DAO: Cemellyn

A family gathering before Teryn Bryce Cousland & his son Fergus leaves for Ostagar.


BACKGROUND
Kocari Wilds. Thats where father & Fergus are going to in a couple of days. I'm going to miss them but I'm upset that father didn't let me go! I can handle myself well enough, as a girl I beaten all the other guards and even the squires in melee combat. Ser Gilmore says I fight like a hell cat but Fergus says that the guards let me win because I'm the daughter of Teyrn.

He is just jealous that his little sister will best him in combat. Maybe thats why he never duels with me. So I guess I have to help mother manage the estate in their absence. Its a good opportunity to put what I learnt governing and leadership in place.

I just hope I will do a good job and the people will like me. I won't let father down. By the time he is back from the south, he will know that his little girl is not only a grown woman. Wise and tempered but also a just and fair ruler.

Being in Ferelden has its advantages at least for me. In Orlais, woman are inferior and have to submit to the will of the men. Here, we are equals and even women can become Banns or Teryn. Speaking of which, I like to travel one day and see the world. But both father and mother would not have it, said its too dangerous.

Perhaps, in the future they will let me as I become a better warrior and more experienced. I can only hope. Now I need to go find my Mabari Pockets.


BUILD
Class: Warrior
Specializations: Berserker / Champion
Primary Role: Main Tank
Secondary: Secondary Crowd Control

My canon Grey Warden. The standard sword & board meatshield. Beserk for passive strength bonuses & by going to Circle to recruit Wynne the very first thing after Lothering. Cemellyn gains dramatic stat increment for strength. So she dons heavy armour fairly early on. This does have a bit of a disadvantage though. Since a tank needs more str, con & dex to be fully viable, it can be a challenge to build up until you got all right amount of stats in the right places.

You can strike a balance of stats as you grow your tank but I don't think it makes much of a difference. Since massive armour, shield skills & high con can all make significant differences when you play the game.

3 single target CC, 1 AoE CC. Tons of armour, passive aggro & HP. High Dragons will still present a challenge. At high level, Cemellyn is more unkillable than the Alistair going default tank spec. High Dragons on the otherhand still give me a bit of trouble.


PARTY COMPOSITION
1. Oghren - DPS
2. Wynne - Healer
3. Leiliana - Rogue

Swapping around the characters here and there. No real difference to what was already mentioned.

DAO: Telrae

Summoned by his mother, Telrae exchanges pleasantries with other visiting nobles. He has his eye on the elven lass.


BACKGROUND
Father & Fergus are going to be heading south soon. This time its the Darkspawns. Monstrous & mythical creatures that I learnt from Aldous. No ones I knew have really seen them before. I'm starting to be convinced they are just boogey man conjured by mothers to scare children into being obedient. I'm sure Aldous said something else about it too but I never really paid attention in his classes, can't say I blame the younger squires too for falling asleep.

I wonder what I do different though if I were teaching the young lads. Maybe more on the sword and sorcery thingy or maybe not. We just skip right to sword practice. That be more interesting.

Given that the entire kingdom is already making preparations. I guess they aren't tall tales like some say it would be. Still, father has me spent time training on governing the Teyrnir. Which is bloody waste of time since mother will be the one doing the actual governing.

Well, unless of course Father & Fergus does not return from the South.. then eventually I might become the Teyrn of Highever... Andraste's knickers! I hope not.

And why in Andraste's name am I training with shields?! Bloody shields!
A huge heavy two-hander can bloody smash the shield AND the arm bearing it. Shields can't even stop magic! Utterly useless crap!

Instead of doing all these pointless exercise. I rather take some of my best guards to patrol the Terynir, I might catch some bandits up to some mischief or even a sweet lass eager for the company of their young lord. Poor Fergus, he is stuck with an Antivan spitfire & little Oren.
Ha! I'm sure he is jealous of his little brother scoring these much ladies while he is away doing droll.

Ahhh, I miss the days when we compete each other for the mischief we get up to and the mead. Lifes going to be different for a while now, until Fergus is back for me to egg on. Right anyway, I better be going to check on Marsh. Mother is going to nag my ears off if my Mabari stirs up some shit again.



BUILD
Class: Warrior
Specializations: Templar / Champion
Primary Role: Primary DPS
Secondary: Secondary Tank

Telrae is 3rd warrior I made for DAO, his focus is on two-handed weapons. Which I believe seems to be the default way Bioware intends for DPS warriors to go. Max out str as early as possible, any remaining can be spent on con with wisdom and a bit of cunning to provide more persuasion options in dialogs. Reaching the ability to wear Massive Armour fairly early on compared to other warrior builds.

On the whole, this build loses out on the overall dps compared to Syreniel earlier. But it provides two solid AoE CC. I normally send Telrae into a big group of enemies and open up the fight with sweeping strike. It deals damage and knocks everyone around him to the ground. Follow-up with a Champion's shout which will knock any remaining enemies alive back on the ground.

For harder targets, use critical strike, massive blows to dispatch them and pommel strike if for single target CC. The only disadvantage with this build is that it pulls too much aggro and range enemies with shattering shot can throw a wrench into this strategy.


PARTY COMPOSITION
1. Alistair - Tank
2. Wynne - Healer
3. Leiliana - Rogue

There is really no need to further elaborate the party composition I seem to have covered similar party compositions before. It makes common sense on why you bring certain characters for the roles that they play. Which can get boring sometimes, especially if you want to keep true to the spirit of game. I.e: Some people would take Morrigan and make her a healer, which is cool but seems rather out of character for her.
So I'm hoping that DA2 will introduce more choices in terms of our party members. At the very least retain replayability for those of us who want to make multiple Hawkes.

Telrae at Ostagar in Chainmail. He has grown strong and is now massive in everything. Armour, weapons and well.. erh I guess size too.

DAO: Syreniel

Syreniel meets her cousin to discuss their double-marriage in the alienage.

BACKGROUND

I was born in the elven alienage, right here in Denerim. The heart & jewel of Ferelden, the capital city. I never been outside of the alienage before and what knowledge I have of the outside world are mostly heard from others. I once snucked around and took a peek. The world beyond the alienage is so similar yet so different.. It is like what we have here, except less squalid and more spacious.

I got in a fair bit of trouble snucking out and it was my mother that saved me. I miss my mother so much. In her youth she was quite an adventurer and she had quite a number of stories to tell me. She also taught me how to handle a blade, which father frowned upon. They would often get into arguments at times.
Then one day I came back home and she was gone. I missed her so much and I never knew what happened to her until I was older. Father said the shems took her away. It was then I think I understood what she and father were always arguing about.
Father wants to stay out of trouble but mother says that she should not let the shems take away anymore of our dignities.

It was the shems. How they oppressed our people and treat our people as slaves. The shems say slaves are forbidden in Ferelden and that we are just servants. LIES! There is no difference in being a servant for the rest of the life than a slave. We still never be able to live the life we want and will serve on them till the day we die.
It is a life-time of servitude. To them we are animals, fit to use in anyway. Hard labour, work too undesirable or beneath them. Even worse as their play-things.

Just two days ago I caught a shem noble leering at me. Facing him, I glared at him contemptously and he backed down. I'm glad mother taught me how to use the blade, if he ever comes back one day to find trouble. I'll find him and gut the pig down.

One day the shems will pay. They will pay for taking away our freedom and most of all they WILL pay for taking away my mother. We will not be the down-trodden any longer.


BUILD
Class: Warrior
Specializations: Reaver / Berserker
Primary Role: Primary DPS
Secondary: Secondary Tank

Not the first warrior I created but arguably the most powerful one. Syreniel is dual-wields two main-hand weapons. Started out slightly better than average with low survivability, even though a lot of her stats had to go into Agility to unlock the DW path. With solid massive armor at high levels, she tears elites a new asshole.
I went with Reaver with the idea of having some physical resistance to help her survive. And Berserk provides a passive bonus to strength needed to don plate armor. In hindsight? I should have gone towards Templar for specialization. DW hits rapidly and can drain quite a fair bit of mana.
Bad thing is Syreniel dishes out so much damage that she attracts too much aggro.

PARTY COMPOSITION
1. Alistair - Tank
2. Wynne - Healer
3. Zevren - Rogue

I had to use a mod to respec Zevren to fulfill similar roles as Leliana. I let him stayed as an Assassin since it was his canon specialization. Having my rogue wade into melee when my main is already melee is not very good. Alistair was interesting but considerably weaker when compared to Shale in the early stages of the game. Limited AoE CC too. Heavy armor does have its advantages in attracting aggro, so I had to dump massive amounts into his strength, whenever he levels.

Syreniel in full-battlegear. Massive armour and twin blades. One enchanted with fury of the flames the other with chill of the winter's touch.

DAO: Quelvallei

Quelvallei protecting Dalish territory against intrusions of 'shemlens'. Or better known as Humans.


BACKGROUND

My whole life is spent in the wilderness of Ferelden, in the vast forest. I was not brought up by my parents but by the clan elders. They never told me much about my parents even when I pressed them.

Life is not easy but we get by. There are many dangers in the wilderness, witches, apostates, kocari barbarians & other monstrous creatures that lurk within the savage forest. There is no other way, such are the things we go through for the sake of freedom.

We are the Dalish, the last free people of the elvenkind. There are others who lives in the cities with the shems. Knife ears, elves who lost their will, dominated by the shems. These elves will never lift their head in pride & are shackled in servitude for the rest of their lives. Some even feel grateful to wait on their shem masters. Pitiful.

The shems encroach upon our lands many times and we often had to avoid them. I'm tired of this, the land used to be ours. Our once glorious civilization was laid to waste not once but twice by these shems. These brutes, take our land and rape our women. Young girls not even at the cusp of adolescence savagely violated and left to die.

Their transgressions should be punished yet the Elders caution me from doing so. For it may trigger a war between us and shems. Elders say we will lose out, for their numbers are much greater.

I am reluctant to concede to the Elder's wishes. We may never reclaim our lost glory, but I will defend what was left of us till the day I die. If any foolish shems dare encroach upon our territory, they will very surely feel my wrath and fury. I will make an example out of them.

But it will not stop here, I will find a way to return my people to glory. It may take years, decades or even centuries but I will find a way to return our numbers and make us stronger.

One day we will reclaim our glory, this I swear by our gods & my parents' graves.


BUILD
Class: Rogue
Specializations: Duelist / Ranger
Primary Role: Utility / DPS
Secondary: Crowd-Control

Picking ranger is mainly for its pets, already explained in earlier post for Celurriel's party composition. Its ability to block can be both good & bad, depending on the situation you have.
The duelist choice was chosen mainly for its passive bonus to agility. The rest of the abilities are similar to the Assassin path and are very melee exclusive. The whole idea is the get sufficient cunning for disabling traps/opening locks & pump the rest into agility. Constitution & wisdom are useful but not as important. Strength at the bare minimal so as to be able to equip Tier 7 crafted armour. A PC rogue is significantly stronger due to the bonuses received in the game that is exclusive only to the PC.


PARTY COMPOSITION
1. Shale - Tank
2. Wynne - Healer
3. Oghren - Main DPS

The only difference from this set-up from Celurriel's was swapping out Leliana for Wynne.
Wynne has the exact same specializations & spell as Celurriel, but lesser selection of spells.

The best handcrafted leather armor made from the best material. Armed with best bow crafted from the oldest oaks. Quelvallei stands ready to defend the lands of the Dalish

DAO: Celurriel - going in circles

We are back at the Circle of Magi... Me miss? you bald tranquil whose-name-i-can't remember

This is my dream, you are in my domain Alistair. And I can do anything I want here.. whats with that expression? not convinced?

Whats with the magic barrier? I thought you liked me?

Jowan, what happen to your girlfriend... you know the Chantry girl? What don't look away & avoid the question

I'm feeling kind of warm in here.. lets shed some clothes.

DAO: Celurriel - Along the way...

Its a WITCH!!! Quick! Everyone look away so you won't get turned into a toad!

Is there something behind me Alistair? You do know that I'm a magic user right? And magic users can turn people into toads. Just wait till I learn that spell..


We are a band of two looking for two more to form an all girls adventurers party. Guy? What guy? Oh! You mean Alistair to my right? He is our errand boy so he doesn't count.

Seeing as we are both elves & you seem rather important. I don't suppose you know who my parents are?


I hate spiders, I really do and I hate caves too. Its so musty... oh hold on a moment... why is the blood red? Spiders shouldn't have red blood right? Guys?

DAO: Celurriel - Prelude

Yes Jowan.. I'm aware my leg looks odd, can you please wave that magic wand over here and fix it. The Harrowing took too much out me and I'm in no condition to do it myself...


A cloister sister from the Chantry & a mage... not exactly the best matches... Hey but whatever floats your boat guys..

Uhm guys are you sure this is the place to take your marriage vows? It looks like a restricted area...

DAO: Denizens of the Fade

The spirit world in DAO is known as a the Fade. It is here most practitioner of magic sanctioned by the Circle go through Harrowing process.

A very dangerous place and not for the weak. Those who are trapped are eventually lost forever in it, their physical bodies die if the spirit does not return in time. Yet there are worse fates, a spirit can cross over from the Fade into the Physical world possessing the body of the mage. And in the process become an abomination.


(Left: trapped soul in the form of a mouse, Middle: a benign spirit of honour, Right: Malevolent spirit of sloth)

DAO: Celurriel

Here is Celurriel at the Harrowing Chamber with Irwin(left) and Gregoir (right) the commander of the templars. Mages in Thedas are hardly tolerated and are often kept under close watch by the templars. Which is the militant branch of the Chantry. The Chantry would be equivalent of the Church in medieval times as they wield quite a tremendous amount of power.


BACKGROUND

I never knew who my parents were. I barely remembered their faces. It was blurry & vague. As if it was obscured by fog. Were they Dalish? It didn't matter, well not anymore. I was brought to this tower a long time ago. I can't even remember how old I was then. If someone asked me what childhood meant. I don't think I could ever answer them.

I was brought up here. Not much later, my training has began. The concentration, the books & rituals. Amongst all that, we were watched by the bunch of men in heavy armor that called themselves the Templars. It didn't matter what you are, human or elves. They kept a close watch on us regardless. We were never allowed to leave the tower. Though I have heard of a particular mage that have escaped the tower on several occasions. Anders was it?

Now several years have passed, at least a decade. I have grown and started to notice a Templar by the name of Cullen. Who seems to be paying special attention to me. An odd fellow for a Templar, sometimes I catch him smiling at me. When he realized that I was aware, his expression quickly change & seems to be a little nervous when I talked to him.

I haven't had much time to contemplate. Since much of my time has been spent on harnessing the powers of the arcane. Which I am told is extremely dangerous. I have spent much time learning from the Senior Enchanters and I'm told the day of my Harrowing is just tomorrow.

I will have to enter the fade and face one of the greatest challenges in my life. There is a chance that I might even turn into an abomination that must be put down by those Templars guarding us.

If I am successful I will leave the ranks of apprenticeship and become a full-fledged mage. Yet I'm not filled with excitement. I will still be kept in this prison of a tower. I'm often told that we are dangerous and we are housed here to keep ourselves and others safe.

And that with power comes great responsibility.
Though I should count my blessing that the Circle hasn't decide to turn me into a Tranquil. One of those creepy mages who no longer have any emotions. Oh... what I would give to leave this tower. And maybe.. to experience a bit of love? Is that too much to ask?

BUILD
Class: Mage
Specializations: Arcane Warrior / Spirit Healer
Primary Role: Healer / Buffer
Secondary: DPS / Crowd-Control

I wanted something different for my 2nd play-through. So I tried another class, but its hard to get the hang of friendly fire when everything is moving in real-time. Pausing can only do so much. So a healer would definitely be a lot easier to manage. The decision to go Arcane Warrior was merely cosmetic, Celurriel can't actually tank at all. Robes are just too plain ugly for me. Definitely the traditional D&D Cleric.

Heavy armor will attract aggro so putting her in the back is a sound plan. It forces enemies to wade through my other party members. The down side is that she runs out of mana fairly easy due to fatigue. Therefore potions are an absolute must in long drawn-out fights. Also deliberately done so to exclude Wynne from the party since I wanted a completely different experience.


PARTY COMPOSITION
1. Shale - Tank
2. Leliana - Rogue
3. Oghren - Main DPS

Very standard MMO party set-up. Shale is hard to take down and can switch modes. Her tanking mode is what interest me since it comes with some AoE CC that helps in the fights itself.
Leliana is a no-brainer... she is the only rogue around. Going the ranger route is just to bring a little extra dps & to soak the damage. Also useful to block off enemies.
Oghren is just mainly just for comedy relief, but he also comes with two specialization slots unlike Sten who given only one.

Celurriel in her full battle regalia. From robes to massive-armor.

DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS

I first saw this game when I was at a friend's house. Heck I have been so off the 'gaming scene' I hardly knew what new games are out there. Oh well, spending too much time in a MMORPG & saving up cash can do that to you.

While all my friends were in the living room playing some board game. I was glued to his computer, creating my first character for Dragon Age: Origins (DAO for short). I'm a sucker customizing my character. When I saw the options I was sold. Almost every part of the face can be customized down to the voice. The only thing you can't change is the body shape.

Pity, but I loaded up the game and played it a bit. It didn't take long before I was impressed. I guess its partly due to the fact that I wanted something new. But I still had to save money and too much pride to borrow it from a friend.

4 weeks later, I couldn't take it anymore. I bought the game, installed it on my PC. For two weeks I was hooked on it. Clocking almost 5 hours of game after my returning home from the office.

I finally completed the game at last but was left wanting for more. Eventually created 4 different characters and completed the game with it.

My other friend wasn't so keen on it. His gal-pal of his who happens to be a gamer, nerdraged when her party got wiped out and quit the game entirely! And he was influenced by her so much that he too decided that the game was terrible.

I must admit though, the AI can be rather idiotic and will run into ambushes and traps. Often then resulting in a party wipe. Which can be frustrating but nowhere as frustrating as playing Sims 3 and getting error codes 12.

But once you look past the stupidity of the AI, it really isn't bad. Particularly the party dynamics and how they interact with each other. The banter they have while traveling are absolutely hilarious.

Good job Bioware.

Sunset Valley

Here is a look at the pre-made town that shipped with Sims 3. Although there are others to download and with CAW (Create a World) theres even more. I made this my default town for the custom sims. Click the pictures to enlarge.

Aerial view of the town. I'm not sure whether the sun is rising or setting since this screen was taken a while ago. It would be nice to figure out the directions at least. Nice beach shown, too bad you can't have the sims swim in lakes, rivers or ocean in Sims 3.

Another aerial view. This time from where the sun is. Military base to the left. This is general overview of the town.

Another aerial view. Close up and we can see the Stadium to the far-left and Research Labs to the far right. In the center municipal buildings.


Another aerial view with a road running to and out of the town. This reminds me of my trip to the Great Ocean Road in Australia. We traveled on the road coastal cliffs, much like the road leading to the town. Also the road leading out of town is very similar to the farms/pastures I passed by in Ocean Road.

An actual on ground view of the coastal road.


Another aerial view. Misty morning. The entire town could not be shown but this shows greater detail of the town center in general.

If there was a GPS view or map. This is probably the closest we come to. The size is much larger but the below is the actual area which Sims can actually have access to exceptions to a few areas. Such as the Military base, mountains and the roads leading into or out of town.

Introducing the D'artegans

Bernard was a successful business man before he met Elise an aspiring musician. Not long after the birth of their daughter Cemellyn. Bernard's business took a hit & ended up completely bankrupt. Evading their debtors, the D'artegan fled to a new neighbourhood, hoping to start fresh.

Like her parents. Cemellyn was eloquent with words but came across as stand-offish to most people. Beneath that facade, actually a compassionate & well intentioned person.

Introducing the Vaeliendiels

Rachel left her abusive & unfaithful husband and came to new town. Hoping to start fresh in a new environment. She has so far succeeded in bringing up the jewel of her life, her daughter Syreniel.

Growing up with only her mom, made her long for something more. A friendly & compassionate individual, she quickly made many friends and eventually became a doctor. One of the most attractive woman in the neighbourhood, she has tons of suitors. But of all the things she wanted most, was a family of her own. To have a loving husband and be able to give her children the things she never had when she was younger.

A completely warm & loving family.

Introducing the Almavsk

Leaving his home town due to losing the family inheritance, Lucio brought his entire family to Sunset Valley to start anew. With nothing but a shirt on his back he quickly rose to success due to his ambitious nature & hardwork. As a result he despises those who are weak especially the ones who sit by and complain at life. His wife on the other hand, is a born & bred high class socialite who never lifted a hand at working at all, indulging herself at the fine life while neglecting care for her young son.

As a result, Kydrien grew up without love & had all the things money could buy him. He took the people around him for granted & is often quite mean to almost anyone. Although rich & easily mistaken for a dandy, Kydrien is quite fit & daring. Never one to back down from a challenge and with his father's ambitious streak. He might just make a name for himself.. along with a score of enemies whose toes he stepped on.

Introducing the Tystalline

Vyrien's husband was killed in an accident partly due to her own clumsiness. After grieving for a long time, she finally came to her sense. Determined to look towards the future instead dwelling in the past, she moved to a new town to start afresh with her son.

Friendly & charming is how most people described Quelvallein. His good nature has also earned him quite alot of friends that he can call in times when aid is required. However, Quelvallein has a secret of irresistible urge of pilfering things belonging to others. No doubt a trait he inherited from his long deceased father.

Oops

While trying to clear up my files as my screenshots are piling up more and more and seems like they are in need to be re-arranged. In my haste to do so, I delete them from the launcher interface... forgetting that they are linked to the ones in C:/my documents/EA...

To top that my D: Drive that was holding all my Sims 3 Screenshots before my PC got formatted was also gone, due to the partition becoming corrupted.

Introducing the Moonsongs

New to the town, Darius hopes to start afresh with his daughter Arianna. Having quite a character, Darius was the type that would not and could not commit. To holding down a job & a relationship, and was the reason why his partner left him with their daughter.

From then on he sobered up and found a new meaning in his life. Still to unlearn all that he ever known was not easy and took him considerable effort to hold a job that could provide for both him and Arianna.

Despite growing up in a single parent family, Arianna always remained cheerful and always had an aura that things were going well for her. Not the typical next door girl, she is both daring & witty. She often cracks those around her with her sense of humor. Her one short-coming though is her inability to stop herself from pilfering items from others.

Introducing the Tintagels

The Tintagel family seems like a family of renown. Why Vormav choose to start anew in Sunset Valley is unknown to most people except to his wife Alicia. Vormav is a brilliant scientist known for his unconventional research methods... and on one ocassion was nearly driven to the brink of insanity by a failed experiment.

After his release from the mental institution, his condition seems to have improved by a minor bit. Alicia took the liberty to bring him to a new town so that they could all start all over again away from the scrutiny of those who knew their past.

Between the two of them, they had two children.
The lovely Melialdoul who combined intelligence and beauty. In spite of these she had a fiery temper only a few could tolerate. Still Alicia is proud of her, since her daughter has become the top surgeon presiding at Sunset Valley's only hospital.

Izloude, the younger of the two is much more different. Unlike his elder sister, Izloude is not an ambitious young man and often dedicate himself to the finer part of life. Despite his nonchalant demeanor, he is not without talent. Having a natural aptitude towards arts, his works are pleasing to the eyes and also an accomplished musician.

Some would even say he is a walking art museum.

STARCRAFT II woes..

The long awaited sequel to the hit RTS. After being postponed several times, its finally released on the 27th of July. I can't say I was really anticipating this, I guess its due to age. If I was younger, I would have been gushing.

At anyrate, I bought the game on Thursday and was quite excited to install it. I'm excited by new things :) Unfortunately... the installation process got stuck at 32% and won't move for the next 20 mins.

I cancel the application and tried to clean the disc. Unfortunately... it got stuck and I cannot remove the CD... Oh well... at least they let you download the game once you register it.. but at the cost of 19 hours...

Seems like my CD is having problem... I might look at getting changed soon. Last time it wouldn't detect Sims 3 Expansion and Dragon Age Origin / Awakenings.

Nothing like a bit of technical hiccup to kill your sense of enjoyment

Introducing the Ethanboroughs

Eldric used to be quite an adventurer in his younger days, and has gone to many dangerious places with his wife. That is until his wife got killed while adventuring with him, leaving him with their only child. Realizing he can no longer live his life recklessly and dangerously, he settled in Sunset Valley to bring up his only son.



(Here is Eldric at his son's wedding. As formal as he gets, looking like a rock & roll biker gang member.)












While they are similar Cedric is different from his father. Although a physically active man, he is a lot more down to earth and has a much more serious outlook on life itself. Good natured & honest. His friends respect him as an upstanding member of the community. His colleagues recognize him as a hardworking and determined police officer.
Yet all of them wished he had a little sense of humor.

(Cedric could sure use a diet if he hopes to become supercop)

Breaking more than you can fix...

Its disappointing & downright frustrating when technical hiccups occur with your computer or the softwares..
Its even more disappointing when a particular software publisher is always giving its consumers unending streams of reasons to get frustrated... This company has to be none other than EA.

After several troubleshoots and scouring the internet to look for solutions to play my Sims 3 games the way I wanted.. I was able to enjoy the game for the past couple of months.

Occasionally, I check the store to download some new stuff to add more variety to my game.
So whats the store? As the name implies it is actually an EA online shop where you can purchase in-game objects that you can add to your game.

I.e: special themed furniture, patterns, walls section etc etc.. These in-game objects cost a variable amount of Sims Point, depending on the item itself. And Sim points can be paid for in real life cash or redeemed when you purchase the Sims 3 Base game or any Sims 3 expansion packs. Every 100 sims point is equivalent to $1 USD.

However, it was almost two months ago I noticed that the download is not working but I pay it no heed as I thought it had something to do with my game version not being the latest.
After purchasing one of the expansions, I was quite eager to play the game again.

Loaded up my expansion CD, installed it. Patched it to the latest version and tried download from the store again. Unfortunately... patching didn't help and all I got was this error below..


Puzzled, I search the internet for solutions and tried almost every solution suggested as I wanted to play the game badly with the new spiffy items that I always wanted to buy. Regrettably nothing worked even after I un-install the game and re-install it.

The only thing I have yet try is to format my entire Hard-disk and re-install every software imaginable to get the PC running again. Which I doubt will be of much help either... knowing EA, this is probably something they did again.

After scouring the internet forums, I realize I'm not the only person with this issue. While some aren't affected. There are several posters in the forum that reported this issue almost coming close to 3 months ago. This lead me to think that this issue has been un-resolved for a fairly long time.

Sigh... I should have known... afterall its EA and they always ended up breaking what they set out to fix with the patches... and most often it is us the community / end user who ends up fixing it for them... And they are suppose to be PROFESSIONALS being employed... but have no solution to the mess they created.

I'm guessing with such poor support for their products they don't want our business... Its too bad I can't just walk away as I love playing the Sims too much.

Thus, I'm back to gripping about my happiness through the internet.

Introducing: The Gaelera

Rei'vein was once an outspoken writer who is critical of his country's corrupted regime. His publications offended the government and he became a target of assassinations. Due to unforeseen circumstances & miscalculations the assassins killed his wife instead.

Rei'vein then became a refugee and fled from his country & arrived to Sunset Valley to start anew.

This event changed him greatly, as he was once vocal and out-going individual and has now became a recluse shunning the company of others. His two daughters are the only thing he has to remind himself of his wife and he became a writer of trashy novels to bring bread home to the family.



Alerialle the eldest, had the hair of her mother but possessing her father's intellect & temper of his earlier younger days. Training hard to be an investigator she hopes to one day find closure to her mother's mysterious death and bring the perpetrators to justice.
As a result of her determination and ambition, she has became one of the most successful forensic scientist who uses her skill to aid crime-fighters.




(Seen here at her teenage days, she eyes an empty plate with an incredulous smirk)












The youngest, Azuriel had an uncanny resemblance to her mother the most with the exception of her golden tresses. Family & friends matter a great deal to her and she has always took great care of their needs. A natural talent with music, she eventually became a renown composer, writing several moving scores that are used in blockbusters.

(A cake alone might not be enough, and she always make sure she prepared extra food for the guest. )

Corrupted Windows CD?

That might have explained the missing windows programs.. though I'm not 100% positively sure. But just 2 weeks ago the computer mysteriously freeze when I was surfing the internet. When I attempt to reboot it, it kept giving me "unmountable boot errors" and amongst other undecipherable errors.

I can't live w/o the computer or much less the internet... and the thought of having to refurbish an entirely new machine would cost me 2 grand. Harrowing indeed. So I jot down all the errors and scour the internet for solutions, I found some but most of them didn't work or could not be applied at all.

Until finally my brother lent me his old Windows XP installation CD to boot from and attempt to repair from there. Viola!!! The computer has been restored and fixed. Although it still crashes occasionally, at least it works. So it seems like the CD that I had originally installed my may have been corrupted over time while sitting in the CD case.

To be on a safe side, I think I should start cultivating an interest for out-door activities soon.. lest I become overly reliant on the computer in this digital age.

Introducing: The Belmonts

Keepers of ancient and long forgotten lore. The Belmonts are tasked with safekeeping the future of humanity from evil that threatens the world.
They employ any means necessary to deal with these threats swiftly, and often very discretely. Secretive to the core and hidden in plain sight from the public. No one knows of their existence except for a the few rare and privileged ones who are privy to such confidential information.

With the forces of darkness seemingly fading into obscurity, the Belmont have became even more so forgotten. Thus they assume mundane lives like the everyone around them and remain ever vigilant for new threats..


Richter thought that he was prepared to make sacrifices in the name of the Belmont cause. However, when his wife was killed while on a mission to eradicate the forces of darkness.
Only then did he realize that he was not prepared to lose those he loved.

Although he prevailed against the villains, he never overcame his grief and trauma. At the end of the ordeal he became a changed man and started to become less and less involved with upholding the Belmont cause. His son, Carleox was his only memory of his deceased wife and he vowed to bring him up as a fine man.
(Here is Richter at his own home in sleeping robes.
Thinking that he is in the privacy of his own home, he scratches his itchy butt not worrying about decorum.)

Carleox is the only child that Richter ever had. Aware of his role to continue as a guardian, Carloex kept himself in top physical condition and hone his skills like a blade. By joining the military and becoming an astronaut. He will be able to use space satellite in the surveillance of any signs of evil.

(Carleox seen during his teenage years celebrating his birthday with his father and friends. It seems like he has a nefarious plan on his mind.)

Introducing: The Lachanans

The Lachanans are a down to earth and humble family. Eric is a fun-loving family guy while his wife Melissa is an intelligent and savvy woman. With diligence and effort making an honest living they now lead a comfortable life with beautiful house and wonderful children.

As the old saying goes like father like son and like mother like daughter.

(Top: Eric & Melissa, Bottom: Aurica & Auric)

Unlike her mother penchant for books. Aurica had a silver tongue and her words are often pleasing to hear. With such strength at manipulating people with words she soon rose to her current position as a business morgul.


(Teenage Aurica celebrating her birthday)












Auric took the same career path in law enforcement as his father did. However, the active young man prefer to act in a more direct way in dealing with crimes and aspires to be a super-agent.

(Still as a kid. Auric playing computer games in his parent's bedroom, probably not the best time to ....)

Introducing: The Vedwyrs

The Vedwyrs' are a family of reputable origins. Weigraf & Agrais has came to the town decades ago to set out on their own as they wanted to prove to their families that they too can lead a successful life without relying on inheritance.

Weigraf has risen as a political leader to be reckon with and often times faced temptation to embezzle the funds he has not done so even till the day of his retirement. This was the result of Agrais influence as she was an honorable woman who served the nation steadfastly.

She is not shown in the family tree below as she has died to an electrical accident and I had to export the entire family out to the library and re-import in after formatting my PC.
For reasons mentioned in my original post.

(Top: Weigraf) (Bottom from left to right: Vaelynn, Telrae & Kaelynn)

Telrae grew up to a teen while his mother was still around and was largely influenced by her. Soon-after joined the military career like her for his own interest and also to honor her.

Vaelynn was the darling of the family and was a child when Agrais passed away. As a result she became overly emotional but also took on the role that was absent in the family in caring & cooking for the family. Cooking became something very natural for her that she ended up joining the culinary career and becoming a chef.











(Vaelynn's birthday, Telrae behind cheering enthusiastically)

Kaelynn was the youngest and was a toddler when Agrais passed away. As a result of growing up without much maternal love she became very neurotic and is prone to freaking out. Still at the end of it she turn out fine due to the love and care from the family after the absence of her mother. Although no longer possible, she thought that by becoming a scientist she will be able to bring her mother back to life or travel back in time to avert the diasaster.


(Kaelynn at Syreniel's birthday, looking somewhat eerily enthusiatic)