Monday 21 February 2005

Pic of the day: Rats for breakfast? The sad truth is that I remember from my own childhood how we youngest boys would talk about the most disgusting things at the table, and my mother would be visibly displeased and we really couldn't see why. This picture however is from the game Sims 2.

My new Sim dynasty

I'm playing a little Sims2 off and on again. I make sure now to quit the game when it starts to get irritating. The larger the family, the shorter time I can play before I am fed up, but that's OK. I have other things to do as well.

I started an entirely new neighborhood. I made a rule for myself to not make any Sim in this neighborhood that could possibly be mistaken for me or anyone I know. Because if I do, I know I won't have the heart to let them die, or suffer any great misfortune even if they qualify for it. It may be hard enough as is. We'll see.

I started out with only one family, a couple who had just moved in together but were not yet married. This is pretty common around here, but once again it is hardly something I would have been part of. My plan is to populate the neighborhood entirely by their descendants. I'm not sure how many generations it takes before they can interbreed, if ever, but I intend to marry them to townies. I've never done that before, not in Sims2, so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. From what I've read, the game will generate new townies to replace any you use up in the game. I mean the wandering townies, not the pre-generated neighbors in the populated neighborhoods. Those won't show up in a new neighborhood anyway.

It sure takes some time to breed a new Sim all the way from "Try for baby" till they are ready to marry off. But I feel that I have a pretty good strategy for it now.

***

If possible, it is always a good idea to lock the "have a baby" wish in as many family members as possible prior to conceiving. If the parents of the couple are still alive, one should try to lock the "have grandchildren" desire there. Existing siblings may get "new family member". All of these yield a heap of points – 8000 – so if you're gonna have babies anyway, this will cheer everyone up.

The first morning after a Sim gets pregnant, she will throw up and think about pacifiers, but she'll still go to work if you let her. If possible, the woman should have a job and perhaps a couple advancements first. (To be honest, I give them Elixir of Life from time to time, because adult life in Sims2 is ridiculously short. Perhaps the University expansion pack will fix this by giving them some years to improve their skills and get their first levels of career before they are thrown into the hectic adult life. I fully intend to buy it, wacky as it looks, because frankly I think the Sims deserve another life phase.)

From the second day of pregnancy, the Sim will wear special maternity clothes and stay home from work. As well she might, since she gradually slips into a beast-like state, if not vegetable, doing little more than eat, pee and sleep. Discomforting realism! Luckily they will not get fired or even demoted for staying home during these three days of severe pregnancy. On the other hand, as far as I can see they don't get paid either. I believe they do rack up vacation days, but I won't swear.

After the baby is born, the mother is given 3 more vacation days which she can spend at home to take care of the baby. These are PAID days, all she needs to do is cancel going to work and take the phone a bit later when they call from work. This not being Scandinavia, there is no such gift for the father. Still, he will have vacation days from working normally, so in a pinch he can take stay home with the kids once a week or so. Also each parent has two days off each week, and with some planning this will be on different days too, so there are naturally four days a week with parental guidance.

With school children, it may seem unnecessary to stay home if the kids are alone just one hour a day before mom or dad comes home. The children will probably be tired and can easily be convinced to sleep until you're back and have the dinner ready. But social workers take a grim view and will abscond with your kids, even just before they're grown up, if you let them be alone more than a few hours of their entire childhood. Don't even try it.

Luckily, once you have spent mom's 3 days and any natural vacation days, and dad's vacation days, and with the 4 "weekend" days each week, the kid will be well into school age. And here's when you start your next pregnancy. A pregnant mom is still considered to be home with her kids, although they are as likely to take care of her as the other way around. And then after birth she gets 3 new paid vacation days. You can keep this up until they grow too old to have kids, which isn't many kids away unless you give them Elixir of Life.

Anyway, money ceases to be a problem after a while. You may need to upgrade the house to have room for the kids, but it's not like you need twice as much house for 4 as you did for 2. And while extra bathrooms may be a good idea, there is hardly a need for more kitchens for instance. One working Sim is easily enough to feed the family once the first bout of investments is over.

I believe Sims are supposed to get a pension when they become Elderly, if they've worked long enough. Perhaps I'll try to have dad stay at home with the kids while getting his pension. ^_^ Male sims can continue to sire children, although I'm not sure if the success rate is as high. Females however can't conceive if they are old enough that birth would be past their Elderly limit. Then again, soon enough the grandchildren should be within reach, and the reward for getting grandchildren is as high as getting your own. Anyway, life isn't all about rewards as long as you don't fall into despair.

***

My new neighborhood started with a single couple, Ada & Even. (Both of these are perfectly acceptable names in Norway, Even (and Odd for that matter) being a male name. I'm not even the first to make the Ada & Even joke, I read a short story with it in high school.) Ada is family oriented, while Even is into money. This makes sense: To found a new neighborhood, you need kids. Besides, family sims are by far the easiest to keep happy, and having babies and raising children is their joy and pride in life. Meanwhile, someone need to earn money and buy stuff so the kids can have a home. So this combo is a great start. Popularity is better served once you get some houses in the neighborhood, and knowledge is really hard to play with a family, since the housekeeping gets in the way of relentless studying.

Conversely, money and career is no big deal if you can live with mom and dad until they pass peacefully away and leave you the house and a nice life insurance nest egg. But that's still a generation ahead.

By now they have two children, a teen girl and a toddler girl. Money is not really a concern anymore, but since Even likes his job so much, I let him continue. It was only while writing this entry that I came to think about the fact that there is not, nor has ever been, a TV in the house. There was a stereo, but then they got a piano instead. They certainly seem to do well enough without the telly. Then again, so do I.

Both of the parents have a nice rating of 8 points (80%). But thanks to their repeated encouragement, the teen girl is up to 9 points. This can be nothing but good. Nice is the one personality trait that is totally unbalanced. There is nothing good to be said about being grouchy, unless you the player enjoy seeing your sims depressed and angry. And why would you, since you only need to open a newspaper to get these things in real life? All the other traits have something going for them ... a neat sim will clean up on his own but his opposite will ignore the trash and live happily in the chaos unless the flies take him. An outgoing sim will make friends easily but a shy sim won't miss them so much. But nice, there is no reason whatsoever to not be nice. Especially if you need to seduce a townie for the good of the neighborhood. ^_^