Orbuculum & Tripus of the Apprentice

Title: The Orbuculum & Tripus of the Apprentice

UPDATE August 5th, 2017

This update makes several improvements to student routing. For example, if a session is in progress seated around a table and there is a shortage of seating, Sims will stand rather than sitting on the floor.




Introduction

StephSim suggested to me that an "Orb of Chaos" might be interesting, and the more I thought of it the more I liked the idea.


Purpose

a) To develop a crystal ball that could be used autonomously by teen Sims to discuss any of the basic seven skills and raise any of the 18 interests and 10 FreeTime enthusiasms, all selected at random.

b) On non-residential lots, to enable this crystal ball to automatically invite and/or create a neutrally aligned teen witch or warlock to use the Orbuculum. The newly apprenticed spellcaster would be chosen from the pool of teen townies who have a playful personality rating of more than 7.5 points. If Apartment Life is not available then the invited townie cannot be made into a warlock or witch, but the crystal ball would be otherwise functional.

c) To develop a table-top sized "Tripus of the Apprentice" to support crystal balls.

d) To give the option for the apprentice warlock or witch to cast a spell on any selectable Sim to make them either fat or fit.



General Description

The Orbuculum of the Apprentice is a basegame compatible crystal ball that, when used by a spellcaster, acts as a source of green light and intermittently displays various visual effects.

This Orbuculum is compatible with the podiums available in the Opportunity Pack Lectern, Reading Desk and Ravendancer projects - but because of its size, the Tripus will only fit on the sloping surfaces of the podiums, where it may look like it is going to fall over.

The neutrally aligned apprenctice spellcaster who is created by the Orbuculum has attained only three points of magical skill, not enough to cast the Magus Mutatio spell that would convert a Sim into a magic user. However, the apprentice can cast the first level Corpus Athleticus (Make Sim Fit) and Corpus Fleshicus (Make Sim Fat) spells upon request.

For OFB use, the teen apprentice has a bronze badges in both cashiering and stocking. If the townie aging feature introduced in FreeTime is used to age the apprentice teen to the adult lifestage, the apprentice will be eligible to become a fully skilled spellcaster if called upon by the Orb of Clarity, the Orb of Centring or any similar object.

This set is the fifth in a series of crystal ball projects, each including one or more crystal ball holders or stands. While each stand or holder 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.

The Tripus and Orbuculum of the Apprentice are each available from the Hobby/Knowledge section of the catalogue at costs of §154 and §155 respectively.




Contents

1) Orbuculum of the Apprentice - this crystal ball has seen better days and its operation has become very erratic. Apprentice spellcasters will likely find it useful, but their clients need to realize that what they may learn will be completely at random. However, the novice only charges half the normal rates, and a session does satisfy fun and social needs - as well as granting Grade Points to school and college students.

The Orbuculum will transform a teen male or female townie into a neutral spellcaster to work with it, but any playable Sim with three points of Charisma and Creativity may teach using the Orbuculum, gaining Charisma in the process. Teen Sims may do so autonomously. Spellcasters can be asked to change a Sim's fitness levels, to make them either fat or fit. Unlike the other crystal balls, the Orbuculum does not increase magical skills.

This orb is college accredited for those studying with an "Undeclared" major, but regardless of what major they may be specializing in, attending a lecture at the Orbuculum 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.

The Orbuculum will satisfy the "Practice Speech, "Read To" and "Be Read to by" wants.

The Orbuculum of the Apprentice 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 the Orbuculum of the Apprentice 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 are 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.



2) Tripus of the Apprentice - Modern spellcasters may scorn this desktop tripod as a quaint relic, but nonetheless it is still capable of supporting a crystal ball (in Slot 0) or a magical tome (in Slot 1).

The Tripus of the Apprentice is based on the crystal ball mesh from The Sims Medieval but 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.




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, for testing this project in several game environments
SimPE, PJSE, and CEP for Sims 2 object creation


Polygon Counts

Orbuculum of the Apprentice: 360 faces, 202 vertices
Tripus of the Apprentice: 362 faces, 366 vertices