This is what happens when you either have too much freetime, or when it’s been pouring down rain almost every day this week…
I recently started playing The Sims 4 because the base game is free. I’d already been playing The Sims Freeplay for a while, so I wanted to see what the actual game was about.
It was a bit of a learning curve and the two games are pretty different, even their objectives are vastly differing. But I think I’ve gotten the hang of basic gameplay and a few more complex mechanics such as activating money cheats and debug…
The reason why I’m mentioning all this is because my imagination has been running wild creating Sims and weird scenarios to put them in.
Other times, I’m working around curveballs the game throws at me.
I’m going to start by telling you a little about a family I created in the game and their crazy story.
It gets a little confusing, so stay with me.
Let me tell you a little about the Wilson family.
I first created Riley Wilson, a young adult who is creative, and a little bit of a snob, but friendly.
Next, I gave her a sister named Chloe who was the same age, but for some reason aged up to an adult before Riley (don’t ask me why. I have no idea.)
Chloe is a little more artsy and less of a snob. But I had them living together in a modified modern house. (Essentially, I filled it with creative skill activities, and entertaining stuff, and made it more colorful. It fit their personalities better that way.)
If you’re wondering why I picked these names, it was because they are names used in the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie, Winning London which is my favorite. (I decided it would be funny.)
I eventually decided that Chloe seemed like the type to have a bunch of kids, so I added teenage twins, Sarah and Julie (those names are also from a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie- To Grandmother’s House We Go in case you were curious…)
I immediately moved them into a house with some random people. (The Twins) Well, in that house was a guy I got off the Gallery whose name was (for some reason) Edgar Allan Poe even though he looked nothing like Poe and had really none of his traits… I renamed the guy Darien Poe for a lark. Chloe visited her daughters and met him. They were being friendly with each other, and with very little effort on my part, they began flirting. It didn’t take long for them to woohoo and try for a baby. It worked.
So, I decided that Riley should have a husband and get pregnant too. So I created her a husband and added him to the household. His name is Anthony Young. So, I had them be married, and I hyphenated Riley’s last name to Wilson-Young because that sounded like something she would do.
So, she also got pregnant.
And soon, Chloe had her children… twins. Lainey and Lance (I wanted their names to start with the same letter…)
I then decided that the house I had them living in wasn’t a kid-friendly home, so I moved them into a different house. I moved Darien in with them so he could be near his kids and help out so it didn’t fall all on Chloe…
Riley had her baby, Lynn.
Meanwhile, I moved Sarah and Julie into the house their mom and aunt just left.
And for drama, I created two teenage boys and had them added to the household… just to see what happens.
Well, I was trying to get Darien and Chloe to get married, and then, for some reason, Chloe died laughing. It was quick too. I did not do this. The game did this. I realized later that I hadn’t turned off the Neighborhood Stories “Die in Accidents” for this family. I usually do this for families I like. Originally, this save was going to be about seeing how easily Sims can die… so… apparently, I have my answer.
This put me in a pickle. Especially because I wasn’t in Chloe’s household at the time. I was at Sarah and Julie’s house. I found out she died because the game popped up with a notification that Chloe died.
She’d literally JUST left Sarah and Julie’s house… so it was super random.
This also ruined some of my plans. So, the only thing I could do to sort of make it better for my storyline I was playing out was to go to my library on the gallery where I’d just uploaded the Wilson-Young-Poe household. I made a household for them and I deleted all of them except Chloe and her twins (because it wouldn’t let me delete them or rename them.) So now I have a dead Chloe, and two sets of her baby twins… Not ideal… but I decided to roll with it.
I didn’t want Chloe to have to take care of the twins all by herself, so I moved Darien from the Wilson-Young residence and had him romance Chloe #2. I then created them a bunch of other kids. A little girl (a kid) named Laura I believe is the youngest. Then I made a teenager named Kelly, and another teenage girl I can’t remember the name of. (It could be Lila) And then there’s a random teenage boy who I also can’t remember the name of.
So, to do some counting, in this household, there’s Chloe #2, Darien, some random teenage boy, the baby twins, 2 teenage girls, and a little girl. So, that’s a full 8 person household.
If you don’t know why I made that distinction, it’s because that’s the maximum amount of people in a household in the Sims (at least if you aren’t modding your game… which alas, I don’t know how to do…)
I am a noob after all.
If you’re wondering why I made there be a random teenage boy who isn’t related amongst the family, I put him there for the purpose of making him perhaps become a romantic partner of one of the teenage girls… IDK, we’ll see.
It’s the same reason why I created guys for Sarah and Julie’s house.
Alright, so now we get weird.
Yeah, I know that it was already weird, but we’re getting extra strange.
I could only have so many Sims in a household, which caused me some annoyance, so I decided that I would find an earlier save of Riley (from before I even created Chloe the first time) and plop her down in another lot, slightly change her outfit and see what happens from there. Initially, my plan was to delete Riley #2… But since I wanted there to be another young child in the household, it wouldn’t let me delete her. So now, there are two Riley’s. One is married and raising her dead sister’s twins along with her kids, and the other is apparently single with a few kids.
Riley #2 has Landon, Leigh, and I’m blanking on the other teenage girl’s name… it starts with an L though because I am weird.
And then there’s a little boy called Luke. So there’s still some room in this house for some more family… for instance, a husband for Riley #2, or a smaller child… Or a boyfriend or girlfriend of one of the older children.
In Riley #1’s house, she has Luna, and another older girl, with an L name I believe… and the little girl, that I’ve forgotten her name already…
The baby is Lynn, I remember that. And the other two babies were Chloe’s (Chloe #1) Lance and Lainey.
So far it looks like the only child without an L name is Kelly, which has two L’s in it… And from the little that I’ve played with her, I think it’s strangely apropos that she’s the only sibling without an L for their first initial… She’s constantly jealous of her baby siblings because they get all the attention.
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Chloe is trying to connect with Kelly, but she’s dealing with twin newborns, so she’s not able to always drop everything and spend time with her.
The weird thing with these families is that their dynamics are SO different.
Let’s start with our OG Riley…
The thing with this version of Riley is that she is an older, wiser Riley. She is still a young adult but she’s older than the version I dropped down later in the town. Riley #2 is from an earlier save.
So, she doesn’t have the same level of skill at certain things, and she didn’t even KNOW Chloe #1 because I hadn’t created Chloe yet.
Riley #1’s family SHOULD be the craziest because she has twin newborns that aren’t her children… but the children of her dead sister. And then she has her own newborn baby. And a child, and two teenage girls.
So the thing I noticed is that Luna and her sister pull their weight with baby care, and I would say they do more than their fair share. I don’t say this to imply that Riley isn’t caring for the babies because she is. And so is her husband, Anthony. But you know how it is in the Sims as well as real life… sometimes your needs are getting low and Riley AND Anthony are completely exhausted, so much that they can barely finish a task without having an energy failure and passing out on the floor.
And of course, since Luna and her sister are teens, and the other younger sister is a child, they have to go to school. So they aren’t there during the morning and early afternoon… so the childcare is all on Riley and Anthony.
But when the older girls get home, they’re changing diapers and giving bottles, and cuddling them. And the little girl is entertaining them… This is NOT really the case with Chloe #2’s family. Darien works during the day and the kids all go to school. So Chloe #2 is on deck for hours by herself, so she’s so tired she can barely function and when Darien comes home, it’s like right around the time the kids come home. So the kids are doing their homework, cooking, entertaining themselves, and talking together, but they barely interact with their parents or the twins.
I’m not saying they completely ignore each other or that there’s any abuse or hard feelings due to actual neglect… but there’s something chaotic about this household, I don’t know what it is.
Kelly is definitely more emotionally/ socially needy than the other older girl or Laura the little girl.
So then there’s Riley #2.
Her family is slightly smaller and she doesn’t have babies or toddlers.
Her youngest is a child and the others are teenagers. Riley #2 obviously loves her kids, but she kinda lets them do their own thing, and only interferes if she needs to. Part of the issue I was having with her family was that the game/ my computer were lagging, so it took FOREVER to get them to do anything, and for some reason, it would decide that even though I told Landon to use the aqua colored bathroom, he’d use the one in the basement instead, and pass out on the way there…
And for some reason these kids NEVER want to go to school.
I send them to school. I push the button, and they take their sweet time, even if their needs are ok. It’s so weird.
And they’re smart kids, I try to always have their homework done, but IDK, they just despise school… which, like… same.
I feel bad for Leigh, for some reason, she always seems to be the one who gets crapped on by the lag.
I get the feeling Riley #2 is a little hands-off because she’s in over her head. Possibly, she fell in love at a young age and had her teens, and later on, her son, and then the guy left or died or something… IDK,
Now, I say she’s a bit hands-off, but i’m not saying she’s neglecting her kids, or being mean, or ignoring their needs. She IS loving and kind towards them, and I think she’s trying… but part of it might be that her kids are too close to her age. She probably doesn’t know where the line is.
Riley #1 is older and wiser, and she has a husband who is alive and helps her. Sure, she’s raising two extra kids, but she had just had her own baby so she was in baby mode. And her teens really help out.
I’m not sure why they are so helpful, but I’m sure Riley appreciates it.
An interesting thing is that either Luna or the other one invited Leigh over, so it’s almost like it’s her sister from another universe. It doesn’t seem like Leigh recognizes Riley #1 as being a clone of her mother. It’s like she’s a completely different person… which she kind of is.
Chloe’s older daughters (Chloe #1- the one that died) Sarah and Julie- they (I believe) have interacted with Riley #2’s family, but it doesn’t seem they know she’s a clone of their aunt. And I don’t think they recognize Chloe #2 as their mother… because their mother “died”… I just found a save of her and plopped her back in Sim Town… So, we’ll see.
I have some other experiments left to run.
Have a good day!
Cindy Says: Let's Brainstorm 