Behind The Scenes of Apple Valley: gameplay

Showing posts with label gameplay. Show all posts

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Education in Apple Valley, Part 3.5

Today, we're discussing obtaining a vocational degree. In the original series, I didn't include a vocational school as I planned on sending my sims to a fellow simmer to utilize her technical school. However her game died :( and my simmies have a need for vocational education.

I wanted there to be some variety in education levels of the sims. Either you went to college or you didn't, according to MAXIS. Even if you didn't go to college, you could be a doctor...um, how about no.

Some sims do not attend university, graduate from university, or simply obtain an associate's degree in thier life. Now, some sims are content with that and their goal isn't to be a surgeon, so being a nurse or EMT is great for them. Other sims want to excel in their careers a bit more.

Any resident of Apple Valley may undertake vocational training course with WilTech at any time. Tuition varies according to the certificate. Bronze certificates are $1,000 in tuition, silver certificates are $2,000 in tuition and gold certificates are $3,000 in tuition. There are no entrance exams for WilTech and classes are available in both online, via Monique's computer, options and lecture options. Students must participate in some hand-on training, so 100% of the certificate program can not be online.

Students are able to chose one of seven vocational certificates:

Cosmetology
Flower Arranging
Robotics
Sales
Toy Making
Pottery
Sewing

In summary,

Vocational Certificates
-bronze, silver or gold levels in each vocational area

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Simmish Life Insurance

This was inspired thanks to the unfairness of my ROS. It gave me three death ROS and this made me wonder about life insurance. Sims get life insurance payouts if they die from old age, but that's not how it is in real life. So since apparently the sim government gives elderly sims life insurance but not adult sims.

Education in Apple Valley, Part 4.5

What and Why
A while back, I decided to do a series on how education in Apple Valley works, especially with the forthcoming changes. I explored education from elementary school to obtaining an advanced degree as I wanted to move away from excessive skilling in my game and focus more on character development. The changes served two purposes, one, it allowed me to hone in on each sim's individual personality and preferences, two, it prevented excessive success. Right now, most sims are able to obtain a level 7 job without any trouble aside from making friends. This left very little room for variety in the game and most sims were financially well off. To ensure that I stayed focused on this, I decided to try and do away with most toddler skills-instead focusing on teaching them how to walk, talk, etc.

FSBS-Lingo
The primary ways of educating the sims in all levels of education are skills, hobbies and interests. I often refer to skills as scores on "skill exams" (the number of skill points they have in a certain skill) or "core skill evaluation"-CSE (the number of total skills they have). Hobbies and interests will also be referred to in a similar manner. Now that the background is out of the way, let's move on.

Master's Degree
Today, we're discussing obtaining a master's degree. In the original series, I didn't include a master's degree as I didn't want to have too many levels to keep up with. However looking at Heredon Cove's notes and the careers, I noticed that some careers needed more than a bachelor's, but significantly less than an advanced degree (modeled after a PhD).

I wanted there to be some variety in education levels of the sims. Either you went to college or you didn't, according to MAXIS. Even if you didn't go to college, you could be a doctor...um, how about no.

Some sims do not attend university, graduate from university, or simply obtain an associate's degree in thier life. Now, some sims are content with that and their goal isn't to be a surgeon, so being a nurse or EMT is great for them. Other sims want to excel in their careers a bit more.

Any resident of Apple Valley with a bachelors degree may undertake master's correspondence course with Pierce University at any time. Tuition is $10,000 for the entire degree program and students must have at least a score of 20 on their entrance exam (Score on Core Skills Evaluation + #simyears work experience).

To complete their degree, students must graduate with at least a score of 27 on their CSE. Assuming the lowest possible CSE score of 20 from graduation from university, the student will be required to earn 7 skill points throughout their coursework.

Students are able to chose one of seven master degrees. A student's degree choice determines which skill, interest, and hobby they will focus on maxing.

•Master's Degree in Fine Arts: creativity/Culture, Entertainment, Fashion/Arts & Craft, Film & Literature, Music & Dance

•Master's Degree in Culinary Arts: cooking/Food/ Cuisine

•Master's Degree in Business Administration: charisma/Money, Work /Film & Literature

•Master's Degree in Technology: mechanical/Weather/Tinkering, Science

•Master's Degree in Applied Science: logic/Animals, Environment, Paranormal / Science, Nature

•Master's Degree in General Studies: cleaning/School, Sci-Fi, Toys, Travel / Cuisine, Fitness, Games

•Master's Degree in Public Service: body/Crime, Health, Politics, Sports /Fitness, Sports

In level one, students must score a 8 on their skill exam correlated to their major and a 27 on their CSE (ie, a student focused on the Advanced Degree in Culinary Arts must have at least 8 cooking skills and at least 27 skill points total).

In level two, students focus on refining their studies. Students must earn at least a 8 on their CIE in their focused skill. Using the example above, our Culinary Arts student must have 8 interest points in food. If multiple interests are listed, students chose one interest to focus on. Students will use magazines and sharing interest conversations to earn interests.

In level three, students continue to focus on refining their studies. Students must earn at least a 4 on their CHE in their focused skill. Using the example above, our Culinary Arts student must have 4 points in cuisine hobby. If multiple hobbies are listed, students chose one hobby to focus on. Students will use any means available to develop their hobby.

In level four, students focus on perfecting their studies and finishing their thesis. Students will use the computer to write a novel, this novel is their thesis. Upon completing of thier thesis , students graduate with a Master's Degree and a dandy little diploma to hang on their walls. Their options have now opened to the purple sections on the career table.

In summary,

Master's Degree
-27+ CSE graduation
-degree focus skills via computer
-CSE score of 8 in focused skill
-CIE score of 8 in focused interest
-CHE score of 4 in focused hobby
-thesis

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Calculators for All

Decided to put my calculators in a stand alone excel file for a few reasons:

This allows simmers who don't have massive spreadsheets to enter in the necessary data for the desired information.
This allows for easy intergration into simmers' databases.
To share calculators that I no longer use, but others might find useful.

What is included in the calculator worksheet?

Design Preferences

I've been trying to expand a bit when it comes to decorating my sims houses. Design preferences have come and gone and have come back again to Apple Valley. Originally based on Simmerville's system, it has been modified for Apple Valley residents.

I now use a combination of my sims' favorite color and their two design styles randomly (or not randomly) chosen from ten options.

The design styles that I use in my hood are: Coastal, Contemporary, Cottage, Country, Eclectic, Exotic, Modern, Rustic, Traditional and Vintage.

Each design style has a few different key words to help me visualize a sim's preference.

Deeper MAXIS Hobbies, Part 2

Traits, Part 2

Deeper MAXIS Aspirations, Part 2

As I have been playing for quite some time with my personality and trait system, I decided to update you on the changes I made in game. As always, feel free to borrow/steal/use them in your game and tweak them to suit you. Ask any questions, concerns or comments as well.

Aspirations, Reduex

At first I chose aspirations based on the family members. For example, if the parents were family and fortune then the children would be one or the other. Now aspirations are chosen based on thier personality, wants as a child, interests, traits and OTH-if known. Aspirations can change as the sim ages or based on a ROS, so they're more dynamic.

I assign aspirations as follows.

Fortune:
-personality= mostly serious, not lazy or shy sims
-interests = Money, Work, Crime
-OTH= n/a

Knowledge
-personality= mostly serious, shy and neat sims.
-interests = Environment, Paranormal, Weather, Sci-Fi, Health
-OTH= Science, Nature, Tinkering

Family
-personality=mostly nice sims, not lazy sims
-interests= School, Toys
-OTH: Culinary

Popularity:
-personality= mostly outgoing and playful sims.
-interests = Culture, Entertainment, Fashion, Politics, Sports
-OTH: Sports, Music & Dance

Pleasure:
-personality= mostly playful, lazy sims.
-interests = School, Toys, Travel,
-OTH: Games, Sports

Romance:
-personality= mostly outgoing, playful and nice sims.
-interests = Culture,
-OTH= n/a

Grilled Cheese (secondary aspiration only):
-personality= mostly lazy sims.
-interests = food
-OTH: Culinary

Behind the Aspirations
Aspirations mean slightly different things to me. They give me the why behind some of the wants that my sims roll up. They can also be described using some of the TS3 traits.

Fortune: This sim is very ambitious, disciplined, and at their worst is a workaholic. They can be a bit neurotic and snobbish at times, however they love art and the finer things in life to bolster their reputation.

Knowledge: This sim can be described as a bookworm, always reading and can be a bit clumsy. They can also be a whiz with technology, eccentric and often are geniuses.

Family: This sim often likes children and animals and are very family oriented. Decisions are made based on the family.

Romance: There are two versions of this aspiration in my game
-Romance-Commitment Issues: This sim often dislikes children, can be very flirty and is a great kisser and woohooer.
-Romance-Hopeless Romantic: This sim loves romance novels and stories of true love. This is how I try to reconcile those family/romance sims.

Pleasure: This sim can tend to be a bit childish and a couch potato. They are often easily impressed with just about everything and are often heavy sleepers. They are heavy party animals

Popularity: This sim is very charismatic and a natural sales sim. They can be dramatic at times and a party animal.

Grilled Cheese: This sim is a food addict with a narrow obsession with cheese.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Deeper MAXIS Personality, Part 2

As I have been playing for quite some time with my personality and trait system, I decided to update you on the changes I made in game. As always, feel free to borrow/steal/use them in your game and tweak them to suit you. Ask any questions, concerns or comments as well.

Deeper MAXIS Personality-Reduex

I haven't really given MAXIS personality much play. Yes, my sims have it, but since I can control them even messy sims clean up thier homes. Recently, I've been looking at the traits in depth and really thinking what each one entails. So in addition to what the game programs them to do, I arranged for the personality traits to give me clues about various other traits (such as glasses/weight/career choice and aspiration/etc).

Neat: [5+ points] organized, neat-freak. This sim would color code recipes, clean up immediately and freak out over messes. Pays bills as soon as they come in, always remembers birth control (ACR birth control is on). Clothing is neat and ironed, hair is perfectly styled, more likely to wear a watch and leave for work or school as soon as carpool arrives. Gains cleaning skills much faster at a rate of 3:1 (for every third skill point they earn by studying, they gain a bonus one through SimBlender)

Messy: [4 or less points] disorganized, cluttered. This sim would have more clutter, lose bills and forget payments and birth control (ACR birth control is off). Clothing is wrinkled, mismatched, barefoot. Wears PJs most of the day. More likely to leave for work or school at the last possible minute, or late most days.

Outgoing: [5+ points] Attire is more trendy and skimpy, more likely to wear lots of jewelry, dyed hair. Gains charisma skills much faster at a rate of 2:1 (for every one skill point they earn by studying, they gain a bonus one through SimBlender). Gains friends much faster by having an initial relationship boost of 20 with all new sims (using SimBlender, relationships with new sims start at 20)

Shy: [4 or less points] More likely to have glasses, hairstyle will be such that sim can hide behind, attire is more conservative

Active: [5+ points] Wears gym clothes most of the day, more likely to be fit. Gains body skills much faster at a rate of 3:1 (for every third skill point they earn by studying, they gain a bonus one through SimBlender)
Lazy: [4 or less points] Wears PJs most of the day, more likely to be overweight. Automatic entry into secret society. Will ask sims to complete their homework, term paper and assignments.

Playful: [5+ points] Will play on playground equiptment to increase fun, chose play with interactions to increase fun, will wear hats and face makeup, attire is more trendy, dyed hairstyles. Have a very high dancing skill (modified with SimPE).

Serious: [4 or less points] genetic disposition to wear glasses :P attire is more conservative, more likely to be designated "genius" and allowed Smart Milk during toddler years. Gains logic skills much faster at a rate of 3:1 (for every third skill point they earn by studying, they gain a bonus one through SimBlender). Have a very high meditation skill (modified with SimPE).

Nice: [5+ points] More likely to perform errands for others, give gifts, easily influenced, will have an easier time making friends. Gains friends much faster by having an initial relationship boost of 20 with all new sims (using SimBlender, relationships with new sims start at 20).

Mean: [4 or less points] Likes to torment, argue. Will have a harder time making friends and will become easily furious with other sims and stay furious longer. Relationships grow at a slower rate by having an initial relationship decay of -20 with all new sims (using SimBlender, relationships with new sims start at -20).

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Assigning ACR's Ideal Family Size Based on Simology

Many people have a preset number of children in mind that they want to have and then no more. While others never really feel like their family is complete. Thanks to ACR's newest feature of "ideal family size" sims can have the same preferences.

I decided that a sim's ideal family size would be dependent on their personality and aspiration. We all know that family sims love children while romance sims could do without them most of the time. Also, pleasure and popularity sims would want less children than knowledge and fortune sims, but to to a smaller degree of difference.

Since I assign aspirations based on personality, I had to look to see if any aspirations were based on high outgoing or nice score. Since popularity is mostly outgoing, I assigned it a higher Aspiration ACR rank, also since knowledge had to be shy (low outgoing), I gave it a smaller Aspiration ACR rank so that my knowledge sims would at least desire some children. As a result, I coded each Aspiration ACR rank as follows:

family= 1

knowledge= 2

fortune= 3

popularity= 4

pleasure= 5

romance= 6

Looking at personality, I decided that the more outgoing a sim was, then the more likely they would like to have more sims in their family. Also since niceness was a requirement for the family aspiration in my hood, I decided that the nicer a sim, the more children they would like to have. As a result I developed a personality dependent score as follows:

Outgoing + ( 0.5 * Nice )

And the final ideal family size formula as follows:

Outgoing + ( 0.5 * Nice ) / Aspiration ACR Rank = Ideal Family Size

This formula fits into my spreadsheet quite nicely without having to collect any additional information such as interests or making the formula complex by considering family background (would those sims from large families prefer large families as well since they enjoyed the experience, or would they prefer smaller families in an attempt to give each child more attention)

Based on primary aspirations only, the formula gave pretty ideal results of what I envision each sim as desiring for their ideal family size. There were a few surprises, such as Jesse (Carr) Kent wanting 14 children since he's a very nice, outgoing family sim. Which leads into the next topic, that just because they have that ideal family size doesn't mean that they will have that many children. Thanks to ACR try for baby based on aspiration and my own birth control rules, then some sims won't have their ideal family size-sorry Jesse. I also noticed that as of now, the average ideal family size for my hood is 3.6 which fits into what the size of most families. I have also included a chart of how the fertile sims (teen and older) in my hood view their ideal family size.

Of course, the actual size of the family is also regulated by finances (can the couple "afford" another child?) , age (older sims have lower fertility rates with ACR), unplanned pregnancies, medical issues (the "barren" trait), spousal preference (for those sims who want 2 children vs 7 children) and of course their wants (if they both roll wants for a child, then I remove birth control, if the partner with the lower child tolerance rolls a want for a baby, then I also remove birth control) .

Friday, July 30, 2010

Career Choices for Simmies

Sometimes my simmies have career related LTWs...other times, it's up to me to decide what career they go into. How do I do this? Several ways:

Look at the wants panel. Sometimes they'll roll a want for a specific career. If so, then I chose from one of those and they take the first one available and the one that fits their personality and lifestyle.
Look at a combination of personality, aspirations, interests and hobbies-which is what this post will talk about. Of course the usual, feel free to borrow/steal/use these in your game and tweak for your own hood.

Usually by the time my sims are teens, I will start thinking about their career and what they want to persue as their career. Here's the list that I use to think about which careers would work for each sim. It is not necessary for a sim to have EVERYTHING listed, but it's more like a score. The more qualities a sim has for that career, then the better suited that sim is for that career.

Athletic
-Personality = Active, Outgoing
-Aspiration=Fortune, Popularity
-Interests = Sports,
-Hobbies = Sports, Fitness
-Traits = n/a

Business
-Personality = Serious, Outgoing
-Aspiration=Fortune, Family
-Interests = Money, Work
-Hobbies = n/a
-Traits = workaholic

Criminal
-Personality= Active, Mean
-Aspiration =Fortune
-Interests = Crime, Money
-Hobbies = Fitness
-Traits = brave, rebellious

Culinary
-Personality = n/a
-Aspiration = Popularity, Grilled Cheese
-Interests = Food
-Hobbies = Culinary
-Traits = food addict,

Law Enforcement
-Personality = Active, Serious
-Aspiration = Family
-Interests = Crime
-Hobbies = Fitness, Sports
-Traits = brave

Medicine
-Personality = Serious, Neat
-Aspiration =Fortune, Knowledge
-Interests = Health
-Hobbies = Fitness
-Traits = n/a

Military
-Personality = Active
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Work
-Hobbies = Fitness, Sports
-Traits = brave, disciplined

Politics
-Personality = Outgoing, Serious
-Aspiration =Fortune, Popularity
-Interests = Politics
-Hobbies = n/a
-Traitsu = activist

Science
-Personality = Neat, Serious
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Animals, Environment, Weather
-Hobbies = Science, Tinkering, Nature
-Traits = eco-friendly

Slacker
-Personality = Outgoing, Playful
-Aspiration =Pleasure
-Interests = Travel, Toys
-Hobbies = Film & Literature, Games
-Traits = rebellious

Artist
-Personality = n/a
-Aspiration = Pleasure, Family
-Interests = Culture, Entertainment, Fashion
-Hobbies = Arts & Crafts
-Traits = n/a

Natural Science
-Personality = Neat, Serious
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Animals, Environment,Weather
-Hobbies = Science, Tinkering, Nature
-Traits = eco-friendly

Show Business
-Personality = Outgoing, Active
-Aspiration =Fortune, Popularity,
-Interests = Culture, Entertainment, Fashion
-Hobbies = Film & Literature
-Traits = trendy

Paranormal
-Personality = Neat
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Paranormal, Sci-Fi
-Hobbies = Science, Tinkering
-Traits = brave

Adventurer
-Personality = Active
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Culture, Weather
-Hobbies = Fitness, Sports
-Traits = brave, adventurous

Education
-Personality = Outgoing
-Aspiration =Knowledge, Family
-Interests = School, Toys
-Hobbies = Science
-Traits = patient

Gamer
-Personality = Playful
-Aspiration = Pleasure
-Interests = Toys
-Hobbies = Games
-Traits = rebellious

Journalism
-Personality = Outgoing
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Travel, Weather, Work
-Hobbies = Film & Literature
-Traits = n/a

Law
-Personality = Outgoing, Serious
-Aspiration =Popularity
-Interests = Crime
-Hobbies = Film & Literature
-Traits = n/a

Music
-Personality = Outgoing
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Culture, Entertainment, Fashion
-Hobbies = Music & Dance
-Traits = n/a

Architecture
-Personality = Serious
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Environment
-Hobbies = Arts & Crafts, Tinkering
-Traits = n/a

Dance
-Personality = Active
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Culture, Entertainment
-Hobbies = Fitness, Sports, Music & Dance
-Traits = n/a

Entertainment
-Personality = Active, Outgoing
-Aspiration =Fortune, Popularity
-Interests = Culture, Entertainment
-Hobbies = Music & Dance, Film & Literature
-Traits = n/a

Intelligence
-Personality = Neat
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Work, Travel
-Hobbies = Film & Literature, Tinkering, Science
-Traits = brave

Oceanography
-Personality = Active, Serious
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests =Animals, Environment, Weather
-Hobbies = Fitness, Nature, Science
-Traits = eco-friendly

Let's use Si'Enya Warwick for this example. Her OTH is nature, aspiration is popularity and her traits are insecure, trendy and perpetual bachelorette. Personality: Neat 5; Outgoing 3; Active 7; Playful 3; Nice 7. Topic three interests: Environment=10; Weather=10; Animals=9

So we're looking for a career that needs a sim with an Active, Nice, Shy and Serious personality, that loves the environment, weather and animals; persues popularity and their OTH is nature. Which is actually strange that Si'Enya is popularity, she is better suited for Knowledge. I may have assigned her aspiration back when I was looking at the surrounding family members to pick aspirations. Ok, let's fix that.

So NOW we're looking for a career that needs a sim with an Active, Nice, Shy and Serious personality, that loves the environment, weather and animals; persues knowledge and their OTH is nature. Whew, makes more sense. Now it's time to start narrowing down the careers. We're going to narrow it down by Personality, Aspiration, Interests, OTH and traits (if applicable). You will see that you get a different list depending on how you narrow it down.

By narrowing the careers down according to aspirations we get:
Medicine

Science

Natural Science

Paranormal

Education

Architecture

Intelligence

Oceanography

By narrowing the careers based on OTH we get:
Science

Natural Science

Oceanography

By narrowing the careers down according to interests we get:
Oceanography

Architecture

Natural Science

Science

[one match only]

Journalism

Adventurer

By narrowing the careers based on personality we get:
Law Enforcement

Oceanography

[one match only]

Military

Athletic

Business

Criminal

Medicine

Science

Natural Science

Show Business

Adventurer

Architecture

Dance

By looking at all the lists we get a few career choices that stand out for Si'Enya

Oceanography
Natural Science
Science

This is where it get's interesting and you have to get your creative juices stirring, let's look at Si'Enya's life so far. She's been hard at work trying to complete her bug collection and she has worked two summers as a camp counselor leading nature trails. We also have to look at the career caps (currently 2 playable sims per career with few exceptions)-thankfully all three careers are open. We can eliminate oceanography as Si'Enya hasn't shown an interest in marine life during her teen years.

"I know what I want to do!"

"Excuse me, Si'Enya, you're interupting the process."

"Isn't this process about me?"

"Well...yea..."

"So shouldn't I have an opinion?"

"Um...ok...?"

"I would like to be a project leader."

"What?"

""I would like to lead researchers and students in entomology studies concerning the effects of the changing environment on our insect population and how the changes in insect population effect our environment. It's a very serious issue you know, why do you think I've been trying to catalog the insect species in Apple Valley?"

"Ugh...I thought you were collecting them."

"No and can you believe that I can't find the Paratrooper Spider, they used to be abudant in this environment, but I can't find it. Don't you think it has something to do with the changing environment?"

"Umm, yea...sure."

Well, it looks like Si'Enya has chosen the science career. Looks like a good choice.
If you perfer to have someone else do the work for you, then try Simmerville's Career Planner. You answer a series of questions for your sim and they provide a list of recommendations based on skill level, personality and family situation. I don't think they have the free-time career tracks added to the database.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Simmish Cultures

I was asked to give a little bit more detail about my simmish cultures and heritages of my simmies. I love learning about different cultures and since the world is full of them, here are a few of the current cultures in my hood. There will be more cultures as I delve deeper into my simmies lives and build the corresponding locales for them to visit as well. Feel free to steal/borrow/use these in your games as well. I hope to start adding downloads of the buildings in the future for those who are interested in recreating the locales in their game.

Inherited Cultures
These are cultures that I inherited from other simmers when their sims moved to my hood.

Sokitumi-Nicole Humphrey was originally from Sokitumi, an island nation that had several goddesses including the famed goddess of love, Goddess Lahubutaniya and the god, Anghj. This simmer did an excellant job of fleshing out Sokitumi from native words such as Melihari (hello), government names (Peaceful Regency) and a beautiful background. To hear this simmer discuss Sokitumi it seemed like a magical society untouched by modern spoils. You can check out Nicole's former blog and Nicole and Lyndon's conversations for more insight on this culture. I created Sokitumi on one the islands of my tropical subhood which uses the Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey. Sokitumi is also the only tropical island where the default Maxis tropical vacation clothing makes sense.

Simborough-Sandy Warwick and Jadhira Shazad arrived in Apple Valley after a Gender Swap with Simborough. Simborough is a FSBS hood and because this simmer is from the UK, that's what I envisioned Simborough as. You should browse through the website and learn more about Simborough's multicultural hood.

Native Cultures
These are cultures that I developed for my simmies based on gameplay options. Most of these are a result of Bon Voyage and not wanting to use the standard vacation hoods that shipped with the game.

Kimikuria: this is my "asian" vacation hood using the Ellis Island from Amber's Journey. It's loosely based on the east asian countries like Japan, China and Korea. Kimikuria is the land of zen gardens, old wise men, and mahjong . The lots are mostly the oriental series downloaded from wolfsim68 at TSR. The lots that I built use the same exterior wallpaper and roof color so that all the lots are uniform in apprearence. Li Yoo is originally from Kimikuria and the Warwick family spent three simyears there on assignment. The name was chosen based on the "asian" sound of it.

Hacienda Bay: this is the hometown of the Herendez family, starting with Alfonzo and Margurita Herendez (Greymount TS1, Apple Valley TS2) who immigrated from the bay. It is loosely based on the caribbean islands like Puerto Rico with it's british colonial style buildings, lush plants and ocean views. Currently this is only one lot in my "tropical" vacation subhood. I am in the process of rebuilding it since my first version will not "place" on the neighborhood thanks to the fact that it's a beach lot. The goal is to make it one complete island as my tropical subhood is the Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey. I don't remember exactly how or why I chose this name since it was during TS1 days (2004).

Tiki Isle: this is the hometown of the Kent family, starting with Toby and Veronika Kent (Greymount TS1, Apple Valley TS2) who immigrated from the isle. The isle is loosely based on the caribbean islands of Cayman Islands and Jamaica. The isle features a rich culture in terms of food, dance and "juice" exports. Currently this lot is in the planning stages and will eventually take up an entire island in my tropical subhood (Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey) as well. This name was chosen based on the shipped Tiki sets with the game.

Ozian: this is the birth place of Elphaba Mendenhall, who was born with a rare skin disorder that made her pigment a bright green. For those familar with the Wizard of Oz and Wicked, then you will recognize Elphaba as the Wicked Witch of the West. This place doesn't exist in the game yet, but I might consider creating this locale for Anthony and Susie to explore.

Thaindia: this is the hometown of Jadhira Shazad and I'm very excited to be starting the building of this island that is loosely based on the south east asian cultures like Thailand, India, Singapore and the Phillipines. Currently it's a single island set as a "asian" vacation subhood. I've included a sneak peek of one of the structures on the island. This name is basically a combination of Thailand and India :P

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Randomizing Zodiacs

I've been running reports in excel for my sims and noticed that the zodiacs were in no case random-more like I continuously clicked either Gemini, Aquarius or Libra for my simmies. I've decided to reassign zodiacs-mostly for children, but a few single adults as well, to make the numbers more random and inject a bit more genetic diversity. I'm curious to see if this bumps up my low ACR scores in the hood.

Thus far ACR scores have increased, however, they have not increased like I thought they would. For example, before changing zodiacs S'Ahmisa and Verde had a solid 1 bolt. I didn't alter thier zodiac, yet when I viewed thier ACR, they were a solid 3 bolts. Perhaps this is because they were set to independent teens.

I have also noticed that the scores change a bit more, perhaps this is because of the dynamic token status. Nothing major, but my couples seem to alter scores by +/- 4 points depending on the time of day :P

I'm happy to finally have a little more variety, it won't really take place until I alter personality traits as well. I think I'll alter the genetic personality traits of children and younger so that the personality can pass on via DNA.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Combined Terrain vs Individual Terrians

I've been debating switching to a combined terrain for Apple Valley instead of the subhoods. That's how the world really works, right? Basically I would use one neighborhood map and there would be sections on the map to represent the three areas of Apple County, well-four if I decide to have a base hood university.

What about townies, downtownies and social groups?
As long as I have apartment buildings, then I will have social groups. These social townies pretty much nullify the need for townies and downtownies. I plan on having six sims in each social group for a total of 30 social townies. I would have a few teen townies, a countessa and count and a Diva and Mr. Big. The main difference is that in custom creating the townies, I would create relationships bewteen the townies (sibling groups, single parents, family groups, etc). I will also create six vacation townies for each vacation subhood (a total of four subhoods, one for each season which means 24 vacation sims).

Individual Terrains
(+) Pros
----able to use small terrains such as Amber's Journey with faster loading times.

(-) Cons
----load time of the subhoods
----seems silly to explain how far each subhood is to account for the fact that you can't see glimpses of the Metro from Apple Valley and vice verse.

Combined Terrain
(+) Pros
----lack of load time for each subhood
----simulated seamless neighborhood

(-) Cons
----not very many "medium" hood terrains. Most as either very tiny or large. I would want something that has a variety in roads to accomadate three different types of "subhoods" but is small enough to not have to scroll around without a camera hack to see it all. I like the Lake Crossing Terrain, but smaller with a lot less roads. I've been thinking of buying SC4 just to create the smaller hood I envision. I did finally contact Amber's Journey to request the perfect hood (a combination of three of her hood terrains). She just had a baby-congrats!-and understandably isn't playing the game as much. So we'll see.

The last question would be how to explain the new terrain from a FSBS prespective?

Saturday, July 11, 2009

ACR vs Wants Induced Romance

Ok, by now many of you know about the Dawson/Grey/Sweeny drama. For those who don't simply read through the Dawson and Sweeny's entries as a recap.

Background

It started with ACR pulling rank. Grex Greyand Jolie Dawson-without any wants-proceeded to make-out with each other and then woohoo. Whoa! Where did that come from? They have two bolts, but ranked thier spouses higher. Since it was a one time thing, I decided to go with the storytelling view that it was an attack of passion, they didn't know what had happened.

Then we move on to Ginger Grey and Tobi Sweeny. They have three bolts with each other. For some reason Tobi's attraction score is more for his wife (his total attraction score), but when ranking bolts, Ginger is higher (He has 100/100-love with both, but is BFF with Ginger). I guess the game gives bonus points for that wedding ring since Ginger's attraction score is higher for Grex as well. They are both attracted to each other more than thier spouse-both ACR attraction (not total attraction score) score and bolts, but haven't acted on it based on ACR. Instead, they farted hearts all over each other and then rolled romantic wants. This proceeded in a want induced affair.

ACR vs Wants
Now that we have the background, how do I determine which trumps what? I decided that if the sim rolls the want, then they have logically thought it out-sometimes-and REALLY want that. However, ACR can just be hormones raging.

So Grex and Jolie shared a one night stand that is not to be repeated, while Ginger and Tobi embarked on a blown out affair. We'll see where this takes us.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Herendez Art Foundation

A quick intro to the Herendez Art Foundation. I'm a visionary, but suck at the details. One of the great things about sims is that I can try things out in the game quicker than in real life.
---

The Herendez Foundation for the Arts will increase awareness of and appreciation for the quality of arts produced and presented in Apple Valley and Apple County by providing programs and services to promote and assist Apple Valley Artists.

The Herendez Foundation for the Arts has two arms.

The Arts in Education arm supports artist education in the elementary and secondary levels. This includes donations of supplies, equiptment and funding to expose students to local art and culture through field trips, lectures and hiring artists/teachers as well as scholarships for students showing high artist merit.

The Partner in Art arm supplies fellowships for artists to move to Apple Valley to persue thier artist endeavours. This arm also provides funding to establish a community art collection, hire artists for various events, lectures and teaching positions, and host booths during the annual summer Apple Festival.

HAC (Herendez Artist Community)
Highly qualified adult sim writers, visual artists, composers and performance artists are invited to apply via email to HAC. Residences vary in length from 1-3 simyears, afterwards the artists may immigrate to Apple County or return to thier home hood. During this time, a furnished space is provided for in the enviromental sensative artist community. Artists are given a stipend of §500 for thier bills, supplies and food costs during this time. A community garden is provided to supplement food costs for the artists and each residence is responsible for thier own plot, while the harvests are shared amoung the group. Up to eight artists can be accomadated at a time.

-How does this work, really?

The HAF affects the game by allowing me to move in sims with a purpose (besides the whole, I need fresh DNA) both from CAS and from other sim-to-sim hoods. HAF will also allow the Herendez Art Gallery to offer the crafted products of other artists, which frees Antonio up for retirement and allows there to still be a nice selection of art to chose from.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Pregnancy in the Hood

Since so many of my sims are pregnant and will be delivering from 2002 to 2005 (yep, some families are that far ahead), and to calm my own baby cravings, I decided to post about pregnancy in Apple Valley.

Since the SimLonic calendar has 1 rotation/1 simday=1 simyear (or 8 SimLonic months), a pregnancy can't be 9 months and I also don't want to "speed my pregnancy" vis Tombstone of L & D and miss all the cute belly shots. So here's how I deal with it:

Once a pregnancy is "confirmed" either through throwing up, pregnancy scanner or -it too late-belly pop, then I continue to play that household for the three simdays until the birth. Instead of turning aging off, whenever it gets to be 5 o'clock PM, I set the hour to 9 o'clock PM (since at 6 o'clock the sims age).

Using this method, babies are due 6 SimLonic months after conception and will be featured in a mini-update :)

Sunday, April 26, 2009

FSBS Confusion

I've been reading and recieving emails about confusion over FSBS (for sims by sims) hoods. Many of the questions involve "Can I join the SUN?" "Please let me in the SUN"

The SUN (Sims United Neighborhoods) is not a club or secret society-though it would be cool to have a limo take us to a secret location and we can hack our grades, but I digress. Applying for the SUN is very very simple. Simply submit the required information about your hood and viola! You're in the SUN! It's a two part process and it can take a while, not because of approval but due to volume of applications and real-life.

Once a SUN member, please take time to enjoy the SUN boards and chat with other sims in other hoods. You can arrange a SUN Exchange with another neighborhood, submit a guest article to the website or simply browse around and read the older articles.

Second source of confusion, "What are the rules for FSBS?"-the simple answer, there are none. FSBS isn't a challenge, but more of a style of playing. The simmer speaks through thier sims to other simmers in a type of role playing. For example, if Sandy Warwick wanted to contact her family in Simborough (another FSBS hood), then I would post on the boards as Sandy. Each sim has thier own personality and nuances in speaking style. Sandy for instance, is "sim-british", so I try to make sure her spellings are british as well as her ideas. In terms of websites/blogs-if you chose to have any, then typically every service in your hood is provided for by one of your sims. If you upload houses for downloading, then one of your sims is the architect behind those beautiful homes, if you publish a newspaper online, then your sims are the writers and editors.

I've been a SUN member and playing in a FSBS style since about 2004 and I've met some awesome simmers, gained some great ideas and reinvented my hood several times. I hope this post clears up some confusion, if you have any questions-post/email me. Also, if you have a FSBS site, please post below any additional comments to clear the general confusion regarding this playstyle.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Taxes and Fees

In honor of tax day, thought I'd share some insights of how Apple Valley collects taxes and fees.

The Old Version
The hood used to collect $750 per family and $1000 per owned business as a tax every Monday. Well, with only nine families and three owned businesses, that wasn't a lot of money (less than $10,000). Even after raising taxes to $1000 per family and $1500 per owned business the result was $13,500 every seven simdays. With the fact of the new simlonic calendar, this wasn't enough money to last 7 years!

The Possibilities
I debated property and income taxes, but with the sims living in apartments, thier net worth is a lot lower and besides, if they spent most of thier money on depreciable objects, then they won't have as large of a tax bill to pay, which seems like a tax shelter for those greedy wealthy sims that love to buy everything in the catalog. Not to mention making note of net worth or income before taxes were due was a little too much like work for me :)

The New Version-The Numbers
The sims are divided into tiers: wealthy (net worth $100,000+), mid-range (net worth$50,000-$99,000), low (net worth$25,000-$49,000) and proverty (net worth below $25,000). Thankfully with only nine families, I can easily tell where each family lands.

Then each tier pays a tax based on the number of sims in that household.
Tier I (wealthy)=$2000/sim
Tier II (middle class)=$1500/sim
Tier III (lower)=$1000/sim
Tier VI (proverty)=$500/sim

Misc Taxes:
Pet tax of $1000 per animal.
Luxury Tax of $5000 for each vacation home
Business Tax of $5000 for each owned business

Credits:
$1000 for each child
$1000 each married couple
10% of significant donations ($10,000 or more) up to $5000.

So for example the Herendez family. Tier I, 5 sims, 1 business, 1 vacation home, no donations, 3 children, married. $10,000+$5000+$5000-$3000-$1000=$16,000 tax bill.

The Humphrey family. Tier VI (not making much on that pastor's salary), 5 sims, no business/vacation home/donations, 3 children, 3 pets, married. $2500+$3000-$3000-$1000=$1500 tax bill.

Continuing for the rest of the families
Kent=$6000
Wilsonoff=$5000 (donated to Simmington Hills & footed the bill for the new university building)
Shazad=$3000
Grey=$10,000
Dawson=$2500
Sweeny=$1000
Warwick=$16,000

Total of $61,000 from the playable sims. Then to make things fair, each townie and NPC pays a modified tax, they use the community lots and public transport as well, brings in another $150,000. So $211,000 is the budget for 4 years.

The Timing
So every Monday and Thursday, the hood council president will collect taxes (this is about every 3/4 years). The current president visits the administrative office and using familyfund cheat, I'll collect the taxes and fees. Then the hood council will tell me in thier meeting ( via thier thought bubbles :P ) what to spend the money on and notes will be made in the council notes. As of now there isn't a seperate account for the hood council president and the hood's funds. I'm thinking of creating a placeholder sim and that sim will be the hood's accounts. We'll see since I'm more of a this lot cost about this much instead of a this lot was exactly this many dollars and cents type of player.

Friday, March 20, 2009

The Tiny Travel Center (aka Travel Corner) & Vacations

It's our 1st year anniversary and we're taking a short weekend trip. To celebrate I'm posting about how my simmies travel.
----

Recently a few of my sims have been rolling in the simoleans. Even with expensive property taxes they have plenty of money. This is my fault. Most of them are business owners and I had all business owners sell thier lots (1x3) and purchase 3-1x1 lots for thier businesses. Of course, the construction and furnishing everything was cheaper. Then I had several of them sell off thier extra businesses and focus only on one business. Since I was beginning to not enjoy the OFB concept since so many of my sims had thier own business or had several business lots to tend. Thus, sims have tons of money. I had one commission an university building, which leaves two more families with excess funds. Well, the Warwick family told me :P that they wanted to spend thier simoleans on vacations. So I obligied and now here's a peek into vacations in my hood.

In my tiny travel center (actually it's more like a corner in the gift shop) located in the hood's administration office, I sell posters of different travel locales (in addition to the Bon Voyage posters, I also use the following posters from MTS2, I am currently creating similar vacation destinations to match).

If a sim purchases a poster, this is thier indication to me that they would like to travel to that location. The cost of the poster serves as thier deposit for the trip.

For example, if a sim buys poster #7, which is a ski vacation to Schatazweitzier Mountains (soon to be destined as a fall foliage vacation and the new Cusinaire Ridges (I'm a teacher :, all my other teachers will recognize the name) will become the winter vacation destination) , then once they get home, I book them for a vacation and allow them to stay in the ski resort. I only book the 3 day/2 night trip. It's the perfect amount of time to play in one play session and it syncs nicely with my one simday=one year aging in my hood. Of course, the sims can pretend that they were gone for longer :P

During thier vacation, I make sure they experience plenty of snow sports and snow ball fights.

Notice how tiny the terrain for Schatazweitzier Mountains is.

If a sim buys the same poster repeatedly, that serves as an indication that they would like to buy a vacation home there whenever possible.

This is what happened to the Warwicks. They went to Three Lakes (the precessor to Schatazweitzier Mountains) for thier honeymoon (http://thekentfamilyfujicourt.blogspot.com/2007/09/husband.html and http://sun-exchange-sandy-warwick.blogspot.com/2007/09/some-fotos.html). Then they took thier daughters there for a family vacation (http://thekentfamilyfujicourt.blogspot.com/2008/09/family-vacation.html and http://thekentfamilyfujicourt.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-family-vacation.html) and finally they rolled a want for buying a vacation home. They brought thier vacation home in none other than Schatazweitzier Mountains.

Some random vacation photo spam

Gypsy Clearing, home of the Glasha Clan in Schatazweitzier Mountains. This small campground is available for a small fee to sims who wish to live the life of a gypsy for a while. It's encouraged that appropiate attire and hairstyles are worn to experience the complete...experience :P

Tiny Residential Cabin, available in Schatazweitzier Mountains for a small fee of $25,653. It's located on a 1x1 lot, features one bath and one loft bedroom (with double and twin bed), tiny kitchen and living room and room outside for a small garden...if my sims decide to stay here for a long while.

Larger Cabin, available in Schatazweitzier Mountains for a modest fee of $73,096. It's located on a fairly large 2x2 lot, features three bath and four bedrooms, large kitchen and family room and large living room with fireplace. This is actually the vacation home of the Warwick family I was speaking of earlier.

Jah Sal Bazaar, downloaded from Parsimonious and renovated for my purposes. The Warwicks just returned from thier holiday here. Located in my Tiki Isles tropical vacation destination, the bazaar is my interpetation of Arabia. The small outdoor market, colorful tents that also serve as sleeping tents, bright colors and wonderful foodstuffs. To be honest, it's still a little bare. I'm experimenting with leaving the lots bare instead of filling them with crappy items/concepts. In this lot the far right lower building is empty waiting for a purpose. Same thing for the top two middle levels. I do have a restroom, a resturaunt, DJ booth and bar taking up space in the middle two sections, hot tub on the roof, random easels and chess sets, bubble blower, store that sells clothing and perfume and the camping tents.

So if you have suggestions for this lot, let me know.