Castle, Palace, Manor or what?
If you play royals and/or high nobility houses, your sims probably reside in spacious conditions. Such big houses often hold history and traditions, and they most likely have a proper name to reflect their status. So, I'm curious to learn how you name those huge estates? If you only play one royal family you probably have them residing a Castle. I just did some research and found that Castle would be the right name only if it is located on the countryside and has a large park. In real life many former Castles are now referred to as Palaces - simply because the surrounding village grew into a town and the old castle is no longer surrounded by open fields, as it used to be. We're of course not that realistic, but it made me think - should my Duke's big residence be named Castle, Palace, or Manor? And what's the difference between Manor and Estate, anyway? Would be cool to learn how you name your huge house(s), and perhaps some of its backstory as well. I don't play any royals, but I have 4 dukedoms (and some baronies), and their estates are all differently named (and probably categorized, too). Chateau Cavalier (pictured) is the home to Duke Aquess de Cavalier and his Duchess Claudine. The rough stone building is very rustic and the exterior not so elegant. It is shaped as a bone, was built based on older stone constructions 128 years ago. I named it "Chateau" (castle) before I was aware of the differences between a castle and a palace, but as castles normally have a big park (a palace will normally have a smaller garden), and Chateau Cavalier does indeed have the biggest and most impressive formal greenery arrangement in my entire region, so I think it might just about fit the bill. Its location is rural, too, at Cavalier Cove in Brindleton Bay. Rossie Palace is the home to Duke Jarret Ross, his wife Duchess Ribra Lynn and their 4 sons. I used to think about their home as "Rossie Castle", as it is the biggest and oldest (224 years!) of my four dukedoms' builds, but then I realized they probably have the small town pretty close, and the lot is not large enough for a major park arrangement. They have a rose garden, an apple tree garden with long traditions, and a limited patio with a pool. The location is actually outside my played region, so I'm hoping for a future pack with a suitable new world. So - I'll call it the Rossie Palace. Von Windenburg Estate is home to Duke Merlin von Windenburg. He is an elderly man with an exciting backstory but no family. The build has a 125 years long and detailed story in my game, and the duke is currently renovating it to its former state. It is not at all a castle, but I feel the Estate name seems a bit lame for a duke, but I think I'll keep it. After all the build is not extremely big, besides this family was mostly pretty much down-to-earth. The dukes von Windenburg used to reside in an old castle that was part of today's ancient ruins, but it was completely ruined during a war long ago. Finally, Meadows Penthouse (pictured), located at Fashion District in San Myshuno, is home to Duke Victus of Meadows, his wife Duchess Gloria and their daughter Lady Corva. This family used to reside at the Meadows, but one generation ago they moved into the top section of the new city Tower. I don't really have a name for it, but as it definitely is neither a castle, palace nor manor, I'll just refer to it as the Torini Penthouse or Meadows Penthouse. It's also rather new lacking the long history and traditions, allowing for a modern name. My other nobility households reside in Manors and Estates, mostly. I don't really know when a home is a Manor and when it is an Estate, so maybe that should be my next research ;) Whatever, I rarely change those old names because I like that both families and buildings have a backstory. How do you name the home of your top crest families?
How Much Planning Goes Into Your Gameplay?
Does anyone just play the game without any particular stories in mind? I don't make up any backstories, I don't have any complicated preconceived scenarios in mind when I open my game. I have things I want to accomplish when I load the game. Finish up a semester at Uni, reach the next level in a career, collect ingredients for a potion, plan a family barbecue, redecorate a room, etc. I don't have to imagine anything because I play within the game's parameters. The family I play is just a regular family, doing regular family things, or a regular as things that occur in the Sims universe. :p I was just curious how much imagination and planning and storytelling feature in your play style.
Creepy Crawlies Trait
Does anyone else put this trait on home or community lots outside of Selvadorada to add a sense of realism and or danger to their game? My current sim was "shipwrecked" on the island in Windenberg so I gave the lot the trait as it felt realistic to the scenario. His mermaid wife got bitten and might die of poison. They are living off the grid at this stage in the game and are not allowed to go anywhere other than The Bluffs so she has no hope of an antidote. My guy might end up being a single dad soon but at least it's making the game more interesting!
Person asking to hang out never shows up?
I had a child sim ask if he could come over to hang out with my child. I accepted. He asked Sunday at around 12pm. It's 8pm and he never showed up. I promise it wasn't because I didn't hear the knock, whenever a sim asks to hang out I always basically stare at the door until they come by. Normally if it was an adult Sim I would just shrug it off and assume the game once again invited a Sim over during their work hour, but a child on Sunday? Where did he go?
What is your Sim Nation name?
This is a question primarily aimed at other SimLit writers, but really for anyone who has thought about it... What is the name of your Sim Nation or Sim Nations? I mean, I know each "world" has a name (Willow Creek, Windenburg, Tartosa) but, assuming they are all interconnected in some way, is there a name of the nation, or nations, they are all part of (either an official one I don't know about or one you've come up with)? Myself, I tend to clump the "worlds" together in groups... Willow Creek, Newcrest and Magnola Prominade being one, San Myshuno, San Sequoia and Del Sol Valley being another. I haven't come up with a name for the overall "Sim Nation" however.
Neighborhood Stories and Single Sims
I've been playing a test save to see what the Neighborhood Stories feature will actually do in my latest save. I only have the base game active and placed several vacant homes in Newcrest. I disabled a few of the features like Move Out and Accidental Deaths. All of my married sims are thriving and having/adopting children - those households will be ok for a little while. What concerns me is the other single Young Adult houses. Aside from the Roomies adopting a child, nothing else is happening. Some of the houses have been moved into by a random single sim but no children born or adopted. I am just about to the point where all of those starting Young Adult sims will become elders. I guess the only way to get the feature to really work is for me to 'give' each one a spouse in CAS and then it will have them do something besides taking a part time job. I was really hoping that it would do more and not have to resort to a mod or manual input to keep the town thriving. My child sim was unable to complete his aspiration as there wasn't 3 children sims in the world. I had to add them in to get that to work. Does anyone know if the feature kicks in later and I should just keep playing the save or am I destined for a ghost town with empty unfurnished homes to deal with? Any tips on how you deal with this besides MCCC? Some players on console can't use mods and I was hoping that I could figure out the best way to make use of the feature.
