Freeze or Starve?

For the past few weeks I've been playing Banished, a city-building strategy game developed by the one-man Shining Rock Software.  It's taken quite a few restarts but I'm almost to the point of keeping everyone alive through every winter with the occasional one dying during childbirth or trampled by a boar and the rest dying of old age.  Heath and happiness are up but disaster may be just around the corner. 

I finally got one village to over 300 citizens when the nomads I accepted brought typhoid with them and wiped out a third of the town.  I couldn't build cemeteries fast enough!  Then there was the game where all the food producers kept starving and all the woodcutters kept freezing to death.  I can only conclude that the children steal all the food and firewood (and pick a pocket or two as well) while the adults are at work.

I've checked out a few wikis and forums but the more tips I followed from other players, the worse things seemed to go.  No one solution works for every game so it's a case of finding what works best for the game you are in.  And sometimes it's so elusive ... like if you'd only done the right thing an hour ago then things wouldn't have taken a dive.  

As Leo says, "First they were banished.  Now they're dying, thanks to me".  

Azure Heights Pool 2.0

I've updated the pool complex surrounded by loft houses in Sunset Valley with the pool slide, diving boards and pool bar that have been added to the game with updates and expansions.  The only store content is the outdoor shower that came with the Serenity Spa venue in Sunlit Tides.  The small square pool with fountain is a toddler pool. 

Isn't it amazing how much difference a couple of years makes to this lot.  The original version only had pool ladders because that was all that came with the base game.  The pool slide or diving board, preferably both, should've been in the base game from the start.  The diving board was added with the patch for Seasons (technically making it base game I suppose) and the pool slide came with Island Paradise.  No surprises now, of course, since we've learned that's just the way they do business.  

Download Azure Heights Pool 2.0

http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=7949451

15,000

Pageviews, that is.  At least according to Blogger.  I doubt it's a reliable figure since the highest number of visitors was in June 2009 (over 1,100 that month).  Full marks for spotting that I started this blog in February 2011.

So what else does Blogger have to say?  Most visitors are from the USA, UK or Australia and come here via Vidkid20's Sim Lair using Firefox or Chrome.  Next largest group are the visitors from Russia that arrived here via porn sites.  Plenty of people are still searching for Skyrim tickling and someone was after an online feet tickling game.

A few people looking for my builds (thank you), especially the new Plumbob Pictures backlot.  I'm working on some new lots and some updates to the old ones for the new content.  Progress has been slow, mostly due to not having a lot of time to test everything out.

I feel like I spent more time getting Sims 3 working last year than actually playing.  And it's been a challenge to find time and energy with my son being ill for most of the year, though things are looking up since he had his tonsils out a couple of months ago.

With (probably) the last official game update released and a lot of winding up happening around the simmerverse, I feel I should at least mention the future.  As I've posted before, I won't be getting Sims 4 in a hurry (if at all).  I will continue to play around with builds in Sims 3 and trying out all of the gameplay I haven't got to yet.  I may cover more non-Sims 3 topics than in the past, but I won't be abandoning this blog just yet.