Updated: 2-tile fan windows

Remember the two-tile animated fan window? Well, I told you about an update to the diagonal version, but forgot to tell you that you need to download both the diagonal AND straight-wall versions! I'm so sorry about that. Here are the links...


Straight window
Diagonal window

(entire set)
My mistake (as usual), so both of these meshes have been set free for four weeks from tomorrow (13 March).

Updated: Decorative Pipework set

Not satisfied with rusty chemical tanks with high room scores, my entire decorative pipework set also carried a stupidly high environment score!



Decorative Pipework
All have been amended to have a zero environment score, and set to be free for four weeks from 12 March 2007 in case you downloaded the set with a subscription, but don't have one now.

Thanks to fw190a8 for spotting this.

New! Pipework column (off-centre)

I've added a new column to the pipework column set. This one is off-centred so that it intersects with the pipework fencing in the pipework super-set.



Off-centred Column
Released tomorrow (12 March 2007).

Lost but found: edge trim for curved wall set!

This piece should have been included in the Curved Wall Set but wasn't. So, I've uploaded it and it will be set to free for four weeks from 12 March 2007.



Straight Edge Trim
Thanks to Uma Design for spotting this.

Updated: Chemical Tank

Rather stupidly, this chemical tank had an environment score of 10, meaning any royal personage should be GRATEFUL to have this item gracing their ballrooms!



Chemical Tank
So, suitably amended to have a zero environment score, and set to be free for four weeks from 12 March 2007 in case you downloaded this tank with a subscription, but don't have one now.

Bang-On-A-Can for Pets

Silverdreams asked if the Bang-On-A-Can bath tub could be made Pets-ready...


Consider it done! A Pets-ready bath and two recolours will be released Thursday 15 March! It goes without saying that this version of the bath requires Pets - but it won't replace the existing bath if you downloaded it. Your choice: replace it with this one or keep both.

---

Thanks to everyone who sent their wishes. I'm not at all 'back' yet, but I wanted to keep a download or two coming your way. Another set (heating and cooling) will be out shortly too!

Taking a break...

I'm stepping down for a while.

There is NO need for you to look all pleased about that! How rude!

But yes, I'm taking a break from our Sim worlds. I do intend to be back (you don't get rid of me and my rust THAT easily) and I also have a couple of completed sets to upload ready for March (so that you'll think I'm still here and haunting you).

In the meantime, thanks to all of you who have downloaded the utter nonsense I make, and thanks to TSR who tried their very hardest not to look TOO delighted when I first announced this. That was a joke, by the way. It had BETTER be a joke!

Take care all, and thanks a million!

Want this wallpaper too?

Because I'm selfish, I thought I'd NOT include one of the clay wallpapers, leaving you all without a nice blue shade. It IS shown on the set picture, but before today it won't have been found in the download pages!

Alternatively, it might not have been a deliberate act of selfishness, but just ANOTHER example of how I can get it all wrong (sigh).

Anyway, if you want this blue paper, pop along to this page and download it before I change my mind!

Maxis heard us!

Maxis is listening! I can't express just how relieved I am at THAT - and thankful!

I suspect Maxis didn't realise the magnitude of impact it would have to block recolours in lot packages. In reality, people are already feeling the effects, there are people who have been backing up their lots in packages only to find on installing that their content is missing, people who are trying to upload lots with content to sites but can't, people who have simply given up lot building...

Yes, 'The Exchange' has spiralled out of control with so many people not knowing what they're doing when they upload their lots - due in part to that handy 'package lot to The Exchange' button in the game itself (uploaders need never visit any website, nor check the content of their lots first, but can still share their work and, unwittingly, their entire downloads folder of recolours). With straining servers, Maxis wanted to put an end to it. I'm not sure they realised how they were also putting an end to the hobby of a much wider audience than those who frequent 'The Exchange'...

But I've just heard from Maxis. They are indeed treating this very seriously, right from the top (yes, all managers have been alerted too). They say the community is VERY important to them, that they're not sure yet what the solution will be, but rest assured they ARE now looking at it.

I call that a result in itself. It's not the END result, but so far so good. My fingers are very crossed! My thanks go to everyone who chipped in either here or at The Exchange. Together, we've been heard.

Smarting with anger...

Perhaps 'anger' is an incorrect word really. The word is probably more akin to DISAPPOINTMENT.

I've had word from Maxis about the lot packaging problem us builders have been experiencing ever since the release of Pets: namely that recolours of Maxis objects are dropped from the packages so that they're not included in our uploaded lots.

My acute disappointment comes with the fact that this is not a bug. It is a DELIBERATE change on the part of Maxis to stem the tide of recolours spreading with lots. I suspect what Maxis is referring to is The Exchange, because, to my knowledge, other sites generally have strict policies on the lots they accept for hosting - TSR very much included. If you DID find a lot here stuffed with recolours not used in the lot, you could report it, but chances are you won't. The TSR approval process sees to that.

Don't get me wrong: I can entirely see Maxis' point of view on this - The Exchange is a den of all sins, one being lots bloated with a downloader's entire folder of custom content. But I just wish instead that Maxis had placed a file-size limit for lots on The Exchange, or just changed the code for 'upload to Exchange' lots only, and not those we package for upload elsewhere. Instead, it feels like ALL builders have been penalised - including the many who religiously use 'Sims2Pack Clean Installer' to clean their lots, who conscientiously never let a stray recolour be left inside the package... That's most builders here, for starters.

So yes, I'm grumpy! In my grumpiness, I know I will never play Pets. I don't even know whether I'll even buy 'Seasons; because I never play, just build for sharing. In the meantime, I am attempting a straight clone of the driveway to give Pets-and-beyond players an invisible driveway we can use (the current 'invisible driveways are, of course, Maxis recolours and are just one of the casualties of this coding change).

I've copied the Maxis response in a thread in our forums here. I've included mentions of workarounds, including Numenor's "Base Game Starter" in the same thread.