AwesomeMod and Twallan's Story Progression

Okay, well there have been some changes to my plan for playing Sunset Valley.  First of all, I realized that I didn't have AwesomeMod installed correctly, because when I switched houses, I could see that Miraj Alvi had aged to teen.  After spending over a day at it, I was able to figure out how to install it correctly, as well as installing all the expansion packs (and get all the stupid patches they required installed correctly) which I received for my birthday.  I hadn't planned on getting the expansions, but I admit they add a great deal and make Sims 3 much more fun than it was initially.  Then I found Twallan's Story Progression mods, and so I have been playing around with a test neighborhood.

What I think I've finally settled on is to play in the TS2 style, but with the story progression part (Twallen's) turned on.  That keeps the non-active households actually doing things, but not aging unless their house is being played.  And this is a little complex to fine tune, but just as fun as can be.  They still have to go about their lives, earning a living.  Since most sims in my test neighborhood didn't have jobs or the option of getting new jobs, you could see them out collecting things, fishing, etc.  If they had easels, they were consigning their paintings at the consignment shop.  And the most fun was with the relationship drama - many relationships had completely changed by the time I made the full rotation of the neighborhood.  I guess if I had been really attached to a family, it might have been sad.  But it is funny to me, as I would get updates of what was happening in the neighborhood at other houses.  So, as I play Sunset Valley, I will now be using some of the features of both AwesomeMod and Twallan's Story Progression, etc.

Oh, if you are having base game incompatibility problems with the Launcher like I was, this post on the Sims 3 forum was what had the answer for me.

The Andrews - Round 1 / The Hopeless Romantic and the Gold Digger

Welcome to the Andrews' family, who live in this Mission-style home.

The Andrews family consists of a married couple, Beau and Victoria.

When I first arrive, Victoria is already at work at Doo Peas Corporate Tower as a Freelance Writer.  Beau is home because he's unemployed, and he is very hungry.



Beau is a big guy, and he wants pizza at 8 a.m.

Luckily for him, the pizza place will deliver pizza for breakfast, no questions asked.



Beau has a wish to learn more about cooking, so while he's waiting for the pizza to arrive, he reads Cooking Vol. 1: Too Much Salt! 

Beau has one good thing going for him, his sense of humor.  Other than that, he's a wreak in the personality department.   He likes custom music, loves cookies, and loves the color yellow.



Victoria wanted a telescope, so buying it helped improve her mood at work.



It took awhile, but the pizza did finally arrive, much to Beau's relief. 

The pizza delivery guy's name is Torgo Pendragon.



Torgo must be neurotic or something, because he freaked out about something when the paper girl arrived.  Maybe it's the lack of child labor laws that's upsetting him.  Not only does poor little Cora Francisco have to deliver the newspaper every day, but she also has no family.

At first I had Victoria accept the opportunity, but she didn't end up going through with it.

Her lifetime wish is to be a Star News Anchor, and so I thought it would be best for her not to jeopardize her career.  I think if her boss Connor Frio were to find out, she might get fired.



Beau had a little prod from me to get his rather ample posterior off the couch and go out and meet people.  He met Gus Hart and talked to him for awhile.

Gus Hart apparently works at the grocery store.  Beau loves groceries, so already they have a lot in common.

Gus is also Charismatic and Childish.



I'm not sure how he knows, but his neighbor across the street, Christopher Steel, has a new job.

Which is not that interesting, but oh well.



Xander Clavell who is a bagman in the criminal career also came by and chatted with them for awhile.

Before Victoria left work, she learned about her promotion to Professional Blogger.



She was so excited that she ran to her carpool.  She couldn't wait to get home to tell her dear husband.



But when she got home, he was gone.  While she waited for him, she decided to read some more of her book, a romance novel.  As a hopeless romantic, she loved reading romances.

Here are Victoria's traits.  Victoria also loves classical music, autumn salad, and violet is her favorite color.

As a bookworm, she has the ability to read faster than other sims.



Beau still wasn't home, so she called a friend, Bebe Hart.



Ironically, Bebe came walking by while she was on the phone with her.  It was weird since Bebe didn't have a phone in her hand, but Victoria was happy to get to talk to her for a few minutes in person.



When Victoria came back in, Beau was reading, which was kind of weird since Beau is not the reading type.  She decided not to disturb him.  Beau may just be innocently reading a book.  It's possible, but it seems unlikely because...

Beau is a Gold Digger and he really wants to see Victoria's ghost.  It now becomes much more sinister that he's reading a book about murder. I think it's sad that Victoria was so blind to the truth about her husband.  He may not actually want to kill her, but his fondest wish is to be alone with all her money.

Meanwhile, Victoria is blissfully ignorant to her husband's true feelings about her.  She is busy writing an article for work.



Since she could really use a mood boost, I decided to add a ficus to the dining room where she prefers to do her writing.



There, that's better.



As I was looking across the street, I noticed that Iqbal Alvi from my last update was paying a visit to Christopher Steel's house.  Maybe he's there to see if Christopher would like to go fishing.  I was just glad to see that Iqbal has made a friend.

Beau went back to his book on cooking, and he can now make pancakes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.Wow, he's a brilliant cook.



Beau had a wish to watch TV, and since they didn't have one, I decided to let him buy one.  Knowing Beau, I knew he would buy the most expensive one he could, and it took most of the money they had to buy it.



And he is so happy to have control of the remote.



But there wasn't much on TV right now, so he decided to find out what was going on in Sunset Valley.

He found out the chess tournament was going on right now.



So defying the laws of physics, Beau actually ran to Maywood Glen.

He really wanted to play chess.



But no one was there.  It looked like his efforts were in vain.



Victoria didn't even hear Beau leave.  She was very engrossed in her work.  She did really love her job, even though it took most of her time.



Finally, Monika Morris showed up to play chess.  Beau droned on and on about how he hated art and other inane things, and Monika really didn't say anything, but concentrated on the chess game.

Victoria had worked hard all day, and finally needed a rest from writing.



She went out and looked through her new telescope, which was very fun and relaxing after a long day.



Because Monika was concentrating instead of blathering, she had no trouble beating Beau in chess.  He wasn't very pleased.



But once the game was over, he decided to talk to her some more, and they had a good time for awhile.  I was getting concerned that he was too much into Monika.



They got along well until they started talking about his new TV, and how much he was enjoying sole control of the remote.  Monika agreed that having the remote was very important, and that she never shared the remote with anyone else either.



Well, that really upset him, because there was no way he could ever be friends with, or have a romantic interest in anyone that would try to take control of his remote.  He got very angry and irrational, which made no sense since he just barely met Monika, but that is just a big part of Beau's character - being inappropriate.



Beau went home to his first love - food.  Food never let him down or tried to steal the remote.



Then he got his rather large self into bed, hours after Victoria had given up and gone to bed alone.



A little while later it was time for Victoria to get up and start the whole process again.  It was time to go to work and support her wonderful husband.  Only a hopeless romantic like Victoria would feel she was in a happy, healthy relationship. 



It became suddenly apparent that she had forgotten one important thing yesterday - eating.  She was absolutely starving.



As she walked into the dining room with a cold slice of leftover pizza, I believe I saw a bit of doubt in her eyes.  It's as if she's wondering if life with Beau is really as good as she once imagined it was.