I've played on a rotation before. I had a neighborhood of about 15 families that I played one day at a time. I'm not being really strict on the rotation for this challenge. Since I only have 2 it's pretty easy to keep track of, I'm just playing for as long as I'm able at a time and then I try to alternate between families. I'll try to keep them fairly even though.

Poor Daisy. The pet pay, even on the first day, doesn't sound that bad. My elder Delia was only making $45 a day before she got fired. I might have to buy that family a pet, if I think I can handle the extra family member. I used to have the "no job discrimination" hack that allowed elders to get adult jobs, but I guess I don't have that in my downloads anymore. I wonder what happened to it?

Rhode and Andrew even dress alike! I guess it was meant to be. :)

You have such pretty sims, Ari. I like the skintones and eyecolors you're using.

I'll have to read the rules again, because I had a question about something too. I forget what now. I remember for sure that it said no killing sims on purpose, but I think you're supposed to continue playing all of the sims too. I wouldn't force that rule though if some of the sims bore you or get too many to handle. If it makes it less fun, don't worry about it. I can't believe how fast your kids are growing up. I'm so jealous of how much you accomplish. I have my game running all afternoon and like only 3 days pass. You're rolling right along!

Thanks, guys!

Sugah - I am still enjoying my families quite a bit. I don't really have an ultimate goal. I think the main point of the challenge is just to expand your neighborhood and play the families equally, so they grow up at the same rate. I haven't simmed this much in a very long time.

Em - Oy - how on earth does that family survive, especially now that Dalia has lost her job? Elder pay is as bad as teen pay. And elders have the same crappy work hours as teens, don't they? So they couldn't both work because one of them needs to stay home with the youngsters. Daisy helped keep the Kelley family afloat. It was very hard, but they managed and are finally starting to pull out of the hole, especially now that all the kids are teens, they can all work and contribute.

Yeah, it was funny. Rhode and Andrew popped up in CAS with the same teen outfit - it was definitely meant to be.

You know what? You're right. We aren't supposed to kill sims on purpose (except placeholders). Good thing Quincy didn't get electrocuted when he was trying to repair the computer (like I was hoping he would). However, I have no desire whatsoever of playing Quincy and Ivan. Would it be considered killing my sims on purpose if I, say, put them in a house together without a smoke detector? I mean, I'm not actually killing them, right?

I'm using Lovebottle's Jealousy Eyes as defaults. And Yumedust's eyes made townie friendly - so all new townies use them. I'm also using Pooklet's Compulsion geneticized skins, so all new townies and babies born in the game could get one of those skintones or one of my Louis defaults. It gives me a nice wide variety. The pooklet is almost too smooth for the males, though.

I've been making a lot of progress on this only because that's all I've been doing, lol. I have difficulty working on projects when the kids are home because it saps my patience when I can't concentrate. So I play, instead. I probably won't get much done when life returns to normal next week. I'm still in play mode, though, and I'll need to put some work into my projects. Sigh.

I started with Family #1 - The Balduino Family. Rhode grows into an adult! He moved out into a small house, where he'll wait for his love, Andrew to grow up, too.


Family #2 - The Halsten Family. Hannah's third baby is born. Another boy. His name is...uh...Noah.


Firstborn Blake turns into a teen. He's adorable! I need to change his eyebrows, though. I've already set him up with Crystal (in pic above). They have natural double chemistry, so they're good to go.


Second born, Tyler, grows into a child. I'm relieved that his personality is different from Blake's. They look a lot alike, though.


Family #3 - The Brennan Family. Lucy and Indy have their first baby. A little girl named Kendra.


Indy is progressing in his job - his dream is to be a professional party guest. I'm going to try hard to make it happen, because he's a pleasure sim, and I really hate pleasure sims, lol. That way he can be permaplat. Lucy finally found a job in architecture.

Family #4 - The Ellis Family. The family is finally doing well. Having 7 teens working brings in a nice chunk of change. They've all risen to the top of their adventuring career, and make $125/day. Dominick got demoted (he's in the military). Now might be a good time to have him work at his lifetime goal of reaching the top of the criminal career track. Or not. He's so darn cute in his military uniform, I might just keep him as is.

Dumb Madisyn got herself sprayed by a skunk. She did this all on her own, while I was busy in the house. It's a busy 8 person house, so I can't keep an eye on everyone all the time. Then she sat there waving her arms at me, complaining because she stunk. Uh, duh.


Dominick got quite a shock (literally) when I had him try and repair the workout station. Pissed me off, lol. I tried to get a sim electrocuted by fixing a computer, but it didn't happen. So I figured fixing this was safe, right? Wrong.


He survived.


I had one of the kids call emergency from downstairs. Luckily, none of the kids ran up to panic about the fire. Dominick was trying to extinguish the flames, but the fireman arrived and saved the day.


I thought it was about time for poor Dominick to have a little action. Poor guy is halfway through his adulthood and has done nothing but work his butt off to provide for his 7 kids. I have no intention of moving her in or getting him married. Things are crowded enough.


Family #5 - The Brody Family.

Ricky! You're not gossiping about grandma, are you?


Ricky: No, honest! Me? Gossip about sweet little granny? Of course not.


Ricky: Okay, I totally was.


Ricky and Mariele are now engaged. I was hoping she would roll up a want to get married, but despite my best efforts, she didn't. I should probably let them get hitched and start making babies, because she's halfway through her adulthood. Ricky is at the beginning of adulthood, so I should probably give Mariele some elixir to even up their ages a little. Because if I don't, Mariele will die of old age way before Ricky - and that's just sad.

Brielle is getting romantic with a townie teen.


Lorette Brennan (family #3) came by. She and Lilja do not get along. If this continues, we'll have an old lady catfight on our hands!


That's it for now. I've got to stop taking so many pictures, lol.

An old lady cat fight! Too funny, AF!

I've had Sims get electrocuted (but survived) when I thought they had plenty of mechanical points to fix something. Not sure why that happens sometimes either. Glad your fella survived the shock!

I'm so glad you're getting to just play and have fun for a change.
So often, we get caught up in our numerous individual projects, we often don't find or take the time to play.
I, for one, wish I could load up my game more for pure pleasure!

I'm enjoying your families as they progress. You're doing great!

Let me get my refreshments!!!

Bring on the Grandma Catfight!!!!

I've murdered Sims before.............Arrest me!!!!

I say go for it!!!

This is too funny........

I was totally gossiping about Granny......That killed me.

I wonder what a Granny Cat-Fight looks like and entails?!!?

Keep up the good work!!

My dear Ari you do have a freaking awesome sense of humor! I'm so glad you are enjoying your game, and you definitely have some really nice lookers, HOT!!!

I must admit that reading about your game play felt like I was reading a foreign language, dang, I guess I don't know my game as well as I thought, ROFL! Who am I kdding I don't know my game play AT ALL!!!

Thanks, everyone! I'm having SOOO much fun with this.

I apologize for the lack of pictures. Now that the kids are back in school and life is back to normal , I have less time to play, and don't want to take extra time to post pictures. But I have a couple, and I'll fill you in on what's been happening lately. I'm still very into this, and it's pulling me everyday. I guess I won't get any work done on my projects this week, lol!

It took me forever to decide which teens to pair up. Several of them had excellent chemistry with townie teens, but I decided I would rather have them pair up with each other. For one thing, it makes for fewer families to divide myself between, and also, I'm sort of having trouble getting into the few townies I did put in my families. But I finally made some decisions, after changing my mind about four times and much agonizing over it, and mostly everyone has a mate/prospective mate. Some of the kids I'm simply NOT interested in, and I'll move them all into a house together so they can maintain their relationships with their family. I'll visit them occasionally and age them with the SimBlender, so they age along with everyone else. Life's just too short to play sims I don't like, challenge or not.

Family #1 - The Balduino Family
Clara grew into a pretty adult (I don't seem to have a pic). I had Inacio move out, and decided (finally!) to pair Clara up with Johannes Ellis. Unfortunately for Johannes, he will not meet his LTW of woohooing 20 different sims, because I just don't feel like it. I might even change his aspiration (are we allowed to do that, Em?). Johannes will move in with her after he grows up.

Family #2 - The Halsten Family
The family continues to grow. Hannah had twin girls on her last pregnancy, and is now too old to have more children. They ended up with 5 all together. Marcos finally got lucky with some chance cards and got at least two promotions, so the family, for the first time, actually have a cushion of a couple thousand in their account. For the longest time, they only had a couple hundred to draw upon.

Here are the twin girls, Sloane and Deanna.


Blake, their oldest child, is midway through his teens and I have (finally!) paired him up with Rebecka Brennan. They are both knowledge sims, and after tweaking, have triple chemistry. Blake will move to her house after he grows up.

Family #3 - The Brennan Family
Indy was my first sim to reach the top of his career (slacker) and go permaplat. This is good because he's a pleasure sim, and they're so darn annoying. I adore Indy. I'm having trouble connecting to his townie wife, Lucy, though.

Here's a funny pic of Indy writing in his diary and being all paranoid because his infant daughter, Kendra, is in the crib behind him. Dude, she can't read what you're writing, yet. Get over yourself.


Sebastian died :( I was so surprised because I thought he had a few days left.


Lorette went into aspiration failure. And she's getting really old, so she doesn't have much time left.


Lucy blew the entire family fortune on a bad chance card. It said she was docked a day's pay, but the next thing I know the maid is complaining because the family couldn't pay him and he was stealing my mirror to make up for it. They had $44,000! So I was kind of peeved, to say the least. And I wanted to kill Lucy even more, even though I'm the one that made the choice. Oh well. I promise not to kill her (though she annoys me). I turned her pregnancy chance OFF because I don't want them to have any more kids.

Rebecka has grown up and found a job in dance - her dream job. When her boyfriend, Blake, grows up, he'll move in. Her little sister, Kendra, is nearly a teen, and I'll probably set her up with one of the Halsten boys, either Tyler (2nd born) or Noah (3rd born).

Family #4 - The Ellis Family
I have moved Dominick and Karena out. I never attached to Karena. The rest still live in the house (except Rhett, who married Ciara Kelley). Eva and Hal are now adults. Eva is romance, and I had no one to set her up with. But I might let her stay romance, and have a few lovers. Her LTW is to be a Rock God, so she'll work on that. Hal will move in with Brielle Brody when she grows up. Johannes will move in with Clara Balduino, and Dustin will eventually move out and marry Crystal Kelley. And Madisyn will hitch up with Jude Cambridge. Confused yet?

Family #5 - The Brody Family
Marielle and Ricky tie the knot.


And then later, cheats on his wife on his own while she's at work. I must admit I was quite surprised at this. I had him invite over a friend so he could keep his friendships up, and I guess he was horny and his wife wasn't available, so he hopped into bed with her. I'm disappointed in him. I thought since he was married, something like this wouldn't happen.


And it didn't seem to bother anyone. Marielle came home from work while the girl was still there (no longer in bed), and Ricky kissed up her arm while Marielle stood right behind them and nothing. No jealousy. So...I'm not sure what I want to do with that family. I might set Ricky up (by inviting his new lover over while his wife is home) and wait for him to slip up, and then kick him out. Poor Marielle, though. She doesn't know, and her LTW is to reach her golden anniversary. She's a family sim, and they didn't even have any kids together.

So why did I let him cheat? Or why don't I take out my ACR mod? Because I absolutely love it. I like sims taking more initiative over their lives and deciding when or if to have children. And I just LOVE drama. I love the unexpected randomness. Sometimes (like when Ricky cheated) it's like watching a soap opera. Talk about entertainment!

Grandma Lilja has spent so much time at the chessboard that she maxed out her enthusiasm in games.


Brielle will be an adult soon, and is set up with Hal Ellis. I'll either move him into her house, or have them both move out together. Kind of depends on what I decide to do with Ricky.

Family #6 - The Cambridge Family
Alannah grew up. Her younger brother, Andrew, also grew up, and moved into a little house with Rhode Balduino. Those two are now family #8 on the rotation.

Alannah doesn't have a husband. She has a lover, but since her LTW is to reach the top of military, I may not ever get her married. Not every woman needs to get married and have children. I think that's why I tend to get burned out on Sims is because I play every family like that, but now I'm playing them all differently. I'm going to let the family sims have the big families, and put a limit on everyone else, so I don't have a bunch of kids in each family.


I felt so bad, though, because I got her fired on a chance card. But I decided to play all chance cards because it makes their lives (and mine) more interesting.


She's temporarily in the Oceanography career while waiting on an opening in Military. She continues to work on the skills she'll need to reach the top of military.

Her little brother Jude is nearly an adult. He will eventually get married to Madisyn Ellis, and they'll live in this house. I may move Alannah out into a small house if the couple decide to have children.

Family #6 - The Kelley Family
Shauna grew into an adult, and I moved her out with Brett. Don't know if I'll play them or not.

Ciara got married to Rhett Ellis, and is currently expecting her first child. She's a family sim, so they'll probably have a big family. It was so cute that they both happened to have matching formal wear. I did not set that up.


They kept their dog, Daisy, and she continues to work. She's at the top of her career, and is bringing in $636/day. She works 3 days a week. The family gives her kibble of life to keep her young. She's a good dog.

Ciara's little sister, Crystal, still lives with them, but is only days away from being an adult. She will get together with Dustin Ellis - they'll both move out of their houses and start their life together somewhere new. I like these two, so I'll continue following them.

Family #8
We now have an 8th family. Rhode Balduino (from #1) and Andrew Cambridge (from #6) have moved in together. These two were SO made to be together. They're both pleasure sims, and they both have a LTW of having 50 dream dates. What are the odds of that? It doesn't say 50 different sims, just 50 dates - so I'm hoping that means they can have 50 with each other, and become permaplat. I put them both in the same career (entertainment) so they can have more time together. And I know they dress the same and do their hair the same, and I should probably change one of them, but they're both just so darn cute I don't know which one to change. They're engaged, by the way. I have no plans for them to adopt a child, unless one of them rolls up a want.


I'm having a lot of fun with this. I really wish I would have started with fewer families, though, so I could watch the neighborhood grow at a slower rate. I'm kind of afraid of having a hundred families who all need my attention, lol.

I don't know if you're allowed to change aspirations of sims or not. I don't remember seeing anything about it in the rules. But I say if it works better for you, go ahead and do it.

I can't believe Ricky just up and cheated on Marielle like that and she didn't even seem to care! I haven't seen that in the game yet, because I haven't played much since I installed ACR. I think there might be an option to encourage spouses to be faithful, but it's more fun this way, just to let them loose and see what happens. I love the drama too!

That's cool that you're letting some of your sims stay single. I have a habit too of making all of my sims get married and have babies. I feel really bad if they live their whole lives without having kids to carry on the next generation. I guess I don't mind letting them die of old age so much as long as they have at least one kid to carry on their legacy. I should probably try to get out of that rut too and see if it makes the game more fun.

That's so funny how Rhode and Andrew continue to dress alike. They're two peas in a pod, aren't they? I don't think I'd change either one of them.

What a hilarious lot of Sims you have there Ari.

I have downloaded ACR - but have not yet installed it in my game. I think I'm too afraid of it as I've worked hard to perfect San Tranquility Beach to my liking. I love all of the families I've created there.

Your families are so interesting and entertaining Ari. Do you plan on LETTING Marielle catch Brody in the act? There should be some good fireworks there!!!

Thanks, guys!

Em - I understand that about having kids carry on the family name. But I'll still be doing that, too. In the Cambridge family, Alannah will most likely stay single (unless I change my mind later), but her little brother, Jude, will have at least one child with his intended, Madisyn. Those two are way too beautiful not to procreate, lol. So I want to make sure at least one sim from each family has at least one baby. In my case it will be easy, because most of the families had more than one child to begin with.

I've not seen an option to encourage a sim to stay faithful, I just thought it was something already programmed into the mod when a sim is married. Apparently not, lol. Marielle didn't actually catch him 'in the act' (yet), but she did watch as he kissed up his girlfriend's arm and didn't seem to care. According to her token status, she's supposed to be pretty jealous, so we'll see.

Hunter - I'm still not sure. I don't know if I want to let things go or set Ricky up on purpose. He's kind of a jerk, lol. He comes home from work with Andrew Cambridge and Rhode Balduino a lot, since they're in entertainment, too, and gossips all the time about everyone. He tends to argue with others a lot and pick fights.

I don't blame you for being a little afraid of the mod when you have worked so hard on a neighborhood. I'm pretty sure you can turn it off for a neighborhood by choosing 'static' options. You can set the whole neighborhood up from one lot, rather than jumping from lot to lot to change the settings. You might want to check into that.

I really like it, though. It continues to surprise me.

Wow! This is so much to keep up on. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed (which doesn't take much for me, lol).

Quote:

Some of the kids I'm simply NOT interested in ... Life's just too short to play sims I don't like, challenge or not.

Here, here! Well said, m'lady. I concur!

This tickled me:

Quote:

Dude, she can't read what you're writing, yet. Get over yourself.

I can't believe a freaking $44,000 dollar bank account was completely wiped by Lucy's bad chance card.
Holy crap! I didn't even know that could happen in the game. I usually ignore the chance cards, as I've never been a gamblin' girl by nature. Jeez, that kind of loss sucks BIG TIME, AF.

Quote:

And then later, cheats on his wife on his own while she's at work. I must admit I was quite surprised at this.

No kidding! I didn't know this was possible. EGADS! How random and unexpected is THAT?
Definitely keeps things more interesting. No doubt about it.
(Do I understand you correctly? This random stuff is because of a hack you have in your game?)

I am SO GLAD you've had quality time playing this challenge, Ari. That's awesome.
It's obvious how much you're enjoying it. I know, for awhile there, you just couldn't get excited about playing the game.

Thank you for sharing all of your Sims adventures and screenshots. I enjoyed your witty commentaries and pics, as always.

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Oh man! I can barely tear myself away, lol! It's almost like the old days where I sleep, eat, and dream sims. I'm enjoying it a lot and hope it lasts for a long time.

I have a mod called Autonomous Casual Romance. That's why sims are hopping into bed so easily. After Ricky's uh...indiscretion, I've been watching my sims carefully around others they are attracted to...just in case.