Thing 75: Genetic Musings of the Desultory Kind.

As part of the Day Zero Project, one of the things on my list is to play through a family on Sims 3 ... but through 20 generations. Most of my progress with the DZP will be tracked through my other blog,  The Desultory Housewife, but as this was a goal concerning games I felt it was more fitting to post about it here.

But back to the goal. 20 generations. That is a lot of game time in the Sims 3. My record is only eight generations, and even that was trying my patience. For the record, I am keeping their lifespans set to normal, with only slight extensions on the sliders for adulthood. I am not a point keeper for legacy challenges, and I am not using any cheats. The family I've chosen for the challenge, so far, hasn't reached that boring point, but that's probably only because everyone is diverse enough that I'm able to keep my interest up and not get bored.

 The founder, Duncan Polk, started with a big empty lot, no money, a nothing but a dream. His temporary wife (who broke his heart and left him with two small children) almost broke that dream, but he pulled through, becoming a great scientist and thinker, and has now passed the torch on to his son and heir so that he can rest peacefully in that great neighborhood in the sky.

Meebo, gen2

His son Meebo is a fantastic gardener, and most of the family's income is derived from the sale of his produce. I realized while playing this sim that the gardener career becomes exponentially more and more difficult to level, because each level requires you to pretty much reach what you've made cumulatively in sales already.  50k worth of vegetables is a lot of times spent in the dirt.

Lana, gen2

Here is Meebo's sister, Lana. She's a writer and a painter, and I'm debating moving her out of the house as it's getting a bit full. Turns out royalties from books are a great way to make money, so between the seven or so books she's written and the occasional painting, she proves to be a good asset to the family's bank account, which in a house as large as theirs, is a very very good thing. There's always something broken or something that needs remodeling. Yes, I said it. NEEDS remodeling. Because, you know, that wall just has to go.

Kesha, gen2; and Pascal, gen3

Next are Meebo's wife and son-in-law, Kesha and Pascal. Kesha was Meebo's highschool sweetheart, and I was thrilled when I was able to get them to agree to marriage. Pascal came over from France, and while he's in the military now, his dream is to one day have a thriving nectary. They both enjoy pursuits of the mind, so they often play chess together on fine summer days (which, coincidentally enough, it is always a fine summer day in Appaloosa).

Mio, gen3

Meebo has two daughters. The eldest, Mio, is married to Pascal, and is a great equestrian. Her two horses, Cameo, and Cascade's First Cameo, are both prize winners, and she spends every day training them to be better racers and jumpers. Here we see her with Cascade's First when she was just a little filly.  It's actually kind of a good thing that the house is full right now and Mio can't have any children with Pascal, because the horses are a handful! One of the interesting things I noticed with Mio is that genetic traits in the Sims 3 can skip a generation. I gave Duncan yellow eyes as a genetic marker, just to see how it was passed down, and while it skipped Meebo, Mio has them. It looks like my Sims are doomed to be blondes though, as Meebo got his mother's blonde hair, and Kesha is blonde, and Mio and Satele are both blonde as well. Pascal is a brunette, so maybe there is hope yet for some darker hair, but I'm pretty sure Duncan's spitfire red hair, which only Lana seems to have inherited, will be lost forever. Mio will be the next heir, and the family name also changed to Morel with her marriage to Pascal. No more Polk :(

Satele, gen3

Meebo's younger daughter is Satele. She's only in grade school right now, but one day she hopes to be a great martial artist and athlete. Here we see her doing her homework under the watchful gaze of her grandfather's portrait. She is a dedicated student, and if I'm able to keep her in the house and not move her out to make room for heirs I'll probably send her on adventures overseas to participate in martial arts tournaments and collect rare treasures. Maybe. Don't know. She's kind of whiny right now, so she's getting on my nerves.

They also have a dog and a cat, Tiffany the beagle and Gilbert the cat. Gilbert is getting pretty up there in age, and I think he might go to be with Duncan soon. Tiffany is a proud hunter, and brings home jewels and bones and rare stones every day.

I will probably post an update once I get to generation 6 or something like that. Hopefully my save won't corrupt or anything.

Crop Circles

Tonight I received and filled my first farming order, thanks to a referral from a wonderful kinmate. I was growing Blueberries for one of Gladden's busiest cooks, and noticed something odd about my plants....

I have made crop circles. Literally. Woot for me.

Agriculturally Speaking

Out of all my nine characters in LotRO, only two of them are farmers. There is good reason for that, as farming is probably the most tedious and time-consuming of crafts. It's not difficult or even very expensive, it just takes a very, very, very long time. I have already reached Supreme Master Farmer with Indrabar, and so if I need something grown, I try to let Thyrra do it, since she's still pretty low.

The only problem is, the last time I went farming, something scary was watching me:

Just kidding. The rabbit belongs to me. I had him out because when I took this picture was taken he was the only fluffy, non-combat pet I had. Plus it seemed appopriate to have a rabbit in the fields, even if he is terribly scurry looking. His name is NastyPointyTeeth, because I don't really like rabbits. Because they are scary... and that is all I am going to say about that.

Last night they updated some of the different crafts (thank you Turbine!) and my sis learned how to farm. I don't think she likes it very much....

She's not actually doing in this pic other than standing there looking cool. I think I was explaining farming to her. Notice I have a new pet too - no more rabbits yay! This is my turtle Nanu. He's kind of ugly ^.^

One of the aspects they changed about farming yesterday was that certain ingredients which before could only be bought from suppliers and vendors (at a very expensive price!) can now be only grown by farmers (for much cheaper!). One of those things which can be grown is the Shire Apple:

See? This is the first apple tree I ever grew. I am very proud of it. Sis was too, she cheered for me and my tree.

I don't know what I'm bragging about, actually. It's not any more difficult to grow an apple tree than it is to grow anything else, the apple is just unique in that it actually looks like a tree. Everything else, and I mean everything, looks like some strange grain. Whether you are growing cabbages, carrots, or tobacco, it will look like the same strange plant. Apple trees actually look like trees, for which I am thankful. Maybe one day Turbine will change the appearance of all the vegetables so that what you are growing actually corresponds to what it looks like you are growing.

The Farming Loop

To help out a fellow kinmate last night, I offered to make him some Bundles of Tea Leaves, which he would then give to someone else to make Cups of Red Tea for him to use - they offer a nice Vitality boost which can be very helpful before a rough battle.

It also didn't hurt that I hadn't gained any experience in Supreme Farmer yet and that growing this tea for him would give me a good amount of points.

So I bought 100 Tea seeds, some fertilizer and some water, and headed out to the field in the Shire. It was raining, but that was okay - I tried to think that instead of getting soaked it was helping the little tea plants grow.

I use 5 seeds for every plant, and each plant has the possibility to give me all sorts of items in return. The two main items I get though are the Poor Tea and Fair Tea Crops. After harvesting all my tea plants, I take these poor and fair crops to the nearest workbench to transform them into the Tea Bundles, and amazingly enough, more seeds.

So, 100 seed, 5 seeds per plant, that's 20 plants. Only, each plant can sometimes spit out up to five of each of the two types of crops. Which means, when I take those plants back to the workbench and separate them, I suddenly, instead of having no seeds in my bag, have 38 seeds. Hooray. That means I can go out and plant some more!

So I go back out (after buying two more seeds to make it an even eight possible plants) and plant my second batch of tea. This time I come out with 27 new tea seeds. So I buy three more and go again. This time I come out with 13 seeds. So I buy two more and go again. This time I come out with 7 seeds.

At this point I realized that I was caught in the vicious French Fry/Ketchup loop. You know, the one where you order some fries, and in the process of eating those fries, you run out of ketchup, so you get more ketchup to try and even it out, but then you finish your fries and you still have ketchup, and you hate wasting ketchup, so you go get more fries, but then you run out of ketchup.... you get the idea.

So yeah. I looked at those seven seeds, looked at that muddy field I'd been standing in for two hours, and then walked up to the little farmer hobbit standing near the field. Instead of buying more seeds to even it out (so I could plant *gasp* more tea plants) I sold those seven little seeds back to him and called it a night.

I escaped the cycle, but I think I might have wasted some ketchup.