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Lab Assistant
#126 Old 9th Feb 2011 at 3:49 PM
Punished them for what? I've never played any maxis made families. I'm starting to wonder if I should try it
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Theorist
#127 Old 9th Feb 2011 at 4:23 PM Last edited by Babahara : 9th Feb 2011 at 4:39 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by x0xkitkat
Punished them for what? I've never played any maxis made families. I'm starting to wonder if I should try it

You definitely should, it's interesting because you have an element of surprise in your game. I mean, you're not the one who created them or their basic story, they're sort of more alive than your sims because of that.
Lab Assistant
#128 Old 9th Feb 2011 at 4:48 PM
I have trouble with that though sometimes. Like... I created a few families that were randomized and I just had no goals for their lives. No ideas for the general directions I wanted to take them. I'm afraid it would be the same with maxis families but I guess I'll have to try it.
But still, what is up with this family?
*shrugs*
retired moderator
#129 Old 9th Feb 2011 at 5:36 PM
Quote: Originally posted by x0xkitkat
But still, what is up with this family?



They are an ugly unattractive family which were shipped buggy. The paternal link to the babies was messed up so the game made random guesses as to the father of the twin were. I would say that deep-down EA didn't love them either...but then I wonder why they'd make them automatically be placed into the Sim Bin for EVERY neighborhood you create. Seasons came with a new hood, why not just make them only live there?


ETA: They are usually the first Sims I kill for the sake of a graveyard or testing stuff.

I don't mind if you call me "MSD" or something for short.
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Mad Poster
#130 Old 9th Feb 2011 at 6:43 PM
The Seasons Patch fixes the bug. I actually am quite fond of Peter. Unlike Daniel Pleasant, he's happy with his wife and sticks to her. He turned down Heather Huffington on free will (neither was playable at the time). Peter's never rolled the # wants in my game. He always rolls face wants for his wife and normal family sorts of wants, wants to meet-someone-new and not fears of having babies. He does throw the fear of changing a diaper, but then, there are enough potential diaper changers around that he usually doesn't have to.
As far as what else is up with them, they have awkward faces--Dora's eyelashes seem to go through her eyelids and the lower half of her face is almost emaciated in appearance. Peter and Samantha's faces do not combine well, in general. (I have gotten a couple fairly cute kids out of them, after rolling the pacifier, I think 22 times, one of the twins came out pretty nicely, but I'm not sure if it was the first or the second.) The twins do generally improve with age. Tommy is the most normal-looking of the bunch. Sharla has her grandma's very thin lower face, which gets more noticeable as she ages. David has a huge nose, he always seems to pair up with Miranda Capp in my game, sometimes with Romeo Monty as a trio. Dora has pretty good chemistry with Consort Capp of all people.
As far as punishing them, I did have them run a farm once. That might have been construed as punishment of a sort, but they had it better than any other 'poor' family in that neighborhood. Everyone else was working at low wages for the wealthy, living in apartments, and only the guys were working. Dora got lots of grandbabies, Samantha got lots of babies, Peter got lots of Samantha, David got his Miranda, and Sharla got fishing badges, and they never had a problem having food, so they were pretty happy. Other families had a lot of trouble scraping up enough simoleans for both rent and food. That was a long time ago. It was a fun ubermegahood.
Theorist
#131 Old 9th Feb 2011 at 9:01 PM
Quote: Originally posted by x0xkitkat
I have trouble with that though sometimes. Like... I created a few families that were randomized and I just had no goals for their lives. No ideas for the general directions I wanted to take them. I'm afraid it would be the same with maxis families but I guess I'll have to try it.
But still, what is up with this family?

Maxis families are a bit different, you can read their household description, read their personal bio, and you have a picture of what they're heading for and what they want. But of course you have to like them in order to be interested, so if you're looking to try that, play a few families for a small while just to see which one you might like playing further. I absolutely hate some of Maxis sims and never play them, but am very fond of others.
Lab Assistant
#132 Old 22nd May 2012 at 12:40 PM
Am I the only freak here who actually likes the Ottomas family? XD

I mean, sure, the ugly-as-hell genes put me off at first too, but after a gazillion model-pretty sims prancing around my neighborhoods, I was growing bored. That’s when I reverted back to playing the Maxis hoods, and so far, it’s been pretty entertaining… not least watching their more, hmm, unique -looking offspring.

Anyway, I first installed Seasons while playing Desiderata, so my first Ottomas massacre happened there. The whole family died in a fire on the front lawn… except Tommy Ottomas. See, I forgot InSimenator can’t kill toddlers (I didn’t use the Death Creator), so he just sat around watching wide-eyed as all his relatives went up in flames. I moved him into the Una household, where Natasha is already a starving artist and single mom (John Mole’s daughter, ofc) and had her adopt him. He’s now BFFs with both Natasha and his stepsister Brie, though their irresponsibility with money and cleaning can sometimes drive him up the wall. Nonetheless, he loves them. XD

Back in Riverblossom, I only killed off Tommy (this time with the Death Creator) to avoid duplicates. I felt bad, though—the whole fam (besides Dora, for some reason) has gone around randomly bursting into tears two weeks in a row now. I’ve never seen a family that close in-game. The twins still look atrocious post-deborking the pregnancy, but a pair of glasses will cover up those deformities nicely. The male twin even looks a little like Chester Gieke, in fact.

The whole fam is extremely poor and their only entertainment is a stereo, but they seem to go along just fine. Besides, my little plot twist gives me incentive to check in on them from time to time - I always wonder what happens to the rest of the family when I play Tommy in Desiderata. :p
Test Subject
#133 Old 22nd May 2012 at 1:10 PM
I like the Ottomas family too Their household is so chaotic, which I think makes them really fun to play. I don't mind their 'interesting' genetics either. I don't want all my sims being perfect, pretty face1/face 2 clones. Variety is good! I just think the buggy pregnancy gave them a bad name.
Mad Poster
#134 Old 22nd May 2012 at 1:23 PM
You are far from the only one who likes them. (I believe I have a post to that effect a few pages back.) They are far from the homeliest family in my game and they are an interesting challenge to play. Starting with pregnancy + twins in an untrained family is the second biggest challenge in the shipped households - the first being the Newsons - especially for an inexperienced player; but as long as the game is properly patched before the neighborhoods are loaded, they aren't a problem and in fact it's possible to get really invested in them. Far more so than in easier families! My twins are in college now and I can't imagine the game without them; steady, stodgy Ted who makes friends with everybody and is passionately involved with a girl who matches his homely and raises it to ugly, and wild girl Theodora who goes around gleefully flirting every man she sees if I don't stop her. Literally, everybody. The mailman looks like fair game to her.


Ted and his inamorata Harriett Hawkins. She has elephant ears under the hat, btw. Fortune/Family, two twin tokens, and they can't keep their hands off each other - I'm going to get so many wonderful homely babies out of these two!

Theodora borrows Ted and Harriett's bed - this is her third conquest and she's looking forward to finally woohooing in a bed.

Little Petra Ottomas, the belle of her age cohort! Who says Peter and Samantha can't make cute kids?

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Test Subject
#135 Old 22nd May 2012 at 1:31 PM
Well, punish them just because they're unattractive? O.o
I just got Seasons and I always keep them in the family bin. If you don't like them, then just play without them :/
And I agree to a few replies above me : genetic variety is awesome. Although me, sometimes, feel scared that ugly sims will rule the whole neighborhood (or maybe the whole game!) :O
Lab Assistant
#136 Old 22nd May 2012 at 3:55 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
(/pic)
Little Petra Ottomas, the belle of her age cohort! Who says Peter and Samantha can't make cute kids?


Aww, she's adorable! I'd love to see her as an adult

Quote: Originally posted by dodoodle
And I agree to a few replies above me : genetic variety is awesome. Although me, sometimes, feel scared that ugly sims will rule the whole neighborhood (or maybe the whole game!) :O


Oh, don't worry about that. Get some default relacements for your face templates, do some sim surgery on existing townies (or make new ones), alternatively go on a download spree for CAS-sims and townify them. Marry into your existing families, and voila! Genetic variety, deuglified version I think my biggest problem now is having too pretty sims, albeit varied, ruling my neighborhoods... >_>

(Btw, if you're planning on doing sim surgery and pass on the replaced face template, don't forget to edit the sim in SimPE before spreading those lovely genetics, and you'll be good to go!)
Lab Assistant
#137 Old 22nd May 2012 at 4:24 PM
So the Ottomases are okay to play as long as I didnt play before instaling the Seasons patch? I just reinstalled all my games one after another ... game, patch, game, patch, etc. Will her pregnancy still be buggy?
Instructor
#138 Old 22nd May 2012 at 4:40 PM
With a patched game so they wont corrupt your ´hood, I´ve actually learned to like the Ottomas family quite a lot. It´s certainly not boring to play them - it´s chaothic! - and their genetics are anything but boring.
Mad Poster
#139 Old 22nd May 2012 at 5:51 PM
No, Kristin, as long as you patched the game before opening up the hood you're using, her pregnancy will be just fine.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Lab Assistant
#140 Old 22nd May 2012 at 6:25 PM
Thanks for the answer! I am trying to play them now. First to redo the house and then they will be played. After all this discussion about them I can't not play them
Mad Poster
#141 Old 22nd May 2012 at 6:38 PM
Yes, care with the house is vital! Because they're untrained they'll be rushing to mob the twins and Tommy and switch them back and forth in their cribs once they're born; and during Samantha's pregnancy you can't rely on her to take herself to the bathroom or eat on time. You don't need routing problems or uninsulated rooms on top of that.

This is one family it pays to micromanage. I strongly recommend changing up the job schedule - as shipped, Dora and David both have afternoon jobs and Peter works 1-7, so you either have too many people dealing with the kids, or Samantha's on her own. And Samantha and Dora have the Family sim tendency to roll wants they can't fulfill on their own, while Peter as a Romance sim will be wanting to do things that Samantha won't have energy or interest in. It takes some fancy footwork to keep everybody from aspiration failure. In my second go-round with this family, I addressed this problem by giving everybody secondaries, and it's worked well so far but then I've only lived through Day Two. Good luck with them!

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Top Secret Researcher
#142 Old 22nd May 2012 at 7:01 PM
I am not sure if I'll ever play them. And with that said, I am going to have nightmares tonight. Ahem.

@Peni: Ahhhh, I so got what you were saying in another thread. Ahem. What ahem delightful looking family you have there.

"Queen of the Damned seeks knight in shining piercings for pleasure, pain and purring"--Scary Mary from the Urbz: Sims In The City

"A Famous Explorer once said: 'The extraordinary is in what we do, not who we are.'"--Lara Croft from Tomb Raider 2013
Lab Assistant
#143 Old 22nd May 2012 at 7:13 PM
hahaah .... dont' worry about the babies/toddler having care .... Dora got a chance card and lost her job as a Substitute. Thats okay ... she wants to be a full time grandma anyway ... its what makes her happy.

I am used to having large families ... Brandi Broke got a 10 child want right off the bat ... she got to 7 before I just said enough with that ... it was too much. She didnt roll that want again after I unlocked it. Thank goodness. 7 Broke children is a handful (she married David Reeves ... a townie she met at P.U.R.E)
Field Researcher
#144 Old 22nd May 2012 at 7:20 PM
I like the Ottomas family. My only problem was that the twins were scary looking when they were toddlers. Even though I patched my game they still looked like little Frankenstein monsters when they grew up to toddlers. Thankfully, the boys are children now and they look better, so I can handle it. Scary looking babies freak me out though. For that reason, I'm afraid to let anyone from that family reproduce ever again. lol
Mad Poster
#145 Old 22nd May 2012 at 7:59 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
Yes, care with the house is vital!


Peni, did you build them a house yourself, or use an existing lot? If the latter, which one?
Mad Poster
#146 Old 22nd May 2012 at 8:57 PM
Drama Acres Ottomases I used the Cape Cod Classic. Big mistake - Tommy and Samantha both got heat stroke! I had to spend most of their money weatherproofing the upstairs, but after that it was all right, if a tad crowded. I just keep shuffling the purposes of the rooms as the makeup of the household changes. Now it's just Petra, Peter, and Samantha, and they rattle around in it.

Strangetown Ottomases, where I changed Peter's job to Military, had Dora quit, and gave Dora and Samantha Romance secondaries and Peter a Family one, I have rules about new construction, so I was forced to use that awful bunker house on the Road to Nowhere. I opened up the Paranoia Chokepoint at the front door in favor of a front porch the width of the house, rearranged the cramped entryway/bathroom/kitchen into something more efficient, and added a three-bedroom second story. Not sure what to do with the basement. It's still inconvenient and ugly, but routing problems are almost eliminated. I also installed BUY, but that turned out to be a mistake, since Dora's bedroom is right above the downstairs bathroom, but Peter and Samantha's bed is apparently a little bit outside its radius. The result was a completely unnecessary bathroom-jam just in time for Samantha to have an accident immediately before giving birth. It's moments like that which make people hate the Ottomases. Until you figure out the mechanics behind what's going on, it feels like they're doing it on purpose. Now that the twins are born, I'll move Tommy upstairs with Dora and the twins will be in the nursery downstairs next to Peter and Samantha.

I also stuck them in Pleasantview during playtest games, using one of the premade houses - couldn't tell you which one, but I think it's on the same street as the Goths. One story. I gutted it and reconfigured all the rooms, with Sharla, David, and the kitchen on one side of the house, nursery with a bed for Dora and master bedroom on the other, and sizable communal space with room for all the toys, dining, and a stereo running front to back of the house in the middle. And three full baths. Two is the minimum for running this family, I feel; three could head off a lot of problems at the pass. But I didn't play it more than one day, so who knows if it would've played well.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Lab Assistant
#147 Old 22nd May 2012 at 9:01 PM
My Ottomases twins were born! Paul and Saul -- I have this wierd naming method -- so it kind of mirrors their parents initials. Anyhoo ... 10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 arms and 2 legs and a head -- they look good to me!
Mad Poster
#148 Old 22nd May 2012 at 9:20 PM
The one time I dabbled briefly with the Ottomas family, I put them in a big farmhouse, but I can't remember if it's in the bin or already placed in Riverblossom Hills. At any rate, I was thinking "large family needs large house", and the farmhouse had the right "feel" for what I thought they'd live in. Problem was, it's a fairly big, pricey lot, and I'd have had to cheat them some additional dough just to get the basics in.

I still like the idea of a rural or semi-rural lot for them, and could justify a large, slightly decrepit old house if I wanted to, but I can also get on board with the challenge of raising such a large family in close quarters.

So, thank you for the input, Peni. I intend to load the bunker to get a visual on your description of what you've done, because I'm curious, but oh my God, I can not stand that lot! At the risk of sounding dramatic, it actually creeps me out. Which is odd. But it creeps me out SO much, I usually delete it from the catalog altogether. Makes me wonder what weird childhood memories I might be suppressing.

Anyway, main point is that you've got me thinking "small" now. I think I'll look for an existing lot I can remodel to be a little, semi-rustic farmhouse.
Lab Assistant
#149 Old 22nd May 2012 at 9:45 PM
I actually like the Ottomas because all the other families in my legacy hood were just couples who then proceeded to have children, leaving me with so many toddlers.

I recently played them for a week. Put them in a big house so they had no money and had to live poor. Grandma died, daughter aged up to teen, son aged up and got married to random seasons townie chick, toddler aged to child, twins were born (pretty ugly because they're really fat in the face but oh well). But yeah the daughter's face is really ugly.

I got an interesting family tree: although Samantha didn't have an affair with a dog the children weren't connected to anything but her. It's like she had the children with herself.

Funnily enough Mom and Dad suck at their jobs. In the space of a week they're only like level three and I barely made them take care of the kids. But I like 'em.

That was not helpful, funny, or love!
Mad Poster
#150 Old 22nd May 2012 at 9:47 PM
Two story farmhouse, salmon-colored? I used that for the Drama Acres Newsons. It's actually a good house for them, but I only just this last rotation remodeled the kitchen - actually swapped it with the back room - and I should have done that long ago. And the Ottomases don't have anything near the money the Newsons have, though they have a lot more coming in. I wanted to stick the Ottomases into the barracks next to the Grunts, but they couldn't afford it.

The bunker house is disturbing. It looks like it should belong to a paranoid conspiracy nut who wants to be able to shoot people coming in if he feels he has to, and the basement should be a fully-stocked bomb shelter. Even after my remodel, the best I can say about it is, that it's military housing, and not really up to Peter's rank.

I'll probably have to use the basement as a rec room; put a TV and some instruments down there so David and Sharla, who are natural allies at the start, can hang out. But it's not a good teen social lair (which is what it would become in real life) for the game because it's so hard to see into. I've never lived in a desert that had proper subsoil for basements, either.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
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