Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Cooke Week 3: Customer Satisfaction

The Cooke family includes:
Julien Cooke, Popularity/Fortune adult. He is unemployed but owns the highly successful Cooke's Grocery.
Jan Tellerman Cooke, Romance/Pleasure adult. She is also unemployed and runs the Lonely Hearts Club.
Juliette Cooke, their baby daughter

Week 3 in our second household also begins with a birthday--Juliette becomes a toddler. So far she looks a lot like her father but with some of her mother's coloring.

The next morning, Jan discovers that she is pregnant again. She is not enthusiastic.

On Wednesday morning, Brandon forgets where we keep the potatoes and the resulting star pushes the store to Rank 5.

On Thursday afternoon, Jerome Cooke is born.

And that night, Juliette becomes a child. Jan tells her all about how in the morning she's going to get packed off to school and won't be able to bother her mother for 6 hours straight.

Back at the store, Julien attends to various customers while the Tams smooch behind the cash register.

Friday night, the store reaches Rank 6.

On Saturday, Juliette invites the Tam kids over to play. (She and River are good friends despite a several-year age difference--when you're the only two girls in the entire town, you can't afford to be picky.)

Later that day, Jerome becomes a toddler. I think he and his mother have the same serious little mouth.

On Saturday, the addition of many new features pushes Lonely Hearts Club to Rank 1.

Meanwhile, the store reaches Rank 7.

The three elderly garden club memebers (Tiffany, Matthew, and Joe) will stand around for hours talking and blocking the cash register. When Julien encourages them to buy something, they get huffy and lose stars.

I solve the problem by putting a bench in front of the store, where people can sit and shoot the breeze without getting in anybody's way. It works surprisingly well.

By the time the week is out, Julien's store reaches Rank 8.

And Jan's club reaches Rank 2 and then Rank 3.












Progress towards challenge:
New Sims: 1
Taxes collected: $2500/$7300

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Tam Week 3: Nice boys

When we last saw the Tam family (a whole two posts ago), they had just expanded their house and discovered they were expecting their fifth child. Now we rejoin them:
Scott, Knowledge/Family with a job in the Gamer track and an arcade that's doing very well
Megan, Family/Knowledge with no job (except taking care of four children) and a neglected library
Simon, a boy child
River, a girl child (Simon's twin)
Malcolm, a boy toddler
Derrial, a boy toddler (Malcolm's twin)


The first thing of note to happen is a double birthday on Monday night. (It's all birthdays, all the time in this family.) Malcolm manages to grow up in platinum despite not learning a single toddler skill--sometimes neglecting your child at the logic toy pays off.

Then it's Derrial's turn--same story for him.
Early Tuesday morning, the ever-popular Tam Arcade reaches Rank 4.

That afternoon, Simon brings home his first A+ just as Megan goes into labor. I tell her that if she has twins again I'll drown her in a pool.

It's just one, and another boy (!), who receives the name Hoban. Notice that River also got an A+.

On Wednesday afternoon, Scott gets promoted to flag capturer, thanks to the fact that his children are in school and can make friends for him now.

Hoban becomes a toddler that night. His personality is 7-8-6-3-6--another nice one!

The next morning, Megan's fourth pregnancy is confirmed during a quiet mid-morning study session. (The older kids are all at school and Hoban is playing with blocks.)

Friday night, Simon grows up in platinum. I pick Family/Pleasure for him and randomize the turn-ons. He likes blonds and redheads (yay recessive genes!) but not unemployment. I guess he wants to be the stay-at-home parent? He rolls the lifetime want to marry off 6 children, just like his mother.

River is next. She's Family/Knowledge, turned on by fitness and handiness but turned off by redheads (boo). She wants to become Education Minister--she has half a shot; the population just has to hit 250 sometime before she becomes an elder.

The arcade reaches Rank 5 on Saturday morning. Halfway to an open slot in the Business career!

Shortly after noon on Saturday, Megan gives birth to her sixth child, another boy, named Jayne. She looks really thrilled to be done with pregnancy and labor.

Saturday night, Hoban grows up in platinum, thanks once again to neglect at the logic toy.

Sunday night, Scott gets promoted to Platform Jumper.

A few hours later, Jayne becomes a toddler. His personality is 10-2-10-3-7, so we're 6 for 6 on nice children. (Malcolm is the meanest Tam child, with "only" 5 nice points.)

And with that we leave the Tams for another round.







Progress toward challenge:
New Sims: 2
Taxes collected: $900/$4800