Itlandm's Sims

This is my main Sims 2 project and has been ongoing since 2007. It is based on the Prosperity Challenge rules, combined with my own Near Future rules. It also has its own atmosphere in a couple of ways.

-The Angel. That would be me. My sims can't see me (until they die) but they can hear me and talk to me. Most of them just take me for granted after a while, but some have long discussions with me about morality or the nature of reality.
-The townies. As the story goes on, there are more and more of them. Micropolis becomes more and more like a real town where the people you know are surrounded by other people you don't know quite so well. Some of them have distinct personalities and appear by name. These will often join the playables eventually, but not always. Others appear mostly as background or comedic relief.
-Community focus. After the first two weeks, I changed my playstyle to play one day (or year, as I call it) at a time, going through all the families before moving on to next year. My sims also go out to community lots a good deal and have guests over, so the most important people in a picture are not necessarily the ones I am controlling at the time. I find that this allows the sims to be more spontaneous, and it also fosters a sense of community more than family. It is more "tales from Micropolis" rather than "the families of Micropolis" if you see the difference.

While there are summaries here in my main Sims journal, Micropolis actually has its own blog. If you have the time, you can simply start at the beginning and read through the full, illustrated stories by going to "next day". It is a massive undertaking, though. Start here if you dare...

Or you could just jump right into the middle of the story. Everyone will be unfamiliar, but there are links in the text to a background page with a short text about each family's members. Many of them have a more complete biography page which may also be linked to. Some things only make sense when you know each sim, but the general feel of the community can be tasted right out of the bottle. Overall, Micropolis is a happy place despite the financial hardship. It is a place I would not mind living: A place of hope and growth, friendship and love, where quirky people are accepted, hard work is rewarded, and even death is just a journey to a distant shore. Welcome into my dream!

(The name Micropolis simply means "small city". I made it up before I had heard of the game with the same name.)

I bought The Sims 3: Generations at half price. At first it did not seem like a bargain: The teen auto-pranks and mood swings are irritating enough to cancel out the new child interactions in my opinion. There is still the chemistry set, though. If anything, it is a bit overpowered, since you can create the young-again elixir eventually. But then again eventually is a long time, enough to max your logic on the chemistry station alone, I think, and then some. Anyway, I was not really excited until I came across the only new career in Generations: Day care.

See, you get up in the morning, but instead of going to work, you just sit there eating your pancakes and people come and dump toddlers on your floor. From there on, you get to play with them all day, feed them, change their diapers, cuddle them, teach them to walk and talk if you feel like it, or just watch them play. It is kind of idealized: No stomach bugs, no biting or hair grabbing. And then at sunset, people show up again and whisk away the toddlers, leaving you free to do your own things all evening and sleep all night. You also get paid. How awesome is that?



Not a suitable profession for a loner, so here is Anna Rabarbra, daycare specialist, surrounded by kids. (As you advance in your career, you are allowed to get school kids as well, which typically are your former diaper fillers. They only show up after school and stay to sunset though, so there is little time for anything beyond homework and a little socializing.)

Oh, and I forgot to mention: This is a great way to boot up an empty neighborhood, if you have downloaded one. (I am doing this in Meadow Glen Updated.) The game will spawn family-oriented couples to get you started with toddlers, they will breed at a decent clip at first. If you advance fast, the game will have to create more couples to keep up with you. Eventually the kids you raised will be the core population of the new town, and thanks to your excellent day care they seem to be less likely to be out and out insane. I assume this can also be used to revitalize a dwindling old town, if that problem still plagues those who don't have Twallan's Story Progression.)

Konstanza grew up to a teen. She was rather better looking, I think. Unfortunately the baby fat was not going to last long.



( Konstanza picspam! )

Time flies when you don't have the epic lifespan on. Claudia became a teenager and decided to become an illustrous author, mastering both the skills of writing and painting. Actually she did not write much during high school, since writing is not fun if you are a sim. (It is a lot more fun if you are the real me.) Sim-Itland adopted another toddler girl, and both of them grew up.



Claudia never became a stunning beauty, I guess. She's a likable enough girl otherwise, well apart for her tendency to found at the bar if not told to go elsewhere. Konstanza (to the left) is disciplined and athletic, although these traits have not yet kicked in. Right now birthday cake is more interesting.

Vampires have a long lifespan, superspeed and telepathy, but they no longer turn into bats. Thus the following conversation between my self-sims adopted daughter and a classmate:



Classmate: Is it true that your dad can fly? You know, like a bat?
Claudia: You have skipped your Ritalin again, right?

Being a vampire is now less of a Transylvanian tragedy and more like an Anne Rice book, only funnier. Rather than going "Bleh!" and randomly turning into a bat, Sim-Itland gained a number of small superpowers. Being able to learn faster at night (which is disturbingly realistic for a night owl like me), and being able to run like a blur (very much not realistic). And, while not immortal, having 250 years as a young adult when the average lifespan is 194 (for a whole life) is also nice. Vampires still don't tolerate sunshine well, but they don't immediately burn up. They take gradual damage, and only after some minutes (sim time) outdoors, so they can go out with the trash, pay bills and stuff like that. Not maintain a big garden during daytime though. They are also safe inside a taxi, or can use the teleport platform, so can hold a job.

Sim-Itland however quit his job and took up the sculpting profession. Actually he could live off the five money trees, but sculpting is fun and will randomly result in furniture for the new basement. So far he has built two levels of basement, out of four possible. The coffin-like vampire bed is in the lowest basement. The library and bar is in the uppermost. And speaking of library: Did you know that toddlers will on their own read toddler books and absorb useful skills like painting?



Meet Claudia Itland, my adopted Sim-daughter! She is a genius who occasionally forgets where she is and what she is doing. She does not forget to read though! Do we have a future novelist?

Most of Sim-Itland's new friends were eccentric at best. Well, that just made him fit right in. While visiting one of them, who claimed to be a vampire (despite NOT sparkling like, you know, that TV series everyone was talking about a while ago), Itland asked the guy if he could turn him into a vampire too. And this Hemlock fellow actually bit his arm! Eww! Needless to say, Itland fled home immediately. The bite was quite small and looked more like a mosquito bite, itching terribly. The next day when he went to work, he had to go home because of the terrible heat. Never one to go to the hospital for small things, he went on a diet of lifefruit for all meals, and spent his time either sleeping or meditating. Finally he felt better and went to make himself a salad. Then...




SPARKLES! It's time to quit the day job!

Sim-Itland has moved to the bustling city of Bridgeport. It is a terrible place for a teenager to grow up, because housing is very expensive and the travel distances can be long, even with the new subway station. Luckily he managed to survive by selling paintings. As a young adult he entered the science career (again) and began growing lifefruit. Life was good. Selling extraordinary good fruit and valuable paintings to the celebrities of Bridgeport pulled him unexpectedly into their bizarre world, and he began to be followed by paparazzis. Even during his trip to China...



(To be continued... probably.)

After I upgraded my quad-core with a SSD as system disk and Windows 7, I can play Sims 3 without crashes, and completely smoothly (except for the huge map of Los Aniegos, and I am not sure whether that is slow because of the size or because of the routing errors that made me abandon it eventually).

I have been out walking/jogging a lot lately, but now I have to rest my right foot (overtraining with inferior shoes, it seems), I have spent the days with Sims 3. I recently bought World Adventures and Late Night, partly because they were on sale and partly because the larger maps require them. I have not bought Generations yet - the price is well above the two earlier packs together! More importantly, I don't need it to run any of the content I want, while I needed the other two. (I had Ambitions already.)

Playing with two new expansions reminds me of why I like and dislike Sims 3. Actually, I like and dislike it for the same reason, namely its depth. It is far deeper than the earlier two versions. Just think of writing books. In The Sims, you could only do that with a hacked download. In Sims 2, you could do it and make a kind of plot, choosing from a few genres. In Sims 3, you can easily make a living off it (and in Ambitions it is formally a career choice). There are so many genres that I am not sure I remember them all, even though I have had several sims who were writers. Some of the genres even requires experience with other genres first, or other outside requirements. If you've had a few generations of authors, you will find their books everywhere, not least in the local library.

And so on with almost everything. The problem is, even at the Metusalah life span, your sim can barely master a few aspects of the game. There are so many opportunities, skill challenges and just plain things to do, you almost need a spreedsheet for each sim! And new expansions compound the problem. Should I travel to the Far East and learn martial arts, or ask my vampire friend to turn me into one of their kind and suck the blood of the papparazzis who keep tailing me? I'll probably avoid Generations as long as I can, because romance is already so complex that I prefer staying single. (Then again, it is even worse in real life, which is why I am here writing this in the first place, I guess.)

Current Mood: confused

( Much more than this )

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Current Location: richmans range