I introduce the LFT greek houses into the rotations four sim years ago, so there have been rather a lot of university graduations lately. Both Mickey Dosser and Jessie Pilferson didn't have the grades to continue into their fourth year and so had to drop out (and Monica Bratford and Guy Wrightley were a year ahead and so already graduated), but the boys' house saw Matthew Hart, Thomas Grunt and Daniel Ottomas all graduating, and the girls' house had Sarah Love, Dorothy (aka DJ) Verse and Gabriella Newson-Loner get their final qualifications (though Gabi only scraped through with a GPA of 3.0 when she started her fourth year). Meanwhile the dorms saw Orion Curious finish with almost perfect grades.

What is happening is drama galore, but it is Pleasantview after all.

Beau Broke is by himself at college so I put him in the house that already had students and I got two new couples out of that. Beau is engaged to Allegra Gorey, and Jane Stacks wants to marry Castor Nova. I think it will be nice to have a new family in town.

The next cohort is Manuel Goth (adopted son of Alexander and Jared), his girlfriend Ashley Burb, and Bobby Broke. Tragically, John Burb is now a widower after Jennifer got trapped in a kitchen fire. After a period of mourning, he did start looking around for a new wife and he noticed Dina, also recently widowed. They do seem to fit: Dina is ambitious and driven like Jennifer was, and she seems attracted to the older, fatherly type. So they started dating and seem headed for marriage. However, as soon as Manuel became a young adult, Dina decided to initiate him (her step-grandson, btw) in the ways of woohoo--even though his very serious girlfriend is the daughter of her intended. (Confused?) This is all bound to have repercussions at some point, but right now no one knows about them except Dina's son Flynn, who unfortunately walked in on them and screamed his poor head off.

Bobby failed out of college after only one year--I think my quickest expulsion ever--and moved into the apartments where Dirk and Lucy live. Instant attraction between him and Lucy, so they went on a date, during which two of Lucy's former lovers caught them and slapped her about it. (Not Dirk, though--he really doesn't seem to care what Lucy does and is hyperfocused on his career.) It was still a good date, so they went on another one the next day, during which they both rolled up wants to get married and no fears. Well, who can blame her? Bobby is fun, carefree, and freaking adorable, and he pays lots of attention to her. So Bobby and Lucy got married and moved into a house together. She doesn't want kids, though, which is probably a good thing because I don't really need more Brokes. Bobby has low jealousy, so I'm thinking they will establish a discreetly open relationship.

And my most favorite development. After Cassandra and Don broke up, he wanted a relationship with his son, but Cassandra refused to allow Don to see him. Don kept calling and working on her, so finally she relented and invited him over. Sadly, Calvin felt very distant from his father by this point, and they ended up arguing a bit. But Don also started to have feelings for Cassandra again. Cassandra had been looking for another husband, and she had gotten engaged to Benjamin Long (who is mayor of Pleasantview!). But she never got over Don and remained secretly obsessed with him. So when he asked her for a date, she said yes. OFC Benjamin happened to show up there with Bella and was very upset to see Cassandra out with Don. Regardless, the date went well. Cassandra could not stop thinking about Don, and more than anything, she wanted to have another baby with him. So she broke up with Benjamin, seduced Don and tried for baby, then proposed to Don--and he accepted. Cassandra finally gets everything she wants. Bella has warned her that Don will cheat, but she doesn't care anymore. Don has a fear of having another child, but I think he really wants to have a second chance at being a good father. He did leave Nina high and dry, though. I don't think she can afford the bills on her condo without Don's salary, so I'm not sure what she will do.

I honestly think Don should pay Nina maintenance. That would show that he's serious about taking parental responsibility, and, with a doctor's salary, surely he can afford it.

Oh dear, Dina is Mrs Robinson!

@AndrewGloria - This is a good idea. Also, he has Cassandra's money at his disposal now.

@AnMal - Exactly the picture I had in my head down to the black stockings.

I've wandered back into Tinsel Town-playing the last of the round of families-Rebecca Shaw finally divorced Victor (who was very upset at her hard line on it.) and when she got back, Sheldon Lloyd (who is living with her after having been kicked out of his house) finally proposed to her.
She accepted but it's not certain that they'll marry right away-both of them have been burned badly at their past relationships, and they're being cautious. Plus the fact that Rebecca's daughter is not exactly fond of Sheldon has a role to play in any future wedding.
Once I get this round done, then the real drama starts up-there are 3 elders who are going to die in the next 3 days and I'm sure there's going to be howling, weeping and wailing all over town.
Darrell Walton, Sarah Bishop and Damien Lloyd will all be going to their eternal rest, and their families will be deeply saddened. Most of the men in town will be mourning Sarah's death, as she had an active romantic life.
Darrell will be remembered as the man who has a large family and remade himself in the course of his life.
Damien Lloyd will be fondly remembered as a leading businessman who was a kind and generous employer.

It will be drama filled, for sure, but the heirs to those fortunes will be also celebrating-or not. I've decided that the heirs are wealthy in their own right so I'm going to install the 'no elder inheritance' mod into my game.
Just to make it a little harder for the pixels-as it is, most of them have plenty of money-they don't need dear old Dad or Mom's insurance payouts.

I've just ended a round with an extended family of toymakers, and after the grandmother of the house and her son both wished for a new addition to the household via a baby, the daughter in law of the house became pregnant with her third child. After several close calls and near miscarriages, she proceeded to, in the last hour of the round, go into labor, pop out the first set of triplets in the neighborhood, and then died in childbirth, leaving between a husband, his two aging mothers, two young daughters, and three freaking babies.

I ended up having to switch the husband and nurseries' rooms... four cribs take up a lot of space!

Tinsel Town:

Angie Walton had a premonition that her husband Darrell would pass away today-and she asked him to stay home. "Listen-we don't need the money! We've got more than enough to live on for the rest of our lives, and we still own the burger store-so why don't you stay home and enjoy it with your family, Darrell?"
It didn't take much for him to be convinced of her logic. "Sure, I'll stay home from work-I'm sure that they won't miss me-because my staff will take care of anything that comes up."

So the whole family went to the Tinsel Town Park and then to the Amusement Park, where Darrell and Angie had sex in the photo booth, he also took a couple of pictures of himself while in it, took a ride in the Spaceship, and did some skydiving. A very fun and fulfilling day, for the entire family. Angie has pictures of her husband, and her family in front of their house.

She also bought 6 six packs of beer-her logic was, why not party, because it'll be the last time Darrell would enjoy it. She also invited his other children over to help.
Darrell went to take a nap during the festivities.
Tyler called up Denise Sherman (who he met just that day) to have some intimate time with him, but since his father was taking a nap, they didn't get very far..and it looks like he's getting involved with her-the first of the triplets to do so.

Once he got up from his nap, Darrell took one last bath. He likes being clean for the big events. Grim appeared as he always does, but gave Darrell a cool drink, and told him, "Listen pardner, we're gonna head on out to the last rodeo." With that Darrell disappeared, leaving a grieving family and a gold urn behind.

After he died, Angie cleaned up the house, and Tyler used the bedroom to have sex with his new girlfriend Denise.
Angie has found that she has the hots for Darrell's son, Dave. This could be a disaster. She wonders what she's going to do now that she's alone?
After all, she's only 31, and has a long life ahead of her.

She doesn't believe in living in the past, and is looking forward to the future, where the boys go to college and she rises to the top of her career as the Education Minister. Why shouldn't she look for another love?
Darrell would have approved.

Dirk Dreamer has decided now that he has reached a high level of his political career (city council, I think, or maybe judge) that it would be helpful for further advancement to have a wife. Unfortunately, his two top prospects, Lucy and Lilith, are already married--you snooze, you lose, Dirk. But he did meet a woman at a party who he enjoyed spending time with, so he called her up for a date: Ivy Copur (the adult; the teen Ivy is also in my game). They went out a couple of times, and they seemed compatible, so Dirk proposed. They have bought a nicer house suitable to his station in life and are trying to start a family. Despite Dirk's rather calculated way of going about this, I think they make a good couple, and I hope Ivy will keep him content and out of trouble.

I just love how close the Broke brothers are. Beau is the glue that holds them together. Bobby comes to his house often, uninvited, and when Allegra brings Dustin home from work, it's a big party all night long. Bobby and Dustin are both best friends with Allegra as well, and Bobby enjoys taking care of his niece. Beau also adopted a cat--the only pet in my game, because I modded out almost all pet wants a long time ago, and Beau is the only one who gets them now (I think that may be scripted or a token or something?). Pets suit him. I'm sure he'll want another, but they'll need a bigger house before that.

I've decided there must be a major medical center near Pleasantview because so many of my Sims are in the medical career. Kind of like where I live--there are two major hospitals/medical schools, and most everything around is health care of some kind.

Made extra sure that all my hoods and subhoods are empty.
Removed all cc not needed right now - kept some defaults, though, for building purposes, and a small number of mods for keeping the hoods empty.
Added final touches to my map.
Downloaded the bulk utility renaming program.
Almost ready to start building my custom hood for upload now!
Finally - almost a month has passed since I last opened my game, due to circumstances beyond my control. Hopefully, things will slowly getting back to normal now.

I've not been able to open ,my game for the past few days due to the hot weather and also to having to head out to the store for groceries a few times in the cooler weather.I hope to be able to load my game up at least to set a town up or set up some lots if I'm not building apartment lots or homes.

Manuel Goth is having an affair with the gardener. I don't think that's ever happened before. I'm not even sure how they became friends--I think from chatting on the computer. He briefly wanted to marry her, but I think the family would frown upon that. (Oh yes, his girlfriend Ashley Burb found out about his tryst with Dina and broke up with him, so now he just parties all the time.)

Don has not cheated on Cassandra since they got remarried and even rejected a woohoo attempt by Bella. He has bonded with little Mateo and is teaching him his skills. He's also becoming friends with his older son, Calvin. Nice redemption arc there.

And there was a bizarre tragedy that I absolutely did not plan, so do not read on if multiple senseless Sim deaths bother you. The Garden Club were all living in that little shack in the woods and worshiping the cowplant. I wasn't planning to play them, but I was running the household on 3 speed just to get the cow to stick out the cake, and while I was doing that, one of them decided to grill some hot dogs. The barbecue caught on fire--no phone, no smoke detector. The entire household died in the conflagration, and I had forgotten that a long time ago I put in a mod that allows visiting playables to die on other lots, so also caught in the fire was Dina Caliente Goth Burb. I guess she was taking a walk through the woods at the time. Poor John--widowed twice over. The papers are reporting it as a cult's murder-suicide involving the sacrifice of an innocent passerby.

Andrew and Julian are continuing to cause me concern. As you may recall, after nine years of fidelity, Andrew and Julian have both started having romantic feelings towards the same boy -- Jack Gill. Now Jack really is a lovable young rogue. Definitely a rogue, with his many, many boyfriends. But definitely lovable too. I'm sure he's not a marriage wrecker. So if Andrew and Julian let him wreck their marriage, I'm afraid it will be their own fault. It seems to be them, rather than Jack, who really are making the running in this three-way affair.

Anyway, I thought (hoped) that, if I let Andrew and Julian see Jack cuddling and kissing with another boy, that might reduce their ardour a little. (When I played Pleasantview, I made pretty sure that Cassandra saw what Don was really like -- kissing and flirting with Nina at a nightclub -- before their scheduled wedding. At the "wedding", instead of marrying Don, she attacked him!) So I went to Jack and Ravi's lot, got them to invite Andrew and Julian round, and then started cuddling and kissing each other in the hot tub. But . . .

@AndrewGloria Long-term relationships face these tests from time to time, but I think they will get through it. Perhaps it's a sign they need to spice things up. Dates are a good idea, or maybe take a trip?

What's happening in my game? Shenanigans at college, for one. Evan Broke, who has been seeming a little desperate for romantic attention, put the moves on Gage Swain, who is his stepbrother. (Oh yeah, after Dustin's wife died of pneumonia, he started having an affair with Angela, and she left Erik to marry him. They had a child together, and Erik is now a bitter, bitter man.) I usually go with my game, but that was a bridge too far, so I used the Sim blender to make them see each other as siblings. Then Hal Phoenix got drunk and proposed to Gage. I don't know why the game didn't already see them as cousins; I had to fix that in Sim blender too. I know these guys are all good bros, but maybe they should get out of their rental house and meet some new people?

Back in Pleasantview, Jimmy Phoenix had been having romantic thoughts about and occasionally flirting with Angela. One night, he blurted out to Lilith that he wished he'd married her sister instead of her. Well, that of course led to a huge fight, and Lilith kicked him out. I hate to burst Jimmy's bubble, but Angela is not going to leave Dustin for him, as much as she might enjoy a harmless flirt every now and then with her sister's husband.

And while Dirk was out shopping, he happened to run into Ashley Burb, who is all grown up now. She reminded him so much of Lucy that he had to talk to her. One thing led to another, and they ended up going on a date. Dirk feels terribly guilty about it all, but he can't help wanting to see her again, and Ashley wants to marry him. Will Dirk follow his passion and leave his new wife and baby for Ashley? It's kind of looking like he will...

I see this not as an individual wish for an affair but a shared crush of Julian and Andrew. Maybe they could invite Jack into a polyamorous relationship!

I've made an attempt to get into my game just a short while ago.The pictures tell the story of how my game loading attempt went.It looks like I got into my Pleasantview game.

@TadOlson Do you have sims ready to move to the settlement? Very cool. Also, if you delete the road and sidewalk textures from your lots then you will be able to see your custom hood terrains and road textures underneath. So lot view will match hood view. As long as you don't delete the portals or mailbox, all will function normally. Turn Moveobjects on to do this.

@Simsample -I've found out that the Jankowskys are already on board the wooden sailing ship and have just left the London harbor about three days earlier on a six week Atlantic crossing to the new world to claim the new colonial site of Pleasant Valley and are due to arrive on the first day of spring in the year of 1600.They have a tough crossing and might be facing issues like the ship being lost at sea of they hit an iceburg or facing illnesses on the sailing.I've got a default replacement for the town view traffic that disabled it and default replacement roads that look like dirt roads.I can see the wells they'll be fitching their water from in town view and they will have a forst of evergreens to clear before much more building can take place.

Around the same time that Andrew and Julian were starting these crushes on Jack, I was listening (as I often do) to a programme on BBC Radio 4. A woman was saying that monogamy has had its day, and that in the modern world, polyamory is the way to go. So maybe Andrew and Julian are thinking the same way, and they're a little bit ahead of the rest of us. Well, if that's the way they're thinking, they're certainly getting more than a little bit ahead of me!!! I always thought of Andrew as being a bit conservative when it came to relationships (apart from being gay of course). It was Andrew who wouldn't woohoo until they were married, and it was Andrew who wanted a church wedding. Of course in the end his mum had a church wedding too, but I'm sure that was mainly to please Andrew. So to go from that to polyamory is really a big change. Of course his mum would have no problems at all with polyamory -- her attitude to woohoo has always been, "If the two of you want to woohoo, and it isn't going to hurt anybody else, then do it! I mean it's fun, and it's nobody else's business. I've never understood why Andrew had this thing about fidelity. He certainly didn't get it from me. He knows (because I told him) that he's the result of a night of wild passion with a visiting Scottish sailor. If he and Julian are now getting into polyamory, I think that's a good thing."

For myself (i.e. AndrewGloria the player) I've been putting off dealing with this matter for several months now. To give Andrew and Julian what they appear to want, would (will?) make quite significant changes to my whole game. At present I have quite a few Sims in open (effectively polyamorous) relationships, but they are all Romance or Pleasure Sims, as these are the only aspirations allowed to have open relationships by Pescado's Romance Mod. Moreover, to have open relationships, the Romance and Pleasure Sims must have Outgoing + Playful + Nice points adding up to 15 or more. Pleasure Sims expect fidelity in a committed relationship (i.e. Going Steady, Engaged, or Married). The simplest way to let Andrew and Julian have a polyamorous relationship would be to make them both Romance Sims, but then I'd still have to give Andrew (in particular) a lot of extra personality points. But they're not Romance Sims. They're both Knowledge Sims, and I've known and played them as Knowledge Sims for nearly ten years now. Changing them to Romance Sims would simply change their personalities too much. I don't have Free Time, so my Sims don't have secondary Aspirations. So, if I'm to give the boys what they want, it looks like I'll have to change to a different jealousy mod. One quite popular one -- I think it's by Cyjon -- only has jealousy in a committed relationship. But that won't do: Andrew and Julian are in a committed relationship -- they're married! So I think my only option is to go for a no-jealousy-at-all mod. That entails a pretty drastic change to my game. I've been unwilling to do that in the past, because I've come across real life examples of people trying to have open relationships, and not succeeding -- they grow jealous despite themselves. I don't like jealousy, but it seems to be very basic part of the human condition. I wouldn't get a no-jealousy-at-all mod for anybody else, but from the start of my game, I've always felt very close to Andrew. In a sense he and I learned to play The Sims 2 together. I'm only exaggerating a little when I describe him as my best friend. He really has quite a lot of influence over me. I think he helped me to accept myself as gay, and he certainly was very influential in getting me to accept the right of gay couples to get married -- including getting married in church. So, if he really needs a no-jealousy-at-all mod, then I'll probably give him his wish. Could anyone who plays with such a mod (@Sunrader ?) give me any advice? Maybe, not for the first time, Andrew is trying to get me to broaden my mind a little.

There are some less drastic options which may help in the short run. There is an option in the Sim Manipulator to turn jealousy off for a single Sim, but, in a game as highly modded as mine, I really don't think it will be adequate on it's own. I've also got Chris Hatch's bouquet, which I think can turn jealousy off on a lot, but I'm not sure if that works with vanilla Maxis interactions. I'll try them first, to at least get past the current impasse, but in the long run I think it will have to be a no-jealousy-at-all mod.

Sorry about this long and rambling post, which possibly belongs more in another thread, but it's a sort of "matter arising" in this one. I've been kind of thinking on my feet as I wrote this, so I hope I make at least a little sense.

I've loaded up my Pleasantview game and got a LTW chooser object placed on a post wall of my homestead lot before having to exit my game.I was testing a new Mod out to fix the ltw selection which is glitched in a vanilla game as it often chooses dumb wishes that can't be fulfilled.

I've been messing around in Veronaville. I've never played it much before, at least not with the premades, but I'm finding it kind of fun. Intrigue! The houses are huge, though. You could drop dead walking to the mailbox. And the Summerdream house... it has only one full bathroom? Really? By the time you get down to the kitchen, you'd have to pee again.

Consort is a villain. The kids all went to college and Consort got Tybalt into the secret society. Then Tybalt brought him the bone phone and cowplant. Consort resurrected his daughter Cordelia. Then his daughter Regan had a baby. He split up her marriage to that jerk Cornwall, who was furious at Regan for I don't know what, and got her and the baby to move back in with him. Kent also moved back in but Consort just yelled at him a lot, I think for being gay. Poor Kent. He got fat. I added Bluewater Village and sent him to Club Dante, which I made a gay bar, but unfortunately, pickings were slim.

On the Monty side, the kids went to college and are all woohooing around there. Antonio Monty got poisoned in the feud. His kids and Bianca moved back in with the grandparents. They seem a little less villainous than the Capps, but I'm sure they are planning some sort of retaliation.

The Beaker household (Circe, Loki, Vidcund, Mark - Loki's alien child, and Nova - Vidcund's alien child) - Mark's OTH is music & Dance. Circe continues doing what she must to reach the top of law career, after all she has to make sure she can get away with whatever she wants! The tots got taught nursery rhymes except Mark was still working on it when it came time for him to age up automatically so I let them finish and at about 8pm he aged up and I noticed, despite it appearing to finish, he did not get a memory of learning it. Mark and Nova aged up to children. Mark is going to try to live up to Beaker expectations, but will he? They sent him to Prep school. They do not have the money to send Nova to private or prep so she's in public school. Playing favorites. And does Mark see the way Circe is eyeing him and those experiment things? He immediately gets to work on skills.

Loki would've been promoted but a chance card made him lose 3 necessary cleaning skill points, so he's an inventor level 6 at the moment. It took a few tries but Circe is pregnant with Loki's baby!

Curious Household (Pascal, Lazlo, Nervous, Tycho) - Nervous is pregnant with Lazlo's baby. Pascal is level 5 in the science career. Tycho is now a child. Olive and Pascal had ACR kissed awhile ago. I was going with Olive was planning to kill him before she learned Nervous loves him and I do believe that Olive loves her son, so she was going to break up with him and walk away but turns out, she just can't do it, she fell in love with Pascal! And I say that because I cleared the crush flag and set them to friend zone MULTIPLE times but each time they said "screw the friend zone, let's flirt!". Is something broken? Oh well, no matter. It works out anyway and is quite interesting story wise. They've woohoo'd. Does this mean Olive is cheating on the Grim Reaper? :O

Nervous is showing. Lazlo is level 2 in the dance career. Lazlo also helps his nephew Tycho learn to study. Pascal and Nervous are in love. This is a no jealousy household. Polyam for the win. Lazo nicely broke it off (using the sim manipulator I can just clear the flags so sims can stay friends sometimes) with Crystal Vu, he has a lot on his plate at the moment. But who knows, maybe they'll get back together one day. I don't know.

I've got to get my Mod and default replacements in for my Pleasantview game so the town vehicles are more like the period ones and are horse drawn instead of looking like modern cars which are out of place in a colonial town of the 17th century.I've got to get on with this because my Jankowskys are nearing the coastline and could arrive in the next few days as they've spotted some land now.

I think I'm about ready to put Lamare's newest mod into my game. I'm holding my breath because I don't know if it will interfere with the mods I already have in, and what I'll have to do to remove it or the mods once I do run the check on the interactions.

Curious household continued - Tycho made friends with Gabriella Newson. Lazlo and Pascal get some promotions. Nervous goes into labor with Lazlo's twins. Yup. Twins. Only him and Tycho were home at the time. Tycho looked traumatized. The twins are named Oak and Pine. Since Olive told Nervous his real father is the Grim Reaper he changed his last name to Reaper, and his birth name was Blair, so he is now Blair Reaper. Nervous Subject was so dehumanizing and he hated it and what it made him remember from the Beakers. Erin Beaker, who is also with Lazlo (Yay polyam and ACR), joined the household. She is now pregnant with Lazlo's baby. Damn Lazlo! lol.

Specter household - Olive is turning over a new leaf. She does love Pascal, and her son Blair (who is also in love with Pascal, it's strange but whatever), so she somewhat cares about the people they care about. She has ... feelings, for humans, not just Grim. So, she kills a random walkby so she can chat with Grim who encourages her to try and live a more normal life, what's left of it. Their relationship was always doomed. They are both grateful for what they had though.

Since Blair has babies, Olive has grandbabies, and she doesn't want what happened to Blair to happen to them if she's ever trusted with them. She didn't mean to lose Blair, and she had no idea where he went. Turns out, it wasn't a social worker that took him like she thought, it was Circe. Thankfully he's free of them now. They both lost a lot of time but they still got some left. Anyway, that's all to say she wanted to learn parenting, so she did.

These new feelings are strange for her, and she is still Olive. Pascal and Olive go on a date to the Crypt O Night Club. They dine, they make out, they get engaged, it's a dream date. When she gets home Vidcund walks by. She knows he's related to Pascal so ... she can't kill him, but for some reason they are enemies, so before her urge to kill him overtakes her she rudely (according to him) tells him to get off her lawn. Little he does he know, she's sparing his life.

She gets a money tree, and an energizer reward thing and a couple thinking caps. Working on her max all 7 skills LTW. She plays with a wolf, turns out, she loves animals. Less complicated than people.

Blossom Moonbeam - Took me awhile to realize no one is ever going to join a gaming competition so eventually I "cheated" to make sims selectable in order to do it. They went into the gamer career. She combs for stuff on her beach lot as well as digs for treasure. She has a roof raising party where she gets pregnant from her boyfriend Trevor Thompson who is still in Uni. She gets robbed. She gets an alarm system after the fact.

I do go into more depth on my Simblr.