Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball
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Sam Has Learned Couples Counseling from the Fortune Teller
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At the Fortune Teller Camp: A Faun Learns About Relationships
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Outside Gwrych Great Hall: The Fortune Teller Camp
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Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball: Mysterious Mist Rises as a Session Begins
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Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball: The Clients Evolve & The Seer Gathers Inspiration
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A Little Arching Does Not Disturb the Seer's Divination
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Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball, with Stand
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A Hearth Witch (Nanny) Teaches from the Orb of Enlightenment
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Delilah Takes Couples Counseling as an Accredited Elective
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The Crystal Ball: Delilah Learns Couples Counseling as a College Elective
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Crystal Ball: Improved Routing & More Diverse Topics
UPGRADE August 6, 2017
1) This upgrade makes several improvements to teacher and student routing, making it more likely that they will position themselves correctly.
2) The teacher and students now use a more varied vocabulary, including Enthusiasms if FreeTime or any later EP is available.
This release restores the operation of the crystal ball light and initial effect when a magic user begins a session. This feature apparently disappeared during the accreditation process.
Accredited December 17th, 2016
a) With the major upgrade, the crystal ball is now University and grade school accredited, meaning that school and college students will earn grade points while they attend the talks. Their educational progress will be displayed at the beginning and end of each tutorial session.
b) To support this more serious purpose, a proper dress code is now enforced for all practitioners - no more readings in pajamas or swimsuits.
c) Those who teach autonomously are now more likely to stay on the job.
d) For students of the occult, magic alignment and skill status is displayed at the beginning and end of each learning session.
e) A bug that caused listeners not to use audience seating has been fixed. My thanks to gazania for confirming this problem.
f) In checking for valid audience seating, bar stools are now approved for use.
g) For the basegame and earlier EPs, the menus refer to the Paranormal interest, rather than the Couples Counseling skill.
h) Orb lighting and visual effects will only occur when the ball is used by magical practioners.
i) Transient visual effects are now allowed to fade out more naturally.
j) Enthusiastic listeners will now go to the front of the class to attend the session, rather than the rear.
If a Fortune Teller NPC is teaching at the Crystal Ball on a residential lot, ideally she should be dismissed before installing this update. However, if you find that if the Fortune Teller ends a teaching session without disappearing as she should, this release allows the Fortune Teller to be recalled and then dismissed properly.
Update August 30, 2016: Privacy Control
When the crystal ball is placed on a dining table, this release prevents clients who both dive for the same chair simultaneously from locking the ball into privacy mode, so that only one client can attend the session. Privacy mode is intended to allow all the seats at the table to be filled, but to stop other Sims from standing around or sitting elsewhere (such as on the floor) and listening in on the session.

Introduction
When StephSim was creating the Medieval Great Hall for her legendary Gwrych Neighbourhood, I was disappointed that although the Nightlife Fortune Teller (Matchmaker) NPC takes great pains to keep her crystal ball clean and polished there was no option to see her actually put this oracle to use at the Hall's Fortune Teller Camp, or anywhere else.



Purpose
a) To create a functional crystal ball that qualified Sims may be use to impart the Couples Counseling Life Skill as well as raise an interest in the Paranormal, stimulate FreeTime Arts & Crafts Enthusiasm, satisfy Fun and Social needs, and increase the Niceness of clients. The Couples Counseling Skill allows a Sim to try to repair a romantic relationship.
b) On non-residential lots, to program this crystal ball to automatically invite a Nightlife or FreeTime Fortune Teller so that she will sit and use the glass sphere in private sessions with paying clients (if the Fortune Teller is not available, the Basegame Bartender will appear instead).
c) To supply a simple wooden or stone base to support the crystal ball.
Description
The Crystal Ball is basegame compatible, but to actually learn the Couples Counseling Skill, Apartment Life or Mansion & Garden must be available. While in use by an occultist such as the Fortune Teller, the Crystal Ball acts as an amber coloured light source and displays some electrically charged visual effects at random intervals.
This set is compatible with the podiums available in the Opportunity Pack Lectern, Reading Desk and Ravendancer projects.
Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball Holder and Crystal Ball are each available from the Hobby/Knowledge section of the catalogue at a cost §156 and §159 respectively.

Contents
1) Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball - for centuries, Sims have turned to seers for relationship advice. Those skilled in the art of Couples Counseling can increase their Charisma and charge a fee as they use this orb to impart their wisdom to others, even giving their clients a nicer disposition. All those present at the session will raise their Paranormal Interest and FreeTime Arts & Crafts Enthusiasm while restoring their fun and social motives. School and college students will also earn Grade Points.
Only those who have already learned the Couples Counseling Life Skill may become seers. Qualified magic Users and moderately Charismatic Sims (those with at least three Charisma skill points) may teach autonomously.
Sims will "Learn Relationship Skills" to satisfy their Fun and Social needs, but if the speaker is moderately Charismatic then Sims will continue listening until their needs or mood becomes too low. The Crystal Ball will also satisfy the "Practice Speech, "Read To" and "Be Read to by" wants.
It is college accredited for those majoring in Literature, but regardless of what major they may be specializing in, attending a lecture at the Ball will grant college credits to all those registered in university.
College and school progress is displayed at the beginning and end of each student's learning session. If a school student earns an "A+", additional study will earn Extra Credits which allow a child or teen to take time off without losing a letter grade, or can be saved for advanced placement (up to one half term for 1000 points) in college.
Registered witches and warlocks will also increase their Magic skill, with no effect on their magical alignment. Magic skill and alignment data is displayed at the beginning and end of a student's learning session.
The default professional seer is the Nightlife and FreeTime Fortune Teller (Matchmaker). Her backup is the Basegame Bartender.
Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball is based on the crystal ball mesh used as a handheld accessory by the Fortune Teller NPC, and like that accessory, it consists of an inner and an outer sphere. The inner sphere of Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball is mapped to the glass subset of the basegame "End-to-End" Coffee Table and the outer sphere is mapped to the glass subset of the basegame Centerpieces Coffee Tables. A large number of recolours for these coffee tables were made available in the 140+ Tiny Filesize Glass Coffee Table Recolours project. Those recolours labeled "Crystal Ball" are exact reproductions of the textures from the Fortune Teller's handheld ball or of the outdoor decorative balls released in Seasons and Mansion & Garden. The animated glass textures can produce some interesting crystal ball effects.
Listeners will sit on dining chairs, living chairs, sofas or love seats if they are available. To use two tile recliners, Sims must directed to sit on them first before listening. If no seats are available, listeners will stand instead.
If the Crystal Ball (either directly or in its Holder) is placed on a table, desk or coffee table with a dining chair behind it, the seer will sit on the chair to speak to the clients (in the case of a coffee table, a sofa or carefully positioned living chair will also do). If there are other chairs at a dining table, clients will join the teacher there, but in this case the session becomes private and all other Sims are excluded. If you would prefer that the session remain open please use an Extension Speaker to relay the soothsaying to everyone else.
If the Ball is placed on the ground, the seer will sit on the ground behind it, and all listeners except for elders with also try to find a place on the ground.
Sims who attend the session will listen to satisfy their Fun and Social motives, but if the seer is a magician or moderately Charismatic, then Sims will continue listening until their needs or mood becomes too low. A magician or a moderately Charismatic Sim will be paid §50 per hour by each non-family member present. On owned business lots, any earnings will go directly to the business owner.
Seers increase their Charisma at the same rate as the basegame Teleprompter. In addition, Sims can "Ask For" or "Offer" Charisma speech lessons if the Crystal Ball is placed on a Didactic Desk, Reading Desk, Reading Stand or Decorative Lectern.
On non-residential lots and dorms the seer will appear automatically to teach, although this may not occur until ten game minutes have elapsed. This function can be overrode by selecting "Disable Auto-Invite" from the Crystal Ball's menu. Qualified Sims who happen to visit or are invited to the lot will also autonomously use the Crystal Ball. On residential lots a qualified Sim will not appear automatically unless "Enable Auto-Invite" is selected.
The "Invite Seer" menu option will call in a qualified Sim regardless of the Auto-Invite setting. If a seer is already on the job, "Replace Seer" will dismiss the current Sim and after about ten game minutes a new wise woman will be recruited. If you no longer want an invited seer at all, "Dismiss" will relieve the Sim of their duties and "Auto-Invite" will be disabled.



2) Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball Holder - while the Crystal Ball has no chance of actually rolling off the surface on which it may be situated, you may want it to look like it is properly held in place with an appropriate support. The Crystal Ball Holder is shaped to support a crystal ball in either of its two deco slots. Slot 0 allows the crystal ball to sit directly in the concave depression that is shaped to contain it. Slot 1 places the bottom of the ball level with the surface of the Holder, so that it appears to hover slightly above it. Alternatively, Slot 1 is convenient location for a book or other small object.
The Crystal Ball Holder is mapped to the textures available for the basegame "Museé Public Collection Sculpture", such as those from the 150+ Tiny Filesize Basegame Vase Collection Recolours and 64 HiRes Wood Basegame Vase Collection Recolours projects.

Looking into the Future
This set is the first in a series of crystal ball projects dedicated to raising Apartment Life and M&G Life Skills, and each including one or more crystal ball stands or holders. While each holder or stand is intended to convey the theme of the crystal ball that is is released with, the crystal ball supports are usable with any crystal ball in the series.

Terms of Use
You may include any item from this set in uploaded lots, whether for free or pay. It is nice but not necessary to provide a credit and link to this page.
Recommendation
I suggest using Pescado's Community Lot Skilling and Enthusiasm patch so that these and all other skill building objects are fully functional on all lots.
Additional Credits
GIMP 2 and Microsoft Paint for graphics editing, file conversion, processing, sizing and titling
Jfade's Compressorizer for minimizing file size
Milkshape 3D, Ultimate Unwrap3D Pro and UV Mapper Professional, for 3D modeling and mapping
Numenor's AnyGameStarter, used for testing this project in several game environments
SimPE, PJSE, and CEP for Sims 2 object creation
rugrat0ne's Gift of the Gab: Speech Bubble Replacements create appropriate medieval dialogues
The handsome, no-monkey-or-fishlips faces in the medieval settings are a result of selzi's default replacements
sunni9676's Medieval NPC Replacements: Commoners are featured in the medieval scenes
Gwrych Medieval Great Hall and a Gwrych Woodland Lot provides a realistic medieval ambience
Polygon Counts
Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball: 360 faces, 202 vertices
Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball Holder: 290 faces, 208 vertices
This is a new mesh, and means that it's a brand new self contained object that usually does not require a specific Pack (although this is possible depending on the type). It may have Recolours hosted on MTS - check below for more information.
sdLadyValentinasCrystalBall.zip
| Lady Valentina's Crystal Ball, with Stand
Download
Uploaded: 6th Aug 2017, 43.5 KB.
1,980 downloads.
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For a detailed look at individual files, see the Information tab. |
Install Instructions
1. Download: Click the download link to save the .rar or .zip file(s) to your computer.
2. Extract the zip, rar, or 7z file.
3. Place in Downloads Folder: Cut and paste the .package file(s) into your Downloads folder:
- Origin (Ultimate Collection): Users\(Current User Account)\Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Downloads\
- Non-Origin, Windows Vista/7/8/10: Users\(Current User Account)\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads\
- Non-Origin, Windows XP: Documents and Settings\(Current User Account)\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads\
- Mac: Users\(Current User Account)\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads
- Mac x64: /Library/Containers/com.aspyr.sims2.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Aspyr/The Sims 2/Downloads
- For a full, complete guide to downloading complete with pictures and more information, see: Game Help: Downloading for Fracking Idiots.
- Custom content not showing up in the game? See: Game Help: Getting Custom Content to Show Up.
- If you don't have a Downloads folder, just make one. See instructions at: Game Help: No Downloads Folder.
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Updated: 21st Nov 2018 at 12:55 AM
#Crystal Ball, #Fortune Teller, #Matchmaker, #fantasy, #medieval, #Couples Counseling, #Life Skill, #scrying, #divination
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