After a few days in Oasis Landing, Ross had reached level 8 of his career but had run out of trait chips, so he and Plummy went home.
He spent a while working through the family's nanite collection, reverse engineering them for processors or incorporating them into chips, together with the produce from Aurelia's crystal flower garden, until his inventory was sufficiently restocked to make another trip to the future worthwhile. First, though, he made a long-held dream a reality – to create his masterpiece, a plumbot who could become a full member of the household.
Unfortunately, N04H emerged from his workshop as one of his lower-quality creations. So much for the Meisterwerk. Oh well, a series of tune-ups could take care of that problem.
With his quality finally at Future Tech, N04H was fitted with his trait chips – and Emit appeared to tell Ross that he'd been recognised as the Pioneer of Plumbotics. (I love Ross' gormless expression in that screenshot
.)
Ross maxed his career on the day after his return to Oasis Landing and celebrated by viewing his Legacy Statue.
Jack, meanwhile, had embraced his destiny and chosen to become a Canine Companion. His first dog was Bongo, whose defining trait was laziness.
Bongo watching TV while waiting for a quick brown fox to jump over the sofaI don't think any of my previous Sim dogs have been lazy but I'm likely to pick it for future games – Bongo was great fun to have around.
Ginny became a teenager…
…and, a few hours later, Aurelia had her appointment with Grim.
"No! I know I said I was tired but I'm not really
that tired."
"Tough. Into the urn, woman!"
She was only a few hours into her ninetieth day. Maybe it was the unlucky trait she'd had until an hour before.
RIP, Aurelia Haskill – possibly the nicest evil gold-digger ever. (Despite her volatile personality, she'd never lost her evilness. Everything else apart from unstable was subject to frequent changes – she ended up with angler, friendly and dramatic as her remaining traits.)
Jack aged up to young adult…
…and graduated as valedictorian, like his older brother. Unlike Ross, he didn't get a unique ribbon – he was yet another Most Popular, which was all very nice but didn't help with my aim to collect the lot.
N04H finally acquired enough happiness points to change his lifetime wish from nothing to something. He'd rolled Super Popular (which I cancelled) when he started learning charisma but otherwise seemed remarkably aimless. In keeping with his name, he chose Ark Builder – and started running around Lucky Palms with the family's collection helper, acquiring minor pets and a number of bites. (Wouldn't his casing hurt their teeth?)
Ross was still plugging away at his supermax, churning out nanites and itching a lot. After nearly two weeks of solid effort, he made his 200th.
That challenge is seriously out of proportion. I quite like the ITF skills and careers but supermaxing bot building was a real pain.
Ross moved out, taking Plummy and the five dogs with him, and N04H completed his menagerie.
That should have been the moment when he completed his lifetime wish. Nothing happened. I tried replacing the foal and an elderly cat with adult animals, following online advice, but it didn't make any difference – unsurprisingly. I can't believe the game mechanics would actually insist on breeding pairs. Catching more small pets and insects didn't help either. Eventually, I gave up, replaced the cats and horses with more dogs and moved N04H out with them. I may try that wish again later in this game. I'll certainly have a go with a human Sim some time, in case N04H's life state was the problem. He certainly had a number of animal interactions missing and was unable to befriend birds – Jack had to catch them for him. I suspect it's just a buggy wish, though
.
Ginny had her young adult birthday – and became yet another Most Popular valedictorian. She chose Fairy Tale Finder as her LTW and, like Jack before her, concentrated heavily on developing her charisma skill.
Jack adopted his fifteenth dog – appropriately enough, a Jack Russell, whom he named Patch.
He'd long ago reached the point where he could become friends with a dog merely by being within a few feet of it…
…and his lifetime wish triggered as soon as Patch set paw on the lot.
After at least a week of nightly map-watching, a unicorn appeared. I'd almost decided that Ginny's LTW could wait for the next town – she'd almost finished her moving requirements. I sent her off to make friends.
The unicorn (named Balin – clearly a Tolkien fan) blessed her. She responded by feeding him the apple from her inventory, even though she was very hungry herself.
Balin wasn't sufficiently impressed by her generosity to be willing to move in, though
.
Not too surprising – she was BFFs with Patch but was only friends with Mittens, her cat, and N04H's horses had now ceased to exist.
Ginny divided her time over the next day or two between reading bot-building books at the library and bonding with her pets, including her newly-adopted horse, Brownie, and when Balin reappeared, she was ready to try again.
This time, he agreed to join the household. Now Ginny and her pets were free to move to a more animal-friendly town (I'd been feeling really guilty about trying to keep horses on a fully-paved lot
).
House 20 summarySkills: bot building and gambling
AureliaCareer: Bot Arena (Promoter)
LTW: Gold Digger
Level 10 advanced technology, charisma and bot building
Rico LancasterLife state: ghost
(
Traits: flirty, couch potato, childish, party animal, easily impressed) - and workaholic from rebel influence.
Career: Bot Arena (Mechanic)
LTW: Living in the Lap of Luxury
Level 10 bot building and gambling
Ross MCareer: Self-Employed Bot Builder
LTW: More Than a Machine
Supermaxed bot building
Jack RussellLTW: The Canine Companion
Level 10 charisma and bot building
VirginiaLTW: The Fairy Tale Finder
Level 10 charisma and bot building
Building/property: Petite Pony Equestrian Centre
Unique rewards: Raised By Wolves, Animal Expert
N04HLife state: plumbot
LTW: The Ark Builder (unofficially achieved)
Level 10 advanced technology and bot building
The Haskills left behind several additions to the Lucky Palms graveyard:
Gene, Claudia and Halley; Aurelia and Rico, with Fido and Bongo in front.Frank's large tombstone disappeared from inventory at some point, which is appropriate for an unlucky loser, I suppose
.
The Sprite Collection Astrid Roboid
Esper Gamma Dixon Simulus
Chromec Phobus Futech
Jenum Metaso Zigrid FeronixThe Nanite Collection Scalar Tribble Quantum Neutron Lepton
Tunnelling Heisenberg Thermo Caustic Lite
Damping Induction Condensor Torque Polar
Uber Optic Entropic Dispersion PrismaticAnd, far later than I'd have expected, the school field trip collection is also complete: