Author Topic: End of the Line Dynasty (4x4)  (Read 235027 times)

Offline Snufflesxx

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: Halfway there! (25 January)
« Reply #255 on: January 26, 2014, 06:16:36 AM »
Town 3 already?  :o

Congratulations to India for completing her requirements! I can't wait to see where she goes. My guess for the new town is Moonlight Falls.
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Offline Rikki8528

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: Halfway there! (25 January)
« Reply #256 on: January 26, 2014, 06:18:41 AM »
I think of Monte Vista as being Mediterranean, so most of the other towns would be colder.  Although, since they generally have beaches, maybe I'm wrong there.

It's not Aurora Skies or Midnight Hollow, for the simple reason that I own neither of them :).

I'm guessing Riverview.



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Offline Serenity S.

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: Halfway there! (25 January)
« Reply #257 on: January 26, 2014, 01:31:44 PM »
I guess... maybe Isla Paradiso? But then again, it is more like warm-er than cool-er... But maybe that for the fourth town, because it has exastly four single ghosts on dark rainbow slider?

Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: Halfway there! (25 January)
« Reply #258 on: January 26, 2014, 04:31:46 PM »
I'm guessing Riverview.

No.  I'm deliberately playing this in less familiar towns.

I guess... maybe Isla Paradiso? But then again, it is more like warm-er than cool-er... But maybe that for the fourth town, because it has exastly four single ghosts on dark rainbow slider?

Yes, I'd think of Isla Paradiso and Sunlit Tides as being definitely warmer.  Tropical, in fact.

I didn't know there were rainbow ghosts in IP.  Very tempted to change the plans for the fourth town now... :)

The answer will be revealed in a minute as soon as I can get the screenshots to load.

Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty
« Reply #259 on: January 26, 2014, 04:53:36 PM »
Hey Dude

India arrived at her new home at eight the following morning.  She hoped that Barnacle Bay would suit her.  There were large numbers of celebrities living in the town, so the paparazzi would have other families to bug.  It had an interesting history and there were even rumours of tombs to explore.



Like Mike and Tansy, she opted for the largest (and most expensive) house that was available.



Now to meet the townsfolk – and find a husband ASAP.  She phoned her agent and set up an immediate autograph session.  Hopefully, a reasonable number of people would be interested in their team’s newly signed star player.





The session was a huge success.  She signed as fast as she could but more fans kept turning up and she had to send some away disappointed at the end of the hour.  The town seemed to be crawling with attractive men, too – although most of them turned out to be married.  There were some promising bachelors, though, and she carefully noted down their names and numbers.



But the most compatible person she met was female.  It wasn’t that sort of attraction at all – just an immediate feeling of friendship.  Could Odessa be her new tomb-raiding partner?  She was certainly going to be a good friend.  On the spur of the moment, India asked her to move in.



That evening, India went through her notebook and invited over her first choice: Moe Pesce.  She discovered that he was in the medical career.

“Really?  My dad was a doctor.  Robert Gold, the surgeon.  Have you heard of him?”



He had, of course.  Who hadn’t heard of Rob’s pioneering treatments?

The conversation seemed to be going well.  Well enough that India invited him to stay overnight.  Then, when she went to clean her teeth, she found him in her bathroom.  With Odessa.



Cross him off the list, then.

In the morning, she phoned her second choice, Dude La Mer.  A childish beach bum didn’t seem like the obvious partner but there was something about him that appealed to her.



He put his foot in it the moment he arrived, going on about his hot new boss.  Fortunately, India had grown up with Rob as a father and had learnt to see past social ineptitude.  On an impulse, she kissed him.



He liked it.  They kissed again.  Then she invited him to move in and he responded with a serenade.



She persuaded him to visit the salon and lose that awful mullet.  Then they spent some more time together.





By the following day, she was convinced he was the man for her – partly, it must be admitted, because she was already half-convinced of something else.



A few hours later, they were married in a private ceremony at home.  India didn’t want to repeat Jane’s public disgrace.







That evening, she was breaking space rocks at the local martial arts academy (a dead ringer for the one in Shang Simla), when her suspicions were confirmed.



India spent her pregnancy getting spa treatments, reading baby books and flirting with her husband.  Even though it wasn’t as warm as Monte Vista, Dude persuaded her on to the beach and into the sea.





In fact, she was in her swimsuit when she went into labour – although that was because she’d been invited to a pool party by one of her new friends.



Odessa drove her to hospital and phoned Dude, who arrived just in time for his son’s birth.





Little Simon had his first birthday as soon as everyone had arrived home…



…and grew into a toddler with his mother’s skin and eyes and his father’s hair.




Next chapter



Although I was initially planning to have a chef’'s fridge in every town, I’d given up on the idea by this stage.  Odessa was pure fluke.  She and India got on immediately and she was brave: an obvious replacement for Laura as an adventuring partner.  It was only after she moved in that I discovered she was close to the top of the culinary career and had maxed logic as well.  She could have been tailor-made as a dynasty helper :).

This time, the file did get smaller with the move (reduced by about a third).  I don’t know why that didn’t happen last time.

Offline Rhoxi

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: Hey Dude (26 January)
« Reply #260 on: January 26, 2014, 06:22:56 PM »

It's hard to take a guy seriously when his name is literally "Dude." I want to refer to Simon as "Lil' Dude".  :P He's a cutie, by the way! Nice to see an heir snag a unique hair color. India looks great with the long hair in her wedding photos, by the way.

Offline saltpastillen

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: Hey Dude (26 January)
« Reply #261 on: January 27, 2014, 02:37:00 AM »
Congrats on the new heir!

I must confess I have never played in Barnacle Bay at all - I will look forward to learning more about the town.



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Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: Hey Dude (26 January)
« Reply #262 on: January 27, 2014, 03:21:25 PM »
It's hard to take a guy seriously when his name is literally "Dude."

It's hard to take him seriously anyway ;).  He's like a big kid.  I love that his default action when left to his own devices is to head off to the beach and splash about in the waves.

Barnacle Bay has some very odd first names, Squidy (Inkbeard) being probably my favourite, although Barnacle (Bill) and Captain (Roberts) are close runners-up, together with my first choice for India's spouse: Spot Dalmatia, one of the firefighters.  He combines a weird name with very pale skin, so that any rainboo offspring should have been more over towards the pink end of the spectrum.  I even blew §500 of India's autograph session fees on a hoax call to the fire service but a female firefighter turned up instead :(.  Maybe I can marry him to one of the Woods later...

I want to refer to Simon as "Lil' Dude".  :P He's a cutie, by the way! Nice to see an heir snag a unique hair color.

Lil' Dude :).  That's sweet.  I'm so pleased that the rainbow skin and Goopy's eyes have persisted for another generation - and Dude's unusual hair colour was one of his main selling points as a spouse, so it's great that Simon inherited it.  I hope he gets his Dad's non-clone looks as well, but it's too early to say.

India looks great with the long hair in her wedding photos, by the way.

That's been her standard formal outfit and hairdo since she aged up to young adult but I think it's the first time she's had a chance to wear it :).

Congrats on the new heir!

I must confess I have never played in Barnacle Bay at all - I will look forward to learning more about the town.

Thanks :).  I've hardly played there either until now, even though I've had it as long as Hidden Springs.  I had them both as presents for the same birthday and fell so heavily for Hidden Springs' gorgeous scenery that poor Barnacle Bay got rather overlooked.  It definitely had to be one of the four towns for this dynasty: the townies are interesting-looking (almost on a Twinbrook scale in some cases  :P), it doesn't have combined rabbitholes and the library has so many skill books it's ridiculous.  After a single bookcase in Monte Vista, that's very welcome :).  It also has a lot of celebrities.  India went from being a 2-star celebrity when she arrived to the full 5 stars within a week, just from chatting and making friends.

Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty
« Reply #263 on: February 08, 2014, 10:50:51 AM »
Matchmaking

The three adults shared the toddler-teaching duties, fitting them in between work shifts, skilling and board-breaking.



Soon Simon was ready for another cake.



Dude took his son off to the mirror and dresser and Simon came back looking like a real little surfer dude – although he didn’t seem entirely happy about it.



Now that he was school-aged, Odessa took over as his main teacher, tutoring him almost to the top of the class before he’d even started school.



India, as some newlyweds do, wanted her friends to be as happy, and as married, as she was.  She dug out her notebook and made a few calls.  Yes, Moe Pesce was still single and yes, he was still interested in Odessa.  India invited him over for a chat and then asked him to move in.



He lost no time in advancing his relationship with Odessa.



Moe proved a useful addition to the household.  He was handy, he liked gardening and fishing and he could even walk on water.



*   *   *   *   *

Thanks to Odessa’s tutoring, Simon was ready to leave primary school in a remarkably short time.





This time, he went to the mirror and dresser on his own and picked out clothes to suit himself rather than his father.  He’d already decided which skill he’d like to specialise in and had persuaded his parents to buy him an inventing bench for his birthday.



Creating new gadgets turned out to be just as much fun as he’d hoped – but it was undoubtedly hard on the thumbs.  He changed into his other form, hoping to avoid further injury.



It didn’t help noticeably.  At least he’d avoided setting himself on fire so far – and there was a shower in the corner, just in case his luck ran out.

*   *   *   *   *

Moe had a birthday just after Simon.



Dude saw him fretting over his new wrinkles and did his best to cheer him up...



...although Odessa had rather more success.





India was delighted.  Odessa was so great with kids; it was high time she had one of her own to love.  So she took Moe aside and lent him one of her magical family heirlooms.  He made good use of it.







Neither of them wanted a big wedding, so on their next shared day off they hired a water taxi and took off up the coast, past the beaches...



...around the headland...



... and into the estuary below the science facility.



The little boat bounced upriver to the pool below the waterfalls.



Then it slowed, pulled over into the shallows so that they could splash their way to shore and whooshed off again.   Their clothes were soaked.  They towelled themselves down, giggling.  It was a good thing they hadn’t worn their best clothes for the boat trip.  Then, dried off, smartly dressed and serious again, they exchanged their rings and promises.






Offline Rhoxi

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: Matchmaking (8 February)
« Reply #264 on: February 08, 2014, 02:29:03 PM »

Yes, go my pretties, and make little non-clone-faced nooboos for Simon to marry!  ;D

Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: Matchmaking (8 February)
« Reply #265 on: February 08, 2014, 06:36:26 PM »
Well, that was the general intention but my Sims sometimes have minds of their own  ::).  Simon turned out to have definite ideas about his bride-to-be and wasn't going to let a mere Watcher get in his way.  I'm now planning to get the Cross-Pesce genes into the family in generation ten but who knows what will happen? :)

Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty
« Reply #266 on: February 09, 2014, 09:57:32 AM »
The Inventing Business

Simon’s days as a teen passed uneventfully.  He’d registered as a self-employed inventor and whenever he wasn’t asleep or at school he could be found at his bench, trying to figure out yet another gizmo.  He made time to go to Prom (in his everyday clothes – he’d meant to have a shower and change but this really cool idea had got in the way) and, to his surprise, was voted King.



Before he’d really had time to work out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, the sparkles hit...



...and he was a young adult.



His mother suggested looking on the family website for inspiration.  He found an ancestress, Andi, who’d been an inventor.  She’d reached the top of the self-employed career but it had taken a long time and he was keenly aware that their lives were shorter now.  Maybe he should keep inventing as a hobby and make a living from something else.  But what?  Inventing was his only skill, unless you counted the smattering of handiness he’d managed to acquire in passing – certainly not enough to be useful in a career.

More poking about on the website gave him his answer: business didn’t require any skills at all, just a willingness to work hard and get on with your colleagues.  So, OK, he’d be a businessman.  But not quite yet.  There were things he wanted to invent before he relegated it to a part-time activity.  It wasn’t as though he could start a new job yet anyway, what with the weekend looming and a day of non-graduation holiday before that.  He’d already won one award for widget-making.  What could he achieve with three days of concentrated, school-free effort?



The answer turned out to be a time machine – and a medal from a grateful city.

He was also aware that he had challenges to complete.  Well, one would be easy enough.  He drove the Motive Mobile over to the Academy and picked up some of the gems that his mother had left lying around after her last practice session.



Next stop, the military base.



He’d heard that blowing up that huge model plane could be very profitable.  He prepared the detonator, threw it and ran.



The explosion wasn’t quite as dramatic as he’d hoped but the result was impressive: 1500 units of scrap.  Two challenges done in a few hours!  At this rate, he’d be finished in a couple of days.

Except that, of course, he wouldn’t really.  He was well aware that his biggest problem was going to be the career requirement.  Was he really cut out for office life?  He’d failed to think of a better alternative, though.  As soon as it was fully light, he headed off to Doo Peas and signed up.  As a teaboy.  They might call the position ‘Coffee Courier’ but that was just misplaced political correctness in Simon’s opinion.  He was still the lowest of the low.

As he was leaving the office building, his phone rang.  It was his mother.

“Simon!  Haven’t I warned you and warned you against public disgrace?  People in our position have to be so careful.  Now look what you’ve done...!”

He stood there and listened meekly, waiting for her anger to die down.  How was he to know that blowing up that plane would lead to so much trouble?  Of course, he had seen the witnesses across the road but he hadn’t really thought they mattered.  Who would have expected a trio of wild horses to gossip to the press?

It was then that he noticed that he wasn’t alone.  A family group had come to sit in the sun, chat and read.  Doo Peas Corporate Towers didn’t seem like the obvious venue for a family outing but he supposed it took all sorts.   He walked over and introduced himself.  Of course, they’d read the Sunday papers, so he had a lot of rumour-dispelling to do before they’d give him a civil reply.  Once he’d convinced them that it was all a misunderstanding, though, they were ready to be friends.  Especially the daughter, Coral...



Simon was instantly and totally smitten.  Coral was attractive, athletic and she was even wearing his favourite colour, lime green.  Then he asked her about her job and discovered that she was also a Coffee Courier at Doo Peas.  He kept her talking long after the rest of the family had left.  Then he moved on from chitchat.



She seemed as attracted as he was.  He invited her back to the house and they spent the afternoon playing on the water slide.



Then he asked her to move in.  It would be good to have a colleague living in the same house.  They could share a lift into work and moan about the boss together. 



Besides, it would make working on his, ahem, co-worker relationships a lot easier.



For a while, it looked as though Coral might actually beat Simon to CEO: she kept getting all of the opportunities.  But after he read an economics textbook and then took to schmoozing the boss at every opportunity, his career progression overtook hers.  She didn’t mind: she was contemplating swapping careers at some point.  She’d already turned down one offer of a transfer into the political career.  If they asked again, she’d decided to accept.  Simon had told her about the conditions he had to fulfil as heir and Coral knowing all the same people might be a problem come best-friend time.  For now, though, being able to spend all of their time together was wonderful.



And daredevil Coral certainly livened up the household – Simon never could be sure whether his discarded clothes would stay where he’d left them after she’d conned him into yet another skinny dip.







But she was always willing to make it up to him afterwards.



*   *   *   *   *

Simon’s personal life might be going well but his dynasty tasks weren’t.  In his second week of young adulthood, he received his second opportunity, to upgrade a stereo.  It wasn’t a great success, to say the least.



First he got fried (twice), which was bad enough.  The lingering currents that kept his right foot twitching for hours were worse.  Then the fire started.



Fortunately, Odessa turned up with her extinguisher and saved the day.  Coral thought it was excellent fun.  Simon didn’t.  Once the flames were well and truly out and he’d had a shower and a change of clothes, he called Lee-Roy to say that he was sorry but the upgrade just wasn’t going to happen.


Next chapter



I was about to say that Simon and Coral are the most romantic couple I’ve ever played but that wouldn’t quite be true.  Basically, it’s all about the WooHoo.  They have occasional wishes to  kiss or watch the stars together but you can rely on at least one WooHoo wish from each of them per day,  Simon got his first about Coral approximately five seconds after they met and nothing’s changed since.  In fact, he often rolls two at once: ‘WooHoo with Coral’ and ‘WooHoo with Coral Goldbeard’.  It’s almost as though the game thinks they’re two separate people, although both wishes get fulfilled at the same time ;).

Coral was quite a lot older than Simon – she starts the game as a teenager.  The day he invited her to join the family turned out to be her adult birthday.  Fortunately, in Barnacle Bay, life fruit are ten a penny.  She grabbed a couple from the fridge and then, stuffed but no longer about to age up, headed off for a makeover.  She’s now a few days younger than her boyfriend.

*   *   *   *   *

The original Simon was intended to be a short-term Sim.



I created him for the Crazy Eights Collector’s challenge, which I was playing for my own amusement some time after the event, but he was such a likeable Sim that I kept him on, for other short-term games and now as my primary house tester.  Come to think of it, he and the first India have quite similar personalities.  Maybe I should introduce them...



Since there’s still space for some more pictures in this update, let’s have some more outtakes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Offline Rhoxi

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: The Inventing Business (9 February)
« Reply #267 on: February 09, 2014, 12:01:12 PM »

Oo, I love the makeover you gave Coral, as seen in that picture where she's super happy about the fire. Ah, daredevils.  ::) Gotta love 'em!

Offline Ausette

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty
« Reply #268 on: February 09, 2014, 08:24:37 PM »
Finally, does anyone know what this is?

It looks a lot like a jar for collecting tips but it appeared at a fishing spot and the only option for interacting with it was ‘Watch’.  The action cancelled almost immediately, either because the game realised it was an error or because the Sims got bored.  After all, it wasn’t doing anything interesting, or indeed anything at all.  Could it be some kind of mutant small pet?

I think it's a glitched out performer of some sort. I see them around occasionally and like to think of them as troupes of performing fleas:



Also, I have to second the compliment on Coral's makeover. I love your use of that WA outfit; you've made it modern and edgy without being too out there. Excellent use of accessories.  :)

Offline RainBeau

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: The Inventing Business (9 February)
« Reply #269 on: February 10, 2014, 02:36:53 AM »
Whew! Finally caught up! About the separate wishes, the one that includes last name is a special wish to WooHoo with a celebrity. If you read the fine print, it mentions something about that. One of the benefits of being a celebrity, I suppose!
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