Welcom to Twinbrook Redux (TR I)

I've always been drawn to "unconventional" play styles (a perfect example is Ingeli's Windlebridge for The Sims 2). Legacy just doesn't do it for me. With The Sims 3, a lot of us are torn. On the one hand, the rabbit holes and the lack of OFB elements are kind of a deal breaker for anyone who attempts the so-called "integrated economy" gameplay; on the other, the open neighborhood and the graphics (create-a-style, and water effects and such) are really hard to give up. But coming back to TS3 after a long break, I've found this is already changing with the help of many mods, so I can play the game the way I wanted, more or less.

So, welcome to Twinbrook Redux...

...where everybody starts with nothing, but a tent.

That's right. All sims (all of them YA) start with a 10x10 lot with a tent on it. The lot itself is $0 in value, and the pre-placed tent is $0 as well. I wouldn't mind them sleeping on the ground if they can do so as commanded (like in TS2). On a community lot nearby, I have a toilet stall, a sink (so they can sponge bath), a firepit (so they can roast vegies, fruit, or fish), and one lettuce plant. (I wish sims can wash themselves clean in the river, then I wouldn't need the sink, and the toilet.) You might be able to recognize that above is the industrial area.

This is the "colony" in the swamp area:

And the third and last "colony", in the military area:

...where the bathroom is grander, and has shower rooms.

My approach to playing then is to let them do their own thing, and I interfere as little as possible. So I wait for them to visit the junk yard on their own. Most of them will "dig through" autonomously. For some reason, they do not actually collect scraps in my game, but others seem to be able to, errrrrg, *pulling hair out*. So I have to stay vigilant and check often, and direct them to dig through.

Because the couple of lettuce plants are not so productive and fishing might take a while to catch the first fish, I placed a food truck for them. They do buy autonomously, including the inactive playables. Unfortunately, I don't think the inactives actually spend money when they buy the food. When I have other viable food sources (a vegetable/fish/fruit stand, or further down the road, bakery, restaurant, and bars), I'll probably delete the food truck. That kiosk was a consignment stand in a previous iteration of Twinbrook Redux. I built it for the fishermen to sell fish and a painter to consign painting. It worked well without an owner, but not so well for gardeners (these are all made possible by Ani_'s mods, which I'll discuss below). This time around, I deleted the consignment cash register, but left the kiosk for future use.

Others are pushed by Twallan's Story Progression to collect rocks/bugs/butterflies. And for those who do, I give them the "collector" self-employment job. I have been waiting for a gardener to emerge, but apparently, they do not autonomously harvest plants. So I found a green thumb to do the gardening. And that is Motoki:

He lives in a tent in the industrial area. Here he went to the swamp area to harvest that lettuce I saw.

He's so hungry by the time he got there, so he had to eat one of the two lettuce he just harvested. He left his vegetable stand downtown at 6:30 pm, and made it back home past 3 am (he had to repeatedly shoo people off the lot in order to sponge bath, the poor thing). There is no way he can go to work next day. (I use Prettysims' Sims Must Walk to make them walk/run everywhere. I don't like them to drive cars or even ride bicycles when they are supposed to have nothing.)

Luckily, he has already hired a friend Jfade to tend the register for his vegetable stand. Jfade was hired because they are friends, and also he doesn't have much income because he didn't become a "collector".

The vegetable stand is made available by Ani_'s Shop from inventory mod at MTS (and I can't wait to try out her other mods once my sims are able to; I also follow her blog Ani's Dwelling). The chest next to the counters is from Around the Sims' Chest-like, and works perfectly with Ani's mod.

I set the register to pay $0 through Twallan's "The Register", and through his Story Progression's money transfer function, Motoki pays jfade $16/day. That's about $2/hour. I know, so meager. But the vegetable stand is not making much money for now, the living cost is still very low as I set inactive billing as $5 per sim per day, plus Motoki has a "mountain" of debt in order to open the vegetable stand to serve the community.

The vegetable stand is on a 10x10 lot, but apparently it's worth $12,000+ (as a "big park" so that it's purchasable). Motoki took out a $13,000 loan (through Digitalchaos' Global Online Banking Mod at MTS), at the interest rate of 7% per week/year. This is because my pre-Generations life expectancy mod sets a week as a year. At the end of "year" 2, Motoki's loan has accumulated to $14,884.

Right now, my plan is to have three types of loans.
(1) Out-of-nowhere loans. This is the kind Motoki got. Using Digitalchaos' Online Banking Mod, Motoki took out $13K. Since the interest is $910 at 7%, he took out another $910, but it's deleted out of the family funds. I'll try to keep the availability of this type of loan limited. As far as I can see, only Motoki the gardener should take out this loan, before the other types of loans become available.
(2) Government loans. There is a treasury for Twinbrook Redux (more on this later), with the taxes as the income source. Residents can borrow money from that fund with an interest.
(3) Private loans. Rich sims can lend money to other residents, with an interest of course. I have made a custom career for a banker, where the banker goes to a business rabbit hole to work from 9 to 5 Mon-Fri, but with no pay. The income will be the interest from those loans. (For the most part the career is working, but a couple of tones are not working right, and I haven't tested/worked on it since this iteration of Twinbrrok Redux started. I'm waiting for a sim to get rich.)

The interest rates for these loans are randomly rolled between 1%-4% for the government loans, and 6%-10% for the private and out-of-nowhere loans.

Now the treasury.  I want to collect taxes and use that fund to build up the community and give loans to residents. Twallan has a tax function in his Story Progression, but that money is like bills, going to the void. I suggested to him to somehow record that revenue stream, but I don't know if he will implement it. So I imagine I can set up a household to be the treasury. Other households transfer money to this household as they pay the taxes, and I do as much as I can to keep the treasury household not involved in any money-related story progression. So I made him:

 
He's just a randomly rolled sim in CAS, because it really doesn't matter how he looks. What made me laugh is as I was testing my banker career, he joined it autonomously (or through SP more accurately) as an inactive. Apparently I set his traits right: disciplined, frugal, perfectionist, family-oriented, and eco-friendly (don't ask me why), and swimming in cash as lifetime wish. With Twallan's SP, I disabled all his options (aging, career, celebrity, move, romance, skills etc.), and only allow money and friendship. Gotta give this man SOMETHING to do. So far so good. I haven't seen him in any stories that popped up, and he hasn't collected anything or spent any money. All he's been accruing is the $5/day inactive living cost.

As for the taxes, the residents will not pay any taxes until they move into a real house. While they are toiling away at stayin' alive, they have these to aspire to:

Plasticbox's houses, **Heart**. Except for the Stone Corner pub and subway stop from Awesims' Queenstown. They are too pretty to not put down. But they are residential lots for now.

The trailer park by madaya74 at TSR, free set!

And Camp Willow by HugeLunatic. As you can see, I modified a little, and also I removed all the furniture from the one apartment, so now it only costs $144 to move in, while the whole lot costs about $23K without being set as an apartment lot. My plan is that the lot has to be "built" and "paid for" by a rich sim, and another household will move in as a tenant. The $144 will be a weekly rent. I find this works well for one-unit houses as well. After setting most rooms as public, the cost can be drastically reduced and become affordable. How I wish the apartments are like those in TS2! Why, oh why, there can only be one family living in a apartment building, and you can't visit your neighbors? Why, EA, why?

By the way, I moved the Ivy Hill Graveyard here, and as a residential lot for now. Apparently, sims can still go in and collect.

Finally this picture. Here, only Jfade was directed to try to ask his wife (a service NPC married by the SP) to move in. Everybody else was on their own. :-)

As for the residents. There are 40 of them, including the treasury person. So yeah, a lot of tiny lots. Many of them are MATY self sims, as you might have recognized. There are also a few from MTS, here and there, including Obama (lol). I once upon a time downloaded them, and they were all nicely organized and backed up, so I re-use them every time I start a new neighborhood. But this is not intended to be a MATY hood, because I have no reason as to who to include and not include. I've just settled on the number 40 for now. I did make a Pescado, since there's no official Pescado pudding. Or is there? He actually beat up jfade at the vegetable stand while he was working, unprovoked, and jfade was also charged the court fees. Injustice! But I don't have the picture.

I have no idea if this game play will work out. I didn't really play the game that much in fact. I have never played past child of the first gen, and spent way too much time on CAW. I haven't really played any professions, or careers for that matter, and the bar scene. So I have a lot to see. But I'm glad I finally can start a neighborhood and feel invested.

Next time: Year 2.