Cottage Living: Prep and Plans

"EnkiSchmidt;c-17912423" wrote:

"SweetieWright_84;c-17912150" wrote:
Until I see a picture of the world (with lot sizes), I can't plan anything. I always take a screenshot of the world and plan which areas will be residential and which will be commercial. Then, I make the families for each house. After all of that is planned, I then build thr houses based on the family that will live there.

I have been looking at inspiration pictures of cottages though, and also thinking of the households I want to add to my save file. I'm just so excited I couldn't contain myself. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself though.

I'm shifting around on my chair to see the new world with lots and houses already, too!

Also the premades. For the most part I don't care for premades, but there always have been one or two families that I fell in love with and worked into my web of sims long before I had the pack. (I even had a Julia Wright from the gallery before owning DU.)

I don't really play a lot with premades in my general gameplay. They're usually just background sims. In my save file, I deleted them all. With that being said, I have recently started a save with 24 YA sims to dabble with rotational play. Of the 24 sims, only 9 are sims I've made. The rest are premades and Maxis gallery sims. I'm really enjoying it. My goal is have generations of sims that can trace their lineage back to the original 24. It may be a while before I get to HoB with that save though. I'm trying to make each generation "discover" the worlds as I go. As of right now, the 24 have only "discovered" the base game worlds.

Anyway, I am excited to read the backstories on all the new households though. I'm curious about the lore they've teased.

"MDianaSims;c-17911733" wrote:
Now, I don't normally really prep for new packs, but this one, especially the setting of a small village in the countryside, really inspires me.
I've got it down to two concepts, that I just posted to my blog, but I'll just post them here, see if anyone has any preference. Not that I'll share much of it, but it's for my own enjoyment, it's always more fun to play with somewhat of a story idea behind it.

Why not both? I see a potential love match!

I'm thinking I need to have a sim grow up as a responsible baking/cooking queen who will go on to buy a small cottage B&B in Henford on Bagley. Fresh meals from the garden and farm every morning and evening!

Also might start finding CC for a new UK based decades challenge, also might start farther back in the Regency era.

"simgirl1010;d-990887" wrote:
We were having a wonderful bookstore discussion in the cottage living positive thoughts thread so I thought we could continue that discussion here along with whatever other preparation and plans you have for Cottage Living. Will you be starting with a new family, playing with one of the families that might come with the world, or moving an existing family to Henford-on-Bagley. What shops or community lots are you planning? Are you leveling up some of your sims' cooking, baking, gardening skills? I'm sure we'll have lots more to discuss as more information is released.

Playing with the families I already own.

yes. i need to prepare my slaves that will do all the dirty work for me. milking cows? yuck.

Wow, some people really put a lot into their preparations! *feels inadequate*

I have been quite inspired for a re-start, I'm now making a spreadsheet *feels proud of self*

I have chosen 12 households from previous games and am going to tweak them all, planning traits, aspirations and careers in advance. I will start over with one of the households being for the new town.

And, depending on what the world is like when I see it, I might play a couple of pre-mades or make 2 more new households so I can have an even 14 (14 works nicely for rotating on a 28 day season).

I will move my Eco Lifestyle couple Elwood and Penelope Moss and their twin daughters to the new world. Elwood hates his job because he's a freegan and he doesn't want to earn money. He's grumpy almost 24/7. Although I've gotten fond of him and his grumpiness I think he will end his job and start farming and gardening. He will probably continue being grumpy every now and then because he will earn money anyway. It's okay.
Penelope is making candles and juicing. She can continue that and she has also a garden and they have a bug farm. They will have farm animals too, of course.
Their daughters, Heather and Juniper, who are toddlers right now are going to grow up to children soon. Juniper has a hurt sentiment towards her mom and she's angry and throwing tantrums all the time. They will love growing up with animals, I think. I can't wait to move this family out of Evergreen Harbor and have a nice farm. :)

I am making plans for a few different games with the new world. The first though will be a farming family who just want to survive and live the simple life. I plan to make a couple, newly married, who will move in with the man's parents to help out with the farm. I love the idea of a vet so maybe he will become one while the others work the farm. I already started making a few shell cottages that I plan to finish when I get the pack soI can use the new items in build. Later I plan to do a town in the colonial times and another for supernaturals. I love the rural look to this town and just can't wait! I also want to make a version of Skyrim in this town. I have wanted to start a Skyrim sims game for a while but now of the worlds really fit with the modern looking backgrounds. This one will be perfect!

Leod McGreggor currently has a farm in Windenburg - he'll be moving to Henford with his farms, and will be adding some chickens and cows! I want to create a flower shop in the towncenter. It feels like Henford would have a quaint little flower shop.

I will be playing my simself so I can vicariously live my off the grid, self sustaining cottage farm fantasy. I'll consider this practice before I turn my fantasy into my real world reality one day. I'm definitely going to make the most of Seasons, Cats and Dogs, Eco Lifestyle, Outdoor Retreat and of course Cottage Living. I'll likely use a mod to make Granite Falls a residential world, the 50x50 lot at the top of the map is almost exactly where I imagine my future home will be. I imagine I'll also make use of Get to Works retail system to open up a local farmers market of sorts where I'll sell all sorts of self produced goods.