Neighborhood Stories and Single Sims

Well, Year 4 has been completed.

Year 4
This was kind of a sad, depressing year as pretty much all the original townies have passed on. The only remaining besides the vampires/immortals are the original children and they are all elders with very little time left. Lots of deaths occurred but they were not reported with NS - I assume it was just too many to list. The majority of the family lines were completely wiped away with just a few remaining and looking to continue. Those, not surprisingly, were the descendants of the married townies from the beginning of the game. More pet adoptions than anything else this year and some more shocking deaths - my first overnight guests only remaining descendent is now the toddler son - the infant daughter apparently died by anger at some point. Not as much move in as many of the homes are 'empty' or unfurnished and need me to drop in and refresh them - that's quite a lot to do. The townie fashion parade is quite the spectacle at this point!

Here's a few highlights of the year...

My founder, Rocco Thompson, still putting in the work for his athletic career - I wasn't allowed to intervene so he never got to shave and really started to grow into that beard! Still, he reached the top and is burning through his vacation days until he retires or passes on.

Here is his best and really only friend, Sho Aldo. I REALLY wanted to pop him into CAS and change his last name to 'Nuff!

Graduation had a few known townies - here is Sydney Price in his elder years. He and his brother Jayden are the last ones standing and they both make it to the end of this year.

Sophia Bjergsen was there, shortly before her death by old age.

This is the randomly generated teacher for Classroom 1 - I forgot his name already. He reminds me of someone in real life but I can't figure out who...

Graduation turned out to be a complete flop - the guests, the teachers, and the graduates all arrived but the game failed to generate a new principal (who died) so nobody actually walked across the stage.

Blakely unfortunately aged up with horrible acne but we were able to get rid of it shortly after this. I completely forgot to have her apply facial cleanser as I was almost 100% hands off for her teen years.

Proud papa Rocco with the Dad sweater! He flirts with everybody - including all of his daughter's friends that drop by the house. He has a romance bar with just about everyone he meets!

This is his usual relaxed self at home. The guitar was for Blakely but she really showed no interest - Rocco picks it up all the time.

There is a SERIOUS epidemic of elder streaking in Oasis Springs. Seriously, every single day at least 2-3 are doing this! It's unsettling and my sims all run after them to 'see what's happening'.

Blakely married her high school sweetheart - nice kid, but not much ambition career-wise. He is the son of Alika and Mele in Sulani and has 3 sisters and 1 brother. He looks good but he has terrible traits. Hopefully he makes a decent husband and father but we will see.

Sensing that time is running out with her father, Blakely and Beejey (why?!) decided to start the family early. The doctor in the background is Joe Landgraab - all the original Landgraabs are long gone but there are 4 still in the house. I think this one was adopted as he doesn't have their signature 'look'!

Little Melia was born on the very last day of this year - New Year's Eve. She cries constantly but it doesn't last forever.

My founder, Rocco is at 160 days and the bar is almost solid green. He will die early in Year 5 but the family will endure.

Final Thoughts
NS was fun but it really requires a bit of hands-on work to maintain and progress the town. I could use a mod like MCCC but it also made some pretty random and unwanted relationships and I really wanted to try this without mods for now. I would do this in my real save but with quite a bit of customization. I would also make sure that every sim has a partner at some point so that they can progress and not die off. Horse adoptions would be taken off as well as Move Out. Accidental Death and Move Ins would be only put for a few households.

Overall, the progression does work but I can tell that going in to the next year I would need to do extensive background work so that my towns don't become just a series of random adoptions by single sims or a ghost town. I enjoyed playing this because it really gave me a better idea of just what effort I need to put into my save to make it come alive.

Thank you to those who read through and joined me on this little experiment.