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.

I sent Devin to bed hoping some better wants would spin up when he awoke, and went about focusing on the other family members for a bit. I realized I hadn’t painted a portrait of Fiona, the fourth generation Legacy heir, for my heir gallery yet, so I set Kaylynn to work on it…

Since Kaylynn lost her job, she’s had plenty of time to paint and spend time with her family. I made Fiona get a job, however, just to bring in some more money. Not that they really needed it, but I figured she might as well be getting some money during all of that maternity leave. She started out in the Business career as an Executive, but due to another chance card (I’m so cursed with those), she got demoted. The funny thing was she did the little “I love my life!” song and dance when she got out of the car, even as the Demotion icon spun above her head. I think it’s just a glitch, since they usually do that song and dance when they get promoted .

Devin woke up and had a want to flirt with Kaylynn, so I indulged him, hoping I’d get more Kaylynn stuff to spin up. Unfortunately it didn’t. He was in platinum, but I knew it wouldn’t last long, and I had to make sure he’d be good to go when the Reaper showed up that evening. Devin’s wants involved Callum growing up well, Callum having a great birthday party, and being best friends with Aidan. There was another one I don’t recall at the moment. But I decided to leave the main house and switch over to Uncle Liam’s for a bit, in hopes of fulfilling some of those wants.

Things have been a little nutso at Uncle Liam’s house since I moved three more people in. I’ve been trying to let them be mostly autonomous, but it’s extremely difficult to go from directing their every move to just sitting back and letting things play out. Silly as it may sound, I care about these Sims too much to watch them make messes of their lives.

However, I had set up some “rules” for Uncle Liam’s house. They’ll probably change over time, but here’s what I had when I switched over last night:

1. I used motherlode to move Liam and the kids into the house I built for them, but the lot is strictly no-cheat now. Any money they make comes from their own incomes.

2. I will direct the members of the household to certain things, otherwise it’s up to them to fulfill their needs. Here’s what I will do:

– Someone with a relatively high cooking score will serve one meal a day so everyone stays well-fed (I don’t want that social worker showing up again)
– All kids do their homework at least every other day (again, to avoid the social worker visiting)
– I can fulfill just ONE of their aspiration wants each day (one for each member of the family)
– If something breaks down, I’ll have them fix it or call a repairman
– I will direct them to get the mail and pay bills
– Toddlers are exempt from this rule — I have to make sure their needs are always taken care of, again to stave off the evil social worker

3. I will continue to choose their aspirations by rolling a die, as with my Legacy Challenge family

4. The kid who has the highest Lifetime Relationship score with Uncle Liam at the time of his death will inherit the lot. The heir must stay on the lot for the rest of his or her life, but can marry someone, move them in, and have kids of their own.

5. Anyone else who gets married has to move off of the lot, so that we have room for people from the main house to move in once that lot becomes full.

Needless to say, I didn’t abide by my own rules very well. I found myself automatically fulfilling their wants and had to slap my own hand away so I would stop. It has apparently become a habit!

I did the “fulfilling one want a day” thing by locking in a want when they woke up in the morning and doing whatever I needed to do to help them fulfill that want before bedtime. That way if I didn’t see any locked wants in their panel later in the day, I knew I had already fulfilled their one want and didn’t bother with any others. Little Callum had a want to earn a point of Logic, so I had Taryn make him some smart milk and sent him to the Logic toy. She sat down and played with him. I wanted to make sure Callum grew up well so he’d given Devin some of those much-needed aspiration points. (continued on Page 2)