Merry Christmas from the Davids!

Mayhew David is 70, Alita David is 69, Garan David is 39, Jeena David is 38, Leal David is 22, Brigitte Fournier is 22, Andy David is 17, Rust David is 12, Favor David is 9

Happy Christmas

It's 23:39 here so happy christmas!

Sorry for not posting!

Meet the characters

In a weird boring way.

For some reason I felt like posting the age "chart" of the playable citizens of Verre Tranquille here. It's just names and ages but if anyone here is as geeky as I am they might enjoy it. IDK, it's late here.

Anyways....

Sorry but...

...I have to delay the story a bit. Probably to December or January. It's only my 2nd month in uni and I have yet discovered how to balance my time between studying and simming. I want to settle a bit before I start posting.

Good news is I have succesfully installed the Sims 2 on my new computer and it's working great. My Pets EP will fail it's install every time but I'll probably download it online soon.

Winter 1980-1981, I'll Cover You

Bernard

Roux 2

(Mini Update - Daiki, Ryuu) 

Laurent

Primary School Updates 

Dupont 2 (New year's eve 1)

Moreau Campus (New year's eve 2)

Durand (New year's eve 3)

(Mini Update - Comfort)

Martin

(Mini Update - Ninette, Mavise, Saber, Fabrice) 

Lefèvre

High School Updates

Vincent 2

(Mini Update - Ninette, Desiree, Rina)

(Mini Update - Narcisse, Gisella, Adelise, Comfort, Celine, Carel) 

Robert

Silva

I love the way Laura does her rounds and seasons, so I decided that for my first round I'd try to do it her way. The title is I'll Cover You from one of my favorite movies RENT, and was chosen when I realized almost all the updates that were scheduled for this season included someone covering another, whether it means cheer them up when they are down, or helping them hide something wrong they did. The main characters for this season are: Devin Laurent, Faun Laurent, Fabrice Roux, Desiree Fournier, Adelise Lefèvre, Carel Robert, Mayne Robert, Narcisse Garcia, and the most important two are Comfort Bernard and Ninette Dupont.

The main three updates are the new year's eve ones, expect plenty of psychology and pregnancies throughout the season. It's really going to be quite a dramatic one, but that's best for the stories, isn't it?

Comforting Comfort

Just an update

To let you know I'm still here. I have unfinished education & taxes posts and I sort of finished Ville de Bénéfice (Sort of because I have some buildings that need to be built when I start collecting taxes, or else there would be no use to the taxes) and I'm working on Bâtiments Jeunes. I'll only make one post about Bâtiments Jeunes, when I'm done, and then I could start playing.

Edit: It's not so relevant but I finally decided on a computer for me to buy and it's VERY strong! I'm so excited about this! Finally I'll be able to play the Sims 3, and I'm sure my new computer would be able to handle the 300 and something sims I will have.

Building VT: Ville de Bénéfice Part 3

I finished the second part of Ville de Bénéfice and tomorrow would be when I finally finish. It took me more time than I thought it would but as long as I finish everything by the end of next week I'll be pleased. Expect story posts by September!

Building VT: Mini-Update 1

I built a few lots today but not enough for a full update so I figured I'd show you this picture of the kindergarten I built in Ville de Bénéfice. I'm pretty proud of the way I did the roof, trying some tricks with stages and making the roof nearly flat. I really hope to be finished with Ville de Bénéfice tomorrow because having to set up 47 households and making profiles and everything should take me a whole lot of time and I miss playing so much!

The Lefèvres

I moved the Lefèvre family to their new home and I took a few pictures of them to show you how they looked like. I liked Telfor and Adelise's older versions better but I think Adelise looks cute now as well and Telfor will grow into his looks. Gisella just turned out so cute! Both kids have their father's eyes which I bet is difficult for Adelise...

I was messing a bit with heights. I chose their final settings and they are all presented in the last picture. Adelise is 0.9 (She's too thin for what I wanted her to be though), Telfor is 1.12 at age 11 and Gisella is 1.0 at age 9. Telfor will grow up to be normal and tall like his father and Gisella would grow up to be short and chubby like her mother. I wanted to make her chubby already but it looks so weird on kids!

Building VT: Ville de Bénéfice Part 2

I finished the most residential part of Ville de Bénéfice. Tons of red roofs! Expect at least one more update about the neighborhood tomorrow.

Building VT: Ville de Bénéfice Part 1

Just one picture this time. I'm hoping to finish in 3 days, since It's more work than Étude Dur and would probably take longer. Knowing me, I'll probably add more trees but this time, the trees are the only neighborhood decorations I'll use.

I have a question, to all you more experienced in blogspot than I am. How do you create posts that would not be posted on your followers' dashboards? Next week I'll start creating the profiles and I don't want 137 posts spamming your dashboards!

Done!

I'm done with creating Étude Dur! I have nothing planned for the next 3 days, so I'm hoping to finish with the 4 living neighborhoods of Verre Tranquille. And then I can create the families in the following 5 days (I already have some of them, and some sims in bodyshop) and start playing!

Étude Dur, almost there!

I didn't take many pictures at all, but later in the day I will surely finish Étude Dur. I'm trying to make up for the 9 days I didn't have my sims so most of the lots are empty inside. I only need to finish with the luxurious part of the university and move on to Ville de Bénéfice.

Adelise's Life

Adelise was born very kind. She would always put other people before herself, even as a young child. She had a happy childhood, playing soccer through all of it, hoping to become a superstar soccer player one day. As she entered high school the other students would mock her because of her weight, calling her names, teasing her, which has made her very insecure. Unfortunately, she just gained and gained weight, not because she would eat over her needs, or because she wouldn’t work out. It was just her mother’s genes. Soon, she could no longer play soccer. Adelise found another passion in history, eventually studying the subject in college. She had learning difficulties, making it harder for her to have good grades, but she finished college with a degree in history and a course of education, becoming a teacher. After she graduated, she met Rey Lefèvre, an archaeologist, who was to become her husband after a few years. Both Rey and Adelise wanted children, and their son Telfor and daughter Gisella were soon born. 13 years into their marriage, disaster struck. Rey went somewhere in South America with his team, and never came back. He and his team members weren’t found. Adelise, Telfor and Gisella were broken, and Adelise turned over-protective of her children since then. The family’s neighbors showed no support, and in fact would gossip about what happened, so Adelise took her kids and moved to Parrain Vérité, starting a new life as a single mother.

• My game is back thanks to LaurelCrossing ! I continued working on Étude Dur for a bit, finished one dorm and one house. I didn't take any pictures though, I will when the neighborhood is closer to be finished.
• Adelise is my favorite character. I don't have any pictures of her but she is just so cute! I might keep on doing those kinds of character biographies until I'm done with building the neighborhoods, for my more interesting characters though, of course.
• I also worked on a career today, my version of a journalist career. I could have finished 3 careers a day if they wouldn't have chance cards! It just takes too long...

Problems & a download

Well, I haven't been posting for the past week because my game wouldn't start up. Yesterday I installed my game on another computer (Didn't uninstall from here though) and it works fine, loading time is even better, but the graphics aren't all that. I transferred all my downloads there and they work fine, so I should probably also transfer my neighborhood there. My only problem, other than the graphics, is that I have the freetime expansion pack installed on this computer but I don't actually have it. I borrowed it from a friend to have it here but she's currently abroad, and won't be back until next tuesday. So no Verre Tranquille for the next week at least.

But, do expect updates. I have decided to finally learn how to make custom careers and I will start creating some for my game, mainly ones specially made for my sims.

I have already created my first one today, and a very simple one. No career reward because I don't use it anyway and no chance cards because these careers are pretty much non-progressive. It's a career made for my university students, as most of my degrees require a certain time of working as an intern or an assistant while still studying for the degree. It has 10 levels completely unrelated to each other and requires maximum skills to get promoted even past level 1 because you're not supposed to get promoted. I just cheat my students to the correct level.

If you're intrested, these are the levels and wages:


Student-Teacher - 400 $

Medical Intern - 800 $

Law Firm Intern - 600 $

Scientist's Assistant - 800 $

Engineer's Assistant - 800 $

Architect's Assistant - 800 $

Political Intern - 300 $

Business Owner's Assistant - 200 $

Studio Intern - 200 $

Sociologist's Assistant - 200 $


As I said, all of them require full skills for a promotion so you will mostly never get promoted, no chance cards, no career reward. All work hours are 3pm-7pm since my students finish school at 14:30.

I'm not sure why would you want to download it as I'm pretty sure all of you are playing with maxis college, but perhaps you'd want it for your master students to give them more time to study? Anyway, you can get it here.

Verre Tranquille Government

Verre Tranquille Board Members:
Kerman Durand, Verre Tranquille Priminister
Dionte Roux, Parrain Vérité Mayor
Daiki Inoue, Ville de Bénéfice Mayor
Quennel Vincent, Bâtiments Jeunes Mayor

Other Members:
Alita David, Minister of Education
Karl Moreau, Minister of Health & Social Services
Amou Michel, Minister of Rescue Services
Antoine Roux, Minister of Law & Justice
Onfroi Bonnet, Minister of Public Services
Gace Perrot, Minister of International Connections
Jose Silva, Minister of Culture

Assisting Members:
Beaufort Perrot, Advisory Architect
Ansel Martin, Governmental Banker
Comfort Bernard, Legal Secretary


Departments
Education
Alita David, Minister of Education
Adelise Lefèvre, High School Principal
Gertrude Wagner, High School Principal
Piera Roux, Primary School Principal
Halette Simon, Primary School Principal
Jeena David, Head of Advanced Courses
Narcisse Garcia, Head of Higher Education


Health & Social Services
Karl Moreau, Minister of Health & Social Services
Ryuu Inoue, Head of Medical Research
Aron Garcia, Head of Social Services
Alexandre Simon, Head of Medical Treatments


Rescue Services
Amou Michel, Minister of Rescue Services
Ranger Durand, Head of Military
Bruno Wagner, Head of Fire Department
Franky Moreau, Head of Police Department


Law & Justice Department
Antoine Roux, Minister of Law & Justice
Loyal Vincent, Judge
Comfort Bernard, Legal Secretary


Public Services Department
Onfroi Bonnet, Minister of Public Services
Marguerite Perrot, Head of Transportation
Marisol Silva, Head of Environment

•  I had nothing else to show you as I was very busy in the past few days, but I organized the government and I figured, why not?
  
•  None of the roles in the departments page are really important but if I have any annoucments I'd like appropriate sims to present them. The culture department is just the minister and the mayors and the international connections department is just the minister and the priminister so no more information on them...
  
•  I have the taxes page halfway finished and it will also show how much money each department gets. It really sucks how I have 4 cities (I don't include the vacation hoods in the taxes since there are no playables in there) to split all the money between. I did a test on how much money should I be getting for every tax or service (Just a quick POPULATION x something or HOUSEHOLDS x something calculation) and there just isn't enough! And I thought I taxed too high...
• No mayor for Etude Dur since the population is too small. They share with Parrain Vérité as they are both the smallest neighborhoods (In terms of population).
• Also, spoiler, two sims of one of the departments are divorced. Totally by accident though! 
  

The beginning of Étude Dur

Not much yet. I created some lots which I have later on deleted... The only lot which I liked enough (Though not yet finished) is in the bottom right, which is also the main living area. The rest is mostly college buildings. I like what I did with the trees (I'm so sick of the trees I use in most of my neighborhood by now, including Parrain Vérité) and the neighborhood decorations are mostly finished other than in the top left. It is the more luxurious college part, with the expensive dorm (3 dorms = Expensive, fair and cheap) and the higher studies faculties (Though not Law or Medicine. These can only be studied in a university, not a college).

Models and mothers

Fall 1980:

Silana Petit is 31

(Lionel Petit is 34, Louella Petit is 34, Margery Rousseau is 25, Quinton Petit is 7 and Simone Petit is 6)

narrated by Silana Petit

I've been working like mad lately. If it wasn't for some old grandpa who wants me to fix his pants it was on my latest line which I am hoping I may truly be able to present. I have to find some way to make more money so I could get out of the huge debt I got myself into. Clients are rare here and I can't find a steady job that I qualify for. I wish I could have moved to Bâtiments Jeunes, get a job at Constance and move my way up the career ladder and I even went to a job interview but because of my foolish decision of buying a big house when I moved to Parrain Vérité I got myself in too much debt. Hopefully someone would want to buy this house.

Margery Rousseau and bad luck

I've been taking some pictures to get used to going to options mode for no queue icons. Does anyone know how to get rid of that text in the top right of the picture? It's pretty annoying.


Also, is this size good for the updates or is it too small?


Silana's update is almost ready but for now I'll just leave you with a picture of her BFF Margery Rousseau, who I created in bodyshop and I am very proud of. She's a townie and has a husband and a baby girl. I wanted to make her a real playable but for some reason I feel it's better that she's just a townie. She lives in one of the smallest houses in Parrain Vérité.

So... I was decorating the Rousseau home and when I'm done, I look at the amount of cash they have to see if I can deposit some of it, and what do I see? If you can't notice, it's 666 simoleans. Scary...

Seeing Margery's daughter's (Who's name I totally forgot. Do'h! I should make a townie page with just names and ages maybe)  empty age bar also reminds me I forgot to adjust them. I made the townies to somewhat fit the ages of other playables so her daughter should be around 2, not 1!

Edit: It's Kari! (The toddler's name)

1980-1981 Random Events

Woohoo RIGHT NOW! - I am super excited about this one!

Distant relative moves in - This is the best ROS I could have rolled. EVER.

Participate in a dance contest

Woohoo 6 times in the next 24 hours - Funny who I rolled this for

Sinks break. Break all sinks in household

Family Reunion - Sad, because this person lost some of his family :(

Weekly night out - Bowling

Dumped! (Get dumped) - Wow, they didn't even last one round!

Meet someone new

Mini mid-life crisis. Change secondary aspiration (Romance) - Not so happy about this one...

• I did roll one death but I made a deal with myself I won't kill anyone so I didn't count it. I also made a deal with myself I will reroll if anything too life-changing would be there (As in... Distant relative moves in) but that ROS was just too good for me to cancel it. 

• 
  

1981 Play Schedule

Winter 1981

Bernard
Roux 2
Laurent
Primary School Updates
Moreau Campus
Durand
Dupont 2
Martin
Lefèvre
High School Updates
Vincent 2
Robert
Silva


Spring 1981

Birthdays
Michel
Fournier
Petit
Kindergarten Updates
Bonnet
David 2
Blanc
Roux 3
Laurent 2
Spring Break
Morel
Inoue
Perrot-Roux
Fournier 2


Summer 1981

Birthdays
Simon
Durand Campus
Inoue 3
Girard 2
Girard 3
Summer Camp
Garcia
Perrot
David
Wagner
Petit 2
Dupont
Michel 2


Fall 1981

Birthdays
Roux
Moreau
Perrot 2
Vincent
High School Updates
Girard
Martin 2
Perrot 3
Perrot Campus
Primary School Updates
Moreau 2
Inoue 2
Durand 2

• Still some time until I start but I almost have the first mini-update ready and I've been building like mad. I think pictures of Étude Dur will be up on 2-6 days. I really like building dorms, had enough of farms though. I can't wait until I start building Bâtiments Jeunes, apartments are my thing.
• 
  I already rolled the ROS and I will post it in a few minutes. One of them would be just normal for any other sim, but I guess is like a dream come true for the sim I rolled it for.
• 
   The households were chosen according to planned storylines and depending on where they live to make it as equal as possible. Three seasons have 12 households and one has 11.
   
• For the next rounds, would you like having empty-nester updates as well? I have quite a few, as most of my sims don't live with their parents. I will surely be doing these now, so you could get to know every sim in Verre Tranquille, but should I continue? 

More Parrain Vérité pictures

I finished creating Parrain Vérité and my next project would be Étude Dur. The first mini-update on Silana Petit would also be next and I could maybe start writing posts about the rules, which are mostly Sullivan Sims' rules changed slightly to fit my needs.
If you are wondering, none of the houses would stay empty. I am creating custom townies who would actually all be like Playable NPC's from blogs like Sullivan, Wellington, Lakeside Heights and else, but there would be no page for them and most of them would be farmers, at least those in Parrain Vérité. This will mean I would have like 300 sims but my computer is quite strong.

So, the pictures...


P.S. if you're wondering what are the brown stuff in the rural area pictures these are the greenhouses. You can't see the roof from too far.



click on pictures to view them

Pictures of Parrain Vérité

click on the pictures to see them bigger

First of all, I apologize for the horrible quality, I just found out my print screen program saved all of the pictures in bmp instead of png. The picture sizes are uneven and they are all pretty old.

I have no pictures of the rural area and the civilized area has changed. 

I will try and take better, updated pictures today.

The Neighborhoods

The Verre Tranquille alliance includes 7 diffrent lands all sharing the same government and working together to have the best for all their residents.

Parrain Vérité

The govermental land of the Verre Tranquille alliance, mainly populated by the farmers and the fishers, yet also some of the richer politicians. Those politicians are not happy with having to visit the poor farming families everytime a meeting is held and want to transfer the meetings to another land of the Verre Tranquille alliance, Ville de Bénéfice. More traditional politicians however are not intrested in leaving the land which has served them good for many years have created a more civilized district of Parrain Vérité to please the other politicians. However, with the downfall of the Parrain Vérité economics, it seems like the other politicians will win.

Étude Dur

Another farming land of the Verre Tranquille alliance is Étude Dur. However, the Étude Dur economics are thriving thanks to the public university that has been there for over 50 years. The special strawberries are very popular among the residents of the Verre Tranquille alliance as well and tourists have plenty to do. Everybody like Étude Dur.

Ville de Bénéfice

The most popular land in the Verre Tranquille alliance, Ville de Bénéfice is considered as the suburbs, being next to the very urban city of Bâtiments Jeunes. Ville de Bénéfice is very idyllic to families of any size, wealth and age, and is very quiet. Due to the increasing poverty in Parrain Vérité, politicians of the Verre Tranquille alliance are considering on declaring Ville de Bénéfice as the land of the Verre Tranquille goverment, but changes are yet to be made.

Bâtiments Jeunes

As most young sims of the Verre Tranquille alliance find the Bâtiments Jeunes the most attractive place to live in, as well as the older rich businessmen and women, it is considered to be the cultural and industrial center of Verre Tranquille alliance. The VTN airport also being situated in Bâtiments Jeunes, it was naturally considered to be the replacement to Parrain Vérité as the govermental land of Verre Tranquille. However, the youth have opposed to that idea, hoping to avoid the influx of elderly politicians in the urban city, and it brought neighboring Ville de Bénéfice back to the top choice.

Tendākisu

Many of the rich citizens of Verre Tranquille think of Tendākisu as a fantastic vacation destination and an even better place to live in. Tendākisu is an extremely clean island with a fascinating cultural background, therefore high costs for anything. However, the locals are starting to get annoyed with the disrespect from some of the tourists, and Tendākisu is currently going through a govermental crisis.

Soleado

The island of life and passion, home of the famous Hula dance (Yes, Soleado is, not Hawaii!) and the very famous Kamin festival of latin music. The residents of Soleado sure know how to have fun, but not really how to reach an economical balance. They have become so desperate lately the prices have come down by alot and young residents of Verre Tranquille are taking advantage of that.

Kein Schlaf

The huge forest in Kein Schlaf is the main tourist destination and campers from all over the Verre Tranquille alliance travel there. It has just recently joined the alliance thanks to the economical uprising caused by the recent tourism popularity of camping. Another feature of Kein Schlaf is the private university, KSPU, filled with the brightest of students from the Verre Tranquille alliance.

• Parrain Vérité is my underdog, probably the reason I like it most. That and the fact it was the first neighborhood I had in mind. I try not to have favorites but I think it's impossible.
  
  
• I doubt guessing which neighborhood is which subhood isn't too hard (Suburban, Downtown, College and the three vacation hoods)
• 
  I used google translate for the neighborhood names, so if you understand any of those languages try to ignore it.
  
  
• I'm still in the building process though I have almost all sim profiles ready. I counted and I have 137 not including custom playable townies (Including the vacation townies) which I will create. No maxis townies for me.
  
  
• Speaking of which, barely maxis anything for me. I have already finished how I will do all of those things by myself. I have a custom college (Shopping subhood with adult sims), custom school, custom vacation neighborhoods (Shopping subhood), some  of the careers are custom (As in, not going to work with a carpool and disapearing), more and more.
  
  
• I do need your tips though, neighborhood creators, about the play schedule and ROS's. I am using Carla's ROS file but I am planning on doing more ROS's per round (Though my rounds will be one year each). How many should I do? And also, about play schedule, how do I organize it with ROS's? Should I just do it randomly? Remember I have 137 sims!
• 
  Another thing I need help with is the posting. All my pictures look good before I post them but when I do they end up very small and it is strange, since my laptop has a wide screen.
• 
  First pictures of Parrain Vérité should be up in a week or less. I only have to create some more farm houses and place in the residents. I will probably also do a mini-update about one sim, Silana Petit. She moved in with her brother and his family one year ago (It is currently 1981) and she still doesn't feel at home in a rural land, being a city girl. I wrote it yesterday since I had trouble sleeping but I need to take pictures in-game.