Whirligig's Immortal Dynasty - The Harsher Family - Updated Dec 13, 2014

[Whirligig]

Hi, I'm Whirligig. I've been lurking around the guide and forums for a while now, figured it was about time I got involved. And why not hit the ground running by getting started with an Immortal Family Dynasty Challenge? I'm not really a power-gamer, and I'm quite a fan of mods, so this will really and truly be a challenge for me.

I have no intention of getting incredibly creative with this documenting of the challenge, and I can be pretty slack when it comes to taking pictures of game play (I just get so caught up in the game). For example, I took quite a few pictures of the first day of the challenge, and basically nothing after that. :-P

To see my spreadsheet where I'm documenting everything, click here.

Chapter List
Chapter I: Meet Nevaeh (oh, and Adam)
Chapter II: Keeping Busy & Performing Poorly
Chapter III: More Parties than I Care to Count
Chapter IV: Goodbye Nevaeh
Chapter V: Put the Pedal to the Metal
Chapter VI: Not Quite There
Chapter VII: It Just Wasn't Meant to Be

[Whirligig]

Chapter I – Meet Nevaeh (oh, and Adam)

Adam Harsher began his existence like many other challenge sims, in the world known as CAS.
 


Here, he was carefully and painstakingly crafted to be the prime sim for starting off an Immortal Dynasty Challenge.



He was then, again like many challenge sims, rather unceremoniously dropped onto a big empty lot.



The Langraabs were evicted and sent to live in a smaller house than the one they were accustomed to, their big fancy house demolished. In its place, a small and simple brick cottage was constructed for Adam’s enjoyment.



 Though it could hardly be called extravagant, the cottage featured all the basic necessities (plus a higher quality stove and fridge).



Which Adam immediately christened by preparing a serving of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, in true sims style.

He was then sent off to the park to “socialize” and “meet people.” He was not unsuccessful.



He played a game of chess with Liberty Lee



But he spent most of the excursion socializing with Miss Nevaeh Mohajer. I quite liked her, and the fishing getup, though unflattering, was encouraging. The angel fish aren’t going to catch themselves, and an angler could be incredibly useful.



So that afternoon, he invited her over where they continued socializing.



By 4:40 pm, the two are friends and Adam invites Nevaeh to move in. I wanted to get a spouse fast, but I was not expecting to be quite so successful. I quite like Nevaeh (even if I keep misspelling her name).



Did I mention that I quite like Nevaeh?



And because we aren’t wasting any time here, I send the two to town on a date. First kiss,



And success! That’s one tick for a social event, too. 



Get used to it, Nevaeh. It’ll be grilled cheese for quite some time at this rate. When you’re finished with that family-sized serving, there’s three more in the fridge.

And this is when I forgot that taking pictures was a thing.
Nothing too interesting happened. Adam and Nevaeh woohooed a lot because I didn’t buy a TV until later. Nevaeh got pregnant, because what did I say about not wasting any time? She brought around $20,000 with her when she moved in, so I expanded the house a bit and added a nursery (but didn’t take a photo), and also got started on a small garden just from collecting seeds from the plants growing around the neighbourhood (again, no pictures).



So the next picture we have is of Neveah painting. I know I wanted her to focus on fishing, but there’s also that pesky ambitious trait of hers that demands she be in a career. So I put her in the painter career for now. Adam met Nevaeh and brought her home, so now he doesn’t do much of anything interesting. He just cooks meals that are stockpiling in the fridge.



Skip forward a few more days and we have Nevaeh giving birth to Generation 2! By the end of week 1, people! Yay for making progress!



Universe, meet Noah Harsher. Yes, I was uncreative and went with another biblical name, so sue me.

Next update will probably feature more Nevaeh, and hopefully less gaps in the timeline.

[KTK10]

Your founder is very cute and no wonder you love Neveah - she is gorgeous! Good luck with your dynasty requirements, I will be reading along.

[Franki]

Good Luck with your Dynasty

[Tipi]

elcomw to the forum, Whirligig. And good luck with your dynasty. Adam is really cute - I like the nerdy types .) .

[Whirligig]

Your founder is very cute and no wonder you love Neveah - she is gorgeous! Good luck with your dynasty requirements, I will be reading along.

She is quite pretty. I might get her to lose a bit of weight if I have the time/can be bothered, but I doubt it. The other thing I didn't realize about her when I wrote up the first installment was that she came to me with the fishing skill maxed - how cool is that?

Good Luck with your Dynasty

Thank you.

elcomw to the forum, Whirligig. And good luck with your dynasty. Adam is really cute - I like the nerdy types .) .

Thanks - I like the nerdy types, too. I didn't realize until now but I think I subconsciously based him off my boyfriend, because now that I think about it, there's an eerie resemblance.  Also, we had a family friend a while back who was a chef - and he basically told us to "never trust a skinny chef." So I made a skinny chef.

Thanks everyone. :-) I'm really looking forward to getting more involved around here. While I haven't ticked off much (apart from the emotional whims - I only need one more!), I feel like I'm making decent progress. However, my computer apparently has more issues with TS4 than I initially thought. It keeps turning itself off without any warning (more likely than not due to internal temperatures - HPs are notorious for overheating). Basically I'm about to attempt to get gold on a dinner party so Adam can finish the tier 2 goals for his Master Chef aspiration for the fourth time. (I must remember to save midway through this time!)

In the meantime, I'm going to write what I've played up to this point, to give the computer a break from running the game. It will be edited into this post shortly.

~~~~~~

Chapter II – Keeping Busy & Performing Poorly



These two are actually a pretty sweet couple – their romance relationship bar is pretty well maxed out, though they seem to be having a hard time with the green bar. I’m putting it down to all that love making.



Seriously though, it’s the best way to raise the fun bar in a hurry.
But before I get too carried away, as promised have a picture of the house:



That’s the beginnings of the garden. I’m going to have Nevaeh focus on that for now, and I ended up switching her aspiration to freelance botanist when I realized she came with her fishing skill already maxed out! Also, I am kind of regretting choosing Oasis Springs over Willow Creek, since there isn’t actually a fishing spot in this neighbourhood. The nursery is a super cute one I downloaded from the gallery.



After Noah was born, the next few days were busy but rather uninteresting. Noah peed and cried and pooped and Adam & Nevaeh cared for him.



Unless I get bored/stupid later on, only one kid for these two. I want to get the big happy family aspiration done early, but not first go (at this point I’m thinking maybe Generation 3?). I’d like to keep the household relatively tame until then.



Adam also ended up in charge of all the repairs as the cheap things in their cheap house kept breaking.



I was impressed when Adam didn’t shock himself when he only had about half a handiness skill point.



For Adam’s second aspiration, I think I might have him go for Master Mixologist just to get the two culinary ones out of the way. I read somewhere that someone was switching between two aspirations rather than attempting one, then the other, so I briefly switched Adam over to Master Mixologist to slowly work on his twenty drinks when he’s not cooking (i.e. when the family is living off leftovers).



Additionally, I want to get a head start on the whole friend making thing. Making and maintaining friends is one thing I’m finding hardest in the sims 4 (hence why I went with the outgoing trait for Adam – I need all the help I can get!).
This is Belle. She has pink hair that I am itching to change – that hat/hair thing is actually awful.



Yes Belle, I would be facepalming, too, if my hair/hat were pulling that stunt.
Belle was, however, kind enough to become Adam’s first Good Friend. I’m not marking his friends down until he’s completed everything else, though, because friendship deteriorates fast in this game.



And this is Jovisa or Jolina or something – I can’t remember. She’s friends with Adam, and likes popping by the house to hang out from time to time. Also, no glitchy hat, which is a plus.



While Adam was fixing things, mixing drinks and making friends, Nevaeh was both maintaining the garden and progressing through the artist career.





Perhaps not as quickly as I would like for money purposes, but I’m not in a hurry with her to nearly the same extent that I’m in a hurry with Adam as, sad as I am to admit it, she’s not an immortal. The only reason she’s in a career is because I don’t want the negative moodlets from the ambitious trait (I’m really miss the option to be self-employed we had with TS3 right now).



Noah grew up without much fanfare. He’s a cheeky little sport – I gave him the childhood aspiration of Rambunctious Scamp. He insisted on the sunnies. My hope for him is that he follow in Nevaeh’s footsteps and take over the gardening/fishing side of things, but that won’t be until his teen years of course.



He grew up on a Sunday with most of his needs in orange or red, so he spent the day eating, showering and sleeping. That evening, however, Nevaeh took him into town so he could play on the jungle gym while playful to complete the first tier of his aspiration.



Nevaeh took this opportunity to do a little bit of fishing, but it was really too late in the day to get much done, I felt.



So I sent her back to play with Noah for a bit before sending them both home. The two of them have an incredibly high relationship, I love it.



The next morning sees Noah up bright and early and full of energy for his first day of school.



And for the rest of the week, it’s all about him. Dancing.



Playing on the Monkey bars.



Doing his homework.



And practicing his typing skills.

We’re nearing mid-week, though, and so I’m not too hopeful that he’ll be finished tier 2 or be at a B grade by the end of the week. I still find this game such a challenge and am wondering if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.

Bonus! This is how I got the embarrassed whim. I want to feel sorry for the guy, but I’m too busy laughing at the fact that this is even in the game to begin with. Stay Classy, Maxis. ;-)

[sdhoey]

Your founder is so adorable. I see that you are also having the hat issue with the hairs too.. LOL Good luck on your journey with your sims.

[Margerita]

Nevah sure is cute, but I got to admit that I hate, hate, hate that greenish brown hair color in both the sims 3 and 4.
I recently did the childhood aspiration that you are doing, I had no major trouble with it but then again he only went to bed twice.
The rest of the time he was feed energy potions that might have helped.

[Playalot]

Good luck with your dynasty.  Shame about the poor performance  LOL

[MarianT]

Good luck! I have to admit, I have trouble remembering to take screenshots, too.

[KTK10]

Noah grew up to be a cutey pie. Great aspiration to have - it's actually one of my favourites. Loved to embarrassed moodlet, I've never seen that before! hahaha

[Whirligig]

Chapter III – More Parties than I care to count.

Good morning/evening/afternoon friends, neighbours and fellow simmers. When we last left the Immortal Dynasty household of Oasis Springs, Adam wasn’t doing too well, while Noah was working relentlessly towards his goal of becoming the most rambunctious of scamps, and achieving an “A” in school.



He was, however, introduced to miss Olivia Spencer-Kim-Lewis, who became his sole childhood friend on account of the fact that all that skilling left little time for socializing.

Is it wrong of me to want to set him up with a spouse as soon as possible? Child brides? Arranged marriages? I mean, it seems unethical...

Then again, this is sims we're talking about.



Adam, meanwhile, was focusing his attention on becoming the top socialite in Oasis Springs. He was going to top the Mixology Branch of the Culinary Career, and would need, at some point, twelve friends in order to advance in the career. Notwithstanding the 6 good friends and one unique BFF who, due to the tendency of this game to spawn adult townies rather than young adult townies, had yet to be secured.



Becoming both a Master Chef and a Master Mixologist has a lot to do with the number and the quality of the parties one throws. Adam decided to start his career as a Party Sim Extraordinaire with a Dinner Party.



Due to the fact that Whirligig lives in the Southern Hemisphere where summer is fast approaching, and due also to the fact that Whirligig insisted on playing the Sims 4 on a very hot November evening, this party took several attempts. This was because Heidi, her laptop, was profusely protesting the task of running a game on a hot evening and kept shutting down.



However, despite technical setbacks, the fourth dinner party was nearly as successful as the first three, and a gold medal dinner was finally achieved (and SAVED!).


 


The next party required a bit of work to be done beforehand. See, they have a lovely relationship and a lovely house (actually, the house is a bit of a work in progress) and a beautiful son, but Adam and Nevaeh are not yet married! So just before Nevaeh leaves for work one morning, Adam catches her by surprise.



How romantic?



Adam, of course, intends to self-cater the wedding so once he has the house to himself he prepares everything for the evening festivities.



And Noah fancies he’ll be the one providing the entertainment for the evening. Let’s not tell him they’ve hired a violinist, mmkay? I don’t think he’s quite ready to perform in public.



I don’t suppose Nevaeh’s ever heard “Marry in black; you’ll wish yourself back.”



Irrespective of the colour of the dress, Adam and Nevaeh were hitched without a hitch (ha ha) and the party continued.



Drinks were enjoyed.



And for their wedding dinner, there was chili (the height of class!)

And a gold medal was achieved for the wedding party!



Now before the next party can happen, Noah has a lot of work to do get his grades up to scratch and to finish that aspiration. Olivia, now a teen, helps him out with mental, and he spends a few more hours practicing the violin.



His efforts are successful. Now to focus on the motor skill!



A few more hours playing keyboard commander, and then a few hours on the monkey bars.



Success!

Now for more parties!



Ignore the bright red plumbob – the kid was a bit tired, but I was gunning for a hat trick. I only wanted to have one birthday party, but that was not meant to be.

I learned two important lessons. Dinner parties and Weddings and Dates don’t require you to complete ALL the mini-goals to get a gold – you can usually leave one or two and still get a gold medal for the event. Birthday parties, however, do require you to complete all the tasks, and one task in particular is incredibly challenging.



That would be “Compliment the birthday sim x4”. The main problem is, as far as I can tell, only two socials count towards this. One being the “Give Heartfelt Compliment” triggered by the happy emotion. This option is also on a bit of a timer – I don’t know how else to put it. It, like the “Get to Know” interaction, can’t be repeated several times immediately. So Adam gave Noah a heartfelt compliment, and then even though Adam was still “Happy” he couldn’t compliment Noah again.

The other interaction that works for this one is “Compliment appearance” – which is a romantic social. The only controllable sims I had in the household were Adam and Nevaeh, neither of whom could perform romantic socials with Noah, for obvious reasons. Thus, I was stuck on silver for this event.



So, after Noah’s party finished at 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon, Adam went straight for the phone for a second shot at the gold medal birthday party.

He also got lucky and rolled the mini-goal of obtaining 4 compliments, though at this point I was too late to realize that Nevaeh could compliment him so once again, I got a silver medal.

(Also, so concerned was I with party scores that I didn’t snap a good picture of Noah post-teen transition. That’s about the best one I’ve got – never fear, though, for I am sure there will be more next update).



“You know what they say,” Neveah says at breakfast the next morning (The Harsher family really likes their chili, okay?), “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.”

So Adam picks up the phone, calls up the usual suspects, and plans a birthday party for his wife first thing Sunday morning, as she hasn’t auto-aged-up yet.



“I wish to receive four compliments today.”

Nevaeh, no!



But this time Adam has things in the bag. Three “Compliment appearance”s  later, and we finally have our gold medal birthday party! About time!



And as that leaves us more or less where I’m up to in the game, and at the maximum of 25 images in a post, here is where I will leave you with a picture of Adam fumbling one of many mixology drinks.

Next time, angelfish and more about Noah as a teen.

[Whirligig]

Your founder is so adorable. I see that you are also having the hat issue with the hairs too.. LOL Good luck on your journey with your sims.

The hats with the hairs...It's annoying. Until there's a Dynasty-legal way to give the town makeovers, I guess they're going to have to stay, short of me going through and removing all the CC hairstyles.

Nevah sure is cute, but I got to admit that I hate, hate, hate that greenish brown hair color in both the sims 3 and 4.
I recently did the childhood aspiration that you are doing, I had no major trouble with it but then again he only went to bed twice.
The rest of the time he was feed energy potions that might have helped.

I'll be honest, I wouldn't have chosen that particular colour, but she generated with it and I liked the style. The green sort of works for a nature sim?

I didn't have much trouble with the aspiration. I think he only used sleep potion two or three times in total, too. It's definitely one of the easier ones.

Good luck with your dynasty.  Shame about the poor performance  LOL

Thanks. Yeah, it's a shame, but it made me giggle, too.

Good luck! I have to admit, I have trouble remembering to take screenshots, too.

Yeah, I think I just played about three simdays with not a screenshot to prove it. Nothing terribly interesting happened, and I just...forgot. :-/

Noah grew up to be a cutey pie. Great aspiration to have - it's actually one of my favourites. Loved to embarrassed moodlet, I've never seen that before! hahaha

I think it's one of my favourites, too - definitely one of the easier ones.

I haven't seen that moodlet before or since - but these two do woohoo a lot because, as I said, it's the best way to raise fun in a hurry. I'm wondering if it's a remnant of the woohoo skill that was rumoured before release before it was taken out, or if it's random.

[sdhoey]

I never have problems with my birthday goals. I make sure that my household is as close to middle in the needs or higher. I have them do the compliments. Only on the dates have I ever had to use the romantic compliments to complete any of the other event goals.

On the story. poor boy needs some rest. He is plum tuckered out. Let him sleep watcher... LOL

[KTK10]

So many parties! Glad you got Gold in the end. And I too have had the sitting outside in the heat and having my laptop shut down  .. Thank goodness you saved!