Share some interesting things you did with sim bin families...



For me it was the Travellers. Firstly, I changed their skintone to 2nd lightest cause they're obviously white people who tanned from all the travelling. I moved them to a home and made it all boho and shabby, and the family had a crunchy hippy vibe. They had twin girls Ruby and Rose and were pretty poor eventually. The twins turned out hideous so I changed their faces on SimPe. I read that it happens with the Travellers. The mom died of a disease when the twins were toddlers, then I got bored and killed the dad when Tina was a teenager. Tina basically raised the girls and they moved into a rundown apartment. The apartment was actually cute but grungy and DIY looking. Tina became an adult, met Julien Cooke when she got a job at a restaurant and they married. As for the twin girls, Rose was a rebel child without supervision sho dated half of the population and became a teen mom. Ruby was the good one, she was introverted and preferred painting and reading. They are now adults, Rose is living with her child and the father of the child (they are not supposed to live together but I don't care about playing him separately), and Ruby is in a long term relationship. Tina has two children, borh her and Julien are celebrity chefs and Julien got a big bonus of 40k which made them afford a beautiful house with expensive stuff. Now they're upper middle class basically.

Because it was my second or third time restarting the game, there were some families I had already played previously. So I kept the ones I was interested in and then turned the rest into townies.

I generally haven't used the bin families much. I finally took the step and did away with the stealth hoods (for future hoods, anyway)... so the only ones left in my hoods are the ones that were already generated. Mostly, these just hang out in the family bin, or I use them as test sims if I have a project going and can't be bothered with CAS.

The most recent test family is the Picaso family - they "settled down" in an old version of Pleasantville and had "IVF" twins (also known as insimenator-half-a-minute immediate give birth on triple speed - I just needed to test something, and decided the twins might as well stay for future projects).

I experimented with the Ottomas family once - the dad ended up as a vampire with a bat and a baby perma-stuck to his chest (if I remember correctly), and there were other oddities going around, too. This was in my "let's throw mods at the wall and see what sticks" phase, though

The Goodie family were used as prop sims for storytelling once. I just needed some random elders hanging about a lot.

Other than that... mostly I've used them as test sims for EPs, mods, CC, etc. Never really did much playing with them.

Yeah, that makes complete sense. I usually used Goodies as parents if I marry my CAS sim to a sim with a legacy cause I feel bad about my sim not having a family or any memories before adulthood.

I used the Ottomas cause I wanted to try a trailer trash huge family but got bored quickly cause those kind of families are only interesting to me when I'm the one creating them from two sims.

I love the bin families.

I have made a map for them now (it is on here) named Binville - I am thinking of playing an Uberhood - and Binville will be my main hood, with all of the bin Sims living there (including the Kat and Kim families).

Every time I make a custom hood and my own sims, I find reasons to add the bin Sims to it

(Trent will get along so well with my new knowledge Sim. And my social sim will just love to be friends with the Ramaswami's. And perhaps the new dog lover will like to meet Porthos. Oh, this gardener here - she can talk about nature with Jessica all the time. Oooh, the Goodies will love this knowledge sim too. And won't Isaiah make a cute friend for this lonely kid? Etc. Etc. Etc).

I have known them forever - when I started playing, they weren't around - but as they came along with the expansion packs, I added each and everyone of them to my hood.

They are kind of like family. I just miss them when they are not around.

Oh, and they are good at having twins without any interference! The Picaso twins tend to be active, crawl around fast and are always busy. The Ramaswami twins have always been very good-looking in my hoods.

The Travellers settled down in Downtown an became Relic Liberators. They soon got the witch to deliver a genie lamp to them and they chose to receive money. Travelling is very expensive. Tina Traveller got engaged to Daniel Goth after they moved into college, and became enemies with Dina. Trisha enjoys cooking and spending time with downtown restaurant personnel. I deleted the Travellers' extensive clothing collection.

Julien Cooke became the neighborhood's Test Subject for experimenting with new mods. It is his full time job. He lives downtown in a small house and is friends with several service people. I can't see him as a serious man when I look at his face.

John Burb lives downtown and "had" two girls with his wife. He managed to plant green grass on the generations of cement. He fears the fate of becoming plantman though. Lucy Burb got engaged to a former bartender from Rodney's Hideout, and has become a family person, but she is not the one the parents want to see coming back fro univerisity.

The Oldies moved into a small house in Pleasantview. The remainder of their lives was on borrowed time and they knew it, and I knew it. The Elixir of life doesn't work on them anymore.

Ottomas and the mixed kids-only family got deleted without remorse.

Picaso and Crittur still exist.

I threw them all into an apocalypse hood once. Mostly I use empty templates because I prefer custom hoods, and I don't want the same people in every single hood.

Just a quick note for any that may not be aware that a few of the Bin families have borked or funky faces .. and I don't just mean the Ottomas'.

Jessica Picasco and Priya Ramaswami have the broken face template. Mary Gavigan, I think it's her, has a super high neck so her offsprings faces can be wonky. Jessica and Priya's are fixed in MeetMe's stealth add ons. I know there is a way to fix, but personally I just juse MeetMe's that way all the rest of the stealth stuff doesn't get added.

As to what I did with them... well, I play them The stealth/ bin families have grown on me .. even the Ottomas' wit their .. uhh unique looks :P

For my side 'hood, I started Belladonna Cove and dusted off three characters from my totally not an Archie ripoff world, with a fourth that also totally isn't a Riverdale ripoff, and a Sim-self. The other characters are four teens in a two-bedroom house, and they brought home the *Newsons*. I can't turn toddlers into townies, so it looks like I'll have to actually try to play them (and for this world, turn off BO Kids and Pets Unattended).

I generally use all of them, but it does depend on whether im playing the regular neighbourhoods or custom 'uberhoods'. The built-in town bin families are always generally important to the overall town plot, so it feels wrong to go without them.

The Burbs and Oldies fill some of Pleasantview's empty homes and then often end up as advanced townies that I'll see walking by, or on community lots. The Burbs are important enough that they cameo in Sims 3, and are present in Sims 1 as children, so they will always be a large part of Pleasantview, even if just as background characters. The Oldies suffer from starting off as unemployed elders, which means you have just about two weeks of no money to do anything with, and they cant really be played as a 'happy retirement' game without editing a pension onto them or giving them adult jobs while turning off aging. Again, they tend to be best as walk-bys. I always put the Kat and Kim families here too, especially since the Kat family is basically a Pleasantview family anyway

In Strangetown, Ajay always gets that single room house, and I get bored quickly, as he has no money to really decorate, he has no real role, and since he has no appearance in Sims 2 PSP, theres no 'guideline' to follow on what he might get up to, hes a total blank slate akin to a custom character. The Singles can only afford to move into that bizarre house with the basement, where they just cant fit, especially with all the fighting going on, so I tend to cheat and put them in the bigger house by the Grunt family, it has enough space for them all.

Veronaville is the worst of the lot, only Bianca can properly move in and live somewhere, Goneril's offshoot family is too big for ANY house in the starter range, and if you do cram them all into houses they can legally afford, you'll get fatigue because almost every house is the same in layout. I used SimPE to expand the starting money for most of the bin families so they can live on the east ad west and continue that beef the plot wants, without them all living in really cramped houses all next to each other. I really wish that Maxis had started off all the Montys and Capps except Bianca already homed, and given us an unrelated household caught in the middle of the feud for the family bin.

Downtown is where I put the Travellers and the Roseland family, and those homes in the suburb are generally where a lot of University graduates end up, since theres noone else to really fill them with.

Bluewater Village has some starter homes that I move the Larson and Gieke families into, but they never do get their own businesses; just trying to get the money for that is impossible with how short sim lives are, if playing with aging on. Instead the Larsons follow thier LTWs, and Chester builds robots while following a Gamer career.

Riverblossom Hills has Alexandra O'Mackey as the only built-in family, but I always place the 'Weather' subhood families here, as they were added with this expansion. The Ramaswami family descriptio even mentions this town, so why not? Theres also one house that the Ottomas family can feasibly fit into, so they fit in this town too for me.

Desiderata Valley is my most unplayed town, it feels like its got less of a purpose than all the rest. Julien Cooke naturally goes here, and since he is bugged with really low interest points, I get him a magazine to bump his food interest as high as possible and make him a dedicated food man. The Picasos are my least played family by far, two military people in the same career level, with a general blank slate, and bugged interests. They just end up as background town sims or military career co-workers to bring home from work (and likely argue with, since their low interests make conversaton hard)

Belladonna Cove has no bin families, like Desiderata, but its subhood has three families that I always move into this town. The Goodies are just like the Oldies, almost useless to play as as they die from old age very quickly, have no skills, and no pension or pre-existing jobs. Maybe if you get an apartment for them, you can blow thier money on vacations as their bio suggests, but I cant help but feel they were originally meant for Bon Voyage as elder counterparts to the Traveller family. The Gavigan family fits in nicely as another apartment-bound family, and the Newsons is a HUGE challenge, its so difficult to get them a good home with space for 6 sims, that teen money can afford, while also balancing school, teen jobs, and getting the toddler skills taught. You can cheat and send the 'teen parents' to university and have those young kids fend for themselves for four years, but its not very realistic :p

As for the Stories games..

In Four Corners, I always put the Stardust and Margison families exactly where they already are in the Freeplay version, and the Rhome family in the house that the Freeplay version can actually afford (They get left with something ridiculous like $18, so you have to go to work just to get a bed for the night. The regular version has more money, but I still make them move into the same house). Riley's aunt just moves into the house next door.

Bitville has very little choice; I dont know why they even gave family bin families there. Don Calamari gets the expensive house next to his restaurant, Johnny gets the small house that I envision as more of a vacation rental place for him, then permanent due to his business failure, and Dr Oglethorpe gets the fancy home with the pool thats straight out of the lot bin, where he'll at least live there till he moves in with Sasha. I also edit him to give him an adult level 10 Medical career, so his claims of money and success aren't lies. Bitville's creators didnt give ANYONE playable in town a career aside from Vincent, and only he and Naomi have skill points, so a lot of outside work is needed for that town.

Garden Heights has the old dog guru with only $100, and instead of merging him into a household and ruining the family dynamics, I cheat him into one of the homes and have his $100 be all he has in funds. I consider this cheating compensation due to all the extortion Diana DeBore did. The other guy is an 'old' retired dog show judge who has no role in the story at all, not even as a background character. He gets the empty home with the weird roof and gets a new job, since he cant actually retire due to Elders not existing in that game.

Mesa Flats has Bitville Syndrome, but worse. When the story ends, there are three family bin families (plus a family bin pet household, like the Crittur family) but theres only one 'free' house available, two if you use the Girard family home (The game deletes them for some dumb reason, but I always take measures to restore or prevent that, they have a fully furnished home and even a family bio!). What I do is place the lot bin homes that match Mesa Flat's overall architecture and move two families into those, I move Zilch into the empty home near Gordon's, and I later merge the Ramblers into Zilch's household and give him a semi-redemption by having him look after them. The Gilbert and Montez families, as usual, end up as background characters, but I did play the Montez family long enough to get Bailey's pet career maxed out for the reward unlocks.

Arbor Falls...who even remembers this one? While its certainly a lot better than the copy-and-paste Four Corners with different townies and less families that Life Stories had, there is no real overarching storyline in Arbor Falls like Sims 2 has in all of its towns. Its just people living with cats and dogs, and only one family is connected to another, and only in text, not gameplay. I placed the sisters on the big house on the hill away from everyone, the DeLeon, Tomasino and Rosenfeld families into the trio of similar homes on that one overlook, and the Lewis family into a largeish home in the main part of town. I played all of them to unlock all the fur colours and patterns and the collars, but after the unlocks stopped, I don't think I ever played this town again, theres just no real 'goals' in this town, and I don't do well when there's nothing left to do.

Felicity Island has the worst family bin situation ever. There isn't a single lot for ANY of them. Some people delete the annoying castaways after what happened in the story, pretending they did indeed go home, and fair enough. I merge Rarahu into the chief's family, as he is supposedly his bodyguard, and there is in fact, a spare room in the house for Rarahu to live in. I then use SimPE to split up the teen couple and merge them into the other castaway families, then I merge the castaways into the Men's Hut and Women's Hut respectively, and dress them all in tribal outfits and even change a few hairstyles. Since the helicopter crew dumped the castaways back on the island and will likely cover up that people live there at all due to the ties to the Illamanati, idiots like Hugh and Gina have no choice but to adapt to island life now. Robby and Sandra fit right in, if you ignore Robby's glasses, and the others also fit in better than expected in the right clothes and changes to hairstyles. Unfortunately, this leaves no room for usual Sims gameplay, as theres just no lots to move out to and grow families in. Only your main character's home can really fit a baby, and thats with severe home remodelling.

Wanmami Island is rough, the family bin sims all have to survive on basic camps for a long time while sloooowly building up resources. It makes sense for Linea and Orson, but not as much for Humud and the Folon family. Linea is best moved onto the beach, as thats clearly her plane wreckage that washed up there. The goal is basically to build up to a makeshift home like the Barrett family.

Its kind of unfortunate that the family bin system largely stopped in Sims 2; Sims 3 has some, but they are always the same for every world, and the console version of Sims 3 had some unique ones too.

EDIT: I forgot about the Crittur family; I never can figure out what to do with this, as I rarely play with pets in Sims 2 proper, and what pre-existing family would take in two random dogs? Especially when one is pregnant.

It is possible to use SimPE to add extra lots to Felicity Island, which solves the problem (or to turn community lots like the abandoned hut into residential). I do pretend that the castaways that wanted to leave actually left, but the teen couple that wanted to stay are now married with three children (I think) and family sims, and Rarahu lives in a lot of his own, and is now married to a former townie.

The abandoned research base should definitely be turned into a residential lot. Can't let a Dharma station go to waste with the natives. But the whole island seems like shallow facade and not interesting to play when you realize that every object is a recolor and functions the exact same way as in the civilized world. You have money, WC with enough running water to have a long shower, browsable clothing stores. I think you even had the same magically comfortable temperature indoors, but I can't remember for certain, and think there was even a social worker although I never saw it.

I deleted them.
Just wasn't sure of what to do with them at the time.

But how is that a problem, when you can download them (the stealth hoods) as shopping hoods from here?


https://meetmetotheriver.tumblr.com/tagged/download

I mean, I don't really have ideas for them. They're hard for me to play with, I find them quite boring after a while.

For some reason Leod McGreggor is also programmed to have twins when having a baby for the first time. I made him start a family two times and it were twins. Since I remade my hood after losing it, I tried again cause his wife was pregnant last time I played and I was able to see that he will be having twins again and "miscarried" the baby cause they already have four kids and I changed my mind.

I know it's not related to the topics but it's so odd cause I heard from the sims community that he was supposed to be gay, yet the devs made him very very fertile.

Most got deleted.

In my main hood:
-The Picasos were some of the founding families for my military base. Their son and grandson both later became the General of Fort Bluewater
-Jason Larson is married to one of my sims. Jodie is a townie
-The Newsons are aged up and mostly townies, but Gavin and Ginger are with 2 of my sims

I use the Travellers in my test hood for testing lots. They have a toddler son because I needed a toddler for testing reasons.

Clean templates, except for Strangetown. I kept Ajay Loner and the "Singles" girls, and then developed the situation to suit myself.

Ajay clicked with Kristen Loste right off (I hear this happens a lot), and they lived at 91 Road to Nowhere until they outgrew it (the children started coming). They now live in a custom house that's roomy enough - so far.

Erin Beaker moved out on her own and studied to become a Good Witch. She has a cat who may or may not be a familiar.

Chloe and Lola Curious both fell for Abhijeet Cho, and he married them both - but even two wives were not enough for him and he started roving Downtown for hookups. Chloe got fed up with this and divorced him, moving out to Bluewater Village with her two children, but Lola seems to have realized she can't change him and may as well make the best of it. (Abhijeet and Lola also have two children.)

Start The Hunger Games

I also linked Ajay and Kristen last time I played them. They were like the Broke family except that Ajay was alive.

I also changed their last names to their parents' last names. I understand the name of the household to be Singles but why were their last names the same? As for Chloe and Lola, okay.... but I love to hear drama and creativity.

I only play the bin families that are linked to their respective neighborhoods (base game neighborhoods only) except for the Travellers. I have a soft spot for Tina. They do make sense as the newcomers to whatever neighborhood. They seem to fit best into Strangetown. I've gotten them abducted, turned them into vampires, made them blow all their money and have to subsist on starting wages, all sorts of things.

Lord help me, I started a new megahood because I like to use it for testing new rules, challenges, and such. I've been playing Antonio Monty's household. I got Benedict and Beatrice aged up to teens, but not before Benedict almost died of food poisoning. I was so happy he pulled through. I'm developing a real fondness for Benny. He may supplant Ripp as one of my favorite premades!

In my game it was Beatrice who had to be nursed through food poisoning. I nearly died of food poisoning myself when I was six (salmonella from drinking unpasteurised milk). So I had a lot of sympathy with her. Antonio and I gave her plenty of bed rest and she recovered. But there's something quite distressing about a child who is really ill. Having been there myself, I know.

Since I only have the first three EPs, I don't have the stealth 'hoods, so I too only play the bin families that came with neighbourhoods -- the base game ones plus Bluewater. I moved the Oldies and the Burbs in Pleasantview but haven't done much with them, except that Lilith spent a couple of nights with the Oldies to get away from the situation at home. She talked with Angela on the 'phone -- I knew that way they couldn't hit each other! In Strangetown, in the course of joandsarah77's contest, Ajay Loner moved into the house with the basement, where he started a barber's business. The Singles moved into the empty barracks building. (The army has now built a third barracks building as General Grunt is calling up all the townie military reservists.)

In Veronaville quite early in my game I moved Antonio and his family into an Italianised version of "Just Right" on the Westside of the canal. Bianca Monty moved into a tiny downtown house in Mendoza Lane, while Regan, Cornwall and Kent moved into a slightly larger house in Custer Boulevard, where Cornwall tormented Kent mercilessly for weeks. Kent received moral support from Bianca. Eventually, just after Kent and Cornwall were finally reconciled, Kent bought a new house next door, where he was soon joined by his townie boyfriend Daniel Allison. I kept Albany, Goneril et al in the Family Bin for longer as I was afraid that Albany, with his one nice point, would prove a troublemaker. Eventually, after staying briefly in a small house in the Via Veronaville, Consort gave Goneril the money to buy Cappland, a Veronavillified makeover of Craftsman's Pride between the market and the church.

As you drive into Veronaville on the Via Veronaville, just after you pass under the town's iconic aqueduct, you will pass on your right hand side the picturesque hovel where the Newsons have been surviving in quiet rural poverty for the last few years, after coming through hell to get here. I had been so impressed by what I had read elsewhere about them, that I desperately wanted them in my game, and marka93 kindly extracted them for me. I reckon that I have a legal right to play them, as I registered for the Ultimate Collection when EA/Maxis shared it free nearly ten years ago, even though I've never actually downloaded or installed it. When I see the steely determination with which Ginger Newson has held that family together through hell and high-water, my admiration for the girl is boundless. Not that Gavin's contribution should be underestimated.

Ironically, I just posted about this in the challenge thread https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=683438

I have NEVER played these families as they bore me to tears. So I had to make a little challenge of it! I'm playing rotationally with all of the stealth hood family bin/lot bin sims and have gotten to Kim, Kat and Ottomas so far.

The Kim family is expecting baby #2 and I got them careers based off of their interests. Cynthia's LTW is to become a Celebrity Chef so she got a job in the culinary career, while Robert has a LTW of becoming a City Planner. Justin is still a kid, but I plan to have him go to college and get a job in the Paranormal career track as he is highly interested in "Paranomal".

The Kat family is a big snooze fest so far. I decided to let her keep her LTW of raising 20 kittens so that will be my first attempt at that LTW in all of my years of playing! Her two cats (can't remember their names) actually just conceived, so she should have a few more kittens running around soon. I think I want her to end up with Julien Cooke.

I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy playing the Ottomas'. Peter quit his job and got a job in the athletic career track to be more in line with his interests. I'm keeping Samantha in the education career track as she has a LTW of becoming an Education Minister. Samantha and Peter just had their twins - two baby girls - named them Sadie and Paisley. David is working in the music career as a teen and has a LTW of becoming a Rock God. Dora is working and helping with the kiddos, and Sharla is just living her sims kid life. I think I will have her meet Justin Kim in college as she pursues an Oceanology career.

Part of my challenge is only getting/remaining married if the zodiac signs are compatible, so Sanjay and Priya Ramaswami will be breaking up and causing some shifts in the neighborhood

I noticed that the majority is bored with bin families you get in every neigborhood. Could it be that they have no interesting story nor a legacy, they're basically CAS sims for people who want to skip CAS? I find it weird how the devs never bothered to create a small legacy (three gens) for them but did to sims like the Singles, the Loner guy and the Wans.

Btw, I thought about the plenty of Capps and Montys in the bin in Veronaville. That neigborhood would be such a pain in the ass in multiple generations given by the huge number of sims related to each other and them becoming all related if you marry the iconic Romeo and Juliet.

I played the Newsons once. And only once because they were a nuisance