It's time for a change

I was inspired by Isle of Thyme months ago. I love the idea of a little hood where looking out of the window of one shop gives you a lovely view of a neighboring shop or just down the street. I want my sims to feel connected to each other, and most of all I want a little world where I can escape to in the winter! Because it is getting cold now and there's not much to do outside.

So I got Sim City 4 and made my own terrain. I wanted it to have a water fall and more beach lots. The terrain is loosely based off my home here in Central CA.


(We're not that green, though.)



So I've been working on putting down shops, homes, apartments, decorations. I'm the city planner until I move some sims in there and they start taking over.


I have made a clean hood with no characters. The thing is that NPCs are an important part of my game. They are a sub group of sim, and they bring in fresh genetics. I need them. So I will be generating NPCs for this hood. Especially those AL NPCs.

But to make them fresh and new because we're in a new hood, I've downloaded HystericalParoxysm's Name replacement file. And I picked up Spookymuffin's default face templates to bring in new faces and genetics.



Thanks to AL, lots now have value based off of more than what they are worth. What is around them is also important. So I've made areas of high priced apartments and condos, another area of high priced homes, another area for cheaper houses, and another area for really cheap apartments that include a flop house.

For "the calender," what I'm going to do will be very basic. Jade had a system worked out that I found complicated. It seemed she enjoyed playing the same sims for a long time. But I enjoy the Maxis way of aging, and want my sims to grow up and grow old and have babies.

But I also want to play sims longer especially since rent is due on Monday. So I thought I would play in what I'll call "Phases." (Originally I called it "Periods," but that made me think of Aunt Flo and Jane Austen.) A phase should last for seven days. One season will be selected per phase.

College students go to school for one phase. This is so that my college sims don't get too far ahead of the other sims. (I had been seeing headlines for the local magazine, "Studies show that those who go to University live longer!")

But, if I have to, I wouldn't feel opposed to turning off aging and playing around a bit. This is my world, right?


This new land is called Tierra de Legado, because everyone leaves behind some sort of Legacy really.