What I'm Doing With Desiderata Valley

It sounds like it's going to be a soap opera, doesn't it?  I guess we'll see, although it's not terribly likely when I play. ;)  This is just a blog of the premade neighborhood Desiderata Valley that came with the FreeTime expansion.  I plan on loosely doing what Wen is doing with her awesome Wishful Thinking in Pleasantview blog, only it will be simpler, because I'm just not good at keeping track of the number of wants fulfilled.  There won't be any scoring, I'm just going to fulfill as many of the wants (including LTWs) in each house as possible within the week of play, and I'll blog about it.  I like this way of playing, because they get to write their own story based on their wants.


I'm not going to "cheat," although that's pretty much not a problem for me since I play a lot of challenges.  If I do cheat, I'll at least be open and honest and tell you about it. ;)  I have several hacks and mods, but none of them are blatantly making the game easier, just less annoying, and in some cases make the game harder.

I don't plan on filling up the neighborhood with a lot of offspring (like I usually do).  If they have a specific want for a baby, then I will probably let them try, or I'll at least set their ideal family size (for that sim only) for one more child than they already have.  Adoption will be out, unless there is a sim kid that got taken away that I want to save.  I already played the first family, and adoption (annoyingly) did not fulfill the baby want.  Since this is about fulfilling their desires, adoption doesn't work.  Unless I can find a fix, there's no need to adopt.  Those poor, poor orphans. :(

I won't make them earn skill points unless they want a skill, or have a want for a promotion or scholarship.  I suppose that a LTW also counts, if they want to Max All Skills or get to the top of a certain career.  They can autonomously choose to skill (like painting, etc.)

If they don't have a want for college (or fear of not going) they won't go.  If they don't have the current want for college, but have wanted (and have earned) scholarships, I might still send them.

Romance sims and other sims who want to woohoo 20 people might suffer a bit, as I really don't like to play that way.  They have ACR, so they can use that if they wish.  I'll try not to interfere, but I doubt I'll help.

I'm not quite sure what to do about marriage, so I'll have to figure it out as I go.  I probably won't make a Romance sim marry unless they roll a want for it.

So basically, (except for the mistreated Romance sims) this is about doing what they want, and not what I want.  Unless they want it, or it's a basic need, I won't make them do it.

Meanwhile, each house will get the makeover it so desperately needs.  I'll make sure that they have the same money and basically the same furnishings they started with, but a better-looking house. I plan on posting the house makeovers on my Sims 2 Lots blog.