Re: And the Winner Is..The End of It All - Graveyard Please

[oshizu]

@Joria  Thank you so much for the many clarifications. I'm embarrassed to admit to wanting to know everything that's going on, but getting easily confused since I myself have yet to play an RDC.
            Oh, she's in the striped shirt! She looks terribly cute with her pout in that shot with Candy!

A confusing part of playing this is since they are all in separate files, each bloodline runs into people that may be part of a different bloodline's family or acquaintances.   Like Mal and Malike.  Although he isn't living with Malike, just being a baby maker, it does make it a bit confusing.

Ahhhh, that makes things a lot clearer--I was wondering why Malcom was with Maalike then wasn't. Juggling three files sounds extremely complicated! You're quite amazing, Joria!

Thank you for taking the time to explain, Joria! <3

[Magpie2012]

Joria? Aren't the bloodlines all supposed to be in the same file? I was under the impression that they were in the same file and the same neighbourhood (like presto photoshop!

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[Joria]

Joria? Aren't the bloodlines all supposed to be in the same file? I was under the impression that they were in the same file and the same neighbourhood (like presto photoshop!

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Yes.  I almost totally messed up my story! 

What I had done was start them all in one file.  When I had my first mess up with Mediafire I lost some of my bloodlines from that single file,  but since it was just beginning days, I was allowed to just do those over and bring them up to date.  So then  I thought, if I put them all in separate files, and something goes wrong, I'll have these files and no problems.  Except it was a problem because they couldn't keep each other straight or interact correctly or age properly!!  Once again the team allowed me to fix it.  I had Retail totally current so I had to save Alien and Manor bloodlines' houses to my library, save the family to my library and then put them all in the same file as Retail putting each house back on it's proper lot and each family back in it's proper house.  It took a little financial adjusting so their money was the same as it was before I moved them but that wasn't hard.  The sad thing is they lost their inventory, both personal and in the joint inventory, so I'm having to have my Scientist helper go around and gather up stuff again and remake the ray gun etc.  My children lost the violin they had in their backpack and any items they had gathered to be able to bring with them.  Everyone kept all their achievements and people they knew but things like pictures my artist had started could no longer be worked on.   The only way I can see to make sure my files are safe is to just make a copy of them I save to my desk top, or a flash drive or something, and then replace them as I work them.  So Oshizu, your confusion was the first clue I wasn't doing things properly.  Thank you and Magpie for catching that.

So, where we're at right now is Retail Founder needs to Max her career but has achieved all the other goals.  Retail heir achieved 4 child aspirations plus level 10 violin and has aged up to a teen.  She also is friends with every single child in town who are now teens, except for Alexander Goth, Estrella Shinebright and Meghan Maar who are still children.  This may make it tough for our Mansion and Alien child to have the needed 3 friends or a club.  (Someone better get busy pollinating!)

Our Manor Founder has maxed her mixology skill, has had 3 gold parties, and now needs to max her career as mixologist.  She's currently lvl 6.  Our Manor heir is still a child and has maxed 3 aspirations and has found one NPC child for a friend.  (Can't remember his name.)  He is in her club.  I'm currently playing that bloodline and will be posting soon.

Our Alien family is right where they all left off and will be the next ones to be played.

Sorry for the mess up and the wall of text.  Many thanks to the team for allowing me to continue with this story and not have to redo it.

[Magpie2012]

*wipes sweat off brow* phew! Had me worried there for a mo! I think that's why I'm going for a Legacy as opposed to one of the Dynasty Challenges... Way less things to go wrong! Especially since I'm playing it rather loosely (and taking some tips from all the IDC's etc that I've read here over the years :-)

I'm so glad you didn't have to start over! Shizu and I would have been mighty sad for you!

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[Nettlejuice]

I was confused about the separate files as well but thank you for explaining =D

[Joria]

Sorry you guys, my stories are temporarily on hold while I indulge in some of Metro's challenges.  I'll be back.

[Joria]

Catching up is hard to do~~!  So many things always going on in a big, active family that we decided today was a great day to just chill out at one of the parks.  We went to Oasis Springs where we new we could have fun and yet skill our hearts out! 



Maalke decided things were rather stressful for her and her unborn child so she decided to practice the guitar.  It would come in handy later on when it was time to sing lullabyes.  Doesn't she look sweet with her baby bump?



Sergio had to find more crystals and things for work so off he went with pick and chisel at hand.  He's really determined to make a go of this career.  I had my fingers crossed for him to find all he needed.



I, of course, had a few tricks up my sleeve!  I knew I hadn't quite got this one down right yet so off I went to the park bar.  Here's the wind up......



The blow..........



And....tada!  Who's the mixologist now?  Me, that's right.  I'm the gal.  No Sims or Watchers were injured during this stunt.



It seemed everyone was having a great time.  Meghan was busy working on her Social Butterfly aspiration and doing quite well, despite the lack of kids at the playground.  Someone really needed to have a pollinator here so my little girl had more to play with!  Still she met a really nice boy.



While she was playing with him, she got a text asking if she wanted to come over and play at a new kid's house.  Neither one of us knew who this child was at the time but the parents were home and it was another girl so off she went.  What a surprise it was when she arrived!

"Oh no!  You're that Alien girl, Essie, Evvie, whatever!  Ewww!  You should have tol' me I wouldn' have come over for YOU."

"Well, that's not very nice.  I thought we could be friends."



"Friends?   With some wanna be who has to fake how she looks to fit in?  What, are you blue, green or what?  Or maybe purple like my llama and YOUR mama!"



"You better take that back, puke face!"

"Or you'll what?  Huh?  Whip out your puny alien spells on me?  As if!"



"Hey, maybe we started off wrong.  Let's shake and make up, ok?"

"Errr, ok."



"Stupid!  You shoulda seen that one comin'"

"You, you......big fat stupid ugly human Sim trash bucket.  That was horrid and mean and .......and....."



"Stutter much?  And what?  You gonna hit me wimp?  I don't think so!  I'll tear your scraggly hair out.  Who combs it anyway?  The cooties in your daddy's hide?"

"You asked for it, brat face!"



"Is that all you got?  My stuffed animals hit harder than that!"



"There!  Maybe that will teach you to stay on your own planet!  This town is mine!  We're the winners here and don't you forget it."



"You guys aren't nice at all!  From now on we're worst enemies!"

"You got that right, pimple puss."

(sotto voce:  Really sorry.  It's the rules.  We gotta be enemies.  I hate that.  I really like you.  Maybe someday.)

(Yeah. Maybe.  I'm sorry too.)



"Auntie Ulricke I'm so upset.  I met this really cute, cool, girl but she's the Alien kid and I had to fight her and make her an enemy.  Why do we have to be mean like that?  It's not right."



"Sorry, sweetums.  Watcher's Rules.  If our bloodline is going to win we have to do the tough stuff sometimes.  All the kids are going to have to go through that."

"I don't have to like it though, do I?"

"No lovey, you just stay your normal sweet self from now on.  Just avoid her as much as you can.  It must be sad for her too."

"Yeah.  I did say "sorry.  She understands."

"That's our girl.  Now give me a hug and go do your homework.  I've got a surprise coming."



Tune in at a later date to catch what that surprise is!

[oshizu]

The founder of this bloodline is so gorgeous! I love her smug arched-eyebrow look when she aces that cocktail.
Awww, the poor daughter having to make an enemy! Does she only have to do it once? Does this mean she can forget about this requirement forever now?
Both little girls are so cute!

How are you liking rotational play? My computer had so much trouble with the IDC--I think it would fry at the thought of 15 different households, including multiple Mansion Barons.
I really enjoy reading Rival Dynasty Challenges, though. Do you generally plan the week out in advance?
Do you have a separate little journal for each challenge?

I'm looking forward to meeting Mal and Malike's child.
And I meant to ask, you mentioned a pollinator but is there a need for repopulation in an RDC? Just curious. Seems like there's already so much to do!

[Nettlejuice]

Aw, they would make a cute group of friends but rules are rules  I liked Meghan's insult: "Is that all you got?  My stuffed animals hit harder than that!"

[Joria]

NJ, while I truly am very much a pacifist, no one ever wants to get me riled up because I can be brutal and evil.  It takes a lot, (unless you mess with my family then it doesn't take much at all), but I can remember being that angry and fighting a kid.  Kids say the darndest things.  In my day the big insult was, "Ahhh, yer mother wears combat boots!"  (WW2)  You could go on forever with "Sez who?"  "Sez me, that's who."  "Oh yeah?  Well ........" etc. etc.  Scenario:  girl one throws dirt in the eyes of girl two.  Girl two tries not to cry, runs to Mom who cleans out her eyes and says, "If they are bigger than you, get an equalizer.  You have to stand up for yourself and fight your own battles."  Girl two comes back down to see girl one smirking and still playing in the dirt.  Girl two spies a dried up, large dog turd.  Yep.  I went there.  Ahhh, the childhood memories.  Girl one was not amused.  Girl two felt pretty pleased with herself and looked all innocent coloring in her Popeye coloring book when parent one arrived to complain.  (Still giggling over that memory)  Mother two placated mother one, closed the door, turned around and burst out laughing so hard tears flowed.  I continued to endeavor to look innocent whilst awaiting the lecture that was sure to ensue once the hilarity was over.  For some reason that girl never became my friend.  Wonder why? (innocent eyes)

Ok, now that I'm through shocking you all with my childhood antics, time to answer Oshizu questions. 

Yes, you only have to have one enemy from an opposing bloodline.  It truly is the part that bothers me the most so I was glad for the lucky opportunity to get it over with.  They fought for what was hours my time, with each scene looking funnier and funnier with the faces they made.  I literally had to delete over a hundred screen shots.

Rotational play is kind of frustrating.  I forget where I'm at with each one so I have to go back and reread what I wrote and look at all the screenshots I have left.  Plus, I start off feeling like I really don't know where I'm at and where things should go, and then when I really get into it suddenly, wham!, time to switch.  I don't think a longer stint between them would be any better though.  On the other hand, it is always a fresh game right there in one file.  It doesn't have to get really bloated either.  It's a matter of keeping your inventory down.  So for Mansion Baron my plan is to make a gorgeous mansion and then when the heir moves out, sell off most stuff and just get less, but more expensive stuff so the value is still the same but the clutter is less.  Part of the problem for me is my memory is rapidly deteriorating so I do have to take notes and reread everything first.

When it's a straight ID I do plan some of it out, knowing in advance the game can and does through you curves, but for the most part I just go with the flow.  You know ahead of time that you have to complete certain things and it's going to be rinse and repeat for a lot of it.  So unless I have a specific story line in mind, my planning is minimal. For this one, I've really HAD to do some planning, but even then I waffle back and forth.  I would be lost had it not been for Nutella doing such a great job explaining how she looked at things and planned ahead. 

Not a journal per se but I do have a stack of junior size legal note pads that I use.  Each bloodline has it's own notepad, each challenge, each story or character.  It's a big stack!

I think there is definitely going to be a need for a pollinator.  Your bloodlines are not allowed to marry one another and there are only so many kids to go around to begin with.  If each bloodline's heirs decide they want their own club of kids, (which is wonderful for getting that Social Butterfly aspiration done, plus it's a whole group of friends for later), where are those kids going to come from?  If each bloodline's spares adopt or have kids you might be covered but otherwise it could be real iffy having enough kids, and later on adults, to go around.

Thanks for reading everyone.  It feels good to be back in the swing of things.  Might have to give up on the Homeless challenge.  I've missed doing the stories.

[Nettlejuice]

That childhood story, the girl deserved it but I can't believe you did that! The rotational play sounds so stressful, the way I play I'm not even sure I'd know what each house was suppose to do unless i followed your example.

[Joria]

That childhood story, the girl deserved it but I can't believe you did that! The rotational play sounds so stressful, the way I play I'm not even sure I'd know what each house was suppose to do unless i followed your example.

Oh yeah, I really did do that.  Once.  My Mom died when I was 8 so the best part of this memory is how she reacted.  I did get a lecture but it was so hard for her because she kept smiling, and so do I every time I remember it.  Say, did I ever tell you about the time I held off a gang of five boys with a brick?  lol......

[oshizu]

Oh my gosh, Joria! I promise to be nicer to  you from now on!  *quivers in fear

[Magpie2012]

I laughed with the young Joria story even though my OCD was cringing at the thought of picking up dog poo with bare hands 8-} it's really brilliant to have such good memories of the people we have loved and lost. And what a successful equaliser you chose too lol

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[Joria]

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood........and in my small section of it things are happening that I never expected.



It seems Ulricke had been longing for a child of her own ever since she had become "Auntie Ulricke".  However, there was no way she was going to spend hours puking into a toilet or waddling around for eons looking like a hippopotamus.  I never realized how serious it was with her until he arrived.......

"Mama!"

"Leonardo!  I'm so happy to be your new Mama!  I'm going to love you so much and give you the best life I can. Errrrr.....just one thing....."

"No problem, Mama.  I know all about being a Watched Sim.  I'm just happy to have a forever family for however long it lasts."

Ulricke reached down and gave him a huge hug.  Lucky I was upstairs on the balcony or I would have missed it all.  Our little angel just continued to work on skilling up her violin with a "Hey.  How ya doin" and never missed a note.  (She's level 7 now!)



"Soooo, let's take a picture of this for posterity.  Maybe we can make a scrapbook together one day."

"K.  Apple pie!"

"Apple pie?"

"No one says "cheese" anymore Mom."



Overhearing this conversation, I began to wonder if little Leonardo had a bit of mischief in him.  Guess we'll find out.  Meanwhile, he was fitting right in. Meghan had immediately recruited him into her club, Mini-Marrs and set off to make him feel right at home.  Nothing does that as well as a grilled cheese sandwhich to a starving boy!  As for me, ostensibly I was whipping up a bunch of Amygdelight for Sergio, but really I wanted to make sure this young man would be ok with my Meg.  My little Nut-Meg.



After their snack, (and my tentative approval of Leo), Meg called up the rest of her "gang" and introduced Leo.  She is a very good leader if I do say so myself, and so soon had them completing their homework while she worked on her violin.  Her homework had been dominated hours before.  Everyone was really getting along quite well, but somehow I suspect there will be mischief.



The kids played well together for hours.  Meg maxed her Rambunctious Scamp aspiration and Leo had a good start on his. 



Leo was doing so well he even got old grumpus, Sergio, to play chess with him.  Sergio claims it was just because he needed it for HIS aspiration and job as a Scientist but personally I think Leo had managed to win him over.  Good start on Whiz Kid, Leo!



The next day saw everyone busy at doing "their thing".  Sergio had a rocket ship to build in what he called his "no kid zone",



Maalke set off to prove Ulricke wasn't the only artist in the house,



and the rest of us grown ups worked on keeping ourselves fit and trim.



 Ulricke stopped what she was doing because she realized school had let out and it was time to help Leo with his homework.  Can anyone tell me why they decided to do it on the park bench?  It's not like we didn't have tables and desks galore!



It was rather sweet watching them from my vantage point.  I was getting quite enamored of that upstairs balcony because it let me check on my family without their noticing.  Once Leo's homework was done Ulricke set about getting to know him a bit better.



Apparently mother and son were a good match.  Leo even loved the same stories Ulricke did, and listened intently without too much fidgeting as she read to him.  Didn't hurt that he needed it for an aspiration either!



Leo just sat there beaming while his new Mom called all her friends to brag about him.  Gee, do we mom's do that for real? haha



I think he had probably had a rough go of it before Ulricke adopted him, and it sure didn't hurt to have him "over hear" how much pride she took in him.  Does a kid's heart good to know their parents care.

I had noticed Ulricke had put on a few pounds due to all the good cooking going on.  JD, (Joaquin Donatello Le Chien is his full name), had maxed his cooking skills and was doing real well at his job.  Mine seemed to be taking forever.  Mixology just doesn't seem to move along as fast even with my skill maxed.  Probably because of fewer days at work.  Despite all that, I wasn't putting on any weight at all, thank heavens, so I set about making a new flavor of ice cream.  Supposedly as a treat for Meg and her job well done with school grades.



JD came up for a grilled cheese snack, and told her what a great job she had been doing.  She tried to converse but as she put it, "Math's Dad.  Later, ok?"  He knew enough to let her be after that.



Meg and I enjoyed our treat, (Sorry, I couldn't take the shot of the faces we were making simultaneously as we ate and got brain freeze!), while JD downed his Prose and Prop.  He would be off to work sooner than I and we definitely wanted to both be very inspired.



Later on, Leo came in for his treat as well.



"Honest, Meg!  It's brain freeze not your playing!"



Personally I think he just didn't want to get this little, feisty, red head all riled up.  Dinner's ready!  Gotta run.  See you all tomorrow, good Lord willin' and the crick don' rise!