I graduated eight premade guys from Sim State and moved them into Pleasantview to play out their lives. They all got married either to townies or other Sim State graduates. There were a lot of kids--four sets of twins out of eight families!--plus one alien abduction, one death and subsequent resurrection into a different household, some cheating, and a couple of divorces. The oldest kids just got shipped off to university.

Kevin Beare got caught cheating in the most unexpected way. I was playing Brandi Broke, and she had invited her married boyfriend Kevin over. Then, Kevin's wife Naenae just showed up on Brandi's doorstep, uninvited, and rang the doorbell. She and Brandi had 0/0 relationship. Brandi's daughter let her in just as Brandi and Kevin were engaging in a flirt. Slapping ensued. I have to believe that Naenae had her suspicions, based on how many times Brandi had been calling Kevin lately, and decided to see for herself. Well, she did.

Strangetown is wrapped up for the rotation. Most of the families did the work-and-school routine without much else happening.
The Curious brothers welcomed Vidcund's son Nicolai and Lazlo's twins Paul and Marie. Pascal's Hildegaard learned to walk. Vidcund has decided to ask Erin Beaker to marry him, and Erin Beaker has decided that she wants Vidcund to ask her to marry him, so that'll happen next rotation unless something goes wrong in between. Lazlo is feeling very . . . stuck. He's not sure about the alien parenthood thing, he hasn't got a girlfriend, and the only thing he's really enjoying these days are his fruit trees. But part-and-full aliens are required to live in Strangetown, so . . .

The newcomer in the neighborhood is young Ash Wood, formerly of Emerald Heights. He's enlisted in the Army, he didn't have the grades for college, and he's excelling so far. It's not what he wants to do, but it's a job, it's a roof over his head (the barracks run under $200 a week) and he's learning some useful skills and making some friends. His sister Holly showed up at the pool when he went down there after work, so he's happy about catching up with her, too. Life out from under his parents' roof definitely has things to recommend it, even if he's got little money and few possessions.

So what's happening in my game?

...bees. Bees are what's happening. RUN.



Jack just wanted to go for a nice walk through nature... poor sod.

Or is it wasps? Because the notification said "bees" but the interaction said "wasps". Whatever they are, they stings!

It's been an eventful years for the Broke and Dreamers since the previous post. Story progression decided that Della and Darius as twins would marry two of the Newsons. Darius married Gabriella Newson and Della married Gallagher Newson, they have daughters of their own. Ocean Dreamer got with a CAS sim, Amos Wave and had a son (and yes, I briefly thought of Ocean taking the surname so he can 'Ocean Wave' but decided the Dreamers name needed to live on ). Darren Dreamer had passed away as well after seeing the grandchildren he obtained.

Now back to the Broke side of the family. They are no longer broke. In fact, Dustin reached Level 9 of Criminal career with a 50K bonus, and his wife, Sophie reached the top of the Criminal career with a 60K bonus. They have since upgraded that trailer home into a sizeable house. Sophie being more financially responsible opened up individual bank accounts dropping in their bonuses for a rainy day. They raised two children, one daughter went to University with good grades. She decided to move into Don Lothario's home to be a live in nanny for him and Nina's alien child, who they had very late in adulthood. Their son is currently in University.

The late Brandi Broke's 3rd son, Bennett, unfortunately died in his teen years, he was so focused on his game of chess at the Burbs during the winter, he not only froze but starved to death. Beau moved back in with Dustin after the tragedy, and being a Romance sim, he not only helped raise Dustin and Sophie's kid while they worked, he also courted many men. He found his true match though with a Venkat Owens, a Drama Professor. Naturally, the age difference shocked Dustin, though Professor Owens was also an adult, he was older than Dustin himself. Venkat and Beau proceeded to share lovers but eventually they both no longer feared getting married. Venkat brought in an adopted son and they had another son of their own who they're currently raising in the same household. Beau finally started working in the Culinary career, promising to finish what his mother never could in reaching the top of the career.

Now with ACR + Story progression, there was a brief scandal when I heard the love chime and it was from Dirk Dreamer kissing Sophie, his best friend's wife when Dustin invited him over to hang out and I thought Dirk was happily married with Lilith Pleasant all this time with their two daughters. Sophie fell in love too, but quickly came to her senses and proceeded to chew out Dirk for doing that and they agreed to move on and pretend it never happened. Now I'm briefly considering splitting this household, seeing how successful Dustin + Sophie and Beau + Venkat are, and who would basically inherit the original home.

I've done it again. I've added two more new Sims to Veronaville. On Monday I played the Rev. Elspeth Anderson, the Rector of St Simeon's Parish Church in Veronaville. Monday 2nd February is St Simeon's Parish Church Patronal Festival, so, accompanied by some friends (including Andrew, Julian and Garry) she went to the church to hold a special weekday service. (This also allowed me to change the settings of a Needs Freak object there, as I described in another thread.) After the service lot of the congregation went back with Rev. Elspeth to her house (The Rectory) near the church, where I had to leave them as I had some real life matters to deal with. So I opened up the game the next day, with the intention of going back to join them. . .

But of course, before playing anyone, I opened CAS, just to "roll the pacifier". Now of course I wasn't expecting any babies to be born. But that pseudo-randomiser affects any Sim generated in the game. (If you don't roll it, and an NPC generates, they will be Popularity and Aries.) And I suspect it may also affect some other in-game "random" events. And anyway I like playing around in CAS. Well, this teenage boy with Face 24 generated. Now I don't use the original Maxis face templates, but SleepyTabby's "Subtlety" ones, which are toned down version of the Maxis ones. However, even in a "toned down version" Face 24 is definitely not what you might call a "pretty face". So, by use of the various sliders, but not right-clicking on Face 1 or any of the other "prettier" faces (which I usually do) I decided to see if I could give him a face that might still allow others to grow to like him.
Ian Foster was the result. Well I liked him enough to know that I definitely wanted to see him in my game. But of course you can't bring a teen from CAS into the game without making an adult relative. So I set about making an adult.
So with a bit of tweaking I got Herbert F. Foster. ("F" stands for Frazer.) Again not what you might call "pretty", but someone I felt I could grow to like. So I made them father and son, and saved them to the game. I often change or delete CAS-created family relationships, but Herbert looks a lot older than Ian so t seemed sensible to leave them as parent and child. I reckon Herbert looks as if he might be in his late fifties. I made Ian Popularity (one of my favourite Sim Aspirations), but I made Herbert Fortune, an Aspiration I find harder to relate to. They look sufficiently different that I thought it unlikely that they were genetically father and child, so I decided to use SimPE to change Herbert's memory to say that Ian is his adopted child. The idea of a childless and aging Fortune Sim adopting an heir makes sense to me.

Having made it into my game, they needed somewhere to live. So I started to build them a house! I found a bit of space in Bow Street, in Monopolis and, on behalf of Jones & Moltke, started to build a small 2 bedroom single story house there.
11 Bow Street is the result. Well, Herbert F Foster may be a Fortune Sim looking for an heir to leave his fortune to, but it doesn't look like he's made his fortune yet! The house cost under §14K. So Herbert and his adopted boy still have over §6K of their initial funds left. Herbert wants Ian to be an overachiever, so as a dutiful and loving son, Ian applied for and got a job in fashion that was advertised in the morning paper. (Few of my teens take jobs, because the pay for teen jobs is low, and most of them would rather go out clubbing!) A glitch caused the paper to disappear when Ian accepted the job offer, so Herbert will have to wait till tomorrow to get one, unless he actually goes out job-hunting. Several Monopolis locals, living nearby, have come to visit them and they've just finished a meal of luch meat sandwiches prepared by Ian.

I suspect both of them are gay. (It would explain why they've chosen to come and live in the Grand Duchy of Veronaville.) But so far only Ian has done anything about it. But he quickly realised that Jess Shaikh, the local paperboy is just not his type, and Jess is the only person his own age that he's met so far!

Of course I never got round to seeing how Rev. Elspeth and her gang are getting on at The Rectory. As Scarlett O'Hara said at the end of Gone with the Wind, "I won't think about that today. I'll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day."

A series of unexpected power outages interfered with my plans for my new hood, but, hopefully, I can start playing today! I have downloaded some lots, because I don't want to spend too much time on building right now - I have not even started making my new families. But I do know what they will look like

I have wrapped up another week in Strangetown and now it may be time to let it rest for a while again, although there has been much drama lately! It takes me a long time to play each round there (one day each) because the families are now so old and intertwined. I think Lazlo is on his last day, and Johnny is also nearing the end for some reason. At least Johnny has a chance of topping the Show Business career before he goes.

Gvaudoin Tricou, vampire, was stopped from feeding on her friends by her husband, Tycho Curious, but she kept doing it in secret. Tycho caught her and left her as a consequence. Gvaudoin then got a very bad want, but I guess she is a vampire and therefore has no soul. She lured Tycho over and drained him dry, killing him.

However, Tycho's good friend and husband of his cousin is Ailfrid Beaker, who has inherited the Beaker lack of morals. Ailfrid recently acquired a cowplant from work. He wanted it because he had previously had to resurrect his wife, Luna, after she died, and now there was a big age gap between them that he wanted to narrow. Ailfrid decided to kill two birds with one stone and avenge his friend. He got Gvaudoin to come over and showed her his cowplant. The scheme worked, and Ailfrid got three more days of life out of it. Since he also possessed the means for resurrection, he was able to bring Tycho back from the dead as well.

I have completely given up on the ongoing soap opera that is the Grunt family. Magnus and his brother Turner (Tank and Almeric's sons) have been competing for the same women since they were teens. Turner is now living with Johnny and Ophelia's daughter, Jeannie, and they have a son together, but Magnus is in love with Jeannie too. Worse, he is completely obsessed with her. No amount of dating could get his mind off her. Since Magnus is living with his dads following his divorce (a whole other mess), Turner and Jeannie would come by from time to time to visit. Finally, Magnus couldn't stand it anymore and decided to kiss Jeannie passionately in front of everyone. I think that was the last straw for his relationship with his brother. He then blatantly asked Jeannie to move in with him and leave Turner, and she said yes! Magnus is determined to marry Jeannie, despite her being a Romance Sim who left him at the altar once before. Meanwhile, poor Turner is one of the saddest sacks in town--but still one of my favorite Strangetown residents!

Suzanne Gardner got expelled from university.

I've never had this happen before - I've had one sim on Academic Probation, but he managed to pass on the second attempt. But I'm playing with rules that sims have to want to study, or at least fear failing and be below a passing grade. And Suzanne and her twin brother Sidney just did not want to study after their first semester. They did at least both go to class for their second semester, and somehow Sidney scraped through with a good mood for the final exam, but Suzanne didn't. And then their third semester both of them wanted to skip class, and with the mods I have the final exam wasn't enough. Interestingly both twins rolled "Influence someone to do my assignment" just before their exam... but it was too late then.

Anyway, Suzanne is now on her way home again, after a fairly humiliating university experience - she shouldn't have gone at all, it seems. Sidney is still there, on Academic Probation, so we will have to see if he can manage to pass without the distraction of his sister.

In my Story Progression Pleasantview Dirk and Sophie are married with children. Sophie is such a meanie, and I don't understand how Dirk can stand it.

I finally wrapped up my college rotation. Congratulations to the class of 2026! We have super small graduating class this year. We've got Glen Ercan, Rick Ercan, Jacob Landgraab, and Brett Williams II. Unfortunately Daryl Ercan dropped out at the beginning of his senior year and didn't get to graduate with his brothers Rick and Glen.

Now that Jacob has graduated he had decided to make things official with Heather Worthington before heading back home, but not before quickly regretting it right as the words were coming out of his mouth. You see, there's supposed to be a big "single's mingle" soon and he should have just waited until after that to make things official. After all he's been hooking up with both Heather Worthington and Kahleesi Morgan for the last two years and before that it was a couple of other girls on campus. Unfortunately for both him and Heather Worthington, she now has a bun in the oven. Really feeling the pressure now (it's definitely at about pressure cooker level) he proposed to her during his graduation party.

Once home Jacob had hoped he would have some more time to process everything and start preparing, but he wasn't even home 11 hours that he got a phone call from Heather telling him to meet her at the hospital in downtown Bluewater Village. After 8 hours of labor, they welcomed baby Jacob Landgraab II. Heather also broke the news to him that she wouldn't be returning to school and that she and the baby would be going home with him.

Welcome to the real world Jacob. You wanted to play house didn't ya?

Some catching up with the Beaker and Curious families:

During their college years, Circe was growing much more distant from her relationship with Vidcund, as well as growing closer to the much more like-minded Loki. This came to a crashing end when on the night she planned to be the last they spent together, Vidcund made a badly timed marriage proposal, which was rejected. Things would still work out in his favor, as lifelong friend Erin Beaker took the opportunity to finally confess her feelings for him, which Vidcund had been oblivious to yet pretty obvious to Pascal and Lazlo for years. All 4 of them are living at the hilltop observatory while Pascal is awaiting his unexpected child, but it wouldn't be the only unexpected child for the brothers.



Loki Beaker inherited the massive mansion/laboratory that was maintained by both of Loki's and Circe's respective parents, and is currently running the tech superstore "Compu-Global Hyper-Mega Tech" based out of Valle Muyvoda, alongside his scientific career. After spending a rough several teenage years as a vagabond, Vernous Fantasm manged to regain contact with the kind-hearted Pascal and Erin, the latter of which would point him to her brother who might be interested in letting him be a live-in caretaker for the mansion. The former would respond to his sudden emotional attachment and the two would form a romantic relationship.



Loki and Circe would pretty quickly join together as husband and wife, she didn't account for her last night with Vidcund before they broke up to result in an unexpected daughter, Elrena Salamis. Loki isn't bitter about this, as he understands she was conceived before they were together and they have Vernous to help take care of her. Cutely enough, she was born with same personality as Vidcund, who she almost hit friendship status upon their first meeting.

Andrew and Julian always like to go downtown for a date on St. Valentine’s Day, and this year was no exception. They had had woohoo in bed the night before, despite Jack Gill and Archie Cornwall playing chess in their bedroom. Gloria and Garry had woohoo too, but they didn’t have an audience.

Ravi Bertino was visiting them, and had spent the night in the hot tub. In the morning he went into the house and made five portions of omelette, one for himself, and one for each of the family. But Gloria and Garry had to leave for work without eating theirs. So only Andrew and Julian were left to eat breakfast with him. After breakfast they both hugged and kissed him before saying goodbye. Julin and Andrew wanted their Valentine’s Day date to be just for the two of them. It was Julian who asked Andrew on the date. They played a little in the front garden, before they left on their date. First they took a taxi downtown to PaintBoyz, but Mrs. Crumplebottom arrived at the same time as they did. She was in an extraordinarily good mood, evidently she's thinking of getting married. But she's really not the ideal companion for a dream date, so Andrew immediately phoned for a taxi. Julian did manage a kiss while they were there, which Mrs. C. didn't seem to disagree with. It was a very chaste family kiss with his little brother Hans! As they were leaving, she was telling young Hermes Hunter to put his clothes on.

Then they took the taxi to The Hub, where they enjoyed the rest of an exceptionally good Valentine's Day dream date. When the date ended, Andrew celebrated by noogieing Julian! Then they went upstairs for a delicious meal in The Hub's famous rooftop restaurant. Andrew had a Filet Mignon, while Julian, who has a sweeter tooth, chose a nectarine tartlette.

Before going home, they went back to PaintBoyz, where, this time in the absence of Mrs. C., they had a good time, doing things that they maybe shouldn't do.

After they got home, Andrew bought a bouquet to thank Julian for the date. Instead of leaving it at the front door as most Sims do, he carefully placed it on the floor of the downstairs bathroom.

Unfortunately I was really busy the last month, so I didn't have much time, BUT I have taken a bunch of screenshots and explored the old neighborhood of the Sims 2 installation on the old laptop from 2006.
As soon as I have more time, I'm definitely going to open up a thread, maybe in the pictures section, and give you all a tour around my literally 20 years old Sims 2 neighborhood :D

As for my "current" game, I plan on ending some family trees, since Gloomwood Valley is literally full of Sims. I don't know how I'll plan out the stories yet exactly, but I have some vague ideas.
My self-sim and the self-sim of my wife are definitely staying though. And my favorite gay artist couple gets to stay around as well. :D

Three families have moved in - I am proudly state that their houses look exactly the same - in my new hood. Lost some of my defaults, not sure what I did with those files, but, as for the rest, I am slowly getting into the new game.

The Porters seem as if they may be entertaining - Husband went straight for the gnome (to play with it, not to kick it) while his wife chose to smell the roses (or daisies, or whatever I planted there). I sent them fishing but they only caught boots (Benjamin Long was pulling out golden trout after golden trout right next to them).

Fun, fun, fun. At least the power is back for now, but lightning hit quite hard here where I live. Woke up at around 4am with a bed shaking underneath me, and my internet said good-bye. The windows rattled and a bunch of car alarms went off in the parking area. I have now patiently (apart from the 3 tantrums I threw during the 8 phone calls with my provider) waited for 4 days for the technician to come out and fix it and am getting my ducks in a row for the 4th tantrum tomorrow morning. Exhausting. At least, no sim in no my new hood has been struck by lightning yet.

This actually happened over months but I find it easier just to note down in my phone 1 rotation at a time and then post it all together.

Riverview Rotation 6
Jefferson
I honestly have nothing to say about this family. 2 adults, a pregnant teen, 3 children and a toddler. Just trying to keep them all alive and well was a chore. All kids got their homework done. Carla sold some lemonade - I think she'll grow up to be a fortune sim. Barbara wanted another baby but luckily wasn't successful because I don't even know where we'd put another baby, the crib would be outside lol.

Thompson
Virginia invited Bernie on another date. She's now visibly pregnant, and told Bernie that it's his - which is a lie, but she did also tell him that the reason she ghosted him before was that he had already impregnated her and that they have a son together - which is the truth. Bernie was overjoyed and wanted to make it right. It seemed so soon, he moved in right away and the two got engaged. Anthony still lives with Thomas for now, but Bernie wishes to raise him as soon as they settle with the new baby. Virginia isn't sure about all this and has rolled a fear to marry Bernie - but she figures what's worse? Raising her children with a man she loves, or having ANYONE find out that her brother-in-law (who left her sister in the middle of the night whilst pregnant with twins!) fathered her second born?

Roberts
Patricia and James welcomed baby Hiram, born at 3:31pm. Black hair and dark blue eyes. Patricia has really been trying to improve her relationship with Hanna before she goes off to college. She has a 50/19 relationship with her; but since Hanna only has 30/21 they aren't considered friends. Patricia mostly rolls wants for Hanna to gain scholarships, rather than interaction based wants. They're not off to a great start with Hiram either, James is more interested in skilling and buying new furniture and Patricia didn't roll any baby wants during pregnancy, not even a want for parenting skills; she did however roll a want to learn fire safety and Physiology. Hanna's boyfriend Blake looked after Hiram for the rest of the day. Hanna loves her new brother, she's considering missing out on college for a chance to raise him the way her parents never did with her.

Molyneux
Victor wished Scott would go to college, but with a baby on the way and fresh out of high school, it's better Scott finds his own path. Victor wished him well and gave him a parting gift of $10k to buy his own business. The quiet didn't last long, as Victor's wife Maddie gave birth to twins; Victor ("Junior") at 6:44 and Christina at 6:59. The twins are a handful, but at least Gina is there to help out.

Marshall
Following Lila's party, her parents are furious with her again. Ralph has been arguing and shoving her all morning and she's had to do all the housework. Margaret finally called the adoption agency, after months of trying to convince Ralph to have another kid. I'm not sure how he will react, they can barely tame Lila as it is, Lawrence is always on the verge of flunking and even though on the surface Trinity seems fine, she has no real relationship with either parent.
Brooklyn
Things are going quite well now it's just Charles and Gregory. After work/school they headed out to the shops for a change of scenery. It turned into a mostly social visit, as Charles met Lisa and tried to flirt with her, and Gregory flirted with every girl that appeared. Neither were successful, so they headed home for some grilled cheese sandwiches.

Brooke
Both girls are off to college! The house does feel particularly empty without them, but they still have little Michael to take care of. He's doing well, today he learned to talk and he's so close to being potty trained.

Brooklyn-Thompson
Kenneth's been pretty shook up after his parents divorce and now his Mum's boyfriend moving in. The family decided getting a dog might cheer him up, it's nearly his birthday anyway, so Isobel headed to Pepe's pets with him and they picked out a beautiful brindle boxer named Buddy. Kenneth has already taught him to shake.

Anderson
The house is now just Marty and two women, which would be Marty's idea of fun if not for Jennifer trying to push him to get a job, and Lisa never having time for him anymore. Lisa ended up going on a date with Charles Brooklyn, which went well but she nearly starved to death and he left early, so she woohooed Marty in the hot tub. Not long after Marty rolled a want to woohoo in bed, so him and Jennifer woohooed and just then.... baby chimes. Oopsie. This has really thrown a spanner in the mix.

Russell
Trenton Russell & Claire Santiago welcomed son Aaron Santiago at 7:01am. He has the sweetest patch of red hair - that I definitely wasn't expecting. I guess Trenton is a redhead. Everyone is fine, though neither parent was particularly interested in having a baby. Claire has taken care of the little guy all day, she's a little unsure of what she's doing, but she's now 5 days away from elderhood. So if she's going to be a mother, now is her last chance. Trenton eventually warmed up to Aaron, when he was quiet and all comfy in his cot he came in and tucked him in a few times. He has a fear of changing a diaper. Times have changed since Martha was a baby, will Claire be expecting him to have a more hands on role?

Ross
"GET OUT!" - Dina finally snapped. The breaking point came when she was just about to woohoo Marty in her leopard print bed and suddenly Don climbed in and went to sleep. She could not deal with him anymore!! Though now Don's gone, and Dina still hasn't got a job - she might have to start looking at getting a new roommate. Hopefully this one will have their own bed.

Thompson
For Thomas, the house is once again filled with the sound of children and he can't get enough. He wants more grandchildren, Virginia is already pregnant with her second, and Sarah recently had the twins. He can't wait for Jack to marry his Finacee and get to know her 3 boys and hopefully have some more! Virginia has since decided she would like to raise Anthony again, so Thomas and Martha are soaking in all the grand-toddler time before they send him on his way. Martha is quite upset, she was the one to teach Anthony most of his toddler skills and she feels like Virginia just got to miss out on all the hard work and sleepless nights - though it could just be the hormones, since Martha is expecting again!

Baxter
Don finally staggered home mid-afternoon. Sarah didn't ask where he was, and he didn't tell her. He was fully prepared to make up a story about being abducted by aliens. She just passed him one of the twins, who was screaming as usual and went back to what she was doing. Alex became a teenager (family sim), it doesn't feel like that long ago her marriage fell apart at Alex's 5th birthday. As Alex blew out the candles, Sarah heard it from the whole other side of the house - the familiar sound of bed springs. She rushed to find Don in bed with Lisa Russilo! Sarah then immediately got into bed with Ralph Marshall!!!! I heard the out-of-love noise and thought it was Don, but no Don made out with teen townie Kearie Valentine (I specifically invited her over thinking her and Alex would hit it off!!) and Lisa was slapping him!

College
Josh Russell, my only student (so far!) is majoring in art. He has 7 cooking skills and it was one of the only majors that had cooking skill. His LTW is to be captain hero - will an art degree help? Probably not. He got on deans list his first semester, then a C his second. Averaging a GPA of 3.0. He played a lot of kicky bag and lived off Mac & Cheese. After he finished the semester, his girlfriend Mellisa and her twin Danielle moved in ready to start their college journey next rotation.

Catching up with the Grunt family:


Since the passing of Buzz's mother Missy, who acted as a sort of housekeeper and nanny for the children, things in the household have become rather tense. Having this many kids wasn't really something either Buzz or Lyla really anticipated, but it was more or less egged on by their respective parents. Buzz has risen to the rank of General and Lyla is preoccupied with her career as a lawyer, leaving both stretched pretty thin for parenting.

Buzz: The years of military service has taken its toll on the General's mental state, exacerbated by the loss of his mother who was an emotional rock for him in the face of his father's, the late General Chip Grunt, strict and traditional parenting style. Buzz is a survivor of the "Zaarbville Attack" where he was present at the loss of several squad mates, and was left with permanent scars on both of his cheeks. His efforts to maintain control of his environment often clashes with his self-assured wife and rebellious daughter. He'll never flat out say it, but he secretly wishes he could have married someone like Jenny Smith, who was a boyhood crush of his.

Lyla: Despite her spoiled hedonist youth, Lyla took her college years rather serious and was determined to become a lawyer. Since falling into the role of a wife and mother, she's had to part ways with her old BFF-with-benefits, Chloe Curious. As chance would have it though, her sister Lola would end up working at the same law firm and now has an indirect connection back to Chloe. Lyla hasn't been the closest with all her kids, mostly developing a strong bond with their eldest child, Emma. Her parents also maintained a connection with Emma as well, even leaving her a big chunk of inheritance all to herself. The stress of 3 kids, an overbearing husband, coupled with the temptation of going back to the good old days with Chloe, Lyla feels she might go off the deep end anytime soon.

Emma: The Vandermorgans saw great potential in Emma and showered her in positive reinforcement. Being a girl, though, Buzz doesn't exactly give her the most emotional of support, and acts mostly as an overbearing protector of the house, causing her to act out and them to butt heads a lot. She inherited her mother's "green thumb" and likes to grow hydroponics. Her younger brother, Tank, drives her nuts and she constantly has to come to the defense of Ripp, the youngest, from both him and their dad. When she moves out, she hopes to change her surname to Vandermorgan. Her friend group consists of BFF Jessamine Patch, Ophelia Nigmos (mutual through Jess), and Delchuzhan immigrant Harani Poanov, who is part of the LGBT circle in Valle Muyvoda

Tank: Buzz's favorite. Headstrong and abrasive, he carries the tough guy lineage of the Grunt family like a badge of honor, as well as an excuse to harass his younger brother and assert his capabilities to his dad, who has seen too much in his own life to want his children to be anything other than fighters.

Ripp: Much more sensitive and naive than his siblings. As the youngest, Ripp got lost in the shuffle and as a toddler grew attached to his older sister, more than the rest of his family at that. While he hates the machismo teachings of his family, he does have an athletic streak that he shares with his classmate and good friend Ruby Smith, youngest of the Smith family.

TL/DR Version

Not far from Herbert F Foster and his adopted son Ian at number 11, two rather similar Sims have moved into 72 Bow Street, Monopolis. Again this is a single father, Harris Maclean, with his natural teenage son, Remus Maclean. (Maclean is a fairly common surname in Scotland, and is usually pronounced as if it was spelled "Maclain"; Remus is named after the legendary twin brother of Romulus, the traditional founder of Rome.) Like Ian Foster, Remus Maclean is a Popularity Sim, and I find them both easy to play. But their dads -- as I said before Herbert F Foster is a Fortune Sim, while Harris Maclean is a Family Sim, and these are the two aspirations that I find hardest to play. They just don't think the way that I do! Both Fortune and Family Sims expect a lot of their offspring, and both I fear are guilty of trying to plan and run their children's lives, whereas I think parents should set their children free to run their own lives: offer help and guidance,yes, but never try to control! (As you can probably tell, I've been a child and a teen, but I've never been a parent!) Fortunately both Ian and Remus really love their dads, and try to please them. My other problem with Family Sims is their tendency to see themselves as baby-making machines. So, as well as wanting his son to do well in school, Harris is also looking for love -- love no doubt with a view to future procreation! As I don't do male pregnancy, that means love with a female of child-bearing years. In the week he's been living here, Harris first tried to relate to Gretchen Stompel, a blonde (and arguably good-looking) Veronaville townie. Gretchen was happy to be friends with Harris but she had absolutely no interest in a romantic relationship with him. But then I saw what happened when he met Mary Love -- a dark-skinned Downtownie redhead -- I now believe in the existence of love at first sight. Only days after they met, they're engaged and she's moved in. With a view to the future, they've added a new upstairs room to the house. A room that can be used as a nursery!



I'll try and post pictures of the Maclean house (both before and after adding the new room) in the Lots and Housing picture thread.

Poor Merritt Beridze has had his first heartbreak! After having his very first kiss with Aelita Mikhailov, he watched from across the room as she accepted a flirt from townie Charles. Merritt immediately fell out of love with Aelita and started crying. Then, much to everyone's surprise, he proceeded to march over to the photobooth with Claudia Lee for his first woohoo. After exiting the booth he then started crying about Aelita again.

I've never seen ACR-induced regret before and I felt terrible for the poor boy. He's a family sim and had never had any romantic interactions with Claudia before, and they were only friends (not best or BFF). Teenagers really are dramatic.

Wow. I don't think I've ever seen anything move so fast in your game. XD

My supernatural families are moving into The Lake District ready to use their powers to influence the hood sims to their magical alignment, for good 😌 or for evil 😈

@Ivrats Dargy : I find your Emma a fascinating character. The kind of Sim I like to have active in my game -- the sort of Sim I find easiest to empathise with. When I saw her picture in the family thumbnail (before reading all your post) I wondered who she was. Dressed in black with long hair, I actually thought she might be Ripp (Boys are as likely to wear bare-midriff outfits as girls in my very gay game -- perhaps even more likely!) The Grunts can't be the easiest family to grow up in, and I'm glad she's giving young Ripp the emotional support he needs. I presume she's part of the LGBT circle herself? I wish her all the best for the future. Please pass on my good wishes to her -- it sounds like she and Ripp need all the support they can get.

I've maybe moved faster than my Sims want to move. Harris and Mary (especially Harris as a family Sim) are not getting the sort of wants I would expect. I've maybe "jumped the gun" in getting them engaged and getting them to have woohoo, without them having specific wants to do so. They have very good chemistry -- 2 to 3 lightning bolts depending on how they're dressed at the time, and they're constantly doing romantic things together autonomously. I really expected Harris -- a Family Sim -- to be having marriage and baby wants by now -- that's why I built them a nursery. Of course, as Knowledge Sim, Mary's wants are harder to predict and to fill, but I suppose Knowledge Sims are always hard to please. (Don't I know it? My best friend Andrew is a Knowledge Sim, and, if I was a Sim, I'd probably be a Knowledge Sim too!) However Knowledge Sim Mary Love has had more romantic wants for Harris, than he's had for her. Until very recently he still had a want to be best friends with his old flame, Gretchen Stompel. His current wants are to be friends with two male work colleagues, to talk to a relative, and to buy a drum kit! As his fiancee, I don't think Mary counts as a relative yet -- not unless and until he marries her -- so I reckon the only relative he can talk to is his son. All his fears are about Mary, but why does he not want to marry her and have children with her? I thought all Family Sims wanted that. The absence of such wants from either of them, makes me feel bad about me getting them to get engaged and have woohoo, without any wants from either of them to do so. I know some Simmers consider asking/telling Sims to woohoo, without them explicitly wanting to do it is tantamount to abusing them. I normally think I look after my Sims rather well, so it bothers me a bit to think I might be considered guilty of Sim abuse. I can only say in my defence that I thought that their amorous autonomous actions were telling me that they'd be more than happy to woohoo together.

I think I must try and get them to go on a date together. Surely that will get Harris's marriage and baby wants started!?

@AndrewGloria, I don't agree with the simmers who think it's wrong to direct sims to woohoo if they don't have a want for it at the time. Some players are asexual and sex-repulsed, or (a completely separate matter) a little bit Puritan, and in the worlds they create, perhaps sims woohoo rarely, only when they roll a want or only when they want a baby - and that's fine! In my own little worlds, ACR is tuned fairly high, attitudes are pretty open, and most Sims enjoy woohoo - especially with those they have high chemistry with, or are in love or crush with, but sometimes with someone I wouldn't expect, just to surprise me! However I do have sims who aren't as interested, and usually they let me know they're not that type. My Grilled Cheese teen, for instance, who sees his friends dating and can't comprehend what they get out of the activity; I think he's going to be a late bloomer who only discovers l'amour once he reaches adulthood (and I assign him a gender preference), but he might just dedicate himself to the glory of bread lifelong. And I have a Romance sim who awkwardly refused the only girl who tried to kiss him in his teens, then spent most of his time caring for his elderly mother and wayward younger sister and didn't go looking for love until later in life, and he still seems to prioritise family and see his casual partners as a non-essential diversion. I like to follow cues based on autonomous actions and let my sims reveal who they are and what they want, which may not be at all what I expect of them.

It sounds to me as if Harris and Mary have a powerful spark and are very interested in pursuing a relationship and a future together (which I think clearly includes woohoo, if they can't keep their hands off each other when you're not directing them!), but Harris needs to take his time to be sure he's making the right choice. As a Family sim, I'm sure he wants a stable relationship before he brings a child into the world; his fears show that he's not certain Mary is going to stay with him. Maybe, before moving to Monopolis, he had a relationship with someone who disagreed with him about the environment or paranormal, rebuffed his offer of a game of catch, and lost their friendship with him, so he's filled with unfounded fears of the same happening again. His wants to befriend his work colleagues and maintain his relationship with his son suggest that he'd like to feel well settled before he's ready to move ahead to marriage - he's doing superb work in his career and getting recognition for it, so it's not just financial security he wants, it's connection and a feeling of being at home in his new town.

Why are you in such a rush? It's not like they're going to grow too old to have a baby. XD Let them take things at their own pace.

@AndrewGloria
Thanks.

I'm still a unsure of whether Emma is LGBT herself, although I'd be lying if I said that her and Jess wouldn't make a fitting couple. Both are knowledge sims, Jess is into Science while Emma is into nature, so they could possibly have similar career ambitions. Her grandma, Jackie Vandermorgan, did end up getting elected mayor of Pladdervale so politics could be in the cards as well. I guess once she gets out of the Grunt compound the world is her oyster.

L-R: Harani Poanov, Emma Grunt, Jessamine Patch, Ophelia Nigmos

Until this January i was playing only mortal families, finding couple matches, having children, raising children, college, career, etc, then i started adding supernatural sims, which changed the dynamics of the hoods completely

I also made my own community lots so I needed a culture and systems common to my sims…that led me to today . Now I am creating a financial system and it is testing my simming resolve at the moment.


When I played premade houses, it didn’t feel like the right fit for my sims. So I made my own for them to live in, each house is worth between 60k to 120k. So none of my custom sims can afford them nor afford to furnish them. I used cheats to give them millions of dollars, and that is now causing me trouble in implementing a financial system as there is massive unequal wealth distribution. Academy families are multimillionaires while new couples and elderly can barely afford an apartment!

I have never played money in the sims ( not too fun for my fortune sims) before as the amount they make at a job isn’t enough for them to afford a house even after 15 years of work! I still remember my first large family, the Ramirs who had two teen kids, and three younger kids they couldn’t afford a video game for Jules to fulfill his fun meter before completing his homework,so I bought a stereo and made him dance til he felt like doing his assignments - but since they couldn’t afford a play place for the children and playing red hands wasn’t enough the kids didnt do their homework they got taken away by the social worker so I started using money cheats. but I am currently trying to redistribute wealth in way that is reasonable for each family as well as the hood treasury. However since half the hood is multimillionaires and multiple households have the same name due to second generations owning homes I can’t use the cheats anymore.

Currently setting up my town treasury, tax collector, and banks! Quite a journey so far!