First, the nitpicky site stuff:
*The new, improved URL of this here blog is now http://www.jenba.net/sims2, although http://www.jenba.net/wordpress will redirect to it for now. What will no longer redirect is http://www.jenba.net/. Please update your links accordingly.
*I had too many categories, so I did some re-organizing. Stories about the Dobbins, Kilman, and Blakemore families no longer have their own category, but can be found under Maude’s Tales. I only had one post each in the “Hesperos Family” and “Townies” categories, so I deleted those categories. The posts themselves can now be found under General.
And now for gameplay stuff!
I’m going to continue to follow Pinstar’s Legacy Challenge: University rules with Mia Shanley’s legacy. That’s a definite. I’ve decided, however, that playing two Shanley families Legacy-style is Shanley overload for me, so I’m going to let the non-Mia branch of the family die out.
I feel bad even typing that, but it’s not all that different from how I’ve been playing the Shanleys since day one — the heir (in this case, Mia) continues the family line; the spare heirs do not (with the exception of Taryn in 4th gen, who moved out and started her own non-Legacy family). So don’t worry, there will still be stories about the Shanleys — it’ll just be focused on Mia and her progeny.
I might play the Shanley Hall family until everyone there passes away, just to keep them in sync with Mia, but I doubt I will post stories about them — they will probably just pop up in Mia’s story from time to time. I’m trying to keep from having too many houses going at once, and I’d like to have some time for my NEW family, which is going to be a SIMplifiedU Challenge family with a little twist.
The twist will be that I’m going to attempt to evoke the passage of history with this new legacy family. What does that mean exactly? Well, take the Shanleys, for example. Every generation looks like it took place in the same era, historically-speaking. There’s no sense of time passing, fads coming and going, things changing from one generation to the next (at least not after the third gen or so). I’m a sucker for nostalgia and old stuff, so what I’d like to do is start out my founder in a Sims-version of 1900. He’ll be a Victorian gentleman moving into a small town and building his empire from the ground up. Each generation after that will ring in a new decade until 10th gen is born in the Sim-version of the 1990s. By the time they grow up, we’ll be caught up to present day.
I know it sounds a little weird, but wouldn’t it be cool to look at the family tree and actually see time passing? And the ghosts would actually look like they’re from another era. Now, I’m not trying to re-create authentic history here — for one, I’m moving through the decades too quickly, and for two, I’m not a history scholar — but I’d like to create the feel of history. Right away I know I’m going to run into problems — car pools, telephones, NPCs in modern clothing — but I think it’ll be fun to replicate history as closely as possible given the constraints of the game.
If anything, it gives me a good excuse to use all of the cool Victorian clothes I downloaded from All About Style. :-) By the way, let me know if you see any good sites with historical clothing and objects for The Sims 2 — I’m already worried I won’t have anything for the 1930s…
That is a realy cool idea Jen, it will probably make some very interesting stories. Seeing how wonderfull you completed the CLC, I have no doubt that you can pull it off (and let us enjoy it trough your blog!) I’ll be happy if I can get my Mason’s trough to G10 this time, hopefully without as much rebuilding as I’ve had to do in the first LC…
Good luck, and I hope to be reading about it all soon!
Funny… The time post says I posted this comment on 4:49 PM, but here in Belgium, it’s actually 11:50 PM… Time for bed! (I just played the Mason’s a bit. The update follows tommorow.)
That sounds so cool! I love the ideas for your site! But it’s sad I will never see ZuZu get married and have kids… she was my favorite sim! Could you upload her to the exchange?
I really like the twist your going for with the SIMplifiedU challenge. I also have a lot of the Victorian clothing from AAS, plus some from The Sims Resource. Considering I don’t download any object recolors, I can’t help you there. As far as the NPCs, there’s a way to fix that, but it would be time consuming. I look forward to more updates! Until next time…make mine Maxis!
Hi. It is a little sad to have that alien skin leave the gene pool but it would have been a ton of categories to keep updated! I’m a first time poster at this site but I’ve been reading since Patrick and the pizza girl were raising little Vesta and I’ve been hooked!
That sounds like it should be fun…
That’s a really cool idea! I’ve seen the historical clothes, but haven’t downloaded any because I didn’t think I’d use them, but that’s a great way to put them to use. I can’t wait to see Mia’s legacy and your new family. :D
Awww…poor Shanleys. Well, I guess we will still be keeping track with them, It’ll just be Mia’s legacy, not Nia’s. Nia’s Legacy turned out fantastic, though! I’m sure Mia’s will be just as good or better! Your new family idea for the Simplified Challenge is great, I might add. That’ll be fun for you to write, I’m sure–As it will be for us to read! Keep up the great work, Jen!
that’s a really cool idea. Sims in the ages. Look forward to seeing the change! so does it mean you’ll be running 2 different legacy families? like one for Mia Shanley and anotehr totally different one?
Hey, thanks for all of the positive feedback, guys! I wasn’t sure how my new family idea would go over, so I’m glad most of you seem to like it. I just started the new family last night, so look for an update soon! I’ll also have an update on Mia coming up, too — it’ll be weird running two legacies in parallel.
Yannick – I haven’t popped over to your site to read your update yet, but I look forward to it. I’m sure you’ll do great with the Masons!
Axel – Sure, I could upload Zuzu to the exchange. Do I upload her as a single Sim, or should I put her on a lot first? I’m guessing you’d want her to retain her personality and memories and stuff — will that work? Will she show up in your family bin, or only in Body Shop? Sorry to answer your question with more questions.
Brad – Hi Brad! Thanks for stopping by. Your blog is awesome (and my link to it is showing up now ;-))!
Nita – Hi there! Thanks for your kind comment. Yeah, I’m sad that Cleo the alien won’t pass on her alien genes, but maybe we can get an alien heir in Mia’s legacy. :-)
Mieko – I hope it will be fun for you guys to read about!
Shana – Hi and thanks! :-D
Jessica – Well, I guess Mia’s legacy is still Nia’s legacy — by the time I’m done with the University Challenge, we’ll have 20 generations of it. Oy.
Janice – Yep, I’ll be running two different legacy families. And the new family isn’t in Mt. Geneva, so they’ll never meet each other, and they’ll have totally different NPCs and townies.
Hi Jen, I think that’s a great idea. I know modthesim2 has a lot of items they make that would go well with your theme. I think they also have telephones and baby furniture for that era. The only thing it that you might get buggie items. Can’t wait to see your next post. Also i have some questions: Will you have excerise machines somewhere in the house even if it does not go with the era? How about other items that don’t go with the era like, dishwashers, showers (they have the little types that may go well with your idea), TV, garage disposal, bbq grills, the helmet with the light bulb on it, & other items that help you get your sims certain things done?
Anyway, i’m sure you will figure it out and have great updates and lots of fun doing it.
Happy simming!
Jen, that sounds like a great idea…it would make sense to have them dressed in period type clothing. I’m going to look forward to seeing that new family of yours too.
BTW, updated my story if you wanna go take a look see.
V.
Oh! I love that idea! It would be really interesting to actually see time pass with each new generation and see all the fads those little Simmies have. Can’t wait to start reading about that family. :D
Hi Jen! Long-time reader, first-time commenter. I’ve wanted to comment for a bit now, but I guess you could call me a “shy sim”.
The time idea sounds really cool! Unfortunately, I don’t download much, so I can’t give you any tips on items. The sims resource seems to be a good place to look, though.
I’ll miss the ‘original’ Shanley’s, but at least they won’t all be gone. 20 generations, wow! You’ll have to take a screen of that when you finish. And two different Legacy families? I’m lucky if I can even stick to the one I have going now. :x