How is this Aspirationally Possible?

Meet Suzanna (Carr) McMillian. Hailed from Eden, age 38, currently in the medical field and employed at the Veronika Kent Medical Centre as Head of General Medicine. Primary Aspiration: Fortune, Secondary Aspiration: Knowledge.

Now, keep those aspirations in mind as I tell you a little story. Bradford and Suzanna visit a friend after the birth of thier first child. I take control of the sims as I normally do, but I do not interfer with thier free will and ACR of course.

00:00=I notice Suzanna has a want to woohoo with Bradford. The elevator is free, so I indulge her.

00:01=The want rolls away, only to be replaced by-Woohoo in Bed. Oookaayyy, I find a nearby bed and indulge her.

00:03=The want rolls away, only to be replaced by-Woohoo in Bed. Are you serious?! Didn't you just go at it twice?!?! Ok, fine once more.

00:05=The want rolls away, only to be replaced by-Woohoo in Bed. Now, I see this as a dare-almost like she's taunting me. At this point, Bradford has finally rolled the want to woohoo with Suzanna. I indulge them-again.

00:06=The want rolls away, only to be replaced by-Woohoo in Bed (except Bradford, who rolls a nice fortune sim want of buying an expensive painting).

00:26= This cycle of indulgement continues. Those times to the side are not sim-time, but real-life minutes. Which is basically about an entire simday (thank goodness for max motives and set hour).

00:31= I begin to wonder why Suzanna's hormones are so...agressive to say the least. Maybe it's her way of saying that they want another baby, hey, they are getting up there in age-but why doesn't she just roll the want for a baby instead of the multiple wants of practicing for a baby.

00:38=My fingers are getting tired from the routine clicking and the owner of the bed would like to use it for her own...indulgence. Ugh! I check the ACR lot settings-it's not brothel-then I remember that ACR isn't at play here-this is pure wants. WANTS!!! These are romance sim wants and Suzanna is anything but.

00:48=I realize that I've almost wasted an hour indulging this sim who is not giving up this stupid want! Even Bradford is tired at this point, my hubby is wondering when I'm coming to bed and Suzanna is standing there with this smug smile and the want-Woohoo in Bed.

00:52=I give up! Suzanna has beat me. I'm tired, I'm sure Bradford is tired and believe it or not-after all that woohoo, there wasn't an oppsie pregnancy. So even if Suzanna was trying to tell me that she wanted to have another baby-no such luck.

00:53=I power down the game, Suzanna's smug smile and Woohoo in Bed want taunting me.

I should have seen the clues before. The constant kissing, the pregnancy by ACR...sims, what are we going to do with them?
----

Have you ever had a sim behave in such a way that you had to recheck thier aspirations?

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?

Rough Calendar 2004

Spring
Hapar- McMillian Wedding
Hapar - Shazad
Hapar - Warwick
Lovar - PCU
Lovar - Graduation (Harvis & Susie) & School update
Lovar - mini-update
Lovar - Hood Council Meeting

Summer
Patar- Grey
Patar -Shazad
Patar-mini-update
Remar- Dawson
Remar- Humphrey (Faith)
Remar- McMillian Baby Due

Fall
Havar - Sweeny (Tobi)
Havar - PCU (Susie & Harvis enter PCU)
Resar - McMillian
Resar - Yoo
Resar - Kent

Winter
Givar - Humphrey
Givar - Herendez
Peacar - Wilsonoff
Peacar - Christmas Party (Kent)



ROS:

-Get a makeover!

-Go gambling, spend $1300 at poker

-Raise money for charity

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.

Overview of Apple County

I recently combined Apple Valley, Apple Valley Metro and the brand new Apple Plains into Apple County. Here's a brief overview of the tiny hood and subhoods. How tiny? The largest lot-not including the massive beach lots-is 3x3. I use Amber's Journey terrains from MTS2.

This might change since I've been debating switching to a larger terrain that would combine the three areas. I've had the seperation mostly due to the downtownies that spawn downtown-such as Mr. Big and the Diva and the Countessa and Count. If I move to the one terrain, I would create my own townies and then create the Count and Countessa.

Totally snatched this from Laura at Lakeside Heights.



Apple Valley


Apple Valley is a quiet suburb, great for families however land prices are increasing and forcing families with smaller paychecks to look elsewhere for housing. The hood lies on a tiny island with jutting rocks surrounding it, making transportation to the hood very difficult. Apple Valley looks different from past views because it's growing and residents are demanding that facilities are updated.



Apple Valley Metro

Apple Valley Metro lies on an island smaller than Apple Valley about a 40 minute ferry ride west from the suburb. A light rail connects the urban mecca to a nearby airport and train depot. Lady Starr stands to the west of the island. Some cheap housing can be found, but for the most part young professionals long for the city life and everything at thier fingertips.



Apple Plains

Apple Plains is the last land incorperated into Apple County. A rural landscape and rich soil are abundant here. Notable properties include an historical train station, farmer's market and general store. Land is plenty and cheap as well, however amenities are few.

Cleaning Up

Been doing some cleaning up in Apple Valley. Got the downloads folder down to 1.99 GB. I noticed that my Sims 2 folder is 2.90GB, so over half of the space was the download folder.

My downloads are sorted by the following:
Downloads/
-Body Shop
---Accessories -> Type
---Beards
---Clothes -> Male/Female/Mesh -> Age Group (Adult/Child/Etc)
---Eyes / -> Default
---Eyebrows
---Hair/-> Creator
---Make-up/-> Type
---Skintones/ -> Default
-Build Mode ->
-Buy Mode -> Creator
-Hacks and Mods -> Creator
-Temporary (all files being tested)

Once I realized that most of my Sims 2 folder was devoted to downloads, then I got on the clean up vibe pretty quickly-amazingly it also spilled over into real life so I'm multi-tasking by cleaning the house, blogging and loading up the game. :)

So far I culled it from 2.28 GB to 1.99 GB, but you won't believe what actually took up the most space! Those lot packages that you have to click and then they load. Well, you better delete those things afterwards since those lots are now in your game. Those files were HUGE! I'm talking thousands of megabytes! Then the next largest is a MAXIS file from the EA Store. That's right-one file! It's a hefty 10,000 KB !!! Yikes!

My goal now is 1GB for downloads. That would mean I will have to be pretty harsh when it comes to downloads and subsequent storytelling. Those themed lots-like Fish & Chips resturaunt, might have to be conveyed via Maxis objects. I'll also have to stay away from all those beautiful websites with WCIF info on yummy objects!

Speaking of yummy objects, what CC is a MUST keep for you? I vote for my blakeboy modular seating and a very beautiful modern chair from Bella Forum-I think.

Does anyone know how big the Sims 2 is without any CC, saved sims or uploaded lots? Basically the memory stats for the game only. I guess that's not quite true since I also deleted the shipped neighborhoods (Pleasentview, Strangetown, etc).

How does that reflect on game time. I have a very basic desktop-Compaq Presario with 1GB of memory, 250GB Hard Drive and AMD Athlon processor.

13 mins for game to load to start-up screen

1 min to load neighborhood of choice

slight lag of 4 min when click apartment lot and for family choice to load (not sure if this is because I'm on the net at the same time)

3 min to load family

So about 20 minutes to load and start playing. Not bad since it used to take a good 35 minutes to load. I want to get my load time back down to 10 minutes, I downloaded something recently that really lags the system. I have some clues as to what it might be, so I'm off to cull some more.

Rough calendar 2003

Rough calendar 2003:


Spring
Hapar-Grey
Lovar-Dawson
Lovar-PCU-Spring Break
Lovar-Sweeny Baby Due

Summer
Patar-School Update & Apple Festival
Patar-Sweeny
Patar-Dawson Emergency Update
Remar-Kent

Fall
Havar-Warwick
Havar-PCU Fall Semester
Resar-Herendez
Resar-Humphrey

Winter
Givar-Shazad
Givar-Dawson/Grey Babies Due
Givar-McMillian
Peacar-Wilsonoff

ROS:
Make Like Rabbits-Woohoo 15 times in the next 24 hours. This will probably result in a pregnancy.

Vacation-ok, this was due for this family anyway.

Crafting Obession-Toy Bench: Craft until gold badge recieved. Will be funny :)