Princes of Gwynedd Round 1

I received the Pets expansion pack for Christmas, and since I wanted to play around with some features to decide the rules for the Completion Challenge and my current Completion Challenge hood is pretty packed tight, I decided to create a new character and start him out in the new neighborhood.  I really like Appalossa Plains!  It’s the first hood I’ve liked since Sunset Valley.  And it makes a perfect Wales.

Several of you might know that I wrote a fictional book for National Novel Writing Month in November.  My main male character is a vampire that was originally a Welsh prince from the 1200s.  I’ve been reading a lot of Welsh history books and other fictional books about relatives of my character.  There’s a really good book, Here Be Dragons, about my character’s great-grandfather, so I thought it might be fun to actually start back that far and work my way down through the generations to my main character.  For once I can be excited about moving through the generations.  Without further ado, I present my sims blog of the Princes of Gwynedd and my exploration of the Pets expansion pack.

Meet Llywelyn and his horse, Sul.

Llywelyn’s traits are equestrian, ambitious, brave, charismatic, and family oriented. His lifetime want is to become a jockey.  Of course real Llywelyn’s lifetime want should be to become the leader of the free world, but I’ve done that one and want to explore the new pets features, and Llywelyn was a great horseman.

Sul is a Welsh Cob and a very beautiful horse.  I intended to make the horse a boy but hit the wrong button, so now Sul is a girl horse. Her traits are genius, playful, and agile.

I’m playing this a bit like a historic challenge too.  My sim can only have things they would actually have in Wales in the 1200s.  Starting out, he’ll be camping as if he’s riding around the countryside on his horse.  Eventually he’ll build a house out of wood, that will eventually become a bit of a palace, but not like English palaces of the time.  I’m trying to make this as realistic as possible.  My sim can only eat food he grows himself or catches himself.  I might allow ‘trading’ for meat.  My sim cooks over a campfire, pees in the bushes, and bathes in the river (a hot tub set by a water feature river I created) for now.  Note that I’m not playing the whole neighborhood that way as evidence by the neighbor’s house above, but maybe I should have.

Llywelyn’s first goal is to head to the equestrian center to work on his riding skill and Sul’s racing and jumping skills.  Maybe he’ll meet some fellow horse-lovers there.

Things seem to be going well with this nice woman.  Make that VERY well.

These two hit it off from moment one!  And she even had a horse that Sul might be interested in.  Too bad you can’t tell when you meet another horse if it’s a male or female horse.  Unfortunately her horse died just a few days later

Llywelyn and Sul began entering racing competitions at the Equestrian Center.  I won’t bore you with the details of every race. I think we did one beginner race and then moved on to all advanced races after that.  Advanced races aren’t too hard.  My strategy was to do go for broke until Sul was in first, then steady pace.  We won reliably in every advanced race with that strategy.  Sul also quickly gained the fast trait.

I just love Sul so much!

It seems like they really did think of everything with this Pets EP.  Horses can drink from the river and graze on the grass texture.  I am impressed!

Something weird did happen.  Sofia, the girl that Will met and really hit it off with, would not come over no matter how many times he called her (yes, I’m using cell phones since there’s no ‘write an invitation and have a servant deliver it’ option).  I decided to have him go visit her at her house to see if he could improve their relationship.  They still hit it off just as well.  Llywelyn had his first kiss with her, asked her to be his girlfriend, and even had woohoo with her.

I saw something funny I’d never seen in game before.  The stride of pride from having woohoo on another lot.  So funny!

But calling Sofia, she still wouldn’t come over to his house!  Finally, I figured out what it was.  Sofia had become a vampire!!!  Llywelyn had always been calling to invite her over during the day.  This is incredibly ironic because my book is a vampire book, but I’m not supposed to have a vampire for another 4 generations.  LOL!  I decided to see if Llwelyn might like a different girl around town, but as you can see from the expression on his face in the next picture, he was very unhappy with any other girl trying to flirt with him. 

His eyes were for Sofia and Sofia only.  I decided to just go with this twist of fate.  I’ve never played with vampires in game yet, so why not.  Llywelyn asked her to move in with him.  I guess we’ll need to get started building that wooden house since Sofia needs shelter from the sunlight.

Guess what? Surprise! Sofia has a teenage son from another marriage and the son’s teenage girlfriend is living with them too.  Hmm, how would someone in the 1200s deal with this?  Well, I think we’ll keep the kids as servants.  We just got a gardener and a cook.

Time for some more beautiful pictures of ‘Wales’ and my favorite horse Sul.

This is my first Zenyatta, a magical horse gnome.  I was so excited when I got my first one as I love trying for all the different types of gnomes.  Little did I know that these Zenyatta overtake your whole game.  I had dozens of them on my lot before I finally decided to play with awesomemod again because I really hate playing without it.  Awesomemod automatically sells them for you.

I let Sofia keep an ex-boyfriend for feeding.  I thought ‘let her drain him.’

But then I learned that being fed on actually gives the donor a positive ‘donated blood’ moodlet.  Llywelyn was more than happy to donate to his girlfriend.

Llwelyn doesn’t care that she’s a vampire, so I guess I shouldn’t either.  Time to propose to her since Llwelyn is sure she’s the one.

Llywelyn needs to make money as a horsemen.  We were making good money in the races, but I thought I’d try adopting a horse and seeing if you could sell it for money.  Meet Missy, a random foal we adopted to sell.  Missy demonstrates a current glitch in the game.  Foals and any horse with a tail other than the medium length tail results in this plastic look to the horse.  Using the medium tail results in a much more beautiful, normal-looking horse.  I found a mod to fix this, but it gave me crash to desktop problems.  You’ll notice pictures going from the plastic-y look to the more beautiful look as I tried to figure this out.

I next decided to adopt a male horse to try to breed with Sul.  I am so excited for horse breeding!  Meet Pegasus.  I love him!  It reminds me of the Pegasus ponies in My Little Pony.  The game has unicorns, so why not Pegasus ponies?  I’m going to declare Pegasus a breed of horses.  He has a much different body shape.  I can actually picture wings on him. Pegasus’ traits are playful, neat, and untrained. Pegasus also gained the fast trait and agile trait very quickly.

And here’s Pegasus all grown-up.  Isn’t he handsome?  Not the difference between the create-a-pet picture and the in-game picture thanks to this stupid glitch.

Time to start training Missy to sell-off.

Llwelyn’s step-son asked him if he could go to the prom with his girlfriend.  LOL, I think Llwelyn asked him if he wanted to join his army instead.

I did let them go to the prom.  I felt a bit like the girl was Cinderella because I worked her straight up until it was time to leave for the dance before I’d finally let her change.  The teens did have a good time.

I did plan to keep Sofia a vampire and maybe even have vampire babies, but I got sick of her constantly needing to do things outside during the daylight with my set-up.  The toilet and bathing were outdoor only activities.  She wanted to help train the horses and garden but was stuck inside.  So she finally sought a medieval cure for her condition.

Seems like everyone in the household is thinking about romance right now.  Even Sul and Pegasus were finally ready for romantic interactions.

Sul got pregnant the first try.  I didn’t know that you can’t ride pregnant mares at all, not even right away.  So Llywelyn had to ride Pegasus for racing competitions for a while.

A foal was born a few days later.  Sul was named after the Welsh word for Sunday, so I thought I’d name her daughter after the Welsh word for Monday.  Meet Lluna.  Lluna is a Pegasus pony with a body shape like her father but the coloring of her mother.  I think she’s beautiful.  I have several shots here showing the difference in body type and coloring between the parents and Lluna.  I didn’t notice it at first, but if you look closely, Lluna has her mother’s mane and her father’s tail color.  Apparently the colors are inherited separately.  Her traits are genius, fast, and untrained.  Lluna has a close relationship with both of her parents and wants to be a champion racehorse like her parents someday.

More attack of the Zenyattas!  On a side note, the prom queen crown makes a great crown for royalty.

Here’s Sofia’s bachelorette party.  I know that isn’t very 13th century, but I’m still having fun exploring the features from Generations too.  I think it’s funny her stripper was a cowboy since this is a cowboy, rural themed neighborhood.

Llywelyn met a very nice family while he was at the Equestrian Center.  The adult horse on the left is Freebird Johnson.  I find her particularly beautiful.  I somewhat prefer the stockier body type like the Welsh Cob, and I love the reddish brown coloring.  She had a foal that looked very similar to her from what we could see, and Llywelyn learned that the foal was up for adoption.  Of course, we decided to adopt him right away.  Meet Andy.  Goodness, he has horrible traits (ornery, hates jumping, untrained), but we should be able to train those out, right?  Of note, the adult horse in the front is Willow Fox, another horse I’d love to breed mine with, but I’m not sure how to since she’s an owned female adult horse.  Anyone know if that’s even possible?

I think getting him when he was young so he could socialize with Lluna as a foal was a really good and cute idea.

Here’s Llywelyn and Sofia’s wedding.   It took me a while to finally have the wedding, but horse breeding and living historically is hard work!  I let the step-son and his girlfriend be best man and maid of honor since Llywelyn and Sofia haven’t really had much time for other friends.  Of interest, though, since half of my town is vampires now, they actually will show up for a daytime wedding.  Apparently they don’t mind burning for a romantic ceremony.  Another funny thing I decided to try was inviting Sofia’s ex-boyfriend to the ceremony.  In Sims 2, they’d have made a sim, but apparently they don’t care in Sims 3.  Maybe it was just the ex-boyfriend’s traits?

Llywelyn and Sofia couldn’t keep their hands off of each other during their honeymoon.  She was quickly pregnant. 

With the house filling up, and another baby on the way, it was finally time for the teenagers to be adults.  They got engaged and will move out as soon as the house truly is full.

Here’s their graduation.  Also not very 13th century, but the graduation ceremonies are really neat!  The step-son was voted most likely to succeed (not a bad guess if your step-father is a prince and there’s no actual heir yet and no previous lineage to pull from), and his girlfriend was valedictorian.  I think it’s a bit crazy that the super happy moods from graduation last for ten days, though!  For the parents and the kids!  Makes things easier, but not very realistic.

Here are Andy and Lluna all grown up.  You can guess from Lluna’s thought bubble that her and Andy wasted no time breeding.  Getting them acquainted as foals was indeed a very good idea.  I’m so happy with how gorgeous Andy turned out.  He looks just like Freedbird, who has the horse genes I wanted.  Lluna looks a bit like a Welsh pony if you ask me.  I like that she looks like such an interesting combination of her parents.

Sofia went into labor.  Finally, we’ll find out if Llywelyn is going to have an heir.  Meet Gruffydd, a beautiful baby boy.  Sofia looks so thrilled.  Llywelyn, at least, is thrilled to have a boy.

Now according to the actual history, his first-born was born out of wedlock.  I probably should have used Sofia’s previous child as Gruffydd, but I wanted my lineage to be sims I actually raised in-game.  Here’s some more baby pictures.  Gruffydd has his mother’s skin tone for sure, and he’s such a cute baby.  He’s neurotic and athletic.

With the new baby, I decided to add a mechanism for doing laundry.  They should be able to take their clothes to the river and wash them there.  Here’s what I came up with.

Lluna gave birth to her foal as well.  Meet Mawrth, named after Welsh for Tuesday.  She unfortunately inherited her father’s hatred of jumping, but we should be able to encourage that out, right?  Mawrth has her father’s reddish brown coat but with a white mane like her momma and grandmother.  Oddly, she inherited her father’s black tail.  I’m going to have to use edit saddle when she grows up to make her mane and tail match.  Mawrth’s traits are fast, hates jumping, and untrained.  Still, she’s a very pretty pony.  Here’s three generations of my ponies:  Sul, Lluna, and Mawrth.

Here’s my pony family tree.  Grandparents are Pegasus and Sul.  Parents are Lluna and Andy.  And the baby is Mawrth.  I love watching sim genetics!  I’m so happy to report that the game actually does pet families properly too.  Sul shows up in the relationship panel as Mawrth’s grandmother and Andy’s mother-in-law.  Just like people.

Here’s the preview pic of my very busy family.  If you’re counting, that’s ten, which means my family is full.  It’s time to make some very tough decisions about who moves out and who stays.  Sofia’s son from a previous marriage would definitely be kicked out, along with his fiancée.  I should sell some horses for money, but I just can’t stand to lose any!  So I’ll let the step-son take two horses with him, but which ones?  So hard!

Sul is still my and Llywelyn’s favorite.  She’s so playful and sweet.  Also, she and Pegasus are both champion racehorses by now, so their foals will be worth more. So I’m definitely keeping them on my main lot.  In the end, I decided to let Lluna and Andy move out with the step-children because they could breed on their own lot, and I can breed Mawrth using the stud option at the Equestrian center and not have so many horses on the lot.  I still love Luna so much, and Andy!  I’ll just have to play them out on their own lot.

Lluna and Andy are all set to strat out their own home and line full of beautiful ponies next door to Llywelyn’s home.  Lluna’s traits are now agile, fast, and genius.  Perfect for breeding.  Andy’s traits are fast, hates jumping, and ornery.  Not so good.  Getting rid of the negative traits seems pretty hard.

Here’s Gruffydd’s birthday party.

I’m so happy.  Gruffydd is one of the most handsome sim toddlers I’ve ever seen.  Look at those beautiful eyes.

Mawrth became an adult.  Here’s her adult picture.  She’s definitely a beautiful pony.

Of course I have to show you lots of pictures of my beautiful pony family.  To the left are grandparents Sul and Pegasus, and Mawrth is in the middle between her parents, Lluna and Andy.

And here’s my new family picture.

I think it’s about time to start breeding my two champion racehorses again.

Sofia now spends all of her time as a mother, raising Gruffydd. 

But I decide since the step-children have moved out, it was okay to hire an actual servant, a butler!  I wish you could edit their work outfit.  This theme really doesn’t work with mine.

Coming next time, meet Sul’s new foal!

Accomplishments so far:

Sul and Pegasus completed all of the racing skill challenges (champion racehorse, long distance racer, and endurance equine).  Sul completed Frequent Flyer and Tireless Leaper, all the jumping skill challenges except Jumping Star (the 15 or more advanced wins). We’re working on that one.

Llywelyn completed the Equestrian Champion Racing Skill Challenge.  He’s also won two international racing competitions and an international jumping competition.  Just cross-country to go, which I have heard is hard.

Things I’ve learned:

To have a foal or horse lose the untrained trait, just leave him saddled for a long time.  Your sim doesn’t have to ride him at all to accomplish this.  In fact, if your sim rides bareback, it doesn’t seem to help at all.

To win advanced level races, go for broke until you’re in the lead, then do steady pace.

To win international racing events,  first make sure you have selected the racing saddle before entering the competition.  Get the ‘pumped pony’ moodlet by training for racing before entering.  Then choose take risks for half the race and go for broke the second half of the race.

Horses gain the fast trait very quickly. You don’t need to waste one of your trait choices on it because it can be so easily acquired.

Ponies can inherit learned traits from their parents.

Things I could use some tips on:

How to get a horse to lose the ‘hates to jump’ trait.  We’ve jumped and jumped and jumped.  All Mawrth does is jump.  He’s about level 7 jumping skill, and still hasn’t lost the trait.  Llywelyn praises her for jumping all the time too.

Is there any way to cure your hood of rampant vampire infestation?  I love vampires, but I don’t want this hood overrun with them.  This probably happened because I started playing this hood without awesomemod beofre I decided I seriously can’t play without it.

Can you breed a male horse with a mare owned by a neighbor?