Sims2: the Water tool

Now that Johanna Bransfield is a teen, she has decided she's interested in Oceanography.  She's spending a lot more time fishing in the corner of the lake in their backyard.  She's learning about fish but also catching some they can cook for dinner.

In the challenge I'm playing, most careers are locked at the beginning of the game.  Oceanography is a special one - it's never locked, but also never unlocked.  Only Sims with a gold fishing badge can have the career.  Since it doesn't come up on the computer very often, though, I have my teenaged Sims look for the job every day, and take it as soon as it comes up, even if they don't have the gold badge yet.  To try and balance it out, I do insist that they spend every available moment fishing until they have it - no dates for poor Johanna for quite a while yet!

Of course, the odds that a teenage Sim who wants the Oceanography career happens to live on a lot with water on it are pretty low.  Fortunately there was lots of space out back of their duplex, and the game provides terrain and water tools.  I took that blank corner and added a pond, some water plants, and then a weeping willow because I'm a sucker for those.  This is what it looked like before.  The modifications only took me a couple of minutes.  It does cost a few Simoleons, but if I hadn't added the big tree it wouldn't have been too much.

Fishing is like gardening - there are three possible badges Sims can earn as they progress in the activity.  The fish they catch can be put in the fridge and become part of the available food, which allows them to make some pretty delicious-sounding meals, like Blackened Catfish or Baked Bass with Squash.  They can also be used to sell in a store like the fruit and veggies, by putting them in a cold case, and then they're re-stocked from the lot owner's inventory.  Also, hilariously, they can be mounted on the wall - just drag a fish near a wall and it will pop up there with a wooden mounting board behind it.  Inexperienced fisherSims will often catch an old boot that can also be mounted on the wall if you're so inclined.  The programmers of this game clearly had a sense of humour, and that sense of humour fits nicely with mine.