Advice Please!

[cloudygray]

Hello! My name's Amelia, and I'm going into my senior year of high school. In my free time I like to write, draw, and follow the news.

I've been working on a story about the pre-made sim families called The Capp Family Legacy (despite the title, it is not a legacy challenge story). I was hoping some of you could review what I've written so far, and

Comments

[simsinthecity]

I should have also mentioned this earlier, but I wouldn't mind seeing bigger pictures in the story. Most people tend to do that. If the quality worsens when you resize - to be honest, it isn't all that great right now - you'll either want to consider setting the in-game camera settings to give a better performance, or find a different program to take the pictures for you.

Also, I have a question about the story itself. I know that the Capps were mentioned in the second part, but are they going to feature more prominently in later parts? It wouldn't make sense, to me, to name your story after a family that isn't the main focus of the story.
And why call it a legacy when it isn't actually a legacy?

[infinitygoddess]

It would appear that the pictures are Scrapbook thumbnails. I'd recommend that the OP would paste a direct link to the pictures instead, so no resize is necessary.

And definitely agreed on the changing of camera settings, but that's only provided the OP's computer can handle it. I know my pictures, even with the ingame camera, improved dramatically and I could see the whole neighborhood besides for some realism.

Camera mods are good for close-ups and stuff. GunMod made a huge difference for me, even if I still confess that I'm getting the hang of it, heh.

And agreed on your other points. If it's not going to be a legacy, then it doesn't need to be called one, and it looks like a Strangetown story to me and the Capps are in Veronaville if I recall correctly.

[simsinthecity]

I've uploaded my pictures to Scrapbook before and I never knew why I couldn't get them to look decent. Thank you for that explanation.

The OP hasn't mentioned anything about graphical capabilities and I wasn't going to wait for a response about it to give my suggestion. Again, thank you for mentioning that. I wouldn't want her to try to over-exert her computer.

With the mention of the Capps, I'm assuming they'll come into the story later. However, there's no obvious connection here and it doesn't seem right now like they'll be the main characters. A story's title ought to focus on something that is present from the beginning if it's going to be specific enough to use the name of a character or family.

[infinitygoddess]

I use Scrapbook because it's easier than having to reset my hotlink blockers on the server where I have my site and my artworks and Sim stories. What I did for my latest entry here, is that I went to the full size version of the image, copied the link and then used the Rich Text Format and pasted the image link into the image editor. And that's only if I don't want the thumbnails.

I have my graphics settings to the highest and I have lighting mods, so if you're wondering about the quality of lighting, that's why.

[cloudygray]

I think I'll check out some camera mods now. Thanks for the suggestion.

And like I told simsinthecity, I called it The Capp Family Legacy because the Capps or their ancestors are more or less responsible for all the problems the main characters have to deal with. The story will deal with Veronaville and Pleasantview later; it's really just the first few chapters that will focus exclusively on Strangetown, I think. But the title is obviously confusing to everyone besides me, so if you have any suggestions for a better one, it would be most appreciated.

[infinitygoddess]

Just make sure to put any mods to the camera into the Cameras folder and not Downloads and back up the original Maxis cameras in case you choose to switch back.

As for suggestions for story titles, you need to look at the direction where your story is going and what you're intending it to be about, or if you're not at that level yet, then you still need to drop the "Legacy" in your title, unless you want to simply name it "legacy" or something like it.

For example,when I first started out with my story, Mikhailachev Manor, I had no idea what direction it would go; I was only interested in telling the story of one of the characters, whose name is Rasputin (I'd been inspired to write about him since he was a child and he was rather the cutie; still is, but for other reasons, heh). The main story does pass through some generations, but I never called it a "legacy", though I have named the 'hood itself Mikhailachev Legacy. This is the result of what the story is about right hereI called it "Mikhailachev Manor" because it's a story

[simsinthecity]

I figured that's what you'd do to solve that; I just never thought of it myself.

I've always had my settings at the highest I could handle, which, as long as I've been posting here on LJ, has been the highest possible. But it's also showed me how much I need to make the pictures clearly show that and how little I need to edit them to make them look nice!

[infinitygoddess]

I have a Dell Studio laptop with 4 gigs of RAM, and I've not had much issue with graphics. I still sharpen a bit with Photoshop, though, and I use GunMod's Radiance Lighting besides.

[simsinthecity]

When I first played the game, I was stuck playing on a computer that ran Windows 98. (It ran faster than the one we had with XP, actually.) It's gotten gradually better since then.

[infinitygoddess]

I have Vista Home Premium 64-bit, naturally, as Windows 7 was not out at the time my parents got me this thing for my birthday/college graduation present. Heh.

[simsinthecity]

I'm getting a laptop for Christmas this year, and I'm assuming it'll have 7.

[cloudygray]

I've tried resizing pictures before, but it tends to make them get all pixelly. As for the camera settings, I have them about as high as they can go without the game moving freakishly slowly and then crashing.

And yes, the Capps will come into the story later. I called it The Capp Family Legacy because the Capps and their ancestors are in some way responsible for practically every problem the main characters face. But I get that the title confuses people. Any suggestions for a better one?

[simsinthecity]

Did you actually resize the pictures using a computer program, or only on LJ? If the former, what program did you use? If the latter, was it because you had the Scrapbook thumbnails posted?

I would recommend trying something to make it easier for your computer to handle higher settings, but if it's out of the question, I won't.

So the Capps aren't the main characters ... it's fine that you've got them in the title, but the current title implies that they are the main characters. I would change it to something that shows more that they are the antagonists instead if you still want them in the title. I don't want to make too many suggestions, since it's your story and your responsibility to find a title that suits it, but how about CappCorp?

[cloudygray]

Ugh. This is starting to get into technical computer stuff. I'm not particularly techno-savy, but I'll see what I can do.

Thanks for the title suggestion. I might end up using some variation on that, though I'm not sure. I'll keep mulling it over until my next post.

[simsinthecity]

I'm willing to speak on less technical terms if you need it.

It's a good thing you haven't made any teaser pictures as others tend to do. This way, you won't have to go back and change anything, although I'd also like to recommend using teaser pics in the future.