Recycling is the future, and this retired nuclear power plant building has been reimagined as Las Flores' hottest after-dark destination! Rave all night, but don't forget to stop at our green light cafe for hydration and hors d'oeuvres. Make sure you check out the upstairs lounge, with a band stage that's been often frequented by the Shifting Paradymes!
Boy okay SO. It's been like 5 months since I've touched this game or posted about it. Here's a summary of my active hoods so as to spare everyone from a million posts of many months old drafts and for my own good LMAO. Read below for details!
Pleasantview
While I've updated most of the premade hoods, I'm playing Pleasantview the most because I love being a homewrecker. There's a supernatural turf war brewing between resurrected alien Bella and vampire Mortimer because that's absolutely fucking ridiculous and awesome. Also, all the premade teens are in college and mingling with SSU premades. Greek life is a mess of love triangles (accurate to real life I think) based on what I last posted there!
MAJOR UPDATES:
Don Lothario and Mary Sue are having a fling against all odds. It is definitely just physical. Also, Don went out with Goopy and it was very funny because Goopy got SUPER pissed at Don for being a two-timer. Er, 7-timer.
Cassie and Darren are married, with one alien hybrid baby and one human baby on the way. Dirk is in college and feels really weird about his dad remarrying and has a hard time connecting with Cassandra or the alien baby...understandably. Oh, did I mention Cassie is a witch?
The Caliente/Broke household is...broken? Something is wrong with the lot they're on so I'll have to figure that out BUT. Nina runs a gym and continues to flirt with every single eligible person on the planet. Dina and Brandi got married and have combined their households.
The Burbs are coping with Lucy growing up and developing a temper, and are raising a somewhat unexpected baby.
Daniel Pleasant and Kaylynn Langerak had a pretty dramatic falling out. They are both living on their own and trying to make ends meet.
Frogpoint
Frogpoint is my BACP set vaguely in a 1970s/80s zeitgeist. You have to suspend your disbelief a little. Right now it's still in early stages with just three families (and I'm building a university since the eldest teen is about to age up), so there's nothing too funky going on yet.
Rita and Lewis Radisson, the young couple, just had a baby. The first born-in-game sim!
The Sikes are a wealthy family on the edge of town with of course a very rambunctious and counter-cultural daughter. I cannot wait for her to go to art school.
Finally, there's a commune of young adults near the not very well hidden secret government lab complex. Something something Cold War something something.
Damerel
Damerel is my medieval hood that loosely follows the Warwickshire Challenge rules + my own rules. There's a lot going on and still several families I haven't introduced. It's busy. The last family I posted about was the Brewers family, which is HELL to play -- operating a business AND wrangling like seven grillion bajillion children, AND satisfying a lecherous patriarch. But I think the blacksmith is up next in my drafts!
There's a university being built (at no cost of course because the coffers of the crown are boundless) because the heir to the throne is incredibly depressed that he didn't attend.
The Blacksmith household is led by Jaco, a gruff and down to earth craftsman. He looks after two apprentices, Seamus and Allie. Seamus is hopelessly in love with Maud, one of the brewers.
The Bards are my lesbian songstress queens and I love them. I roll a random event for every household and theirs was to get pregnant SO that's pretty swag
My BACP (Build A Community Project) Guidelines for TS2
A couple weeks ago, I lost my Pleasantview Uberhood to corruption. I wanted to start a custom hood, and considered doing a BACC, but ultimately decided against it because my gameplay objective is to have fun, but the BACC financial aspects and challenge rules seemed a bit overwhelming; I felt like it would lead to more stressful gameplay for me personally.
So I decided to come up with my own minimal guidelines to provide some level of organization and rules, without getting in the way of the creative and sandbox elements of the gameplay I love so much. So here's the Build a Community Project, guidelines that are free for anyone to use or borrow from. I may add on to this or change some things as I play my first BACP hood, Las Flores!
iSimchi's Build A Community Project (BACP) Guidelines:
How to determine the founding families:
1. Use a random number generator from 2 to 6. The number you roll is the number of households.
2. For each household, use a random number generator from 1 to 4. This is the number of adults in the household. Each adult must be either spouses or siblings.
3. (Optional) For each household, use a random number generator from 0-2. This is the number of pets for each household. Flip a coin for animal type: heads = cats, tails = dogs.
CAS Guidelines:
• No rules in terms of appearance or name, randomize or choose.
• Use a random number generator, 1 to 6, to determine aspiration:
1- Family, 2- Fortune, 3- Knowledge, 4- Popularity, 5- Romance, 6- Pleasure.
• Use a random number generator, 1 to 10, to determine zodiac:
1- Scorpio, 2- Sagittarius, 3- Capricorn, 4- Aquarius, 5- Aires, 6- Taurus, 7- Gemini, 8- Cancer, 9- Leo, 10- Libra.
* You can adjust the personality points however you want afterward, as long as it does not change their zodiac sign.
• No rules for Chemistry, randomize or choose turn offs/ons.
Move in Guidelines:
• For each household's family funds, use a random number generator from 13-20. The number you get is how many thousands they can start with. You can lower the bottom number if you want a bigger challenge.
• (Optional - mod needed) When building a home, you can use the loan jar, 5k max, and must pay it off before borrowing more.
• For emergency devices, your family..
needs 25k+ in net worth to use fire alarms.
needs 35k+ in net worth for burglar alarm.
needs 55k+ in net worth for car alarm or security cam.
• When moving back to the hood after college, use a random number generator, 1-5, to determine how many thousands your grad is starting with. They must move to an apartment at first, and can have multiple roommates.
• When moving out from a household, those moving out get a fair cut of the original household's funds instead of the standard 20k. (using the familyfunds cheat, evenly divide the total funds between those leaving and those staying). At least 1 of the sims moving out needs to have earned a total of least 1k with that household before they leave.
Hood Guidelines:
• Your first community lots must be a grocery/shopping center, and a nightlife destination (restaurant, club, bowling, combo, etc).
• For every household beyond the first two, you earn a new community lot (so if you start with more than 2 households, you can start with more than 2 community lots).
• Community lots can be purchased if it is not a public work (library, school, town hall, etc), but do not need to be owned or run by a playable sim.
• You can chose to build multiple of the same kind of community lot (resturants, clubs, bars, malls, etc) as long as their decor themes differ.
• Add a University when your first child ages up to teen, or a teen is adopted. You can use a premade Uni or make your own (I hate making my own so this is biased for me lol)
• Add a custom downtown when the main hood population reaches 30, and add 3 nightlife destinations. If you add families there, you get 2 community lots for each household (since downtown is more commercial than residential).
• Add a custom shopping district whenever you want, but these shops must be owned by sims, so you need at least one sim with the resources to start a community or home business to relocate there.
• Add a vacation destination when you reach 50 residents across main and sub hoods.
Misc/ Optional Guidelines:
• Sim's life choices are determined by their wants, any actions you choose for them must either align with their aspiration/LTW or their current wants and fears. Other than that, I personally only direct them to fulfill their needs if they are very low, but let them pass out or pee themselves if they aren't caring for themselves. If you put their needs before their wants, that's fine too.
• There can only be one level 10 career holder in the entirety of the main / sub hoods per career. If two sims roll want for the top spot, coin flip or make them play rock paper scissors or another win/lose game… or fight for it.
• Insane wants can be adjusted with LTW adjuster, must match asp or true hobby. (I hate the 20 kids/6 grandchildren LTW and feel it clogs the genetic pool, so I change those, my bias again)
• Disable Rod Humble by using mods or give away/never open the computer he delivers. Sims only get a computer when they can afford it.
• Multi-generational households: I don't stick to the traditional American nuclear family customs, family members can live with each other indefinitely while also starting families of their own, space permitting.
• No taxes or price increases, you only need to pay Maxis standard billing/pricing, unless you use the loan jar mod. If you use this mod, you can use the Maxis level billing (level 0).
• Use whatever lifespan mods if you want shorter or longer lives.
• Add custom townies to the townie pool if you wish, limited to 8 for each age group (if using townie free hoods you'll need to do this anyway). If you play with supernaturals, you can add one of each type to the townie pool.
• Aside from emergency devices, there are no limits on what furniture your families can purchase.
• If not fond of building, downloaded lots work all the same!
If you need it, we got it! Groceries? Check. The funkiest thrifted fashions? Check! Cafeteria themed after the history of Las Flores? Double check!
Mall Mart is run exclusively on solar energy, welcome to your new favorite eco-friendly one stop shop!
Hooh, it's been a second since I checked on my BACP. For new followers since I last posted about Frogpoint, it's a retro-themed hood stuck in late 70s/early 80s California! It's still in its very early days. You can find the wealthy founding family at the #frogpoint tag on my blog. But for now, the honeymooners! Check out this post to get a refresher on who they are!
It's a pretty slow round. Mostly just making sure Rita doesn't fucking die of starvation while pregnant!