I'd go with island, and choose (or make) a terrain that does have room for one or two beach lots, probably apart from the rest of the 'hood (either completely separate or at the end of a long road). I'd also want a mountains along the rest of the edges of the terrain to justify saying that everything else is in a rain-shadow and I'd use the desert terrain.

I'd go with Island. They have the fire dancers, which is definitely a Burning Man thing, and the native costumes definitely work better than the kimonos or lumberjacks.

The pirate ship could still work in a desert. Apart from the Man, people also build other wooden structures like statues and temples that they burn at the end of the week as well, so you could just pretend the ship was one of them.

What a good idea. If I had space for another vacation hood, I'd definitely consider this. The uni bonfire, tents, painted Smooga cars, the bubble blowers, fireworks. You could do it CC-free.

Why wouldn't you have space? I've never heard of a limit on them - it's just that you're limited to three types, so most people don't bother.

Computer space, I mean. I don't need a whole new set of vacation townies clogging up my character files.

That's why there's empty templates!

Do you actually get a new set of vacation townies when you make a fourth hood? I have done that in the past, but I honestly can't remember.
Edit - or do you get those from the type of hood - eg. the Far East tourists will be the same than the ones already in?
(I will not mind some new vacation townies, especially teens. Most of mine have been redeployed elsewhere ).

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. Will it be 12 new Island townies, or just the same people (/character file) in both hoods? I've never tried.

Dilemma: Kimberly Cordial accidentally got pregnant with Armand DeBateau's child. By the time she realized, it was too late for a morning-after pill, but she doesn't feel that she is suited to raise a child and is planning to give it up for adoption. Two things I'm thinking of here:
Would Armand take the infant to raise on his own, or would it go to the orphanage?
And would Kimberly keep family ties with it?

Armand's a Family sim, and can certainly afford an extra mouth, so if he finds out about the kid, I think he'd claim it on reflex.

The question is, Will Kimberley tell HIm?

He adopted Tara and put her in private school. I'm not sure what your Armand has gone through, but it seems like he wants the best for his kids, which wouldn't be getting sent to an orphanage. I would let Kimberly cut family ties if she doesn't want to be involved. If Kimberly's willing to have a role in the child's life, even if it's more like an aunt than a mother, I'd have her keep the family ties.

Isn't Armand the guy who divorced his wife because she didn't want to have children with him? (That and I think she was having an affair. But they probably could have gotten over this if it weren't for the kids issue) I'm sure he'll be ecstatic to have a biological child.

Isn't this kind of redundant considering Sims just magically know when they become parents?

Oh, you can play around that! If they never meet they'll never have a relationship.

Well, Armand did come visit when she was pregnant, although I don't know if she actually told him that it was his. Anyways, she's mad at him for kissing Samantha. I think I'll have Kimberly send the infant to the orphanage, but Samantha discreetly (or discretely? that's one of those words I always fuddle up) inform him.

Yes - that's a good idea. Then he can storm into that orphanage all righteous and claim his child. And of course they will insist on doing all of the paperwork, and Kimberly could easily make that difficult for him, but I expect a paternity test would eventually sort things out unless Kimberly feels bad for them early enough to stop it.

Discreet = in a hidden or secretive manner
Discrete = separate

Discrete is a great word, worth using correctly

I forgot to respond here. I decided that Kimberly gave up parental rights, but asked Samantha to let Armand know and he adopts the child. Since he's rich enough, he might get a live-in nanny (since I messed up slightly when generating townies, I ended up with two sets of identical nannies, so I'd just grab one of them).

So minor dilemma in setting up my integrated hood: I can't decide which direction I want the hood to go! I know roughly when I want it set. Sort of. My theme for the hood is "old-timey maxis match." I guess in translation it wood be like, modern Amish maybe? Anyway, it's been difficult finding clothes to fit that description. I've plenty of things that will work for the ladies, but the guys... things are looking bleak. I only have a few things that will work, mostly thanks to Skell and her repository project.

But that's not my biggest concern. I don't know who I want to populate the hood. I decided to use premades, so I don't have to come up with backstories and family relationships, etc. I got out my master list of premades and rolled for ten families and got: Goth, Aspir, Dreamer, Picaso, Loner, Bianca Monty, Alexandra Teatherton/O'Mackey, Delarosa, Antonio Monty and his kids, and the Student Housing household, which has William Williamson, Blossom Moonbeam, and Klara Vonderstein. Oh and the Brokes. That family was my one non-randomized pick. Now, the list is kinda all over the place, but actually seems like a good mix of people. Goths could be the main money behind founding the town, Picaso could be law enforcement, Delarosa might be a farmer, Montys could team up to run restaurants and bring businesses to town, Aspirs would have the town doctor and architect covered plus Elizabeth Aspir could use her business skills and love of arts and crafts to start a clothes shop. So, yeah, lots of variety and ways to get the town going. The "problem" is that I had another idea.

Basically the second idea is Pleasantview starting over, maybe after a big event like a plague, and it'd start with just the kids. The town would be really tiny, since Pleasantview kids only include Dustin, Beau, and their unborn brother, Angela, Lilith, Lucy, Dirk, and Alexander--maybe Tessa and Melody, too, if I include Bluewater. Later on I could also add the bin sim kids like the Newsons, the Ottomases (? no idea how to make that plural), Tina Traveller, and Isaiah Gavigan. And with this one, I guess I'd keep the main group together for a while, at least until the younger ones like Lucy, Beau, Tessa, and Alexander grow to teen, so that there's opportunity for romantic drama. But as they grow older, they'd split off and specialize their occupations. But I'm not really sure how much fun this will be to play out, especially since Dustin, Angela, Lilith, and Dirk are already couples. I'm not 100% convinced they should stay couples, but on free will, they'll just make out and flirt with their SO, instead of making new bonds with other people. So I don't know. I don't really have any story ideas for this one, beyond getting rid of the parents.

Thoughts?

If you find some good Amish-ish clothing links, I'd be interested as well. I have been trying to find clothing for men and women that could be considered old-time Amish or old-time farmer or Western. (I hope to make my next neighborhood into a Pioneer/Wild West themed game.

Here is something that might work for you -- but maybe too old-time Amish--or maybe not plain enough: http://www.all-about-style.com/themes_prairie.html
Here is a set of Amish clothing -- very plain -- so plain they all look alike: https://www.thesimsresource.com/dow...mish/id/184494/

I like your idea of populating a town with only children. Have you seen the TV Show, "The 100?" I watch it on Netflix. It's about a group of teens who've been in an aircraft because of nuclear issues on Earth. Now, they've come back down to Earth and are trying to survive. Fun!

You mentioned "Pleasantview Starting Over" and said that you want to use premade Sims. You might like marka93's Beginnings neighborhoods. http://www.modthesims.info/browse.p...&gs=0&u=7749491
The Sims he's included are the (formerly) dead ancestors to the EA neighborhood inhabitants. I think it's a novel concept that I might try myself one day. But for now, I like making my own Sims -- and I love dreaming up backstories. (yeah, I'm a nerd!)

@SIMelissa, thanks! I saw the clothes on All About Style, but not TSR. I find it so hard to search there and I hate it because of all the ads. And I've only seen a few episodes of The 100, even though I'm a CW junkie. Maybe I'll watch it for more inspiration!

As for what I've found, most just stuff by Skell, since I'm trying to keep things as Maxis Match as possible. Her old timey skellington tumblr and Maxis Match Repositoried Project have been helpful, but again, not a lot of old timey stuff for guys. Or not a lot of everyday, old timey farmer stuff, you know? Sometimes I think about giving up and just going medieval. It's waaaay easier finding stuff for that. Anyway, I put a big list of links of some of the stuff I found, under a spoiler below, if you're curious. Maybe you'll find something you missed?

Thanks for the links, Phantomknight. I'd never heard of Skell before. I look forward to going through her site.

Normally, I don't like to speak ill of other Simmers, but I make an exception when it comes to TSR. While other Sims sites are open and free and rely on donations, TSR slams you with ads or blackmails you for money. I use an ad blocker -- which means I get a message that tells me I have to wait 60 seconds before I can download. Sixty seconds is not that long, but it's annoying -- and it's a deliberate attempt to force me to help them make money off their site. Grrr ....

What I've learned is if I leave the 60-second download page and open another window on TSR, it freezes the time on that download page. When I return, I still have to finish waiting. But, if I open a second window and visit something off site, then the clock keeps running. So, what I do is have one window for downloading and another window for MTS or whatever. Click download -- get the wait message -- let it run while I spend my time elsewhere.

Enough ranting, on to better topics . . .
I wouldn't give up on the Amish idea. After all, your Amish Sims--especially the men-- would not have a closet full of different clothes. For the men, maybe just some overalls for work and the blue TSR outfits for more formal gatherings. http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=269319

One day, I *might* have a medieval game. There is certainly a ton of stuff for one. But I think I'll save that for a time when I want to have a huge hood with tons of Sims. For now, I'm quite happy to play with my little group of shipwreck survivors, while I gather stuff for my next group of pioneers. :-)

Use another adblocker (I use ublock origin, TSR doesn't detect it and I wait the normal time), or if you use chrome, there's an extension that takes you directly to the download without having to wait.

Get uBlock Origin. It's one of the better adblockers.

To update on my story dilemma with Lillith Pleasant-it appears that she won't be going into any hibernation chamber any time soon. She's gotten pregnant, and the father wants to marry her.

That doesn't mean she's totally reformed, or that the justice system is flawed-she'll still be incarcerated for the rest of her life, but with other people to help her fulfill whatever life she has left that's useful.

I blame Paulie Costello for ruining a perfectly good storyline! He had to go and fall in love with her, and now she's not quite as evil as she used to be..

I wanted to ask for ideas when it comes to the Premade Plant Sims of Riverblossom Hils.

The Greenman Family:
Jason Greenman, Normal happens to be in Love with Rose Greenman.
Rose Greenman, Plant Sim
Daisy Greenman, Plant Sim Child.

Questions:
1. should I turn Daisy into a Normal Sim? I am thinking of it, but not sure.
2. Can I send Daisy to Uni like I do other Sims?
3. Ideas for Playing Jason?
4. Ideas for PLaying Rose?
5. Ideas for Playing Daisy, as Plant Sim or Normal.

Notes:
I have never played a Plant Sim.
I don't really think much of them, sort of slightly negative, but not extremely negative.
Every Sim that I have set the turn ons/off for except Jason has as their Turn Off of Plant Sim.

For #2, you can, but the process is a bit more involved: http://modthesims.info/showthread.p...isy#post5237038

There's a mod here that makes it possible for a plantbaby to drink the plantsimism "cure." I haven't actually tried it in game, but it seems like a great idea, so plantsims don't all have to skip child/teen/YA. They can always change back into plantsims after graduation. (I recommend this mod for that.)

I played the Greenmans briefly some years ago, and I enjoyed them for the most part. Jason became a plantsim, which made him very happy. He grew his own plantbaby, and he and Rose had one baby together as well, so they had three children in total, all half siblings.

As someone who's recently been exploring plantsims more, I would recommend having two plantsims in any household with at least one plantsim. To put that another way: if you're going to have a plantsim in a household, have two. I say that because plantsim needs are very different from regular sim needs, and sunlight is especially tricky at night if you don't want those ugly sun lamps everywhere, but a pair of plantsims can keep each other in very high mood indefinitely through liberal use of "spores of happiness." (This will also have the side-effect of keeping everyone else's mood quite high, often to the point where it feels a bit cheaty. ) Of course this might not suit your playstyle, but it works very well for me.

In order to keep plantsims from all looking nearly identical, I also recommend a plantsim overlay default replacement; I use a simple "vines only" Maxis Match overlay replacement, but Almight Hat has a gorgeous one called "A Bit of Growth" (or something like that) if you're looking for something less Maxis Match-y. Either way, the sim's genetic skin/eyes show through. (There are probably a few other replacements floating around if you don't like how your plantsims currently look.) You can also use the "fix>flashing blue" option on the batbox to change a plantsim's hair to whatever style you like if the leaves get a little tiresome. And of course you can change their clothes at any dresser/armoire/closet. And one last thing, if you're going to do any growing of plantbabies, I recommend getting some Ideal Plantsim replacements, either a few individual replacements (which can be swapped in and our as you like) or a multi set (much like a multi PT set). The default Ideal is, well, a bit less than ideal. But more importantly, you probably want a bit more variation in your plantsims' appearances. (I guess I'm assuming a lot, but personally I hate having them all look the same!)

Not related to appearance, but I also highly recommend these two mods by Cyjon. The second on I consider especially important.

Getting back to actual the "story" side of things, I find the Greenmans to be a perfect starting point for one of my favourite things in the Sims 2: creating complex family trees! :lovestruc As I said above, when I played them I ended up with the three half siblings in the household. You could push it a bit farther if you were so inclined, by having Jason (and/or Rose, if you have a mod to remove the alien sexism) impregnated by aliens. As a Knowledge sim, getting abducted would make Jason very happy. I feel like Family is the best secondary aspiration for him, but of course you can set things however you like; that's just how I see him. And while we're on the subject, Knowledge is a good fit for Rose's secondary, as it will help keep her from whining about being a plantsim.

I find plantsims age far too fast without mods, skipping all the way from toddler to adult. If you want to send Daisy to college (and I would want that as well!), I think the simplest way is to "cure" her while she's still a toddler so she can have a normal childhood and teen stage then head off to college with her similar-age peers.

I can understand being put off by plantsims, as they certainly are different from regular sims and take some getting used to. But they are a huge help with gardening, especially orchard trees which can be so difficult to keep healthy! Just direct a plantsim chat with the plant/tree for a bit, and suddenly everything's okay. :lovestruc