I'm sorry you lost your game I know what's that's like. I lost the Hannables at generation 7 Sooo close to the end. I started a new game. You have my deepest commiseration
I found multiple sites on the net for riddles and puzzles. The challenge is to make them work in a tomb I just have to figure out how to make it so you have to do certain things in a certain sequence to get the right answer. I know there's a way to do it, I just can't figure it out yet LOL.
Once I do, however, I think the tomb building is going to go a lot faster. Once I have the tombs done, the world will be ready for play testing. I hope it runs smoothly and I don't have to do much for it to work well.
i'd made it to generation two all being adult - Anna graduated and even without her going to City Hall both Simon and Leo had a day off work. Then about ten minutes later (human time) it all went BOOM! *shrugs* I will start again, and I will play completely random careers because it is fun! Normally I would make sure to get culinary or medical first off, but we survived without them in the Kings, so we will try again, using the Viper Valley save file, and the Den as my preferred housing choice.
Kind of decided to make it more of a story and start with a whole new founder. "Keeping up with the Jones'" should be appearing as soon as I have a prologue chapter ready.... I'll post it on LiveJournal but link to it from my page here. Because I do not like uploading to the exchange, and I know what I'm doing at LJ! There will be pictures, and text, and hopefully some interesting things will happen! I'm looking forward to it!
I'm looking forward to your updates Definitely post links to your blog!
Some news on RR ... I am getting closer to done. Essentially, I've got 2 tombs that have not been started. One tomb is going to be a redesign from another builder (he gave me permission to use his lot and to change the look from egyptian to chinese), and there's another simmer who is building one of the large tombs that are left for me.
I decided the street are all going to be named after world deserts - it just seemed appropriate.
After I'm done with RR, I'm going to take a bit of a break and just play, though I'll be working on Piper Sound - a town nestled in the Pasimfic North West, along the coast. It will be done with Pets and horse ranches in mind. No special lots, no tombs, no challenges - just a nice, sedentary world LOL.
However, once I have my rest and relaxation, I'm going to do an attempt at a deserted town on the coast of the Salton Sea. I'm thinking it will be an island, and I will probably call it Desert Sands or Salton island. I've got the Real Life street map to do the lay out from. It should be interesting.
I'm almost started.... the blank viper valley save is set up, with the Den in place. The sim, Jenny Jones, has been created, and moved in, and then the phone rang and it's been three days and I haven't been able to get back to it! Hopefully this weekend I can get her prologue and back story done along with even just Day one of playtime. I'm going to be slow to begin with because man is it a pain to keep pausing, rotating and tilting to get the best angles, then taking screen prints and GIMPing them into JPG files for posting. But I will get there... and it will probably be text heavy, not unlike the Merricks, we'll have a picture a day with a paragraph of words to go with it. That seemed to work for me, and it gave me options later on for variety.
If I choose to have later generations move out, can I build another apoc compliant house on a new empty lot next door and have them move there? I could do that from edit town and go right back to the main family, or is that not possible? I'm not sure how it would work, but I would like to have them able to pop in or over to keep up with the family?
Once sims can move out (Military), you can go to edit town to place the lot. But you have to use the phone or the computer to move said sim out of the house. You can chose the house from that menu. Unless you have trouble doing that for some reason, then you can just move them out.
Do you know if a sim who is just kicked out of the house ends up in the Sims Bin or just as a homeless sim?
I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July. For those in the States - I hope it was a good time spent with family and friends, enjoying every blessing of freedom. For those NOT in the US, I STILL hope your day was spent enjoying every blessing you have:)
I haven't played any of my saves for a couple of weeks now. I've been focused on getting RR done. I really hope everyone likes it. While I DO have a good concept of the next apocalypse world I am going to build, I think I'll do a nice, normal, GREEN world next LOL. It's situated in the Pacific Northwest and I'm thinking I'm going to do it for Pets - a farming and ranching community on the bay.
Anyway ... Just wanted to tell y'all that when RR is done, you will be able to learn martial arts without going to Shangsimla. There's a Nectary too - but it's in ruins, so you will have to rebuild it after all the restrictions for rebuilding and owning property are lifted. Seeds, plants and bugs will be hard to come by - you will have to solve the mystery of Harmony Biosphere since all the above mentioned things are THERE, or on the way there. Fish (except for a few special one) will be readily available in the world, as will gems, metals and meteors.
I can't tell you HOW much I am looking forward to finishing this world. I've started a few other challenges, but I'm waiting to really get into it when RR is done.
Meh, July 4th is a regular day here in the UK, work for too many hours, come home, pass out on sofa.... I am so tired just lately, and doing two people's jobs is not helping! Still, a little plugging away and I am now three weeks into my Apoc with Jenny Jones, nearly ready to post the first part, I have some really boring graphics and dull storylines to start with, kind of hard to get interest with one sim who works, skills, talks on the walkie-talkie and then sleeps, and repeats. But once we get a spouse in the house, it will pick up no end of speed and interest!
Glad that RR is coming along, because I am beginning to get a little frustrated with sand. I want green, I want lush, and I want beautiful worlds to play in. But I am utterly fascinated with the idea of playing an apoc challenge world with tombs and challenges to meet in order to lift things or gain access to careers. It sounds fabulous! For now, back to bed, before I pass out on the PC! Next week should be better, back to just one job and although I have an essay to write for college, I', sure I will get more sims time in.
*hugs* I hear you on the being tired all the time thing - I have forgotten what it feels like to NOT be tired. I hope you are feeling better, though *hugs*
I made a teensy weensy change to Comforting Children.
Here it is ...
Write at least one Hit and 5 Best Sellers before aging up to Elder.
That's it :P
I MAY add something like earn a certain TOTAL amount (not just weekly royalties - but a total lifetime amount) before hitting Elder. I'm not sure yet though.
Anyway - just wanted to make that known. My hier, Charlie O'Daniels, is working this right now. Getting to level 10 in writing before he hits adult ... that's gonna be tough. He has 9 days to go yet.
Charlie made level 10 in writing THE DAY he aged up. I used 2 of my 10 "aging off" days to get the painting when he was a child. I won't use any more for him, thank goodness. We'll see what the rest of the challenge holds. Charlie's wife, Richelle, is quite the love skunk about town. He's had a romance with her from the first day he turned YA and she's had 6 (including him) romances. She has the cheater reputation. I hope she dosn't cheat on him. I wasn't sure if the baby she was having was his or not as she came up pregnant the very day she moved in LOL!! Luckily it IS Charlie's get and he now has an heir. I can't remember at the moment what I named him LOL.
Charlie's sister, Alice, is working on clearing medical and is now at level 7. She's well on track for clearing. Richelle is working in Law Enforcement since I don't PLAN on getting her with child again. If something happens to the heir, I'll have Alice take one for the team and have a child out of wedlock :P She's got plenty of time.
I need to work on Richelle's athletics so she can keep working once she hits elder. She's go the trait, so it shouldn't be too hard, but she only has about 17 days left till she ages up.
Charlie TECHNICALLY has cleared Comforting Children - but I want to see how hard it is to get the 30,000 earned writing books first. If I can do that BEFORE he hits elder, then I'm adding it in to the rules. He has written primarily children's books and got the 4000 in royalties per week pretty easily. I want the challenge hard enough, but not too hard, so I'm trying to do the balancing and tuning so you have a little skin of the teeth drama and yet it's doable. I admit to some nail biting on weather he was going to get the painting done or not. I may add to the number of lifetime masterpieces needed, though I'm not sure - it's a pain, but I'm inclined to make it so you have to get some of the in game journal challenges for this. You currently need at least one of the writing journal challenges, and if I make the aforementioned changes, you will need all three. Do you think it's too much to require the writing to all be children's genre - at least for the hits and the best sellers?
At some point, I'm going to update the rules again - tighten things up, add in a FAQ, make sure it's readable. Nothing so much as changing the rules as just doing necessary maintenance. I've been focused on getting Rattlesnake Ridge done, so I've not done much with the Wiki.
I do have a new concept for an apocalypse world, but I doubt it will be as intricate as RR is going to be. I'll probably add in some green to it, though, make it less like a blown out desert even though the real world place it's based on IS a blown out desert LOL!
I've become a tad fascinated by the history of The Salton Sea in California. It's this huge salt lake that in prehistory was present in that area because of the natural contour of the land. It dried up, refilled and dried up many times long before the White man settled the area. About 1905, because of flooding on the Colorado and Alamo rivers, the Salton Sink, as it is known, filled up again and became a preserve for wild life and a place for recreation. The recent re-formation of the Salton Sea is one of the biggest reasons we have the Hoover Dam today :P
In the 1950's there was a huge push for land development, calling it the Riviera of California. But due to all the irrigation run off and the fact that it is an endotheric lake, meaning it has no outlet, it has increasingly gotten saltier and saltier - it's now saltier than the ocean, but not quite as salty as the Great Salt Lake. It ALSO has the problem of lots of fertilizer run off, which causes a lot of algal bloom and a large load of bacteria in the water - making it unsafe for human activities and unhealthy for the fish and birds. There is a huge push to reclaim this environment through different means. Time will tell what is chosen. In the meantime, there are trailer parks still around this lake, the bones of old towns, the remains of other towns that are still holding on, and an air of general apocalyptic flavor. If you have ever watched Life After People, much of the footage has been shot at Bombay Beach.
So the world I've been having rattling around in my head for a while is an island in the Saltsim Sea, it's not ENTIRELY dead, but it is eerie and the setting will be that you and a select few others have been sent there by the government to see if the place can be rehabilitated and brought back to life.
I'm not seriously yet about bringing the vision to life - but I'm playing with it.
In any event, if I do it, it will be one more Apocalypse world available - and we can't have too many of those :P
It sounds like you're flying through your apocalypse, I hope mine goes as smoothly! No time to play is not fun, but hopefully I can get the essay out of the way tonight and tomorrow and get on with playing on Sunday.... maybe.... lol, no interest in the essay at all unfortunately.
With regard to the challenges for comforting children, maybe not all of them, but just one or two from each skill? Especially since I'm not sure where you count it as lifted so the elders are controllable? If you are going to have your sim who lifts this spend their whole life on it, how many elders are not going to lift careers because you can't control them first? Unless you count it as (and I hate to use this word) suppressed once they reach Teen/Young Adult unless they meet the other challenges themselves in order to lift the whole restriction. Then yes, getting it done before they turn elder is imperative, or they fail. Oh, and I am loving the scribbling pad by Buzzler on MTS, that means no need to buy an expensive computer! No keeping the little sims from playing computer games, no keeping watch for blogging or chatting... no worries!
Incidentally, my son is called Charlie, and he's a very comforting child! I like that.... *grins* Catch you later!
Ok, my experiences with comforting children and Charlie O'Daniel ...
He has 5 days to age up to adult and he has completed the following ...
Brushmaster (35 paintings)
Brushmasters have painted at least 30 paintings, and as a result, paint much faster than normal painters.
Proficient Painters (17)
Proficient Painters have proven their worth by painting at least 6 brilliant paintings. They tend to paint far more brilliant paintings and masterpieces than less proficient Sims.
Master Painter (5)
Master Painters have painted at least 5 masterpieces. Every painting they sell is worth oodles more than the work of normal artists.
AND
Speed Writer (over 40,000)
Speed Writers are so prolific that they've earned §30,000 in royalties. Speed Writers write more quickly than normal writers.
Prolific Writer (35)
Prolific Writers have written at least 20 books in their career. They are so well known that they tend to write far more best-sellers than their counterparts.
Specialist Writer (specialized in Children's Novels)
Writers must pen at least 5 novels in a specific genre to be known as a specialist for the genre.[1] Such specialists write far more hits and best-sellers in their particular genre than most.
Here is something I saw that I NEVER saw before ...
Masterpiece
available after 25 Novels
total pages 2000
Royalties per week §731
Expected Income Range §10000 to §15000+
It takes DAYS AND DAYS to do this, though, because of how long the masterpiece is. I don't think it will be a requirement for the challenge - but I may do something with it for the one of the alternate rules that require writing.
So, considering that Charlie, who doesn't have any traits that would HELP him complete this faster, He has met every challenge in plenty of time. The only part that really gave me some concern was getting to level 5 painting as a child and level 10 writing as a teen. The biggest thing that makes the following rules proposal doable is that we can now set age ranges for each stage of a sim's life. Having 50 days instead of 40 between first day of YA and last day of Elder makes all the difference.
I don't think it's beyond reasonable to expect the following for Comforting Children...
1. Specialize in Children's Lit and Fulfill all 3 challenges in the Writing Skill Journal before aging to elder.
2. Fulfill all 3 challenges in the Painting Skill Journal before aging to elder.
It just requires one painting a day (after skilling to 10, do one small painting per day thereafter) and writing every single day.
Please test this out when you guys can. If you run into any issues with it, let me know. I won't add these to the official rules yet till I've tested it some more.
Some observations about Generations ...
1. EA fixed the cars (I'm only getting between 3 and 8 cars a night deleted from game by Overwatch).
2. EA fixed the mood bug (I got rid of Buzzler's and everyone stays reasonably happy with the well rested moodlet and the cheat beds).
3. EA fixed the skilling bug (It has taken less time to skill up to max on any variety of different skills than it took after the Late Night patch).
I've yet to notice any game stopping bugs with Generations other than the total game corruption that came with existing saves after the patch. New saves seem very stable and they load faster.
Well, I've been very limited on play time, and was annoyed about the difficulties with WA post-Generations, so I temporarily completely abandoned all my challenges, and have been working on a different take on an apocalypse challenge... using some of the features it tends to annoy me are restricted in the real one, and planning it to be a quicker to achieve challenge for those needing a break, or too impatient to do the long one.
(I'm temporarily calling it 'The Post-Apocalypse Rebuilding Challenge')
Anyway... It looks like LOTS of changes have been made to THIS one during my break... And did I read correctly that RR is available??
I couldn't find a link to it, but I know I may just be too tired.
(I just got back from an emergency week-long trip out of town)
After I'm through hammering out the basics of P-ARC I plan to start a new 'hood and family for this challenge.. although I may let Sergio be reborn from my Sim-Bin as founder again.. (I liked him)
I really want to play your RR however.
Is it available? And if so, is it somewhere other than the Sims3 exchange?
(I got one of my EP's used from hubby who hated the game and went back to sims2, so I do not have WA registered, and cannot download anything requiring it.)
Daedreem, RR is not yet available, Mikitta is still tomb-building and not quite at beta test stage! I know she's getting closer from reading her thread on Rattlesnake Ridge over in Create a World! I can't wait either though, it sounds like it's going to be an absolute blast to play...
Mikitta, can you clarify for me how many days Charlie O'Daniel spent as a child, and as a teen? And he definitely only painted one painting a day? I had to think about the 35 until I went back and re-read turning ADULT! For one moment I thought you'd said Young Adult! It's been a long and somewhat frustrating day (although the home made cannelloni was excellent and made a whole portion more than I thought it would!) filled with game crashes and an "oh god what did I add that made that happen!" moment where the game locked up and crashed to desktop five times in a row as I tried to remove all new CC and work out what was doing it.... fixed it now, but the save for Jenny Jones was borked! (I think I might have the Unlucky trait here)
Have restarted with her, and this time she's in criminal! LOL, never normally my first choice, I can see the advantages of getting rid of Master Thief early though... We're only one week in and already she's looking good for a promotion to level 3, and yes, she's still managed to find Kenny, who's not in journalism, he was in business, but now seems to be a writer instead! I do wish he'd make his mind up!!
Edited to Add: If he does marry in, will his career history be available to see? Or will I need to remember he was in business and can he go back into it or not if he wasn't controllable when he changed careers?
I can use most of the pictures I had already, being sneaky she's doing a lot of the same things of course, skilling and the like, so it's not all bad.... Catch you later!
1. Rattlesnake Ridge - is not ready yet. I'm having issues tonight getting the darn thing saved right. It's making me bonkers. I can save the back up, but it's not saving the actual file for me At least not very fast - it's taking a VERY long time to do anything.
I have 5 tombs in total that still need to be finished. I'm working on 4 of them and another simmer is doing the 5th. Other than those tombs and a couple of other community lots, the world is done enough to beta test for issues.
2. What it will require. I have all expansions and stuff packs to date, so those will be required, along with free store items (Riverview and the Renault pack for sure). There are plants from WA included in some of the lots as well as spawners in the general world. I don't know if they just won't show for you or what.
3. Anghara - if it were me I would be making back ups of my back ups LOL. I hate it when saves get corrupted. I don't know what it is, but Gen seems to have that effect on many folks.
It gives you a total of 90 days (seriously shortens the infant and toddler stages and puts those extra days into young adult and adult).
Comforting Children
1. painting 5, friendship with elder and still life of that elder before teen.
2. painting 10, portrait of elder friend and writing 5 before young adult.
3. writing 10 before adult.
4. before elder - 5 painting masterpieces, 6 brilliant paintings and 30 total paintings. Specialized in Children's genre, written over 30 books and earned over $30,000 in total royalties. Also earned $4000 or more per week in weekly royalty payments.
Charlie - I needed to take 2 days with aging off to get level 5 and the still life. It was close. Writing I got level 10 THE DAY he aged to Adult.
Painting - from 1 to 10, I did large paintings - one each day. I would start one, and then finish it the next day and then start another. (you can only start one painting a day, but can finish one from the previous day and start a new one right away - am I making sense? Let me know so I can explain if I am not ). Once your sim hits level 10 in painting, just do 1 small painting per day, every day. It keeps their stress level down so they can write more too.
Charlie would get up around 6am, and after eating and stuff would start to write. He would write till he was stressed to the max and then I would take care of basic needs and have him paint till he was happy. Then I would have him write a little more and send him to bed.
He has no traits that would help him advance in either painting OR writing, so I imagine that a sim who DID have those traits would breeze through this.
Oh mikitta, I have no idea how people live with this crash nightmare! But so far, it's working and the save (once I've quit) is then copied to a second location and renamed as back_up1 or 2 or whatever. I can at least rename them and copy them back over if I need to. Hopefully that precludes any more nightmares like yesterday!
The age settings make sense now, I can see how a child would be able to get to level 5 of painting and paint a still life, that's new though, making it of the elder they have the friendship with? That could make it awkward to do with a founder's child, might have to be Gen 3.... lol, are you trying to make this challenge harder again? What happens if your elder friend dies before you finish their portrait? Will it still count? The strategy seems sound though, I will try it!
Now, next silly question - If my founder (bless her) is in Criminal, and gets arrested and sent to jail mid work session - does she lose her job, is she ok? I mean, she missed half a night's work, (and a shoe-in promotion!!!) not to mention not getting paid anywhere near as much as she should have... but does she now lose her job for missing work? It's a career risk that one, but not sure how you want to play it as Master Thief is not yet lifted.... although she was trying! I will keep playing until I get the answer, because if you say she's ok I'd hate to lose that time, but if you say no, well, we'll reload from save and go from there!
Oh mikitta, I have no idea how people live with this crash nightmare! But so far, it's working and the save (once I've quit) is then copied to a second location and renamed as back_up1 or 2 or whatever. I can at least rename them and copy them back over if I need to. Hopefully that precludes any more nightmares like yesterday!
That sounds like a good strategy!
The age settings make sense now, I can see how a child would be able to get to level 5 of painting and paint a still life, that's new though, making it of the elder they have the friendship with? That could make it awkward to do with a founder's child, might have to be Gen 3.... lol, are you trying to make this challenge harder again? What happens if your elder friend dies before you finish their portrait? Will it still count? The strategy seems sound though, I will try it!
As long as you have started the still life, you are ok even if the elder dies before it's finished. Same with the portrait of the elder later - also, they don't HAVE to be the same person. As long as you are friends with them. With aging like it is now, you are very likely to have at least one parent who ages to elder before the child ages to teen.
Now, next silly question - If my founder (bless her) is in Criminal, and gets arrested and sent to jail mid work session - does she lose her job, is she ok? I mean, she missed half a night's work, (and a shoe-in promotion!!!) not to mention not getting paid anywhere near as much as she should have... but does she now lose her job for missing work? It's a career risk that one, but not sure how you want to play it as Master Thief is not yet lifted.... although she was trying! I will keep playing until I get the answer, because if you say she's ok I'd hate to lose that time, but if you say no, well, we'll reload from save and go from there!
Thanks Mikitta, *hugs*
Getting sent to jail is just part of the criminal career. I don't view it as "missing work for any reason" since it is nearly unavoidable. I've NEVER had a sim in that career who has avoided it. To make it so you had to quit the minute you get sent to jail would make the criminal careers impossible to clear.
If he does marry in, will his career history be available to see? Or will I need to remember he was in business and can he go back into it or not if he wasn't controllable when he changed careers?
With jenny now at level 5 of criminal I'm working on their relationship to make sure he's good to move in when she makes the lift.... I know, a bit early, but what the heck, and if he can no longer have business as a career because he was in that to start with, I will need to know before he gets moved in and looks for a job. Also, we have passed the week 2 marker, and we're into week 3! I'm now ahead of where I crashed last time! Play speed has slowed for additional picture taking... *sigh* PrtScrn, GIMP, Save.... repeat!
I've noticed that it seems to take longer to play through a day than it used to. I don't know why. I'm on week .. uhm ..18 now, I think and Sane just aged up to young Adult (I had a friend named Sane back in college. He was a hoot :P ). His mom, Richelle, is two promotions from clearing Law Enforcement - Dynamic DNA Profiler and HE just got a career in Culinary. His dad's sister cleared medical and Charlie, his dad, cleared Comforting Children.
As for being able to see the prior jobs of moved in spouses - yes, once you move them in, you can see them. If they have had a career in something and quit, they can't go back, even if they are newly moved in. I almost never get someone with a useful career they can keep. They almost always have something like Spa Specialist or Morgue Attendant LOL.
Oh, as far as getting the romance in early - I try to do that right away - secure the interests, so to speak, so I don't have to muck about when old age is threatening :P
Ok I need to run - the kids are yammering at me to take them to the swimming pool so I better get going. They are giving me the total stink eye :P
sigh, I ended up cheating last night and adding in more sims to the neighborhood. I have been looking and looking for a girl for Sane to marry and all the females in town are either too old, or they are already married with kids. I went into Edit Town and looked at who was showing up and there were exactly 3 sims of child bearing age and 1 teen who were females. ALL the rest were males or they were too old to have kids. So I went into my previous challenge save (the Marks challenge) and pulled some women from the townie population - sims who had never been played, who had been born or moved into the neighborhood, to immigrate.
It was either that or take a chance on an married female sim who may or may not have been too close to aging to elder.
Game mechanics seem to have been slightly tweaked since Generations. Used to be I could depend on story progression moving sims in - and Twallens is supposed to do a better job of that than vanilla EA.
Ah well - I'll figure out what settings it SHOULD have to ensure enough sims of the proper gender. Hopefully before my legacy dies from lack of suitable spouse material LOL!
Oh, that brings me to this ...
The clone voucher from Lifetime Rewards is not allowed to be used at all in the challenge.
Interesting question, were there lots of single guys? Or just a general dearth of singles? Because I might go with all female heirs if there are more guys around later on.... lol, failing that, we'll all be adding townies at later stages! I'm using Awesomemod so of course I can see if it's different in my game or not.
Slept well last night, if not for quite long enough, work was not too bad today, essay to finish now I've finished the batch cooking of quiche and chicken curry (just the rice to do, but that doesn't keep so well that I'd batch cook that!). My kitchen smells gorgeous, but the dishwasher needs filling! Sims tomorrow maybe, but not tonight.
So pleased to hear things are going well for you though Mikitta, progress on the challenge is good! Sane being ready to get married is a good thing yes? Do you know of any good family tree programmes? I might have to do one if I start publishing the Jones' Apoc "Keeping up with the Jones'"....
Hmm I didn't know there was a family tree thing for the sims.
It really sounds like you are crazy busy. Do you do bulk cooking once a week and freeze everything? I wish I could get motivated to do that. My hubby is a trucker and it would make doing meals for him to take with sooo much easier than it is now.
Singles - there were about 10 households with single men and very few single women. Very few women in general, in fact. I think it was just an accident of my particular story progression. I'm going to take the time to do save files with neighbors from now own - and I think non-challenge lots (where the townies live) need to have all amenities or else the sims move away.
Well - I'm really irritated with being forced to take 3 days off for marriage. I forgot about it being so long. Sane found himself a woman and got married on his day off, had another day off the next day and bam - he didn't go back to work for 3 days total. I had to quit him out out level 6 culinary He got a new job in Journalism, which I really could have stood to wait some time for. His wife was 14 days from turning elder. It is REALLY annoying that we can't tell what life stage other sims are at - like asking 'how old are you' should be a basic socialization. I'm so tempted to use Master Controller to set her to the beginning of Adult so I can actually clear something with her.
We need a setting that regulates how many days off we have to take for any particular life event. Of course, I could just rule that the only thing you HAVE to quite the job for is pregnancy - but then that dosn't make sense in a context sort of way either and feels to much like I'm cheating out sour grapes.
Ah well - I'll work through it. Maybe she'll get a job in culinary after the baby is born and make up for it.
Hi mikitta, well we've just been told that gas (for cooking and heating, not cars) is going up by 20% as of August 18th. So running my oven once a week and cooking up a storm on that day seems more economic than cooking seven days a week. If I get all the prep done and make three or four dishes at once, I can pretty much guarantee to use every pot, pan, and baking dish, but I will have a good three weeks worth of meals in plastic tubs to be frozen. It might take a few hours, but it will save me a lot of money on gas if I can keep it up. I need more plastic tubs though, and a couple more dishes that I bake cannelloni in! Favourites here are a chicken korma style curry, a lamb rogan josh, vegetarian cannelloni, vegetable quiche, quorn chilli and spaghetti bolognese (I usually put ground beef in that, but quorn works just as well). In the winter I can do the same with stews and hotpots. A there's only one of me a crockpot seemed like a huge investment, but I might consider it a better one given gas prices now.... I can still batch cook and freeze the contents after all!
OK, so if there were more single men, I might have to look at all female heirs, a matriarchal apocalypse, as if it weren't hard enough already! LOL, good job she's not lifted anything yet, having five kids is Jenny Jones lifetime wish, and I plan on granting it... one of them get's military and she's lifted master thief? We'll be fine! I can put a block of townie houses down behind their house and have the family move out to there when they're ready to go... *grins* Place house when the family member wants to move that is. Not before or they'll get snapped up by townies.
Re the time off thing, I'm sure you'll find a way of working that out, and honestly, if the Master Thief restriction is lifted that's not a problem is it? It just adds a higher priority to that lift (and making people play on random careers is fun for not getting the priority lifts sorted!) making it more crucial. Either that or you have to give back the money you were paid for having time off? Or not get married until you have lifted a career. But that could make later lifts harder to get for female heirs. That or they get married right out of school and then get a job. We'll find a way around it.
And yes, there are family tree programmes, I'm trying to find out which one is being used for the Everidge Apoc on Livejournal. That one looks nice and has all the sims 3 icons in it... could be useful!
I want your recipes They sound really good. I like my crockpot - I don't use a ton, but it's very nice to set something in it and let it cook all day long. My husband likes to make pulled pork - rub the pork with herbs and spices and let it sit overnight in the fridge, then set it in the crock pot for 8 hours on low. Then pull off all the meat from the bone, get rid of the fat, and then mix in about half a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce and put it back in the crockpot for another hour. Serve on hamburger buns and enjoy a taste of heaven It's a good method for chicken too, and I imagine it would work for beef, lamb or goat- what ever your preference. Goat may work especially well as it is so mild. I wouldn't mind trying it with venison if we ever get another deer roast.
One question - what is quorn? Is it a grain?
Gas here, to get it through a municipality, is VERY expensive. I don't know how people manage it. Between gas and electric, I swear people go bankrupt. I am so eternally grateful that we get free gas on our property (wells on our property - they get to have them if they give us some of the gas). Electric is bad enough and I wish we had a super heavy duty generator so we could be utterly off the grid. I definitely see your strategy to just cook once a week to be very frugal.
The Jones strategy - I don't know why my game went all heavy on males. I have a female heir now and just watch - as soon as she is ready to marry, there will be NO MEN AVAILABLE LOL. Sane married the town floozey, who was 14 days away from aging to elder when I married her (ugh) and they had a little girl. She flirted with Charlie, so Sane is very angry at her now. She's pretty much ruined his sim life. The only GOOD thing she's brought to the household is little Penny. I went ahead and had her walk to the diner and get a job in culinary since Law Enforcement - DNA and Military have been lifted (she could go out alone). The wh ... floozey ... needs to earn her keep I suppose I should have done it randomly but there's got to be SOME way to salvage this generation :P
Meh, I'm just going to load the back up and see if I've married her yet or not. If not, I'll avoid her till Sane finishes Culinary and then worry about her being too old.
-- edit update --
I loaded a back up and Shavonne was preggers with Penny. I decided she is just going to be a breeder and there will be at least two, hopefully 3 children with this generation and I can clear several things. I hate it when my married in female spouse is so close to elder and I really can't get her a job. It's annoying.
Hi Mikitta, Every day it seems the bills go up and the income doesn't keep pace..... but that's life, or so my father tells me, apparently it's been happening since before I was born.... (I'll spare you the hour long monologue I got on the good old days...) My gas and electric combined are almost £100 a month. It's going up by a good 20% so that'll go up to £120 a month, and if the winter is long and hard (bearing in mind I just cleared the winter gas this month) it could be a very cold one in the house too!
I can always email you the recipes, they're supposed to serve 4, but I'll be honest and own up to my larger appetite - they serve two, maybe three at a push! But that could just be me... oh, and I play around with the ingredients until I find a 'perfect' combo for my tastes, so don't ever think they're set in stone! Quorn is a vegetarian mushroom protein, it looks just like ground beef, and I defy anyone who doesn't know what you put in a bolognese sauce to actually tell it's not meat! So many people I've tried that with, in cottage pie, chilli con quorn (instead of carne obviously) lasagne, and nobody has ever been able to tell.
Re the town floozy, I think if you can avoid her it might be preferable, but, you could also be surprised if Sane does go into culinary, I've managed on a number of occasions to meet the perfect spouse at work, when I could swear they were NOT on the list of town inhabitants prior to the start of the shift!!! *shrugs* the game just magic's them in I think. Or sometimes they just appear at the nearest park, or other community venue, but you so have to keep your eyes open for them! Good luck!
Not sure we have that here in the states. I can get TVP (Texturized Vegetable Protien), but I've never heard of quorn. Maybe they are similar enough to be the same thing? Sounds really interesting.
I loaded the back up, was married to Shavonne (the floozey), so decided to just make her an incubator. She's not good for much else, really. Maybe her kids can clear up several things.
---edit---
Ok, I got so irritated that I deleted the challenge. I'm going to get RR done before I start another. GRRRRR. I went to build more in the basement and the stupid game froze my whole computer.
/sigh - it's for the best. I needed a motivator to get the new world done LOL!
Also - I want to DL a few other desert worlds. I plan on asking the creators if they mind if I create save files for them specifically for the challenge that folks can download. There's several really good ones. DocSprock just finished a really nice one. There was another one not too long ago too - really really pretty painting on it. And there's always Desert Shores when I'm done w/ RR - though I'm going to get Piper Sound done before I start another apocalypse world. DS should not be too hard to bring about - it's an island, so no distant terrain. The painting is going to be simple - in keeping with the Death Valley look of the real Salton Sea surrounding topography. Plus I plan on putting in more greenery - it's going to have a different approach to the challenge than I've taken before, but still essentially Apocalyptic.
Anyway - off to work on RR and de-stress from my game torquing me off.
Comments
I found multiple sites on the net for riddles and puzzles. The challenge is to make them work in a tomb I just have to figure out how to make it so you have to do certain things in a certain sequence to get the right answer. I know there's a way to do it, I just can't figure it out yet LOL.
Once I do, however, I think the tomb building is going to go a lot faster. Once I have the tombs done, the world will be ready for play testing. I hope it runs smoothly and I don't have to do much for it to work well.
God Bless,
mik
Kind of decided to make it more of a story and start with a whole new founder. "Keeping up with the Jones'" should be appearing as soon as I have a prologue chapter ready.... I'll post it on LiveJournal but link to it from my page here. Because I do not like uploading to the exchange, and I know what I'm doing at LJ! There will be pictures, and text, and hopefully some interesting things will happen! I'm looking forward to it!
Some news on RR ... I am getting closer to done. Essentially, I've got 2 tombs that have not been started. One tomb is going to be a redesign from another builder (he gave me permission to use his lot and to change the look from egyptian to chinese), and there's another simmer who is building one of the large tombs that are left for me.
I decided the street are all going to be named after world deserts - it just seemed appropriate.
After I'm done with RR, I'm going to take a bit of a break and just play, though I'll be working on Piper Sound - a town nestled in the Pasimfic North West, along the coast. It will be done with Pets and horse ranches in mind. No special lots, no tombs, no challenges - just a nice, sedentary world LOL.
However, once I have my rest and relaxation, I'm going to do an attempt at a deserted town on the coast of the Salton Sea. I'm thinking it will be an island, and I will probably call it Desert Sands or Salton island. I've got the Real Life street map to do the lay out from. It should be interesting.
God Bless,
mik
If I choose to have later generations move out, can I build another apoc compliant house on a new empty lot next door and have them move there? I could do that from edit town and go right back to the main family, or is that not possible? I'm not sure how it would work, but I would like to have them able to pop in or over to keep up with the family?
Do you know if a sim who is just kicked out of the house ends up in the Sims Bin or just as a homeless sim?
God Bless,
mik
I haven't played any of my saves for a couple of weeks now. I've been focused on getting RR done. I really hope everyone likes it. While I DO have a good concept of the next apocalypse world I am going to build, I think I'll do a nice, normal, GREEN world next LOL. It's situated in the Pacific Northwest and I'm thinking I'm going to do it for Pets - a farming and ranching community on the bay.
Anyway ... Just wanted to tell y'all that when RR is done, you will be able to learn martial arts without going to Shangsimla. There's a Nectary too - but it's in ruins, so you will have to rebuild it after all the restrictions for rebuilding and owning property are lifted. Seeds, plants and bugs will be hard to come by - you will have to solve the mystery of Harmony Biosphere since all the above mentioned things are THERE, or on the way there. Fish (except for a few special one) will be readily available in the world, as will gems, metals and meteors.
I can't tell you HOW much I am looking forward to finishing this world. I've started a few other challenges, but I'm waiting to really get into it when RR is done.
God Bless,
mik
Glad that RR is coming along, because I am beginning to get a little frustrated with sand. I want green, I want lush, and I want beautiful worlds to play in. But I am utterly fascinated with the idea of playing an apoc challenge world with tombs and challenges to meet in order to lift things or gain access to careers. It sounds fabulous! For now, back to bed, before I pass out on the PC! Next week should be better, back to just one job and although I have an essay to write for college, I', sure I will get more sims time in.
I made a teensy weensy change to Comforting Children.
Here it is ...
Write at least one Hit and 5 Best Sellers before aging up to Elder.
That's it :P
I MAY add something like earn a certain TOTAL amount (not just weekly royalties - but a total lifetime amount) before hitting Elder. I'm not sure yet though.
Anyway - just wanted to make that known. My hier, Charlie O'Daniels, is working this right now. Getting to level 10 in writing before he hits adult ... that's gonna be tough. He has 9 days to go yet.
God Bless,
mik
Charlie's sister, Alice, is working on clearing medical and is now at level 7. She's well on track for clearing. Richelle is working in Law Enforcement since I don't PLAN on getting her with child again. If something happens to the heir, I'll have Alice take one for the team and have a child out of wedlock :P She's got plenty of time.
I need to work on Richelle's athletics so she can keep working once she hits elder. She's go the trait, so it shouldn't be too hard, but she only has about 17 days left till she ages up.
Charlie TECHNICALLY has cleared Comforting Children - but I want to see how hard it is to get the 30,000 earned writing books first. If I can do that BEFORE he hits elder, then I'm adding it in to the rules. He has written primarily children's books and got the 4000 in royalties per week pretty easily. I want the challenge hard enough, but not too hard, so I'm trying to do the balancing and tuning so you have a little skin of the teeth drama and yet it's doable. I admit to some nail biting on weather he was going to get the painting done or not. I may add to the number of lifetime masterpieces needed, though I'm not sure - it's a pain, but I'm inclined to make it so you have to get some of the in game journal challenges for this. You currently need at least one of the writing journal challenges, and if I make the aforementioned changes, you will need all three. Do you think it's too much to require the writing to all be children's genre - at least for the hits and the best sellers?
At some point, I'm going to update the rules again - tighten things up, add in a FAQ, make sure it's readable. Nothing so much as changing the rules as just doing necessary maintenance. I've been focused on getting Rattlesnake Ridge done, so I've not done much with the Wiki.
I do have a new concept for an apocalypse world, but I doubt it will be as intricate as RR is going to be. I'll probably add in some green to it, though, make it less like a blown out desert even though the real world place it's based on IS a blown out desert LOL!
I've become a tad fascinated by the history of The Salton Sea in California. It's this huge salt lake that in prehistory was present in that area because of the natural contour of the land. It dried up, refilled and dried up many times long before the White man settled the area. About 1905, because of flooding on the Colorado and Alamo rivers, the Salton Sink, as it is known, filled up again and became a preserve for wild life and a place for recreation. The recent re-formation of the Salton Sea is one of the biggest reasons we have the Hoover Dam today :P
In the 1950's there was a huge push for land development, calling it the Riviera of California. But due to all the irrigation run off and the fact that it is an endotheric lake, meaning it has no outlet, it has increasingly gotten saltier and saltier - it's now saltier than the ocean, but not quite as salty as the Great Salt Lake. It ALSO has the problem of lots of fertilizer run off, which causes a lot of algal bloom and a large load of bacteria in the water - making it unsafe for human activities and unhealthy for the fish and birds. There is a huge push to reclaim this environment through different means. Time will tell what is chosen. In the meantime, there are trailer parks still around this lake, the bones of old towns, the remains of other towns that are still holding on, and an air of general apocalyptic flavor. If you have ever watched Life After People, much of the footage has been shot at Bombay Beach.
So the world I've been having rattling around in my head for a while is an island in the Saltsim Sea, it's not ENTIRELY dead, but it is eerie and the setting will be that you and a select few others have been sent there by the government to see if the place can be rehabilitated and brought back to life.
I'm not seriously yet about bringing the vision to life - but I'm playing with it.
In any event, if I do it, it will be one more Apocalypse world available - and we can't have too many of those :P
God Bless,
mik
With regard to the challenges for comforting children, maybe not all of them, but just one or two from each skill? Especially since I'm not sure where you count it as lifted so the elders are controllable? If you are going to have your sim who lifts this spend their whole life on it, how many elders are not going to lift careers because you can't control them first? Unless you count it as (and I hate to use this word) suppressed once they reach Teen/Young Adult unless they meet the other challenges themselves in order to lift the whole restriction. Then yes, getting it done before they turn elder is imperative, or they fail. Oh, and I am loving the scribbling pad by Buzzler on MTS, that means no need to buy an expensive computer! No keeping the little sims from playing computer games, no keeping watch for blogging or chatting... no worries!
Incidentally, my son is called Charlie, and he's a very comforting child! I like that.... *grins* Catch you later!
Ok, my experiences with comforting children and Charlie O'Daniel ...
He has 5 days to age up to adult and he has completed the following ...
AND
Here is something I saw that I NEVER saw before ...
Masterpiece
available after 25 Novels
total pages 2000
Royalties per week §731
Expected Income Range §10000 to §15000+
It takes DAYS AND DAYS to do this, though, because of how long the masterpiece is. I don't think it will be a requirement for the challenge - but I may do something with it for the one of the alternate rules that require writing.
So, considering that Charlie, who doesn't have any traits that would HELP him complete this faster, He has met every challenge in plenty of time. The only part that really gave me some concern was getting to level 5 painting as a child and level 10 writing as a teen. The biggest thing that makes the following rules proposal doable is that we can now set age ranges for each stage of a sim's life. Having 50 days instead of 40 between first day of YA and last day of Elder makes all the difference.
I don't think it's beyond reasonable to expect the following for Comforting Children...
1. Specialize in Children's Lit and Fulfill all 3 challenges in the Writing Skill Journal before aging to elder.
2. Fulfill all 3 challenges in the Painting Skill Journal before aging to elder.
It just requires one painting a day (after skilling to 10, do one small painting per day thereafter) and writing every single day.
Please test this out when you guys can. If you run into any issues with it, let me know. I won't add these to the official rules yet till I've tested it some more.
Some observations about Generations ...
1. EA fixed the cars (I'm only getting between 3 and 8 cars a night deleted from game by Overwatch).
2. EA fixed the mood bug (I got rid of Buzzler's and everyone stays reasonably happy with the well rested moodlet and the cheat beds).
3. EA fixed the skilling bug (It has taken less time to skill up to max on any variety of different skills than it took after the Late Night patch).
I've yet to notice any game stopping bugs with Generations other than the total game corruption that came with existing saves after the patch. New saves seem very stable and they load faster.
God Bless,
mik
(I'm temporarily calling it 'The Post-Apocalypse Rebuilding Challenge')
Anyway... It looks like LOTS of changes have been made to THIS one during my break... And did I read correctly that RR is available??
I couldn't find a link to it, but I know I may just be too tired.
(I just got back from an emergency week-long trip out of town)
After I'm through hammering out the basics of P-ARC I plan to start a new 'hood and family for this challenge.. although I may let Sergio be reborn from my Sim-Bin as founder again..
I really want to play your RR however.
Is it available? And if so, is it somewhere other than the Sims3 exchange?
(I got one of my EP's used from hubby who hated the game and went back to sims2, so I do not have WA registered, and cannot download anything requiring it.)
Mikitta, can you clarify for me how many days Charlie O'Daniel spent as a child, and as a teen? And he definitely only painted one painting a day? I had to think about the 35 until I went back and re-read turning ADULT! For one moment I thought you'd said Young Adult! It's been a long and somewhat frustrating day (although the home made cannelloni was excellent and made a whole portion more than I thought it would!) filled with game crashes and an "oh god what did I add that made that happen!" moment where the game locked up and crashed to desktop five times in a row as I tried to remove all new CC and work out what was doing it.... fixed it now, but the save for Jenny Jones was borked! (I think I might have the Unlucky trait here)
Have restarted with her, and this time she's in criminal! LOL, never normally my first choice, I can see the advantages of getting rid of Master Thief early though... We're only one week in and already she's looking good for a promotion to level 3, and yes, she's still managed to find Kenny, who's not in journalism, he was in business, but now seems to be a writer instead! I do wish he'd make his mind up!!
Edited to Add: If he does marry in, will his career history be available to see? Or will I need to remember he was in business and can he go back into it or not if he wasn't controllable when he changed careers?
I can use most of the pictures I had already, being sneaky she's doing a lot of the same things of course, skilling and the like, so it's not all bad.... Catch you later!
1. Rattlesnake Ridge - is not ready yet. I'm having issues tonight getting the darn thing saved right. It's making me bonkers. I can save the back up, but it's not saving the actual file for me
I have 5 tombs in total that still need to be finished. I'm working on 4 of them and another simmer is doing the 5th. Other than those tombs and a couple of other community lots, the world is done enough to beta test for issues.
2. What it will require. I have all expansions and stuff packs to date, so those will be required, along with free store items (Riverview and the Renault pack for sure). There are plants from WA included in some of the lots as well as spawners in the general world. I don't know if they just won't show for you or what.
3. Anghara - if it were me I would be making back ups of my back ups LOL. I hate it when saves get corrupted. I don't know what it is, but Gen seems to have that effect on many folks.
4. Age settings ... Infant - 1 day. Toddler - 4 days. Child - 7 days. Teen - 14 days. Young Adult - 25 days. Adult - 25 days. Elder - 14 days.
It gives you a total of 90 days (seriously shortens the infant and toddler stages and puts those extra days into young adult and adult).
Comforting Children
1. painting 5, friendship with elder and still life of that elder before teen.
2. painting 10, portrait of elder friend and writing 5 before young adult.
3. writing 10 before adult.
4. before elder - 5 painting masterpieces, 6 brilliant paintings and 30 total paintings. Specialized in Children's genre, written over 30 books and earned over $30,000 in total royalties. Also earned $4000 or more per week in weekly royalty payments.
Charlie - I needed to take 2 days with aging off to get level 5 and the still life. It was close. Writing I got level 10 THE DAY he aged to Adult.
Painting - from 1 to 10, I did large paintings - one each day. I would start one, and then finish it the next day and then start another. (you can only start one painting a day, but can finish one from the previous day and start a new one right away - am I making sense? Let me know so I can explain if I am not
Charlie would get up around 6am, and after eating and stuff would start to write. He would write till he was stressed to the max and then I would take care of basic needs and have him paint till he was happy. Then I would have him write a little more and send him to bed.
He has no traits that would help him advance in either painting OR writing, so I imagine that a sim who DID have those traits would breeze through this.
God Bless
mik
The age settings make sense now, I can see how a child would be able to get to level 5 of painting and paint a still life, that's new though, making it of the elder they have the friendship with? That could make it awkward to do with a founder's child, might have to be Gen 3.... lol, are you trying to make this challenge harder again? What happens if your elder friend dies before you finish their portrait? Will it still count? The strategy seems sound though, I will try it!
Now, next silly question - If my founder (bless her) is in Criminal, and gets arrested and sent to jail mid work session - does she lose her job, is she ok? I mean, she missed half a night's work, (and a shoe-in promotion!!!) not to mention not getting paid anywhere near as much as she should have... but does she now lose her job for missing work? It's a career risk that one, but not sure how you want to play it as Master Thief is not yet lifted.... although she was trying! I will keep playing until I get the answer, because if you say she's ok I'd hate to lose that time, but if you say no, well, we'll reload from save and go from there!
Thanks Mikitta, *hugs*
That sounds like a good strategy!
As long as you have started the still life, you are ok even if the elder dies before it's finished. Same with the portrait of the elder later - also, they don't HAVE to be the same person. As long as you are friends with them. With aging like it is now, you are very likely to have at least one parent who ages to elder before the child ages to teen.
Getting sent to jail is just part of the criminal career. I don't view it as "missing work for any reason" since it is nearly unavoidable. I've NEVER had a sim in that career who has avoided it. To make it so you had to quit the minute you get sent to jail would make the criminal careers impossible to clear.
God Bless,
mik
With jenny now at level 5 of criminal I'm working on their relationship to make sure he's good to move in when she makes the lift.... I know, a bit early, but what the heck, and if he can no longer have business as a career because he was in that to start with, I will need to know before he gets moved in and looks for a job. Also, we have passed the week 2 marker, and we're into week 3! I'm now ahead of where I crashed last time! Play speed has slowed for additional picture taking... *sigh* PrtScrn, GIMP, Save.... repeat!
I've noticed that it seems to take longer to play through a day than it used to. I don't know why. I'm on week .. uhm ..18 now, I think and Sane just aged up to young Adult (I had a friend named Sane back in college. He was a hoot :P ). His mom, Richelle, is two promotions from clearing Law Enforcement - Dynamic DNA Profiler and HE just got a career in Culinary. His dad's sister cleared medical and Charlie, his dad, cleared Comforting Children.
As for being able to see the prior jobs of moved in spouses - yes, once you move them in, you can see them. If they have had a career in something and quit, they can't go back, even if they are newly moved in. I almost never get someone with a useful career they can keep. They almost always have something like Spa Specialist or Morgue Attendant LOL.
Oh, as far as getting the romance in early - I try to do that right away - secure the interests, so to speak, so I don't have to muck about when old age is threatening :P
Ok I need to run - the kids are yammering at me to take them to the swimming pool so I better get going. They are giving me the total stink eye :P
God Bless,
mik
It was either that or take a chance on an married female sim who may or may not have been too close to aging to elder.
Game mechanics seem to have been slightly tweaked since Generations. Used to be I could depend on story progression moving sims in - and Twallens is supposed to do a better job of that than vanilla EA.
Ah well - I'll figure out what settings it SHOULD have to ensure enough sims of the proper gender. Hopefully before my legacy dies from lack of suitable spouse material LOL!
Oh, that brings me to this ...
The clone voucher from Lifetime Rewards is not allowed to be used at all in the challenge.
Just one of those new things with Gen.
God Bless,
mik
Slept well last night, if not for quite long enough, work was not too bad today, essay to finish now I've finished the batch cooking of quiche and chicken curry (just the rice to do, but that doesn't keep so well that I'd batch cook that!). My kitchen smells gorgeous, but the dishwasher needs filling! Sims tomorrow maybe, but not tonight.
So pleased to hear things are going well for you though Mikitta, progress on the challenge is good! Sane being ready to get married is a good thing yes? Do you know of any good family tree programmes? I might have to do one if I start publishing the Jones' Apoc "Keeping up with the Jones'"....
It really sounds like you are crazy busy. Do you do bulk cooking once a week and freeze everything? I wish I could get motivated to do that. My hubby is a trucker and it would make doing meals for him to take with sooo much easier than it is now.
Singles - there were about 10 households with single men and very few single women. Very few women in general, in fact. I think it was just an accident of my particular story progression. I'm going to take the time to do save files with neighbors from now own - and I think non-challenge lots (where the townies live) need to have all amenities or else the sims move away.
Well - I'm really irritated with being forced to take 3 days off for marriage. I forgot about it being so long. Sane found himself a woman and got married on his day off, had another day off the next day and bam - he didn't go back to work for 3 days total. I had to quit him out out level 6 culinary
We need a setting that regulates how many days off we have to take for any particular life event. Of course, I could just rule that the only thing you HAVE to quite the job for is pregnancy - but then that dosn't make sense in a context sort of way either and feels to much like I'm cheating out sour grapes.
Ah well - I'll work through it. Maybe she'll get a job in culinary after the baby is born and make up for it.
God Bless,
mik
OK, so if there were more single men, I might have to look at all female heirs, a matriarchal apocalypse, as if it weren't hard enough already! LOL, good job she's not lifted anything yet, having five kids is Jenny Jones lifetime wish, and I plan on granting it... one of them get's military and she's lifted master thief? We'll be fine! I can put a block of townie houses down behind their house and have the family move out to there when they're ready to go... *grins* Place house when the family member wants to move that is. Not before or they'll get snapped up by townies.
Re the time off thing, I'm sure you'll find a way of working that out, and honestly, if the Master Thief restriction is lifted that's not a problem is it? It just adds a higher priority to that lift (and making people play on random careers is fun for not getting the priority lifts sorted!) making it more crucial. Either that or you have to give back the money you were paid for having time off? Or not get married until you have lifted a career. But that could make later lifts harder to get for female heirs. That or they get married right out of school and then get a job. We'll find a way around it.
And yes, there are family tree programmes, I'm trying to find out which one is being used for the Everidge Apoc on Livejournal. That one looks nice and has all the sims 3 icons in it... could be useful!
One question - what is quorn? Is it a grain?
Gas here, to get it through a municipality, is VERY expensive. I don't know how people manage it. Between gas and electric, I swear people go bankrupt. I am so eternally grateful that we get free gas on our property (wells on our property - they get to have them if they give us some of the gas). Electric is bad enough and I wish we had a super heavy duty generator so we could be utterly off the grid. I definitely see your strategy to just cook once a week to be very frugal.
The Jones strategy - I don't know why my game went all heavy on males. I have a female heir now and just watch - as soon as she is ready to marry, there will be NO MEN AVAILABLE LOL. Sane married the town floozey, who was 14 days away from aging to elder when I married her (ugh) and they had a little girl. She flirted with Charlie, so Sane is very angry at her now. She's pretty much ruined his sim life. The only GOOD thing she's brought to the household is little Penny. I went ahead and had her walk to the diner and get a job in culinary since Law Enforcement - DNA and Military have been lifted (she could go out alone). The wh ... floozey ... needs to earn her keep I suppose I should have done it randomly but there's got to be SOME way to salvage this generation :P
Meh, I'm just going to load the back up and see if I've married her yet or not. If not, I'll avoid her till Sane finishes Culinary and then worry about her being too old.
-- edit update --
I loaded a back up and Shavonne was preggers with Penny. I decided she is just going to be a breeder and there will be at least two, hopefully 3 children with this generation and I can clear several things. I hate it when my married in female spouse is so close to elder and I really can't get her a job. It's annoying.
God Bless,
mik
I can always email you the recipes, they're supposed to serve 4, but I'll be honest and own up to my larger appetite - they serve two, maybe three at a push! But that could just be me... oh, and I play around with the ingredients until I find a 'perfect' combo for my tastes, so don't ever think they're set in stone! Quorn is a vegetarian mushroom protein, it looks just like ground beef, and I defy anyone who doesn't know what you put in a bolognese sauce to actually tell it's not meat! So many people I've tried that with, in cottage pie, chilli con quorn (instead of carne obviously) lasagne, and nobody has ever been able to tell.
Re the town floozy, I think if you can avoid her it might be preferable, but, you could also be surprised if Sane does go into culinary, I've managed on a number of occasions to meet the perfect spouse at work, when I could swear they were NOT on the list of town inhabitants prior to the start of the shift!!! *shrugs* the game just magic's them in I think. Or sometimes they just appear at the nearest park, or other community venue, but you so have to keep your eyes open for them! Good luck!
I loaded the back up, was married to Shavonne (the floozey), so decided to just make her an incubator. She's not good for much else, really. Maybe her kids can clear up several things.
---edit---
Ok, I got so irritated that I deleted the challenge. I'm going to get RR done before I start another. GRRRRR. I went to build more in the basement and the stupid game froze my whole computer.
/sigh - it's for the best. I needed a motivator to get the new world done LOL!
Also - I want to DL a few other desert worlds. I plan on asking the creators if they mind if I create save files for them specifically for the challenge that folks can download. There's several really good ones. DocSprock just finished a really nice one. There was another one not too long ago too - really really pretty painting on it. And there's always Desert Shores when I'm done w/ RR - though I'm going to get Piper Sound done before I start another apocalypse world. DS should not be too hard to bring about - it's an island, so no distant terrain. The painting is going to be simple - in keeping with the Death Valley look of the real Salton Sea surrounding topography. Plus I plan on putting in more greenery - it's going to have a different approach to the challenge than I've taken before, but still essentially Apocalyptic.
Anyway - off to work on RR and de-stress from my game torquing me off.
---end edit---
God Bless,
mik