0.0 In The Beginning...

In the beginning, there was swirling Chaos...

Days later, while trying to create a blog for the first time ...There was still swirling Chaos!
Maybe less swirly than the days before, but still swirly nonetheless!


This blog is about my Sims 3 Random Legacy Challenge. Rules and information are here on ModTheSims http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=480205  

BE WARNED! I ramble, I waffle, I mumble, I wobble, and I am easily distracted, just like a kid in a candy store! I sometimes use swearwords too! Probably a lot less in type than talk, but I have warned you. I use adult rated skins in game, some of my sim clothes are NSFW, I will attempt to keep all pics PG-13 or whatever, but if I slip up, I've warned you in advance, and my conscience is (mostly) clean. I'm certain this blog will contain bulk grammar and spelling errors, deal with it, my O.C.D. tendencies will fix them as fast as I find them, if my A.D.D. tendencies don't interrupt. I'm also certain that I am capable of random moments of comedy. But Hey!, you be the judge.

All posts marked 0.something are preamble to the story of the challenge itself, mostly in relation to setting up this, my first blog, and the preparations I am making to undergo the challenge. It does however contain 'some' backstory. I don't consider myself much of a writer, as I dodge and weave from first person to third, like a drunkard at closing time, but I'll do my best to keep it entertaining, and to fix errors in my first chapter as I discover them, even if I am writing the last chapter.
I also have a very bad habit of typing incomplete sentences, that I rarely spot when proofreading.
As such I edit old posts constantly.  

I am also guilty of text walling. Because it easier for me to type, than get the game to cooperate most days, and because I can type for a much longer time, than get my potato craptop to run a game, I tend to get text heavy, with lower quality images. If you decide this is not for you, I'll understand. If you do like a challenge, and attempt to fight your way through, tell me what you think in the comments. Constructive criticism, questions, and your theories are all welcome. I don't have or want the 'super popular' trait, but it is nice to know that readers are getting some enjoyment from all this effort.

Other than the base game, I have the Pets and Supernatural expansions. While my Google-Fu hasn't been able to find the actual weight of Megabytes in Grams, I'm fairly convinced I have at least my own body weight in downloaded Custom Content as well...
(Update. By the time I got to Chapter 6.10 (around the 210th post) I have all expansions and stuff packs)

All of the expansion packs for Sims 3 have been examined and rules and guidelines have been drawn, and redrawn, modified, inspected, and tapped repeatedly with a small hammer in an attempt to keep a balance. So after reading the rules again I use the roller from the above link and I rolled the following for my Founder and 1st Generation, ...

• Couple
• 1 Child
• Rockstar
• Collector
• Expansionist
• Its So You

( I will only be announcing the rolls in advance this once, I have discovered many regular readers of other legacies enjoy deducing rolls and traits from the story.)

Instead of picking supernatural types automatically, like I would for a normal play through, I have decided to rely on a random number generator to determine if the founding pair where going to be Human or Supernatural with a 80% chance weighted in favor of normality.("We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem." - Douglas Adams)

The first role was in the 50's indicating the Legacy Founder was Human, while the second role was much higher, allowing for a Supernatural. Again putting the fate of my legacy in the hands of a RNG, I decided with 5 Supernatural playable types, and 20% chance each, I assigned each a number range in a notepad, pressed the 'ROLL' button, (which in real terms, in reference to a RNG translates as 'Ermergerd, be merciful!'). And the founding legacy's partner is a Fairy... Because I rolled Collector I decided to take a pet, cats bring home minor animals and bugs, dogs bring home collectible statue pieces and gems. As a Collector, that sim can sell those for profit, as per the rules. I chose a Dog.

So far, so good, as they say. Generation 1 didn't sound too difficult to me, I'd played Rockstars on several occasions, my only concern was time management, I am used to epic lifespans, and have a habit of leaving the cheat 'Make Needs Static' on for simdays at a time... Also almost all of my Vampires take the LTW of immortal which halts all aging, and vamp sunburns :O
(It also makes your vampires sparkle... sound familiar? No more twilight comments from me until the challenge is over.)


A total lifespan of between 90 and 120 sim days is recommended. So I set mine to 150 for my first Legacy attempt. I'm just hoping my ultra-potato-craptop can handle a 10 generation game. I've played Sims 3 on and off since its release and don't recall ever playing a game longer than 3 generations, even when I had one of those PCs that geeks refer to as 'The Beast'.

I will be using a world 'Elba Village', that I have downloaded from http://www.mysimrealty.com/
that I hadn't played yet, so I spent a day adding lots for Supernatural and Pets, although, due to technical difficulties, (Curse you, ultra-potato-craptop!) I wasn't able to fit in an equestrian center, Which means if any of my future generations roll Equestrian, I will have to reroll or relocate to a world that has a functioning one.

After some draining mental combat with lot placement, I decide to put some sims from my previous saves into this world to dilute the pudding face gene pool, at this point I notice that the world is unpopulated. Erm, I've spent hours now trying to bend 'Edit World' to my will, and only just noticed...

So I look into ways to populate worlds, all roads lead to http://www.nraas.net
and I've just grabbed 'MasterController', and 'StoryProgression' as well as 'Relativity', as these where all recommended mods for the challenge.

 I already had Overwatch, Errortrap, Shooless, Woohooer, and Kamasimtra. at this time I have disabled Kamasimtra, as I only use it for specific saves...( Don't ask, Won't Tell :P ) 

 I have now added the mods I need, removed the one I don't, so onto the next step. I reload sims 3, and cheat some to continue the setup, first testingcheats, then free real estate so I can start dropping some of my previously created sims into the game, then finally the house that I intend to start my legacy in.

Quick tale for those who are still reading my waffles, I had this awesome 3 story house with a basement and adjoining indoor pool with windows. My A.D.D. and my O.C.D. joined forces and convinced me I needed to cut it down into a 20x20 lot, under §20K, keeping the pool with windows, leaving it easily expandable and having room for at least one car, No Ep or CC stuff. I lost a day reading the MTS lot upload guidelines, chopping a copy of my house down to 1 floor, and making it meet my demands.

Having lost a day to this distraction, I package and upload, then grab some sleep. I wake up to find my offering to the sims gods has been rejected, and I feel slightly deflated, but continue to read the review checklist. When I'd uploaded, I thought I'd send a half wall of text with it, what I got back was four walls, solid foundations, a roof, stairs and a new kitchen sink. In my haste to meet MY goals (especially budget), Id left out just about everything required for a half descent residential lot (including lights :P)

I spent an hour or so very carefully drafting a reply to the reviewer thanking him or her for the great attention to detail in the review, (both in what I did right and wrong insufficiently.) I then tripled checked spelling and coherency. Quite happy that MTS reviews all uploads this way instead if accepting any crap I hit send. At that moment I realize the last thing at the bottom of the review says, This is a system generated PM, therefore replies will not be read. Doh!  

So any way ... The whole point of the last three extremely bloated paragraphs is I am going to use a slightly modified version of my failed upload horror to start my sims Legacy...

A picture of the layout in the next post...