Rebuilding Appaloosa Plains - UPDATED 13th SEPT

"CathyTea;c-16822436" wrote:
Hi, hi! First things first...

Spoiler

Weird cat sign!

And now, onto the important stuff...

Gosh! I love this story so much! It's hard for me to explain... it's really calming to me. I think it's the way you craft your sentences. Also, your writing is kind of interior, like we see inside the people, and I love that!

I had a little bit of a stressful morning with a dentist appointment, so before I buckled down to do some work, I wanted to de-stress, and reading chapters 6 and 7 were perfect for this!

Also... now the gossip!

Spoiler

What about Emery's crush? I really like it. You've done such a great job of portraying her tumultuous emotions! I'm really looking forward to seeing how this develops... or doesn't. Rukiya is awesome, right? I really love her!

And... I don't know. At first I really liked Dorothy, but I'm wondering now if she's the best friend for Matthew. I felt she was a little dismissive of his revelation about the unicorn--it seems like she wants him to be "normal" and not too imaginative or too on-fire about anything. Maybe that's OK, since she can offer some balance, but I want him to have a friend who believes in him and gets excited with him about big and little things.

Of course I wonder about Dorothy's secret! How fun it will be to see this eventually revealed!

How far in advance do you play? How far in advance have you plotted out what happens?

How much comes from the game, how much (in-game) from your direction, how much from the Sims or random game-stuff, and how much from your staging things?

Thanks again for writing what's become one of my favorite stories! :)

https://media.tenor.com/images/93f4619e29a4fbb14dc42a00f9c991d7/tenor.gif
Thank you so much!!! :love:

And now onto a more comprehensive response :wink: ...

I'm so glad that you've found the story comforting :blush: Hopefully even as more drama comes in, reading it can still help you de-stress :smile:

Re: your spoiler-covered comments:


And finally the answers to your questions :smile:

How far in advance do you play? How far in advance have you plotted out what happens?
I've played my challenge save through to the end of Part One in the story; the vast majority, if not all, of Bridget's grandchildren are in the town. So before I relaunched the story in this format, I already knew who each of her children would end up with, where they'd live, and if they'd have kids/how many.
The story's plot is a bit flexible in terms of the other details and when exactly certain things happen. For this version I've gone back to stage things and get more screenshots. This overlaps with your next question :smile:

How much comes from the game, how much (in-game) from your direction, how much from the Sims or random game-stuff, and how much from your staging things?
The story is primarily gameplay-driven. I play on low free will, so the Sims are mostly controlled by me, but I tend to play according to their traits and wishes. My gut feeling tends to affect it, too - whether a Sim "feels" like they're a good match for another affects how I view and write their story. I don't have a set path for Sims' lives beyond a few in-game weeks, and they're always subject to change.

I'm adding staged scenes to add depth - for the characters, the town, and to provide more tangible set-up for what happens down the line. These are mostly for the enjoyment of the reader and to bring to life the plot that was going on in my head while I was playing.
For example, my play-through screenshots sometimes don't capture the personalities or relationships of characters that I had in my head. This is especially true for Sim children, since the 'normal lifespan' number of days seems like it has too many for toddlers and too few for children (I'm considering tweaking this for my play-through for Part Two). Several scenes coming up with Dorothy in them were staged for these reasons.
I also didn't have the Seasons expansion active during my initial play-through, so some screenshots I've simply been taking to feature the seasons changing. The teaser image for Chapter 3 is one of my favourites in that respect :smile:

Almost all the chapters that are set at the boarding house will have to be staged, as well, since it serves as the "NPC lot" for my Build A City Challenge. The rules don't allow you to play/visit the NPC lot. Although I created the NPC Sims (Rukiya and 7 others we'll meet later) and have some ideas for backstories for them, their traits and Lifetime Wishes had to be randomized, so I won't know "who they are" until they're in my gameplay. In Rukiya's case, she and Bridget bonded over their mutual Green Thumb traits. Since I was also lucky enough that Rukiya has the Friendly trait, they were best friends in no time and she lived with the Tevellyns for about one in-game week, hence her working for them in the story. Technically, it was the Tevellyns' funds that were spent on buying Rukiya's house. In order to introduce her to the story and give her some of the background I imagined, I staged Chapter 5 to that end.

Finally, shots featuring empty lots, builds and renovations will be staged throughout Part One. In my game, I simply built homes and venues as I normally would, but for the story, I wanted to add depth by featuring the 'build' aspect of the challenge more. The Prologue and Chapter 1 (building the community garden) were entirely staged. Certain shots, such as the first screenshot in Chapter 3 where Bridget is waking up in an insulated-but-not-drywalled room, were staged for storytelling purposes and to add a sense of authenticity to the idea that they were building the new house themselves in steps, rather than rooms magically appearing while time was paused :wink:

Thanks so much again for reading, as well as for your valuable feedback and reflective questions! I really appreciate it! :heart: