I also mostly just play the game and take photos of what happens. Sometimes that requires forcing my Sims to do something interesting, instead of just walking about the house, but it's mostly just general gameplay. I've only had a couple of staged scenes to flesh out the story with photos that gameplay can't produce.

Also...I want everything about that greenhouse. Honestly...I want everything about that greenhouse plus a fully functioning Victorian themed neighborhood. Then I could play a nerdy botanist gentleman. Sigh. I supposed playing a modern-day nerdy botanist will have to do.

I think that anything that waters, weeds and fertilizes all your plants at once is too cheaty for the gardener career and should not be allowed. I mean, it takes all the effort out of doing the job, and it improves your plant quality so you make even more money for no work.
Also, if you've rolled for the Fulfilled goal and have chosen Perfect Garden for a LTW, the SwiftGro station would have to banned for that generation, too.
I'm not sure about the Homemade goal...since it basically does everything except harvest, it does kind of take any challenge out of that goal. So maybe it would have to be banned for that.

Honestly, I wish EA would stop making these things so damned cheaty. I can't use my sauna because it gives Sims extra days in their lives (it's not a banned object, I just don't want my townies abusing it and living forever. ) And while I'd love to be able to compost again like in TS2, I don't want it to be some ubercheat that does the gardening for me. =(

Maybe, hopefully, someone can come out with a mod to make them less cheaty. I know Buzzler did it for the baby swing. Though I don't know much about coding so I can't be sure.

Okay, so I'm having a bit of a panic moment right now.

I am just now getting around to reinstalling all my games. Only there's one problem. I'm missing my Ambitions EP. That's going to be really problematic with carrying out Amaranth's Private Investigator career, since I like to have them retire at elderhood and she's still got a little bit of time to go.

This makes me terribly sad. At least I'm going back home tomorrow, and maybe if I dig up through all my stuff, I'll be able to find it. But this does mean I can't continue the legacy until I find it. I can play-test Seasons with another family, but I wanted my first experience to be with the Overlords.

Thank you for your comment yesterday, Envie. I was so frustrated with my damn computer last night, and seeing your reply really cheered me up.

About the greenhouse set- If we're going to ban it for gardeners, don't you think we ought to ban some of the other store content as well? Like the wishing well and the baby swing? I know we've had this discussion before, but I honestly can't remember what we decided. However, if we're operating under the premise that "cheaty" store content should be banned, I think we really should consider some of the other stuff as well.

Edit: I'm sorry, misslaheela! I really hope you can find it!

My family can't find it back at my house. If I have to buy it all over again, I think I will cry me a river and then jump into it and drown. I legitimately bought that stupid thing, now WHERE IS IT?!?!?

*tears up dorm room looking for it*

Edit: It gets worse. Not only have I not found Ambitions yet, but I'm not able to install Pets. Apparently there's something about an "Appaloosa Plains ObjectCache" that refuses to install ("redundancy check" it tells me). No idea what to do about it. This computer crash is starting to make me really distressed.

We've put restrictions on the wishing well, and on genie wishes. I'd only be in favor of banning objects (or restricting the use of objects) if they hand out money or skills, or, in the case of the gardening set premium objects, do all the work required for a career or make achieving some goals too easy. If they ever made an object like say a dummy Sim you could send to your rabbithole job and work for your Sim while they do other stuff, I'd want to ban that, too.
The baby swing, while a cheaty object, doesn't do anything to help achieve any challenge goals. It brings in no money, and would actually interfere with Perfect Children if you let the toddlers use it, since it gives no skills and just eats up time.
While I've put my own ban on the sauna for my convenience, since what it hands out is extra days in the Sim's life, and we allow other life extending items, I don't see a need to ban it from the challenge.

Maybe say that it's definitely banned if you roll gardener and/or fulfilled (with perfect garden LTW).

And just leave homemade up to the player? Just like the creatures.

You can't sell the produce done for homemade unless the Sim in question is the gardener, in which case the SwiftGro is already banned. There isn't much of a benefit to eating perfect food vs normal food so I'm not sure that's grounds to ban for that. But it does take the challenge away, especially if the income rolled is a tedious one. And that I'd say we leave up to the player. And I'd say most of us would err on the side of more challenging (barring a tedious career and 5 kids and single parent and perfect children).

I know I'd personally have it be that they may not use it until they've gotten level 10 in gardening.


And I'm preparing to start one. Won't be doing a story with it since anytime I try to document anything, it stalls and I want to complete at least one generational challenge for TS3. Especially now that I'm deeming my current generational challenge as way too prone to glitching out.

Hi, sjdavis, welcome to the challenge!
I think you're right about leaving the gardening premium stuff open for Homemade. We allow people to use produce grown by previous generations for that, too, so, yeah. It would just have to be banned for the gardening career and for achieving the perfect LTW if you rolled Fulfilled.

@buckley - you're welcome, glad I caught up and have another great blog to read now.

@misslaheela - don't stress too much, maybe it will turn up and you won't have to buy another copy. Sometimes Amazon.com has good deals on the older EPs btw, just incase.

As for the discussion on banning the gardening premium content, I think I could see the merit in that as stated, for the actual gardening career or fulfilled LTW but if people want to use it in their legacies for hobbies or fun, should be ok if not making money from it? Having gardened successfully the old fashioned way, I don't think its that terrible to have to do it by hand without bonus help so I don't mind.

Lastly, I ran out of budget this week, so I won't be able to order Seasons for another week, so I'll be watching 'enviously' as you all start introducing weather into your stories!

Oh, yeah, it would be fine to use it for your hobby gardens, just not for the career.

I've read that the greenhouse doesn't actually work to grow plants in winter, btw, the roof pieces don't count as a proper roof, so rain and snow get in and any plants growing inside will go dormant in winter. So, it's starting to sound like a big waste of money to me, lol.

It must be back at home, because it's nowhere in my dorm room. Fortunately I got Pets to download. Now I just have to wait. A question - my StoryProgression settings are set to have no immigrants (that's the default for SP). But I'm starting to wonder if the population is going to dwindle because of it, or at least the population starts being overtaken by Overlords (or "relatives" of the Overlords like Oliver and Phantom, or after I intermarry enough times that everyone in the town is going to be related). Will this end up being a problem to where I need to start some immigration to get fresh meat into the town?

Per the gardening premium, I would almost lump it into the same category as playing with supernaturals. Yeah, it can be cheaty, but if you really want it as part of your story, then you can do it that way. But if you really want to play for the challenge rather than the story potential, then you can avoid it.

@Envie - So sad! What with the insane amount of homework before Thanksgiving Break, I've finally installed Seasons but I haven't been able to play it yet. And like I said, I can't exactly play without Ambitions since Amaranth is currently in an Ambitions profession. So it'll be a couple days yet before I can test it out.

No story with it lasted until I did my gen 1 rolls. Gen 1 rolls screams one of my Sims 2 legacy Sims that had recreated in Sims 3.


Envie, I won't get getting Seasons until Christmas, so you won't be the only jealous one here.


And my challenge is going no where if the crashes don't stop. Last time it was my patches not being up to date. Now it's my CC. I'm about to literally pull it all and go CC free for a while. I'll only miss the hairs really.

So, just wondering, (homemade question again) do the new food booths and such disallow homemade from participating? Snow cones, hot dogs stands, food eating contests, etc? Along those lines, what about the ice cream truck? I may have missed the notices about those things.

Oh yeah---good question heaven! I'd be curious about that too. At the moment, you have to be super careful with the eating contests, there is a hunger bug that could potentially kill your sim. The hunger bar drops drastically, and then slowly refills, it's along the lines of the old social bug with holding toddlers and tickling them, when their social needs would tank. Only more serious!

So, for the moment, no premium greenhouse, since I have rolled gardener. I may try to use the pieces though, and build something that looks like a greenhouse. Unless I get too lazy. lol

I have another update: Chapter 33: Secrets Revealed

Lots going on---I hope I've done some justice to my story---please let me know what you all think!

I finally got that update out.

http://duckiesims.blogspot.com/2012...-chapter-6.html

The build-up to Seasons starts...

I can't get the Ice Lounge or the peashooters because for some reason, my Sims account isn't working. Before I head to the help thread, any ideas?

On another note, I love how the Sims Team is like "Oh, you need to buy the origin edition to get this stuff" and then I go to Target & get it anyway.

They do that every time. "Limited Edition! Get it now or you'll miss out!" Mmhmm. I'm pretty sure the "limited edition" of Supernatural is still on the shelves.

I'm not sure why your account wouldn't be working. Is it just not logging in? That would be something to take up with EA, not really with MTS.

I glanced over the rules really quickly, and as far as I could see the wishing well isn't mentioned at all, which is why I brought it up. I agree though, that its use should be restricted, but I think if we are going to ban wishing for money then we should also ban wishing for power, at least if you've rolled perfect career, idle career, or the fulfilled goal and your LTW is to reach the top of your career. It goes along the same lines as banning the gardening object for the fulfilled goal when you've chosen "perfect garden" as your LTW.

I think you're right about the swing, but I don't know. It's just so cheaty! If we're worried about how "hard" the challenge is then it could easily be exploited on a single parent roll. However, as it doesn't affect the goals at all, there's really no grounds for getting rid of it, and besides, anyone with enough determination could find a way to take the challenge out of our challenge.

It makes me sad about the gardening objects though. *sighs* I was looking forward to using them, but they just made them too easy! Takes the fun out of it really. Can we use the station thing to identify unknown seeds, or is that banned also? *ponders*



I don't think they would be allowed, but I could be wrong. My interpretation of that rule is that everything must be cooked at home. So, no cake, ice cream, or snow cones. Poor Sims.



I got that EXACT same error when I tried to install Pets just yesterday! Omgosh, creepy. Glad you got it to work finally. I had a freakout moment about that point in the install as well.

Got a pictureless prologue up for my challenge. As so far my game is behaving, though I haven't really played. It was just crashing right after I load up the game at all.

Prologue

Chapter Index will be here.

Late night finish on a new chapter.

Ch. 2.4 - "Family Ties"

Isabel and Nate have moved to St. Claire and are settling in - meeting distant family and working out some issues. Travels and hilarity resume.

For some reason my teens are getting assigned to full time jobs like ghost hunter and stylist...

I guess what we decided about the wishing well never made it to the blog, sorry. We did ban more than just the money, I think the only wishes allowed were for a child and love (provided you have a slot open in your roll to add these Sims to you household) and for happiness, which just gives a moodlet.
I'll try to get up information about premium content sometime today.
As for the baby swing and other such items that just make the game easier, it's unfortunate that EA makes everything such a huge cheat. But I don't want to be banning everything they come out with that players want to buy, so unless it directly impacts a particular rule or goal of the challenge, then it's free to use.
And with the new gardening stuff, you could use it to discover seeds. I don't have that set yet, still deciding if I want it, but if that sunflower thing makes a fertilizer that you can apply to each plant by hand, you could use that. But if the fertilizer can only be used in the machine that applies fertilizer to all plants at once, then you can't use it while in a gardening career.

As for homemade, yes, as that rule stands, it bans all eating of anything not made at home with homegrown ingredients. So, no bar food, no food or ice cream trucks, no restaurants, and no festival food. We've made exceptions for birthday cake (though you can't save any leftover cake to eat later), and for the adventurer career, you're allowed to bring your homegrown produce on adventures to eat raw.

Edit:

Brannon Legacy update, 11.16

Chapter 24: Serious Works of Non-Fiction

Probably my most light-hearted, fluffy chapter ever.

I love the look of that greenhouse set, although it will drive me mad if the roof pieces don't work as roofs for seasons! Especially since I would want to use it for conservatories as well as greenhouses.

I agree on the restrictions for the gardener career and fulfilled roll, and I have to admit the baby swing is very "cheaty", especially at the baby stage since it refills all the motives. I think we did ban the moodlet manager and motive mobile from the lifetime rewards for that reason. On the other hand, they do look so cute using it, especially when an adult watches them!

I added a new section to the rules blog, beneath the section on Lifetime Happiness Rewards, and listed the restriction on the wishing well and on the Swift Gro thing.
If anyone can think of other premium objects that need restricting, let me know.

Ali, I know what you mean. I bought the baby swings in my legacy because I was doing expansionist/luxury and was making a super extra deluxe nursery. And I did love getting the pics of the babies in their swings. I made a point of not letting the babies stay in them all day, though. LOL, if I left them alone too long, one of the adults would invariably go in and set it to fast speed, which would give the babies a nauseous moodlet, anyway.
I haven't even looked to see if Buzzler's mod making it less cheaty needed updating. I've heard he doesn't have access to a computer lately and hasn't been able to update his mods, so they're only good if the EPs/patches haven't broken them.
But, I hate to outright ban premium objects like that if the cheatiness doesn't break a specific restriction, like handing out free money, or do all the work for particular career. I haven't played the Daycare career, maybe the baby swings would make that too easy and should be restricted if you are running a day care? But other wise, I hate to tell people you can never use them for your whole legacy.

Just read it (and not sure how to comment on wordpress) but I went squee when I recognised where you were pulling your characters & names from!

I just wanted to share this pic of Tansy and Moth. Fairies love parties, lol.

D'aaaww!

I confess, I totally used the baby swing with Isabel. Emma was a gardener and spent almost all day tending to her plants. If I hadn't used the swing, baby Isabel would have been neglected in the house! I didn't use it much at all as a toddler though, because I had to move the focus from Isabel gardening so much (which I pushed hard to make money at asap they were broke) to teaching Isabel to walk / talk / potty as I really wanted to have her traits picked specifically for childhood to fit the roll I'd gotten for her generation. I don't think the baby swing is as cheaty as premium content which gives you money or ups your skills faster in some way. I can understand the current restrictions as mentioned for certain career rolls only however.

Dammit Melissa, stop making me melt with your fairies!

I'm sort of on the fence about store content. I don't consider the baby swing really cheating, and while I'd like to see a lot of the premium content banned, if I really wanted to use the wishing well for my story I'd still do it. Just like I used the fountain of youth from Hidden Springs (Although that WAS in an alternate save!).

Anyway, I have an update and its another long one. Had a bit too much fun with this chapter and I couldn't cut it off xD. It was SUPPOSED to be about Prim, but then Nalin and Winter took it over. Again. Sorry.

6.17 - Climate Change http://sarisimsrandomlegacy.blogspo...ate-change.html

The only premium content I currently have is the baby swing. To be honest I am interested in the auto pet feeder, but that's mostly because we would feed my old cats with a continuous feeder so it would be something I would have for my family in the real world. Although we had to get rid of it with my current baby. She was getting fat Otherwise none of the premium content has really been a 'must-have' for me so I don't have any problem what we decide to do with them.

And I also have an update to present. It looks like it will still be another chapter or two before there's a toddler Frost. I feel bad that my generation is taking so long ><; Hopefully future generations will move along better now that I've gotten more in the hang of things.

http://snowrandomlegacy.blogspot.co...ting-older.html

Hey, for anyone wanting to use the greenhouse set to grow plants in winter, Inge has made an invisible rug you can place on a floor to make it appear invisible. So, you can put a floor over your greenhouse, cover it with this rug which will make it invisible and also allow light in, but the game will believe you have a roof over it.

http://www.den.simlogical.com/denfo...ic=1468.new#new

EDit: I'm in Inge chat now, and we're discussing the fact that you might not be able to plant directly in the ground once her roof rugs are placed. But you should be able to plant in planters.

Also, I'm installing Seasons now. *fingers crossed*

I really need to stop playing and start blogging XD I have such a good story in my head, I'm just struggling to write it down.
And dang you Blair, why did I forget to switch your hair back to the new hair I choose when I had to go back to an old save (I forget the reason besides it was glitch related), I love his new hair style SO much more then his old one XD

EDIT: Up to half of the first chapter, I think I'll write five before publishing though so I know I'm attached to the legacy enough to write about it. I think I am though

I have another update, The last one before seasons. I have decided to use Jessica as my heir so next chapter will be last of Gen 1, Hope You enjoy reading
Chapter 10

I got seasons and restarted my random legacy (I hadn't gotten very far with my first legacy--probably like a sim week!) I've played a couple of weeks in-game, and it's going well. My sims--Phoebe Bee--is a gardener, so money's a bit tight. She just married (an alien! Gasp!) and had her first kid, and her husband works has a career in education. She's supposed to have a total of three kids, but I'll probably hold off on the next two til I have enough money to afford a better house.

I'm thinking of starting a blog for my legacy, but I was curious about how you all do it. Do you write posts as stuff happens in the game (for example, do you write a new chapter right after a major event happens), or do you write the posts long after stuff happens in your game?

What I do is play for a set amount of time (right now, that amount is an hour of real time) and write based on both what happened in-game during that time and the storyline that is developing.

There's a comment box at the end of each blog post. If you click in it, the fill out your name and stuff pops up.

I'm probably just going to play until such time as I have enough pictures and plot for an update. I can't use a set time in real life because I get distracted way too easily.

Hi. I'm new here. Ok so I've been a silent lurker for months and am up to date on most everyone's legacies. I've tried the challenge in the past and only got through 2 1/2 generations. I figured blogging about them and creating a story would help keep me motivated. Its still a little rough, but I'm sure as I get into the swing of things it'll get better. I'm not used to writing blogs. But here it is, my first chapter. Please be gentle with me.

http://fitzlevirl.blogspot.com/2012...g-new-life.html

I'm new to this too. Don't worry.

I've finally got a chance to come back to my legacy a little. I've played one sim day since I posted 120 pages ago (There's a reason I'm not blogging it!)

I can't for the life of me remember where I wrote down my roll for the next generation though :\ Looking at what I've already done in game has reminded me of everything except the Generation Goal. Hmm. I remember a few it's not though.

Hi - welcome to you and all the others starting out. I've been blogging mine since September, and I'm only on Generation 2 ... obviously I'm a little slower than some at updates and progress. I definitely recommend blogging it though, it helps motivate you to keep updating and keep playing once you have an audience.

Also, your question is pretty common. I see a lot of people ask that, and I asked it too when I started. Basically, you play the game until you feel like you've got enough content to write a decent chapter or two at a time, or however it makes you happy to do it.

Personally, I don't like to get too far ahead in my game from where I'm at blogging, which is why the legacy challenge is actually a side project for me. I actually play another world a lot of the time and then when I have caught up my blog / chapters, then I play my legacy awhile. This keeps me from getting bored with my legacy family too soon also.

I only play a chapter ahead. Some people here have enough material played out ingame and saved up in screenshots to write several chapters ahead, but they space them out over time while still playing.

It's just really whatever you're comfortable with.

And some get way too far ahead in playing as to where their story is. That's me with my TS2 alphabet legacy. Game wise generation Q just graduated from Uni (all 10 of them). Posted story wise on the TS2 Exchange (which is read only now) I'm on generation N. The blog I'm moving it to: generation F. WAY behind. I prefer to be a bit ahead, but not as ahead as I am in that story. I hope to do better with this challenge XD

I would say definitely don't get too far ahead, it pretty much killed my updating XD I was at the point where the gen 3 kids were teens and kids, and the gen 2 weren't even aged up to YA yet XD So I wanted to just skip a whole bunch and get to the fun stuff that I was doing, but there was like a year's worth of updates to drag through XD

Also, is the patch different then the expansion? Because I didn't update my mods for seasons because I just updated them for 1.42 patch, but it's a CRANKY game with lots of crashing.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll probs create a blog over Thanksgiving weekend, then. I feel like I have a few chapters and need to get started writing, but I'm all written-out (is that a word?) from finishing my thesis.

Welcome to all the newcomers! :D

Meanwhile, unfortunate news. I cannot find my Ambitions EP. I've looked all over my dorm room and I've looked all over my room at home. It's nowhere. So unless EA has an awesome deal for Black Friday or I can find it cheap somewhere, I'm gonna have to find a way in the story to remove Amaranth's profession...

Why don't you make her go into the journalist profession, since she's been writing for the people

Careful, stores are a dangerous place on Black Friday. It's like releasing a pack of angry Gators on Zack Durwood, except replace "Zack Durwoon" with "A $5 waffle iron" and "Gator" with "Twilight moms".

@misslahella: man that stinks that you've misplaced an EP. I fully understand that feeling as I've had that feeling when I misplaced my base game disc. It had gone to my dorm at some point and I had a tendency to combine cases for that to reduce packing spaces. I didn't need the code since I had already installed the game...

I hope you're able to find your Ambitions disc and/or code!

Misslaheela, have you even tried opening the save game? Because I was under the impression a save game wouldn't open without all the EPs you had installed previously.

Yea, the game doesn't let you load saves without EP's. I've got a couple of corrupt saves that mention something about not having an EP installed or something to that effect. Mind you I have all EP's that I have ever owned installed and I'm fully patched.


This was all caused by doing a system restore to before my game was patched. So fair warning to all of you: game gets all sorts of confused when you do a system restore to before you patched it.

Oh, I'm so sorry misslaheela. =( I bet somewhere will have a good deal on it soon, with all the Christmas sales starting. I hope so anyway.

...That is NOT good. No, I haven't tried yet. Gosh darn it. I was so looking forward to playing and writing over Thanksgiving break.
I WANT TO PLAY MY SEVERIN!!!!

@Gizmo - I'd look for online deals before going to stores. I know about Black Friday craziness - I had to work at GameStop last Black Friday.

But yeah...this hurts. A lot. $40 is a lot of money to buy an expansion pack, especially after I just bought Seasons, and especially knowing I owned Ambitions and because of a stupid computer crash it's now gone for good. I've looked EVERYWHERE. I can't find it.

You didn't look HERE: http://www.amazon.com/The-Sims-3-Am...c/dp/B003AMOK9M

19.99! That's only half as painful, right?

edit: only $15.00 if you do the digital download!

Just an update on my uglies...

First is Sia and Tao Kole's child. Their 4th one, Sia had him just before she turned elder (Sia is the one with the light blue hair)

Second is Sia and Tao's grandchild, she's a fairy. Someone mentioned Sia looked like part of that folklore and TA DA!!

Last 2 are Juan Darer Jr (clone of Juan)'s children with Julienne Racket.

To describe how I am feeling at this very moment, this video does a very accurate job. Very, very accurate.

I just didn't want to wait to play my legacy, and I just didn't want to repurchase Ambitions. So I went to Origin/EA's live help chat with my problem. I told them my Ambitions game was registered in my Sims 3 account (as proof that I bought it), but I lost the disc and I wondered if there was any way to be able to play my game without having to buy it again. My EA helper, Shubha, was extremely polite and patient, especially when I couldn't quite figure out his/her instructions. Then he/she looked up my code for Ambitions, redeemed it his/herself on my account, and I am now in the process of downloading Ambitions onto my computer as a digital game. No repurchasing necessary.

On top of it all, I was given a 15% off coupon simply for bringing my question to them.

I shall play my Overlords after all this Thanksgiving break! I may not agree with all of your gaming decisions, EA, but my respect for you just went up ten thousand points. I have gone from being highly saddened to unbelievably giddy. BEST! NIGHT! EVARRR!! :D

Yay! I'm so happy for you misslaheela! Free is an even better price!

I finally had a chance to try out the Greenhouse. What I have noticed: The Water plants action is a set of sprinklers that come down from the ceiling and water your plants. Much like the auto upgrade of the Sprinklers. (are those allowed??) The compost action, you click on the barrel thingy, and you have to move 3, I am assuming plants, I used grapes, into the bin. Much like placing fruit into the Nectar machine. Then your sim cranks a wheel thing, to start the compost.

Another observation I have just made, plants go dormant in the Winter, if you have Seasons. That would be a tough one for a first generation start, lol.


Edit to add--pics of my little greenhouse I made. It doesn't have the premium object thingy in it, nor did it prevent my plants from going dormant. *sad face* lol

2nd edit---just after I posted this, the dumb plants started to grow. Just to make me look bad! But anything outside does go dormant.

Yay! I'm so glad to hear that misslaheela! When I first clicked the link in your post, I was anticipating something really horrific, and I was more than a little surprised when that video popped up. Lol. Pleasantly surprised though.

What length have you guys set your seasons to? I'm tempted to shorten them from seven days to five days so that my kids will get to experience more than one season during their childhood, but I don't know. Maybe that's too short? Has anybody played around with it much? I'm curious what the consequences would be of shortening them, especially in regards to time off from school and work. Apparently you get the last day of the season off for a "leisure day", but I don't want my kids getting multiple days off every week. Hmm...

Once I download seasons I'll be setting it to 7 days I think, that way I can work plot around each season. Plus when Winter told Nalin about her name I imagined each season like it lasted quite a long time in relation to sim "years".

I have season in my hand... can't download it until Buckley PM's me back. : ) Cause I suck at making decisions.

I think I may start a new legacy... This one is starting to feel stale...

Yay! So pleased for you (and for the Overlords!)

I'm so jealous of all of you who have seasons!! I won't get it for another 2 weeks! I feel really bad for those of you who have to wait till Christmas!! I had a wedding in my game the other day and I was really wishing I had slow dancing for that...

I guess automated sprinklers are allowed...that's one of things I won't use because Sims obsess over playing in them, so I forget they exist.
So, if the greenhouse watering system is separate from the auto fertilize system, then I guess it's allowed for career gardeners if autosprinklers are.
I've just discovered that the little sunflower thing drops this thing called Sunlight and you can use that as fertilizer manually, so that's allowed.

Misslaheela, I am so pleased for you. I wish I could click love on your post multiple times. The only thing I could have thought was to borrow the disc from a friend to reinstall (if you know anyone) since it wouldn't be the latest version and you wouldn't need that disc to play. It makes me smile to know that EA came through for you though. -THAT- is what customer service is all about.

I'm playing my new legacy and I've upped my lifespan to 120 days which is still in the "normal" category, and increased each age span above toddler an in game week. Overall, a full seasonal year is still 28 days but I shortened summer and increased fall. I figured babies/toddlers are short life stages in real life so one season is normal. Children will experience 2 of 4 season, teens will experience 3 of 4, and adults-elders will experience all 4 in their age span.

So, there are these new wildflower spawners. Sims can pick them, but not plant them. And they can be sold from inventory. So, I'm thinking that would fall under the 'collector' career.
Even more awesome, if you drag the picked flower out of inventory and place it, it's displayed in a pretty vase. =D

Hi! IM BACK

After I soon released Seasons was realised this week I thought it was a must get! So I headed out today to get it and just installing now! What are your thoughts on it?

@mislaheela: YAY! So happy for you! We get more Overlords, you get more money! Everyone wins! Now if you'll excuse me... *smashes World Adventures CD to get a 15% off coupon*

So on another note, have you guys noticed that they're marking down the prices on some expansions? They've brought WA, Ambitions, and Late Night down to $30, and will probably bring down Generations as well. And thank goodness, they've reduced Sweet Treats to it's proper price of $20. Still not buying it though nyah.

Bad Gizmo. No CD smashing. : P

Calisims, that seems like a good addition to the collector career.

So I've downloaded Seasons and the save game loaded just fine but at after about 9 in game hours it eternally hung at 3:28 am, Monday morning. I figured it was the old lag I'd get when an NPC went into labour and jumped out to check who was close to giving birth. It was Trinity to I instant babied her but a few minutes later the game crashed again. Goanna give it one more shot before removing mods and putting them back in slowly. I looked through it and couldn't find an outdated mod but hey... I AM blind.

I should be getting Seasons soon (hurry up, useless Amazon!) and when I do I think I'll install Supernatural (which I pre-ordered but haven't installed yet), install Seasons and start a new random legacy of my own. I got completely fed up of Sims 3 a while back and haven't played it for over 6 months, but I'm starting to miss it and seeing all this Seasons stuff is making me want to play in a way Supernatural never did!

Whilst I wait for it to arrive I will do two things: a) roll for the first generation of my new random legacy and b) start catching up on reading some of yours! :-)

**ETA** Oooh, I like the new options for the family structure roll :-) When were they added?

I'm not sure how to work my seasons (I'll try playing this afternoon and get a feel for it, I think). On the one hand, I don't know that I want a new season every five days, especially with holidays and stuff thrown into the mix. But on the other hand, I play on a shortened lifespan, so I'm trying to decide how often to experience the seasons per Sim's lifetime. Four or five days might work for mine.

Welcome back, Lauratje!
I had problems with useless Amazon sending my Supernatural preorder late. SN ended up going on sale at Best Buy before my copy arrived, so my husband picked one up for me there and we returned the Amazon copy when it finally showed up. After that, we don't preorder games from Amazon anymore.

I don't remember exactly when the new family structure options were added, but it was before I started my current legacy back in August. I know that because the new family rolls were the reason I decided to roll a new legacy. =D They are a great addition to the challenge and an awesome break from the more traditional family structures.

That's great news Misslaheela! I'm happy that EA was able to help you.

Welcome all new players and welcome back returning players!

I keep getting hit by error 12s. This makes me unhappy. : ( Might try an alternate save.

So I remember reading all about Kanoa and his adventures back when Envie started AP. I was expecting much the same from him when I started playing there. Without fail, within just 2 days of starting my game he and Jazlyn had broken up. However, much to my surprise, when my sim went to Leisure Day, she discovered why.

Ha ha! Kanoa, you dog! Well, I'm glad he's finally gotten in touch with what he's really after.

I'm probably going to go with four days per season, as I, too, play a shortened lifespan (for human sims - vampires still have a longer-than-normal lifespan).



In my experience, EA/Origin support is exceptionally good. I'm happy that EA was able to help as well, and I'm not surprised. After all, you did buy and register the disc, and that's enough proof for EA.

Here's what I would do:
1. Find out how long a Sim's total lifespan is.
2. Divide that by 8.
3. That number is how long each season is.

I'll stick to the standard 8 days a season, but if I wanted to get an ideal day count that's not too short or too long, that would be it.

Ok so, Jasper and Brandee had their 1 child, Samson. I was getting over Twinbrook and for whatever reason 200+ cars were being removed each night... So I aged Samson up (de-fairied him) and moved him to Sunlit Tides. Hopefully this will curb my feelings of staleness... Anyway, pic of Samson (he's still a fairy in it)

Gen 4: Samson Kent
Couple
4 Kids
Medical
Freelance Scientist
Perfectionist
No Strangers

I'm going to make his wife for once and I'm going to re-add my group of uglies and let them run around again.

So Gemma just married a homeless sim found in Appaloosa Plains...a homeless sim who, when joined with her family, brought in 75,000 simoleans. I am very, very tempted to MC all of that away.

EDIT: Which is really strange because when the notification popped up, it said that marrying Shaun brought in 1,800 in gifts and tax benefits. Where did the other 73,200 come from?

I'd MC those funds away in a heartbeat, lol.

Yeah, I definitely just did. She had about 770 from her recent horse winnings so I just added the 1800 to that and subtracted the rest from the total. Too bad. She'll have to earn all her money the hard way!

Today, for the first time since my computer crashed, I played my Overlords again. Everything went normally and smoothly, which made me EXTREMELY happy.
I have my seasons on 5 days each right now, which I think should be decent. If I discover that I want them more often, I can just lower them again.

Anyhow, I just took about 200 screenshots (literally), so it's now time to sort into chapters. Hopefully there'll be one by the end of tonight :D

So I'm at the point where if I can't find a work around for the error 12s I'm going to have to move towns. Which sort of throws my plot into the drain.

Would anybody be willing to listen to a long angry, potentially angsty rant PM from me as I try to figure out what to do?

Sure I've had a few of them myself. Which is strange---because I haven't seen an Error 12 in at least 2 yrs. It's very annoying!! At least I still save often. Porter is my friend----

You can talk to me too if you want, Cece.
I haven't had error 12s, but I've certainly vented enough on this thread from my own computer crash/missing game disc woes.

I'm just very frustrated since (Points to screen) BRAND NEW FRIGGIN COMPUTER. COME ON.

I'm going to double check all my mods and nraas settings when I go back in game, change saver to ever 10 minutes, and then keep playing from there. If the error 12s make playing impossible than I'll just have to move my family. Be it to a fresh version of Moonlight Falls or a completely new town I haven't decided yet...

That really sucks. To be honest, I really want to move out of Moonlight Falls. I'm going to do the whole legacy there (the Overlords need to overthrow one town at a time...), but already I'm sick of the citizens living there. That's why I'm considering immigration, just to get some new faces. Even if they're new ugly faces (which they probably will be), they're new faces nonetheless.

There's also a problem with the prettier citizens never procreating. But anyway, there's not a lot of kids in the school for Severin and Tobie to talk to, and I really need that to happen as part of Sev's plot line...

If you need new faces, and pretty ones you can always grab some from the Random Legacy Sims Exchange.

Which reminds me, I forgot to put my gen 6 sims up there... oops.

I have a number of sims floating around on here... Dunno if they're what you'd see as pretty though lol. Too bad I don't have them in one spot...

I'm ready to leave Moonlight Falls as well. I am trying to hold out until the new EA world comes out. Sounds like it's supposed to have a more Italian feel. To save my game I Portered all the sims I wanted to keep, and then I started a new MF game and killed off all the sims, and unpacked everyone. I'm hoping that will help out---and then I can keep on with my storyline.

I keep forgetting about the memories thing though---I need to make sure I am disabling them, and maybe it will help with preventing future Error 12s. *crossed fingers*

@Cece---I am waiting patiently for Gem! He is such a doll. I let Tristan (Rio) loose in a *play* save of mine, and he is quite the ladies man if left to his own devices. lol Town Gigolo!

Reya, you know you can always PM me. Anytime.

It's 2:40am and misslaheela is posting! You know what that means, right? It means she's written a chapter. It also means she consistently underestimates how much time it takes to write one of these silly things and she's shooting herself in the foot because she has to get up early for church tomorrow. But lo, the Overlords wait for no (wo)man.

Chapter Thirty-Nine - The Prophecy of the East Wind

Seasons is introduced, Amaranth and Gator discuss wedding plans, and there are lots of pictures of teenage Severin. Third-to-last one makes my heart go all a-flutter.
...Crap, that wasn't the smiley I wanted. I wanted this one. :lovestruc
Now go to bed, misslaheela.

This is my 3rd try of the challenge. First try, I forgot what happened ( I will try to update when i remember why i failed) Second try, I realized during the making of the 2nd kid that my sim profession and generation goal is doomed to fail So goodluck to me this time, you know what they say 3rd time's a charm!

Hello guys and gals, just popping in to say hi. Shiny new thread I see.... I might be about a bit over the next few weeks, I've just got Seasons, so I'm going to try and get into Sims again. You might even get a blog out of me, although I won't push it.

So this is Maggie Simons, Samson's soon-to-be-wife. I was going to set it up in Sunlit Tides, but it's stupidly laggy. I'm going to check to make sure it's not just my laptop going "I'M TOO WEAK" first, but otherwise, I'm slowly updating Sunset Valley. I do wish I was better at it lol...

Anyway:

Martin! Hey! Great to see you back! And welcome to the challenge, yuminarstrom! I hope this attempt works out for you.

Teal, I found that Sunlit Tides was quite laggy also, so I don't think it's just your computer at fault. Have you tried any custom worlds? There are some really nice ones out there. Maggie's super cute, btw.

I've only ever looked/used mysimsrealty ones. Don't really know any other decent places. I get spooked easy lol.

And thanks, I like Maggie too. I like having the bright/colourful hair for genetics...

I'm pretty sure everyone is sick of me pushing it, but Jericho is THE best custom world I've ever played. Simsample has put so much thought and detail into every single lot, building, and house, and even after spending the last three months playing there almost exclusively I'm still finding things to see and do and explore. It's very, very playable, and it hasn't been overloaded with spawners (like some worlds). It has been fully updated for Showtime and Pets, but not Supernatural or Seasons (obviously, lol). However, it is full of lots, so it shouldn't be that hard to do. (Link here.)

The other ones I like are St. Claire (although it has a bunch of unfurnished houses, last I checked), Charlton Island (it's relatively small and does need a lot of updating, but the terrain is just gorgeous), and... Well, actually, that's it. I'm really picky, and I don't like worlds that are more for "looks" than playing. I hear Setra is supposed to be awesome, if a bit large and potentially laggy. I'm eagerly waiting (and praying) for Reyes County and Brookwoods to get finished, cause they both look awesome.

I kinda looked at St Claire, but not too much in detail... And I'm fine with furnishing lol

I LOVED Jericho but it seemed to lag on my laptop. Lame because its relatively new, but so be it.

And I was holding out for Setra, I followed the forum he was posting to, but when it was mentioned that it lags a little on his, I realised it would give mine a heart attack...

Martin! *big hug* It's great to see you, I hope all is well with you.

I loved Jericho, too, but I couldn't play it. I have too many problems with worlds that use a lot of shells, my townies get stuck in them. That's why I had to leave Storybrook.

Melissa, I've had the same issue in most worlds with the shell buildings, but for whatever reason Jericho's proved much easier to manage on that front. I've only had that happen in one building so far, and I set it to disallow progression so Sims won't move in there.

Also, I think twallan released a fix for the townies-stuck-in-black-spaces problem in his latest overwatch update. The revision notes said "inactive sims in hidden residential rooms are now reset by 'Stuck Check' on a nightly basis". I'll admit that I sometimes I misinterpret these things, but I take it that means I won't have to check for them manually anymore, which is amazing. If you ever decide to move away from MF, you should look into Jericho again. It's truly spectacular.