Before 2019 begins...

...I want to tell you about a few changes in my playing. But first things first - here are the stats for 2018:


The end of 2018 coincides with the end of the current round.
This round was still only about half way through at the last head count at the end of 2017. Many more of the original playables have died in the second half, and there were only a few births and a few newcomers in the shape of townies with a "playable" surname; no more adoptions.

A total of 213 deaths can of course not be made up for by 89 births since I started playing New Max, but that was my goal from the beginning: I wanted to see which family names would persist longest, and which ones would disappear.

There are 104 playable Sims in the neighbourhood now. Minus the four members of the mysteriously disappeared Roth household, makes exactly 100 Sims here.


In 2015, I also played TS4 with pretty much the same approach as to New Max. I only had the base game then and played the premade families in alphabetical order, easily discernible among the labels by the prefix "TS4" in front of the household name.

My friend Beemoki has started to integrate her TS4-playing into her TS2-time by strictly following the alphabetical order of ALL households - TS2 and TS4 combined - which makes for good gameplay, alternating between the two games and never leaving one out for too long. I will play like that in 2019, too.

And since one of my Christmas presents was the pets expansion pack for TS4, there will be plenty more for me to discover. (Not that I have already discovered everything about the base game!)

In New Max, I am missing some premade community lots; I keep seeing them in Beemoki's game but they have somehow disappeared from my lots & houses catalogue. Also, the Roths have still not been found, although their character files are there in my game data.

Therefore, I also plan to work a bit more on New Maximiliania's structure, hoping to find the missing lots and Sims. Now all that's left for me to do this year is to make a backup.


I am very much looking forward to yet another year with my Sims, this blog and you!
Happy New Year to all of you! And please keep on playing and blogging - I so enjoy reading what the Sims are up to in your games.

Guy Wrightley and Zoe Zimmerman: Week 5

If you click on the labels "Wrightley" or "Zimmerman", you will find Week 4 with these two.

The last household of this round lives in the apartment with the door on the left, closest to the street. It is one of the last few remaining apartment lots I am actually playing; I have given up nearly all of them, as they became annoyingly buggy after a while.

Zoe Zimmerman and Guy Wrightley live here. They have been a couple since their college days, when they fell in love autonomously. Both are on Permanent Platinum; Zoe had 20 best friends 22 days before reaching Elderhood, and Guy rose up the ranks of New Maximiliania's army he became General 19 days from Elderhood.

If you have read the previous week with these two, you will remember that they as good as never make group meals, but always cook for themselves, and it is almost always salmon for Zoe - no exception on this Monday morning!

Another pattern the couple has developed is that if one of them is in the kitchen, the other one follows quickly - while one of them cooks, the other does the washing up or cleans the counters.

But something is different today: All during their previous week, nobody could be bothered to empty the overflowing, smelly bin in the kitchen. Today, Zoe does it without any prompting from my part.

I have still not made them pay their bills, and so they remain unpaid until another visit from the Repo Man. This time, he takes a curtain from the living room and a cactus plant from the kitchen - that's all.

At 6:00 pm, Guy turns into an Elder. He seems to be happy about his outfit - at least he is smiling!

"Hey, this feels actually rather good!" he exclaims before Zoe.

Zoe is all but melting - she and Guy are very much in love. And - I did expect this to happen - Guy rolls the wish to marry. He proposes to Zoe on the spot, and of course she says yes.

Now that they are both Seniors, what could be more fitting than for them to move to the Senior Residence! And so they pack up and leave the rented apartment for good.
When they arrive here, it is Thursday.

Almost immediately, Zoe and Guy discover the poker table. Callum Capp has joined Bottom Summerdream already.
She and her husband Björn are the oldest residents here right now, being both 74 years old. Gunnar is next with his 72 years, Zoe is 61, Francis 59 and Guy the youngest at 54.
Oh, and of course Francis' cat Kim is also here, but she is not an elderly cat yet.

Guy is dropped off after work by his usual copter, now with Francis in tow. The latter has just been promoted to Hostage Negotiator.

Friday morning sees Zoe asleep on her dinner plate. Well, at least she did not starve!

Early afternoon, Francis returns from work with a promotion to International Sim of Mystery. It is a mystery to me what this actually is supposed to be!

Zoe rings some friends and gathers all the residents at the house for a group taxi to St. Simius. You can guess why, can't you?

Guy and Zoe finally tie the knot, and Guy becomes Mr. Zimmerman.

Bottom's choice of outfit was maybe a little ill-advised - she wears the same dress as the bride, but as usual when it comes to clothes, everybody generously pretends not to notice.

Francis and Gunnar must have been shopping together, too :-) Do you recognise the young man sitting near Gunnar?

Of course, there is a wedding cake and a buffet...

...and then an unbidden guest appears. He may not be welcome, but at least he is well attired.

Have you ever seen the Unsavoury Charlatan eat in your game? Well, I have now! And he seems to really like Pauline Broke (nee Aspir), constantly following her around and looking at her.

After everybody has had their time on the dance floor, the group dissolves and those living at the Senior Residence take a taxi back home.

Looks like there is something about weddings bringing unexpected emotions to the forefront - here is Francis, feeling VERY attracted to Björn Summerdream all of a sudden!

The next morning, Saturday, as if to show Francis that there is nothing to yesterday's burst of emotion, Björn kisses his wife in the common room while Francis is studying for his next promotion.

The newlyweds are as much in love as ever.

With all the studying, Francis has missed his car pool for work. Good job he has not forgotten how to fly a broomstick!

That evening, Guy surprises me by preparing a group meal. Zoe interrupts him and so it falls on Gunnar to complete the cooking - a little too late, as you can see.

On Sunday morning, Francis is practising for more charisma, when Bottom walks in and spots Gunnar standing quite by conicidence underneath the mistletoe.

One kiss later, the two of them are in love!

They go to bed together (only to sleep, mind you), and when they wake up, their faces look as if they are asking themselves "What have we done?".

Björn comes looking for his wife, and when the two of them exchange a kiss, Gunnar has the nerve of accusing Bottom - a married woman, after all! - of cheating on HIM!
It does not go well with Bottom, who resolves to stick to her loving and forgiving husband.

Meanwhile, Zoe is showing off her deft hand with the cards at the poker table.

And Guy manages to cook the salmon to perfection this time.

I am glad that Bottom and Björn did not split up. She dies that afternoon, much to my surprise; I expected someone else go first, really. Bottom was 78, and since she was a kid when the game started, has been around for as long as I've been playing New Maximiliania. Bye-bye, Bottom!

As I said, I expected another Sim to die before Bottom - Gunnar. He fulfills my expectation early on Monday morning; an unusual time for a visit by Mr. Reaper. Gunnar was 76.

Uh-oh... that mistletoe again! This time, Zoe and Björn happen to find themselves underneath it, and promptly fall in love aftr their holiday kiss.

But don't worry. Zoe will later say it was just to cheer up newly widowed Björn a bit. She loves her Guy, and nobody else.

uesday is the last day at this household, and the last for the entire round.
Zoe and Guy reassure each other of how happy they are to be married.

Francis still needs two more body points before he can expect another promotion and chooses to do Yoga out in the snow.

Guy returns from work just in time to greet Lance Landgraab, brother of Lilo Landgraab. The skunk is hurrying off on important skunk business :-)

Zoe brings today's paper in and sits down in the common dining room to read it, completely unimpressed by Lance's coughing fit.

She later surprises me by taking a plate of salmon (taken out of the fridge by Francis) to one of the apartments to eat it there instead of in the large dining room. Maybe she just wants some peace and quiet for her meal, and not more coughing from Lance or anyone else.

This week - and the round - ends without another death. I will do my annual head count of New Maximiliania next and post it on here.

Also, I plan to play more TS4 - one of the lovely gifts I found under the Christmas tree was the pets expansion for TS4, and I want to discover this as soon as I can. Oh, and i must not forget to make a backup of New Max before I start the next round!

Francis J. Worthington: Week 5

More than two years have passed in real life since our last visit to this modest house in New Maximiliania's oldest part.

Inside, you can still see the remnants of a party. Who lives here?

Abbey, a 30-year-old dog...

...Kim, a much younger cat...

...and Francis J. Worthington III, who first entered our game as a rather wealthy playable student living in his own house.
He has long finished studying Economics with Magna Cum Laude, and since his rather recent autonomous change of lifetime want, he is aspiring to become Space Pirate.
When we left him in 2016, he had just been promoted to Multiregional Sim of Some Importance.

On this Monday morning, he cleans up the party mess, makes sure his pets are fed, and rings a friend.

Emmy Despret, the Atrociously Evil Witch, is invited over. What for, you may ask. Well, Francis woke up with the wish of seeing Emmy "cured" of being a witch, and since I have played this so very rarely (if ever!) in my game, I give it a shot.

Emmy has a present for her old friend Francis...

...and Francis has one for his old friend Emmy.

She drinks the contents of the flask, and moments later...

...looks like this. Not bad, I think! But Emmy is an NPC, and Francis does not feel attracted to her other than the close friendship they have, and so there won't come anything of it.

Francis has to leave for work shortly afterwards anyway, and returns with a promotion to Deep Sea Exacavator.

As soon as the car pool is gone, he turns into an Elder. You know me - I am not too fond of the witches' and warlocks' outfits, and so I have Francis change his appearance.

On Tuesday morning, I find Abbey resting (and later sleeping) in her dog house - finally! All of yesterday, whenever she was tired, she would rest where she was, be it out on the pavement or somewhere on the floor in the house.

Sadly, Mr. Reaper comes to play her last game of fetch with Abbey. She was 31 and had a happy life with Francis and Kim. Now that Francis has only Kim left for company, and is an elderly Sim himself, there is the logic next step for him:

He moves to the Senior Residence with his cat.

We have already four residents here: Bottom and Björn Summerdream, who are both 69, Jimmy Phoenix, the oldest at 81, and Gunnar Roque, 67.
Francis is not only the youngest of the bunch, he is also the only one not (yet) on Permanent Platinum, and so the main load of household tasks will be on him.

He can start right away, as there are still the dirty dishes from the previous day's meal around. By the way, it is Friday now. I have to keep track of the days, so that Francis will get his fair share of 7 days per round, not more, not less.

It is Saturday morning, and Kim has discovered how nice a window seat can be. There weren't any at the old small house, but here she has all the comfort she deserves.

Björn rather cleans the windows from outside than the toilet off the common room.

Especially when this allows him to look at his beloved wife asleep in her bed!

Francis returns from work with a smile on his face, and a promotion to Relic Liberator.

Kim is never short of attention here, as is obvious on this Sunday morning when Gunnar plays with her.

Francis has made omelettes for breakfast, much to Bottom's delight. She is the Sim here who seems least able to take care of her needs.

When Jimmy wakes up from a late afternoon nap, it is to find a packed suitcase and a special cocktail waiting for him. He was 83 and is quite ready to leave this world, after he has reached his lifetime want so long ago.

Didn't I just say Bottom seems to be least able to look after herself? As if to prove me wrong, on Monday morning she decides to make pancakes for everyone. Thank you, Bottom!

Francis cleans Kim's toilet before sitting down for breakfast.

He spends good part of the morning working to acquire another body skill point.

I catch Bottom putting soap powder in one of the fountains on her own accord - something I can't remember having witnessed here before!

Francis returns from work with a promotion to Dread Pirate. I think that's just one step away from reaching his lifetime want.

He starts Tuesday bright and early with another session on the training course for one more body skill point that he needs for his next promotion.

As he has the day off, I send him to the Fortress of Eternal Darkness, accessible to him because of his magic abilities.

He tries to study there, as he needs a mechanical skill point, but somehow it doesn't work. Still, it is nice that the witch's feline companion joins him on the luxurious settee.

As Francis influenced the former head of the "evil" witches to renounce all magic powers, I was looking forward to seeing who had taken her place. It is a much younger witch by the name of Amanda Steele.

Back home, Francis is very tired but finds his bed occupied by Kim. No worries - with currently four human and one feline resident here, there are enough unoccupied beds to choose from each night (or day).

Wednesday is the 7th day I am playing Francis, and his last for this round. While he is out at work, Gunnar greets Callum Capp.

Later, on his own accord, he flies one of the kites dotted around the Senior Residence.

Francis returns from work with a promotion to Warhead Disarmer. (So, Dread Pirate was not the last step before Space Pirate - I'd forgotten!) He needs one more mechanical skill point and sets to work almost immediately.

How long before he'll reach his lifetime want?
Who is going to arrive next at the Senior Residence?