New Year, New hustle - Start down here Surviving the holidays - Start here Too many toddlers Finding love after a breakup Perfectly Well rounded Making money (pending)
Emil is a gardener sim whose plan is to make a million by growing expensive flowers and brewing kombucha. This is definitely harder than before adding Seasons. When there isn't a heatwave, it's a thunderstorm. And vampires.
https://abload.de/img/08.12.21_23-44-23skkkd.png
Things we cannot afford yet: a house, furnishings and basic modesty.
https://abload.de/img/08.12.21_23-57-036nk2d.png
Gotta make concessions - when the indoor space isn't large enough to place the bed because of all the plants, then the bed needs to get placed elsewhere. But I doubt a man who sits in his swimtrunk under an umbrella will mind me sleeping here.
https://abload.de/img/09.12.21_00-53-00zojbw.png
Day 8 - things are looking better now. Emil has nine thousand simoleons in cash and the maximum number of juice fizzers a single sim can operate (when he stocks the ninth, the first is close to being finished). The next goal is to perfect the lilys (only one more quality tier to go) and full the whole lot with them.
No story this time, but I documented my daily progress.
My scenario sim, Emil, tries to become a millionaire by gardening and brewing/juice fizzing. He starts in Newcrest with easy access to several public barbecues and Lilys (for floral kombucha). Everything that fits Emil’s theme is allowed, everything else strongly discouraged, but still allowed. Sims that move in must not bring money. Before reaching the money goal Emil wants to have perfect specimens of every flower in the game and own at least one servo (to keep the garden running when he retires to his millionaire estate).
Day 3: 127 Added a custom holiday, the Sommerfest (a summer party with gnomes for easy access to seeds). Gardening 4, Cooking 2, Juice Fizzing 1
Day 4: 534 Thunderstorm, vampire attack Gardening 5, Logic 4
Day 5: 1,655 Juice Fizzing 2
Day 6: 3,879 Thunderstorm Cooking 4, Juice Fizzing 3
Day 7: 3,658 Thunderstorm Cooking 5, Gardening 6, Juice fizzing 4
Day 8: 9,213 Thunderstorm Cooking 5, Gardening 7, full row of 9 juice fizzers
Day 9: 13,274 Heatwave, perfected carrots (to subsequently graft cuttings to for quick perfecting), moved in Cameron Fletcher, bought him a Robotics workbench
Day 10: 20,864 Moved in Ulrike Faust, bought computer, bookcase and bar, added an attic (with beds) Ulrike got offered (and accepted) Criminal Career 5, also started in Vampire Lore
Day 11: 42,464 Thunderstorm Gardening 8, Cooking 6 and Ulrike maxed out Vampire lore already
Day 12: 48,836 Soulmates aspiration completed for both Emil and Cameron (married now)
Day 13: 64,247 Ulrike promoted to Boss
Day 14: 90,249 (lowered to 82,296 after remodeling) Last day of Summer! Built a greenhouse
Day 15: 92,050 First vampire cure sold (profit: 7,625) New skill day Ulrike now Mixology 5, Cameron now Robotics 5 Emil maximized Gardening, but it didn’t count. Luckily a distillery broke down, and from repairing it he reached Handyness 3
Day 16: 102,572 Second vampire cure sold Filled the whole greenhouse with Lilys
Day 17: 119,571
Everyone worked in the garden until 14:00, always needing food, sleep or a shower, and the distillery stood empty. I had to move a fourth sim, Ulrike’s friend (soon also girlfriend?) Lilith Pleasant. Lily turned out to still be actively enrolled in Villainy, two credits away from graduating
Looking back at those two weeks I see that I made many mistakes. I should have filled the lot with flowers first and only later started on juice fizzing. Should have foraged for more valuable flowers. Moved in helpers earlier. Bought Marketable for everyone earlier instead of letting the game intimidate me into buying the weatherproof traits (still new to Seasons). So many “should have”s…
Thunderstorm Marriage prompt for Ulrike, she woos Lilith in record time and bags 21,733 $
Here, look:
https://abload.de/img/10.12.21_15-53-06c6kfb.png
Isn't that the most romantic wedding you've ever seen? On the upside, they have one more wedding guest than Emil and Cameron had, so we should count that as progress.
Emil takes a cutting of snapdragon to hybridize with his Lilys to get orchids that are six time the value of Lilys. Should have thought about at the first day of fall already. And also kept the seasons at the default seven days.
So. Many. Mistakes.
Day 19: 261,360
Five Lilys revert to dirt piles, an alarming incident! I'm not above cheating to repair the plants, but with 276 Lilys I dread having to click each single one. This is also where I noticed that each Lily plant gives only two flowers per harvest. It used to be six, so that's a big downer. My little greenhouse now feels pathetic when I think about simmers that have completed Making Money in 30 days or less :(
Emil finally earns Never Weary and also finishes Fabulously Wealthy for a daily interest. Another thing to the pile of "should have thought about that and aimed for it earlier".
Day 20: 286,326
Emil travels to Finchwick. The locals don't want to buy my kombucha, there goes the idea of getting a bonus from haggling. Back home I get myself some treestumps, but the rabbits refuse to let me place them inside the greenhouse. The birds don't mind, but they are slooooow to befriend.
Maybe I should look into flower arranging (and more sims).
Wolfgang Munch got caught sabotaging the sprinkler!
But since he is such a good friend of Ulrike Faust, my household had a cake for him... a birthday cake! Freshly force-aged up to YA, Wolfgang got "invited" into the household by Ulrike. The game option sounds a lot friendlier than it actually was: my sims grabbed Wolfgang, pulled him inside and locked the door behind him.
And now that he is a household member, Wolfgang can be a dear and help out. There's a flower-related activity that I haven't played around with:
https://abload.de/img/10.12.21_23-35-469ejzz.png
Wolfgang: "You can't be serious!!!"
Meanwhile the planter boxes at Romance Festival yielded a meager harvest only, but we take whatever we can get.
Day 22: 465,688
Cameron maxes Fabulously Wealthy, too, and earns Rarely tired (the lesser of the no sleep traits). He also builds a gardener bot.
Wolfgang runs out of low level flowers, helps in the greenhouse instead
(This is the day when I realize that two flowers are sufficient to make a sixpack of kombucha. It used to be five. I read online that this got changed to two, but that never worked for me. But now with Seasons installed only two are needed anymore.)
Day 23: 535,066
The first kombucha made with perfect orchids comes out masterwork (selling the ingredients =1,250 Vs. selling the kombucha sixpack = 6,671). Emil sends it in for a review.
https://abload.de/img/11.12.21_01-12-32bmj0m.png
The gardener bot gets activated, but it is slow and not much help. Cameron upgrades it once, because he needs the experience to eventually build a servo.
Emil buys a countertop stove and some seed packets. The only flowers that the household is still missing are Bird of Paradise and Death Flower. (I know how to get/graft them, I just cannot fit it in yet.)
Wolfgang hits flower arranging 5 (mostly from books)
Lilit graduates, though not with honors
14:55 the household hits the halfway mark! For the next day a flower bunny party gets scheduled.
I can't believe I only got a single day finished today. But things have become complex, with lots of micromanaging (that I enjoy, so no worries!). And was it really only 2 posts and four sim days ago that I complained about not getting anywhere? My scenario household's income is snowballing now:
Day 24: 596,415 simoleons
At this pace I see myself achieving the million before the secondary goals. Part of the million will go towards prettyfying the farm anyway, because in the state it is now (efficient, but drab, even ugly), nobody will want to buy it.
So what else happened?
The Good:
- The "Halfway to the Million" party, of course. I set it up as a holiday (no time off).
https://abload.de/img/screenshot3239o6juq.png
This was the first time that the scenario sims actually got to drink some of their own products. Specifically they are having the dragonfruit soda made from two dragonfruit Emil picket at the Romance Festival. (Since they are not flowers, I decided against multiplying them.)
- Emil could buy a pomegranate from the "Buy gifts-> Flowers" menu, no need to gamble for cherry seeds to graft.
The Bad:
- The society Emil sent his 6,600 simoleons masterwork kombucha to paid... 1,402 simoleons :o That's beyond insulting and I consider sending them Wolfgang Munch to have a "talk".
And the In-character:
Earlier that day Wolfgang had gifted his mother a handmade flower bouquet that she had liked a lot. He's slowly warming up to the idea of learning a real trade and integrates more and more into my little family. So when Wolfgang caught the Flower Bunny stealing Lilys from the greenhouse, his protective urges kicked in and the young man retaliated in the only way he'd known since he was ten or so:
https://abload.de/img/11.12.21_23-49-28j0kbe.png
Wolfgang won and even earned a premature decorative Easter Egg.
Day 25: 704,786 First snow Ulrike completes Fabulously Wealthy Day 26: 801,347 Harvestfest – the sims check all the goals, but it’s not really a holiday celebration. Everyone is too itchy from the goal being in sight Ca. 30 Lilys revert to dirt piles Emil receives 37,913 simoleons interest from his completed aspiration
1:49 Ulrike sells a vampire cure and the household gets the Rosebud Achievement for having earned 1 Mio.
https://abload.de/img/12.12.21_21-13-441bk1q.png
4:09 the sims find a trashed servo that someone has tossed over the fence into their property
7:xx All flowers except the death flower are perfect and in their own planter boxes Removed ca. 55 Lilys to make room for orchids
12:10 Cameron starts repairing the servo (ingame: starts making a new one)
12:44 Emil grafts a pomegranate cutting to a perfect tulip, unlocking the death flower
13:26 Cameron activates “Flora” the servo.
https://abload.de/img/12.12.21_21-41-29aejj2.png
Flora initializes with the traits Family oriented, Neat and Perfectionist. She is very eager to clean basically every object, dirty or not. I feel she’d be better suited for indoor tasks in the brewery than gardening.
14:07 Lilith completes Fabulously Wealthy
16:36 I realize the game made my sims fat from not working out. Working in the greenhouse and at the fizzing machines all day would certainly burn calories irl, but both activities were probably planned as light hobbies, and the devs didn’t anticipate an industrial approach to crafting. A quick session in CAS remedies the oversight.
19:07 Cameron upgrades Flora after she has tried her hands at various activities on the lot.
21:50 Cameron maximizes Robotics!
22:38 Everyone gathers outside, then Flora sells a bunch of flowers for the final missing 30K, bringing the household funds to…
https://abload.de/img/screenshot3242paj82.png
… 1,005,181 simoleons!
https://abload.de/img/12.12.21_22-22-09btk6y.png
https://abload.de/img/12.12.21_22-21-15x3kzz.png
And this completes my first officially scored scenario (the other two were just playalong in an un-updated game):
https://abload.de/img/screenshot32430jj1s.png
I said I wasn't interested in the other scenarios, but now I can think of a way to make Surviving the Holidays fun for me. There's a handful of sims that come to mind to use - look out for a poll in the General section later on!
Okay, this may be confusing, because this scenario will use the same setting and sims as Too many toddlers and Perfectly Well rounded, but it will play out in an alternate timeline (like so many of my side-saves) and ten years before Perfectly Well rounded.
I'll post three scripted prologues before delving into gameplay.
(this will serves as the anchor post for the thread's table of contents)
https://64.media.tumblr.com/e49e733f08f782b1586a3cc56d406ea8/c4af897741fb6118-57/s540x810/2043e8020bc27d9fc8fc9182ef5464e125c19ee5.png Detroit. December 2038. https://64.media.tumblr.com/f557025d0b1d417622655cf6640e61f5/c4af897741fb6118-c1/s540x810/279ebb85a1393564adadf72c19c7fb7fddad1b77.png https://64.media.tumblr.com/5f8ea4e8e2882ffd2d2a8a512de5836a/c4af897741fb6118-d9/s540x810/2bf1ebdaecdb49a21a611d596adfd0cf29d0f2e6.png
“Dear diary (that I don’t have, because that wouldn’t be manly)! Today is the day! I’m off work and on my way home, to be a perfectly passable dad! I just feel it! No stupid mistakes and no tears, not for the Allen household, no, Sir!”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/684893c48e62fc69ac9795e09651f569/0eaff0e062681f2c-fc/s540x810/aa66a35f9385e431d26a8c732de3a9ead9655fab.png David (internally): I mean, what could go wrong? I’m entering a kids’ room, not a lair of deviant androids. The worst about this place is how it’s near impossible to get a good picture of. https://64.media.tumblr.com/eee3e00e6d5e2eefa43043c1c392fa05/0eaff0e062681f2c-74/s540x810/384df9f948b26cb1e43dc4be75d43729c0cbdcb5.png David (internally): And I did it before, the proof’s still up on the wall! When I made the stars and snowflakes garland with the twins, everything was fine.
I managed once. I’ll manage again. https://64.media.tumblr.com/2563b3ca32ebc918989e015a7b367091/a998b28988bd0cae-72/s540x810/07fd574ababe8ce3e422f987dcd4f6ae530e712d.png Things started out promising. David put up the playtent together with his son and daughter, Archibald and Kendra Allen. With two camping enthusiasts for their parents, the twins were already able to help, and the few grips they couldn’t do on their own, they at least understood. Whenever he noticed that, David felt accomplished. But then again, teaching the twins survival skills had never been a challenge. Connecting to them as persons was where the father failed. https://64.media.tumblr.com/5f7848d1465bcd872a5ce04a65527d9c/a998b28988bd0cae-74/s540x810/4a4342594f77105e0aba08c9c3cc93840a0b2916.png Fortunately “Prince Roland” and “Prince Archibald” were perfectly able to pursue their conflict for the throne of Enroth on their own. The twins hardly noticed that David didn’t actively participate in their pretend-play. David grunting monster noises when prompted to and otherwise looking sufficiently proud seemed to be enough to earn him the “Played with dad” checkmark.
Until Archie waved his toy sword around a little too carelessly and slit part of his sister’s disguise. At this point David uttered a quick “Careful, Prince Archibald!” into the boy’s direction. https://64.media.tumblr.com/815d209f1c1f60307e59bf5fc02ded01/a998b28988bd0cae-ab/s540x810/6eb21e15a759893d55d76c4b477b3da6db141a34.png Archibald immediately broke from the make belief game. When his sister still hesitated, he said “Oh, come, it’s no use! It’s like always... he will NEVER change!”
“Now, now!” David said. “That wasn’t a ban on weapons, Archie. Just a warning to be careful for your two’s own damn sake!”
“That’s not IT!” Kendra replied. “You don’t even GET it!”
“Can’t you make sense for once?” David sighed internally. But he hadn’t forgotten his resolution for the afternoon and so out loud the man said: “Can’t you explain?!” https://64.media.tumblr.com/62996ee7e15f64bd4a8e206ce7bc9555/4e6e396fc4d7add6-00/s540x810/5b8de16e663cf9c8f356a1cf1d38745b0e09ca8a.png
The children sat down. To David it felt like a jury settling down to decide the final verdict over a criminal, only he was innocent! Yet Kendra refused to take off her mask, to hide her mimic behind it. The girl wasn’t crying, not even sniffling, but there might be a silent tear or two...
David: “So what have I done that was so bad, huh? Archibald?!”
Archibald: “I’m Archibald Allen NOW. In the game I was Prince Roland. Kendra played Prince Archibald.”
Kendra: “We told you who is who, but you forgot. Like you always forget. You never pay attention!”
David: “Okay, I slipped. But that’s hardly the end of the world. ‘sides, it’s stupid. You are Archibald in real life, I don’t see why you childishly insist on playing Roland... if not with the explicit intent of confusing me!!!” https://64.media.tumblr.com/c850c5243005e5b6ee15e3e4f5ec732f/4e6e396fc4d7add6-88/s540x810/cead82c2ed67910eba15f7914b9014bc7520444d.png Archibald: “I... d... d... don’t wanna do that! And you PROMISED! We’ve had this row before, dad, and you promised you wouldn’t mix us up again!”
David: “I did?”
Archibald: “What would you do when a criminal promised he’d do better from now on, but then did something evil again, dad?” https://64.media.tumblr.com/beb2d872277a78c7c3427de26ce19165/4e6e396fc4d7add6-9e/s540x810/083ddfe4d654b6e13084f9fa0a460de434fc6d06.png David: “I’d say “Grow the fuck up, Daniel!” and then punch him in the guts.”
Kendra: “That’s not fair!”
David: “Is, too, Kendra-darling! I told you all about our ex-criminal janitor, didn’t I?”
Archibald: “Yeah, and we memorized all your co-workers. And that is what is not fair!”
Kendra: “We’re supposed to learn all about your life at work, but you don’t make an effort to learn about our life here! You don’t... You probably don’t...”
David tore into the doorhandle and had left the room before his daughter had finished her sentence.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/8b2231d20df6d42a60e983ecbcdebef1/841befb06320df45-1d/s540x810/af3dacf806efe7e4f752edec940d6d9a823b7b1c.png Enraged, David marched over to the apartment’s little gymn, where his wife, the twins’ mother, was training, assissted by the Allens’ household android, Silke AP700.
David: “How much longer will this take, Silke?”
Silke: “About...”
But David didn’t really seem to be interested in the answer. He had just asked to enter into a conversation situation with the android.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/10cb07fad0a8fc4c4b113be054003955/841befb06320df45-83/s540x810/426ffac7f055c2122224b3d6823abe4adb7006c6.png David: “GOTO - END - RUN.”
Silke closed her eyes. All CyberLife androids, even those programmed for factory work, passed the Turing test. David could just have said “Session’s finished” or something similar. But, no, the human had chosen to remind Silke and everyone around of her machine status, and not even thoughtlessly. David had aimed to hurt.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/4b980c5a288e9b64ceb86fdf1a05b341/fe84721fe99f7e65-0d/s540x810/71d4a13435f05589ae2791386f86f3bbf1a912ee.png Claudia: “Okay, I can make a break. - Feel like punching something?”
At this point David wrestled control from me and proceeded to the “Mean” menu on his own: https://64.media.tumblr.com/bf454665b5e96130eef95b58be200a95/fe84721fe99f7e65-c1/s540x810/b866a4b538a7c5bfd341dea7b24ade70517aa90d.png David: “Matter of fact, yes! My younger self! What were we thinking, making those brats of ours!”
Claudia: “Ey...?”
David: “It was all fun and games when they were in the crib, and started to toddle. But now they’ve grown into monsters that think they can command us around like we were androids! And it’ll be another twelve years ‘till they are out of the house...” https://64.media.tumblr.com/4d267b52f04086b40f7afc73dc369d34/df9275909a892eb6-18/s540x810/15adb480ebf91409cbcffd60fb6bc6fa55bc051d.png Claudia: “What’s gotten into you? No, don’t answer that. It doesn’t make a difference. You were beyond rude, and you continued down that path when I offered you a way out and a means to work through your frustration.”
David: “Oh, that’s gold! Now those snowflakes of kids of ours drive a wedge between the two of us?!”
Claudia: “More like that kindergarten of a police department that you call your workplace infected you, so you act childishly now, too.” https://64.media.tumblr.com/9be7daf06826ac94f3313d24c38a71ab/df9275909a892eb6-29/s540x810/9ed20d5fc78a21068c6fbc9fffc5500fe897c5d0.png David: “Shit, Claudia, at this rate I could just as well have volunteered for the holidy shift at the DPD. It pays outrageously well, but I wanted to go mountaineering with you’all!”
Claudia: “Maybe it’s not too late. You can still...”
David: Yeah, I can still patch up things with the twins.
Claudia: “...volunteer.”
David: “Say again?!” https://64.media.tumblr.com/57126a0ff6902b1c86c62eced4173121/df9275909a892eb6-71/s540x810/72c6d6d0cd38a46d18da5f9248a36b60ebaf1cbd.png Claudia: “I’ll just take Silke along to the trip, then your ticket won’t go to waste.”
David: “The android?!”
Claudia: “It’s got a parenting app, unlike someone I could name. See, I don’t run around catching criminals, and you don’t fly diplomats to Sixam and back. Maybe when we keep you and the kids neatly seperated from now on, we can salvage this family. It’s worth a try.”
David: “Wait, what, you can’t mean that!”
Claudia: “I’m looking forward to missing you a lot over the holidays, but for now get the fuck off my lawn and let me finish my training!”
