n my neighbourhood, Rodney's Sudden Death Syndrome is a rare, acute disease that strikes seemingly-healthy adults at random and kills them in a matter of days, or even hours in the worst cases. I admit that I didn't come up with the idea entirely on my own, but took the idea from some mentions of it in the bios in Peni Griffin's Widespot.

I sometimes use the Sim Adjuster's....I think it's the mortality adjuster(?) to re-purpose the "die by fright" option as a fatal heart attack, particularly if a random occurrence scenario lands on a sim-death.
Also if a Sim is working in a dangerous career (Military, Law Enforcement, Crime etc.) I sometimes interpret the Sim losing their job through chance card as them being killed during the line of duty/while on the job.

I've got a dilemma of sorts.

While on a community lot, I noticed Constance Sinclair from Bayside Flats getting into an argument with Caesar Rafferty. Between this, the conversation about accidental deaths in this thread, and that I've seen her frequently appear as a walkby in some of the richer sections in Belladonna Cove, gave me the idea of her attempting a burglary of the Rafferty household and Caesar accidentally getting killed in the process with SimWardrobe's rifle. (I'm not sure who the gun belongs to, though.) Not only would this throw up some turmoil in Emerald Heights, but would have repercussions in the Bayside Flats storyline as well.

Another thought: Constance's bio mentions that she was cursed by a witch in the forest. Seeing as Emerald Heights used to be a "nice garden town" before whatever happened to turn it into a desert and that 13 Old Cedar Lane has multiple trees, I'm thinking that one of the Rotspatzes might be that witch.

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether I should do it, or suggestions to improve on it?

So I have started a new neighborhood with a first Sim civilian who has Pleasure as her aspiration. Don't know where to go from there... her wants are kinda mediocre usually, as they often are with these kind of Sims.

Here are the detailed information:
Neighborhood of a TwikkiIsland land terrain, called Wonderland.
Two starting lots, one residential other communual (will of course be adding more as time and ideas pass by).

About the Sim: female with a predestined music and dance career. Game designer LTW. 5 in sloppy-neatness, 8 in shy-outgoing, 6 in lazy-active, 3 in serious-nice, 3 in grouchy-playful. One cooking skill. Turned on by cologne and obese, ew fitness (although might change those). Very into food, but isn't keen on Heath.


Well, nevermind. Kinda thought what to do with her. Quite not sure what to do with the neighborhood, but probably I'll think of something just like did with the sim, lol.

Due to her interests, I'd consider changing her OTH to Cuisine. And take her out of that winter jacket! It's too warm for that.

SneakyWingPhoenix - she's clearly into food. Let her love someone chubby - they can both eat as much as they want together!
Definitely develop her cuisine hobby - since she's a pleasure sim, have her prioritize food over basically anything else she might be interested in.
She could fall in love with a baker or chef who runs their own restaurant/bakery, except the two of them are constantly eating the supplies.

I think...
Celebrity chef
Travel the world
Cook everywhere
Come back and
Grow her own ingredients
and
Go on dates like a proper pleasure sim
until she can open her own restaurant!

So I needed a new Mafia Clan for my a specific storyline. Since the Landgraab-King criminal empire was destroyed a generation ago, and Cassandra wouldn't be happy with her Malcolm rebuilding it, I chose to recreate the Alto family from Sims 3 instead (especially since Holly helps with the shortage of girls I currently have). I chose to recreate them somewhat younger (with Holly being a child instead of a teen) and included Nick Alto's younger brother Bert (I assume it's short for Alberto?) that he has according to the Sim Wiki.
Now due to them all being younger, Bert is at the very beginning of his adulthood. I chose to make him a Pleasure Sim and he is rather good looking (mostly because I chose extracted Monty Sims from Strangetown as a base to create Nick and Bert)

And this opens up a Dilemma....
Being a young, handsome Pleasure Si, the first thing, natrually, that Bert did upon the Alto's arrival in Pleasnatview was hittingDowntown...and there he met Dina Caliente (freshly divorced from her ex-husband, Dorian Bachelor)... and naturally they hit it off...
Now the problem with this is that Bert Alto isn't the only admirer Dina has, she is also fooling around with her neighbour Dirk Dreamer, who would like to make her Mrs.Dreamer.

So now I'm a bit stumped at whom Dina should choose.
Here's basically their three characters:

Dina: My version of Dina (Frotune/Pleasure) is an immature, lazy and self-centered party girl and gold-digger, but I think she still has the potential to mature into a better person given the right opportunity. She is recently divorced from her first husband, Dorian Bachelor, and left their daughter, Paris, in his care (she didn't even fight him for custody and shows next to no interest in her own child)

Dirk: My version of Dirk (Fortune) is a very ambitious, hard working and somewhat ruthless young lawyer. He remembers the hard times he and his father experienced during his child/teenager hood and so he never wants to be poor again. However, since he is only starting his career as a lawyer he is not wealthy yet. He is also a workaholic who is often too focused on his career to stop and enjoy life.

Bert Alto: A Pleasure Sim, pretty much the opposite of Dirk. Bert is leeching off his brother's mafia wealth. While he has a position in the "family business", he really spends most of his days tanning at the pool, going clubbing or throwing parties. However, he actually has no personal wealth, technically he is just living as a permanent houseguest at his brother's mansion...

Marrying Dirk, I could see Dina maturing and the both of them becoming a power couple, but they wouldn't be wealthy for many "years" to come and would probably never attain the fabulous wealth the Altos have. Marrying Bert she'd fall right into the lap of luxury, but the couple would only be living off Nick Alto's wealth without their own fortune, and she'd have to contend with Vita Alto (the very ill-tempered lady of the house). That, and she'd be married to a criminal. But if Nick and Vita don't end up having a son, then Bert would be the heir to Nick's position as the Don of the Familia...
Dina has two bolts of attraction to both Dirk and Bert...

Whom would/should she choose? And what would be the more interesting storyline?

Orphalesion - my thoughts about Dina would be that she wants it to be super easy and Bert would fit that way more. Waiting for a young lawyer to be a wealthy lawyer is a slog.

Keeping Vita out of her way could be a lot of fun - influencing other women to flirt with Nick or other men to flirt with Vita to cause a rift and make herself the queen of the castle. Whose to say that she couldn't keep Dirk on the backburner anyway - since he's too distracted, he might not meet anyone else and once he is rich, she can swoop back there if things with Bert aren't working out.

I LOVE the idea of Dina trying to oust Vita by manipulating her into an affair. Hahah.

Thanks for the advice, and I agree, pretty sure by now that Dina will become Dina Alto soon. And yeah maybe Dirk will end up husband number three. And by the time she's an Elder Dina can introduce herself as "Ms. Dina Bachelor Alto Dreamer Caliente, single."

I have a sim in college named Ricky. He's a romance sim, so he has like 5 lovers, including Regina and Kea.

Regina is the Diva, and when they went on their first date, they were just friends. However, they both instantly rolled a want to fall in love with each other, then to get engaged and married (even Ricky, a romance sim!). I locked the engagement wants, but ever since then, on all their dates Regina's been rolling the want to get married too (and maybe sometimes Ricky did as well).

Kea is his roommate/cult leader who he hit on thanks to me wanting to fulfill his 5 woohoo and makeout wants, but I then realised that he was basically Kea's first romance, and that they look pretty cute together.

I was going to change Ricky's aspiration in college to something more compatible with Regina, but I can't really imagine him as a fortune sim (very lazy and not interested in money or work) or a family sim, and I already have enough popularity sims.

So basically, any idea on how I should go with him?

What about a Pleasure sim? Or are they not compatible?

Yep, pleasure-wealth is even worse than romance-wealth for some reason.

Fortune/Romance have good compatibility. According to Cyjon's analysis, Fortune/Pleasure don't; but I've never found that to be so in practice.Anyway, chemistry isn't everything.
However, Family and Fortune generally have good chemistry, and changing Romance to Family at Junior year represents a logical maturation process.

I took the advice and changed Ricky into a family sim, but now that raises another problem:
Since Kea is a knowledge sim, their aspirations match better than with Regina. I checked their zodiac signs, and it seems like Regina is at a disadvantage there too. And since he's not afraid of commitment anymore, Ricky actually has wants to get engaged to both Kea and Regina.
I don't know who to pair him up with, since I may not even want to play Kea or anyone else for that matter if they don't get married.
So the question is, who should Ricky choose in the end: cult leader Kea, or diva Regina?

He's only in his junior year. Have some fun with this! (People who have read the entirety of this thread know exactly what I'm going to say next, don't you?)

Find lots of excuses to put them (uncontrollable, for choice) all into proximity with each other, and let them sort it out over the course of the next four semesters. Observe wants and behavior, think about what those might mean in terms of Ricky's emotional state. If he continues to be equally attracted to both of them, consider third possibilities. Hacks allow seamless polyamory. Or maybe neither woman is right for him and another sim will sweep the field.

Don't try to nail things down too soon. The great thing about college is, there's plenty of time.

Should Hermia, Juliette and Tybalt break their tradition as being a "Matrilineal" family? I'm a traditional person and prefer the males last name to be used unless it's a same-sex marriage, which I would choose a last name from either partner.. It would make it easier for me but I don't know how to incorporate it into my Uberhood. I could perhaps just say they "caught up with the times" or something but I don't know.. Share thoughts/opinions. :D

Also, who should Joshua Ruben go with? He has three bolts with Juliette Capp & Ellen Frost. Juliette is still with Romeo & Ellen Frost is in love with Chaz Whippler although I can end that at any time with no hard-feelings between them both, lol. I can't decide. I'm leaning more toward Ellen though because Juliette & Romeo are OTP for my story..

Why not handle the matrilineal thing on a case-by-case basis?

Personally, I tend have heterosexual couples adopt the husband's name as well...unless there is a good reason (in-character or familial) that they'd adopt the wife's name. Usually I do that if the woman has the stronger personality and career, or if the husband's family has a bad reputation, or if the husband wants to distance themselves from his family.
Maybe look at the personalities of the Capp girls and of the men they are about to marry.
I don't know your interpretations of them, but Hermia and Juliette Capp both always struck me as rather passive personalities, so i can very much see them agreeing to change their name if their husbands want to keep theirs.

Plus losing the Capp family name might help them distance themselves and their children from that old family feud with the Montys, so that might be an additional consideration.
Though it's also worth noting that Matrilineal Merriages are the traditional thing for the Capp family... and it's likely that Consort won't be happy.

However, if Hermia and Juliette get married first and adopt the names of their husbands...then there's an excuse for Tybalt to break the tradition as well...he's the last Capp in the main branch and needs to keep his name so that it doesn't die out. Since Tybalt is also the only one of his siblings who's interested in keeping the feud alive, it fits well.

How do Goneril's and Regan's kids factor into the whole thing though? Miranda strikes me as someone who definitely wouldn't give up her name for a guy.

As to whom to pair Joshua Ruben with....I'd go with Juliette. Juliette needs to get away from Romeo and she might welcome the idea of marrying outside the Capp-Monty situation.

This is one reason why I want to do it the "traditional" way. Whether Consort likes it or not, he'll be dead soon (Rather... grim? Sorry all & Consort!).



Miranda never marries in my game so she'll have her name anyway. If she ever has any accidental kids is a different matter, lol. The same with Desdemona, she's a Romance like Miranda. As for Ariel, she's the only one who would be able to continue the Capp name if I decide to follow the Matrilineal route. Poor Hal will be an Ottomas, HA. Regan only has a son in my game at the moment, so I can't say much about that.



This one got a lot more difficult because Heather Huffington just went on a date with him and he rolled the Want to get Married to Juliette.... Oh dear!!

I like the matrilineal thing. Why should the guys always get to make their wives take their name?

I just prefer the females taking the males last name, it's what I'm used to.

Double-barrelled names are also an option, though it can be a pain to set up.

How can it be a pain, if one has SimPE? All you have to do is change the name of the individual pixel and save. The game remembers.

As for doing any other way, yes, it can be bothersome.

Aside from moving one Sim with the proper surname out, there's no way to actually change a household name in-game. I consider having to close the game, do stuff in SimPE, and then relaunch the game to be a pain.

I just finish my session normally and open SimPE to make changes in between; or even wait till the end-of-rotation backup and do all the SimPE changes at once. It doesn't, after all, make a lick of difference to the game what name is in that slot.

Idk if it helps, but in one of my playthroughs of Veronaville, the Capp's matrilineal heritage was a secret until Consort died unexpectedly and the will was contested. I played him as wanting the traditional patriarchal family and someone intending to give Tybalt the heirship. So you could do something similar, either outright changing the family tradition or maybe a child of Miranda's comes along later and contests the heirship and ownership of the family estate from Tybalt's son. (Miranda because she's the oldest daughter of the oldest daughter, but considering Miranda is unlikely to get married in your game, it'd be fitting story wise to have her have a disgruntled love child who feels she should've grown up better/wealthier.)

I think Juliette & Hermia will wait for Consort to pass away before they get married. That way, he won't even know his traditions have been destroyed. Tybalt is a Larson now and it just sounds weird to me, I'm so used to the females taking the males last name. Jodie Larson's brother is married to Kristen Larson (née Loste).. What type of family are they now? Patrilineal or Matrilineal? This whole thing confuses me..

I could keep their names the same with the Last Name Chooser from Marhis. So any daughters born from Juliette & Hermia (and the other Capp women) will carry the Capp name and any males born will carry the Monty or whatever the male's last name. I'm no where near their part in the rotation so I have a while to decide on what to do. Romeo has made up his mind, he wants to marry Juliette.

In my game right now, Goneril actually lives in a mansion with her family (near the Monty's, oops!). So does Regan Capp. We'll see what my Sims want to do & what the game throws at me, haha.

Fyren5, I use Tarlia's fixed neighborhoods, so the oldest generation of ancestors has been removed. This gives me Contessa, an only child, whose husband took her name. Presumably it was a compromise, involving massively complicated pre-nups and all. Also gives me a backstory that explains what the whole Patrizio Monty-Consort Capp thing was about.
Kent, the only son, would be the heir, but since in my game anyone with alien kids has to live in Strangetown or give them up, and Kent's only going to have kids from aliens if any, or by adoption, then the family has mercifully decided to let Tybalt, as the eldest grandson, and the eldest daughter's son, be heir instead. So I change Goneril's family and Regan's family's names, and that's that.

So that's how I handle it. In my personal experience, when a family functions as a matriarchy, the women still take the husband's names. They just kinda sorta ignore the husbands' opinions and run the show behind the scenes.

I like that idea. I've sometimes thought that it should work that way in RL.

An oddity about the Capp family is that those who are keenest to carry on the feud with the Montys are the men who have married into the family. Cornwall and Albany are far more committed to feuding with the Montys than their wives Regan and Goneril. Sadly Contessa isn't around to ask, but I doubt if she hated the Montys as much as Consort does either. Though perhaps it's her death, and that of their daughter Cordelia that has left Consort so bitter. Indeed Tybalt is the only blood-line Capp who starts off really hating the Montys and wanting to fight them at every opportunity. So if the historic trend is to continue, whoever marries Juliette and Hermia might be expected to continue the fight. However I really can't imagine Romeo fighting against his own family. And, if anything comes of the romance between Hermia and Puck (a very on-off affair in my game), I really can't see Puck taking up cudgels for the Capp cause either.

Personally I rather like the matrilineal thing. I have interpreted it as a rule of succession by female primogeniture -- really the mirror image of that which prevailed in the British Royal Family until very recently. So males are not excluded from inheritance, but females always have precedence. So Tybalt could succeed to the headship of the Capp family if both Juliette and Hermia were to die without issue. This is important in my game now, as Veronaville is becoming a Grand Duchy, with the head of the Capp family as Grand Duchess (or I suppose Grand Duke, if it were Tybalt). While the matrilineal rule means that Capp females keep their surname on marriage, I don't think it necessarily means that males have to give up theirs. It would depend on who they were marrying, and what they wanted to do. Moreover, the name Capp carries a certain prestige in Veronaville, and those marrying into the family might actually like to have "Capp" in their name. Tybalt plans on marrying Lexie Kauker, an ex-Downtownie Fortune girl; the likelihood is that they will become the Kauker-Capps.

I think it unlikely that Consort doesn't know about the Capps' matrilineal tradition. He married into the family. He started life as Consort Thebe, the son of Hector and Andromache Thebe, and he gave up his own name when he married Contessa.

Actually, in Sweden the Parliament changed the succession laws so that women are first in line if they're the first born:

" In 1980, the rule of succession was changed from agnatic primogeniture to absolute primogeniture. This change in effect created Victoria (born 1977) heir apparent, passing over her younger brother Prince Carl Philip (born 1979)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Act_of_Succession

I suspect that the Capp men are so savage in the feud because they are "only" Capps-by-marriage. If we assume that Veronaville's default mode is comparable to modern Western patriarchy, they have tacitly abandoned their claim to a whole host of associated male privilege, in exchange for - what, exactly? The woman they love, access to Capp prestige and fortune, some other offsetting advantage? And not all of them seem willing to let go of that privilege, either, as Albany seems perfectly willing to pressure Goneril into having more children than she wants or can afford; though a lot depends, there, on how each individual sim plays for a different player. In any case, men who opt to join a matrilineal system in a patriarchal culture will inevitably feel they have Something to Prove, and the feud is a suitably toxic, masculine arena to prove it in.

If - based on the Summerdream household's name and offspring being based on Titania's surname rather than Oberon's - we assume that the default culture is more egalitarian or matriarchal, the Capp men still have something to prove, and the Monty patrilineal system is upsetting the applecart of the local definition of manhood. Looked at objectively, maleness is not particularly valuable in and of itself. The only thing men can do that women can't is father children, and they can do it so often that you don't need that many of them to maintain a viable population. So men are likely to make the most of their tendency for upper-body strength and their freedom from the physical constraints of pregnancy to stake a lot of their self-esteem on their ability to protect women and children from physical threats. The Capp men have not been doing a great job of that recently, judging by the number of adult women in the graveyard, and this ups the stakes for them considerably. They may even feel in danger of losing their place in the Capp family if they can't come up to the mark.

Either way, the male Capp zeal against the Montys is readily explicable. This is also a fruitful way to think about Kent's position both toward Bianca - does he hate her family for oppressing her, or taking away her female privilege, and wish to rescue her? - and toward his sister and brother-in-law. Does Cornwall dislike him so much because his presence seems to indicate a lack of faith in Cornwall's ability to protect Regan and their children? Is he a narc for Consort? Or does he take for granted Capp perks that Cornwall feels he has to be constantly earning?

With the other dilemmas, I think this got missed. Does anyone have anything?

@Sunbee I use her cleaned versions for my Uberhood but I can still see beyond Contessa on the family tree.

I could change Goneril & Regan's last names to their husbands and give their husbands their last names back. This would fix the confusion for me in the most simplest way, haha. I just want a simple game with a few doses of drama. No overly-confusing things that might not be confusing to others, lol. The whole Matrilineal & Patrilineal thing is so confusing to me, whether it's "simple" to understand or not. :p

Hmm, someone needs to do SOMETHING about Caesar.

The Rotspatzes are pretty poor at witchcraft, starting out, so it might be that the now-deceased generation hogged all the spell information to themselves, and the witch that cursed Constance is burried-haven't played them enough lately to have the names fresh, but the one who's Caesar's baby-momma's mother would be a good choice for the one who cast the spell. Could the current bunch lift the curse? Would they even care to? They surely hate Caesar enough--well, not the youngsters, but the oldsters--that a reward for his death might seem to be in order.
How self-centered is Constance? (Haven't played that hood, just looked at it.) Would she deliberately murder to try to get her curse lifted? Have you figured out what her curse is?

I would love to help you with that dilemma, Bulbizarre, but I don't know anything about Bayside Flats or Emerald Heights, so I wasn't even quite sure what was going on. I wasn't ignoring your post, I just didn't know what to answer.

In my own game I handle the Family name thing by having the couple choose which name they are going to use usually based on how important one family is compared to another. I don't do this strictly with out exceptions though. I also take into consideration my story line for that particular couple. Also I have a number of important families that I play.

In the case of the Capps I had Julliette Capp marry Alexander Goth and become Juliette Goth, partly because she moved into the Goth House and also because the Goths are one of my Leading Families in my Ãœberhood. Romeo Monty, moved into a rental house Downtown with Mercutio Monty and Bendick Monty, Hermia Capp got married to one of the Montys in this house and became Hermia Monty, but I forget which one of the Montys it was. Also in the house are Bottom Summerdream and Sylva Meers, but I forget which Monty they are engaged to. Bottom and Sylva are both going to become Montys.

I recently had Puck Summerdream marry Miranda and become Puck Capp. This is because I am currently playing the Capps of Veronaville.

I had Casandra Goth married Andrew Martin and Andrew became Andrew Goth partly because he moved into the Goth House and also because the Goths are one of my Leading Families in my Ãœberhood.

I had Don Lothario marry both Dina and Nina Caliente and Don became Don Caliente, now Don has a son named Lothario Caliente and another son named Donald Caliente, one by each of the sisters.

I don't always go by which family is more important, but it is something I usually do. I also consider which house hold they are moving in to and I consider whether there are any other Sims with that Family name. I like to have some variation in the Family names traditions, one of the things I like to do is organize my Aliens into Clans, but not all Clans have the same naming tradition.

Because Inge Jones' Teleportal Cat groups a lot of stray animals into the Smith family when one is looking at the Family names in it, I decided that I would have all of the members of the PT Smith family take the name of their soon to be spouse. So for example I had Johnny Smith become Johnny Nigmos since he liked the Nigmos girl when he was a Teen, I had him go to University with her and then get married to her after they graduated. All of the other siblings of Johnny did the same thing when they married.

Johnny's half sisters Chloë and Lola I made into to Teens and I sent them both to Unviversity where they met the Davis brothers and after they all graduated one sister married one brother and the other sister married the other brother. Both taking the family name of Davis and then they all moved to Bluewater Village and they live in the same house there. Their children usually keep the name Davis when they get married, male or female.

Most of the time if one of my Playables is marrying a former Dormie or a Townie or Downtownie or Garden Club member or safe to marry NPC, I would have the Sim that the Playable is marrying take the name of the Playable.

Once in a while I might use The Sim Blender and set Sims to be married and still have them keep their original names, if there is a Story Line reason for doing that.

I like to mix it up when it comes to who takes whose name. I do not have one rule for every sim and even among my various organized families I sometimes have some sims that don't follow the rule for their particular family, a lot depends on their Story Line.

Regarding last names I just like to have some rules for my neighbourhood because I like the idea of some last names fading from the neighbourhood over the generations. Particularly with my current Beginning of Pleasantview neighbourhood it will be itneresting to see which names stick around till the end and which fade.

Anyway, got myself a kind of (Sim) calamity situation... so one of the families in my neighbourhood is a remake of the Hatfields form Sims 1, basically a poor redneck family with 4 children (Billy, Hank, Lizzie and Bambie) Because of me conflating some characters from various games, the mother of the family, Ruby-Anne is Skip Broke's older sister, while the father, Ulysses is a CAS sim.
So I was at the point when the older three children were all teens and Bambie had turned into a child. I was planning to start having them "moving on up" by giving Ruby-Anne a job and actually having Ulysses work towards promotions, when, on the very first day Ruby-Anne was supposed to go to work she gets struck by lightning. One of my rules is that lightning is always fatal, so she went to Sim Heaven. Ulysses was a rather...unpleasant...fellow, so I had die as well (he's in the military, he probably fell in the same operation as Skip Broke)

So now I have a household that's three teens and a child. What do I do with them now?
I want to avoid the Social Worker at all cost, since it messes up family trees, but I also want to solve this at least somewhat plausibly.

Their closest relative are Brandie Broke (the widow of their maternal uncle) and her sons and that family is in no state to just accommodate and feed four additional mouths, even with the money the Hatfield kids would bring in (I justify it being an orphan pension granted to them by the Military) Brandie would have to look for a bigger house that could be a home for her and 7(!) minors. On the other hand, it might be interesting to see how all those cousins get along (the families haven't been close, due to Ulysses)
Theoretically I guess it is possible for them to live on their own, but due to Bambie being so young still I think that would depend very much on whether the three teens can provide a safe and stable environment for her. And well...Hank and Lizzie are both caring and responsible young people, but Billy...takes after his father. He has only a single point in niceness and since going into aspiration failure he seems to have fun autonomously get violent with both Hank and Lizzie (It's quite disturbing to watch, actually, I had no idea that grouchy teen Sims in aspiration failure start beating up their siblings...). I doubt any government would just allow a child to live with their violent and unstable older teenage brother.
Should I just move out Billy and send him Downtown and have the three other siblings live together independently?
Or shoudl I create a foster parent in CAS who comes to live with them? Should I still have Billy run away in that case?

Should they be moved to the army base and watched by a guardian provided by the Military?

Which of these sounds the most likely/sensible? Or is there a compeltely different way this could be handled?

Also, since College isn't free and is in fact very expensive in my hood, should their father falling in the line of duty get the Hatfield kids (and the Broke brtohers) scholarships provided by the Military?

Would Brandie have room just for Bambie, leaving the teens to get by on their own? I think she would if she could, but if she really can't, it sounds as though Billy might move out or run away, leaving the other teens to care for their little sister. A Military-provided guardian for the four children (or Military orphanage) also seems reasonable, although I think Billy would run away from that for sure. Also, a grouchy Teen Sim in aspiration failure can beat up a child sibling as well as fellow teens (I had that issue with Sharla and Tommy Ottomas, many hoods ago), so it may well be necessary for him to be separated from Bambie one way or another; if he doesn't run away, he might find himself enlisted and living in barracks, if he hits her (or Lizzie) while in the care of a Military guardian.

My usual rule for Military scholarships is that the children of career officers always get scholarships for the first two years of university; if they have a GPA of at least 3.7 at that point, the rest of their degree is covered, too. Teens with a Military LTW are sponsored on the same terms. I've never had a fallen soldier, but if that were to happen, the children would get Military scholarships even if the deceased parent was just a Recruit with no real interest in a Military career. A fallen soldier is a fallen soldier, and my Sim Military always cares for its own.

Tip for next time: no social worker mod

When I have a sim "run away" I have them go live in a starving artist type warehouse with some other vagabond/runaways. Those are common where I'm from.

Maybe you can have Billy become a pro wrestler and get a scholarship that way

But if we're playing realistically CPS rarely does anything. So. Have him continue beating up his brothers, abuse his future children, one of which becomes a killer. Murder mystery plot. Problem solved. ]

Or have him take anger management classes.

Thanks for the advice, yeah, I ended up having Billy run away (move out) and settled him in a hovel in Downtown. For the other three I created a CAS Sim military guardian and moved them into the military base. There's a little tension between them and their guardian right now, but that's to be expected due to the recent tragedies and the change in environment.

Eventually I'm gonna have to decide what to do with Billy. I'll probably have him join the Alto crime syndicate. Only future I can see for him right now.



Oh please! This game so easy, the social worker only shows up when I want her to!
I meant I wanted to avoid her as a storyline solution

I would have the children receive some kind of scholarship or payment by the military that can only be used for University for all of the kids, even Billy who ran away.

I would definite consider having Billy join the Alto Crime Syndicate, having Billy start working for the Syndicate while he is living in a hovel Downtown strikes me as a very good idea. I don't know if you like to use Custom Careers, but I do and I have a Mafia Career, that I use for Sims like Billy. It has a Teen Career too btw. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=188641

That's why I clicked on "Love"!

Actually I think Billy could do a lot worse than join the army. The army could channel his natural aggression into something positive (or at least what the army regards as positive). Even if he starts off in a criminal career, he could meet up with a soldier, perhaps an old childhood friend, who could persuade him he'd be better to join up. It's certainly better than prison and it's a background he's already familiar with. He may never be "officer material" but I think he could shine in (say) Elite Forces.
-------------------------
Now I've a little dilemma of my own: what should Tybalt Capp do with his life? Career-wise that is. Relationship-wise plans to marry his girlfriend Lexie Kauker and move into a big house in Chorus Court across the road from the Market. Then they'll be next door neighbours for Gloria and Andrew. But, as for work, he just doesn't know. He's been moping around Capp Manor ever since he left school. He sometimes looks in the jobs section of the newspaper, but never sees anything that he really fancies. And, coming from the Capp family, he doesn't see work as a financial necessity, the way that poorer Sims invariably do. (They'll take any job just to pay the bills!) Starting a business might be a very good idea, and I'm sure Consort would help him with capital. But what sort of business? He's now best friends with Romeo (who's still at school), and he's no longer interested in pursuing a feud against the Montys. But he's still got only one Nice point, and he's certainly not the easiest person in Veronaville to get on with! Any ideas?

Though question on Tybalt... I suppose I could see him opening a Sports Bar, where they serve food and stuff? The Sims wiki also says he's interested in Games (if you take the Sims interest into account that is) so there could also be some of those arcade machine there, maybe some card tables and/or pool tables?

In the play Tybalt is sometimes called the "King of Cats" that could be a neat name for a bar.

If you specifically meant a shop I'd say similar things, have him sell sport equipment, games/entertainment objects....or cats.


Yeah I have been using that and several other custom careers for a while now. In my current neighbourhood the Landgraab-King syndicate was the first "Mafia" family with the help of that exact custom career, but they got taken down by the neighbourhood's first superhero and the Landgraabs family are by now rehabilitated, with the current Malcolm being married to Cassandra Goth.

The Altos joined the neighborhood because I needed a new mafia clan for some storylines, and there was no way Cassandra would allow her husband to become a crime lord....and she's a witch, so Malcolm can't afford to upset her

I'll see what will happen to Billy, he still has half of his teenhood ahead of him.

The Landgraabs are mostly Legit in my game, well mostly. lol I will have to look sometime they might be like Michael Corleon in the God Father, I don't recall now. I have Casandra Goth married to Andrew Martin Goth. Malcolm has a Son named Malcolm and another son both born in the game and recently I created Dudley Landgraab and his Sister Mimi Landgraab {from The Sims Bustin' Out}

I am this point thinking of Dudley Landgraab becoming a Cult Leader in the Paranormal Career and having Mimi Landgraab work on owning 5 Businesses, I don't know what she would do besides be a business owner if anything.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I do not have FT or AL so those careers are not an option, I do have these custom ones: Psychologist, FortuneTeller-Mystic, FortuneTeller-ScamArtist, Photography, RetailFashion, RockBand, ConsultingDetective, Baseball, Novelist, Sims1Fashion, SimsBustin'OutCounterCulture, SimsBustin'OutFashionVictim, HitMan, LS-Entertainment, Boxer,pharmaceutical Industry, pharmaceutical sales, Espionage, IT_Career, LS_GameDevelopment, RealEstate, and Mafia.

I created a number of Sims based on Sims in The Sims Bustin' Out {console version} and I was thinking of having Chase Skirtz become a FortuneTeller-ScamArtist, however I didn't have the Counter Culture career available when I was thinking of this, but I am still thinking of having Chase become a FortuneTeller-ScamArtist. I might have Ying Yangst go into the SimsBustin'OutCounterCulture career as that is what she was in the console version.

If anyone has suggestions let me know.


I like Orphalesion's Suggestion of a Sports Bar to start with.
"Though question on Tybalt... I suppose I could see him opening a Sports Bar, where they serve food and stuff? The Sims wiki also says he's interested in Games (if you take the Sims interest into account that is) so there could also be some of those arcade machine there, maybe some card tables and/or pool tables?

In the play Tybalt is sometimes called the "King of Cats" that could be a neat name for a bar. "

Then proceede to open other Businesses, like for example buy the Lucky Card Club which is located Downtown and then create a Casino, note that one can use The High Rollers Project http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=307946

Then to complete the 5 Businesses LTW he would just need to come up with 2 more.

I like this particular LTW and I have several sims that have done this, I happen to love OFB

I'd make him run a brothel, personally

What about a Casio and charge sims for entering? That way he can make money without talking much to the other sims.
Just place some poker and mahog tables down.

AndrewGloria, you don't have Freetime, but if you did, Tybalt's preferred hobby is Music and Dance.
I don't think you have the Dance career, either, but that's what he usually pursues for me. Do you have instruments that can be played for tips? He could run a bar or restaurant with live music, maybe a dinner theater (do you have Entertain--Freestyle for tips, or the microphone that lets a sim recite?). He could sell musical instruments, maybe "teach" music lessons (you don't have instruct in hobby, that's FT, I'm sure).

LordTyger, I'm pretty sure it's "Prince of Cats." 'What is this Tybalt? More than Prince of Cats, I can tell you that! He fights as you sing prick-song, one, two, and a third in your gullet!' (Oh, yeah, been a few years since I had a kid memorize that. Should do again, it's an excellent monologue for a tween boy. All the better because Grandma didn't know prick-song was a synonym for counterpoint and thought he was saying something obscene. *giggle* My mom has an MA in Linguistics, I have a BA in music: it's so rare that I catch her out on a word-meaning.) But I could be wrong. Where's my Shakespeare?

I was curious about why he was called that and looked it up. Turns out that Shakespeare is never far from the gutter. XD

I suppose he has "cat like" qualities in battle and such. The following should help in the history of it.
Tybalt shares the same name as the character Tibert/Tybalt the "Prince of Cats" in Reynard the Fox, a point of mockery in the play. Mercutio repeatedly calls Tybalt "King of Cats" (perhaps referring not only to Reynard but to the Italian word cazzo "penis"[1]). Luigi da Porto adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti published in 1530.

Thanks Orphalesion, lordtyger9, purplestuddedcoffin, Shadow214, Sunbee and Charity!

I like the idea of a sports themed bar, especially if he can combine it with a suitable sports career. And, with his 10 Body points, Boxer seems a very suitable career for Tybalt. When I first met him, Tybalt was constantly wanting to "Win a fight". He's calmed down a lot now, but wanting to win fights is perfectly legitimate for a boxer -- in fact you wouldn't be much of a boxer of you didn't want to win your fights! So I think he'll go for a career as a boxer, and then, after he's married, open a boxing-themed pub. Hopefully I'll be able to find some suitable CC. The next thing is to decide where to put the pub. Well, the house they're planning ion buying in Chorus Court is in a pretty good location, just across the toad from the Market. I'd consider dividing it into two lots, making one the pub and the other the house, but I doubt if that's practicable. Eastside Veronaville is a conservation area, and it's hard to get planning permission to make major changes to the old buildings -- most of them date from the 16th and 17th centuries. So maybe the best option is to start it off as a home business. When Tybalt is training (or fighting) Lexie can run the pub. Later on they might open a second pub somewhere else in the town. And he could also buy the Lucky Shack Cards and Drink in downtown Veronaville, and run it as a casino pub. I don't know if a brothel would do very well in Veronaville -- too many Romance Sims ready and willing to do it for nothing? But he might add strip poker as an attraction at Lucky Shack. (I wonder how Mrs. Crumplebottom would like that. ) Finance for business expansion shouldn't be a problem for Tybalt. Not only is he on very good terms with his grandfather Consort, but he's also got a firm and growing friendship with Monopolis billionaire Milburn Pennybags. However I'm not sure if I'll try to go for 5 level 10 businesses; I reckon any Sim who manages to get one business to level 10 deserves to go permaplat -- I don't think anyone in my game has got past level 5 yet. Yes my Sims can play piano, guitar, bass and drums for tips, so there's no reason why we can't have live music in the pubs.

lordtyger9, is it this boxing career that you've got? I've also found this older one but it appears to be only in French, and I don't think Tybalt can speak French.

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions!

Ahh but an escort doesn't get paid to have sex, they get paid to leave!

I kid, I kid. I love the idea of a boxing pub. Might have to steal that for my sims.

The first one is the one that I referenced, not the one that is only in French. I do want to make an important note though the Boxing Career as it is on ModTheSims needs to be modified slightly, the creator of the Career did not make a couple of the Chance Cards For level 10 correctly and if you get them you gain or lose a ridiculous amount of money. If you want I can share my modified copy by maxon or you can download the copy that maxon fixed or you can modify it yourself just change the numbers in the chance cards. The creator forgot that there is a multiplier for the Money amounts starting at level 8 or 9 and so the numbers need to be adjusted for the chance cards starting somewhere at level 8 or 9.

If you want the fixed one by maxon go here http://www.simfileshare.net/filedetails/237602/ I don't know if it is still there, but I suppose it is worth a look. I checked and right now the server is timing out on that page. Maybe ask maxon about the file? Otherwise I can share it I think, let me know.

Thanks lotdtyger9!

I've now downloaded maxon's corrected version from the link you gave. Whatever the problem was at Sim File Share, it seems to be fixed now.

Cool, maxon also corrected some typos according to what they wrote to me. Great that SFS is back up, not that I have anything there personally, but there are several important archives there and a lot of tumblr people use it a lot!

I was reading some place that the Summdream's Puck Summerdream and Bottom Summerdream were adopted. Do you all think that is true? So anyway I was thinking on going on the assumption that they were adopted and that the Summdream House goes to the First Born Female.

So well Titania had a girl by an Alien Sim in my game {she had a want to have a baby, but she now has a fear of having another baby}, so now she has one child born from her and I named her Natalie. I as sort of thinking that Natalie should get the house after Titania and Oberon pass.

What do you all think?

I love the idea that Puck and Bottom are adopted - such a fairy thing - frankly more likely kidnapped are replaced with changelings, but then we're talking fairies rather than sims.
I also love that Titania had an alien baby - goes along with the fairy personalities.

I don't see why the alien baby, Natalie, shouldn't get the house. But how does Oberon feel about that? In a Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon is pretty jealous of Titania paying more attention to anyone other than him and I would assume that would go towards babies too. Although none of the children are his, does he have a preference and how is he going to make it known?

Then again, as you've said it's going to a female heir, does Oberon have any say in the family anyway?

The memories of Oberon and Titania say that Puck and Bottom are adopted and the "truth" of the matter is that they were neither born nor adopted but created by the developers. And taking the fairy element into account, I see no reason to doubt that they are adopted, unless you want to create a storyline where they are really Titania's or Oberon's love children from outside the relationship.

Personally I don't see why Titania's natural daughter (in both senses of the word) should come before the adopted children, because in my game I treat adopted and biological children as exactly the same and according to her biography Titania dotes on Puck and Bottom, so she seems like a loving person who wouldn't treat them second only because they are possibly not related to her by blood.
Of course that's just the biography...

I'd use the opportunity to maybe create some rivalry between Bottom and Natalie, if you want drama and depending on their personalities.

Of course there's also the option to work the way feudal families operated and try to procure estates for all three children (or at least Bottom and Natalie, if you want to keep the Summerdream's maternal succession)

Since there's no mechanical difference between adopted and biological children in sims (or in life, usually, but human variation is a thing and not everyone adopts for the right reasons), it's all down to how you interpret Titania's cultural background and personality. Since Titania and Oberon are fairies, there's no reason for them to die of old age - you can just turn aging off in the house or feed them elixir indefinitely. In that case, inheritance doesn't arise unless she decides she's tired of Veronaville and wants to move elsewhere.

If you don't want to get into the fairy thing, think about Veronaville law. If the family is defined around the female line, Puck isn't in line for the succession, and the only way he or Oberon can have a hand in running the property is as a business-manager or regent for a female heir. If you think either of them is interested in the property, you might do something with that, but that's a side issue.

People often refer to the households on the Capp side as "matriarchal," but in fact the evidence is for a matrilineal kin system. Matri- and patri-archy are systems of default power. If the Capps are matriarchal, then Consort's power in the Capp family is that of Regent. Once Juliet comes of age, he'll lose all his direct power and be thrown back on influence and manipulation, like a Queen Mother in our own history's patriarchal systems. Lineality has no necessary connection to power, as you can see by looking at the way kin are traced in modern Western society. We're patriarchal in that direct power defaults to men (though we are striving toward egalitarian power structures, we have a long way to go). But we consider children to be equally related to their mother's and father's families - there is no distinction between maternal and paternal grandparents, uncles, aunts, or cousins. Male primogeniture is only of importance in some specific economic and potentially political situations. If we were truly patrilineal, I would be considered less closely, or not at all, related to my mother, her siblings, and their children than I am to my father's family. If we were matrilineal, the reverse would be true.

In a strictly matrilineal society, Juliet's husband would be a lot less important to the future of the Capp family than her brother, whose relationship to her children would involve a lot of elements we would consider "fatherly," while her husband would behave more like an uncle to them. Assuming she marries Romeo, Tybalt would be the male authority figure and Romeo would get to be the fun one, while Juliet would be the one with the final say in the most important decisions, by virtue of being head of the household and the one most closely related to them. Hermia's children would be more closely related to Juliet's than they would be to Tybalt's, and any children Romeo had on the side wouldn't be considered to be related to his and Juliet's children in any significant way.

In a matriarchal household, Oberon's opinions aren't enforceable. He'd have to influence Titania and persuade her to come around to his way of thinking. Since none of the kids are his genetically he may not have any opinions at all regarding them. If he got her to have a child with him, he would be motivated to scheme for that child's advantage relative to the others, but if the family is strictly matrilineal he may not feel as connected even to that child as we might expect him to. If the family is matrilineal but egalitarian, his desire to marry Titania when the game opens may indicate a desire to have some sort of control of the property and say in the raising of the children during his lifetime. As a mere lover, he is of no more importance in the household than Kaylynn would be if she moved into the Pleasant household without marrying Daniel.

The question to ask yourself is: why is Juliet the Capp heir? She''s the youngest daughter of a youngest daughter, so does that mean that inheritance is to the youngest in the direct female line? If so, then the alien infant's claim automatically trumps Bottom's (and older sisters have a strong motive to resent younger ones!) Or does it mean that there's some other criterion than age on the line? If so, what is it? Hair color? Some kind of merit system? Parental preference?

Answer that question in whatever way is most interesting to you, and you have a guide not only for this situation, but for any other cases of inheritance in the matrilineal families.

Hmmm I find myself wondering if Almondine Sugar is going to remarry once her current husband dies of old age. Also if she's going to have more kids, because she already has five, thanks to the triplets and quads mod combined with having a set of twins. It would be a shitload of kids for a new hood, but honestly, she's a Family sim so I bet she would definitely be the mommy blogger type that would want more babies then stop talking about them when they were children tbh, If maybe no more biological children, maybe she'll adopt later? I could see her being the type that would want her empty nest filled, but she's not quite there yet. Then again, this is a legacy so there's also the idea of having a ton of spares and nothing to do with them tbh. I don't see all of them living especially spectacular lives, but I also don't want them to be trapped with going through the motions because I didn't want to play all the rotations for them. For that, I'm thinking that some of the siblings that get along well will live together and craft or something idk.

I also wonder if she should start playing the field again, because again, her current husband is reaching advanced age and he's going to kick the bucket just about any day now, but I'm also thinking that she would need time to mourn him since they married early in her adulthood.

Well, from what I've seen legacy is a very specific play style. One in which I have very little experience, so I'm not sure whether anything I can think of is sound advice.

If the "spares" become too many you could use the Sim Adjuster to have the households you don't want to play age along with the households you do want to play. I do it with some "peripheral" characters in my neighbourhood.

And how old is Almondine? Is it feasible for her to have a baby or multiple at this point? Will she be alive until all the kids reach adulthood? Will the presence of all those younger siblings pose problems for Almondine's legacy heir to marry and reproduce (household limit, room enough to house them all. Is there enough money to feed and house them.)?
I think that might be the most important criteria to decide whether Almondine should have more babies.

Yep, money is no longer an issue because Endre left them over 59k so they can go just about anywhere they want to. Almondine herself wants another baby and she has two weeks left of adulthood, so I think I'll do it after all. I love the idea of peripheral aging btw! I definitely think I'll incorporate it into my playstyle.

Jenna and Ty Small lived a rather simple life. Jenna is in politics, and was King Rowan's right-hand-woman in many ways (one of which almost led to the queen divorcing her husband ). They wound up having the fewest children of all the noble families, having had no more children after the birth of their twins William and Madelyn.

Will was going to be the heir of the house due to being male, while Madelyn would be married off to another family, or perhaps she'd send some funds to the town for the rights to a townie husband.

The twins were sent to college with their paths laid out before them: William a politician and Madelyn a chef.

Everything was fine until Will decided he didn't care to put effort into his schooling, and he was put on academic probation during what would have been his last year of university.

He blew his last chance without a single wish/fear to indicate that he gave any shits.

His interest in the crown princess Maple has not gone unnoticed, but she's a freshman in university and won't be deciding on a spouse until after she's done (and even then, I quite honestly don't know what sort of contest she'll have to determine her future husband). While the idea of her son marrying the queen of the kingdom would make Jenna's heart burst, she's immeasurably pissed and disappointed in her son for flunking out of university, and his pursuit of Maple is a huge dice roll--in fact, he was already promised Katja Brooks' hand in marriage (luckily, his failure hasn't jeopardized the arrangement their parents set up, but him going for Maple might make Katja's father Aurik turn to someone more loyal)!

Should William, a spoiled young man in need of a whack of responsibility, shrug off the title of heir and settle into the middle class? Should he fight for his position and attempt to regain his mother's favor in what little time he has? Will he jump at the opportunity to join Maple's husband-finding contest, or is lying low and marrying Katja his best bet for a happy life?

Madelyn, ever the over-achiever, would love to have the family home. She spent hours crying in embarrassment and sympathy over her brother's mistake, but she'd happily take advantage of it to suit her needs. She was content enough with the idea of being married off and clawing her way back up to nobility, but if she could have that from the get-go...

ETA: I have too many choices and no clue what to pick or where to go from here.

Sounds to me like William would jump at the opportunity to be Maple's husband. He likes her, maybe she likes him and would give him an edge? Sounds like the kind of risk he would think would work out for him.
He's got no sense of the consequences of his actions or inactions. That's why he failed out of school. But being spoiled, I doubt he's going to just settle for the middle class. Would he just marry Katja - he clearly doesn't care about the path his parents set for him, plus I bet he thinks she'll still be waiting in the wings, cause coming second to the Princess isn't really that bad. She is the Princess afterall.

As for remaining heir, that depends on how your world works. If he's the heir cause he's male, and that's just how it is, then his parents' wouldn't have a choice. But it sounds like they do, and if I were them, I would equally let the dice roll. Maybe he will marry Maple. That would be great. Maybe he won't, and since he hasn't made sacrifices for the family, why should they do it for him. Let his sister take over - she seems more suited for the part.

I'm all for Madelyn taking over. Let William learn his lessons the hard way.

Anyone can become the heir in any household realistically, but Jenna and Ty preferred the idea of their son taking over to make absolute sure that the family name was passed on. Madelyn doesn't have any plans marriage-wise, so I can just plop a townie in for her and have him take her last name.



Fair enough!

Thank you both very much for the advice! I'll have William participate in the competition and let Madelyn be the heiress to the Small household.

If you've been following my post - Vote on what should happen in my game http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=621105 - then you know I usually have people vote on which path my sims should take.

This is a bit different, and I would like some suggestions and ideas of what should happen.

Dirk Dreamer and Lilith Pleasant are engaged and living together. Dirk is working 24/7 to get promoted in the medical field. When he's not doing that, he's giving financial advice. His goal is to make $50 000 so that he and Lilith can buy a beautiful house and start their lives together. Thing is, they aren't getting any younger.

Lilith meanwhile has been partying pretty hard. She feels really lonely, which is why she briefly hooked up with Dustin Broke (he and Angela broke up years ago; he's also dating Dina Goth and a dormie named Lindsay). That ended, but she was tempted by him again, and when they went to a club together, she thought maybe she would kiss him, but he went off with both Dina and Lindsay at different points. Instead she ended up kissing Matthew Picaso, who is happily married to her good friend Jessica.

Do Dirk and Lilith break up? Clearly they aren't happy. But they do love each other. Lilith is also super good friends with two of his sisters, Corrie and Danna. Plus, his dad Darren just died.

And Dirk is SO close to his goal - only $15 000 more before he makes it to $50 000 and he will stop being quite so driven. He and Lilith can take a vacation and have a house with more than one washroom for her parties.

I don't know what to do. I want Lilith to be happy and I'm not sure where they should go from here. Help!

Dirk needs to wake up and smell the coffee now, not later, if you want him to be happy.

IRL, Lilith's best bet would be to stomp on his relentless pursuit of wealth and insist that he sit and listen to her for a change. She doesn't care about the money; she wants quality time! If he loves her, he'll get that and make time for her.

If he doesn't, she'll have to cut her losses and find someone who loves her the way she needs to be loved. So he has a deadline, and 60 chances an hour, 24 hours a day, to adjust his priorities.

Well, how strongly does Lilith like Dirk? Is he the one she always comes back to? Is this the first incident of cheating? Do either of them stray when the other isn't around? Are they one of those 3 bolt couples that walk all over the lot to find their significant other so they can do things & spend time in their partner's presence? What's their relationship like? And where is Lilith at in her life? Is she bored? Has she met her life goals? She hooked up with a married sim--maybe her partying days aren't over and she's got to wreak some havoc before she turns things around. Is there something she wants, but can't have, and so is acting out?

Personally, I've found Lilith to be someone very open to new relationships, even if she already has a partner, but the girl also seems to be terrified of breaking up with anyone. In my game, if she breaks up or falls out of love with someone, for any reason, you can be sure a little while later she's rolling wants to get back together or make up. This has been true for almost all of her relationships, whether with Don Lothario, Dustin Broke, Leod McGreggor--it's happened with pretty much everyone except Dirk, oddly, but it still has happened enough, across playthoughs and different neighborhood iterations, that I consider it a trend. Even if they've cheated on her, even if she's fought with them, she's almost never happy unless she's made up with them and fallen right back in love. So, if this dilemma were in my hood, I'd consider that; she'd hate to break up with Dirk. I'd probably have her realize that she's made a mistake and, in an effort to repair the relationship without telling Dirk she cheated, I'd have her demand Dirk pay attention to her and settle for something 'good enough' instead of perfect. I'd let them get married, start a family, and Lilith would relax, thinking her secret is safe.

Of course, this is Lilith and I do love to torture her a bit, so I'd probably let Dirk find out about the affair sometime during the marriage to shake things up and threaten divorce (Perhaps he finds date flowers?). That way, after trying so hard to avoid her parents' mistakes, she ends up in a tumultuous relationship that risks upsetting the entire family, just like her dad's affair did. *Insert evil laugh here* But like I said, that's my Lilith.

Only you know your Lilith, and if she seems unhappy to you, she probably is. Have her do some soul searching and get a change of scenery--vacation maybe?--and see if she misses Dirk. Popularity wants can sometimes crowd sim's want panel, but I find sims in love & in a serious relationship will still roll wants for each other, even just to hang out. And I do think the last thing Lilith, in any iteration, would want is a superficial marriage like her parents. Maybe she doesn't even believe in marriage anymore.

And what does Dirk want? Is the dream house and the image of a perfect family more important to him than the girl? Is the reason he's at work all the time really because he wants to save money, or is he avoiding something? Has Dirk had any affairs? ...There's lots of ways to spin a story, and I know I probably didn't help with all the options I gave, but all I can say is if your sims story doesn't seem right, then it's probably not right.

There is still some time before I have to decide, but I think Lilith is going to have to leave.

Dirk, as voted by those participating in my vote thread, is committed to earning his $50 000 before he relaxes. He thinks he is doing it for Lilith; really he's doing it for himself. Darren was always poor. Cassandra almost left him when she gave birth to triplets when they already had 3 young children just as Dirk was leaving for college.
Dirk believes if he doesn't have the financial foundation, they can't be happy.

Lilith, on the other hand, is seeking something more. She's cheated with Dustin. Now she kissed Matthew and the only thing that probably stopped it from escalating is that Matthew likes his wife, Jessica, and Lilith and Jessica are friends. Really, she probably wants to spend some of the money they've been saving to upgrade their apartment and to go on vacations.

But since, at the moment, their desires are just not the same, I think Lilith is going to have to break off the engagement and move out. It's too bad that her step-mother has run off on vacation with Joe Carr in response to Mary-Sue's death (Joe is doing the same in response to Brandi's). She'll have to get her own place. Maybe once Dirk has his money saved up, their wants will bring them back together.

He can give her quality time without relaxing. Set up a regular date time, always eat dinner together, something like that.

Okay I'm unsure what to do with Pepper Sugar. He's a teen father of three kids and his wife needs his help while also working so his grades are falling because he always goes to school tired and has a pile of homework which lays untouched. The issue is that the other triplets are fresh in their ten years and I don't want to rob them of that because their brother is dumb, yet takes responsibility. Also, it feels like he's going to max everything early on because he eschewed teen carefreeness in favor of taking care of business. I'm also unsure if he should have any more kids, or even if I wanted him to be the heir of the legacy he's a part of.

@Steffyn, I'm not sure why the kids would be robbed of their teen years--unless you're making them help out with Pepper's kids? And I'm not sure what the dilemma is; is it whether Pepper should focus on school & get his grades up? If so, that's certainly doable. I don't know what's allowed in your game--if you use aspiration rewards, or have any mods that can help Pepper keep his energy up, like a mod that increase coffee's energy gain or something. Those options certainly exist, but remember gardening & juice. Pepper Punch (energy boost), Apple Juice, (faster homework), Veggie Cocktail (faster skilling), and Eggplant Juice (random skill points) are all helpful in this situation. And, with mods you can have sims buy produce, like through Monique's computer or Crispsandkerosene's Produce Stand, if you don't want to actually garden.

Otherwise, if there's any adults around, have them help Pepper with his homework to get them done faster. With homework done, he should be able to get his grades up soon. You may need to let him sleep for short bursts, instead of getting a full night's rest, though. As for the other teens--going on outings to community lots should help you from feeling like their teen years are being robbed. While out, you can focus on just them and let them have fun and make friends.

As for feeling like Pepper's going to max everything early, well, he probably is, but that's what happens when you start a family early on--you grow up fast. You'll just have to think of other goals for him to achieve. As for whether or not he'll have more kids, I think 3 is a good number, so I wouldn't, unless he's a family sim, or unless he has some relationship drama and ends up with a new significant other later in life. You can also use mods (like ACR) or just a simple dice roll to handle that decision for you. As for heirship, well, what are your legacy rules? Are there any challenges/handicaps you are doing? How would you normally decide heirship? For example, maybe your legacy family is supposed to have a noble composure, and you could argue that Pepper has brought shame upon the family by having kids so young, and therefore he's ineligible. But again, that all depends on your legacy rules. Do any of the other sims want to be heir? There's a story in that, then, if siblings are going to fight over heirship. Otherwise, is there another sim you would rather play/like to see be heir? You could do an heir poll, but ultimately, picking the heir is about who's right for your gameplay and/or the story you are telling.

It's not often I can't pick the option that's most fun for me right away, but I've got one now I need to sleep on, so I might as well run it by here and see what ideas other people have.

In Depression Riverblossom Hills, Isaiah Gavigan had a birthday party at which (humanified) child Daisy Greenman and her best friend, Tina Traveller, spent all their time throwing snowballs at each other. A good time was had by all. But, when I opened the Traveller house, I got an immediate pop-up to the effect that Tina was freezing and I'd have to warm her up before she was taken by the social worker. This helpful message, however, was accompanied by Tina disappearing from the portraits and racing downstairs to meet the van that was pulling up.

Now, I can think of a couple of ways to deal with this, and I quit without saving to figure out what I wanted to do. First I checked in on Daisy. She got the same message, but I had plenty of time for Rose to light the wood heating stove in the parlor and warm her up. So I could teleport Tina in and warm her some before sending her home, so that the situation never arises. But is that really what I want to do? Or do I want to create a more interesting situation.

For purposes of Depression Riverblossom, the Traveller backstory is essentially as written in their bios; but when the bottom fell out of the markets and the exchange rates became unfavorable, they returned to Simerica and moved into a property in Riverblossom Hills that he'd inherited from somebody. With their liquid assets depleted and the depressed real estate market, they've been scraping by, with Trisha and Tina going into market gardening, Trisha working for Stella Roth at her beauty salon, and Trent doing field research for Herbert Goodie at his lab at LGU. I've had Trent looking in the paper for a job in Law every day, but no luck yet, so circumstances have been preventing him from hanging out his shingle and resuming his old profession.

Tina being taken by the County would be a huge impetus to get back into Law, though! I wouldn't mind using the Job Notice Board to accomplish that. And I could make a Poor Farm or County Home, or move her in with Leod McGreggor and the Newsons, or foster her on some other family, without severing her family ties. (Gee, I love the teleporter!) But which of these options would be the most fun? And how would I simulate the fight to get her back? It is a puzzlement.

A couple of Ideas, First it occurs to me if you want to have a Story where Tina is taken away, I would have her be at Leod McGreggor's as a Foster child that they have taken in. To me Trent should soon get a job in Law {I would have him go to the Employment Center, maybe make one if you don't have one. Have a Job Notice Board there. I have one I got the idea from someone here on MTS} and then have him get Tina back when he reaches a particular Level in Law. I am not sure exactly what level is appropiate, but not too soon and not very late I think.

Another Foster Family would be fine too, I just picked Leod as the first that popped into my mind.

I moved the Newsons in with Leod McGreggor, on the theory that he'd want the older kids for help on the farm and had a conscience about breaking the family up. And the very first thing he did was start making a fuss of Georgia, so he plays much more like a true adoptive father than like an employer/caretaker. Ginger and Gavin are about to grow up, and probably move out, since they have steadies I'll grow up with them and will presumably want to get hitched and strike out on their own. So though it would be exaggerating to say there'll be plenty of room for Tina, who's a couple of days from teen and already has her silver gardening badge, they could certainly squeeze her in. Whether the County would let him take on yet another orphan is another matter. To Leod's credit, he's not just getting free labor from them - he taught them all to study, they've gotten a good practical education in farming, Ginger's become quite an accomplished cook, and they can mostly play the piano, more or less. Now that winter's come back around he's bought a workbench and a sewing machine so they can expand their skillset even further. But half of them have to sleep in the barn, and it's not as if he needs any extra hands in the winter.

The two other obvious fostering possibilities in town are Gabe O'Mackey and Patricia Wan. Gabe is living alone since Jules left for college. He got a couple of small dogs to keep him company, but Jules's room is just sitting there, and you can hardly get more respectable than him (since everyone blames Alexandra for the divorce). He and Patricia aren't getting together, as they aren't sexually compatible, and Cleo Shikibu has married Andrew Martin and moved into the Viejo household, leaving Patricia on her own, throwing parties and writing books. She's writing about a book a day and seems very happy, except that she can feel her biological clock ticking and is looking for someone to woohoo, since she and Gabe can't get to the point. The steady production of novels has made her the richest non-Roth in town, so she might take Tina on out of a general sense of obligation to help those less fortunate; but unlike Gabe she's borderline unrespectable and the County might not feel she was suitable.

If Tina were a little bit older the Ramaswamis could take her in as a hired girl, if she slept in the nursery; but she isn't. It would be awkward for the Roths to take her, since Trisha works for Stella, and they have a toddler at home, though they certainly have room for her. Alexandra died in a house fire, and the Ottomi, Goodies, and Roselands haven't any room. The Viejos technically do, but I just can't picture it and in any case their household doesn't need any livening up.

Making an actual Poor Farm would require creating (or converting from townies) an indigent population, plus someone to run the place, and I'm just not sure I'm up for adding the household.

I first will have to admit that I have a sentimental soft spot for Tina.

Gabe will be good to her, and she will be fine there, and Patricia may also enjoy having her around (and Tina may find Patricia more fun than Gabe?).

Yet I like the idea of her going to the farm.
With the Newsons around her, she will have more company. That's not nearly all, though.

I see a bigger picture with the role the farm can play in the hood - as a place where kids and teens in Tina's position (and other positions) could go. So I would suggest to Leod to apply to the County to have his farm being turned into a safe place for youngsters. They will be taught by him (or by the others there) and will also learn (more, at times) farming skills, which will be an advantage they have once they grow up. He could also promise that his successor, when he dies or retires, continue with the work he started. And perhaps there may be some public funding for him, even if it is not much, so that he could buy an extra bed or two when needed.

The biggest Problem I have with the Social Worker is that it messes up the family trees, so if this was in my game I would definitely cheat to keep Tina in the family she was born in. I've done it several times already in my current hood (but for heatstroke, my hood has no winter)

Yet I can also see the story-potential, and if you don't care about Tina forever appearing as a child in the Traveller family tree (or have some hack to prevent that) then I agree that the farm would be the best place for her and like Justpetro's idea with it being turned into a safe-house.
That all could, of course still be accomplished by using cheats to add Tina to the new household, which would keep the family tree intact.

I would have a foster family adopt her and have the Traver's plead their case to a social worker/judge. Then I would move her back in with her family, resetting family ties if needed. If you don't want the possibility of a child being taken add in an SW mod so it doesn't happen again.

Totally irrelevant, but kinda funny, given that it's Peni's question - my Trent gave up law happily and is now the lifeguard at the public pool in Widespot.

I would have the Roths take her, if they have a high enough degree of respectability in your game. They're sure there's just been a mistake or misunderstanding, and offer to foster Tina while the matter is sorted out (or until she becomes a teenager and ages out of local authority care, at which point she can decide for herself whether she wants to move back home or stay where she is).

I'm not sure about Trent rushing into a Law job because of this - if anything, wouldn't the scandal of having had his child taken by the Social Worker make him pretty much unemployable in that field?

As I understand it, the family ties don't get severed on removal of the child, but on her adoption into a new family. So any of the fostering situations would involve letting Tina be taken, and then summoning her from the adoption pool to be moved in.

Trent's newspaper search for the law job represents, not an actual job search, but his inner struggle. There are no lawyers in Riverblossom Hills. He quit his job in the high-powered law firm because, though he was good at it, he didn't really like it: wearing a sea captain's coat and a pirate hat and blowing carefree around the world suited him much better. He was never disbarred. Now that money is an issue, and he lives in a town where he'd a) have a monopoly on local business and b) would work for himself, hanging up his shingle again makes obvious sense, but he hasn't been able to bring himself to do it. All he needs is an office - which would be a problem, since there isn't one in town and construction stops dead in the winter, but that's purely a cosmetic detail, since running a law office as a home business doesn't excite me. We can pretend he's renting one of the empty buildings as office space till he can get something built. Finding the job in the newspaper would just mean that he woke up one morning, took a good hard look at his life, realized he was slacking while his wife and daughter work their tails off (Field research is fun for a guy like Trent, but his degree isn't in science so he can't progress), and bit the bullet.

If Tina is taken away, though - up goes that shingle and out comes the law degree!

I suppose of the fostering options the Roths make the most sense from a real life standpoint. Stella isn't a very maternal person, being more interested in running her two businesses and throwing parties, but Xander's the only one of her three children she actively neglects. She ha positive relationships with college-age Stella and toddler Amy, which probably means she doesn't have much use for boys. Tina's what they used to call a tomboy, but she is a girl underneath that, and Trisha is her friend as well as managing the salon for her. The Roths are also the biggest fish in this little pond, and Stella could easily go swanning into the County waving money, style, and her family name to get things worked out Her Way. The only problem is from the player's POV, as the Roths don't need anything to goose the fun of playing them.

Before I decide this I'd better go look at the wiki and study the career advancement chart for Law, figure out which degree of advancement would represent winning the case, and where the job notice board would be likely to start him.

You are right! I've just tested it in a test neighbourhood.

Nice, now I have a lot more options when it comes to foster-home storylines :-)

The Social Worker could simply be so quick to place that poor, neglected, little girl that Stella hasn't got a chance to get her oar in. "Oh, Tina's already settled in with a nice family. We wouldn't want to disrupt her life again." Maybe SW even has Issues with Stella. Which could get interesting if anything ever goes badly wrong at the Roths.

Assuming Gabe's still teaching, he might be the most sensible and reasonable place to put Tina, simply from SW's perspective: he's a known quantity to the Authorities, Tina knows him from school, his daughter turned out perfectly fine in spite of her mother, etc.

Sorry, if this is out of place, but I have a question. How should I implement Midge the Tree confess cheating mod in my game. Since it isn't autonomous (wish it was), I want rules that I should go by. Should I allow on Family sims to only confess? Should Sims who cheated five times or more be able to confess? Or maybe only nice sims should be honest with their s/o? I want to use the mod to add more drama in my game, because I think it's sort-of realistic. However, I have no clue what to do with it.

I wound up moving Tina in with Gabe, partly because he already had hot chocolate made that she could drink immediately and not be taken! She may not stay there, because his current schedule is 11 - 5 (for story purposes he's still teaching high school, though; presumably the extra hours at the end of the day are administration and sponsored organizations like Chess Club, 4H, or Latin Club that he presides over), and though I'm allowing the Roths to have a maid and a gardener, because during the depression there's always someone ready to pounce on the least hint that you want cleaning or yardwork done, nannies are another matter. But I still have time to think about that.

Trent not only stormed out of the house to open a law office, he bought a suit and went to Stella's Salon for a haircut and shave. No more pirate hats and full beards, not till he gets his little girl back! Which I decided will happen when he hits "Family Law," Lvl. 7. The job notice board started him at paralegal and he's rolling skilling wants to get himself promoted. This is the most directed I've ever played Trent - he's always resisted it before.

As for the confess cheating mod - I'd be playing that by ear, observing behavior. Who acts remorseful? Who pops up wants for one partner while with another? Who has reason to fear being caught and would do well to come clean before the gossip gets back to those concerned? Who's about to produce a kid/be sued for child support? Who just caught a partner cheating and is ready to go to the mat with a good old-fashioned: "Two can play at that game!"?

Above all - whose confession has the most interesting potential repercussions?

If you need more structure than that, consider the benefit of random die rolls rather than hard-and-fast rules. Either assign a percent chance across the board and have a sim who rolls (for example) a 20, or a 1, on a 20-sider (i.e. 5% chance) after an act of unfaithfulness confess; or assign values to different qualities a sim might have which would encourage confession. So in the unlikely event that a Nice Family sim with children and a faithful, supportive spouse strays, those qualities might add up to a 20% chance per incident of fessing up; while a Grouchy, childless Romance sim with a supportive spouse may only get a 5% chance.

Hmm, interesting idea, Peni. @monijt1, I personally would use it only for whenever a storyline called for it, but I think you can also view the "Get Caught Cheating" fear as a sign, too. The way I always interpret that fear is that my sim is feeling guilty about something.

Anywho, minor story dilemma of my own. For reasons I can't really explain, I decided to take a break from building in my Pleasantview downtown by redesigning the newly attached Belladonna Cove subhood, and building over there instead. For a bit of back story, this hood is Pleasantview with Bluewater, Riverblossom Hills, and now Belladonna. I installed Belladonna because I'm trying to establish a class/neighborhood system, but I was finding that my sims didn't have enough people in their circles. John Burb Jr. for example, has three different paths to choose from, what with three different romantic partners vying for his attention, and he's only a teen!



But that's not actually what I wanted to ask about! (Though of course if you have thoughts, I'd be interested to know). No, today I'm trying to decide if Belladonna Cove should keep their Bella statue! I'm thinking that Belladonna will be a new tech center with modern homes/building styles and that the upper class sims who live there (like DeBateau) are the nouveau riche (while the main Pleasantview hood will remain the seat of the old money, namely Goth & Landgraab). I'm not really considering the city itself to be newly founded, though, but more like my story is introducing a new setting. So there I am redesigning the subhood and I'm trying to think to myself why on earth the city would have a statue of Bella.

I suppose Mortimer could make a donation, like build a park or something, but I can't think of a reason to do so, really, especially since Pleasantview and Downtown/Sim City are underdeveloped right now and going through their own renovations. Plus I don't see the Goths ever moving there, at least not for some time. Then there's the fact that Mortimer isn't exactly mourning over Bella.



So. I need ideas. What do those who play Belladonna Cove do? Have you redesigned the hood and if you did, did you keep the statue? Or, alternately, if you use the statue elsewhere, do you consider the statue to be Bella, or do you consider it some other famous sim? Should I make Mortimer have a philanthropic streak and put up Bella statues in every hood? Or should I take it down because Belladonna has its own rich without a need for a Bella statue? As always, any thoughts would be appreciated!

I figure the "Bella" statue doesn't look like "Bella" to sims in neighborhoods where Bella Goth never lived. The statue is an allegorical representation of some key value, like Lady Liberty or Blind Justice.

I'm starting a GOT hood, and I'm wondering...do I stay canon and have Robert have won at the Trident? Or do I veer off canon and have Rhaegar be the victor. I'm kinda leaning towards the latter because it's new and exciting, and I can make up my own story to it.

You do what's more fun for you. Screw canon - it's your story now!

Ooooh, the Tirdent is early in the war...a lot can still happen at this point that would make the story interesting and that would give you a lot of options...

For example it's likely that if Rhaegar had won, the war would have continued between Rhaegar and Aerys II...

And there's also still a chance for Ned to bend the knee and join Rhaegar....especially once he learns of certain things...

And of course, there's the question what Tywinn will do....join Rhaegar or join Aerys? And whom will Cersei marry in this scenario? Might Tywinn side with Aerys in hopes of marrying her to Viserys? Or might he still move to have Elia and her children killed so that he can present Cersei to Rhaegar as his new bride...and if he does so, what will he do once he learns of certain things?

Depending on how you play it, the only characters that have absolutely no chance of being born in this universe would be Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen, pretty much everybody else could still come into being.
So you have a world of options, really.

Jaime still kills Aerys, so Rhaegar gets the crown. You've got it in one, Cersei marries Rhaegar - and Joff, Myrcella and Tommen still exist. Gendry doesn't, though, and that makes me sad
In my universe, Aegon and Rhaenys survive, but Elia doesn't.
You-know-who is the royal bastard.

At least, that's what I have planned out.

I have a small dillema. In Point Hope (which is a loose BaCC, still in it's beggining), I have two siblings named Ellar e Greer, which are inclined to music, Ellar is a guitar player and he was pursuing the music career, while Greer was in the dance career, but a problem arised when they both got fired due to chance cards.

Ellar was fired because of some infamy envolving a piano tuned badly in order to make a singer's voice look better in comparison and I think it would be hard to go back to the music industry after that, at least for a while. I thought about Ellar opening a music bar to have something else to do, but he is somewhat socially awkward and quite impulsive, so I don't know if he would suit the role as a business owner, on the other side he wouldn't feel happy playing only at home and the town is in dire need of a community lot for the residents to hang out.

For context sake, Ellar is "unofficially maried" to Guadalupe, the local dog breeder, who will probably have to sell her farm in order to cover her taxes debt. They have two daughters.

Greer was fired because of an ankle injury and, was the chance card said a "permanent break from work", I interpreted it as a career-ending injury. I imagine two choices regarding her: she could work for Ellar at the (possible) music bar, although it doesn't involve any dancing (she would probably be a bartender) and the pay would be low, but it somewhat suits her considering she's quite unambitious. The alternative is to Greer to open a dance studio, but considering the injury, I think it would be weird for Greer teaching other sims to dance without dancing herself.

For context, Greer is maried to Milton, the town's firefighter (despite the fact that the town doesn't have a fire station yet) and they have twin sons. They recently moved from a house to a trailer due to the same problem with taxes debt.

I don't see why you couldn't do both, actually. The bar makes a lot of sense for Ellar--it could very well be an impulsive decision and maybe Ellar can turn life around and continue making music on his own terms, or maybe he gets some help before the business can succeed (like from Guadalupe--maybe he uses the money from the sale of the farm to buy/build a bar instead and maybe the family works there in their spare time. Or maybe others in town who need quick cash start to work there.) Or maybe the bar is a disaster and someone else eventually buys it/takes it over. Does the business have to be a success? How strict are you following the BACC rules? Are you using them just for story help, etc.? Like maybe the purpose of this bar isn't so much the business itself, but to inspire other sims & future generations to build bars/venues and become musicians, you know? Idk how much you wanna play to story and how much you want to play to rules.


With Greer, it depends on how bad you interpret the injury to be. Remember, a career-ending injury could just mean that she can't dance professionally again, not that she can't dance at all.

ETA: Sometimes those who get injured start coaching. I could see Greer giving private lessons at home or opening a gym and giving the occasional dance class.

I'm following the rules very loosely, I use the rules mostly to have some limits to when unlock certain careers and when to build some community lots, it's more of a story frame.

About Ellar, well, I prefer the bar to be a success because the would make the town's economy to grow, which in turn would give more funds (taxes) for the mayor to build the public community lots (which are lacking at the moment) and also bring more people to the town, but as I play want-based, it may depend on Ellar's commitment to the business. The selling of the farm woudn't result in much money, because they need to buy another house to stay and pay the accumulated taxes, so probably Ellar would have to take a loan at the bank if he decides to start a bar. If I go for the bar, Ellar probably will be playing at the bar's stage while someone else will be employed as the bartender.

About Greer, I interpret the injury as being serious enough so she had to be fired, but not debilitating to the point she can't dance at all anymore. I like the idea of the studio/gym best, but I wasn't sure if it would feel weird after career-ending injury (considering she got the injury in the Aerobics Instructor level of the Dance career). Even so, if go for the gym/studio, Greer's family is currently in a bad financial situation, so she probably will have to wait for the mayor to build a real fire station in which Milton will go to (he has a custom firefighter career, but the wage is low) and they start having some decent income before she can safely take some loan at the bank to start the dance studio.

Ah, ok then. So then my next question then, @Rguerra, is do the businesses have to be on separate lots? Can any of them be home businesses for a while? Like maybe Ellar & co. live above the bar and take turns bartending--maybe during the day it's a cafe?--and at night Ellar can play music for tips every now and then. Then, when the business is successful enough/makes enough money, they build a separate bar next door or somewhere else.

Similarly, I'd see Greer doing the same for a while. I know having a home business doesn't really help the town gain any more community lots, but it seems to make more sense, considering where your sims are in their lives. Remember that sims can be personal trainers, too, and then they can also get others to join in dances & do exercises like tai chi, hula, slap dance, yoga, etc. So Greer can start working at home, as well. Maybe have her go out and meet sims and pick a few clients; then she can invite them over and work out with them for an hour or so. Or, if you don't think other sims in town will like meeting at a trailer, she could meet her clients elsewhere, like at the park for morning yoga and tai chi. Things like that. Then as income comes in, she installs a home gym for sims to visit, maybe moves to a bigger place with space for a gym. (Or if she's living at the fire station, the gym could do double duty, training space for firefighters & a workout space for the town). Then after that she saves up for a separate community lot. It'll take time, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Also, since there isn't a permanent fire station, you could even consider Milton to be more of a volunteer firefighter that only does firefighting-type stuff part of the week. That way he has spare time to find other ways to make money (like maybe help out with the gym stuff and be a personal trainer too).

I usually don't like home business for this kind of venue because other sims can't visit it, but maybe I can consider making a home business bar if the loan to buy a community lot end up not worthing it. I will have to wait the next rotation to see.

About Greer's, I like the idea about starting as a freelancer, but it will take I while anyway, as there's no park/square in the town yet neither space in the trailer. If a permanent fire station is built, Milton will have to move there alone (he would only get ocassional leave to be with his family), so there's no chance for Greer to run a business there, but it would give Milton more space to build skills for work and some extra profit (the fire station would be run as a home business). Anyway, the Law Enforcement career was recently unlocked because of the town's first burglarly (coincidentally, in Ellar's/Guadalupe's farm), so I'm think about transfering Milton to that career due to the better wages.

This isn't really a dilemma, but I guess it might be worth a shot putting this here, if anyone can help
I have a Pleasantview that I have played for a long time, with the second generation almost through college, but I made lots of mistakes along the way that I kind of want to make it so that it's like they never happened.
One of these is that I married Brandi off just to get some money so that she and her 5 kids could get a house with enough room for beds, but then I immediately regretted it, and broke it off, and sent them back into their old house. However, when I tried to delete the memories from them, SimPE said that it has gossip associated with it, and I'm pretty sure deleting the memory only would cause corruption because of this.
Then, there's Darleen who I revived because I really wanted to play with a witch, but after she had a baby with Darren, I started to regret this decision as well, due to how boring it made their family to play again. So now I don't know what to do with her and the new Dreamer.
Does anyone have any ideas of how I can set these things straight in the hood? Or will I have to start all over again from an unplayed hood?

We all wish things hadn't happened in our lives, but maybe build story from there, instead?

Brandi had a quick, messy divorce she doesn't like to talk about, but she has to move on with her life. With the whole town whispering, she's determined to show everyone she's still....
Darleen's been through enough. Is this all she "came back" for? She was a stay at home mom most of her life, but no more. She wants to study witchcraft in earnest, let Darren compromise his dreams for once... She's going to....

This happens to me aaaallll the time. I start playing a fresh Pleasantview then I do some things I wish I hadn't, and then I debate whether to start all over or keep going. It's something that I'm considering right now, actually. I've added subhoods to my Pleasantview at various times/when I needed characters, instead of all at once so now I'm wondering if I should go back and connect all the hoods from the get go or keep going, or play catch up with the new subhood hoods I want to add.

(Warning, long post ahead! )

Ok, the way to make this decision, I think, is to weigh what you currently don't like about the hood against what you do like and consider what you can do to fix it/change the story. To use myself as an example again, I've been playing this Pleasantview for a while and have attached Bluewater, Riverblossom Hills, and just recently Belladonna Cove, though no one in Belladonna has been played yet. Dustin, Dirk, Melody, Angela, and Lilith have all graduated and are just starting their own lives & families, with Angela being the furthest along; meanwhile Lucy and Beau are in college. Right now I'm considering the idea of starting the hood over so that they can go to school with, and at the same time as, the Grunts and some other premade teens and kids. It's a very appealing idea especially since there are some things I did in the hood that I don't really like/"messed up."



And that's just one example of how I turned messing around with cheats and hacks into a good storyline for my sims. I was able to incorporate new hood-wide rules, too, and, I have to say, I really like the result. I like where my Dustin is, and though I wish his path was a little cleaner/clearer, I still like his overall story. And the same goes for other sims in my hood. I like what I did with Angela and Mortimer, and Kaylynn--though Kaylynn and the Pleasants both got a little messy. There is enough about this hood that I want to keep, despite wanting to see what would happen if I start over. So for me, I'm going to stick with my hood for now.

Because also, you should remember that nothing will happen exactly the same the second time around. Part of what makes a neighborhood are those accidents and surprises. Like in my Pleasantview, Mortimer and Dina had triplets--this wasn't planned at all. I wasn't even going to have them get married until Dina got pregnant. And, if you need another example, I remember a few years ago I was playing Strangetown. I can't remember why I decided to start it over, but, long story short, I decided I wanted to make some tweaks to what happened there. I restarted the hood and was playing the Specter house. That wasn't one of the houses I wanted to change up; I wanted it to go exactly like the last time--Olive would fall in love with a grand vampire and become one herself and then she would insist Ophelia take up her witch legacy. But, instead, Olive died unexpectedly, . I had so much more story to tell with her, so many more plans for her to do! So yeah, things never happen the exact same way twice and it's super hard to recreate things. It's not that it can't be done, it can, especially with cheats, but it's just time-consuming and a little tedious. You have to ask yourself, would that really be fun for you?

So if there is absolutely nothing you like about the hood, go ahead and by all means, restart. But if there is some stuff you like, I would strongly consider instead if there are story things you can do to change the parts you don't like. Maybe Brandi gets a divorce, maybe her husband dies in a tragic accident, maybe the two part amicably and he goes back to being a townie, or maybe they break up and he harasses her for a while, interfering with her new relationships all the time or trying to undermine her so that he gets custody of the kids. Possibilities are endless. Same with Darleen. Maybe she, too, thinks her life is boring and runs away to become a witch, or has an affair, or finds out about Darren's feelings for Cassandra and decides to get back at Cassandra because she thinks Cassandra tried to steal her husband away while she was dead. There are lots of ways you can shake up the family dynamics & stories and there are a couple of different options to get rid of sims you don't want to play anymore. Take some time to think about your sims, who they are, what they want, and what you and they can do to get (or not get) what they want. Think about the choices they might make if feeling a particular sort of way, about what obstacles you can set up to push their stories in a direction you like more--i.e., where you want them to be and the best/most fun way to get there.

Finally, this is the sims; no one ever said you can't do both! You can take a break from this hood for a while and start over in another to see if you like it better, or you can even have two Pleasantviews running concurrently, like alternate universes of each other. Since Pleasantview is a premade hood, you can rename a cleaned up version of Pleasantview or make a copy of the original one in your Program Files>EA Games>The Sims 2>TSData, Res>Userdata>Neighborhoods. Then change the name of folder and all the subfiles from "N001" to a different number not already in use, and bam, you have two Pleasantviews.

I do this a LOT too ... lol. I'll start it out and think I like how it's goin and then later I'm like 'darn I shoulda did XYZ', so I'll move that copy of PV to a saved area and put in a fresh one. This way I don't loose the one I was playin and can start over to do it different. The only problem with this is that I now have oodles of N001's and I can't seem to remember what I was doin in them or why I wanted to change so I start another new one.. and on goes the cycle ... lol