Decisions, Decisions

So after having a little sit down with myself, I decided that I do want to continue with the blog. However, I am no longer interested in HOW I was playing. I think I just got bogged down by keeping up with all these different stats and trying to actually run the neighborhood. So I have decided to just stop all that. I will no longer do rounds, since this is pretty story based at this point anyway, I plan to do chapters instead. The chapters will have sub-numbers (1.1, 1.2, etc) because if every household was a chapter, the numbers would tick away very quickly lol. I'll still play everyone's house and still do birthdays because I think it's important to know when they're aging, but that's pretty much it. School updates will only occur when I play the house of the person in charge of the school. And of course I'll still play the uni updates by semester. I think simplifying it all will help me not get in these long periods where I just don't want to turn on the game. I still plan to do Connor's time in Peragama (which is actually where we'll begin mainly) and Arwen's story of becoming Queen of Vasadori. I enjoyed playing the rounds and running the hood but I think it just became a little much for me to want to maintain between work and the other things I have going on in life. I want to get back to it being fun. And the story part of the sims, the ability to interpret what their interactions mean, has always been the most fun part for me. Also, the story will remain here. Because ALL the rest of the posts are here, it'll just be easier I suppose for any new people that run across the blog to see what's happened up to the point where they join. I'm excited to be inspired again :)

Getting Into Grad School

After seeing this post by Carla, I realized I needed to design better rules for attending uni, as I had none lol. I'm basically using Carla's system for the undergrads so you can click on the link above to read about that. I decided to take it a step further and create a system for my sims who seek to earn a degree above the undergraduate degree. You can click on the "Education in LaQuest" link to the right for more info on the master's program. Below are my shiny new requirements for grad school admittance:

Blasts from the Past

I've had a bunch of side stories sitting in my head for a while now and I've decided to incorporate them into this round. I suppose it will be much like the different chapters that Laura does at Lakeside Heights, although I don't plan for this to be a regular thing. I really just want to flesh out some of my characters a little. I guess that's kinda what she wants to do to :). Anyhow these are situations that couldn't possible just happen in game without my help so it's more of the story telling aspect of my blog. These stories won't affect everyone, but many character's lives are going to change. I'm calling this "Blasts from the Past" because in each situation, these characters will encounter important people from their pasts. I've already began one of the stories with Elvin and Lorelai. These won't be resolved in one round, but they won't drag on either :). So here are the Blasts from the Past:

Elvin de Muse & Lorelai Ellison - Elvin de Muse was once a prince of Vasadori, but his family was not of noble blood. A tragic civil war and nasty betrayal lead to his title of prince. Gurth Vasan, a very angry and very dark elf, wants to reclaim his birth rights and correct old wrongs. Lorelai is simply an innocent bystander that may become caught up in a battle hundreds of years in the making.

DeJuan Foster - DeJuan Foster fell in love with Charday Martin the very moment that he saw her. He knew that she was wild and not really the settling down type, but he couldn't help it. Once Taesha was born, DeJuan wanted to marry Charday and move out of Englewood with her and his daughter. Charday had other plans and had no intentions of living some boring, dull life in the suburbs. She left Englewood and LaQuest Beach and never looked back. DeJuan raised Taesha on his own and didn't date again until he met Donna Johnson. The two fell in love and married, combining their families. Now Charday is back, for reasons unknown.........

Terrence Coners - Terrence thought that marrying Allison Tavem was the greatest thing he could ever do. She was beautiful and sophisticated and made him want to do better. They had Kenny and everything was great. Until Allison decided that Terrence wasn't making enough money to keep her comfortable. So she left him and Kenny, sending divorce papers through the mail. Terrence was crushed and turned to his friend, Tabitha Gunner, for comfort. She helped him deal with his heartache and he helped her realize how beautiful she was, despite her size. Time went on and Terrence and Tabitha fell in love and had a set of twin girls together. Terrence has been featured in the LaQuest Beach Times quite a bit for his work on many of the new buildings in LaQuest Beach and somehow word has gotten back to Allison..........

*I'm actually creating an entire history for Vasadori. It's just for me, just something I've been wanting to do, but I may post it. I've mentioned Terrence and DeJuan's ex's before and I think it's time we met them. I don't have every detail planned out and my sims can still change the story through their actions. I'm interested to see what happens with Terrence's story. Tabitha has this new found confidence in herself and I think Allison may shake that up a bit. And Donna is a very calm woman, but I think she may give Charday a run for her money!

* I'll add a tag to all the entries concerning this stories in case someone wants to just read through them later. I've already created Gurth, Charday, and Allison in bodyshop. Charday and Allison are altered versions of Taesha and Kenny. I wanted there to be some family resemblance since they are suppose to be their mothers. I don't know if any of them will become regular characters at this point.

Rules and Regulations

LaQuest Beach will be run loosely based on the prosperity style although I won't be keeping points. Most of these ideas were taken from Lakeside Heights, Sullivan, and Simmington Hills, and Apple Valley so thanks to those guys for all their wonderful ideas! This was in progress before my game crashed so I took it and changed it around from my other blog.

Aging

So like most blogs I have seen, I'm organizing my aging behind Lakeside Heights, which is explained here. Basically everyone ages two years per round and I play each family for one season during those two years. I will switch up the seasons so that one family will not get stuck with the same season every round. I play the college for two years broken up into 4 different updates.

baby: 0-1

toddler: 1-4

Child: 5 -11

Teen: 12-17

YA: 18-21

Adult: 22-60

Elder: 60+

I have the postponed silver years hack installed which means that my adult stage lasts for 42 days instead of 28 and my elders don't live as long. My rounds begin in Fall and ends in Summer 2 years later.

Taxes and Fees

Taxes are paid at the beginning of each round. I only take a property tax because as of right now, I don't have the patience to calculate individual income taxes! Each household pays 15% of the value of their property, belongings, and bank accounts. I get this amount from the neighborhood screen. Married couples get a credit of $1500 and everyone one gets $1000 per dependent. Dependents include children, college students, and any adult that may be living with the sim who they take care of (i.e. elderly parent or grandparent). The total amount collected is then tripled to account for all the townies, downtownies, and NPCs that also use city facilities. Out of this city budget comes money for new city buildings and facilities, events, parks, etc. Fees charged by LaQuest Beach include but are not limited to:

Marriage

Marriage license: $500 (required for all marriages/unions)

Home Ceremony: Free

Additional Venues

City Hall (Marriage only): $500
Camden Park Community Church: $1000

Parable's Community Church: $1500

Paradise Island: $2000

Divorces are $1000 ($500 per party) and divorce proceedings will include custody and dissolvement of marital assets.

Funerals are $500 for a basic burial and $1000 for a memorial service.

Adoption

Baby: $5000

Todder: $2500

Child: $1500

Fertility Treaments: $2500; for women over 40 who have tried at least twice.

Budget

Money received from taxes is used to fund different projects and organizations in LaQuest Beach. The mayor is paid a $5000 stipend every tax collection. Other salaries include:

Tax Revenue Specialist: $3000
Teachers: $3000
Principals: $4000
Architect: $3000 per building completed
Hospital Director: $5000

Once salaries have been paid, the rest of the hood balance is divided up as follows:

30% Schools & Universities (split 3 ways)
25% Healthcare
45% Hood Improvement

I couldn't figure out a way to have the teachers actually in the education career and still be able to have them teaching at my playable schools so this way they still get paid! The education career works during actual school hours which makes it hard to send my sim down to the playable school. I have the community time hack in so when they are gone, time still passes at home. So if my teacher leaves my playable school at 3, when they get home it will be 3 and they will have missed work for the day. I wish I could figure out how to make it work out because then they could get the salary from working the teaching position and this money from the budget could be like a yearly bonus :)

Custom Content

Geez where to begin?! Once I got my new laptop, I became a downloading loon! I have so many things from so many different places that I can't name them all! But I'll give a few of my favorite ones:
Hacks
ACR- I'm using version 2
Inteenminator
Community Time Project
Sim Blender
Visitor Controller
Monique's Computer
Postponed Silver Years
Monique's Child Support
College Adjuster

Paladin's Palace
Season Adjuster
Hack Conflict utility

I download my CC from a variety of places which makes it hard to pinpoint where some things come from! But here are some of the sites I frequent regularly, much to my computer's disgust lol:

WCIF - if you've never been here, make sure you check out their weekly themes, lots of great stuff!
Modthesims - A whole lot of everything
All About Style - Best maternity and Elder clothes around!
Sims Urbania - Lots of urban lots and clothing
Simply Styling - Nice object sets
Liana Sims - Beautiful female clothing

Defaults
Skin: Ephemera
Eyes: Shady
Pollination Techs: Brilliant Cat

There is LOTS more but I think this gives a good idea of where most of my stuff comes from. As always, let me know of any specific things you're interested in and I'll see if I can find it!

Keeping Up With My Simmies!

I've seen other people's posts on how they keep up with all that is going on in their hoods. The flashnote programs sounds very useful, but I really wouldn't take the time out to type all of my info in it. I'm on a computer typing things all day for work and class and it makes home feel like work if I do it there lol. I do most of my posting at work as it is! So I've created a few forms that I use to keep up with everything. I made copies and just write in what I need as I'm playing. To give you an idea of how much of a nerd I am, I actually have a 3 ring notebook divided into sections that I keep all of this information in. Dorky, yes I know! So here are my forms:

Sim Profile

Every one of my playables has their own profile sheet. I have all of their inportant info on this one sheet and they only have one for their entire life. I keep up with their ages by just marking off their two years every round in the age box in the bottom right corner. I even keep up with what level they are in at their jobs for blogging purposes. All of their college info goes on here as well (GPAs per semester, any honors they achieve, etc.).

Major Events

I'm not going to post my round sheet because it's pretty basic. Of course when I arrange my rounds, I put birthdays and marriages on the calendar. This sheet just gives me a look at all the specific events that take place every year. The year is listed at the top, followed by the season it happened in and what the event was. In the blank box I give a description. On my round log I would just say "Coner Twins Birthday". On the events sheet I would have their names and what age they turned. So as I play more and more rounds, I can look back and see what events took place in any given year.

Hood Fees

I haven't been very good about keep up with this, but starting next round I'm going to pay more attention to the fees and taxes charged in my hood. This just allows me to take a quick look at how much of the city budget comes from fees each year. I've decided that Christian Brown (the mayor) will open up a bank account for the town. I know that most people have the town's budget in the mayor's family funds and the mayor's personal money in a bank account, but that seems too complicated to me when they need to buy something or want to spend some of their own money. I haven't decided how to account for the interest it will accrue each day yet.

Hood Budget

Again, something I haven't used yet. This is of course how I will keep up with the city budget. I plan to just multiply the tax collected from playables by 3 to account for the townie population. I may change how I address the townie issue later, but for now that works for me. I'll total the fees up from my fee sheet and add them in with the tax collected. I also have another sheet dedicated to projects. These include building new buildings or renovating old ones. Their costs will be subtracted from the city budget.

School Roster

I'm in the process of recruiting (creating) sims to serve as teachers so that I can have working schools. Once I get them up and running, I will use this sheet to keep up with them.

It seems like a lot, and it is! I have the residents in my notebooks tabbed off alphabetically, so it's easy to find the family I'm playing with and adjust their ages or career position or whatever that may change during their turn. This is easier for me than typing it all up. I just scribble it down of these sheets as I lay on my butt with my laptop and play!

SimSational Quarterly

I realized after reading a comment from Apple Valley that I have just completely disregarded my little newsletter! I'm still very interested in doing issues of it as I think it's a fun way for bloggers to come together and create something great! So I have an idea for a new issue: What if everyone picked a few of their favorite, maybe misunderstood sims and created a poll on their blog that allowed readers to decide who they would love to hear more about. After the poll is closed and the winner is chosen, we could each do an interview with said sim. I don't know if it would be better to have everyone answer the same questions or allow sims to answer questions that would be more specific to them. In addition, each sim could have their own little photoshoot in a place of their chosing and the pics could be included also. So this would be like a two or three page spread for each sim with the interview taking up one or two pages and the pics taking up another. It could be called Infamous Sims: The Real Deal, or something equally cheesy lol. This is all a really rough idea and I'm completely open to any suggestions, even to a completely different idea :). I figure the planning, poll, and creation of pages would take up enough time that by the time we all have our pages, I'll be in a place where I can create the newsletter and get it out in a timely fashion :). So please think about what you would like to see and let me know. We'll also need more ads for filling so if you have a business or event you want spotlighted from your hood, then please feel free to also create some ads. It would be something like this interview I did on AJ Taylor in this issue:

Open publication - Free publishing - More sims 2

So let me know what you think about it and any ideas you might have :).......and thanks Apple Valley for reminding me about it!!

Education in LaQuest Beach

* Rules & Regulations page has also been updated

Here are my notes on how education effects the residents of LaQuest, more will be added as the hood progresses and changes:

Elementary, Junior High, and High School

LaQuest Beach Elementary and LaQuest Beach Preparatory School will be public schools and are therefore free. Qualifications for graduation include achieving 7 skill points, C or above average, 3 hobby points, and completion of a senior project (borrowed from Pine Hollow):