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.

Drown #10: the mouse, part 6

January 2086. Stephanie Nova is 26, Justin Kim is 25, Willow is 4, Lily is 3.


Now, after all those times Stephanie swore she didn't need a restraining order, she finally realized that maybe it was time. Jeremiah was in the military and she didn't want him to get into trouble over it. "I just want him to go to South Carolina," she said. "And if he’s in trouble here, he can’t go to South Carolina."

"Well, Ma'am," the officer said, "You can file it or not file it, but I'm pretty sure it's his own fault if he gets into trouble."