Sims3 World Adventures: Phillipa Radcliffe and the Mummy's Curse

...Phillipa is just so gosh darn cute. Gah.

That aside, I really am liking the looks of her house. It is looking fiiiiine.

:O

That's such an awesome-looking house! I love the outside, especially the veranda-y thing and the pond~ *3*

Soli-chan, Candied Citrus - so happy you like it. :D

Eternal Egypt - how we've missed you!

This is our first trip back since we installed the personality upgrade. Good thing too, because the first thing the Adventure Board offers us is a chance to pick up that quest we abandoned previously because we needed people to like us.




So we do that - dashing hither and yon, talking to people:






Finally, they give us the dirt on MorcuCorp and how they feel uneasy about the way that the corporation is digging up the countryside. Totally shameful! They should be stopped! Somebody should do something!

So Phillipa agrees to look for a set of relics that will get the evil MorcuCorp off the backs of the SimEgyptian people. If anyone's going to despoil Egypt and ravish the graves of its ancestors, it's going to be You Know Who.

First things first. We have to go and find where Morcu is growing a special strain of Flame Fruit … no doubt for evil purposes. We're given a keystone to use in the Pyramid of the Burning Sands. Remember that spot - we investigated last time we were here and there was a door we couldn't pass.




At the time I thought it had something to do with King Raymundo's sarcophagus. It turns out we needed to be on this quest in order to fully explore the tomb. Aggravating. I need to make sure that future time spent exploring tombs isn't wasted on quest tombs or they won't count toward my six tomb quota.




King Raymundo, btw, is still stumping about:




So through the door - there are, dive wells, floor traps, rubble:




Phillipa handles these with her usual competence and grace




Downstairs, we find a longer sequence of traps and wells.




This one required some effort. One of the necessary pushable statues was behind the fire curtain.




Phillipa had to leap the fire to reach it, which put out a section of the fire trap. I wasn't sure she could make it, but she did it!




And immediately Busts Her Move - alright, girl, you earned it!




Through the door, she finds the Fire Fruits. She's completely worn out though. Luckily, her tent fits:




And that looks like a good place to call it a night! See you next time, I hope!

The girl who was on fire OwO
/okay sorry, I'm reading MockingJay atm

Philippa just ran through fire in a bikini. And she didn't even get burned.

You keep on dancing gurl.

Damn, Merneith, that house is GORGEOUS. One of the most beautiful sim houses I've seen. I really like what you did with the Chinese and Egyptian elements, and the pond outside with the floating lotus flowers looks so serenely beautiful I wish I could go sit next to it.

Just wanted to echo the compliments on that house, it looks great!

And for future reference, yes, Riverview will also have ghosts for you to bust, should you ever elect to start a playthrough there. :P

That house is gorgeous. I'm usually too strapped for cash to build up a house like that >.<

I know, right? D: Or I can't be bothered with the amount of time it takes. >.>

*blush* - thanks everyone! I'm glad you like it!

Yes, it is a spiffy house.

I may take the time to 'roll my own' place after I finish breeding unicorns.

Can't wait to see it, Ned. It's fun just to go all out, sometimes. :)

[Interlude - Bug Hunting]

I started having performance issues a few weeks ago but the problem has just gotten worse and worse. The problem started before I rebuilt the house and added eleventy-billion objects, so I know it's not that. The game started lagging badly every few minutes. There'd a be few seconds freeze and then everything would catch up and proceed normally. The freezes started coming more frequently and lasting longer until the last few sessions have been completely miserable. It was especially noticeable when I changed the speed of the game or when Phillipa slept and the game jumped into fast forward. It was time for Steps to be taken.

A short spate of Googling later and it seems that this is a Known Issue that was introduced by a patch a few years back. NPC controlled vehicles in the game are supposed to be deleted after they've fulfilled their function. This includes taxis, schoolbuses, carpools, etc. Anything short term. Because of the bug, the cars weren't being deleted anymore. Instead NPCs would store them in their inventories. Then the game would generate a new copy of the vehicle, which would then be stuck in the inventory with all the previous copies as soon as it was used. And the inventory entry is invisible so there's no way to detect this.

There are other problems too. For example, the game sometimes keeps track of duplicate outfits, like when you switch into your career outfit each day, or the singed "outfit" when you get jumped by zombie bears. These can all add up. The game tracks stereos being played in other peoples houses - that adds up. Etc. There's a whole list of things that just swamp the town inventories with invisible junk.

The solution is a fan patch by a chap called Twallan. Here's the website for twallen's mods:
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/

Here's how to install mods and other custom content - it's a very simple procedure
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/How to Install

The specific mod we want is called Overwatch, which tracks various problem items in the game world and makes sure they're not adding up.
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Overwatch

Once it's installed, the mod adds an interaction to your Sim. To access the mod, click on your Sim. In the popup menu, there will be an option labelled "nras". Clicking this brings up the mod choices. You can choose to run the mod Immediately if you've noticed the start of a slow down. Perks the game right up.The mod also runs every night at midnight and when you load the game. The mod found 63 invisible cars the first time I ran it. Then another 9 next time I started up. Then a few each day.

I'm happy to report that this mod works perfectly. The game is back to running seamlessly and Phillipa's ready to hit the fly the friendly skies once more.

Bottom line, if you're playing a game with Ambitions installed, you'll want to try this mod yourself.


[End Interlude]

Thanks for posting that! I was having issues with my own game last night, gonna see if that helps smooth things a little. I like using nraas's Master Controller mod too :3 Let's me change the look/traits on my sim any time (and other things too lol)

Yeah, thanks for the heads-up, Merneith. I'll definitely look into that mod if/when I get Ambitions.

Things have been going really well for her so far. She got a great haul of relics and Ancient Coins, as well as the Fruit. So the next morning, I decide to go downstairs and try out our new Sim Fu skills on King Raymundo. This is where I made my first mistake. Unfortunately, I forgot there was a fire trap down there and walked Phillipa right into it:




She wished she had just stayed in bed.




This is where I made my second mistake. I could have had her jump in the dive well while she was on fire. That would have replaced the Scorched moodlet with a Soaked moodlet. They're both negative, but Soaked isn't as detrimental. I forgot, and then I was too pigheaded to turn back. She pushes on to confront her Nemesis face to face. Don't be fooled by that charming smile.





Well she lost that fight and passed out. But it could have gone worse. This is where I made me third mistake. After attacking us, Ray went back to his coffin. I forced Phillipa to go down there and look inside.




The coffin SNATCHED HER INSIDE!!!




And then spits her back out. She immediately went into this "I'm a fearless explorer!" pose - totally cracked me up.




Alright, Phillipa has no hope at this point and I need to stop before I get her killed. Her mood is the worst and her color is Red. I still want to fight the mummy but today is not our day. I send Phillipa back to town, where she hands over the fruits to the Morcu double agent. Then I send her to basecamp to sleep it off.


The next day, Phillipa gets a follow up quest to find a book, located in a hidden library, that describes three special relics. We're going to do that, but first I want to visit a few local sites and try out our pricey new camera. Accordingly, we first head to a scenic shipwreck, down along the coast. While we're there, we do a little excavating:




Then we head next door to see one of the most famous sites of Egypt: Abu Simbel!




[The real Abu Simbel was constructed by Ramses II, in order to impress his southern neighbors-slash-enemies with his might and reach. The site was threatened with flooding by the construction of the Aswan Dam, so in 1968, the whole thing was moved in its entirety to a nearby hill.]

I was only planning to take photos of the outside but my curiosity got the better of me. I was prevented from going in, however, because you need to have two relics to place on these pedestals to open the door. I wasn't carrying any relics that I was willing to part with. Although now that I think about it, I'm sure the game would have let me recover them when I exited the temple. At the time, I just couldn't conceive of setting down a single one of my precious, precious relics. We'll be back!




After a day spent sightseeing, Phillipa buckles down and sets out to find the hidden library. Turns out, it's in the basement of a house right next to the market. Unfortunately, this woman had already met Phillipa back when she had zero charisma so Phillipa had to butter her up a bit before she got invited in. Amusingly, the game doesn't render furniture for the houses unless you're inside - but it does render the occupants. Hence the dude looking like he's miming sitting on the toilet.



Once inside, it's a pretty straightforward, affair. (I love that lamp!)






And in no time, Phillipa is handing over the book and being given a follow up quest to get five pieces of copper in exchange for one of the relics mentioned inside.




She does, but after running around in search of that, her time's about up. I visit a few more excavation sites and then we're whisked back home. Phillipa settles in quickly for a good night's sleep - but it is not to be!




Fortunately for us, Mr. Burglar Man has to tippy-toe all around the house to the front steps, which are the only way into our house. Unfortunately for him, I know that the best way to catch burglars in The Sims is to put your burglar alarm on the *outside* of your house, right by your one point of entrance.




Sucks to be you, pal. Only one boosting any priceless loot in this story, is us. That's all for tonight, gang! Back to bed, Phillipa - Thanks for reading, everyone!

Today: Feel the burn!

Home again, and it's time to pick up the old daily grind. Phillipa's got a lot of skills to work on now, plus some town Opportunites and Wishes to fulfill. She's a level 9 Ghost hunter and a level 9 Photographer - We should be able to boost at least one of those this week. Let's get to work!

We open with a shot of Phillipa's bedroom - just because I love those sushi pillows.




Phillipa gets called out immediately on a poltergeist job:




After taking the ghost out of this can, I notice that Phillipa has an option to "Rummage" in it. So she does:




I thought there might ghostly remains or something but all she gets is some scrap metal and a disgusted moodlet. Useful to know, if anyone wants to play an inventor, I guess.

Next we get some Angry Ghosts:




Then Phillipa stops and introduces herself to the homeowner.




This is actually starting to cause us problems. Remember how Phillipa now has the Attractive Life Reward, which makes everyone start out at Friendship level? My loner girl now has approximately four dozen friends across three continents. She can't keep up with them all and she's constantly getting a notice that someone I can't even remember isn't a friend any more. The upshot of it all is that Phillipa is walking around the a negative moodlet of "lost a friend". I'm going to have see if there isn't something I can do about this. Besides stop talking to people, I mean.

For the moment though, Phillipa notices that the lady's computer is busted - see the smoke? I decide Phillipa should work on her Handy skill on someone else's computer than her own, so she gets to tinkering.




The homeowner lady doesn't appreciate it and gets all up our nose about acting inappropriately. Hey lady - I'm saving you fifty smackers here!

After getting her Handy skillup, Phillipa heads back home where she feeds and plays with Morcu until it's time for bed.

The next day brings more ghosts:




And a little practice on the old snake flute:






It's coming along nicely.

While she's asleep, Phillipa dreams about doing laundry and then gets a Lifetime Wish to "Buy A Dryer".

What the hell? She already owns a dryer. I mean I bought all this stuff. And I know I put a laundry in the guest bath … right? Right? I bought two washers.




Look. It can't be mummies every time, alright. Some days it's fire traps - some days it's laundry disasters. Getting the sardines on. Getting the sardines off. That's farce. That's theater. That's life.

Next we mess around taking photos of things - and suddenly Phillipa's level 10! Huzzah! I, er, flubbed the screenshots of the new camera device. Again. But after that, Phillipa went and worked on her Martial Arts - and here's a shot where you can see the new type of photos she can take. At level 10, she gained the ability to take panoramic shots. That photo on the wall is one she took with this new skill, in a digital photo frame. The digital frames are pretty cool. You can select which photos you want from your camera and put them in your inventory. Then you can move the photos into the digital frame and set up a slideshow, if you want.




Shortly after that, Phillipa gets a new level in Martial Arts, which gives her a new belt color. She goes to show it off and does her Maneuuuuver:




Next she heads off to work. The site of her first haunting includes a fishing spot. And by "fish", I mean, blacktip shark". Man - I thought I had wildlife on *my* lot.




Speaking of wildlife, that macaw is still perched on my front lawn, event through all my renovations:




I'm tempted to tame him, but parrots are kind of a lot of work. You can teach them to talk though, which sounds like a good time.

Phillipa banishes some more banshees - and just like that she's level 10! I should make her a new outfit, for banishing ghosts now that's she's a Paranormal Expert. These jumpsuits are kind of dumpy. I'm not sure how much longer Phillipa's going to pursue Ghost Hunting. It doesn't pay as well as taking photographs. But for now, Phillipa's not ready to say good by to some of her favorite spirit friends. She decides to dedicate one of her display cabinets to them.




Phillipa received a certificate from the town, recognizing her photography status, so that's nice.




It's almost the weekend and time for our next trip. Let's head back to China, again, with our fabu new camera. She gets a few level increases to her athletic skill, to bolster her martial arts abilities. Either I've suddenly become The Sims Whisperer or the Lucky trait is seriously OP. I can't complain though. Maybe we'll try some sparring, next time.




At the last minute, Phillipa gets a call at 11:30pm, from some guy named Venkat, who wants to hang out with her. Nobody's ever asked her out before. OUR BABY GIRL HAS A DATE!!! She hurries home and puts on her best clothes - but Venkat never shows. :( :( :(

Instead, Phillipa says goodbye to Morcu and gets into her taxi. Don't worry sweetie. I don't know who this Venkat jerk is but I'm betting he's not a Lucky Simfu Brown belt. We're going to go have a little chat with him, just as soon as we get home.




Next: Axe me how our trip went!

Establishing shot:



Something I forgot to mention last time: Phillipa acquired another 15000 Lifetime Wish Points and took the Learned Relic Hunter skill. Then I went back through and reappraised a bunch of relics I had sitting around. Sadly, they were mostly worth what Phillipa originally appraised them as being worth. But the Life Reward will help us find more awesome loots around the world!

We have a lot of errand running to do today. I need to find an artifact to help us with the Giant Boulders that block our way, sometimes. Otherwise, I'm not going to get credit for fully exploring some of the tombs we've been in. But as any RPG fan knows, you got to deliver a lot of mail before get a shot at the good stuff.
That's a long of way of saying that Phillipa spent the day looking for rare Assassin Beetles and got jack all to show for it. She did get a nice photo op with some with the Emperor's troops, though.




Back at Base Camp, she gets a good night sleep and then has breakfast with Farid, a guy she knows from Egypt. All the Egyptians come to Shang SimLa for vacation, and vice versa.




Yes, she's eating her waffles with chopsticks. Bath time, next, then it's time to go pick up sticks. Phillipa gets a job finding metals in order to make a telescope for one of the residents. There's metal everywhere, fortunately, (stupid beetles).It's like Hades took a dump on the place. Phillipa gets in a little excavating while she's at it but doesn't find anything exciting -




By now it's late on the second day and Phillipa is way far away from Base Camp. Rather than trudge back there while she's tired, she pops in to the Resolute Fist Retreat.




This is associated with the Martial Arts quests, but for now, it's not in use, so Phillipa has the place to herself.




The next morning, she finds some cereal in their little kitchen -




And then, inspired by the beauty of the place, she practices with the training dummy -




Next is some more running around for the telescope guy. Quest givers are so polite in this game. They always go and stand by their mailboxes. On the left, you'll see some Apple Trees. I got a $1500 photo thanks to them.




He needs a couple of crappy relics (fortunately, I have a couple of crappy relics thanks to yesterday's excavations) and then he needs me to chase around to get his lens repaired. Then he wants me to go convince the locals to turn off their lights at night so he can see the stars better. What with one thing and another, it's the next day, and Phillipa finds herself at Visa Level #2! Huzzah! Now I can get better quests and hopefully the relic I need!

Phillipa ended up back at the Academy, and got a wish to spar. Let's see how that goes:










Not bad! She loses the match, but she gets a new belt and immediately Busts Her Move. Her friend … is … uh, celebrating for her, I guess. Or else her Move is YMCA. Yeah, let's go with celebrating.




Back to the job board, and we get a good one this time! "A Local has found an interesting note that hints of incredible treasure. Can you help decipher it?" Well no, but maybe you should give us the note for a while so we can study it in private.




Here's another of Phillipa's friends from Egypt, Raina Badwari.



Guy who found the note has a really swinging pad -



oops - image count alert, got to break off here for now.

I have concluded that Phillipa was entombed by a mummy.

I summon Merneith to explain what has happened to Phillipa! (I hope)

Also, anyone interested in World Adventures or other Sims 3 expansions should know Origin has them on sale this weekend for 50% off. I bit on Ambitions and this thread has me seriously contemplating World Adventures.

I just caught up with this thread. I need more Phillipa in my life! Wha happen?!

World Adventures is looooads of fun. And since it pauses aging and other time advancement stuff in the main world while you're away, it can be an awfully lucrative way to advance skills and get cash without cheating. I find that Egypt has the best tombs, China has the best sweeping visuals on the outside, and France is just plain fun to poke around in.

Sorry I lost track of this. I ran into some computer problems, and then school and got side tracked. I'm glad people enjoyed it!

Oh it was definitely beloved, m'dear. Totes understand ya on the distractions and RL stuff though.
How bad or like, can data be recovered? Or rather, are ya gonna come back to this?

/also huzzah for necro'ing which I'm still too cowardly to do mostly

I have some free time, and a new computer, but I haven't tried reinstalling everything again. But .... I will look into it. I would be interested in doing more, if I can get it all set up again so nothing's missing.