Enjoyed all of your posts my friends. I just love it here. 🥰
Y'all, I dunno how I've gotten so busy these days after NOT having a job anymore!? (How does that work? 🤷🏻♀️ ) I need to play and post again, but gosh darnit I feel like I haven't had much time!
I will make the time this weekend. I will! Y'all hold me to that ok?
I will admit that I have been trying to familiarize myself with the new AHQ forum and posting on the threads for the past few days. Sigh...it's hard learning new things sometimes, but it's good for growth.
This is a fun thread created by our dear @texansky over there and y'all should check it out. Maybe even post about your own most memorable Sims, and why they are. 👍🏻
Just popping in fir old time's sake I see that they have moved this to a new area of the forums! Was worried they had shut it for a moment lol I have not played the game for a while as I have another job working in a hospital at the moment. I did make a Sim a while ago but nothing more since then. I do still think of the game and the forums from time to time
@emorrill Thank you! I have been wanting to post in this thread for a long time. I can't wait till this summer when we get our one home for the sims community.
Melody and Noah graduate from High School and embark on their adult lives with some big changes on the horizon. Kressida's daycare takes off and she gets to wear her mother of the groom hat for the first time! It looks like Noah and Orion are making waves with the daughters of a certain other Great Family...
I'm very not sure if this is the first of my posts that will be lost into the void come July
@lizzielilyy I believe you can make posts that won't disappear into the void until midnight March 12th in whatever time zone the forum finds itself in.
I've had an interesting couple of hours this morning reading through a few old threads that we won't have access to soon. I especially enjoyed the content posted by MrHawk who no longer seems to visit Sims forums. He has done an amazing job fixing thousands of stencils for our store content we have purchased that have hidden extra stencils on them. His studio is well worth a visit if you are looking to extend your store content. He hasn't made new stencils so it isn't custom content, it's just enabling stencils we already have but are not able to use without his fixes.
EDIT: There are others who have enabled stencils too. Such as Aznsensei and Bily_jednorozec and others who I can't remember right now. But if you're interested in extending your store content checking out their studios might be something you'd find interesting. You have to already own the store content to benefit from the stencils.
Now I'm off to play my game for a while. I'm almost ready to start putting the next episode of The Perfect Genetics Challenge together. But it will still take me a week or more to get it done.
One old thread I'm particularly enjoying is my 'Mysterious Mr Gnome' thread. It goes for about 26 pages and has contributions by numerous simmers. It is full of great advice and pictures of all of the magic gnomes in Sims 3. So if you enjoy the gnomes, you may have some fun having a look through it and you might learn something about them while you're at it.
EDIT: I've made a copy of my posts in the Mysterious Mr Gnome thread. The thread has 24 pages. I thought I might copy 2 or 3 of them just to have a memory of it. I found it full of such fascinating information people had posted about their gnomes that I ended up copying almost all of my posts and got text from a few others with info I couldn't remember about their gnomes. In the end, I couldn't find a convenient place to stop and have now just got to the end of the thread. The final post was by @rumbutter. We had been having a chat about gnomes and had been responding to each other. Her final post ended up to be the last we were permitted to have in the thread when it was closed.
The thread started in May 2013 and the last post was in January 2021 when it got locked for being too old and to prevent further necroposting. I haven't counted the number of simmers who posted in it but there were a lot of us. It had been a very popular thread.
I didn't ask for it to be copied across to the new forum. But will think about doing a summary from info on the gnomes to start a new thread in the new forum if I think there might be interest. I will wait to see what the new forums are like before doing that though. It is possible my efforts of this morning my just have been a nostalgic waste of my time.
I found quite a few people posting in this old thread said they never did anything with the gnomes in their games until coming across that thread and they then found a whole new aspect of their games to enjoy.
Next chapter about the band "The Bushweeds" autumn tour posted at the Bewickton blog.. this time with a concert as they head to the venue known as "The Cave" to play for the night.
The venue is literally a cave located in a former bomb shelter under the Newstead Park, now being run by students volunteering to keep this legendary rock club alive!
"The Cave" here is based on a real place called "Hulen", which translates to as you may have guessed.. "The Cave". I used to spend my years there when I was a student myself and a much younger punk then I am now..
Sam had never seen such a venue before. This place was definately something special.. dark, damp and just the right amount of dirty.... looks like the perfect place for vampires and other such dark and twisted late night individuals... totally not me being nostalgic about a different time..
..then it was time for the band to play their concert, another one in a long line of concerts with not much of an audience. Even the paparazzo seemed to find the restroom signs more interesting than the band...
..but I think I've found a trick now which I'll try next time, to set all the other venues and hangout places to "No Visitors Allowed". That should hopefully generate a little more traffic... poor band, driving for miles and miles to play for empty rooms!
Not very surprising this takes a toll on their patience, and Sam and Gerda ended up fighting with each other after Sam accused her of skipping the line at the bar...
I finished writing all the tomb walkthroughs for World Adventures today! This weekend I finished the remaining tombs in China and Egypt so now I've done all 11 in France, 9 in China, and 15 in Egypt.
Aimee, my adventurer, had to break a space rock to continue her quest to find Dong Huo's Treasure Trove
When she got there she kicked his butt into dust! Or sand?
I loved this shot of the Terracotta Army
And this one of the Great Sphinx
I think World Adventures is my favourite pack outside of the likes of Seasons and Generations!
The twins and Cosmo graduate High School, marking the beginning of the transition from Kressida to Persephone. Meanwhile, Noah and her twin brother are forced through a summit of the Goth and Evergreen families as their relationships with Cassandra Goth's granddaughters heat up. Will the boys be able to convince Mildred and Tilly's father to let them pursue his daughters?
@texansky I retextured nearly perfect pedestals yes which is my favorite object in the sims 3, I did a search and found this image and use sims 3 pattern maker to upload the pattern to create a box looking object.
It's two different household, the picture with the female sims is from a story I'm writing, and the other house belong to triple brothers, one of them is in the picture above watering the lawn, I just moved them again, so I have to start over again.
In Flames – 'The Beginning Of All Things That Will End'
(acoustic instrumental)
Well hello again world. Here is the next chapter about the band, now as they head further south for the second to last concert of their tour...
Of course, their morning begins with the usual party spirit, before they have to get into the car again to drive for their next destination - good old Sunset Valley.
The following day the band decides to split up to hang out at different locations on their own, seeing as how they have virtually (ha, virtually, get it..?) lived on top of each other for the past week or so..
Kajsa, beign the most avant-garde and interested in art pays a visit to the Sunset Valley Art Association (founded in 1904) to do the smustle dance and paint what she thinks could be their next album cover...
Sam goes to Amundsen and Co. Cartoon Store (the local nerd hangout...) to play arcade games, where he is noticed by the young aspiring politician Ingrid Kråkesen-Karlsen who just happen to skip work for the occasion...
Gerda being more of a collector goes to the local junkyard to look for treasure or trash...
Merete decides to go fishing at the Åtindbugen Fisherman huts, but since she didn't bring any bait, she has very limited luck getting anything special...
Then its time to head for tonights concert which will happen at the Garage pub. Will they get an audience this time...?
Yes they will, for a change! The powers that be found a way to hold a hand over them and finally give them the audience they deserved! However, they do act a little strange, preferring to watch the band from the side of the stage instead of directly in front, but atleast they're present and paying attention!
..and I'm not exaggarating when I'm saying the bar was chock full of people that night, with more things happening during the night than I could pay attention to or even cover without making the update atleast twice as long - probably! Not everyone chose to watch the concert though, as the stage is located in the basement and some visitors never went down there, but stayed in the bar on the ground floor.
So how did I do it? Well, the trick that I tried first, by setting every other venue and location to 'No Visitors Allowed' had no effect - the bar was just as empty as ever, but...
..then I discovered that if I click on the venue, select NRAAS -> Master Controller -> Invite Over - I got the option to invite sims to the lot by the usual categories (Gender, Career, First name, Last name, etc.), so I invited as many as I thought necessary, which was probably quite a few to many, because the place was literally packed, and not just in sims 3 terms, no it was actually pretty packed! So now I know that this works, and that I can successfully invite over a little less sims next time. Cheerio!
---
From here on I haven't yet decided how much I will post on this forum between here and July, but I still plan to continue posting my updates on my blog as usual... so, yeah, if I'm not here, then I'll be there...
Hello, everyone! Here I am again on what may be or may be not the last day this thread is open. Thanks a lot to those people who commented on the start of my "lepacy", especially @texansky . Glad you liked those humble beginnings!
In this post, I want to just post the background for the second generation, which will see the activation of the World Adventures EP. As I said, there will be no traveling involved, which means, the "world adventures" have to come to the little island. Here's just some write-up in story form to explain the background of the whole thing.
___________________________________________________________________
The rain shower had moved on. The evening sun made the wet leaves on the rolling hills of Champs-Les-Sims sparkle. These vineyards had been at the center of much of his life's work, and Francois had done his part in making the wines of this village prestigious all over the world. Already quite some years ago, he had achieved everything he wanted and switched over to sending hapless Simerican tourists on treasure hunts, which served the main purpose of keeping the value of his wine cellar in stratospheric heights. However, even the sight of singed Simericans had been getting old after a while, and, lately, he got a bit lax when it came to filling treasure chests with fake coins and baubles and reactivating traps.
A car pulled up, and his friend Pascal was approaching the house. Francois had not seen Pascal in a while. Pascal was visibly older, but still sported an energetic walk. Francois' daughter Jeannine answered the door. "Bonsoir, tonton!" She always hung at Pascal's lips when he was here on a visit and talking about foreign countries and exciting stories when she was a teenager. "Bonsoir, Jeannine". Now, everyone was older, the visits had become sparse and the stories rather subdued. Today promised to be a bit different though.
"Bonsoir, Francois!"
"Bonsoir, mon ami. How is life treating you?"
"Excellent! I hope you find what I'm about to tell you interesting."
Francois had already picked up a few hints on the phone, and he was, indeed, intrigued. "I sure do!"
"Then let me start right away, because we don't have much time."
Pascal made himself comfortable in one of the armchairs.
"You may have heard that, quite some years ago, the Simericans established a restricted zone somewhere in the Pasimfic, where the maps showed a rather unremarkable small island that wasn't really owned by anyone. We always suspected they may have planned a military base there, but that never seemed to have come to fruition. The restricted zone stayed, and to everyone's suprise, the zone is protected by Simerican and Chinese ships at the same time. We were never able to figure out what led to this. Until now."
Pascal paused, but Francois just nodded.
"On a recent visit to Shang Simla, one of our agents picked up a remarkable conversation that shed some light on the situation. Our suspicion proved to be correct. The Simericans had prepared the island for inhabitation, moved sand and soil around, paved roads, put all the electric wires and water lines in the ground and already landed lots of building materials, furniture, etc. You would have thought they would start with the harbor, but that one was held up in the planning stage. On a day where almost all Simericans were gone for a holiday, a Chinese commando landed and destroyed all electronics in the radio tower, before the few Simericans could do anything about it. The following stand-off led to the situation we have today, where nobody is permitted to land on the island."
Francois pondered. "I heard that the Simerican congress had abolished the funding of some unnamed harbor project. Was it this one?
"Indeed. I doubt the Simericans would have backed out otherwise."
"Okay. But what has this to do with Champs-les-Sims or me?"
"I'll get to that immediately. No ship was to enter the restricted zone, but during a typhoon night, a small ship with seven Simericans shipwrecked on the island. The Simerican navy wanted to send a rescue team, but the Chinese pointed to the treaty and said No. Which meant those people were stranded. To everyone's suprise, they actually built houses and infrastructure on the island, and they got children. Our agents said that the Chinese were now afraid that their refusal to allow a rescue team was a big mistake. They are afraid, with many sims born on this island, they may just vote one day to join Simerica, when the inevitable first contact is made. The Chinese want to prevent just that. And here comes the interesting part."
Pascal made another dramatic pause, but Francois' glimpse made clear he wanted Pascal to just get to the point.
"See, the Chinese have decided to just change the island's demographics by having one of their own civilian ships crash on the beach. This allows them to bring some Chinese culture to the island. Their cargo contains some truly bizarre items good for a museum. Anyway, they will cause some distraction on the other side of the island that will divert the attention of their own and the Simerican patrol ships away from the would-be shipwreck. I actually like their plan, and I guess it's time to show the world that they should not forget about us."
Francois lit up. "Right, everyone forgets about us and our interests in that region. What's the plan?"
"The opportunity is just too good for just one shipwreck. We will send a ship of our own."
"Won't they see and stop us?"
"We are counting on the fact that the civilian ship will see our boat, as we will approach from a similar angle, but stay quiet. They would risk their own mission if they did anything against us. It's time to bring those Simerican outcasts some culture!"
"Huh?"
"Viticulture, that is! Why do you think I contacted you? We have some interesting new varieties of grape that showed high resistance to tropical temperatures, humid conditions and lack of a winter break. Of course, we already have some tests started on some of our islands, but I want some of your folk here to move the project forward on this lovely little island and, hopefully, help the population with forming their own identity. I have already contacted a couple of hopefuls."
From the direction of the door, a loud argument could be heard at this point. Francois sighed.
"You didn't choose Estelle and Gerard? Those two never get along."
To prove him right, Gerard made his opinion heard "I tried your grand cru from last year, and I've never had a more vile concoction than that horrible liquid. At least it was that caustic that I could clean those of my tanks that proved to be resistant to bleach with it." Estelle wasn't exactly distraught. "Good that you mention bleach, because that explains the dominant flavor in your latest Meloire. You are even too cheap to flush your tanks after cleaning them." Gerard's face was fire red by now. "You take that back!"
Francois sighed again. "That will never work. They will already kill each other on the boat."
Pascal smiled. "See, that's why we meet here. It's not only because I wanted to see you once again. What do you think about building up a new nectary from scratch? A last hurrah that will plant your name squarely on mankind's history."
Francois had to chuckle at Pascal's exaggeration, but Pascal had hit a nerve. One last big thing to try in life. Yes.
Jeannine didn't even have to wait for her father's answer. "Of course, I will accompany you. No objections acceptable!"
Pascal grinned from ear to ear. However, there was one last point. "You two know that this may mean that we will never see each other again, do you?"
"Oui, mon ami." Hit with emotions, Pascal gave Jeannine a big hug. Francois turned to the room:
"On y va!"
_____________________________________________
I hope that explains the setup. Pictures of the island come soon.
Britown saw the "Night of the two shipwrecks", and I added some sims from the WA worlds. From Champs-Les-Sims, it were the Lambert, Fouchaud (I renamed them Durand) and Morel families, and from Shang Simla, we got the Lu and Hua families, plus the Min-Shen household. Egypt came later with a single family (Amin, I think).
A few images are in order, I guess. Beatrice Murray and Tanner Stewart were the start of generation 2, as mentioned last post. Tanner looks rather similar to his father, though that may be because he has the same haircut.
They also had several children, although not as many as generation 1.
For the WA buildings, I copied three over from Shang Simla, although I adapted them to the island somewhat. In the story, the Shang Simla residents brought the knowledge to make roof tiles over, which is why we now have standardized roof tiles all over the island.
You can see the (slightly edited) Academy in the background left, which proved to be very popular.
For the Champs-Les-Sims households, I also copied three buildings, also with minor edits.
And, of course, we got the nectary.
The main city park proves to be popular, too. This one came, except some minor edits, with the world.
The newcomers didn't waste any time with starting a new generation of their own, here Edith Morel and Lin Hua.
A view of the "Simerican" part of the town from the park.
The building on the right side is the new hospital, which is the next rabbithole job opportunity. I don't seem to have taken any image, heh.
Some kids doing homework at the gym.
The main residential area.
According to the story, the three groups settled in separate areas, after some big arguments. To smooth a bit over the differences, an Egyptian family as a neutral party was sent in, who live in this house.
However, things settled down rather quickly. The first mixed couple was Biyu Shen with one of the Anderson sons, who founded their own family.
Charlie Reid (Xander Clavell) and Adaeze Min tried, but they are both hot-headed, which didn't work. Anyway, Adaeze got two kids, one from Charlie and one from Francois Lambert.
The third generation is also on its way. This will be started by Staci Stewart, here at the science/school lot with some of her relatives.
But that's a tale for some other time.
Another Throwback Picture. Simbujah at the Starlight Summer Jam Festival!
Today I am playing a new vampire that just moved to Bridgeport, Tracie Parrish. She lives on the top floor of an old apartment building down by the docks in Bridgeport. Catalina's vampire family dates back to 1618 and they own most of the old buildings down by the docks in Bridgeport including this apartment building. Catalina's mom, Jennifer Redder (Oh jenny!) is continuously trying to keep her mischievous young adult daughter out of trouble while she runs for city council for the 60th time. Catalina was put on maintenance duty along with being the new property owner of the Redder Apartments. Today Catalina is fixing things like a good vamp while her new boo, Darnell (hybrid vampire/fairy) is in the studio with his band.
My sim just sat down at the computer. I checked what she was doing and it said she was making an inappropriate forum post. She has that trait. I thought of changing it but decided not to as I wouldn't be playing her much and she might liven things up occasionally. She's an imaginary friend made real. It's my Perfect Genetics Challenge game. And I'm just finalising the last few things some of them need to read before Don moves to the house across the road. I'm really looking forward to getting into that house as those sims are interesting and I haven't played any of them for years. We do see them around town occasionally. I'm still in Mountain Lake.
@misty4m That hangeout spot looks like it will be super fun! I remember Making The Band! I wanted to join but I think I was too late...then Volcals came up. I sprinted to that competition. I quickly made 3 new sims who are now part of my legacy saves! I really miss those competitions in the modeling section of sims 3. The forum was so crowded with talented people 10-15 yrs ago! I learned how to edit a picture..in-game picture with the sims 3!
Comments
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Sorry for the mix up...@Brandontaylor I meant what I said.
Leon, Joyce and their baby girl Shavon in their Island Paradise kitchen.
Enjoyed all of your posts my friends.
Y'all, I dunno how I've gotten so busy these days after NOT having a job anymore!?
I will make the time this weekend. I will!
I will admit that I have been trying to familiarize myself with the new AHQ forum and posting on the threads for the past few days. Sigh...it's hard learning new things sometimes, but it's good for growth.
This is a fun thread created by our dear @texansky over there and y'all should check it out.
Have fun simming everyone!
@king_of_simcity7 It's so good to see you!
Melody and Noah graduate from High School and embark on their adult lives with some big changes on the horizon. Kressida's daycare takes off and she gets to wear her mother of the groom hat for the first time! It looks like Noah and Orion are making waves with the daughters of a certain other Great Family...
I'm very not sure if this is the first of my posts that will be lost into the void come July
@MiataPlay Your band is much hotter than mine.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
EDIT: There are others who have enabled stencils too. Such as Aznsensei and Bily_jednorozec and others who I can't remember right now. But if you're interested in extending your store content checking out their studios might be something you'd find interesting. You have to already own the store content to benefit from the stencils.
Then I found link to a survey in this thread
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/1012877/an-important-update-on-the-future-of-these-forums#latest
The thread is only 1 page long and is interesting if you are interested in what's happening with the forums from here on and the survey asks us what we would like to find in the new forum.
Now I'm off to play my game for a while. I'm almost ready to start putting the next episode of The Perfect Genetics Challenge together. But it will still take me a week or more to get it done.
Happy Simming
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/678757/mysterious-mr-gnome
Have fun
EDIT: I've made a copy of my posts in the Mysterious Mr Gnome thread. The thread has 24 pages. I thought I might copy 2 or 3 of them just to have a memory of it. I found it full of such fascinating information people had posted about their gnomes that I ended up copying almost all of my posts and got text from a few others with info I couldn't remember about their gnomes. In the end, I couldn't find a convenient place to stop and have now just got to the end of the thread. The final post was by @rumbutter. We had been having a chat about gnomes and had been responding to each other. Her final post ended up to be the last we were permitted to have in the thread when it was closed.
The thread started in May 2013 and the last post was in January 2021 when it got locked for being too old and to prevent further necroposting. I haven't counted the number of simmers who posted in it but there were a lot of us. It had been a very popular thread.
I didn't ask for it to be copied across to the new forum. But will think about doing a summary from info on the gnomes to start a new thread in the new forum if I think there might be interest. I will wait to see what the new forums are like before doing that though. It is possible my efforts of this morning my just have been a nostalgic waste of my time.
I found quite a few people posting in this old thread said they never did anything with the gnomes in their games until coming across that thread and they then found a whole new aspect of their games to enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
Next chapter about the band "The Bushweeds" autumn tour posted at the Bewickton blog.. this time with a concert as they head to the venue known as "The Cave" to play for the night.
The venue is literally a cave located in a former bomb shelter under the Newstead Park, now being run by students volunteering to keep this legendary rock club alive!
Sam had never seen such a venue before. This place was definately something special.. dark, damp and just the right amount of dirty.... looks like the perfect place for vampires and other such dark and twisted late night individuals... totally not me being nostalgic about a different time..
..then it was time for the band to play their concert, another one in a long line of concerts with not much of an audience. Even the paparazzo seemed to find the restroom signs more interesting than the band...
..but I think I've found a trick now which I'll try next time, to set all the other venues and hangout places to "No Visitors Allowed". That should hopefully generate a little more traffic... poor band, driving for miles and miles to play for empty rooms!
Not very surprising this takes a toll on their patience, and Sam and Gerda ended up fighting with each other after Sam accused her of skipping the line at the bar...
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Aimee, my adventurer, had to break a space rock to continue her quest to find Dong Huo's Treasure Trove
When she got there she kicked his butt into dust! Or sand?
I loved this shot of the Terracotta Army
And this one of the Great Sphinx
I think World Adventures is my favourite pack outside of the likes of Seasons and Generations!
The twins and Cosmo graduate High School, marking the beginning of the transition from Kressida to Persephone. Meanwhile, Noah and her twin brother are forced through a summit of the Goth and Evergreen families as their relationships with Cassandra Goth's granddaughters heat up. Will the boys be able to convince Mildred and Tilly's father to let them pursue his daughters?
It's two different household, the picture with the female sims is from a story I'm writing, and the other house belong to triple brothers, one of them is in the picture above watering the lawn, I just moved them again, so I have to start over again.
Chapter 12.9 – The Bushweeds Autumn Tour 2023: part IX – The Beginning Of All Things That Will End.
In Flames – 'The Beginning Of All Things That Will End'
(acoustic instrumental)
Well hello again world. Here is the next chapter about the band, now as they head further south for the second to last concert of their tour...
Of course, their morning begins with the usual party spirit, before they have to get into the car again to drive for their next destination - good old Sunset Valley.
The following day the band decides to split up to hang out at different locations on their own, seeing as how they have virtually (ha, virtually, get it..?) lived on top of each other for the past week or so..
Kajsa, beign the most avant-garde and interested in art pays a visit to the Sunset Valley Art Association (founded in 1904) to do the smustle dance and paint what she thinks could be their next album cover...
Sam goes to Amundsen and Co. Cartoon Store (the local nerd hangout...) to play arcade games, where he is noticed by the young aspiring politician Ingrid Kråkesen-Karlsen who just happen to skip work for the occasion...
Gerda being more of a collector goes to the local junkyard to look for treasure or trash...
Merete decides to go fishing at the Åtindbugen Fisherman huts, but since she didn't bring any bait, she has very limited luck getting anything special...
Then its time to head for tonights concert which will happen at the Garage pub. Will they get an audience this time...?
Yes they will, for a change! The powers that be found a way to hold a hand over them and finally give them the audience they deserved! However, they do act a little strange, preferring to watch the band from the side of the stage instead of directly in front, but atleast they're present and paying attention!
..and I'm not exaggarating when I'm saying the bar was chock full of people that night, with more things happening during the night than I could pay attention to or even cover without making the update atleast twice as long - probably! Not everyone chose to watch the concert though, as the stage is located in the basement and some visitors never went down there, but stayed in the bar on the ground floor.
So how did I do it? Well, the trick that I tried first, by setting every other venue and location to 'No Visitors Allowed' had no effect - the bar was just as empty as ever, but...
..then I discovered that if I click on the venue, select NRAAS -> Master Controller -> Invite Over - I got the option to invite sims to the lot by the usual categories (Gender, Career, First name, Last name, etc.), so I invited as many as I thought necessary, which was probably quite a few to many, because the place was literally packed, and not just in sims 3 terms, no it was actually pretty packed! So now I know that this works, and that I can successfully invite over a little less sims next time.
---
From here on I haven't yet decided how much I will post on this forum between here and July, but I still plan to continue posting my updates on my blog as usual... so, yeah, if I'm not here, then I'll be there...
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
In this post, I want to just post the background for the second generation, which will see the activation of the World Adventures EP. As I said, there will be no traveling involved, which means, the "world adventures" have to come to the little island. Here's just some write-up in story form to explain the background of the whole thing.
___________________________________________________________________
The rain shower had moved on. The evening sun made the wet leaves on the rolling hills of Champs-Les-Sims sparkle. These vineyards had been at the center of much of his life's work, and Francois had done his part in making the wines of this village prestigious all over the world. Already quite some years ago, he had achieved everything he wanted and switched over to sending hapless Simerican tourists on treasure hunts, which served the main purpose of keeping the value of his wine cellar in stratospheric heights. However, even the sight of singed Simericans had been getting old after a while, and, lately, he got a bit lax when it came to filling treasure chests with fake coins and baubles and reactivating traps.
"Bonsoir, Francois!"
"Bonsoir, mon ami. How is life treating you?"
"Excellent! I hope you find what I'm about to tell you interesting."
Francois had already picked up a few hints on the phone, and he was, indeed, intrigued. "I sure do!"
"Then let me start right away, because we don't have much time."
Pascal made himself comfortable in one of the armchairs.
"You may have heard that, quite some years ago, the Simericans established a restricted zone somewhere in the Pasimfic, where the maps showed a rather unremarkable small island that wasn't really owned by anyone. We always suspected they may have planned a military base there, but that never seemed to have come to fruition. The restricted zone stayed, and to everyone's suprise, the zone is protected by Simerican and Chinese ships at the same time. We were never able to figure out what led to this. Until now."
Pascal paused, but Francois just nodded.
"On a recent visit to Shang Simla, one of our agents picked up a remarkable conversation that shed some light on the situation. Our suspicion proved to be correct. The Simericans had prepared the island for inhabitation, moved sand and soil around, paved roads, put all the electric wires and water lines in the ground and already landed lots of building materials, furniture, etc. You would have thought they would start with the harbor, but that one was held up in the planning stage. On a day where almost all Simericans were gone for a holiday, a Chinese commando landed and destroyed all electronics in the radio tower, before the few Simericans could do anything about it. The following stand-off led to the situation we have today, where nobody is permitted to land on the island."
Francois pondered. "I heard that the Simerican congress had abolished the funding of some unnamed harbor project. Was it this one?
"Indeed. I doubt the Simericans would have backed out otherwise."
"Okay. But what has this to do with Champs-les-Sims or me?"
"I'll get to that immediately. No ship was to enter the restricted zone, but during a typhoon night, a small ship with seven Simericans shipwrecked on the island. The Simerican navy wanted to send a rescue team, but the Chinese pointed to the treaty and said No. Which meant those people were stranded. To everyone's suprise, they actually built houses and infrastructure on the island, and they got children. Our agents said that the Chinese were now afraid that their refusal to allow a rescue team was a big mistake. They are afraid, with many sims born on this island, they may just vote one day to join Simerica, when the inevitable first contact is made. The Chinese want to prevent just that. And here comes the interesting part."
Pascal made another dramatic pause, but Francois' glimpse made clear he wanted Pascal to just get to the point.
"See, the Chinese have decided to just change the island's demographics by having one of their own civilian ships crash on the beach. This allows them to bring some Chinese culture to the island. Their cargo contains some truly bizarre items good for a museum. Anyway, they will cause some distraction on the other side of the island that will divert the attention of their own and the Simerican patrol ships away from the would-be shipwreck. I actually like their plan, and I guess it's time to show the world that they should not forget about us."
Francois lit up. "Right, everyone forgets about us and our interests in that region. What's the plan?"
"The opportunity is just too good for just one shipwreck. We will send a ship of our own."
"Won't they see and stop us?"
"We are counting on the fact that the civilian ship will see our boat, as we will approach from a similar angle, but stay quiet. They would risk their own mission if they did anything against us. It's time to bring those Simerican outcasts some culture!"
"Huh?"
"Viticulture, that is! Why do you think I contacted you? We have some interesting new varieties of grape that showed high resistance to tropical temperatures, humid conditions and lack of a winter break. Of course, we already have some tests started on some of our islands, but I want some of your folk here to move the project forward on this lovely little island and, hopefully, help the population with forming their own identity. I have already contacted a couple of hopefuls."
From the direction of the door, a loud argument could be heard at this point. Francois sighed.
"You didn't choose Estelle and Gerard? Those two never get along."
To prove him right, Gerard made his opinion heard "I tried your grand cru from last year, and I've never had a more vile concoction than that horrible liquid. At least it was that caustic that I could clean those of my tanks that proved to be resistant to bleach with it." Estelle wasn't exactly distraught. "Good that you mention bleach, because that explains the dominant flavor in your latest Meloire. You are even too cheap to flush your tanks after cleaning them." Gerard's face was fire red by now. "You take that back!"
Francois sighed again. "That will never work. They will already kill each other on the boat."
Pascal smiled. "See, that's why we meet here. It's not only because I wanted to see you once again. What do you think about building up a new nectary from scratch? A last hurrah that will plant your name squarely on mankind's history."
Francois had to chuckle at Pascal's exaggeration, but Pascal had hit a nerve. One last big thing to try in life. Yes.
Jeannine didn't even have to wait for her father's answer. "Of course, I will accompany you. No objections acceptable!"
"Oui, mon ami." Hit with emotions, Pascal gave Jeannine a big hug. Francois turned to the room:
"On y va!"
_____________________________________________
I hope that explains the setup. Pictures of the island come soon.
A few images are in order, I guess. Beatrice Murray and Tanner Stewart were the start of generation 2, as mentioned last post. Tanner looks rather similar to his father, though that may be because he has the same haircut.
They also had several children, although not as many as generation 1.
For the WA buildings, I copied three over from Shang Simla, although I adapted them to the island somewhat. In the story, the Shang Simla residents brought the knowledge to make roof tiles over, which is why we now have standardized roof tiles all over the island.
You can see the (slightly edited) Academy in the background left, which proved to be very popular.
For the Champs-Les-Sims households, I also copied three buildings, also with minor edits.
And, of course, we got the nectary.
The main city park proves to be popular, too. This one came, except some minor edits, with the world.
The newcomers didn't waste any time with starting a new generation of their own, here Edith Morel and Lin Hua.
A view of the "Simerican" part of the town from the park.
The building on the right side is the new hospital, which is the next rabbithole job opportunity. I don't seem to have taken any image, heh.
Some kids doing homework at the gym.
The main residential area.
According to the story, the three groups settled in separate areas, after some big arguments. To smooth a bit over the differences, an Egyptian family as a neutral party was sent in, who live in this house.
However, things settled down rather quickly. The first mixed couple was Biyu Shen with one of the Anderson sons, who founded their own family.
Charlie Reid (Xander Clavell) and Adaeze Min tried, but they are both hot-headed, which didn't work. Anyway, Adaeze got two kids, one from Charlie and one from Francois Lambert.
The third generation is also on its way. This will be started by Staci Stewart, here at the science/school lot with some of her relatives.
But that's a tale for some other time.
Another Throwback Picture. Simbujah at the Starlight Summer Jam Festival!
Today I am playing a new vampire that just moved to Bridgeport, Tracie Parrish. She lives on the top floor of an old apartment building down by the docks in Bridgeport. Catalina's vampire family dates back to 1618 and they own most of the old buildings down by the docks in Bridgeport including this apartment building. Catalina's mom, Jennifer Redder (Oh jenny!) is continuously trying to keep her mischievous young adult daughter out of trouble while she runs for city council for the 60th time. Catalina was put on maintenance duty along with being the new property owner of the Redder Apartments. Today Catalina is fixing things like a good vamp while her new boo, Darnell (hybrid vampire/fairy) is in the studio with his band.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg