly because if I never download another thing of yours, (which is impossible) I missed your style of telling us that you really can write but you choose not to because we'd expect it-and you do it anyway.

Welcome back to our weird family! Next time leave us a note. You had us worried there for a while!

MaryH (MTS, GOS)

[fantasyrogue]

From one person who has been largely inactive because real life's a thing to another, it's good to know you're still around :) Hang in there, alright?

[hat_plays_sims]

This post has been edited for clarity, and the most recent hair dump posts have had their requests struck out. I'll either get to old hair dump posts as I get to them or remind anyone who donates and cites those posts that I'm not taking requests anymore.

And ah, there's the problem, I was probably stuck thinking 'but which tub do I do?' and couldn't make a decision and spiraled into avoidance. Well! The only Western-European style tub in my game with a faucet is the SDA one I just posted, and the UV map on that one overlaps enough that I'm not sure I could remove the faucet without also removing some of the cooping. If the cooping isn't important to you, I can cut away the metal completely and be sure I won't be either leaving bits of pipe or cutting chunks out of the cooping, but I don't know if that will leave weird holes in the wood. The rest of the tubs I personally use either already don't have meshed-on faucets, or they're the Castaway Stories tubs. I honestly have no idea what other meshes are out there-- or even in the regular game, I've been using hiders so long-- that are a historically-plausible shape spoiled by meshed-on faucets.

Do you have a mesh in mind at this point? Or-- I don't normally refund donations, but since this has clearly been bothering you for a long time, I can send you your $5 back.

[(Anonymous)]

How about this one?

https://themedievalsmithysims2.blogspot.com/2012/10/period-bath-tub.html

How about just some recolors of the Pets version, as so far nobody recolored that specific one yet and so I never end up using this tub because it doesn't really match anything. But it's oh, so lovely....and I don't have time to recolor it at this point. Pooklet colors would be great, but honestly some other textures random would be awesome too. And no, I don't really want my money back unless you don't want to do it. The point was to help you out because your clothing and your attention to history accuracy (mostly) have always been appreciated in my game.

[hat_plays_sims]

And no, I don't really want my money back unless you don't want to do it. The point was to help you out because your clothing and your attention to history accuracy (mostly) have always been appreciated in my game.

See, this is about the point where I started wondering if you think of me as a malfunctioning vending machine for content. Like I ate your money and did not deliver your goodies, until you realized oh you just hadn't pushed the right buttons to get what you wanted yet. You put a donation in my tip jar, and I promised to make you a thank-you gift. This was not a business transaction. I did not stiff a customer, or skip out on a commission.

It was not cool that I went silent for so long. That's not a healthy or responsible coping mechanism and I admit that.

Your conduct in this comment thread hasn't been cool, either. Imagine how fast you could have gotten your recolors-- maybe even an apology-- if you'd led with 'welcome back' and a reminder not only that I'd promised you content, but what specific content I'd promised you, as a thank-you gift for your donation.

So.

Here's your bathtub, 20 Pooklet Project Mayhem naturals over a blend of Piggi Wood 03 and the SDA Medieval Kitchen, original iron cooping, working dirty state, Pets version of the mesh, uncompressorized. Sorry it's on Mediafire, Sims File Share refused to accept it like twelve times.

Lady Lama's Period tub

[(Anonymous)]

Welcome back!

--Anna/Writershy (PBK, mostly lurker)

Re: Chemistry mod testing

[(Anonymous)]

I am so glad you're back! You've made my game much prettier.

Yay you're back!

[raindrop_drinkwater]

*squeeeeee*