A week with the Ottomas family

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

I've been playing the game for a few weeks now and you know what? I think it's time to have some babies. So today, I going to play the Ottomas family!



What do I know about this family? Samantha's pregnancy is borked in an unpatched game, and Peter and Samantha make some really ugly babies. Apparently. Well, my game is patched, so that's all good, and I'm sure their kid's can't be that bad. Right?

So after hunting around for a house that would fit them all, I finally settled upon a lot in Veronaville. There's a bedroom for all the children, a bedroom for Peter and Samantha, and Dora gets a daybed downstairs. With room dividers so she can sleep.


But no sleeping yet! After a quick makeover (THOSE CHEEKBONES!), I set Dora to work potty-training Tommy.


Then Peter reads him a story.


The welcome wagon consisted of Titania Summerdream, but sadly, she was eaten by the door.


David: MY GRADES!
They'll get better, I promise. Just do your homework and you'll be fine.


David: I'll do it later. Right now, I'm going to teach my little brother to play in traffic.


Bad idea! BAD IDEA!


Sharla's family are all in this house, but OK!


Titania: You have way too many toys in this house.
Samantha: I have three children. And I'm expecting twins.
Titania: TOO MANY TOYS.


Who needs toys anyway when you can jump rope for hours?


David kept his teen job because believe it or not, he does not want to become an athlete or a burglar! Way to go, David!


Peter teaches him how to study.


I don't know why people dislike this family so much. Look at them! He may be a Romance sim, but Peter is the best daddy and husband. Look at him petting her belly! Eeee!



He's dead easy to keep happy too, because he rolls lots of wants to date and makeout and woohoo with his wife.


Samantha: Tingly!


David is thrilled to be potty training.


Peter completes the job the next day.



Dora goes out for a jog and comes back fit.


Tommy learns to walk.


And Sharla learns to do her homework.


Tommy: Bath Gwamma!
Dora: Hold on a second Tommy, I think I heard something.


Samantha: OW OW PETER I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!


Baby one is a boy named Greg.


And baby two... uh...
Dora:What the hell is that thing?!
Yeah. Baby two is another boy named Glen. And I'll have no trouble at all telling them apart because Glen was born with a speckled alien skintone.


He may be randomly alien, but Dora loves her cuckoo grandson anyway.


No he hasn't, you liar.


Oh, and Peter also does not want to become a crook or an athlete. He wants to become a celebrity chef and his dream job popped up on the computer.




And it would seem Samantha has heard about all the budding criminals in this town because she wants to become Captain Hero. She loses some cash, but her first day at work is still pretty good.


She worked off the baby weight pretty fast. Jealous.


On the other hand, Dora's LTW is not job related, so I let her potter around the house most of the day, planting tomatoes.




These guys are just winners.



David tries to spam his dad with some A+, but there's no time for that.



Cause it's birthday time!


Not too freaky at all. I don't know what all those rumours are about.


Now he's a child, Tommy runs out every day to welcome his mother home from work.


Some brother-sister bonding in Grandma Dora's sitting room.


But they need other friends, so I send them off to a community lot to hang out on the playground.



Big brother David strikes out with the ladies.





Peter does much better during date night with Samantha.


David: Never mind, I don't need girls, I've got these guys to keep me company.


Nothing like sneaking out of your own home to surprise your husband with flowers.


Anyway! time for more birthdays!


HOLY SHIT THE RUMOURS WERE TRUE!


Peter had to flee go to the toilet, so David grew up baby Glen.


David: Enjoy your final moment of being cute and adorable, Glen!



We interrupt the birthday with some pop-up spam.


Anyway! Seems the thought of growing up ugly was so horrifying, Glen shit his pants and wouldn't grow up, so Peter had to try again later.


He's... not much better. But at least it's hidden under hair.


There hasn't been a lot of Sharla in this update. She likes to spend most of her time in the garden, skipping and raking leaves.


The hungry door strikes again.



The children get into private school and Peter gets a promotion.


And then this happens! :D You see, Dora's LTW is to have six grandchildren. She already has five, she's a diamond at helping take care of them, and most importantly, Peter and Samantha don't mind having another baby. So I decided to indulge her.


Time for a family outing. I send everyone (minus Samantha and the twins) out to dinner to celebrate getting into private school.


The restaurant is run by a rather elderly-looking Phoenix Wright. Nice to see he's moved up from playing poker in an icky bar.


They also have the most fabulous elf waiter. I want someone to have his babies!


David: Bit wet this.


Poor Vicund Curious is still the number one target for peeping Toms in the uberhood.


Potty training.


David reaches the top of his teen career, which equals a scholarship for him.


And it's time for Sharla's birthday.


Grim: Oooh, a party? Am I invited.
NO NO GO AWAY I'M NOT DONE WITH HER!


Sharla: It's a great day to be me!
Dora: Well, Sharla grew up well, so I guess I'm OK with this.
I'M not! Samantha's expecting her sixth child for your LTW!


Riches do not improve my mood. >:(


I can't be too upset though, she did go out platinum. RIP, Dora, I'll miss you.




Everybody else: Well, we're still upset about it!


Now Sharla's a teen, she starts helping out with the twins too.


Samantha's second pop.


Promotional spam.


Sharla stargazing. You can see her teen features a bit better here. She's not beautiful, but she's certainly unique.


Tommy may not be able to help with the toddler skills, but he's still a great big brother, playing peek-a-boo with Glen for hours.



Skilling tag-team commence!


Peter: Oh ew, it's that guy again!
Lol, poor Vicund.


Vicund: Stop spying on me!
Peter: Hey, I saw you spying on me through that telescope, so up yours!



They don't need the money thanks to Dora's will, but it's good for college.


Speaking of college, David only has one day left as a teen, so it's time for him to go. I don't know where I'm gonna send him just yet.


All that looking through the telescope pays off.


And it's time for the twins birthdays.


Glen looks better than he did as a toddler.


Greg... is still horrifying. Oh dear.

---

So, the Ottomasses. I'd read all sorts of stuff about them, like Samantha's borked pregnancy and their tendency to make ugly children and dismissed it all as rumours. I'm eating my words now! Technically Samantha's pregnancy wasn't really borked in my game, it was a geneticised alien skintone that was randomly selected, but the ugly children thing? All true. I never give my sims plastic surgery, so Glen and Greg are just going to have to hope that age is kind to them.

Also, DORA! I cannot believe she went and DIED when I went and made Samantha and Peter try for a baby, just for her! Still, Sharla growing up well pushed her into platinum, and like I said, Peter and Samantha are both happy about it anyway, so they'll cope.

Next - MOAR BABIES.

Uberhood Index

Comments

[silenzii.livejournal.com]

You need to check the family ties to see if the children appear as Peter and Samantha's children and not some random dog offsprings (I mean it). But if you downloaded one of these new Uberhoods probably the Ottomas borkiness was fixed.
The uglyness is Dora's courtesy mostly. She have quite unique facial features. Nothing that 2 or 3 generations marrying other sims don't fix.

[nobody-at-all-6.livejournal.com]

This is great. I always enjoy your narration; the comments are really funny.

Yeah, the Ottomas twins' faces are always like EXPLODE and you're like GAAAAH OH THE CHEEKBONES. Greg actually reminds me of those creepy marionettes from that Jim Henson movie The Dark Crystal. (Has anyone else ever actually seen that? Or did I just have a really bonkers seventh grade English teacher?)

Anyway, looking forward to more Uberhood madness.

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

I love the Ottomas family! You did lovely makeovers of the whole family. I actually think those kids are kind of cute in an ugly sort of way, and I really like the shaggy hair. The only features that really bother me are Sharla's cheek dents because they look so unnatural.

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

I'm using Tarlia's Clean MegaUberUltraShoppingDistrict... thing, which I'm pretty sure has been cleaned so nicely I could eat my dinner off it. ^^ Dora sure does have some interesting features! It's not so bad now I'm used to it, but I admit I did recoil slightly when I saw her in the mirror and got a good look at those cheeks.

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :D
I haven't seen that film, but yes, he DOES look like a marionette! Or a ventriloquist dummy, the ones you put your hands inside and make talk. Eek!

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

Thank you. ^^ They were fun to makeover, and even more fun to play. I enjoy busy households.
The children took me by surprise. I admit I thought it was gross exaggeration when people would say "they're hideous!" but they've grown on me and I'm sure they'll turn out fine in the end. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Sharla's face will fill out a bit when she grows up, because yeah, those cheek dents are a bit WTF.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Hee hee. You thought the tales of Ottomas ugly spawn were just cruel rumors.

Greg is classic Ottomas with those cheeks and pinched eyes. It will be less dramatic as he ages but it will stil be there (like Sharla).

You can breed it out but WHY!? It's more fun to find them interesting looking townies and cull a fabulously rich legacy of odd looking sims (hey, you'll always know what family they're from just by looking at them!).

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

I did think it was just cruel rumours, haha. That'll teach me! I'm now kind of hoping one of the kids will like Nervous Subject or Pascal Curious' alien baby. They'd make some amazing babies!

[krolowa-francji.livejournal.com]

Peter Ottomas was a wonderful dad in my game, too! Rolled a lot of wants to take care of his kids, often interacted with everyone autnomously, and doted on his wife. He's actually better than most family sims. They're usually content collecting as many babeis as possible and then leaving them on the floor between dirty diapers and bottles.
If you don't mind me asking - is Dora planting tomatoes in pots? :o there's a mod for that?

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

Dora is indeed planting tomatoes in a pot. :) You can find the pots and stackable garden plots in this set. (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=470191) It's especially brilliant for Apartments.

[krolowa-francji.livejournal.com]

That's fantastic! Thank you :D

[peni griffin (from livejournal.com)]

The reason most people hate the Ottomases is that they play them the first time without sufficient experience, and the game starts you with them in media res with no time to train anybody before the twins are born. The only family to touch them as an intense playing experience is the Newsons. And then you get them almost through the rough stuff and Dora drops dead! She was in low green and potty-training one of the twins when Grim came my first time around; and then she haunted and scared the same twin so he wet himself. It had a profound impact on his later development. My second time around I'm doing better and am determined she'll die platinum.

Meanwhile, despair not. The twins are gobs of fun to play, and in my game, at least, Child #6 became the belle of her age cohort.
[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee238/PeniG/Simshots/Teens/snapshot_59955bb7_bbf7672a.jpg[/IMG]

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the Ottomas are a family you need to be prepared for. I haven't quite worked up the nerve to tackle the Newson's yet, I'm going to read up on them on the Wiki a bit more first.

Hope you manage to get platinum for Dora this time. That poor twin! XD

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Your Ottomases are adorable. :D I don't care what anyone says, they're a great family. And any neighbourhood generated in a post Seasons-patched (or with a later EP) game will not have a borked pregnancy. :) They do make some, er, interesting kids, but I think you got quite lucky with your twins, they should grow into their features fairly nicely - speaking as an experienced Ottomas player. ;)

I especially like your Sharla, she's so cute. :D Too bad about Dora though! I always give her a sixth grandchild as well.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

It's only a problem in a game that has Seasons as the latest installed EP and it hasn't been patched. The fix is also included with later EPs.

It's Peter's genetics that cause the ugliness, actually (facial features can't be recessive so they always come directly from the parents). His features just don't mix well with anything, because of his "shortened" face. Dora's face is, for some crazy reason, a mix of Samantha and Peter's faces, which I discovered when I managed to roll a random offspring of theirs in CAS which looked like an exact clone of Dora.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

The cheek dents only get worse, I'm afraid. :P

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

I was totally unprepared for Dora's death! I think when I play them again, I shall have to have Peter and Samantha adopt a sixth child just be sure she goes out platinum, it was only total luck that she did this time.

[simsfreq.livejournal.com]

Dora's LTW + days left to live combination is another one of those cruel maxis jokes! I think she has just enough days for Samantha to give birth to the twins, get immediately pregnant and then get to day 2 of her pregnancy. So the only (non-cheaty!) way to achieve her LTW is to get her platinum enough to afford elixir of life, or get someone who knows her high up enough in the Paranormal career so that they can resurrect her. Or maybe the adoption thing would work too, I hadn't thought of that :P

Then again it's kind of sad and poignant when she dies just before her 6th and much longed for grandchild is born, and a nice reason to name the kid Dora if it's a girl ^_^ (I don't know about a boys' name... Doro? Dory? Doré? [me-fa-so-la-te-do!] Donald? XD)

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

Another idea would be trying to get Peter abducted. That should work. But yes, it's a very mean trick! I was totally unprepared for it!