I didn't know there was such a thing as a wall limit on a lot. Is Sigefrith's Castle built on the largest lot in Lothere?

Uhhhh, I'm sorry, but I still find Caedwulf's attachment to his mother a little creepy... although I suppose it's understandable, given how old he was when she died... but still... ugh.

It does create some interesting drama, though.

I can't believe you said that scrawny girl is superior to Maud. At least Maud had depth to her character.

oodles and noodles.

Ogive isn't ugly you know, just plain imo.

Yeah I can definitely see that. He likes her a lot... "as a friend", as they say. I just wonder how Ogive is going to feel when Caedwulf gets up after a long evening of "staying up late talking about politics" and goes off to visit Mistress of the Month or whatever he has going on by that time. Leaving Ogive all alone in her bed.

(Of course, the kid's only 16, maybe he'll settle down as he gets older. We can hope.)

I hope he settles down with Ogive. Or maybe he'll be kind of a Leofric--not above a little afternoon delight with a maid every once in a while, or even a semi-long-term affair with a mistress, but he'll have an undeniable place in his heart for his wife.

Caedwulf and Ogive do seem like the kind of couple ripe for one of those sudden "Oh my God, she's the one I love!" moments, preferably right as Ogive is lying at death's door, and the realization strikes Caedwulf in time to save her.

In fact they seem so obviously made for such a story that I probably won't do it. I am sure I have enough hackneyed plot devices in my story that I'm not aware of, I had better not consciously allow any to slip in. But it makes me a little sad.

Yeah, I am pro-Caedwulf+Ogive. I think even if he is not in love with her, he still loves her (I don't know if that makes sense). At least, it seems that he seems to respect and admire her a great deal. They just seem kind of perfect for each other, although maybe lacking in passion.

But oh well, even without the Caedwulf... Ogive kicks ass

SRSLY? Ogive is? Your favorite characters so often surprise me.

I will admit, however, that making lovable female characters is not my forte.

EDIT: Van, the off-topicness is balm to my wounded heart. The Sad Day was actually my own. I would go so far as to buy an EP if it would allow me to break the 2000-wall limit.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Britamund, Wynflaed, Hetty, Matilda, Edris, Sela, Aia, Lili, Margaret, Gunnie, Githa, Sigi, and Synne.

And you forgot Kraaia, my current personal favorite.

I am not sure the 3-dimensionality of my male characters comes from me piling them with things I would find attractive in a guy though. Unless it's so unconscious that it's both unintentional, and involves things I never knew I liked about men. I just happen to have grown up in a neighborhood where there were only boys to play with, and studied and worked in engineering and the sciences, where the male-to-female ratio is often extremely skewed. I've only ever had one close female friend in my life. I just don't know women all that well, other than my own fumbling through the experience. (Somehow I came through this still wearing mascara and having a coat-shopping fetish? Must be hormonal.)

So I suspect I have a hard time creating believable women. Either they lack depth, or the depth is wrong. And if your readers don't believe your characters, there's little hope of them liking them. I think my best female characters have all been rather mannish in their various ways... Matilda, Sigi, Brit, Ogive, and Kraaia come to the front of my list, both in likeability (for me personally anyway) and mannishness.

The only character that I love who is not mannish is Hetty. And I think Hetty is definitely a case of fantasy fulfillment, as in me piling a character with everything I would love in a woman... to be.

As for the wall limit, as a programmer, I can tell you the problem is usually the opposite... you have to pick a limit, and oftentimes for reasons of efficiency (either speed or RAM-usage) you want to make it as small as possible. So you try to minimize it while not being so small that it will often be reached. It was a trade-off somewhere. I just happened to go beyond both their "normal" and "no one will ever use this many" usage scenarios and off into the crazy-Sims-lady stratosphere. Bully for me!

Well, true, there's that option too. There are plenty of rooms in Sigefrith's castle that aren't really visible from any other, so I could just build an empty shell where those rooms are and build "sets" off-lot for the interiors. They wouldn't have to be next to the castle of course... in fact I surely wouldn't put them next to the castle, since I might someday want a chapter set outside in the outer bailey, and that would need to have a view on the castle itself.

I thought about literally splitting the castle between two lots way back when I started building, since there are essentially two separate stone parts that are only connected by a gate with a daub-and-wattle structure overtop. But that wouldn't work either, since one of the next chapters I'm shooting there will be outside in the inner court, where I will need to be able to see both "halves" of the castle in their non-pixelated glory.

I guess what I will do is delete interior walls (I definitely need all the exterior walls) in unused rooms so I can build up the rooms I'm using. And only if I ever reach the hard limit again with all the rooms I'm actually using will I break out the Unlevel walls, or some other hack. Hopefully that day will never come.

It is very important to me to be able to visualize the layout of the castles and villages I'm writing about, which is why I don't build "sets", but I do have a building plan drawn up for this castle, so I suppose that will suffice...