Archive for January 2012

The Sims Medieval for iPhone

Saturday, January 21, 2012

From EA: Your favorite lighthearted Sims universe is going old-school – back to the times of castles, kings, jesters and knights! Control your Sims and decide their fates in this new fantasy. From serf and squire to Lady and Lord, role-play and immerse yourself in a dramatic, story-driven adventure. Create your hero and determine your Sim’s destiny – the possibilities are endless. Long Live The Sims!

This is my walkthrough of Sims Medieval for iPhone. It will be a work in process until I finish replaying the game. This isn’t a review, although I had fun with the game. This is not a how to I buy furniture for my house type guide. I am assuming you know how the game works and how each of the buttons work. If you don’t know this, create a throw away Sim and push all the buttons until you know what they do.

Stop reading now if you don’t like spoilers and hints and cheats. I’m talking this paragraph now. The next paragraph starts the spoilers. Ok. You’ve been warned.

If you have any questions about how to do something I will try to the answer the question if you leave me a comment. http://www.supercheats.com/iphoneipad/thesimsmedievalquestions.php has a lot of answers. Actually that’s wereh I got all my answers before I decided to write this. Okay… here goes.

Do NOT EVER!
In the “Options” menu, do not ever, ever, ever tap “Reset Data” unless you want to start the game from scratch. Not only will it re-hide all your goals it will DELETE all your Sims. The good news is, if you tap it accidentally you do get the option to tap the red X and not reset.

The Objective:
Complete all 43 goals.

The Skills:
Strength
Agility
Spirituality
Charisma
Your skills are increased by doing quests. Each different quest raises your skills by different amounts and you get a different number of simoleons too. You can increase your Skills by doing various acitivites in between quests. In order to increase your strength you will need to purchase an armory (this is actually part of a goal so don’t buy one until you are prompted). In order to increase your agility you need to play darts. You can buy one or use the one at the Tavern. In order to increase your spirituality you will need to read books. Once you reach a certain level you can buy one or read the books at the Church or at the Wizards. In order to increase your charisma you will need to look in a mirror. You can go to the Herbalists or once you reach a certain level you can buy one for your house.

The Status (focus points):
Hunger – Eat
Energy – Sleep/Sit
Social – Talk to another Sim
Fun – play dice, fish, pull a sword from a stone, watch stars
Every 24 Sim hours you get 4 focus points to do quests to meet goals. Fortunately there are only 4 status’ that you must keep up. At the stroke of Midnight (00:00) your focus points will increase by 1 for each of the above 4 that are statisfied (in the green). If one is not fully satisified at midnight, you will receive the focus point once you do satisfy it.

The Bonus:
Faith – Pray
If you increase your faith and keep it 3/4 full (or higher) you will get an one focus point for faith and then an extra bonus point for being euphoric. In order to pray you will need to either go to the church or buy your own Prayer alter.

The Stories:
The Charitable Guy
Way of the Brave
Religious Commitment
Political Commitment

There are actually 55 total goals. However you have to have 4 different Sims to complete all 55. Each of the 4 Stories have 39 shared goals and 4 unique goals. Below are list the various goals with the focus points it takes to achieve the goal in parentheses and the townie who gives you the quest.

Shared Goals:
Hero’s lesson (1) Tariq the Brave
Fish Soup (3) Farmelin
Heroic Challenge n°1 (0) Quest Panel
The Drakhans (3) Tariq
Ugly Kid (3) Firmin
Heroic Challenge n°2 (0) Quest Panel
I’m Dabest (3) Will Dabest
A Mysterious Plant (3) Firmin
Plants amateur (3) Kamelia
The Fish Master (3) Innkeeper
Spread the Word (3) Brother Jules
Point of View (3) Kamelia
Chicken Wings (3) Farmelin
Heroic Challenge n°3 (0) Quest Panel
Return of Will Dabest (4) Will Dabest
Funny Haircut (4) Firmin
The Rootless Mushrooms (3) Innkeeper
Plants Collector (3) Kamila
Collect for Charity (3) Brother Jules
Sticky Bob (4) Sticky Bob
The Fish Master (4) Innkeeper

The Stories Goals:
Story: The Charitable Guy I (10) Mortemer
Story: The Charitable Guy II (10) Mortemer

http://taciej.com/blog/?page_id=2055 is a link to the page with the steps for each of the quests.

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Excuse me?

Saturday, January 21, 2012

 Ok.  On a Top Gear theme.  My girlfriend alerted me to Richard Hammond’s lastest mastery of the english language.

 Richard Hammond on: sport buttons

Here are 2 quotes from it.

 “And then, like an alarm clock strapped to a stick of dynamite, the rev-counter’s needle ticked up to 7,500rpm, and all hell was let loose. Suddenly, my eyes made a dive for my neck, my stomach and lungs were straining to escape backwards out of my riding jeans, and the scenery to either side went all stretchy and thin. ”

And

“Kermit had gone crazy, pulled out a death ray, bitten the head off a chicken, drunk eight litres of tequila and shagged Miss Piggy in a skip outside a nightclub.”

And what does that have to do with a “sport button” (which supposedly changes the suspension in a car to make it stiffer and better handling)? You’ll have to read the article and find out.

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Top Gear

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I’m not really a car person. I love my Nissan Xterra. I loved my Volvo 240GL. That car never left me stranded anywhere I wasn’t safe. Ever. Same with my X – even when we hit a deer, she got me off the road and safe I even loved my Pontiac T-1000 – which was a Chevette by another name. I was never fond of that white Mitsubishi thing I had. As you can tell because I can’t even remember what it was. I’m enjoying my 1st ever sports car – a little red Mazda MX5 (aka the Miata). We’ve taken to calling the Miata the Frog because it has the headlights that pop up giving it a distinctly frog like appearance. And yes, it is a manual. An automatic sports car, even to me, is just wrong on too many levels. And one of these days I’m going to get me a Mustang. That’s what I’ve wanted since the late ’80’s. That’s the kind that uses petrol, not hay.

But beyond that… I’m not really into cars. I don’t care how fast from zero to 60 they can go. Horse power is nice – the more you have the better – but again, it’s really not that important. I’m not taking my car to a track. I don’t street race. So neither HP or 0to60 matter in the grand scheme. Plus The average age of my 2 cars in 16.5 years. Any pick they have is, well geriatric.

But why then do I now know what “brake horsepower” and “lower profile tires” and “flappy paddle gear box” mean? 2 words – Top Gear. (The BBC version – not the American version. I’ve only seen one episode if that.) I love this show. Yeah, every week they talk about some £100,000 plus car that I’ll never own – mainly because we can’t get them in the States. But I can recognize a Bugatti Veyron now. And I’ve learned stuff about cars. My one girlfriend and I have decided to test drive a Maserati Quattroporte with a flappy paddle gear box.

However the cars are secondary. I know you must be thinking… you watch a car show, but not for the cars. And yes, you would be quite correct. I watch it for the humour (it has to be spelled with the u because it’s British). Quaint My Ride is one of my favorite pieces of film (aka clips in America). I laugh until I cry every time I watch it. Thank God it’s on YouTube. I watch Top Gear for the silly stunts that they do – such as racing airport machinery to figure out which is fastest to help speed up check in times, or turn a combine (yes the farm equipment) into a snow plow with a flame thrower. Oh and then there was the camping trip. Richard Hammond is adorable in a Davey Jones in his heyday kind of a way. Jeremy Clarkson is delightfully snarky. Jeremy & Richard have the funniest facial expressions and aren’t afraid to make an ass of themselves for the camera. And James May is … well Captain Slow. All 3 have a brilliant command of English and their phraseology is delightful.

And from time to time they review a reasonably price car that I might actually be able to buy. There is of course the language barrier. Boot = Trunk. Bonnet = Hood. Saloon Car = Sedan. Estate Car = Station Wagon. A People Carrier is not a bus, but a minivan. But with the magic of the internet, my handheld device, and the British to American translation website this isn’t a problem. And petrol is gas, not any fuel that you would put in a car. They call diesel – of all things, diesel.

As I started. I’m not really a car person. I like cars. I like to drive fast (although my roll over hazard and ticket magnet have tempered that). I enjoy driving. And I enjoy Top Gear, but not necessarily for the cars.

Oh, and for the record … a flappy paddle gear box is a semi-automatic gear box with gear change levers on the steering rather than the traditional stick on the floor. It is mainly in high end performance cars.

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Fantasy Football

Saturday, January 21, 2012

A couple of years back a couple of guys ran a fantasy football league from the office across the hall. When they were having problems getting enough players I said I would love to join. They recruited the one guys aunt instead and then complained all season about her not wanting to play. To quote the old knight in Raider’s “he chose poorly.” And of course I mentioned that too.

Fast forward a couple of years. My one girlfriend at the office asked if I wanted to join a league her cousin ran. Read my 10/21/08 post on that one. And since I’m typing this from an iPhone and have NO idea how to link… you are on your own. And I must say WOW – 2008. I didn’t realize it had been that long.

Well, I’ve been happily loosing in my league for years. I’d get close and then blow it. Not close enough to get a good draft pick… just close enough to suck. This year started no different. But I managed to pick up Matt Stafford and some kicker (yeah, I’m into names) because my guys sucked. It didn’t hurt that I have Arian Foster… But dude spent a couple of weeks hurt. I kinda gave up at one point after forgetting to switch my QB. I played a a guy who got me 0 points. I did that a couple of times with various players. Both my QB’s were on bye at the same time … poor planning on my part … But the saving grace that week was the person I was playing against had a lot of Eagles players and I managed to win.

Long story short. I ended up in the top 2 in my division at the end of the season. Don’t ask – I’m not quite sure how. And the lady I beat, besides being really nice (which is completely irrelevant), had beaten me seriously the 2 games before. Which put me in the final 2. Well butter my buns and call me a biscuit. And going into the Monday night game. I was down slightly with 1 player to play. Nealla was up slightly with 2 players to play. Ask me how I beat her by 2 points. Go ahead – ask. I have NO clue. She should have won.

So I have bragging rights for the next 6 months… I am the Queen of my Fantasy League.

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