AL Island Playtesting Game Part 1

 AL Island was created by Dylan Joyce, and he has invited us to jump in and playtest it for him. So here goes.

Meet Anastasia Driscoll, a young adult just starting out on her own. She left her home town and moved to AL Island as her father's sister Lakeshia was living there with her family, and helped Anastasia secure a modest home near her own place. 

Anastasia is flirty, a technophobe, a supernatural sceptic, a gatherer, and a cat person. She wants to be a firefighter, so after settling in, she will secure that job. The house she settled into is in a trailer park area, and the lot is called "Aunt Cindy."

Note to Dylan: When I first started this world, I wasn't sure it was going to let me move in as there weren't any tags showing in the world. I wondered if I didn't have enough simoleons to purchase, so I used the freerealestate cheat and suddenly the tags were there. It turns out Anastasia had plenty of money for this beauty.

Anastasia spent the first day furnishing her house and getting to know the mascot, Devon Brinson, while Story Progression added 10 more households. (I wanted to start small with such a big world, just to make sure it would work on my aging non-gaming laptop, and so far it does.)

I wasn't sure what I wanted to put in the sunroom, with the exception of some cat objects, because Anastasia will be getting a couple cats in the next few days. It turns out, she wanted a juice pong table, and it was a perfect fit for the sunroom.

Anastasia and Devon became friends and decided to check out the pool at the end of the road.

This pool needs a name. Rocky Hollow Community Pool?

Later, Anastasia and Devon decided to check out the Radiant Cascade Rec Center and see if they offered anything for dinner. It was much further than I thought as it was dark, and I didn't know the route. Also, for some inexplicable reason, the taxi dumped Anastasia out near her house and she ran all the way there - in the rain. There doesn't seem to be a problem with the road, however. It must have just been a glitch. 

The house is just above the start of the red line on the left. The Community Center is on the end of the red line on the right just above the bridge. 

Anastasia ran the entire length of the red line in the rain. Devon somehow got there before she did. I wonder what route he took. There were buffet tables inside (opened a garage door by the pool to get in) so she served the food and helped herself to her favorite dish, Autumn Salad, before heading home.

She apparently wasn't up for completing the previous route, and instead ran down the rock cliff, got a water taxi, and ran up the rock cliff on the other side to get home. 

The next day, Anastasia wanted to gain an athletics skill (the previous night's journey didn't count) and went to a gym nearest her house:  Sea Shore Fitness.

In its initial state, it had a nice pool and bathrooms, but the rest was empty. I sent Anastasia down to the dock for a bit while I added fitness equipment downstairs,

And a workout/dance room upstairs.

I also moved and/or replaced some plants that were clipping into the walls, and rotated the showers so Sims could access them. There were some stacked pedestals in the bathrooms that looked like they were intended to be lockers. There were lockers in the décor section of the build/buy catalog, so I replaced those.

 That evening, Anastasia walked along the beach, looking for a place to hang out in the evening. The first bar she came to was an empty shell, but the one next to it, the Gizmo Club Tavern, was open and functioning. It had a little bit of everything: professional bar, banquet table, TVs, shuffleboard, a dance floor, fire pit, horseshoes, apple bobbing, a tattoo chair, and two snowcone machines. I eliminated the apple bobbing as to me it seemed out of place, and exchanged the countertop snowcone machine for a coffee machine as by this time, Anastasia was getting sleepy. I also eliminated the tattoo chair as I thought I might move it next door to the empty bar lot and change that one to a rebel hangout with a tattoo parlor upstairs. 

Anyway, Anastasia had a great time. First she ordered a cheese plate.

Then she had some drinks and argued about gnubb.

After she got a few drinks in her, she worked up the courage to call Devon and invite him out dancing.

The following day, Anastasia adopted her first kitty, and elder cat named Wesker, who was entertaining morbid thoughts - first an urn, then the Grim Reaper.

Anastasia tried to distract him with cat games.

If I recall correctly, this was the night of the full moon, and zombies were hanging around outside, so maybe that's what had Wesker freaked out. 

I looked far and wide for a fire station for Anastasia to work at, and finally found one on the opposite side of the world. She'll have quite a commute. In a few days, I might place one closer so her poor kitty won't have to spend too much time alone. I think she will also get another cat to keep Wesker company.

The fire station has the fire station stuff: truck, hoses, alarms, but the rest was empty, so I furnished it and uploaded it to the Exchange. 

Note to Dylan: I think this lot is placed backwards as the sims all go through the back door to enter, and when I uploaded it to the Exchange, the back of the building was what was showing. I don't know if it's worth bulldozing, resetting the lot and re-placing the building, but I thought I'd mention it.

I forgot to take an exterior shot of the shell, but it's very nice. Here's the ground floor after I furnished it.

The second floor (after taking this screenshot, I adjusted the lighting on the right side upstairs):

and the top floor.

Anastasia found a hunky co-worker she is interested in. He's married, however that doesn't stop him from flirting with her.  I think he gave her three bouquets of flowers. His name is Arnold Caron.

I wonder if that was his wife he just texted. I saw him texting a different girl a little later. Maybe he's a player.

The following morning, Anastasia went jogging on the trails up behind Rocky Hollow Community Pool. It was very pretty, but I was so busy trying to get Anastasia to take pictures, that I forgot to take screenshots. It was leisure day today.  Coming down the hill, Anastasia came to her Aunt Lakeshia's house and was invited in.

Lakeshia lives with he husband Colby and their kids Kristal and January. When I first went in, the areas with the wood floors weren't furnished, so one kid was eating breakfast on the toilet and everyone else had to pee. This place has two bathrooms, so I don't understand why at least one of them didn't use the other bathroom. I think I play-tested it and it was fine - maybe I didn't try the toilet, just the tub/shower. 

Anyway, I switched to them briefly to finish furnishing and add some specific items to suit their personalities and interests: bookcase, doll house, computer, guitar, etc. 

When I switched back to Anastasia, I found her downtown. It was raining, and so she called Devon to ask if he wanted to meet up with her somewhere and hang out. They decided on Chinatown.

I thought I had a better picture of the block seen through the arches, but I guess it didn't take. This is my next project. I put in a Dojo, and I plan to put in a restaurant and a consignment store. Since it was unfinished, Anastasia and Devon went to Sea Shore Fitness instead.

While they were there, Anastasia's relatives showed up and her hunky co-worker gave her a call.

More to come.