I really love reading about your sims! It makes me want to write about my sims adventures and life situations but I'm not sure where to begin. I'm glad I came across this thread and I'll definitely be coming back to find out what happens next!
Great story, as always. Looking forward to seeing what happens next.
This should be the end of it, finally. Well the drama anyway, unless I get bored with Mike. I never get bored with Melonie. I have been playing Melonie off and on for ages it seems. Now it's time to let her actually raise a family.
Back to the treadmill. She has to earn those opportunity points.
Life is sweet, finally.
How about 3 more?
They're going to need a bigger house.
Mike is excited. :P
I want them to have a daughter next. I'm going to need a Melonie 2. :-)
I really love reading about your sims! It makes me want to write about my sims adventures and life situations but I'm not sure where to begin. I'm glad I came across this thread and I'll definitely be coming back to find out what happens next!
Once you do start, it seems to feed on itself. I have the past pics to look back on and it helps with what I want to try next.
ck213: Very pretty sim in your pic; I love that bedroom set..imagine the poster in the background is cc? I have been playing around with the Outdoor living stuff pack..do like most of the clothes in it...haven't had time to really get into it and use all of it yet...thanks for sharing.
Yeah, the picture is CC. I have a lot of Mark Ryden and Ray Caesar paintings from Garden of Shadows.
Melonie is doing the mom thing...
But I have to send her out to gather all the celebrity points she can. I'm trying to see if the celebrity journey is worth the annoyance.
I'm enjoying her house.
I'm setting out all the OLS objects. She should have a really nice backyard when I'm done.
It's nice. I'm starting to get absorbed into her family life. Hopefully a little girl is on the way. I think there may be too many females in town, but I hope she gets a girl. She's been munching on watermelons.
I find myself adding more meaning than what is actually going on in the game quite often.
I think i do the same thing.
Sims are amazing, but you need a little fantasy to spice it up, and think of a "plot" to add to the gameplay.
I always enjoy your stories, and i just realized maybe you inspired me to start my own. I fiend it quite fun to think in pictures when i play now and then share them with others.
Love the house they live in - Seems like they all came out great.
Yeah, it does make it more fun.
I really like their house, but for some odd reason EA put cockroach spawners on one of the really nice properties on the hill in Bridgeport. I deleted the cockroach spawners but ther are some blank ones that I can't delete and the crawling sound of bugs is really annoying me. I'm having her boys to collect the bugs so I can at least get a break from them.
I'm back again with more on Melonie because she finally got in a little revenge.
I don't attend townie parties much anymore since they are so boring, but I can't resist parties thrown by the Landgraabs, Wellingtons, and Altos. Their lots are so nice. Holly Alto was having a party and I had Melonie and Mike invite themselves.
As usual, the game spawns guests randomly all over the house.
Tater was there. This party just got interesting.
I sent Melonie directly to him.
The hosts were already in bed. Wow, Holly is old now and Vita passed away awhile ago.
Mike and Amy Li stepped into the living room.
Tater hits on Amy immediately.
Amy! You're supposed to be interested in Garret. I have to put an end to this now. :roll:
I send in my girl to give the 411 on Tater.
Ha! Excellent.
Edna Mode is too p o o p e d to party.
Tater tries to undo Melonie's sabotage, but Amy isn't buying it.
Melonie is thrilled at what I ask her to do next.
Tater was given some ratty hair after his age-up to adult. Melonie is now a stylist since a lot of sims have been aging up with funky hair and clothes. I had her offer to make Tater over.
Tater is too trusting.
Mike has a fan.
She can leave him to his own devices now. His flirty trait has been replaced with the Family Oriented trait.
Tater is a laughing stock now.
OK, this party was worth attending, but now lets get these two home.
They have a new mission.
Bridgeport seems to want male babies, but the female balance seems to be equal now. It's time to try for a baby girl.
This thread is epic!! I love it! Even called hubby in to read through the last entry. We were dying here lol "Tater tries to undo Melonie's sabotage, but Amy isn't buying it," "She can leave him to his own devices now. His flirty trait has been replaced with the Family Oriented trait." I wish I could come up with stuff like that haha All of it is just so good. Thanks for sharing, great way to start the day
Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. - Maya Angelou
CK! I love your pictures stories! I'm still on page 3 in this thread but I wanted to ask you something quick:
Where did you get the male hairstyle in that picture?
I'm searching for it for a while now and I just can't find it! Can you please tell me?
CK! I love your pictures stories! I'm still on page 3 in this thread but I wanted to ask you something quick:
Where did you get the male hairstyle in that picture?
I'm searching for it for a while now and I just can't find it! Can you please tell me?
Melonie is one of my favorite sims that I have been playing forever, but now I'm playing her with aging on and having her raise a family. I want her to have 2 boys and 2 girls.
That ain't happenin' despite all the watermelon munching.
That one in addition to these two.
It turns out my neighborhood has too many females already. This is mainly among the adults and elders. Progression creating baby boys will shift the balance, but in a very stupid way. When these boys grow up there will not be enough females. Right now the ratio for babies, toddlers, children, and teens is 17 males/ 4 females. This will be a problem when they grow up.
Melonie deserves a baby girl. :P So I'm intervening in a very Vulcan kind of way. If the game is generating males because of the abundance of female elders and adults, the solution lies in reducing their numbers so the game generates females to restore the balance among young sims.
Soo....
Sorry. (for the both of you)
Sorry.
Sorry.
uh...Grim? I need to move on. Can you wrap it up here?
Sorry. (I really felt bad for her daughter.)
Sorry, Beau. You've been living with these three here for the longest. I'm forcing a choice here.
Sorry, Bianca and Lilly-Bo
Now that she has him to herself, Marina is no longer interested. It must have been a competition thing. :P
Sorry.
Geez, you're making me feel worse. Get up.
Yeah, it's your birthday.
But I wouldn't cheer about it.
Grim's job isn't done here.
He loves his job.
Sorry.
This is awful. This is horrible, but necessary. :evil:
Ok, you two. Get with the baby making.
Now she can await the special day with a little more confidence.
Love the nectary. Nectar making without the investment in space and equipment.
Oh....sorry, Howard. I didn't know you had a thing going with her.
:shock:
Alright, watermelon munching time, just to be sure.
She's serene and confident.
YES!
We have a girl. She looks exhausted.
Aww...she lost a friend. That puts a damper on things.
Outdoor Living Stuff TS3 sim dinning experiences aren't the best, but I decided to get OL Stuff because it seemed like it would be nice to have my sims have breakfast Alfresco on Saturday mornings.
Time is passing for Melonie's family. It's nice to settle down for family life after all the wild YA simming I had been doing.
Michael is a Stargate fan. :thumbup: Reruns are great.
Her daugher Milicent with her brother Tristan
:P I can't recall her youngest son's name.
Very pleasant, but I think I need to dream up some drama for the teens.
Although TS2 sims chatter way too much at the dinner table, the Serve Meal feature was great for getting sims to eat together at the dinner table. I really wish we had it back for TS3.
Since the stove and refrigerator look more appropriate for the outdoors I decided to do something I've never done before--I had my sims have breakfast outdoors.
I'm still experimenting with the yard here and not totally happy with it yet. Love the rock speaker. Add more rocks around it to make it blend in and recolor to match. :thumbup:
The problem is sims eat quickly and there is no feature that will make sims wait for everyone to be seated before they start shoving food in their faces. I try to get them in the same area, but you can tell a sim to sit down and they pop up in a moment. I probably need to turn off free-will. :P
You call them to meal and you have a traffic jam. We really need the Serve Meal feature back where the sim would place the food on the table and the other members take a seat.
Melonie is already done and the family hasn't even been seated yet.
And then you have the problem of the family not sitting together if there is a bar or island nearby.
And somehow he ADD'd and forgot about the plate he already had. The slice of cake is from his going to get cake even though Melonie was already preparing breakfast. :roll:
So, $20 bucks to experience this? The game play for it could be much better.
Gathering around the dinner table would be a great time to strengthen family relationships as a group instead of 1 on 1. I would like to be able to click on the dinner table while one sim is cooking the meal and select an interaction that would make the family gather at the dinner table. They can be chatting with each other while they wait to be served.
The sim preparing the meal can then serve them and take a seat too. This would build relationships and provide a better game experience.
Nice pics, i still havent used half the stuff from the SP yet :P.
I had to look up a picture of all the stuff I had taken earlier just to remember what was in the pack. :P
I'm liking it. I like having my sims eat in another location once in a while to switch things up. And if they are already in the back when they're hungry it's just a simple walk to the refrigerator.
yeah... call to meal routing really is annoying, EA should fix that :?
Btw, I loved your stories and decided to have one of your sims in my game.. I chose Cairo because... uhm.. its random pick actually At the time I made him a teacher in my magic school, Pigfarts ( 8) ) He'll teach divination and herbiology. here's a pic
Melonie has been living the normal life now that I've stopped injecting drama into it, but she isn't quite free from it.
I had her husband fix their daughter's computer while I was off watching the kids go to so school and also to see all the new faces in town now. I go a pop-up saying their is a fire a the house.
I was expecting a kitchen fire. I don't remember ever having a bedroom fire.
This is looking serious.
Of course sims always run towards a fire.
I could have them try and put it out, but I'm not risking Melonie and I don't want her to be a widow either.
So get out now.
Gee it's taking them a long time. Call another one, this fire is getting big.
Oh no you don't, silly sims. I had to make them run back and forth outside to keep them from going in again.
It's about time.
He had to stop and smell the incense. :roll:
:P
A star struck fireman.
Melonie left her flirty trait behind. Sorry.
Hubby's gone to work. You have to clean up this mess and replace the windows and furniture.
This was a little refreshing. I haven't had any kind of random disaster in quite a while.
December, 2012 Arrives Early For Melonie, that is. Her game save is corrupt.
The signs were there. Things got weird when I aged up the first son. There was a townie on the lot behaving in a glitchy way. Aging up the second son was worse.
He's a kid. Leave him alone!
Melonie's days of ordering pizza was over in this life. She's a mom now.
Alright, time for the kids to go to bed.
Go to bed!
Alone time for the parents, but this where the game started seriously glitching. They would pop out of the hot tub and into the center of the house and get stuck in the foundation.
It's the end of the world as they know it. This was the last straw and I finally gave up on it.
I did create them again in CAS to test a home, but it just didn't feel the same same. They didn't seem like the same family. Well...adding on two daughters because I needed to test a five bedroom house didn't help.
Time to test it.
I made a CAS family for the task.
I have copies of Melonie and Mike in the bin and I gave them a near houseful--5 kids.
It's a really roomy house.
3:00 in the morning.
Time to assign beds.
The kitchen is huge, but there may be times when 8 sims are walking around in it.
First thing I found out is the dishwasher needed to be moved. They like to sit cooked food right over it. it was causing a traffic jam for anyone taking back a dish.
No problems in the dining room...yet.
I don't know what EA was thinking when they put roaches, termites, and other bugs on this large scenic lot. It makes no sense, and the sound of them is irritating.
How could I forget to put in a hot tub. :P
I have a small list of fixes, but I'm sure I will find more. But I'm done for the night.
So ends Melonie's first attempt at Family Life. I think I'll hook her up with Avatar me next someday.
The new house test was mainly for Generations. The house had been sitting in my game, unfinished, for the longest. Generations made me want to finally finish it.
While I was creating a home, preparing for Generations, a thought about the shack three house that sims will use to pretend to be a Princess.
Hmm...that thing better fit on a 4 x4
I thought it would be cool to make a little maze around it. I have a magnolia tree in place now. I guess I just have to make sure the three is turn correctly to allow the prince to dump buckets of water on anyone's head making there way through the maze.
Also, for midlife crisis, even though sims have a specific wish to satisfy, I think I would like to make a list of things that I think my sim would like to have done before he passes on in the scrap book. I'd record them in pictures and video for him to review as an elder, just before he kicks the bucket.
This thread is epic!! I love it! Even called hubby in to read through the last entry. We were dying here lol "Tater tries to undo Melonie's sabotage, but Amy isn't buying it," "She can leave him to his own devices now. His flirty trait has been replaced with the Family Oriented trait." I wish I could come up with stuff like that haha All of it is just so good. Thanks for sharing, great way to start the day
It was certainly the most interesting townie-hosted party that I've experienced.
Pumping up the Drama: The Idea Playing out Melonie's and Tater's story gave me an idea to post in Ideas and Feedback. It's a lot to read, but I think a couple of ideas showed up in Generations. Teen life got a little more dramatic and EA used the "Clean Slate" idea.
The core idea: What your sims do in life may attract drama like a magnet. You can wipe the drama clean, deflect it, or welcome it.
Drama in the The Sims 3 seems to require an overt act by the simmer. You have to go looking for it. It rarely finds you. I wish that it could bubble up to the surface and remain there for the simmer to participate in or avoid. But I want it to be due to the way the simmer is playing the game--cause and effect situations, not only random happenings.
[Update--I added this little scenario pictured above on page 3. It was the incident that sparked this idea]
Therefore I have a proposal. How about we have drama injected into the game by three means? The first method is rare random events, like the meteor strike. I haven't had one yet, but I dread and also look forward to it happening in my game.
The second is to bring back fears. Fears in the Sims 2 brought a level of tension as you realized you were in a situation where your sim's fears could be realized. You would then take actions to avoid that situation. I want to change how they are done however. I don't want them to appear until certain dramatic levels are reached. You won't have any in the user interface until the level of dramatic incidents in your sim's life start to rise.
Fears are connected to the third drama mechanic: Drama Meters.
Drama meters have their own tab like the need meters do. I came up with 4, but they don't have to be these: Infidelity, Envy, Greed, Wrath. There is a 5th meter that is different from the others: Karma.
The meters rise and lower from the many various things you do in your sims life, or that other sims do to your sim. They aren't available for children. They first appear when a sim becomes a teen. There are three phases to a meter.
Signs and portents:
This is the meter's early phase. After a certain point you will began to notice other sim's thought bubbles referring to your sims depending on the situation. When other sims gossip, sometimes it will be about your sim and what's going on in their life. Also, your sim's top 3 friends will autonomously inform them exactly what is being said about them and who may be spreading rumors, either in person, on the phone, e-mail, or chat.
Fears:
This is the mid-point of a drama meter. Fears are like the gate keepers to total drama. This is the point where you can eliminate drama or fall into it. All the little things that your sim has been doing so far doesn't have the impact they had in the signs and portents stage. Realized fears move the meters now. They fade away with time. All you have to do is avoid them. The little things have a chance of raising new fears however. There are wishes and socials you can satisfy and perform to work the meter back to the range where fears disappear. There is a good chance that a very good friend will appear to help you out, either through conversation or a task. Their picture icon will appear over the meter as a reminder of who your true blue friend is. There are weak and strong fears. The strong fears can quickly push the meter into the Dramatic Scenario range. Realized fears will also raise negative Karma. Doing something to remove fears will raise positive Karma.
Dramatic Scenarios:
When the meter is 75% full, a dramatic scenario will be created. There are several scenarios for each meter. There are 3 players in the scenario: A tormentor, a victim, and a savior. When a scenario is triggered, 3 icons will appear showing the sims involved. The tormentor will have a red glow, the victim will have black, and the rescuer will have white. Your sim could play any of the three roles. It depends on what happened in their life to raise the meter.
Next: The meters in detail
The Meters in detail.
Although you may see the drama meters rising, what is actually going on is ambiguous because there are multiple reasons for the rise. You should be able to guess since you know what is going on in your sim's life. The drama scenarios that come out of the rising drama could take you by surprise however.
Greed:
Greed rises as your sim accumulates more wealth. It may not necessarily mean your sim is greedy. It could be that other sims want what your sim has and want to get closer, mooch, or even steal. Gossip of wealth would appear at the lower levels. Snobs, gold-diggers , mooches, and kleptos will be like magnets to your sim, wanting to get chummy. Burglars will start stalking your sim's lot just before fears start to set in. Mooching excessively and stealing will also raise the greed meters as well as any opportunities that would be considered greedy. Having a treasure trove of gems and precious metals will also raise the greed level. Sorry, but motherlode increases their net worth and it will eventually get around that your sim must have won the lottery or did something underhanded to get so much money.
Your sim will start to have fears: fears of being robbed, fears of false friends, fears of losing money, fear of being disliked due to being well off. Those are victim fears. Talking to a good friend about them could make them go away, or following the advice given by a friend will make them go away. Some might go away on their own after a while. Your sims could also fear for a friend. This would put them in the savior role. The roles are reversed where you would be helping your friend out. In the tormentor role your sim could have fears or being caught stealing, not achieving a wish for a certain amount of money or buying a certain object, even having a committed wish canceled.
Envy:
Like greed, your sim may not be the source of the drama, but the receiver. They could also have friend dealing with drama due to envy. Elements of greed may spill over into envy. Sims could be envious of sims with lifetime rewards such as eye candy, attractive, extra creative, legendary host, the next big thing, always on the list, etc, or just a high amount of lifetime reward points, used or unused. Being high on the career ladder could also spark envy. I'm not going to go into detail on this and the rest of the meters. They go through similar stages like Greed: gossiping, attracting sims that may mean more trouble, fears, and a dramatic scenario.
Infidelity:
The infidelity meter rises as things such as flirting or any other romantic interactions with sims outside the relationship. It also rises if there is a lack of affection between sims (no woohoo ). Rejections for intimacy also don't go over well. Sims with certain traits are particularly problematic. Flirts, commitments issues, inappropriate, great kisser, charismatic, and schmoozer trait sims can be the cause of or attract incidents to raise the infidelity meter.
Wrath:
Wrath rises with the amount of overall negative social interactions. Giving a negative reaction to a honest social and perpetrating a mean social will shift the scenario to the tormentor role. The opposite will shift it to the victim role. The Declaring-a-nemesis social should definitely bring about fears of wrath. Also, mistreating of another sim while having a fairly high wrath meter will cause that sim to autonomously declare themselves your sim's nemesis.
Karma:
Just about everything a sim does is considered a virtue, vice, or neutral. Karma starts out balanced. Karma does several things. At high levels (positive or negative) it determines if good or bad things happen to your sim. Karma wants to stay balanced. If your sim does nothing to move it either way it will return to the balanced position and it will not influence any decisions that the game normally makes without Karma. This is a little different for Lucky and Unlucky sims. Lucky sims have a positive Karma point advantage. Unlucky sims have a negative Karma point advantage.
There is a tug of war going on between the two poles. If Karma is pulled completely to either pole a dramatic event will happen to that sim, good or bad depending on the Karma. Also, those poles are sticky. Once moved to the opposing side it stays there for a while. That's great for good Karma, but not good for bad Karma. However, that sticky good Karma does raise the Envy meter from other sims and Wrath if you have a Nemesis. Karma determines how easy or hard the dramatic scenarios are. You can still have a good outcome, with bad karma, but it won't be easy. What are these Karma events and dramatic scenarios? I don't know. I don't think they should be 100 percent guaranteed to happen if the events are huge and life changing like a meteor strike. Meteor strikes are extremely rare, but during bad karma the chance of one happening should increase. I think a mixture of small and large events should be possible. The smaller the event, the more likely it will happen.
Next: Other Details
Other Details
Drama wishes and socials
There are new wishes and socials that are aimed directly at the new drama systems and they are related to Greed, Wrath, Envy, and Infidelity. Regular socials contribute to the drama system, but these are particularly potent. I think basing them on the 7 virtues and 7 vices would be good. They raise or lower the drama meters more than.
Greedy:
Greedy sims want more. More money, more stuff, a snack when their hunger meter drop just enough to be filled by a snack. If a snob autonomously brags about what they have, Greedy sims want it too. They sound like a pain, but there should be some really great reasons for someone to want a greedy sim. They should be really fun and humorous.
Envious:
Envious sims are jealous of sims who have what they want. Their envy is related to their traits and wishes and interests. If they are in a career, they are envious of sims who are higher up the ladder. They are envious of sims who have higher skill levels than they have. They get jealous too. If they are unattached, they get envious of sims who do receive flirts. If they have a partner, that partner better not flirt with someone else. Snobs really get grind their gears. They often get wishes related to the sims whom they are currently envious. "He flirted with her. I want him to flirt with me too." "Your paintings are good, but I've seen better."
Vengeful.
Vengeful sims want to get back at anyone who does them wrong. They have long memories. They are quick to declare themselves a nemesis of another sim. They are notorious trash can kickers. They may even try to break up relationships to get back at other sims. Watch the relationship levels of your sim's spouse when it comes to these sims. They are very dangerous to relationships if they have the charismatic trait and any romance related traits or lifetime rewards.
The Commitment Issues trait is already fine for infidelity drama and could be expanded to take advantage of the drama system.
Tabula Rasa:
Tabula Rasa is your get out of drama free card. Or should I say "slate", as in Clean Slate?
Tabula Rasa is a lifetime reward you can buy with your LTR points. It is an actual slate object that your sim wipes clean to clear their drama meters.
So there you have it. You are bored with your sim's life?
Add some drama.
Bertram Must Die! Apparently Melonie's lot wasn't the only sim household to go wonky. I was locked out of Edna Mode's lot. I thought Bertram was the cause. I did have an issue with him after teaching him simfu and I tried resetting him to fix it. That might have made the problem worse.
I couldn't enter my sim's lot and I suspected Bertie boy was glitching my game. :P
So I commandeered Jessica Talon to go investigate and remove the source of the problem.
Betram was actually a decent butler in the short time I had him. He tended to sample any drinks sitting about, but he wasn't bad.
I was really annoyed because Edna Mode is a favorite sim and I didn't want anything corrupting her lot.
Jessica has a mean streak so I let her have her fun.
Bertie isn't a push over either.
That's when I used my cheat to solve the glitch.
Death by thirst.
Jessica wasn't the cause of his death, but she did revel in his demise.
That was wicked. :twisted:
These two should start a partnership.
I felt guilty much later because the lot was still glitched after Bertie's death. I don't know what happened because it was fine before I moved in a butler.
I played Dreamfall as well, didn't like it as well as the original, but the graphics were stunning. I liked Zoe, their sims versions are pretty close.
I loved the original and I was a bit surprised when they switched up characters on it. I wish there was more April Ryan in it, and I can't believe they left their fans hang out to dry while they chased more Moolah with this MMO their working on. It's been six years without a sequel.
Zoe's Life
Just random things happening in my game.
I heard camera sounds on the lot and thought a paparazzi had barged into the house. It turns out he was taking pictures through the window
I doubt these pics will go to a classy magazine.
My Sim, Zoe, had a roommate, Olivia...
Until her boyfriend moved in. Olivia moved to the house next door.
Now story progression is working on hookups for Olivia. I have Twallan's story progression mod, so I always get a heads up on blooming reltionships and the game takes me to where it's happening.
The curious thing is this location seems to be a popular site for sims getting romantic. I placed a tiny square of a lot here because this location is the only decent usable space with a view of the waterfall in Barnacle bay.
Didn't last long. Sims are busy bodies.
I should make this spot more romantic.
Romance has bloomed for townies on top of the waterfall too.
Zoe has a visitor.
Lots of nice pickings inside.
But he's a crafty one. He skips the house because it has a burglar alarm.
He heads for the workshop instead.
He just didn't anticipate Zoe.
He's no Selena Savage.
Funny.
Definitely one of my favorite sims.
Alec can sleep soundly knowing his wife can kick burglar-buttocks.
Cleaning Out the Past-love's Closet Dina Caliente is here too. She came with Barnacle Bay. I had liked her so much, I put her in just about all my towns.
New happenings.
I had Zoe and Alec having a bite at the beach club when I noticed Dina Caliente in the room.
Dina was Alec's love interest before he met Zoe. He had several actually.
I couldn't resist flaunting it in front of Dina.
Dina didn't like that one bit.
She ran over to her friend, Bunny. Bunny gave her a calm down interaction.
I had to go in and twist the knife. :twisted:
Just harmless friendly conversation.
Dina and Bunny were not enthused.
Dina has had enough.
I think Zoe has officially claimed her man.
I think I'll do this to all old romantic interests. :evil:
I'm now playing a house I used to test some store furniture in. I like it so much I kicked out the townies living there and put in my own sims.
I just had to have it for Zoe and Alec.
Zoe is testing out her drink mixes on her neighbor and best friend, Olivia.
Lovely shiny textures on the furnishings but I don't recognise the house?
That's the house Amy, Coco, and Josephine live in. I gave it a beige exterior and new windows. You'll probably see a full exterior shot in the next post.
My sims had a fairly enjoyable party. And I took a lot of pics, so prepare to be picture spammed. :XD:
I love this home. The original is a garish white and red.
Nina Caliente was the first to arrive.
I had Zoe whip up drinks for the early arrivals. The guy in the white jacket is a papparazzi
Bunny Shore? and Olivia DeMarco.
Zoe's husband, Alec, started dancing with Arl.
I had Zoe make drinks which no one is going to touch on their own initiative. :P
Avatar me showed up.
Ok, we have a skinny dipper.
The guests are supportive.
Nina Caliente joined her.
Olivia getting down and funky in the house.
I like seeing sims socialize.
Zoe needs to make more friends--the main reason for this party.
Kitty! Talk about late arrivals, it's after 1:AM. I think she got off work late.
Kitty noticed avatar me skinny dipping.
"Noticed" is an understatement.
OK, come on in. The water's fine.
Olivia had a great time.
Her house is just down the hill.
Zoe is ready to retire for the night.
Only a few guests left. They can do what they want. Zoe and Alec are going to bed.
G' night, folks.
And then there was kitty...
And then there was kitty. :P
Actually, that looks like a really relaxing way to watch the sun rise.
Comments
This should be the end of it, finally. Well the drama anyway, unless I get bored with Mike. I never get bored with Melonie. I have been playing Melonie off and on for ages it seems. Now it's time to let her actually raise a family.
Back to the treadmill. She has to earn those opportunity points.
Life is sweet, finally.
How about 3 more?
They're going to need a bigger house.
Mike is excited. :P
I want them to have a daughter next. I'm going to need a Melonie 2. :-)
Once you do start, it seems to feed on itself. I have the past pics to look back on and it helps with what I want to try next.
Yeah, the picture is CC. I have a lot of Mark Ryden and Ray Caesar paintings from Garden of Shadows.
Melonie is doing the mom thing...
But I have to send her out to gather all the celebrity points she can. I'm trying to see if the celebrity journey is worth the annoyance.
I'm enjoying her house.
I'm setting out all the OLS objects. She should have a really nice backyard when I'm done.
It's nice. I'm starting to get absorbed into her family life. Hopefully a little girl is on the way. I think there may be too many females in town, but I hope she gets a girl. She's been munching on watermelons.
Yeah, it does make it more fun.
I really like their house, but for some odd reason EA put cockroach spawners on one of the really nice properties on the hill in Bridgeport. I deleted the cockroach spawners but ther are some blank ones that I can't delete and the crawling sound of bugs is really annoying me. I'm having her boys to collect the bugs so I can at least get a break from them.
I'm back again with more on Melonie because she finally got in a little revenge.
I don't attend townie parties much anymore since they are so boring, but I can't resist parties thrown by the Landgraabs, Wellingtons, and Altos. Their lots are so nice. Holly Alto was having a party and I had Melonie and Mike invite themselves.
As usual, the game spawns guests randomly all over the house.
Tater was there. This party just got interesting.
I sent Melonie directly to him.
The hosts were already in bed. Wow, Holly is old now and Vita passed away awhile ago.
Mike and Amy Li stepped into the living room.
Tater hits on Amy immediately.
Amy! You're supposed to be interested in Garret. I have to put an end to this now. :roll:
I send in my girl to give the 411 on Tater.
Edna Mode is too p o o p e d to party.
Tater tries to undo Melonie's sabotage, but Amy isn't buying it.
Melonie is thrilled at what I ask her to do next.
Tater was given some ratty hair after his age-up to adult. Melonie is now a stylist since a lot of sims have been aging up with funky hair and clothes. I had her offer to make Tater over.
Tater is too trusting.
Mike has a fan.
She can leave him to his own devices now. His flirty trait has been replaced with the Family Oriented trait.
Tater is a laughing stock now.
OK, this party was worth attending, but now lets get these two home.
They have a new mission.
Bridgeport seems to want male babies, but the female balance seems to be equal now. It's time to try for a baby girl.
Wish them luck.
CK! I love your pictures stories! I'm still on page 3 in this thread but I wanted to ask you something quick:
Where did you get the male hairstyle in that picture?
I'm searching for it for a while now and I just can't find it! Can you please tell me?
Club Crimsyn:
http://club-crimsyn.dreamwidth.org/27308.html
Thank you so much!
I'm talkin'
Babies!
Too many of them of the male variety. :P
Melonie is one of my favorite sims that I have been playing forever, but now I'm playing her with aging on and having her raise a family. I want her to have 2 boys and 2 girls.
That ain't happenin' despite all the watermelon munching.
That one in addition to these two.
It turns out my neighborhood has too many females already. This is mainly among the adults and elders. Progression creating baby boys will shift the balance, but in a very stupid way. When these boys grow up there will not be enough females. Right now the ratio for babies, toddlers, children, and teens is 17 males/ 4 females. This will be a problem when they grow up.
Melonie deserves a baby girl. :P So I'm intervening in a very Vulcan kind of way. If the game is generating males because of the abundance of female elders and adults, the solution lies in reducing their numbers so the game generates females to restore the balance among young sims.
Soo....
Sorry. (for the both of you)
Sorry.
Sorry.
uh...Grim? I need to move on. Can you wrap it up here?
Sorry. (I really felt bad for her daughter.)
Sorry, Beau. You've been living with these three here for the longest. I'm forcing a choice here.
Sorry, Bianca and Lilly-Bo
Now that she has him to herself, Marina is no longer interested. It must have been a competition thing. :P
Sorry.
Geez, you're making me feel worse. Get up.
Yeah, it's your birthday.
But I wouldn't cheer about it.
Grim's job isn't done here.
He loves his job.
Sorry.
This is awful. This is horrible, but necessary. :evil:
Ok, you two. Get with the baby making.
Now she can await the special day with a little more confidence.
Love the nectary. Nectar making without the investment in space and equipment.
Oh....sorry, Howard. I didn't know you had a thing going with her.
:shock:
Alright, watermelon munching time, just to be sure.
She's serene and confident.
YES!
We have a girl. She looks exhausted.
Aww...she lost a friend. That puts a damper on things.
She'll get over it.
Ooh-rah!
TS3 sim dinning experiences aren't the best, but I decided to get OL Stuff because it seemed like it would be nice to have my sims have breakfast Alfresco on Saturday mornings.
Time is passing for Melonie's family. It's nice to settle down for family life after all the wild YA simming I had been doing.
Michael is a Stargate fan. :thumbup: Reruns are great.
Her daugher Milicent with her brother Tristan
:P I can't recall her youngest son's name.
Very pleasant, but I think I need to dream up some drama for the teens.
Although TS2 sims chatter way too much at the dinner table, the Serve Meal feature was great for getting sims to eat together at the dinner table. I really wish we had it back for TS3.
Since the stove and refrigerator look more appropriate for the outdoors I decided to do something I've never done before--I had my sims have breakfast outdoors.
I'm still experimenting with the yard here and not totally happy with it yet. Love the rock speaker. Add more rocks around it to make it blend in and recolor to match. :thumbup:
The problem is sims eat quickly and there is no feature that will make sims wait for everyone to be seated before they start shoving food in their faces. I try to get them in the same area, but you can tell a sim to sit down and they pop up in a moment. I probably need to turn off free-will. :P
You call them to meal and you have a traffic jam. We really need the Serve Meal feature back where the sim would place the food on the table and the other members take a seat.
Melonie is already done and the family hasn't even been seated yet.
And then you have the problem of the family not sitting together if there is a bar or island nearby.
And somehow he ADD'd and forgot about the plate he already had. The slice of cake is from his going to get cake even though Melonie was already preparing breakfast. :roll:
So, $20 bucks to experience this? The game play for it could be much better.
Gathering around the dinner table would be a great time to strengthen family relationships as a group instead of 1 on 1. I would like to be able to click on the dinner table while one sim is cooking the meal and select an interaction that would make the family gather at the dinner table. They can be chatting with each other while they wait to be served.
The sim preparing the meal can then serve them and take a seat too. This would build relationships and provide a better game experience.
I had to look up a picture of all the stuff I had taken earlier just to remember what was in the pack. :P
I'm liking it. I like having my sims eat in another location once in a while to switch things up. And if they are already in the back when they're hungry it's just a simple walk to the refrigerator.
More pics.
I think it's her shy trait. :P
yeah... call to meal routing really is annoying, EA should fix that :?
Btw, I loved your stories and decided to have one of your sims in my game.. I chose Cairo because... uhm.. its random pick actually
Melonie has been living the normal life now that I've stopped injecting drama into it, but she isn't quite free from it.
I had her husband fix their daughter's computer while I was off watching the kids go to so school and also to see all the new faces in town now. I go a pop-up saying their is a fire a the house.
I was expecting a kitchen fire. I don't remember ever having a bedroom fire.
This is looking serious.
Of course sims always run towards a fire.
I could have them try and put it out, but I'm not risking Melonie and I don't want her to be a widow either.
So get out now.
Gee it's taking them a long time. Call another one, this fire is getting big.
Oh no you don't, silly sims. I had to make them run back and forth outside to keep them from going in again.
It's about time.
He had to stop and smell the incense. :roll:
:P
A star struck fireman.
Melonie left her flirty trait behind. Sorry.
Hubby's gone to work. You have to clean up this mess and replace the windows and furniture.
This was a little refreshing. I haven't had any kind of random disaster in quite a while.
I think Melonie deserves a break. :-o
For Melonie, that is. Her game save is corrupt.
The signs were there. Things got weird when I aged up the first son. There was a townie on the lot behaving in a glitchy way. Aging up the second son was worse.
He's a kid. Leave him alone!
Melonie's days of ordering pizza was over in this life. She's a mom now.
Alright, time for the kids to go to bed.
Go to bed!
Alone time for the parents, but this where the game started seriously glitching. They would pop out of the hot tub and into the center of the house and get stuck in the foundation.
It's the end of the world as they know it. This was the last straw and I finally gave up on it.
I did create them again in CAS to test a home, but it just didn't feel the same same. They didn't seem like the same family. Well...adding on two daughters because I needed to test a five bedroom house didn't help.
Time to test it.
I made a CAS family for the task.
I have copies of Melonie and Mike in the bin and I gave them a near houseful--5 kids.
It's a really roomy house.
3:00 in the morning.
Time to assign beds.
The kitchen is huge, but there may be times when 8 sims are walking around in it.
First thing I found out is the dishwasher needed to be moved. They like to sit cooked food right over it. it was causing a traffic jam for anyone taking back a dish.
No problems in the dining room...yet.
I don't know what EA was thinking when they put roaches, termites, and other bugs on this large scenic lot. It makes no sense, and the sound of them is irritating.
How could I forget to put in a hot tub. :P
I have a small list of fixes, but I'm sure I will find more. But I'm done for the night.
So ends Melonie's first attempt at Family Life. I think I'll hook her up with Avatar me next someday.
The new house test was mainly for Generations. The house had been sitting in my game, unfinished, for the longest. Generations made me want to finally finish it.
While I was creating a home, preparing for Generations, a thought about the shack three house that sims will use to pretend to be a Princess.
Hmm...that thing better fit on a 4 x4
I thought it would be cool to make a little maze around it. I have a magnolia tree in place now. I guess I just have to make sure the three is turn correctly to allow the prince to dump buckets of water on anyone's head making there way through the maze.
Also, for midlife crisis, even though sims have a specific wish to satisfy, I think I would like to make a list of things that I think my sim would like to have done before he passes on in the scrap book. I'd record them in pictures and video for him to review as an elder, just before he kicks the bucket.
It was certainly the most interesting townie-hosted party that I've experienced.
Playing out Melonie's and Tater's story gave me an idea to post in Ideas and Feedback. It's a lot to read, but I think a couple of ideas showed up in Generations. Teen life got a little more dramatic and EA used the "Clean Slate" idea.
The core idea: What your sims do in life may attract drama like a magnet. You can wipe the drama clean, deflect it, or welcome it.
Drama in the The Sims 3 seems to require an overt act by the simmer. You have to go looking for it. It rarely finds you. I wish that it could bubble up to the surface and remain there for the simmer to participate in or avoid. But I want it to be due to the way the simmer is playing the game--cause and effect situations, not only random happenings.
[Update--I added this little scenario pictured above on page 3. It was the incident that sparked this idea]
Therefore I have a proposal. How about we have drama injected into the game by three means? The first method is rare random events, like the meteor strike. I haven't had one yet, but I dread and also look forward to it happening in my game.
The second is to bring back fears. Fears in the Sims 2 brought a level of tension as you realized you were in a situation where your sim's fears could be realized. You would then take actions to avoid that situation. I want to change how they are done however. I don't want them to appear until certain dramatic levels are reached. You won't have any in the user interface until the level of dramatic incidents in your sim's life start to rise.
Fears are connected to the third drama mechanic: Drama Meters.
Drama meters have their own tab like the need meters do. I came up with 4, but they don't have to be these: Infidelity, Envy, Greed, Wrath. There is a 5th meter that is different from the others: Karma.
The meters rise and lower from the many various things you do in your sims life, or that other sims do to your sim. They aren't available for children. They first appear when a sim becomes a teen. There are three phases to a meter.
Signs and portents:
This is the meter's early phase. After a certain point you will began to notice other sim's thought bubbles referring to your sims depending on the situation. When other sims gossip, sometimes it will be about your sim and what's going on in their life. Also, your sim's top 3 friends will autonomously inform them exactly what is being said about them and who may be spreading rumors, either in person, on the phone, e-mail, or chat.
Fears:
This is the mid-point of a drama meter. Fears are like the gate keepers to total drama. This is the point where you can eliminate drama or fall into it. All the little things that your sim has been doing so far doesn't have the impact they had in the signs and portents stage. Realized fears move the meters now. They fade away with time. All you have to do is avoid them. The little things have a chance of raising new fears however. There are wishes and socials you can satisfy and perform to work the meter back to the range where fears disappear. There is a good chance that a very good friend will appear to help you out, either through conversation or a task. Their picture icon will appear over the meter as a reminder of who your true blue friend is. There are weak and strong fears. The strong fears can quickly push the meter into the Dramatic Scenario range. Realized fears will also raise negative Karma. Doing something to remove fears will raise positive Karma.
Dramatic Scenarios:
When the meter is 75% full, a dramatic scenario will be created. There are several scenarios for each meter. There are 3 players in the scenario: A tormentor, a victim, and a savior. When a scenario is triggered, 3 icons will appear showing the sims involved. The tormentor will have a red glow, the victim will have black, and the rescuer will have white. Your sim could play any of the three roles. It depends on what happened in their life to raise the meter.
Next: The meters in detail
The Meters in detail.
Although you may see the drama meters rising, what is actually going on is ambiguous because there are multiple reasons for the rise. You should be able to guess since you know what is going on in your sim's life. The drama scenarios that come out of the rising drama could take you by surprise however.
Greed:
Greed rises as your sim accumulates more wealth. It may not necessarily mean your sim is greedy. It could be that other sims want what your sim has and want to get closer, mooch, or even steal. Gossip of wealth would appear at the lower levels. Snobs, gold-diggers , mooches, and kleptos will be like magnets to your sim, wanting to get chummy. Burglars will start stalking your sim's lot just before fears start to set in. Mooching excessively and stealing will also raise the greed meters as well as any opportunities that would be considered greedy. Having a treasure trove of gems and precious metals will also raise the greed level. Sorry, but motherlode increases their net worth and it will eventually get around that your sim must have won the lottery or did something underhanded to get so much money.
Your sim will start to have fears: fears of being robbed, fears of false friends, fears of losing money, fear of being disliked due to being well off. Those are victim fears. Talking to a good friend about them could make them go away, or following the advice given by a friend will make them go away. Some might go away on their own after a while. Your sims could also fear for a friend. This would put them in the savior role. The roles are reversed where you would be helping your friend out. In the tormentor role your sim could have fears or being caught stealing, not achieving a wish for a certain amount of money or buying a certain object, even having a committed wish canceled.
Envy:
Like greed, your sim may not be the source of the drama, but the receiver. They could also have friend dealing with drama due to envy. Elements of greed may spill over into envy. Sims could be envious of sims with lifetime rewards such as eye candy, attractive, extra creative, legendary host, the next big thing, always on the list, etc, or just a high amount of lifetime reward points, used or unused. Being high on the career ladder could also spark envy. I'm not going to go into detail on this and the rest of the meters. They go through similar stages like Greed: gossiping, attracting sims that may mean more trouble, fears, and a dramatic scenario.
Infidelity:
The infidelity meter rises as things such as flirting or any other romantic interactions with sims outside the relationship. It also rises if there is a lack of affection between sims (no woohoo
Wrath:
Wrath rises with the amount of overall negative social interactions. Giving a negative reaction to a honest social and perpetrating a mean social will shift the scenario to the tormentor role. The opposite will shift it to the victim role. The Declaring-a-nemesis social should definitely bring about fears of wrath. Also, mistreating of another sim while having a fairly high wrath meter will cause that sim to autonomously declare themselves your sim's nemesis.
Karma:
Just about everything a sim does is considered a virtue, vice, or neutral. Karma starts out balanced. Karma does several things. At high levels (positive or negative) it determines if good or bad things happen to your sim. Karma wants to stay balanced. If your sim does nothing to move it either way it will return to the balanced position and it will not influence any decisions that the game normally makes without Karma. This is a little different for Lucky and Unlucky sims. Lucky sims have a positive Karma point advantage. Unlucky sims have a negative Karma point advantage.
There is a tug of war going on between the two poles. If Karma is pulled completely to either pole a dramatic event will happen to that sim, good or bad depending on the Karma. Also, those poles are sticky. Once moved to the opposing side it stays there for a while. That's great for good Karma, but not good for bad Karma. However, that sticky good Karma does raise the Envy meter from other sims and Wrath if you have a Nemesis. Karma determines how easy or hard the dramatic scenarios are. You can still have a good outcome, with bad karma, but it won't be easy. What are these Karma events and dramatic scenarios? I don't know. I don't think they should be 100 percent guaranteed to happen if the events are huge and life changing like a meteor strike. Meteor strikes are extremely rare, but during bad karma the chance of one happening should increase. I think a mixture of small and large events should be possible. The smaller the event, the more likely it will happen.
Next: Other Details
Other Details
Drama wishes and socials
There are new wishes and socials that are aimed directly at the new drama systems and they are related to Greed, Wrath, Envy, and Infidelity. Regular socials contribute to the drama system, but these are particularly potent. I think basing them on the 7 virtues and 7 vices would be good. They raise or lower the drama meters more than.
Virtues:
Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, Humility
Vices:
Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride.
Three new traits.
Greedy:
Greedy sims want more. More money, more stuff, a snack when their hunger meter drop just enough to be filled by a snack. If a snob autonomously brags about what they have, Greedy sims want it too. They sound like a pain, but there should be some really great reasons for someone to want a greedy sim. They should be really fun and humorous.
Envious:
Envious sims are jealous of sims who have what they want. Their envy is related to their traits and wishes and interests. If they are in a career, they are envious of sims who are higher up the ladder. They are envious of sims who have higher skill levels than they have. They get jealous too. If they are unattached, they get envious of sims who do receive flirts. If they have a partner, that partner better not flirt with someone else. Snobs really get grind their gears. They often get wishes related to the sims whom they are currently envious. "He flirted with her. I want him to flirt with me too." "Your paintings are good, but I've seen better."
Vengeful.
Vengeful sims want to get back at anyone who does them wrong. They have long memories. They are quick to declare themselves a nemesis of another sim. They are notorious trash can kickers. They may even try to break up relationships to get back at other sims. Watch the relationship levels of your sim's spouse when it comes to these sims. They are very dangerous to relationships if they have the charismatic trait and any romance related traits or lifetime rewards.
The Commitment Issues trait is already fine for infidelity drama and could be expanded to take advantage of the drama system.
Tabula Rasa:
Tabula Rasa is your get out of drama free card. Or should I say "slate", as in Clean Slate?
Tabula Rasa is a lifetime reward you can buy with your LTR points. It is an actual slate object that your sim wipes clean to clear their drama meters.
So there you have it. You are bored with your sim's life?
Add some drama.
Apparently Melonie's lot wasn't the only sim household to go wonky. I was locked out of Edna Mode's lot. I thought Bertram was the cause. I did have an issue with him after teaching him simfu and I tried resetting him to fix it. That might have made the problem worse.
I couldn't enter my sim's lot and I suspected Bertie boy was glitching my game. :P
So I commandeered Jessica Talon to go investigate and remove the source of the problem.
Betram was actually a decent butler in the short time I had him. He tended to sample any drinks sitting about, but he wasn't bad.
I was really annoyed because Edna Mode is a favorite sim and I didn't want anything corrupting her lot.
Jessica has a mean streak so I let her have her fun.
Bertie isn't a push over either.
That's when I used my cheat to solve the glitch.
Death by thirst.
Jessica wasn't the cause of his death, but she did revel in his demise.
That was wicked. :twisted:
These two should start a partnership.
I felt guilty much later because the lot was still glitched after Bertie's death. I don't know what happened because it was fine before I moved in a butler.
With Bridgeport corrupted and Generations on the horizon, I decided to go back to Barnacle Bay to play Zoe and Olivia.
Zoe is based on the character from another video game: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. So is her best friend, Olivia.
A celebrity couple rift.
Zoe spent the night at her boyfriend and they had a walk in visitor.
All the way home.
Boyfriend stays over and...again?
Olivia, the inventor.
Going up to Aquarius.
Zoe and Olivia YouTube dance video:
I loved the original and I was a bit surprised when they switched up characters on it. I wish there was more April Ryan in it, and I can't believe they left their fans hang out to dry while they chased more Moolah with this MMO their working on. It's been six years without a sequel.
Just random things happening in my game.
I heard camera sounds on the lot and thought a paparazzi had barged into the house. It turns out he was taking pictures through the window
I doubt these pics will go to a classy magazine.
My Sim, Zoe, had a roommate, Olivia...
Until her boyfriend moved in. Olivia moved to the house next door.
Now story progression is working on hookups for Olivia. I have Twallan's story progression mod, so I always get a heads up on blooming reltionships and the game takes me to where it's happening.
The curious thing is this location seems to be a popular site for sims getting romantic. I placed a tiny square of a lot here because this location is the only decent usable space with a view of the waterfall in Barnacle bay.
Didn't last long. Sims are busy bodies.
I should make this spot more romantic.
Romance has bloomed for townies on top of the waterfall too.
Zoe has a visitor.
Lots of nice pickings inside.
But he's a crafty one. He skips the house because it has a burglar alarm.
He heads for the workshop instead.
He just didn't anticipate Zoe.
He's no Selena Savage.
Definitely one of my favorite sims.
Alec can sleep soundly knowing his wife can kick burglar-buttocks.
Dina Caliente is here too. She came with Barnacle Bay. I had liked her so much, I put her in just about all my towns.
New happenings.
I had Zoe and Alec having a bite at the beach club when I noticed Dina Caliente in the room.
Dina was Alec's love interest before he met Zoe. He had several actually.
I couldn't resist flaunting it in front of Dina.
Dina didn't like that one bit.
She ran over to her friend, Bunny. Bunny gave her a calm down interaction.
I had to go in and twist the knife. :twisted:
Just harmless friendly conversation.
Dina and Bunny were not enthused.
Dina has had enough.
I think Zoe has officially claimed her man.
I think I'll do this to all old romantic interests. :evil:
I'm now playing a house I used to test some store furniture in. I like it so much I kicked out the townies living there and put in my own sims.
I just had to have it for Zoe and Alec.
Zoe is testing out her drink mixes on her neighbor and best friend, Olivia.
Olivia will be invited over often.
That's the house Amy, Coco, and Josephine live in. I gave it a beige exterior and new windows. You'll probably see a full exterior shot in the next post.
My sims had a fairly enjoyable party. And I took a lot of pics, so prepare to be picture spammed. :XD:
I love this home. The original is a garish white and red.
Nina Caliente was the first to arrive.
I had Zoe whip up drinks for the early arrivals. The guy in the white jacket is a papparazzi
Bunny Shore? and Olivia DeMarco.
Zoe's husband, Alec, started dancing with Arl.
I had Zoe make drinks which no one is going to touch on their own initiative. :P
Avatar me showed up.
Ok, we have a skinny dipper.
The guests are supportive.
Nina Caliente joined her.
Olivia getting down and funky in the house.
I like seeing sims socialize.
Zoe needs to make more friends--the main reason for this party.
Kitty! Talk about late arrivals, it's after 1:AM. I think she got off work late.
Kitty noticed avatar me skinny dipping.
"Noticed" is an understatement.
OK, come on in. The water's fine.
Olivia had a great time.
Her house is just down the hill.
Zoe is ready to retire for the night.
Only a few guests left. They can do what they want. Zoe and Alec are going to bed.
G' night, folks.
And then there was kitty...
And then there was kitty. :P
Actually, that looks like a really relaxing way to watch the sun rise.
This OLS hot tub is perfect for this house.
Come back for the pool party.
Ah morning, and leftovers for breakfast.
I'm really enjoying playing these two.