Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Five Rules
Switch Five Part 1 < | > Switch Six

First… let’s check where we are on goals:

• Career: level 9
• Apartment value: complete – worth k, but I will probably add more to it as I go on playing
• Heir: toddler age

And.. Back to work. We start out with Kamryn aging to Adult.

..And Vivaan painting up a storm.

.. To finish his aspiration. Good job!

This is Kamryn getting the last of her 20k worth of donations for her final promotion. That was a lot of work. But strangely easier than the Social Media career.

A baby brother or sister for Selina is on the way!

And no more toddler days for Selina. What a cutie.

Meet Emma… even though you can’t tell what they look like from the baby stage.

Yep.. I put in a sauna.. and Vivaan loves it. So he’s helping Selina with her school project while in his spiffy towel… nothing weird there. LOL!

There. Now we can see what Emma looks like. Although it looks like she’s sorta grumpy about aging up.

Career maxed! Yay. Now all I have to do is get Selina aged up and I’m finished with this Switch.

I found this screenie hilarious. It looks like Darth Vader is coming out of the space jungle gym.. and if you look closely, you can see Boba Fett playing on his phone by the road. Apparently “Club Cosplay” is in full swing at Oasis Springs Park.

I didn’t get a lot of pictures of Selina working through her aspirations, but I did remember to document that she has them before she aged to teen.

A very tired Kamryn walking around with Mac and Cheese..

.. Must mean she maxed cooking.

Little Emma isn’t so little anymore. Love the tiara.

And this marks when Selina finishes her final aspiration.

See…?

.. Just in time to age up to teen.

Don’t mind the eyes closed. She’s very pretty, I think. Mom in the background is cheering in her PJ’s.

Trying to get Selina points for her “A” without making the next Switch too easy. (Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a nightmare, but I wanted to start it as if I didn’t know what it was.. you know, to simulate people who avoid spoilers while playing the challenge.)

Emma is the only one who seems to like the pool when I forget to pay attention to what she’s doing.

.. And sleeping in the hot tub, too.

Selina decides to steal dad’s easel… aww kitty painting.

Happy birthday Vivaan.

.. Welcome to elderhood.

Selina stole the easel again… but this time Dad decided on his own to go mentor her. Not a bad idea, there, Dad.

… These two seem almost inseparable.

… And little Emma is sleeping in the hot tub again. Good grief.

.. So I wake her up and set all of them to doing school projects.

.. Happy birthday Kamryn.

.. Old age for you, too, huh?

Shortly after, Emma ages out of her tiara.

.. Into who knows what to call this hairstyle….?

All four of them eating at the same time. I took a picture because it happens so very rarely, it was worth noting.

I get a notice about Vivaan’s age, so I hurry up and take a shot of his traits.

.. Just in time, too.

Being that Selina is going to age into Young Adult the very next day, I tried to plead for all I was worth, but Grimmy wasn’t having any of it.

… So it’s a very very sad teenager who ages up to start her own Switch.

Kamryn’s Final stats:

See? She’s sad too.

Apartment value ..

And screenshots.

We’ll see you in the next switch!

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Five Rules
Switch Five Part 1 < | > Switch Six

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Five Rules
Switch Four Part 2 < | > Switch Five Part 2

We start by looking at Kamryn Nash’s starting stats:

Starting mood:

And back to 0 simoleons.

.. At least for a little while. I find her a mate quickly, and get them together.

If nothing else, he’ll definitely help with the bills. He wants to be a painter.. which I’m perfectly happy with.

Congrats, you two!

Vivaan’s traits at move-in.

And we have a surprise guest shortly after they get married… a vampire! Eeks!

Poor Vivaan…

Guess he’ll have to sleep that one out.

And this is me.. figuring out that busking really doesn’t make much money. Oh well.. I tried. It gave Kamryn something to do in between days of work.

… At least someone tipped!

And.. done with the first apartment.

That didn’t take long at all!

Apartment pics:

And here’s what they were able to afford upon move-in. Not much.. but as I’ve already figured out.. sims don’t really need a whole lot to live on. At least.. they don’t when that’s all they can afford!

Working from home in this Political career is an interesting prospect. It’s always sending her to do speeches and murals everywhere. I don’t use the work at home as much this time around as I have on previous switches.

Apartment two…

(Somehow I forgot to take the age photo.. but it wasn’t long as you’ll see.) Meanwhile.. a kid’s bedroom for the non-existent kid..

And some more random house photos. I really liked the way this one turned out, even if I wasn’t 100% in love with the way the rooms were portioned out. I did, as you can see, end up adding/moving walls around a little bit so the place made more sense.

And here’s what they got in the next apartment. A good bed was high priority, because it gives them more time during the day to work on other things.. like making money.

Within a couple days, I had a decent kitchen started.. and Vivaan’s easel had found it’s home up there in the corner.

A bird’s eye view of the apartment with all the flooring and wall coverings picked out. Still a lot of furniture we’re missing.. but that’s okay for now.

Kamryn’s busy making friends…

So she finishes her first adult aspiration…

The “creativity room” with some more furnishings. I went with a color scheme I’ve never tried before, and, while it’s really not my color, I ended up really happy with how the apartment turned out.

Most of the living area is furnished now… I LOVE that fish coffee table from the small pets pack. So cool, I want one in my house!

Vivaan painting things.. always …

.. And this is the result:

Apartment three is done. I have to say, I was sad to leave this one behind.. but onward and upward!

Time’s a-wasting!

Apartment photos:

… And there was a lot that needed doing in the next penthouse. It took me quite a while to come up with a wall configuration I could live with – while still keeping the integrity of the initial apartment. This is the second floor that I added…

.. And I left the downstairs mostly open like it started out to be.

..Wouldn’t you know it.. first night in the new apartment. *facepalm* See ya in a few, there, Kamryn.

The next night…

Wait… AGAIN!?

Poor Kamryn…

.. But at least the try for baby worked out. The heir is officially on it’s way.

More speeches in Uptown..

And Vivaan’s visit to the local museum…

.. Poor Vivaan ages up when he gets home from work because I forgot about him. Sorry, buddy.

Here’s when I decided to add a third floor..

… I think it looks good.

.. Meet Selina!!

And with that.. time for a break. See you next time!

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Five Rules
Switch Four Part 2 < | > Switch Five Part 2

With Seasons coming out and all the fun holidays we’re going to have, I decided it’s high time for me to re-start my Townie Rotation. I had one going when Sims 4 first came out, but I added too many sims and got bogged down. Then, when I tried to go back to it, I discovered I remembered little to nothing from each family. So this time, I’m blogging it. Whether anyone reads it or not is another question.. I’m doing it mostly for myself – as a reference should I ever have to take another break from sims.. so I can come back at any time and know what was going on.

I am currently setting up the pages for Lot information and the Family Indexes (Treat these like a table of contents) for each neighborhood. Three done, 5 to go. I plan on starting play either June 22 or 23rd (right after seasons launches). For more information, see the > Main Page < for my Townie Rotation.

Other than that, I also am hoping to have Switch Five out prior to the seasons launch date, and perhaps Switch Six (the last one) as well. That way I can concentrate on other things. I also have finally decided (I think) not to restart my current Drifter save, the Ramblers, in favor of just keeping going. To that extent, I’m going to try to have the current house (006) done and published by the time seasons hits.

In other words, I have lots to do and under two weeks in which to do it.

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Four Rules
Switch Four Part 1 < | > Switch Five Part 1

Welcome back to the Nashes’ trip through Switch Four. When we left them, they had just moved into apartment three and were basically living on the lawn.

After a while, I start finishing rooms.. this is Bridgette’s office.

The kitchen:

Jaiden is definitely level 7 in his job, and not getting any younger, so I try for baby.

Success! The heir is on it’s way.

Bridgette hard at work on her programming. Hacking doesn’t make money, but at least it makes some!

Jaiden working at writing. He hasn’t needed it for career leveling for a while, but it brings in money.. which is much appreciated.

.. And this. Yay Jaiden!

The completed dining room.

Breakfast time.

Aww look at that nooboo belly!

Still working on programming..

Way to go Bridgette!

Poor thing is huge.. I hope it’s not twins!

Meet their daughter, Kamryn!

Happy Birthday Bridgette!

Yep.. as soon as Kamryn grows up, we’re moving… I found this apartment configuration very hard to take up photos of, so I just include the overhead photo.

She’s all grown up, so it’s time to move on…

Oops.. looks like Jaiden’s first thing when we get to the new apartment will be making a cake for his birthday, too.

Jaiden’s at level 8 with a lot of stuff to do for his next promotion.

Here’s what I could afford in the shell of their next home (The “cheapest” “penthouse” (it’s really more of a house than a penthouse, but whatever.)

As you can see, they haven’t really got much. Pretty bare.

As promised, Jaiden’s birthday.

.. Still programming.

Hooray for Bridgette.. now hacking can really make some money.

Jaiden talking to himself for Charisma…

.. And it finally pays off.

Hey.. don’t give me that look. You were the ones who wished to “try for baby”.. I just did what you wanted.

Level 10! Way to go Jaiden! I found this branch of the social media career to be pretty easy, really. Much easier than the other branch, that’s for sure.

Time for Kamryn to grow up!

What a cutie!

Meet Brice!

Aspiration #1 complete..

Aspiration # 2 complete..

A dark photo…

..That commemorates Aspiration # 3!

And.. finally…

Aspiration # 4. All child aspirations complete for Kamryn.

And now for Jaiden…

Who finally finishes his Bestselling Author aspiration.

Brice ages up alone because I forgot to make him a cake.. sorry, buddy.

Luckily, however, I don’t forget Kamryn’s too.

… Oh boy does she need a run through CAS. LOL.

First time trying out the new school projects (most of the time, I’m playing games/challenges where I can only control one sim, which usually means I can’t do the projects.)

And a bunch of birthdays:

Why’s Bridgette look so happy?

She’s finally level 10 in her career!

.. More school projects.

.. And more birthdays.

Yup, that last one was Kamryn aging up to Young adult .. which means all my goals for this Switch are complete. Now to wrap up with Jaiden’s ending stats.

And the final house value: (I could have added more, I just didn’t feel like it.. lol. My goal was getting through this generation ASAP so I could start testing switch five.)

I’m not bothering with a house tour, since I didn’t do much to the actual shell, but here’s a couple cutaway shots to show the finished product.

See you in Switch Five!

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Four Rules
Switch Four Part 1 < | > Switch Five Part 1

Generation 3 | Modified Settlers Rules | Generation 5

Generation 4

House: (Once built, I didn’t change anything through the generation except to add curtains.)

Heir: Ashlyn Newcrest (Dog Lover, Perfectionist, Music Lover, Bestselling Author, Good Manners, Responsible, Happy Toddler)
Partner: Masato Ishikawa (Vegetarian, Self-Assured, Genius, Soulmate, and Chopstick Savvy – lol) (I tried to get Billy Valentine, who also loved dogs, but he was especially cantankerous and I just couldn’t have a decent conversation with him.)

I rolled a 3 for their kids, and a 2 for the second kid being the heir.

• Heir (due to event): Allie Newcrest (Good, Lazy, Painter Extraordinaire)
• Not heir (due to event): Carson Newcrest (Geek)
• Sibling: Amy Newcrest (Evil)

Events that happened during this generation:

• Oil has been found! +50k family funds! … Guess I’ll be building that Clinic earlier than expected!
• Casanova moving in! Rolled a 6 to determine which eligible female and got a 1 .. so Mackenzie Callaway is the lucky sim. Since she’s not attached, we’ll let her keep him. *wink* Casanova’s name is Finley Chester, and he’s Lazy, Bro, Dog Lover (what’s up with all these dog lover rolls?!), and Friend of the World aspiration.
• Oil found again!
• Built the Newcrest Pawspital Vet Clinic, ran it for a couple days, then had to take maternity leave. While on maternity leave, we got a Tibetan Mastiff puppy named Lulu. Official first pet in town! She’s Smart, Stubborn, and a Glutton.
• Allie is born.
• Fire! …have to save up 5000 to reopen the community lot. (done)
• Ooh.. a first.. I rolled a 6.. which is the first time to remove a possible heir. Meaning the second kid can no longer be the heir. I then rolled a one, so the first kid will now be the heir. Go Allie.
• Building permits fail. Oh, fun. Have to get 2 logic points. Which means I better buy a chess set. And at nearly the same time as I paused to roll for the event… Carson Newcrest is born. (Who is NOT the heir now.. poor guy.) Oh, and logic.. done.
• The first female Casanova moves in. Her name is Maya Gunn (Neat, Noncommital, Good, Outdoor Enthusiast) and she’s the new partner of Riley Li-Rienhardt. (so that family will live on.. yay!)
• Also during this time I took some time off from the clinic to work on Ashlyn’s Charisma so we can get another family in. It took me all of the way to Wednesday to get her to 6 Charisma.. but we did get it done. So before I rolled the event I rolled for the new family. Rolled a measly 2.. at least it’s better than 1? I made a single mom and her son – Maribel Guzman (Self-Assured, Hot-Headed, Family Oriented, Successful Lineage) and Kristoph (Whiz Kid, Art Lover) – that way there’s a young’un in the house. And since pets are unlocked, I gave them a pet kitten, Muffin, a Birman (Aloof, Playful, Talkative). Moved them into the original Newcrests‘ home, since it’s a smaller house than the other vacant home. Did a little redecorating, too (shown in the new families/lots below).
• The event roll turned out to be another female Casanova roll.. which isn’t bad because there are a lot of guys in the town. Rolled that she’s joining the Valentine household, as Billy’s girl. Kathleen Granger (Jealous, Lazy, Bookworm, Freelance Botanist) is her name, and I had to rearrange the house a little bit to make room for her since Billy’s parents and brother live there, too.
• Rolled a 2.. then a four.. so a male Casanova named Ricky Burkett (Foodie, Ambitious, Hates Children, Mansion Baron) moves in with Maribel Guzman.
• Finally. Another family moves in. The Peppers move into the old Chappell home with their dog, a Chihuahua named Bacon (I’m not even joking around.. it was the first random name chosen. lol!) (Vocal, Active, Playful). The family consists of: mom Clementine (Active, Glutton, Self-Assured, Public Enemy), dad Tate (Genius, Slob, Good, Mansion Baron), teen son Kyler (Cat Lover, Bookworm, Friend of the Animals), and child daughter Sadie (Goofball).
• Lulu turns elder, and I decide adopting another dog would be fun. Two hopefuls showed up, but Turtle (Loyal, Couch Potato, Hunter) is the one who got chosen. Both were small dogs, a pug and a Fox Terrier… but the Terrier seemed much friendlier. Oh, and Allie aged up to Teen, and Ashlyn to Adult.
• Next event: adding a baby to a female in a household.. rolled to add in the Callaway family, and now Mackenzie has a new little boy, Noah.
• Finally.. the two events roll a week is paying off. I rolled to move another 4 person family in… and since the last empty house I have is one of the old Newcrest houses, they’ll be moving in there. It needed a bit of a face-lift, however, since it’s only 4 people. The Fowler family is what I created: Jay (Goofball, Foodie, Mean, Master Chef) and Sarah (Foodie, Loves Outdoors, Loves Dogs, Master Botanist) and their two kids: teenager Natalie (Dance Machine, Snob, Angling Ace) and child Bethany (Gloomy). Also gave them a little Yorkshire Terrier named Coco (Jumpy, Active, Friendly).
• Casanova moves in…. Douglas Tackett (Slob, Goofball, Self-Assured, Friend of the World). He rolled to go for Maribel Guzman, and since she already has a partner, Douglas and their toddler, Emma, move out to a new house. First new house in quite a while.
• A female Casanova moves in. Rolled a Three, she will be wooing Finley Chester, a previous male Casanova. I moved him out with the new Casanova – Laurel Masterson (Gloomy, Romantic, Glutton, Angling Ace). Their baby is named Marcel. I built them a new home in Newcrest, shown below.

Lots Built/ Families Moved in:

• Newcrest Pawspital (built with family funds as required)

• Guzman family – Maribel Guzman (Self-Assured, Hot-Headed, Family Oriented, Successful Lineage) and Kristoph (Whiz Kid, Art Lover) – and a pet kitten, Muffin, a Birman (Aloof, Playful, Talkative).

• Pepper family – Clementine (Active, Glutton, Self-Assured, Public Enemy), dad Tate (Genius, Slob, Good, Mansion Baron), teen son Kyler (Cat Lover, Bookworm, Friend of the Animals), and child daughter Sadie (Goofball) and their dog, a Chihuahua named Bacon (Vocal, Active, Playful).

• Fowler family – Jay (Goofball, Foodie, Mean, Master Chef) and Sarah (Foodie, Loves Outdoors, Loves Dogs, Master Botanist) and their two kids: teenager Natalie (Dance Machine, Snob, Angling Ace) and child Bethany (Gloomy). Also gave them a little Yorkshire Terrier named Coco (Jumpy, Active, Friendly).

• Douglas Tackett (Slob, Goofball, Self-Assured, Friend of the World) and Emma (daughter of Maribel Guzman).

• Chester-Masterson family

Town Stats: Four community lots, Twelve families, and 42 sims.

And a picture of our next generation’s heir, Allie:

Generation 3 | Modified Settlers Rules | Generation 5

I found this challenge on Mod the Sims.. (here) and liked the look of it, so I started playing. I found it 1.. too easy.. and 2.. lacking in rules for the expansions. So I’m modifying it for my uses. I don’t plan to blog the story of my “colony” (town), but I may post some build pictures and stuff as I go. I’m almost done with the first generation currently and I have 3 families (14 total sims) living in my town. Anyway, Back on topic. I wanted to write down my variation of the rules.. mostly so I don’t lose them. I ended up changing more than I originally intended to. However, it’s a fun challenge, and one that I think others would enjoy, so I’m leaving the rules up here. 

My attempt at the challenge was mostly done off-blog, so I didn’t take a lot of pictures, and I didn’t really start taking great records until the second generation. Eventually, I got tired of it. I think maybe part of it was due to not blogging it fully. Will I go back to it? I honestly don’t know. We’ll see.

Generation 1 & 2 | Modified Settlers Rules | Generation 4

And here we go with the next generation! I am thinking it removed the two families because they weren’t set on played, so I put everyone back in the “played” category.. and so far so good. Early on in this third generation, I had some glitches where my game got stuck and said there was a sim aging up when there wasn’t one.. so I had to play the same three or four days over and over again. I almost got so frustrated I didn’t want to keep going.. but then I pulled an all-nighter building new lots for my vampire-y sims and the community lot.. and that got me right back into this challenge. For the rest of the generation, I was obsessively saving each sim day so I wouldn’t have to replay much if it glitched again…. haha.

Generation 3

First, the proper vampire house (since I never bothered to take screens of the starter home.. the oil strike happened so early I just upgraded the home right away):

Shot of the kitchen I added:

And the family:

Heir: Alec Newcrest (Loves outdoors, Mean, Active, Vampire Family, Responsible)
Partner: Aanya Srinivasan (Good, Goofball, Perfectionist, Party Animal) – I also turned her into a vampire

I rolled a 2 for their kids, and a 1 for the first kid being the heir.

• Heir: Ashlyn (Perfectionist, Dog Lover, Music Lover, Bestselling Author)
• Sibling: Dylan (Dog Lover, Glutton)

Events that happened during this generation:

• Oil struck +50k (used to build a proper vampire home, hence the no pictures of his starter home)
• Spring fest add a baby. Rolled 1-5 for eligible families (the master vamp is not eligible, imo) got a 2, so added a little girl Mackenzie to the Callaway family
• Fire! 5000 paid to recover the community lot.
• Alec completed Vampire Family aspiration (..that was a lot easier than I expected. Their heir is still only a toddler!)
• Built the third community lot (the Museum), thereby lifting the medicine restriction.. no more unexpected woohoo accidents! YAY!
• Our first Casanova moves in! (Yay! Finally!) There are seven eligible females (oops eight.. forgot the heir’s wife.. yikes!) … I rolled a seven, which means the single newly vampired Laila Ashton gets a new man. I decided he’ll stay with her. Let’s see.. heads he’s a vampire, tails he’s human… tails wins. (gee, I wonder whether the baby will be human or vampire?!) The Casanova’s name is Kyle Sears and he rolled Clumsy, Materialistic, Romantic (oh… nice one.) and Computer Whiz. The best part? He moves in just in time to see her transform into a vampire… haha! A few socials, some romancing, and voila… baby on the way! (I cheated a bit and let them be boyfriend and girlfriend… since the game won’t do it on it’s own.) .. update.. baby is a boy named King.. and yep, he’s a vampire (and SO glad it’s not me playing him because he rolled Clingy!)
• Family moves in (Valentine). Rolled a 3 for number of members. Going to put them in one of the empty homes from Gen one and two. (ended up putting them in the Frantz house with a makeover.)
• Alec ranked up to Grand Master Vampire. Woot! My first one ever! And just to make sure he sticks around, he’s immune to sunlight. haha!
• And here.. is where I went a bit off the rails. I got so bored I sent Ashlyn (the heir) and Alec off to the lounge I edited to add in a bowling alley in the basement. I hadn’t tested it yet, and I figured why not send them out to a night of bowling. Turns out I am so woefully lax on actually playing with the new features the game and stuff packs bring… I didn’t even know there was a bowling skill! 0.o EEK! I guess you can say I wasn’t bored anymore. I even took it off of fast speed to watch their epic fails and gutter balls. And so now I bring you some shots I couldn’t help but take before we get back to the challenge as a whole. Oh, and for the record. Alec unashamedly won with a score of 58…. poor guy (then a 90.. I guess that’s better… lol) Anyway, excuse the pic spam. Back to our regularly scheduled challenge in a moment.. the last pic is of some really cool flaming ball action that some other sims were doing.. I will definitely be doing more bowling!

• Building permits fail, have to gain two points in logic. .. Done.
• Ashlyn becomes an “A” student in grade school! First Newcrest to do that!
• Ashlyn rolls Dog Lover! Yay! Next generation will unlock pets. Also, just to make things easier, Alec and I went ahead and cured her vampirism since she won’t need it next generation.
• Oh, no…!! The next event roll was for a family to leave town. I can’t tell you how tempted I was to pretend I hadn’t seen it and reroll. Rolled a five, which made Vampire Lestat de Lioncourt be the one chosen. I guess that’s no so bad, since Alec can be the town master vampire now. I deleted his house, too, since I hadn’t built it. At this point, I also decided that since his house was gone and Alec was taking over, I would build them a new house. I had a ton of money sitting around (some 70k) from Alec’s gardening and painting, so I decided that the clunky house I built was going to be deleted. I moved them out to the lot where I used to have the master vampire in (up on the hill) and started building. Built the entire shell and had about 20k leftover for painting and such. Because it’s such a BIG house, I have a bunch of empty rooms, so Alec is going to be back to painting non-stop to furnish the rest of the rooms in the 12 days I have left before Ashlyn grows up and is ready to move out. Anyway, here’s the house as it is now… more pics when it’s “finished” at the end of the generation.

• Ashlyn gets another “A” in high school. Another first!
• Another first… Ashlyn and her mother, Aanya got into a knock down drag out fight in the living room. Ashlyn won, if you’ll believe that.. why the fight got started? Who knows. Aanya was in a mean mood swing, though, so that definitely brought the fight about.. but I’ve certainly never had a free will sim get into a fight. Took me completely off guard.
• And the last event for the generation… adding a baby. Rolled for the 7 eligible female sims in town… got a four, and the Valentines got a little boy named Korbin.

Lots Built/ Families Moved in:

• Lioncourt family (master vampire downloaded from gallery since I deleted all the town’s vampires before starting the challenge.) – Genius Bookworm, Neat, and it looks like he has practically the whole powers list learned.. Someone put some time into this guy. LOL. His house is downloaded from the gallery, I explored it a little bit, but not much more. It sure looks cool at the top of that hill though.

• Ashton family (from Charisma 6) – Laila (Genius, Creative, Mean, and wants to be a Good Vampire) – somehow she rolled a vampire want when I already planned to turn her into a vampire with my heir. Since I rolled a lousy one she’ll be moving into town all by her lonesome. I built her a fabulous mansion with a big hedge maze in the back yard in Forgotten Hollow.

• Valentine family (event roll.. got a 3, and moving them into the old Frantz house since it’s empty.) – Maritza (Materialistic, Jelous, Snob, Big Happy Family), Diego (I admit, I rerolled his traits twice because of his look. The traits he initially rolled totally were alien to this man.) (Outgoing, Music Lover, Bro, Fabulously Wealthy), and Child Billy (Rambunctious Scamp, Glutton). Since somehow the furnishings got erased, I went ahead and custom designed the shell of the Franz house to fit with this family. So the house will look familiar, but with completely different furnishings.

• The Royal Museum – (Natural Light, Sunny Aspect, and Home Studio) This is built off a shell I got from the Gallery. I took one look at the big lot for the Willow Creek Museum and hit a big blank wall. So I ended up downloading one called Royal-Shell that was a big, rangy-looking house with a lot of charm (read: it’s all colored and decorated and landscaped outside, I only had to figure out what to do with the insides). I spent hours on it. Literally. (and when taking screenshots I still noticed four little things I overlooked. Oh well. It’s still awesome. And, yes, I uploaded it.

Town Stats: Three community lots (park, lounge, and museum), 7 families and 19 sims total.

Oh, and an update on the two community lots from Gen 1 and 2 – both now have lot traits. I’m not using lot traits on my sims’ homes, but since I rarely go to community lots, I made them more enticing in the hopes that I’d actually use the lots. The jury is out on whether or not that will work, though. (It hasn’t yet…)  Anyway, the park is Party Place, Bracing Breezes, and Sunny Aspect. The Lounge is Convivial, Great Acoustics, and Party Place.

And, as promised – pics of the finished house. (they ended up with some 60k unspent after the 20k for move out, so Alec was definitely on a roll with his painting!) The main floor – where all of their rooms are, and where they spend almost all of their time:

The upstairs has two virtually identical suites designed for a human servant and or butler, left locked to the household:

And the downstairs Master Vampire lair (since Alec needs a coffin to sleep in), and the home bowling alley that I think they used all of twice:

Ashlyn, The heir for next generation:

Oh, and I have decided to start doing the event roll twice a week. Wednesday and Sunday. I’m just finding the population hard to keep up, and getting all lots filled will be really tough as it is now. Also, changing one event that just isn’t feasible MOST of the time and adding three more events to the 12 to make raising the population a little easier.

• 3 – another Casanova (female, this time) moves in
• 13 – add baby to a MALE sim household
• 14 – add a family (4 sims)
• 15 – the second female Casanova to round out the total

I am currently working on the fourth generation with a Vet Clinic (which keeps things interesting, I will say!) and the next heir is a child, so I’m moving right along. It took me a bit longer than I expected to get all of the screenshots for this post in order, hence the delay getting this published.

Generation 1 & 2 | Modified Settlers Rules | Generation 4

I found some other pictures to add to the post about generation 1 and 2, so reload it if you’ve already read it for more pics!

Other than that, I’m working on generation three now, and loving my little vampire family. I’m glad I chose to make up “rules” for vampys. I’ve had to add in a clause for getting the non playables out of the sunlight, and to feed them.. since they don’t readily do either when on free will. Such a pain, but it’s working for now! Oh, and the new heir, Ashlyn.. is freaking adorable. I have no idea where she got her red hair, but it’s too cute. I just had to put a sneak peek in here:

Intro | Modified Settlers Rules | Generation 3

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m working on the Settlers Challenge. I’ve now finished with generation 1 and moved on to the second. I don’t have any pictures of the families from the first gen, but I did go in and take pictures of the homes/lots. (Edit: I found pics!) I don’t remember all of the events, but will list what I do remember. (That, and for the first few weeks I didn’t do events since I was still following the rules that they were optional.)

Generation 1

Adam Newcrest – Bookworm, Clumsy, Active, Bestselling Author
Dylan Newcrest – Insane, Loner, Squeamish, Super Parent

(After these screenshots I moved the urns to the back yard. LOL I honestly didn’t even notice them when I went into build mode to take screenies.)

I rolled a 1 for their kids (I wasn’t yet rolling 2-4). Didn’t do an heir roll, it was decided by an event.

• Heir: Kody
• Sibling: Dallas

Events that happened during this generation:

• Building Permit renewal
• Struck Oil (+50k)
• Family moved in (Franz)
• Add baby to main family (Dallas)
• Remove possible heir – rolled a 2 for Dallas, so by default Kody became the heir
• Adam finished his aspiration

Lots Built/ Families Moved in:

• Chappell Family: (From Charisma level 6) Connor and Nicole, and the kids Teen Berjes, Child Johnnie, and Toddler Twins Miranda and Max

• Franz Family: (From Event) Pierre and Ivy, and the kids Teen Lucas and Child Brandy

• Twin Oracle Point: (Park) Handiness 6, and 20k from family funds.

Town Stats: One community lot and three families for a total population of 14 sims.

Generation 2

Starter house:

Finished House:

Heir: Kody Newcrest – Outgoing, Active, Goofball, Joke Star (also got Compassionate, Good Manners, Mediator, Responsible, and Happy Toddler)
Partner: Brandy Franz – Self-Assured, Art Lover, Hates Children, Computer Whiz

I rolled a 3 for their kids, and a 3 for the third kid being the heir.

• Twins: Jayce (Active, Vegetarian, Cat Lover, Master Chef) and Joshua (Cheerful, Active, Good, Party Animal)
• Heir: Alec (Active, Mean, Loves Outdoors, Vampire Family)
• Plus one from event – (that turned into twins): Rudy (Perfectionist, Evil, Fabulously Wealthy) and Candice (Goofball, Vegetarian, The Curator)
• Plus one from medical unsafe woohoo – Dillon (Cat Lover)

Events that happened during this generation:

• Building Permits need logic
• Add baby to family: rolled 1-4 for eligible families, rolled a four for played family (of course I did. lol)
• Family moves in (Callaway)
• Fire! Park building burns down, 5000 needed for damage control.
• More building permit issues – didn’t have time to get the logic points, so I had to wait a week to build.
• Rolled a Vampire Aspiration on the heir, Alec. (Looks like I’ll be in Forgotten Hollow next generation!)
• Add a baby for the fall festival.. rolled a five and it looks like Brandy’s brother is getting a nooboo! Welcome to Makayla!
• Joshua died from being too angry. (haha what?! stupid mood swings)
• Add baby to family: rolled a 1-5 for eligible families, and added a son, Riley, to the Li-Reinhardt family.
• Chappell family dies out.
• Franz family leaves town (I think they got culled.. although why the game would do that to a favorited family I don’t know..)

Lots Built/ Families Moved in:

• Callaway Family: (From event) Bradford (Cheerful, Creative, Clumsy, Outdoor Enthusiast) and Holly (Clumsy, Art Lover, Self-Assured, Angling Ace) and Twin Toddlers Robin and Sidney (both girls)

• Li-Reinhardt Family: (From Charisma level 6 rolled a two so I put in a same sex couple) Melody Li (Lazy, Gloomy, Materialistic, Musical Genius) and Mandy Reinhardt (Goofball, Geek, Noncommittal, Soulmate)

•  Blue Velvet Bowling Lounge: Comedy level 6 and 20k from family funds. Edited a gallery lot. Didn’t feel like building one all on my own.

Town Stats: Two community lots and six families for a total population of 16 sims.

Intro | Modified Settlers Rules | Generation 3

I found this challenge on Mod the Sims.. (here) and liked the look of it, so I started playing. I found it 1.. too easy.. and 2.. lacking in rules for the expansions. So I’m modifying it for my uses. I don’t plan to blog the story of my “colony” (town), but I may post some build pictures and stuff as I go. I’m almost done with the first generation currently and I have 3 families (14 total sims) living in my town. Anyway. Back on topic. I wanted to write down my variation of the rules.. mostly so I don’t lose them. So here they are. Anything I changed I put in italics.

THE SIMS 4 SETTLER CHALLENGE

Your sim has decided to be one of the brave heroes throughout history who travel to the loneliest places on Earth to find a new home. Your job is to survive and create a thriving colony in the middle of nowhere.

GOAL
To build and to populate your colony. The challenge is over when you’ve lifted all restrictions. (My goal: lift all restrictions, have at least one of each community lot, and fill all lots except for the city apartments).

SETTING UP
-Set lifespan to normal.
-Aging must be on.
-Create a couple in CAS (young adult or adult). They are your settlers. Pick their traits and aspirations randomly (you can use dice, random.org or this trait generator: https://www.platinumsimmers.com/trait-randomiser/). Choose which one of them you’re going to control. (I use http://createarandomsim.com)
-Bulldoze all lots in the world (exceptions: The Bluffs, Von Haunt Estate, Ancient Ruins, and The Secret Lab.) Your sims are settlers and there are no other people living in the colony yet. You may leave one starter house and buy that lot for your sims, or you can build a completely new house or download one from the gallery.
-Delete all households except for the one you made. More will be spawned randomly.
-Choose the starting era for your settlers and choose the furniture, clothes, decorations etc. accordingly. For example, if you want to start in the Wild West in the 19th century, don’t buy a television. (Besides, your colony won’t have electricity in the beginning in any case.)
-You must use all or almost all your money building and furnishing the house. You can also buy up to three books and one pack of seeds. The point is that you must not have any money when you start the game. If you run out of things to buy for some reason, use a money cheat to reduce your money to zero.

RULES
-You may only control one sim. That sim is called the heir. You will control several heirs during this challenge, but only one at a time.
-There may only ever be one heir at a time. You can freely choose who the next heir is and you can decide when to start playing the next heir, but once you’ve decided, you can’t change your mind and go back to playing the old heir. If you start playing the new heir while the old one is still alive, the old one is not considered an heir anymore.
-The new heir must be the previous heir’s child.
-If the heir has many children, all those children except the future heir must move out when they become young adults – I’m changing this to the heir moves out and “takes” 20k simoleons from the household treasury. (That’s not arbitrary, that’s the amount that a sim moves into a lot with, so you have to have that much in their parent’s bank account to “take with them”. Use a cheat to reduce the parent’s bank account by this much.) This makes it more of a challenge to earn money the next generation, and allows me to play with many different houses so I don’t get bored.
-The heir may marry and move their spouse in.
-You may not age sims up days before their actual birthday.
-Cheats, mods or hacks that give you an advantage over a person who doesn’t use them are not recommended.
-If you want to make this challenge easier, you can use one helper (the spouse / sibling / parent etc. of your heir). The helper may do simple tasks (such as repair an object, water plants, cook a meal, feed a baby), but you shouldn’t control the helper too much – only a couple of tasks a day. If you don’t use a helper, you may notice that the inactive sims in your family won’t do much (or any!) work autonomously, which does not feel very realistic in a hard-working colony. Not using this rule.. the challenge is easy enough as it is.
-Traits and aspirations are always randomized when a baby is born or a sim ages up. You can use any random trait generator (e.g. http://www.simslegacychallenge.com/…rait-generator/ or https://www.platinumsimmers.com/trait-randomiser/) or just roll dice. Exception: You may choose the traits and aspirations for the child if either of the child’s parents has any of the following traits: Family-Oriented, Patriarch, Mentor. (No changing aspirations until “higher education” restriction is lifted).

RESTRICTIONS AND HOW TO LIFT THEM

School
There is no school in your colony. You must prevent children from going to school.
Requirements for lifting this restriction:
-There must be at least twelve people living in your colony (your family included).

Medicine
Hospital births are not allowed and woohooing may always lead to a pregnancy (roll a six-sided die or use random.org first: 1 means you need to pick the interaction Try for baby instead, and if you roll 2-6 you can just pick Woohoo). You can always choose to Try for baby if you want to.
Requirements for lifting this restriction:
-There must be at least three different community lots in your colony

Electricity
There is no electricity yet. You may not use the computer, the TV, the radio etc. (You may use the fridge, however).
Requirements for lifting this restriction:
-There must be at least four different community lots in your colony AND one of the sims in your current family must have 6 skill points in Handiness — I’m eliminating this entire rule. People out in the boonies can have electricity fairly easy, whether by cabling to the local grid or using a generator.. I’m putting my guys in this modern era, and it just doesn’t make sense to restrict electricity.

Careers
You may not have a normal job as there aren’t any companies or infrastructure. Careers are therefore not allowed, but you may use other means to earn money (painting, collecting, gardening, fishing etc.)
Requirements for lifting this restriction:
-There must be at least five different community lots in your colony
-There must also be at least thirty people living in your colony (including your family)

Higher education
There are no possibilities for higher education in your colony. If you unlock this, you can always choose the traits for your sims when they age up or are born. With this lifted, you can also change aspirations.
Requirements for lifting this restriction:
-You need to lift the restriction School first
-To lift this restriction, one of the sims in your current family must have the trait Genius and be at least a young adult. — Changing this to the heir needing to have the genius trait rolled in randomly.. so this could be either fast or interminably slow.

Aliens
If you happen to marry in an alien… congrats. You’ve got alien DNA. If your male heir gets abducted (or the partner of your heir) the alien baby is still allowed to be an heir. If you don’t want aliens, feel free to discount this rule.
Requirements for lifting this restriction:
-You need to find an alien to marry or get abducted and have a little blue surprise.

Pets
There are no pets allowed in your town. Once a sim qualifies for being a vet, they can build a vet clinic and lift this restriction. Again, if you don’t want pets, just ignore this rule and reroll the Cat or Dog Lover traits on your heirs.
Requirements for lifting this restriction:
-To qualify to lift this requirement, your heir needs to randomly roll either Cat Lover or Dog Lover trait.
-This heir then works towards getting money and setting up a Vet Clinic (requirements for this below). Once the Vet Clinic is built and in service, pets are allowed in any and all families.

Vampires
You may not play a vampire or have your sim turned into one. If you don’t want to have vampires, that’s fine as well, just ignore this rule and reroll an aspiration if you get one of the Vampire ones.
Requirements for lifting this restriction:
-To lift this restriction, your heir must randomly roll one of the Vampire Aspirations. This heir will then live in Forgotten Hollow when he/she moves out. To become a vampire, you have a choice to 1, make a vampire to turn you, or find one in and amongst the homeless in your town. If you choose to make the vampire, treat him or her as a new “family” to move in.. as they move in you must build them a house (unless, of course, you plan to marry them into the family).
-If your vampire heir’s heir 1, does not roll a Vampire aspiration (which is extremely likely) and 2, is a vampire – you must cure them of vampirism BEFORE they move out. Doing this will require your heir to be at level 10 vampire lore and get 10 wolfsbane, 10 garlic, and 10 plasma fruit to make the potion.
–If you choose to make your partner a vampire, and your heirs are vampires, you may control them to 1, feed them, and 2, keep them out of the sunlight. Vampire sims aren’t the smartest and the AI will not take care of them on their own.

Strangerville
You may not move into StrangerVille or build any houses or lots there. until . Once you have a sim roll the StrangerVille aspiration, you can then work your way through the aspiration to open the town for others.

Requirements for lifting this restriction:
-To lift this restriction, you need to complete the StrangerVille aspiration and finish the “quest” (No spoilers from me here, but there will be a change in the town once you finish it) Once complete, this town will function just like any other and you’re welcome to build lots and move families in.

POPULATING THE COLONY

Yours is the only family living in the colony in the beginning.

Rules for adding families:
-When you are allowed to add a family, create them in CAS or download them from the Gallery. Roll a six-sided die or use random.org to determine the number of people in the family (between 1 and 6).

Different ways to populate the colony:
-Have babies! (For each heir’s family, I roll a random number between 2 and 4 to decide the number of kids they’ll have. This leaves room for event rolled children.. again, I’ll explain that later. This also allows for one non-heir to stay behind to live in the house. I then roll a die for the number of kids to find out which one will be the heir.)
-You can use your Charisma skill to persuade people to join your colony: You can add one family for every sim in your family who has reached level 6 in Charisma. (I’m changing this to being only the heir having the charisma skill, even if you did manage to get a spouse or kid with a 6 in charisma, they cannot bring in another family, only heirs can do this.)
-You can also attract people by hosting great parties. You may add one family for every type of party for which you’ve got a gold medal. You can only invite people who live in your colony to your parties, you can’t invite homeless people!
-Improving the services and the infrastructure in your colony will also make people move into your community. You may add one family for every community lot you add
–Event rolls.. more on this later..

ADDING RESIDENTIAL LOTS

I’m adding info on this, since it’s never specifically stated how and when you add new residential lots in the original rules.

When to add a lot:
-When you earn a population increase by either– 1, your heir’s charisma skill, 2, getting a gold on a party (once per party type, not individual party), or 3, adding a community lot– this family (you roll a 1-6 to figure out how many sims to make in this family) moves in and you build a house for them. Since they won’t be played by you, using money cheats to build their house is okay. Once they’re moved in, set them as unplayed in the manage households screen (in manage world) and this house is theirs. Should this family all die out, it’s free real estate for homeless townies to move into (unless you don’t like this idea, in which case you have 3 options: 1, when the family dies out, let the ghosts live there, 2, make a new family (with your 1-6 roll) to move in, or 3, use this lot for the next family set to move in.
-When your heir moves out with their 20k simoleons. Move them into a blank lot and use their 20k to build a starter home that they can add on to as they earn money.
-When you roll to add a four person family on an event roll.. more on this later..

ADDING COMMUNITY LOTS

There may only be one community lot of each type (ie. one café or restaurant, one pub or bar, one library etc.). One heir can unlock and add only one community lot during their lifetime, unless they have one or several of the following traits: Business Savvy, Genius, Ambitious. In that case, they may unlock and add one community lot per each of those traits that they have during their lifetime.  (Edit… I can build more than one of each type, but still only one per heir’s lifetime. There’s just too many lots for them ALL to be residential, and I want to try to fill all of them except the city lots – haven’t decided what to do with those yet.)

When a community lot has a certain cost, you can either pay for that lot or try to fill the other requirements, in which case you won’t have to pay anything. If you decide to pay, just use a money cheat to reduce your money by the required amount. — (Nope. Too easy. The simoleon cost I’m raising from 5000 per lot to 20000… and I require BOTH the skill and the money requirement to build a lot.)

You don’t have to add all the community lots listed here in order to win this challenge. You can choose which ones to build. (?? Very confused by this, but eliminating it. No sense to skip any lots when I have all that space to build on!)

A church / a wedding venue / some other nice place for your colony to gather and meet each other (I made mine a Park – generic would also be a good choice.)
This should preferably be the first public building or venue that you create. There are many nice choices in the Gallery (under General), but you can also build it yourself. Just remember not to make it too modern!
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND your heir must have 6 skill points in Handiness

A café (or) restaurant or a bakery 
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND OR your heir must have 6 skill points in Gourmet cooking

A pub or a bar
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND your heir must have 6 skill points in Mixology

A museum or an art gallery (or arts center)
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND your heir must have 6 skill points in Painting

A library
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND your heir must have 6 skill points in Writing

A concert hall or a lounge
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND your heir must have 6 skill points in Guitar, Violin or Piano (or Comedy)

A (National) park
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND your heir must have 6 skill points in Gardening

A nightclub (or karaoke bar)
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND your heir must have 8 friends outside the current family

A gym (or pool)
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND your heir must have 6 skill points in Athletics

A bakery or retail store
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: The cost of the lot AND all building material and furnishings. This is likely to cost more than 20k, so I’m eliminating needing any skills to open one.

A Spa 
Unlocking requirements:
-Cost: 20k simoleons AND your heir must have 6 skill points in Wellness skill

A Vet Clinic 
Unlocking requirements:
-First, your heir MUST randomly roll either Cat Lover or Dog Lover trait as they’re growing up. Once you have an heir that qualifies, they can start building their Vet Clinic
-Cost: The cost of building the lot and furnishing it. This isn’t cheap, and you raise Vet Skill by actually doing it, therefore there is no skill requirement for this building.

If you want, you can roll a random event every Sunday to keep things interesting (use dice or random.org). (I did some moving around of options, and removed one completely. I didn’t feel the war on the borders killing the young adults was appropriate given the fact that I’m setting it in the modern era.) To make things even more interesting, you can roll both Sunday and Wednesdays like I am.

1 The spring festival makes people romantic. Add a new baby to a random female in your colony (Manage Worlds -> Household Management -> Edit sims in CAS).

2 A casanova moves into the community, sweeps one of the female sims in town (I changed this from having her be in your family. roll off the eligible females to decide which one it is.) off her feet and knocks her up. Pick the female sim randomly. That sim may even be your heir if your heir is female. Instructions: Create the casanova in CAS (if you haven’t already), move him into the female sim’s house and make him Try for baby with the selected sim. You can then move him out if you want to (if you move him out, make sure you build him a home or put him in one of the existing empty homes).

3 A flood destroys the house of one family in your colony (pick randomly) and you want to help them. Move them into your house. You may move them out after one week if you want. — I found this rule to be a nightmare in practice.. most of the time, I couldn’t get the family to move in because there’s not enough room in the household and I don’t play with mods… so I changed this to: Another Casanova (female, this time) moves in. Instructions same as above except the sim you make is a female and moved in with any eligible male in town. (which means even elders count, because she’s having the baby, not him).

4 A family asks if they may move into your colony. Create four sims in CAS and move them into your colony. (I took out the “you decide” .. why wouldn’t you want more sims?!)

5 Fire! One of your community buildings has burnt (pick randomly). You may rebuild it using your money if you want to, but it will cost 5000 simoleons. If you don’t want to rebuild it, bulldoze it.

6 One of your current heir’s children feels that they cannot bear the responsibility of building a colony. That child isn’t allowed to become an heir. Select the child randomly. (If your heir doesn’t have children, nothing happens.)

7 The autumn festival makes people romantic. Add a new baby to a random female in your colony (Manage Worlds -> Household Management -> Edit sims in CAS).

8 Your Mister Casanova is at it again! This time a female sim from another household gets pregnant. Pick the female sim randomly. Instructions: Create the casanova in CAS (if you haven’t already), move him into the female sim’s house and add a baby to that family in Household Management.

9 Problems with the building permit office. If you can raise your Logic skill by two points (unless it’s maxed already, in which case you succeed automatically) in the next 24 hours, you’ll be able to convince them that your requests are rational and nothing happens. If you can’t raise your Logic by two points, you may not build anything before next Sunday.

10 Another family asks if they may move into your colony. Create four sims in CAS and move them into your colony. (I took out the “you decide” .. why wouldn’t you want more sims?!)

11 Oil has been found in your colony. Use the cheat Motherlode or some other money cheat to add 50000 simoleons to your family funds.

12 One family decides they wants out and sells their home and moves away. This is figured out by a roll of all non-related families. (If you’ve married in sims from a family, that exempts them from this roll. Family in the area means they aren’t likely to leave the area.) Leave their home as-is and evict them, then delete them from your household list. Feel free to save them to your library in case you want to use them later for something else, or have them move back in on an appropriately numbered add family roll. (obviously, this means that families with more than 6 sims won’t be able to move back in).

I added three more events in the third generation:

13 Add baby to a MALE sim in a household. Just for something different.

14 Another family asks if they may move into your colony. Create four sims in CAS and move them into your colony. (I took out the “your decide” .. why wouldn’t you want more sims?!)

15 The second female Casanova to round out the total Same instructions as above.

16 Add baby to a MALE sim in a household.