I do have lots of pictures I can post to get you up to date on where I’m currently playing in the Sunset Valley neighborhood, but I’m going to take a break for a moment to talk about the new expansion pack, Ambitions. I was way late with World Adventures and actually only just got it LAST WEEK (along with High-End Loft Stuff, all three are my anniversary present from my husband). But I had pre-ordered Ambitions, so I got it the day of release and have been playing the last couple of nights.
I thought World Adventures was okay. Love the scenery in the foreign neighborhoods, so pretty! The adventures are okay, it gives something to do and a break from just going to work/school. I sent one of the Goth daughters on a “study abroad semester” trip (not actually part of the game, just what I called it in my head) to China during high school (the Goths need something to do with all the money they have!) but I was disappointed to find out that the other family members were in exactly the same positions and actions when she returned as they were when she left. I had hoped time would pass for them while she was gone so it could actually be like she was gone for this certain amount of time. But anyway.
Ambitions, however, I am really enjoying! While I wait for my critical mods to be updated for the new expansion, I created a new Sim in the new hood, Twinbrook, to play around and try out the new features.
This is Sasha Mooring (some of these pictures were taken before I put my custom skins back in, so she has the EA default skin here). Her traits are dramatic, eco-friendly, friendly, slob, and…I think loves the outdoors was the other trait I gave her. Dramatic and eco-friendly are both new traits included with Ambitions.
Her hairstyle is one of the new ones that comes with Ambitions. It has a headband and flips out a little a the bottom.
Eco-friendly Sims hate riding in cars, though they do like carpooling. I had to buy Sasha a bike because she would get negative moodlets from riding in a car and wasting gas. “Well, haven’t you seen that huge oil spill in the Gulf? We’re already losing tons of the limited resource and destroying the planet!”
I haven’t tried it yet because Sasha is essentially broke at the moment, but I wonder if she would like the eco car? (You can download it by changing your language setting to United Kingdom English if you’re not in the UK.)
Also, everything she cooks is organic because she’s eco-friendly. The townie behind her wasn’t interested in organic hot dogs, she just wanted Sasha to move so she could cook her fish.
“I hope that’s free range fish from a clean environment and caught humanely,” Sasha says.
I sent Sasha over to the fire department to hang out in the hopes of meeting a hot fireman. She hung out for hours, but no one ever showed up, so she just played on their trampoline instead.
Twinbrooks seems to have an unfortunate number of guys who aren’t exactly eye candy. I gave up and just said whoever was the first cute person I saw, I’d hook Sasha up with them.
And that’s how Sasha became a lesbian. Her name is Julienne… um, something. I forgot right now. But apparently she’s got some money because I discovered that she lives in a huge house. Seemingly by herself because I haven’t seen anyone else home with her yet and she told Sasha she was single. (Not anymore, she’s now Sasha’s girlfriend.)
And she likes a girl who can cook organic hot dogs, so score! Those burnt hot dogs on the table were cooked by someone else. Sasha didn’t burn hers.
While Julienne may be rolling in the dough, Sasha isn’t and so all she could afford was this little shack over in the swamp.
“At least it’s environmentally friendly.”
Yeah, but that’s because it’s practically a part of the environment, Sasha.
The swamp is kind of cool though. There is the fog that hangs around and blows through the area.
There’s not much to look at inside. One main room and a bathroom. Sasha is a slob and so she leaves her laundry laying all around the floor whenever she changes. You can see some clothes on the floor over by the end of the bed.
“I just don’t like wasting water by washing clothes.”
Uh-huh. But I see you’re able to waste water by bathing yourself every day.
While I was waiting for Sasha to get ready for work, I started looking around the lot to get a better look at the area. She has a nice view of the dam from her house.
“While water power is environmentally friendly, dams themselves block the natural flow of the water, you know.”
Yes, I know, go back to your organic salad and get ready for work.
I then noticed something off in the distance behind the house. What is that?
A broken bridge?
Train tracks. So a broken train trestle then?
I followed the track along the cliff edge to this old building that looks like it’s about to slide off into the water. The track keeps going around the curve, but it was time for Sasha to head to work so I stopped exploring for now.
One of the things I was happy to see added to the game was tattoos! You can see the back tattoo I gave Sasha here. You can add a tattoo in Create a Sim or else your Sims can visit the tattoo parlour and get them. The tattoos are done in the same building as the salon (in Twinbrook anyway) and it’s underground.
Sasha works at the salon as a stylist. This photo was taken on her day off–but I made her go in and give a makeover anyway to figure out how it works–so she’s not in her work uniform.
Here she is on an actual scheduled work day, in her stylist outfit. Not sure why she needs the glasses.
“They’re just glass lenses. It’s for style, not function, of course.”
As a stylist, you get notifications when you have a makeover waiting for you. Sasha had one that morning with this lady, who needed a new every day outfit and two new formal outfits. A box tells you what the client wants. You can discuss fashion with people and either compliment or insult their fashion sense. I was also amused to see that with her clients, Sasha has the option to decline the makeover and call them llamas. I thought Sims liked llamas?
Remember how one of Sasha’s traits is dramatic. She does this a lot.
“Life is so unfair. Think of all the natural resources we’re destroying!”
You’re helping by getting people to buy new clothes, you know. They don’t necessarily need new outfits.
“I only outfit my clients in clothes made from organic cotton, thank you very much!”
Okay, fine, just get on with it.
They discuss the makeover for a while, striking poses the whole time.
And…she hates it.
“Maybe you should try cutting your hair? It’s kind of a rat’s nest.”
Some of the clients cry when they hate the makeover. Sasha still gets paid even though the client isn’t happy. Maybe she doesn’t like organic cotton.
“Then she can go somewhere else!”
Yeah, but you really need the money. There is a lot of downtime as a stylist, at this point anyway. Sasha didn’t have another actual client booked after that first one, so we waited around a while to see if anyone would come into the salon. People do, throughout the day, but sometimes it takes a long time between visitors. So I looked around to see if I could find anyone else in need of a makeover.
Like her. Her name is Penny Pincher. Sasha greeted her, but then she couldn’t do anything after. When I hovered over Penny, it said “Penny Pincher is at work right now and can’t be bothered.”
Apparently, the street walker thing isn’t just a look she’s going for.
Finally, a guy came into the salon and Sasha greeted him and got him up on the stylist platform.
“Now, hear me out on this: Red heels. You’ll look fabulous.”
I don’t think he’s really into that idea.
He does however like the makeover Sasha gives him.
“Good, now go comb your hair or something.”
There’s a couch downstairs in the tattoo area, so Sasha sometimes takes naps there between customers. There’s also a house across the street that has a garden, so Sasha goes and steals their fruits to eat for lunch because she has to be on call for the salon from 9am to 7pm. Gah.
“I haven’t seen Julienne in days!”
I know, because you’re working all the freaking time!
But I do manage to get Sasha up to the next level in the stylist career. There is a progress bar on the job tab that shows you how close you are to the next promotion. As a stylist, you can raise your progress by giving makeovers to your scheduled clients and random people that come in, and by discussing fashion with people. Also, you build a portfolio that you can show to clients. You take a picture of your makeovers for your portfolio. Right now Sasha is using her cell phone camera, which I hate, but she can’t afford an actual camera yet. Someone on the Sims 3 forum said they found a used camera in the consignment shop, so I’ve been having Sasha check there to see if one comes up. It hasn’t yet but she did get a level 1 book on Photography from there, so she can read that during her downtime at the salon.
“I like consignment shops. Reusing old things is good.”
Great. I like them too, even though the Twinbrook consignment shop is lacking in anything other than books or gems.
Also, you need the drafting table to draw designs for the portfolio, which is what Sasha had to spend what little money she has on.
And the last night of my playtime, a visitor decides to stop by poor Sasha’s house. I see you hiding there in the grass and fog, you know.
“I knew I should have gone for camoflague instead of these stripes!”
So I wake Sasha for her to call the police and this cop who makes me think of Gil Grissom with his beard kicks the burglar’s butt and rescues her grill. And that’s where we’ll leave her for now.
Cameras do appear in the consignment shop. The one in my town had the high grade DSLR camera… I was a bit perplexed, but hey! I’m not going to complain.
I was curious about the stylist career. I think I’m a little disappointed, though. You can’t change their hair styles? Boo! I haven’t messed with it much, I saw the building downtown, but nothing past that.
Those are some crazy long hours as a stylist! Somehow, I thought they’d be more “free lance” like the private investigator and not have set hours.
Ah, I wrote this really quickly before my dentist appointment this morning and I knew I was forgetting something.
You can change their hairstyles and also their hair color. But the scheduled clients are very particular about what they want. I discovered with her first scheduled client that shoes are counted as separate items from the rest of the outfit. So if the client doesn’t want new shoes, they’ll get mad about you giving them new ones with their new outfit. Or at least, that’s what happened with that client. 
When you do a makeover, it checks off what you’ve done and it had checked the everyday outfit, the 3 formalwear, and then also shoes, but the client hadn’t asked for shoes. So she hated the makeover.
Hair is also separate from the rest of the outfit and if I remember correctly, hairstyle and hair color are considered two different things. On her second day of work, Sasha had a scheduled client request a new hair color, but not a new hairstyle. He still hated it even with his new color though, but the pop up said maybe he was too picky, lol.
Those are LONG hours at the salon! And it’s really not busy at all. I’m hoping maybe as she advances she’ll get more clients, but at this point there is a lot of downtime just waiting for someone to come in.
That’s awesome that you got the high grade DSLR in the consignment shop! I’m going to keep checking to see if Sasha gets that lucky, lol.
Oooh, thanks for the added info, Shana! So you have to do what the clients ask? They have specific requests? That’s definitely more intriguing. I might have to mess around with this career at some point! Shame about the slow business but long hours thing.
I’m guessing there’s no huge negative thing for displeasing a client? TS3 seems to sort of “brush over” anything negative, lol.
They have specific requests in that they’ll say things like, “Raises are awesome! I need a new look to go with my new money. I need three new every day outfits and a new formal outfit.” LOL, that actually happened. One client said he’d gotten a raise and needed new clothes to go with it. I haven’t figured out yet if colors of the clothing matter, though I would guess not. Are Sims able to tell what colors they’re wearing? lol. You can discuss fashion with them before the makeover and it helps increase your job progress, but I haven’t seen anything from the speech bubbles that gives me clues as to exactly what the client might like. So far, it seems that whether or not they like the makeover is random.
Your relationship level with the client goes down a little if they don’t like the makeover, but other than that it doesn’t seem to have any other negative affects. I watched carefully to see if Sasha still got paid for the bad makeovers and she did and also got a little more job skill. So the relationship level looks like the only thing really affected by it.
A trampoline!!! Can you buy those for your house? That’s awesome. It looks like it’d be a great activity for kids too.
The view from Sasha’s house is amazing. Twinbrooks looks like a lovely hood.
And I didn’t know they’d added consignment shops. That’s a cool idea. I hate having to go all the way to Egypt to get the good camera.
I think you can buy the trampoline. I haven’t yet since Sasha is SOOO broke, lol, but I think I’ve seen other people on forums mention putting trampolines on their lots. They are awesome! Oh, now I wonder how many Sims can use the trampoline at the same time. I wonder if it’s just one or if maybe several could, like a bunch of kids all crowded on the trampoline in real life, lol.
I really like Twinbrook. It has a really cool atmosphere and I love the fog rolling over the swamp. You can also hear crickets and frogs in the swamp at night.
The consignment shop is pretty cool. You can sell your Sim’s old belongings there or buy other items at a cheaper price. I like to stop by each day and see what’s available in the catalog because it changes. I think you can also buy the consignment shop through the real estate feature and I assume you’d make money from it, though I’ve heard that you can’t control what Sims work there like you could in Open for Business.
This was really cool. I was wondering how the stylist/tattoo artist careers were implemented. That’s a really brutal schedule, though. Way too long. A ten hour day? REALLY?
Don’t forget that showers are okay for eco-friendly sims because they take “quick showers.” I have an eco-friendly sim as well. I think her twin is dramatic — I love the dramatic icon, although it’s kind of sexist that it’s obviously female looking, as if drama is an inherently feminine trait or something. Grr. >:(
Great update, though. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I don’t know if you are planning to continue with this character, but I was very entertained!