Author Topic: The Paperclips (Household Skills)(Two households complete!)  (Read 3220 times)

Offline Trident

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The Paperclips (Household Skills)(Two households complete!)
« on: February 16, 2019, 04:23:13 PM »
Welcome!

I’m Trident, I’ve been Simming for ages, and I’ve been loving hazelnut's Household Skills Project since I learned about it a few months ago. For a number of reasons, I’ve been putting it off, but I’m very pleased to come to you today with the start of what will hopefully be a successful series of households.

Again, I’m doing hazelnut’s Household Skills project, (a challenge with the essential goal to do literally everything in the game,) but with one twist; I have to do all the skills in (near) alphabetical order.

For that to work,  I have had to plot out almost  this entire thing in advance, including skills for each household, careers and lifetime wishes for spouses, spares, and heirs, and a scattering of traits for the first dozen heirs (in alphabetical order, or course). All of the planning has gotten me super pumped to play!

Alphabetically, the first skill in TS3 is “Advanced Technology”, but since there’s no careers that use only that skill, I had to mix it up a bit, and we will instead be starting with Athletics.

This is Alabaster Paperclip.


I want this to be as easy to keep track of as possible, so I will be naming each Sim after a color, and coloring them according to that hexcode. Visually and creatively, this is much easier on me than having to come up with thematic names. (But hey, I might have some really good ones down the line, so who knows! I’m just here to have fun, guys.)

After a long search for a good last name, I finally decided to stick with ‘Paperclip’. It was the last name of my first Sim family. It doesn’t work thematically, but I’ve grown attached. When I bought an unfurnished house in Sunset Valley, I picked the house my first Sims had lived in. Lots of nostalgia.



It is, uh, significant sparser than the first time I played.

Alabaster’s LTW is to Become A Superstar Athlete, and she got to work on that right away, signing up ASAP. My original plan was to have Ala adopt a dog, and cut gems for profit, but then I remembered that I don’t have Pets enabled yet, just Seasons, High End Loft, and the base game, so I instead sent Alabaster off to the gym like a responsible supermaxer.



Alabaster’s traits are Absent Minded, Athletic, Ambitious, Brave, and Can’t Stand Art. Absent Minded is my least favorite trait, so I figured I would knock it out of the way while I only had one Sim to manage.

Also, this is happening?



I didn’t know they could do this? I don’t have University enabled. Hmm, Chris is there, a new Sim just moved into town.....maybe it's a protest again Dynasties!

Now, as hazelnut said in her completedl run, this challenge is about trying new things. I’ve never really been a collector of Stuff in the Sims, and I’ve never really played around with Seasons. (Mostly I just like the snow and rain effects.) So, I have an additional goal for this challenge, and this household in particular.

See, I have added Collection Goals. I want to collect, uh. Everything. I’m calling it my Game Breaking Collection, because if/when it breaks the game, I will at least have done what I set out to do, and cry as little as possible! Alabaster’s goal is to get every wildflower. Once this goal is met, I’ll take a screenshot, and sell the flowers. (That’s another important part, I will be selling off the collection once I reach various goals, since I don’t actually want it to break the game.)

Also, since I’ve never really played with Seasons, Alabaster is going to be going to every festival, and trying every activity! On her second day, she applied for a sports career, then headed to the Festival Grounds to look for flowers and potential mates.

(And, in an effort to make myself try new clothing, here she is in her mermaid swimsuit.)



(She does triathlons in it, probably.)



Her spray tan looks exactly the same!

In her pursuit for tickets, Alabaster also tried out the water balloon fight and skating! I’ve never really seen those before! They seem neat. She seemed like she was having fun.

And then, ladies and gentlemen, I found him.



This is Nate Morita, my first ever science geek! He is the current planned spouse, so Alabaster…..you better hurry up with those requirements. Snag him!!!

I’ll leave you all with this picture of the current Game Breaking Collection.



Thanks for reading!





Offline Trident

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Re: The Paperclips (Household Skills)
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2019, 12:40:15 AM »
Welcome back! I would like to first show off the flowers of the Game Breaking Collection.


From right to left, it's Cosmos, Indian Blanket, Sweet William, Azaleas, Black Eyed Susan, Sulfur, Blue Flax, and Daisy.

Since I'm planning on disabling Seasons after a few households, I went ahead and sold it off. The resulting cash helped pay for a new weight machine, which meant that Alabaster could work out from home, which was a shockingly useful time saver.

Also these flowers are crazy OP for a quick cash grab. Cosmos and Indian Blankets are worth 600 and 400 simoleans, respectively. If anyone out there is starting a dynasty, trust me; pick flowers!

Alabaster's life quickly settled into a routine of work, skilling, and plying Marty Keaton for promotions. When Spooky Day finally rolled around, I figured we both needed a fun break.



Haunted houses are no match for our brave girl.

Alabaster was great friends with all of her coworkers, and ended up being invited to Beau Andrews Spooky Day Party. I guess the theme was burglary?



This was the first Spooky Day party I've ever attended, and. Well, meh? It just seemed like a regular party with more burglars.



Alabaster and I preferred the pumpkin carving.



(The real burglar that showed up was no match for Ms Brave Athletic Supermax! Seriously, you'd think he would have looked up who's house he was robbing before he just ran in there....)

About halfway through winter was when I ran into a major snag. I had been under the impression that the Inheritance LTR was a base game reward, and it, uh. Wasn't. It was from Generations. Now, I hadn't been sure whether I even wanted to enabled Generations. I would have to, of course, for the teacher career, the daycare profession, and the logic supermax, but since it doesn't add any skills, I was planning to keep it off the docket for a while so that I could avoid bugs.

In the end, I caved. It would have taken far too long to make enough money to buy a building and a new house with just Alabaster's salary, so I installed the EP and cranked out happiness points while getting Alabaster to skill her purple butt off at every spare moment.



With some snowboarding breaks.

(Now, this is extreme personal bias, but my favorite season in the Sims is winter. I'm originally from a place where it doesn't snow, so I always get a huge kick out of snow related activities! )

Alabaster had her Adult birthday, and I realized that this might take a bit longer than I planned. I was even considering having her spend Love Day skilling....and then Alabaster snagged two promotions in a week, and became a Body Builder. When Love Day rolled around, I let Alabaster take a break and call up Mr. Morita for a date.



I've never really played with the Love Day stuff, and I actually had a lot of fun! There's a nice mix of romantic activities, like the dancing and the love tester, and the non-romantic activities, like the egg collecting. This might be my favorite holiday in the Sims, specifically because the festival seems to do a great job of making it feel like a festival specifically for that day, instead of for the whole season.



I was worried about these two, but after a full day of chatting, Alabaster finally threw up a wish to kiss Nate for the first time. Yay! I prefer my Sim couples to have sparks  ;D. I like to think that despite them both being a little awkward, they figured it out in the end.

Now, with the future spouse (mostly) taken care of, Alabaster went back to full time skilling. And, guys, this woman is an utter powerhouse. Within a few days, she became a Marathon Runner, a Fitness Nut, and achieved her Lifetime Wish.



(You can see Marty Keaton in this picture. I wonder if he ever got tired of being asked for promotions? I bet by the end he saw Alabaster's number and just picked up the phone tiredly, "Yes. You're promoted. Please just let me eat dinner in peace.")

Using the happiness points boost, Alabaster got her two unique rewards; the Cloudinator 9000 and Inheritance. The, she bought Hogan's Deep Friend Diner, and headed out the door for the last time.



And, Household One is complete!

Here comes the fun part. I think I'm going to a little review after each household, just for fun. I'll talk about the skill, career(s), and lifetime wish(es). It's mostly for my own benefit, so I can go back over stuff when i plan for dynasties, but I hope you guys enjoy it!

Household Skill: Athletics. There isn't much to say about this skill, and I mean that in the best possible way. As a supermax, it's very straightforward; all you have to do is work out a lot. I think that Athletics is a solid skill, and the game would be lacking without it. Normally I would add that EA should have done more with it, but uh. They did. They added EP skills like scuba diving and martial arts which can be intertwined with the athletics skill. It's a good skill, an easy supermax, and I can't imagine the game without it. 7/10.

Lifetime Wish/Career: Since Alabaster's LTW directly tied into her career, I'm going to talk about them both at once. :"Become A Superstar Athlete" and the Sports career are much like the skill. They're simple, straightforward, and don't require much thinking or finagling. One of the details I really enjoyed in the career was "game day", where your Sim would compete in games against other teams. I know it's a small detail, but it's a very good addition.

If you're looking to make a Sim family, this is a good career for either parent due to the hours worked. (The lower levels also offer between two to three off days a week). Work starts at three pm, and ends between 8 and 9 pm, depending on where you are on the career ladder. (The top two levels are only 3-6, so that's very nice.)If you've got two Sims juggling careers, one can work the day shift and be home in time to help kids with their homework, while your sports star can watch toddlers during the day.

LTW is almost too simplistic, but it'sa reasonable life goal, so I'm gonna give it a 5/10, dead average. The career I'm going to say is a 6/10, if only because I had a lot of fun with it and like the outfits. (It's pretty rad to see your sports legend strut around in shades and a pinstripe suit.)

Household Stats:


Alabaster Paperclip, Heir. (Athletic, Absent Minded, Ambitious, Brave, Can't Stand Art)
Supermaxed Athletics.
Lifetime Wish: Become a Superstar Athlete (Completed)
Building: Hogan's Deep Fried Diner
Two Unique Rewards: Cloudinator 9000, Inheritance



(A bonus; these don't count as part of the Game Breaking Collection, but here's Alabaster in her greeting card photos for every season. She's got Nate in her spring one. I think it's cute.)






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Offline Trident

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Re: The Paperclips (Household Skills)
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2019, 07:10:21 PM »
Why Nate Is The Best/Household Two: Advanced Technology

I want to open this with, I am so excited to play with ITF. I almost exclusively play Dynasty games, so I normally disable ITF for it's opportunity bug. (Also, my sceenshots were really weak for this section, sorry guys!)

The first thing I did was makeover the interior of the hosue a little bit. I'm trying to build my building muscles.





It’s very….minimalistic, lol. I’m still figuring out building! Let’s, uh, pretend that it’s because Aabster hates art?

Speaking of our lovely founder, she got to take a break from working out to play with these cute little guys!

The Time Portal showed up in the side yard the day after the move, and I decided that it was time to lock down Mr. Science Geek. Alabaster called hi up, and we waited with baited breath......



Hmm.

Of course, even a drastic change in schedule couldn't stop our founder.



Instead of a slow romance, Alabaster proposed in the side yard. Sure, it wouldn't be an easy life; he would have to rapidly master a skill, raise a child, and drop his lifelong dream to be a doctor, but it would be a good life. And wasn't that more important?

He seemed to think so.



The proposal went smoothly, but I held off on the marriage and baby. Alabaster was this close to the top of her career, and I didn't want honeymoon or maternity leave to impact that. Since Nate wasn't planned to have a career, I popped him in for a futuristic make-over, and had him spend his days at home hardcore skilling.



I have mixed feelings about the Advanced Technology skill, but overall, I'm really liking it. Nate spent his time being sent all over the map so that he could hoverboard up the skill levels. The way the skill builds, through gradual use of even the most mundane futuristic objects, makes me think of like, how younger people are (usually) better at technology than older people? And it's just because they've grown p around it, and seen it, and used it their whole life.



Not Nate, though. Nate is rocking this super late in his life. He far surpassed my expectations, and jumped to level 7 of the skill during the three days of waiting for Alabaster to get her final promotion. With this in mind, and the substantial sprite collection he had built up, (just by buying new holo-discs he had already gotten 9/10 sprites,) I made a late-game change and decided to see if Nate could manage being the supermaxer for this household.

After the longest three days of my life, Alabaster finally became a Sports Legend.



I assume this is some kind of advanced neck stretch, reserved for sports legends only.

Quick, Morita! We have to go back! To the future!



I still haven't seen that movie. I really should.

Our two lovebirds got married by the light of the Time Portal. With no time to lose, they raced for the nearest dram pod and Tried For A Baby.



This was almost the exact moment I realized that I had made a huge mistake.

Since I was operating on such a tight schedule, (live, Nate, live!) I should have gone and genetically engineered a baby so that I could skip the pregnancy stage. But no, I just. Totally forgot that it existed. So.

I was hoping that maybe the Try For A Baby didn't take, but nope. Alabaster couldn't time travel, and we were stuck here with an extra few days of waiting.

In preparation for the baby, I went ahead and bought a teeny plot of land and built a much nicer house than the house show earlier.



Since the future was not as interesting as I thought it would be, I think that we will only be staying for a short time. (The future heir, who’s career is going to be in Astronomy, will be staying for longer). Also, I bought these!



Nate spent basically all of his free time programming recipes into new food synthesizers. Meanwhile, a heavily pregnant Alabaster rode her windcarver around, looking for the final sprite form. (I'm hoping that her athletic skill helps her stay balanced on that thing).She finally got Gamma from local child Loki Larson.



I was going to make a joke about the name "Loki Larson", but that's actually more normal than "Alabaster Paperclip", so I'll let it slide.

Nate finally Caught 'Em All,



and, wildly succeeding my expectations, he also gained Synthesized, and completed his new Lifetime Wish, High Tech Collector, at almost the same moment. The only thing left for him to do is raise his beautiful new daughter, and dream 40 unique dreams in the next eight days.

Yes, his daughter-meet Bittersweet!



To my extreme disappointment, she isn’t a rainboo, but I managed to snag a Science Geek as a spouse, so I guess it evens out. (The hex code for Bittersweet is FE6F5E, in case you’re curious.) Also, I am only now understanding that this sounds like a very cruel name about she's not a rainboo. That wasn't my intention. I am so sorry, sweetie.

This is kind of a short update, (again, with not a lot of screenshots, that's my bad, I just had my wisdom teeth out, so let's blame it on that,) but here's some screenshots that I did take.



I thought this was really cool, I found it in the Wasteland and it reminds me of Subnautica.



This doesn't seem like a good conversation for a public dinner table.



This is. This is very dark, guys.


Thanks for reading!



Offline hazelnut

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Re: The Paperclips (Household Skills)
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2019, 04:16:22 AM »
Alphabetical order as well?  You're even madder than I am.  Best of luck! :)

Offline Trident

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Re: The Paperclips (Household Skills)
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2019, 07:43:20 PM »
@hazelnut; thank you! I'm doing my best  ;D


Supermaxes and Princesses

I’ve noticed that synthesizers are the most effective way to build a Sims Advanced Technology skill. As such, well.



I was still gunning fort Nate to be our supermaxer. With two challenges under his belt, Digital Dreamer was the only one left. Nate was about 80 at this point. I was worried, since DD requires the Sim to have fifty unique dreams. I figured there was no way he could get fifty full nights of sleep in twelve days.

Then I learned that you can just say, “Dream this,” let your Sim sleep for about twenty seconds, cancel the action, and it will still count as a unique dream.



Truly, he’s sacrificing for the good of the project ;)

Since I'm trying to throw more parties in this game, since I've literally never done that, Bittersweet got a birthday party!


 
So, the color bittersweet ended up being much more pink than I thought it would be. I couldn't resist making her clothes watermelon-themed.



Bittersweet also has the cutest little pout. I've never seen a toddler so adorable.



She just looks so intense!



After the party, (at which point Nate had a whopping thirty unique dreams under his belt,) I send the family back to the past.

This is where I ran into the first of two major problems for this chapter; Nate had lost his “Synthesizer” status. It reset when he travelled. He was 85 at this point.

I set up a baby swing outside, got him started him with a bank of synthesizers, and blasted “Eye of the Tiger”.



Folks.

Fellow Simmers.

Our true hero of this project.



He supermaxed the skill at 88.

Allie aged up two days later. She's been a good founder. Maybe it sounds goofy, but I'm really proud of her.



Bittersweet became an adorable child.



She spent practically all of her time as a red dinosaur. It wasn't quite the right color, but it would do.

Then. Well.



Sure, it wasn't an easy life. He had been homeless for most of it. But it had been a good one. He had a loving wife, a project-saving supermax, and an independent daughter. He went without complaint.

We’ll miss you, bud.

Allie was devastated.



She had wished to read Bittersweet to bed a few hours before, and I finally made it into a promise. I’ve never had a Sim do it before, and, well, it seemed appropriate.



This isn’t a great ***** because I was surprised; I didn’t know about the forehead kiss. I teared up a little.

Sweetie spent her childhood casually raising her Advanced Tech skill. She was given the gamily’s collection of Holo Sprites, and talked/cleaned all four of them every afternoon.

She and her Mom went to the festival a few times. Allie ended up retiring there, so she could spend more time (working out to get me a badge) with her daughter.



When Bittersweet aged into a teen, well.



If it ain’t broke……



(Her new trait was Childish, by the way. I think it suits her. She spent at least half of her childhood playing dress-up.)

Every spare moment of her time was spent on the synthesizers.

This, uh. This is where the game got really stressful.

When Bittersweet aged into a teen, Ally was seven days from becoming an elder. I knew I was permitted one early birthday cake per child, but I wanted Bittersweet to move out the second she became a Young Adult. At her skilling rate, it looked like she would have to stay home for a while longer to max it out.

After all, she upgraded this whole bank of synthesizers, and her skill bar didn’t raise at all!



Wait.

That’s a bug.

Folks, it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize it was a bug. Bittersweet “skilled” for a whole day before I figured it out. Thankfully, (so, so thankfully,) quitting out of the game and getting back in fixed the problem. (Phew!!!)

Poor girl didn’t even get to go to prom. I meant to let her! But when she was there, I queued up the action for her to program synthesizers, and she zipped right home. Sorry, Sweetie  :-[

She aged up on the same day Allie turned 90. (I’m not actually sure what happens in the Sims if a parent dies with underage children, but I don’t really want to find out.) Since Bittersweet only had B, she become Flirty. I think it worked out alright.

She looks just like her mother.



Bittersweet can’t dress up as a dinosaur, but she can at least be a princess.



Now, this is the part where I had to sit down and strategize.

I had been planning for Sweetie to move out right when she became a young adult. If she had been given her full teenhood, I might have been able to pull it off, but. As it stands, she’s at level six of the necessary skill, and twenty thousand points short of the Collection helper. (Which she’s going to really, really need for the next house. She'/ all dressed up for the new skill and everything!). I don’t want her to start her career until she moves towns, (I don’t know if ITF careers track when you move,) and she can’t start on the next skill, either. She just needs to be really happy, really fast.

I need more time.

Luckily, Sweetie’s lifetime wish is to make the most of hers.



Offline Trident

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Re: The Paperclips (Household Skills)
« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2019, 10:35:56 PM »
I’ve Never Played ITF Before But I Probably Should Have

So, uh, a disclaimer; this is literally my first time playing with ITF. I've never done Made The Most Of My Time before, and I was super nervous about it. I needed it to go quickly, though. Like. Very, very quickly.

We started by becoming Good Friends with Mr. Relevart. He told Sweetie that if she wanted to make the future Utopian, she would have to start by measuring the laugh patterns of sims.



She did a great job in her graduation gown and bunny make-up. I'd laugh, too.

After only gathering the laughter of three Sims, (Emit, her mother, and this graduation girl,) Emit told her to go throw dew at people.



Hey, Allie's supposed to be purple!

(Speaking of Allie; she spent her time enjoying her retirement and trying to get me the Fit as a Fiddle Badge. Thanks, Allie!)

Bittersweet quickly became Best Friends with Emit, then ran around throwing more dew. After hitting only SIX sims, she got a call that the whole future had been changed.



”WHAT! It works THAT fast?! But I wanted to throw more dew!"

Thankfully for Bittersweet, the next task was the break into the military and spread dew all over Sunset Valley. (And wouldn't you give, like, a million dollars to see her break in? I bet she would hum her own theme song.)

Since I don't have any photos of that, I would like to take this moment to share my Sims Future Conspiracy Theory, so get your tinfoil hats ready:

I think that these things-Utopian prep vs Dystopian prep-should have the opposite result.

In order to get the (super creepy) Utopian future, you have to make people full super good and in the moment. If people are only focused on the present, and their own pleasure, why would they care about the future? Conversely, if you go around telling people the future will be terrible, won't they feel compelled to do something about it? If we suddenly have a bunch of meteors falling, with no reasonable explanation, wouldn't millions of dollars go to figuring out how to stop it?

(You can take off the foil now, that's my whole bit).

Anyway, this was my first time in the Utopian future.



......

Neat!

I stayed for about twenty-four hours. I had to talk myself out of trying to collect anything, (time for that in the next house,) but Sweetie and I did check out the winning lotto numbers. She rolled a wish to get a philanthropy legacy statue, for a whopping thirty thousand LTH points. I allowed it on the off chance we won the lottery, but. We didn't  :-\

Emit told her that, to cause the Dystopian future, she should use a meteor magnet, and trash talk the environment. To me, er. Not delight, but pleasant surprise, I suppose, every time Sweetie trash-talked, literal trash showed up on the ground. I thought that was a nice detail.



"The meteors are coming! They're coming RIGHT THROUGH THE CEILING!"

Sweetie talked to six people. Four of them were random elders, one was Michael Bachelor, and one was Lisa Bunch. All of them were at the gym. This, again, was somehow enough to impact the whole future. Maybe one of those elders was a politician or something.



The Dystopian time portal is a gross brown. I thought that was another nice little detail.



The Dystopian future is, uh. Dirty! It's dirty. And nothing else has really changed.

(Honestly, this is why I was initaly iffy about buying this pack. Neither of the "alternate" futures really appeals to me. One is Stepford Wives-y, and the other just needs to be hosed down. There's not really any cool gameplay options, besides two unique collectibles in each future).

I thought that Sweetie would accomplish her LTW the second she got home. She didn't. I checked online, fearful for another bug, but no; she had to reset the time continuum to the original future. Super conveniently, she could do that when she was at level ten of the Advanced Tech skill.

I'm sure you know what happened next.



Allie spent her time in the hot tub. She was about 93. I like to think she occasionally hollered encouragement.



After far, far too long, Allie finally maxed the skill and reset the time portal. I thought that this would be the moment her LTW triggered....



But no. Despite her Legacy statue, best friend, and timeline experience, nothing happened.

On a hunch, I sent her to the normal future. She achieved her LTW instantly, and I missed the screenshot. (I wonder if "experiencing the future" only counts when the LTW locks in place? After all she was literally born in the Normal future).

At any rate, she promptly purchased her LTRs, (Collection Helper and Hover Bed,) and went back home. I checked the see if Allie had enough points for one more Inheritance, and she was only 2k short. I decided the extra money would be worth it. We had sunk a lot into those synthsizers. Allie and her daughter spent their time working on Allie's Athletic skill.



Finally, finally, finally, with Bittersweet at ten days to Adult, and Alabaster at 96, the two Paperclips hugged for the last time.



Allie moved to a small house near the Festival. She left with a satisfied look on her face. She knows she's done well in establishing the Project.



We'll miss you.

Sweetie bought Everfresh Supermarket, bought a plane ticket, and the Paperclips said goodbye to Sunset Valley.




Household Skills: Advanced Tech

I have really, really mixed feelings about this skill. Overall, I enjoyed it. It makes sense for some people to be better with technology than others, and I really enjoyed the detail where the skill grew a little every time a Sim used a future tech object. It reminded me a lot of real life. For example, I'm much better with computer and technology than one set of grandparetns, and the only reason is that I grw up using a lot of tech, and they didn't. The other set of grandparents, however! Engineering degrees, both of them. My grandma can virtually run circles around me, because she's dedicated time and energy to understanding tech.

On the other hand, trying to raise the skill quickly, or even trying to supermax it, is exhausting. It's exhausting, and it isn't fun. I genuinely had more fun with Athletics, and the only way to raise that skill is to do the same work-out animation over and over again. Maybe it's because the only effective way to skill-gain at later levels (that I found) is the Synthesizer. It quickly became boring and repetitive. I was bored playing a game, and that's not something I want.

As a skill, 7/10. As a supermax, 2/10. In my opinion, this might have worked much better as a hidden skill.

Career will wait till the next house.

Lifetime Wishes:

Hi-Tech Collector was Nate's wish, and Made the Most of My Timewas Bittersweet's. They're both, in my opinion, very quick, easy LTWs to accomplish. I know, I know. I just said that Advanced Technology is a frustrating skill, and these both require it.

And yet, I still managed to get a man to supermax the skill in about, what, eighteen days? That's not even the full Young Adult lifespan. Again, I'm being very, very particular here. It is my opinion (and only opinion, you're more than welcome to disagree,) that a Lifetime Wish should maybe take a Lifetime to accomplish. These wishes both seem like they're there to encourage played to take advantage of the Advanced Technology skill, (which I really do think would be better as a hidden skill), and the "change the future" ability, which I've already stated I'm not a fan of.  If you need quick LTHP, they're awesome, 10/10. If you want to have your Sims really work toward their goal, 3/10.

All of this being said, I had a blast playing this family. To me, Alabaster and Nate felt like the quiet, lovingly exasperated parents of a rumbustious young woman. While I didn't much care for the skill, the fact that I got done with it so quickly for Nate and Allie allowed them to spend more time with their daughter and with each-other. This was also my first time playing with ITF. I like the clothes, I like the hair, and the Normal future has grown on me. It's a really unique, out-there concept; I look forward to see what else EA has done with it.

See you guys next time! The next house is going to be a little unconventional. I hope you'll enjoy!

Offline Beks

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Re: The Paperclips (Household Skills)(Two households complete!)
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2019, 05:14:37 PM »
I'm very late to commenting on this, but I enjoyed your Nectar Invitational challenge so much that I had to check out your other story. This is so fun to read! I've never played with ITF and have no idea what it entails, so reading your first experience with it was fascinating. I'm excited to see this project continue. Also, I'm obsessed with the names in this family. It doesn't get better than "Alabaster Paperclip."



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Offline Trident

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Re: The Paperclips (Household Skills)(Two households complete!)
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2019, 01:41:48 AM »
@amaranthin Thank you so much!!! ITF is an entirely new experience for me. I'm really getting a kick out of the names in this. I'm trying to pick fun ones that are also good colors.

Two Totally Different Aesthetics But I Stubbornly Stick To Only One

I have been wanting this neighborhood for FIVE YEARS, and I finally got it, I, so excited.

Are you ready?

Are you guys ready?



It's Dragon Valley! And it has weird stuff like this!

Anyway,

Sweetie, for the second time, rolled a wish to become a scientist. Sorry, hun. I’m sure you'd be an amazing mad scientist, but we’re doing something just a little different. It's kind of a scientist. You'll see.

For her new house, Sweetie gets a tiny witch’s hut, with the time portal outback. (You have to keep it hidden, or else the neighbors will freak out.





I couldn't get her a dinosaur, but I got something almost as good.



She's had that dragon toy in her inventory since childhood.

Now; the first thing to do was find a spouse, since they would be one of two supermaxers. This is my first double-skill house, for which I'm avoiding my alphabetical order. The primary skill is alchemy. The secondary skill, for the spouse, is laser-rhytm-a-con. (I'm just going to to call it Laser Music Skill, because I'm lazy). Now, two things. One, I've never played with instruments much before. Two, this is going to be a good faith effort. Since the challenge rules only state that guitar has to be supermaxed, (and since ITF disables opportunities,) I'm just going to be Doing My Best. If the skill isn't supermaxed, fine. If it is, great!

Now; I sent Bittersweet to hunt around for NPCs. The first place I checked was the salon.



This is Ellen Curren. She has red eyes and is attracted to Sweetie. I was already setting up the wedding arch when I remembered to google her.

Ellen has a point in the Charisma skill.

If it was any other skill, I would just ignore it, but if a Sim has Charisma unlocked, it's impossible to talk to other Sims without the skill being raised. Ugh.

I tried calling the firefighters, but we just got some clone-faced Sim. It was almost the end of the first day, and we were already low on time for a supermax. In desperation, I had Sweetie order a pizza.



Well!

Sky Elovir has no traits, lovely features, and gets along with Sweetie like a house on fire.



Look at that! She can even make Agnes hair look cute!

She had moved in within the evening. I was nice and changed her hair.



I debated using the ITF hair, since I was going for a medieval theme, but she looks so cute in it that I caved.

Since Sweetie was on track to become an Astronomer, our lovely ladies headed to the future. Seeing her girlfriend by the light of the time portal, Sweetie knew that she was the one.



While Sweetie ran off to join her chosen career, (it's a kind of scientist, right?), Sky checked out the Laser Music Thing in the community center.



Now, here's something strange; Sky was at nine days to Adult when she moved in. Ugh. Not a good timeline for a supermaxer, especially a supermax in a skill I've never played. (Nate, MVP, non-withstanding). Sweetie was at ten days to Adult. I had to switch some plans around, but it's fine. It's fine. It's fine!

Anyway.

They spent all ten of those days living at the community center. The top floor suite was re-designed to give our leading ladies a taste of home.



There's an alchemy station on the right that you can't see. Sweetie, who climbed five career levels in a week, skilled between shifts. Oh, and see Emit? Sims were constantly coming in and out of the room. All. The. Time. I tried to lock the door, and it wouldn't let me. Is privacy not a thing in the future?! It drove me insane.



This picture is here because I wanted to share the cute faces Sky makes when she plays. She's adorable. She and Sweetie regularly roll wishes for one another, and it's usually pretty tame stuff, like holding hands or hugging. It's really cute.

After their Adult birthdays, both the Paperclips had wishes to have their first child. I built them a house first. I don't trust those community center Sims.



(I really did mean to combine medieval and futuristic aesthetics for the looks of this household, but then I was like, "I payed for this neighborhood AND this clothing bundle, I am getting my money's worth".)

Copper was the first baby of household three.



I found genetic engineering to be a bit of a disappointment. You're given the option to pick hair color, eye color, and gender. You cannot pick skin color, nor do you at any point see the baby. It's just a little panel of selections. I don't know, maybe that's the most relaisitc option, but that would be silly in a game with magic.

Oh, yes; Bittersweet became my first toadified Sim.



"Babe, we talked about this."

While Copper was a baby, Sky stayed home all day, learning compositions and gaining skill.



When he became a toddler, (with the trademark Paperclip features,) the family settled into a routine. Bittersweet would go to work. When she would come home, Sky would leave for the community center to play for tips. (There's always a ton of Sims there). Sky would spend the night at the center, and play for tips in the morning until it was time for Sweetie to leave for work again. Copper was taught his skills in between his moms doing a lot of moving around.



He's a very self-sufficient young man.



Both his moms rolled a lot of wishes for him. (And also, when they aged up to adult, I didn't reset their outerwear). I thought the cutest wish was when Sweetie was trying to talk up her boos for a promotion, and rolled a wish to read him to bed. Just, aww! She misses her family!

And, okay, speaking of Bittersweet's boss. I could never wrangle a promotion from the guy. I have a theory on why that may be.



1. Sweetie isn't wearing her watermelon clothes. See above.

2. Sweetie is a computer whiz. Who decided to speak about computers. To a robot.

I'm certain she drastically violated some sort of social taboo. This the only logical explanation. Sweetie's boss was at the point where I could have asked them to move in, and Sweetie's performance was infinitesimally close to the top, but the "Ask For Promotion" wouldn't come up. She must have said the wrong thing.  Tsk tsk.



This is just a cute picture.

While Sweetie was getting through level nine of the Space Explorer career, Copper blew out his childhood candles. I have definitely never called him "Cooper" on accident, and it definitely doesn't happen all the time.



He's got glasses, just like his grandparents.



Like all Paperclip children, he was given one of the family's holo discs. Have I talked about them? We've had four "major" ones since Alabaster unlocked the Advanced Tech Skill. There's Christina, Matt, Austin, and Lauren. Sweetie has two, and Sky had two, until she gave one to Copper. The reason I haven't sold them is because it would make me feel bad. And the reason the children get discs is because I feel bad when I see the little "Sprite Mood Low" thing when you hover over the items. Children don't have much to do, so their chore becomes taking care of the family "pets" and avoiding the "Sprite Mood Low" readout.

Sky, meanwhile, had just reached level ten of the Laser Music Skill, and become a Music Skill Artist. She got to take a free moment to celebrate.



When Sweetie finished her day at work, the family finally returned home.



If you look closely, you can see Copper using his natural camouflage.





(The reason I'm using the Laser Music Skill in this house is because I want to be able to turn off ITF at some point. I'll have to turn it back on for the final house, but the less expansions I have at one time, the better. I have similar plans for most of the EPs. My computer is doing it's best, and it's running like a dream so far, but I don't want to overload it. Better to get this one out of the way now).


Offline hazelnut

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Re: The Paperclips (Household Skills)(Two households complete!)
« Reply #9 on: June 02, 2019, 12:40:31 PM »
Laser rhythm-a-con is severely bugged and can't be supermaxed without mods, because the opps don't register for the 'star' challenge. Count it as done if she finishes the other two.