Steel Base Game Decadynasty

[hazelnut]

Yes, this is a possibly misguided attempt to play the Townie Decadynasty using only the base game.  I think it ought to be possible but I'm not entirely sure.  With only ten skills available, one of the Sims is going to have to supermax guitar, which involves rather too much luck to be entirely comfortable.  There's no alternative to rabbithole careers – and some of those require more than one skill, which could be tricky to manage.

Oh well, only one way to find out, I suppose…

Let's Get Started!
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Doctor Donna
Stars, Rocks and Books
Waiting for Dashiell
A Busy Household
Guitar Man
Insects and Other Pollinators
Not the Happiest of Birthdays
Military Manoeuvres
Sunset Valley: the Next Generation
The One That Got Away
The Pursuit of Happiness (Points)
The Unexpected
A Long-Awaited Occasion
Crazy Daisy
Horticultural Science
Funny Boy
Twists in the Tail


Steel family tree

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Other family trees

Lucky Palms
Sunset Valley
Riverview

[hazelnut]

Let's Get Started!

If you're going back to the delights of the original game, who better to choose as a founder than Mr Steel?

Well, actually, not that Mr Steel.  This Mr Steel:



Donnovan Steel, junior member of the Lucky Palms police force and part-time calendar pin-up.  He's charismatic, athletic, loves the outdoors, has a good sense of humour and is never nude (well, I suppose you don't have to take everything off to pose for a calendar).  Rather oddly, given his traits, he wants to be a heartbreaker.  The Hot Desert Cops thing went to his head a bit, methinks.

In fact, I started the game with Donnovan's romantic interest, Marisol Loera, purely because her house is better suited to raising a family.



Marisol shares his love of the outdoors, is handy, good, flirty and a bookworm, and is a lot less scary than she looks in that screenshot.  She wants to be a professional author.

Marisol invited Don over and he'd moved in by lunchtime.  I was inclined to go for a first-day pregnancy and put Marisol on the Watermelon Diet, since the five Lucky Palms foetuses have always turned out to be four boys and a girl in previous games.  Well, apart from the time Lola Lancaster had twins, which made it five boys and one girl.  In the end, though, I decided it was more sensible to wait for a few days, keeping an eye on the pregnant ladies as well as the founders.

On the second day, Don rolled a wish to propose.  Yep, he's really into this heart-breaking thing.
 


He was so excited he managed to stick his foot straght through a plate glass window without breaking it  .

Not rushing into producing the first heir turned out to have been one of my better ideas.  This time, the babies were three girls and two boys – and Lina Lancaster's son disappeared somewhere between birth and starting school.  I prefer to think that he was adopted by an out-of-town family rather than suffering some horrible story-progression fate.  Or maybe he just ran off to join Peter Pan. 

So Marisol ate apples instead and…



Marisol, why are you looking at me like that?



Oh.  You weren't.  You were looking at that other baby materialising on the living room floor.  Random twins.  Goody.  Just what we all needed to make the early game even busier  .



Don and Marisol celebrated by throwing a wedding party while the babies were asleep and inviting all of the other new parents.  I hope Lucky Palms has plenty of babysitters.





It's probably going to be the only wedding of the dynasty where everyone's appropriately dressed.  If you ignore Yolanda Shaw in her bikini, that is.



The twins became toddlers and were dressed in their favourite colours: red for David, the heir, and yellow for Daniel.  Come to think of it, the Bernal twins in my first Decadynasty had the same favourites, although it was the heir who liked yellow in that case.



Rats!  I'm pretty sure David has the loathsome greenish hair.  I thought I'd get further than generation 1 before that set in.  Sometimes I hate random variation.



The boys learned their basic skills gratifyingly quickly and had plenty of time left over for playing and becoming friends.



Daniel looks almost evil in that screenshot.  I wonder why?  He has a sweet personality really.

The twins had another birthday.



David met Rachael Hudson on their first day of school.



She came home with them but appeared to find Daniel more to her taste.  Poor David seemed to agree.  Why would anyone prefer him?



A few days later, he had the Schoolyard Chums opportunity, with Rachael as the target, but couldn't get her to agree to come over to his house to play.  So I cancelled the opp.  But by the end of childhood they were friends anyway.  Grr!

The twins had a party for their teen birthday.



This isn't the best of screenshots but I include it because (a) Marisol is demonstrating her awesome X-ray vision and (b) all four surviving townie babies are in shot.  That's Rachael in the greeny-blue top and brown trousers.  The unfortunately bald boy next to her is Blake Shaw.  The redhead standing between them and the barbecue is Dolores Lancaster, Lola's daughter, and the dark-haired girl in the red dress over to the right is Lourdes Tanner.  I hope to get all of their genetics into the family tree at some point.

[hazelnut]

Matchmaker, Matchmaker

After the party, the boys sorted out their new looks and I dyed David's hair to match Donnovan's.  I couldn't stand the yucky green any longer.



He and Rachael became best friends and then a couple.





(I think that's the first time anyone's used the hot tub in this game.  My Sims usually spend their lives in there, given half a chance.)

There were a lot of tasks to achieve before they could really be together, though.  Time to make a start…



Oh dear!  He's supposed to be athletic.  That looks a real struggle.

By his YA birthday, David had spent enough time in the gym that he was looking much less of a seven-stone weakling.



Daniel wasn't bad either, despite spending most of his spare time in the garden.  Well, I suppose it's not exactly a sedentary occupation.



David joined the Professional Sports career.  It's not one of my favourites – criminal's more fun (I'm perfectly law-abiding in real life, honest  ) but I didn't want his progress being slowed down by arrests and the promotion-after-midnight bug.  Instead, he indulged his kleptomaniac tendencies by stealing statues from the park.



Since there's only so much time I can spend watching a Sim training, I turned most of my attention to the rest of the family.  Donnovan and Marisol were now Eternally Faithful, so he quietly changed his lifetime wish to International Superspy – and achieved it.  Marisol had had to take a break from writing while the kids were small but was now close to §4000 a week in royalties.  Daniel's garden was slowly evolving towards perfection.  Now, what about a partner?  I'd been hoping to pair him up with either Dolores Lancaster or Lourdes Tanner but they're both rather prickly characters and it didn't go well.  (Dolores is hot-headed and both are grumpy.  Come to that, so is Rachael.  Must be something in the water  .)  Or maybe Daniel just doesn't like watcherly interference in his love life.  All by himself, he fell for the much older Tabbi Claremont, who was soon expecting Don and Marisol's first grandchild.



Marisol got chatting to Cornelius Vandeen in the library and discovered that he was going out with Yuna Tanner.  So Cornelius joined the household for a day or two – and Yuna was pregnant by the time he moved out.

Two weeks into young adulthood, David became a Superstar Athlete and achieved his lifetime wish.



Suddenly, the first house move was looming.  Better start making some progress on the other requirements.

No!  Don!  I didn't mean that!



Um, well, I suppose I did  .  But it wasn't that urgent.  You could have lived past ninety  .

With all the expansions turned off, opportunities haven't been a problem at all.  That same day, Lourdes asked David to train her, which gave him his tenth Black Op.



They got chatting afterwards and became best friends.  It turned out that she and Hanson Gilbert were now an item; so Hanson became another temporary household member, with predictable consequences.

David reached the top of his career…



…and invited Rachael over.



(Daniel and Tabbi's activities in the background were to result in a second small Claremont.)

David proposed – and Rachael said yes.



Then he went back to the gym to knock out yet more hours of training.  With perfect timing, he finished his moving requirements on the evening before his adult birthday.  He had cake for breakfast…



…and then threw a party.



(I really miss the wedding arches: it was total chaos.  That's the nearest thing I have to a decent screenshot.)


Generation 1

Home: Halcyon Hideaway, 66 Sand Road, Lucky Palms
Heir: David
Traits: athletic, friendly, kleptomaniac, lucky, charismatic
Lifetime wish: Become a Superstar Athlete
Parents: Donnovan Steel and Marisol Loera-Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Grim Reaper
• Mario Conley (policeman)
• Bill Cantu (firefighter)
• Kerry Dailey (pizza delivery)
• Tracy Angel (postman)
• Marco Rosario (paperboy)
• Adolfo Harris (adoption worker)
• Bridgett Rivera (babysitter)
• Brooke McDonald (repairwoman)
• Misti Hsu (maid)

Household best friends:

• Rachael Hudson
• Tabbi Claremont
• Dolores Lancaster
• Blake Shaw
• Lourdes Gilbert (née Tanner)
• Ethan Tanner
• Richard Irwin
• Gerardo Acevedo
• Angelique Pinson
• Indiana Abernathy

Unique maxed career: professional sports
Unique supermaxed skill: athletic
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• The Boiler Room
• Registering the Roster
• Time to Get Pumped
• Jog Everywhere
• No Sweat!
• Brand Image
• The Complete Circuit
• Bursting With Energy
• Push It!
• Flex and Bend

Building: The Blooming Cactus Bistro
Fully-upgraded property: Sunwest Graveyard
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Donnovan Steel
Set of items of unique type: ten Ambiguity Itselfs (Ambiguities Themselves?) stolen from the park
Total value: §15460

[hazelnut]

Doctor Donna

David and Rachael moved into her family home: not Irony Ranch, as I'd been expecting, but the house next door.  Quite a few of the original townies have moved, generally into smaller homes, so that the bigger houses can be taken over by clones – although, oddly, the largest clone household of all is packed into one of those little not-quite-houseboats on the lake.



The new Mrs Steel is an outdoors-loving virtuoso genius but balances her good traits by being a grumpy loser.

The next development is entirely predictable:



(Rachael clearly found the broken computer far more dsturbing than labour.)



After two-and-a-bit days, Donna had her first birthday and toddler spam ensued.  (I'm sparing you most of it.)







Then she grew up into serious little girl, who went to school, did her homework and played chess against the computer.  Her childhood was so uneventful that I forgot to take any screenshots at all  .



Rachael threw a huge party for her daughter's teen birthday, inviting all of their family and friends, but almost everyone stayed inside eating the food they'd brought or watching TV.  No idea why.  The only ones who went out into the garden to watch Donna blow out her candles were Uncle Daniel, his three children and a schoolfriend whose name I've forgotten.



Dan's kids, from left to right, are Owen Claremont, Olivia Steel (who was adopted because the previous household was short of NPC friends.  Sorry, Olivia!) and Benjamin Claremont.

Donna grew into a pretty teenager:



David had continued his interest in 'collecting' stuff in his leisure time but had turned to the rather more legitimate field of gemstones (apart from the occasional wish to steal something – the park did lose a few more statues.  It's a good thing they keep regenerating).  Now Donna took an interest in his discards – meteorites were more interesting to her than shiny stuff.  And if she concentrated hard enough on identifying them, she could pretend to be oblivious to her parents being embarrassing in the background.



When she wasn't at school or analysing her dad's latest finds, she played chess – against real live opponents now.  By her next birthday, she was at the third level of the tournament.





Chess was all very well but she knew that she really wanted to use her cleverness to help other Sims.  So she went off to the hospital to sign up as a bedpan cleaner.  A disgusting job but at least it was the first step towards her real ambition.



Between shifts, she carried on with the chess matches.  Undoubtedly her toughest, and most frequent, opponent was her own mother .  You'd think Rachael's loser trait would swing things pretty deciisively in Donna's favour but apparently not .



It wasn't until she spent a couple of evenings in the library reading logic books that Donna was able to progress to other opponents  At least, until the computer announced that the next match was against someone in her own household AGAIN.

Her very last game was against Daniel, and I discovered that Tabbi must have proposed at some point – his surname was now Claremont.

Unfortunately, being a Grand Master wasn't nearly enough.  Donna's hobby of  astronomy was going pretty well but there was also a lot of tutoring to be done.  She took to hanging around the library in a suspicious manner, waylaying kids and teens and insisting on helping with their homework.



(For some reason, almost every teenage boy in town is wearing that same outfit.  It's very confusing.)

Once she'd maxed logic, she turned to skill tutoring.



(Despite appearances, she is tutoring Rachael in logic here.  Donna had picked up a stray cooking point somewhere but Rachael was at about level 6.)



At 92 days, Grim came for David.  So much for the Marathon Runner challenge .  Rachael, who was older, outlived her husband by several days.



Or, in fact, by a lot more than that.



Well, Grim had come for David while Rachael was in the library.  She needed to make sure of him as an NPC friend somehow.  And nobody in the family had learned to make ambrosia yet.

Like her father, Dr Donna reached the top of her career just before her adult birthday.



She threw herself a birthday party and, while there were plenty of witnesses to hold him to it, proposed to her old schoolfriend Alexis Gilbert (son of Hanson and Lourdes).



Three days later, with her requirements completed, she threw a rather smaller wedding party.  Somehow, the groom, who was neither insane nor inappropriate, managed to turn up in his everyday outfit instead of formals.  Never mind.  The bride was radiant enough for both of them.




Generation 2

Home: Symphony on the Cube, 80 Sunset Boulevard, Lucky Palms
Heir: Donna
Traits: good, heavy sleeper, bookworm, genius, computer whiz
Lifetime wish: World-Renowned Surgeon
Parents: David and Rachael (née Hudson) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Grim Reaper
• Terrence Bautista (paperboy)
• Nicola Ballard (postwoman)
• Regan Miranda (maid)
• Aubrey Neff (pizza delivery)
• Susan Covington (repowoman).  Getting that NPC friend hurt!
• Shelly Murry (policewoman)
• Josef Farrow (firefighter)
• Elmer Doyle (repairman)
• Stephenie Vasquez (adoption worker)

Household best friends:

• Alexis Gilbert
• Olivia Steel
• Owen Claremont
• Benjamin Claremont
• Lionel Shaw (son of Blake Shaw and Dolores Lancaster)
• Marianne Tanner (daughter of Yuna Tanner and Cornelius Vandeen)
• Courtney Ferguson
• Jasper Prather
• Elmer Doyle
• Deon Schwarz

Unique maxed career: Medicine
Unique supermaxed skill: logic
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• The Writing Club
• Puzzle Panic
• The Giving Sort
• A Stimulating Experiment
• Friends in Good Places
• From Two to One
• Fixing the Celestial Slump
• Taking Down Sinclair
• Shades of Grey
• Riddle Away

Building: Silver Swallow Day Spa
Fully-upgraded property: Sport Fishing
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): David Steel



Set of items of unique type: heart-cut gems
Total value: §38540

[Trident]

Geez, and I thought an Immortal base game dynasty was hard. This seems like a nightmare!(But a very fun nightmare).

You're whizzing through this! Have you already beaten the challenge?

[hazelnut]

No, I'm nowhere near finished (currently on gen 4, thanks to a lot of playing time over Easter).  The first two generations were easy - it's so nice to have opportunities popping up all the time.  There have been several that I can't remember seeing before.  I've been making it a little harder for myself by trying to keep a few other townie families going alongside the Steels and the collections are more of a challenge than I'd been expecting: even though I know the value's going to be a lot lower than last time, I keep trying to improve it.  That made gen 3 a less fun nightmare (interesting concept!) than it should have been  .

[hazelnut]

Stars, Rocks and Books

The newlyweds moved into the Tanner family home, which Alexis had been sharing with his cousin Marianne.



Alexis has a weird combination of traits: good,  mean-spirited (why don't those traits clash?) brave, couch potato and green thumb.



Donna asked her cousin Owen Claremont and her colleague Lionel Shaw to move in.  Lionel only stayed long enough to produce a couple of offspring with his cloney girlfriend, before marrying her and moving out.  Owen, a genius and natural cook, became a permanent addition to the household.  Marianne Tanner stayed around long enough to become romantically involved with Owen and then moved out, since I wanted any kids she might produce to be available as future housemates.

Donna became pregnant on her wedding night and in due course Dashiell put in an appearance.





If anything, he was even more solemn-looking than his mother.  Donna took this as a good sign – maybe he was going to grow up to share her love of learning.  She took him to the library and read him most of the toddler books to give him the best possible start.



As a child, he looked more worried than studious.  (I ended up giving him neurotic as his final trait, just because he looked as though he should have had it already.)  He did well in school, thanks to his mother's tutoring, but preferred to play video games with Alexis, curl up with a good book or try writing his own.



Donna was pregnant again.  She made a point of seeking out the other pregnant women in town and giving them amazing medical advice.



"No, it's nothing to worry about.  We call it Glitchy Top Syndrome.  Your baby's fine in there.  Oh, and you're having a girl this time."

Appropriately, Dawn Steel was born right next to a telescope, but it was too dark for a good screenshot.  She had her first birthday on the same day that Dashiell became a teen.



Unlike her big brother, she very much took after her mother.  She was delighted when she had another birthday and was (just about) big enough to use a telescope.



Another shared birthday…



…and Dawn was suddenly nearly as grown-up as Dash.



Dashiell joined the journalism career.  He wasn't very good at it and kept just missing promotions, despite having high writing skill and all of the useful rewards.  He far preferred sitting at his desk at home, working on his latest book.



Life in the Steel household became more than a little boring.  Dawn went to school, Dashiell went to work and the three senior members of the family stayed at home (Donna had rolled a wish to retire as soon as she aged up to elder).  Owen cooked and Alexis gardened but mostly they were glued to their telescopes night and day.



Owen turned out to be an amazing astronomer.  He discovered more than a hundred stars, together with an assortment of other celestial objects, including a black hole.  He was awarded §12000 by the Astronomical Society for that one.  He also had a remarkable knack for spotting meteorites falling to earth and was largely responsible for this house's collection.

To break the monotony, they had the game's first burglary.



I was delighted – a chance to acquire two NPC friends without trying! Surprisingly for an old man with zero athletic skill, Alexis beat the burglar to a pulp before the policewoman arrived – but they all ended up as friends anyway.

Donna ran out of time.  She died as she would have wished, looking for a new book to read.





Grim was as tactful as usual.  "What are you begging for?  You know the rules: someone needs to provide a tombstone so that your son can move on.  You're it."

The girl standing behind Grim in that screenshot is Owen's daughter and Dawn's best friend, Lucy Tanner. last seen as a misshapen bump in the art gallery.  Along with Emily Shaw, she was a leading candidate for Dashiell's future wife.  Emily had inherited the Lancaster red hair, which was a big point in her favour, but otherwise looked to be taking after her clone-faced mother.  Lucy looked almost exactly like her mother and grandmother – Yuna Tanner has some impressively dominant genes – but was too closely related to Dash for me to feel entirely comfortable with her as a spouse, even though that doesn't really matter for Sims.  Ultimately, the decision was going to come down to who had the most suitable house and the Tanners looked to be winning there.  They were living in Darren Dreamer's old house, which I know and like, while the Shaws were squashed into a tiny house by the dried-up lake.  That one would need an extensive basement or a complete rebuild to be playable with a family.

The day after Donna's death, Dawn became a young adult and took over her mother's telescope and rock-identifying duties.



Dashiell was still plodding through his career  .



Soon after his adult birthday, he achieved his lifetime wish of becoming a professional author but was nowhere near finishing his dynasty requirements.



He eventually made it to star news anchor, helped by being asked to work late on the day when he would otherwise have missed his last promotion.



He phoned in his resignation as soon as he got home and turned to writing full-time.  The speed writer challenge still seemed impossibly distant.

At long, long last, with less than a week left before his elder birthday, Dashiell supermaxed.



I'd been keeping an eye on the Shaws and Tanners and was very disconcerted when both families disappeared from the map.  After a few days, that strange resorty place by the military base acquired a label saying 'Tanner'.  OK, I could live with that.  Except it appeared that Lucy wasn't living there – even in the middle of the night, the only Sims that showed up were her two older brothers and a couple of random clones.  The Shaws were still missing.  Maybe Dash was going to end up marrying one of his ex-colleagues instead.

With Dashiell's requirements finally completed, I checked the map once more and found that Lucy was now living alone in one of the big houses by the golf course.  Dash invited her over at once and, despite the embarrassing presence of his elderly father and housemate, proposed.



(I didn't get a screenshot of the actual proposal – Owen, Alexis and the furniture managed to block every possible angle.)

I'd downloaded the wedding arch from the Bohemian Garden set, hoping that it would work without Generations, but time was much too short for a party.  Early the following morning, Dashiell and Lucy had a private wedding in the front garden.




Generation 3

Home: La Casa, 96 Sonora Street, Lucky Palms
Heir: Dashiell
Traits: couch potato, friendly, bookworm, perfectionist, neurotic
Lifetime wish: Professional Author
Parents: Donna and Alexis (né Gilbert) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Bettina Phan (burglar)
• Felicia Faulkner (policewoman)
• Grim Reaper
• Lucinda Harp (postwoman)
• Lauren Blanchard (papergirl)
• Terrance Huntley (pizza delivery)
• Guadalupe Gerber (repairman)
• Kevin McDaniel (maid)
• Rebecca Patrick (firefighter)
• Desirae Neumann (adoption worker)

Household best friends:

• Lucy Tanner
• James Tanner
• Robert Tanner
• Andrew Shaw
• Emily Shaw
• Rufus Littlefield
• Nicklaus Simmons
• Dominique Matthews
• Marta Haley
• Felicia Faulkner

Unique maxed career: journalism
Unique supermaxed skill: writing.  (He also had level 5 charisma.)
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Pile of Permission Slips
• The Research Project
• Correcting Past Mistakes
• Late Night Crunch
• To Boldly Go
• A History of One
• Digitizing Your Notes
• Sit, Listen and Learn
• It Was All Yellow
• Getting to Know You*

*Not the charisma opp, which has an extra …  This is from the journalism career and is another one I can't remember seeing before.  I probably wouldn't have spotted the slight difference in the names if 'Getting to Know… You' hadn't popped up for Dawn almost simultaneously.

Building: Area-52 Test Labs
Fully-upgraded property: Paint a Desert Art Gallery
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Donna Steel
Set of items of unique type: space rocks
Total value: §57079



I didn't get as lucky with the space rocks as in the 4x4.  I still remember that gigantic mesosiderite fondly.  (Over §31K for a single rock!)  The one large rock in this collection is mesosiderite (and worth §1560) but the gigantic ones are all of medium value.

[Trident]

Ack! What a nail-biter for Dashiel! (Goodness, and I thought that the hardest one would be the guitar heir, knock on wood). Congratulations on three generations so far!

I like what you're doing with the townie genetics. I've played with pollinators, and you're right, it does make for a more fun game! Plus, you get to see all the super interesting genetics play out.

[hazelnut]

Ack! What a nail-biter for Dashiel! (Goodness, and I thought that the hardest one would be the guitar heir, knock on wood). 

Dash is certainly the problem child of the dynasty so far (and it didn't end when he was no longer the active heir).

Yes, the guitar heir is the one I'm really dreading, just because it's so dependent on getting opportunities.  So far, they've been coming in faster than usual, so I'm hoping for the best.   I wasn't looking forward to the writer, because it's not one of my favourite skills and I dislike the journalism career for no very good reason.  I wasn't sure whether it would be possible to get to level 10 with just writing (it might be but would take ages, based on Dashiell's performance).  Several other heirs will have to have two skills but they should be easier to control.  Once charisma's unlocked, that's it.  As it happened, although he got two challenges immediately and gained the first few levels quickly, it slowed down dramatically at level 5, probably because that was when he maxed the career and started spending most of his time writing rather than talking to people.  He eventually reached level 6 in extreme old age.

[Nindigo]

Just popping in to say I'm enjoying your story, hazelnut. Reading it in fact inspired me to have my own Sims go and live in Lucky Palms

[hazelnut]

Thanks.  It's one of my favourite towns to play in.  There seems to be so much space and the townies have interesting genetics without going to Twinbrooky extremes.


Waiting for Dashiell

House 4 had loads of space, although not all of it was useful.  It also turned out that NPCs couldn't get in through the front door (because it was on a diagonal, maybe?)  A useful feature when there was an attempted burglary but infuriating when the repair Sim got stuck outside for hours, then just charged a fee and drove off without fixing anything.  Lucy had to learn handiness fast.  The house was pretty to look at, though.



After the long and boring generation 3, I was keen to get started with a different heir.  Dash and Lucy tried for a baby as soon as they'd moved in.



Then Lucy went to sort out her new outfit (plus pregnancy-enabled stuff ) and I got a good look at the latest genetic input into the family.



As I'd thought from a distance, she could be Grandma Yuna's twin.  Her traits are interesting: artistic, couch potato, vegetarian, perfectionist and inappropriate.

The next bit is predictable…
 


Delia had her first birthday and, surprisingly, turned out to be blonde.  Not only that but I'm pretty certain that's Tabbi Claremont's non-standard blonde.  I can't remember a hair colour skipping two generations and then reappearing before.





Lucy taught Delia her toddler skills.  Dash was too busy writing.  In my first Decadynasty, Penny stayed in journalism all her life (which was a lot easier with charisma as a free skill) and specialised in articles, writing well over a hundred.  In that game, I was going for happiness points and she racked up a ridiculous number of them.  This time around, I planned to have a collection of books, so Dash was now writing masterpieces with a view to changing his specialism from articles as soon as possible.  Even with the speed writer challenge completed, it was going slowly.

Delia had another birthday.



The Shaws had joined the household a day or two after Dashiell.  Andrew produced the next generation with his townie girlfriend then moved out.  Emily, who had points in several skills, stuck around for longer, helping out with the garden, repairs and cooking and becoming Delia's tutor.



Delia had rolled a wish to buy a toy oven almost as soon as she aged up and I was only too happy to go along with it.  No harm in making an early start on her supermax.



It was hard to imagine how her first attempts at muffins could have turned out worse – horrifying quality, pouring smoke and invisible  .  This didn't exactly bode well for her future career.

It was a pity that David had already supermaxed athletics.  Delia appeared to have a hidden Loves to Swim trait, even without Island Paradise.  Whenever I took my eye off her, she headed for a pool.  I was sure she'd unlock the athletic skill with all that swimming but somehow she never did.



She became a teenager and immediately wished to eat at the bistro.



Delia appeared to be their only customer.  Clearly, someone needed to take this place in hand.  Maybe she could do it – later.  For now, she needed to learn proper cooking.  She did much better with the real, grown-up oven.  It probably helped that she was now a natural cook.  (Shouldn't that be a birth trait?)



Her teens passed in a whirl of school, socialising with friends, several short-term part-time jobs and lots of cooking.  And more swimming, of course.



Lucy threw a party for Delia's young adult birthday, inviting all of the teens and young adults in town.  The Skull and Crossbones Duo are the latest generation of Shaws.  By this time, they seem to be pretty much pure clone apart from the surname .



Delia had already chosen Five-Star Chef as her lifetime wish, so she went off to the bistro to get a job as a scullion and then returned to her own kitchen.  Large quantities of autumn salad and peanut-butter-and-jam sandwiches were made and chucked straight in the bin.



Since she was progressing though her career amazingly quickly (especially by comparison with her father), I started looking around for a spouse.   Her boss was a clone but had decent traits and rejoiced in the name of Seneca Suggs, a big plus point in my view .  Or there was always Oscar Shaw.  He'd grown up with unfortunate hair but a nice personality – and, more importantly, Delia was attracted to him.  In a change from the Sim-standard bathroom courtship, they spent a lot of time in (and under) the water together.



And it seemed that Oscar wasn't entirely cloney after all.  He'd inherited body hair and muscle definition from someone back in the family tree.

Delia finished the 75 meals for the World-Class Chef challenge while she was at level 8 of the skill, so spent her non-working time over the next few days in the library, reading the third skill book and then the recipes she'd been carrying around in her inventory since the bookshop had had a sale when she was a teen.



Three days before her adult birthday, she maxed her career and achieved her lifetime wish.



With her supermax already done, all that was left was for Delia to age up, Lucy to make a few more NPC friends and someone to provide a tombstone.

Which brings us back to Dashiell.  He'd now written a dozen masterpieces, several of them bestsellers.  He'd had his life extended with a plate of Rachael's ambrosia and then with two or three life fruit to give him time to finish the twelfth masterpiece but, about halfway through Delia's young adulthood, I gave up trying to get a higher-value book and left him to his own devices.

(Disappointingly, the random variation in book value seems to far outweigh the benefits of writing more in a genre or becoming a specialist.  His highest value masterpiece was the fifth, closely followed by the second.  With hindsight, I wish I'd stuck with that one and let him have a natural-length life.)

By Delia's birthday, Dash was still going strong.



I sighed and got on with making sure that everything else was ready for the move.  Like Delia proposing to Oscar, for example.



And then we all waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

And finally…



Yay! He snuffed it!  Erm, I mean, sadly, at the age of 108, Dashiell left us.



Despite finishing her own share of the requirements so early, Delia was over halfway through adulthood when she moved out.  Again, it didn't feel as though there was time for a wedding party.  She and Oscar married in a quiet ceremony just outside the glitchy front door.



They drove to his home, collected his sister and then took a taxi to the airport.

[hazelnut]

Generation 4

Home: Modernista, 71 Golf View Road, Lucky Palms
Heir: Delia
Traits: excitable, heavy sleeper, friendly, natural cook, great kisser
Lifetime wish: Celebrated Five-Star Chef
Parents: Dashiell and Lucy (née Tanner) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Latoya Burdick (postwoman)
• Jerimiah Dowdy (burglar)
• Brendon Grayson (policeman)
• Kirby Saunders (babysitter)
• Joni Buck (pizza delivery)
• Trisha Durant (papergirl)
• Kara Simpson (maid)
• Teresa Harman (repairwoman)
• Dedrick Adams (firefighter)
• Grim Reaper

Household best friends:

• Oscar Shaw
• Dustin Steel (Dawn's adopted son)
• Seneca Suggs
• Jedidiah Patten
• Antwan Riddick
• Jasmin Henderson
• Jacques Vanhorn
• Rasheed Vanhorn – the Vanhorns appear to be a family with a fascinatingly varied background.
• Shonna Tanner (no relation)
• Robin Gillette

Unique maxed career: culinary
Unique supermaxed skill: cooking
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Research Project
• After School Employment
• The Greatest Food Ever
• Borrowing Ingredients
• Corporate Dining
• Spying on the Cuisine
• From One Chef to Another
• That's Outstanding!
• The Dish Showdown
• Swim into the Grill

Building: Lucky Llamas Stadium
Fully-upgraded property: Perfect Paradise Pool
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Dashiell Steel



Set of items of unique type: Books (ten copies of Dashiell's highest-value book, Mass to Peace.  I was getting a bit desperate for titles by this time.  My favourite was Peaceful Mastery.  Very zen – but unfortunately only worth about §800.)
Total value: §11630

[hazelnut]

Lucky Palms family trees

Tanner:



Lancaster:



Shaw:

[hazelnut]

A Busy Household

The new Mr and Mrs Steel moved to Sunset Valley and bought Wagner's Repose.



It was the final home of my previous Decadynasty family and I was hoping some of their success might rub off.  Plus, it has a beautiful vista and plenty of living space, which this generation was going to need.  First, though, they had to deal with a minor crisis.  Squatters had been living in the house and had left piles of rubbish scattered about; fortunately mostly in the garden and garage, with a few on the various decks.  The house itself was almost unaffected.  Some of the rubbish piles had attracted rats.  Rather cute, if unconvincing, rats.



That's another thing I can't remember seeing before this game.  My Sims have had to deal with meteor strikes, flooding, ancient burial grounds and cockroaches before but not squatters.  Oscar's sister Helen, who was neat, did most of the cleaning up and then was, rather unkindly, kicked out.

Oscar went off to the mirror and dresser for a makeover.  A very minor one, as it turned out.  Most of his outfits were already in his favourite colour, brown.  As for his appearance, I'd been desperate to change it but somehow he didn't look like Oscar any more with a full head of hair.  So, in the end, he kept his hairstyle.



His traits are artistic, virtuoso, family-oriented, kleptomaniac and easily impressed.  Not bad at all.

While her husband went off to the library to start learning a selection of useful skills, Delia ran around Sunset Valley making friends.  The collection for this house is going to be skill certificates, so the Steels were going to need help.  Jack Bunch, Yumi Sekemoto and Agnes Crumplebottom were all persuaded to move in.



(You'll notice that Delia was working on the next generation as well.)

Christopher Steel wasn't originally going to be a member of the skilling team, although I'd been planning to use him as a pollinator later on.  I wanted someone to catch deathfish so that Delia could make a supply of ambrosia for this town, but Claire Ursine would have been a more logical choice.  On the other hand, I'd like to keep Claire's unborn baby as a potential spouse and I like Chris better.  In the end, Delia decided it.  She kept bumping into Chris and they became best friends.  So he joined the household as well.

Oscar had his adult birthday outside the bistro after completing an opportunity.  Half the town seemed to have turned up to cheer, so he took the chance to try out his new charisma skill and make friends.



Meanwhile, back at home, another birthday was happening.



Dylan turned out to be dark-haired like his father but with Delia's skin tone.



Delia taught him to talk.  Neither of them seemed to enjoy it much .



In the few days before he'd moved in, Chris had become romantically involved with Erin Kennedy.  Once he'd caught a few deathfish, he went over to visit…



…and a few days later, Erin came over to introduce him to the results.  Well, one of them.  The other twin seemed to have been left behind on her own.



Delia was also doing her bit for the non-clone population of Sunset Valley.



Yet again, we had Steel siblings who shared a birthday.  Darcey became a toddler on the same day that Dylan aged up to child.



Dylan wasn't academic.  He'd far rather be playing video games than doing homework.



Playing in the sprinkler was good, too.



By the kids' next birthday, the population of the house had changed.  Only Jack was left of the original skilling team, still working on upgrading the last few appliances and maxing his career.  Instead, a succession of pollinators joined the household for short periods.



Dylan grew into a rather sulky-looking teen who was even more devoted to the TV and games console than he'd been as a child.



Darcey, on the other hand, was a sociable little thing.  On her first day of school she made friends with the Kennedy-Steel twins and they invited her over to their house.



Isla, on the left, seems to have inherited Erin's square jaw.  She's also grumpy and insane.  Evie, in the middle, is excitable, loves the outdoors and is generally adorable.  I think we may be looking at the next spouse, assuming things go well this generation.

The pollinators continued their work, helped by the heart-shaped bed.  (It's tough but someone has to do it…)

I'd been planning to pair Mortimer up with Bella yet again but the Bachelors had left town early on.  Instead, he hooked up with Darlene Bunch (and Jack was able to move back in with his family when they subsequently married).



For once, Darcey had a birthday on her own.



And the pollination continued.  Sam Sekemoto and Ramona Ursine were clearly made for each other .



Dylan grew up at last…



…and Oscar gave him his old guitar.



At last he'd found something useful to do that was as much fun as video games  .


Dylan is, of course, The Heir I've Been Dreading.  So far, the opportunities haven't exactly been flooding in (they seem to have slowed down for everyone since the relocation).  He's currently nearly halfway through young adulthood and has only had two opps since he left school – and only one of those was for guitar.  I came quite close to giving up last night but hopefully things will improve.

[hazelnut]

Guitar Man

At 99 days, Delia left work and met Grim.



She just missed seeing her daughter grow up.  I hadn't been paying Darcey much attention recently and was astonished to notice that she was now a pyromaniac.  Where did that come from?  I know there are no NPC firefighters in the family tree (unless someone was cheating behind their spouse's and my backs) and the only Lucky Palms townie with the trait is Phoenix Ross, according to the Sims Wiki.



Dylan was progressing quickly through the music career, although it was almost certain to slow down once he was working later hours.  He tended to go back to the theatre even on his days off, to play for tips outside the doors.  He met most of the town that way…



…and someone else as well.



Grim seemed to turn up remarkably often.  If I was an elderly Sunset Valley resident I'd make a point of avoiding buskers, just in case  .  Grim even stayed to listen sometimes, although he wasn't much of a tipper.

Oscar got to 100 before Grim came for him.  He didn't go nearly as gracefully as his wife.



(The Sim on the right in that screenshot is Max Keaton, the last pollinator for this generation.  He ended up failing to find a spouse from one of the original townie families and married a clone instead.)

After having very few opportunities in the first half of young adulthood, Dylan suddenly had a whole run of them.  If he'd been any of the other heirs, he'd have been almost done.  As it was, he needed another five guitar opps.   Still, it wouldn't hurt to start preparing for the move.



Shortly after Evie became his girlfriend, one of Dylan's older colleagues died and was replaced – by Evie.  They spent almost all of their time together and soon had a maxed-out relationship.  She was definitely The One.



A week after his adult birthday, Dylan emerged victorious from the Local Musician Showdown to find Evie waiting for him outside the theatre.



He whispered in her ear.

"Hey babe, your boyfriend's a Guitar Star.  Nearly there!"

All that was left was to get to level ten of his career – and he did that on his next work shift.



Dylan had bought Central Park as his property and installed an arch and seating as part of the upgrade – which meant that he and Evie could have a proper wedding where the guests sat and watched the ceremony instead of milling around and getting in the way of my screenshots.

It was slightly spoilt when Grim appeared to collect a random townie who happened to die of old age in the park just as the guests were gathering  .



And I discovered I could have counted him as an NPC friend after all.  Darcey had only just started learning charisma when Oscar died, so I was pretty sure her relationship with Grim was too low.  It hadn't occurred to me that he'd qualify as an old friend of Dylan's.

With the townie's soul duly reaped, Grim went about his business and the wedding began.



The guests included most of the second-generation townies.  The bald teen in the red shirt in the picture above is Derrell Landgraab, son of Malcolm and River (née McIrish).  Ignoring the ceremony, he wandered off to do his homework at the other side of the park immediately after that screenshot was taken  .



Seated in the front row, in the yellow top, is Latarsha McGraw, who looks remarkably like her mother, the former Blair Wainwright.  At the other end of the row, and not quite sure whether he should sit or stand, is Matthew Alvi, son of Miraj and Sandi (née French).



In the front row on the other side of the aisle,we have Jeremy Goth, who has inherited Grandma Cornelia's purple hair and doesn't show much sign of his Bunch heritage – which is probably a good thing.  In the back row, in her bikini, is the bride's twin sister Isla and, next to her, Kathleen Sekemoto, who thankfully seems to have avoided her parents' alopecia.

And so, with (most of) their family and friends watching, Dylan and Evie became husband and wife.



(I slightly regretted choosing 'formal' as the dress code.  The bride's formal outfit turned out to be more casual-looking than her everyday one.)


After all that worrying, Dylan finished his requirements quicker than his mother and grandfather.  So glad I didn't give up when it was looking so unpromising the other day.


Generation 5

Home: Wagner's Repose, 250 Redwood Parkway, Sunset Valley
Heir: Dylan
Traits: virtuoso, loves the outdoors, couch potato, party animal, vehicle enthusiast
Lifetime wish: Rock Star
Parents: Delia and Oscar (né Shaw) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Tim Gage (paperboy)
• Sherri Walker (repowoman) – met in the park while Dylan was playing for tips
• Jed Fultz (maid)
• Shauna Coulter (postwoman)
• Clay Baker (pizza delivery)
• Lauren Liles (policewoman)
• Alisa Dow (repairwoman)
• Corey Pappas (firefighter)
• Miriam O'Brien (adoption worker)
• Antione Cox (babysitter)

Household best friends:

• Evie Kennedy-Steel
• Isla Kennedy-Steel
• Latarsha McGraw
• Ramona Sekemoto (née Ursine)
• Derrell Landgraab
• Darlene Goth (née Bunch)
• Gage Briody
• Arlo Bunch
• Sandi Alvi (née French)
• Tim Gage

Unique maxed career: Music (Rock)
Unique supermaxed skill: guitar
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Stinky Bugs
• Outside Reading
• Guitar Up!
• Floating in the Sea
• Stick Around for the Music
• Jammin' on the Streets
• I Got Your Back… Up
• A Skilled Guitarist
• Raise the Fun(d)
• Music Class!

Building: Wilsonoff Community Theatre
Fully-upgraded property: Central Park
Heir adult?  Yes

Tombstones (large): Delia and Oscar Steel


Set of items of unique type: skill certificates

Earned by Yumi (cooking), Agnes (cooking and painting), Chris (fishing), Jack (athletic and handiness), Oscar (handiness, gardening and guitar) and Dylan (guitar).  I wasn't sure whether Delia's cooking certificate would count but I suspect not, since she brought it with her from the previous house.
Total value: §10000

[Trident]

It is t a dynasty without Chris! I'm sure ve already said this, but I'm enjoying seeing the townie genetics play out. (Why did EA have to get rid of Story Progrsssion?!)

It feels like an odd ethics question when you're waiting for someone to die. Obviously they have to die for you to continue the game, but it feels so strange to cheer for it.

Dylan turned out quite handsome! I wonder if the next bath of kids will get the famous Steel lips? (Or Chris's nose? His nose is always very prominent in my games).

[hazelnut]

It is t a dynasty without Chris!

He does tend to barge his way in rather a lot  .  Although, come to think of it, my legacy founder married Chris but this may be the first one of my dynasties where he's joined the family.  Gen 6 definitely has brown hair but it's too early to be sure about the lips and nose.

Yeah, the waiting for the Sims to die is weird, especially when I'm really attached to them, as I was with David.  Wth Dashiell, not so much 

[hazelnut]

Insects and Other Pollinators



House no. 6 is Pondcentric, not far from the Steels' previous home.  I don't think I've played there before.

The newlyweds had been too busy being romantic and chatting to their guests to grab any food while they were in the park, so Evie tried her hand at cooking.  It didn't go well.





The firefighter probably won't even count as an NPC friend for the next move .  (And I've just realised that there are no fire engines in this game, just those little trucks.  The proper fire engines must have come with Ambitions.)

Evie went to the mirror and dresser for a minor makeover.  Pretty sure those are the Steel lips and nose, in female form.



Her traits are loves the outdoors, excitable, easily impressed, light sleeper and ambitious.

The inevitable happened…





…and Douglas joined the family.

Time for the next round of pollination!  Jeremy Goth and Latarsha McGraw paired up…



…as did Matthew Alvi and Darcey.  (I decided I wanted to keep that mysterious pyromaniac trait in the family.)



Once they'd aged up to young adult, Derrell Landgraab and Kathleen Sekemoto also became a couple – but I seem to have forgotten to take any screenshots.

Douglas became a toddler and showed an early fondness for uniforms.



And the house was visited by two more NPCs who probably won't make it into the final friends list.



Oddly, these two are a matched set: the burglar is called Devon and the policeman is Davin  .

Doug had another birthday.



Evie tutored him in front of the family's beetles.



The collection for this house is probably going to be insects of some kind.  Dylan did some collecting in the previous house and it had become his main weekday activity now that he no longer had to go to work (weekends were largely spent playing for tips).  He'd now completed both the butterfly- and beetle-collecting challenges and the value of both collections was climbing steadily.  He was also collecting gems for extra cash and metals as a back-up, although I've yet to see any plutonium in this game, so the final value's likely to be lower than either of the insect collections.

Douglas made an early start on his supermax…



…and started to follow in his father's footsteps as a collector (although this one got away).



At the weekend, he was looking for insects and gems near the stadium when he was invited to take part in the Amateur Olympics.  He'd not had any school opportunities, so he had a go.



Predictably, as a couch potato, he did badly.  Still. it's the taking part that matters, especially when it comes to Black Ops .

While listening to his dad playing, he met a townie of his generation, the faintly ridiculously-named Beth Goth.  I suppose it's too much to expect the game to consider how a first name and surname work together  .



They were soon good friends.

[Trident]

Oh, Black Ops. You cursed creatures. I wish there was an easier way to get them to occur.

Douglas's eyes are gorgeous! A couch potato, huh? I would guess his supermax to be writing, or maybe logic, but those have already been taken. Hmmm...

I have a Steel daughter in one of my games; those are definitly the nose and lips. (And I think the face shape, as well).

[hazelnut]

His eyes are a beautiful colour.  Not sure where that came from.

Don't read too much into the couch potato thing.  He's the third heir with that trait. It's a good way to keep them occupied when I don't want them to start skilling yet.

[hazelnut]

Not the Happiest of Birthdays

Dylan and Evie had a second child, Diana, whose main purpose in life would be to break appliances for her big brother to fix, once she was old enough.  She started out clumsy and friendly.



Douglas had another birthday…



…and put his brave trait to good use a few hours later when Dylan decided to try cooking.  I have no idea why: Evie was a good gardener and cook by this time and there were plenty of high-quality meals in the fridge.



I love the look on Doug's face in that screenshot.  'What's all the fuss about, Dad?'  Of course, he likes fire: he's turned out to be another pyromaniac.

The collecting continued and Doug caught his first rainbow butterfly .



Diana had another birthday and gained a love of the outdoors, since she was still too young to break stuff.



Meanwhile, the electrical appliances were doing a good job of breaking all by themselves.



In fact, the tenth one broke on the day before Di's teen birthday, so she didn't become a technophobe after all.  On the same day, Dylan found some plutonium and became a Metal Collector.  If only I'd noted exactly where he was at the time...

Diana's birthday wasn't quite the happy occasion it should have been:





Dylan was content to go.  94 wasn't a bad age and he'd done a lot: that tricky guitar supermax, earning huge amounts of money in tips and completing four collecting challenges on top of his musical achievements.  And G. Reaper was an old friend, after all.



Grim hung around for a while afterwards, playing video games and chatting to Evie...



…while Diana went sadly off to her bedroom to pick out her new outfit and hairstyle.



A few days later, Douglas became a young adult.





Just out of curiosity, I tried giving him Christopher Steel's hair and eyebrows:



Not the same hair colour, as I'd thought when he was younger, and his eyes are different, but it's still a pretty startling resemblance.

Doug went straight off to Fort Gnome and enlisted.



Then he did his best to overcome his couch potato tendencies and reach a suitably military level of fitness, at least for a new recruit.

[hazelnut]

Military Manoeuvres

Diana had another birthday and decided she wanted to be Super Popular.



And to set her brother up with someone.  After all, he was long past the stage of cleaning latrines or serving in the mess.  Keeping up with the physical demands of his job was a constant struggle but he'd made steady progress through his career nonetheless.  Now that he was an officer with a smart uniform and an impressive collection of medal ribbons he ought to make the most of it.



So Diana threw a series of parties in the evenings, when Douglas would really have preferred to sprawl in front of the telly, and invited all of the eligible young women in town – which essentially meant the Landgraab sisters and Doug's old schoolfriend Beth Goth.

I rather liked Charlotte Landgraab but Doug discovered she was a slob and that was that.



Her younger sister Fatima didn't have any obviously clashing traits but there was no spark there either.



Which left Beth.  She and Douglas had drifted apart as teens when he'd discovered that they had two sets of clashing traits (couch potato/athletic and brave/coward) but he seemed willing to put that behind him now and return to their childhood friendship.



Shortly before his adult birthday, Doug spent most of a day off upgrading the family's teleporter and completed his supermax.



He maxed his career and achieved his lifetime wish on the day before his adult birthday.



All that he needed now was another NPC friend (who would be easy to get by the usual expedient of someone adopting a kid) and his tenth opportunity, which might be trickier.  Now that he was only working one day a week, he was probably going to have to rely on skill opps.

A couple of days later, his phone rang – but it was a repeat of a handiness opportunity that he'd already counted.  The next time, it was an athletic one that David had done.  In the meantime, he carried on with his collecting – and located the plutonium spawner.  And he moved his relationship with Beth on by a couple of levels.





There was another burglary.  Doug, who'd arrived home from his first space mission only an hour or so before, was not happy to have his sleep disturbed.





Evie and Diana had both reached the stage where they could become friends with someone just by being on the same lot, so the burglar was immediately added to the list of NPC friends.

The policewoman who turned up to announce that the burglar had got away (He's standing right there, you idiot!) was already a friend.  If I'd known this was going to happen, Evie could have saved the lecture and fine for a false call-out.



Finally, a week after Doug's adult birthday, a unique opportunity popped up.  He'd need to get another athletic point, which I'd been hoping to avoid, but I wasn't prepared to wait any longer.



At least he could watch the TV while he was working out.

He reported in to the stadium and, as he was leaving, I checked the collection helper for one last time before selling it – and found two swarms of rainbow butterflies.  It was getting late, though, and they were at opposite ends of town: could he reach them before the spawners switched off for the night?

Thanks to some frantic teleporting, he made it.  That decided the question of this house's collection: even though beetles tend to have higher values, a full set of rainbow butterflies was worth considerably more than a mixture of rainbow and trilobite beetles.  The metal collection was even more valuable but that ought to be easier to replace now that I know exactly where the plutonium spawner is.  I hope I don't regret that decision…




Like his parents, Douglas and Beth married under the arch in the park, watched by their friends.  The groom's family were in the park but both found more interesting things to do: Diana settled down at a chess table while Evie ran over to the pond and started fishing.  Considering that she'd been living in a house built around and over a pond since babyhood, I don't know why she was so excited by the much smaller pond in the park  .

A look at the guests:



On the back row, Darcey's eldest (adopted) son, Dexter Alvi, and Charlotte Landgraab.  Sitting in front of Charlotte is Darcey's middle son, Damon, with Kathleen Sekemoto next to him.  It's obvious where Charlotte's profile comes from  .



Seated at the far end of the front row is the youngest Alvi boy, William, with Fatima Landgraab standing next to him and Errol Keaton hurrying over at the last minute.

In retrospect, I'm glad Doug wasn't attracted to either of the Landgraab girls, since their parents were both still alive.  So far, the Pollination Strategy hasn't slowed down any moves but it could have done this time.  Derrell lived for another week, while Kathleen survived well into Doug's elderhood - although that wouldn't have mattered since she hadn't been in the active household.



(Derrell is sitting in the back row, next to someone in an identical shirt.  Thank goodness men don't tend to find that sort of thing awkward.)

Evie abandoned her fishing just in time to catch the end of the ceremony and throw rice.  Di carried on playing chess .


Generation 6

Home: Pondcentric, 98 Landgraab Avenue, Sunset Valley
Heir: Douglas
Traits: brave, couch potato, neat, handy, schmoozer
Lifetime wish: Become an Astronaut
Parents: Dylan and Evie (née Kennedy-Steel) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Grim Reaper
• Richard Akers (babysitter)
• Chance Beauchamp (pizza delivery)
• Lakeshia Koenig (maid)
• Harmony Wiseman (postwoman)
• Latricia Quintana (papergirl)
• Titus Alexander (repairman)
• Nina Casper (policewoman)
• Sabrina Lynn (firefighter)
• Jean Neil (burglar)

Household best friends:

• Beth Goth
• Charlotte Landgraab
• Damon Alvi
• Dexter Alvi
• Richard Akers
• Rachelle Reyes
• Victoria Burdick
• Kareem Estep
• Wallace Heere
• Mary Moore

Unique maxed career: military
Unique supermaxed skill: handiness. (He also reached level 8 of the athletic skill.)
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Amateur Olympics
• A Fishy Science Project
• Shower Upgrade
• Militaristic Athletics
• Evening Patrol
• Fix the Election… Machines
• Bring Back the Jams
• You Can Be My Wingman
• Substitute Instructor
• Add It Up

Building: Sacred Spleen Memorial Hospital
Fully-upgraded property: Papyrus Memorial Library
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Dylan Steel



Set of items of unique type: rainbow butterflies
Total value: §10260

[Trident]

Wow, the only difference between Dougie and Chris is the jawline! Good luck with the collections. They must be a hassle with a limited number of things to collect, considering the lack of expansions.

[hazelnut]

In fact, their eye shapes and brow lines are also different, although it's not obvious in those screenshots.  Which doesn't detract from the startling likeness.


Sunset Valley: the Next Generation



House 7 is the Roomies' old place, which worries me slightly – particularly since almost the first thing Doug did after moving was to nip next door and have a swim.  I really don't want him improving on his level 8 in athletics.

And the customary look at the new spouse:



Beth is an excitable, childish coward, who is also good and athletic.  She arrived with the Jack of All Trades wish, which wasn't really on in the circumstances.  Since she already had level 6 logic, her first priority became to save up the points to change to Perfect Mind, Perfect Body.  And, of course, a great way to get lots of happiness points quickly is to have a kid:



Welcome, Deborah Steel.

The Pollination Strategy continued, focussed on the Landgraab sisters.  Errol Keaton and Doug's cousin Damon (another would-be Five-Star Chef) were drafted in to do the honours.



Except there was a snag.  Fatima wasn't That Kind of Girl.  Even when engaged to Errol and with a maxed-out relationship, she repeatedly refused to WooHoo.

Charlotte had no such inhibitions:



Little Debbie became a toddler.  Beth taught her her basic skills but Debbie far preferred playing with her toys or watching TV.  She seemed to have inherited a hidden couch potato trait from her dad.



Her next birthday rolled around.  Beth scooped her up from in front of the telly and took her to her cake.





Errol was still trying to persuade Fatima to start a family.



Eventually they got married (note to self: kids will not be available as spouses until Fatima's gone), WooHooed a few times and then Fatima moved out again.  Soon the first little Keaton was on the way.

Damon and Charlotte were working on their second.



As a child, Debbie started on her supermax skill.  It was all going so well…



…until she got pulled off her feet by a particularly lively fish, executed a perfect three-quarter somersault and ended up on her bottom.  Ouch!



All too soon, it was time for another birthday (in front of the TV, of course).



Beth was too busy playing with her daughter's discarded toys to join in with the cheering.



And Debbie Debs (sorry!) became a teenager.

[hazelnut]

The One That Got Away

Beth may not have been there to cheer but as soon as Deborah aged up she rolled a series of wishes to see her doing well at school.  Tutoring and helping with homework were also a way for mother and daughter to spend time together – their interests were very different.



Soon after, Debs was offered her first unique school opportunity – to try working at the business office.  Since this was her intended career, it seemed like a very good idea.



It didn't go well.  She came out exhausted and badly stressed.  She was turning out to be a long way from the busy bee I'd envisaged when I was naming her: pretty much the definition of laid back.  The only thing she really got excited about was fishing.  I should have called her Delphine instead  .



Debs had met Damon and Charlotte's son, Gerard, at school but he wasn't exactly looking like ideal spouse material (a loner, loser and unlucky, poor kid).  His younger sibling had lovely traits but was a girl, unfortunately.  Errol and Fatima's first child was also a girl, so they'd tried again before Errol moved out.  I knew that their second child was a boy but he was so much younger than Debs that they'd not run into each other.  As her next birthday approached, I sent her round to the Sekemotos' old house to meet the Keatons, and especially the youngest member of the family.



Jack had decent traits and they became friends.  Maybe this could work out, despite the age gap.

Doug and Beth threw a party for Debs' YA birthday.



That's Doug's sister Diana in the yellow stripy top, making her last appearance in the story .  The two Landgraab offspring, Sarah and Gerard, are half-hidden in the background.

Debs grew up into an attractive, decidedly non-cloney young woman (and another pyromaniac, incidentally).  Her last trait was planned to be workaholic but it just didn't suit her character.  She became lucky instead.



Nevertheless, she ran over to Doo Peas to join the business career (there wasn't really any choice).



She progressed slowly through the levels, regularly just missing promotions (reminding me very much of Great-Great-Grandpa Dashiell).  At least the fishing was going well:



She completed her perfect aquarium and maxed the skill on consecutive days, less than halfway through young adulthood.



And she stayed in touch with the Keatons.



At the age of 100, Beth was working out to the stereo as usual when she started to float and sparkle.



Doug had started out a day older than his wife but had had his life extended a little to help with the collecting.  Grim came for him a few days later – but didn't take him.



I'd forgotten I'd given him a deathflower .  Oh well.  Beth had already provided a medium tombstone; they didn't really need Doug's large one.  And it would avoid a second lot of mourning moodlets.

Unexpectedly, Jack asked Deborah out on a date.  Wasn't he still a teenager?



Yes, he was.  It was a bit of an odd date, since they were limited to friendly interactions (in which case, how could he ask her out in the first place?)  Still, it kept their friendship topped up.

Debs finally seemed to get the hang of business, helped by being able to hold meetings in what should have been fishing time.  And Jack became a young adult.  Things were coming together nicely.





There was even a perfectly timed break-in.  I thought lucky Sims didn't get burgled.  On the other hand, nothing was actually stolen and getting two NPC friends without trying is pretty lucky.



Shortly before her birthday, Deborah Steel became a power broker and all-round successful businesswoman.



She wasn't exactly thrilled (notice the lack of big numbers over her head?  That wasn't me missing the moment.)

At least it meant she could return to what really mattered: spending every spare moment by a pond or on the beach.  On the morning of her adult birthday, she caught her 350th fish and supermaxed.



Debs and Jack were out on a date to celebrate finishing every requirement but one when that last one hit her in a cloud of sparkles.



They got married under the arch in the park the following morning.



The final set of Sunset Valley wedding guests: assorted cloney friends, plus Gerard Landgraab (the bald bloke in the fancy grey suit and girly shoes), his sister Sarah (in the pink top and white trousers) and, next to her (and in an identical top), the groom's sister Julia.  Damon Alvi, attending his second Steel wedding, is the one in the tux standing at the end of the row, and Doug, in his smartest uniform and with his hair grown out for the occasion (or, you know, because that military cap comes with that hairstyle), is sitting in the second row.



For the first (and almost certainly only) time, a former heir was able to hug his successor goodbye as she set out on the next stage of their journey.



A literal journey, in this case.  After a brief stop at the Keatons' house, Deborah, Jack and Julia piled into a taxi and set off for a new town.




Generation 7

Home: Cosmopolitan Lofts, 260 Sunnyside Boulevard, Sunset Valley
Heir: Deborah
Traits: loves the outdoors, friendly, ambitious, angler, lucky
Lifetime wish: Presenting the Perfect Private Aquarium
Parents: Douglas and Beth (née Goth) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Grim Reaper
• Melonie Samuels (burglar)
• Lindsey Nair (policeman)
• Dana Murphy (postwoman)
• Suzette Deppiesse (papergirl)
• Stephen Solis (pizza delivery)
• Eric Estrada (repairman)
• Paula Phelan (firefighter)
• Kisha Berg (maid)
• Olivia Lehman (adoption worker)

Household best friends:

• Jack Keaton
• Sarah Landgraab
• Casie Parrish
• Staci Hannon
• Alana Hartley
• Tamra Suarez
• Jamie Francis
• Lucas Davidson
• Leah Trimble
• Junior Slater

Doug's old colleague Rachelle Reyes nearly lived long enough to qualify as a household best friend for the second time – she died only two days before the move.

Unique maxed career: business
Unique supermaxed skill: fishing
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Work/School Learning Project
• Say Hello to My Little Fish
• Merging Towards Overtime
• Making Coffee the Executive Way
• Inflate Away
• Fishing for Suits
• Making Nice with the Newsies
• Funny Looking Fish
• Lobsters in Demand!
• Political Influence

Building: Doo Peas Corporate Towers
Fully-upgraded property: Old Pier Beach
Heir adult? Yes
Tombstone (medium): Ruth Steel



Set of items of unique type: metals (nine plutonium and one palladium – very similar to the collection I didn't use last time).
Total value: §22501

[hazelnut]

Sunset Valley Family Trees

Beth's family tree:



Jack's family tree:



French-Alvi family tree:

[hazelnut]

The Pursuit of Happiness (Points)

The Steels arrived in Riverview and moved into Great Room Great Dane, the largest empty house they could find.



They were going to need the space: the collection for this house is lifetime happiness reward objects.  Despite her lack of enthusiasm for business, Debs had done pretty well out of her constant fishy wishes but she and Jack would need help to collect the required ten objects.  One thing Debs was good at (apart from fishing) was making friends, even without any charisma skill.  She spent her first day chasing around Riverview recruiting housemates.



By evening, Jebidiah Wilson, Jon Lessen, Odin Crosby and Lorraine Cantina had moved in (and Julia had moved out).  Jack, meanwhile, grew his hair and picked out a new wardrobe, before heading off to the library to fulfil his first few wishes.



His traits are brave, slob, couch potato, handy and frugal.  He arrived with the Professional Author wish, so his first ten thousand points would be spent on changing it rather than contributing to the collection.  I'd had enough of writing with Dashiell  .

I'd been planning to delay the birth of their first child as much as possible, to give the household time to settle down and for Debs to get established with her new firm.  Unfortunately, her meeting count must have been reset by the move and her colleagues kept retiring.  By the Thursday of the first week, she appeared to be running the place on her own and her performance had dropped into the red  .  Time for a change of plan:



Of course, if the next heir was on the way, there had better be a supply of potential spouses.  Odin invited his wife Heather over and Jeb got friendly with his co-worker Shirley Lin.



Surprisingly, Jon the hopeless romantic, who usually seems to have a string of girlfriends, was only interested in improving his skills and playing for tips.  Still, the extra money was welcome.



Debs and Jack both rolled wishes to have their first child a few hours before she arrived.  They were already holding wishes to have a girl, so Jack was able to change his lifetime wish as soon as the baby was born.



(And why were all those people hanging around outside the hospital?  It's not exactly a noted social venue.)

With six adults in the house, little Dana was never short of bottles or cuddles.  Surprisingly, child-hating Odin often reached the crying baby first.  Maybe he just wanted to stop the noise  .



Somehow though, it was Jon who took her to her first cake.  I hadn't noticed them interacting all that much.



Dana looks to have inherited most of her appearance from her daddy.  I hadn't noticed before how wide Jack's nose is: it looks so much worse on a toddler's face  .



All of the adults contributed to teaching Dana her basic skills – although she seemed to end up sitting on her own at the top of the stairs scarily often.  Pathing issues, presumably.

Jon and Jeb became elders, completed their lifetime wishes and earned a teleporter apiece.  Jeb and Shirley already had a son, who was looking likely to be Dana's husband when they both grew up, since the Crosbys had produced a daughter.  No harm in adding to the next generation before moving out, though.



That looks a lot like Jon stealing his best friend's girlfriend, but it's actually MaryKay Shallow that he's hugging.  A bit of an age gap but hey, he is a rich and famous rock star – and the Shallows aren't the most ethical of families, after all.

Dana became a child…



…and a big sister.



Thanks to the magic of life fruit, Debs, who should have been an old lady by now, was pregnant again shortly after Dominic was born.



The baby was named Dorothea.



Debs had her delayed final birthday and retired, to everyone's relief.



(Lorraine, seen in the background of that shot, moved out shortly afterwards.  She always seemed to be in the background, despite becoming Leader of the Free World.  I hadn't played her before but don't really feel I know her much better now.)

Dana had another birthday.



The other little girl in that picture is Nicola Crosby.  Dana was now best friends with Nicola and with Henry Wilson – one or the other seemed to come over after school every day.

Dana cut her hair and picked a suitably rebellious teenage look.
 


Although I don't seem to have taken any screenshots, she had started painting as a child.  Now she abandoned the stick figures and her paintings took a more angsty turn.



The two youngest Steels were growing up.  Remarkably, Odin bonded strongly with Dorothea, ignoring his negative moodlet to spend as much time as possible with her.



And then the toddlers were (very similar-looking) children…



…and joined their big sister at school.



It's ridiculous that the bus still comes to collect them, even though they live just across the road from the school.  (It was even madder when there were car pools arriving as well – Dana often had to run some way down the road to get the bus.)  All it does is turn around in the road before everyone gets off again.  Whenever I remember, I just send them to school on foot – it's far quicker  .

[hazelnut]

The Unexpected



Dana became young adult and joined the police force, like her many-greats-grandfather, Donnovan, although she was headed for the forensic branch rather than espionage.  During her first shift, her phone rang: the owner of the diner would like to buy some of her paintings.  She hurried over straight after work to deliver them.  On her way out, she met Dimitri Ivanov and there was sudden, overwhelming chemistry.  She rolled a whole series of Dimitri-centric wishes, almost faster than I could grant them, and they were going steady in a matter of hours.  (Sorry, Henry – it looks as though you're destined to stay just a best friend.)



The two youngest Steels became teenagers and Dorothea's snob trait really kicked in (she definitely thought she was God's gift to the Simverse  ).



Shortly afterwards, Dana painted her first masterpiece…



…and immediately rolled a wish to propose to Dimitri.  Um, Dana, dear, one masterpiece does not a supermax make.  You're still a long way from finishing your requirements.

On the other hand, why not?



It was going to be a long engagement.

At 94 days, Debs was on her way into the kitchen to chat to Odin when she started to sparkle.  Strangely, Odin just carried on walking.  Well, maybe he wanted space to grieve properly.



Or not.  He just turned round in the hall and stood staring at her.



The teens had come home from school just in time to witness their mother's death – but seemed completely oblivious.  Odder still, Jack walked right past Debs' urn without reacting.  What was going on?

Grim arrived.  Jack, Dominic and Dorothea walked out, while Odin continued to look blank.



A very puzzled watcher gawped at the screen, then looked to see where everyone had gone.  The kids were doing their homework in the garden, just like any other school day, and Jack was in the living room.  Playing video games.  Jack!  Your wife just died!  Can't the console wait? 



Debs shrugged.  "Well, I suppose I did always insist on the children doing their homework as soon as they got in."

"That's no excuse for your husband, though.  Appalling manners.  What are mortals coming to?  Still, I'm glad you're taking it so well."  And the Reaper shook her hand.



It wasn't until Grim had dissolved into a cloud of black smoke that things returned to normal.  Suddenly, everyone started crying.



I still have a sneaking feeling that Jack was more upset by the TV breaking as he stopped playing  .



Dana at least had the excuse of being at the Wilsons'.  She carried on questioning young John, like the dedicated policewoman she was, but she too suddenly had a sad moodlet.

Rest in peace, Deborah Steel: skilled angler, devoted wife and mother, appallingly bad businesswoman and happiness point collector extraordinaire.  So sorry it had to end like that  .


That has to rank as one of the weirdest Sim deaths I've seen.  I assume it was a glitch: the mourning animations just failed to trigger for some reason.  Very disturbing to watch, though  .

[Trip]

Aha I've stopped mourning IRL just to try and set up a date for after a funeral. She did not message me back. Those bugs can circle right back around to being too real.

I'm in awe of the pollination and the nerve to try yet another decadynasty.

[Trident]

Goodness! Congratulations on another two heirs At least Painting is an easy supermax?

Ugh. Bugs. Good luck. I hope that no more come around

[hazelnut]

Thanks, both

I'm in awe of the pollination and the nerve to try yet another decadynasty.

You're in awe?  It was your use of pollinators with the Waverlys that really started me down that route.  Well, that and realising how cloney most of the Wan-Goddard-etcs were.  I've tried it twice before, with the X Factor decadynasty and a base-game immortal dynasty that I hadn't even started posting before the bugs hit.  I think the problem both times was that I was trying to keep too many townie families going.  This time I decided to take advantage of being allowed to move twice and just produce enough townie kids to provide the spouses.  I went for four generations in the first town, since it was likely to have fewest bugs, then three in each of the others.  In retrospect, a 3/3/4 split might have been better, since the last heir doesn't need a spouse.

At least Painting is an easy supermax?

It is.  Painting's one of my favourite supermax skills because the challenges tend to happen along the way, rather than having to make a special effort to complete them.

Ugh. Bugs. Good luck. I hope that no more come around

So far, this game's been surprisingly bug-free (fingers crossed).  Apart from the lack of mourning for Debs, there have only been two.  Lucky Palms developed severe lagging about halfway through, which was fixed by a global resetsim, and someone reached level 10 of a skill without getting the music or a certificate, which barely counts as a bug – although it would have been infuriating if it had happened in the house where certificates were the collection.

[hazelnut]

A Long-Awaited Occasion

Life gradually returned to normal after Debs' death.  Dana maxed (and supermaxed) the painting skill.



Dom and Dorothea grew up.



Dana just missed her last-but-one promotion but persuaded her boss, George Dean, to promote her anyway.  As if to show her mother's ghost how these things should be done, she promptly rolled wishes to get a promotion, to reach level 10 and to reach the top of her career.  The only other Sim I've seen roll both variants of the career-maxing wish is Nancy Landgraab.



A couple of days later, she became a Dynamic DNA Profiler (with fifteen thousand new happiness points).



All that was left was to have a birthday and collect some more NPC friends.  I finally realised that I ought to take advantage of having pyromaniacs in the house (all three kids had inherited the trait) rather than prank-calling the fire brigade.  Dom set fire to a kitchen counter, setting off the fire alarm.  As the flames started to die down, Dana burnt one of the money trees (not the target I'd ideally have chosen but it escaped unharmed).



All three of them took turns igniting things until the firefighter turned up, congratulated them on putting out the blaze and went off again without fining anyone.

Family-orientated Dom adopted a baby girl, called Dahlia (well, he was a keen gardener), and everyone else went out for long enough for a babysitter to arrive.  But that still left them one NPC friend short.  Were they going to have to leave the bills unpaid?  Then notifications popped up that two family friends were running out of time.  Dorothea threw a party and made sure both of them were on the guest list.  Unfortunately, one of them died before the party started.  Which left Yuri Ivanov.

The party was a great success, possibly because Grim didn't show up.   So I sent Dana over to the Ivanovs' as soon as Yuri left, to invite him back over.  She'd only just walked in the door when poor Yuri started sparkling.



Then I realised that, since Dana didn't have any charisma skill, she probably wouldn't become friends with Grim in the time available.  I really, really wished they'd had enough spare happiness points for a teleporter that wasn't destined for the collection.  Failing that, I passed Dana's police car over to Dorothea and told her to go to the Ivanovs' now.

Fortunately, Grim wasn't in a hurry to leave and Dana was able to keep him talking until her charismatic sister arrived.



And with that, Dana's requirements were completed, a few minutes short of her adult birthday.

Everyone slept late after the previous night's excitements and it was nearly midday before Dana blew out her candles.



Then she threw the party she'd been waiting for for such a long time (she'd been holding the wish to marry Dimitri for over two weeks, an eternity in Sim time).

As the guests assembled at Lost Willow Park, Dana comforted Dimitri, who had lost both of his parents in the previous two days, while doing her best to ignore John Wilson's photobombing.



Because it had taken so long to get everything ready for the move, night had fallen by the time everyone was seated and the ceremony took place by torchlight.



I think that counts as a happy accident

The customary look at the guests:



Heather Crosby is seated at the left-hand end of the front row, with Henry Wilson behind her.  Next to him is Jon and MaryKay's daughter, Vanessa Lessen.  (And I thought Beth Goth was a funny name!)  Jack is standing behind them, while Odin is half-hidden in the trees at the back.  Oddly, he stayed there for the whole time, even though there were empty seats.  Standing in the 'aisle' are George Dean and Dominic.



And on their other side, from left to right, are Stephen Crosby, John Wilson, Tatiana Ivanov and Hal Breckenridge (Dana's partner), with Nicola Crosby standing behind.  I'm sure Dorothea was there somewhere but can't find her in any of the pictures.  Also out of shot is little Dahlia, who was brought along by whoever-it-was that was holding her just before they all left the house and then left lying on the ground behind the seats.  Maybe Odin was keeping an eye on her.

Rings were exchanged…



…petals fell…



…and as the moon rose over the trees, Dimitri and Dana became husband and wife at last.


Generation 8

Home: Great Room Great Dane, 1056 Cypress Lane, Riverview
Heir: Dana
Traits: good, artistic, perfectionist, friendly, brave
Lifetime wish: Swimming in Cash
Parents: Deborah and Jack (né Keaton) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Tiffanie Gamboa (pizza delivery)
• Cleveland Cartwright (maid)
• Sonya Summers (repairwoman)
• Maxine Person (postwoman)
• Kristopher Scruggs (paperboy)
• Gloria Menard (firefighter)
• Trey Blackburn (policeman)
• Yasmin Cunningham (adoption worker)
• Andrea Crooks (babysitter)
• Grim Reaper

Household best friends:

• Dimitri Ivanov
• Henry Wilson
• Nicola Crosby
• Heather Crosby
• George Dean
• Hal Breckenridge
• Amy Foster
• Lesley Morgan
• Jenni Ojeda
• George Pollak

Unique maxed career: Law Enforcement (Forensic)
Unique supermaxed skill: painting
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Interior Décor
• The Great Argyle Sinclair
• For the Children!
• A Medium Painting
• Painting the City
• The Business of Décor
• Settle an Argument
• Fixing the Books
• Fresco Fest
• Police Conference

Building: Divisadero Budget Books
Fully-upgraded property: Lost Willow Park
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Deborah Steel
Set of items of unique type: lifetime happiness reward objects (teleporters).



Jon, Jeb, Lorraine and Jack (a strong contender for the title of Most Useless Spouse) earned one each.  Odin earned two and Debs an astonishing four.  A lot of that was due to her constant wishes for her kids to do well in life – she didn't have the family-oriented trait but acted as though she had.
Total value: §150000

[hazelnut]

Crazy Daisy



The newlyweds moved into Dimitri's family home.  I've never played the Ivanovs before and was surprised to find that the house has four bedrooms – it looks too small from the outside.  The vaguely bohemian look seems appropriate for the home of an artist and a musician.  (It also influenced the personality of the next heir.)

You probably all know what Dimitri looks like but here he is anyway:



This version's traits are slob, virtuoso, light sleeper, natural cook and angler.

The day after the wedding, Dana invited her old friend Henry over.  Shockingly, he managed to age up to elder before he arrived, although he'd been younger than Dana to start with.  I'm pretty sure it should have been his adult birthday, so presumably the game glitched and aged him up twice.  (I suppose I should be grateful that it didn't age him up yet again at the normal birthday time…)



She invited him to move in anyway, together with his younger brother John.  I did what I could to compensate for Henry's lost adulthood, with a makeover and a girlfriend.  He was already friends with Nicola Crosby and it didn't take long for them to become romantically involved.



Soon after this, Dana discovered that she was pregnant.



She wasn't the only one.



I don't seem to have any screenshots of John and Vanessa, um, interacting but they were also now expectant parents.



All three babies arrived on the same day, which ought to make it easier to keep track of everyone's ages.  On the other hand, both of the Wilson offspring became toddlers almost immediately, so maybe not.  It took Daisy the usual three days to leave boring babyhood behind.



Henry had rolled wishes to get married, and to marry Nicola specifically, as soon as little George arrived, so they had a quiet wedding, followed by Henry moving out to join his wife and son.  At least they could be together for whatever time he had left.

John stayed in the household for longer.  He was doing well in his medical career and wanted another child.  So did Dana and Dimitri.



I was going to keep him around long enough to tutor Daisy but realised that Dana's logic skill was almost high enough and it wouldn't hurt her to gain another point or two.  So she spent some time in the library and John married Vanessa shortly after the birth of their second son.

Both of the Steel kids had birthdays:



I thought to start with that Daisy's looks were almost pure Ivanov but then noticed she appears to have the Steel lips and Jack's nose.  Drake may actually look more like his dad, despite the blond hair.  He's athletic and evil, by the way, so woe betide any Sim who suggests that his favourite colour is girly.

Daisy started school and quickly became friends with John and Vanessa's older son, Charles…



…and with his little brother, James.  He was a bit young for her but not completely out of the running as a future spouse.



Another week, another set of birthdays...



…and Daisy's insane trait really kicked in.



She makes great faces, particularly when doing her homework…



…or disapproving of clashing traits.



That's Henry and Nicola's son, George.  With his mean-spirited trait and greenish hair, he's currently the least likely of the three boys to end up marrying Daisy but I'm reserving judgement until I see how they all grow up (and who Daisy prefers, of course).

[Trip]

That McIrish nose is still going! The real decision is who is a worthy contender against it (it's a fine nose I just like a good Gene Fight)

[hazelnut]

Ah! I'd not realised it was River's nose.  I wish features (in fact, whole chunks of face) didn't get inherited wholesale.  I've taken to using mods to get a better blend in most of my games but that's obviously off-limits here.

[hazelnut]

Horticultural Science



Daisy grew up and was finally allowed to start learning gardening.  I made her take it slowly to start with, because I've been paranoid about gardening opportunities since my first Decadynasty.  But, after she had three in as many days, I let her learn as fast as she wanted.

I wasn't worried about her supermax – three or four people had already supermaxed gardening.  The science career was more of a concern.  I was happy for Daisy to learn handiness but wanted to have a few points in reserve for upgrades and repairs in the next house, without risking maxing the skill.  Fishing's harder to control, so I'd prefer her not to learn it at all.  Also, the more skills she had, the longer it was likely to take for the omniplant chain to fire – and, with only the base game, she needed to complete it to get the Master Planter challenge.



In fact, her career progress was slow even when it was only dependent on her gardening skill – and her boss, who was a grumpy child-hater, was never going to give her a promotion unless he absolutely had to.

All too soon, Grim came for Dana  .  She was the only heir who absolutely had to die, for the sake of the collection value, but she was also one of my favourites.



(You'll notice Dimitri had swapped careers, from music to culinary.  I'm addicted to the fridges and he was a natural cook.)

Drake aged up from teen to young adult and joined the criminal career.



I had a theory that police Sims got burgled more than others, while criminals were left alone.  Looks as though I was wrong – or maybe there are rival criminal gangs in Riverview.



That was the first of three attempted robberies.  All three burglars fell for Drake while he was beating them up and all of them became household best friends, along with both of the cops who turned up to arrest them.  I certainly had plenty of choice for two of the 'best friend' slots this time.

That first burglary was particularly irritating because it happened just after 4am, when Daisy was very close to her perfect garden and I was watching her closely every morning waiting for her lifetime wish to complete.  By the time the burglar had been arrested, it was well after five.  Had I missed it?



Apparently not – although it should have happened.  A couple of plants died after that day's harvest and she was back down to 6/8 .  But then, the following morning:



(That's her TV-watching face, by the way.  The cooking channel is clearly more mysterious than I'd realised.)

Daisy's horrible boss died of old age and was replaced by her cousin Dahlia, who was already a good friend and had a nice personality.



Asking for promotions was a realistic possibility at last, although her lack of skills other than gardening was becoming a problem.  I let her start learning handiness but still held off on the fishing.

It was time to star thinking seriously about her future spouse.  All three Wilson boys were now young adults, so I invited them round and found out their traits.  That didn't really narrow things down: all three were artistic and had generally good personalities.  On the minus side, George was mean-spirited, Charles was an over-emotional loner and James was a technophobe (and also a workaholic, which presumably means he'd work from home but hate it).  I left it up to Daisy to decide.



Charles it is, then.



It might be another long engagement – Daisy was still several levels short of Mad Scientist and there was no sign of the omniplant chain, even though she was racking up the opportunities and most of them were for gardening.  One was to deliver some high-quality produce to Jack, who must have been doing a favour for his granddaughter since he had an excellent garden of his own.



Wait a minute!  Jack was still around?  He must be ancient by now.

In fact, he ended up outliving all three of his children and died two days before Daisy's adult birthday.  I had to go back into an earlier save and work out his age: he was 138, which makes him my second longest-lived Sim – or the longest, if you count the extra time from ambrosia.

Finally, just after her adult birthday, Daisy received the Uncommonly Good opportunity.  It was her eleventh.  More continued to come in, for her job, gardening and handiness, but with no sign of the rest of the chain.



She took to standing around thinking wistfully of weddings .  I decided that if she got to the final week of adulthood without getting the chance to plant an omniplant, I'd compromise on the base-game-only thing and install the Bohemian Fruit and Nuts.

Meanwhile, her little brother, who had no restrictions on skilling, became a Master Thief.



He celebrated by donating money to undermine charity in the nude  .  Just as well it was dark and there was no-one else about.



At last, Daisy reached the top of her career…



..and, just short of my deadline, got Outstandingly Rare and The Omnificent Plant on consecutive days (her seventeenth and eighteenth BlackOps).

She married Charles as soon as Master Planter registered.



It was a sparsely attended ceremony.  Despite Daisy's Legendary Host reward, most of the guests failed to turn up.  Never mind: the move marriage was the important thing.


Generation 9

Home: Caravanique, 13 Lost Willow Road, Riverview
Heir: Daisy
Traits: loves the outdoors, insane, excitable, friendly, green thumb
Lifetime wish: The Perfect Garden
Parents: Dana and Dimitri (né Ivanov) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Dianna McCrary (burglar)
• Bobbie Leyva (policewoman)
• Grim Reaper
• Rhiannon Wallis (firefighter)
• Melvin McGill (postman)
• Alejandro Sowell (paperboy)
• Krissy Luke (pizza delivery)
• Shanita Frantz (repairwoman)
• Bonnie Ritter (maid)
• Naomi Rivera (adoption worker)

Household best friends:

• Charles Wilson
• James Wilson
• George Wilson
• Dahlia Steel
• Joanna Hatch
• Gena Daugherty
• Joe Harrell
• Jarred Webber
• Cletus Mabry
• Dianna McCrary

Unique maxed career: Science
Unique supermaxed skill: Gardening
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Free Game
• Fresh Tomato Sauce
• Grape-Aid
• Funding the Lab
• Absolutely Great Produce
• Limes Are Key
• Excellent Veggies
• Outstanding Tasting Ingredients
• Of Fish, Robots and Robot Things
• Fix Before Jailbreak

Building: EverFresh Delights Supermarket
Fully-upgraded property: Riverview Fish Hatchery
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Dana Steel



Set of items of unique type: paintings
Total value: §72678
(Rather better than the painting collection in my first Decadynasty.  I'd like to think that this is because I know more about the game now but it may just be that the paintings had longer to appreciate.  On the other hand, Penny moved very close to her elder birthday because of her problems finding a husband, so these may actually have appreciated less.  I've lost all the saves from that game apart from the final one, so can't go back and check.)

[Trip]

Eighteen blackops so yeah, you were probably right about the fewer EPs = more ops thing.

Ugh gardening always puts me on edge. Proud of Daisy even more!!

[hazelnut]

Yeah, although Daisy did particularly well for opportunities - I think she ended up with about 25 unique ones.  It also seems to help to hold off on the skilling until at least their late teens.  The heirs who had the hardest time getting 10 BlackOps all started earlier (including the final heir - you'd have thought I'd know better by now  ).

[hazelnut]

Funny Boy



Daisy moved into the final house of the dynasty, once owned by the Lin sisters.  It seems particularly appropriate for an insane Sim  .



Charles went straight to the dresser and mirror for a minor makeover.  (Pink is his favourite colour as well.)  His traits are artistic, loner, genius, over-emotional and heavy sleeper.  He had the Rock Star wish but was only at level 1 of the music career.  Since he was artistic, he'd be changing to Master of the Arts as soon as he had the points.  So Charles spent most of his time painting (he was already at level 7 of guitar), while James, who was yet another chef, did the cooking, using ingredients Daisy harvested from the family's old gardens.



When she wasn't gardening, Daisy upgraded the plumbing and appliances.  Then, with old age nearly upon them, Daisy and Charles tried for a baby.



And succeeded.



Duncan grew up into a toddler with his father's hair and the persistent McIrish nose  .



Daisy taught him his basic skills…



…while Charles painted and played for tips.



Charles did get to take Duncan to his birthday cake, though, largely because Daisy was at work.  (Charles had retired.)





Then Charles took over the teaching duties, tutoring Duncan for school…



…while Daisy became the audience for a lot of childish jokes and gleefully joined in with the face-pulling.



Now that Duncan was at school, she established a new garden, growing enough fruit and veg to keep James supplied with ingredients for the rest of his life and then turning to what can only be described as cash crops.  (Sorry  .)



Duncan had another birthday…



…and the whole family autonomously sat down for a celebratory meal together.



(That's such a rare occurrence for my Sims that I had to take a screenshot.)

[hazelnut]

Twists in the Tail

I sent Duncan to the library on the morning after his birthday, to start learning charisma.  This was a mistake: I should have resisted the temptation to look at his stats for a while.  Since I knew that the comedian challenge can be worked on without unlocking the skill, he should have carried on as he was and not learned charisma until close to his next birthday.  As it was, he reached level 5 as a teenager and effectively blocked out some of the opportunities.



Daisy and Charles had been drifting apart recently, although that didn't stop them being eternally faithful.  I'd always been aware that Daisy also fancied her brother-in-law but suddenly she and James were flirting all over the place.



I'm not sure which of them started it. Maybe it was mutual.  Definitely a Big Thing, though.  Charles remained oblivious but Duncan caught them at it.  His relationship with Uncle James tanked but, oddly, he stayed best friends with his mother.



At 92 days, Charles ran out of time.



Oddly, Daisy had a 'mourning' rather than a 'heartbroken' moodlet – a recognition of their declining relationship or just a glitch?

Duncan had his young adult birthday…





…and joined the political career.



Shortly afterwards, Daisy had her appointment with Grim.  She was 99.



RIP, Daisy.  There's no logical reason for it (you should have been as irritating as Dashiell) but you were undoubtedly my favourite heir.

Last Generation Boredom set in and I forgot to take screenshots for a while.  Eventually, Duncan maxed charisma…



…and became Leader of the Free World.



He was still a young adult and short of three opportunities but it seemed like a good idea to start collecting NPC friends:



(That mysterious pyromaniac trait shows no sign of disappearing.)



Jammily, he met a repowoman (incongruously called Sunshine), while hanging around at a loose end in the middle of town.   They were best friends almost immediately.

Since the charisma opps seemed to have dried up, I consulted SimsWiki and steered Duncan towards writing and athletic, which both have crossover opps with politics.  It paid off on his next work shift, when 'In Office, In Shape' popped up.  (Pretty sure that's a first for me.)



And then everything went quiet for a week or so.  James had lots of opportunities.  The only thing that happened to Duncan was another birthday.

And then, weirdly, a tenth BlackOp appeared – but not one I'd have expected.  I like to think that Duncan was having a midlife crisis, even without Generations.  Maybe the stress of the Top Job was getting to him.  Or he thought that athletic opps were the way to go.  Whatever the cause, he was offered a job in the athletic career – and accepted.

Well, OK. I accepted it for him  .



Certainly a bizarre career move: at 13 simoleons per hour, the Rabid Fan job was worth a lot less than even his temporary teen job at the spa.

On the other hand, it was his tenth BlackOp.

James made a phone call as soon as he was back from work, adopted a child, and suddenly the challenge was finished.


Generation 10

Home: The Split, 223 Cotton Branch Drive, Riverview
Heir: Duncan
Traits: evil, friendly, good sense of humour, charismatic, workaholic
Lifetime wish: Leader of the Free world
Parents: Daisy and Charles (né Wilson) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Errol Gregg (repairman)
• Kylee Ramos (pizza delivery)
• Jarrett Acker (policeman)
• Buddy Thayer (postman)
• Charlene Patten (burglar)
• Emmanuel Capps (firefighter)
• Sally Peachey (maid)
• Maggie Rinehart (papergirl)
• Sunshine Kwinn (repowoman)
• Tanya New (adoption worker)

Household best friends:

• Luke Parra
• Jose Frye
• Kendell Frye
• Sally Peachey
• Javon Stern
• Buddy Thayer
• Lulu Mather*
• Sunshine Kwinn
• Krista Fisk
• Serena Guerra

* Oscar Alphender was also still around.

Unique maxed career: politics
Unique supermaxed skill: charisma
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Smooth, Like Verbal Butter
• Wax Away
• Tough Negotiating
• The Cutest Photo shoot
• Care to Make a Donation?
• Business up Front, Party in Back
• A Party of Big Wigs
• Bestest Friends
• In Shape, In Office
• Going Pro

Building: Hogan's Deep-Fried Diner
Fully-upgraded property: Riverview Gymnasium
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstones: Daisy and Charles Steel (large and medium, respectively).



Set of items of unique type: omniplant harvestables (ten copies of The Memoirs of Chin Han – the original was owned by a temporary housemate.  Sadly, they've depreciated despite being in the family inventory.)





Total value: §17245

Challenge completed on week 84, day 5.  Total value of all ten collections §405393.

[Trip]

GURL-

Eh get that hall of fame info to me (just the Best/Most Difficult blurbs, you've done good in this thread otherwise). The 1.67/1.69 patching debate is a non-issue IMO after I learned how many people went to great lengths to not patch. Congrats on doing the most decadynasties that literally anyone will do.

[Deklitch]

Yeah, I remember at the time it was said as being an optional update in terms of Carl's. I did the update, but I know many didn't

[hazelnut]

GURL-

Eh get that hall of fame info to me (just the Best/Most Difficult blurbs, you've done good in this thread otherwise).

I'll send you a pm as soon as I've finished posting this.

The 1.67/1.69 patching debate is a non-issue IMO after I learned how many people went to great lengths to not patch.

Yeah, I remember at the time it was said as being an optional update in terms of Carl's. I did the update, but I know many didn't

Thanks, both.  My computer does not get on at all with 1.69 – infuriating since it means I've lost access to my 70s 80s 90s and Movie Stuff packs and had to buy an additional physical copy of Town Life, since I wouldn't manage without that one.

Congrats on doing the most decadynasties that literally anyone will do.

Thank you – although I have a feeling KRae has also done two.

[hazelnut]

Riverview family trees

Crosby:



Shallow:



Wilson

[Trident]

WOW.

A DecaDynasty is hard enough, but you went ahead and made it harder. Then knocked it out of the park. The absolute most hazelnut move. Congratulations on finishing! Amazing job.

[hazelnut]

Thank you