My poor Sims. You’d think by now I’d be better at micromanaging their lives, avoiding snarls and keeping them in platinum so they can be as happy as possible, but I still have a tough time of it. In fact, it’s often supremely frustrating. But I keep playing in hopes that one of these generations, I will finally get it all RIGHT. Unfortunately it won’t be third generation. Yes, that’s right — another elder died in GOLD last night, so I missed out on my platinum headstone. I’m sad that he’s gone, but strangely more disappointed that I didn’t get that lovely marble marker, because he and I worked so hard for it! Ah well.

Here’s what happened…

Devin Shanley, my third generation Legacy heir, was due to pass away in two days. As a Popularity Sim, all of his wants involved making best friends with his kids and grandkids. Unfortunately most of his kids live at Uncle Liam’s, so that makes things a little tougher. He wanted to best friends with his son Aidan and his grandson Patrick — Patrick lives with him, Aidan doesn’t — so I invited Aidan over and had him interact with his dad for many hours. Well, those Best Friend relationships take a mightly long time to develop. After two dozen interactions including chatting, tickling, joking, and hugging, their Lifetime Relationship score had gone up by maybe five points. The same thing happened when I tried to get Devin and Patrick to become best friends. It was simply taking too long.

I was hoping Devin would get more wants to flirt and woohoo with his wife, but he seemed more interested in making all those friends. He did get the occasional Flirt with Kaylynn interaction, but when I’d fulfill it, instead of another interact-with-Kaylynn want spinning up, I’d get one of those “Be Best Friends with so-n-so” wants. D’oh! I’m really glad now I didn’t try to go for his Impossible Want (Make 30 Best Friends) because that would have gotten old real quick.

Continue reading →

I didn’t get a chance to play any Sims tonight, but I couldn’t go without posting on the last day of the year, so I combed through my Legacy Challenge family pictures and decided to share a bunch that never made it into my updates. It was fun to look through the old pics of the Shanley family in their little house and see how far they’ve come in just a few generations.

I have to say that the snapshots are a bit random — there’s a good reason why some of them never made it into my updates! I hope you will enjoy them anyway.

Here’s Sheldon, way back in 1st Generation, about to set his Baked Alaska on fire. Sheldon was the mailman until he married my Legacy founder, Nia Shanley. Eventually he became the mayor of Mt. Geneva.

Sheldon and Nia gave birth to a set of lovely twins, Kiara and Bree — though they didn’t look much alike…

Continue reading →

Short update tonight as it’s way past my bedtime…I’ve been having fun visiting all of the new blogs that are popping up! I’ve linked to a bunch of new ones in my sidebar, so make sure you check them out.

Now for the update…I played my Legacy Challenge family for a few hours tonight, but didn’t take many pictures, mostly because it was mass chaos. Also, my lot slowed way down for a bit until I deleted about 30 light fixtures and got rid of some excess landscaping. I really need to save up for a new graphics card or some more RAM or something! I’m not sure which would be better.

Amid the chaos, I did make some progress. I wanted Taryn to fulfill her “Max All Skills” want, so she had this routine: use the energizer to max her needs, don the thinking cap, study until she maxed a skill (putting her in platinum), then hop into the energizer again. Sometimes she’d take a break from studying to make Smart Milk for Callum (since everyone else was in green or worse). Eventually she maxed all of her skills, huzzah! I didn’t take a picture of it, though. Instead I took random pictures like this one…

…in which Devin and a visitor — his brother Liam — play the punching game. I can just hear Devin saying, “You call that a punch, old man? Come on, do your worst! I can take it, I’m a SUPERHERO!” Patrick seems pretty impressed with him, anyway. Zuzu is on the couch in her PJs talking to yet another member of the Stafford family, little Tina. The Staffords are showing up everywhere lately! Maybe it’s because I finally bought them a phone.

Continue reading →

Things keep chugging along in my Legacy Challenge family…

Kaylynn has been going to work off and on, so she finally got promoted to Astronaut. Unfortunately the very next day I made a bad chance card choice (will I ever learn?) and she lost her job. I’m not sure if I’ll have her get another job or let her spend her remaining 10 days at home with her grandkids.

Devin finally made it to Captain Hero, the top of the Law Enforcement career. His carpool is extremely cool, and I took a picture of it, but I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t had a Captain Hero Sim yet. If you’ve already seen it or you don’t mind being spoiled, you can click here to see Devin leaving for work.

Continue reading →

Well, despite the holiday frenzy of the past few days, I managed to squeeze in some quality time with my Legacy Challenge family (and the offshoot, Uncle Liam’s House). The Shanley holiday party and the family portrait were great fun, but I needed to get going on that fifth generation!

First I wanted to have Robi and Fiona get married. Marriage isn’t necessary for the Legacy Challenge, but it has been a Shanley family tradition so far, and I have that nice chapel, so why not? We needed to do some spring cleaning, though — I had everyone stay home from work that day and tidy up the house and yard. Devin trimmed the hedges outside the family chapel while the gardener pulled weeds.

Fiona’s energy was low, so I had her go to sleep while Robi made himself lunch…

Continue reading →

Here’s the latest Shanley family portrait:

Kaylynn and Devin are standing behind their two daughters, Taryn (left) and Fiona (right). Fiona, a Family Sim, is my current Legacy heir. I left her fiancé Robi out of the picture because I couldn’t fit him in properly, and he’s not officially part of the family yet anyway.

I really wish we had some kind of in-game camera object that would arrange the family in a decent pose, have them all smile, and snap the picture. As it is, getting the whole family to cooperate for a picture-taking session can be a bit of a challenge. At least no one is slouching horribly this time! And everyone is grown up, so no acne! I do have outtakes, though, if you want to see what my silly Sims were doing while I was waiting for a good photo op…

Continue reading →

The tree glimmered, the aroma of roast turkey filled the air, the champagne flowed freely, but where was Santa? Everyone at the Shanleys’ Holiday Party waited on the edge of excitement for the moment he would arrive. Outside, a merry jingle of bells sounded. Taryn and her mother Kaylynn glanced out the living room window — could that be his sleigh landing in the yard?

Continue reading →

Even though I complain about my Legacy Challenge family once in awhile, I’m still having fun with them. The social worker incident was at least something new, and I learned from Janice’s comment that kids who are taken away are the first in line to be adopted, which is pretty cool. I like that I’m still learning new things about this game even though I play it constantly.

Now for the update! I mentioned last time that Liam was due to become an elder. It turns out that he shared his birthday with two other family members, so we had three birthdays in one day.

Liam was the first to blow out his candles and have a piece of cake. I think he was in full platinum when he transitioned, but I’m not positive. I need to start keeping better notes! It’s nice to have an idea of when an elder is due to kick the bucket, so I can really focus on putting them in platinum. Yes, I’m greedy for those marble & gold headstones.

In the background you can see Taryn with her “new look”. I just gave her a different hairstyle and took the glasses away so I could see how much she looks like her sister Fiona. The verdict? They are practically twins! I still find it odd that my actual twins, Bree and Kiara, differed so greatly in looks and personality, while all of my other Legacy kids are clones of each other. Go figure.

Continue reading →