I like the pre-made characters just fine. I do tend to get bored with the Maxis versions of their stories though, and wonder what other stories might there be to explain how the sims got where they are when the player first loads them. For example, I played Olive Specter as a crazed serial killer years ago. What if that's just gossip and she's really a good person, just bad tempered and antisocial because of people passing around stupid rumors about her. Dina and Nina can be gold-diggers or they can be from a poverty-stricken background and just a bit desperate for financial stability. Or maybe there's a whole other story there that I haven't thought of. Ultimately it's up to each individual player to decide who these characters are, where they came from and how they turn out.

Gotta agree there. I play her as sort-of like Don, but not quite as extremely. Usually she has 2-3 separate lovers, but they're more of a... what's the word? Outlet? Distraction? Then again, my Nina's bisexual and literally gives [0] shits about anyone's gender. If they're hot, she'll hit on them.
Anyway, most of them are just distractions, almost placeholders, until she finds someone she can really connect with. Then she settles down and gets married. Sometimes a guy, sometimes a girl, depends how I wanna play her that day (or week)

Dina does the same thing, finally taming Don after he spends most of his life being a womanizer. Then he settles down and has a kid or two with Dina, happy with his current life (Thanks to the Senso-orb thingy).

Also, from a sims story I read, this is the caliente sisters. They're living up to their names now. (Wish I could find that cc they used)

That's 7Skellington's rendition of the Caliente sisters. If you look on her "Fortune& Romance" blog, you'll find the cc that she used:
https://skellington7d.livejournal.com/4610.html

Thanks Peni. It may clash with other mods I use that affect jealousy, but it certainly worth trying. Or I may just let them have their row and then try out my skills as a peacemaker. After over 5 years playing Veronaville, I think I've got some relevant experience!
Maybe nobody. My mother was a teen and my father was an adult, about twice her age, when they first went out together. I don't know if they kissed when she was a teen, but they married when she was 20, so it seems more than likely. Unless there is some information to the contrary in TS1, I think it likely that Michael and Dina were a simple love match. Dina has merely suffered the sad, but not unlikely fate of those who fall in love with someone much older than themselves -- early widowhood. When I recall how Dina used to sit with Michael's ashes at her side, before I persuaded her to have them moved to the new cemetery, she seems more a heartbroken young widow than a scheming gold-digger. Looking at it that way, maybe she sees old Mortimer as a father figure. People's (and Sims') motives can be mixed, and the hope of some financial security may give her some kind of consolation. Perhaps Michael just didn't live long enough to give her the security he would have wished. Perhaps in dying, he may even have suggested that she turn to Mortimer. He could provide for her, and in return, she could give the lonely old man the love she had previously given to Michael.

Anyway, in my game Mortimer can now only be a father figure to her (and not in any sense a lover) since Bella has come back to him. I think Mortimer can be trusted to treat Dina fairly, and with compassion, and ensure that she's not left destitute. I think that's how I'll play it when I get back to Pleasantview.

@FranH

THANK YOU *Hugs to death*

More hot pix of Dina Caliente here. Kirthey did a great job on this makeover!
http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...310#post5134310

I think the premades provide something in common for us to talk about. I also think that if they were supposed to be played in a certain way, there would be game overs similar to the story mode on the old PS2 version of The Sims. (Don't want to get into the hot tub? Game over! And that story mode is difficult but necessary to unlock some of the skill-building and limited clothing items.) Instead, the game provides some background as suggestions that seemed like they were to highlight some of the then-new features for players coming over from Sims 1.That's something I hadn't thought of before, but goes well with what happened in my second playthrough of the neighborhood, where Mortimer invites Dina over and Dina inadvertently meets Alexander. Both of them rolled friendship wants for each other soon after meeting (despite the age difference), and Dina's interest in Mortimer wore off while Dina and Alexander became friends. I kept playing the Goths until Alexander became an adult, and lo and behold the two fell in love with each other immediately.
So Dina might really be an "ageblind" Sim designed to take advantage of the game's discontinuous aging system. (Just don't be Don Lothario calling to ask teens Downtown in my game. )

In Springwater, Denise Jacquet attempted to booty-call Johnny Smith. I put a halt to it immediately.

Nina Caliente is my favourite pre-made Sim. I'm comparatively indifferent to Dina, but that's because in my game she's generally gone off and married into the Goth household, and gets swallowed up by them. Nina then blossoms living alone, though that generally doesn't last. She doesn't always get married, but in all my various restarts of Pleasantview she pretty much always ends up with a bunch of kids, who she loves, and devotes all her time to other than when they're tucked up in bed while she woohoos with her latest beau.

Sometimes I like them, and and other times I loathe them. It all depends on how their lives turn out. I have a preference for premades, specifically Pleasantview premades; consequently, Nina and Dina have had several different lifetimes under my watch, and none of them have been the same. It's not necessary for me to reinterpret their original backstory to make them more or less sympathetic, because Maxis didn't provide a lot to go on. Which is exactly the way that it should be, so as not to constrain the player.

@Orphalesion I never like the original area the sisters live at in Pleasantview here what I did with their life, first they both have a good job Nina is a "Game Designer" at the top.
and Dina since she was so money crazy I place her in the "Business Career."

I then later created two brother in Body Shop one with Blond Hair and one with Red Hair, I move them into the Caliente household build their relationship, the two brother are both "Top Lawyer".
Nina fell in love with the brother with the red hair they moved out into a beautiful loft with lots of rooms and nice furniture, soon after got married ( no children yet )

Dina also fell in love with the other brother with Blond hair they got married and move into another beautiful loft directly across the street from her sister Nina. ( Since they are all family I wanted to keep them close to each other )
Dina also have no children yet one day I may get around to it, the Couples are all living well.

I like them but I usually change Dina to Popularity instead. I got to thinking about where Nina & Dina grew up (since they just arrived in PV according to the Maxis story). I decided that with their daddy being half alien, they may have grown up in ST. I recently made new versions of ST & PV and their daddy is a teen in my ST hood. He is friends with the Curious brothers, Circe, Loki and Olive & Willow (all teenagers). I wanted to keep the Caliente line in my new PV so I decided that Nestor's wife left him while pregnant with their child (she hated him being pregnant by aliens) and ended up in PV.

In the beginning, I used the premades for customers in businesses or as lovers for my romance sims who needed 20 love interest. My favorite premade is Cassandra Goth (just giving her a new hair style and getting rid of her glasses, she is a pretty sims), but Nina and Dina are my 2nd and 3rd favorites. At first Nina and Dina (plus the maids) were used for my Romance sims to play around with, but last year I bought the whole TV series of Dark Shadows and watched it. Now I have a complete family of Collins. My Collins family is the riches family in my mega hood. Because Dina was a gold digger she chased after Roger Collins and has just recently married him. After they were married they asked Nina to move in with them at Collinwood. Nina and Dina have yet to find out about the "secrets" of Collinwood. I truly love playing my Collins Family. I just wish I could find a Cannery Career and a career where the sims work at the cannery (not everyone can be the boss) but never move up in the career.

Debby, that wouldnt be too hard to make. You could make a custom Cannery career and than use the job stopinator to stop sims from going beyond their current level.

What is a job stopinator?

It's a mod that you put in your sim's inventory, and they don't get any more promotions until you take it out. http://cyjon.net/node/327

You could also have one of your Collins family buy a community lot, set up a Cannery business (packing produce, perhaps?), and have him hire sims to work there.

Thank you Peni for the link. As for your suggestion, I already did that. My Cannery sells fish to my fish market that sells fish to the town's people.

*Cries*

I can't see them...

Dina is SPICY thooo

Sorry - I didn't realize those pictures were photobucketed. I have a Firefox add-on that lets me see photobucket pictures and I keep forgetting that not everybody has it.

Try these links. I tested them with the add-on turned off. On some of them I had to hit reload a couple of times for the pictures to come up, but they all displayed okay for me.

http://photobucket.com/gallery/user...wZS5qcGc=/?ref=

http://photobucket.com/gallery/user...kN2cuanBn/?ref=

http://photobucket.com/gallery/user...nci5qcGc=/?ref=

http://photobucket.com/gallery/user...lLmpwZw==/?ref=

Like all the other pre-mades, I've played them good, bad, and ugly. Also dead.

in past times playing, I had Dina propose to Mortimer like the Prima Guide suggests. Alexander came with Mortimer each time.
Nina; paired her with different men in different times playing. Darren Dreamer (once); Don Lothario (at least twice).