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Update: new household!

Welcome back to Mesa Vista and our first visit to Payton Cameron aka Ringo after his quick move-in/move-out during Steve Burns’ week.

I’m referring to him as just Ringo for now because there are way too many Camerons in my hood, between the deceased Neil Cameron, LaShawn Cameron and who knows how many others, plus Mesa Vista’s first alien abductee Camryn Lee, seen in the last update as well.
“That is a lot of Camerons, man.”

I have a lot of downloaded houses too, but sometimes none fit the bill. Ringo’s is my run-down version of one of the small Maxis Downtown houses packaged from another hood, then placed off the beaten path in Mesa Vista, away from prying eyes.
“Keepin’ a low profile, I'm down with that,” Ringo concurred, tapping the deck delicately to test its solidity. “Hey, these aren’t steel-toed shoes! Whoa, what’s that?”

Ringo was always on the lookout for the next motherlode, so naturally he was curious to see what the crop of large rocks at the edge of his lot might yield.

“Eureka?”
Okay, at §25 a bucket, the term motherlode was a bit of an exaggeration for the various crude ores Ringo discovered in the rocks, but it also raised his Body skill, necessary for his current job.
Miner’s Crafting Station found at Plumb Bob Keep: http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=240&t=6612

Mining was also stinky work. Ringo was already a Bagman in the Criminal career, but a life of crime wasn’t in his blood. What he wanted was money, and lots of it.

It was also the reason he invested quite a chunk of his initial funds in the solar panels on his roof instead of a fancier place. His Fortune perks were selected over Needs, and it was already paying off on his first day.

Now that I’m playing so many families, I’m perfectly willing to leave the cleaning in some of them up to free will. I’m kind of looking forward to seeing various degrees of squalor, but Ringo’s wasn’t going to be one of them. Despite a lack of Neat points, he was a pretty tidy fellow.
(Gemini 3/7/8/3/3)

Skulking back from work like a thief in the night, er, which he was.

Hah, but Brittany Wendland from the bowling alley still managed to find him!
“Hey, long time no see!”

“I’m happy to see you again.”
No need to play coy - these two seemed to be made for each other.

A quick date at The Dugout…

And back home, it was confession time.
“Before this goes any further, I gotta keep it real, man. I’m not the straightest arrow in town.”

But did Brittany Wendland mind?

Apparently not.


Nosiree

Bob.

While Brittany made a post-wooital pot of Mac n Cheese, I was trying to decide whether or not to let her keep her LTW to become a Criminal Mastermind. On one hand I liked the idea since it would certainly explain why she wasn’t bothered by what Ringo did for a living, but on the other, my plan for them was to let them have a passel of children left to run wild, such as only issue commands according to their wants, or limit the number of commands per day, and see how well they do.

So, in keeping with my preferred method of using vanilla means over mods, Brittany used up three Senso Orbs’ worth of LTW rerolls between her native Fortune and perhaps changing her to Family. I found all the possible LTWs by aspiration on Sims Wiki, and darned if the same few LTWs in Mesa Vista showed up time and time again. Then I broke out the Sim Blender and cycled through the available LTWs with the same limited results, so I figured it must be a mod, and sure enough, I had installed Pescado’s ltwvariety hack, which ironically stifled the variety. For three RL years! In theory it was a great idea, but apparently no one in Mesa Vista had the temperament or interests to trigger the Dance, Law, Law Enforcement, Military and Adventure LTWs.
So, I got rid of that mod and the normal LTWs for Fortune and Family became options again. Hallelujah and urgh, about effing time!

Still, topping the Dance career didn’t seem to suit my plans for Brittany and in the end she kept her Fortune aspiration and selected Family secondary. She then re-rolled and got the LTW to marry off six children, which according to the Wiki is entirely possible, so for now I’m sticking with that.

Ringo wondered if there were any other places in the area for some gold prospecting on a larger scale, perhaps even an old mine or something…

Why yes, yes there was...
Another imaginative and really cool lot dreamed up by Little Nemo/Twilightoutside. He builds, tests and shares, and I happily show ‘em off – a deal I’ll take any day!

Ringo descended the steep gravel path and discovered to his surprise the iron gate at the entrance of the mineshaft was unlocked. Yes, this would do. It would do nicely…

Meanwhile, Brittany made her own little discovery…

And this was when she knew Ringo was a keeper.

Brittany now knew what she wanted, and hoped he wanted the same. She slipped the Re-Nu-Yu Porta-Chug out of her backpack for courage…


Say hello to Mesa Vista’s first happy three-bolt couple.
(Zach Adams and Kerie Ng had three bolts, but they were neither happy nor a couple…)

“When do you want to tie the knot?”
“How does now sound?”
“Sounds great!”

Ringo even came with 60s Beatle-esque formalwear <3

Ringo took Brittany’s name, becoming a Wendland too.

Look at you, just like any other legit “business”man on the way to the office.
“It’s called the Art of Con, man.”

Ringo rolled a want for a ceiling fan and Brittany one for a sculpture, so here we have their cozied-up bedroom. The couple seemed to like their home and took good care of it, and it was starting to grow on me too despite the really dated décor I selected for it.

I love Brittany’s new look, but discovered she has one of the broken face templates. She won’t be elderfying anytime soon, but I’d appreciate any pointers on what can be done about it.

“I’d love to come help at the mine, but for now I think I should take it easy and hold down Fort Wendland instead.”
“Don’t sweat it, Brit. You and the baby come first.”
“But you go, I’ll be fine.”

Ringo stopped to buy a cell phone on the way to the mine in case Brittany needed to reach him, and then worked long into the night extracting buckets of ore ahead of the grand opening.

Other things for sale were some pretty impressive geodes found in the steep mountainside, along with what I’m calling petrified wood.

And then Ringo’s Eureka Mine was open for business!

Zach and his outerwear fit right in there.

The store did have some routing issues, but there was still a little more room for expansion, which we’ll definitely do when Ringo opens up shop again.

The bookcase held books for sale on mining.

I haven’t seen strays at a community lot for ages, but of course Sake had to show up this time to throw an even bigger monkey wrench into maneuvering around the tiny store.
Shoo, kitty, go outside and play.
“fine i go right meow”
Wow, that was easy.

Aha! For once, an AEW being useful – I give her a star for that!

It was getting difficult maneuvering and running a one-man show, especially when you counted mining for the buckets of ore.
Eureka Mine only reached Rank 1, and that’s where Ringo would leave it until he expanded the store.

Meanwhile at Fort Wendland...



“Hey sweets, I’m back!”

And just in the nick of time, too!
(D’OH, the community lot wedding/engagement ring glitch!)

“Wait, what happened to her wedding ring?”
We just went over this!
“Oh. Right. Breathe, baby, breathe!”
*pant eyeroll pant*

The Wendlands had a baby boy, and they named him George…

As promised, here is the first of four NPC community lots earned with the Burns household.
This is the Mesa Vista Medical Clinic, a gussied-up version of Phaenoh’s created for her version of the Apocalypse Challenge, found at MTS.

Second is the Mesa Vista Fire Brigade, inspired by a Salt Lake Fire Station I found on Google images.

Third is the Mesa Vista Police Department, another rehab job, this time of Precinct 13 by goodandgone at MTS (just realized I need to switch it to a community lot).
I’m digging the Greek letters representing M and V, I’ll have to put them on the medical clinic too.

Fourth and last, the Mesa Vista Bus Stop, actually a little more than a stop and a lot less than a depot. Heck, might as well put the letters there too!

“Say goodbye to all the nice readers, George.”
“Ghhhh”
Close enough :)
BaCC quick stats:
Playable Sims: 76 (75 + 1 grave) added Brittany and baby George
Sim Multiplier: 33 (+1 for 30th community lot)
Population: 2508 (squeaking past the 5% mark!)
Next planned update: the Goodies.
Thanks for reading and Happy Simming!

Welcome back to Mesa Vista and our first visit to Payton Cameron aka Ringo after his quick move-in/move-out during Steve Burns’ week.

I’m referring to him as just Ringo for now because there are way too many Camerons in my hood, between the deceased Neil Cameron, LaShawn Cameron and who knows how many others, plus Mesa Vista’s first alien abductee Camryn Lee, seen in the last update as well.
“That is a lot of Camerons, man.”

I have a lot of downloaded houses too, but sometimes none fit the bill. Ringo’s is my run-down version of one of the small Maxis Downtown houses packaged from another hood, then placed off the beaten path in Mesa Vista, away from prying eyes.
“Keepin’ a low profile, I'm down with that,” Ringo concurred, tapping the deck delicately to test its solidity. “Hey, these aren’t steel-toed shoes! Whoa, what’s that?”

Ringo was always on the lookout for the next motherlode, so naturally he was curious to see what the crop of large rocks at the edge of his lot might yield.

“Eureka?”
Okay, at §25 a bucket, the term motherlode was a bit of an exaggeration for the various crude ores Ringo discovered in the rocks, but it also raised his Body skill, necessary for his current job.
Miner’s Crafting Station found at Plumb Bob Keep: http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=240&t=6612

Mining was also stinky work. Ringo was already a Bagman in the Criminal career, but a life of crime wasn’t in his blood. What he wanted was money, and lots of it.

It was also the reason he invested quite a chunk of his initial funds in the solar panels on his roof instead of a fancier place. His Fortune perks were selected over Needs, and it was already paying off on his first day.

Now that I’m playing so many families, I’m perfectly willing to leave the cleaning in some of them up to free will. I’m kind of looking forward to seeing various degrees of squalor, but Ringo’s wasn’t going to be one of them. Despite a lack of Neat points, he was a pretty tidy fellow.
(Gemini 3/7/8/3/3)

Skulking back from work like a thief in the night, er, which he was.

Hah, but Brittany Wendland from the bowling alley still managed to find him!
“Hey, long time no see!”

“I’m happy to see you again.”
No need to play coy - these two seemed to be made for each other.

A quick date at The Dugout…

And back home, it was confession time.
“Before this goes any further, I gotta keep it real, man. I’m not the straightest arrow in town.”

But did Brittany Wendland mind?

Apparently not.


Nosiree

Bob.

While Brittany made a post-wooital pot of Mac n Cheese, I was trying to decide whether or not to let her keep her LTW to become a Criminal Mastermind. On one hand I liked the idea since it would certainly explain why she wasn’t bothered by what Ringo did for a living, but on the other, my plan for them was to let them have a passel of children left to run wild, such as only issue commands according to their wants, or limit the number of commands per day, and see how well they do.

So, in keeping with my preferred method of using vanilla means over mods, Brittany used up three Senso Orbs’ worth of LTW rerolls between her native Fortune and perhaps changing her to Family. I found all the possible LTWs by aspiration on Sims Wiki, and darned if the same few LTWs in Mesa Vista showed up time and time again. Then I broke out the Sim Blender and cycled through the available LTWs with the same limited results, so I figured it must be a mod, and sure enough, I had installed Pescado’s ltwvariety hack, which ironically stifled the variety. For three RL years! In theory it was a great idea, but apparently no one in Mesa Vista had the temperament or interests to trigger the Dance, Law, Law Enforcement, Military and Adventure LTWs.
So, I got rid of that mod and the normal LTWs for Fortune and Family became options again. Hallelujah and urgh, about effing time!

Still, topping the Dance career didn’t seem to suit my plans for Brittany and in the end she kept her Fortune aspiration and selected Family secondary. She then re-rolled and got the LTW to marry off six children, which according to the Wiki is entirely possible, so for now I’m sticking with that.

Ringo wondered if there were any other places in the area for some gold prospecting on a larger scale, perhaps even an old mine or something…

Why yes, yes there was...
Another imaginative and really cool lot dreamed up by Little Nemo/Twilightoutside. He builds, tests and shares, and I happily show ‘em off – a deal I’ll take any day!

Ringo descended the steep gravel path and discovered to his surprise the iron gate at the entrance of the mineshaft was unlocked. Yes, this would do. It would do nicely…

Meanwhile, Brittany made her own little discovery…

And this was when she knew Ringo was a keeper.

Brittany now knew what she wanted, and hoped he wanted the same. She slipped the Re-Nu-Yu Porta-Chug out of her backpack for courage…


Say hello to Mesa Vista’s first happy three-bolt couple.
(Zach Adams and Kerie Ng had three bolts, but they were neither happy nor a couple…)

“When do you want to tie the knot?”
“How does now sound?”
“Sounds great!”

Ringo even came with 60s Beatle-esque formalwear <3

Ringo took Brittany’s name, becoming a Wendland too.

Look at you, just like any other legit “business”man on the way to the office.
“It’s called the Art of Con, man.”

Ringo rolled a want for a ceiling fan and Brittany one for a sculpture, so here we have their cozied-up bedroom. The couple seemed to like their home and took good care of it, and it was starting to grow on me too despite the really dated décor I selected for it.

I love Brittany’s new look, but discovered she has one of the broken face templates. She won’t be elderfying anytime soon, but I’d appreciate any pointers on what can be done about it.

“I’d love to come help at the mine, but for now I think I should take it easy and hold down Fort Wendland instead.”
“Don’t sweat it, Brit. You and the baby come first.”
“But you go, I’ll be fine.”

Ringo stopped to buy a cell phone on the way to the mine in case Brittany needed to reach him, and then worked long into the night extracting buckets of ore ahead of the grand opening.

Other things for sale were some pretty impressive geodes found in the steep mountainside, along with what I’m calling petrified wood.

And then Ringo’s Eureka Mine was open for business!

Zach and his outerwear fit right in there.

The store did have some routing issues, but there was still a little more room for expansion, which we’ll definitely do when Ringo opens up shop again.

The bookcase held books for sale on mining.

I haven’t seen strays at a community lot for ages, but of course Sake had to show up this time to throw an even bigger monkey wrench into maneuvering around the tiny store.
Shoo, kitty, go outside and play.
“fine i go right meow”
Wow, that was easy.

Aha! For once, an AEW being useful – I give her a star for that!

It was getting difficult maneuvering and running a one-man show, especially when you counted mining for the buckets of ore.
Eureka Mine only reached Rank 1, and that’s where Ringo would leave it until he expanded the store.

Meanwhile at Fort Wendland...



“Hey sweets, I’m back!”

And just in the nick of time, too!
(D’OH, the community lot wedding/engagement ring glitch!)

“Wait, what happened to her wedding ring?”
We just went over this!
“Oh. Right. Breathe, baby, breathe!”
*pant eyeroll pant*

The Wendlands had a baby boy, and they named him George…

As promised, here is the first of four NPC community lots earned with the Burns household.
This is the Mesa Vista Medical Clinic, a gussied-up version of Phaenoh’s created for her version of the Apocalypse Challenge, found at MTS.

Second is the Mesa Vista Fire Brigade, inspired by a Salt Lake Fire Station I found on Google images.

Third is the Mesa Vista Police Department, another rehab job, this time of Precinct 13 by goodandgone at MTS (just realized I need to switch it to a community lot).
I’m digging the Greek letters representing M and V, I’ll have to put them on the medical clinic too.

Fourth and last, the Mesa Vista Bus Stop, actually a little more than a stop and a lot less than a depot. Heck, might as well put the letters there too!

“Say goodbye to all the nice readers, George.”
“Ghhhh”
Close enough :)
BaCC quick stats:
Playable Sims: 76 (75 + 1 grave) added Brittany and baby George
Sim Multiplier: 33 (+1 for 30th community lot)
Population: 2508 (squeaking past the 5% mark!)
Next planned update: the Goodies.
Thanks for reading and Happy Simming!
no subject
Date: 2015-04-05 09:47 am (UTC)Payton aka Ringo seems like a sweetie, regardless of his job. And he found a sweetheart right away, too, hooray. :) I think Brittany suits him well.
It's always fun seeing your different businesses, and Eureka Mine is another fun idea! :) I wish lots of success for it in the future.
Welcome to the neighborhood, little George! I'm sure you'll be a lot of fun when you grow up.
The community lots are looking great, and they fit the neighborhood so well! Great work!
As for broken face templates:
I've fixed one once, but it's been a while... Anyway, there's a download at MATY (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=5b2209c139519cfb4d366a179aa0c5b1&topic=9028.0) (the first attached file, the second is an unlocked pollitech face template) that fixes any new sims made from those templates. Unfortunately it doesn't help with sims generated before the fix was in your Downloads folder. But there's a fix that you can do in SimPE.
Basically, you put the fix in your Downloads folder, then put an extra sim in your 'hood: one made from the now fixed template. Then you go into SimPE and use "sim surgery" to copy the facial structure of the new sim onto the old sim, and that should fix this sim and any children he or she has after the operation.
Any children had before will have inherited the broken features, so the same fix is needed for them, but I'm not sure how to figure out what the child should be looking like. I suppose one way to go about it would be making the template sim by breeding the parents in CAS: you don't necessarily get a sim looking exactly like the particular kid would have looked like, but at least one who looks like *a* kid by those parents.
Unfortunately I don't remember exactly how to find the relevant options in SimPE, only that the feature used is called sim surgery. In any case, if you decide to try it, best take a backup first.
I hope that helps at least a little. :) There's also some discussion on that MATY thread, although some of it is quite technical.
Edit: I found the tutorial I used for the SimPE trick back then, it's this one (http://www.insimenator.org/index.php?topic=84275.0;wap2). It's old, so it looks like there are no pictures anymore, but hopefully the text is helpful. Also, differing from the tutorial, best not to delete the template sim in the end as you probably know, it's not good for the 'hood. :)
no subject
Date: 2015-04-14 04:05 am (UTC)Thank you also for all the info pointing me in the right direction for fixing the broken face templates!
no subject
Date: 2015-04-05 05:38 pm (UTC)Katri already beat me to the solution for facial borkedness, so I'll just say that I love Mesa Vista updates and I'm looking forward to the next one. :)
no subject
Date: 2015-04-14 04:16 am (UTC)So looking forward to playing the little ragamuffins in this family!
I'm happy you love Mesa Vista. I love Ruth's too :) Old Adam is my favorite elder ever! I hope we get an update soon.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-06 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-14 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-09 08:37 am (UTC)About Pescado's LTW mod, I removed that too. It basically made everyone in the family have the same LTW, and I'm pretty sure that's what caused my teens to not roll the First Kiss want anymore, among other suspected side effects.
I tried Squinge's any LTW for any aspiration next, but that didn't turn out to be so nice either.
In the end, the original LTW system is still better than any mod I know of :/ I'm now avoiding any mod that has to do with wants, as it's such a complex architecture of triggers and want types, better not mess with it at all.
(Actually I'm giving another try to Squinge's added uni career LTW's, supposedly it only enables those careers to be the subject of a LTW like any "top x career". Hopefully, it doesn't come with hidden features too.)
About Brittany (nice make-over, btw!), katrisims said it all. I'm actually happy with having the fix for my future 21&25 faces. The sims already affected just suffer from a rare genetic disease that is not lethal and has been eradicated, although it's incurable for them (in my game anyway^^).
(PS: You should totally plaster big fat "MV"'s everywhere in town, I know I would XD I mean, Mesa Vista citizens can be nothing but proud of their community!)
no subject
Date: 2015-04-14 04:37 am (UTC)Totally agree with you on the LTWs, including trying the Uni LTW mod!
Yeah, I think George is suffering from that rare genetic disease as well :( ;)
Yep, gonna put MVs on all public lots :D