Carr Immortal Dynasty (Completed)

[hazelnut]

Queen of the Road

Like her mother and grandmother, VW had her baby at home.



And then she left the rest of the family to look after the nooboo while she got back to her supermax.  She was so good now that she could analyse rocks through a solid wall.





(Yeah, VW, that was pretty much my reaction as well.)

Little Portia had her first birthday and was handed over to Minnie to be taught her basic skills.  She very much takes after her daddy, although it looks as though the Nita jaw is still going strong.



Nio also had a birthday and picked out a seriously cool outfit…



…which he only really wore for school.  At home, he spent most of his time either Presiding Over the Royal Court or playing with the dressing-up box.



(The dinosaur outfit looks particularly silly with the shades.  Although maybe a princess would have been worse.  He never tried that one.)

A few days later, Portia joined him in childhood.



Although their traits are very different, they turned out to have identical tastes in games.



King Nio wasn't at all pleased about this upstart pretender to his throne.  But Portia didn't see it that way at all.  Didn't he know who was the heir around here?



They both rolled wishes to have a pillow fight with the other.  Maybe that would establish a friendship.



Or not.

Soon after, Nio became a teenager, moved out of the kids' bedroom and started doing Serious Stuff like sculpting.



Portia found herself unexpectedly lonely without her playmate/rival.  Rampaging around on her own just wasn't the same, somehow.



By way of a distraction, she found herself compelled to explore one of the rooms in the foundation, which had just been fitted out as a dance studio.



She wasn't too sure about it at first but soon developed an enthusiasm for ballet, rushing down to the studio as soon as she'd finished her homework.  She took lessons after school as well and was asked to take part in a recital.  (Although not to audition for the lead.  Didn't they know who she was?  )  She was hoping that Nio the rest of the household would come along to watch, but they were all too busy, it seemed.  So she cycled off to the school by herself.



Minnie and Morris did manage to tear themselves away from whatever-it-was they'd been doing in time to catch most of the show.  Which was just as well – she didn't think she could have managed to cycle home again after the performance.



As well as her dancing, Portia had taken to baking far more enthusiastically than any previous kid in the household.  On her last day of childhood, Austin took her to the park to try selling her wares.



It probably wasn't the best choice of venue.  Since it had been upgraded, the park seemed to be turning into the local rubbish tip.  There were dirty plates and flies everywhere.



Although that didn't seem to deter the picnickers, it did put off her customers.  In fact, she didn't sell a single item .



At least Austin enjoyed himself.  It looks as though he's finally moving on from his grief at losing Mercedes.



And so Portia aged up to teen, cheered on by her mother.





Nio Everyone else was too busy again, it seemed.  Well, two could play at that game.  She went back to the barre.




Yes, Portia is multi-tasking there: she'd rolled wishes to learn gardening and grown-up cooking, and the multitab seemed like the easiest way to fulfil them.

Credits: Elegant woollen coat for boys by lillka, from TSR; ballet clothes by daluved, from MTS.

[Chubling]

Nio wearing those little sunglasses while in his royal outfit as a kid made me laugh. I love the rivalry/friendship between Nio and Portia. Looking forward to how it evolves as they grow up

[Trip]

Nio looks like a space ranger in his sunglasses/astronaut suit combo so he got one costume right. Portia might look like a Gilbert but Minnie's eye shape has remained too. It's fun to see what sticks around for sure.

[hazelnut]

Nio wearing those little sunglasses while in his royal outfit as a kid made me laugh. I love the rivalry/friendship between Nio and Portia. Looking forward to how it evolves as they grow up

So am I.  The game's a little ahead of the story - Portia has just aged up to YA.  They've continued to ignore each other but are now good friends, I assume from talking to friends at school.

Nio looks like a space ranger in his sunglasses/astronaut suit combo so he got one costume right.

True

Portia might look like a Gilbert but Minnie's eye shape has remained too. It's fun to see what sticks around for sure.

Minnie's max-length eyelashes are also still going strong

[hazelnut]

A Drive for Success

Full adulthood hasn't made VW any less excitable.



On the other hand, she had reason that time.  That's the body language of a supermaxed scientist.



She celebrated by spending the evening playing in the sprinkler with Riley.  A woman of simple tastes .



On her next work shift, she reached the top of the science career and achieved her lifetime wish.



(She seems to be running in a lot of these screenshots.  I don't think it's the tag bug – I can't remember her ever playing tag, for a start.  She just always seems to be in a hurry.)

Morris, surprisingly, was still around.  He seemed to think that, if his twin was immortal, he must be as well.  He was still painting the odd portrait but I mostly left him to his own devices.  He spent a lot of time wandering round the museum.  Reminiscing, according to his action queue.



In the evening after VW's final promotion, Morris was posing for the sculptors while VW upgraded the stereo.  Then this happened:



RIP, Morris.  He was 116 and had thoroughly messed up my planning by living so long.

So far in this game, Grim's been all business: scary music, rise up through the floor, reap, dissolve into smoke.  This time, he decided he simply had to go and look at Mercedes' prom photo.



Well, in fact, he stood in Minnie's room and admired the back of the photo through the wall.  I suppose the normal rules don't apply to the Grim Reaper.  Nio followed him in there and struck up a conversation.



Talking obviously needs more space than backwards photo admiration.  They relocated to the hall and stayed there chatting for several hours.



Meanwhile, VW had hurried down to the lab to fill the vacant place in the household.



Welcome (at last) Romeo.




I was originally planning to give Portia a choice of spouses, although my preference was for Romeo.  Now he's a lot younger: not an impossible age gap but still significant.  And I've grown very fond of Nio.  Portia isn't really interested in anything apart from learning skills at the moment, so I'll wait and see how things develop.

We haven't played 'Guess the DNA Donor' for a while.  Any ideas?  I think Romeo is a lot easier to identify than Nio.  Of course, the lack of sunglasses helps .

Has anyone else found that analysing samples builds logic?  I didn't notice with my previous science supermaxers – although, come to think of it, they were both in the medical career and would have had the skill anyway.  There was suddenly a pop-up to say that VW had learned logic on something like her 98th analysis.  A little disconcerting since it's a possible supermax for a later member of the family.  I expect her analyses from now on will be limited to the odd sample for cloning purposes, so it should be OK.


The house has had a partial makeover.  As I'd expected, the pathing issues at the corner became too annoying.  So the kitchen has been opened out to the living area.  The platform in the dining area was also causing some problems, so that's been removed.  Austin has now moved into the former painting studio and a bedroom and bathroom have been combined to form a new, larger studio.

The Union Jack furniture has gone, sadly, because I'm hoping that reducing the amount of CC might help the game run more smoothly.  I'm quite pleased with the new décor: all the loud patterns seem to work together surprisingly well.

[Chubling]

The house looks great! And when has a little thing like an age difference stopped a dynasty!

[Trip]

I never noticed any logic gain from analyzing samples but so far all my science sims have known logic anyways so...who knows. I knew Nio's donor pretty immediately but 100% cheated for Romeo's. I guess if Portia isn't interested in waiting for the family's baby he could always be a Gen 5 spouse.

[Rhoxi]

Love the house makeover!

[hazelnut]

The house looks great! And when has a little thing like an age difference stopped a dynasty!

Thanks
And that's true.  I prefer partners to be close in age but there have been some big gaps in previous games (Rowan and his girlfriend in my first immortal dynasty were a striking example and I seem to remember Crystal being quite a lot older than Marco in the Household Skills).

I never noticed any logic gain from analyzing samples but so far all my science sims have known logic anyways so...who knows. I knew Nio's donor pretty immediately but 100% cheated for Romeo's. I guess if Portia isn't interested in waiting for the family's baby he could always be a Gen 5 spouse.

I notice you didn't name names, though .
He could.  I was vaguely intending to have a male heir next but I suppose that doesn't entirely rule out Romeo as a spouse.  Although there'd be quite an age gap in the other direction...

Love the house makeover!

Hi Rhoxi!  Nice to see you around again.  And thanks

[Deklitch]

I think there will be quite an age distance between Gen 3 spouse and heir, if i manage to get that far, of course in the literature family.

[hazelnut]

I think there will be quite an age distance between Gen 3 spouse and heir, if i manage to get that far, of course in the literature family.

I suspect there may be some big age gaps to come in this one as well.


Wheel of Fortune

His encounter with Grim seems to have given Nio a taste for socialising with ghosts.  A couple of days later, he met his DNA donor and, again, stood around chatting for hours.




That was unexpected: some time before this, I'd realised that there were far more urns in the family inventory than could be needed in the rest of the dynasty and had sent Morris to the cemetery with the spares and those whose DNA had already been used, and I'd noticed that Ira Lee's was missing.  I thought maybe it had gone invisible at the cemetery somewhere, so it was quite a surprise when he eventually turned up haunting the sculpting room.  It was about another Sim week before I found the urn itself: I noticed that one of the sculpting stations was half a square out of line and wouldn't move back, which turned out to be because Ira's urn had somehow got itself stuck in the wall.

By the way, for those who haven't worked it out already, Romeo is a clone of Clark Bellamore.


Portia had a busy time as a teenager.  As well as school and ballet, there were skills to learn.  Minnie, as usual, acted as driving instructor and Portia was bought her own car once she'd passed her test.



She helped her mother with the garden, which was now more of a mini-vineyard…



…and she started on her supermax, turning garden produce into nectar.



After a few quiet days, there was a whole spate of birthdays.  First Nio became a young adult…



…then VW aged up to elder.





Next up was Portia's young adult birthday.





She started growing her hair and picked out a selection of outfits.  They'd do for now, anyway.



And Romeo aged up to child.



Now that she was free of school, Portia made nectar all day, every day, and had soon achieved her lifetime wish of a bottomless cellar.  (Doesn't look all that bottomless to me yet – although the intention is to fill the cellar with nectar racks eventually.)



And the idiotic burglars struck again.  The foundation level wasn't featureless any more: there was now a door into the garage, and the nectary, dance studio, science lab and ambrosia room were all down there.  Nevertheless, the burglar made his way into the one room that was unlocked but as yet totally unfurnished – followed by one of Lucky Palms' finest, who promptly and satisfyingly beat him to a pulp.



For some reason, making best friends is consistently proving to be the hardest requirement for the Carrs.  I'd thought that VW, being in a rabbithole job, would have had the easiest time – but then two of her colleagues died just before she was ready for ambrosia.  Finally, at 84 days, she had replacements lined up.  Quickly, before Alvis, who was well into his nineties, could take it into his head to disqualify her by dropping dead, she helped herself to a plateful.




Vera Winifred 'VW'

Traits: friendly, loves the outdoors, vehicle enthusiast, socially awkward, ambitious

Lifetime wish: Scientific Specialist
Career: Science
Supermax skill: Science
Other maxed skills: handiness and gardening

Building: Area-52 Test Labs
Property: Sport Fishing

Unique lifetime rewards: Bookshop Bargainer, Haggler, Stone Hearted

Unique best friends: Riley Carr (né Gilbert), Alvis Shaw, Gerald Waldrop, Alberto William, Constance Bills, Shelton Skidmore

Unique opportunities: Lettuce Help Out; Funding the Lab; The Best Evaporating Dish is a Clean One; Of Fish, Robots and Robot Things; Nourishment for Herbivores; Fix It!

Museum

[Trip]

Oh I thought Nio's donor was Palmer Hayes...perhaps the connection between him and Ira was one of those that EA forgot about. They have that kind of record!

Is there a plan for a Social Networking supermax or someone to max the skill? I find myself floundering without it now, but that does show how spoiled we get after a few EPs.

[hazelnut]

No, I lost Palmer's DNA after Evangeline died .

I assume Nio's inexplicable neurotic trait is because Ira only has four - although why they'd fill in the missing slot instead of using two of traits he did have is a mystery to me (especially when Nio's other birth trait was perfectionist - the poor kid was always running around the house clearing up after everyone else).  He had a midlife crisis shortly after his YA birthday and is a lot calmer now.

The current plan is for someone to max (and possibly supermax) social networking but it'll be too late to be much help to the rest of the dynasty.

[Nella]

First, congrats to VW for the immortality! I don't have Lucky Palms so it's interesting to see all those new (to me) faces and the clones' idea is something that I'm going to steal for my dynasty.   

[starlives]

Love Portia's car and vibrant young adult outfits. Should have guessed that Romeo was a clone of Clark Bellamore with that white blond hair, I wonder if he will get Clark's hairy body too! Nio is very handsome and VW is a very thin elder isn't she. I wish they had nectar making in Sims4 as it was always very productive and satisfying when I used it in Sims3.