The Montys have the better architecture. Plus, on average, they look better than the Capps.

Edit: I just spent the past several hours of my free Sunday trying to build an estate in the style of the Monty lots. And now I might have to make an amendment to my previous statement:

That style is rather hard to imitate. I hope Malcolm and Cassandra will like their new mansion...or else...

Capps forever! For some reason, I was always drawn to that side the most and I definitely have to agree that their building style is easier to imitate.


I find this interesting because I'm playing him almost the exact opposite right now! I recently restarted Pleasantview and this time I played Lothario, then Dreamer, then the Goths. Now, I usually play Don first cuz I always let him sleep with everyone before the drama starts since my headcannon states there's no way he and Cassandra got to the point of engagement without ever making out or woohooing before. But I also usually play Cassandra before the Dreamers and, whether she and Don are on good terms or not, it never takes long for her to roll wants to flirt with Darren or give him a backrub and ACR usually sticks them together like glue. But this time, when I played Darren first and invited her over, she refused every single move Darren tried! He tried to seduce her (all on his own, through ACR) but Cassandra was having none of it! (Never mind that when I played her next she promptly started rolling wants to flirt with him. What a tease.) Anyway, I decided my Darren isn't taking this as gracefully as yours--he's started researching the occult and wants to become an evil witch because he's going to marry Cassandra by any means necessary!



No kidding, he and Dina just had triplets in my game. Which brings me to my dilemma: So, in this hood Mortimer was to be a true mad scientist devoted to finding Bella (not an uberhood, though, so his efforts will ultimately be in vain). He can't stand the thought of never knowing what happened to her, but also understands that he only has a limited amount of time left in his life. So, in the meantime, he would be researching ways to extend his life (elixir is restricted in my game). But just because he's all about science, doesn't mean there's no time for, uh, other pursuits as well, right? So I let him hook up with Dina, while I was playing the Calientes, thinking he'd have a girlfriend or two on the side, maybe even both Caliente sisters. But then Dina got pregnant. And yes, birth control was on. Believe me, Morty was as pissed/surprised as I was.

So Mortimer was angry, because he knows exactly what Dina was up to and isn't crazy about letting the golddigger get all she wants, but recognized that he was at fault too. And there was no way he was going to let Dina raise any kid of his. So he married her and then she promptly had triplets. So now he's upset because, even with full time help, the triplets are cutting into his research time (indeed, most of my time in the household is spent stalking the nanny and butler, cleaning up and finishing what they didn't do) and he's still a bit unsure about what to do with Dina.

I was toying with the idea of having Mortimer experiment on her, and having her becoming a test subject--which is sort of the point of being a mad scientist in my game--but what sort of experiments would he do? Would he make her test the "cures" from the Biotech Station? Turn her into a creature? Just lock her up in his lab? And should I kill her off or should she escape? Would she live in fearful poverty if she did escape, or vow revenge? I'm not sure where the story should go next. Mortimer's got so many things on his to do list--he became a witch to try and extend his life, since witches age slower in my game, but he still needs to reverse the aging process so he'll either research the elixir (by maxing all his skills or getting abducted), become a vampire, or find a genie lamp. Plus I want the Goths to have a more prominent role in the economics of the town, so I've been trying have him start up some businesses, too, to build up enough capital to become the town bank (their new $300,000+ house set them back a bit, plus I want Alexander and Cassandra to have some sort of inheritance). But maybe I'm giving him too much to do?

Anyway, I need some feedback; all ideas are welcome!

Have them get into a polyamorous--no, bad Bulbasaur. In my hood, the Beakers did an experiment on Nervous Subject by locking him in isolation with nothing but a mini-fridge. He got into a fight with the social bunny before passing out in a puddle of his own bodily waste. He did get rescued, though - I had Vidcund casually come over to see Circe, find Nervous trapped in the horror room, and get in a fight with Loki. I saved then, went over to the Curious household, and added Nervous to their family - to have him escape in the confusion.

That is an awful lot to have him do! Have him recruit Cassandra and Alexander for some of it. Cassandra can be chief baby-wrangler and Alexander can be his scientific apprentice.

And he can cut a deal with Dina - she can do the business stuff and keep her mouth shut about anything she witnesses at Goth Manor, maybe be his cat's paw for various nefarious schemes; she can take a lump sum of money and vanish forever; or she can become a test subject and never see the light of day again. If she takes the businesses deal, everything's delegated and he's free to do mad science all day, every day.

You don't need an Uberhood to get Bella back. She's in the files for Pleasantview. I believe you just have to remove a Death Token and teleport her in or something; there's whole threads about it, so you should be able to find out the simplest way to do it, when you feel Mortimer has paid enough dues to bring it about. And then she has amnesia and doesn't recognize him. And then he dies, leaving his wives and children staring at each other and wondering, What Now?

Turn her into a zombie! It will be fun. She can play shambling, smelly nanny to generations of Goths (kinda like a female Lurch)

On Darren; in my neighbourhood he is by now married to Brandi Broke and she's pregnant with his child. The family is awesome, so many children!

Thanks for the ideas!

@Peni Griffin, Yeah, as I was writing the post I was thinking I'd have Cassandra help out with the businesses. She's basically in limbo because I see her as a sim who isn't very interested in her career and more family oriented, but I haven't had her get married yet because I'm letting Don date around a bit first and Darren, like I mentioned, now has to skill up to steal his love away (he'll use extractum amorus and tabula rasa). So aside from seducing her work friends that she brings home, she hasn't been up to much. And I like @Booney's idea of her only being with Don to uncover more info about her mother and getting revenge for the disappearance. I think I'll have her be a cold and calculating business woman, who messes up Don's life somehow, at least until she gets her memory wiped by Darren. This could be perfect since I was toying with the idea of making Don a vampire for fun and I've had Don father some gorgeous alien babies in the past. So who knows? Maybe she'll borrow her father's research and use it on Don.

I've never brought back Bella before, though; I always saw Strangetown Bella as the real Bella (I know that makes no sense, but it does to me). But there's a first time for everything. Actually, now that I think about it, I have the maxis neighborhoods as subhoods (so that any hood can be an uberhood) so I can always introduce Strangetown into the mix when I'm ready for Morty to meet Bella. That'll give me some new sims to play and playables for my sims to marry, too.

As for Alexander, he's still a kid--I slowed aging down for a while to give me some time to set up storylines. I didn't have anything planned for him other than trying to skill up for scholarships and having him do well in school and uni to maintain the Goth name, but maybe he gets sucked into the science world somehow, trying to be more like his father? After all, Morty doesn't have quite so much time for him any more, what with the triplets and the researching.

And @Orphalesion, I'm not so sure I'm ready to make Dina a zombie yet, either. I have the zombie apocalypse mod from MATY so that might lead to an outbreak. ...Especially if she gets loose during the annual Goth Holiday party. She could infect half the town. Imagine, the most prominent Pleasantview residences either turned zombie or sick from infection. The military would have to be called in from Strangetown... Mortimer might be arrested. But he'd be the only one capable of inventing a cure--except for the Beakers. They might be able to crack the disease using blood from a secret test subject... Or maybe the cure has unintended side effects and turns half the remaining town into creatures. Obviously Malcolm Landgraab would have to step in and help fund the military so that they can save the town from these supernatural menaces. Naturally General Buzz would be appointed head of the new task force. And Councilwoman Mary-Sue Pleasant would be sworn in as the new mayor to replace the old, inept townie one. And she wouldn't want to align herself with the now disgraced Goths anymore, no, she'd cut her friendship with them and instead try to arrange marriage alliances between the town's money (Landgraab) and the town's protection (Grunts). She'll do anything she can to keep Angela from dating a criminal and Lilith can't see Dirk anymore, either--his father's a wizard. And considering what he's going to do Cassandra, it won't be long before the military will have to go after him--they can't let supernaturals mind control citizens. Dirk will be blacklisted by every upstanding citizen in town. And Alexander will be going through something similar, with the disgrace his dad brought to the family. It'll take all his money to repair the family image and settle court cases with sims suing for damages from the zombie outbreak. And what about Nina? How is she going to react to the news her sister was experimented on and turned into a brain-eating zombie? They didn't exactly have the best relationship, but still, blood is blood, right? Meanwhile, with all this chaos going on, it'll be the perfect time for Brandi's smuggler husband to make a play to become the local mob boss and criminal mastermind. He's already been teaching Dustin the business; they can rule the underbelly of Pleasantview together! Hmm...

Thanks everyone--that was just the spark I needed! I need to go plan out the rest the town now!

I love reading this thread! :lovestruc

So I was playing an Asylum with ACR, and for whatever reason the inmates were ignoring nobabyharrassment and that was causing massive game lag. Why, I don't know, never happened before. I broke it up early--by about $25k (Controllable had a LTW of $100k and a memory of $75k).
So controllable was Cassie, a fortune sim, who had one baby, the oldest of the bunch, Erica. Erica's dad is Chase. Erica just became a child and lives in a very minimalist but high quality home with her mother, who mostly controls her crazy (she's Captain Hero after all) but occasionally makes out inappropriately on community lots. But never where Erica could find out. Nanny Karen is Erica's right-hand woman in childrearing, and Erica is a very well behaved, stable, and most importantly, sane, little girl.

Chase, a fortune sim, has since fulfilled his marry a rich sim want by marrying Tristan, the Diva, who is pregnant right now.

Lexi, the family sim, has eldest Rhiann (father Chase), twins Bridget and Morgaine (father-asylum knowledge sim, cannot remember his name right now), Aeoife (father Chase), Moira (father Nightlife family townie) and a bun in the oven. Rhiann is technically two hours younger than Erica, above, but because of play order is three days to child. The father of the current pregnancy is another nightlife townie, a knowledge sim, Ryan Wheeler, and he keeps rolling wants to marry Lexi when they date. Lexi keeps rolling wants to marry him, but only when she's on a date with someone else! Ryan says he's got $$$, and he could be their rescuer, and he's got a reason--the pregnancy--to try. But he's been wanting to marry her since before Moira, so maybe he just thinks he could fix Lexi.
Should Lexi marry her latest baby-daddy, even though she never rolls the want when he's around? It would make the kids' lives much easier to have another adult around. Probably. There's always a possibility that he wouldn't be a decent step-dad. But Lexi's story is that she wants love and doesn't know how to look for it appropriately.
I had kind of thought this would end up with Rhiann spending as much time at her half-sister Erica's calm, serene home as she possibly could and dragging her younger half sisters along as soon as they could. Rhiann and Erica have been bff since before the asylum ended (which is pretty darn good considering that they were maybe a day into toddlerhood at the time), and the two girls deciding that only they could fix things for their little sisters and having that be Erica and Rhiann's driving motive. (Lexi's LTW is actually to graduate three kids from college, so she wouldn't stand in the way of her girls trying to go . . .)

@Sunbee, it sounds to me like Lexi's the type that wouldn't recognize a good guy and only realizes what a good guy Ryan is until he's not around, so I don't really see her marrying Ryan but he probably could talk her into letting him move in to help with the baby. Lexi would appreciate the help and Ryan's still trying to get the girl, you know? And the way I'd play it is that Lexi would screw things up somehow, probably by cheating on Ryan, who, although he realizes they're not official, is hurt because he thought they were moving in a more serious direction. He moves out in a huff, probably taking his kid with him, but if you don't want to create another household, he could always return to life as a townie and the story goes that he wasn't able to get custody of his kid because the judges in the town are biased against single dads or even just former townies and ruled to let the child stay with Lexi. Ryan would obviously hold a grudge and every time there's a social worker scare, you can be sure it's him, trying to get the courts to see Lexi isn't a fit parent.

And, for icing on the cake, some kinda family tragedy would occur, also of Lexi's doing, but by accident--perhaps Lexi almost burns down the kitchen, gambles all the house's money away so the repoman shows up, etc. And that's when Rhiann has had enough; upset that her mother ruined the best chance at a happy, normal life, she runs away to Ericka's. But being there only makes her jealous of the care and stability Ericka has and Rhiann realizes she can't stay with Ericka if she wants to stay friends--the resentment is just eating away at her. So, as soon as she ages up, Rhiann strikes out on her own. She tries to make it on her own as a young teen and maybe she goes to uni but maybe she's doomed to follow her mother's footsteps and never gets the chance/has to drop out. Meanwhile her half sisters resent her a bit because they feel she abandoned them with their crazy mother. Or maybe one of them dies in an accident and the other blames the death partly on Rhiann because, if Rhiann had stayed, things would have been different.

Anywho, hope I gave ya some ideas to run with!

Anybody have an idea what I could do with my Dina?

To start Dina is my least favourite character in Pleasantview, so I'm already drawing a blank there. I'm also playing the Pleansantview Epic challenge (basically you have to preserve the family names for 10 Generations) and Nina has married Daniel(and took his last name), so Dina has to pass down the caliente name (which I decided will be handed down in a strictly matrilineal fashion). She can't marry Don since he has to pass down the Lothario name. Mortimer is back with Bella, Malcolm Landgraab is with Cassandra.
In my last iteration (which I blew up by not using clean templates and thinking the remote control car issue had been fixed in the UC) I made her a career woman after she had been betrayed by all her lovers and eventually she married Dirk Dreamer. However I don't really feel like re-enacting that (especially since Dirk is with Melody Tinker this time around)

She kept rolling wants to have a baby so I had her become pregnant via one-night stand with Chester Gieke, but well...she doesn't want to work, there aren't any rich bachelors left (and no bachelorettes either) and she is gonna be a mama soon with a whooping 200 Simoleons to her name. Since there's no welfare in Sims 2, I'll eventually have to do something with this lady, I just don't have a clue what.

Edit: I have some ideas for further down the line (her either reunite with Don once his meriage to Jodie Larson goes sour or to have her marry Chester once he becomes a rich game designer) but how do I make her survive until those things happen?

Move in with Nina and Daniel.
Employ her at home with something she can do sitting down - writing novels.
Once she no longer needs help with the baby, she moves into an apartment and is a single mother writing novels and dating while the kid's at school. You might find you like her under these conditions.
Alternatively, she could make a living on her back, if you have mods enabling woohoo without love. Her going rate will be rather low (sell date flowers to simulate that transaction), but rewards from dates and outings may enable her to eke out a modest living.

Ooooh good idea with the Novels! She can write trashy romance novels and become famous (50 Shades of Caliente?)

I also like the idea of making her join the "oldest profession" though if I go that road I might make her a "high class escort" rather than a streetwalker.

Yeah pretty much the only issue I have with Dina is that, at least in my interpretation of her, she expects other people to hand her a free ticket to easy street. Last time I "redeemed" her by fulfilling her lifetime want of becoming an architect, irt was awesome, she and Dirk became a Power Couple and raised two gorgeous daughters, but this time her want is just "Earn 100.000 Simuleons" and she never rolls wants for jobs...

Though about her moving in with Nina...she kinda caught Nina in bed with Don, there was a lot of fighting and now the sisters kinda hate each other... though I do think Nina is someone who would help family if their in trouble simply because they are family, no matter how she feels about them at the time...so it might work.

Do you have freetime? Let her sit at the computer using her freetime fortune perk to give financial advise. Live off other people, no job, sounds about your Dina's speed. If she gets the fourth perk and 'plays the stock market' herself, even better! If you have M&G get her a solar panel as soon as you can. A few of those can bring in a tidy passive income stream, too.

Perhaps you could have her invest a bit (search 'investment' on this site, you get silver bars that increase value over time and certificates that are more random).

Your Dina sounds a bit more hands off, so, unless you don't marry townies in your hood, I'd have her marry Mr. Big or one of the vampire counts who always seem to be loaded in my game. And I'd have her open a business, perhaps a nightclub, perhaps a brothel. Since she wants to earn money but never rolls wants for a job, a biz will let her do so without actually working, since she can hire someone else to do the work. That's how my Malcolm Landgraab is currently running his businesses. He doesn't do anything ever, just sits back and watches his managers manage. It can be tedious to train up a manager, but doable especially since most of the time, if you ask a sim directly to work for you by clicking hire, you stumble upon a townie with two or three badges already. Then they're usually just a quick sales badge away from being able to be manager.

Also, I think you're underestimating her ability to make money through nontraditional means, without any skills--if you have AL she should be out schmoozing with townies, getting her reputation up so they give her gifts, breaks on rent, discounts on household stuff, etc. She can also hop from job to job or earn a few promotions this way. (In fact, in my Belladonna Cove, that's exactly how Chastity Gere got to level 7 of the business track. I think she only learned two charisma points in all the time I've played her.) Then of course, she can date and go on outings and be a regular socialite--and soon enough, she'll have gifts piling up at her door. It might be a little more risky to earn money that way, but that's what makes it fun, imo.

But if that doesn't work, there's always the Olive Specter way of building a fortune. Well, rumored way, anyway, since technically there's no definitive proof she's a murderer. All her fiancés and husbands just happened to have tragic accidents right after they moved in with her and gave her all their money.

This is a great for my Dina Goth. Her real estate business, is doing less than expected at the moment, as demand for five bedroom homes are low.

I have a question though. How do incorporate the silver into your game? I'm trying to figure out how. I don't want to set up a bank, and let sims buy the silver. As, It would get boring fast. I have at least 5 or more rich households, in my Uberhood. I was thinking of having my rich fortune sims buy some, and store it in their attics.

I just stick a shelf somewhere and put them on that.

This "dilemma" is centred around a couple of sims from Peni Griffin's Widespot, so I've put it under spoiler tags in case anyone hasn't played Widespot, may do so in the future, and doesn't want to know any details about the 'hood! :-)

Do a second roll since you can't decide ... odds she lives .. even she dies.
Since you are doin a second roll here .. to make things a bit more .. count-y? ... do a roll to see if the baby lives or dies too .. that way you're not totally not followin your rules . but you're puttin in somethin to help balance your change :D

It sounds to me like you really want to let her live and see what their lives together end up like. Rolling for outcomes is a process you include to make your play more interesting for yourself, but if the outcome isn't going to make you happy ignoring the role is fine.

I roll for things in my game too, but I often leave myself a way out when the rolls are unpleasant - in the case of a death, there could be a way that the sim survives but the roll still has some affect on the household. Perhaps you could require that another sim attend the birth as a midwife (and be paid by the household in some way), and then roll again to see if she survives fully healthy or if she's left infertile after the birth - that's my out for death during delivery rolls.

Screw rules! Penny lives! You can give her a disability of some kind instead.

Mary could plead for her and save her life, if you really must go by die rolls and summon Grim.

Thank you all! I just moved Mary in to the Weiss household and rearranged the furniture so that she and Penny can share the room that used to be Skye's and Skye now has Penny's old room (I split the downstairs bedroom into two rooms). There's a corner set up with cribs and a changing table and it looks so nice and I finished the household for this rotation with them sleeping with their arms around each other and PENNY SO TOTALLY GETS TO LIVE!

I rolled again and it came out that she lives but becomes completely infertile. I'm OK with that (especially as there is no same-sex pregnancy in my game and I want her and Mary to be together forever and ever and ever until they die in platinum of old age, so her fertility makes no real difference anyway!)..... :-D

Well, Lexi moved Ryan in, he brought only $7000. That is not $$$ in my book!

But I know exactly who Ryan is. He's that guy, the one who went to college and never really found a job after, he's working at a waiter at that cheap diner (you know, not the nice diner, but the one with the slightly scorched coffee), mostly couch surfing at his friends for a month or three at a time, though he rented an apartment with a guy for a while, until the guy kicked him out for being a little (3 months) late on his share of the rent. He thinks $7000 is a lot of money. He thinks he wants to be a scientist, but he doesn't know how to get there from here.

Lexi has a better job than Ryan. One of her many boyfriends offered her a Business job, and she took it (the rule with her is take all reputation perks) and has gotten promoted to Executive totally and entirely on chance cards and reputation bonuses. I think she's in charge of warmly welcoming visiting executives or something.

Rhiann aged to child and slept on the couch and Ryan taught her to study, so whatever becomes of him, she'll remember him fondly.

Are you in the right thread? I don't follow....

Are you asking Sunbee? Sunbee posted about this dilemma in this post a couple of days ago :-)