I’m posting this here mainly so I won’t forget about it, but it may also benefit those of you who are still doing the Legacy Challenge — the creator of the challenge, Pinstar, posted the following note to the TS2Legacy Yahoo! Group mailing list:

Just as token of goodwill and happy holidays, I am giving everybody a “Holiday Veto” What is a holiday veto you might ask? Well, those who are in the Legacy Challenge know that when your children age to teenagers, you must roll to pick their asperation. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don’t. This is where the veto comes in. For one time only, if the roll of the dice does not come out the way you want it to, you can veto the result, and pick your own instead. Did your 2 niceness sim roll up a popularity aspiration? Does your 8 person house keep comming up with MORE family sims? Did you just roll your 5th romance sim in a row? Veto it! Pick what you want, just this once. It doesn’t have to be your next roll of the dice…however this veto is only good until New Years day, so you can’t save it forever! Happy Holidays!

This might come in handy if I can get the fourth generation to their teenage years before New Years’ Day. At the rate I’m going, however, I’ll be surprised if Devin has kids by then. :-P

Things are progressing rather slowly in my Legacy Challenge house lately — the teenage years seem interminable! For some reason I’m just itching to get to fourth generation. Perhaps it’s because I still haven’t gotten attached to Devin and Liam. I don’t know what it is, but they bore me to pieces. They just go to school, bring friends home, play videogames, and go to bed. I should probably be letting Devin sneak out at night so he can get arrested or something. At least THAT would be interesting. :-)

Last night, however, they cracked me up. As you might recall from my last post, I am hoping to get Devin and the maid Kaylynn to be friends so that when Devin grows up, they can get married and produce the fourth generation of the Shanley Legacy. I had Bree become friends with Kaylynn while the boys were at school, so now when Kaylynn is done with her work, she asks Bree if she wants to hang out. Bree says yes, and then Kaylynn is around when the boys come home.

Well, poor Devin — when he gets home from school, he has an hour before the carpool picks him up for work. So last night I had him talk to Kaylynn during that brief time, and they seemed to hit it off pretty well. No bad conversations as far as I could tell. When he left for work, their daily relationship score was at 17. I figured that was a good start.

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It’s interesting to read accounts of other Sim players’ Legacy Challenge families and realize that even within the scope of this challenge, people can take very different approaches to the game. Some go for the wealth points, others are determined to collect a ghost of each color, and yet others just want to get to 10th generation without something catastrophic happening. I’d put myself in that last bunch. I’ve never been a wily strategist — if I analyze my game too much, I stop having fun with it. And purposely killing off Sims just isn’t my cup of tea. I’m more fascinated by the various stages of Sim life, the ins and outs of their daily existence, and the passing on of family traits. I like the challenge of trying to keep all of my Sims happy, satisfying as many of their wants as possible and watching their aspiration meters zing into platinum.

I also enjoy silly things like taking my Sims shopping for new clothes and making them pose for family portraits in the backyard, neither of which has anything to do with the Legacy Challenge. In fact, they could be detrimental, considering my Sims could have been raising their skills while I was dressing them like models from a Lands’ End catalog and making them stand still for hours on end.

Of course Leo had to be difficult and refuse to stand up straight — darn those Lazy Sims. He’d either slump forward in the usual Neanderthal pose or gaze listlessly at the sky, neither of which was particularly photogenic. I also noticed just before I posed everyone that Devin had a bout of acne. Woops. I considered “rescheduling” for another day, but it was too much work to get everyone all happy and clean and awake, so I just went with it. As it was, I had to use the Mood Energizers on all three adults. Liam and Devin seemed fine until they both started doing the “I need a toilet NOW” dance. Next time I’m energizing everyone and putting ALL of the lazy Sims in chairs. Sheesh.

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Long holiday weekend + rain and snow = plenty of time to stay home and play my Legacy Challenge family. Yes, I have no life. ;-) On with the update!

(I tried not to go overboard with the pictures this time, but since I saved them up from a few days of gameplay yet again, it added up to a lot. I’m just warning you.)

After Bree and Leo’s lovely wedding at Shanley Manor, they went on their honeymoon and returned in splendid moods. They tried for a baby and got pregnant on the first attempt! Bree had a very easy pregnancy — no sickness or foul moods, just the usual fatigue and hunger. I had her continue to study, since all she wanted to do was raise her Cooking and Cleaning skills. She didn’t seem to want a job, so I let her stay home, figuring she could take care of the little ones. Leo continued to work his way up the medical career ladder.

Within days, Bree gave birth to a baby boy, whom I named Devin. Everyone seemed eager to help out with the child, including Grandma Nia, who was still working full time as a Business Tycoon. Around this time I noticed that Nia had the fear ‘Email Someone’ in her aspiration panel — I guess Sim elders are afraid of technology? That cracked me up. It’s an easy fear to avoid since I’ve never seen them e-mail anyone autonomously.

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(Warning: This entry is long, rambly, and full of pics, since I played about three nights’ worth of the challenge before I got around to posting.)

It’s official — I hate Fortune Sims. Perhaps “hate” is too strong a word. They’re just a bit on the boring side. I was hoping that eventually they’d want to do things like write novels and paint masterpieces, but as my Legacy Challenge elders Nia and Sheldon near the ends of their lives, I have yet to see those wants pop up for either of them. Instead it’s like this: buy shrub, buy tree, buy flowerbed, talk to spouse, flirt with spouse, make out with spouse, woohoo with spouse, buy shrub, buy tree, buy flowerbed, etc. It’s getting really old. It’s also turning their backyard into a jungle.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. In my last update, the twins had become teens, and I had failed to get them into private school. It took two more tries, but eventually the headmaster deigned to enter the house and stay for dinner and a tour. Sheldon prepared his lobster thermidor — burning it for the first time ever (he must have been nervous) — while Nia gave the tour. The headmaster was so impressed that he accepted the girls into private school. Huzzah! I also had Sheldon become friends with him because you never know when you might need an NPC to marry into the family (not that he’d be my first choice — he’s so rude!).

While the girls adjusted to their new school, Sheldon and Nia became elders. At some point I actually answered a chance card correctly, and Nia received §5,000. Nothing spectacular, but every penny counts with these Fortune Sims. They also wanted to get promoted (because it means more money, naturally), so I worked on that.

Sheldon eventually made it to the top of his career and became Mayor, which means he acquired new threads and a helicopter for his carpool (would that make it a ‘helipool’?). Eventually Nia made it to the top of her career (Business Tycoon), so she got to ride in the chopper, too. They didn’t like how loud it was — even the gardener would cover his ears when it landed.

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Nothing exciting like twins to report this time, but my Legacy Challenge family is progressing nicely. The twins are both very playful and outgoing, which has made them quite fun to raise (once they got past the diaper stage, that is). About the time that Bree and Kiara grew into children, I had Abjiheet move out — I no longer needed him to help the family, and four people in a house is a more comfortable number for me, at least for this challenge.

In the picture above Kiara (left) and Bree (right) chat on the couch while their parents Nia and Sheldon do some huggy-huggy. I purchased the piano you see in the picture because I planned on inviting the headmaster over and getting the twins into private school. I figured with the expensive sculpture in the yard, the piano, and Sheldon’s exquisite lobster thermidor, the headmaster was sure to be impressed. Unfortunately he was so put off by the “look” of the house (which I’m guessing has to do with the lot’s total worth) that he didn’t even bother to get out of his car. This sent both Sheldon’s and Nia’s aspiration meters deep into the red, but the shrink only showed up for Sheldon.

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Well, I’ve had a great couple of days with my Legacy Challenge family, the Shanleys. Nia married Sheldon (so he’s Sheldon Shanley now — d’oh!) in a very uneventful ceremony. They couldn’t afford any frills like the arch, the cake, or the champagne, but they did invite friends over and use the “Throw Wedding Party” option on the phone. It was such a successful party that the limo showed up to whisk the newlyweds away on their honeymoon. When they got back, their Needs were maxed, so I figured it was a good time to try for a baby. It took a couple of attempts, but eventually I heard the tell-tale lullaby sound which indicated that a baby was brewin’.

I had both Nia and Sheldon go to work the next day because they were in dire need of money (their bed was out on the lawn, for pete’s sake), and I believe they both got promoted. At any rate, I had enough after that to build them a proper bedroom. I also extended the living room, put some siding on the house, and planted a Japanese maple in the front yard. That tree is going to be my “legacy tree” — I’m going to see if I can keep it there for all 10 generations, which shouldn’t be too difficult, unless my lot gets buggy. *shudder* A lot of people seem to be having problems with that, so I’ve been packaging my legacy lot every other time I play.

Here’s the new, improved Shanley residence —

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Just for kicks, I’ve decided to try out the Legacy Challenge posted on the Sims 2 BBS. I’m not sure who posted the original challenge, but Lynda at So Very Posh linked to a copy of the rules, so those are the ones I’m following. The objective is to have the “strongest” family after ten generations of play. In this case, “strength” refers to wealth, “platinum” gravestones, and a host of other criteria. We’re not allowed to cheat, but we can use the Elixir of Life if we so desire. I’m not sure about the other Aspiration Rewards, such as the Money Tree — I’ll have to look into that.

The rules state that you must start with a single Sim, so I created one named Nia Shanley. She has a high score in Outgoing and average scores in everything else. I made her a Fortune Sim and hoped to get her going on the Business track, but hooo-boy, did I have a tough time.

The biggest challenge for me so far has been dealing with the lack of funds. According to the rules, you have to start on a 5×5 lot, which is the largest and most expensive lot. After purchasing it, I had $4,500 with which to build and furnish a residence for poor Nia. Here’s what she ended up with:

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