Could you him having a family if she passes early? He might decide to put his wish on the backseat and be a father later in life.

Or they could stay married, but he could adopt and move into a different household (maybe adjoining apartments?). Couples do not have to live together

Or maybe he knows a single girl or a lesbian couple that would like a donor baby with an involved father?

Or if she had a hard time with the quads as babies, maybe she'd adopt a teen (or an older child) with him?

Essa, maybe he adopts after she passes, or even remarries to someone else younger. She's likely to predecease him by 20 days or so, if he ages up in platinum when the time comes. Or maybe something happens with one of his siblings, and one or more of their kids needs to be adopted by their uncle . . . (Do you have the lotsynctimer? With testingcheats on and her selected, you can click on it and see how many days she has left. She might only have a few, and while the sims wouldn't necessarily know that, it might affect your story greatly: perhaps he would know that her health is shaky, or perhaps simply knowing that they have limited time together because of the age gap he'd put off child rearing.)

Arrange with one of his siblings, for a niece or nephew (child or teen) to stay for a few days. Maybe Coralie will then see that looking after one biddable older child or teen is a very different prospect to looking after 4 screaming babies or toddlers. Maybe then she'll relent and agree to adopt an older child or teen. Such kids can be fun to play with and interesting to talk to. Your post seems to suggest there might be older children in the orphanage. I'm sure such a child would love the chance to live in a proper family home. Might it be possible for Arnaud and Coralie to visit the orphanage. Meeting a real flesh and blood child in need of her love might be enough to melt Coralie's heart. An individual child with a name, a face and a personality is a very different prospect to "children" in the abstract.

As you can see, I'm trying to think of a way to get a child into the house without any death, divorce, separation or other trauma.

An only child of a single mother himself, Andrew was never used to having other children in the house. So, when he thought of his future, he was rather career-focussed, and children didn't enter into his plans. But since he's been dating Julian, he's spent a lot of time at Julian's house, and got to know Julian's little sister and brother very well. He says, "Over the time I've been going steady with Julian, I've grown used to Brigitte and Hans being around me, and they've sort of grown on me. Often, when I go and visit Julian, I spend more time dancing with them than with him! So I think now I kind of like having children around; I certainly don't mind them. So, yes, if Julian wants to adopt a child when we've finished uni, then I certainly won't stand in his way. Once we have a child living in the house, I'm sure I'll soon grow to love them." But we're thinking well ahead of ourselves here. Andrew and Julian haven't even gone to uni yet -- they're still at school! And, since I'm planning on playing university with six month semesters, I don't know if I'll even live to see Andrew and Julian graduate.

If the Prima Guide is correct, death on a vacation lot should be no different from death anywhere else. One big difference is that BV introduced the ability to negate a community lot death by backing out without saving. Before this, the community lot would always auto-save, making the death permanent with no way to avoid it.

I think it would be cool to have a haunted hotel, but I haven't yet had any sims die in the vacation 'hoods.

For fire, I definitely only roll for a sim that literally did catch on fire. If there's a fire, but no one got burned, no need to roll.

I'm sorry to hear that you lost Cyd, but I completely agree - a cave-in definitely as the possibility of being fatal and if the odds were not in his favour. I makes being in a more dangerous profession more serious, although there might be one or two "injury" chance cards in other random fields.
So glad my suggestions are bringing others fun in their own games

@Essa
I love that you are playing out a challenge of two people at different life stages wanting different things and what to do about it.
Is it the kind of thing that slowly erodes their relationship? Who is willing to comprise and who is not.

My favourite suggestions so far:
- have him involved as a donor with a family so he can be a parent without disrupting his relationship
- have him involve her more with his nieces and nephews
- have them consider a teenager in need of a home (more of a fostering situation perhaps)

Also, maybe one of his nieces or nephews is struggling - at school, or with depression, or something - and a change of scenery could help so they go to stay with their aunt and uncle for a bit.
Or a foreign exchange student comes to town and needs to be billeted somewhere so they volunteer.

@Essa -I'd have her changing her mind about kids and actually end up deciding that she really did want a child of her own and getting pregnant since a lot of women of that age group are having their first baby at about that age and some have even had babies of their own naturally in their 60's like one girl I knew as a kid.It could be that her borth control failed and after getting pregnant she comes to realize that she wants to be a parent to a baby and with a younger husband she won't have to worry that the child will be ophaned and babies grow up fairly quickly so that time would go by fast.

Thank you all for your great ideas.

Arnaud didn't address the subject yet. Coralie will aged to elder in two years (day 95 in my game) so it's too late for her to have a baby as an adult. In my previous hood I've had a few surprise late pregnancies though.
On a side note, Tara Desrosiers who is now a teen called Coralie and they're friends. In the Desrosierses household, things are hectic (2 adults, 4 teens and a toddler). Tara doesn't get along with one of her sisters. As a player, I'm spending my time trying to avoid them to fight and I was thinking about separating them (for my peace of mind ).

I don't know if Coralie will pass early. Time will tell (I should update and start using my ROS again).

@Sunbee I use the LotSynctimer. It's a must-have for me and my rotational in no particular order playstyle. I didn't know about this feature. I tried but I assume it works for elders only.
I have a bush which tells how many days left a sim have regarding the age group (hope that sentence makes sense).

@AndrewGloria
I like your proposal a lot.
His nieces and nephews are babies or toddlers atm and there are two teenage boys at the Orphanage. I may add orphaned children depending on my population census.

@Coriel_Muroz
The challenge was brought by those sims. I'm also interested in the outcome of this story.

Thank you for sharing your chance events.
I'm used to smite sims who are doing reprehensible things according to my rules (mostly fights and plate stealing) but your events are far more interesting.

@TadOlson
I don't play elders pregnancies.
IRL I met a woman who had a child at 53. I'm not sure it's common in France. On the other hand I know women who get babies in their forties.

@Essa for whatever reason I had it in my head that 56 was elder age-up. Yes, your sim must be an elder to get it to show days left.

I've got a Mod that would let me toggle my couples if the female is an elder and her husband is younger to allow home to be treated as female and have her treated as male so they could have a baby and mine would still be adults at that age though with things changed like hair color to simulate that they're starting to transition into the elder state soon.SHe could with mods have her age reset back a few days and aging could be turned off to allow her to have a baby.That's what I'd do if a sim was too close to becoming an elder and hasn't had a child yet.

@Sunbee
I use a lifespan mod where 1 simday = 1 year. The adult age lasts 43 days. They turn elder at 60.

There is a Inge 'bush' that shows how long a pixel has in their present life span:

http://www.simlogical.com/sl/Sims2Pages/Sims2_Aging.htm
DAYS-LEFT SHRUB

It's the way I can plan for a proper funeral.

I might sometimes play elders as still actually being adults with lighter hair colors and just pretend they aged up already when they haven't yet and call them elder adults only these ones can still bear children or at least one baby before they get too old.They'll likely be elderly when they baby ages into a toddler and might only make it to their child becoming a teen.I use a lifespan where 40 days is a year in their lives and use a aging controller Mod to turn aging on or off for sims in each age group.I only activate aging to let somebody transition to the next age group when the time comes and can reset the age if there's another one in that age group not supposed to age up.

Dilemma:
Chloe Curious has been having a long-time affair with General Buzz Grunt, mainly to get date rewards, and she has a toddler son with him. She recently began a torrid affair with Ripp Grunt, but Ripp died. Chloe has been wanting more financial security, so she has convinced the General to marry her. She plans to move into his house with her son (where Tank is also living) and maybe take a good chunk of Tank and Buck's inheritance. Chloe works in the paranormal career as a Medium, and her sister Lola is a Natural Scientist, so she currently has access both to the resurrection phone and the cowplant. She is not a bad person ethically, but she does want what she wants. So what does she do?

1) She resurrects Ripp as her lover. Ripp will likely come back with personality and aspiration changes, maybe even chemistry changes as well, so it's not guaranteed they'll still be hot for each other. She would probably have to move out with him under these circumstances and lose access to the inheritance.
2) She resurrects Ripp because she's upset he died, but she sends him on his way and stays with the General.
3) She waits until the General dies a natural death, then resurrects Ripp, although she'll be much older than him by then.
4) She feeds the General to the cowplant to a) get to his money quicker, b) drink the milk so she can be closer to Ripp's age when he is resurrected, and/or c) get him out of the way so she can be with Ripp.
5) She leaves Ripp in the grave and just lives her life with the General.
6) She feeds Tank to the cowplant just because. Ok, I probably won't do this. I love Tank, and he's having a tough time right now. I do think he might be the wrench in any of Chloe's plans, though.

I also have one other option: Olive could resurrect Ripp and set him loose. Who knows why Olive does things? She is an inscrutable witch. He would definitely be changed then, although probably not a zombie because I don't want to start another zombie apocalypse at this point.

Or suggest an option I haven't thought of. Thanks!

You left out "she seduces Tank for the fun of it and keeps the cowplant and bone phone in reserve for emergencies.

How upset are Buzz and Tank about Ripps death? Would either of them resurrect him if he gained access to the phone?

How much is the general in love with her? Would he notice if she resurrected Ripp and started an affair?

What was her relationship with either of them? Is she inconsolable about Ripps death? If yes, I'd probably try to have her resurrect Ripp, than marry the general. And keep the cow plant in case he finds out about Ripp

Otherwise, I'd probably let him rest. Have her marry and see if she's happy. She could always decide to resurrect Ripp later if she is unhappy (or if you want the drama).

She'd move into the subsidized duplex townhouse if she were in my game and get income assistance while raising a toddler though she'd quit her job until the little one got older as single parents can't work outside the home if they have a toddler and it might mean living in subsidized rental housing to support the family.It would give her financial security wihle her child was a toddler and they'd have some money later on to move to a homestead and start farming which would earn money without the cost of hiring a babysitter for a child.
I had an issue making it harder to move new families into town and am currently working on a solution with one of my apartment builds.

@Peni Griffin I could see her doing that for the challenge of it, but she and Tank have no attraction for each other, and Tank wouldn't do that to his dad. They are very close. You did make me think that Chloe might use the cowplant to get the General's past girlfriend, a townie, out of the picture. Does that qualify for an emergency?

@enebya Let's see: Buzz and Tank were not close to Ripp at all and are not that upset about his death. Yes, the general would probably notice--he's gaga over her, and the whole situation does feel a little icky. I think security and nice things are more important to Chloe than Ripp was. She really wants a hot tub, and the General can give it to her. Also, Chloe has the General's child, so it's important he be accepted into the Grunt family, too. And there are other men around she can fool around with if she gets the itch. So I'm leaning toward your last suggestion there. I think I am looking for an excuse to resurrect Ripp, so I might have Olive do it.

@TadOlson While that suggestion would make sense for someone like Blossom Moonbeam who is raising two kids alone but isn't willing to compromise herself, it doesn't work for Chloe who wants things the easy way and has the General wrapped around her little finger already. Also, there is no farming in Strangetown--it is desert--so a bit of a different scenario. It's also a small town with not a lot of job opportunities, although Chloe is doing very well in the paranormal career, probably because she's an alien hybrid.

UPDATE: I played out their wedding, and as per usual my Sims told me what they wanted. Thanks for helping me think this through. The resolution is in the What's happening in your game? thread.

@sturlington MY BACC is in the Stragnetown template and it's a farming town though the farming disen't always do very well in a drought because those can go on for a year or more.My town has very few job options because it's brand new.I have a rule about sims not working while raising toddlers if they don't have a partner to help.I've had sims like that one in the past who on giving birth suddenly changed for the better and gave up work when the baby was born though moving into subsidized rental housing was necessary to get by as they didn't want the baby taken by the social worker.
My drama is all about how my farmer sims in Dodge are going to manage though the big drought in 1841 and 1842 when they're getting little or no rain and little or no snow in the winter.

@TadOlson It's fun to see all the different directions people take this game!

So I think resurrection is a little too easy in the game, and there should be a price for the person who is being resurrected and the person who is asking for the resurrection. In my Strangetown, Olive is a witch and the person people have to come to if they want someone resurrected because she has a direct line to the Grim Reaper. I've already gotten some ideas on this thread about the price of resurrection for the person who is resurrected. But Olive doesn't really need money, so if you don't have something she wants, what would be a hefty price for the person who is asking for the resurrection to pay? For instance, Chloe had to give her the cowplant, but not everyone will have something like that that she would want.

Loss of skills? That's about the only thing I can come up with that would take effort to replace, but I am open to any ideas. This is coming up because one of my characters just died and two of his friends want him to be resurrected.

The first thing that came to my mind was "their first born child". It's quite morbid, but if you don't resurrect everyone and their mother in the world, you could make the resurrected sim have a baby, and let Olive bring them up to be her live-in servant or something. If you're not a fan of that, then other things witches took according to my knowledge of folk tales include hair (not too big a price) and perhaps even the pleading person as a servant.

Ha, they have to change appearance to the bald hairstyle. I think that would hurt me more than them. Not everyone can pull off bald.

I don't do witches or resurrection in my game, however just had this idea you might like. Since a life is bein restored, then what 'bout life bein given as payment. Not a full life for life, but days from their life. Add those days to Olive's as a way (another way) of extending her life.

Could also make it that the person requesting a resurrection, and maybe even the one who's resurrected, give up their ability to father/ bear children.

I've posted similar stuff in other threads about resurrection and about risk of death.

Options for the newly resurrected Sim include:
Personality Change
Aspiration Change
Lowering max skill limit (using Sim Blender)
Fertility Change

In terms of cost:
- days of life - to Olive or to the newly resurrected Sim (they only get as many days as we're given before elderhood for instance)
- shared life (think Once Upon a Time when true love allowed them to share a heart, but if one dies they both die)
- giving Olive skill points
- giving Olive aspiration rewards
- someone else must die in their place
- they must seek out the voodoo doll and bring it back to her.
- they must offer her a soul (a gravestone for her collection)

Thanks for the advice, everyone. This is what I decided. I wanted to make it expensive.

1. The Sim must have a want to resurrect the dead Sim.
2. The Sim must be able to pay Olive the full price ($10,000). Olive will always shortchange, pay $5K and keep $5K for herself, so the Sim will always come back with a reversed personality.
3. The Sim must provide Olive with a friend or acquaintance that she can either feed to the cowplant or use for another reason (usually a townie).
4. There is a dice-roll chance of adverse effects on both the Sim asking for the resurrection and the resurrected. These could be: loss of memory, loss of fertility, loss of 3 days of life, loss of skills, loss of relationship between the two, or no effect.

Only Olive can resurrect Sims. Those going into the Paranormal career will no longer get that reward.

I can't decide which story I like the most out of my 2 options regarding my playables and townies. My main source of inspiration is Olive & The Beakers, they are pretty much where I go to if I want a storyline so I'm involving them to fix a problem for me. When I started my Uberhood, I added a batch of custom townies to my hood from here on MTS. I also accidentally clicked on "Search for Roommate" on the newspaper once and that spawned several Gear Head townies all with the same template etc. I regretted that instantly because I realized I don't enjoy townies that much, I don't know why. Anyway, I've married some of them into my hood and some of them have created good drama but here's where I need help. I'm rubbish at coming up with storylines for them all, believe me, I've tried.. So I gave up with it. Here's where the Beakers and Olive comes in.

1. The Beaker's resurrect Olive and turn her into a Vampire for their experiments. She doesn't stay there though, she will be allowed to live elsewhere, somewhere in Downtown. She will take one of their cowplants because they will be able to "clone" another one. She will likely be enemies with the Beaker's since she was happy in the afterlife with the Grim Reaper and they took that from her. Her son Nervous is close to passing away from elderhood and for the sake of the story, he won't know his mother has been resurrected. When living at her new home Downtown, Olive will continue her "murders" of innocents to reunite with Grim Reaper. They will likely consist of playables I am tired of or would like a juicy story from, and definitely include townie victims.

2. This one may be too close to home but I don't really have any good ideas, haha. The Beaker's experiment in their lab when all of a sudden, a virus is unleashed into the world. They don't really care though, they have a cure they can use. For themselves. Certain townies & playables will perish from the virus.

@Fyren
Concerning #2, that seems like an interesting idea, but rather than a regular plague, make it supernatural. Zombies. Just turn the townies you don't like, or that the Beakers don't like, into zombies. Tada! They become walking background flavor. The plague doesn't even need to be mechanically contagious, or even storywise contagious, because just the existence of such a disgusting disease can sow a touch of discordance and unease.
I do like your #1 storyline. Sounds fun!

@Fyren5 -I would have illness as one of the dramas in my BACC like a flu epidemic or typhoid from bad water because the drought caused them to rely on ground water or consumtion later known as TB spread from overcrowding during the dustbowl in the 1930's.
I thought the next hard winter might be a great time to have sims not in my active family using prisoner tags to keep snowed in sims from being able to show up at community lots in the winter blizzards.It would look so real having only my active houseolders showing up to shop for groceries in winter storms and rush back home.

D'ya mind if I nick that idea, surlington? That would go really well in my medieval game lol

Of course not! That's why I shared it. I love seeing how others play and using it for ideas for my own game. I'm happy if my ideas are useful for you in return.

One thing more about Olive being the 'soul reaper' in resurrection:

Make her immortal-not a vampire-just never growing old.
She can be the cemetery owner, and if one wants to resurrect another pixel, she's gonna charge good money for it.

I think it's a great idea-copy all the information about Olive's personality and recreate her..age at elder, and aging off when you play her in the game.

I've had a recreated Grim Reaper as a playable in my game-Olive is slightly less ugly. She even has a cemetery that she could use as a house or a business on the Downloads page: Strangetown Memorial Cemetery
A perfect set up!

Ok.. so I need a bit of help in decidin what to do


In TS2 Agnes Crumplebottom is dead/ an ancestor. In TS3 she married Erik Darling, who died on their wedding day. I'm not puttin ALL TS3 stuff in my game, but I have picked a few things such as this.

I will make Erik, give him parents and a sister. Now the question is... do I allow for Erik and Agnes to procreate BEFORE he dies? If I don't then the Darling name, while not in TS2 will die out... (unless I have June Darling, Erik's sister have an illegitimate child)

(I am gonna try and keep all the starting last names goin... though there are a few that I wouldn't mind dyin off)

So what should I do?
A) Let them procreate before him dying
B) June has an illegitimate child
C) Somethin else

So many possibilities!!

You could:
- have them try for a baby on their wedding day, just once. Maybe she gets pregnant, maybe not. Her baby bump wouldn't show up until the next day.
- June could become a single mom
- Depending on your rules, June's husband could take her last name. Her wife could take her last name. She could have an inseminated baby.
- June and her husband/wife could hyphenate their last name, then it's not completely gone.
- Erik's father could have a second wife and have a baby with her (first wife died/divorces him)

I think you should do all 3 and have multiple Darlings. Definitely name one of the Wendy Angelica Moira Darling.

Lots of possibilities, like the ones mentioned above.

I try my best to leave many things in my game up to chance. My Sims only Woohoo if it's from ACR, or if both of the Sims either want to Woohoo or Have a Baby. If one or both of the Sims only want to Woohoo, it's up to me to decide whether or not it's a Try For Baby. I do have a rule however that I am only allowed to let my Sims Try For Baby once per day, to make it a bit more realistic and challenging to conceive (over population tends to quickly become a problem in my hoods).
I would have them try for a baby once if they want to woohoo or have a baby. If it doesn't happen, you have the other options that were suggested. It's really up to you whether you want to lose the last name or not. I don't care if certain last names die out as long as those Sims are connected in the family tree to other living Sims.

I have an elder sim, Doug, who wants to marry off six kids. He's got six, five with his wife and one alien abduction, but the thing is, I don't think he has enough life left for the younger ones to get through college, find spouses, and marry. He didn't find the right lady to marry early enough, you understand (problems of being CAS made as an adult). I'm not playing with aspiration rewards. He's been so busy with childrearing that his wants have gone a bit by the wayside and he's still a bit shy of permaplat by LTA points, too. Also his second child rolled Romance. I use inteen, so I have several options.

I could let it go, and if he doesn't die platinum, he doesn't die platinum. Xenia, the Romance sim, would probably be displeased if she got married to fulfill her dad's LTW if he didn't get it because Mathea didn't grow up fast enough, though.
He could adopt some teens, I have the hack for that. Kari, his wife, is also a family sim (Golden Anniversary LTW), so she wouldn't mind. On the other hand, they've been so crazy busy they aren't actually friends with all the kids they have, which I'm not sure how that happened, actually, because usually my sims manage to become friends with the kids just by taking care of them. Probably the gardening.
I could let the younger ones skip college and marry as teens. If they meet anyone, the oldest didn't meet anyone she had any interest in until college at all! (She also never brought teens home on the school bus.)

The oldest, Beatrix, a popularity sim, has already made some life choices in college to find Mr. Right that may have adverse effects, using a love potion to get someone she'd just met to fall for her.
Xenia, romance, teen who is an abduction child, has a boyfriend who is also a romance sim and would say yes to a proposal, so she's at least got someone. She'd like two loves though now, and I'm sure he would, too.
Macarius, also a teen, also popularity is going steady with his girlfriend.
Erland and Wallis are twins and still children, and Mathea, the baby, just aged up to child.

Maybe you should consider why it is so important to you that he achieves this want/permaplat.
I know we all play our games differently and even though I play wants-based that doesn't mean all of my Sims' wants are fulfilled. He wants to marry off six children and he has the six children to marry off, so he was working towards that want. Even if he doesn't achieve it, he can die knowing that maybe his kids were heading down that path.
For example, my character Pepper Fromage has the LTW to graduate three children from college. Population matters to me in my hood because I always get carried away with too many babies. So I decided to take that want as Pepper wants three kids and she wants them to all have a good education. So, she's pregnant with her third kid. I don't see this family having any more children than that (maybe I'll be surprised). So far, she's doing her part to raise her kids to hopefully get them to want to go to college. If the time comes and one of her kids doesn't roll the want to go to college, too bad. She did her part and I'm not going to make one of her kids do something life changing only for her because they don't have that type of relationship. Perhaps in my Piccolo family, where status is everything, the kids would be forced to go to college. I wouldn't have Pepper adopt teens last minute for the sake of LTW, either. I also don't care if all of my Sims are platinum when they die, I like varieties in my stories. That's just how I play, though.

Remember that you can fulfill that LTW with 6 weddings. It can be the same kid twice, so maybe this means Xenia gets married, but it doesn't last, so she gets married again. You could have 1 child get married 6 times and achieve that want.

I like the idea that some Romance sims envision these perfect romances, which then don't fulfill their expectations, which is why they want to find a new love all the time. Cause they haven't grown up enough to realize that true love is sticking with your partner even when they drive you bananas or don't make you feel happy every single moment.

To those who play taxes to fund community lots, how do you deal with your town lacking funds?
My sims ask for a community centre of some sort but after funding a post office, a job centre and a library, Mayor Rivest wouldn't put the town into debt, neither would I.

BeckyBoo8

Legacy founder, and according to the rules: "Category: Platinum Graves This is a really simple category. You get half a point for every platinum grave that remains on the lot. It does not matter which aspiration the grave is, only that it is platinum. To gain a platinum grave, a sim must die of old age while in platinum. Points over 10 carry over to the overflow category."
And: "“No regrets” If a sim born into the legacy family is able to die a platinum death without having a single bad memory. Earn this point. The only exception to this rule is the “death of family member” bad memories. Those deaths must be platinum deaths. The sim must be an heir. Once the No Regrets point has been earned, sim children may grow up to be pleasure seeker sims without you having to roll."

That second one is easiest to get before too many ghosts are around to scare sims into peeing and passing out, and it just so happens that my first heir rolled a knowledge secondary, so those'll be green memories, otherwise I wouldn't try for it.

Not that I've done more than three generations in a Legacy, before getting bored with it, but I did do seven in an Apocalypse once. Was buggy to heck-and-gone by the end, with invisible pregnant sims and all, but that was also before HoodChecker was created.

Anyway, that's why the platinum grave is important. His wife's enough younger that I can probably get it with a dream date, assuming she's not at work or he isn't, that last day, or that they retire. Permaplat's just easier, and his desire for all his kids to be happily married has been driving his daughters' decisions so far . . . I'm pretty sure oldest daughter is going to have some serious regrets about all that.

Well, limiting what can be built is kinda the point of tax-funded challenges, right?

So I guess depending on how much money you need, you could:
-wait to build
-raise taxes
-do a fundraiser
-get donations
-have a wealthy sim construct something out of charity
-get town could pay for the plot and people would use their knowledge and resources to built something as a community

Thanks for that, Sunbee. I'm not familiar with legacy challenges or any challenges for that matter.
Since achieving that want secures his platinum grave, the sounds like the safest bet. Multiple weddings for the same Sim could help you get there faster, or he could adopt teens like you said. I guess it just depends on whether you want more playable Sims or not.

@Essa -I just have my towns take their time on building the community lots and raising taxes means bills go up.I also pretend the locals work together building it so it's taking time to get additions finished.

Could they not marry as teens (with a mod) and then go to uni later? I sincerely hope it is possible, because it's what Andrew and Julian are planning on doing.

@enebya
Well, I think they'll have to wait. I'm not sure I have wealthy sims in my hood with the no20khandout and noinheritance hacks. Raising taxes is out of the question.
I like your last proposal better even if I'm a terrible builder as well as being a lazy simmer.





@TadOlson
This is how I started my current hood with 10 sims leaving off the land. I don't plan I just follow the game.
It's now simday 93-94 and I have almost 29 households. I believe community lots are built to suit my sims needs.

AndrewGloria, that might be the best idea yet.

The one I thought might not want to go to college, Xenia, the romance sim, wanted to go her entire teenhood, so off she went. The funniest part of college so far is that in a 16 room dorm, neither of the two have any interest in any of their male dorm mates (both being straight, because ACR decided they were). Somewhat less potential caught-cheating drama, since both have more than one boyfriend right now.

I probably shouldn't technically be going for points, because my game is so hacked, but I want to, so there!

I've got the community lot in Dodge built to suit the current needs of the town though they're getting ready to expand it as they town is growing and should see another couple arriving in the coming spring.They've all had to build houses for shelter though they did start out with just a roof with not walls until they started the house builds.Dodge is about to get their third couple moving in next year in the spring of 1842.

So I played the Orphanage where teens boys Maël and Maxence live and summoned Arnaud and Coralie.
Arnaud immediately interacted with Maël while Coralie was more discreet at first then spoke briefly with both Maël and Maxence.
The next dayr Arnaud and Coralie invited the teens for dinner. Arnaud befriended Maël while Coralie showed little interest to both boys. TBH she's more into her husband since they're 3-bolters and trying to run a successful poker game business.
After dinner, Arnaud and Coralie were tired the same. Coralie headed to bed while Arnaud decided to spend more time with the boys, chatting with them. I find this really cute.

While I was playing an other household, Arnaud interacted with Coline's baby after he's done repairing the shower as the local repairman.
Coralie will turn into an elder the next time I'll play them so I don't know how many years she'll have yet.
I'm still torn because I feel Arnaud would like a baby but it can't happen now so I unlocked the baby want.

I might have only teens with romance not stick with one partner at first until they find somebody and begin to settle down with a steady romance and that peasure sims are more likely to not commit to a relationship or to cheat if they do.Popularity sims are more likely to want to work on charisma and fix their peronsalities and to study anger management so they don't get into so many fights.
I do have an allowance for there to be some sims who never marry or have children and others who get married and decide to remain childless because they just don't feel suited to being parents and choose to skip children.That's less likely to happen in the town's early days as the population isn't very big and with sims being resticted to smalller house sizes they won't have large families until they can build bigger homes.

Next in my rotation is my Baker family and I'm stuck on Evan and Sugar's relationship..

They moved to Luna Canyon just married and got pregnant immediately. Sugar (Romance) did not want a baby that soon and wasn't even sure if she wanted a baby at all. Once their son Bud was born Sugar became miserable. She got fired from her job at the record store and Evan (Fortune) was juggling both his job in the culinary career and the opening of his bakery. Sugar felt neglected by her husband. Instead of working on getting a job and taking care of the baby, Sugar took every chance she could to see Henry Piccolo. Eventually, she got caught by Evan. Evan assumed Sugar was done with him and pretty much stopped talking to his wife. She gave him space. He started dating a woman named Brooke without telling Sugar and things are getting serious now- he's in love with Brooke. Sugar is in love with Evan still. Then she saw Evan with Brooke and got so upset. She knows she's not a great wife but she does love Evan. Evan seemed shocked that Sugar was upset, he didn't know she still cared about him. But there's so many bad things about them - were they ever a good couple together? And now Evan fell in love with Brooke.

I feel like a decision has to be made. Sugar loves Evan and would struggle financially if she was on her own. Evan is stuck between two women: his wife who hurt him and Brooke who has shown nothing but kindness. Bud is very close with his father but not even friends with his mother. I feel like the key things are that there's clearly still unresolved feelings and that they have a son together. Any ideas of whether they should mend their relationship, breakup, stay married for their son but not be romantically involved, or anything else is appreciated. Currently I'm thinking about the possibility of them having an open relationship, but I'm not sure.

From the way you describe these characters, I don't know if they'd be suited to an open relationship. It seems to me like Evan has moved on. Maybe he should have told Sugar about Brooke--that was his mistake--but he loves Brooke now. I would probably break them up. It's time for Sugar to figure out her life for herself.

Just my 2 cents--I'm interested to see what others think and what you choose to do!

About the open relationship how would Brooke feel about it?
Regarding Sugar, I'd play her alone to see how she'll be doing all by herself. She played she lost after all. Actions should have consequences.

So tough.
On the one hand, Evan and Sugar are married. Those vows are supposed to mean something - what's the point otherwise (A big party!!! maybe? haha).
So I feel like Evan, realizing that his wife doesn't want to leave him, should really try with her again.

But as pointed out, he's not in love with her anymore he's moved on. So it's NOT likely to work out.
And Brooke is going to feel hurt that he makes that choice, which will compromise his chances of being with her in future.

Extended eventual divorce, but more unhappiness first, with Brooke marrying someone else.
Everyone is miserable! That sounds like a fun path to take.

I think they should divorce, Evan really should've set things straight before dating Brooke, but what's in the past is in the past, and this marriage clearly isn't going anywhere. The kid would definitely go with Evan, so maybe Sugar could get a new job and try to stand on her own feet again, though if she has any close friends I think she should move in with them for some time, if anything for moral support.

If you have been following my thread about voting in my game, you'll know the most recent vote is about Beau Broke and what kind of cult he's going to found.

I had 3 options, and ended up with a tie!

So now I need some advice on how to combine the two options: a SEX cult and a SACRIFICE cult.

The sex cult took babies born from free love situations and made them devotees to the cult who brought money through their labour and thus whoever gave them up earned the option for resurrection.
The sacrifice cult had you offer up a person to be sacrificed to the Cow Plant and thus earn resurrection.

I'm thinking Sims can become devotees either by being given to the cult as children or entering as an adult. Some positions, like child-minding, are sacred. Other positions, like gardening or painting, contribute but are not sacred. If a member of the cult (not a devotee, but a believer who lives a normal life) dies and the cult wants to ressurect them, then a non-sacred adult devotee would be sacrificed to the Cow Plant.

Does that sound like a fair combo? Any other suggestions?

Alright, I have a dilemma of how to approach this thing.

So, in my Crystal Pleasantview (the hood I talk about in the What's Happening in Your Game Now thread), I'm trying to get sims with their three bolt match, as it's something I've never done before. Since three boltage is quite rare anyway, I have settled for two bolt, too.

The couple I'm conflicted on is actually Skipp Broke (Unborn Baby Broke) and Ophelia Nigmos. When they were teenagers, Skipp had his first kiss with her via ACR and kept trying to persue her after that, regardless of her lack of interest. Eventually, they did fall in love via ACR and Ophelia even rolled the want to go steady with him. At some point, Ripp shared his first kiss with her while she was in love with Skipp, and even though she still kept that steady want for Skipp, she was scared of being rejected by Ripp.

This dilemma was solved during Tiffany's graduation party, where Ripp tried to squeeze her and she rejected him in favour of smacking lips with Skipp. I had the pair go steady after this. They're still dating and they have just graduated from college.

What's the issue? They are only one bolt. I find this really wholesome and cute (don't usually care about lightning bolts anyway), but I'm feeling bad as Ophelia has recently found someone she triple bolts with; Beau Broke. The same Beau who lost his first love at a young age to a house fire.

Beau is crazy about her; heartfarting over her every time she's in the room and is relatively nice to her. She has the want to marry Skipp, though; she rolled it while in college. I don't know what to do...

Half of me wants to give Beau that happy ending, but that would be at the cost of Skipp, too. Another half of me wants to do that 'bolts aren't everything' approach and keep Skipp and Ophelia together, but seeing triple bolts in the relationship panel is so satisfying.

Given that Skipp and Beau are brothers, I wouldn't let her date Beau. This would likely rip the Broke family apart completely.
Are Beau and Skipp close?

Has she had any romantic wants or actions with Beau?

I rarely have triple bolts in my game either, but with my limited experience of them and ACR, it will be hard to keep those two apart. Of course, Ophelia could try to deny her feelings for Beau and go ahead with marrying Skipp--that might lead to further drama on down the line. However, sometimes we don't know our own hearts in college; we tend to fall for the first person who shows us love and affection, when they may not be the right person.

So I see two alternatives: Ophelia follows her heart and tries to let Skipp down as easy as she can, or she goes forward with marrying Skipp and possibly puts herself in a situation where she will later have an affair with his brother if ACR ever has its way. I don't know which way I'd play it if it were me, but knowing Beau's history with loss, I think I lean toward the first option. It's better to break off an engagement than to end a marriage.

Chemistry isn't everything. Love matters more in a long-term relationship (and will increase chemistry over time). I get that you're trying to match chemistry because you haven't done it before - but if this one makes you uncomfortable, don't do it. Even if you're using ACR, you can friend zone them, right? Beau having a crush on his sister-in-law can give him a worthwhile romantic character arc without their ever so much as flirting, as he restrains his impulses out of respect for the couple and the marriage tie, learns to love unselfishly, and moves on to someone else with the inappropriate crush tucked away somewhere, a little echo of Courtly Love.

I don't know why people claim three bolts are rare. I get them all the time. Lots of my people have multiple three-bolt matches. If you want to set them up, it's only a matter of paying attention to all three influences on chemistry - star sign, primary aspiration, turn-ons. A Family Aries is likely to triple bolt with any Family, Fortune, or Knowledge Taurus with compatible turn-ons and no relevant turn-offs. If you routinely give people turn-offs that won't be activated much and turn-ons that will, and steer compatible aspiration/sunsign combos together, you'll get all the triple bolters you want.

I'll go to the "bolts aren't everything" route.
I've had couples who started with negative bolts to double bolts.
I'm too tired to elaborate but I'm with Peni here even if I don't pay attention to star signs.

ETA: I just had Charles who booty-called Isabelle. They had negative bolts when she arrived. After some romancing, they're now two-bolters.
He's grill cheese while she's romance.

I have noticed that bolts don't make a huge difference in who Sims seem to prefer in terms of partner choices. I don't pay a huge amount of attention to them. I only use them if someone wants a generic date and I'm trying to narrow down who they want to ask out, I might go for the one with the most bolts. But their wants will trump their bolts if they have specific romantic wants for someone. I also don't have a lot of experience fiddling with chemistry because I treat it as immutable in my game and I never use that potion they all get to change turn-ons.

ACR seems to use the chemistry for autonomous actions, though, which is why I mentioned it. I have an older version of ACR because I don't have all the EPs, so I don't have the friend zone option. I do have the mod that lets you ask someone to just be friends for similar situations, and it works pretty well, but there's a chance of it tipping back into love. Sorry if I gave outdated advice!

So I guess the question is, does Ophelia have wants for Skipp or Beau? That's how I'd make the choice.

It seems to me that if you look in the fears panel, you'll find the most important pixels for the subject-"Death of XX" usually will bring their mood down considerably, which indicates to me that they're emotionally invested in that pixel.
I'd guess that if they're not married to each other or others, you should pursue an relationship if possible.

I can't remember how close Beau and Skipp are; I want to say they're close, but I could be getting them mixed up with Dustin who they're both close to.

Beau constantly heartfarts over her and tries to interact with her all the time, but that's standard sim behaviour, I suppose. He's mostly rolling hobby based wants, so I can't judge by wants. They've not been for Ophelia, though.

Ripp on the other hand, and yeah, I mean Ripp Grunt, constantly rolls wants to flirt with Ophelia... Don't know whether to let him try and risk friendships getting ruined.

I won't be able to get 'round to Skipp until I'm in round 6, but last I checked, while in college, he just had influence and hobby based wants. His fears consisted of just being enemies with his friends, forgot who specifically.

Ophelia has a want to marry Skipp, because I locked it as soon as she rolled it. Then, I noticed her chemistry with Beau, which lead me to this dilemma. She also has a want to enter the education career track, which is irrelevant here. Rest of her wants are hobby based, I think. As for her fears, I can't remember, I'll have to check tonight. She might have a fear about Ripp, but, again, I might have to check tonight.

I would just have sims make sure to stay true to the partner they're in a committed relationship with or they might both end up deciding to go their seperate ways if it's clear that it's not going to work out in the long term before the marriage.I've had sims become BFF's before they get the want to start romances and to get married.
The drama in my BACC is about how my sims are preparing for the upcoming winter and about them surviving in a new town out in the raw wilderness out west in the 1840's as the settlers come out west looking for free land.

I have a complicated situation with the Gavigan family and NPC burglar Gordon King.

Mary Gavigan cheated on her husband Nathan for the first time when their second son, Zeke, was still a baby. Nathan caught her at it and was upset and fell out of love, but was remarkably restrained - he didn't go after the other man, and it was easy to keep him and Mary living together politely until his fury wore off. Mary had another affair with a different man later which Nathan didn't know about. I think they've stayed together for the sake of the children despite the end of love and trust in their marriage. Mary's relationship with Nathan is 72 and his with her is -6, but he never attempts to annoy her.

Gordon King was caught burgling the house of the town's Chief of Police, which meant an end to his criminal ways. I decided I'd rather attempt to rehabilitate him than send him to prison, so he was placed with a family that has at least the outward appearance of stability. I gave him the goal of repairing his bad reputation, getting to level 4 of every skill and making 5 best friends before he could consider himself a full member of society again; he's not there yet, but he's also used his 10 neat points to make himself very useful around the house, and he played with young Isaiah and helped to bring up little Zeke, so the Gavigans have been happy that they gave him the chance.

Then, in today's session, Mary's take-what-I-want nature set itself on Gordon and she seduced him into bed. Nathan arrived home from work while it was going on, but he was so exhausted he went straight to the narrow bed he's slept in for years and fell asleep without noticing anything from the next room. Gordon developed a crush on Mary when she kissed him and emerged from the covers fully in love with her, but after getting out of bed his first action was to take out the trash - I interpret this as him signalling that the trash is where he feels he belongs after behaving so abominably towards his hosts. I had him go straight to the newspaper and find his own place. Mary sprinted down the stairs and ran outside in her nightie to wave to him as he left, but there was no arguing with his guilt and regret; he had to remove himself from the situation.

Now I have the questions of what to do with Mary and Nathan's loveless marriage, and where Gordon should go next. Mary and Nathan have been each other's One Sim in ACR the whole way through, due to the marriage flag I suppose, but Mary hasn't let that slow her down, while Nathan has been celibate since the first affair. However, Mary now has wants to talk to, dance with and give backrub to Nathan, while Nathan only had "buy thing" and hobby wants... except for a locked want for a kiss, which Mary fulfilled with a non-romantic autonomous Family Kiss shortly after Gordon moved out. This suggests she wants to get back together, but should Nathan be receptive? Or, as their younger son Zeke will be a teen tomorrow, has their motivation to stay together for their kids just hit its expiry?

Gordon has moved out with very little to his name. He can't buy even the smallest house, but he's well-skilled and friendly and tidy with an excellent public reputation. Unfortunately most of his non-Gavigan friends are townies and can't offer him a place to stay; the exception is a rich woman - neighbour of the Chief of Police who busted him - who was the first to overlook Gordon's criminal background and include him in conversation. She might be willing to take him on as a live-in servant, or alternatively gift or loan him enough money to buy a tiny house to start anew in. Gordon is still two skill points and one best friend away from completing his rehabilitation, and will miss the Gavigan kids whom he had to leave without explanation.

Should Gordon attempt to make his way as a rich lady's servant until he's made his goal, then move out on his own? Or should he let her set him up a place of his own, perhaps with strings attached? (Not those strings, though - the rich lady is a lesbian.) Should he try to avoid Mary Gavigan and let her make a mess of her own life and marriage, leaving him out - or see her on the sly - or should I cancel his love flags and set him free of her snares? Should he try to keep contact with Isaiah and Zeke? Should he get a job in the criminal career and relapse into his old ways, or do his best to overcome this setback and become respectable?

@Pebblerocker -He'd have another option of being able to move into a subsidized rental in one of my custom apartment lots even if it was just a boardinghouse to rebuild his life and he'd even be able to take any full time or part time job since my game is heavily Modded.I'd have him choose the subsidized housing in the boardinghouse until his skills were up and have him join military.

I have a dilemma. Elijah Goth--He dated two women all through college, Aisha Pleasant and Elizabeth Ng. He never seemed to prefer one over the other, and on dates he would regularly roll wants to marry them both at the same time. He tried telling Elizabeth he wanted to just be friends since Aisha was his booty call, but she kept coming over autonomously, and they fell back in love. Then he got the hots for Celine Pleasant at a wedding and they went on a date. Then he got Aisha pregnant, so I figure that's who he'll marry. I had him ask Aisha on a date, and he rolled wants to marry all three of them. Aisha abruptly ended the date because he wasn't letting her see to her needs and went home. Then he wanted to invite Celine over, so I figured let's do that and see what wants he gets. After Celine came over, Elizabeth showed up, and he had wants for both of them that he then proceeded to fill, with neither of them getting at all jealous. So maybe Elijah is not a waffler, but is actually poly?

What should he do?
1. Should he stay single and date multiple women, possibly fathering more illegitimate children?
2. Should he move in Elizabeth or Celine or both and pursue an open polyamorous relationship?
3. Should he marry Aisha and give the baby the Goth name, which will likely mean he will not be able to have an open relationship? (Although I haven't tested Aisha's jealousy. Lilith has no jealousy and has no problem with open relationships, but I don't know if that would have been passed down to her daughter. But if she is at all jealous, sooner or later that marriage will have problems, I predict.)

BTW, Aisha has never rolled a want to marry him or anybody. She has another guy she's sort of interested in, but she's just not as into woohoo as Elijah is. They have been together a long time, but they are very much alike and are kind of more like best friends than passionate lovers. She could easily stay at Lilith's and raise the child there.

ETA Some thoughts about Celine. She obviously has this hidden wild side, but she has always been independent, she likes being rich, and she is very concerned about status. If she were to marry, it would probably be for status, not love. Elijah is a Goth, but he's also young, an Adventurer, and if he becomes openly poly, he'll probably lose status in the community. Celine would likely consider Alexander a more suitable marriage partner. She's sitting pretty right now, living in the big house with Angela and Dustin, so I'm not sure she'd leave that to be in a polyamorous relationship with Elijah.

@pebblerocker if Gordon is in love with Mary and cares for the two kids, maybe it's that he knows Mary and Nathan's relationship is for show and he wants to be her partner. Sure, Mary's not the trustworthy type, but the heart wants what it wants.
I wouldn't remove the love flag, and fulfill wants he has to see her.
If meanwhile she actually repairs her relationship with Nathan, all the more drama.

@sturlington I always enjoy having families that aren't just a nuclear family. If you have ACR, you can check or even change jealousy. Some have it when in love, others when in a relationship or engaged or married. You can have him in a committed relationship with all 3, all living together, and if he has multiple kids, or they have other relationships, that's okay too.

Do any of the women want to marry him? I think if he keeps rolling marriage wants about all, I wouldn't have him marry either one, because he obviously wants all of them.

If any of them wants to marry him, I'd let her ask.

Carla Cameron and Bianca Monty have a bit of a dilemma. They've been engaged for quite a while, and, on their recent dream date, they both expressed a wish for a Joined Union. Well I can give them one better than that: they can get married. Though they'll have to wait till Andrew and Julian are married. I've long since promised them that theirs will be the first same-sex marriage in my game -- it will be my wedding present to them. It won't be long now -- Julian has waited a long time to consummate his love for Andrew. ("Too long!" says Julian!)

So I think there is a good chance Carla and Bianca might get married by the end of this year. Failing that, it should be early next year. But their dilemma is where to live after they're married. Bianca has her own house in Mendoza Lane. It's a very basic little house next door to Jack Gill and Ravi Bertino. Who may not be everybody's idea of ideal neighbours, but Bianca's always got on OK with them. The house is small and basic, but it's Bianca's. And it has a double bed, where Bianca and Carla have spent many a happy hour together.

The rather eccentric house where Carla lives is also based on Maxis Downtown Tiny House, but it's been extensively modified and extended. In Custer Boulevard, near the viaduct over the Creek, it has an upstairs attic conversion, with a spacious bathroom and bedroom, reached by a spiral staircase. Carla shares the house with her teenage son Dean, and his boyfriend Harry Hastie. The house isn't hers: it belongs to Harry. All three of them started life as (CAS) townies. Harry bought the house, and invited Dean to move in with him. After a while, and entertaining her several times, Dean asked his mum (Carla) to move in with them. You might think her presence in the house would cramp their style, but the three of them have actually always got on rather well. Carla, with an adult job, and a Fortune Sim's interest in money, has transformed the finances of the Hastie home. She built an extension, which she calls the art room, onto the back of the house, and extended the garden too. She has put five money trees into the Art Room, which are making the boys' part-time teen jobs increasingly irrelevant. Carla loves her son, and gets on well with Harry too. She's reluctant to leave them, and they like having her there. Apart from the financial advantages of having an adult Fortune Sim living in the house, there's a lot of mutual affection too. When Carla was having difficulty finding a man, it was Dean who suggested to his mum that she explored her other side. Her reluctance to leave, and Bianca's reluctance to give up her independence, are the reasons for the long engagement.

On thinking this over, I am increasingly coming to think that moving to Bianca's house makes sense. The financial transformation that Carla has brought to 311 Custer Boulevard will surely remain even after she has moved out. And her moving out will mean that a second double bedroom is available to the boys, which could be very useful when they're "entertaining" friends. Like most gay Romance Sims in the neighbourhood, theirs is an "open" relationship. And Carla and Bianca will surely still be frequent and very welcome visitors. Anyway, what do you all think?

Carla will come back to visit Dean and Harry often, so if they're having any difficulty with the adult responsibilities of running a household, they'll be able to ask for help and advice. I wouldn't have suggested an adult move out and leave teens to look after themselves, but if Harry inherited the house outright and has lived there on his own, it seems like he's capable enough. And if the boys find their part-time jobs and money trees don't support their lifestyle, the spare bedroom could provide space for another flatmate - perhaps one who's part of their social scene rather than another generation.

How much room is there to expand at Bianca's house? If she doesn't mind Carla making some alterations and isn't too attached to seeing her place stay the same, perhaps Carla's Fortune sim income could make Bianca's house a little less basic, more comfortable, more to their joint personal taste. Space for hobbies, perhaps?

Or, the third option, the two women both leave their current houses and choose a new home together, one that suits what they want out of life. That's if Veronaville has any suitable properties on the market right now...

@AndrewGloria -I've had sims either modify homes to suit them as their lives changed or move into bigger places if they couldn't adapt their home because it was on a small lot and expansion wasn't possible on that lot.I've even had sims moving downtown or out to shopping districts in past games and I won't turn my nose up at the idea of placing an empty lot and building a new custom home on it if sims need a move and nothing suitable is available and there's room for another lot.I would add another shopping district if there's no space for another lot and the really need to move house.

Definitely move to Bianca's house! Let Dean and Harry have some time alone, and the girls can visit. :lovestruc

I don't think Carla needs to worry about the boys' well-being: they have you looking out for them as well.

I'm going to get a bit meta here: one of the reasons I like Inteen is that it fixes the disproportionately long teen period into a young adult period for non-college bound sims. So my teens shift to acting as young adults in their later teen years, which fits much, much better. It sounds to me like Dean and Harry are in that 18-21 period of life, where they really don't need Mom breathing over their shoulders, just need her a phone call away if they encounter some mind-numbingly stupid bit of bureaucracy they can't navigate alone (I have a real teen starting that age--the one who shares your birthday). If I'm right, that they're eighteen year old teens, not thirteen year old teens, they probably have all of this pretty well handled, or if not, they know where to go to get help when needed, and they can have Mom over every night for dinner, or she can have them over, since it's not as if she's moving far away.

I think Carla should move with her fiance, and they should have the boys over every day they want.

I'm playing the Newsons, and Georgia and Garrett have just aged up to children, and Gavin's become an adult as well. Up until now, none of the Newsons have gone to school, since I doubt Gavin or Ginger could have enrolled them without alerting the authorities to the fact that they were living without an adult. Now that Gavin's an adult, he could theoretically get legal custody over his siblings and enroll them all in school. However, if he does that, it'll come to light that he kept Gabriella and Gallagher out of school. Should he keep his siblings out of school and away from any interaction with the government? Or should he send only Georgia and Garrett to school and try to hide the existence of the others? Send them all and risk getting the kids taken away? Something else?

Oh I like this! It's a tough question!

Part of this depends on what your government is like is your community. Would they take all 4 kids and give Gavin a black mark?
Also, who knows they are in town? Like could Gavin legit claim his parents died more recently than they did and claim his siblings or would it be impossible to separate it?

Or maybe they need to stay hidden AND Gavin needs to move out to start a legit claim process while Ginger fakes the info that the kids are in a legit foster situation and once Gavin accomplishes certain goals (gets a level 3 job, has 5 skill points in cooking and cleaning, etc) he can adopt them.
Maybe an odds situation of a daily dice roll to see if their deception is discovered.

Might be fun and cute storytelling if he tries to homeschool them? But I also like the response above me. Very well thought out.

I have Simlogical schools installed and would use flexi school and have them being homeschooled as that's going to happen first in my BACC before the town is big enough to be able to run a schoolhouse for the children.It's set in the 1840's and school wasn't really required by law back then though it was a right to choose to go if you wnted to.

Thanks everyone. I think that's it decided then. When they marry, they'll move to Bianca's house. Here are pics of their current houses:
Bianca's house is small, but it will be adequate for the two of them. There is a bit of room to expand at the back (using the Lot Adjuster).

Actually there are quite a few teenage householders in my game. Most of them seem to know what they're doing. Bianca is currently the only adult in her street!

Of course one of the teen-led families is the Newsons. They moved into town a few years ago, trying to escape harassment elsewhere. On the whole they have been sympathetically received in Veronaville. Schooling -- especially for teenagers -- is not compulsory here. Gavin has never gone to school here; Ginger has only gone occasionally. Of course the constitutional head of state is the Grand Duchess, Juliette Capp, and she is still a teenager herself. Her brother Tybalt has taken a sympathetic intererest in the Newsons, and has told her about them. They're not in any danger from the authorities here.

Thanks for your input! Unfortunately, Gavin hasn't got time to homeschool the kids, as running the farm they live on is hard work!

The farm was actually Gavin's inheritance from his biological father. When he met with his father's lawyer, Trent Traveller, to get the fa legally put in his name, Trisha rolled the want to be friends with him. So she's convinced Trent (who's actually almost-friends with Ginger) to help him get legal custody. With an actual lawyer and nobody to contest custody, the judge will rubber-stamp it without too much thought.

What are your SimWorld's laws about home schooling? Would it have been required to tell anyone the kids were home schooled?

Also, if you use FlexiSchool, you should be aware that like real world home school it takes much less time than public or private school to educate the kids, and once they have the basics you really only have to supervise unless there are Reasons why the kid can't handle self-instructional material. (Pick your home school material carefully. Mr. Churchill has the most entertaining history books, if you're in the right era, just so you know, if you ever need to, the man was wasted on politics.)

It would be fine for teens or older to live on their own without any adults and even take care of smaller siblings in most of my games especially in my TOT or apocalypse challenges which would be set in the 16th or 17th centuries when teens would start at nine years of age and according to the laws be legally adults even hough not physically matured to adults.I even have a Mod that lets me have teens find their own place and strike out on their own in case their childhood home is too crowded.

Mine's a modern 'hood, so kids and teens are expected to be in school. I've never properly tried homeschooling (I have the Flexischool in but not the homework book), but I think the rules would be that they must be registered with the school board (more of a storytelling requirement than anything) and keep pace with the public school (grades must be at least a C-).

MY BACC is taking place in the 1840's in Dodge and school isn't required by law there though it's a right by law to be able to have the chance at getting an education if there's a school near enough to attend or home schooling is an option.I would use the teens move out as a story telling form of having them run away and stilk be playable in a modern town or when mine makes it into modern times.Anybody living in the 17th century had to have the funds to be able to afford schooling if their kid was going or they didn't attend school and many children and kids in the 19th century never even went to school as they were working on farms or had to work for a living and that still happend until the middle of the 20th century with kids having to leave school at very young ages to go to work.

Question - how should I proceed?

I'm starting a BACC, but my Sims are creating a community on an entirely new planet. The planet is u inhabited. There are native insects and birds (they birdwatch all the time - there's little else to do). The fish are imported.

What about the dogs and cats? Should I create bizarre looking creatures native to the planet and make them strays?
Or should I create a rule as to when the Sims are allowed to import/buy pets?

If it is possible try make default replacement for wolves because game creates them anyway. About dogs and cats I think colonists may miss usual dogs and cats and import them from Earth and sell in pet shop.

Back up your game. Experiment with making bizarre creatures in the petmaker. Have fun with it? Have bizarre strays. Don't enjoy it? Restore backup and let colonists import domestic animals. There are many psychological benefits to having familiar critters around which should be even more important in a completely unfamiliar environment. Consider confining them so they don't wreck the ecosystem, though.

You might be able to have fun thinking about the ecosystem (why did fish have to be imported? Why shouldn't all ecological niches be inhabited?) and creating creatures, plants, and rules derived from its differences from the sims' homeworld. Think about it and see if you find this angle inspiring.

I've gotten a BACC where the pioneers are settleing out west in the 1840's in the Kansas territory in a town called Dodge and pets haven't arrived yet though they'll be starting to own pets when the local stores begin stocking a pet display in the shop.

I'm hoping I can get some advice, because I haven't yet found a satisfying solution to this issue. Some of my Sims commit crimes, major and minor. I would like to have a way that they can get caught and punished sometimes, but I haven't figured out rules that really work for me yet. I have tried sending them to "jail" in the past, but I didn't enjoy playing them in jail.

Here's the specific story situation that's brought this back up for me. Previously in Pleasantview, one of my Sims, Andrew, quite suddenly died after his live-in girlfriend left him for his brother. I have been ruminating about Andrew's death. It was very convenient for his brother Charles--perhaps too convenient? I have always found something off about Charles. He's a bit too controlling, likes to have everything his way. That's why his first wife left him. Charles is also in the Law Enforcement career, so he could probably easily cover his tracks. It would make sense in the story if he did murder his brother, and that feels more like good storytelling to me than that Andrew just happened to conveniently die of the flu.

This has happened before. When Malcolm Landgraab suddenly died, I suspected either his wife, Angela, or Dustin, who worked for him, had a hand in it. Both of them had motive and opportunity. But if so, no one ever found out.

So I'm wondering, if Charles did murder his brother, how would such a crime get exposed? And what would be an appropriate punishment that also wouldn't be terribly dull to play? Death penalty? Banishment? Does anyone have any gameplay rules for this kind of thing they can share that might spark some ideas? TIA

Hmm... I was thinking maybe you could create a subhood where criminals get banished to. In this hood, they would have to fend for themselves; grow their own crops, live off of the cheaper furniture, etc. You could maybe place Lamare's Electric Box in some of the houses, so they have a risk of having unstable electrics and the like. This is just one of many directions you could take this.

The prisoner chip could be used for house arrest, rather than a proper jail.

I have a dice set I use and will soon have a kidnapping in Pleasantview. There will be certain odds of the kidnapper getting caught that I will roll for, with any walkbys who know the victim increasing the odds of release.

@sturlington, I did go on and on once about the sim law system I was working on. I'll edit it a bit and post it again here for you. Fair warning it's pretty long:



That was from the Have you made up traditions/laws in your game? thread, in case anyone was wondering. And another thread you might want to check out is Do you use a prison system in your neighborhood?, but you said you didn't like Simlogical's prison system, so idk.

And at the risk of going on too long--cuz again that previous post of mine is a book, . I'll just add that you can introduce rolls to help you figure out when crimes get investigated and looked into. I think doing this would work well with what I originally had in mind, too, since my system is also pretty much story based and would have no set rules on what things are suspicious or who gets caught for things like murder. (I'm a big fan of doing rolls, so that's what I tend to recommend. ) So my story would be that Sim City Insurance investigates all unexpected deaths, or even all non-old-age deaths. That works nicely actually because I use Monique's Non-Elder Insurance Hack, so it's definitely plausible that the insurance company would do investigations for sudden/accidental deaths. I would make up a chance that the company finds something suspicious and turns it over to the police; I'd probably do something simple like even vs odd, but you could figure out a percentage that works for you and include modifiers for things like prior unexpected deaths or accidents in the same residence.

Then once the investigation is turned over to the police, my law system rules above would kick in. If I forgot to take pictures for evidence I could substitute random rolls. And if you don't like the way the simlogical mod works, there's other ways you can simulate jail, like setting up a work camp or you could banish sims for a time period--that way you don't actually play them and just age them up when they're released. You can also make them do government service--working at the local church or soup kitchens, etc. Or maybe the sims are prevented from doing or having certain things--like any degrees they have are taken away or they can't own a business or inherit property. Maybe they can't get certain jobs. Etc.

I would have a system of law and also have it that most of the time sims are advised to use birth control to reduce the risks of crimes like child abuse which is in my game on the same level as capital murder for serious crimes and often unwanted children are vitims of child abuse or neglect.The punishment for those crimes is the death penalty if the child abuse is bad enough and put the child in danger or caused the child's death.Murder gets the same penalty if the culprit is caught and found guilty.
Sims starting fights might get house arrest and if living alone have to move into another household where the other sim can go out.That also haapens for stalking or barging into a sim's home uninvited to pick a fight with them or fighting with another guest in somebody else's home or brawling in a apartment which also leads to eveiction and having trouble finding rental housing willing to take you in.

Thank you for all the suggestions! I think I am going to take bits and pieces of everyone's tips. I especially like the idea of opening an investigation into every untimely death and using dice rolls to determine the results.

I want to make characters based on my Crusader Kings runs. Based on, because they will otherwise be modern characters. I'm torn on whether or not TS2 or TS3 is the better game to do this in to begin with. On one hand, the CK education system lines up nicely with TS2 aspirations. Here's how I'd map them out:

Diplomacy -> Popularity or Pleasure
Martial -> Family or Fortune
Stewardship -> Fortune or Knowledge
Intrigue -> Romance or Pleasure
Learning -> Knowledge or Family

On the other hand, Crusader Kings is at its heart a Sims legacy challenge inside of the Paradox grand strategy engine. TS3 is better for that kind of Sims play with the NRAAS mods for story progression.

If TS2 is the better game for this, then which Maxis world is the best for putting new Sims to disrupt canon in?

Obviously Veronaville, the Capps and Montys are pretty much already royal/noble families, maybe the Summerdreams too, all sorts of relations could arise from that, what with keeping an eye on their interests and stuff

Either that, or Desiderata, where pretty much nobody (aside from Natasha and John maybe) has a personality and the hood is like flour

The Summerdreams are definitely royal. Oberon and Titania are the King and Queen of the Faeries! (Archaic spelling intentional.) I'm sure that palace was paid for by taxes levied in Fairyland. There's no way they could pay for it with the wages from their day jobs.

It can be done in an empty terrain template though you'd have to start out small and slowly build the town up like I have to for my BACC and for other towns I want to play.I wanted to play a Pleasantview Epic Challenge and the only way to do it without starting in an already corrupted town is to start in a template and try to create the ancestors of the families in that town along with a few of your own choice couples and slowly build that up into a town.
@DrChillgood -I strongly advise using an empty terrain template and setting up the town slwoly with your own sims like a BACC where the couples get moved in slowlt over time and the town grows up into a city.I've only moved in two couples in my BACC so far and another is coming in the spring of 1842 in Dodge which is the Strangetown terrain from the terrain selector for setting up a custom town.

Hmm, my Fire Emblem world is already something of a BACC, so I was hoping I wouldn't have to do more building. I realized my current character is ruling in Italy, making it awkward to play in Veronaville. Maybe an emptied version of that world would be the best bet.

It's found in the terrain selector when you decide to set up a custom town instead of loading one already in progress and the template version won't have the same corruption as the one in progress which was loaded as a playable town for learning the game.I'm not actually doing the building in my games because it's being done by my sims as they settle the towns.I just do that work behind the scenes and pretend they're growing the town themselves.

I knew about the empty terrain, but I was hoping not to have to plop the lots down myself. If I wanted to play urban planner I'd fire up Cities Skylines. I'll look for an uninhabited world with lots.