2nd generation - part 1

When I started concentrating on getting #5 Ashley pregnant, I noticed she shared a common flaw with her oldest brother, #1 Jacob... She just plainly repelled men. I have no idea what I did wrong, I joked and talked with them for most of the date, yet the moment I decided to move further, something had to go wrong. I wonder if I set the difficulty of this challenge to high accidentally... At last, I found a boy, Borys, who wanted to fool around, and after only four dates and three woo-hoo, Ashley became pregnant. Yay!

Pregnancy went well, with so many independent sims in the house she could just do whatever she wanted. But once those babies show up and older ones leave I will have a hard time... Anyway, meet the first child of 2nd generation, #8 Olivia. Her hair makes her look very bohemian like, so I got her to play with that Xylophone to build her creativity skill and make her more artistic. I see her as a great writer in the future. I doubt she will be the heir, but I must see other babies first.

I totally forgot to mention it, but I got a genie lamp while they were still living in their first house. I used just one wish to have some more money before moving and then left it in Eve's inventory. After awhile I found it and had a brilliant idea to wish for a beauty. No more boys problems for Ashley! Dates went incredibly smoothly after this.

Almost right after giving birth she went out with this dude and got pregnant again. This time she had a boy, I named him #9 Liam, and I love taking pictures of him. He got his grandma's eyes! Genetics do work apparently.

Third date in a row, another quick pregnancy, and #10 Brie was welcomed into this world. She inherited her daddy's traits for the most part. I feel she might be the next heir, it would be nice to have someone with a darker skin tone to take over. But it's not Ashley's last baby for sure, she has her whole adulthood before her.

And right, I did throw a birthday party for ageing Ashley, using it as an opportunity for a family reunion. I was kind of moved to see everyone getting along so well.

Unfortunately, a major buzz kill happened, when Eve picked exactly the moment Ashley was blowing out the candles to pass on. Well, she will be missed undoubtedly, but in the same time, she left a sweet inheritance for all of her offspring. I have no idea where it came from, but it did bring me closer to my smaller goal, that is moving them again to a bigger house.

Meanwhile, #6 and #7 grow up to teenagers. #6 Emma looks very mature, almost like an adult actually... And also, doesn't really have a problem with dating, dammit. Why didn't I pick her? Throughout her teenager days she got together with three boys, just like her sister. One of them will be her husband, when she moves out, once I decide to part with her. It will be hard, because she's so perfect. She cleans the house and take care of the babies while all of the others don't give a rat's ass, even if everything is repulsively dirty.

And then, #7 William... So useless, uh. I thought giving him a pleasure aspiration will be interesting, because I almost never choose it for sims, and I remembered why. The reason being, it makes them do absolutely NOTHING. He played video games 24/7 and sometimes tickled his nephew and nieces, and that's it. I felt really glad moving him out to university. He didn't even wanted to go, but I don't care.

Wait, I lied, he did do something - he started a few fires. Good job darling.

#3 Ethan also went to college, picked up artist major and despite his knowledge aspiration he likes flirting a lot. I somehow managed to develop a few romantic relationships with girls living in the same dormitory, without getting caught cheating. He's some sly bastard. But I love him anyway.
He even started painting some wonderful artwork and selling it for huge bucks. For a second his dormitory was richer that the main household... Then I bought a hot tub, so yeah.

Right, a small update about #2 Sophie and her sweetheart, the bartender. I discovered I'm able to invite Alex to parties, so my quiet, shy girl had to throw a bit of those to lure her into bed. It's a little more work, but looking at them I'd say it's worth it. Even if I will have to use all of the cheats in the game, I will get them together!
From other news, she changed her major to biology - I know, it's whatever, because Maxis made some honestly weird connections between majors and careers. For starters, I don't know why after psychology she can't be a doctor... Like, from all of the other choices...

I don't have much to write about #4 Noah, he spent most of his teenager days working and not much else. He went out with this one girl, asked her to be his girlfriend on a first date and eventually moved in with her. I  don't plan to play much with them, and I doubt they will want any children. But I got them a dog. When #3 Ethan graduates I think I'll just add him to this household. All of them is kinda career oriented.

Quick sum up: this is how current household looks like (from left to right): #6 Emma is a teenager, #8 Olivia is a child, #9 Liam is a child, #10 Brie is a toddler and #5 Ashley is an adult.

I think that's it for this part, a bit shorter than the last one and has much more pictures, yay! And next time it will be even more babies I hope!

#1 Jacob & #2 Sophie update

I don't care that they're no longer a part of the challenge, I enjoy playing them. Besides, #5 Ashley is being stubborn and doesn't want to get pregnant. I need a break from her.

Let's start with #2, Sophie, because there's not really much to tell. She has a knowledge aspiration, so all she wants to do in college is study. I'm pretty sure I chose a psychology major for her, and if I won't change it, she's gonna probably pursue a law career. I'm still kinda pondering over a more science-oriented one... she could be a nice doctor too. She has two more years to decide anyway.

She only got 1000$ grant money, and somehow I managed to spent everything already (that bird cage), so I made her work at a coffee shop, where she met just the loveliest girl ever. They became friends almost immediately, and when I checked their chemistry it was triple bolts. Like wow. I guess this explains why Sophie couldn't be a heir~.
The only problem is, that this girl is working as a bartender, and apparently game doesn't recognize these NPCs as normal sims. Or maybe it's just being homophobic, I dunno. Anyway, Sophie gets once in a while a phone call from this Alex girl (unisex name, way to make family awkward), but she herself can't call her, because she doesn't show up on contact's list. Interaction pie-chart shows only a few actions enabled too, so this means I probably will have to find someone else. It's a real shame in my opinion, but I run out of ideas what to do about them.

Meanwhile, #1, Jacob is doing wonderfully. He already unlocked a permanent platinum mood, even though he didn't yet reach top of his culinary career. But, being executive chef isn't bad at all.
He made LOADS of money out of chance cards, and I could easily move his family to a bigger house, but I really like this one for now. They have enough space with only two kids right now, and besides, it has so many memories. Every time I'm remembering the time when I tried to fit fifth bed into this small room upstairs I tear up a little...

He had a bit of a hard time meeting a right girl, or any girl for that matter. The first one, Liliana Don't-remember-her-last-name, he found online and immediately invited her over to see what she looked like. This student, as it turned out, was surprisingly pretty for a townie, that's why I thought she would be a perfect choice. Jacob brought his A-game, all charming and stuff, and she in response reacted aggressively to any nice gesture. So, I gave up, thinking "welp, there's a lot of fish in the sea". Then, I found out my boy must be somewhat cursed and probably won't find a wife EVER. He had negative chemistry with each and every woman he talked to. For some strange reason ladies didn't fancy him at all... I mean, why? He has such a handsome, manly face. I was a bit worried when he was growing up, because he reminded me of Justin Bieber, but he turned out fine. Anyway, I considered hiring a matchmaker, but eventually just bought love potion. I mean, Jacob seemed to me like a kind who would wait forever for his soulmate, but I grew impatient. I went for Liliana, because she was the prettiest one and I believe it was a love at first sight for Jacob anyway. Love potion was just a catalyst.
I didn't even know she had a family aspiration (that's probably the reason why she didn't respond too well to his popularity aspiration), but it fits her and my idea of this family pretty well. I ended up changing a bit their turn-ons/offs though... I guess it happens, when you meet someone you fall for, you suddenly realize that you like blond hair, even if earlier you preferred dark one more.

I really, really deeply regret I didn't take any screenshots of their engagement and wedding party. I spend almost two hours decorating their house just to make it more special. They even went for a honeymoon to Twikkii Island. Jacob had a lot of fun, but Liliana was already pregnant, which is the most annoying thing on vacation, right? I feel like she spent half her time there throwing up. Poor girl.

Nevertheless, they got back in positive moods, Jacob was promoted right away (you know, because he did such a good job while being away) and Liliana finally started to show a pregnant belly. I almost got her a job too, but I felt she will be better off as a stay at home mom. I bought her a Restorable Car, so she could work on her favorite hobby, that is tinkering. I must say, seeing a pregnant lady repair an engine is amusing.

She gave birth to twins, because game just loves to torture me like that, Eric and Laura. They inherited their mother's genetics, and I hope they'll turn out beautiful like her. Jacob is acting as a proud and caring father.

Alright, so this family is just plain and simple, there's nothing special about them whatsoever. But after "challenging" family it's so freaking pleasant to try normal one again. You start to seriously appreciate having someone more around than just a miserable sim with bunch of miserable kids.
STILL, I'm gonna finish this 100 babies challenge. I hope next update will be about 2nd generation.

1st generation

OK, so it went kinda fast.
I know most people really concentrate on the beginning, take lots of screens and all, but I, um, forgot :S. I was too stressed to not fail the challenge, huh. Because, it's actually not easy! I honestly hope it will get better later.

Anyway, meet my "founder", Eve Genesis. She's already old, but she did bear 7 children, 6 of which were luckily twins. I gave her family aspiration, especially to get that sweet perk, "Super Fertility". Which kinda backfired, but more on that later. As second aspiration I chose romance to better woo men, and this in turn worked pretty nice. Unfortunately, with twin babies all the time and next to no money (seriously, most of the time I couldn't save more than 100$) she didn't really have time to romance. And even then, inviting men screw me over a bit, as kids kept being pissed off at mother for flirting. Leaving a house for a date wasn't an option, 'cause no babysitter... Moreover, while pregnant she was always too exhausted to take care of babies, not to mention clean the house. After awhile I caved and hired a maid, who happened to fortunately be a male (score!) and soon became a father of babies #6 and #7.

I don't really know how I did make it through, because honestly, that was my SECOND try. The first time
my poor mother died of starvation with only one child and second on the way. It was quite surprising, I thought it was going well, maybe aside from the fact that I blew my cash on love potions and was left with pennies. First baby had to sleep on the floor...
But, I was smarter the second time. I bought right off the bat everything needed for the baby and few things that could actually generate some income (easel and garden soil were really the cheapest, thank god for a money tree too). The thing I didn't expect was twins right away - they needed to share one bed and sleep in turns, which wasn't actually so bad after all. At least I didn't have to take care of two at once.

Twins turned out to be a boy, who I named Jacob, and a girl, with a beautiful name Sophie (SURPRISE, not Bella). It's a shame I don't do perfect genetics challenge right now, because they both inherited their mother's eyes and blond hair... If I recall correctly, Eve became pregnant again pretty fast, and wasn't in the mood to teach her toddlers anything. I'm honestly glad I downloaded those Toddler beds - they are way cheaper than actual cribs, and toddlers can let themselves out. They saved me lots of nerves.

I have a soft spot for Jacob really, not just because he's a firstborn (although that's a big factor too). He was incredibly helpful with everything, while his mother and sister somehow always ended up slacking.

Second pregnancy ended in, surprise surprise, another twins, this time two boys, named Ethan and Noah. From the start they both wanted to build their creativity skill really bad, what made me almost ecstatic, because no one else got time to paint and actually make some more money. But when they grow up to children they kept whining about piano and guitar, like seriously, every time they woke up these freaking wants were rolled. I hate Freetime EP... So again, thanks to cc, I was able to afford a keyboard and fulfill dreams of those poor boys. Obviously, in return, they didn't want to paint anything at all. Whatever.

At this point I got tired of twins ("already?"), so I cried tears of joy when a single baby was born at last, a girl Ashley. I found her facial features pretty darn perfect, so decided right away she will be my next heir. She was nice enough to give a crap about family income and paint some good art. And so, I could buy beds for the next Eve's kids (obviously twins) the last and the youngest, Emma and William.

William is such a girly boy. Game decided to give him pink clothes as toddler and those long hair... I wish I could change his sex. Maybe I will make him gay... But I'm pretty sure #2, Sophie, is a lesbian. Or just going through some college experiment stage, dunno.


When I saw Emma I actually had a hard time deciding whether she or Ashley should be a heir. She gives out really strong motherly vibe. But I guess she will have to settle for being an aunt. I went with Ashley for two reasons - Eve's birthday was coming close and I need those babies keepin' coming, so older one wins, and besides I didn't want another blond... It's not perfect genetic challenge so let's keep it diversified.

Either way, #1 and #2 were almost grown ups, Jacob got a job as a cook (his lifetime want, I went with that) and got promoted, and Sophie thankfully went to college. The only way family could afford to send her there, was by Jacob working his ass off and providing for everyone while failing miserably his classes. But it was all worth it, because I managed to save enough money to move whole family to a larger house too. Just in time, because there started to be a growing problem, when no one could make it in time to bathroom or I no longer had where to put another bed.

Place where the main Genesis family now live~ (I really like Veronaville neighborhood with those two houses lots, it looks great, although it's sometimes not very practical). Jacob moved out to have his own family, and as a nice touch I chose the old Genesis house for him.

So current household situation looks like this:

•  Eve is a grandmother with 56 days on her back. She will help with garden and babies when they come.
• #3, Ethan has a knowledge aspiration, so he will most certainly go to college when he will be able to, and pursue his music career.
• #4, Noah is working as a reporter (I'm guessing for a music magazine), and I think it will stay this way until he grows up. He's the most active one and always have plenty of energy, so I want to keep him around as long as I can. He doesn't really want to go to college too, since I gave him popularity and fortune aspiration.
• #5, Ashley started to date and I think she's on a good way to become a pregnant teenager (I'm so proud). For now I'm mostly building my "daddy network" with her, so she can just hop to bed with another one right after birth, without wasting time on searching and developing relationship. It's all about efficiency! For this purpose I gave her romance aspiration - I didn't think twins perk would be necessary. But still, for some mysterious reason boys doesn't want to start falling for her. Building up those relationships takes so long... I think the game is being mean.
• #6, Emma, & #7, William will have their birthday soon, and I hope by that time there'll be some babies to take care for. I'm certain I'll give Emma a family aspiration, not sure yet about William. Maybe he'll get the same. He's kinda uninteresting, aside from looking like a girl, so I most likely just send him off to college.

Ufff. I need to keep those shorter. And I hope I will be able to make an update about #1, Jacob and #2, Sophie too. I really like playing Jacob's family, they are just so happy together, it's so nice to see. Especially after his mother's struggling. I wish she didn't end up alone, but oh well.

100 babies challenge

So.
Recently, I discovered something called "challenge" for The Sims 2 & 3 (I know I'm slow). And it is AMAZING.
But, let me explain. Basically, to make a game interesting (let's face it, after discovering every possible action and killing sims in every possible way, the only thing left is decorating houses) you give yourself a set of rules. You can come up with them yourself or search blogs and forums for them. Usually they have some "theme" added to them, not just general surviving, or breaking a record. Also, not so rarely, they require using mods, that I very much enjoy~. After a few hours of reading I found at least ten I'd love to do. And apparently it's very popular to make a blog alongside. Well, I liked this idea, because otherwise it's quite easy to forget where you ended, or what happened. That's why I created this page for my very own sim adventure <3.

First one I want to do is 100 babies challenge.
You can look for original rules on the internetz, yet I'm gonna use my "slightly" modified set. Okay, they're almost entirely different, but whatever. I wanted to do this more realistically, so:

• No ageing off. If "mommy" becomes elder, I'll choose one of her daughters to continue her labour. If she didn't have any daughters theeen... challenge failed. I can use elixir of life tho.
• In consequence, kids grow up when they grow up, so it doesn't matter if toddlers learnt all of their basic skills, what is their school grade and mood. This will make it more fast paced I hope.
• I'd like to try to avoid it, but if I don't want to kill my mommy, I guess repairman and maid wouldn't be totally forbidden. But it also makes gameplay much easier, so I'll see.
• I use InSimenator. This means teenagers are almost like adults, they can woo-hoo and have adult job. I really love this mod and can't imagine playing without it, but I hope it'll only add a little flavor and not make everything too easy. On the other side, I also added a risk of miscarriage, so I guess this might turn challenge more demanding.
• I probably won't bother with choosing hairstyles, clothes and turn-on&off unless random ones will really annoy me somehow. I want to save at least a bit of time, and besides, I think it makes sense with clothes - they're poor so they wear what they can, very often things that was worn by their siblings.
• Not really a rule, but I thought I will mention it - just like with clothes and hairstyles, I don't want to spend too much time on choosing a baby's name. So, because I'm lazy, I'm just gonna use 100 most popular baby names 2012 and pick out the ones I like, maybe add a few more.

There's obviously a version for a TS3 game, but I decided to go with TS2, because this way I can have all of EP and lots of cc installed without lagging like crazy. Oh, and I'm going to play in Veronaville neighbourhood (my favourite).

I think that's all. I'll see how it goes~.