Fanon:Kovax family

The Kovax family is a family in SimVille.

Original MTS post
The following was posted to ModTheSims on June 28, 2017. The original post can be found here.

The Kovax Family

I have a summer job between the start of July and the start of September. I'm working out of town, and while I will most likely bring my laptop with me, and while I might be able to come home on weekends, I probably won't have time to update this thread with in-game developments. However, I still check this thread regularly, and I'll be able to see any feedback/questions/comments here. I might be able to get some things in, but do expect a dearth of updates for the next few months. My apologies if you like how this hood is turning out and wanted to see more.

Anyways, those are some recent developments in the real world. Now back to the neighbourhood I have been working on:



Recently forced out of their old home after a house fire, can Jones regain his former police rank? Can Angela get the third child she's been dreaming about? At least the kids are growing up well, but will this trend last?

I first created the Kovax family in The Sims 1, and it was one of the families that I played most often. They had a massive house and lots of furnishings (All thanks to cheats), and they lived quite a comfortable life. The family consisted of Jones and Angela Kovax, and their two sons Joey and Tim. During the course of the game, Angela had a baby boy (Sans the pregnancy and toddler stages... remember, this was The Sims 1), which I handily called Justin Kovax. The two existing siblings opened up just enough to include the new arrival into their family.

And then my computer died.

ಠ_ಠ

◔_◔

Oh well! It was my old, piece of crap Windows Vista PC, and I was not too terribly sad to see it go (And when Microsoft killed support for Vista earlier this year (2017), hardly anybody mourned). I moved on to my older XP desktop (Which still works fine), where I installed The Sims 2. In my old, corrupted Pleasantview, I recreated a number of Sims I made in The Sims 1. Then I abandoned that corrupted hood for several other hoods, recreating some (but not all) of those TS1 families. Now I'm onto SimVille... and the Kovax family was the sole survivor of them all. But not unscathed! I never recreated Justin Kovax in The Sims 2, perhaps hoping that eventually Angela would get pregnant with him again... but that hasn't happened. Yet.

So, without further ado, let's take a look at...

The Sims

Angela Kovax



Angela loves to cook — and loves to concoct new recipes. Unfortunately her old book of recipes went up in smoke along with her old house.

Angela's parents loved to cook. And their parents. And their parents too. It was no coincidence that Angela got bitten by the cooking bug, and she was helping out in the kitchen from a young age. When she moved out, being unable to cook wasn't of a concern for her. When she married Jones, she very nearly scoffed at the breakfast toast he ate every morning and made him help out in the kitchen, making food that was far more interesting (and tastier). While Jones seems to have evaded the cooking bug, Angela's trying to get it to bite her kids.

If you read the family bio (And Angela's bio), you probably know that the Kovaxes lost their old home to a house fire. While most people would point fingers at Angela, the fire marshal's office have deemed the cause of the blaze to be an electrical fault, not an attempt at cooking gone wrong. Nevertheless, Angela was fairly devastated at the loss. She's happy that no one was hurt, but her book of recipes didn't make it. Angela loved to experiment in the kitchen, and she carefully logged everything she did like a scientist in the laboratory. Alas, perhaps she really should've kept electronic copies of her log in the cloud as a friend suggested. Now she's going to have to start all over again...

Jones's career also took a turn for the worst, and needing new opportunities, they decided to move to SimVille. At the time, Amar's Restaurant was nearing completion and was looking for employees. Angela applied for a job immediately, and while she didn't get the chef position there, being a server isn't half bad; Amar liked her enthusiasm over describing the menu to her customers. Amar pays well, and the tips are icing on the cake.

Jones Kovax



Jones was once at the top of his career... until it all went wrong. He is now reclimbing the ladder with a heavy heart.

Jones Kovax was a Lieutenant in the Law Enforcement career back in The Sims 1, and he quite liked his job. Nothing like being a hero on the streets during the day and being a hero to your kids during the night. Alas, it just couldn't last... Through intentionally unspecified means, Jones lost his job. To boot, he lost his home as well (And during the great transition from TS1 to TS2, his youngest son Justin got lost in cyberspace somewhere along the way). It's back to square one for Jones, working as an evening security guard at the FreeTime Recreation Center. It's going to be a difficult climb back up the career ladder for Jones.

Joey Kovax



Joey wants to join the school basketball team one day, but his grades probably could use some work.

Did you know that there was a basketball court in The Sims 1 base game? (And TS2 had to wait until FreeTime before basketball was reintroduced!) Joey was no odd one out; there was a nice basketball court in his old, spacious backyard, and he would play on it for hours on end. His love for sports carried over into The Sims 2, and I made sure his Sports hobby enthusiasm had its daily dose of kindling. He also loves his younger brother Tim, and when Justin rejoins the family at some unspecified date in the future, I'm sure Joey will be a good brother to him too.

Well, erm, except for his grades. Joey has a B- average in school, and while it's good enough to pass, his teachers and his parents aren't too pleased with that. Still, Joey hopes the school basketball team will let him in.

Tim Kovax



Tim likes street hockey, but he's having a hard time finding equipment and players. He wants to move to Canada someday.

I, k6ka, am Canadian. Proudly. And while I was never into sports as a child (Didn't play hockey or street hockey, sad to say), I do like my country's hockey teams. SimVille doesn't have any ice rinks (Although there's a proposal for it!), and most of its roads see too much traffic for street hockey to be viable. However, Tim lives on Marc Crescent, a quiet street that doesn't see an awful lot of traffic, so it might be possible for him to play. Of course, TS2 doesn't support street hockey (Which sucks); street hockey is illegal in SimVille (Which sucks); hockey equipment isn't in high demand in this county, where most Sims would prefer basketball and soccer (Tim's okay with those sports, but he still prefers hockey, so it still sucks); and even if the first three weren't a problem, Tim's mostly alone in his love for hockey. SimNation's hockey leagues see few fans in Landgraab County, and in order for Tim to get to a decent hockey arena for practice, he's going to have to take the bus (or get his parents to drive him) 30 miles (48 km) to the City of Vance. That's a bit too far for his parents to drive him every day (and back!). Tim's sadly not going to be a hockey kid anytime soon... but maybe that'll change someday.

Like Joey, Tim's grades are a bit on the iffy side, but he's doing slightly better than his older brother with a B average.

The house

The Kovaxes current house is nowhere near as grand as the one I built for them in The Sims 1, but at least TS2 allows for more than just two storeys! Like the Newbies, Barbs, and Cuevas, the Kovaxes detached house builds up due to the lack of horizontal building space.



The house is somewhat similar to the one the Cuevas live in. It has a walk-in basement with a garage, and the front door is technically located on the second floor. The basement is also similar to the ones the Cuevas have, but it has an indoor swimming pool to boot!



Second floor is where the front entrance is located. A living room/dining room combo exists for the family to use. A kitchen that Angela likes to be in, a small bathroom, and some playground equipment finish the picture.



Third floor is a small rec room with a pool table, punching bag, dartboard, and a computer.



Fourth floor is where all of their bedrooms are located. Each bedroom has a small bathroom.



The roof is home to their basketball court. In SimVille, rooftops are prime real estate places, since an inaccessible rooftop is pretty much wasted space. Many apartments have an accessible rooftop, and they're often home to a small playground or communal area, since there isn't enough room on the ground for them.



A brief glimpse of life in the Kovax family

It's just before 6AM. Angela will be waking up soon. Jones works the graveyard shift, so he's dead tired. I let him sleep in.



Well, their two sons woke up half an hour earlier. Are they seriously early risers or do they just dislike bedtime?



Angela is no fan of boring breakfasts. She prepares a favourite of the family: grilled cheese sandwiches!





Be sure to save some for Jones when he wakes up!



Joey and Tim go to public school, like everyone else in the hood. Angela works in an owned business, and like all other playable Sims employed in a business, works the ugly 9 to 5 weekday. Jones, on the other hand, works from 8pm until 2am. Angela and Jones love their children and want to spend more time with them — and they could, back in the days of The Sims 1 — but their careers do suck up a lot of time. Still, Angela and Jones are willing to sacrifice a vacation day — or even their job performance — if the kids really wanted it.



Jones gets up at 10AM. He has plenty of time before he needs to report for duty. Jones heads downstairs and eats his brunch.



A good cop must stay fit, just like firefighters and paramedics do! Jones knows Suzie Urban, and he's heard her comment about the overweight cops in her precinct. Jones isn't a fan of fat either, and he's studied nutrition in school before, so he keeps a healthy amount on him and burns off the rest.



Jones is busy working out... until he hears a noise outside. He rushes over to investigate, only to find Mr. Serge Barb making a mess of his yard...



They fight.









Jones wins!



Now get out of here you little—



The kids get home at 3.



They head for the rooftop basketball net.



Angela gets home at 5. No time to dawdle now, though... she has to make dinner before Jones starts his shift!











The Kovaxes are fortunate to have the opportunity to eat together despite their working schedules.



Jones leaves for work. It's a depressing job, watching the place close up and then having to stay for a few hours afterwards, but it does remind him of his younger self.



Angela's spent! She crashes on the bed and goes straight to sleep. Amar treats his employees well and the pay is generous, but eventually, nothing beats a good night's sleep.



Joey and Tim spend a quiet evening together.







I wish kids could play pool in this game...



Normally kids like to stay up late, but I, the player, send them off to bed. And what joy, they listen!



Jones gets home at 2am. Obviously he's not bringing any colleagues home from work at this time of night. He's not that tired, but he goes to bed anyways.



Conclusion

I was not big on storylines in The Sims 1, so it wasn't until recently that I properly came up with some background for this family. Given that this family is the only surviving family from my TS1 days, and given how TS1 doesn't run very well on Windows 10 (It works, at the very least, but I must either play it in fullscreen and never Alt+Tab away from the game, or play in windowed mode at a very uncomfortably small resolution; hence I never had much of a drive to play it recently), this family holds a special place in my heart. While all the other Sims they lived with back in the days of Old Town have vanished into cyberspace, and even though their lofty castle of the past was broiled to ashes, and even though their youngest son Justin disappeared along with their past, the Kovax family has survived all of that uncomfortable moving. Their story is one of loss but also of resilience; one not of failure but of success despite their struggles. The family may not be doing as well as they were in TS1, but they're alive, and they're still together. And who knows what the future holds? Maybe they'll get a daughter next. Maybe Jones will find another job and stop lamenting over his previous career. Maybe Angela will be able to man the stove at Amar's Restaurant. Maybe Joey will take up electric guitar lessons. Maybe Tim will actually move to Canada. Whatever the future holds, it definitely promises something for the Kovax family.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more!

Outtakes
The following images were processed but cut from the final version of the forum post.

Trivia

 * The name "Kovax" is one of the available names chosen randomly for the player in the quickstart mode of the Flash game Stick Arena.