Aspir - Week 7

Welcome, dear readers, to the first household to be played in round 7! There is only one surname beginning with A on the alphabetical list of households: Aspir.

The Aspir house is the one originally given to them by Maxis.

Pauline has moved back in with her parents after she graduated Cum Laude in Drama. For a while, she worked her way up in the athletics career, but when she had already reached the position of Assistant Coach, she suddenly wanted to give her life a new direction and took up Medicine.Both her parents died during the last round, so the young woman is now all alone in the big house. She is engaged to Benvenuto Broke (the surprise engagement happened at a restaurant) and seems to have completely forgotten about her college sweetheart, Marcus Baldwin. Another detail about her: she has a Silver Sewing Badge.

Monday morning is off to a less than great start when Pauline becomes aware of the broken tap in her bathroom. The water has been running all night, flooding the bathroom floor. After repairing the tap, she has to mop up the entire room.

When she returns from work, she finds that someone has kicked her rubbish bin over. Really not the best day of this week for her!

On Tuesday morning, Pauline has enough time to sit down at her mother's old sewing machine to finish a potholder. A nostalgic sigh escapes her; she learned all she knows about sewing from her late mother, Elizabeth.

She even manages a spot of gardening before leaving.

Coming home from work at the hospital, colleague Cedric Stacks is with her. He is the half-Alien son of Julien Cooke and married to Helena Stacks, daughter of Jane Stacks and Matthew Hart.

Pauline is slightly embarrassed when she realizes she never cleared the old newspapers and magazines regularly delivered to her front porch. Her colleague pretends not to have noticed.

Some more gardening is in order on Wednesday morning.

Today, Pauline comes home on her own, but meets and greets Ana Patel as soon as she gets off her car. "What a nice lady she has become," Ana thinks.

"Since my parents died, I am all alone here. I miss them dreadfully and am glad you came by; it is nice to share a meal with company, Mrs. Patel," Pauline offers over plates of spaghetti.

"Yes, dear, losing your parents must have been hard; but a nice girl like you should have many friends to keep her company," Ana encourages her.

By Thursday, the autumn temperatures have sunk enough for Pauline to wear a coat when she is out raking the leaves in her back yard.

She is promoted to Specialist today.

Early on Friday morning, the first snow flakes begin to fall.

By the time Pauline returns from work, a substantial amount of snow has fallen, covering everything with a neat, crisp white blanket. All week, she has had the wish to have a date - not with anyone specific, but since she is engaged to Benvenuto Broke, she asks him for a date at her own place. Nigel Newson chooses the moment of Ben's arrival to walk by - and of course Pauline is too polite to ignore him.

For her fiance, she had been dressing up in a very sexy outfit, and now she is a bit cold. Good job there is a fireplace in the living room! Benvenuto wonders how long it will take for Nigel to understand there is one person too many in the house right now!

I wish Nig would just sod off, Ben thinks, looking at Pauline in her sexy dress with the daring cleavage. But Pauline doesn't seem to mind Nigel all that much - she asks Ben to move in, and he joins the household. Benvenuto is a Popularity Sim (one of Brandi Broke's twins) who wants to become Media Magnate. He already is the editor of a successful magazine, so I guess it won't be long before he'll have reached his lifetime want.

It is Saturday, and Pauline has the day off. She uses it to brush up on the skills needed for her next promotion. Her Granddad (Luis Aspir) used to live in the converted garage next to the family house, and it is here that Pauline has set up her work equipment, next to her Granddad's drafting table.

Benvenuto is dropped off after work by his driver - with a promotion to Media Magnate! He is 8 days from Elderhood and has now reached Permanent Platinum. Congratulations, Ben; I just wish your dear Mum and step-Dad would still be around to celebrate!

He is rather tired and wouldn't have minded a nap, but Pauline has plans for the evening, and so he infuses himself with some fresh energy by having an espresso.

Pauline drives them...

...to a clothes shop (this is a community lot originally from Pleasantview, 303 Main Street).

While she pays for their purchases, Ben greets Francis J. Worthington.

Their next stop is "Le Magnifique", a restaurant where I rarely play. Ben is really hungry and enjoys his filet mignon, while Pauline has enough with a plate of chef salad.

Finally, the couple settle down for the night.

They have just turned off the lights when an unwelcome visitor appears.

He heads straight for the hot tub - and as far as I'm concerned, he is welcome to it! Most of the time, whenever there are visitors, they end up in the hot tub, which is rather annoying when they are not interested in anything else.

When the burglar gets near Pauline's car, the alarm goes off, and the police officer is there almost instantly. The arrest is made, and the couple asleep in the house never heard a thing!

Over breakfast on Sunday morning, Pauline has a brief moment of "Am I doing the right thing?" when she notices Ben's... erm... rustic table manners.

But she instantly forgets her criticism when he looks at her with so much love shining in his eyes, fondly remembering their surprise engagement.

"It really was the biggest - and best! - surprise I've ever had in my life, Ben!" Pauline says.

Mid-morning, Ben's big brother Beau arrives. He and Desdemona Capp became an item some time ago, and even have children together, but do not (yet?) live in the same house. Desdemona lives with her mother, Goneril (her father, Albany, died some time ago), but they do feel like family and so they are with Beau today.

But this is not just going to be a normal family Sunday! In the large hallway, room has been made for chairs and a wedding arch. The sewing machine and easel have been moved to the converted garage for today, and Pauline is wearing a stunning dress in black and red - she made it herself. "I'll soon have my first kiss as a wife," she muses.

Other guests are arriving while Pauline and Benvenuto wait under the wedding arch. Bottom Summerdream has been Pauline's best friend for a long time; her husband Björn (half-Alien son of Loki Beaker) is there, too.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Broke are applauded by their guests.

Then it is time to cut the cake!

Only six can sit at the dining table, but the other guests find enough seats in the living room and at the kitchen counter.

Later, Ben plays chess with his niece Catherine Capp, watched by Catherine's grandmother, Goneril. "I've lived on a farm most of my life, which was great growing up," he tells the little girl. Now there is only Beau left at the farm, along with three dogs who belonged to their stepdad, Leod McGreggor.

Pauline is happy to catch up with Bottom. Her sort of sister-in-law Desdemona wishes Pauline would include her in the conversation.

Meanwhile Beau, ever the big brother (and neat freak), starts cleaning up some of the party debris.

After everyone has left, Ben autonomously leaps into Pauline's arms, clearly overwhelmed with happiness about them becoming a family.

My Pauline, I love her so much, he thinks.

After a nice hot bubble bath, the two of them have changed back into their everyday clothes and spend the rest of Sunday evening relaxing in the living room, Ben tinkling away at the piano and Pauline musing about life past, present and future.
They both feel their wedding was great, but sorely missed their respective parents who never saw their children get married.

How long before Pauline reaches her LTW? How will Ben fare when I leave him to his own devices most of the time?

I really, really enjoyed this first week back in New Maximiliania! I did not expect it to end in a wedding, but it was Ben's wish to marry Pauline while they were still on the date. So I had him move in, and planned the wedding, having them buy outfits and so on.

Also, I think I'll add another one to my self-imposed rules for playing this town: During each week, the household has to visit at least one community lot. This gives the other residents a chance to interact without my intervention, and could make for some interesting surprise developments.

Next will be the Baldwins - maybe you want to re-read their last chapter to make sure you know where I left off. I know I need to re-read everyone's last chapter; my memory isn't that good!

Round 7 Starts Here!

YES!!! This is not only my post # 500 on this blog, but also the beginning of Round 7 of playing New Maximiliania, my all Maxis-made Sims, lots & houses neighbourhood.

Round 6 ended in July with a head count of 149 Sims - that's considerably less than the 230 I counted at the end of Round 1 back in 2008.

I've already showed you some pictures of the re-organized 'hood, and here are some more.

Approaching New Maximiliania from the Sea, you can tell it is not as densely built up and populated as it used to be: 

Only the lived-in houses have remained. The plan is to relocate them to one of the sub-hoods as soon as they stand empty, so that eventually, Old New Max will become obsolete.
You can see the pond in the middle of the road in the picture below. It is just one of several grahics bugs I have experienced in this 'hood, and not been able to fix them.

This deep hole in the ground formed when I tried to place a lot along that road. Another bug I have not been able to fix.

Downtown is still the original one I've always had attached to New Max, but I have re-organised it, too. 

The original shopping district, "Maximum Shopping", is still there, too, and has also received a make-over. You can tell there is still plenty of room there. 

The smaller part on one side of the bridge is where the more affluent houses and most of the original Veronaville residential lots are:

Across the river are some more apartment buildings, other residential lots and the long stretch of community lots which, put together, form Central Park.
St. Simius (created by Twoyysforme) and the Senior Residence (built by me) are here, too, as is the cemetery, Gamesend Grounds. St. Simius and the Senior Residence are the only lots that are not original Maxis-ones. 

At the top end of that long road along which Central Park is located, you'll find several more posh houses. 

Well, that's it - the scene is set!
And I am so pleased to tell you that last night, I have started to play the Aspir household. I have only completed the Monday there before I had to go to bed, but I can't wait to get back there later today.

My self-imposed rules for playing New Max are still the same:

• Each household is played for one Sim-week according to the alphabetical order of its surname.
• If there is more than one surname in the household, it will be played every time a name comes up on the list.
• Babies will only happen if a Sim needs them to fulfill their own (or their parents') lifetime want, or if by accident (i.e. Alien abduction).
• Career Chance Cards have to be played every time, and there is no going back without saving.
• Sims on Permanent Platinum are pretty much left to their own devices. I'll only make sure they have food in the fridge and greet every fellow New Maximilianian walking by.

First Glimpse at the New New Maximiliania

For the past few nights, I've been working on re-organizing New Maximiliania. Maybe you remember the graphics bugs I kept getting in the old main neighbourhood, with lots/houses overlapping each other, ponds in the roads and so on.

Here is how I have gone about it:

• First, I opened each of the original 'hoods seperately and wrote down the names of each lot (all of them, community lots as well as residential and apartment lots).
• Next, in each of the original hoods, I moved all lots and houses that were placed in their various positions by Maxis into the Lots & Houses bin, so that they would be accessible from New Max. (Because so far, I've always only used the lots and houses that were already in the catalogue, not the ones that were part of each "town" but empty at the start of the game.)
• Then I opened New Max. Starting with the main 'hood, I bulldozed the empty residental lots and all of the community lots, leaving only the inhabited lots in place.
• I repeated this for New Maximiliania's Downtown and Shopping District.
• Next, I created a new Shopping District, using the original Bluewater Village, which is already nicely built up but not completely covered when you start it.
• I evicted the original, untouched families living there (as their New Maximilianian clones have already been played through 6 rounds by me).
• Then I filled up the 'hood with as many lots - community, apartment and residential - as I was able to place - New Maximiliania's new sub-hood is now full to the brim, but has not one single resident yet!

Here are the pictures.
Complete view of Bluewater Village, now New Maximiliania's new sub-hood (Shopping District):

Whereever possible, I have tried to place lots in a somewhat "themed" way. The park at the outskirts of Bluewater was already there; I have surrounded it with houses I think you would typically find in such a part of town.

The "bulk" of Bluewater Village starts with a row of apartment blocks and houses, all somehow fitting the seaview theme (lots by the name of "Ocean View Apartments", for instance, were placed here):

Further inland, there are a few patches where I was unable to place any lot, no matter the size:

At the "top end" of the western main road through Bluewater sits a t-section where I have placed some of the more expensive houses. Brandi Broke's original (very modest) house sits here, too - as her lot has to be placed on a road crossing, and this was the only one where it would fit:

Last but not least, some relatively large houses, some of them farm-style, sit along the long, steep road leading up the mountain pass Sims need to cross when they want to reach another part of New Max. I am not entirely happy with the way these lots look, because of the slope being flattened when placing them, and that makes the road look more like a set of steps than the uphill it is meant to be. But this can't be helped, and at least I have now a fresh sub-hood to put Sims in!

I have been doing the same for Downtown last night, but without creating a new sub-hood. It is almost full now, too, and last but not least, I will place the remaining lots in the old main 'hood of New Maximiliania.
And then, finally, I'll start playing the next round! In preparation, I have already re-read the last chapter about Pauline Aspir, as hers will be the first household to be played.

New Maximiliania is Back!

Yippee! Yay!! Hooray!!! Three cheers for New Maximiliania! :-)

Today for the first time in five weeks I am spending a Sunday at home, and on my own. Among other important tasks I needed to catch up with (such as switching the contents of my wardrobe from summer to winter), I finally sat down once more with the instructions I'd found on the internet on how to restore a "lost" neighbourhood - and this time, it worked!

I am almost certain I have not done anything different to the several times I've tried before, but now I have The Sims 2 running again in all its beauty.
So far, I've spent 3 1/2 hours re-organizing New  Maximiliania (something I wanted to do before starting on the next round anyway), and I am not yet finished. But my head is beginning to ache, and I've arranged for a phone call to my mother-in-law and don't want to keep her waiting.

Therefore, it's enough for today - just thought I'd let you.
Can't wait to finish all this prep work and begin the next round!