Fanon:Newbie family

The Newbie family is the largest and wealthiest family in SimVille. It consists of Dan and Betty Newbie, their sons Justin and Evan, their six Servo robots (Amar, Andrew, Chase, Julius, Oscar, Roland), and Alec Bigfoot.

Despite their name, they are not related to the Newbie family in Old Town/Pleasantview. The name "Newbie" was chosen because they were the first family that k6ka created and played seriously in the game.

Original MTS post
The Newbies — well, not so new

 The Newbie Family 

Yeah, and I'll admit that the name is pretty pathetic (and unoriginal). I named this family the "Newbie" family because it was the second family I created in The Sims 2 (The first being one I deleted in the family bin... which is a VBT), and the first I intended to play seriously. When I abandoned my first neighbourhood due to corruption, I extracted the appearances of the Sims in this family and imported them into the hoods I wanted to play them in. This, if memory serves correctly, is the fourth hood I've moved them into, and so far they've settled in here for the longest. And given the progress I've made with them now, it's hard to move them again.

I installed Cyjon's Bigger Families mod and cranked things up a notch, because more is always better. It does have the unusual (and interesting) side effect of screwing up the family photo:



There's supposed to be six Servos and two children in this photo, but only five and one appeared. Huh.

The Newbies are the wealthiest family in the hood, and only partly through their effort. Most of their money came from the use of cheats, and with so much wealth at their disposal, it wasn't hard for them to advance rapidly up the career ranks. The Newbies also have the most friends, and it's in their blood to befriend everyone in the neighbourhood. Whenever someone new moves into the hood, they're always the first ones at their doorstep to welcome them. The Newbies are also very into music and dance, and they don't shy away from the opportunity to show off their talents to the neighbours.



[...]

The house

The Newbies have the loftiest house — literally. I got the initial design from a loft house that shipped with Glamour Life, and since then I've kinda fallen in love with it. Given the fact that there's so little building space in the hood, I had to build up, which leads to a house that probably would've collapsed in real life. The house is elevated from the ground via support columns, which leaves space for two parking spaces, a pond for fishing, and a swimming pool.











One of the cars is a refurbished restorable car from FreeTime. The other was purchased from buy mode. The Newbies are one of the few families that own cars in SimVille; most Sims live in apartments that do not have garages. The Newbies also own two cars, while other families who do have cars only own one. Despite this, the Newbies still use a carpool to get to work. In fact, they walk to community lots like everyone else. The cars are mostly a symbol of status and prestige — and as sentries to supplement the outdoor burglar alarm when a burglar waltzes onto the lot.





The second floor is where the main entrance, kitchen, dining room, and living room is. There's also a stereo, a bookshelf, an electric guitar, and a drumkit. The last two existed long before I built the music room upstairs, but instead of moving the instruments up to the music room I just bought new ones. No biggie, given how rich this family is.



Third floor houses the rec room and the master bedroom. The rec room contains a pool table, a pinball machine, a weightlifting machine, a dartboard, a treadmill, a chess table, and a Myshuno machine. It's also the room my Sims seem to spend most of their time in, from my observations.



Fourth floor has the kids' bedroom and a music room for the musical instruments. There's also a DJ booth that I pull out and move downstairs into the living room during parties.



The fifth and sixth floors make up the roof of the house, and a hot tub, telescope, and basketball net finish the picture.



This house won't win any contests here on MTS, and some people probably won't find it to be a particularly pretty house, but hey, it's functional!

The Sims

Thanks to the bigger families mod, the Newbies have the largest household in the hood. Perhaps I should move a few Sims out someday, but for now, juggling all these Sims is an interesting challenge for me (I play with free will off, lest they screw everything up without my knowledge).

Dan Newbie




 * Dan has wanted to be the best athlete in SimCity since he was a child. Although he may not necessarily be the best of the best now, he enjoys his job and doesn't brag about his successes.

Dan has what we would call the "good life"; he's wealthy, at the top of the athletic career, has a nice house and a big family, and has a bounty of friends and connections. Dan is extremely outgoing and very active, which suits his career perfectly. Dan, however, is a complete slob — 0 neat points — and is arguably undisciplined when it comes to keeping the house clean. Yes, he has an army of Servos to do the job for him, but Dan's richness and success might actually make him a failure at being an adult.

Dan loves his wife and is at least better than Cody Day in that regard, but he still spends far too much time chatting on the phone with his zillion friends. Not that his wife — or anyone else in the household — seems to care; they have their own circle of friends that they never tire of.



Even though Dan's retired from playing, he refuses to sit still in the office. On his days off, he exercises vigorously and keeps his body in good shape. Dan dislikes the idea of the rich being fat, and he's out to show the overweight executives working in the business district of downtown SimCity a good lesson.



Betty Newbie

Yes, I know the name is not original. But hey, back when I first created these Sims, I was still new to the game and just wanted Sims to play with.




 * Betty one day hopes to travel the world and "Bring music to everyone," as she likes to say. She likes to play with Oreo and Justin when not practicing or performing.

Betty's similar to Dan, but she's not as active or as sloppy as he is. She does enjoy working out and she still doesn't mind having other people do the housework for her, so I guess she's not that different from her husband.

Betty's at the top of the music career, and while her paycheque is smaller than Dan's, she's much more into her job. While Dan is okay with staying in his hometown, Betty really wants to travel and perform around the world to various different audiences. Since she works evenings, she spends almost every morning practicing in the music room. After lunch, she plays with Oreo, the family cat, and with her youngest son Justin when he comes home from school.



Betty also juggles a countless number of friends, and she enjoys calling them during the day to check up on them with a "What's up?" and "What's new?". Of course, she can't keep track of every fan, but she does have a lot of family members that share her fame. And for most fans, simply getting to know one of her family members is good enough.

Husband and wife

Dan and Betty are married and have two kids. They're not the best parents out there, what with their distaste for housekeeping and obsession with holding parties and keeping tabs on friends, but they're definitely better than Cody Day. And don't worry, I'll make sure Cody doesn't hit on Betty anytime soon, lest paparazzi set up tents outside the house to spy on the "affair". Betty will most likely see Cody as a good friend and a fan, but Cody might be a little too focused on WooHoo to make mature decisions.

Both Dan and Betty have music and dance as their predestined hobby, and when Dan tires of working out, he likes to join his wife in the music room. Dan sees music as more of a hobby than a career, but if there's someone dancing, he can't help but join in.





Justin Newbie

When I first created Dan and Betty years ago, I initially made them a childless couple. Eventually, I decided to try my hand at childraising, and I had them successfully try for a baby. Three days later, a baby boy entered the world. Once he grew up I extracted his appearance, and while I didn't preserve or recreate his memories of being taught to walk, talk, and pee in the toilet, I certainly did preserve his personality. To me, he's the same first child I raised in-game.




 * Justin sure has a lot to brag about! He has a lofty house to call home; rich, successful and talented parents; six Servo robots; and a little brother! Can he still maintain his friendships with all the poorer kids in the hood?

Justin follows faithfully in his father's footsteps, again with zero neat points and a boatload of outgoing and active points. Justin likes music and dance too, but he's much more into sports, and he likes to shoot hoops on the roof with his brother. On hot days, he also likes to take a plunge into the swimming pool to cool off.

Justin knows just about every other kid in the hood, but he isn't friends with all of them yet. Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles to that is the class division I created in this hood. The second richest family in SimVille don't come anywhere near to matching the Newbies in wealth, and while the Newbies do juggle a lot of friendships and are generally well liked, not everyone is too fond of their lavish lifestyle. An increasing number of families in SimVille have a net worth of less than a thousand Simoleons, and are forced to live in cramped apartments. Justin wants to be friends with those kids, but he sticks out like a sore thumb when he visits them. Sadly, Justin chooses riches over relationships.



Evan Newbie

Evan's a much more recent addition to the family. Since Justin seemed pretty lonely at home, I got the parents to give him a little sibling. His parents taught him to walk and to talk, and even Amar — a Servo — pitched in to potty train him. Since Evan is second-born, he automatically gets ten points from me, since I am second-born as well (And if you read some of my other writing, you can probably figure out that I have a fondness for second-borns).




 * Evan was definitely born into a fortunate family. He has an expensive house, wealthy parents, sentient robots, and a loving brother. But will his second-born nature break out and desire change?

Evan is maxed out in active and playful points, and he's also extremely outgoing. He has two neat points — same as his mother — and he also has seven nice points, the highest in the family. Like everyone else, he doesn't have to do any work, and he can simply lean back and enjoy his childhood happily.

I subscribe to the idea that one's personality is partially based on their birth order. In a nutshell:
 * The first-born child is geared towards success, and is either in first place or last place. They get most of the love and attention from their parents and have difficulty accepting anything lower than that. Their aspiration is achievement, and they want to achieve the summit of whatever mountain they happen to be climbing.
 * The second-born child is geared towards social connections outside of the family. They're stuck with the hand-me-downs from their older sibling and are okay with not being in first place. Since they don't get as much attention from their parents as they'd like, they supplement the rest with friends outside of family.
 * The third-born child is the attention seeker, and is willing to break and bend the rules in order to get what they want, and often they get away with it. They're less responsible than their older siblings and tend to be more charming and likeable.

Evan was created with the second-born in mind. As his bio suggests, he has a wonderful life now, but deep down inside he really doesn't enjoy it. Like his family members, he likes to go out and make friends, but he tends to be a little more personal with his friendships, and spends more time with each of them rather than simply having large numbers of connections like everyone else in his family. He also prioritizes these friendships more than he does his own luxurious life, as opposed to his older brother. I have a good feeling that Evan will want to leave his material possessions behind to work with the poor. With more and more families moving into SimVille that are at or below the poverty line, Evan needs to be willing to get himself dirty. And from what I can see so far, he doesn't mind.



Brother and brother

Yes, Justin sees his position in the family as a way of exerting his influence over his younger brother, and Evan sees his ability to dive deep into his relationships to get other people to carry out his bidding onto his older brother, but for the most part the two are fairly close.



In the mornings they like to wake up to a splash in the pool — and some Marco Polo while they're at it. They also like to make a ruckus in the bedroom before bedtime.





Amar, the oldest of the Servos, likes to capture moments of his family and paint them on canvas. One of his favourites is hung up on the wall of the kids' bedroom. I can't tell if the portrait of Bella was just a coincidence or if they're actually gossiping about her, but hey, brothers keep lots of secrets with each other that even their parents don't know about.



Oreo Newbie

Ah, Oreo, the family cat. So named because she does kinda look like an Oreo cookie.




 * Oreo, despite her name, doesn't actually like to eat sweet things. She likes to pretend she's a master butterfly hunter.

Oreo's also a recent development. She did not appear until I moved the Newbies into SimVille, where I created her along with the rest of the family in CAS. I don't play with pets that often in my game — in fact I only have three pets in the entire neighbourhood (excluding strays; including Oreo) — but at least now I know what cats are like in-game.



Oreo's a friendly cat that likes to beg house guests for hugs, although there are times when she wants to be queen of the palace. Public appearance is important for her, and while she's not overly finicky, she dislikes cheap stuff. Oreo works in the Showbiz career, and she earns more money per hour than many Sims in the hood earn per day. Karl Marx would probably start a communist revolution in my neighbourhood if he hears about this, so the Newbies don't talk about her salary. But I'm telling you that a cat makes more money than a human labourer.

But hey, let's not hate on the cat. I mean, she's cute when she sleeps.



The Servos

The Newbie family is staffed by an army of six Servos. All of them have maxed out skills and they all do the housework: they clean, cook, garden, repair broken objects, and do anything that needs to be done to keep the place in working order. When there's nothing to do, they all have a life of their own, and they're pretty much regular Sims to me.

(Top row, from left to right: Chase, Andrew, Julius)

(Bottom row, from left to right: Amar, Roland, Oscar)

I used to have SimWardrobe's Servo Recharging Station, but I removed it in favour of simply using cheats to drag their motives back up. As such, the robots operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They never need to eat or sleep or pee or poop, and they never need to sit down or take a shower. Perfect for productivity.

Amar Newbie


 * Amar is the super-Servo robot. He wants to learn as many skills and do as many things as possible with his robot life!

Amar is the oldest of all the other Servos, being the first robot activated to care for the family. At first, he did all of the work alone. He was quite close to the family he worked for and made many friends outside of the family, but it still kinda sucked being the only Servo in the entire neighbourhood. So he built three new Servos — and later two more — to keep him company and to enable him to do more things. We'll talk about those robots later.

Amar is extremely outgoing and boasts the highest friend count in the neighbourhood. He knows all of my playable Sims, and if there's a townie that's never heard of him, soon they'll see for themselves. Through much time and effort (erm, *cheats*) he has gold talent badges in every field, has been to every vacation destination, knows all the vacation gestures and the dances, has cooked every meal, knows how to fire dance and breakdance, among other things. Amar seems fit to be a knowledge Sim... but he's been a popularity Sim all along.

Amar quickly picked up on Betty's love for music and dance, and he frequently shows new Sims and townies the slap and hula dances. Amar also pioneered the idea of teaching everyone the hang loose, chest pound, and bow vacation gestures. All my playable Sims know these gestures, and Amar's on a mission to teach all the townies and NPCs the gestures too. Now all the playables in my hood have jumped onto the bandwagon, and an increasing number of townies are learning the vacation gestures.





Amar is also the owner of six player owned businesses, and he easily makes the most money out of everyone in the household. Without him, the Newbies wouldn't be nearly as rich as they are now.

Andrew Newbie


 * Andrew was originally created by Amar to serve as a cashier in his business. Now he does more than cashiering and is quite skilled at managing a business. He hopes to one day start his own business, but he's perfectly happy working for Amar right now.

When Amar decided to start his own businesses, he needed someone who could tend to the till. Sure, he hired employees to do the job, but to save on money he figured another Servo would do the trick. Thus, Andrew was born.



Andrew quickly learned past getting punched in the gut with the money tray, and he's picked up on a lot of the skills and perks needed to run a successful business. Andrew wants to start his own business someday, but until then he does serve as a great co-manager for Amar's businesses.

Andrew has the same personality and aspiration as Amar, and he shares the same interests and hobbies as well. I reckon the two are twins of some sort, and they do laugh at me when I tell them about it. Andrew also serves as the family's "Royal Inventory", and any leftover food the family has after meals is placed in Andrew's inventory instead of Amar's, since Amar needs to use his inventory to manage his businesses.

Chase Newbie


 * Chase was originally created by Amar to help with taking care of the outdoors. Chase is an absolute naturalist and loves to spend time outdoors with fishing, bug collecting, and gardening.

Back then, the Newbies had quite a wild garden, and it took Amar forever to water all the plants, pull all the weeds, trim all the hedges, and pick all the produce. Chase was created to help out with this so Amar could tend to other chores. The vegetables and fruit trees have since been moved to one of Amar's businesses, so Chase spends a lot of time fishing in the pond after tending to the few remaining plants and hedges. The fish he catches sell well in Amar's businesses, so he helps with the flow of cash.



Julius Newbie


 * Julius was originally created by Amar to help with the crafting. He's proficient at building the best robots and homemade toys the world has yet to see! When he's not crafting, Julius likes to fish and garden with Chase.

Crafting things takes time, and Julius was made to spend all day (and night) doing just that. Amar owns a business that exclusively sells crafted items, and Julius helps the employees a lot there.

Crafting takes a toll even on a robot like Julius, so when a long day's over he likes to wind down with Chase. The two like to fish together, quietly reeling in their catches. It took a while for Julius to get that gold fishing talent badge, but he certainly supplements Chase's efforts.



Oscar and Roland Newbie

For a long time, the Newbies had four robots: Amar, Andrew, Chase, and Julius. When Amar took off in his business empire building career, the workload increased dramatically. While the four robots were still able to do their chores, it became clear that the time they spent away from the house was starting to undermine their initial roles as being servants of the family.

So Amar activated two more robots whose job was to stay at home and tend to the place.


 * Oscar and Roland were created by Amar to keep the house in order. While they're not as sociable as the other Newbies, Oscar and Roland love fun and games.

Oscar and his "brother" Roland have only four outgoing points, the lowest in the family. They're a bit like Evan in being extremely active and playful, though. While they're happy to chat with the guests during house parties, they're not as "into" the family as the others are. A bit of disunity, perhaps?

Oscar and Roland stay at home and rarely leave the house. Their main purpose was to 1) Tend to the house if everybody was away; and 2) To allow the Newbies to go on vacation, since they couldn't bring Oreo along, and since Amar, Andrew, Chase, and Julius all wanted to go. When they're not doing housework, they play games. A lot of them.

Video games are the main highlight, but they fancy pool and darts too. I see them playing basketball on the roof at night as well, when the kids are asleep.



Alec Bigfoot

The main reason why I invited Bigfoot to live in this house is to, well, get pictures and information for the Bigfoot article I just linked. But anyhow...




 * Having come all the way to SimVille from his hideout in Three Lakes, Alec has surprisingly integrated himself into society fairly well. He wants to get to the top of every career track.

I first encountered Alec when the Urbans (A family I'll talk about later) were vacationing in Three Lakes. A few weeks later, the Newbies vacationed there and decided to pay Bigfoot a little visit. After getting to know him well, Amar invited him to live with them back home in Three Lakes. I was surprised to see Alec to be quite an outgoing person, so he's a Newbie right from the get-go.

Alec is a knowledge Sim, and being given access to society has enabled him to fuel his thirst for information. He wants to get to the top of every career track, and that's gonna require a lot of Elixir of Life (or the aging off cheat).

While the Newbies knew about the slap dance long before they met Bigfoot, he still likes to "give lessons" on it.



The Servo Band

Amar, Andrew, Chase, and Julius have formed a band, perhaps a bit boringly titled "The Servo Band", but their endurance means they're quite popular on community lots. I use a buy enabler mod that unlocks build and buy modes everywhere, even on community lots, which allows me to pull out their musical instruments from their inventories. Amar plays the guitar; Andrew the drums; Chase the piano; and Julius the bass. The community tips buskers quite generously.

Today they performed at Lagianfra Square. On a good day they can make up to 2,000 Simoleons per performer. Suddenly, Oreo's salary looks like spare change.



Music and coffee, how nice.



When not performing, the band practices in the music room. They often do this at night, when the family is asleep and it's too late to invite friends over.







Dan and Betty sometimes make special appearances with them, but that's a fairly rare occurrence. Plus, I generally prefer keeping the band to just four members.

A brief glimpse of life in the Newbie family

Since the Servos are up all night, breakfast can be prepared early in the morning. The Newbies are early risers, so at 3AM a Servo is making breakfast. Today was Amar's turn to do the cooking, but they typically rotate.



When Amar was the only robot around, the eight-person dining table had ample space for everyone. When Andrew, Chase, and Julius entered the picture, there was still room for everyone, and the robots would be able to converse with the family at mealtimes. With Oscar, Roland, and Alec, though, only three lucky Servos could sit with the family at a time. At breakfast, the Servo who cooked the meal would be allowed to sit with the family. Two other Servos who were lucky enough could claim the remaining seats. A bit of a shame that 6AM's a bit too early to invite guests over, but it's possible to have a late breakfast party on weekends, I guess.



The beds need to be made. Poorer kids always have to make their own beds, but Justin and Evan sure aren't poor. Undisciplined brats. Oh well, that's what Servos are for, right?



The kids go to school as normal. Dan and Oreo work later in the day, and Betty doesn't have to work until evening. Alec's work hours vary by career and level. The Servos especially don't have an awful lot to do during the day after the breakfast dishes have been washed and the garden has been tended to. The rec room is a fairly popular place to be.



The Servos do like to play Myshuno.



Lunch is quieter, with the kids at school. Dan and Alec are at work, so Betty eats lunch alone. Well, not really.



When the Newbies are together again, they like to dance. Whether it be the hula dance, the slap dance, or just the classic smustle, all are welcome to join in!



Dinners are a little less casual, at least for the Servos. The lucky three are still invited to have a seat, but the Servo that cooks the meal and the Servo(s) that clear away the dishes are on stand by — and converse amongst themselves (The Newbies aren't strict on rules, as you might have guessed by their own sloppiness, so they don't mind noise). Once the Sims have finished eating, the plates are cleared away for them so they can continue their after-dinner conversation without having to budge from their seats.

Dinner comes with a dessert, but the problem is, by the time the family's done the main course their hunger bars are already full. I use cheats to drag them back down so they'll have room for whatever's next on the menu. The Newbies are the only family in the hood that eat dessert on a daily basis. For everyone else, layer cake is a mid-afternoon snack at best, and isn't a common occurrence.

Tonight was Oscar's turn to do the cooking, and Chase and Julius were "waiting" by the table. Amar, Roland, and Andrew were seated with the family. Oscar made salmon today, a meal the family likes.







When a Sim is finished eating, the Servos on stand by can remove their dishes right away. This also creates room for the upcoming dessert plates.



It's berry pie today. Looks delicious!





The Sims chill out and relax after dinner before they take a shower and go to bed. The kids have the largest bathroom in the house, which leaves plenty of room for puddles to form. Yeah, some of my poorer kids are slobs too, but they have to clean up after themselves. Justin and Evan? They don't have to! Today the shower-tub also broke, so that's more work for the Servos.



Once the Sims are asleep, the Servos really have the house to themselves. Amar gets on the phone and checks in with his businesses while the other Servos clean up the place... like the kids' bathroom.



I play with testingcheatsenabled, and you can tell Sims to wash windows by shift+clicking on them. It only works if the window's been around for around 24 hours, and it only works if the Sim is in the same room as the window. Sims supposedly can do this autonomously, but I've never seen it happen without my intervention. Still, I really like watching my Sims wash their windows — so relaxing!



Typically, this is also the time where I like to take The Servo Band out to make some money, or to have them physically check in on Amar's businesses. If they're not out and about, they're passing the night in the rec room. Pool at 2AM seems pretty legit.



Conclusion

This took quite a while to make! Hopefully you enjoyed the pictures I took. There's a lot more about this family that I haven't yet covered. You probably want to see Amar's businesses, but that's going to be a post for another time. The Newbies may seem successful, but in my mind their materialism is what ultimately destroys them in the end. That, and maintaining friendships is more of a chore for these Sims than it is about actually liking and loving people. Every Saturday, the Newbies hold a party at their house and invite random neighbours to mix and mingle with each other. It's a good way to get Sims to know other Sims, I guess. But I figure Evan's going to realize, when he grows up, that a party might just be a distraction, a way of fooling oneself into believing that they're doing good. Every guest in the party has a secret to hide, and they're probably not going to reveal it at a party. But will Evan really want to leave his comfy home to visit someone's slum-like apartment to talk to them in person?

Kudos to the Freezer Clock and the Hula Dance and more mods for helping with the picture-taking.

By the way, I accidentally hit the 45 degree view button when taking one of the pictures, and I liked what I saw so much, I had to take a screenshot. Looks like my Sims make good models.



Notes

Original post