After studying for and taking a couple of deferred exams (Latin 2 and Alexander the Great) there were only four days of break left to squeeze in some play before the new semester began. On top of that my computer had broken down beyond repair – dried paste or something, so it had to be on my laptop, limiting the framerate … everything took up more sim-hours than normal and could only be played on speed 1 for that.
And so in the spirit of the studies I’d been doing and was about to continue, Classics and Ancient History, my fill-in-time save started in Sunset Valley and the family I created were named Atreus, like the ancient Greek family in the poet Homer’s epics Iliad and Odyssey. However, their names did not adhere to the generational or related order of those classics, just used here and there for fancy. My theory is if they are already historical and 3000 years in the past, then I feel its ok for them to expire in a video game … otherwise it gets too sad. They do get to be ghosts too, and their generations continue on.
I thought it would be fun for Homer to grow up with the Sunset Valley elite’s kids, and I consider the not-so-rich original residents are included as elite. So he was born in Create-A-Sim (CAS) and started in the game as a toddler. His mother Helen and father Dardanus were created in CAS, who then used the Play with Genetics option on the Add a Sim drop-up menu to create Homer. Helen and Dardanus were created as Adults instead of Young Adults, so they will expire soon enough to make way for focus on Homer’s generation. This way, while as hard as I tried not to, the parent sims whom I created were likely to look similar to people I know, their randomised combination in their child possibly would not, and they would soon look different themselves as elders.
Homer’s favourites turned out as classical music, spaghetti food and hot pink colour. I thought I remembered it being purple, but that was Dardanus’ favourite. Helen’s was yellow. His traits were picked as Eccentric and Family-Oriented. Dardanus’ were Athletic, Good Sense of Humor, Charismatic, Ambitious and Artistic. Helen’s were Disciplined, Natural Cook, Neat, Nurturing and Dramatic. Helen’s Life-Time-Wish was set as Celebrated Five-Star Chef, so she can achieve the Minus-1 fridge reward, and Dardanus’ was Major Master: 3 degrees – at least one will go to university anyway to earn scholarships and build skills on free time, and this wish meant he could choose any career, not need to reach the top of it, and change it if we want.
Stories and Such 