In the "Nix" of Time: A Short Dynasty (9.15.18)

[LivvieLove]

Chapter 26: Can We Slow Down Now?
Our Museum is up and looking wonderful!

I probably should express that Ima and Olga are best friends, have I expressed that prior? It should be pretty obvious.

Our sweet little Cordell was happily painting at the easel, even though he only got a minor boost from books (instead of the full 3 points like I would've liked) he seems to be really pushing through those painting levels!

Toot! Toot! The Nix train has left the station and has no intent on slowing down, at least, not yet! Olga invited over Mr. Tall, Green and Handsome - he's already grown up. His name is Derek, by the way.

"So, I'm one day away from growing up, then we need to work on those babies!"
"I'm not so sure..."
"I own the theater where you work at, so you better get sure, and get sure soon."
"Sometimes, I forget why I love you, and then it all comes right back to me."
"That's what I thought."

Ima's turning into her Watcher and going a little crazy with everything going on:

Just kidding everyone, she just really likes that school cheer.

Newsflash: Reid makes hilarious faces while drumming, here's one of them.

Everyone is probably thinking that he's spent almost 3/4s of his life playing the drums, but this isn't the case because my readers: He finally maxed the drumming skill. That's two out of four instruments down, three more to go!

"Wait, watcher? Erm, don't you mean two more to go?"
Nope! The Into the Future instrument doesn't count, but you're learning it anyways. It's a good thing I can't afford that violin, or you'd be learning that too.
"Now I understand what my dad was trying to warn me about..."
You can do it!
So, he went home, snuggled Felix, grabbed his Bass and went right back to the library.

In Nix News, these three gents are important, can anyone guess how?

Of course not! You could probably point out one but I never even told you about the other two!
We have Aiden on the far left, which everyone is probably aware of, the blond in the center is Santiago Murphy-Nix. He's the stepson of Aiden when Aiden first married Sioban Murphy - he's now engaged to Reia and they're expecting their first child. The older guy on the right is Chin Han Something er other. He seriously dated Tessa for a long time (they broke up and did back and forth stalking like Tessa did with Milton) and after Tessa died he got engaged immediately to Eliza.
Phew, that was a mouthful, no?
Speaking of pregnant Reia, I spotted her across the way and snapped a picture of her in her maternity wear. I don't think she's overly thrilled to be pregnant, considering she's got a bit of a crazed look in her eye... maybe that's why Santiago decided to hang out at the library instead of with her?

Ima decided to slow down in life, unlike her husband, and she took up the same past-time as all elders prior:

"No! No! Swerve! Get away from me! You can't catch me you coppas!"

In other good news:

Congrats Steph dear, you did that in record time too!
"Thanks! I think I want to have another baby!"
Wait? I thought Reid was family oriented... but... ok. We'll have to see about that dear, we're at seven people in the household at the moment, and that last spot is a bit precious for something specific.
"What's that?"

"It's. My. Birthday! Woo!"


So... about that makeover...
"No time! Hey! Derek, get your baby-making butt over here!"

Let's make some babies.
Try one:

No luck.
Try two:

No dice.
Finally, try three:

D'em flippers did the trick, and chimes were finally heard. I forced her to immediately abandon post to buy out every watermelon at the grocery store. She came home and got her makeover.

Please, oh please...

Let this baby look just like her mama.

Anyways, in other baby news, Felix was about to become an adorable toddler:




And I'm finally caught up. Thank goodness.
*phew* on to play some more. Thank you for being patient, readers.

[Rhoxi]

Felix looks like he's going to be a cutie: big eyes, and all unique skin/hair/eye colors. He and Olga's daughter will be very happy together. Even though she hasn't even been born yet. Wait, I may be getting just a bit ahead of myself here!  Who is the orange girl with blue eyes and pink hair, by the way? Looks like some good baby making genes to me.

[cainspath]

Olga sure knows what she wants!

Aiden and his awesome profile. I'd love to see a full face, though. Kidding! Anyway, I'm excited by how this turns out for everyone. Be back soon. 

[LivvieLove]

Felix looks like he's going to be a cutie: big eyes, and all unique skin/hair/eye colors. He and Olga's daughter will be very happy together. Even though she hasn't even been born yet. Wait, I may be getting just a bit ahead of myself here!  Who is the orange girl with blue eyes and pink hair, by the way? Looks like some good baby making genes to me.

He also has Quinn's lips, which you have no idea how happy I am that they've survived three generations (technically 4 if you count Ara as she inherited them from him). My boyfriend couldn't stop laughing at me because I was literally squealing when I saw his lips. I haven't seen Olga's daughter yet (it will be a girl. She's stuffing down 20 watermelons a day. A DAY) but if she looks anything like her mama then Felix should be one happy camper. Seeing as traits are random hopefully appearance will be enough for him, because knowing my luck she'll roll all crummy traits. 
For some reason I just couldn't figure out who you were referring to, but I found her! She's a Sackholme (no shock, she's literally a darker Susie Sackholmes clone) and she's breeding quite a bit, so we may just see her line mix with mine yet! She was also quite a bit older than Reid but too young for Sam, unfortunately, which is why I didn't get the chance to marry her in yet.

Olga sure knows what she wants!

Aiden and his awesome profile. I'd love to see a full face, though. Kidding! Anyway, I'm excited by how this turns out for everyone. Be back soon. 

Olga is amazing. Period. I'm going to be using her genes for a long, long time in many, many files.
Thank you though!

[Rannera]

I read through all of this, and enjoyed it thoroughly! I'm looking forward to the next update!

[Trip]

Felix is the cutest! And yes, I really hope that Olga's daughter looks like her. She's blindingly stunning.

[KRae]

I just read your comment on the things that annoy you thread about the constant birthdays. How do you actually get sims to a level 10 in anything on this life span?

[LivvieLove]

I read through all of this, and enjoyed it thoroughly! I'm looking forward to the next update!

Thank you! I really appreciate that!

Felix is the cutest! And yes, I really hope that Olga's daughter looks like her. She's blindingly stunning.

He is so adorable!
Honestly, I should already accept that I'll likely be disappointed by how her daughter will look. I haven't met her yet, but I keep worrying that if I keep expecting her to look just like her mom, that she'll look nothing like her mom.
However, I am determined to keep the good looks coming, so I have a special thing ready for Olga.

I just read your comment on the things that annoy you thread about the constant birthdays. How do you actually get sims to a level 10 in anything on this life span?

Haha, yes, they really do annoy me, especially when my household is full, because then everyone stops painting, teaching toddler skills, or whatever else they're supposed to be doing to go run over to a Sim and cheer for a good half an hour. Don't even get me started on birthday cakes! Everyone automatically lines up for a piece of cake even if they're not hungry!
Yeah, annoying for me. Definitely.
As for the skilling bit, it just takes a lot of practice. I mean, I do use a lot of "cheat-y" things (like the tabcasts from the Tablet and the Swift-Grow Gardening Station), but I've really just got a good routine going with my Sims. I get the Motive Mobile early on and as soon as I possibly can and then knock off sleeping and eating from my Sims routine. That time gets filled in with socializing and skilling. It's much easier to max skills when you aren't sleeping. If I can't get a motive mobile for a while, then I'll just get rocking chairs instead. The moodlet isn't as good as a full night's rest, but the rocking chair is cheaper and lets you sleep very quickly. Not to mention, you can listen to tabcasts uninterrupted while you sleep in a rocking chair. A bed will just force the tabcast off. I've probably got a million little things I've started to do, but mostly it's just luck along with careful routine.
Now if I'm actually capable of completing One Sim Band on a short lifespan, THAT'S when I'll be pretty amazed with myself. Reid is already a full adult now, but he's mastered Guitar, Logic and Drums. He's been playing away at the Bass (I keep wanting to call it a Cello, but it's not. I wish it was) and is at level 6 in that and 4 in Piano as well as 3 in that Into the Future Instrument that I can never remember the name of. That xylophone is the best thing ever though, as I don't think I could've gotten anywhere close to this without it. I also wish I wouldn't have wasted so much time on guitar, I should've let him just drill tabcasts and play other instruments over it. Shame on me. Anyways, hopefully that helps answer your question, and hopefully that question wasn't rhetorical or anything... heh..heh...

[KRae]

No, I really did want to know. I was thinking about trying one of these. I'd need to get the tab cast thing, I guess. Is it a separate item, or does it come with a pack?

[Trip]

The Tabcast comes with the MultiTab 6000 Premium Content. I haven't played on the short lifespan, but I can imagine that it's a life saver.

[LivvieLove]

No, I really did want to know. I was thinking about trying one of these. I'd need to get the tab cast thing, I guess. Is it a separate item, or does it come with a pack?

You can get it separate or in a pack - it depends on what you want. I usually only buy in the sets if I'm sure I'll use everything in the set, otherwise I'll just wait for the Premium Content to go on sale. Tabcasts aren't required, but they can really make your life easier, especially if you don't feel very confident with skilling or feel you could use a boost because of the short lifespan. Those and rocking chairs will improve your life in any game challenge that allows them. Personally, I think the tabcast was the most well spent money on the store I've ever had, but it's all preferences. This challenge is a blast! It can take a few tries to get the hang of, but it's insanely fun after you get started. Sims change so fast that it's hard to get bored or stuck.

The Tabcast comes with the MultiTab 6000 Premium Content. I haven't played on the short lifespan, but I can imagine that it's a life saver.

Yes! That's it. Thank you Trip.

You can get it as a set with the "Technophobe-No-More" set or just get the MultiTab if none of the stuff in the set interests you.

[KRae]

So far, the fast grow station is my favorite. As for the rockers, I even put two in the family graveyard for the ghosts.

[LivvieLove]

Ladies and Gentlemen, in a bout of pride I must go ahead and spoil a part of the story for you. I actually completed the One-Sim-Band lifetime wish. I'm still flabbergasted. I still have plenty of time left to do other things too. So yay for me! Sorry, this self-endorsement is now over.

So far, the fast grow station is my favorite. As for the rockers, I even put two in the family graveyard for the ghosts.

That Swift-Gro is awesome. I actually like, binged out on just about all the store content I could ever dream of with that last sale. The Nix's got a house revamp and... well actually let me just tell it in the update, eh? Hehe. If you are planning to start trying the Short Dynasty and plan to write a story, please let me know! I'm really curious to see what others are trying for this challenge.

House Update
So with that super-awesome-spectacular sale I got a whole bunch of stuff that I decided to flip the Nix's house.

Top view down.

Pool Area and Chess Rank area.

The new wedding area - I have yet to add a buffet table and place for cake yet, but I figure I'll change those out as need be. I like to have plenty of room for roaming in the yard.

The Garden and Gazebo behind it. I've rearranged all the plants in the garden now, as I have quite a few more harvestables to plant.

The Sales area, playground and laundry.

Alright here comes the lengthy explanation part:

Green Room: Empty at the moment, it soon will be filled with chests so I can empty all of the Nix's inventories and stop the lag I get in my game.
Pink Room: Science and Logic room. Hosts the science machine, computer, chess table, telescope and chemistry set.
Orange Room: Instruments room, now features the Violin.
Blue Room: Exercise room, also has an authentic wall-of-mirrors on the side you can't see.
Yellow Room: Inventions Room. Hosts the inventing table and the bot-building station.
Red Room: We've all seen this before, it's still the alchemy room, I didn't change a thing.
All of the left bedrooms got the new (to me) Not-So-Routine-Machine.

Downstairs


Updated living room now includes the playpen (that I've always wanted but too cheap to get), fireplace, flat-screen TV on the wall, and new furniture.

Not much changed in the kitchen, but I did add the new baker's station and moved the laundry in there along with the kids oven. The dining room is basically unchanged, except that I moved the mirror/dresser combo in there.

The kids room got revamped. I actually discovered that babies will get slightly better sleep on those cribs than any of the others (they all said +4 or 5 sleep - one of the two, I can't remember which - and the Fairy Folk one had +1 more than that). They also got a walker.

The miscellaneous room/once guest bedroom was transformed into the Art Room.

The kids room got some minor tweaking.

Downstairs, again.

I ended up getting the Le Cinema Plumbob set for free, so they have a home-theater downstairs.

Yup, that's one big TV. I love the Complete your Set discount - I would have never put money into some of these things (like the ice-cream maker/deep fryer... or this gigantic TV) but since they came with other sets I already bought, they were free! I highly recommend to those of you who have bought a few sets in the past, that you look through every set carefully that compiles the sets you've already bought with others, because you can easily get some new things for free.

Notice what's missing?
Yeah, you probably do.
Beds.
I've danced around my techniques a lot of time until I finally let out that I use the Motive Mobile. My Sims don't sleep, or rather, they don't need sleep, or many other things for that matter. I could probably empty the kitchen and make room for other skilling things if I wanted to because they don't eat either, but I just got that Baker's set and I really want to try it out. Anyways, I'm getting off topic, I finally got rid of the beds because they were becoming more of a nuisance than a help. I never actually touched them, but my Sims would autonomously go to sleep if it was 3 AM and they were missing even a smidgen off their energy bar. Which would result in lots of unmade beds and a thoroughly upset OCD me. I thought I would keep them, in case my Sims ever just ran out of things to do... but that's never happened. All of my Sims have died before I ran out of things to do with them.
Anyways, house update finished, time for an actual update, no? I'll save that one for another post though. I was planning on doing it all in one here, but soon realized I had like, 20 pictures of the house alone. Ta-ta-for-now!

[LivvieLove]

Chapter 27: Never Say Never
I knew this day was going to have to come sooner rather than later. I kept pushing it back and pushing it back until I finally realized that I just need to do it. Reid had to make the call.

"Two tickets for Champs-Les-Sims please?"

I thought about taking Felix with them when he got older and Olga after she had her baby, but I just had to ignore the rest of the world and let them take their own vacation, so Steph and Reid get a break from the full house to step into the Champs-Les-Sims sunshine.
Now, I could try to throw in banter, but they really didn't do much for a majority of the trip (I've still got a day left in game when I exited, so, I mean, there's something), so here's a montage with a tad bit of dialogue from me, hopefully it's not too boring.

Reid has yet to master the bass and the piano for his lifetime wish, after that it's on to the Laser-Rythmicon (yes! I did remember it this time, I just can't spell it!) and then the Violin.

Steph had a wish to max Alchemy, so I was working to oblige her. I didn't bring any ingredients though, but she did have the last skill book for Alchemy in her inventory from constantly buying out the elixir store, so that would do for those last few levels.

Reid's needs would get low, so he'd take a drive home and play there all night until his needs were low again, then he would drive back to the park to play for tips.

Steph finally made it out of the "I'll never stop learning potions" stage so I had her break down and start reading. She's also listening to Cooking tabcasts because I want her to try out the baker's set when she gets home.

Reid's making quite a bit of money (well, about $500 for the whole trip on one instrument isn't bad).

Change of scenery.

Change of scenery.

Change of scenery. It was about this time that Steph accidently maxed cooking because I was being a bad watcher and multi-tasking on Windows mode in Runescape (oops). I wanted her to roll the wish for it, but I guess not. I noticed she had one skill point in fishing, so I thought, "why not?" So from this point on she's listening to fishing tabcasts.

Change of scenery... and... MAXED! WOO!

Man this must be exciting for all of you folks at home. You know what, I think I'll just cut to the monumental stuff.

Woo, good job Steph!
"I want to make 30 elixirs, and I want to learn all the chemistry potions."
Your wish is my command. (poof)

Now let's start the countdown, shall we? 7 more to go!

Reid gets 99% of his tip money from children. I don't know how I feel about that.

Good job Steph! Elixir time?
"I'm in."
So, 30 tomatoes were bought, and alchemy ensued.

With 14 tomatoes left in her inventory, she walked away with 31 Vials of Bliss and 3,000 happiness points.
She was one point away from maxing fishing, so I decided to try to get her to roll the wish.

Buuut... I'm far too impatient. So she threw the tabcast in, went home and planted 14 tomatoes because she suddenly got the wish to garden.

Then when she wasn't gardening, I had her take up writing.

So, let's see. She's at level 6 in gardening, level 5 in writing, and maxed in handiness, logic, cooking, fishing and alchemy. Good deal. My goodness. I'm really starting to become an over-achiever here.
As for Reid, one last change of scenery (or rather 12, while you weren't looking)...


Could I have gotten this without the vacation? I'm really not sure. I mean, I already use super-cheat-y (but still legal) methods. So I'm not entirely sure if I'm worthy of saying I completed this or not. *Shrugs* Oh well, it's another point for me to add to the score. Steph and Reid are really going all out on skills because I decided from the beginning that they weren't going to have jobs. They have a lot of free-time and I want to make up (wish-wise/lifetime happiness point wise) for not getting those milestone wishes on the job.
Anyways, I'll leave you this picture with Reid playing the Laser-rythma-thingy.

Sorry for boring you all to death! Birthdays will be ensuing with the next chapter, and Sam and Ima have maxed age bars.

[LivvieLove]

So, everyone, I'm experiencing a bit of a glitch at the moment. It doesn't affect gameplay however it does irritate me quite a bit. I've actually never been so thankful for a crash before in my life. Now, a lot of people would tell me this isn't a glitch, just bad luck, but I can feel it, it's definitely not just bad luck (something fishy is up). I literally can't have female children in my game at the moment. They all turn out as boys. I've tried 10 watermelons, I've tried 20, I've tried 20 per day since the chimes went off and they all resulted in boys.
This is truly odd to me. I know that occasionally the Watermelon/Apple trick doesn't work, but this is just a little too weird since it happened 3 times in a row and something just feels off about it.
I shrugged off what happened with Steph because I figured she had simply not eaten enough Watermelon (and it was too early), but after having Olga shovel down about 50 watermelons (I do know that after a point they stop working, but it was more for just testing), Nraas showed she was still having a boy, that it was fixed there.
So I'm messing around with the mod settings to see if anything got tweaked, and fingers crossed that we get something good out of it - or I might just go crazy.


Other thing - it's not specified in the Short Dynasty's rules, and the creator hasn't been on in a while so I decided to ask you all if this should count or not. Should I be allowed to edit some houses in town that hold certain special Sims? By this I mean, I sent Ima to visit Rose (who just had a second child, but we'll get to that when I update) and the house was literally too small. There was one bed and the walls just cut everything apart (I love Dragon Valley, but the house builds there are atrocious 9/10 times) and I'm just dying to use the Nix's funds to expand a wee bit and add cribs and at least some food for the poor cat that doesn't have a bed or food (and was sleeping on the counter).
Should that be considered legal? I know is most challenges, it's not legal to edit a lot other than your own (or what you own), BUT my thinking was, it's coming out of the funds of my family anyway, so it's more of a penalty to my Sims rather than a cheat of some kind, that and it helps to make sure that the Sims of the town can continue living and growing, as I'll only ever need to edit a house once for it to be suitable for the rest of the generations...
Anyways, should I be allowed to do this and still count it as a scoring file?
I've tried messing around with the Architect career and it's just a no-go. There's simply not enough money allotted to renovations to fix up some of these atrocious houses.