The plan sounded good... but even the best laid plans often go awry.
It started well. everyone was in a good mood (except for Kalamainu'u, but that was only to be expected).
Morgan earned his first points quickly and easily. It all started going wrong when his helpful neighbours Emiri and Makani each took an unfinished garden salad and finished it. They were just being nice... but Morgan needed to finish those himself in order to earn the points!
Kalamainu'u took a nap in Morgan's bed. She sank into the bed as if it was the sea.
Everyone was crowding around the kitchen counters, so Morgan was unable to prepare more meals. (At least Kalamainu'u was being unexpectedly nice and decided to help with the cleaning!)
Some of the guests were dancing around the fire, but they didn't count as dancing sims for the purpose of the point counting.
As the clock was ticking, I realised gold was out of question. Morgan earned silver again.
This irritated only me, not Morgan. He was blissfully dazed from the kava.
As the guests were leaving, he tried to firedance and set his leg on fire.
Nalani was the last to leave. She stayed while Morgan was putting away the leftovers.
Before leaving, she squeaked like a dolphin again, and then blew him a kiss.
Love how you rolled with the punches (the punch? ) and made even the visual-bug (sinking into bed) work for your story! I'm sorry the guests interfered with your goals. They do do that sometimes, don't they? In real life as well!
Still remember waking up late at night or early in the morning (eta: when I was a kid, I meant to say) to find inebriated guests from my parents' house-warming party touring my room! They turned on my light and stood around talking loudly, without any notion that what they were doing was...worthy of a TS4 bug-report! (It was a BYOB party; my folks didn't drink & didn't anticipate the unscheduled tour.) Ah, well. Neighbors. One of the moms had been there for me when we lived across the street from them, & Mom was out & I thought the pressure cooker was going to explode (it was fine). Sulani neighbors are like that, too, aren't they? Sometimes heaven-sent, sometimes off-the-wall!
@Tiarella , your comment sent me on an interesting train of thought about what it would be like to file bug-reports for real life. I think my town is spawning too much traffic while I'm on my way to work, for example. Drunken guests touring a child's room late at night is definitely an unacceptable bug!
After the party, Morgan wakes up late, with several needs very low. He needs to take care of his open-air kitchen too - there is spoiled kava on the counters.
Now to work! He has around 7000, and with a little bit of luck he might reach his 10,000 goal today.
His garden needs care again, but it also gives him about a hundred simoleons worth of fruit and vegetables.
But in diving for treasure, luck is not on his side at all. The first dive gives him nothing, the second a small treasure worth 130.
However, when he swims back he finds his fishing traps full. After emptying them and selling everything he doesn't need, he has 8,685. We're getting somewhere now!
Then he goes to Ohan'ali Town to pick up ALL THE SHELLS.
He ends the day by fishing, and catches his first big fish, a sturgeon worth over 100 simoleons.
Almost there! After selling the shells and the fish he has 9,835.
He returns to his little off-the-grid island to sleep. Will this be his last night under the open sky?
(Endnote: although Morgan is allowed to own a house when he earns 10,000, I would like him to earn a few thousand more and buy a finished little house in Lani St. Taz rather than build something on his current off-the-grid lot. Living off the grid is fun as an obstacle to overcome, but not as a way to spend a sim's whole life!)
I've been reading along on Morgan's adventures since the beginning and have really enjoyed it. Sorry I haven't commented till now. I've been a lazy lurker.
I, too, would wait until Morgan can afford to live elsewhere. Being off the grid is no fun after a while. He can't even play the sims!
What I did when I got to that point was I got rid of the lot trait. I actually really liked that lot a lot and wanted to stay there, but yeah, the off the grid trait gets a little frustrating after you've reached the point of being able to furnish a house.
Owlenmoon is the house which most values creativity and wisdom. They're intellectual and introspective, and can find poetry in situations that may appear irrelevant to others. They're also good at making things more complicated than what they're supposed to be.
@WinterKhirin , thanks for the reminder that removing the trait from the existing lot is also an option! I think I will move Morgan to Lani St. Taz anyway, because I like the idea of a Sim that started out with nothing moving into the richest part of town. But after he moves out, I will remove the off-grid trait from the little island and make it into a community lot.
And now, Morgan's (hopefully) final day of living outdoors!
The bird of paradise plant Morgan grew from a flower he fished out of the sea is in bloom! The flowers are more valuable than the fruit and vegetables he has been growing, so today's harvest is worth a little bit more. After selling it he has 10,152 simoleons. He is over the finish line!
He keeps one of each harvestable, though, so that he can plant them outside his future home. And now, let's earn final two and a half thousand he needs to buy the home!
His shower chooses this moment to break. Repairing it takes some time, but at least he finally earns the handiness skill.
After that he goes diving, but the treasure and shells he finds are almost worthless. He only gets his funds up to 10,322.
He meets Makoa Kealoha and swims up to him for a brief chat.
Then he swims across to the volcano island, to clear away some rubbish from the beach while he is waiting for his traps to be full.
He spots Leila Illes poaching, and runs over to her to ask her to stop. Had she obeyed, he would have got paid 250 simoleons. But she refuses. Luck doesn't seem to be on his side today!
He tries fishing, and catches a sturgeon worth 149. The day is finally getting a little better!
And finally, the fishing traps are full! The wait was worth it - he got two valuable hearts of Sulani and various fish and upgrade parts. He sells most of his haul, and then puts away the traps in his inventory.
"Hello, is this the Sulani real Estate office? I'd like to buy a house."
And here it is! A house of his very own, overlooking the Sand Simoleons beach!
It is sparsely decorated, but it has electricity, plumbing and WiFi! As for the decorations, Morgan will soon fill it with seashells anyway.
Before going to sleep, Morgan plants the harvestables he had saved and places the fishing traps in the ocean. He will continue to sustain himself by gardening, fishing and collecting.
END NOTE: this was incredibly fun to play! Morgan would have reached his goal much quicker if I had just placed ten or more fishing traps in the water, but it felt more interesting if he did a little bit of everything every day, working on several skills and on his friendships with the islanders at the same time.
I will continue to play this save in a more relaxed way, and although I won't chronicle every day of Morgan's life anymore, I will occasionally post some screenshots and news about his life in this thread.
Many thanks to everyone who has been reading and commenting!
@Tiarella , your comment sent me on an interesting train of thought about what it would be like to file bug-reports for real life. I think my town is spawning too much traffic while I'm on my way to work, for example. Drunken guests touring a child's room late at night is definitely an unacceptable bug!
Now there's an entertaining idea! I suppose the closest we can come to a bug-report is calling our various representatives and demanding they fixit (which I do!). Too bad our reps generally keep the tally of these real-life 'bug-reports' secret. ...Petitions might also be considered similar to bug-reports, & they're easy to me-too!
Another amusing idea is to imagine our sims filing bug-reports for themselves. I'm quite certain that some of them would object to some of the things I make them do!
(sorry my response is so late--I've been away from the forum. Nice to come back to your story!)
Thank you, @Tiarella ! I actually haven't played Morgan's save since this last update, although I'm definitely planning to return to playing him. The reason is that I've started another save in Sulani in which I'm rotationally playing the whole town, and rotational play is something I've never tried before, so it now has my whole attention while I'm trying to gat the hang of it!
Hope you have a blast! Rotational's the only way I play. I've tried to stick to one sim, or one household, but I always branch out. TS4's the first time* I've added premades to my rotation, though. Typically I ignore or delete them, as I prefer playing my own sims & scenarios. TS4's also the first time I've made HHs not to nurture them them through life, but to #tortureyoursims! Not that I can keep that up forever. Poor things! Eventually I take pity on them. Even evil, mean, insensitive, etc. sims can change their ways!
Have fun!
*terrible grammar but I trust you understand what I mean!
Comments
It started well. everyone was in a good mood (except for Kalamainu'u, but that was only to be expected).
Morgan earned his first points quickly and easily. It all started going wrong when his helpful neighbours Emiri and Makani each took an unfinished garden salad and finished it. They were just being nice... but Morgan needed to finish those himself in order to earn the points!
Kalamainu'u took a nap in Morgan's bed. She sank into the bed as if it was the sea.
Everyone was crowding around the kitchen counters, so Morgan was unable to prepare more meals. (At least Kalamainu'u was being unexpectedly nice and decided to help with the cleaning!)
Some of the guests were dancing around the fire, but they didn't count as dancing sims for the purpose of the point counting.
As the clock was ticking, I realised gold was out of question. Morgan earned silver again.
This irritated only me, not Morgan. He was blissfully dazed from the kava.
As the guests were leaving, he tried to firedance and set his leg on fire.
Nalani was the last to leave. She stayed while Morgan was putting away the leftovers.
Before leaving, she squeaked like a dolphin again, and then blew him a kiss.
Still remember waking up late at night or early in the morning (eta: when I was a kid, I meant to say) to find inebriated guests from my parents' house-warming party touring my room!
Now to work! He has around 7000, and with a little bit of luck he might reach his 10,000 goal today.
His garden needs care again, but it also gives him about a hundred simoleons worth of fruit and vegetables.
But in diving for treasure, luck is not on his side at all. The first dive gives him nothing, the second a small treasure worth 130.
However, when he swims back he finds his fishing traps full. After emptying them and selling everything he doesn't need, he has 8,685. We're getting somewhere now!
Then he goes to Ohan'ali Town to pick up ALL THE SHELLS.
He ends the day by fishing, and catches his first big fish, a sturgeon worth over 100 simoleons.
Almost there! After selling the shells and the fish he has 9,835.
He returns to his little off-the-grid island to sleep. Will this be his last night under the open sky?
(Endnote: although Morgan is allowed to own a house when he earns 10,000, I would like him to earn a few thousand more and buy a finished little house in Lani St. Taz rather than build something on his current off-the-grid lot. Living off the grid is fun as an obstacle to overcome, but not as a way to spend a sim's whole life!)
I've been reading along on Morgan's adventures since the beginning and have really enjoyed it. Sorry I haven't commented till now. I've been a lazy lurker.
I, too, would wait until Morgan can afford to live elsewhere. Being off the grid is no fun after a while. He can't even play the sims!
Abandoned Kids Challenge and Toddler Mania Challenge stories are complete.
@WinterKhirin , thanks for the reminder that removing the trait from the existing lot is also an option! I think I will move Morgan to Lani St. Taz anyway, because I like the idea of a Sim that started out with nothing moving into the richest part of town. But after he moves out, I will remove the off-grid trait from the little island and make it into a community lot.
The bird of paradise plant Morgan grew from a flower he fished out of the sea is in bloom! The flowers are more valuable than the fruit and vegetables he has been growing, so today's harvest is worth a little bit more. After selling it he has 10,152 simoleons. He is over the finish line!
He keeps one of each harvestable, though, so that he can plant them outside his future home. And now, let's earn final two and a half thousand he needs to buy the home!
His shower chooses this moment to break. Repairing it takes some time, but at least he finally earns the handiness skill.
After that he goes diving, but the treasure and shells he finds are almost worthless. He only gets his funds up to 10,322.
He meets Makoa Kealoha and swims up to him for a brief chat.
Then he swims across to the volcano island, to clear away some rubbish from the beach while he is waiting for his traps to be full.
He spots Leila Illes poaching, and runs over to her to ask her to stop. Had she obeyed, he would have got paid 250 simoleons. But she refuses. Luck doesn't seem to be on his side today!
And finally, the fishing traps are full! The wait was worth it - he got two valuable hearts of Sulani and various fish and upgrade parts. He sells most of his haul, and then puts away the traps in his inventory.
"Hello, is this the Sulani real Estate office? I'd like to buy a house."
And here it is! A house of his very own, overlooking the Sand Simoleons beach!
It is sparsely decorated, but it has electricity, plumbing and WiFi! As for the decorations, Morgan will soon fill it with seashells anyway.
Before going to sleep, Morgan plants the harvestables he had saved and places the fishing traps in the ocean. He will continue to sustain himself by gardening, fishing and collecting.
END NOTE: this was incredibly fun to play! Morgan would have reached his goal much quicker if I had just placed ten or more fishing traps in the water, but it felt more interesting if he did a little bit of everything every day, working on several skills and on his friendships with the islanders at the same time.
I will continue to play this save in a more relaxed way, and although I won't chronicle every day of Morgan's life anymore, I will occasionally post some screenshots and news about his life in this thread.
Many thanks to everyone who has been reading and commenting!
Now there's an entertaining idea! I suppose the closest we can come to a bug-report is calling our various representatives and demanding they fixit (which I do!). Too bad our reps generally keep the tally of these real-life 'bug-reports' secret. ...Petitions might also be considered similar to bug-reports, & they're easy to me-too!
Another amusing idea is to imagine our sims filing bug-reports for themselves. I'm quite certain that some of them would object to some of the things I make them do!
(sorry my response is so late--I've been away from the forum. Nice to come back to your story!)
Have fun!
*terrible grammar but I trust you understand what I mean!