The Paraverse: Rotation 4.1

It's time for some Eco Lifestyle gameplay!

I meant to start posting these back in the beginning of June, but I ran into some issues with my save (halfway through the rotation it would crash every time I loaded into Jeff and Alec's dorm), and I wanted to actually finish playing the full rotation before posting just in case I was forced to restart from the back-up I made pre-patch.

Luckily I have not run into that issue again, so the Paraverse lives on!

Andy starts off her rotation with a little change of scenery - as soon as I heard there were apartments in the new neighbourhood, I knew I had to have Andy check them out.

They happened to be the perfect size for her at the moment - big enough to fit all her stuff from the old apartment, with an extra room for keeping some hobby stuff. She was able to afford it fully furnished without needing any extra money, so I was very pleased.

I liked the look of her old apartment, so I decorated this one in the same style. I really love her new kitchen, and the little laundry area in particular!

The only downside is that the balcony doesn't seem to be functional anymore? Kind of disappointing that they coded it out, and then didn't actually mention they did it until people reported it being unusable. Half the reason I picked the apartment was because it had a balcony!

I'll probably end up moving her again at some point, because this apartment still isn't big enough for all her hobby stuff and a future kid, but I'm a lil annoyed she won't get a proper balcony until then.

Her hobby room is mostly empty at this point, but I did use the extra space to get her a little friend. :)

I was thinking of getting her a fox in this save - instead of a raccoon - but I wasn't sure if pets would work with this particular apartment, so I decided to go with one of the rodents for now.

Judging by the fact that the balcony space was so glitchy they had to take it out, I feel like I made the right call!

I moved in her late Tuesday night, since I was a day into her term when I stopped playing, so Andy has just enough time to cook herself a meal in her new kitchen before heading off to bed.

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Miko shows up to the apartment the next afternoon, right as Andy gets home from class, which is perfect timing...

First, she makes a beeline to the sink, to do some dishes while Andy eats her dinner.

After, Andy asks her if she wants to move in and be her be her girlfriend, and Miko accepts both!

I was already thinking of having Miko move in this rotation prior to hearing about the new pack, but now that Andy's got a bigger apartment, and there's some new aspirations to explore, it seemed like an extra good idea.

Plus, Miko inviting herself over on Andy's first day in the new apartment just felt like another sign. :)

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To switch things up with Miko in this save, I designed to assign her the new eco innovator aspiration, which will also require her to get a job in the civil designer career.

I think the environmental and action plan aspect of it kinda ties into Miko's previous charity work, so it seems like a good fit for her. I don't think I'll have her do a degree, but since she's a premade sim with existing skills we can just pretend she already has one. ;)

One of her first goals is to vote on a community action plan, so when voting opens on Friday, Miko heads over there to vote after coming home from work.

I learned that Miko and Alec are actually friends when he showed up this rotation to pay her a little visit.

In true Alec fashion, he forgot that Andy was an alien again. I can't remember if he got mad about it or not, but he doesn't look pissy in this picture so I'm guessing no.

His visit was the perfect time for Miko to cross off one of her work tasks, which was to interview a homeowner about their utilities. Alec does not own a home, or pay for utilities in the dorm, so I don't know what exactly he talked about, but we'll have to assume there was a lot of lying involved.

Meanwhile, Andy did a bit of upgrading around the apartment. In addition to the usual upgrades for making things sturdier and less likely to get dirty, there's some new options for making appliances more eco-friendly, which is a nice touch.

The murphy bed was the first to get an upgrade, though, because I only plan on having one murphy bed ghost in this save.

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The weekend is my favourite part of the uni rotations, because it gives me two days to focus on hobbies and aspiration goals for everyone, but more importantly, it's the best time to have a fun little outing for the gang.

I renovated a gym that I found on the gallery into a bowling alley and nightclub, so I thought I'd send Andy, Miko, and the boys out to give it a test run.

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Andy never seems to put on the right shoes for bowling, but that doesn't stop her from smoking everyone during the game.

 

Literally!

Jeff also managed to score a strike on his very first go, which was impressive because unlike Andy, he didn't have any bowling skill prior to this game.

Alec did too, so I guess the boys were just absurdly lucky this game. Andy still creamed them in the end, which Alec was hilariously upset about.

Bowling takes a little too long to do any rematches (though I found that turning off autonomy while playing really helps speed up the time in between turns), so I sent everyone upstairs for a friendly match of juice pong instead.

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Alec did this extremely dramatic throw halfway in, and I was expecting him to fail miserably...

But damn, the man actually pulled it off! Of course, he had to do a dorky little victory dance to celebrate.

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Miko and Andy did get a couple good throws in, but Jeff and Alec managed to steal the game with one cup left.

After their ping pong match, they managed to squeeze in one round at the arcade machine before the boys took off.

I wasn't quite ready to send the girls home yet, though, so they stayed back at the club to have a little date night with just the two of them.

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At this point they were both starting to get a bit cold - I guess having a rooftop dance party in the middle of spring isn't the best idea - so I sent them downstairs to grab some dinner, before heading back home.

They were pretty drained by the time they got home, but they had just enough energy left to have a little more fun before bed...

Sidenote, I absolutely adore Miko's new pajama look. I've found Eco Lifestyle's CAS is a little more hit-or-miss than DU's, but I want both that sweater and the shorts in real life.

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The last of their weekend was spent upgrading a few more appliances around the apartment, and making sure Andy's last few assignments got finished.

One of Miko's next goals is to generate a power or water surplus, and I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to accomplish that in their apartment without a balcony... I'm hoping that by upgrading some of their bathroom appliances, and maybe using a water generator, they can save just enough in a future rotation to have a small surplus.

I hadn't gotten around to upgrading the lint trap on the dryer yet, so of course Andy managed to start a small laundry fire right before the end of the rotation.

She was able to put herself up before the fire department got called, so I was a little sad that I didn't get to see the firefighters in action.

I had Miko and Andy vote for the action plan that made the neighbourhood greener, so while I have to move on to my next household right as it gets passed, I'll at least get to come back to the changes next rotation!

I'm a bit annoyed that my rotation schedule lines up so that I have to switch right as the action plan gets put into place - and the household that I'm switching to doesn't even get to vote on theirs, so I might have to cheat a few action plans into place in the future.

Once I finish university I should be able to go back to playing my rotations Monday-Sunday, so that timing should work out much better.