Category: Hobbies -> Knowledge
Poly Count: 
( < 700)
EPs Required: Base-game compatible (provided that you get the base-game variation)
Not all of my medieval Sims are into bookcases. Some might like to keep a pile of books on their desks, to have them readily at hand when they write letters. Others might be wizards or philosophers, who have so many books, they just don’t have shelf-space for them all. Others again might have spent their very last Simoleon on that precious, precious book, and can’t afford a bookcase as well. And still others might be the kind of Sims who think the floor is a perfectly acceptable place to put their books, clothes, food…
So, to meet their varying needs, I took the decorative book stacks from TSM (except for one that didn’t want to play) and turned them into functional bookcases: three larger ones that go on the floor only, and two smaller ones that can be placed either on the floor or on tables (or other surfaces).
We’ll start with the floor ones. They are, in order from left to right:
The Scriptorium Book Bank for $30, poly (< 400)
The Moderate Tome Tower, also for $30 and also < 400 polys
And the Tall Tome Tower for $45; a little higher in poly, but still (< 700).
They only come with the one recol you see, sorry – but they can of course be recoloured in case you want to make some of your own.
Marek the Wizard is helping us with the demonstration today. You might recognise him
– he is also the proud owner of a humongous orrery. 😉
Then we have the two smaller book stacks, that you can place both on surfaces and on the floor. I made them with tables in mind, though, and set the animations accordingly, so if you choose put them on the floor instead, be aware that your Sims will be grabbing books out of thin air. 😛
To the left, you have the Small Book Bank, and to the right is the Small Tome Tower, both for $15. As the names imply they are indeed scaled-down versions of the Scriptorium Book Bank and the Moderate Tome Tower, so the poly count is the same. They are not repositoried to their larger siblings, though, simply because there might be downloaders who only want the table ones (and I don’t want to force people to have files cluttering up their Downloads folder they don’t want).
All of the book stacks have one slot on top, that takes anything that goes on end tables. This also means that you can stack the smaller stacks, both with each other and with the larger stacks. The sky’s the limit. 😉
Whatever you do. Do. Not. Sneeze.
Also, with all of them your Sims can get their books from any side – back, front, left, right, whichever you prefer. This means you don’t have to pay any attention to which side faces the front (unless you want to), but can twist and turn your stacks according to taste.
The book stacks have two variations: one for those of you who have Free Time/Apartment Life and one for those who don’t. Choose the one that fits your game configuration. (If you have FT/AL and choose the base-game variation, all that will happen is that you won’t get the extra menu options – but if you don’t have FT/AL and try to use the FT variation, it will crash your game. So please choose wisely.)
Nixed Sims 
You never fail to amaze me, dear Nix. I cannot believe all the special functions, first the stacking ability, then giving them a slot, also access from any side, BONUS! my heart kneels at your feet for not making them repositoried. I am sure that I will bless your name when using them in my game. Big Hugs!
Awww, Nonni, you always say the sweetest things. ❤ I'm so glad you like them!
Access from any side was a given. It always bugs me when I have a stack of books or a pile of clothes in game, that you can put the middle of the room with empty space all around it if you want… but it's still only accessible from one side. (I can understand why, because even if you know how to add deco slots, adding routing slots can be a little tricky – but it still bugs me.) It gets even more annoying since it might not be immediately obvious which side is the front (unless you pay close attention to that green arrow), which means you might accidentally block the "right" side and not realise it until your Sims start stomping their feet and waving their arms. Can't have that. 😛
But the stacking I admit was a happy accident. I'd set the slots to behave as end tables, and I'd set the smaller book stacks to have the same weight as (small) deco objects, but it didn't occur to me that the two would go nicely together until I tried to place a small stack next to a large stack, and the small one immediately went "look, a slot!" and jumped into it. 🙄
Yeah, the repository technique is great for saving space and making things easier to recolour, but it also means you force people to keep a certain object in game. I know some people think you should repository everything always, but I think you need to apply some common sense when using it as well. If it's a set where the master object is the obvious star of the show, so to speak, that you know that 99.8% of your downloaders will want? Sure! But if it's a small set, where you have no idea which item your downloaders may prefer to keep around, and it's something that people most likely won't be recolouring left and right… then repository might not be the best solution, even if two objects do use the same textures.
And this comment is almost as long as the actual post. 😉
❤
LOL! I really luv Marek’s expression at that HUGE tower of books that he HAS to study and then categorize and then reprint and then move to the tower study and then….! 😉
What Nonni said!!! Thank you soooooo much for all the extras you’ve included! *HUGZ!*
Hee, glad you like! 😀 Yeah, that poor Marek has his work cut out for him. He’s got nobody else to blame, though; he lives alone in my game, he doesn’t even have a maid (she might break something, or displace a scroll with a Very Important Spell, or she might not understand his intricate filing system. It’s based on the highly scientific “I’ll put it away later” principle 😛 ), so he’s the only one who could have stacked them that high. Being a wizard and not being restricted by pesky things like gravity has its downsides sometimes. 😉
*hugz you back*
Brilliant! Thanks, Nix.
Thank you! Glad you like them! 😀
*SQUEEEEEE* These are beautiful! And absolutely perfect (not to mention, timely) for what i was looking for! …how did you know???
While I’m a huge fan of the “repository everything” philosophy, I appreciate your thoughtfulness in this instance… I think I only want the two smaller piles – they stack, right? I don’t play a Medieval hood (at least, not yet!) but I do have lots of ‘antiques’ scattered all about. I think the smaller stacks will suit my sims perfectly. Thanks!!!
I second (or third…) what Nonni said above – “I will bless your name when using them in my game” 😀
…accessible from every angle *bandages chin* …what will she think of next. WOW. *happy dance*
Glad you like ’em! 😀 I can read minds, didn’t I tell you? 😉
Most of the time, I think repository is great. Had all of the book stacks used the same texture, I’d have repositoried them in a heartbeat. But when it’s just two, and people might very well want only one of them (but I have no idea which one)? Then it seemed better not to.
And yes, the smaller stacks do indeed stack, so you can build quite impressive towers with just the two (or one) of them. 🙂 Just be aware that if you want to stack more than two, you have to go about it a bit backwards. Two will stack just fine, but if you want a stack of three or more, then instead of placing the third one on your stack of two, you’ll have to place the stack of two on the third one instead – and then your stack of three on the fourth one and so on. Hope that makes sense.
Glad you liked that little twist!
Like I said to Nonni above, it really bugs me when I have a stack or a pile of something in game, that looks like it should be accessible from all sides – but it isn’t, and I don’t realise it until my Sims start stomping their feet at me. So I had to fix that. 😛
I love functional items. Thank you! 🙂
You and I both. 🙂 It always makes me sad when I see a great item that’s just decorative even though it could easily be made functional. (Don’t know how many times I’ve seen these converted as deco.) So if I can make something functional without getting too many new grey hairs in the process, I’m gonna. 😉
I love this. I use these in almost every lot, in basements…in libraries…in attics….in corners! Giving them functionality is abfab MiLady. Thanks again.
Another late reply, sorry! I’m glad you like this as well! I use them everywhere I can get away with it myself. 🙂 And if it can be made functional, then you bet I’m going to make it so; few simming things make me as disappointed as when something looks like it should be a functional object, but turns out to be just deco. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with deco, but if something looks like a bed, I expect it to be a bed and not a sculpture, ya know?