Thursday 26 February 2009

Try not to breathe

Round 13: Days 61-65
Narrated by Mina Lachance

Look how big Jonas is! Our baby boy just turned 1!

Too careful

Round 13: Days 61-65
Ever since our daughters left home for university, Floyd and I have been enjoying our increased privacy.

Wednesday 25 February 2009

More of the high school

Still working on the high school, so I haven't really played properly. I'm due to play Pascal and Mina next and will probably get on that tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are some more pictures of the school:

The stairs, leading to the completely empty second floor. There's a classroom on the left and a workshop on the right (robot and toy crafting stations in there).

Hallway with the library at the end, and classrooms on either side. There are pupil tokens visible here but I plan to move them to the attic (and thank you, simstate, for the tip - I used SimCategoriser to recategorise all the tokens and controllers and it worked beautifully!).

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Sullivan (or Exeter) High School

I haven't decided which yet. It's in Exeter but the main hood is called Sullivan and everyone will go here. So I'm still tossing up on the name but here it is.


The teens from Sullivan and Exeter will all attend here. High school is grades 7-12 in Australia (we don't have middle school), so all teens will go here. I'm planning on building a primary school (or rather, making a copy of this school and modifying it) too. That will be in Sullivan and will be for all children.

Sunday 22 February 2009

All mine

Round 13: Days 61-65
Narrated by Ben Nihill

It took us long enough but Caterina and I finally found an apartment we were happy with. It's in Exeter and has 2 beds and 2 baths. We weren't planning on kids just yet but the second bedroom would come in handy for something.

Saturday 21 February 2009

Take me down

Round 13: Days 61-65


Narrated by Araminta Benton.

I wouldn't say this week had been the most exciting week ever. The sky has been grey almost every single day and it is so depressing. I miss summer - it's so far away.

Friday 20 February 2009

Little dawn

Round 13: Days 61-65

Raines was not having a good week. He started a kitchen fire by trying to make some waffles while he still had some croissants in the oven.

Rudie can't fail

Round 13: Days 61-65

Charlton got this round off to a bad start by being promoted to personal injury attorney and then promptly getting fired.

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Kids

Round 13: Days 61-65

After getting engaged, Collette and Julian wasted no time getting married. Julian moved into the Nihills' house in the morning and they were married by the afternoon.

Fluorescent adolescent

Lukas had long felt the urge to sow his wild oats but had never really found opportunity to do so. This particular night, while Raffaella and Magdalena were both at work, seemed like as good a time as any.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Smile

Round 13: Days 61-65
Over at the Carmody place, Vivienne was making sure she was on her boss Nathalie's good side. She hoped to have her boss's job one day and she wanted to be first in line to replace her when Nathalie ever retired.

Hopefully, Anna (who was the spitting image of her older sister) would not be as demanding a toddler as Betsy was. If that was the case, sucking up to her boss might be the only way Vivienne could earn a promotion. There certainly wouldn't be much time for skilling.

Possibilities

Round 13: Days 61-65

Augustin and his girlfriend Hanna became parents in college, to twins James and Naomi.
They have now graduated and moved back to Sullivan, where Augustin grew up.

Augustin and Hanna's new house was much bigger than their campus housing and they didn't really have the money to decorate it any more than sparsely. The walls would remain bare for a while - they were in enough debt.

Sunday 15 February 2009

A note about aging

I have just finished going through everyone's profiles and adding in their actual ages (as opposed to just life stages). I may well revise again, because the way I have it now still looks a little messy, due to my torrid love affair with parentheses, but I wanted to at least get the numbers up.

I have revised the way my Sims age, which has also affected when they'll go to college and how long they stay teens so I wanted to explain everything here, to limit confusion. I'm still not completely confident about it (particularly with the teens who don't go to college), but I'm going to give it a go. As with everything in Sullivan, this is a work in progress.

Babies will now be babies for just one day, to represent one year. Toddlers will still have four days, representing ages 1-4 and children will still have 8 days, representing ages 4-12.

A lot of bloggers edit the Teen stage to 8 days (when a Sim teen turns 18) and I considered doing the same. However, my rounds are 5 days long and any teen who reaches college age in that round goes off to college at the end. 8 days wasn't working for me because I would then face the problem of having to send a teen to college in the middle of the round, which I hate doing.

The only solution I've found to my problem is to leave the Teen stage as is (15 days) and send the teens to college at the end of the round in which they turn 18. That may mean some teens go at 18 and that some go at 22, so I've devised a way of dealing with that too.

If a teen goes to college at 18, they'll arrive back in the hood after graduation at the age of 23. If I send a teen at 22, they'll still be 23 when they come back. I can't have that. Instead, I will adjust their ages so that they're the same number of years apart as they were pre-college.

Example: by Day 65, Magdalena will be 19 and Araminta will be 20. At this time, they'll both go off to college and return on Day 70. They'll arrive back in Sullivan with 39 days left in their age stage but I will take one day off Magdalena and 2 days off Araminta. This means Araminta will still be one year older than Magdalena and 12 years older than her little sister Zelda.

I'm trying to avoid situations like I have with the Moretti kids right now. Arianna and Caterina are twins, so they're the same age, but little brother Filippo is also the same age, and he shouldn't be. I'm not going to go back and fix those indiscrepancies (there's weird aging stuff with the Sacha Lachance's kids too) but from now on, I will be much more meticulous with it.

So to summarise, the Adult age stage will last for 39 days only if the Sim goes to college at exactly 18. Otherwise, I'll shave up to 5 days off to ensure age differences are kept in sync.

Anyway, this has probably confused you all but I wanted to at least attempt to explain what I'm doing with the aging situation in Sullivan. Age differences not staying the same throughout my Sims' lifespans has long bothered me, and I'm excited to finally have a way to deal with it.

Miss Lucifer

Round 13: Days 61-65

Jonah probably should have been a bit more suspicious when he saw Galen hanging around outside his farm.

Thursday 12 February 2009

Sister saviour

Round 13: Days 61-65


By the age of 8, Trent Kirby had insisted on taking over full responsibility of the Kirby farm's crops, which were previously the domain of his dad, Brandon.

You and me

Round 13: Days 61-65

Post college, Filippo got a job in the gaming industry and moved into a little house in Sullivan. He had to take out a substantial loan to buy the house. To pay off his mortgage (low level gaming jobs didn't pay enough), he planned to fix up old junker cars and sell them.

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Round 12 Summary

What's been happening in Sullivan this round? Why, all this stuff here!

Births: 3 (Anna Carmody, Owen Nihill, Zelda Benton)
Deaths: 0
Engagements: 2 (Julian Sitko and Collette Nihill, Ben Nihill and Caterina Moretti)
Marriages: 1 (Pascal and Mina Lachance)
Break-ups: 1 (Filippo Moretti and Athena Lane)
Graduations: 5 (Augustin Novak, Hanna Gottlieb, Ben Nihill, Caterina Moretti, Filippo Moretti)
New residents: 2 (Julian Sitko, Debbie King)

Total population: 51 (25 Males, 26 Females)
Babies: 2
Toddlers: 4
Children: 5
Teens: 2
Young Adults: 5
Adults: 32
Elders: 2

Who takes who home?

Round 12: College (Ottilie and Leo)

Ottilie was not too impressed with the offerings at Moretti Hall, the new dorm at Suffolk University. She thought Lucian Bryant was hideous.

Tuesday 10 February 2009

Outta mind (outta sight)

Round 12: College (Filippo, Athena, Linnea and Debbie)


Filippo is in his junior year (and yes, this is a different dorm than one he was living in last time) and the girls are just starting their freshman year.

Since she'd enrolled at Suffolk, Filippo had started to see Athena in a slightly different light. He was still very shy though, so it took him a long time to make a move on her.

I only want you

Round 12: College (Ben and Caterina)
Last update/next update

Warning: partial nudity

Ben's girlfriend, Caterina, recently cheated on him with his brother Charlton. Ben feels angry and betrayed but they are still living together, because their cruel mistress doesn't want to have to redecorate this house next time she moves some college kids into it.

Ben was still furious at Caterina for her indiscretions with his brother. He refused to sleep in the same bed as her. If Ben happened to go to bed first and Caterina tried to crawl in next to him, he went downstairs.

Monday 9 February 2009

No one else

Round 12: College (Augustin and Hanna, plus their twins James and Naomi)


Augustin knocked up his girlfriend Hanna in their freshman year at Suffolk University. They are now living in Suffolk's family housing unit, raising their twins James and Naomi.

Hanna was more easily flustered and stressed out than Augustin, so he was often content to take the reins with the baby care and let her relax.

Porcelina of the vast oceans

Round 12: Days 56-60

Since her recent promotion to manager, Drusilla had been hard at work trying to earn her gold badge in pottery. She didn't have a wheel at home, so she read about different techniques on the internet instead.

Spring rain

Round 12: Days 56-60
Last update: Pascal/Mina

Not long after she and Pascal had moved in together, Mina decided she needed a holiday. It had been so hot in Exeter recently and the beach was not as appealing as it might normally be, so it was off to the mountains instead.

Chady saves the day

Round 12: Days 56-60
Ottilie and Leo had never showed much interest in dating so they ended up spending most of their time dancing at home. All that time spent dancing did have one advantage - they both earned a dance scholarship to Suffolk University. The $1000 would really come in handy.

Thursday 5 February 2009

Counting down the hours

Round 12: Days 56-60
Georgette had been the primary carer for Samson as a newborn but as he got older, Galen took a more active parenting role.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Missed

Round 12: Days 55-60

Not unlike his cousin Arianna, Adam had been left behind in Exeter by his twin sister Hanna.

Sunday 1 February 2009

Get it

Round 12: Days 56-60
Charlton and Aphrodite were still living together but with their work hours diverging more and more often, they hadn't spent much time together recently. Aphrodite slept during the day and Charlton occupied his time at the various recreational venues in Sullivan and its surrounds.