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Mad Poster
#901 Old 16th May 2020 at 4:00 AM
I've got a situation in my BACC game in Dodge with fall coming on soon and followed by winter with it having been dry with no rain all summer long.It was a cold snowy winter for the previous year and that might not happen this time around.It might be fun to have a drought to add some drama and excitement to my storyline.I've only got two families moved in so far because the town's not very well known yet and it's isolated.
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retired moderator
#902 Old 16th May 2020 at 5:56 AM
Quote: Originally posted by TadOlson
I've got a situation in my BACC game in Dodge with fall coming on soon and followed by winter with it having been dry with no rain all summer long.It was a cold snowy winter for the previous year and that might not happen this time around.It might be fun to have a drought to add some drama and excitement to my storyline.I've only got two families moved in so far because the town's not very well known yet and it's isolated.


That would be a perfect situation to use the 'Water Required' mod. It uses the Sun&Moon 'Fetch water' mod.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Forum Resident
#903 Old 16th May 2020 at 6:05 AM
Dodge is a pretty far out place, guess they don't deliver pizza. You gonna be having problems unless you got an arrangement with the Plumbbob people for fresh food. Rivers and ponds under Maxis conditions freeze over and plants and trees go dormant. Too bad you can't eat the penguins. Check and see, maybe you got food stored somewhere. Otherwise, you can get rich and order a new fridge and ask them to fill it with food. (Expensive) Or you can try the Pescado method and we don't talk about that .. so buy a fridge.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#904 Old 16th May 2020 at 6:14 AM
Plus the water mods allows you to make one or more lots not under water restrictions if you want them to be- maybe because they are greedy and piping the water secretly.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#905 Old 18th May 2020 at 7:35 AM
I've already got that fetch water Mod and can pull another grocery Mod out if needed to make food more expensive though they are trying to grow some crops now and have the service center under construction though it's got the override for fetch water since it's a public lot.I've got the water required Mod and have had it in for a while now though there is the override object on some lots.
Alchemist
#906 Old 18th May 2020 at 11:25 AM
Well, the drought idea sounds cool. I was trying to come up with some chances/rules around the seasons and weather events like drought for my own hoods. I was thinking that every so often I'd roll to see if there's a big storm or disaster event--like say an earthquake or a thunderstorm during spring, summer, and fall and blizzard during the winter, etc. And then I'd decide how hard each family & lot is affected. I would probably make a predetermined list of rolls, like if a family rolls a 1, the gotta replace all their flowers, and maybe a tree or two; if they roll a 3, they gotta replace some windows and some plants; a five or six and they've been hit really hard, most of their crops have been wiped out, etc. The damage scale is what was stumping me/slowing me down; trying to come up with some ideas for each level was a little exhausting.

Anyway, I personally feel that having an event like a drought hit the very year sims are just starting out seems harsh, but if you're looking for a challenge, go for it. I would think about how to implement it in a fair way or what sims can do to mitigate it. Like, does the drought mean they can only water everyday? Or do they automatically lose all their crops? Can sims travel way up the mountain to the creeks up there to fetch water? No idea what your hood looks like, but I mean it as an example of what you can do. Maybe if they have money/get a loan they can buy "drought-resistant plants" and that allows them to talk to them to keep their quality up, etc. I really don't know your hood setup and what's allowed and what's not, but in the hoods I'm planning, my sims, although they have just moved to a new place, will have a Return Point they can go to. It'll be either just an area on the map or maybe an entire subhood--haven't decided yet, but sims will travel there and back to get supplies they can't make, or to "order" things from the general store and they'll be rules about how long it takes to get there and back. New settlers/townies I introduce to the hood would also start there and I can set up things like a bank for sims to go get loans or a marketplace where sims can go sell their goods, because such things haven't been built in their town yet. Doing so allows me to have some more options for gameplay and story than I would in a completely closed neighborhood. So, to that end, perhaps the drama comes from other sims, rather than the weather. Who else is moving to the town and what are their stories? Does a sim with money come in and take over a large part of the town for his or her mining and industrial agricultural empire? Does a railroad line go through the hood and businesses pop up alongside it? Are any supernatural creatures discovered? Do they think humans have come too close to their homes and start a feud? Do rival bachelors and bachelorettes move in and start a generations-long neighborhood feuds?

...So yeah, what kind of drama are you looking for, exactly? And what are your plans for the hood?

"May the sunlight find you, thy days be long, thy winters kind, thy roots be strong." -Grand Oak Tree, DAO

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Bored? Read an unfinished legacy or sim story. | aka Kelyns | she/her
Inventor
#907 Old 13th Jun 2020 at 12:39 AM
Speaking of BaCCs, I've been making my own rules and they turn out pretty good, challenging but fun at the same time as one person said while they proofread it for me. But I've come to the taxes portion and I've been stuck on how to handle it ever since. My sims make too much money after a while despite the less money mods I have installed, so the tax system would be good to get rid of excess money. I took a finance class in high school and I forgot everything I learned so this has been kinda frustrating.

I've been reading the original rules alongside other's modified rules. Here's an excerpt from Pleasantsims from their website:

Quote:
Every household must pay taxes each week on Monday morning. To collect taxes, simply deduct the amount of money from the household funds or have Sims “donate” the money using the hacked computer. Taxes are sent to Sim City for processing. Tax rates are as follows:

10% net worth
7% net worth for retirees
5% if net worth is over $100,000
Keep track of the amount of taxes “collected” so you know how much is available to purchase and improve new community lots.

If your Sim doesn’t have a computer or enough money to purchase one, you can use the family funds cheat to set household funds to the correct amount after taxes are “paid.”


I've downloaded Monique's hacked computer but I haven't used it yet. Is there a simplified way I can handle taxes in my ruleset or should I toss this part out to keep the peace? How do you handle taxes in a non-stressful way?

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Field Researcher
#908 Old 13th Jun 2020 at 10:11 AM
What would got do with the taxes? Would you use them for buying community lots or a university?
I always found taxes to complicated (read that as I keep forgetting and lose track).

Personally, I liked ICads modified rules where community lots are earned by having more families, and demoneying Sims by having them have to move if a house is too big or too small, but they can only keep their cash and not the price of the house. And kids who move out take a lot of cash, creating richer firstborns and poorer young siblings. Having to take up loans at 6 % with Monique's Computer is also fit to ruin any Sims that don't have high paying jobs.
The complete rules are linked somewhere in the BACC thread, I think the blog was called Redmond flats.
Mad Poster
#909 Old 13th Jun 2020 at 5:36 PM
I've been playing my own BACC challenge and taxes aren't a worry at all in the town's current stage with only two families living there so far with more coming along in the not too distant future.Taxes will start to become an issue when somebody enter a polical career or assosiated part time job in Dodge.
@Phantomknight -That drought idea is already happening in my BACC in Dodge since they've not had any rain in town since spring and might have a drier winter than usual for 1841.I'm working with the struggles of building a city and that starts with forming a farming community which becomes a small town and I'll add shopping districts to add new neighborhoods to Dodge as the population grows too large for the current district which is limited in size.I'll have some families stuggling against poverty while others are stuggling to rise out of their own poverty and build a modest fortune for themselves and their families.
Alchemist
#910 Old 13th Jun 2020 at 9:20 PM
There are a couple of ways to approach taxes. Some do it weekly, some consider the game's bills taxes. With the latter you can record a household's bills and/or send it to the appropriate sim. The way I usually do it, though, is once per "round" (after I've played everyone for 4 seasons). This might not work for some people, especially if you play a large hood, but it's what has worked for me in the past. It gives sims, especially the poorer ones, time to come up with enough cash, and I do everyone's taxes at once. If my sims ever need more time to pay, they can have it, and work on it during the next year, but otherwise setting aside a tax time and calculating everyone's bill at once makes it less likely that I'll forget for one family, imo. And in between rounds is a good time for housekeeping stuff--like checking up on my recordkeeping, tallying up milestones, rolling for hood-wide events, building things, or adding to the town's landscaping, etc. That's when I do all that stuff and taxes is just a part of that list so it doesn't get lost/forgotten.

Another tip though, is to have a sim hold the funds. The way I set it up in my test bacc (that I'm now realizing was ages ago, ) was that everyone sent the mayor funds. That can help with forgetfulness, if one of your regularly played sims is in charge of collecting and keeping tabs on the town's taxes. But I thought this was a little risky, as an untimely death would mean the loss of town funds. That could be good for a story, but I ultimately decided to go with a placeholder that I never play.

I do recommend doing something with the tax money, though, and also use it as a way to fund town projects in my game. To me, that's another reason why I'm less likely to forget--I need taxes to do stuff! Thus it makes sense in my head to keep building time and tax time together. In that old bacc hood I mentioned, and in the new rules I'm slowly working on, I have my sims collect funds to build improvements for the town. My rules allow sims to progress on individual household levels, but in order for the town as a whole to progress, everyone either needs to come together and build things, or a few select sims can do it for the town--and those sims have the option of donating whatever the project/building is, or keeping a stake in it, for future profits. This way, households aren't held back by others' progress (or lack thereof), and then if households are so far along they need things to do, they can do them. For example I restrict pretty much everything--running water, electricity, phones, etc. Households can unlock some things for themselves if they can, though a combination of skilling, crafting, and gathering, depending on my cc. I initially just had skill requirements, but now I'm taking the time to think about how I can incorporate some mods and deco into my play. Water is probably the best example of this; fetching water would be required for cooking, laundry, and of course, bathing. I would use Sun & Moon's Fetch Water and Laura's Out with the Bathwater mods to help facilitate this. Anyway, as sims progress, they could build rain collectors and eventually wells on their own lots. But to unlock modern plumbing, or for the town to progress, a town system (water treatment plant building or some hood deco, etc.) would need to be created. That's what my sims' taxes go towards, town improvements like that. Electrical plants, radio/cell towers, town lights, post office, etc, etc. Hmm, now that I think about it, I should also do sanitation and make sims burn their trash until a sanitation system or building is built. Anyway, if sims with more money want to donate more to the project, they can, or they can fund it all, or large parts of the project. And these sims have the option of taking a stake in the project, like I mentioned before, or putting their name on it. I'll decide this on a sim by sim basis, as different options will make sense for different sims, but basically, if a family has a stake in the project--like the town plumbing system, for example--then they get some profit for it. I view the games' bills as bills for utilities, so I'd probably either write down the amount each household pays and give a portion to the families with stakes in utilities, or just give those families with stakes a flat fee every so often. I really like this as it's a way for me to create class systems and wealth divides naturally. And then for things like college campuses and parks, my wealthy sims' names will be everywhere, just like irl. So yeah, all those wealthy sims have to find a way to reinvest their money and keep the wealth growing.

As for how to collect taxes, there are a few ways. One is as you mentioned, @Primavera, Monique's hacked computer, but Monique also has an automatic payment mod, too. That might be helpful if you're worried about forgetting to send payments. Inge and Monique both have landlord mods that can send payments to sims as well, and then there's Pescado's Money Order, Christianlov's wallet, and Simwardrobe's checkbook. I know other simmers find keeping track of all this stuff stressful, but I like the little details like that. Monique's auto payment mod might be the best way to go, though, if you're worried about too much booking. It doesn't look as out of place as the computer might, it can send payments automatically, and you can track behind payments (they get added to the household's bills).

And TadOlson, that sounds, great! I'm planning something similar (I'm a simmer that plans a lot more than I play, especially lately, ). For hoods that I start from scratch, I'll start collecting taxes once there is a consensus among the households to form a government. Households "vote" for a government depending on life events--for example, if there are fires or theft/burglaries, etc.--and sim personalities. Certain sims, Popularity and Family sims, I'm thinking, care more about establishing societal rules and order and government.

"May the sunlight find you, thy days be long, thy winters kind, thy roots be strong." -Grand Oak Tree, DAO

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Bored? Read an unfinished legacy or sim story. | aka Kelyns | she/her
Inventor
#911 Old 13th Jun 2020 at 10:35 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Phantomknight
There are a couple of ways to approach taxes. Some do it weekly, some consider the game's bills taxes. With the latter you can record a household's bills and/or send it to the appropriate sim. The way I usually do it, though, is once per "round" (after I've played everyone for 4 seasons). This might not work for some people, especially if you play a large hood, but it's what has worked for me in the past. It gives sims, especially the poorer ones, time to come up with enough cash, and I do everyone's taxes at once. If my sims ever need more time to pay, they can have it, and work on it during the next year, but otherwise setting aside a tax time and calculating everyone's bill at once makes it less likely that I'll forget for one family, imo. And in between rounds is a good time for housekeeping stuff--like checking up on my recordkeeping, tallying up milestones, rolling for hood-wide events, building things, or adding to the town's landscaping, etc. That's when I do all that stuff and taxes is just a part of that list so it doesn't get lost/forgotten.

Another tip though, is to have a sim hold the funds. The way I set it up in my test bacc (that I'm now realizing was ages ago, ) was that everyone sent the mayor funds. That can help with forgetfulness, if one of your regularly played sims is in charge of collecting and keeping tabs on the town's taxes. But I thought this was a little risky, as an untimely death would mean the loss of town funds. That could be good for a story, but I ultimately decided to go with a placeholder that I never play.

I do recommend doing something with the tax money, though, and also use it as a way to fund town projects in my game. To me, that's another reason why I'm less likely to forget--I need taxes to do stuff! Thus it makes sense in my head to keep building time and tax time together. In that old bacc hood I mentioned, and in the new rules I'm slowly working on, I have my sims collect funds to build improvements for the town. My rules allow sims to progress on individual household levels, but in order for the town as a whole to progress, everyone either needs to come together and build things, or a few select sims can do it for the town--and those sims have the option of donating whatever the project/building is, or keeping a stake in it, for future profits. This way, households aren't held back by others' progress (or lack thereof), and then if households are so far along they need things to do, they can do them. For example I restrict pretty much everything--running water, electricity, phones, etc. Households can unlock some things for themselves if they can, though a combination of skilling, crafting, and gathering, depending on my cc. I initially just had skill requirements, but now I'm taking the time to think about how I can incorporate some mods and deco into my play. Water is probably the best example of this; fetching water would be required for cooking, laundry, and of course, bathing. I would use Sun & Moon's Fetch Water and Laura's Out with the Bathwater mods to help facilitate this. Anyway, as sims progress, they could build rain collectors and eventually wells on their own lots. But to unlock modern plumbing, or for the town to progress, a town system (water treatment plant building or some hood deco, etc.) would need to be created. That's what my sims' taxes go towards, town improvements like that. Electrical plants, radio/cell towers, town lights, post office, etc, etc. Hmm, now that I think about it, I should also do sanitation and make sims burn their trash until a sanitation system or building is built. Anyway, if sims with more money want to donate more to the project, they can, or they can fund it all, or large parts of the project. And these sims have the option of taking a stake in the project, like I mentioned before, or putting their name on it. I'll decide this on a sim by sim basis, as different options will make sense for different sims, but basically, if a family has a stake in the project--like the town plumbing system, for example--then they get some profit for it. I view the games' bills as bills for utilities, so I'd probably either write down the amount each household pays and give a portion to the families with stakes in utilities, or just give those families with stakes a flat fee every so often. I really like this as it's a way for me to create class systems and wealth divides naturally. And then for things like college campuses and parks, my wealthy sims' names will be everywhere, just like irl. So yeah, all those wealthy sims have to find a way to reinvest their money and keep the wealth growing.

As for how to collect taxes, there are a few ways. One is as you mentioned, @Primavera, Monique's hacked computer, but Monique also has an automatic payment mod, too. That might be helpful if you're worried about forgetting to send payments. Inge and Monique both have landlord mods that can send payments to sims as well, and then there's Pescado's Money Order, Christianlov's wallet, and Simwardrobe's checkbook. I know other simmers find keeping track of all this stuff stressful, but I like the little details like that. Monique's auto payment mod might be the best way to go, though, if you're worried about too much booking. It doesn't look as out of place as the computer might, it can send payments automatically, and you can track behind payments (they get added to the household's bills).


This is really in-depth @Phantomknight, thank you! And I definitely don't want to end up in a situation where the poorer sims don't have enough money to pay their taxes, the person who proofread my rules said that their sims couldn't pay the value so they had to cheat a little. So paying taxes on a weekly basis may seem too hard depending on what the dice roll gives me for the family funds. So how does this sound; I make sims pay their taxes once a sim year at the beginning of spring, much like how tax season is in April. That would give me enough time to calculate my sims' household value and send it to the Mayor (I call the sim 'Mayor-to-be' because the role has been vacant for a while with the way I set up my rules). The bills were another option I was thinking about, so maybe I can add up the amount for a household per season and that could be their tax amount? The percentages still throw me off, I was never good at interest rates.

And thank you for linking that Monique mod! I'll definitely try and incorporate that one. I'll still keep Monique's hacked computer and toy around with it, I just downloaded it last month so you can tell I have no experience with it .

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SFS uploads
#912 Old 26th Jun 2020 at 12:34 AM
Does Circe Beaker deserve a second chance?

I started playing Strangetown and am struggling with the Beakers. There was no way I could allow them to keep up what they were doing to Nervous, but Nervous wouldn't have the guts to run away on his own. He's so traumatized he would never stop worrying what would happen to him when/if the Beakers found him again. Luckily, Pascal Curious was friends with Nervous and Nervous wandered by when Pascal was giving birth to his daughter. Their friendship evolved into a romance and Pascal convinced Nervous to marry him and move into their house where he would be protected. He will never get a job, he will just stay indoors and help take care of the children.

Olive Specter has died and Ophelia wants to move out of the house now that she is an adult. Nervous has inherited everything from his mother. Since the Curious household is starting to get a bit cramped, I thought Pascal and Nervous would move to the Specter house with their two kids. Nervous is Olive's son. He's definitely not a serial killer like Olive, but he is traumatized enough by the Beakers to want revenge and to put his nightmares to a definitive end. My dilemma is whether Nervous will "kill" both of the Beakers or just Loki.

I've looked through the Beaker's photos and memories and I am unsure of if Circe is a result of abuse too. Circe dated Vidcund Curious when she was a teen and Vidcund is still fond of her. It seems that Loki threatened and fought Vidcund for Circe. Circe wasn't used as a test subject like Nervous, but she was forced to marry Loki and do whatever he said- including abusing Nervous. Vidcund tried flirting with Circe in front of Loki and all Loki feared was losing Circe, yet he is constantly attacking her. Clearly he is just trying to hold onto her because he sees her as his property.

I'm definitely killing Loki. I'm not against having a villain-like character in Sims but Loki takes it too far for my taste. I'm just confused about what to do with Circe.
Mad Poster
#913 Old 26th Jun 2020 at 12:42 AM
You clearly have an abuse/fellow victim storyline going on with Circe there, especially with him attacking her. Why not have Circe kill him and Nervous assist her in covering it up?

A redemption arc that leads off with murder is normally a hard sell for me, but it's not my game and law enforcement is clearly crap in Strangetown, since that abusive situation went on so long. If she has to solve the problem herself, and you're okay with it, well, so be itl.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
#914 Old 26th Jun 2020 at 10:34 AM
About payment of taxes-if you don't want (or don't have anyone in particular as Mayor) to donate the taxes to the town, you can use the option on Monique's hacked computer to 'donate to charity' a certain sum, which will relieve the payer of a certain amount of money.
The only problem with that is remembering to do it every so often.

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
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Mad Poster
#915 Old 26th Jun 2020 at 5:17 PM
One issue is my BACC town is starting to look like a construction zone with fall about to arrive and winter preparations are already taking place with the flurry of building at the service center and on homesteads as they add to homes and buildings before winter arrives.It's up to the local families to begin getting themselves ready for the upcoming winter as fall arrives.
Alchemist
#916 Old 9th Jul 2020 at 7:20 AM
So I'm taking a break from building and, for whatever reason, instead of going back to my Pleasantview, I'm restarting Veronaville. I like the idea of keeping the hood small and building up some lots and houses for a while. Even though I'm taking a break from building. But whatever! :P

The dilemma I'm having is how to set up restrictions on which townies can move in. I want to stick to playables for a while; I plan on playing the bin sims, which I don't normally play, and maybe adding Desiderata or playing some of the uni premades. So I want to come up with some rules on when and how townies/dormies can move in before things get rolling too far. I didn't do this in my current Pleasantview, so a bunch of sims got to move in playables just cuz and I want to avoid that this time around cuz 1. I'm a hasty decision maker and usually end up moving in sims I really don't want to play/have no plan for and 2. it's kinda a cheat to make some quick cash for my playables and then, well, number 1 happens.

So, I'm looking for ideas, gameplay wise or storywise, for what should be the restrictions on townie move-ins, besides just 'must be in love/bffs' because it's way too easy for sims to fall in love or become friends. Though I suppose I could use No Instant Love. Anyway, ideas would be appreciated; what are some of the things you do in your game? Do sims need a permit (i.e., pay a fee)? Do they need relationships with multiple people, etc.? Do they have to wait a certain amount of time, etc.?

"May the sunlight find you, thy days be long, thy winters kind, thy roots be strong." -Grand Oak Tree, DAO

XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
Bored? Read an unfinished legacy or sim story. | aka Kelyns | she/her
Scholar
#917 Old 9th Jul 2020 at 2:28 PM
I don't like to move townies in, so my main rule is that one of my playables must have a persistent want to marry/get engaged to that townie (no impulse to get married just from a great date). I have also moved in townies when they have fathered children and then showed an interest in being in the child's life on a permanent basis--they visit and call frequently, for instance, and help take care of the kids when they are over. I have occasionally in the past moved in a townie who fathered children just to have them meet an unfortunate accident, as well, so the children won't grow up and have a father younger than them wandering around.
Field Researcher
#918 Old 9th Jul 2020 at 8:05 PM
I think a good restriction for the Townie move-in could be the Enemy flag. It'd be a break from the Love flag, for sure, and would encourage some of your nastier sims to be nasty as they please while making new victims or arch nemeses.
Time doesn't march forward fast enough in my own neighborhood to have to think about adding Townies to the Playables.

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Mad Poster
#919 Old 9th Jul 2020 at 8:38 PM
My rules are all more like guidelines. Perhaps the final criterion should be "I'm interested in this sim and want to play them."

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Test Subject
#920 Old 10th Jul 2020 at 12:19 AM
How do you play out the want to see the ghost of another sim? Cassandra Goth has married fellow scientist, Sheldon, and the two reside in the Goth home. They have a toddler in addition to Cassandra's first child with Don. I loaded their lot to find that Sheldon is incredibly furious with teenage Lucy Burb - and he wishes her dead! This altercation must have happened at a community lot.. I'm so perplexed! I love playing Lucy and don't wish to harm her, and I've also noted Sheldon's 5 nice points. Still, I don't want to ignore what had developed, and I think something could make for interesting drama! Perhaps Cassandra witnesses Sheldon's anger towards Lucy and may disapprove - or not? Sheldon has also merged well in the household, becoming best friends with Ophelia (Cassandra's firstborn), but I'm not entirely attached to playing him... thoughts??
Mad Poster
#921 Old 10th Jul 2020 at 1:20 AM
Right now in Alice Springs I've got several people who have that wish-to see the ghost of their ex-spouse.

I've armed all of them to the gills. Should the two meet, there will be repercussions, and not pleasant ones.

The scenarios end with a funeral in the cemetery.

I don't usually revert to this kind of play, but otherwise they'd be at each other's throats every time they run into one another. It is mutual, and I'm going to have to roll the die to see who survives.

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Alchemist
#922 Old 10th Jul 2020 at 1:36 AM
Oh, definitely, Peni! It's just that I often forget that rule when it comes to sims adding to other sims' stories. Like I had my Jessica Peterson marry the landlord and move him in when she got pregnant, not necessarily because I wanted to play him, but because I thought it'd be good for her personal storyline to end up married with kids that she didn't want after all. Even though I knew I'd probably want to her to skedaddle later on and leave him with the kid(s) and had no real interest in playing him, I moved him in. I kinda do this when I need a spouse for a sim, too. Sometimes it's cuz it's hard for me to pair a sim up with another playable--the story doesn't make sense or everyone compatible is already taken, . Or sometimes it feels like everyone is dating everyone. ...Which I guess might happen in a small town. My John Burb Jr ended up being a bit of a player, for example, without either of us really intending it, because he's middle class, so he meets & mingles with everyone and probably cuz there aren't a lot of playable guys his age. He's got relationships with Candi Broke, one of Dina & Mortimer's triplets, and Sandra Roth.

ANYway, it's easier to make sense of all that with my younger sims, or the second generations, cuz then they can mingle naturally in school or whatever. But for my older premades, idk, it's harder for me to find good pairings that make sense. ...I probably have too much going on with each sim, so their stories compete, rather than complement. I hope that all makes sense.

But thanks for the feedback, everyone. And I didn't consider the enemy flag at all, Nottakenaway, so you're right, that could be a good indicator. Right now, I'm leaning towards a mix of everything: 1. The townie/npc has to have a strong relationship with 3 or more playables, where a "strong relationship" equals love, BFF, or enemy flag, BUT the love flag can't be with a Romance or Pleasure sim. (Otherwise I'd end up moving in half the town! ) 2. Persistent "wants". For the playables, they have to roll the get married or engaged want at least 2-3 times (preferably outside of the date scenario), or show a strong preference for the sim (always calling them, preferring to initiate romantic interactions with the townie over other sims, etc.) For the townie, they need to show a persistent interest--always calling or stopping by. Showing up on a community lot whenever their SO is there. Etc. And then 3. I need to have a strong interest in playing the sim, or an idea for a storyline, or the sim must fit into an existing storyline. If I wouldn't mind if my playable killed the townie off and pocketed the insurance/move-in money, then I need to rethink moving in the sim.

I'm thinking either 1 or 2 can be present, but 3 should always be the case. And to help me with #3, I've come up with: 4. Any townie/npc moving in can't have a fatal "accident" for at least 4 seasons. Real accidents are okay, but I really shouldn't be moving in sims just to kill them and steal their money. I think that's fair. 5. They/the household need to pay a fee. Let's call it applying for a visa. I always liked the idea of my sims paying for a marriage license, and I think this goes well with that idea. Townies gonna request permanent resident status, and playables need to prove they're serious about getting married and moving in a foreigner. There's been some suspicious deaths over the years and I suppose the government ought to start cracking down to prove it's serious about protecting townie lives--it's amazing how real life and sims can line up sometimes. And the sentiment syncs up nicely with my ideas for a legal system I had a while back. (That very, very long post is here: https://www.modthesims.info/showthr...811#post5522811 in case anyone is interested.) Some of the laws I was thinking of were about protecting sims, including townies, from excessive violence and this could be part of that initiative. I looked up licenses and visas, though, and apparently they're cheap (NY is $35, a US visa is under 300); I'll have to change that for my hood. Perhaps $1,000 for the visa and $500 for the license? I wonder how that'll affect poorer sims though. They should be able to get married without too much trouble... Oh, I guess if it's too much for them, I could do a tax deduction for sims in lower income brackets.

...Hmm maybe this is a good time to expand my ideas for move-outs & move-ins all together. I suppose anyone moving anywhere in the neighborhood should pay a fee, to pay the movers. Maybe $500, $300 if you have a car? And sims will need to have a certain amount of savings to move out. I was thinking about doing that in my integrated hood (if I ever get it started; I always seem to have more rules to finalize first! ) as a way to slow the expansion of households and give sims something to earn towards. I think Veronaville might be a good hood to test out the rule; the sim pool is fairly small and the Capps and Montys are clannish enough that it makes sense for extended family to live together. Let's see, maybe $3000 to move out if there's government assisted housing, where all the amenities are communal. And they'll need a car. Always a car, unless in a dense part of the hood downtown. I can't see Veronaville ever becoming dense enough for that, though I suppose I could make a walkable square in the hood. Hmm. I'll pin that idea for later. I think a sim could probably scrape by for a bit on $7000. Oh, but they need a clothes budget. Okay, so maybe $5000 and $10,000 to move out. And a car. Or two weeks' rent and furniture, if they can get hand-me-downs? ...Hmm.

I guess I've rambled on enough. If anyone's got ideas for rules for me to add, though, I'd love to hear them!

"May the sunlight find you, thy days be long, thy winters kind, thy roots be strong." -Grand Oak Tree, DAO

XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
Bored? Read an unfinished legacy or sim story. | aka Kelyns | she/her
Mad Poster
#923 Old 10th Jul 2020 at 2:38 AM
Don't forget, when they've done their bit, if they haven't engaged you, you can always turn them back into townies. Age them up when the sim they were most significant to grows to elder, then pitch all the elders into a nursing home and have a low-pressure, high-chaos, undirected household there that you can play when you feel like it, giving them all a chance to die.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Field Researcher
#924 Old 10th Jul 2020 at 9:40 AM
Quote: Originally posted by malrose
How do you play out the want to see the ghost of another sim? Cassandra Goth has married fellow scientist, Sheldon, and the two reside in the Goth home. They have a toddler in addition to Cassandra's first child with Don. I loaded their lot to find that Sheldon is incredibly furious with teenage Lucy Burb - and he wishes her dead! This altercation must have happened at a community lot.. I'm so perplexed! I love playing Lucy and don't wish to harm her, and I've also noted Sheldon's 5 nice points. Still, I don't want to ignore what had developed, and I think something could make for interesting drama! Perhaps Cassandra witnesses Sheldon's anger towards Lucy and may disapprove - or not? Sheldon has also merged well in the household, becoming best friends with Ophelia (Cassandra's firstborn), but I'm not entirely attached to playing him... thoughts??


I'd check if Lucy is furious as well, cause then it seems like they really had a fight over something.
If only he is furious, obviously she did something without noticing.
Is she much younger than him? I think if he were to pick a fight with a teenager, Cassandra should rethink her choices!

After all, even if Teens are really annoying them, adults should take the high road cause they (are supposed to) know better!

Is anyone friends with Lucy? If so, I'd invite her and see what happens...
Mad Poster
#925 Old 10th Jul 2020 at 7:34 PM
I'd use one of my hacks to fix that corrupted relationship and add a few Mods that make fighting more sensible like they'll only fight a few times and will leave a community lot and go home if they got into a fight instead of hanging around continuing to fight.I'd use insiminator or Simblender to fix that relationship and also fix the persnality conflict.I make very nasty sims nicer and ones that are too playful a liitle less playful.
I've got sims in my town preparing for winter now and summer is really almost over in Dodge when sims taking cold showers are getting chilled.
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