The Light Family - An Apocalypse Challenge

[Sonshine]

Hi, I'm attempting this challenge and so far so good. My sim is Naomi Light.



He is in his work outfit.

I settled her into Oasis Springs and then she met and married Johnny Zest. Interestingly, in spite of the fact that I have Neighborhood Stories turned off, the game gave him a baby named Audrina. When he moved in, he brought Audrina w/him and I aged her up. Johnny is already employed in the Entertainer career and I chose Comedian for him when he got to the place where he was able to choose. This is Audrina as a toddler:



I'm going w/having the children first since we're not allowed to take any time off work and then the career so she and Johnny woohooed and 3 days later, she gave birth to Fleur Light. Here is Fleur as a toddler"



One thing I don't know if I understand though; in the toddler skills, Fleur got to lev 3 in all of them and lev 4 in a couple more, but when she grew to a child, her skills were listed as lev 2! anyway, the girls grew and became children. I  had them do mostly reading or chess.

 

Johnny is progressing nicely even though it's tedious w/the charisma building. As soon as Fleur grew into a child, Naomi joined the entertainer career and I chose the musician branch. She is progressing nicely and since one of the required skills is piano, I bought the portable piano. The girls grew into teens and continued to get straight A's in school.

 

You can't really see it, but Fleur looks like her mom in her face, but she has Johnny's body shape (skinny bean pole). As time marches on, Johnny is now lev 8 Comedian and so far Naomi is lev 6 Musician. Johnny has 4 days to becoming an elder and Naomi 6 days. I'll continue to work Johnny's Charisma skill up by commandeering the attention of passersby, lol.  Audrina just aged up to YA and joined the Writer career and will become a Journalist. I am not including a pic of Audrina as a YA b/c she looks the same still and even the same night shirt! I will carry on the family w/Fleur since Audrina is "adopted." For her writing skill,I d/led a writing mod by Plastic box. It's just a writing tablet which fits in far better w/the apocalypse theme and no electricity than a computer does. You can find it on MTS. The one thing that I really don't like about Johnny is that he is *always* pranking the toilet!!

[Granny Lawlor]

You are brave, having Johnny Zest move in. That pranking the loo is the most annoying, especially in an apocalypse challenge!
The girls are very cute. Good luck!

[Sonshine]

Thanks Granny! Yeah, they have a TON of common upgrade parts now! Can't sell them and not going to put them into the family bin b/c each item in there adds to the drag on game memory. When I did this for TS3, one of the rules at first was you couldn't sell anything and had to put it in the family bin. It got to the point where everything was totally messed up and the game was reading my sim as the limo, LOL  Way too much drag on the game memory. Now I just wish there was a mod to keep them from quitting work early simply to age up!! Naomi quit early just to become an adult and now Audrina quit her last day of school early to age up! The least they can do is make it so they don't age up until the reset time.

[Granny Lawlor]

Thanks Granny! Yeah, they have a TON of common upgrade parts now! Can't sell them and not going to put them into the family bin b/c each item in there adds to the drag on game memory. When I did this for TS3, one of the rules at first was you couldn't sell anything and had to put it in the family bin. It got to the point where everything was totally messed up and the game was reading my sim as the limo, LOL  Way too much drag on the game memory. Now I just wish there was a mod to keep them from quitting work early simply to age up!! Naomi quit early just to become an adult and now Audrina quit her last day of school early to age up! The least they can do is make it so they don't age up until the reset time.

Can you put them in a storage box - the cardboard boxes with various pictures on? I know you can put collectibles in them

[oshizu]

One thing I don't know if I understand though; in the toddler skills, Fleur got to lev 3 in all of them and lev 4 in a couple more, but when she grew to a child, her skills were listed as lev 2!

This is how the Happy Toddler and Top-Notch Toddler traits work, Sonshine.

A child with the Happy Toddler or Top-Notch Toddler trait starts out at Level 2 of the corresponding skill (Thinking/Mental, for example), but a Top-Notch Toddler's child skills will be further along toward Level 3.

That's odd about Johnny adopting a kid with your Neighborhood Story Settings disabled. 
As for the upgrade parts, I also had that issue of dozens of upgrade parts that I wasn't allowed to sell. I believe I ignored the rules and lined them up at the back of my lot because, well, I don't remember exactly why but I hadn't unlocked the career that officially allowed me to place stuff in the yard.

Good luck with your Apocalypse Challenge!

[Sonshine]

Thanks! Yeah, there's no way to get the top notch toddler when one sim has to take care of the cooking, toddler, and repairs, and fishing.
Thanks to Oshizu, I just noticed that I made a whoopsie and put my chest and monkey bars outside w/no walls or roof. : /  Fixing that now. For the upgrade parts, I made a 3rd level basement room and put them all down there. Chances are - at least so far - that the family won't need all three levels. If they do, I'll put them in a corner to make a room outside for them.

I'm putting both young ladies into the writing career b/c I can't decide which one to lift first, lol. Author is the most important one to be able to write skill books, but it sure would be nice to have some showers!

Another question; can we age our sims up the night before to prevent them from leaving work/school early the next day? That is definitely getting annoying.

[Sonshine]

OK, now this I do not remember at all! I do not remember Johnny getting abducted at all! Yet, he is alien pregnant!!! I'm not sure if he'll give birth before his next work day or not. I'm not having him quit the job though b/c this was not planned and I didn't even notice it.

 

[Sonshine]

Well, I didn't have to worry about Naomi's aging up. She aged up in the morning sparing her from skipping work. Here are a couple pics of Johnny in his ordeal. I still do not know when he got abducted. I had him out talking, but I didn't see anything.

      

Here is Naomi as an elder



Also, just for fun a pic of Summer Holidays an elder.   

[Sonshine]

Just a short update; This is Star Gazer as a toddler

[Sonshine]

Another small update. Here are some pics of Fleur's intended and also of Star Gazer as a child.

   

Vincente and Fleurs schedules tend to conflict a bit though right now. When she is off, he is working and vise versa. : /  There is a little bit of time when they come home from work, but that is usually taken up w/skilling. The last 2 pics are of Star Gazer in his normal form and then in his disguise.

[Granny Lawlor]

Vincente is rather dreamy! Hope his & Fleur's schedules match soon!
Star Gazer does not look like a happy bunny in either form, poor lamb!

[Sonshine]

I really have no idea what is going on. It doesn't matter what kind of romantic action I take, it *always ends up in double negative. I tried him on Audrina and the same thing happened. I'm about to move them to another town to see if that works. Also, no answer other than the most commonly accepted one from EA.

[Sonshine]

I finally had to cheat their romantic relationship (they were already best friends the normal way).  Even then, it was hard. I  have never, ever had such a hard time in the romance part! In case anybody doesn't know,  he is alien. It seemed to go better when I put his disguise on so maybe that was the problem. Anyway, I *finally* got them married and she is pregnant w/her first child. I timed it in such a way that she will not miss work and that the birth will be later at night when she is home.

Johnny *finally* topped his career and Naomi is very close to topping hers.

Here is an interesting pic. They have several gnomes now and when I bought the computers and put them on a table for Audrina and Fleur to work on their writing, ALL of the gnomes teleported down to that level around the comps, lol.

   

Once when I had Johnny out there chatting some other sims up, another sim comes jogging up and then flops down right between them! lol 

Then once when I had Fleur out side trying to chat some sims up, she suddenly flops down and starts doing push ups, LOL
  Also, here is one of the gnomes Mr Gnomealaxy 

For the record, pregnancy tests are disallowed in the early stages of this, but there is a way to tell she is pregnant w/o the pregnancy test and before she starts showing. A few hours after "try for a baby," click on the toilet and if there is an option to throw up, she is pregnant.

[Sonshine]

The challenge part of this go around is a complete bust b/c no matter how I did things, the some rule would be broken. I plan to continue though and try to learn as I go.

[Granny Lawlor]

It's so easy to break the rules, isn't it? I'm fully expecting to have several false starts!