The Fox Legacy

[Indira]

It's a great story Playalot! I just read from ch1-26 in one sitting. I was too engrossed reading manga this week to check forum. 

I empathize with the pain of letting Joe go.  I'm also one of those that don't want Sims to die. So heartbreaking.

Of the two brothers, I initially liked Jon more as he was more lively and Jake was a bit dull and a goody-goody. But Jake has grown on me since he matured and took on more responsibilities.

Your sims have good genes too.

**Waiting eagerly for your next installments! **

[Playalot]

@ Becki, thanks it's getting harder and harder to get to the 'juicy bits' of the story as playing with 8 sims is really time consuming. I'm still loving every minute of game play tho' so it's great to know the story's good enough to keep you hooked.   

@ arimau, K is the letter of the generation  What comes next? Come on, say it with me... lol  na, I don't like L.    Jokes! I keep trying to remember about the screen shots but I get so engrossed with the game play that I just keep on darn forgetting! As for the gender of little nooboo number three, well you'll not have long to wait.

@ Indira, thanks for reading. I must admit I really like goody-goody men so it's going to be difficult playing a mean or evil sim if the random trait generator should throw me such a sim, but, as I'm discovering, that's part of the beauty of legacy's, they make you try new things out that you wouldn't have otherwise.

*Hands out some popcorn, it's a long movie folks and we're not even half way through*

[Devin]

@ Becki, thanks it's getting harder and harder to get to the 'juicy bits' of the story as playing with 8 sims is really time consuming. I'm still loving every minute of game play tho' so it's great to know the story's good enough to keep you hooked.   

I have thus far struggled with as few as five, so I can't even imagine. The fact that you can keep up with a story at all is phenomenal.

I'm still jealous of your lighting, too!

[Playalot]

I have thus far struggled with as few as five, so I can't even imagine. The fact that you can keep up with a story at all is phenomenal.

I'm still jealous of your lighting, too!

I have a lot of ceiling lights and then I put wall lights where the family seem to mostly sit/eat etc. One good trick is that I use those standing lights in the sitting room area and directly above those I have ceiling lights so it makes it nice and bright.

[Devin]

How high are your walls? Even the highest priced ceiling lights, combined with wall lights, are leaving my rooms dark during the day with big windows. You do have a lot of windows, so that could be something to do with it, but I feel like I wind up with too many windows and not enough wall space for decorative stuff. Ergh.

Here I am drilling you about the house -- and we all know you can build -- but honest to goodness, I like the way that you handle your sims. At this point in time, you're one of my favorite stories because of the creativity that you have with the story and your insane ability to handle such a large household of digital people. I'd hate for you to think I'm here to mooch off of your building knowledge and/or ability, because that alone isn't enough reason to keep reading. Pretty pictures, pretty sims, and a good storyline to go with it are awesome (:

[Playalot]

Chapter 27: A Teenage Daughter

My little princess aged up.


We all celebrated.


And then it hit me, Oh My Watcher I am SO not ready for a teenage daughter.


Kayleigh got straight to her homework. She got really grumpy when I asked her if she wanted any cake. She looks fine to me, I couldn't really see what the issue was at all.


Later Mum said to me that Kayleigh was really concerned how plump she had become just at the mention of cake. It was like some how she put on half her body weight again, just in a blink of the eye! Kayleigh spent every waking moment on the treadmill with Mum mentoring her.


Ohhh, getting fit's never easy. Ouch <cringe>


Then it was one last little cuddle with nooboo three. Nia became all nostalgic as our house was so full now we both knew that we just couldn't squeeze another sim in no matter how much we wanted to.


I took the nooboo gently from Nia, "It's time you know" I whispered, and put the wee one back to bed.


Not a moment too soon.


Soccer uniform and all.


Happy Birthday Kaiden.


Once I'd got the two boys tucked up in bed I came downstairs and found Jon just staring at a Potion of Life.


He debated for ages about drinking it. I just let him talk, I knew that it was a big decision for him. You see if he drank it, Jon felt that he was betraying Cassandra as he would be turning back the clock to when he first became a young adult. Cassandra's next birthday would be moving her towards being an elder. Jon looked at me with a wry grin and drank it. "I've got so much more I want to do still, he said shrugging.



I agree with his decision, I think Jon ... well, It doesn't matter now, the decisions been made. Here are some updates on the house. We added on a third floor for the kids. Only now that Kayleigh's a teen she'll need her own room but we'll worry about that tomorrow.


The second floor has had a change round, more bathrooms and the gym moved to the corner so we can look out over the beautiful river as we work out.


The next day saw Jon and Cassandra enjoying a trip into space.


I didn't see them land but it made Kayleigh ask THAT question. I told her to go ask her mother.


Here's my girl heading off for her first shift at work. She's already completed her first adult aspiration to be a Mansion Baron as apparently our house has everything you need. She won't tell me what her second aspiration is and Nia just shook her head at me and said that there would be tears before bedtime. The mind boggles, I think I need a Granny Smash, or two.


The boys hung out and did stuff.


Nia, bless her, couldn't stand the mess any more.

[Playalot]

@ Becki, gosh, please mooch away, err, you know what I mean<<< that sounds strange! I've learnt everything I know from reading other legacy stories from TS3. And I've just been lucky enough to have the time to spend on exploring TS4. The first story walls are the shortest, that was so the big windows are floor to ceiling. The next two stories are either medium or tallest (I'll check and post back). That's because one of the easiest ways to add value to your house is to use the most expensive wall covering on the most amount of walls. One of Pinstar's scoring sections in about the household wealth so that why I'm starting to cram 'stuff' into the house.

As for decorating space, I started off having everything placed nicely but I now have paintings from floor to ceiling! I'm on my second painting sim and heavens knows what it will look like after another one. I guess I could sell them but it's about trying to 'up' the household worth etc.

I don't think it really matters what your legacy house looks like as long as it works for game play. I mean if this was a real house no-one would buy it as it has WAY too many bathrooms (and in quite strange places). But for game play I need that many otherwise I have embarrassed sims etc when I want energized or focused, you know?

As for playing with 8 sims. lol It's madness! But I do think in many ways it's easier than in TS3 as they do the sweetest (and most useful) things automomously. Like the adults will help the children with homework and cook a family meal (serve dinner), clean up the mess (I love that neat trait), take out the rubbish, tidy the books... As for the breaking appliances. Well <sigh> that's another story. Haha, in fact if I started taking pictures of repairing things I could write a whole legacy just on that! 

Also, the pause button is your best friend. Often I see a sim about to do something autonomously so I hit pause and then figure out if that's what I want. Most times it's good, and if Kendra wants to spend her days drinking, well hey! She's earned it I reckon 

* first floor shortest, second and third floors medium

[Devin]

That catch you got with the baby turning to child is amazing! One time I tried over and over to catch a specific facial expression on one of my sims (Rachel Armstrong -- she should be on my Origin account [unadulteratedsim]), but I couldn't catch it no matter how quick I was with the pause button. How frustrating!

Upper level walls, I believe, have to be the shortest. Mine right now are the middle length. I might need to make them shorter, since that will bring the ceiling lamps closer to the sims and potentially solve the problem that I'm having. Alternatively, more walls (rooms that aren't square), means more wall lighting, which seems to be the brightest.

This is with a lighting mod. *sigh*

[KTK10]

Kayleigh is such a mixture of her Mum and Dad.. I'm loving how the genetics work!  I am surprised that after 3 kids none of them got Jake's dark hair. I'm looking forward to seeing what Kayleigh does in the future... I bet it's something wicked! hehehe

[Playalot]

@ KTK10, I know! I keep expecting dark hair, but no! All light like Nia's. I wonder if the next generation will go back to dark hair... but I guess that depends on who they marry.

@ Devin, I was actually trying to catch the nooboo as a child but hit the 'c' too soon! It looked pretty strange so I thought I'd pop the pic in anyway! 

[Ferretmania]

Oh my. I literally cringed when I saw that picture of Kayleigh stumbling while exercising. Ouch, that must have hurt.
I wonder what Kayleighs new aspiration is. Can't wait to find out.

[arimau]

@ arimau, K is the letter of the generation  What comes next? Come on, say it with me... lol  na, I don't like L.    Jokes! I keep trying to remember about the screen shots but I get so engrossed with the game play that I just keep on darn forgetting! As for the gender of little nooboo number three, well you'll not have long to wait.

It's a boy! Yay! Now I curious who will be the heir.

It seems the appearance of the later children (Kalani and Kaiden) is more magical when it comes to growing up… That would be great to start a fantasy-based story line, haha…  At least that’s what popped from my head.



The first picture is priceless and hilarious! I just love to see Kayleigh mouth, that’s charming haha! And those brothers look synchronized with each other. As if they have one heart or one head XD *slapped

I wonder if Jon will have at least a child with Cassandra before she becomes an Elder.

[Playalot]

@ Ferretmania, Her weight gain was fairly strange actually, like in a split second she went from plumpish to very big  . So hence the mega workout. Poor girl. Hmm, yes, her new aspiration....

@ arimau, Jon and Cassandra...  oh, I nearly let the plot slip out there... 
I just love the 'blowing candles out' face!
The race for heir is on, all the kids are skilling up and completing aspirations at a million miles an hour. I can hardly keep up with all the details.

Sorry no update today. I couldn't access the site for some reason but I've got a few chapters just waiting on my PC. I'll try to get up to speed tonight once I'm home.

Thanks for reading! 

[Playalot]

Chapter 28: Fox Craziness

I was absurdly nervous talking to Kayleigh when she got home.
"What", she said archly.


Oh nothing I said casually, I just thought we could have a chat about your new aspiration.
"You're not going to want to know", she told me.


Oh My WATCHER, WHAT?


NO


"Told you so" she quipped.
I laid the law down, there is NO way I am having a daughter of mine running around behaving like that. Forget it.


Kayleigh's reply? "I can't hear you when you yell."

I went outside to let off some steam with Jon, until I saw what he was doing. He had found some alien seeds on his last space flight and had planted them. I didn't even know what I was looking at. They were the weirdest looking plants I'd ever seen.


I left him to it and went back in to make sure the boys were in bed. I found them eating off their plates. They told me they didn't want to get 'The Fork Curse' so they just weren't going to use any utensils until they thought it was safe.


I just kept walking. Everyone's gone barking mad I thought as I went to find Nia. She distracted me somewhat.


And then sweet talked me into trying out a space flight for myself.


Started the next day with a quick game of 'you-still-can't-beat-your-old-man with Kalani.


I took a moment to tell him how proud I was of him and just how much I loved him before he ran off to school.


I went looking for Jon to ask him about that plant thing, but he was spending time with Cassandra,


so I went and asked mum if she knew what it was.


She said she'd go take a look. I headed over to the mailbox to pay our $32k bill before the power was cut off.


Awww, it's actually quite cute, she called out to me.



And then something went horribly wrong...

[Devin]

OH NO! But I don't see any cake, so that could be a good thing, right?

Kayleigh made me laugh out loud so my partner had to ask what was so funny lol