Secrets of Forgotten Island

Warning: boring long ranty post about myself. May not be interesting for anyone other than me.

I’m a very goal oriented person, so I used to have a lot of difficulty with the Sims 2. Well, actually, when the game first came out, I loved it. There were no goals, so I could play with freedom and follow sims’ wants, and generally have a lot of fun.

That changed with University - suddenly there were “lifetime wants” - achievable end goals that I just had to complete! I started pushing my sims hard - not a toddler became a child without getting at least 8 Charisma points, and by the time a sim had reached halfway through being a teenager, they had A+s, 8 points in every area, and were getting a job so that they could become an overachiever.

I played like this for a while, and then became relatively bored - and then became fascinated by watching my sims do weird things, and really letting randomness take over (the game is pretty random anyway). I’d allocate my sims personalities (although occasionally they’d do things that were out of character).

At this point, I still had relatively little CC, and late last year, decided that the brokenness of the game was too much for me, and started downloading hacks  (I’d only really downloaded CC/hacks very sporadically up until this point). Then I started reading other people’s sims stories, and discovered that other people had fascinating ways to play their games - lots of people were randomising things (which I found really helped my gameplay), and then I discovered The Isle of Thyme, and economic integration (I’d run several businesses, and had quite happily let sims live off the profits of these - but I’d never thought of having this all completely within the hood).

Anyway, I decided to change my playstyle a bit - it’s much more interesting to have sims buying things from each other. But my biggest inspirations really came from Zazazu (from MATY), and her system of randomising, and Strand Island (by Lion, who is also a regular poster on MATY).

I decided to set up a hood where people could only live off the items that they’d bought from each other. Furthermore, I’d randomise EVERYTHING. (That way I couldn’t make all my sims be perfect A+ students - they’d have to find other ways of getting through life). Obviously not everything is randomised, but as much as I can manage is…

I also decided that Maxis jobs were generally too easy for sims to earn money. I now apply a dice roll to see if sims will be allowed to get a Maxis job (weighted so that only 10% can - I may revise this later), and if not, they are forced to earn money some other way. I also attempt not to let sims earn money from the Void (so no selling paintings/craftables/harvest to invisibility). I have allowed one exception to this - the Genie lamp. It’s magical anyway, so I guess they can have money from it. (I also allow them to get inheritances from death, because I decided it would be too difficult to regulate it and stop it some other way).

On top of this, I don’t like giving the sims free rides (much like in Strand Island - linked to earlier), and so I’m adding my own tax on top of the normal bills that come with the game. The game is boring if they have too much money, and it’s too easy for them to get there. They are allowed the $20,000 when they first move to the island, but they must pay it back completely within the first year, or else there is a hefty interest attached. I haven’t quite decided how I’m allocating taxes yet, but I think I’ll charge them each season. I want them to struggle, dammit! Having very little money made it nigh impossible to decorate or build houses, but I’m okay with that. Once Forgotten Island gets on its feet, they’ll be able to decorate their houses. But only with things they’ve bought from other businesses, or are willing to sell themselves…

Four families is really not enough for a neighbourhood to grow from (especially as it’s townieless), so I’ll be rolling and adding a few more families at the end of the first sim week. I may add some pets too (although I did really hate that EP, it might be nice to USE it for something!)

I’ve also decided to be flexible with my rules - if something isn’t working for me, I’ll drop it. But I’m going to endeavour to stick with it this way as best I can. (Previous hoods have suffered from me sticking too strongly to the rules, and then I get bored and don’t want to play).

Also, I must say that I love plasticbox. With all my heart. Every house on Forgotten Island is made by plasticbox, with hardly any changes thus far.

And it looks like I’m on a 3 day updating schedule, through no decision of my own.

Boring rant ends now.