Newcrest challenge 3.0 - Discover University edition (UPDATED)

JAL

Hey everyone!

I’ve been playing with the Newcrest challenge, both inspired by the original and the 2.0 – version, but found that that I it didn’t completely fit my playing style. So here is the “Newcrest Challenge 3.0 – the Discover University-version”

The main set up is the same, your main sim and their family must live and build in Newcrest. However, you are not requested to stay there – some challenges actually requires you do go elsewhere, you just can’t live any where else, nor may the children that will one day become next generation (the heir).

The spares may live anywhere you or they want, but MUST be turned into NPCs as soon as they move out of the active household. Same goes for any household that is left behind by the new active generation. You can only play one generation at the time (if grandma or grandpa lives with the next generation after completing their own aspirations, that is fine but only one active household at one given time.)

As this is the Discover University edition, obviously that pack is required to play the game. Any other pack is voluntary. Cats and Dogs aren't mentioned, but obviously pets are allowed in any family. In addition to Discover university you will need MCCC to make sure townies have lives without your active interference. In other words, NPCs should get married, have kids, get divorced on their own - and it's from this pool of townies that spouses will be picked. Whatever other settings you may want is up to you but you may never use it to finish aspirations, increase money-levels or advance in careers. Basically nothing that makes the game easier.

Any and all mods of your choosing are also ok, as long as they don't do any of the following:

• Make getting money easier (nor are money cheats allowed)
• Make learning easier
• Make things like painting, writing or going to university faster or easier (slower is ok though).

Any mod making the challenge harder is encouraged (I personally use Kuttoe's careeroverhaul mod, making careers harder, and the wages more realistic, but that's my personal choice)

You will also need some kind of random traits/aspiraions creator. Aspiration must obviously be chosen for the heir to fit the challenge, but may not be changed for anyone else in the household (or the heir child) until they have fulfilled it and then randomly can be assigned another. At no point do you get to choose traits with the exception if the trait goes straight against the aspiration for the generation (such as hates children for gen 2). If so you roll the dice for a new trait once and once only.

NPC-rules:

• Any spouse should be picked from the townies – after the first gen 1 – who must be a single young adult – no sims can be created.
• You are allowed to give NPCs make-overs of anything that would be changeable in life without surgery, so hair, make-up, clothing, nails and/or weight. You may also not change their personality.

Other rules that might differ from the original challenge:

Ageing must be on, but you can set the speed on whatever you prefer using MCCC or general setting (the longer the time, the harder challenges you should choose).

Traits must be randomised (as stated above) but reward traits are fine as long as they make sense for the sims experiences and life situation. (A super green thumb is logical after years of work as a gardener, but not at the start of your career, frugal makes general sense if struggled to make ends meet at some time, a very studious sim might become a savant or fast reader after going to uni...)

The heir can be any sibling in the family not necessarily the first. The heir can also be adopted if a couple cannot have kids.

You can travel anywhere in any world, but can only live in Newcrest after they’ve graduated university.

Your sim CAN go to university even to live in a dorm for a period but ONLY if they meet certain criteria. If they do not meet them they can still attend uni, but from home instead. The criteria are as follows:

• The sim must be a young adult
• The sim may not have moved out of their birth home before they enroll in university
• The generation you are currently playing must be finished with their challenge and must not be returned to once your heir has started university – instead they are to be made into NPCs the moment you move to your dorm.

For anything else the general conditions of the first challenge still apply. There are some minor changes to the generations namely the following:

GENERATION 1 – THE GARDENER
ASPIRATION: FREELANCE BOTANIST – BUILD: PARK

Choose your starting lot carefully because this lot will be turned into the local park once you have completed gen 1

Rules:

If you have seasons you must choose Gardener as a career.

If you do not have Seasons you can choose any of these careers:

• Culinary
• Painter
• Manual labourer (part time job)
• Scientist (get to work)
• Social media – internet personality (city living)
• Civil designer – green technician branch (eco lifestyle)

The goal is to reach the top of your career, fulfill your aspiration and grow at least 8 plants to perfect quality before it's time for the next generation to take over. Once you are finished, evict your sim from the lot and remake the lot into a public park. The 8 plants must be a part of the park.

Additional challenges (choose your difficulty):

• Grow at least one of each type of plant on the lot before the end of the generation.
• Get the plants without buying any seeds at any stage of the generation. (Nor may any sim you control give your main sim any.) Seeds may be gained by finding wild plants and harvesting them/taking cuttings, grafting plants or appeasing gnomes (at most two times a year).

The generation is finished once you've fulfilled your aspiration, reached the top of your career and built your park. Move onto gen 2.

GENERATION 2 – THE BABY LOVER
ASPIRATION: BIG HAPPY FAMILY – BUILD: STARTER HOMES

This sim’s aspiration is to have a big happy family, they need some houses to live in though! Build the affordable starter home neighborhood (you can pick any 1 of the 3 hoods) and then watch in satisfaction as your big happy family moves into the neighborhood.

Rules:

Build the neighborhood first. No house may cost more than $55,000 to buy and 2 houses must be under $20,000. Move your family into any house they can afford in this neighborhood.

The careers available for generation two (what you choose will have impact for your possible choices later):

• Education
• Stay at home parent
• Any freelance career or part time job

As their children age up into young adults move them out and turn them into NPCs (the exception being the heir). You are allowed to move them into the houses you built if you want, but you can also make them homeless and let them find a house of their own.

The sim may go to university, but only if they choose the education career.

As a teen the sim must have the babysitter part time job.

Additional voluntary challenges:

• Make sure every child has a perfect toddlerstage reaching the highest skill level possible.
• In addition make sure every child reach the highest skill in everything and are all A-students.
• In addition to this make sure the heir (at least) has the highest character values without ever taking control of the child. (inspiration from the parenthood challenge. Parenthood needed for this to work!)

Once your aspiration is complete so is generation 2.

GENERATION 3 – THE AUTHOR
ASPIRATION: BESTSELLING AUTHOR OR ACADEMIC (OR BOTH FOR A HIGHER CHALLENGE) – BUILD: LIBRARY

Generation 3 will build the library and be a successful writer leaving many books and a library for future generation.

Rules:

The sim must attend university, and get a degree in Language and Literature. Whether or not they live in dorms or at home is dependant on if you are finished with gen 2 when they start as well as your own choices.

You sim may only have the Writer career and only choose the Author branch.

The home your sim lives in, will be turned into the library the same way the first house was turned into a park once the aspirations and career goals are filled. The library must include your objects from your career rewards, as well as at least one photograph of the library’s founder. It also must include research machines and computers for those who study.

Additional challenges:

• Before the aspiration is finished, the sim should have written at least one literary digest book from each category.
• Let the sim pay for their stay at university with money earned from royalties from books written as a teenager. Give no money to the student when leaving home, though funding for the first semester may be from household funds. They also complete both aspirations before the next gen takes over.
• The sim completes both aspirations, and the academic aspiration is completed before the sim leaves university. The sim must take at least three courses per term, so may stay at uni no more than 4 weeks.

Proceed to generation 4 once the library is built. Gen 3 might move into the house with gen 4 or can be evicted and turned into an NPC.

GENERATION 4 – THE ATHLETE (WELLNESS GURU)
BASE GAME OPTION: ASPIRATION: BODYBUILDER – BUILD: GYM (WITH A POOL)
SPA DAY OPTION: ASPIRATION: ZEN GURU – BUILD: SPA (WITH A GYM AND POOL)

This sim is all about body image, sims around town are looking chunky but there is no gym/spa venue. Become a renowned athlete and build a great spa/gym for Newcrest.

Rules:

Your sim may or may not go to university before getting started. If they go they must choose the biology field and must then choose the Bodybuilder branch once they start working.

If you choose not to attend university your sim may choose between either branch of the athletics career. No other career is open for this sim.

Once your aspiration and job are complete you can build the spa/gym (if you have spa-day it must be a spa, otherwise a gym), it also must include your career objects and also host a pool. If you have LMS’s live in business mod your gym can be at your home, thereby earning you money as well, though once the main sim has died the gym must be turned into a proper gym/spa venue.

If you use the live in business-mod, the building process can happen simultaneously as the aspiration and career happen. Otherwise you must wait until you’ve obtained both before you build your spa/gym. Note that if you build a spa – a gym must be included in the build.

Additional voluntary challenges:

Complete at least one more aspiration than the main one. These aspirations must be completed BEFORE you start on the bodybuilding one, and may be started already as a teenager. The number of aspirations decide the difficulty.

• Extreme Sports Enthusiast (Snowy escape – if you have this pack, this must be one of the aspirations you choose, though you can add even more if you have time and want to)
• Any wellness aspiration (Spa-day.)
• Serial Romantic (basegame)
• Party Animal (basegame)
• Friend of the world (basegame)

The generation is finished once the main aspiration has been fulfilled, the maximum of the career reached and the gym is built. Now move onto gen 5.

GENERATION 5 – THE SUBURBIA PARENT
ASPIRATION: SUCCESSFUL LINEAGE OR SUPER PARENT (PARENTHOOD) – BUILD: MIDDLE CLASS HOOD

This generation's main aspiration is to have a successful family and be a fantastic parent and lead a stable life.

Rules:

Build the neighborhood first. Move your family into any house they can afford in this neighborhood. No house may cost more than $135,000 simoleons to buy and 2 houses must be under $65,000 simoleons.

They may attend university before starting on their aspiration. If they do so, they must choose the Psychology major and they must have the soulmate aspiration while attending (whether or not you finish this aspiration or not is another matter). They can do this as long as gen 5 is done before they need to attend uni.

Your sim can choose to be in the educator career OR to be a stay at home parent, depending on your choices in gen 2. If gen 2 was a stay at home parent, this gen must be an educator and vice versa.

If they are a stay at home parent, they may still earn money with hobby, like painting or writing, or even a freelance career once their toddlers are kids and go to school.

If they choose the education career, the spouse and main sim must take turns to work from home as long as there are toddlers in the house so that no toddler ever have to go to daycare. That means that the spouse too must have a career where working from home is an option.

This is a sim who want their children to thrive and learn and experience things – a part of this is travel. Once every sim-year, this family takes their children on vacation into one of the other worlds for at least two nights. These trips are not for relaxing, but for their children to gain new skills. Depending on your packs – take the family one one-two vacations a year in the one of the other worlds with the exception of Britchester. Try to make time for one trip to each world you have in game during the challenge. Make sure each kid gain one skill point of some kind on each trip.

As their children age up into young adults turn them into NPCs with exception for the heir. You may give them any amount of money as they move out that you can afford. You are allowed to send one or all of the kids to university from home (gen 6 is never allowed to live in dorms) to guarantee them successful careers before they move out.

The heir may not move out until after your aspiration is complete, no matter what age they are.

Additional challenges – same as gen 2:

• Make sure every child has a perfect toddlerstage reaching the highest skill level possible.
• In addition make sure every child reach the highest skill in everything and are all A-students.
• In addition to this make sure the heir (at least) has the highest character values without ever taking control of the child. (inspiration from the parenthood challenge. Parenthood needed for this to work!)

Once your aspiration is complete so is generation 5

GENERATION 6 – THE CREATIVE GENIUS
ASPIRATION: PAINTER EXTRAORDINAIRE – BUILD: MUSEUM

Generation 6’s sim is an aspiring artist and thinks that Newcrest is lacking in museums for the more refined members of the community. Become a world famous artist and build a museum, you can even name it after yourself!

Rules:

Your sim may only have the Painter career and can only choose the Master of the Real branch.

Your sim may attend university and take a degree in fine art, but may NOT live in dorms but must stay in gen 6 home until finished with university. Only once uni is over may your sim move out and build their own home (or move into an existing home).

The house you build for your sim is what will turn into the museum, so build wisely while having a future museum in mind. Once your aspiration and job are complete move out your sim and complete the museum by removing any house hold furniture. The museum must must include your career objects AND at least 10 of your own painting of excellent quality. Make sure to include easels so future generations can learn painting at the museum.

Additional voluntary challenges:

• Use a mod for slower painting and less pay per painting.
• In addition to the painter aspiration, also complete the curator aspiration, using the crystals and objects in your museum. Try to find one of everything to display in the museum. This aspiration must also be finished before gen 8 starts, but is optional.
• Also complete the musical genus aspiration (in addition to the other two) – have a music room in your museum.

Once the main aspiration is complete and your sim has reached the top of their career move onto generation 7.

GENERATION 7 – THE BARTENDER
ASPIRATION: MASTER MIXOLOGIST – BUILD: BAR &/OR NIGHTCLUB

Generation 7 is all about rebelling against their middle class roots and having fun, there are now a few much needed community lots but nowhere to go to hangout and have a few drinks. Master Mixology and build a local watering hole (bar) for your sims to enjoy.

Rules:

You sim may only have the Culinary career and only choose the Mixology branch.

They may go to university as a young adult, but must live on campus. Pick the any field that this sim would find fun or easy, and be an active member in at least one of the social group (for added difficulty add more groups). The sim should go to all activities of their organisation as well as any other organisation’s bar nights – they must also throw at least one party a week themselves. (This Sim is all about partying after all, and if they flunk out as a result or take an eon to finish, they do).

You must complete the aspiration and get the top of the career branch before you can build, though if you use LMS’s live in business you can start building as you go earlier (but must still be able to take care of your ordinary job).

Once your aspiration and job are complete you can build the bar, it also must include your career objects (especially the bar). The bar should be on your home lot. Once finished, evict the sim, and turn it into either a bar or nightclub venue.

Additional voluntary challenges:
Complete at least one more aspiration than the main one. These aspirations must be completed BEFORE you start on the master mixologist one. For added difficulty complete more than one. You can choose one (or more) of the following:

• Serial Romantic (basegame)
• Party Animal (basegame)
• Friend of the world (basegame)

The generation is finished once the aspiration has been fullfilled, the maximum of the career reached and the gym is built. Now move onto gen 8.

GENERATION 8 – THE CHEF (OR ENTERTAINER)
ASPIRATION: MASTER CHEF – BUILD: RESTAURANT (DINE OUT REQUIRED)
BASE GAME ALTERNATIVE: ASPIRATION: JOKE STAR – BUILD: LOUNGE

Nightclubs and bars are all good and well, but there are better ways to entertain people. If you have dine out your sim must become a chef and must build a restaurant, but if you don’t have dine out, choose the base game alternative and build a lounge.

Rules:

If you have dine out your sim may only have the chef career and only choose the culinary branch. Otherwise your sim must have the entertainment career and choose the comedian branch.

Your sim may go to university, may live in dorms if you choose to (and they meet the criteria) and should take the corresponding education to their aspiration (culinary or drama).

You must get the top of the career branch before you can build your restaurant, but must not have completed your aspiration before you run your restaurant. You may run the restaurant until the aspiration is complete and you start with the next gen (you can keep owning the restaurant as an NPC but may not actively run it).

If you instead build a lounge you build it after you have completed the other goals.

The restaurant/lounge must include your career objects as well as photos of the founding sim.

Additional voluntary challenges:

• Add another aspiration to complete before the last one. You can choose any of the following: Master Actor/Actress (if you have get famous and is in the entertainment industry), Angling Ace (for chefs). – if you choose the latter make your restaurant a seafood restaurant.
• Run your restaurant successfully into a five star restaurant before handing over to the next generation.

Once you are finished with your aspiration and career start gen 9.

GENERATION 8 – THE ASTRONAUT
ASPIRATION: RENAISSANCE SIM or NERD BRAIN SIM – BUILD: A LEARNING CENTRE/OBSERVATORY (GENETIC LOT OR LIBRARY LOT)

This sim is all about the world outside this one and this sim, really wants to get out of Newcrests – far, far away from it.

Rules:

Your sim must go to university, and must finish at least 2 degrees while there (but can live either at home in gen 7s house, in dorms or on their own in Newcrest while attending). One of these must be Physics but the other can be anything you choose (though if Interstellar Smuggler is the goal, villany is recommended as the second one).

Your sim must become an astronaut, and can choose either branch.

The house the sim lives in is what will be turned into an observatory – however, in order to have some residential lots left, this generation sim may buy and live in the library (turn it back into a residence) to expand it into a full blown learning centre/observatory. (turn it into a residential lot again and let the sim reside there, though this is not a requirement but an option). If they do so they may add onto the library but may not change the general library unless to improve it.

The learning centre/observatory must include all career objects, as well as a telescope, a microscope, research machines, computers, a robotics station and a weather machine (if you have seasons). Don’t forget the kids, experimentation tables, and kid bookcases are a must. The lot must also include a fully functional space ship.

The generation is over once they’ve reached the top of their career, fulfilled their ambition and successfully gone to space at least in their space ship.

Additional voluntary challenges:

• Do both the nerd brain and the renaissance sim aspirations and fulfil both before reaching the top of the astronaut career.
• Add academic aspiration as well
• Finish three degrees at university instead of two, while still having time to reach the top of your career and having fulfilled both aspirations before the next generation is young adults.

Once you are finished with the aspiration, gone to space at least once, and reached the top of your career, the sims moves out of the lot and its turned back into a library again – or turned into a generic lot if you chose not to live in the library. Start gen 10.

GENERATION 10 – THE BOSS
ASPIRATION: MANSION BARON – BUILD: UPPER CLASS HOOD

This sim is the last one and wants to establish a wealthy neighborhood now that they have reached 10 generations. They also want to own the largest house in Newcrest so everyone will know that they are the founders and the Legacy of Newcrest.
Rules:

Build all houses in the hood except your own, you will build it as you go along. You can give yourself a simple house to start. The houses may not cost under $150 000.

Your sim may have any of the following careers:

• Law – Judge branch
• Business – any branch
• Criminal – boss branch
• Politician – President branch (city living required)

Your sim must go to university, must live in one of the fancier campus houses while there, and must choose the degree corresponding to the job they want to choose. While at university they must complete one aspiration that is not the main one. They must also seriously try to get into the secret society while there.

This one is a little different as you will complete the house and aspiration at the same time.

THE CHALLENGE IS COMPLETE ONCE THE MANSION BARON ASPIRATION IS COMPLETE.

Additional difficulty for the challenge as a whole:
Try to cover as many possible careers in your game by giving the spouses the careers that isn’t included in the main challenge.

JAL

So far I am having a lot of fun with this version, as I just finished my generation 1. Therefore meet Claire:


Claire as a young adult at uni.

Claire started out as a young 20-year-old going to uni to get her Biology-degree. There she fairly quickly met Benny who was her roommate and became her boyfriend. He wasn't a very good boyfriend, however, always asking her out on dates when she had classes or was out with her friends and always saying no when she asked leaving her feeling embarrassed and insecure. After a particularly bad date, Claire had enough and started dating others instead. Plenty of others. The relationship quickly became resentful and ended in bitterness.


Benny

When it came to school things went better. Claire graduated and moved to Newcrest where she bought the biggest plot of land she could find - only to realise she couldn't afford a house to put on it. For quite some time she and her best friend lived in what can closest be described as a trailer. It didn't go well, they had a falling out and Claire had to ask her to leave. The good news was that by that time, she could afford to build herself a little house and start turning her big plot into a park - a plant at a time.

Dating wise, she had fun, but no one seemed to strike her fancy. She just couldn't find her perfect match. Finally she started thinking about flirting with Jaden, her new best friend and colleague. At least they genuinely liked each other. It was very tentative, and they had just started getting a bit of pink on the relationship scale, when there is a knock on the door and Benny comes to visit. The very same Benny who despises her!

Still, Claire let him in, they started talking and soon they were completely independently flirting with each other. What was red turns to green turns to pink and all of a sudden they are deeply in love. Again. And one-two-three and a whoohoo in the shower later and Claire is pregnant. Benny is delighted with the news, moves in and they start planning their wedding.

They build the park up to make for a wedding scene and have a beautiful wedding day in their park.



Gen 2 Laurie is very loved when she is born and both parents take turns to stay at home to take care of her while she is a baby. Once she becomes a toddler, however, the ever growing garden needs more and more tending and Claire works from home most days, taking care of both garden, bees and daughter during the days. Benny does the bed-time reading once he gets home from work.


Laurie as a baby


Laurie as a child

As Laurie is growing older, Claire decides to go back to uni part time, slowly getting a second degree while mostly working from home. There is in neither Claire or Benny's mind any thought of a second child when suddenly Claire finds herself pregnant again. Oops.


Going back to uni from home

Cloe is just as loved as her sister, however, but time is scarcer and while Laurie could spend her toddlerhood at home, Cloe goes to daycare from day one. She hates it! As a result she is a fussy child, often angry or sad, but still somehow manages to grow up with perfect skills. As a child she is independent and smart and very neat, whereas Laurie is erratic and sometimes talks to herself (though she does still manage school with perfect grades in spite of her difficulties).

Presently, Laurie is still a teenager, so even though Claire is finished with her aspiration and has reached the top of her career, I will have to wait a few more sim-weeks for Laurie to be able to start the next generation. She is a wild one though, and au so who knows what will happen?


Laurie right now

The McWilliams family from Laurie's birth to today:

JAL

I am not sure that anyone is reading this or not, or doing the challenge or not, but personally I'm having fun, and if someone is reading or playing - great. I hope you have fun! While I posted gen 1 (Claire) in one comment, I've come to realise it would be far, far, too long if I did the same with gen 2 (Laurie), so her story I will write in installments. Stay tuned, because this is a real soap opera. But first meet Laurie:



Her individual story really started with the death of her father Benny, who died of laughter the day after Winterfest when she was still a teenager (poor Claire was completely heartbroken when the love of her life died so soon, she wasn't even an elder, and their younges, Cloe was still just a child). Laurie loved her father, and was thrown into grief which she dealt with by partying. She spontaneously flirted and whoohooed, but, on only her third date in total she met Mathias and in him she found her purpose:



Mathias was older (the equivalent of 14 years older), wore a suit and had a receding hairline that really shouldn't have been attractive to a young woman at all, but Laurie fell head over heals in love with him even though all they really did on this first date was talk (him) and woohoo. The same pattern emerged on the following dates. Mathias would talk - Laurie listen - then they'd kiss and she, but never he, would get little thought bubbles of rings, houses or hearts. He'd ask her to woohoo - she'd say yes - and he would either go to sleep or leave the date when done. Not the best basis for a relationship I'd say, but Laurie disagreed.

With risky woohoo turned on (as Laurie's erratic side didn't make me think she'd be too careful with birthcontrol), it did turn out to be the best basis for getting pregnant fast and Angie was born while Laurie was still living at home:



While Mathias had seemed sort of pleased when learning about her pregnancy, he wasn't really dancing with joy the way her father had been when Claire shared the news with him. More importantly, he showed no interest in changing the status of their relationship. He DIDN'T ask her to be his girlfriend, or propose, or anything else that might have indicated that he actually wanted a relationship of any kind. Instead their dating pattern much remained the same both before and after Angie's birth. When the day came that he was supposed to meet his baby, he promptly left the room. Fair to say, he wasn't the most enthusiastic of fathers - or interested in Laurie past her abilities in bed.

Claire really didn't like this man. But Laurie was still so, so, in love, even when Mathias asked her out less and less. In the meantime Angie started to grow up:



Then, on Angie's first birthday, as Mathias showed up to her birthday party, Laurie found out just why those requests for dates had become less frequent. Mathias had gotten married too someone else!

Laurie was hurt, but Claire was angry and confronted Mathias and asked him what his problem was. His answer? "He couldn't be entirely blamed for the situation."

For anyone with half a brain this would mark the end of Laurie and Mathias - but Laurie was still in love, Mathias was still asking her on dates, and there was the part where she was already pregnant with their second. Soon a mother of two, Laurie moved into the new houses built in Newcrest and opened a live in day care as she cared Angie and baby Allyson. Claire and Cloe (now NPCs) moved into the house next door to help with the growing family that still has no proper dad in sight:

NoWindows

Ooo! Liking this!

JAL

NoWindows wrote: »

Ooo! Liking this!

I'm so glad to hear that! I hope you have lots of fun, and feel free to post your progress too. I'd love to see it.

As for Laurie's second installment, here we go:

Now that Laurie had a home of her own, Mathias started to come to visit almost daily - going straight for the fridge, gulfing down any leftovers she had, playing a bit with Angie and Allyson, woohooing with Laurie and going straight to sleep - or leaving to get home. I suppose this actually was a step in the right direction, as he seemed to care a bit about the kids, but all in all, there wasn't much progress. It didn't get better when Laurie found out that his wife was now pregnant too.

Maybe this was the reason why, when Mathias asked her on a date again, she actually dared ask him about the future, to which he responded with a very tell-tale thought bubble of himself. (Sometimes this game is a wee bit realistic, no?) However, he did ask Laurie to be his girlfriend a few minutes later to which she happily agreed. Laurie was ecstatic and thought of houses when they kissed while Mathias thought of nothing much at all. That night, she became pregnant with their third.

While Mathias didn't show any inclination of wanting anything to change, Laurie clearly did. Shortly after his wife had given birth to twins, and Laurie was halfway through her pregnancy, Laurie asked him to leave his wife. Mathias agreed, and when Laurie was nearly ready to give birth he even proposed!


It happened a bit fast so I didn't have time to get the walls up.

He moved in right about the time that Terence was born. Laurie couldn't be happier. Mathias still mostly wanted to whoohoo, so it literary were only days before Laurie became pregnant again. Instead of a big wedding, they eloped before Laurie got too big again, and soon after Laurie gave birth - to TWINS! (As if four wouldn't have been more than enough!) Laurie at this time was not even the equivalent of 30, and already a mother of five. Mathias on the other hand, was the father of seven kids!



Having two babies, one toddler and two kids was a LOT to handle, and it didn't get much easier after the twins turned into toddlers (three toddlers in one house is A LOT and especially Melina was stubborn and independant and loved to make messes). Obviously there was less woohooing in general as a result (how in the world would Laurie have time? Mathias isn't the type to carry his weight around the house and she was rarely in bed before 1am while he went to bed by 10pm). Far from understanding, however, Mathias' reaction to more family life and less romance, dates and woohooing was a "festering grudge" against his wife, getting tense whenever she was around. Instead he started to grow feelings for co-worker Karlee Goth (Bella and Mortimer's third child), and while Laurie and the kids were at the graveyard to show respect to her father - Mathias did this:



Karlee certainly didn't seem to mind woohooing in another woman's bed, and when Laurie came home, nearly catching them in the act, she simply calmly thanked them for allowing her to visit and left. If Laurie had half a brain where Mathias is concerned, she would probably have figured it out - but instead:



I warned you this was a soap opera... didn't I?

JAL

Ready for Laurie part three?

It seems woohooing with other women made Mathias more interested in his wife as well, and not just when he was trying to cover up for his misstress leaving, but in general. After he'd started his affair, Mathias was less tense, more romantic and no longer held a festering grudge against his wife. Laurie hadn't been kissed or woohooed this much since before the twins were born and with the kids growing up, there was also more time for romance. It was a time of blissfully happiness for Laurie - but mostly because she didn't know what was going on behind her back. It lasted until the day she found out.

Bringing Karlee over when Laurie and the kids were away, Mathias misjudged things (again) - and this time, they were caught in the act:



Laurie was really not happy:





His explanation that "this drama wasn't his fault, not completely" and he "was allowed to feel bitter at what happened between them". made her any less angry. That night, he spent the night napping on the sofa as Laurie simply locked the door to the bedroom. This time around she was neither 20 nor pregnant, after all, and she was 🐸🐸🐸🐸 off.



What followed were days of fighting and anger, but for some reason Laurie didn't immediately divorce Mathias. Instead the fighting turned physical as they got into a fistfight, which Laurie won. For some reason, that made her feel a whole lot better. With Winterfest coming up, she decided to give him a second chance and make up with him. She let her bitterness go and have a good time as they spent Winterfest with grandmother Claire and her new husband:



You'd think Mathias would be grateful for her change of mood, but of course he wasn't. Instead he was secretly bitter that she was happy so fast, getting back that tense moodlet as soon as she was around. It didn't stop him from trying to get her pregnant again, but this time he (thankfully) failed. At least with her.

It turned out he had succeeded with Karlee:



After finding out, and finding her in her home once more, Laurie had finally had enough. After accusing him of being bad at whoohooing, Laurie kicked Mathias out in only his bathrobe. The family was now without a father again, but most likely better off because of it. A new chapter of Laurie's life - one that didn't circle around Mathias - had started:

JAL

So what do you do when you're an slightly overweight 35-year-old, newly divorced mother of five? You get new clothes, make a new years resolution to loose weight and hit the gym of course:



Other than that, you start living for your kids - so that's where we need to go next. To the next generation of McWilliams - first out, Angie!

As you can see in the last picture of the previous post, both Angie and Allyson had turned into teenagers by the time Laurie aged up, and Angie, by this time, was already in love. A creative and romantic person, with little interest in college, Angie was into dancing, fashion and her boyfriend, Payton Hillman - son of Angela Pleasant and Tristan Hillman. He too was just as in love as she was and on the day of her birthday party, as she had just aged up to a young adult - he fell to his knees and proposed:



Angie and Payton wasted no time. Grandmother Claire was not getting any younger, her second husband had recently passed away and she had now moved into the household for the last part of her life. Angie, who adored her grandmother, was not risking having to get married without her. The wedding was held in McWilliams park, in the same spot Claire married Benny all those years ago:





They were right on time too, because just a few days later, Claire joined both her husbands in the afterlife:



The family was heartbroken and couldn't stop crying for days.

However, there was soon good news in the family again - Angie was expecting her first child:



Laurie was over the moon! A grandchild! When Marion was born she was the happiest grandmother ever:





It didn't take that long for Angie to get to pregnancy number two either:



This time it was twins! I guess it runs in the family. Hailee and Julianna are wild little things, and Laurie is utterly blissfully happy - and now a grandmother of three. One more and her aspiration is complete. Allyson, she is looking to you next.

JAL

Allyson was a harder nut to crack than Angie. She never really told me what she wanted in live - other than partying, that is, so I suppose she was a lot like any other teenager like that. But once she aged up, things started to make sense and she stared to share what she wanted with me.



The first thing I did after Allyson aged up, was use MCC to "ask her" what she wanted to be. I had guessed on business already (as she was really interested in nothing much at all) and it turned out that I was right. Said and done, Allyson applied to Foxbury for a distinguished business education. As Laurie isn't done with her aspiration yet, and Allyson isn't the heir, she had to stay at home to attend.



While being ambitious, Allyson was also a bit of a party girl with a party aspiration, and as such she had no intention of being all work and no play. One of the first things she did as a young adult, was head on a date with Paolo Rocca. She took her first kiss:



Completely besotted, Paulo asked her to be his girlfriend and already just a couple of weeks later, on a Walpurgis night celebration, Paolo got down on one knee:



Now, Allyson is set to finish uni late summer, so their wedding is being held on the last day of summer - on the same day that Claire and Benny married - in the very same place. But first, a graduation in a few days.

Meanwhile, things are happening in Laurie's life too...



Let's find out where it takes us, but next up, Terence.

JAL

Since last time there has been updates to the game and free trials of Get Together, so it has been a bit longer than I thought. I promised you Terence next, and that's what you will get, but with his story I will have to bring you up to date with Laurie and Allyson as well. But first, Terence.

Now Terence was a curious, creative child, already from the time when he was one of three toddlers (guess that is one scenario I don't have to do):



For a while I was certain that he would be my gen 3, as he was studious, as well as creative. And he loved doing homework. Here with his half sisters Ana and Luz:



As soon as he aged up to a teen, I therefore got him behind a computer practising writing, waiting for that pop-up to tell me he liked writing. As he practised, I waited, but the only time those pop ups came, was when whatever he was doing related to music. After several tries, I had to admit that Terence would not be my gen 3. He just didn't like to write. Instead, he played a lot of guitar:



So, when realising this, I had to go with it and let him do what made him happy. As soon as he aged up he applied to the fine arts-program at Britechester, where he is now ready to finish up his last semester:



As clear as he was when it came to his career, he was when it came to love. He started inviting Jolene over when they were teenagers, but it took until he started uni before he actually dared to ask her out. Their first date went incredibly well and they have been an item since:



And that's where Terence is right now. Ready to graduate in a matter of days, with a girlfriend and a dream career ready to start. Where it leads to time will tell - and MCC will decide as he turn NPC.

Speaking of NPCs, Allyson finished her education:



She immediately joined the business career before putting the final touches to her summer wedding. And it did turn out to be a beautiful day (even if the groom was late for the wedding and then flirted with the guests). But what is a wedding without a few hick-ups?





And once the bride and groom had left the party to go to their own new lives as NPCs, Laurie got some romance in there too:



Next up - the twins.

JAL

So I said that we'd get to the twins, and we will, but first, we need to wrap up Laurie. And I do mean wrap up, because gen 2 is coming to an end. Why? Because of this little girl:



Meet Justice (who names their kid Justice? Seriously?). Justice is Allyson and Rocko's first child, and Laurie's fourth grand child. With that her aspiration is complete - and that makes it time to move to the next generation. But first, a bit of a recap, and a bridge to gen three.

As I said before I thought for the longest time that Terence would be the one to make out gen 3, but when I tried to make him like writing, he just didn't. The one who did? Philip.



I hadn't really pegged Philip as the writing type, so it came as quite a surprise when he sat down and started writing all on his own and found that he, as the only one in the family, really liked it. Who am I to argue with the sims' likes and dislikes?

Philip and Melanie has been inseparable since childhood, even if they are very different people. Melanie was an independent toddler, and has since gotten hot headed and mean as personality traits. She has a piercing in her eyebrow, a large tattoo on her back and of course chose villainy as her major. She has no boyfriend, nor made any indication that she wants one, but she doesn't mind fooling around if the mood strikes.



In comparison, Philip, with his quiet, calm, neat behaviour is very different. His first trait was neat, followed by foodie and bookworm. I wouldn't call him shy, not directly, but next to his guitar-playing-entertainer of a brother and life-of-the-party sister, he is often the one who quietly sits talking to his siblings in a corner, or cleans up after everyone else left the table.

Even in love he is a bit shy. He's been on a few dates, but every time he ended up making friends - not lovers. I don't know if I ever saw him autonomously flirty and few people flirt with him. He didn't even give me an indication on who he would like. Until his brother stepped up and hooked him up with Edward Culver, one of those dates turned friends.

With the right push things moved a bit faster and the next date went a lot better:





While Philip was collecting his nerves and starting to (properly) date, other things were going on as well, bringing us to where we are now. First Allyson and Rocko moved into their new house and Laurie just loves it there:



I think she secretly is in love with her daughter's new kitchen. Since Allyson has the largest house, the family - who is now getting quite big - celebrated harvestfest there:



So, what now? Well Terence is about to have his graduation party, but once that is over, Philip is moving to Britchester for the remainder of his uni-time. I think a bit independence would be good for him, though he is planning on bringing his sister with him. Before he leaves there is one more thing he will have to wait for however:



That's right, Laurie was just proposed to, and said yes! So before he leaves for and Laurie is turned into an NPC, it's time for one more wedding in this family.

JAL

It has been a while, and during this time I've been playing Philip's story. I made sure Laurie got married to Deandre before I had Philip move out, but then I sent him and Melina to live in a dorm while they finished up university. Here Philip seriously started dating Edward, and the two got quite serious about each other:



Philip graduated fairly quickly, as did Edward, though Melina had apparently been partying too much and failed a few of her courses. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, without anyone to keep track of her. Either way, Philip was happy to graduate:



He built his house in the same area mum and big sister Angie lived and he and Edward moved in together in the house. They also invited Melina to live with them because the house was freakishly expensive to build. This will be Newcrest's future library:



Philip especially loves his study:



The housewarming for the family was awesome - this is a great place for entertaining:



With the house being decorated (that took a while and a few paychecks), Philip and Edward decided to start a family. First they got married, then they adopted baby Corbin.





Roughly at this time Melina decided that while it was nice to live rent-free at your brother's, auntie Melina just wasn't who she was. She moved out of her house roughly at the same time that their older brother Terence got married and moved to Sulani with his new wife. Melina moved to Windenburg (to Terence's old house) and rocked the criminal career on her own.

Melina's room wasn't empty for long though. Philip and Edward were a bit too preoccupied with their respective careers to be fantastic toddler parents, so they asked super grandma to move in.



Luckily Deandre didn't mind moving in with Laurie's youngest son either, but for Laurie, tragedy struck just a few weeks after moving in. Deandre fell down dead on a walk as they were vacationing in Sulani:



Laurie was heartbroken, and his epitat reads "you were my one true love". Life does move on though, and as Corbin starts growing to a young child, Philip and Edward start managing this parenting thing much better:



And Laurie heals and decides she is still young enough to find love again, and does. Never one to give up on love, despite divorces and death of husbands, she marries again. Third time just might be the charm after all:



On marrying, she decides to move out of the house, leaving Philip and Edward to manage parenting on their own, now that they don't need her help as much.

JAL

So I have to say Philip has been my least favourite McWilliams to play so far. His siblings were far more interesting than him, and his mother was way, way more fun.

Since my last post, Philip's time has come to an end - meaning he reached the top of his career as well as reached his ambition. During this time, not much else happened than Korbin growing up. There really aren't many pictures, but let's see if we can recap quickly before beginning Korbin's story (which already seems to be more interesting).





As you can see from the pictures, Korbin grew up to a fairly decent looking guy. Something which he makes the most of. His first aspiration was a serial romantic, and he was close to the end when growing into a young adult and needing to take up his generational aspiration. Maybe he'll finish it in his old age, who knows? Here are a couple of his current girlfriends:





Korbin's traits are active, romantic and bro, which fits him well. He slacked off school, so ended as a C-student, and he hasn't cared about college. Why bother when you can become an athlete anyway, right? However, before his story can begin properly, we need to say goodbye first. Laurie passed away at a gathering of her ever growing family right before Korbin's birthday. She will be greatly missed by her 5 children, 8 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren as well as her sister, 2 nieces and 1 nephew. She really did get the big family she wanted out of life.



With his aspiration complete, Philip and Edward decided to do what authors and artists do when they have money - namely move to a paradise island (aka. Sulani), while Korbin decided to realise his dream and open up his live in gym.







He lives above the gym, and celebrated his new home with a family gathering:



The old house has been transformed to a library. Pictures of that, as well as Philip and Edwards' new home, will come with updates about Korbin's life and romances.

JAL

It seems Korbin has truly taken to this bachelor lifestyle. He started a bro-club to hang out, play games and drink with his mates, a party-club with pretty girls and he keeps woohooing with almost every woman he meets. His job is also going strong and as the equivalent of 25 he has fulfilled his lifetime aspiration of being a true bodybuilder.


The moment Korbin reached his life time goal.


25-year-old Korbin after going back to his serial romance aspiration. You can understand why he is having such luck with the ladies.

However, having luck with the ladies comes with certain risks, and for Korbin he already experienced those when one of his girlfriends came over - very visibly pregnant:



After freaking out, yelling at her for not telling him, with a resulting argument, Korbin promptly broke off the relationship and sent her home. Soon after he found out that she gave birth to twins, Christopher and Melissa. Korbin went onto promptly ignoring them. (Not father of the year material exactly, but he had only just turned twenty and was taken by surprise). At 25 he has seen the twins twice, but isn't in any way shape or form a dad worth the name (grandma Laurie would be ashamed). The twins are as cute as can be though:



He is getting to know his great aunt better, as she is often at the library, as is dad, which of course isn't strange, considering he built the place. Korbin's favourite place is the new café in the sunroom:



We'll see how well he does with time. With a full time job it is a bit of a struggle, but as long as he passes somewhat that will be enough. Personally I'm more curious about if it will be Melissa or Christopher that becomes the next generation, or if Korbin will end up fathering more kids. Time will tell.

JAL

Today, Korbin's part of this story ended, as he got his final promotion and therefore has done all he is supposed to do. Good job Korbin. No other kids, so now I temporarily leave the McWilliams to head over and play the Crouches, where Melissa and Christopher are now teenagers having been raised primarily by mum and granddad, and lately by step-dad as well (so no, Korbin never did turn out to be a great father, nor did he have more kids).

But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's wrap Korbin up first.

Korbin might have fulfilled his aspiration early on, but his career was another question, and mostly due to Kuttoe's Career Overhaul mod, which meant he needed a degree in Biology to reach the top. No one can fault him for trying:



and trying:



but he still managed to flunk out of a term and get suspended. Studying really isn't what he wants to do when he instead can do things like this:



or this:



or this:



A lot of women came and went, but slowly one started to matter a bit more than the others. Meet Lyric:



Fact is, that in time Lyric became so important to him, that he simply dumped all his other girlfriends. It still took her quite a few times and eventually deciding to pop the question herself to get him to truly commit. But at 36 even Korbin realised that it was stupid not settle down - in practise he already had after all - so finally, Lyric, moved in. Now as I haven't played her until she moved in, I can of course not say anything for sure about her love life, but I imagine that she had a rich love life and did not spend all her time waiting for Korbin to come around. In any case she has been the only one to make him fall truly, deeply, in love.

By this time, Melissa and Christopher were already teenagers (remember, he had them when he was about 20), but what about their growing up? Well as I said, Korbin was never a good dad. He didn't see them once as they were babies, saw them a few times as toddlers, but started trying harder when they were kids. Thank goodness for Get together - without clubs being a single dad having the kids every now and again wouldn't have worked, but now, it did. So every other weekend (roughly), Melissa and Christopher came to spend some time with dad. Usually they went skating, skiing, snorkling or something else active. When it was time for bed, he'd tuck them into his own bed:



He himself would sleep on a cot in the living room:



As I said, Melissa and Christopher are now teenagers (have been for a while). They get on surprisingly well with their dad, and is warming up to Lyric who they have just been introduced to:



But the major influence on their life has definitely been mum. Melissa has grown up to be an arrogant, perfectionist, fast-learning nerd, and Christopher is a business savy, arrogant, outgoing, boy-scout. And here lies my problem - how in the world are either of those two going to be a fun-loving, irresponsible, bar-tender? Not sure how that is going to work, but they are the only kids that Korbin have. My thoughts? I'm going to have to break the order of the challenge and make gen 6 (suburbia parents) into gen 5 instead. It would also solve another issue I have - with the McWilliams' family growing so big (34 individuals so far), I'm having trouble finding places for them to live. Hmmm - food for thought. But first I have to play them, get a feel for them, and see what happens.

So this is me taking a temporary break from the McWilliams' family to join the Crouch family and see what happens.