Mesa Vista - My BaCC for fun: Week 5, Part 9 Burns
New update, with another nice population boost!
Welcome back to Mesa Vista and the Burns household, featuring my son’s Simself Steve and sixteen of his Servos charged (get it? charged?) with the task of running the area’s first group of green energy farms. As a reminder, this strategy is all Nemo/Twilightoutside’s, including the lots. Links to the lots can be found at the end of the previous Burns update, which was the finale of Week 4.
For this strategy, I opted to play four such farms, each Servo’s apartment yielding more than §32K per week in green energy rebates for a total of §128K per farm and §512K per rotation, essentially one private Uni every 2 rotations. The first rotation, however, would yield much more than that when taking into account the §20K starting funds for each Servo, plus whatever else they had in their inventories.
This is the first Wind Farm apartment lot, or WF1, consisting of Servos named after German numerals, plus the designated Collector Servo. Beginning top left and moving clockwise:
Zwei (2), Andrei (drei/3), Viera (vier/4) and plain old WF1 (collector).
Next up is the second Wind Farm lot, or WF2, occupied by the following Servos:
Fünfi (fünf/5), Sechson (sechs/6), Siebena (sieben/7) and WF2 (collector).
Then the first Solar Panel Farm, or SP1, operated by:
Acht (8), Neuna (neun/9), Zehna (zehn/10) and SP1 (collector).
And finally, the second Solar Panel Farm, or SP2, which housed:
Otto, Matt, Tish (get it?) and SP2 (collector).
It turns out the designated collectors for each apartment building weren’t necessary in that capacity, as all the Servos had a good relationship with Steve, to whom they directly gifted the proceeds from their week’s green energy rebates.
There was also Humble’s computer that was given to all sixteen Servos, a welcome additional bonus for the initial week of this strategy.
Look at that, a perfect pillow for a Servo! SP 1 was actually an employee at Steve’s bot store, The Droids You’re Looking For. It was a pretty sweet deal for her at §632 per day, 9am-3pm, Monday-Friday, no skills or friends required! Her week was the most interesting and seemed to pass the quickest, even more than the Servos that spent most of their week deactived, so I might have more become employees of player-owned businesses in the following weeks.
Those who play apartments know the common areas are restricted for editing purposes, and §32K+ converted to buy mode objects for gift giving tended to fill their tiny apartments.
Most like Zehna here got a couple of Body points from autonomously riding the stationary bike. I mean really, what Sim wouldn’t - I’ve seen them die from those things!
The gift-giving process x 15, though boots were allowed to stay ;)
A weird thing that happened, was on Friday or so, the inactive Servos would charge themselves by the mailbox and get stuck in a loop unsuccessfully trying to reactivate which went on for days, though most of the time they would snap out of it on Monday, probably some sort of trigger with the rent being due?
Oh, and then if their Energy was below a certain level when they powered down, it would continue to drain and I would get the longest Recharge queue (way longer than I thought possible). Luckily, I had just read Nemo’s Instant City where he pointed out that Servos could use beds at night. That was a sanity saver!
And some more glimpses of the sixteen essentially identical weeks of play…
By the sixteenth Servo household, I had had enough of the buying and gift giving, so I broke out Monique’s computer for the first time and after some trial and error, got Steve the rest of his money via online banking. Not only was it quicker, but it’s more realistic than the gift-giving method. I just prefer trying vanilla methods first before breaking out the mods and hacks.
Time to wrap up the Servos and have some pizza before we head over to Steve’s place!
But how about a little tour of Mesa Vista first?
Here’s a neighborhood view from the green energy farms situated on the outskirts, and looking toward the residential area. The small cluster of unoccupied houses on the left are Maxis-built that I’m considering revamping for future use. That lone plumbbob on the left is where Nora Gainsborough resides.
The bridge on the right leads to the commercial part of town. The cluster of homes nearest the water is Seren Drive, where most of founder Zach Adams’ friends moved after the first week of the challenge (named after the builder of most of the houses there).
And zooming in closer. The four houses across the main drag are where Yvette Tan, Tracy Messlot, the Newsons, and Kerie Ng’s boyfriend Talin Deppiesse live. Beyond that live the Outsides and Ramaswami’s. The unoccupied brown house will be purchased by the Mazzas next week. Across the street and out of sight live the Adams and their unoccupied first home.
Back to Seren Drive (I love the winter pictures!):
Going by the plumbbobs, left to right:
Steve Burns, Marie Sims, Brandon London/Rebecka Rossi, Madeleine Mazza, Kerie Ng, and the Shins.
This is just a picture I like.
And we arrive at Steve’s house, where we’ll check out the fruits of his sixteen Servos’ labor!
And holy crap, he has 162 On a Pedestal statues at §5,000 a pop, which alone gives him §810,000! Don’t forget, most of their one-time §20K starting funds is included in that number too.
By the time we sell all the Servos’ artwork and Humble’s computers, Steve is just §26 shy of §960,000, and there is no way we’re passing up on getting a private Uni this week!
Real Steve likes bowling and once again, I couldn’t bring myself to build something from scratch, so instead I spiffed up this neat little bowling alley created by ambersjourney found at MTS.
Tada, say hello to Fast Lane Bowling!
The décor I chose was inspired by a bowling alley close to where I live that’s geared toward families.
Money wasn’t Steve’s only motivation for running the alley. He still had 35 First Dates remaining of the 50 he needed for his LTW, so he started out charging an average admission price of §32 per hour to attract customers, especially of the female persuasion. Nora Gainsborough and Allyn Thompson were a fine start!
One date down...
The bar and photo booth were immediate hits with the customers.
As was the bowling.
Brittany Wendland was a natural and was about to make a name for herself in this update.
Rose Dai was not opposed to an occasional date here and there…
The arrival of the cougar brigade. Perfect!
Every female elder you see went on a date with Steve.
And after that was a rash of non-date candidates, like Faith Goodie.
This will be kind of picture-heavy - it was my first time running a bowling alley and I got a real kick out of the animations.
A pregnant Nikki Adams…
Way to go, Nikki! It’s not very often that I see her smile.
Still, Nikki felt very isolated, alone in her misery after discovering her husband Zach’s past indiscretion.
And I mean, literally isolated. It’s really kind of sad…
Makes a note to get her some close friends, pronto!
Payton Cameron, aka Ringo, aka the “bagman, man” aka not good father material for young Nellie Mazza a couple of weeks back. I like him.
Ringo became very interested in the bar when he noticed Brittany sitting there.
I’m sensing something between these two…
Steve was fully aware of Tracy Messlot’s financial bind as she fixed up her grandparents’ house, and she received free admission.
Oops, guess you get what you pay for!
The agony (Nemo) and the ecstacy (Joe GTFO* Graham)…
*See Yvette Tan’s week for the reference
Kerie Cormier, moar first date material. Or wait, did he date her last week? *clicks through Steve’s memories for the dozenth time*
Hmm, are all the good witches older than their atrociously evil counterparts?
Too bad, Zach, if you’re looking for your wife, she already left…
More familiar faces: Ryan Wheeler, now Mazza (Nellie’s stepdad) and Ramin Johnston, Marie Sims’ employee.
Nemo’s wife Ciel in her spiffy President work outfit…
Real professional, Ciel!
“I’d like to see you some day!”
… D’OH, she’s right! Moving on…
Some new faces we’ll be seeing in future updates…
Okay, you’re getting the idea. Fast Lane Bowling was a pretty happening place, and the most fun I've had playing a venue.
By now Fast Lane had lots of customers, so it was time to raise the admission to a steep but not ludicrous §250 per hour for the push to a million.
I’m kind of enjoying the 50 Date thing as well. It’s nice to see some Sims like Audrey who perhaps wouldn’t normally get much action get some screen time and the memory of going on a date. At least, I hope it gets recorded in their memories…
And what’s a Pleasure Sim without some juggling?
Steve ends his bowling session with style!
Jill Smith played a little hard to get but gave in at the end. LaShawn Cameron was hard as nails though. She turned rejection into a real art form.
Jenna Ebadi too. Steve chose the Assess Mood perk and both women were supposedly in good moods. Apparently, they just hated Steve’s guts, which I suppose is okay. It happens in real life too, so I can’t say it isn’t realistic...
But the main point of this picture is we’ve got ourselves §1,000,000 for another private University!
Back home: one thing I didn’t take into consideration were all the love letters delivered to Steve’s mailbox. Those took quite a while to get through.
And it was still Monday at the home lot! What to do, what to do?
More dating, of course! He and Camryn Lee were quite taken with each other.
He also got the urge to play some pool and became acquainted with Vyn Scott at The Dugout, with whom he went on another first date.
Meadow Pederson took some convincing, but she finally accepted a date invitation too.
Steve moved on to the Local Yokels Dance Hall and went out with Christy Inada.
Loving these date rewards! He got a little bonsai tree too…
Mina Outside wasn’t involved with anyone romantically yet at La Fiesta Tech. I thought Meadow’s Art Gallery would be a nice place for a date.
We were starting to run out of women to date again, so Steve invited the Servas from the Green Energy farms.
I can’t remember how much he got paid for writing a restaurant guide.
Eh, why not? Steve had reached 45 First Dates, and I didn’t see a need to struggle for the last five - that could wait until the following week.
During his time at the bowling alley, Steve had made a ton of friends, many of them Sims I was interested in moving to Mesa Vista, and Ringo was one of them.
Ringo immediately moved out and got his own place, because I already haz planz for him.
Camryn Lee was another one.
Followed by Jill Fleig, I believe a Field Sales Rep.
Catch ya later, Jill!
And finally Ramin Johnston, despite his ridiculous outerwear. I cannot describe the extent to which I hate the prevalence of this type of garb in Mesa Vista! Hate hate hate!
Ramin soon joined Jill, and they’ll be roommates for a while.
Whoops, almost forgot about paying taxes - a pretty hefty §13660 for the week.
As for Camryn, I figured what the hell, let her stay an extra day and get her promoted from Senior Manager (Level 6) to Vice President before she got her own place. All she needed were a Charisma and Logic point...
Two, count ‘em, two hours of stargazing and
WHAT
THE
HELL?!!
(I’ve never seen their clothes get sucked off before!)
Am I the only one who feels bad that this was her first WooHoo?
What’s she gonna do now? Her promotion just went flying out the window, that’s for sure.
She wants to be friends with the PT despite a bad memory of the abduction. Is that messed up, or is it just me?
(There also will be no pregnancy.)
Would Camryn stay? Would she want to go far, far away? Would she go into hiding?
I'm gonna have to think on it...
That turned into quite a week for Steve, and Camryn Lee’s abduction threw me for a loop. It was also another big week for Mesa Vista, which got a population surge of 548.
BaCC quick stats:
Playable Sims: 74 (73 + 1 grave) - added 4 townies: Camryn, Jill, Ramin and Ringo
SM: 32 (+5 for a new private Uni + 1 for the 25th community lot)
Population: 2368 (closing in on the 5% mark!)
Another note that due to my previous miscount of the Servo households (16 for each apartment instead of 4 for each building), I was able to place three additional NPC community lots: a police station, a fire station and a bus stop, along with a medical clinic earned in this update. I’ll post pictures of them in the next update.
Next up should be Ringo, followed by the Goodies (both households have already been played).
Until then, thanks for reading and Happy Simming!
Welcome back to Mesa Vista and the Burns household, featuring my son’s Simself Steve and sixteen of his Servos charged (get it? charged?) with the task of running the area’s first group of green energy farms. As a reminder, this strategy is all Nemo/Twilightoutside’s, including the lots. Links to the lots can be found at the end of the previous Burns update, which was the finale of Week 4.
For this strategy, I opted to play four such farms, each Servo’s apartment yielding more than §32K per week in green energy rebates for a total of §128K per farm and §512K per rotation, essentially one private Uni every 2 rotations. The first rotation, however, would yield much more than that when taking into account the §20K starting funds for each Servo, plus whatever else they had in their inventories.
This is the first Wind Farm apartment lot, or WF1, consisting of Servos named after German numerals, plus the designated Collector Servo. Beginning top left and moving clockwise:
Zwei (2), Andrei (drei/3), Viera (vier/4) and plain old WF1 (collector).
Next up is the second Wind Farm lot, or WF2, occupied by the following Servos:
Fünfi (fünf/5), Sechson (sechs/6), Siebena (sieben/7) and WF2 (collector).
Then the first Solar Panel Farm, or SP1, operated by:
Acht (8), Neuna (neun/9), Zehna (zehn/10) and SP1 (collector).
And finally, the second Solar Panel Farm, or SP2, which housed:
Otto, Matt, Tish (get it?) and SP2 (collector).
It turns out the designated collectors for each apartment building weren’t necessary in that capacity, as all the Servos had a good relationship with Steve, to whom they directly gifted the proceeds from their week’s green energy rebates.
There was also Humble’s computer that was given to all sixteen Servos, a welcome additional bonus for the initial week of this strategy.
Look at that, a perfect pillow for a Servo! SP 1 was actually an employee at Steve’s bot store, The Droids You’re Looking For. It was a pretty sweet deal for her at §632 per day, 9am-3pm, Monday-Friday, no skills or friends required! Her week was the most interesting and seemed to pass the quickest, even more than the Servos that spent most of their week deactived, so I might have more become employees of player-owned businesses in the following weeks.
Those who play apartments know the common areas are restricted for editing purposes, and §32K+ converted to buy mode objects for gift giving tended to fill their tiny apartments.
Most like Zehna here got a couple of Body points from autonomously riding the stationary bike. I mean really, what Sim wouldn’t - I’ve seen them die from those things!
The gift-giving process x 15, though boots were allowed to stay ;)
A weird thing that happened, was on Friday or so, the inactive Servos would charge themselves by the mailbox and get stuck in a loop unsuccessfully trying to reactivate which went on for days, though most of the time they would snap out of it on Monday, probably some sort of trigger with the rent being due?
Oh, and then if their Energy was below a certain level when they powered down, it would continue to drain and I would get the longest Recharge queue (way longer than I thought possible). Luckily, I had just read Nemo’s Instant City where he pointed out that Servos could use beds at night. That was a sanity saver!
And some more glimpses of the sixteen essentially identical weeks of play…
By the sixteenth Servo household, I had had enough of the buying and gift giving, so I broke out Monique’s computer for the first time and after some trial and error, got Steve the rest of his money via online banking. Not only was it quicker, but it’s more realistic than the gift-giving method. I just prefer trying vanilla methods first before breaking out the mods and hacks.
Time to wrap up the Servos and have some pizza before we head over to Steve’s place!
But how about a little tour of Mesa Vista first?
Here’s a neighborhood view from the green energy farms situated on the outskirts, and looking toward the residential area. The small cluster of unoccupied houses on the left are Maxis-built that I’m considering revamping for future use. That lone plumbbob on the left is where Nora Gainsborough resides.
The bridge on the right leads to the commercial part of town. The cluster of homes nearest the water is Seren Drive, where most of founder Zach Adams’ friends moved after the first week of the challenge (named after the builder of most of the houses there).
And zooming in closer. The four houses across the main drag are where Yvette Tan, Tracy Messlot, the Newsons, and Kerie Ng’s boyfriend Talin Deppiesse live. Beyond that live the Outsides and Ramaswami’s. The unoccupied brown house will be purchased by the Mazzas next week. Across the street and out of sight live the Adams and their unoccupied first home.
Back to Seren Drive (I love the winter pictures!):
Going by the plumbbobs, left to right:
Steve Burns, Marie Sims, Brandon London/Rebecka Rossi, Madeleine Mazza, Kerie Ng, and the Shins.
This is just a picture I like.
And we arrive at Steve’s house, where we’ll check out the fruits of his sixteen Servos’ labor!
And holy crap, he has 162 On a Pedestal statues at §5,000 a pop, which alone gives him §810,000! Don’t forget, most of their one-time §20K starting funds is included in that number too.
By the time we sell all the Servos’ artwork and Humble’s computers, Steve is just §26 shy of §960,000, and there is no way we’re passing up on getting a private Uni this week!
Real Steve likes bowling and once again, I couldn’t bring myself to build something from scratch, so instead I spiffed up this neat little bowling alley created by ambersjourney found at MTS.
Tada, say hello to Fast Lane Bowling!
The décor I chose was inspired by a bowling alley close to where I live that’s geared toward families.
Money wasn’t Steve’s only motivation for running the alley. He still had 35 First Dates remaining of the 50 he needed for his LTW, so he started out charging an average admission price of §32 per hour to attract customers, especially of the female persuasion. Nora Gainsborough and Allyn Thompson were a fine start!
One date down...
The bar and photo booth were immediate hits with the customers.
As was the bowling.
Brittany Wendland was a natural and was about to make a name for herself in this update.
Rose Dai was not opposed to an occasional date here and there…
The arrival of the cougar brigade. Perfect!
Every female elder you see went on a date with Steve.
And after that was a rash of non-date candidates, like Faith Goodie.
This will be kind of picture-heavy - it was my first time running a bowling alley and I got a real kick out of the animations.
A pregnant Nikki Adams…
Way to go, Nikki! It’s not very often that I see her smile.
Still, Nikki felt very isolated, alone in her misery after discovering her husband Zach’s past indiscretion.
And I mean, literally isolated. It’s really kind of sad…
Makes a note to get her some close friends, pronto!
Payton Cameron, aka Ringo, aka the “bagman, man” aka not good father material for young Nellie Mazza a couple of weeks back. I like him.
Ringo became very interested in the bar when he noticed Brittany sitting there.
I’m sensing something between these two…
Steve was fully aware of Tracy Messlot’s financial bind as she fixed up her grandparents’ house, and she received free admission.
Oops, guess you get what you pay for!
The agony (Nemo) and the ecstacy (Joe GTFO* Graham)…
*See Yvette Tan’s week for the reference
Kerie Cormier, moar first date material. Or wait, did he date her last week? *clicks through Steve’s memories for the dozenth time*
Hmm, are all the good witches older than their atrociously evil counterparts?
Too bad, Zach, if you’re looking for your wife, she already left…
More familiar faces: Ryan Wheeler, now Mazza (Nellie’s stepdad) and Ramin Johnston, Marie Sims’ employee.
Nemo’s wife Ciel in her spiffy President work outfit…
Real professional, Ciel!
“I’d like to see you some day!”
… D’OH, she’s right! Moving on…
Some new faces we’ll be seeing in future updates…
Okay, you’re getting the idea. Fast Lane Bowling was a pretty happening place, and the most fun I've had playing a venue.
By now Fast Lane had lots of customers, so it was time to raise the admission to a steep but not ludicrous §250 per hour for the push to a million.
I’m kind of enjoying the 50 Date thing as well. It’s nice to see some Sims like Audrey who perhaps wouldn’t normally get much action get some screen time and the memory of going on a date. At least, I hope it gets recorded in their memories…
And what’s a Pleasure Sim without some juggling?
Steve ends his bowling session with style!
Jill Smith played a little hard to get but gave in at the end. LaShawn Cameron was hard as nails though. She turned rejection into a real art form.
Jenna Ebadi too. Steve chose the Assess Mood perk and both women were supposedly in good moods. Apparently, they just hated Steve’s guts, which I suppose is okay. It happens in real life too, so I can’t say it isn’t realistic...
But the main point of this picture is we’ve got ourselves §1,000,000 for another private University!
Back home: one thing I didn’t take into consideration were all the love letters delivered to Steve’s mailbox. Those took quite a while to get through.
And it was still Monday at the home lot! What to do, what to do?
More dating, of course! He and Camryn Lee were quite taken with each other.
He also got the urge to play some pool and became acquainted with Vyn Scott at The Dugout, with whom he went on another first date.
Meadow Pederson took some convincing, but she finally accepted a date invitation too.
Steve moved on to the Local Yokels Dance Hall and went out with Christy Inada.
Loving these date rewards! He got a little bonsai tree too…
Mina Outside wasn’t involved with anyone romantically yet at La Fiesta Tech. I thought Meadow’s Art Gallery would be a nice place for a date.
We were starting to run out of women to date again, so Steve invited the Servas from the Green Energy farms.
I can’t remember how much he got paid for writing a restaurant guide.
Eh, why not? Steve had reached 45 First Dates, and I didn’t see a need to struggle for the last five - that could wait until the following week.
During his time at the bowling alley, Steve had made a ton of friends, many of them Sims I was interested in moving to Mesa Vista, and Ringo was one of them.
Ringo immediately moved out and got his own place, because I already haz planz for him.
Camryn Lee was another one.
Followed by Jill Fleig, I believe a Field Sales Rep.
Catch ya later, Jill!
And finally Ramin Johnston, despite his ridiculous outerwear. I cannot describe the extent to which I hate the prevalence of this type of garb in Mesa Vista! Hate hate hate!
Ramin soon joined Jill, and they’ll be roommates for a while.
Whoops, almost forgot about paying taxes - a pretty hefty §13660 for the week.
As for Camryn, I figured what the hell, let her stay an extra day and get her promoted from Senior Manager (Level 6) to Vice President before she got her own place. All she needed were a Charisma and Logic point...
Two, count ‘em, two hours of stargazing and
WHAT
THE
HELL?!!
(I’ve never seen their clothes get sucked off before!)
Am I the only one who feels bad that this was her first WooHoo?
What’s she gonna do now? Her promotion just went flying out the window, that’s for sure.
She wants to be friends with the PT despite a bad memory of the abduction. Is that messed up, or is it just me?
(There also will be no pregnancy.)
Would Camryn stay? Would she want to go far, far away? Would she go into hiding?
I'm gonna have to think on it...
That turned into quite a week for Steve, and Camryn Lee’s abduction threw me for a loop. It was also another big week for Mesa Vista, which got a population surge of 548.
BaCC quick stats:
Playable Sims: 74 (73 + 1 grave) - added 4 townies: Camryn, Jill, Ramin and Ringo
SM: 32 (+5 for a new private Uni + 1 for the 25th community lot)
Population: 2368 (closing in on the 5% mark!)
Another note that due to my previous miscount of the Servo households (16 for each apartment instead of 4 for each building), I was able to place three additional NPC community lots: a police station, a fire station and a bus stop, along with a medical clinic earned in this update. I’ll post pictures of them in the next update.
Next up should be Ringo, followed by the Goodies (both households have already been played).
Until then, thanks for reading and Happy Simming!