There are challenges that I have, finally, thrown the towel in on. And the odd one or two that I actually finished. This is the graveyard that those challenges go to. It includes some real gems from the end of my Sims 3 career – ones I just couldn’t delete, because I was so very attached to them. It also includes my first Drifter Challenge that I restarted when toddlers came out, and all the testing I did for my Apartment Switch Challenge ruleset.

(more…)

Chapter 3.1 | Chapter 3.3

So, here we go.. Starting the generation completely over. Here’s an abbreviated version of rules/goals for this generation as they stand now.

I start by trying to sell flowers in the retail store after spending time making them. Again, they start wilting and selling for very little. – Plus thunderstorms are making it hard to get sales without killing sims.

Oh – and I told you I’d introduce the potential spouses.

Here they are in no particular order:

Hera is the daughter of the two adults in the neighboring house, the others are “fostered” there. Tryphena and Tryphosa are sisters, the rest are unrelated. I spend quite a while trying to decide which one. I’m leaning towards Tryphosa, I don’t know why, I just like her. So I ask on boolprop discord – and nobody there can decide, either. Although it seems to be between Hera and the two sisters. Everyone else got pretty much eliminated. Finally, my hubby suggests rolling a D6 die. So I make him do it, his desk has more room for rolling a real die.

……

……

Number 5… so that means, my favorite wins!! The second die roll was a 6 (hubby was curious) .. and in honor of her second place finish, Hera will be coming back next gen as the spouse for my Roman Heir. Maybe her arms will help balance out the genetics?

I immediately invite her over and start making friends – which is amazingly easy. These two are so cute together, too. Immediately, I’m happier with the challenge, even though I have no idea if I’ll be able to find a way to complete the generation.

Next time at the store, I bring Madelyn… she cleans, restocks, and greets customers, leaving Matteo to work on the flower bench, ring people out, and nap. (Hey, do what you gotta…) I’m still just not making enough money.. and then another thunderstorm moves in. Sigh. Finally, out of sheer frustration, I sell the entire store. I’ll try the yard table. So I remodel the store room to an open-to-the-outside “market” with a yard table. And I set poor Madelyn to selling.

With a higher markup (300%), I’m getting sales, but it’s still slow. And I’m still frustrated and confused. I KNOW I’ve read you can make money with flower arranging, and I’m just not figuring it out.

By this time, He’s low on social and fun, so we invite over Tryph (pronounced “triff” in my head) .. and set about getting a girlfriend. It goes incredibly smoothly – these two must have been destined.

They have dinner together, and mess around for some fun, then she ends up sleeping over.

The next day, I try selling the flowers just with the table so they don’t wilt so fast, and I’m still not able to really make money. Finally, I do some google research and find a helpful hints page. I’ll link it here because it was invaluable: https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/skills/seasons/flower-arranging/ Turns out Matteo’s skill isn’t high enough. I needed level 7 and to scent the arrangements with bluebells – which I have. So I’m making the Cheapest to make ($0) level 1 chrysanthemum arrangement over and over and scenting it with bluebell so it won’t go bad. Pretty soon, I start making masterpieces and selling them without having them wilt at 300% on the table. Matty is finally making money. Things are looking up. However, I don’t take many pictures.. because quite frankly, Flower Arranging is one of the most boring skills there is in the game. And he does very little else.

I laughed so hard when I got this call. I know, no phones in the era.. but I couldn’t help pushing Try for Baby, because it’s what Marl would do. I’ll check next post whether it worked.

When he needs fun, he invites his now-girlfriend over, and they chat and have fun however they can.

Madelyn, however, is NOT having fun at her “job”. She spends a lot of time cleaning, cooking, or playing Llama. Since it’s the middle of winter I try to discourage her from polar bear swimming in the pool – but it’s a challenge.

Then – I get this. Bussed on the cheek like we’re friends or something. Uh-oh there goes messing around for fun. *frown* She grew up to YA. Cue the last three miserable days of Matty’s Teenage Life.

Finally, he makes it to YA. I wasn’t expecting it when he aged up, so it surprised me, but I was able to pick out the right trait anyway, and immediately invited Tryph over.

Matteo: “You still love me, though, right??”

Tryph: Of course!

Matteo: “Then marry me!”

Smooth, buddy. Real Smooth.

However, smooth or not.. it works. They’re engaged. Look at that ring!

I have them get married ASAP. (and right in front of the door since I still can’t figure out how to get a Generic Lot to show up as a possible wedding venue.. I give up. Seriously.)

Then, Matty carries his new bride over the threshold.. and I start considering when to Try for Baby. Should I wait? Should I just go for it? .. He’s also at 68k/75k towards level 3 of his aspiration. So, I’m hoping that 200k total is actually possible. We’ll see. And I can always wait to pick the heir til later, I did with Skyor, after all. So I’ll probably have them TFB tonite. Well, not tonite. Next post. =D Because this is as good a place to stop as any… and I’m finally feeling more confident about this generation. Which is amazing.

Chapter 3.1 | Chapter 3.3

Chapter 2.5 | Chapter 3.2

Okay, I’ll be completely honest here.. I struggled getting ready for this generation. Mostly because I’m still in testing mode, and part of my concern is making sure the challenge is playable through all the generations. Which isn’t going to be an easy task. Now, if you’ve read ahead, you have a sense of the next couple generations after this one, and I won’t go into details so as to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them… but it’s going to be important that everything you’ve worked for (wealth and house value-wise) is able to be brought with you so you can progress through generations. This being said: Sims 4 does not make it easy to do just that without taking the entire family with you. So, I’m adding to the main rules directions on how to move from generation to generation. Obviously, I didn’t do this before this generation, so I’ll forfeit the work done on the first house.

Moving from Generation to Generation: Use the phone, select “Move Household”, then move the entire household to the next lot. When prompted, click to sell all furnishings. Move to the next house/lot and hit pause as soon as you load. Go back into Manage World, and click “Manage Households”. Choose the family in question, and click the button with the two arrows – to transfer sims. Create a new household on the right and move all but your heir to this house, leaving the money alone. This will prompt you to create a new household with no funds. Say yes. This will leave your heir alone in their new home with all the work you’ve done intact. One further note: if you’re like me, you don’t want to leave your old family “high and dry” as the saying goes. Take your relatives, and Move them back into the old home. While moving, it will show that you can’t afford to move them in. Fix this by opening the cheat code window, typing in “testingcheats on” then “freerealestate on” – and wa-lah, the lot will be purchase-able. Once they’re all settled back at home, turn cheats back off with “testingcheats off”, load up your heir’s household, and you’re ready to play. This seems like a lot of trouble, I know, but NOT doing this will make the challenge next to impossible to play… so just trust me on this.

Now that all that has been said, I can keep going. Here’s the rules for Gen 3 at the time I’m playing this. Do realize the actual rule page may show different rules – because this is still in testing and they may change. I will not be coming back to edit these to reflect any of those changes.

After finally figuring out how to move poor Matteo into his new house with the “right” amount of funds, he takes a moment to look at the sea.

He then heads forlornly to “explore” his new domicile. He’s sad because he missed his birthday, of course. But he’ll get over it, eventually.

Since we have no servant yet, poor Matty has to make his own dinner. Miraculously, he doesn’t set the house on fire.

He then has a very lonely dinner. At which point, he has to pee… and I figure out I royally messed up the house I built for this generation… I put in stuff that doesn’t work off-the-grid. So I have to fix all of that, take down the “bad” version, and put up a new one. Fun. Then he can pee. LOL.

We buy the retail lot I put next door, and stock it with as close to appropriate stuff to sell as I can find in the catalog. Spoiler: it’s pouring rain… and it’s an outdoor market.

Oh, look, Skyor’s youngest sister grew up.. and is shopping here. Long way from Sulani, eh…?

Aha! One of the teenage girl sims I madeover for spouse potentials shows up. And it’s the one I don’t particularly like. Meet Helle. Just then, the rain turned to thunderstorm, and in fear for poor Matty, we went to meet the rest of the girls at the neighbor house.

There’s also a “mom” and “dad” (although technically they’re only related to the one teen… I’ll explain and introduce the girls next post.) .. and nobody really invites poor Matty in.. so we go home.

We call a young adult we met at the market, and invite her over. He’s flexing his non-existent arm muscles, and I had to take a picture while laughing my rear end off.

We move her in as our chosen “servant” .. and give her a peasant-looking makeover. Her name is Madelyn the Loner. (Loner, Active, ? – and wants to be an actress. Sorry, Maddy.)

Matty needs fun.. so we add a Llama game (because it’s surely been around since then… lol)

While Madelyn gets put to work instantly.

By this time, I’d decided to try flower arranging as our money making skill for this gen (switched from plain old retail..).. and so I re-do the store room as two rooms, putting in an indoor flower garden in the second.

Then we get Matteo busy on crafting. He seems confused by it. Maybe he should have paid attention to his mom’s gardening more.

More laundry. It never ends!

That black lump in the chair is Madelyn – I swear. She set the kitchen on fire as well as herself, so Matteo saved her and most of the kitchen. She had to remake dinner.

We meet my favorite of the girls, Tryphosa… isn’t she just adorable?

I have them do some stargazing until they’re friends.. then I try to do some more skilling and selling.

Spoiler: Skilling works, selling – not so much. I try to sell the flowers at the retail store/market.. they sell eventually – but not for much – and they keep wilting. This is so not working. With everything that keeps going wrong with my plans, I decide to re-think the whole generation rules…. and also to restart the entire generation. I save Madelyn, because I like her – and the teen family. Then I take an extended break while I try to figure out what to do (and to calm down). Yet again. The above rules have been edited for what they’re going to be as of the next post, when I start over, so I won’t be re-posting them next post other than to have a little abbreviated goal box. See you then!

Chapter 2.5 | Chapter 3.2

Chapter 2.4 | Chapter 3.1

An abbreviated version of our goals for this generation:

Yup. We’re done. And after putting quite a bit of thought into it, I decided it was ridiculous to wait to start the next gen until young adult if kids can move out at teen still. So I updated the rules. … Which means that we have literally 8 days left until the next generation starts. Or about that. We do have to wait for Matteo to age up on his own, so it’ll be slightly longer.

Since we have nothing better to do, I have them playing the.. um.. ancient game of Don’t Wake the Llama quite a bit this week. I mean, it’s just a bunch of sticks and a carved Llama, right? No technology needed.

Thalia spends a lot of time with Maliyah – possibly because everyone else is playing with sticks.. or perhaps it’s because she’s always low on social. Thalia, that is. Mali is fine on social. Still – a cute interaction.

Family dinner, part one.

Part two. This is where they usually eat. Sad, but it’s the easiest.

After dinner, Marl spins herself up to Adult. Don’t worry, sweetie, you’re still gorgeous. *grin* .. Oh, and I was waiting to see if the last Try for Baby worked. Apparently not, since she just aged up.

.. Which means that, since Skyor needs “fun”.. we’ll have to Try for Baby instead of just Woohoo.

I finally remember the bees for a change.

Ah, yes. The old “mopping the mess that isn’t there” trick. Very nice. Thanks for helping, Matteo. I think.

Wait. Seriously. There’s nothing there. Matteo just cleaned.. nothing. And now you are. And I SWEAR the toddler didn’t make another mess in between, because Mali is SOUND ASLEEP. Sims are weird.

It occurs to me that I could save up some more money for future generations. So Skyor goes on a marathon bathtub spree. Again. Do you think he’s sick and tired of carving bathtubs? I would be!!

Marl: “.. Um.. guess what, Skyor. We’re expecting again.”

Skyor: “… Whaaa?”

Marl: “.. Yup. You know. Nooboo. Soon.”

Me: *facepalm*

Hey, technically, you chose to wash laundry yourself. Don’t complain to me!

And, yes, I know Thalia isn’t doing it. She’s doing what I told her to do – try to sell some of those concoctions that have been sitting there for a couple weeks.

Midnight visitation again. Spoiler: talking to it actually works for a change. But the other kids are all still upset and wake up the parents. Sigh.

Thalia taking care of little Mali, again.

One word: EW. I send Skyor over to fix it. This picture plays into the next one, so it’s not just to show a nasty toilet. LOL.

SEE?? Is fixed. And that puddle is not all because it was broken. Poor Marl doesn’t make it literally around the corner from her bedroom and pees herself. Sigh.

The next day, we get that orange message again – it’s baby time!

Welcome to a little girl – Anaya the Sweet.

!!!!! How cute are those! I’ve never seen them before!

Mali: “Why do I gotta wait to be big like you!?”

Matteo: “Because ovens and cakes aren’t invented yet!”

Okay, finally. When I least expected it, of course. Poor kid got Gloomy, though.

Luckily, she makes up for the “bad” trait with adorable looks. I love her.

The bubbles flying always crack me up. Thanks for your hard work, Thalia!

Um… Mali.. why are you resting up here??

Me: “Oh CRAP!”

Goes in an gives her an actual bed. Oops.

Thalia and the kids playing while Mom gardens. Who needs fun motive when you’ve got a big garden?

… Ummmm… oooops. Guess that last TFB was a bad idea. We’ve got only around a day to go. Now I have to decide whether to wait to move Matteo until the baby is born so I can name it.. or whether to go back later and rename it. Sigh. Awkward.

Samara gets too sick to “go to school” .. she wasn’t able to go anyway, game. =P But thanks for the day off!

See? I told you she was sweet. That was a random roll!

… Except she looks Evil instead. And Poor Skyor looks like he’s utterly done with kids. I can’t blame him. It’s not like his whole life hasn’t revolved around them.

Matteo gets home from school on his birthday.

… And to my surprise, gets an A. I never told him to do his homework, either. That was completely on his own! Way to go, buddy. Not that you’re going to use much of your education, but good job, anyway.

Peek-a-boo! I find Anaya just dancing away to her own music in the hallway. How cute!

Skyor playing with his youngest. Considering he’s been busy doing other stuff most of his life, he’s still managed to get level 5 parenting, mostly on his own.

.. That’s quite a crowded bed. LOL. Good thing it’s not actually bedtime!

Matteo gets his new trait and aspiration – which reminds me, I should update the Generation Rules to state what the teen aspiration is for the next generation, so you don’t have to read the next Gen to find out, if you’re trying to avoid spoilers. … Also, time to give Matteo his makeover…..

Oh… oh, dear. LOL!!! The arms persist!! I literally laughed so hard at this, and his eventual makeover, that I was in tears. Probably not nearly as funny to the rest of you, but it really struck my “funny bone”.

Anyway, here’s our heir, Matteo the .. er.. Strong.. and he’s all ready to move out. I will go back and rename his new brother or sister later after they’re born…. because I’m truly itching to get into Generation Three.

.. Oh, and this is how much the family home is worth. Just as an FYI. They have some 35k in household funds, too. See you tomorrow!

Chapter 2.4 | Chapter 3.1

Chapter 2.3 | Chapter 2.5

An abbreviated version of our goals for this generation:

We had tons of progress last post, let’s hope things go as well this time!

We start .. with Skyor laying down on the job. Er, well… no, he’s working on Wellness. It just doesn’t look like it. It looks like he’s waiting to be sacrificed.

Oh yeah, and Matteo aged up at the end of last session, I gave him his makeover, and then forgot to show him to you guys. :Blush: … Ooops. Here he is. He’s adorable.

I’m not exactly sure why the pirate boat appears to be after the carriage, but Matteo is definitely yelling for the charge. Good thing his sister isn’t sleeping.

I keep forgetting about the bees on this lot. It’s not like they’re right by the house or anything, so they keep getting left so that anyone who goes to the garden or to swim in the garden pools gets attacked. Oops.

I’m not sure why I found this screenshot so funny, but two of those sandcastles are cowplants.. so, technically, this cow pasture is now stocked with cows… *cracks up laughing again*…

Thalia is such a help. She’s usually very low on fun and social… but the chores around the house definitely do get done!

Samara is just so cute. Here she is learning to talk with Marl – who I’m sure appreciates Thalia the most.

Matteo is keeping himself busy. When he’s not at school – which is awesome that he can go this generation. His sisters will not be so lucky.

More playtime with mommy. I’m not sure why Marl seems to be begging the sky for something, but Samara’s expression is priceless.

A rare break for Skyor from yoga practice lets the two lovebirds spend some time together. And they are – lovebirds, that is – they just don’t always get to spend time together. Using the upstairs table is even more unusual. I tend to have everyone eat in the kid’s room. Yep… lazy Watcher.

I catch Matteo taking out the trash by himself. What a good kid!

This is proof that Skyor is no longer upper-arm challenged. He actually looks like a “normal” sim now. WOO!! There’s hope for Matteo, yet.

Oh, goodie. Clingy.

And she immediately runs over to “play” in one of the indoor plants. Never seen a toddler do that before, but it looks like she’s fighting with it. Weird.

Zarra stops by with a gift for Marl, and we invite her in.

What’s the gift? A rare plant seed packet. I didn’t even know that was a possible gift! We open it.. and get a magic bean. Sigh. Useless. Oh well.

Skyor gets level 9 Wellness and can do a fertility massage. So I give it a try, and then while she has the moodlet, I Try for Baby. Spoiler: no baby is had. *frown* Useless massage.

Proof that toddlers don’t give a hoot about monsters under beds. Matteo tries to talk to it, all by himself…

… But no success. Sorry, buddy. Better go wake up Mom and Dad.

Oh, this picture reminds me – our neighborhood is “Green” – so the plants are all “perfect” – and I just noticed sims can “bask in the rays” .. (or something like that). I try it out, and Matteo runs to the cow pasture to worship the sun, getting him an energized moodlet. Darn. I was hoping for inspired. Should have cloudgazed.

Zabala stops by to see Marl, and I have Matteo go meet his grandpa. I guess I was slacking on the family relations… but technically, we can’t travel to see him since he’s out of district, and the rest of Skyor’s family is WAY out of reach in Sulani.

Skyor can now do handstands, too.. but this looks like an interesting pose in that skirt.

… Drumroll…. and we’re done with goals! Just have to get Matteo to grow up now. We’ve got a while to wait, too. Since the next gen doesn’t start ’til young adult – even though teens can move out. I’m not sure I’ll keep that rule.. but for now it stays.

Now, poor Skyor has nothing better to do than sell all his old Herbalism concoctions. Remember this photo: I pay for this yard sale in a little bit.

Samara spins herself to aging and I roll for her trait. Then, I send her into CAS for her makeover. I don’t think that maybe that yard sale had just barely ended, or was close to ending.

… Samara is gorgeous. Love, love, love her!

Then, I go about my normal watcher business.. sending sims to bed, to eat, etc.

… Until I notice that Skyor isn’t moving. He keeps route-failing whenever I ask him to do something. So I have him teleport next to the food. Nope, still won’t pick it up and eat. Then I mouse over him and see this horrifying sight. My game is glitched.. and the last time I saved was, like, two hours ago. I tell myself to stop panicking, and save, quit game to main menu, reload. He’s still stuck. I try resetting him. Nope. Nothing. testingcheats, try again. Nope. I spend five minutes trying to find something about it on google, eventually run into a semi-similar issue on Crinrict’s site… where it says to evict the family and move them back in to fix. So, crossing my fingers, I give that a try. Nope. Nothing. I try completely exiting the game, still stuck. At this point, I’m in full panick mode. Finally, I have him “Split from household and move” .. which for some reason, he can do. He moves out, and I call him back over to re-invite him. Skyor: “Sorry, I’m sleeping.” ACK. *face palm* .. wait til morning, try again. He immediately shows up when I call, and has no “neighbor” tag on his head. He accepts the invite to join the household, and is fixed. When my heart finally stops beating five hundred times a minute… I test out various things, and confirm he’s fully functional again.. although his needs are all reset. But that’s ok. At least we have Skyor back. I save the game.. and consider completely stopping for the night. But – sometime in the moving out and back in fiasco, there are laundry piles ALL OVER the lot. And they’re annoying. So I have Thalia collect them, and I watch Skyor very carefully to make SURE he’s still okay.

He is… and Zarra stops by with Marl’s birthday present. Not that Marl can really HAVE a birthday, since we can’t bake a cake.. but that’s not the point, right? She’ll have to wait to spin up on her own. I honestly can’t tell you what the gift was… I was still calming down at this point.

While Zarra is here – we have Matteo meet his auntie. They get along famously. I keep checking, by the way, and those Try for Baby interactions before I moved Amir out didn’t work. There’s no cousins. *frown*

Meanwhile, Samara and Skyor were bored, so we tried out the Llama game. Skyor looks upset at winning – which I find hilarious, and Samara gets a sad moodlet.

… Then all the phones except for Skyor’s start ringing. Uh-oh. That’s never good.

Zabala is no more. Aww. And he JUST met his grandson, too. Poor guy. On this note, the piles are now washed, and I’m 100% sure Skyor is fixed.. I decide that no matter how many pics I have, I’m totally done for the night. It’s time to write this post up and do something else for the rest of the night. Sims has given me my heart attack of the night/week, and I’m DONE. See you next time!

Chapter 2.3 | Chapter 2.5

Chapter 2.2 | Chapter 2.4

An abbreviated version of our goals for this generation:

Okay.. so where were we?… Working on Herbalism.

Oops. Marl looks so bored, but she’s the one who saved Skyor’s life.

As a thank-you, Skyor practices his massages on Marl. Which, thankfully, gives her a whole bunch of positive moodlets.

Why Thankfully? … Because we’re expecting.

Baby time! Will it be a boy? (I want a boy for heir.)

Well hi there! Guess our timer has started, because this little guy will be our heir.

I really want to move these guys to the bigger house, but we can’t afford it yet, so I put all of Skyor’s skilling on hold and have him work basically day and night on bathtubs to sell. I think my main reason for wanting to move is that I want to move a servant in to take care of things like laundry and cleaning so Marl doesn’t have to.

…See? He barely even gets time to sleep!

I swear, he rolled Angelic..

Oh, he’s adorable! Let’s hope he doesn’t grow up with skinny upper arms like the last generation did.. Although, I’ll be honest, I’m really coming to like Skyor, despite his faults.

MM… Baked Potatoes. .. Or maybe I’m just hungry.

However, Now that Marl has cooking maxed, that’s one of our skill goals done, and when we move, the servant can now do all the cooking. Hooray!

Daddy needed fun, so he plays with Matteo for a little bit.

Then he’s back to the grind. We’re getting close, though!

Matteo: “Oopsie. Sowwy Mommy…”

This is what I get when I’m too busy with other things than watching the toddlers.

Uh-oh. That last social/fun Try for Baby seems to have worked. Well, that’s our second kid. Soon as it’s born, we can cross that off, too.

I don’t have any idea whether they had flash cards back then, but they should have. Matteo loves these things.

With barely enough – off we go!! I even managed it before the second baby was born.

.. Barely. Marl looks about ready to pop in this picture. I ended up making two servants, because this is such a big house, it made sense to me to have a second servant. The girl is Thalia the Neat, and the guy is Amir the Handy.

I quickly figure out that the second servant was a mistake. It’s just too many adults to be keeping track of. I start trying to figure out what to do with him, because I worked hard on making him and I don’t want to just kick him out.

I told you we barely got in before the second kid. Marl easily births a little girl who we name Samara the Meek. The descriptor wasn’t my idea, it was my hubby’s, because, quite frankly, I’m running out of ideas. LOL.

Thalia doing what she’s supposed to. Cleaning. Saving Marl so much time and energy.

Wellness turns out to be an annoying skill to work on. He doesn’t get much in the way of fun from doing yoga, and he loses hygiene like crazy. I give him a break to eat with his wife.

I finally figure out what to do with Amir. Marl invites her sister, Zarra, over, and we start getting the two together.

While I’m busy with that, Marl works on her gardening…

.. And, since I wasn’t watching her, I’m completely surprised by this popping up. Yay! Another skill marked off. Which means that Marl is done with her skills.

Having them Try for Baby a couple times, hoping to have little cousins.

Then – just because I have a feeling it’ll be a “yes” and I didn’t want Zarra to leave without Amir, I hurry up and pop the question. She agrees, and we get the move in box.

One less servant to worry about. Thank goodness.

Samara grows up and gets her makeover. She is so cute!

Matteo gets a bath, while Marl complains a little bit about the laundry. I mean, I would too, when someone is supposed to be doing that for you.

Guess what, honey?? There’s another one on the way!! Skyor seems happy with it, which is a good thing, because it’s happening whether he likes it or not!

I’ve had him working on his skills a little bit each day, trying to get closer to “done”.

I contemplate making that Fertility Elixir, but we really don’t need twins. I’m having enough trouble with the toddlers I have!

The only thing Skyor has left for his aspiration is sleeping in a tent for 5 nights. He’s at 4/5 and I’ve tried three different times to get it with no luck. Something keeps interrupting him or it just doesn’t count… I dunno, but it’s exceedingly annoying. We’ll try again after he wears himself out on yoga.

Baby #3 incoming! I feel so bad for Marl, she keeps ending up giving birth all by herself.

We got another little girl, named Maliyah the Misfit. And somehow, the birth didn’t wake up Skyor.

So… finally….

We can delete that darn tent in the cow pasture. Not that we have cows.. but, you know. The point stands. It’s supposed to be for the animals!

What does that leave us? ….Lots of time for Matteo to grow up, and Wellness for Skyor to max. (He’s at level 7 now I think, and we have plenty of time.)

Chapter 2.2 | Chapter 2.4

Chapter 2.1 | Chapter 2.3

Here’s what yesterday looked like on my SimNaNo goals:

Today’s posts put me at over halfway done on my targeted word count, although I will need to keep working to get the post count.

So, last post, we aced the first part of Generation 2 – now for the fun stuff. The “real” beginning of the Gen. First, though, let’s copy over the rules:

That done, let’s acknowledge the cute pic of the happy couple in front of their new home – the “Lower Class Egyptian Home” linked above.. and move on.

First thing I do: have Marl (why do I keep trying to call her Myra. Wrong sim) take some of the Taro root from her new husband and plant it. I also buy some starter veggies and fruit and plant those, too. Okay, let’s be honest. I had her plant way too much – and later I end up selling some of the plants because they don’t “look right” in the garden. (HAHA!)

I don’t know if the awning here will keep them dry in the rain, but never-the-less, I really like the open-air concept for the dining “room”. Although why they had to sit at opposite ends of the table, I don’t know.

Marl gets down to business as quickly as possible… and starts some laundry. Of note: we are all prepared for babies in this house, as you can see… but these two have yet to woohoo. Since they’ll have to “Try for Baby”, I’m not quite ready for it yet. (Especially since it’s almost Summer, and we need to hit up Granite Falls for Herbalism stuff.. but again, I’m getting ahead of the story.)

Marl dodges the bees as she’s getting to know them. This is the garden before I add too many plants and have to rearrange.

Dad stops over to check on his “little girl”. She informs him that they won’t be home for the next week – they’re spending the Summer in Granite Falls. (Which isn’t quite like an Oasis, but we’ll deal with it.)

After I spend the time to add in the “Early Civilization” Campground and Forest that I built, they go on vacation and immediately head for the closest fishing hole. That’ll give the plants a chance to finish spawning, and Skyor time to get the fish for the first part of his Outdoor Enthusiast Aspiration.

I run myself crazy picking up flowers and plants and digsites and bugs.. and entirely forget to take very many pictures.. but if you’ve tried this aspiration before, you’ll understand why. Finally, we get to the part where he needs 4 Herbalism skill, and we “chain” him to a grill to get that done.

Eating his roasted Beetles. Or, at least cooking them to eat them. He doesn’t seem to be that worried about it. Being that he was born in the “Stone Age”, I would guess not – and after all that collecting, he was pretty darn hungry.

Marl has been doing some collecting, too… but I think she spent most the time complaining about her fishing skill being too low to catch anything. This, by the way, is Skyor eating that all important second plate of beetles. We finish out that part of the aspiration, and get to the part where you have to befriend the hermit.

Little story before we get there, though – they had two whole days where they had thunder and lightning pretty much ALL day. I kinda rolled the dice and still had them in the forest and Deep Woods collecting everything possible, figuring I could run them into the hermit’s house if one got struck the first time. I had to keep cancelling Skyor’s friendly overtures to the hermit, because I didn’t want to glitch the save out by getting to know her too early, which was thoroughly annoying. Somehow, however, neither one got struck by lightning even a single time. I saw some other sims get hit.. but not our couple. For which I will eternally be grateful… LOL. I apparently forgot to take even a single picture of this, but I guess that’s okay – they would have been dark photos, anyway.

We finally get to know the hermit, and we take the time to get to “Good Friends” so we can learn the extra Herbalism recipe. Meanwhile, I’m still hunting down bugs and plants and anything else I can collect with both sims until their needs get too low, then refilling the needs and continuing on. Very exciting – let me tell you.

However, the most exciting part of the whole trip was right at the very end. We had only a couple of hours left on the trip, and I had literally one insect left to find. That darn Walking Stick that’s only in the Deep Woods. I’ve never finished the Insect collection, so I was trying my hardest to spot the little guys.

When I finally spotted them – I was literally yelling at the screen for Skyor to hurry up and get over to where they were so they wouldn’t disappear (And hubby probably thought I was crazy!!) But – I finally completed the Bug collection. (Wouldn’t you know it, I also completely forgot to have the “curator” aspiration up to catch the moment – but maybe it’ll count later, if I get that far? It’s not like I don’t have other things I have to get done this generation.)

We send them home a scant hour early because everything was collected anyway, and I start divvying up the bounty. Herbalism plants go to Skyor, veggies go to Marl, Bugs to Skyor, etc. All the rocks, crystals, maps, fossils, and Herbalism concoctions Skyor had made all went on the sales table. I didn’t put any mysims trophies out – that would have looked weird, so I just sold those outright.

People are buying stuff left and right. Marl is busy somewhere in the background, planting the new veggies. I set up an inside planter for each of the Herbalism plants, but Skyor will have to plant those – after he learns what they all are. Because that’s the part of the aspiration we’re on. After a while, Marl runs out of stuff to do, and I have them switch off. She runs the yard sale, and Skyor works on his skills. I’m going to have him do Wellness and Herbalism, and Marl will do Cooking and Gardening. Hopefully we’ll have time to get all of that done.

Lunch time. Marl grills up some veggie something or other that gave both of them a huge moodlet buff, which I’d never seen before. Something I’ll definitely have to do again, that’s for sure. At least they’re sitting together this time. Oh yeah, and I just remembered to mention – you won’t be seeing Paku and Utali here, because they were left behind in the Bronze Age, as per the rules.

She’s back doing laundry again. Somehow I missed all the Granite Falls pictures, but I managed to get two of her doing laundry. Go figure.

A shot of the roof “garden” where Skyor is starting on his Wellness skill. Too bad it doesn’t give more “Fun” – he’s still really hurting for it, and I’m still unwilling to let them Try for Baby – so I’m trying to come up with other things to do.

Zarra stops by to say hello, so we invite her in and chat a while. At least one of our couple will have some Social need filled…

I finally relent. It occurs to me that I don’t absolutely have to have the first kid be the heir, so they can have one or two before-hand if I’m struggling with the skills. Or that darn tent sleeping requirement that I’m dreading. However – this post is long enough, and I figured this was as good a place to stop as any – so we’ll have to wait to find out if this Try for Baby bears “fruit”.

---

I am going to leave you with a bonus: I went in and took pictures of all of Skyor’s younger siblings – in order (which took some remembering who came first) in their current age state and clothes that they grew up in. I think – looks wise – Myra is my fave, but we’ll have to wait to see how she looks as a teen. Skyor certainly has grown on me, though, and I’m having a blast with this challenge!

See you next time!

Chapter 2.1 | Chapter 2.3

Chapter 1.6 | Chapter 2.2

Last time, we finished Generation One. Which means – we need to figure out what we’re doing with Generation Two – and that brings us to “story time”. In the original rules, erica180 had Generation Two doing handiness stuff and selling the profits with a table. I put Herbalism and selling the profits on a table as “Gen Three” .. and after putting a night’s thought into it – that was just going to be too repetitive and boring. And I’d already put hours into building Bronze Age and Egyptian lots, so I didn’t really want to just cut out the second or third generations completely. Then there was the question of what to do with a teen who couldn’t make babies for the next generation for almost two weeks. So, I compromised. I took generation “Two” (The Bronze Age), compressed it, rewrote the flavor text and the rules.. and I made it a mini-generation at the beginning of the Gen. Now the “REAL” Generation Two is in Ancient Egypt and starts when Skyor is a young adult. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s “Part One” of Gen 2’s rules:

Now, since I built those Bronze Age lots, I was darn well going to use them. But Skyor wasn’t going to need room for a family. So I made him a smaller hut and put it across the street. But that left this great big family home empty… and Skyor was going to need friends. So I searched the gallery, and found a couple of possible “Early Civilization” prospects for his spouse. One of the families was a brother and sister, the other was an adult female. But I really liked her… So.. I made her a teen, made the two girls sisters, and made the brother the Dad. … It’s really not as creepy as it sounds, ok? I also re-named all three. So, for the sake of complete-ness, here’s the three sims in question:

I gave Skyor two options, just in case he has trouble clicking with one or the other. In theory. For reference, Marl is my favorite.

And, just because I didn’t feel bad enough for leaving her behind already:

That’s what poor Arjuna is stuck with. Lastly, before we get started, we’ll re-introduce our heir.. and let him glory in his weirdness:

Finally. Story time is over.. and we can start. Let’s go meet the neighbors, shall we?

Dad Zabala keeps a close watch on the proceedings. At least at the beginning.

Marl seems to be preoccupied with wanting to swim, to we get to know Zarra first. The friendship meter shoots into Good Friend range.. and I decide we should give Marl a chance, too. Because she’s my favorite, and all.

Couldn’t tell you what Zarra’s doing. But Dad is definitely no longer concerned. And making a sandcastle? Read: poor Skyor needs fun desperately. In fact, spoiler alert: he is low on fun nearly this whole chapter and I’m always struggling to get it back up. So much so, that I make him drink some 100 point fun potions. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.

Skyor: “See that cloud over there? It looks like a Cowplant. Wait, you’ve never heard of a Cowplant… well let me TELL you!”

After a getting to know everyone session, we send Skyor home to work on Handiness. Of which he has 0 skill. And we need to max it in like 12 days. AND make 20k simoleons while doing it. Ohh boy.

Our first haunting. Hey, Dad.. good to see you again!

Paku.. what did I tell you about Marshmallows. They didn’t exist, silly. Stop roasting them!

The next day (or was it the one after?) – I’ve worked poor Skyor’s fingers to the bone, and he has an inventory full of little wooden statues – and a Fun bar that’s completely tanked. It occurs to me that teens can’t get pregnant. Maybe it’s time to do some messing around, huh? Also: if you’re watching closely, you’ll see I cut this shot in a wide angle so you can see Arjuna walking by. Hello, you’re not supposed to be able to leave Sulani!! Stop stalking us in the middle of the night!

First kisses. Marl looks completely shocked. Apparently, she hadn’t gotten the memo that she was in the lead in the race for Gen 2 spouse.

Ahh.. no babies on the way. We still have time!

Skyor’s first Yard Sale. Technically, my first, too, since it’s something I’ve never tried in Sims 4. I don’t know why. That 300% markup is pretty darn nice… We sell everything to the not-appropriately-dressed-sims and go back to making statues.

Lots. Of. Statues.

Zarra invites herself over with a gift for us. I don’t remember what it was, but it wasn’t spectacular. Someone apparently didn’t tell her that we were already “taken”. Gotta give a girl credit for trying, though. Skyor looks a little creeped out by her late night visit, though.

Hi, Mom! (Skyor was too busy to say hi.. )

Ghosts do not need food. But since I can’t keep it, I suppose I won’t begrudge you a snack.

Yes, these were all different nights. And nothing else of interest happened except for statue making and yard sales. Over. And. Over. And. Over. Meanwhile.. Mom comes out and decides since we never have time for laundry – she’ll do it for us. Um.. thanks?

Skyor finally gets to being able to make Dining Tables and Bathtubs – which, I’ll tell you what, do the bathtubs when you get the chance… (and yard sales become a thing of the past…)

Woot! Part 1 of the goal done. The other part of the goal is being nickel-and-dimed by me on my phone calculator.

When we absolutely can’t get past the fact that we need “social”.. we invite Marl out to the local Hot Springs (Pool venue built by me). Not a great photo.. but watching all the sims walking around nude for the “Clothing Optional” lot trait was hilarious. I’m not sure how I didn’t get a single nude sim in the frame of this photo. Oh, well.

Marl ages up a couple days before we do. I think it was three? .. So we just stick to friendly stuff and count the fact that she’s already our girlfriend so nobody can “steal” her. At least, not since I don’t have MCCC.

That’s the first time Skyor had to do his own laundry. And, no, it’s not raining. Just very wet clothes. Ignore the dinosaur statue in the background. LOL.

By this time, we’ve gotten our 20k and are just wasting time until Skyor sees fit to spin himself to Young Adulthood. He’s taking forever.

Skyor gets his final trait.. and Irresponsible to add to it. Not really surprised, I mean – he didn’t go to a single day of school his whole life. Nor did he ever do his homework, because I sold it. $1! Woohoo.

We invite Marl to the Bronze Age Temple lot I built – because why not. (Oh and I added a wedding arch to it. It’s a generic lot, I figured we could have an actual wedding there.)

I carefully set them up in front of the arch to pop the question.. and then cross my fingers.

Whew!! She said yes! (I mean, I would have been a little surprised if she hadn’t, but whatever.) We then try to set up a Wedding goaled event, but all the other “Generic” lots in the world showed up except for this one. No matter what I tried. Finally, I gave up and just invited Dad and Sis-in-Law over, hoping they would watch the ceremony.

Spoiler: They didn’t.

Oh, well. At least we’re married now.

… Oops. I guess I never got rid of their “last” name. *chuckles* Too late now. I save and quickly hit “Move Household” – because it’s time to move to my Egyptian House(s)! I Hope they’ll be able to afford the “Elite” one – but they can’t. I guess we’ll have to save up. Oh, and yeah, the houses weren’t completely done by this point, either… so saving was necessary to hop over to my “building” save so I could finish the Egypt lots before actually moving. What do they look like? … Well, you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow, I guess! *Grin*

Chapter 1.6 | Chapter 2.2

Chapter 1.5 | Chapter 2.1

A brief recap of the rules for this generation:

This is the last chapter of our first generation, as we’re just waiting for Skyor to grow up to teen so we can become murderers. Erm. I mean, so we can kill off his parents and have him move out. Poor Utali has no idea that she’s feeding her nemesis.

I guess it never gets easier, having babies, does it, Utali? .. Wonder if the twins moving out could have changed how many babies we get??

… Welcome to the madhouse, Tiago. You truly are brave to have arrived here!

And on that note – he was a single. Thank goodness!

Ryorg stops by to say hi. Although, it looks like he’s yelling at his Mom. (He’s not, though, I assure you.)

Thunderstorm! Run! Everyone inside as fast as possible!!

Paku takes a bath.. and … what on EARTH are you wearing, Paku?!?! This is actually the second time I’ve seen him in this get-up after taking a bath. I just didn’t take a picture the first time. I thought it was a fluke. LOL. Guess not.

Aww.. Ok, Aden. You’re excused from fishing duty if you look like that. LOL.

Yup. We’re expecting another one. Skyor is filthy, but soldiering on in the fishing marathon… and completely unconcerned that Dad is celebrating their eighth pregnancy. (Yikes!) .. There was room in the house, so I had to try again – the rules state to repopulate the planet. So that’s what we’re doing! LOL.

I figured “Brave” sounded like Inquisitive would be a good bet for a trait. So I picked his trait.

Welcome to the world of walking around, buddy! It’s a big world.. start exploring!

Proof that he did get his goal done before he’s gone. (Morbid, but hey, it’s why I took the picture.)

… And while I was thinking about it…

… Here’s the other one.

Since it told us last night that it was Skyor’s birthday.. I figure forcing Paku to stay out in a thunderstorm would just be poetic. Unfortunately, while he does get struck with lightning… he also never gets hit the second time. Which is just tough luck. I wanted to see what that would look like…

Sorry, Paku. Rules say I gotta kill you. And, well, the Cowplants were ready – so your time is up.

The wake begins. Everyone is miserable, and I love how Grim is completely unaware that he’s brought a handheld computer to the Stone Age. Way to go, break the immersion, Grimmy.

Grim congratulating the fat and happy Cowplant that did it’s duty.

Ok, so this interaction popped up and I couldn’t resist. Definitely one of the creepiest Sim-Photos I’ve ever taken. LOL! (Also.. Grim was flirty… what’s up with that?!)

Um… Utali, no, I don’t think spraying Grim will get rid of him. (Yeah, I know it’s for the monster, but it looks like it’s for Grim!!!)

Skyor gets his appointed trait and aspiration…

And… welcome to teenage-hood. With your weird arms. And big feet and hands. At least he doesn’t look like he has a fat lip like Ryorg did. I put him in a shirt because – let’s be completely honest – no way was I looking at that skinny pair of ribs for the next entire generation.

Unfortunately, if you were paying attention, this is NOT the end of Gen 1. We still have a nooboo on the way, and need to kill off Utali. .. So….

Here we go again, girlie.

Okay, so it seemed appropriate.

That’s One…

Awww… they have no idea what’s coming. I feel horrible. Sorta. But I really want to get to the next generation!!

Bye, Utali!! Down the hatch you go! Grim arrives, takes care of business, and the sun starts to come up.

At this point, Generation’s over. But we have some unfinished business. The kids can’t go with Skyor, and they can’t stay alone. Oh, and our heir is absolutely exhausted. We let him tuck everyone into bed and take a good long nap.

Then we invite Arjuna over – one, to tell her the bad news.. and two.. well to tell her the bad news. She’s now a mom to five kids. On her own. I have to wonder if she’s crying for her Mom here, or herself…

Okay, so I have to admit, Skyor’s face isn’t horrible. It’s kinda growing on me. Plus, he almost looks like he’s giving me a sidelines wink.

We move Arjuna in and take care of the last bit of business….

“Here, sis, you can have the life essences. I have a feeling you may need them. And I only have to take the ashes with me. The potions feel … cheaty.” Er, wait. did I have Skyor say that? .. Hrm. Yep. Okay then. (So yes, Skyor has both his parents’ urns in his pocket, some Taro root from his mom’s garden for his trip – because that seemed the most portable and useful of the foodstuffs we have in the garden – and one last thing. A Cowplant Berry that Aden, his brother caught during these last few days fishing. Because you just never know. LOL!)

Then, I take stock. Skyor is STILL in the red energy wise. So I give up and let him go to bed.

Here’s when I REALLY start feeling bad for Arjuna. Myra is a screamer – and she’s got two toddlers plus two kids to look after, as well. I am so glad I’m not her!! *Guilty look*

Okay, so I wasn’t paying attention. And she tried to kill herself. I quickly put a stop to it, have Skyor make breakfast for everyone, and feed the other Cowplant before disaster can strike.

Okay, buddy.. time to go. I almost take all the funds, then feel bad. And give Arjuna back 5k so she can feed the kiddos. LOL!

… And I’ll leave you with this.

Yep, that’s all of them. 0.o .. What was I thinking?!

Chapter 1.5 | Chapter 2.1

Chapter 1.4 | Chapter 1.6

A brief recap of the rules for this generation:

First off: yep, we’ve pretty much finished with the goals. Second: That’s our heir above, trying to talk to the monster under his bed. And the skirt to the left is his mom going to spray a monster in the other room. LOL.

Proof that Skyor managed to “tame” the monster. While his sister continues to wail about the monster that Mom is there to spray.

And the race from last time is decided. The twins get to leave before the baby arrives.

Great. Yusu’s upper arms look like a skeleton, too. And those hands are huge. Same as Ryorg. I don’t think the future looks too bright for our heir’s looks, here.

I swear, I rolled those traits, not picked them… I’m sorta glad she’s moving out!

And – somehow, despite the looks of her brothers – she’s gorgeous. Maybe I should have picked a female heir…

The now-traditional meeting with the parents before moving out. Poor Yusu looks miserable about it, while Arjuna is clearly celebrating her freedom. (Despite having missed her birthday cake… evil sims are strange.)

Then, we move the two of them out to the Key Point lot that I put my stone age beach hut on… and take the parents over to wish them well. Arjuna still seems to be thrilled.

I kinda feel bad for poor Yusu – he’s going to have to put up with Arjuna when it’s just the two of them.

Skyor decides to try his hand at inventing something…

… But he appears to be hung up on the fact that he’s a star. LOL, Ok, sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Skyor and Daphne are completely oblivious to their Mom’s pain…

.. Because it’s that time again.

I’m really running out of descriptor ideas, here, guys.

Um… Paku, dude.. you’re a bit late. Your wife has already given birth, fed and changed the baby and is outside. But I appreciate the thought. I’m sure she does, too?

Daphne seems to spend a lot of time with Aden – more so than the rest of the kids, that’s for sure.

Skyor chatting it up with Cthulhu again.

… Here we go again … (at least the baby isn’t screaming this time!)

Skyor, again proving that he’s correctly named as “the Ruthless” – this time he’s yelling at the cowplant. For what, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s just foreshadowing.

Hey, Aden, buddy.. where exactly are you going? (He spent a good two hours of sim-time literally just running up and down the beach. I have no idea why.)

Hooray. Another toddler! And.. Clingy. … joy?

What a cutie-pie, though. For a moment, I almost rethink my choice of heir.

Aden! .. Music Lover, huh? I hope you like drums?

I’m not sure what that goofy look on his face is for, though. Perhaps it’s because he knows he’ll probably look silly as a teen/adult.

Yusu stops over, and Skyor immediately monopolizes his time. Clearly he misses having his big brother around.

Dad, teaching the kids a little bit of fishing. Skyor seems to be picking it up pretty well.

Mom’s got little Shalna in the pool autonomously. And, yes, it’s summer again – so it’s at least appropriate timing.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Sulani atmosphere? I’m going to miss it when we move on!

A whole flock (wait, is it flock?… nope. it’s a “colony”) of bats descend on Utali. I have to think that they came through the window. I love that Shalna is completely unconcerned about it.

Er… Skyor. You’re supposed to be fishing. What are you doing out in the water instead? You can’t catch fish that way!!

I played this all in one session, and planned on finishing the chapter in one post, but as you can see… I have far too many pictures for one update. In other words, you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow’s update.

Chapter 1.4 | Chapter 1.6