I admit that I have been cheating on SL with Sims 4 lately. *grin* My youngest stepson was playing the base game via his Xbox game pass and it reignited my love of the Sims. When I was younger I had played Sim City on a console all the way up to The Sims CD Rom games and expansion packs – we’re talking years of game play. Admittedly I seriously suck at the Xbox remote and paid the super cheap cost of the base game to play on my laptop…and then I was hooked again. *laugh* Sims 4 is a huge improvement over the older games, IMO, although it certainly does lack in certain areas, but has so much more variety than the older expansion packs provided. I’m counting down the days for the latest expansion pack, Cottage Living, to come out, which I pre-ordered and have been obsessively watching early-access Simmers play on YouTube while I’ve been on bedrest recovering from my second Covid vaccination (it seriously kicked my butt, but this isn’t the blog I write about all that boring stuff).
The new expansion pack will feature gardening and raising a limited range of livestock in a gorgeous English-inspired town/area. You can do errands for the “townies”, enter garden and food items into the fairs, and shop at stalls in the town center. There is a lot of gameplay options and I cannot wait to see what type of interaction this pack has with some of the other expansion packs, like Seasons. I full on admit to using hardcore cheats; I want to enjoy my gameplay and not actually feel stressed to do tasks. Ever since I started playing Sims on a PC and they had CC items, back in the day, I full on embraced that style. I personally love the same aspects in it that I do in SL, although I like the gameplay and interactions when my friends aren’t available on SL; plus I am enjoying the story I created for my sim family.
An introduction to my own storyline…Bre and Luke Kincaid (call it a crossover instead of a lack of creativity, please lol) were created in Sims as a married couple. I hadn’t started any research on the game yet so I let my stepson take control quite a bit and he knew certain aspects that I didn’t, especially that there is a difference without cheats if you select “woohoo” versus “woohoo for a baby” and I did not pay attention that he was selecting the second option. I honestly thought I had picked personality traits that make them more fertile or maybe they needed to act on their flirting a little less. *facepalm* lol As I juggled aspirations and raising the three boys I started watching YT videos with cheats, Let’s Play storylines, etc., and realized that I needed to watch what he was doing a little closer when I set the laptop on his until he got bored, and that I didn’t need to use that save file but could go back to the previous save file if I didn’t want to follow through with the changes he made. *grin* I learned about expansion packs through the videos and it all went downhill. *laugh* Seasons seriously sucked me in and if you don’t buy any other expansion pack if you visit Sims 4 play, that’s the one I recommend hands down (at least until I get some hours into the new pack that drops on the 22nd).
Anyway, Bre became a stay-at-home mom after being a professional painter while Luke became a tech guru, raising Bastion, Nikolai, and Nate. Nate is a few “years” younger while the other two were one after the other. Bastion is a gamer and painter, but his main focus is as a writer. Nikolai and Nate both followed in their father’s footsteps as tech gurus (I may have had too many computers and VR machines in the house LOL). Bastion is more shy and reserved, Nik is an observer while sporty, and Nate was the Scout and is a massive goofball. (Early on I learned about the money cheat and capped the income, so it wouldn’t matter what I bought or how I decorated, since one of my favorite parts is the decorating.) They grew up on the largest properties available in every expansion pack, since I needed space for all of the goodies I decorate with and a lot of outdoor stuff. Playground equipment, skating rinks, pools/slides, scientific equipment like the observatory…you name it. *grin* As the boys aged naturally via Seasons (I recently turned aging off and do it under CAS manually, because I totally don’t want Luke and Bre to be elders or die while the main storyline is going) I discovered gardening and bee keeping. I used to paint IRL, but totally enjoy having Bre do gardening and bee keeping way more ironically, and after having two daughters nearly back to back, in the time between Bastion becoming a teen to a young adult, I still have Bre working to master the outdoors. She’s moderately skilled with herbalism (outdoor retreat pack), amazing at flower arranging (Seasons), finally able to calm the two bee boxes (Seasons) although they get irrate pretty often since I decided to learn how to improve with that skill by myself instead of any tutorials or videos, with work can evolve some plants up to magnificent with the help of a gardener and Patchy (Seasons – hey, balancing a family and still painting too, so not always out there to water and tend the garden lol), and totally aces at skating and snowboarding, although she needs to work on skiing (snow sports are from Snowy Escape). When she had Lily and Bailey I got the Toddler Stuff, Kids Room Stuff, Backyard Stuff, Vintage Glamour Stuff, and Luxury Party Pack (thankfully there was a huge sale when the last EP dropped and I got these cheap on Amazon as product codes instead of discs). Let me tell you, having a butler that I treat really well was a HUGE help with the kids, especially with toddlers! I am not the most fond of the baby and toddler stages I admit, and hired a nanny almost constantly, because although I love to interact with them, I like to explore gameplay. LOL I expanded with the Fitness Stuff and Cool Kitchen Pack after those, and then was not interested in expanding further until EA released the video for Cottage Living. Bre, Luke, Lily, and Bailey will be moving to Henford-on-Bagley, buying the largest property, and will set up a big garden along with a few cows, a llama, and some chickens. I can’t wait for Bre to enter some produce and pies into the Finchwick Fair (did I mention that she is a level 10 cook even in gourmet meals now? Yeah baby! Note: if you have parties or weddings, it’s seriously worth the Luxury Pack because you can click on tables and just buy prepared food as the party is about to start without the hours of cooking – just don’t forget to actually bake the cake for birthdays and weddings!). I’m not sure if I’ll have Luke continue gaming or if he’s going to retire to farm too. His life aspiration ATM is to have 4 grandchildren. No joke. So I think the quiet home life of a farmer might work for him despite his love of video games (advice: do NOT buy a VR base or clay if you ever want to have your sim be productive – they will always be jacking around with one or the other *laugh*).
Lily and Bailey are close to aging up to teens, although I haven’t decided if I’ll do that before or after the EP drops. Might have them get into the farm life as kids since they’re still A students now and always out playing on outdoor equipment, instead of their phones and such, so it might help get them the home trait if I wait. Plus I need to scope out who the girls can meet for romantic interests. The Get Together EP was such a blessing to help socialize the boys, since Snowy Escape didn’t work all that well for it for me, except with Nate. Via GT, Bastion joined a book club and fell in love with the group leader, Maeka, and I learned what a fiasco a goal wedding is – tip, do NOT click to plan the wedding unless you’re ready to start the wedding NOW *facepalm*. It was a disaster during a massive rainstorm, but it created a unique story and they were happy, so I went ahead and saved. *laugh* Nik met Morgan while tagging along with Bastion out dancing while Bastion was dating Maeka and I liked the challenge of pursuing another NPC instead of creating one. It’s so unpredictable this way, for me at least. I had to actually manually throw a birthday party for Nik when I realized that romance was no longer an option because Morgan had aged up while he was still a month away and their relationship bar was tanking fast, and had him propose that night after he aged up. No wasting time when you’re a matchmaking mother of five. *grin* While on vacation via Snowy Escape, Nate met Kaori while I was playing under Bre and had the family all off enjoying themselves without input. Suddenly he wanted her to come over to study after school (high school) and after playing as him for a bit I realized just how well suited they were. She’s a bit more extreme with fitness than he is, but she likes his goofy personality which is often disliked, and they flirted on their own without any clicks from me. At this point I had just turned aging off (a week before Bre was supposed to become an elder, after I had all ready learned the cheat to edit CAS and drop Luke from an elder to an adult again *laugh*), so I threw him a birthday party and then edited Kaori in CAS to age up as well, and had him propose the night he aged up, as well.
Nik and Morgan were engaged for a while and living together on a small property at the end of our huge property, while Bastion and Maeka moved into an addition I made onto the mansion the family lives in. I couldn’t invite Morgan to join the household because there were too many sims on one land, so they moved out on their own. I can do some cheats when I play as Nik, but can’t override their needs unless I use a mod (I don’t know why, but I’m way better with cheats than installing and using mods *shrug*), so I set them up with all the extras that I could including the luxury pack tables because Morgan is still learning to cook. As soon as there was a child out of the house Bastion had the option to try to become a dad, and since Luke has the family aspirations, I clicked. Fertile couple, let me tell you. *laugh* Both stunk as parents to a baby and full on ignored commands to take care of it when needed, so Bre, the nanny, and butler did most of the cares until I got irritated and aged it up. *grin* The older kids have always been awesome about helping with toddler cares and involvement, and it was no different with the first grandchild, Grayson. Just after Grayson had a birthday (their aging is a bit creepy, since although he’s years younger, he looks the same age as both of Bre’s girls, which is probably why EA decided to pull the romance ability when one ages to a young adult, even if they might be 17 and 18 or something, because there’s no telling the age difference), Nate and Kaori had their wedding. The game glitched out and the goals didn’t fully come up, but I didn’t care (and it opened up another spot for a sim on the family lot, so Maeka got PG again as was her whim). They have their own small place that I built a big basement onto to add a fitness room into and a butler quarters, since I didn’t want to risk problems with having their baby taken away if they were as bad as Bastion and Maeka, because I can’t jump into their household and control them as easily. While Nik and Morgan were eloping at a park after I did a makeover in CAS on Morgan (seriously, that poor rebel needed to look and dress more like an adult finally *laugh*) the game went ahead and had Kaori deliver and name the baby without a notification at all. This multiple households/generations thing is getting complicated, let me tell you. *grin* I jumped into their household to play two sim days, aged up baby Jasmine, and when I returned to the main family Maeka had all ready delivered! They were such bad parents that the bassinet was randomly placed in a room in the basement and the baby was ignored except by the butler! Ugh! I immediately moved the bassinet to their expansion and aged that baby up. *laugh* I’m not sure what happened that my main butler disappeared during the flurry of changes and I have some old lady now…I oddly got attached to my NPC butler. The baby in the basement was probably too much. *teasing wink*
Anyway, I’ve prepped the main home to be taken over by Bastion’s family and am ready to move to HoB next week. *rubbing hands together excitedly* I haven’t pulled up my plants, Patchy, or the bees, since those are part of my favorite gameplay right now and will be a big feature at the new property too – especially since she just grafted a glowfruit and pear tree! I’m really enjoying exploring the new things she can do now that she’s so skilled in gardening. Plus I want to build up as much produce inventory for cooking, since Cottage Living uses what you have in your inventory instead of buying parts needed when you click on what you want to make – we’ll actually have planned grocery purchases and meals! Such a small thing, but hey, I never denied that the small things are what I enjoy the most. *laugh* So I decided with my excitement over Sims 4 and the realization that my interest has gotten stronger instead of waned, I’d start blogging my Sims storyline in addition to SL. It’s a little different version of Bre and Luke, but it’s a fun storyline IMO. In preparation of future posts, here are the main characters to match to the names in the storyline…
And lastly – the massive family home overview…
Now that I’ve decided to actively blog my Sims storyline I’ll work to get better pictures! I haven’t decided if they’ll have a smaller, traditional-ish home after the move or if it’ll still be massive but with the farming around it because there won’t be a bunch of littles being raised on the property. I still need a big enough area to have big gatherings. All ready have enough family that a party requires one of the kids to then invite the remaining people to join them at the event because I have more friends and family than the party guest allowance. *grin* I think Nik and Morgan may move out to the country too, especially since they’re both homebodies who are massive geeks and regular fitness lovers, instead of the extreme sport loving Kaori, who would hate a quiet countryside I think. Maeka still runs the reading club in town, plus Bastion makes bank at his writing job, on top of his writing novels, so I think they’d be best to remain at the family compound. Both could work from home writing and raising the kids though, so I could move them to HoB too, and have Nate and Kaori take over the family property. So many ways I can make this storyline go…*grin* I’m really glad I decided to share this side journey of gaming with you and hope that you enjoy the journey with me!
Bre's Adventures 