Nah, we've got plenty of guys with those names here. A guy named Kent used to attend the same church as I did and one of my cousins (who at least lived here for part of his life) is named Shane. One of my brother's middle names is Clinton. It's just that the rationale of "they sound western" didn't really feel logical since I'm living here in BC and we're not exactly the "wild west"; that's east of us. We've got a few cattle ranches, but we're more about forestry and tourism and organic locally-sourced and being hipster and smoking pot even before it was legal. And far less about oil and ten-gallon hats and pretending we're Texas.

But it also depends on the time period. When I was growing up all the guys were named Matthew and Christoper but now the boys my kids' age are named Ethan and Caleb and all the spellings of Aidan / Aden. From what I've seen in my lifetime Celtic names and Biblical names have always had a strong showing here and in recent years Old Testament and occupational surnames as given names (Mason, Hunter) have surged in popularity. If you're wanting authentic 19th century, though, I might not really be able to help you there. I've only lived here since the 1980s.


In my experience Popularity sims have been so difficult to get above 2LB (or even 1LB!) with anyone. They're just...so difficult. Personally I'd stick down the find a mate crystal ball and give it a click to see who comes up (though the last time I tired that it showed an actually blank window, which was really depressing! ). It can be helpful to see if there are even any 3LB options in the whole hood web and who the 2LB ones (assuming they exist, which they usually do) are. It has useful options where you can tell it to ignore or include already committed sims, NPCs, etc.
twojeffs' Find-a-Mate Crystal Ball is available here: http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=15.0
I use a version where I've edited the bisexual pie menu ("I'm desperate and don't care!" > "I don't care; just find me someone!").

Dirk definitely wants to get married. He skipped the engagement step and went straight to wanting to get married. I don't know, I don't think Lilith would say yes to an engagement she didn't want and break it off later. Doesn't seem like her.

Rosawyn, Buzz has three bolts with a whole slew of Romance sims--all those Romance perks! Which is kind of a problem, because they don't want to settle down, and he certainly does. He has the occasional wistful thought of asking Chloe to get married, which for her is a definite nope! (Maybe in a few sim years . . .) I think he has, in fact, two bolts with nearly every woman he knows. Maybe not Circe. The find a mate ball pulls up all those non-settle-down types, even limiting to just playable female adults. And I am okay with no-bolt couples if that's what the sims want.

The thing is, Buzz is absolutely stalking my alien sims to socialize with them in this uberhood. Which gives so many layers to character that it's really fun. Either he's dealt with enough aliens to decide they are just sims (his LTW is Mayor) or he's trying to infiltrate (poorly) their group, or he really wants to add to his family and doesn't trust a woman to do it with, or . . . so many possibilities! Which makes me think that the woman he ends up settling down with, or even in a long term dating relationship, at this point, has to be part-or-full alien.

Duvelina, I definitely get where you're coming from with the commitment wants issue. I always try to get both sims to want it as well, but I guess for me it's never been a really hard and fast rule. I'm more picky about "have a baby" wants. But it's the same basic concept, I think. I have on occasion gone ahead and made the sim who wants to propose. The last time I did a "surprise engagement" which I guess made the most sense, given the circumstances. I have also on occasion made a sim get pregnant simply because the partner wanted it, but I do try to avoid that. I guess my rational for allowing it sometimes is that humans irl can do the same. I guess I'd be more careful to avoid fears, if that makes sense; I could read the lack of a want or a fear as being ambivalent to the idea.

Sunbee, is your Buzz fully straight? What you said, 'or he really wants to add to his family and doesn't trust a woman to do it with,' made me think maybe he should try dating a male alien. But maybe that's just me.

I'll pay attention to Lilith's fears next time, see if she's scared about being rejected for an engagement proposal or afraid of being proposed to in general! Might be useful. Thanks, Rosawyn!

I'm playing a challenge right now where the goal is to keep all the last names of the Pleasantview premades alive for 10 generations as well as end up with a Sim who can trace their anchestry back to all premade families. I'm in the second generation of born in game Sims right now and everything is already a huge inbred mess. I have to be really careful and plan well in advance who's going to hook up with whom or else I'm risking some Sims being left over without any romantic prospects (while the rules don't strictly forbid my Sims from marrying townies it is greatly discouraged, meaning that if they do, there is a penalty to the score - I'm not even keeping a score, but that's beyond the point. It's the principle of the thing).

Anyway, I have these two Sims, Lucas and Mae. They've been dating since they were teenagers (for reference, Lucas is in his last year of college, Mae just graduated) and for about as long Mae has had a locked want to fall in love with Lucas. That hasn't happened yet (note: I have pescado's noinstantlove so Sims won't fall in love immediately just because a friend flirted with them). Lately she has been rolling wants to get married to Lucas while on a date with him though (her aspiration is family). Lucas on the other hand has been in love with Mae for ages but shows no signs of wanting to settle down and make things official (pleasure aspiration). Their chemistry is...not so great. And by that I mean pretty much non-existent as they have zero bolts.

Lucas is going to graduate soon and then I'll have to make a decision: Do they move in together thus making things kinda official? It would be convenient. Mae hasn't found a job yet, won't be able to pay the next bills and is - thanks to Lucas' continuous date-wants and risky woohoo - pregnant with twins. Another income and and an additional pair of hands would be very welcome. However I can't get over the fact that Mae very clearly doesn't actually see Lucas 'that way'. I don't want to force them together just for a lack of better options (though to be perfectly honest there really, really aren't any: the only other single male in the neighborhood is close to becoming an elder and also the ex-husband of Mae's sister. That would make for awkward family reunions).

Any advice on what I should do?

@Quietscheente
I think you shouldn't interpret Mae as not in love with Lucas. That pescado mod seemingly never allows for any logical "love" and I think if they've been together since they've been teenagers, they definitely suit each other really well. Besides, I don't know how traditional you view stuff like this, but you could say that having babies without getting married is considered unethical among your sims, and have them get married because of that. Though that might give rise to rumors about why the marriage was made, but that's another story. Old ethics aside, I think going through the marriage is still a sensible option, especially since they don't seem to have many better options.

I'm not sure what you mean because I've played with it for years now and find my sims still fall in love way too easily with it

Duvelina, as a potential story thread, since Lilith and Dirk are definitely in love and have been together for a long time, unless Lilith is opposed to marriage, I think she would marry Dirk (or at least become fiances) for the sake of Dirk and his elderly father. His father wants to see them get married, yeah? And he's really, really old. Elderly people are usually of a delicate constitution, and can't handle a lot of stress, so I think that for the sake of his health, they would all talk it out (Maybe they can have some in-game conversations discussing this very issue, and you can interpret it by how well it goes (or doesn't go).) and make sure to marry so that he can happily see them married and die without regrets. And sure, maybe without this factor Lilith wouldn't have married so soon, but it's not like she was never intending to marry Dirk, it's just speeding up the process a bit, and Dirk definitely wants to marry her and she loves him.

Quietscheente, the couple should definitely move in together. Since she's soon to be a mother, unless her sorta-boyfriend is a complete flake, he should move in to help both her and his future children out. It's a matter of responsibility and reputation. No one looks kindly on an absent father, and single mothers, even if they live in an area that doesn't call them sluts, still struggle to provide for their children alone, and if they have the option of good family to help them out they should take it because raising children (especially multiples) is not a one-man job. It's possible that since Mae doesn't love him she might not want him to feel obligated to look after her, and with Mae pushing him away he might feel okay letting her have her space... if he really valued his freedom more than his loved one's safety.

Let Mae start romantic interactions and see what happens.

Even Sims with no bolts of attraction? I find that takes forever to accomplish and they can woohoo lot's of times before they will actually fall in love. If the attraction is there once they are best friends it doesn't take much for them to fall in love. My Rock God in town has about 15 or 16 groupies now but he is only in love with 4 of them.

I guess I wouldn't know because I don't have sims with 0LB attempt to form relationships. They never want to. To me that actually is logical, though, if that's how the mod works; how is a person supposed to fall in love if they don't even feel any attraction?

Maybe some of you would appreciate this mod: Develop Crush/Love by Midge the Tree. I haven't tried it, but it sounds like it could be useful for fulfilling those stubborn "fall in love" wants that sit around for ages and never get fulfilled. The logic being if the sim wants it bad enough, why not? Also could be fun for developing one-sided crushes/love or streamlining the polyamory process for committed couples so there's no sneaking around stage before everyone's safely and properly in love. Used alongside Midge's “Just Be Friends” Social, it looks like it puts all the power in your hands.

I've got my own dilemma now...

I'm planning on doing a "Pleasantview Epic Challenge" but with Widespot + LGU, and I want a downtown so a Grand Vampire will spawn. I don't really want a downtown for any other reason, I guess, just so the hood web gets a proper Grand Vampire wandering about being a Grand Vampire. Hoods feel incomplete without one. I could just use the default Downtown, but I'll be attaching that to actual Pleasantview to do the Epic Challenge with actual Pleasantview, and using the same one would feel repetitive. I'm waiting on the re-release of the Sim State fixed template, but LGU is already ready go to (and I love it and miss playing it). Any suggestions on how to do this? Are there other custom downtowns floating about? Is it best just to use a fully custom "downtown"?

(Also, basically the same problem, but with Strangetown. I'm planning an "Epic Challenge" there too, Strangetown + La Fiesta + Viper Canyon. But there are only two "downtowns" that I know of: the Downtown that came with NL and Meetme's downtown version of Belladona Cove, which I'll be using with Riverblossom Hills, Desiderata Valley, and Académie Le Tour. Ok, so actually there is a downtown version of Bitville which I've had and used before, but I'll be linking that one on to Four Corners again once I figure out where to find a university that makes any kind of sense to add to a converted LS hood web. )

I just don't want repetition between my hoods; every hood needs to be unique, darn it!

Those of you who've played Widespot...is there a downtown you find fits best with the "feel" of that hood? (I've only played LGU before, not Widespot.) I know what I'm doing with PV, ST, etc; I've poked around in those hoods enough have a pretty good idea of what I want. But Widespot is new to me, and I guess I don't want to do it...wrong? I can't very well un-attach a downtown if i decide I don't like it.

What do you all do to make Grand Vampires spawn? Am I the only person who worries about this sort of thing?

Well, there's Bigg City: https://penig.tumblr.com/post/15897...ity-so-i-got-to

Omg. Why do I now feel like I had heard of this before (at least vaguely, in passing) but did not remember it at all for the life of me?

Edit: I'd give you a hug if I could reach thru the internet :lovestruc (Now the only thing holding me back from actually playing the game is making an age mod to suit my picky preferences, fixing that error upon giving birth issue, and doing a full 50/50 to fix my still broke IKEA stuff. But I have so much more motivation now! )

BoilingOil has an age mod that is configurable, maybe it would help? look for BO - Slow Aging Controller

I just need to edit the double-length age span mod I already have (I actually have two, now that I checked: one by Deastrumquodvicis and one by SomeSimmer) so each stage is properly proportional to my own specifications. I've edited the Simlogical template before (regular length), and I believe it should be essentially the same. (I have no idea how to increase the length of the Simlogical template, which is why I downloaded already double length mods to edit.) I just need to download SimPE and actually load it up and use it. Here's hoping (that when I actually get around to it!) SimPE loads quicker on this laptop than it did on my old one!

Don't know id this is the right place.
Anyway, I started making my own Pleasantview, like 10 before the game starts. I had to make some adjustments but I figured everything. But I decided to randomize everyone's sexualities. I thought it would be a great story base for someone(A gay man stuck in a hetero relationship). And only two guys ended up being straight(Daniel, Don, Skip, Michael, John). Now for Skip and Don, they ended up being bi because of their Turn ons and offs(If they get beard-gay, if makeup-straight, if both bi, which are chosen with a randomizer). But for the rest, I ran the ACR randomizer, I feel like it's too much.
Should I try to develop their stories somehow, or run the randomizer again.

Personally, I think I'd just stick to the ACR randomizer instead of turn-ons if you'd want to randomize their sexualities. There are men who wear makeup, women who don't, and also people attracted to men who just aren't into beards.

Explore the gay/bi/pan spectrum! Make sure your ACR settings suit your comfort levels, though.

I use the Sim Blendder to randomize sexuality. I tell it to make the hood 16% Gay and 34% Bi, and it tries very admirably to do so, given that it never assigns a sexuality that is incompatible with a current crush/love flag. So if a man is in love with a woman, then he can be straight or bi, but not gay. I find the 16% and 34% numbers work very well for me and my game and they feel quite realistic as well. I set TOs intentionally on each sim, sometimes specifically to suit their current partner (because why else are they together?) or because I feel like they make sense for another reason (very Neat sim turned on by "Good at Cleaning," for example, sim with the Fitness OTH turned on by, well, Fitness).

When I played Four Corners-Bitville, my one gay sim fell in love with the randomly generated NPC waiter (who was bi), and when I had the waiter move in, one of the first things I did was put a bit of makeup on him. It suited him and didn't in any way make his partner bi. I have it on good authority that some gay men like makeup on guys while others don't; I don't think TOs are particularly tied to sexuality.


Speaking as a bi woman myself, beards look great but feel awful. It's probably an SPD thing. A beard is nice so long as I don't have to touch it, so most of the time my husband shaves. Actually, come to think of it, I feel the same way about makeup! Looks great, but keep it far away from my skin! I think if I had to pick my TS2 TOs, they'd be Fitness and Good at Cleaning.

I have a pair of sisters, their mom died, no father's in the picture, no friendly or close relations to take them in. The younger one just turned to a teen, the older sister is a few days from being able to go to college. Should I allow the elder one a normal chance to go to uni, make friends and earn a degree, leaving her little sister, a teen, living by herself? Or should the elder stick around and take online classes (I have a mod), keeping her little sis company and supervised but at the expense of giving up the traditional campus experience and all that comes with it??

As there is no real gameplay downside to a teen sim living alone, I'd go with letting the older one go to college. She can come by and visit often to check in on the younger sister and make sure everything's ok, that she's remembering to buy groceries and pay bills, etc. You could even have her teach the younger sister to study. None of this requires her to live on the same lot or even in the same subhood.

Teens can have a job and do everything needed in house, so I don't see why older sister needs sacrifise herself.

I just finished setting up my hood, I will keep Don's and Skip's, but I will change Daniel's. Also, Dina is gay, so she might be going for Cassandra this time. I am loving all these new possible stories. Also, Jeniffer and John failed to have a baby even after 6 tries for a baby, and with Jen's romance secondary aspiration. She had an affair with Pol.Tech #9 and she is pregnant now. I am praying that the baby turns out with Jen's skin. It will be hard to pass it as John's with that green skin. :D