Back to this family's Introduction | Week Two coming soon
I have to say, I wasn't 100% sure how to start this whole Townie Rotation.. but having a bigger family was a blessing in disguise. It meant there was always something going on to take pictures of. Before doing anything else, I took a few moments to redecorate the house a little bit. When I played this family before, I put a pool in the middle of their back deck, and I still think it was the right choice.. so the pool came back. The extra bedroom was turned into an office, because I decided to let Olivia be their only child. I added a washer and dryer, and assigned everyone to their own rooms. The last thing I did before actually starting play was getting everyone their jobs, including scouts for Olivia.
I'll start this post up with some screenshots of the changes I made to the house...
The greenhouse
The pool
The outdoor play area
The office
Olivia's room
The upstairs "creating space"
And here we go...!
Spring. Vivian's first thought was all the wonderful meals she could make for her extended family. She even spent time watching the Cooking Channel for new ideas. Food filled her thoughts in every spare moment, and she quickly filled up the refrigerator with tempting leftovers for any hungry family member.
Olivia was ecstatic about her new friend, Whiskers. She'd asked for a little brother or sister.. and she'd gotten a pet rat instead. At least it was something. And his tiny pink paws, tail, and ears were SO cute.
Spring for Dennis meant starting his garden. Installing the greenhouse roof had definitely been worth it, however, because gardening in the rain wasn't anyone's idea of fun. And yes, it was raining. A lot.
Eric always seemed to have reports to fill out, and the new office served it's purpose wonderfully. Keeping an extra computer, however, was almost a necessity with so many people in one house.
Grandma Vivian took some time out of her busy cooking schedule to help Olivia with her homework, which was much appreciated. Sometimes the lessons seemed so confusing, so having an extra brain to help understand made things easier.
While the rest of the family worked on their own things, Alice holed herself up in the "attic" creative space and started painting. Every time anyone looked for her.. there she was, working on her newest masterpiece. Her new job at the gallery helped to pay the bills, but it took away from the time that she could work on her own art.
Vivian helped Olivia get through the last of her spring reading assignments for class, utilizing the office reading space as it was intended. The view was great, too!
Dennis tried communicating with his new bees in their hive, and things seemed to be going well.
... More or less. A few stings could be overlooked, right?
Vivian found another new hobby, since her job was now asking her to learn Mixology, too. It meant more time spent studying for her, though!
With Vivian so busy, Dennis stepped into the role of mentor for little Olivia, helping her with her school project on the Solar System. It turned out amazing, though, and gave her a needed boost to her grades.
Eric and Alice found a little bit of time to be together, but Alice wondered how much "togetherness" they actually got from watching Eric's sports channel.
... And more rain. Alice was definitely done with the dreary days, wishing for sunshine and inspiring things to paint.
See? More rain.
Finally, Vivian found some extra time to tutor Olivia some more. It helped get her homework done faster, which left more time to work on her Scouting badge tasks.
With no one in the house with an aptitude for repairing, it seemed the local handyman's association was sending someone out every other day for the dryer. (Really, I think it was every other day..)
Dennis' beekeeping finally netted some simoleons.. and no stings for at least this one day!
The office always seemed to have someone in it... although the noise from Vivian's SimsForever game wasn't helping Eric get his paperwork done for work.
With two badges already under her belt, Olivia was now chasing people around the house working on her Social badge. Looks like she interrupted Grandpa Dennis as he was getting ready for bed... but at least she finally got those tasks done!
The family bulletin board was always full of fun little notes and drawings, and everyone seemed to stop to admire it as they walked through the kitchen.
One morning, Vivian found time to buy an anti-aging treat for Whiskers the Rat, since Olivia had gotten so attached to the little beastie.
Whiskers seemed quite happy to get it, too.
Finally! A sunny day so Olivia could try out her new swingset. Dennis even agreed to take time out from his gardening to push her for a while.
With the final touches on her Solar System project, Olivia found some time to work on her aspiration, and spent most of Thursday night practicing her violin. It was sure hard to tell if the practice was helping, though.
Alice was once again painting in the "attic", this time working on some very Confident paintings for her aspiration.
Once again, Eric was burning the midnight oil filling out his reports for work. Couldn't they ever give him a break?
With his gardening finally netting him some flowers, Dennis practiced his flower arranging for Love Day. He wasn't sure who he'd give them to, though, so he just ended up selling them for a profit.
For a change, the Dryer wasn't broken, and Vivian was able to get some laundry done for the family. That machine always seemed to be running with all the clothes the large household went through.
Friday afternoon... and all that work on her Solar System paid off - Olivia came home with her first A from Grade school. What a way to celebrate the holiday!
Mindful of her Scouts meeting the next day, Olivia asked for permission to go fishing at the local fishing hole. She was itching to get her hands on that outdoor badge!
Happy Love Day, Alice! Do you think you could spare some time off work to go on a real date? She accepted, but Eric still felt she hadn't appreciated his Rose gift.
The local restaurant had a table set aside for them, though, which was a good thing with how crowded the place was.
The two made small talk for a while after ordering, but it wasn't long until Eric had to shoo away someone who just stopped by the table to chat. It was definitely tough to flirt with your date with someone else hanging around.
Dinner was fabulous other than that small hitch, however, and it made for a spectacular Love Day celebration for Alice and Eric.
.. Just for good measure, he tried another rose.. and this time she seemed very thankful.
Alice wondered what she was going to do with all these flowers, though, when Olivia surprised her with a daisy when Eric and Alice got home. ....Perhaps Dennis could plant them?
Dennis, however, was far too busy talking to his bees. Successfully, this time, too. What a happy day for him! (Well, if you didn't count not being able to celebrate Love Day.. but then, he wasn't the only one sad about that ... since Vivian had been at work most of the evening and didn't celebrate it, either.)
The week finished out with "Talk Like a Pirate Day" and this time the whole family got involved. The house rang with good Sailor Yarns and Ditties, and plenty of "Arrrs" .. much to Olivia's glee. Everyone had a wonderful day!
Bonus: I laughed so hard when I saw this interaction. No, guys.. just.. NO. LOL
Back to this family's Introduction | Week Two coming soon
That's hilarious ! (The Pirate socials). I really enjoyed this. Love the house !
The pirate socials were worth the price of seasons all by themselves. I laughed so hard. I'm really having fun with this "challenge" I've set for myself. Getting to know new sims is always fun!
I just read up on your townie rotation challenge guide and realized that's very similar to what I've done and how I typically play except way more thoughtful. I just started playing Sims 4 and am interested in playing all these families too. Though I have made a couple of my own sims too, and housed some of the generated npc's because I liked them or thought the story would be interesting. I like the guide you set up and I am laughing too because I had such a similar less thoughtful, more casual plan. I look forward to seeing what you do with your families.
Thanks! It took me a couple weeks to set everything up for this project, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who's ever attempted it. I just finished playing through the second family's story, and will have their first week up tomorrow - and I'm having a blast. This has been a GREAT way to get to know the new expansion pack, and the different families are so much fun. I tend to get bored with playing the same family all the time, and I really wanted to mess around with all the fun sims EA made for us simmers, so that's why I decided to get this going. It helped me to have everything planned out ahead of time, and it gave me something to do while I waited for Seasons to launch (because that's when I planned to start the rotation). It was SO hard waiting for it to hurry up and launch!
I didn't plan it so much just jumped in and I am excited for seasons I didn't get it yet hopefully my save doesn't mess up. I guess if it does I'm still only on chapter 1 or 2 of the households I just haven't got them all posted yet. I too get bored with just one family and I'm a micro manager sim player so even in past sims I played I've done the week rotation. I have along the way forgot storylines so that's why I'm making the blog. I've started following other sim stories and learned about legacies and dynasties thought maybe I've been playing wrong so I too am glad to see someone else attempt this!
There are lot of different ways to play sims. I think that's part of what makes the game so much fun.. there's stuff for any type of player to do. I micromanage my sims, too.. I always have them doing stuff, which is why Seasons is so much fun - it gets me out of doing just goal-oriented things (like aspirations and job advancement) and gets me to do some more social things with my sims. I blog mostly for myself, because otherwise, I forget things. It's fun to be able to look back, picture and story wise and see what your sims were up to. As for playing "wrong" .. I don't think there is a way to play that's wrong. As long as you're having fun, then you're playing "right".. because that's what games are all about!
I am excited for seasons seriously looks so cool! I guess it will just seem like it was a long summer for me sims until the weather changes finally. I haven't figured out what to do yet with seasons like should it be different every week I don't know? I guess I will just have to wait and see. Really are there any rules nah
I have my seasons set on 7 days per season, so things change every week. And with the different types of weather possible, it totally feels like a new game every week. I like that, it keeps me from getting bored!
I feel sometimes as I am rotating through and when I first start a household I'm like ugh not these guys but by the end of the week I don't want to leave the story is just getting interesting! So far I am really enjoying blogging about their stories really keeps me interested.
Agreed. I remember the last time I tried this, sometimes just being like "I just have to get through this one week with these guys".. and by the end I feel like "done already?" .. that's the advantage of rotational play, there's always a "better" family coming up.
This is my first go through so I am meeting everyone for the first time. I already have my favourites and my not so favourites.
I started this when Sims first came out before there were any expansions, so I only made it three rotations before I moved on to other things. Now that the game is more fleshed out and I have all the expansions, I feel like there's never a reason to get bored with Townie Rotations. Some other challenges, towards the end of a generation I get SO tired of playing it, I just want it to be over and get to the next generation.. but with the rotation, you just have to get through one week before there's new faces to see.