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Solitude Glaise: The Highlight Reel
A Family Tradition
"Christ, a dynasty again? I guess I am really like grandpa."
"But I get a new shirt? Sweet."Solitude can trace her legacy down through a long line of dynasty heirs and helpmates, and I bet she got loads of tales of failures and starting over as her bedtime stories. Which often included free makeovers too! Well, at least that's the stuff in my mind. Solitude was a CAS-creation who happens to have a backstory. And yes, a slightly-new wardrobe.
I digress. Stories are for later and that's been the plan this whole time. Right now, she has a challenge to complete. Without dying this time, okay? (I actually had a scare while playing today but she's
fine). However, it's always time for a recap! What has our little green devil done?
I actually want to talk about her frogs first. Mostly because I feel so
stupid for not realizing that you're supposed to breed them! I didn't figure it out until around Solitude's elder birthday (whether before or after, I forget). So that is why I have so many unnecessary shots of her frog hunting. I could have had a whole army of Whirlyflower frogs instead of...eight. I was breeding them right up to Solitude's ambrosia day too (also why her ambrosia was delayed from soon after her elder birthday to halfway through elderhood).
Oh, and let's not mention how it didn't dawn on her that you could breed frogs of the same type and get frogs of the same type until even later. Cue a lot of often-fruitless breeding of Sunflower and HypnoFrogs until I realized that there was an even easier way.
But I have the best collection of frogs a founder could have, so it's fine.
So...yeah, I can't say my plans for Solitude's skills and careers changed much at all. Here they are represented by her cooking, and making Eliza Pancakes her BFF (Eliza is the epitome of "boring sim" to me, so I wasn't going to throw a pollinator at her, thus making her prime material for a unique best friend. She and Bob had perfect childfree bliss...as far as I'm concerned). The big difference was that I floundered a lot less.
Random notes:
- Definitely floundered a lot less. Last time, I didn't decide on the Friend of the World aspiration until Solitude was an adult. That meant she wasn't skilling up in charisma until she was an adult. Yikes! YIKES. This time, I actually made Friend of the World her aspiration straight out of CAS. That meant getting the Gregarious trait, as opposed to Essence of Flavor. And it really does make befriending a lot easier, which is crucial for more than the aspiration. In order to move in pollinators, someone has to befriend someone else.
- On the flip-side, I was stumped as to why Solitude was making crap dishes at first. Duh, no Essence of Flavor trait! She improved in time, though.
- My original cooking strategy was for Solitude to bake cakes and even more cakes, as those are the most efficient for leveling up skilling. It was a fleeting detail in the first attempt, but it resulted in everyone getting kind of fat because all they had was cake! Or in Solitude's case, bulking up all the way to being normal. It's pretty jarring when I'm still used to TS3 and how it took me six generations to crack the code (not the literal game code, though. Sorry folks) of permanent weight gain for sims (note: you have to eat a number of full meals of any kind when you still have the "Stuffed" moodlet. Maybe the lasting effect was a glitch, but Jo Waverly got permanently fat while pregnant because she was stuffed with watermelons at all times and ate full meals for those sweet moodlets).
Anyways, Solitude assembled a lot of salads and fish dishes. And she fulfilled her goals, but it took so much longer. In a twist, she actually maxed out charisma before either of the cooking skills. - I still hate career-dependent aspirations. Which is why Wexler has to do one too.
Hmm, notes about parties?
Solitude's adult birthday was the first time ever that I've gotten gold on a Birthday Party. And I'm honestly shocked because I had to celebrate for
seven sims. Solitude, Maaike, Ulrike, and four (!) pollinators who I got as adults (this was deliberate: I got ones that were either original adults or generated on the first day. They comprised my second wave of pollinators. But that's for another section of the post). That's seven cakes to bake! And I threw most of them away once the party was over. But it took Solitude forever to do them, and there were a few redos as some cheeky sims got a slice before she could put a topper on them.
But a gold birthday meant one important thing:
NO WEENIE ROAST. It's an inevitability for some later heirs (not everyone will get married, and I don't have the deluxe edition or Spooky Stuff, so no black-and-white parties or Halloween ones).
The others were pretty straightforward. House and dinner parties are pretty much a breeze for me now, as are dates and weddings.
Oh yeah. Dates, weddings, this implies that Solitude had a romance. A wife. A Maaike!
The Wifey
I love Maaike. Not only does she appeal to my love for cuddly, geeky lesbians, but she and Solitude are probably the most gooey and pure couple I've encountered so far.
It started out like any friendship in this dynasty. Cloudgazing, and some charisma-building socials too. Getting chummy with Ulrike too. I actually waited a day to move them in, as I wanted to grab pollinators first (and make sure I had a save that was generating suitable ones from the start: i.e., colorful, older men. Preferably professional fishers or gardeners).
Though in a twist, I lagged with the romance on those two. The spark was
there, but you know what else was? Looming dynasty requirements. Maaike had her hands tied too. Half her waking hours were spent fishing, and the other half working on her original aspiration of being a Bestselling Author. Why work on one aspiration when you can work on two? I know that Maaike made quite a few points that way.
But dates and weddings tie into the requirements too, so I eventually kicked myself into gear.
Wooo!
Solitude eventually returned to the Motherland, the Light Side of family hometown Twinbrook (for real, Willow Creek is probably Twinbrook's sunny, clean, economically-stable neighbor). I wanted a nice place for a date/unscripted romantic afternoon (it was the latter), and remembered the cherry trees in Willow Creek. They have blossoms every day of the year!
"Maaike, I know my grandparents got engaged somewhere around here and then they divorced, but I just wanted to..."
"...make a better memory."
"Hmm, a top quality ring. I supposed you're the one after all."
No matter how many times it happens, this looks like a bad idea.
I wouldn't have a scenic wedding for another few weeks. I wanted a quick and dirty gold medal party, since I basically had one shot at it for Solitude. And I wouldn't
dare have them divorce!
But the lovely mountainous/coastal view from the lot really came through.
