Crown of Antlers

As time passes in the recently started Appaloosa Plains game it ones again strikes me that this world seems much more stable than Moonlight Falls. The game saves and loads much faster and there is little to no lag. And we're talking about two worlds that have about the same level of customization going on. I do NOT compare this game to my Dragon Valley TES world. That world is VERY customized with the town being rearranged and with all of the vanilla households removed and replaced entirely with Elder Scrolls characters. It's a given that that world will save and load slowly. It's to be expected and can't really be avoided.

But back to what's going on in AP with Gloria living in her late grandfather's trailer on the lot she inherited. While she lives her peaceful, solitary life some changes have happened in the other custom households. Before i get into that, here is a screenshot of Gloria's horse and mini-donkey grazing together.
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It's nice when an experiment turns out the way you hope it will. I used the shell of the Elm 26` Trailer and decorated the interior to be close to the 'Trailerable' tiny-home cabin. Since I knew I would want to use it in other worlds and with other characters if it turned out well, I worked on it in a new game, saved it to the library, then did an "Evict/Bulldoze Lot/Put in New Trailer/Move Household Back In.

Incidentally, it's so nice to not have to start a new game when you decide to change mods. And another nice thing about the Sims is that you know whether or not your characters approve of something. Gloria did a lot of cheering and had a happy face in her thought bubble as she explored the new trailer.

Now for the screens.( Read more... )

The current group of wild horses in Appaloosa plains consists of three foals and one mare (and she is not the mother of any of them). While in town I saw the three foals chasing each other back and forth between the buildings and around the pool.
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After trying different tent options I ended up going back to having Gloria live in a shed. There wasn't much choice. Not only did the tent pieces not protect her from rain, but she came very close to getting sunburned due to constantly being out in the sun. Since the game considers that tent pieces furniture it didn't acknowledge any shade that the tent provided.

To make the building look like a temporary structure that is intended to eventually be taken down, I went with a very basic wall covering, went into Create a Style, then chose a pattern from the Woven and Wicker category. Woven patterns were applied to the walls, the window frames, the floor, and the door. The result is a semi hard-sided tent.
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The household (renamed to Winters for this play-through) has been in Appaloosa Plains for three nights, and each night Faith has come into the tent to sleep with the rest of the family. The amusing thing is, in the last game she rarely wanted to sleep in her stall, preferring to nap in the paddock. But here, she has a whole nearly empty lot to stretch out in and she wants to sleep in the tent.
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Something that popped up in my Appaloosa Plains game has me a bit pissed off and now having to make a choice on how to set up a do-over game. At some point when I wasn't paying attention, likely when Gloria and her horse were at the equestrian center, the game "married" Gloria's cat to Mozart Miller, the tuxedo cat who lives down the road. Apparently they have been mating.

Nothing against Mozart, but I did NOT want Sim-Noelle to be mating with anyone and eventually producing kittens. I played her like the spayed cat that she is in real life. Lesson learned; for pets you don't want to breed, one must go into NRaas - Story Progression - Sim and set Allow Romance to False just as you would do with a human/elf sim that you don't want to get into a romantic relationship for whatever reason.

Apparently this "cat marriage" took place a while ago because I could not find a save where the cats were not mated. I suppose this is supposed to be considered cute, but I was not amused and was so annoyed that I deleted all of my saves for that game. And I'm not regretting that.

Now to set up a new start which will include adjusting settings to spay/neuter the dog and cat. The difficult choice now is what to do about Gloria's house. I saved a copy of her finished blue house to the library and can place it in the lot at the start of the new game, but this means that I no longer am playing a game where she is building the lot up from nothing. So while the big job would be over, it just won't feel the same anymore.

I'll think it over while moving my Elder Scrolls game along toward the autumn season. No doubt some may think I'm overreacting, but it annoyed me that this happened and that I could not find any cheats anywhere to undo it. So...Gloria's game is over. Now I need to figure out how I want to handle the do-over.

Gloria scrimped, she saved, she worked very hard tending her crops and competing in equestrian competitions. At last she had enough simoleons saved to build a house. She no longer has to live inside a garden shed.

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I've decided I'm going to stick to my rule about switching between worlds after each game week. As Gloria experienced a series of successes that brought her savings up to $40,000 (and she has not touched that money tree in her garden), I realized it was becoming too tempting to start doing a "speed build" with the lot and starting on the house and the big barn before Gloria is really ready for that undertaking. So I played through Sunday/Day One of Week Three then decided to return to New Ascadia.

As for where I am leaving Appaloosa Plains for now:

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I've reached the end of Week Two already in Appaloosa Plains. The reason it went by so fast is because in the middle of Week One Gloria was given a large art job from the town council; to create fifteen paintings that were to be hung in the halls and offices of City Hall. So her days have consisted of: wake up/shower/have breakfast, tend to her animals, tend to her garden, paint paint and paint, go to the Equestrian Center with her horse to compete in show jumping, then go home and get back to painting. So with nothing else going on I allowed the time flow to go a bit faster than I normally do.

The art job seemed tedious but when she delivered the paintings in the middle of Week Two, she was paid enough money to bring her savings up from $5000 to $30,000. A really nice jump in her savings.

It's not likely she'll get another large sum of money anytime soon, but she's been able to earn a decent income by selling her crops and winning jumping tournaments. To make selling her crops more interesting I placed the Vetinari's Bistro, Grocery & Nectar Shop in the empty lot that right beside hers. I really love this mod and have in my New Ascadia game as well. Along with selling groceries, prepared meals and bottles of nectar, it's possible to buy the nectar making machine here rather than having to take a three day trip to France for it.

Here is it next door to Gloria's lot.
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Perhaps some time in the future I might have Gloria invest in this business. The mod creator has it set a simply a "Visitors Allowed" lot, but I noticed no one ever came to buy anything or eat there, so I changed it to "Cafeteria" and now the place is hopping with business.

Of course just today I found this one which is made with the Dragon Valley world in mind: Vignoble Nectary: A petite Nectary for Dragon Valley

And here are the two ladies who are working so hard to pull themselves up from practically nothing and build a nice independent life for themselves in Appaloosa Plains. I love the western style dress Gloria is wearing. It's not exactly practical but it looks good. Now if only someone would make a mod that adds a nice looking cowboy/cowgirl hat with long wavy hair. It amazes me that I haven't been able to find such a mod anywhere.
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Incidentally, the across the road eye-candy neighbor seems to have settled down some and during Week Two he has not missed or been late to work. He and Gloria have become best friends and usually interact with each other on a daily basis but she's still valuing her solitude too much to allow anyone into her life on a more personal level.

Before the current game-day ends I need to decide if I want to keep playing and go through Week Three in Appaloosa Plains or go back to New Ascadia. Originally I had thought to alternate game-week to game-week between the worlds, but since AP's Week Two went by so fast I'm considering lingering in there an additional week before going back to see how life unfolds in NA with the Elder Scrolls gang.

It's Week Two in Appaloosa Plains, the world of my single human Sim Gloria. As mentioned before, she was nearly broke when she moved in at the start of Week One, but she and her horse trained hard and have been winning Show Jumping competitions which award between $500 to $1000 (depending on the level). Gloria has also earned money by selling the produce from her garden, selling her artwork, and doing freelance jobs repairing other peoples' plumbing, computers, and television sets.

By Tuesday of Week Two she had over $5000 saved, so she took a deep breath and began upgrading her lot to Phase Two. Luckily she had maxed the Handiness Skill which gave her a nice discount on Build Mode items.

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