[Sims 4] Hot Young Things

The clubbing, soap opera type of household that I have nothing in common with. And a toddler.

Kevin and Kitten have been together for almost a year, but neither makes enough to pay the rent. Their new roommate Layla moved in after she had to take in her two nieces. As toddler Lara worms her way into everyone's hearts, Layla sees teenager Lacey poised to make many familiar mistakes. Can three young adults who've been around the block help this wild teen be responsible, or will their crazy lifestyle only spur her on? #nocc #ya #teen #toddler #BethLovesAlex

Left to Right: Kevin, Kitten, Lara, Layla, & Lacey.

Kevin Meeks [YA]

Public Enemy

Active, Argumentative, Bad Manners, Dastardly, Hot Headed, Insensitive, Materialistic
I see Kevin as treating Kitten poorly. His relationships are rocky, and he is likely to cheat at some point.

Kitten Craft [YA]

Master Mixologist

Dance Machine, Essence of Flavor, Jealous, Romantic

Kitten has actual goals. She wants to be a mixologist, and she wants to make it work with Kevin. She pins her hopes and dreams on their relationship, but she might just be disappointed.

Layla Love [YA]

Serial Romantic

Alluring, Dance Machine, Noncommittal, Romantic
Layla is tasked with raising her nieces, a job she's unsuited for. She tries to give her teenage niece advice she wishes she'd had at that age, but she's not great at making or enforcing rules. She loves going out dancing with Kitten, flirting with men, and there's a not-insignificant chance she might get involved in some Kitten-Kevin drama.

Lacey Love [Teen]

Serial Romantic

Alluring, Jealous, Romantic
Lacey loves attention from boys. She can usually wrap them around her little finger. I see her ignoring a lot of her aunt's advice.

Lara Love [Toddler]

Wild
Lara is a handful. Her big sister often helps her with the basics, like learning to walk and talk, but it's going to take more for this kid to grow up with strong positive traits.

[Gallery]

[Sims 4] Book Titles for Writer Sims

Collection of book titles and descriptions for my writer Sims to pull from.  All of these are by me unless otherwise noted.

[Anger Emotion] I Hate You: Read all about why and how much you suck.  Critics agree: "This author really brings readers into the fury."

[Children's] Go To Sleep: Tiny tyrant keeping you awake?  Won't take that nap?  Try this timeless bedtime classic.

[Poetry] At the Park and Other Haikus: Children run and play, monkey bars all day, I have a headache.

[Poetry] Freeverse Sucks and Other Haikus: Freeverse poems suck, like vacuum without filter, spitting detritus.

[Poetry] Lost Leaf and Other Haikus: I see the wind whip, across the trees a banshee, snatching off one leaf.

[Poetry] The Night is Dark and Other Haikus: Darkness feeds darkness, shadows of blackness, can't find the light switch.

[Poetry] Outstanding Warrants: Car window broken, splash of yellow warning me, you cannot park here.

[Poetry] Unrealistic Expectations: Our pants are too tight, black denim won't stretch that far, we had too much pie.

[Sad Emotion] A Tree Died for This: Electronic media has overpowered printed mediums, yet you just had to murder a tree to get this paperback.

[Sad Emotion] Even Kittens Die: And when they don't, they grow up to become cats.  Kittenhood never lasts.  Never.

[Sad Emotion] I'm Bad At Everything: I am literally the worst.  I'm a hack writer, a terrible painter, a laughable musician, a poor swimmer, a rotten cook, and a weak friend.

[Sad Emotion] I'm So Disappointed: All facets of life are covered in this rich examination of the wretched human condition.

[Sad Emotion] Nobody Likes Me: Everyone hates me.  You hate me.  They hate me.  Even I hate me.  I'm stupid and smelly and gross and ugly, and I'll never have friends.

[Sad Emotion] The Sad Cow: She moos all day long, her sad sad song, 'cuz she's gonna get turned into beef.  She'll be ground into hamburger meat.  Somebody somewhere will eat her intestines with grease.

[Short Stories] OMG STFU and Other Short Stories: Among the masterful tales in this collection, "OMG Shut The Eff Up" is a stand-out award-winner.

Moonlight Falls Special Seed Locations

Supernatural & Moonlight Falls (New Traits, Collectibles, Plants, etc)

After the break, find the new traits, lifetime wishes, rewards, bugs, plants, and ore in the Supernatural Expansion.  Before the break, two of my favorite changes:

I keep squeeing.  You can now turn off the autonomous spreading of creatures & celebrities, which is something I've been dying for.  Also, you can just turn off celebrities for your current household.

Another awesome thing is the planter -- grow garden plants on your porch or indoors.

Will I have a map of special seed locations?  Yes!  It will be in a different post, just as soon as I get the collection helper on one of the Crumplebottom sisters.  :)

Screenshots

Teen Sim: Renee McKnight

Blaise Harman (LJ Smith's Spellbinder)

Thea Harman (LJ Smith's Spellbinder)

Victorian Bay: Observations

I've been on a neighborhood download kick.  One of the better neighborhoods I've come across has been Victorian Bay by ruthless_kk.

If you like ruthless_kk's Victorian-style houses (which I love to pieces), then you'll like this town.  It holds the same attention to detail and engaging charm that you find in her lots.

TL;DR - This town is Eye Candy.  *pink sparkles*

My only complaint is that the town is really quite small.  It's difficult for my Sims to find many friends (or prospective mates) -- particularly since the game's basic Story Progression driver only moves one person at a time into some of those huge lovely houses.  To balance the town out, I recommend making large premade families and sticking them in various of the houses, but that still leaves the problem of "Where can grown Sim children move so that they can start their own families?  Nowhere!  Ack!"

I'd like to see ruthless_kk update her town for Pets and would recommend that she include something like a large boarding house (apartments) to generate more townies.

I like having a small town, since everything is a lot easier for my Sims (and myself) to find and reach, but the limited housing and subsequent limited population keep this town from being truly excellent.

Should ruthless_kk expand this town or create a slightly larger one, I will be delighted.  In the meantime, I'm going to grab Twallan's Story Progression Mod and go (back) to town.  :)

Unicorns: Finding & Befriending

I don't have all the unicorn data, but here's what I've read and experienced.

You have a hidden "Wildlife" skill that can get up to level 6.  Your easiest way to level this is (I'm guessing) finding the Wild Horses and hanging out with them.  Make them your friends.

After petting maybe 3 deer and befriending 2 wild horses on my Sim, I ran into a unicorn.  He appeared in a shower of rainbow sparkles in the middle of the wild horse herd at around midnight (they seem to congregate at public fishing spots, i.e. Appaloosa County Water Treatment), and when I went into Map View, a big old rainbow cloud hovered over that lot while showering (you guessed it) sparkles.  So, when a unicorn appears, apparently it's really easy to spot on your map.

See?  Easy!

My wildlife skill was apparently high enough that he's willing to hang out with me (I've read that it needs to be at 6, but I don't know how high mine is/was).  Once you're Best Friends, you'll get an "Invite Unicorn to Join Household" option.  :)

"Be my unicorn?"

"Sure!"

Named him Shadow Dancer.

Only complaint is that I wish you could tell the gender of wild/stray animals before you adopt them.

Appaloosa Plains Special Seed Locations

• Cinnamon Crest Falls
• Small Brownish Clearing -- (identifiable by huge rock & hollow tree stump with eyes inside) -- NE of "Adventure Landing" if Water = South
• At back of the Equestrian Regional Training Grounds -- (on the assumption that the road enters at the front)
• The walking path that cuts through the mountains from the crossroads to end at the water tower behind the Appaloosa County Water Treatment lot.

Since I just got the xpac, I'll add to this list and make photo maps later. Right now, I'm focusing on playing and not seed locations.

Hidden Springs Special Seed Locations

These are not necessarily all of the spots you can find Special Seeds in Hidden Springs. They are, however, the places I have found Special Seeds.

The Fountain of Youth is NOT automatically in Hidden Springs. You need to edit a lot (community or residential, your call), purchase it for $495,000, and place it.

Sort by Room -> Outdoor -> Lawn Ornaments
Sort by Function -> Decor -> Sculpture

Origin Beta: Code Cannot Be Redeemed Here, #2 (Solution)

On 9/18/11 I found support.ea.com, which has a live chat with a queue that you can get into.  Unlike the live chat (aka "Busy Signal") on the origin help site.

Support Links > Contact Us:
Filled out the form, used subheaders Account/Registration > Product Registration.

Then it gives you a choice between a phone call and live chat.  I picked the live chat.

Took about 5 minutes to get through a 20+ person queue.  The customer service person asked about my issue, I said "Can't download legally purchased games, tried on Origin and activate.ea.com several times."  Was asked for the game names, the digital rights codes (find them in your confirmation email from when you bought the games), and the email used.

That particular session ended when I was upgraded to level 2 and never got a level 2 specialist (I waited 2 hours only to have it cancel on me, saying there were no specialists available and to try again later).

Tonight, I got another person and we resolved the issue.  The problem?  I'd bought the games under a different email account than the one I used for my Origin login.  So I had to create a new Origin login using the email I'd bought the games under and there they were, waiting for me to download them.

There is currently no way to combine Origin accounts, but maybe they'll do that sometime later, eh?