I finally got the chance to load up my game the other day, so I started working on one of the sets for the next installment of Penelope's Journey. This is the village of Amphidelphos (or Ambidelphos - I have to decide on one spelling and quit alternating between the two.) I still need to figure out what to do with the ground cover and fill in the empty market stalls on the right (but they might not show up in the shots anyway), but I'm really happy with how it looks so far. It might even be better than I pictured it in my head.

That looks like an interesting story.

If you're thinking about filling the market stalls, you might be interested in these. You can put objects right next to each other and at different heights. If that doesn't work out for you, I have something else you could use.

It looks FANTASTIC, Em. I really like how the scene takes me back in time straight away.
You've done a fabulous job setting the stage for your story. I love it!

Thank you for sharing.

The first few pages are on my site. The link is in my signature, if you want to read it.

Those are awesome, Ed! That's so cool how you can place things at different angles with those OMSPs. I'm going to have to snag those. And now that someone has finally made a magisplay tray that doesn't require OFB I'm going to be able to do a lot with OMSPs. My problem isn't fitting more things into the marketstalls, it's deciding what to fill them with. I have one with barrels and sacks, like a dried goods stand and the other is pottery. I'm not sure what to do with the others. I was thinking rugs or fabrics, if I could find the right downloads. That OMSP set might help a lot with that. What else did you have for me to look at?

Thanks, Sugah. That's what I was going for. It would totally ruin the story if it didn't take you back in time.

You're welcome, Em.

I couldn't live without my OMSPs, btw.

I'm so far behind on all this.....

Windkeeper made these shelves at different heights. Plus you can turn them invisible. They can go from floor to ceiling. I can't remember the EP requirement on them off hand. They're almost similar to the ones that I gave you the link for.

I think they're called, Hidden Shelves.

OMG, Em, I'm so sorry! I could have sworn I had commented on this before, my deepest apologies...

I think the whole lot looks freaking AMAZING! You definitely have an eye for details!

That's odd...I thought I commented, too.

I really like the set, Em. It looks very authentic. I love the vendor stalls - very nice.

Thanks so much. I really need to get back and finish that lot, but I think I might make myself wait until I do the next episode of AH.

I don't know HOW I missed this thread Em.

That's an awesome looking lot M'Lady!

Thanks, Hunter. Sugah sent me the link to some neat objects I could use on this lot. I just hope they aren't categorized for community lots. I'll have to check them out the next time I get the chance.

Right now I'm trying the Prosperity Challenge that Ari brought up. I rolled a 2 to start with, so I only have 2 families, which is good because it's easy to manage, but bad because there aren't many sims for potential mates. When I start feeling short of sims I might go ahead and add another random family to the mix or 2, depending on what I feel I need.

I did everything random. I used 2 random sim generators to come up the the family members, their ages, genders, aspirations, signs, names, etc. I kept them pretty much as they were in CAS, using the first sim that popped up each time, changing the ages and genders as necessary. I gave a few of them some minor plastic surgery to get rid of some of the Maxis fugliness and gave the ladies a little make up to pretty them up, but for the most part I kept clothes, hair, and everything else as it was.

Here's my first family, the Robertsons. For this family I rolled 4 adults, 2 men and 2 women. I was tempted to make them all single and let them pair up on their own or as two married couples, but since the rules said no roommates, and since my random guys kind of resembled each other, I made the family a pair of brothers and their wives.



Left to right is Keshawn (Sagittarius, Romance) and his wife Lexie (Aries, Knowledge), Brody (Pisces, Knowledge) and his wife Madeleine (Cancer, Popularity).

Here's a few close-ups. Keshawn and Lexie (she's making an odd face in this pic, I know)



Brody and Madeleine, acting romantic. They have tried for baby, but since she hasn't shown any signs of being pregnant yet, I don't think it was successful. I'm letting ACR determine when and if they woohoo or try for baby. These couples may end up with tons of kids or none. I'm leaving it all up to them.



This is their dinky started house. They'll have to work and save up to spruce it up better.



At first they all had two different jobs that they wanted, so I checked to see which ones were available. Brody found a job as a test subject right away and Lexie took a job as a playground monitor. She got fired the first day after a bad chance card though.



Keshawn tried to cheer her up with a backrub, but she wasn't having it.



Madeleine wanted to be in sports or journalism, so I thought sports journalist! She finally found a journalism opening on Wednesday, the last day that I played them. Keshawn wanted to be in dance or a slacker, neither one has shown up and he's lost the wants, so he's still unemployed.

My second family is the Averys. An elderly woman, teen girl, three kids, and two toddlers.



Dalia is the kids' granny. She's a romance sim and a Libra. Like Ari, I've got a granny who's looking for some action too, but mine isn't so great by day either, she's a lazy slob. lol Jasmyn is the teenager, the oldest sister. She's a Virgo and Popularity sim. The kids left to right are Ethan (Pisces), Elyssa (Virgo) (her random name was Jasmyn too at first, so obviously I had to pick another random name for her.) and Milo (Pisces). The toddlers are Evan (Sagittarius) and Allen (Gemini) (Allen's name was originally Shemar, but I didn't like it, so I rerolled. Allen fits with the other names better, I think.) The mother, Arlene is just a placeholder. I also made a father for the kids that I had to delete in CAS and generated the kids by the make a baby option.

I changed Arlene's skintone for variety. She started out with the darkest tone. I also changed Dalia's clothes, because with that hair, they hurt my eyes.



I was said to have to dispose of Arlene and the kids' father, but those were the rules. Arlene got flattened by a satellite. It was sad, but at least they got almost $2000 from selling it, which they desperately need with a large family with no adults.



Here's their sorry little house. Granny had to sell most of her belongings to raise the money to house her orphaned grandchildren.



As a lazy, sloppy sim, Dalia has fears of changing dirty diapers. She looks at a stiny baby and thinks, why did his mother have to die? What have I taken on?



Taking care of twin toddlers is a taxing job and Dalia's needs suffer. A family of 7 with only one bathroom isn't the best situation either.



You're my granddaughter, Elyssa.



Jasmyn is very helpful around the house and with the kids.



She stays up late, long after everyone else is in bed, watching the twins, wishing Granny had a TV.



After Elyssa tries to turn on the radio right after the toddlers got put to bed, I had to do a little renovating to separate the toddler beds from the living room and added a tiny half bath.



I have more, but this is taking too long to post. I'll add it later. I'm really liking my Avery family. They're a lot of fun so far.

It looks like a nightmare to me!!!

I'm such a Sims wuss. I play couples only mostly. I rarely have children because it may scare me off from really having children.

It's a neat challenge and I commend anyone participating in it!

I love it, Em! I'm using those same two houses, by the way. You'll meet the families that live in them later.

You got a couple of interesting mixes there. 2 married couples and a grandma with a bunch of kids. Neat! It will be interesting watching where these families end up. Poor Jasmyn really has her hands full with all the younger sibs and her lazy, prowling grandma, lol! I imagine they're squeezed tighter than sardines in that house. Not very good job opportunities for teens and elders, either. I had an idea, though. I rolled up a 7th familiy and ended up with a teen and her three young siblings (two were toddlers). They have less than $1,000. She can't even earn enough to hire a nanny with the piddly teen jobs. BUT, I'm going to have them get a dog and then send it out to work. Dogs (and cats) at the top of their career track can earn over $700 a day. That'll certainly do it.

I love Lexie's face in that pic. I like leaving my sims to their own choices via ACR to see what happens. I had forgotten about the no roommate rules for the challenge. I'm glad I didn't accidentally make anyone roommates. Glad you jumped in!

Oh, that's nothing, Nina. Check out Ari's Adventures. I think she has a single man with 7 children and toddlers! Real life babies are way harder. After I had my baby I felt bad because I realized I was making my sims neglect theirs. I would cancel the feed option because I thought they couldn't possibly need to feed that sim baby so much and I'd left them alone in their cribs for long periods of time, probably crying since I always have the sound off. Oh well, they still turned out ok, I guess. lol

That's neat that we're using the same houses, Ari. It will be interesting to see how they compare as the challenge goes along. I'm a little too lazy with building and decorating, so they might be cramped for awhile, even if they can get the money to expand. There's a decent sized yard, so the kids tend to play outside a lot, which is good. Putting the pets to work is a good idea! One of my random family generators even gives random pets in the family, so maybe I'll have to take advantage of that if I roll another family. The Avery kids all want a pet, so maybe I'll have to try that strategy, if their house isn't too crowded already.

When I left off, Jasmyn stayed up until 3 am to put the toddlers to bed before going to sleep herself. Granny Dalia got up early to take advantage of the free bathroom, made breakfast and started taking over watching the toddlers while the kids were all off to school.





By the time Jasmyn comes home the twins are napping and Granny is off to work caddying at the golf course to make a few extra bucks. She makes sure the kids do their homework.



The kids are really helpful around the house. So it stays in decent shape.





Dalia isn't in a good mood when she comes home from work. Taking care of all these kids and trying to work 3 hours a day is pretty hard on the old lady.



Jasmyn is a good big sister though and spends time with her siblings when Granny isn't in the mood.





Here's some cute pictures of the kids. Milo, who I think is a total cutie. I have in my mind that he's the second oldest, so I might try to age him a little earlier than the others.





Milo and Ethan.



The kids talking about their mom. It's nice that they remember her.



The toddlers are having a rough time though while Dalia is at work and Jasmyn is trying to hard to keep up with them.



She doesn't get one of them to bed in time and he passes out on the front porch. Jasmyn is beside herself with worry.



Uh oh, due to poor job performance and going to work in a bad mood both days, Dalia is fired from the golf course. Now what are they going to do?



But the good news is that the toddlers are finally children! Life is going to be much easier now.



It's time to start thinking about social lives. Since there are no other teenage sims living in the neighborhood. I have the girls greet the paperboy.



Elyssa: Hey, I saw him first!



Jasmyn: He's all yours. Yuck!



Elyssa realizes her sister was right about the paperboy. What a bore!



With all the kids at school and no job to go to, Dalia has the day to herself. What will she do? Maybe get a makeover and do something about those eyebrows? No, I leave the room for a few minutes and when I come back it's 2 pm, Jasmyn is home from school and Dalia is still sitting on the couch where I left her. lol

Ari and Em -

You Ladies have so much experience with challenges!

I would like to propose that you guys come up with one for the forum sometime! No pressure - you guys just seem to have a grasp of how they're done and I'm not on that train yet.

Reading your adventures in this challenge is very entertaining!