shenanigans in the valley

Just some initial thoughts and discussion, now that I've had the game about a week.

The first thing I've done with this game was to get all my default replacements in order and try to get some of my Sims recreated. I had an easier time with some of them than others.

You guys can guess who these Sims are, right!?! ;)

April came to me SO easy, while on the other hand, Summer was SO hard to get just right, lol!

Tyler on the left, Beau on the right.

Tyler likes to tease Beau for being scrawnier than he is, lol!

Shenanigans in the bathroom, people! That's how I know they're my Sims, lol!

This was a strange and really neat gameplay detail - Beau has the "good" trait, and when I had him do "brighten day" on Summer, and I'm guessing because April is friends with both of them, she liked that? I don't know, and she looked over at him with so much admiration and was like "Oh, isn't he awesome!?!"

I'm playing around with gameplay between multiple households right now - I just have them split between these crappy little premade homes in Sunset Valley. Summer and April on the left, Beau and Tyler on the right, and across the street, I have Lucy and Dallas.

And I don't know what shenanigans Beau and Tyler got up to, but a cop car showed up, lol!

I'm trying to get the hang of letting these Simmies go when I'm not controlling them, doing whatever nonsense they want to do. I'm using Twallan's Story Progression mod, so I have my playable households set up pretty strictly with what they're allowed and not allowed to do when I'm not looking - no major relationship stuff, no job stuff - though my non-playables are still free to do whatever they please.

I guess I'll probably pick up an aging mod at some point, but I'm not too concerned about that until I start my real hood. At the moment, I'm playing these guys all on Epic.

And for all I worried about the whole One Household setup, with the Master Controller, it's actually not hard at all to switch between households. In fact, it's SUPER EASY!!! I find myself switching between households even more than I used to in TS2. If I have all of my Sims at work, or sleeping, I'll just pop over to another house and see what they're doing. I'll change houses four or five times in a day!

I hope I'm not going to blow up my game, lol!

I am just IN LOVE with the open neighborhood. (Okay, I kind of knew I would be.) I can't wait to build Lakeside Heights. (And no, I still haven't tried out CAW yet, but I'll make it work however I have to, even if I have to bang my head against it for months.)

I didn't put April in this getup for sleepwear, but I love that she ended up in it anyway - this is exactly the kind of thing April would wear to bed, lol!

I am also IN LOVE with the clothes so far, and the color wheel!

I don't get the whole celebrity thing, at all. And neither does April, lol! She figured she'd invite herself in and make these guys some salad. I guess the redhead is supposed to be a one-star celebrity or something, and the only interactions she had was to "impress him". Whatever, so she just talked to the other dude instead...

Until it got too late, and he kicked her out.

April says, "Lamest. Celebrities. Ever!!!"

And finally, Lucy and Dallas! :D

They were the last pair of Sims I made, so I don't have much picspam of them yet. Dallas works in the Science career, and Lucy works at the school as a playground monitor. I started them off as engaged, and they behave a lot like they do in TS2, standing around being sweet with each other, lol!

I can't remember the traits I gave everyone, but I'll write them all down next time I'm in the game.

I know I gave Lucy the "tidy" trait (or is it "neat"?), and she likes to clean their house in her underwear. And then I noticed as they were laying in bed that night, Dallas had the option to thank her for cleaning, lol! How odd, and hilarious.

So as far as gameplay goes, I'm quite amused by it so far.

The following is just some picspam I took as I'm trying to learn how to take pictures with this game. It's probably going to be a while before I can do anything impressive or inventive like I can with TS2, but you know, practice makes perfect or something? :D

I just cannot stop with the sky pictures. Cannot stop! I'm telling you, it's an addiction!

Especially since I discovered the cloudy sky!!! :o I don't know if that's something I downloaded or what, but I didn't know there was a cloudy/stormy sky, but then I found it (after I fixed up all these pictures to post, I'll post them up next time), and how the water changed colors with the sky, and how the lighthouse light was hidden by the fog! OMG, I took about a thousand pictures of it, lol!

And finally...

You don't know this girl. She's just a random Sim I made in CAS. I named her Catherine Gallagher, because she rolled a random trait to be a great cook (which reminded me of Charlotte), and I thought she looked like a mix between Charlotte and Paul, and has the skin, eyes, and hair color of little baby Catherine at the moment. Who knows, maybe this might be what Catherine looks like when she grows up? ;) But really I just wanted a Sim who I had no story ideas in mind for, to let roam around and do as she wanted. So I set her free.

So far, story progression has her working at the Bistro, and she just bought her own home. But the most interesting thing (and is also why I wish they had freaking memories to check!!!), is that I originally had her placed as a roomie with another couple (engaged, I forget their names, but they live down by the shore?). Anyway, next time I checked up on her, she had a red glowing relationship with the guy of the couple (I'm guessing that means furious?), and she moved herself out and into her own home, and the following day, the couple broke up! :o

Naughty Catherine is a homewrecker? And she's only been in the hood for about a week, lol!

Okay, one last pic:

I didn't dress them up like this, and I have no idea why they felt so inclined to deck themselves out and hit the town, but this was how I found them.

Tyler didn't seem very amused, though Beau seemed to be having a good time. TS3-Beau is really a very entertaining and happy Sim, while Tyler is usually brooding about something, lol! They're quite adorable together! :)