It’s been a while since I played The Sims 3, and a while since the MacEpic family got any love. I’ve played since my last update, though I didn’t report on what happened. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things, but here are the basics.

I went ahead and had Frederick and Elisabeth have another child. It’s another boy, and I named him Jack. I currently have no plans for a specific Lifetime Wish for him. He’s in elementary school now, and is already a Genius, Insane, and a light sleeper. He may be hell to raise, and I may feed him to the time stream rather quickly. His brothers, on the other hand… Continue reading →

Sorry, lady, you overworked yourself.

I’ve actually gotten quite a bit of Sims 3 in, even though I’ve been busy with rehearsals and work and school. It’s easy to play 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there… and harder to chronicle things as I go in the process.

Zelda MacEpic perished as soon as she got off work one day. Literally. I failed to get 100,000 aspiration rewards points for her. However, she fulfilled her primary function — giving birth to the heir. I was so close to getting her Lifetime Wish granted, though. Very sad.

I made Frederick go pick up her grave and move it to the graveyard. I was too busy having Kevin perform experiments on everything in sight, trying to get as much use out of his science career as I could before he kicked it. I managed to set things on fire three times in one day doing that, but no one died as a result. In fact, in two of the instances, we got the fire put out before the firemen arrived. Continue reading →

These are a few of my favorite colors.

I took some time to color-coordinate the house in red and pink, Kevin’s and Zelda’s favorite colors, respectively. I then expanded the house, making sure to have enough room for an addition to the family. The incoming kid would get its own room; the addition of a dining room enabled me to put the high chair in the kitchen. The bathroom is tiny, so the training potty is in the study. I just realized I don’t have a TV or a place to watch one… but I also don’t care too much.

The baby was born! A boy, whom I named Frederick. Frederick MacEpic. He was born with two traits (yay, baby books), which randomized out to Easily Impressed and Neurotic. I already have to renege on my intent to feed all non-greenies to the time stream, though, since mama just turned too old to have kids.

Damnation!

Another side effect of Zelda’s aging is that I may not be able to fulfill her Lifetime Wish of becoming a Rock Star. She’s only at level 2 on the music track. So, like many old folks, she’s taking up travelling. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let her die without having done SOMETHING cool.

I took Zelda to France, and used up some of the family funds to buy all three books on nectar making. It’s gonna take an additional 2700 simoleons to get a nectar maker and a good rack; I didn’t have the money, so I decided to buy the actual nectar-making supplies later. I then sent her into a tomb as part of an adventure. Her exploration ended up netting her enough money for the nectar maker and rack. In fact, before buying those, I was back up to almost as much money as I’d had before I started the vacation. Not bad for an old woman.

I’ve continued to send Zelda to France every few days, and will do so as long as she keeps coming back with more money than she left with. I hope she doesn’t die on vacation. That would suck. The museum in France had a martial arts dummy, so I gave her a skill point in that, but she has no way to practice at home, since I haven’t sent anyone to China yet. I got some of the special grapes from France and set her to using them to make nectar upon her return.

Kevin is now a mad scientist (with a spiky hairdo and killer shades as part of his work uniform), and Fredrick has aged up. He got one trait, which randomized to Never Nude. As soon as I set him to playing chess, his logic leveled to 4. I have yet to try him on the guitar yet, since I keep it in Mama’s inventory so she can practice. I refuse to give up on trying to get her Rock Star status just because she’s turned gray around the edges.

Speaking of, she got a job opportunity requiring her to go to Egypt and talk to people about music. I decided to take the whole family, since Kevin also had a book-delivering opportunity. I forgot to take the book, though, so… oops. He’s currently hanging with Frederick while Zelda goes about her merry, adventuresome way.

To help secure the line, I’m planning to get Kevin up to 15k lifetime reward points and give him No Jealousy so he can knock someone else up without losing relationship with Zelda. I am also hoping to turn Fred into an artist so I can paint portraits of Mum & Dad before they kick it.

Current Legacy Points: 3

It's actually kinda homey now. Not the coolest house ever... but not a shack.

While watching the first live action Death Note movie (and the first half of the second), I worked on the MacEpic Legacy. He received two promotions in quick order, thanks to some opportunities and the fact that his Lifetime Wish and job requirements work together well. With Kevin making more money, upgrades to his house came much faster.

I expanded twice, adding two decent-sized rooms. The first room became his bedroom; I moved the bed and the trashcan into it to make room for the chair and table in the entryway/kitchen. The second room I added became the study. I made it bigger than its purpose requires to leave room for anything else Kevin might want or need. I was unable to buy a computer yet (needed to wait for the next pay check), so I sent Kevin to bed with the room as it was.

A burglar came in the night and stole his desk chair and his solitary sink. I got off light (good thing the computer was yet unbought), but damn that was annoying.

The coworker I had hoped to hook Kevin up with aged up and is now too old to bear children. Now I have to go find him a woman who is young and unmarried. Turns out she’s married anyway; Kevin met her daughter at the library and started chatting with her to see if she was romanceable only to find out that she’s yet a teenager.

I ended up adding one more room to the house. This should be plenty of rooms until Kevin has children, so I started trying to woo Zelda Mae. In spite of some traits I’d rather not deal with, her name is Zelda. Kevin gets his very own princess to kick off the family!

Kevin also aged up to adult male status. When he tried to blow out the candles on his cake, it caught on fire. He was able to keep it from spreading long enough for the fireman to get there, so I only lost the cake and the table.

I’m quite vexed about the fact that aging has taken away Kevin’s rice picker hat and I seem unable to get it back.

On the plus side, Zelda accepted Kevin’s marriage proposal. Between promotions and job income and all that jazz, the household’s cash on hand is over 10,000 simoleons. As soon as mama gets home, they’re tryin’ for baby. Her Lifetime Wish is to become a rock star, so I would like her to keep her job. Luckily for me, her schedule and Kevin’s work out (at the moment, at least) such that at least one of them is always home. Hooray!

Not really all that pretty, is she?

Name: Zelda (Mae) MacEpic

Favorite Food: Peanut butter & Jelly
Favorite Music: Indie
Favorite Color: Pink

Traits: Flirty, Party Animal, Childish, Easily Impressed, Green Thumb

Lifetime Wish: Rock Star

I fully intend to ignore her Party Animal trait; I dislike parties in The Sims even more than I do in real life. Green Thumb will come in handy, though — she can help Kevin keep the garden in order if he falls behind, though he needs the skillups for work. She can also satisfy her social needs by talking to plants, and while I expect to rarely take advantage of that… it’s certainly amusing.

For all the advancements I made this session… I’m still at 2 legacy points.

Having created my Sims 3 Legacy Challenge Scorecard, I’ve started a legacy of my own. The family name is MacEpic, and I’ve dubbed the founder, Kevin, the Jolly Green Hobo.

Howdy-ho!

Name: Kevin MacEpic

Favorite Food: Pancakes
Favorite Music: Kids’ Music
Favorite Color: Red

Traits: Bookworm, computer Whiz, Family-Oriented, Lucky, Good Sense of Humor

Lifetime Wish: The Tinkerer

I’m not sure why green and blue are skin color options in Sims 3, but I’m running with it. And by running with it, I mean that everyone born into the family without a bit of green in their skin tone is getting fed to the time stream. I may be dooming myself to an early end for my first run, but that’s okay — Kevin has a rice picker hat.

Having addressed the “jolly green” portion of the title, allow me to elaborate on his hobo-ness. The first thing I did after buying the lot was try to build Kevin a house. I say “try” because the label “house” is too grand for his shitty 3×3 shack. It has a light, a bed, a sink, and a toilet. No floor. No refrigerator. His table and chair are outside the shack. Pa-the-tic.

Kevin’s shitty shack. It doesn’t even have a floor. It does have a roof, though — those are free, and turn invisible as needed.

Almost instantly, Kevin wished to join the science career track. Rather than waiting for a newspaper (and wasting precious time — this dude needs some cashmoney), I trotted him right up to the science lab and got him a job as a lab rat.

His newest lifetime wishes at this point involved learning the basics of the logic skill, so I took him to a park to play chess with himself until bed time. Lucky for fridgeless Kevin, there was also free picnic food at the park. I was able to concentrate more on expanding his house and less on buying him a fridge by taking advantage of that on a regular basis.

He was extremely stinky by the time I got him a shower stall. I crammed it in between the bed and the toilet across from the door. His mood was negatively affected by the lack of paint and flooring, so I upgraded that.

Observant observers will note that the table and chair are still outside.

By the end of the session, Kevin’s house had two rooms. The main room had the kitchen, trash can, and bed; the second room was the bathroom. Both rooms had red walls and floors. The outside was painted brick. Kevin needs to improve his gardening abilities to advance in the science career, so I had him take a gardening class, out of which he came with seeds to plant a small garden outside near the table and chair. Kevin has received a promotion, and is getting ready to expand his house again, so that the living room won’t also be the bedroom.

Total points for the Legacy Challenge currently stand at 2. Since that’s the base amount, I’m not going to bother with a breakdown.