In the last edition of DID (Deigning In Downtime), I mentioned a handful of my favorite rituals, some regarding characters that I wanted to keep in the same place for eternity.
There are a couple of reasons I do this. First, I like how they look, and that they make me happy for some reason I have made up, as part of the rituals. But, over time and function, they have become part of the decorations…the style that gives my town unique flavor.
But, a couple of these take real planning…and a bit of luck…and sometimes a lot of patience (or stubbornness…you choose).
First of all, it is relatively unfortunate that EA doesn’t allow us to simply highlight and move a character EAsily. It would make it more fun to be able to move characters the ways we can move buildings and decorations. But, as I’m sure you have found out, when you store a character, then go to place them again, it is a pretty random exercise. The game pretty much places them in an allotted algorithmic location, that changes with each replacement. Try this yourself…you’ll see that placing, storing, and replacing, can at best, allow you to find a place that is relative to where you wanted the character.
But, if the character is a building/character combo, it is super easy to move the character, by storing and replacing the building. This really only works well for task routines that remain stationary. Otherwise, you’ll go nuts, trying to keep a character in the same zone.
One of the EAsiest, and in my case, a true “part of the design,” is Lee Carvallo’s “Show No Love” task. It gives my new golf course an actual golfer. (I got the idea from one of my favorite neighbor’s who ALSO built a golf course). Thanks Kyle!
The steps of making this work are pretty straightforward…
1. Store the “Mini Golf Castle”- which also stores Lee
2. Retrieve and place the “Mini Golf Castle” where you want him on your golf course.
3. As soon as he starts to move, immediately select the “Show No Love” task.
4. Move the Mini Golf Castle back to it’s proper location.
Now… as long as you just keep clearing his task, and making him do the same 12 hour task over and over, he stays put…always working at hitting a good shot toward the 3rd green.
The second one is similar, although if I forget that I cleared it when tapping near the zone, and have to come back and replace it…Shary can be a real PITA (Pain In The A$$). I’ll repeat it again…the reason I keep Shary airborne 24/7, is in punishment for what EA put me through to get her in the first Easter update. The wHell, and other gamed algorithms made her impossible to “win.”
I keep her airborne by the Mapple Store in the vicinity of the SuperCollider…because weird stuff happens there.
The ritual for this one is a bit more complex. If I blow it, and let her wander around for a bit, the only way to get her back to “Collider Square” is to do a bit of building shuffling.
1. Have Shary do the “Teach Evil Deeds” task….which actually places her in the Flanders House for an hour (unless I speed it up with donuts).
2. Store the Mapple Store
3. While the task is running, move the Flanders House over to the spot where the Mapple Store stood.
4. As soon as Shary clears her task and emerges from the Flanders House, hit the “Fly On Her Umbrellla” task.
5. Move the Flanders House back to it’s original place
6. Replace Mapple Store from Storage.
Spit spot…easy as a spoonful of molasses.
The final example today, requires a bit of all three elements; craftiness, determination, and luck.
Getting my Femme Fatale character to “Do Dangerous Gymnastics” in front of my SkyFinger monument, came about over several days of trying to get her to move into the right vicinity. I spent more time than I’d like to admit, to storing, placing, storing again, placing again, over and over and over, until she finally popped up close to my SkyFinger area. At this point…I had to watch, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, for her to actually cross paths in the location in which I wanted her to perform. And once there…I have had to be extremely careful to clear…and wait for her to run her short pattern of walking away, and then back to the same spot…only to be “captured again,” for another 4 hours.
**HINT- if you watch, most characters when cleared will eventually wander back to the place they originated from when you cleared them. You have to be patient. It may take a while. But, they pretty much walk a pattern, once cleared…unless you leave them to wander for hours. Then, good luck!
This ritual has become so pridefully consuming, that it is the first I perform every 4 hours…or every time I open my game…just to be damn sure she is going to stay where she is supposed to stay.
I have on occasion cleared her by mistake…and then have to watch for minutes (sometimes many) as she wanders close, then away, then close again…all around the area (often walking across the water). I’m not proud of this obsession…but I claim it…and marvel at her “bendiness.”
Ironically…as I was trying to do this demo…I hit the wrong character, and FF got away...and I had to wait a couple of cycles to get her back! UGH! FF is so Fickle!
Yes…that is my mumbley voice that just burbles when I am creating. Needless to say, Mrs. Miller does not allow it at the breakfast table.
Am I obsessed? Am I nuts? Who can say? But, these, along with countless others, have become part ritual and part decoration in my town.
Try some. And then let us know your results and your favorites.