The Legacy of Doom

[FrancescaFiori]

Yay! Got a gloomy one! I'm excited, and I'm glad it's Arron. He's adorable. I do love Mara's red hair, though, so I'm glad she's been slated for cadet.

I cracked up about Brennan not getting the doom memo. What a sweetie! Lola's toothy smile is great, too.

[Alex]

What a lovely family! You're doing a great job.

Thanks!

I should try this nanny thing at some point. I thought retired parents/grandparents would be more than enough, but they do appear to be rather useful, hey? Reiko seems lovely - so supportive of just about everyone.

I’m not sure how useful nannies would be with competent parents, but they’re extremely useful for Lorna and Ali’s kids. Reiko does 99% of the parenting for them. I think it’s largely dependent on the nanny’s traits, too – I forget what Reiko’s traits are, but they’re all good.

Oh cool, Arron rolled the Gloomy trait! And he looks appropriately gloomy as well.

I'm glad to see that your children are in such capable hands! (the hands of their Watcher and Reiko, I mean). (Reiko is my mother's name so I know that nanny must be awesome)
I love that Devlin looks so much like his father but with Lorna's eye color. He's such a little cutie!
Haha, toddlers make childhood feel like easy street!

Despite all the micro-managing that so many children must entail, the Dooms continue to do fabulously!
Congrats to the whole family, Watcher, and Reiko for the excellent progress!

Reiko is extremely awesome

Yeah, the toddlers are painful. At least they grow up quickly! Although having three at once wasn’t as bad as I expected, because they talk to each other and watch each other skilling, and toddle around to get to each other, so they do quite a lot more passive skilling than single toddlers seem to. (Or maybe the Johnson toddlers were exceptionally lazy? The Johnson adults certainly were!)

Lorna’s suit is her Art Critic uniform. Not sure it’s very gloomy, but I like her beret.

I hope her job doesn’t involve visiting places incognito to review them  .

Mara’s birthday cake looks kind of poisonous on my monitor.  Either that or mouldy.  It’s nearly as disconcerting as Lola’s smile.

Congratulations on successfully raising Taz Arron.  The second generation of Dooms are turning out to be an interestingly varied lot.

Her job mostly involves watching human statues and then reviewing them – maybe they stand extra still when they see her suit coming?

It’s not your monitor. The cake was cooked by an extremely unhappy Ali and came out poor quality – it went in the bin as soon as the candles had been blown out, and she had a slice of a decent one from the fridge instead.

Yay! Got a gloomy one! I'm excited, and I'm glad it's Arron. He's adorable. I do love Mara's red hair, though, so I'm glad she's been slated for cadet.

I cracked up about Brennan not getting the doom memo. What a sweetie! Lola's toothy smile is great, too.

I’m getting fonder of Arron – he was a real pain as a toddler, but he’s become quite a sweet child. And Mara’s my favourite, so I won’t be moving her out unless I get desperate for space in the house. (Poor unloved triplets!)

I really like having Brennan around. He makes a lovely change from all the gloominess of the rest of the family.


Her teen birthday opened up a wealth of new skills for Mara to learn, and she took her new Foodie trait out for a spin by starting on homestyle cooking.



She’s also learning mixology, watched closely by an intrigued (and slightly stinky) Lola.



Since she’s learning mixology anyway, I figured she might as well join the Barista career, since somebody needs to max it at some point.



Speaking of careers, Lorna has finally reached the top of hers.



Of course, with five kids, her ‘celebration’ consisted of rallying the troops and then child care.





What should have been Ali’s elder birthday happened, but he drank a potion of youth instead of having a cake. Chasing after triplet toddlers is bad enough, without adding in elderly joints.



Anyway, who wouldn’t want to extend the amount of time they get to watch this?



The triplets’ birthday drew ever closer, and I began a frantic rush of skilling. Lorna, Ali and Reiko all joined forces to teach toddlers (well, mostly Reiko), with occasional assistance from Mara.





Lola maxed out her skills first, and tried her hand as an assistant tutor to get her brothers through the last of their skills.



And finally, most of the way through their birthday, Brennan got his final skill point and the watcher had a very large drink. Behold the top-notch triplets





The triplets had their birthdays (in a series of utterly shambolic screenshots, but never mind).







And now I have a household made up entirely of people who can walk, use toilets, bath themselves, and eat leftover cake without any negative side effects beyond weight gain. Yay!

Lola became a vegetarian, and rolled Artistic Prodigy.



Devlin now loves the outdoors, and aspires to become a Whiz Kid.



And Brennan took inspiration from his glasses and became a geek, thereby volunteering himself for a future hunting for rare collectables. He’s decided he wants to be a Rambunctious Scamp.

[oshizu]

Brava, Alex! Bully for you and your Top-Notch Toddler triplets!!!
Congrats to Lorna on maxing her career as well!

Since toddlers came out, children look so grown-up! Your triplets aged up well with great first traits! Lucky you!
Brennan looks a lot like Aaron, except with brown eyes. I look forward to seeing if Devlin retained his toddler pout or not.

I also enjoyed a nice diversion--I googled the word "shambolic" and read an article about its historical usage, lol.
Great update, Alex. You not only survived your triplets, you pwned them!

[FrancescaFiori]

Top-notch triplets! Woooo! No need to strike through that drink, you earned it! Wow!

Loved Lola as the assistant tutor. So adorable.

Congrats to Lorna on maxing her career, too! Way to have all. Five kids and a career, too.

Have to agree with oshizu on the word shambolic. Nice one! Definitely going to try and add that to my vocabulary.

[hazelnut]

Congratulations on the top-notch trio!  I love their expressions in their child pictures.

[Alex]

Brava, Alex! Bully for you and your Top-Notch Toddler triplets!!!
Congrats to Lorna on maxing her career as well!

Since toddlers came out, children look so grown-up! Your triplets aged up well with great first traits! Lucky you!
Brennan looks a lot like Aaron, except with brown eyes. I look forward to seeing if Devlin retained his toddler pout or not.
 

Thanks! The game’s a lot more peaceful now they’ve all aged up

I hadn’t really thought about it, but you’re right – children really do look much older. Maybe it’s the thinner face shape relative to toddlers?

Top-notch triplets! Woooo! No need to strike through that drink, you earned it! Wow!

Loved Lola as the assistant tutor. So adorable.

Congrats to Lorna on maxing her career, too! Way to have all. Five kids and a career, too.

Have to agree with oshizu on the word shambolic. Nice one! Definitely going to try and add that to my vocabulary.

Thanks! Of course, five kids and a career is much easier if you’ve got a supernanny who charges as little as Reiko does.

Congratulations on the top-notch trio!  I love their expressions in their child pictures.

Thanks! I’ve got bored of taking flattering screenshots


Now that they’re all fairly independent beings, the House of Doom settled into a lot of skilling.

Lorna pursued Bestselling Author, and went the longest I’ve ever seen a Sim go without producing a single bestseller. Given that she has the related rewards and was very inspired the whole time, I’m not entirely sure how she managed it – just doomed, I guess. But a gazillion novels later, give or take, she finally wrote a few decent ones.



She knocked out Leader of the Pack, and then switched over to Musical Genius, and has to suffer through the never-ending song-writing stage. Sorry Lorna.



Ali’s been making very slow progress on the Musician career – I’m pretty sure he had a few days where the arrow didn’t move at all. But finally, he earned his last promotion and a new suit.



And the triplets worked their way through the child skills and aspirations.





Brennan’s also done the photography skill, since somebody had to and he made the mistake of being the one who wasn’t doing anything when I bought the camera. Lola helped him out by posing with him for a selfie.



And Arron had his teen birthday.



He’s rolled the music lover trait, and the Bodybuilder aspiration – faintly weird as a combo, but very doable.



He’s joined the Retail career because somebody’s got to, but rather than think about that, he headed straight outside to make a start on learning Fitness.





A couple of days later, it was time for two more birthdays. Lorna decided to delay hers, and downed a potion of youth instead.



Mara was very keen to trade in high school for full-time cooking, and she caked herself up.



And her new trait is... Materialistic. So, Arron is officially the gen 2 heir. Mara joined the culinary career, and now that there’s no school to get in the way, she’s getting a lot of mixology practice in.



The triplets finished off all the child skills and aspirations, and all found themselves new hobbies. Lola focused on piano, which had the side benefit that Lorna could tutor her and finish off Musical Genius.



Brennan’s taken up singing.



And outdoors-loving Devlin has begun fishing.



Meanwhile, with Musical Genius out of the way, Lorna has moved on to Soulmate. She likes this aspiration much better Ali appears to be a fan too.



They had to head home after a couple of dates though – it was time for another birthday party. Isn’t it always?

Lola is now self-assured, and wants to be a Renaissance Sim, although I suspect she might end up being kicked out before she finishes it.



Devlin has inherited Ali’s neat trait, and wants to be a Friend of the World. His cake screenshot may be the least flattering one ever, because between them Lola and Mara were blocking all the other possible camera angles – sorry, Devlin.



Brennan rolled the active trait and the Party Animal aspiration.



And if you’re wondering why his cake screenshot is so free of people, that would be because they were all headed for the girls’ bedroom, to witness the demise of one of the elderly party guests. RIP Aarush Anand. I have absolutely no idea who you are or why any of the Dooms knew you, but thanks for the contribution towards the death collection.




State of the Dooms:

Lorna
Maxed Art Critic career.
Maxed skills: Painting, writing, guitar, piano
Completed aspirations: Painter extraordinaire, Bestselling author, Leader of the pack, Musical genius; working on Soulmate

Ali
Maxed Musician career
Maxed skills: Piano, guitar, painting, violin, cooking; L9 handiness and logic

Mara
Maxed Barista career; L4 culinary career
Maxed all toddler and child skills, plus piano, violin, painting, charisma; L9 mixology
Completed all child aspirations

Arron
Maxed Retail career
Maxed all toddler and child skills, plus violin and video gaming
Completed all child aspirations, on final tier of Body Builder

Lola
Maxed all toddler and child skills, L9 piano
Completed all child aspirations

Devlin
Maxed all toddler and child skills
Completed all child aspirations

Brennan
Maxed all toddler and child skills, maxed photography
Completed all child aspirations

[oshizu]

I like how you list the Dooms' many achievements at the end of the post.
It will be fantastic to see how the top-notch toddler trait works out in your legacy challenge.
Poor Lorna--Bestselling Author and Musical Genius have to be two of the most time-consuming aspirations. She's such a champ!
All the teens look great in their birthday screenies. I especially love Arron whose attempts at smiling get overwhelmed by his gloomy eyebrows. Too cute!

Regarding Renaissance career, one of my legacy sims maxed 3 careers for that aspiration just with teen careers (starting at L2, it's just one level...)
Will you keep Arron and Mara at home and move out the other three after they knock out several accomplishments?
And speaking of accomplished, Arron's transformation in his two workout screenshots was quite shocking! He gained muscle really fast!

Because you're a builder, I'm very eager to learn how the Dooms will finance future renovations of their legacy home.
Great update!

[hazelnut]

I love that pic of Brennan on the monkey bars – his expression’s adorable   I can’t quite see him as a party animal, somehow.

Congratulations on the current state of the Dooms – although you do realise, don’t you, that we readers are now going to expect all of your kids to be Top-Notch Toddlers and do all of the childhood skills and aspirations?

[FrancescaFiori]

Arron is such a cute teen! Well, they all are, but I like Arron especially. A gloomy, music-loving, body-builder. Okay! I agree with oshizu that his physical transformation was swift and dramatic! Way to run with your chest out, buddy!

Devlin's cake shot cracked me up. You can't see much of him, but you can definitely tell what he's doing!

Love Lorna and Ali working on Soul Mate. Very sweet.

[Alex]

I like how you list the Dooms' many achievements at the end of the post.
It will be fantastic to see how the top-notch toddler trait works out in your legacy challenge.
Poor Lorna--Bestselling Author and Musical Genius have to be two of the most time-consuming aspirations. She's such a champ!
All the teens look great in their birthday screenies. I especially love Arron whose attempts at smiling get overwhelmed by his gloomy eyebrows. Too cute!

Regarding Renaissance career, one of my legacy sims maxed 3 careers for that aspiration just with teen careers (starting at L2, it's just one level...)
Will you keep Arron and Mara at home and move out the other three after they knock out several accomplishments?
And speaking of accomplished, Arron's transformation in his two workout screenshots was quite shocking! He gained muscle really fast!

Because you're a builder, I'm very eager to learn how the Dooms will finance future renovations of their legacy home.
Great update!

Good point about teen careers – Lola’s done one, but she’s stuck at the ‘Become a Young Adult’ bit for the moment, so she’s working on skills. Yep, that’s the current plan. Devlin will be good to move out once he reaches young adult; I’ve barely touched party animal yet, though, so Brennan’s stuck for a while (unless I decide to do that with an heir later, and kick him out earlier).

The muscle gain was overnight, too – it was a bit scary. Must’ve been the protein plate Mara made him.

I’m trying to rein in the building to reduce lag, but not really succeeding! It’s definitely taking longer to save since I landscaped.

I love that pic of Brennan on the monkey bars – his expression’s adorable   I can’t quite see him as a party animal, somehow.
 

Brennan pulls a lot of adorable faces. I’m thinking he’s probably the sedate dinner party type (with Mara as the caterer), rather than dance parties and the like.

Arron is such a cute teen! Well, they all are, but I like Arron especially. A gloomy, music-loving, body-builder. Okay! I agree with oshizu that his physical transformation was swift and dramatic! Way to run with your chest out, buddy!

Devlin's cake shot cracked me up. You can't see much of him, but you can definitely tell what he's doing!

Love Lorna and Ali working on Soul Mate. Very sweet.

That physical transformation was scary. One day, normal teen. Next day, that.

For all their gloom and doom, Lorna and Ali can be really adorable


One day, a very large statue appeared to the side of the Doomed House; Ali’s started churning out replicas, to help out Mara with her Fabulously Wealthy aspiration. Unfortunately this does mean I’ll have to remove woodcarving as a banned club activity, which means they’re all going to be carving whenever I take my eye off them for half a second



Meanwhile, Lorna’s working on the wellness skill. Somebody might need a fertility massage one day...



While the teens were at school, they squeezed in some gold medal dates, and Lorna completed Soulmate.





To celebrate, they renewed their vows.



He’d done his best to put it off, but Ali’s elder birthday finally rolled around.



He and Lorna aren’t the only ones to have been dating. Mara has found herself a boyfriend, Daquan Garrett.



And Arron’s been on a couple of dates with Karlee Jamison – but she is materialistic like Ali and she lives in a nearby house, so alas there can be no future for them.



While the household was in a romantic sort of a mood, Mara asked Daquan to marry her.



So they did He’ll have to be a live-out husband at least for now, unfortunately, as the eighth spot in the household is reserved for Arron’s spouse.





And once they’d exchanged their wedding vows, it was time for Arron’s young adult birthday, and he became the active heir. He’s acquired the Art Lover trait.



What a responsibility! His first action as Official Heir was to invite Karlee over immediately.



And then, well... Mara might have been ready for commitment; Arron wasn’t quite yet.





Once Serial Romantic had been completed, and he’d tried for a baby with enough people to guarantee at least four grandchildren for Ali, it was finally time to think about settling down. It wasn’t hard to choose: I wasn’t expecting to run into issues with duplicate traits this early, but only one woman in town doesn’t share at least one of Ali’s traits. So, welcome to the household Rieko Suzuki (who I’ve been thinking of as ‘The Other Rieko’ to distinguish her from Nanny Reiko). Other Rieko is a slobby, art loving dance machine, and she wants to be a Painter Extraordinaire. She’s joined the Painter career so that she can combine her aspiration and daily tasks. She and Arron are girlfriend and boyfriend, and have no intention of getting engaged just yet.



Mara’s been busy also. She finally maxed the baking skill: alongside her maxed mixology, cooking and gourmet cooking skills, this nets an extra point. Now she just needs to finish Fabulously Wealthy so that she can move onto the food aspirations.



The Club of Doom has also earned a point, as it now has all the available club perks.



Arron has joined the astronaut career. To help him out, Lorna and Other Rieko bought a rocket, and they’ve been bonding while they fix it up.



And finally, finally, the moment Ali has been waiting for his whole life arrived.




Skills, aspirations etc.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gen 1
Founder: Lorna – gloomy, creative, loves outdoors.
Aspirations completed: Painter extraordinaire, Bestselling author, Leader of the pack, Musical Genius, Soulmate, Bodybuilder, Big Happy Family
Maxed skills: Painting, Writing, Guitar, Piano, Dancing, Wellness, Fitness
Maxed career: Critic – Art

Primary spouse: Ali Ferhat – materialistic, neat, bookworm
Aspirations completed: Big Happy Family
Maxed skills: Piano, Guitar, Painting, Violin, Cooking, Logic, Handiness, Gardening
Maxed career: Entertainer – Musician

Gen 2
Mara – (fussy), creative, foodie, materialistic
Aspirations completed: 4x child ones
Maxed skills: Toddler & child skills, Violin, Piano, Painting, Charisma, Gourmet cooking, Mixology, Cooking, Baking
Maxed career: Barista; L7 Culinary career

Heir: Arron – (wild), gloomy, music lover, art lover
Aspirations completed: 4x child ones, Bodybuilder, Serial Romantic
Maxed skills: Toddler & child skills, Violin, Video gaming, Fitness, Logic
Maxed career: Retail; L4(?) Astronaut career

Primary spouse: Rieko Suzuki – dance machine, slob, art lover
L7 painting, L2 painter career

Lola - (charmer), vegetarian, self-assured
Aspirations completed: 4x child ones
Maxed skills: Toddler & child skills, Piano, Guitar, Logic, Violin
Maxed career: Fast food

Devlin – (fussy), loves outdoors, neat
Aspirations completed: 4x child ones, Friend of the World
Maxed skills: Toddler & child skills, Charisma, Logic

Brennan – (inquisitive), geek, active
Aspirations completed: 4x child ones
Maxed skills: Toddler & child skills, Photography, Singing, Logic
Maxed career: Manual labour

Misc:
28 potions of youth stored on the lot so far
44 medal points from parties (mostly dates by Lorna and Arron)
Between them, the Dooms have maxed 80 skills and completed 31 aspirations.

[hazelnut]

Wow!  That is an impressive list of achievements (and congratulations on finally completing Big Happy Family).

Other Rieko's really pretty - that hair colour would be an interesting addition to the Doomy genetics.

[oshizu]

I think I might have asked you this already, but do you use HillieE's legacy scoresheet? I'd started out my legacy unconcerned about my score but her scoresheet made ticking off point-worthy deeds so much fun that I got really caught up in the scoring.

Speaking of score, you're doing so fabulously! Congrats to Arron on becoming the active heir.
I agree with hazelnut that Other Rieko's very attractive! And she has the three unique traits---good find!  And a painter, even better!

I never realized that landscaping also causes lag (because I hardly landscape, lol). Your house looks amazing and I hope you'll give us a slow tour upon completing Mansion Baron.

[FrancescaFiori]

Oh, Congratulations to Ali! A lifetime aspiration finally complete! That must be very satisfying!

Bummer about so many repeated traits, but Rieko is lovely, so she'll make a good spouse to bring in the next generation.

I loved the collage of all the kisses! Arron's barrel chest defies reason, but he's still very handsome. As is Daquan! Love his nose! Congratulations to him and Mara on their marriage!

I look forward to many lovely wood sculptures produced by the Doom Family.

[Alex]

@hazelnut Thanks! Sadly her hair is just black – the purple ends are attached to the hair style not the hair colour. I like the purple in contrast to all the black hair, though – she and Mara are very easy to spot

@oshizu I made my own spreadsheet to track the scoring on (which I then manually transfer onto the first post of this thread each time I update, because efficiency!)

On landscaping, I added the garden and made no other changes, and it massively slowed everything down. Whether that’s because of the extra file size or specifically the landscaping I’m not sure, but I’ve just added a second floor to the house and it hasn’t made any noticeable difference, so I think it was the plants.

The house is still about 80K off the Mansion Baron threshold, but I'll take some screenshots for a mini house tour the next time I have the game open

@FrancescaFiori Ali, Daquan and Mara say thank you! Especially Ali


*blows dust off legacy*

Right, now that I’m back from being distracted by various challenges, I have returned to Chez Doom. It’s been a while, so...

Previously on the Legacy of Doom...
Mara fell in love, got married, and baked a lot...

Arron developed a terrifying amount of muscle, and seduced half the world's population, including his spouse-to-be, Other Rieko...

And as a consequence of all the seducing, Ali finally completed his lifelong dream, and had a Big, Happy(-ish) Family.



Anyway...

The triplets’ young adult birthday dawned. Aspiring Party Animal Brennan threw them a joint birthday party, and Mara baked yet another birthday cake. Lola rolled the hates children trait. Good thing she isn’t the heir, really. Now that she’s a young adult, she switched jobs a couple of times, and finished off Renaissance Sim.



Devlin blew out his candles next, and became clumsy.



And Brennan. Sweet-natured, eternally-happy Brennan finally got the Doom Memo and rolled the Gloomy trait.



I was going to kick at least one of them out straight away; however, I decided the day they were born that Gen 3 would be an only child (unless I get triplets again...), so there’s space for all three triplets to stick around for now. Anyway, I looked again at the list of the careers and it’s scarily long, so I decided they may as well do a career each before they leave.

Lola’s got maxed comedy skill, so she’s selected Joke Star as her next aspiration and joined the entertainer career. (Arron has some misgivings about whether comedy is a fitting career for a Doom.)



Devlin’s got level 10 logic and charisma, so would have an easy time as either a secret agent or in business; he’s gone into business, since he’s single and Diamond Agents have to do so many romantic interactions. Since he likes fishing, he’s also working on Angling Ace.



Brennan’s skills are mostly pretty useless, but he does have maxed logic, so he’s decided to become a Scientist.



I’ve banned Arron from strength workouts in the hope that his muscle mass depletes a bit, so he spends a lot of time doing cardio and looking sulky.



And the rest of the time, he stays still and looks sulky.





He’s not the only one: Brennan spends a lot of time standing around in a doomed sort of a way too. Lorna must be so proud.



Ali and Lorna thoroughly tested out the newly-constructed rocket. Ahem.



And Mara’s had a quick run of aspirations, finishing off Fab Wealthy, Master Mixologist and, finally, Master Chef (the dinner parties also helped Brennan make a small start on Party Animal).



I’m a bit miffed that the Easter Egg collection isn’t available this year, but Ali contacted Jasmine Holiday re: collecting beans instead.



And now that he’s completed Serial Romantic, Arron and Other Rieko decided that maybe it was time to settle down. They haven’t got married yet, as I’ve got that ‘It would be inappropriate to marry somebody in your employ’ bug, and need to get Arron to go round and dump all of his assorted romantic interests in case that fixes it.



Mara had her adult birthday. It seems like only yesterday she was a toddler



Lorna had her elder birthday immediately afterwards, because who doesn’t want a second-hand birthday cake?



And then, tragedy struck the Dooms.



It took Mara a moment to notice what was happening....



But soon, the whole family gathered to mourn. RIP, Ali (Ferhat) Doom.

[hazelnut]

I get the same effect with landscaping in Sims 3 - even a relatively small number of plants causes noticeable lag, especially when switching in and out of build/buy mode.  I assume it's because the mesh is quite dense and they're animated, so there's a lot more to render than with the house and furniture.

Has Brennan been working out too?  There seem to be some pretty impressive shoulders under that lab coat.

RIP, Ali .