elections 2086

A quickie history on TS4 world building: 

In America of my imagined future, there are six districts. We are following three of them in this story—Mid-Atlantic (states bordering the Atlantic from about DC to South Carolina), Lakes (states bordering the Great Lakes, particularly Lake Superior and Lake Michigan), and Pacific (states bordering the Pacific, as you might guess). The districts we are not following are New England, Gulf, and Mountain. (You can sort of see on my map how my played towns are clustered in the south-west, north, and south-east.)

I set it up this way because of, in part, the way TS4 is designed with towns that are pre-designed and not editable. If they ship me a world that looks like South Carolina or Arizona, there is very little I can do to change that. So they are what they look like, and that's that. That was the main reason that my story was written at first between two regions—Fort Palmetto and Sierra Nova—working from the first two towns we had, Willow Creek and Oasis Springs. Then they shipped me Windenburg that looked like Europe and I had no freaking idea how to fit it into my story. I ended up knocking down some mountains and opening up the water, and now it's become Copper County, my third region. As best it can be without world editing tools, anyway.

TS4 is still being developed and they're still making new worlds for us. That's great, because we desperately need the space! But it means that my game is still constantly changing, so new areas come along all the time that I need to figure out what to do with. I have decided that three districts is well enough for me to keep track of (since each district needs its own schools, communities, leadership, and economy), while having some variety and space for my towns. The three areas that I chose are differentiated enough in climate and landscape that I think I should be able to find a good fit within for whatever kind of world they give us next. (The world from the new Pets EP will fit nicely in Wisconsin for me!)

We will imagine the other US states of 2086 are doing just fine and carrying on off-camera. Just, none of my sims will ever be allowed to move to Florida or Colorado or Maine, lol!

Anyway.

return to dust, part 2

October 2086. Aurora Harris is 40, Zach is 9, Rebecca is 3. Meadow Lind is 71, Brady is 72. Clarice Miller is 40. 


The story of how Aurora ended up in California with the kids was a complicated story. If she had to summarize it, it would be that she ran and ran until she hit the ocean and could go no further, contemplating whether she should just keep walking out into the sea. No, she decided, she would not walk out into the sea. She had children to raise for fifteen more years. The sea could come for her later.

Of course, there were a few more steps between that moment and now.

where we left off with the Lind/Harris family

This week, I am revisiting some old old stories (some that are eight years old, OMG!) on Tumblr from the Lind/Harris family, because this family will be featured heavily in the coming chapters. For those who don't frequent Tumblr, I'll just link directly to the relevant updates in case you want to refresh your memory.

I never blogged about these sims while I was playing TS3, so nothing was changed or missed between their TS2 lives and where they will pick up in TS4. It's like they just took a long eight-year nap but only progressed about two years in time, lol! So these posts will be a little refresher for me, for everyone, and a summary for those who may not have read TS2 Lakeside Heights.