More aliens, Custom Multi PT trial, and toddler spam!

[profbutters]

I've been continuing my search for new alien stuff and a good Multi PT hack.  Because I have laundry, and 30+ midterms to grade, and a seminar paper to write, and let's not even get into the legacies I'm trying to catch up on.

Clearly, I didn't have enough to do.

I'm not planning some kind of alien invasion of Pleasantview, but I do have the Abduction Increased Odds hack in.  I don't want all my sims to be half-brothers and sisters, and I'd like to get some variety in there, and the only real way to know is to test drive it. While I was at it, I thought it would be fun to share, and also, if anyone is trying to decide about Multi PT hacks or alien skins and eyes, maybe this will be helpful.

I'll put all the CC links in at the end, *above* a cut, so anyone who wants to can check them out.

First, I thought I'd try out yet another default:  the Laverwinkle Sims skin, and the Bruno Obsidian eyes made into alien defaults.  Results:



Well, it's pretty, but it doesn't look like Cass.  Since I have no way to edit skintones in game, I don't think it's worth it to kill Cass and create a doppleganger with non-default green skin.  I can change the eye defaults, though, because I have some Maxis-looking contacts.

Anyway, it was back to a look for Multi PTs.  And this time I needed somebody who could serve as a lab rat.  Someone, ideally, with recessive hair.  Someone I didn't like very much.

Cypress:  Help meeeeee.



That would be Cypress Vetinari, from the Vetinari Dualegacy by docnerd . Actually, there's no reason to think Cypress hates being alien pregnant.  He's done it a lot, after all.




There's no reason for you to look surprised, Cypress.  Get used to it.  This is going to happen a lot.

You'll also notice Dora Ottomas is there as a kind of midwife.  I needed someone living with Cypress for other, unrelated reasons, and since Dora is dumb enough to like Cypress, she got the job.

What follows is a lot of alien baby, toddler, and kidspam. 

The first Multi PT set I tried out was the Polychromatic Set by simgaroop . These use the Galaxy Explorer skintones by Astiees.  I didn't think it was too likely that I'd wind up using those, because they're pretty extreme and would stick out in my little pinky world, but I did want to see them.  I shot these out of order, by the way.  The first time I had Cypress give birth to the babies in the Polychromatic Set, I didn't have Theo's Unlock Alien Eyes for All Skins, and the kids were born without eyes.  All I can say is. . . you think they look creepy *now*?  Shudder. In these pictures, I think they're all wearing  Ren Sims Confutatis Alien Defaults. I know the last kid is.

Welcome, baby Trial; father PT 65.



In between all the birthin' babies, Cypress sometimes gets a little distracted thinking of the many people he hates.  Cypress. Let it GO, man.



Next up, Error; she's PT 916's little girl.  I don't know why, but the Martini Olive kids are kind of cute.



And then there's Mutation, Pollination Technician 11's kid.  PT 11 is supposed to be made from PT 9 in Strangetown, and . . . yeah.  Note the three belly buttons.



Cypress.  Just let it GO, man.  If you weren't such a prick, other Sims wouldn't get into slapfests with you and then there would be no *reason* to be Furious with them.  And besides, I don't think being in such a bad mood is good for the baby.



Finally, there's Wonder, as in "Wonder Bread," the normal one of the Munsters here. She's PT 916's baby.  PT 916 is apparantly a born-in game Sim from the Broke Legacy, and he has Bella Goth as a grandma, so there's lots of conventional purty there.  And I *like* conventional purty. 



What we really want to see are the toddlers and kids, right? 

Trial:



Error:



Mutation:



Is it just my imagination, or does Mutation kind of look like the giant spider in *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*?



Finally, there's Wonder.  Gorgeous!




Class picture, everybody!



And a bit of aging up to child:



I think Error, the olive-green one, looks like a frog, but in a good way.  Like I said, kind of cute.  I'm not going to run around yelling "Mutation is ugly!"  because the whole point is to have aliens that are really alien-y.  Still, it would take a while for me to get used to , and these aliens would stick out a lot in my legacy, so I don't think I could use them.



I know you can't really tell until you get a kid to teen, but I was a tad impatient, so I exited without saving and loaded up a different set of skins. 

These are the Graslaxian Sims, also by simgaroop .  They're a strong contender for me, because they are sort of normal-alien looking.  They're all using Maxis skin and eyes, because, y'know, what's wrong with Maxis skin and eyes?  In fact, I'm beginning to think I like the Maxis alien skin best.  I use the Lyran skins as defaults, and the Maxis skins work with those.

The Graslaxian skins are all based on born in game Sims from the Broke legacy.  I don't have lots of pictures of these, because frankly, all the little green alien babies looked more or less the same to me, except for Wintergreen, who was born with Cypress' dark blue eyes.  Oh, Cypress, how I loathe you.  But as you can see, all the babies were thrilled that new members kept being added to the family.





I hasten to add that the babies weren't miserable.  Dora and Cypress kept trying to give them bottles, but I wanted them maxmotived and on the floor, so they were easier to age up.

The first of the babies is Menthol.  His other daddy has blond hair.



Next, Wintergreen.  His father is a redhead, but it looks as though Cypress' blond/dark blue eyes nuked that.  CYPRESSSS.  *shakes fist.* 

Actually, Wintergreen's looks grew on me, to tell you the truth.



Leek's daddy has brown hair, and I thought he grew up cute without being too pretty.



Finally, there's Peppermint.  Her daddy is the same as Wonder's, so it's no surprise that she's pretty.



It's another group toddler picture! 



See what I mean?  Wintergreen grows on you.

By now I was getting *organized.*  Group birthin', group grow ups, making sure all the grow ups happened in plat, the whole nine yards.





Menthol, as you'll notice, just had to be different.



Wintergreen already looks different.  As I pointed out, he has Daddy's eyes, but I won't hold that against him.



I like Leek.  He looks a bit like Publius Scipio from *Ten Caesars* to me, and it's not just the hair; it's the nose.



Finally, Peppermint clearly *knows* she's cute.



A couple more group pictures:








These guys were fun.  It was hard to exit without saving for them, but I have plans and they don't include Cypress having four little lima beans of his own, so. . .

By the way, these were also the only kids for whom I noted personality stats.  I was pleased to see that they all had "extreme" alien personalities.  All different, but they were mostly all 10s and 0s.  I don't know why I didn't think of that, but it makes sense, come to think of it.

Finally, I tried a Multi PT by a different creator.  This one is by widget_sims .  The skins and eyes mostly seem to be from GOS, though some of them are from MTS2.  I know the eyes are the Galaxy oddity eyes, except for one Pollination Technician, who uses default.  She has them all credited on her MTS2 page, with links.  This one looked interesting to me, because all the PTs are very different, but they still look as though they might work with Squeaky Clean.  

The Almighty Robinoli says that squeeing is inappropriate at my age, but howsabout this:  I *would* have squeed a lot if I was allowed to.



The first baby is Creamer.  His daddy is PT 65. 



Then there's Piranha.  Piranha's daddy, PT 24, *really* looked interesting to me, because aside from the skin, he has a really interesting nose, as you'll see later.



Then there's Lilac.  Imaginative name, sorry, but intensely cute.



I don't think I have a picture of Spinach as a baby, but honestly, little green babies look very much the same to me.  The only thing about Spinach is that he inherited Cypress' eyes, too.  CYPRESSSS. *shakes fist*

Once again, no actual babies harmed during the making of this album.



OK, here is where the squeeing would get really, really intense.  I can't (see above) but feel free to do some of your own.



I'm really partial to Piranha, did I mention that?  Note the tiny, almost nonexistent nose, which is somehow not disturbing-looking.





And Lilac; good heavens.





I think this is one thing I like about this set; that I *might* have a lavender alien or two running around without having to turn *all* of them lavender or lilac.

Jury's out on Spinach.  I only had one alien born in game, and that was Judy.  And Judy used a replacement PT that was so darned gorgeous that it completely nuked her daddy Mortimer's somewhat questionable genes.  I think maybe the hair style doesn't help.  If I were going to play him as a toddler, I'd have changed it, but there was little point, since I was going to grow him up in about ninety seconds.



Time for a group grow up! This seems to be the best picture I have of Lilac.




See?  There's nothing really wrong with Spinach.  Maybe he looks a bit too much like Cypress for my taste.




And also, I'm way too partial to Piranha.



See?  Check out that nose.



And Creamer--he's also cute.




It was hard to exit without saving here, too, because the kiddos were so cute, but once again, my plans for Cypress don't include four alien babies.




If I chose the Widget PT, I'd be committing myself to having those eyes and skins in my game pretty much forever (though you *can* change Multi PTs if you don't want more with the same PT, though I think you have to leave the Sim file in or he disappears from their family tree), but face it, those are some CUTE alien kiddos.


Anyway, that took a while, and I probably should have spent it playing my legacy or sorting pictures, or actually getting some work done, but it was an awful lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed it, or maybe even found it a little helpful.

Here are the CC links:

In the first picture, Cass is shown with Laverwinkle Sims skin and Bruno's Obsidian Eyes made default for aliens, here.  I'm a fan of DK's Vampire Paste, but since I can't use the skin without changing all my aliens (a grand total of one), I'm kinda stuck.

If you want any of the custom skins to show up and for your alien kids to be born *with eyes*, you absolutely have to have this:

Theo's Unlock Alien Eyes for all Skins.  You only need the package labelled "Alien Eyes." 

The first two Multi PTs are Simgaroop's Multiple Pollination Technicians to Suit Every Taste--the Polychromatic Edition and the Graslaxian edition. There are two more--some classic looking PTs, and one using Enayla's fantasy skins.  I recommend reading the page anyway, and the Maxian Invasion/tutorial/LJ entry she made here.    It's fun and it tells you a lot about what goes into making a Pollination Technician--a real eye-opener for those of us who don't have SimPE and can't get it.  The skins she uses are Astiee's, here, and the eyes are Ren Sims Confutatis Default Alien Eyes, here. I'm thinking about making them my new default.

The last Multi PT is Widget's Multi PT With Or Without Custom Genetics. Love it, really.  The pictures don't properly convey what they're like in game, especially Piranha's skin.  The green looks almost radioactive.  It's cool.  There are a lot of links from all over, which you can find on her page, but the eyes are Gelydh's Space Oddity on Club Crimsyn (under TSR Sets/Eyes).   NB:  while you can find the "Ivory Tattooed" skin used for Creamer on Garden of Shadows, it's also on MTS2, here. 

I also found a handy-dandy little mod by BlueBlood that makes contacts out of your defaults, including your aliens!  That's helpful, because evidently aliens often "lose their eyes" when they are teenagers.  What you do if your aliens have custom eyes, dunno--either it isn't a problem or you find some contacts, or don't take any pictures until they're in college. EDIT:  The Space Oddity eyes have contacts!  You can find them under "makeup" at Club Crimsyn.  D'oh.  I wouldn't have known that, but it's a good thing to know; at least this way if I use Widget's set, I can handle the teen eye issue :)

Hope you enjoyed it!



PB

Comments

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

First off, I think you should be completely allowed to squee no matter what your age is. Maybe it'll be a little silly, but silly keeps us young! At heart. At least. :)

Yeah, there's something distinctly NOT Cass about the purplepink skin. I know I didn't care for the replacement PT that skin came with. He was just too pretty.

I have to say, I LOVED the names you gave these kids. Mutation. Spinach. Menthol. Creamer. I giggled with each one.

Some of those boys definitely got the Vetinari nose too. Both of the ones that made you shout, "CYPRESSSSS!!!" and shake your fist. He was probably rather smug about the whole thing.

I think if I had to pick a set, I'd go with the third set. I like Simagroop's Graslaxian set, but I think the third set would give you the color variation you seem to want while not being too out there. I think anyone born with Pirranah's skintone will make pictures a little difficult, but it'd be worth it for that nose. :)

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

It's one of those strange things. I have hardly any aliens in my game--in a way, even Cass isn't one, since he's out of CAS, and of course, Judy is gone now. But that's a major continuity break. I know at least one of the boys got the Vetinari nose, which is unmistakable from the side. Probably Wintergreen.

I do like the third set a lot, and since I know there are contacts for them, I'm really tempted.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I'd say go for it. :) You could give Ulysses an alien baby and see what happens.

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Sneaky. You know exactly where this is going, don't you? I still haven't decided, but Marina has a point: not letting Ulysses have alien babies just seems wasteful. And Widget's set seems kind of cool: "a surprise in every box!"

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

You have the right to SQUEEE! if you want to. Some of them were totally SQUEEE!-worthy.

Purplepink Cass just doesn't seem like Cass, although I love the Obsidian eyes, obviously. There are already contacts made for those eyes, which is what I'm using on the Uglacy kids as Teens so that they still get to have their pretty eyes.

Hee! It never even occurred to me that you were using Cypress as a guinea pig there! I just figured you popped some CAS Sim into your Challenge neighborhood. Is OK, he likes abduction and YAY BABIES!

The Polychromatic set seems too detailed for your other default skins. Maybe if you had the Louis or RenSim default skins, they wouldn't stick out so much. The faces are interesting, but I don't think they suit your aesthetic.

The Graslaxian set and Widget's set are both nice. Widget's set has the color variation without getting too far away from the simplicity of your regular skin defaults, although I wonder how how hard it would be to catch good expressions on the black skintone.

Spinach does look quite a bit like Cypress, although I'm not sure what that particular PT looks like. I was messing around in CAS one day, and on a whim, changed Billy to blonde and Skin 2, and he was a dead ringer for Cypress, aside from the gigantic eyes of bigness.

The fact that Dora Ottomas was there makes me laugh. She thought she was gonna be the Cougar of the Year, and instead, she was still taking care of kids! Cypress is a legendary grudge-holder. So is Spider. They're totally incapable of LETTING IT GO.

But you got to experience the wonders of Cypress with children! "OMG BABY!" *feeds* *cuddles* *plays with* "OMG TODDLER!" *feeds* *plays with* *talks to* *tickles* *snuggles* I actually had to keep him away from SJ when I was trying to get some of the shots with Baby SJ and Cass, because Cypress kept trying to feed him, play with him, change his diaper, MOAR PLAYING... He's mental, but he LOVES kids.

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Argh, I probably should have used the Challenge neighborhood. Nope, all this went down in Pleasantview. I figured it wouldn't matter, since I was exiting without saving. I did find that the Sim Blender does not play nice with InSim, and I decided to keep InSim, since I'm used to it.

I'm really tempted by the Widget set. If you want to know what that PT looks like, the link takes you to her page, which has a variation without custom genetics.

I was really tempted to make Dora Cypress' Mom and watch her rack up the Aspiration points, but given the French kiss from before, I decided it would be gross. You're not kidding that SJ can't let things go. I was shooting a scene in Cypress' house with a lot of other sims, and SJ was explicitly NOT supposed to be there. He strolled in and made himself at home anyway, though, because of course he's still furious with Cypress. Amusingly, though, the Enemy thing cleared up, because they both were watching television together. I had to kick SJ out, and he still cruises by to steal the paper.

[dgjamie.livejournal.com]

Alot of these babies were definitely SQUEEE worthy! The first set I find slightly scary at some points, I think your giant spider analogy was...apt, as was Mutation's name.

I like the second set alot, maybe I'm a traditionalist but I like my Aliens green. Although Pirranah and Lilac make me want to change my mind in that respect, she's adorable!

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Piranha and Lilac are adorable, aren't they? Widget has another version with no custom skins, but I like the custom skins.

[penguingirl03.livejournal.com]

Lots of very cute alien babies! I'm not a fan of the weird skins that give sims three belly-buttons but I did like the last set. I think that dark blue skin tone made it kind of hard to see Piranha's features but that nose was pretty cool! You names for these kiddos were great BTW and I don't think there should be an age limit on squeeing. *nods*

Thanks for the tip about the alien eyes "disappearing" when they are teens. I was playing around in bodyshop this weekend and noticed that and figured I had another CC conflict going on. Now I don't have to waste any time with trying to figure out what was causing that. Instead I'll just go and grab some contacts to fix that little problem. :-)

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know about the alien eye thing until I started to look at Multi PT hacks. I don't have enough aliens to notice, but thinking about it made me look it up and find out. Simgaroop's link is really a tutorial in itself. It's all kinds of handy for aliens.

[avidreader7.livejournal.com]

Wow, I really like Widget's set. Cute kids and skintones!

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Some of those really are squee-worthy.

I like both Graslaxian and Widget's set. I think overall Widget's are probably my favourite because the kiddies look alienesque without being as scary as the first set. (Mutation, holy cow YES she looks like that giant spider). Plus the colours are nice if you want to have multicoloured aliens.

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

And I do think I might want multicolored aliens, even if I get stuck with all those custom skins. After all, Gen 8, coming down to the wire: if I'm going to take a few risks, why not do them now? I think they're actually kind of pretty in an alien kind of way.

[lauriempress.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pics and the info, Prof! I am having a bit of a problem though. The link you included for simagroop went to the same place as the widget link. At least it did when I clicked on them. Thanks again for posting this stuff though.

Lauri

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Ooops, Lauri--you're right! I fixed it now. It's an interesting read, including the tutorial on making custom PTs on her LJ. I think it's handy to know, even if you never intend to make one; knowing how they work is helpful.

Plus it was fun to play with.

PB

[lauriempress.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I probably will look at it later. I'm still thinking about all of this, but seeing the pictures in game helps me make up my mind.

L

[ahrubyblue.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was quite the experiment. It put a big smile on my face. I love that you really went for it. That first set is insane in an awesome sort of way that I really like. They all do look very alien in nature. But, yeah, veeeery different and startling. Pirahna really fits that description too, 'cept he's cute. That nose is so tiny and adorable.
I think either the Widget set or Graslaxian fit best with the general look of your sims.