Mod The Sims - The "Nothing Is Free" Challenge

kewpie

18th Apr 2012, 05:02 PM

I think since it's a personal challenge and not one we actually win prizes on, you can decide what's cheaty and what's not.

I use young again potions when my males get married to women on the verge of turning elder, but I don't make them drink it all the time. It's not because I feel like it's cheating, but the game would get tedious for me if I did it that way.

I do use the Relativity mod to slow time down and I use another mod to reduce motive decrease. So basically, my sims do things in less time and they sleep less than normal sims. Cheating? Probably, because I can get stats faster. Even though I spend that time doing things other than skilling. The reason I do it is so that my sims can have a life socializing and playing around rather than just skilling like crazy so they can unlock something before they die. Will I stop doing this? Nope. If I play on normal time, the game gets tedious and I wonder what the point of unlocking things is since my sims are too busy skilling to use the stuff.

For added challenges, I make myself "unlock" NPCs with buildings. I also keep boarding schools and Twallan's specialty schools locked until the regular school is open. I know most aren't doing it, but I find that I make not so "no-brainer" choices if I choose to unlock things based on these rules I made for myself. I could see adding more challange by making lots that are unbuyable by default buyable with a mod. I may or may not do that if I finish the challenge the first time.

I haven't unlocked a junkyard, so I don't have a miner yet. I'll probably use it - but I don't think I'll abuse it because I'd get bored if I just used it all the time.

I'm just mentioning this stuff because I see people trying to make certain rules "official" in the challenge. One of the great things about this challenge is that except that you have to buy everything and earn the skills, it's VERY open ended. It's a neat way to make your own town and do stuff you might not normally do because you're playing a different way. I think people should be left to decide for themselves on things like the miner or they young again potions. If we were winning real prizes or something, sure - make the rules more strict and specific. But this is just a personal challenge to make the game more fun. You don't try to restrict my sims from using the miner for a few hours a lifetime and I won't try to force your sims to do my NPC unlocks.

Avalikia

18th Apr 2012, 07:24 PM

Oh, don't worry - I'm not about to make anything like that in the official rules, except in the optional rules section. It's so easy to turn a challenge from 'this is something that anyone can do to make the game more fun' to 'and I expect everyone to do it exactly the same way I do'. I've noticed that quite a few challenges end up being so bogged down in rules about what you can't do that it makes the whole thing unfun anymore. Besides, I'm a player that sounds more like you. I might have a Sim use the miner, but once they'd gotten me a lot of money with that method, I'd get bored of that and send them off to do something more interesting than spend all day every day mining. You can wind up a lot of money simply by having all your Sims spend all day every day just painting - but again that's boring. Face it - money is just very easy to get in the game.

The only ones I'm planning on making rules for are the ones that blatantly say "Here, have a lot of money for no good reason." The ones that are more "Here, have a lot of money that rewards you excessively for the amount of effort you put into it" I'll tolerate. Again, this challenge is supposed to be fun, not challenging.

I've been considering putting a vague rule in the optional rules section along the lines of: If you're no longer having fun because it's getting too easy, pinpoint what you're doing that's making it too easy. Whatever it is, you're no longer allowed to do it.

And hopefully my life will settle down a bit, allowing me to play more Sims and update the challenge. And hopefully I'll also get around to getting Showtime.

kewpie

18th Apr 2012, 08:41 PM

@Avalikia - I wasn't at all worried about your adding rules. I hope I wasn't sounding nasty about anything either btw. I was just thinking that some people were posting about wanting to ban certain things officially and I am not down with that and just wanted to say that since we all play different ways, there may be different things you may choose to ban from your OWN game because it's too easy or allow certain things to your OWN game because it makes things more fun or less tedious. But I'd like to see people posting their own flavors and tweaks to the challenge rather than asking for an official referee (you) to officially sanction or ban something.

That's one thing I love about this challenge. It's open ended and not too many rules to have to memorize or follow. I don't want to point to specifics, but there are some challenges which people want you to pick 5 specific traits and move into a specific house and pick a specific job and have a specific number of kids each generations - and that's just not a fun challenge for me. I think in challenges, less is more. And this challenge is so awesome IMO that I think it has a chance of going down in TS2 apocalypse legacy legend as a very good challenge. Actually, I think it's better since you had to memorize a lot of restrictions or play with a huge cheat sheet. Here, lack of rabbit holes and sims generated create the challenges for you so they aren't self imposed and easy to accidentally break.

Anyway I just wanted to praise the challenge and encourage folk to lighten up on the official-ness rule part.

ladykelien

19th Apr 2012, 12:21 PM

Okay, for the record... My comment on the rules, was simply because I found it odd to suggest not using the miner when using young again potion. I have been using the miner and though it helps, like using the pets to hunt for you, it doesn't help as much as it would if you added the Young again potion. In a way Kewpie, I was saying the same thing you are. Don't limit the use of one thing over the other...

My computer can't handle a lot of mods. But, it runs just fine with Testingcheatsenabled on. I can't slow down the day and but, I can if the situation gets to hard use the click and drag method to fill motives back up. I try to limit it to only half way and I don't ever touch the energy motive. They sleep when they need to sleep. But, I ended up with four kids for my first family and one bathroom. To say it was insane would be an understatment. So I gave myself permission to play with their motives.

I will also admit to killing off the husband of that first character I created that way. I have my age set to 113 days. It's the way I like to play and it works for me. Not too long and not too short. He was still alive at 128 days. I couldn't get the last two dolls changed before my last two teens became young adults with him sitting pretty in the middle of the family refusing to die. So, I got fed up, clicked on his hunger motive and drug it all the way down... He died quickly painlessly with no locking him in a room for days listening to him whine about being hungry. It was past time for him to go. 128 days is just too long. I did it because I was pretty sure that I it was a glitch keeping him alive. I am not one of those people who gets so attached I need my Sims to live forever.

So, I started this challenge not quite a week ago now. It's adictive and I have been playing pretty much non stop since I started. No, I don't have a job outside of the home. But, basicly Im suffering from insomnia so no sleep equals a lot of Sims time.

I already have to family lots and quite a few community lots bought and paid for. I used a money cheat when I moved the majority to the new house and they some how lost ownership of the buildings. I called it a glitch and used family funds to buy them and leave me with the same amount of money I had before. I used Inheritance on one child when Dad died. I figure it's a good time to use it and that child can't do it again because he is now living in the first house with his new wife and I am playing the rest of the family in the new house with mom and the rest of the now adult kids and their Look I am real, dolls.

I started with Mandy who married Neal

Mandy got me the Grocery store and Neal got me the Bookstore.
They had four kids. Brent and the triplets Taylor, Randy and Maggie

Brent got me a small park
Taylor got me the theater
Randy got me a fishing hole
Maggie is two levels away on Atheltics for getting me the Police Station
Amy married Brent and got me the Military base just after Neal died and I moved the rest of the family out.

Rachel - Taylor's wife is getting me the school before I move again leaving the two of them to that house.
Brandy - married to Randy is getting me the Fire Station
Peter - married to Maggie is getting me the Diner

I lucked out in that the traits for the kids were taken out of my hands by the game and three of the four still ended up being Geniuses It made building traits a lot faster

So far the Sims I left in the first house have adopted a dog and it had puppies. I don't know if they will ever have kids. I couldn't get her preggers before I moved them cause I don't have a mod that allows for more than 8 sims at a time.

Beautifulansuz

20th Apr 2012, 12:32 AM

AWESOME CHALLENGE!!! of course, if you're a super psycho, like me, you'll start your founding sim with an empty lot. yup. I allowed him the WA tent (you can place it using buydebug), an outhouse, and a campfire (you can 'cook' using the 'roast something..' interaction. thus he eats fish). I had to be super dorky and name him Adam, thus I *cheated* and moved in his wife and named her Eve. So far they have one kid: Noah (ha!) and are slowly earning money to build their house. Eve gardens, so the first building is likely to be the grocery store. Port Jones is a great world. Don't remember where I got it though....

moshrulz04

20th Apr 2012, 03:26 AM

And for the record, my comment on the miner wasn't a serious attempt at changing the rules. More of an emphasis on how easy my play-through became.

Everyone plays by their own rules, and I've decided to share my experience because I liked the idea of having something truly challenging. I've since decided to keep the miner as an heirloom of sorts from my founder to his descendants, without it ever being used for income.

I think a big part of challenges like this is sharing experiences and strategies, and maybe I worded my posts badly, but my intent was merely to share a strategy I found that made things a little too easy for me. As I said in posts, for my play style, the minder made getting money very easy, whereas working for the lifetime rewards would have netted less money to me overall, because I never place a big focus on gaining the points. It's more or less offering a perspective from someone with a different style of play.

I don't think things should be banned left right and centre, that's what things like the Apocalypse Challenge are for ;) But if you do want to make things challenging for yourself, as I INTENDED to do, I'd recommend not using the miner with the potions.

But enough quibbling about rules. As I said, I was merely offering a different perspective.

Skritdlez

20th Apr 2012, 03:29 AM

My computer Crashed, i got a new one but i don't think ill be continueing this

ladykelien

20th Apr 2012, 11:36 AM

My computer Crashed, i got a new one but i don't think ill be continueing this

That has to suck. I know I hate starting challenges all over. Some how it just isn't as good the second time around if you don't get to finish it the first. :( Its why I don't do the random legacy chanllenge, the legecy challange or any number of other challenges. Either my family would get a glitch I couldn't save it from or they would come out with another expansion pack, forcing me to start all over.

The beauty of this challenge is if a new expansion comes out while your playing you just add the new buildings to the list make up something to unlock them with and move on...

But, I digress...Here is hoping you get bored enough with other challenges to come back and try this one again. :)

kewpie

20th Apr 2012, 03:42 PM

I am sorry for my post. I think I got all grouchy writing it after looking for some new challenges and getting bogged down by the 5 billion rules in some of them. I thought perhaps this was a TS3 trend to make way too many rules for a challenge to be interesting and so I wanted to stop the crazy train I thought was coming. But it doesn't seem to be coming.

moshrulz04

23rd Apr 2012, 02:29 AM

It's all good.

I hate starting new challenges with pages and pages of rules too. Loathe getting a good way through and then realising you broke a rule without knowing it. I usually just quit then and there :P

I like this because it's all fairly logical, but it still has plenty of achievement like goals to work towards that allow unlocking of different buildings and so on.

Anyhow, I haven't played at all recently. I still have a few hundred pictures waiting to be uploaded, but I've lost a little motivation as of late. My partner and I find out if we can continue renting our current place this week, so we've been mostly concentrating on getting it tidied up and ready for inspection. Add to that the fact that we're looking into getting a couple of kittens, and all the games I've bought recently... ;)

I'll be back soon no doubt :)

wolfsbayne

24th Apr 2012, 04:29 PM

Ive lost my motivation for some reason too

Really missed the challenge when my pc was at repair for two weeks and then when I started playing again, after a while I just got bored. So I thought I would try adding a historical element to it to make it harder which seemed to work for a while and then I got bored again. Really don't know why.

aelflaed

25th Apr 2012, 02:23 AM

Hey, I'm just starting and have a question - sorry if I have missed the answer somewhere obvious.

Once a sim has earned a comm lot, can you have multiples of them? Such as parks, for example. Presumably a sim would still have to pay for the lot, but is it necessary to have each park unlocked individually by maxing Logic with a new sim?

Avalikia

25th Apr 2012, 06:32 AM

Multiples may be earned, but they must be earned the same way as they were the first time.

aelflaed

25th Apr 2012, 09:01 AM

So - yes. ;)

katya_stevens

25th Apr 2012, 11:02 AM

That answer is pretty much why I'm currently working towards the large lots first -- with the small ones, I can unlock them as and when I want them and not have to worry too much about high requirements.

Nothing too much has been going on in my game: I've hit a bit of a block because I'm getting the next gen born in to the game, and I find the babies and toddlers quite annoying -- it doesn't help that my sims can find each other completely irrersistable and maxed relationship yet refuse woohoo. My town now has (in addition to the previously-unlocked Bookstore, Consignment Store, Hospital, Military Base, Fishing Spot, Local Drinking Hole Bar, and Theatre) a Police Department, School, Science Lab, Criminal Warehouse, Bistro, Fire Station, and Graveyard.

The only sims in my household are Beth, Malik, and their three children. Everyone else got kicked out when they unlocked their lots, and my founder Davin and his wife Mimi left with Tara. The eldest of Beth and Malik's children, Joseph, has a hard task in front of him: unlocking the Film Studio; Amber, the second-born, is going to unlock the stadium, and the current youngest, Ayla, allowed me to unlock the Graveyard (which is needed as Davin died a while back and quite a few sims are starting to reach the end of their lives). Major lots I still need to unlock: Day Spa, Diner, Grocery Store, Office Building, City Hall, Salon, Clubs, Bars, Lounges, Equestrian Centre, and Horse Ranch; everything else can be worked on once those main ones have been completed.

I do have one minor problem: the non-playable households are splitting up and moving in and marrying and splitting up and moving in with other households, meaning I'm getting quite a few half-siblings everywhere. Thankfully my sims are still getting Imaginary Friends, so if worst comes to worst, I can make them real and marry them off and wait out the close relation problems. Relating to that: I'm noting that a few households are becoming vacant and, currently, the sims I moved in to other households are using them. Seeing as I did seed those households initially, would allowing immigration be okay or would I need to disallow it/manually move sims around to ensure no empty homes?

kewpie

25th Apr 2012, 04:04 PM

Here I am, irony of ironies asking for some ideas about how to do a rule thing in my game. I was thinking about adding the WA store registers to my town. I JUST installed WA and so weirdly enough, even though it's the oldest EP, it's the one I know the least about. So here are my questions:

1. I believe that a mod I have will make the travel items available on the registers. So I was thinking that one sim will have to get whatever LTW does the "level 3 visas in all areas" before any sims can unlock the register. I'm doing this partially because I don't think it's "fair" to unlock the world items until I had a sim find them on his or her own, but also gives me an excuse to have a sim do nothing but travel so I can discover stuff on my new EP. The other sims who unlock will just do the regular "max writing" for books, "max gardening" for general store and.. I don't know what for relics.. I'll figure that out as I go. I was originally going to have the sim who did this open up nothing at all except the ability for the other sims, but maybe they could open the relic store.

2. Can you buy skill and toddler books from the book cash registers? Can you buy all of the grocery store items from them? I would like to know if I would need to add the rabbit holes to have access to any items. Except for the part time jobs and the opportunities, do you need the rabbit holes at all for stuff?

3. Is there some reason people don't put the registers in more often in their games? Am I going to discover major fubars by adding the WA registers? Or is it just a matter of having too many NPCs in town if you add up all the bars, performance venues, paparazzi, dance halls etc?

mirheart

27th Apr 2012, 08:16 PM

@kewpie

Well it looks like its been a few days since you posted, so you've likely already figured a few things out on your own, but I wanted to respond because I have done quite a bit in WA. So I should start by saying... keep a "Home" save and a "Travel" save. I've had everything from Sims that couldn't get home to Sims that returned home to find a doppelganger of themselves already living there. I've also had all money and items missing from inventory, and all lifetime happiness points lower then when originally left. That being said, I think they might have finally worked all that out, but protect any families you care about by not saving into your "Home" file again after returning from a trip till you're sure its all kosher.

For this challenge it does mention the skills needed to unlock the nectary, academy, etc. but I'm thinking you wanted to place the WA store registers from buy debug in your own town? Or were you talking about not having the stores in the travel locations and then earning the Visa levels before being able to place them? The only thing I would be careful of is the mention in the rules about not being able to unlock any other lots after traveling. I'm assuming the reason behind the no travel part is either so that you can't have all the extra time to skill, or because it can be fairly easy to make money quick while tomb hunting. That being said, if you are looking for a requirement for the relic store, I would look at the lifetime wish to collect a certain simolean amount of relics, or the one to explore so many tombs.

With the book and grocery store question, are you referring to the registers in buydebug? I'm not really familiar with register mods, so I wouldn't be able to help you there, but if you are referring to the buydebug ones then I think they offer whatever is at the store in the foreign location, which is not a full inventory of what you get in the home store. For instance, in one of the location book stores you could maybe find a skill book for martial arts, a couple recipes unique to that culture, some bait for local fishing places, and then some entertainment books. Its mostly just special items, good for fleshing out what your sims already know, but you won't be able to substitute it for a normal bookstore and still get the full range of stuff.

I don't worry about putting these registers in my normal games because most of what they sell is specialized, and its just as easy to go in and buy the one or two items you need at the location. Also, the registers don't work without cashiers, and if there aren't many sims in your town, you might not be able to get one until you move out a new sim that doesn't already have a job. If you don't need the registers, and just want the special items that can be purchased from them, you could probably just have your sim meet a certain requirement before they're allowed to purchase the stores in the other countries and buy items. But if that is the case, and you'll be doing adventures, I would recommend not including the general store in the list since it has most of what you need to explore the tombs.

mirheart

27th Apr 2012, 08:33 PM

@katya
Going strictly by the rules posted it says to keep story progression on, and that story progression can create empty houses, its just you that can't. So I don't think you have to worry about keeping houses full.

Are you using the normal EA story progression, or a mod like Twallan's?

kewpie

30th Apr 2012, 11:23 PM

@mirhart. - I have been working with this in my game. It turns out I was wrong. The cash registers do NOT sell WA stuff. The book register sells all the books that the regular book store does. The general register sells only items that the grocery store sells. The relic register -- well, I haven't worked with that one yet. The food seems to sell any food - sometimes it sells some WA stuff. There's no reason to travel at all. At first I was going to make small marketplaces with one register in each market. But it turns out you can't make market places in the home town. So I decided to add registers to buildings already in the challenge.

* Edited to add: The relic register sells NOTHING. But it buys rocks, metal, paintings and sculptures. Not a total waste though. My sims have an NPC (former mail carrier who aged out of the job)

As for the people manning the registers, Story Progression created a book merchant exactly the way it created a consignment merchant. The only difference is, the merchant seems to be there 24/7, which I find a little bit annoying. But since I am playing with NPC restrictions, I kinda like having "instant buddies" available for my sims to talk to. I don't know what happens in vanilla SP, but I use Twallan's mod and one gets generated for me.

1. The book register will be in the library. And this will be neat because I finally have an excuse to put a circulation desk in the library and make it look a little more realistic. I used to work in a library so I like this. (This is already in my game. My sims just can't afford to build the library. So the "library" is just an empty lot where they can read books.

2. The general goods register will go on a Big Park. The park will be based off a community orchard near my home where you can go and pick your own fruits and vegetables (or just buy them in the store) It will also have a fish pond.

3. The relics register will go to an art museum. It will act as the register for a gift shop. Edited to add:DANG! The art museum is expensive even when it is a small empty lot. It's 80k from the getgo.

4. The food register will go into a coffee house (or whatever showtime venue is kind of like a bar but isn't a bar). One difference for the hangout requirement in my game will be to max out cooking as well as whatever other requirements would go there. It may go into a hangout - I haven't decided.

I will still have all the regular rabbit holes - for one reason, the rabbit holes serve for places of employment for future NPCs. But another reason is that I have NPC restrictions I made and so I need all of those buildings to unlock more NPCs. I can't call a maid until the general store is in place. I can't call a newspaper service until the book store is in place. The registers will just be in the other places to have extra NPCs hanging around and kind of make it less stressful for my poor sims who only have paparazzi as friends for the longest time - and then once one gets famous they can't really be friends anymore.

Some rules sticklers may consider it cheating that I have the registers and my sims can buy books at the library or buy veggies at the park. Meh. I am kind of making my own rules as I go along and I like my town. Since this isn't an official competition - I don't mind a bit.

lauratje86

2nd May 2012, 01:59 AM

I've started this challenge yet again, once again starting off with my selfsim. So far she has had a son with her live-in former-mailman boyfriend, married him and is now pregnant again..... They are very very poor: I'm struggling to do this without using the Inheritance Reward - it's so much harder! Son Marcus is a toddler, and is doing ok. Laura wanted a daughter last time so maybe she'll get one this time. If not she and Lance may have one more baby.

Current Households:

- The Healys - Lance, Laura and Marcus, with a baby on the way.

Current Community Lots:

None!

Planned Future Community Lots:

- Consignment Store or Grocery Store (Laura) (Sculpting 8, Gardening 7)
- Fishing Spot (Lance) (Fishing 6)
- Unknown (Marcus)
- Unknown (Unborn Baby)

aelflaed

2nd May 2012, 12:00 PM

My challenge started with a teen sculptor. He managed to earn a Consignment store by mid-YA stage - only a very small one. He married the repairwoman, who earned a Military base relatively quickly because she started with 10 Handiness and only had to cram for Athletics. By now, the household includes an ex-mailman who moved in at one point, plus three sets of twins, one singleton, three made-real imaginary friends and one kitten. It's getting tricky to keep track of them all, but I don't want to break up the household until a few of the kids have earned their keep, and got a life-partner underway. A number of them are quite close to their required skill levels - in fact someone earned a library already. And several of them will be marrying a sibling's IM, because that's easier than chatting up the consignemtn lady or importing foreign spouses.

I'm definitely looking forward to working with a smaller household soon, and enjoying taking the founder on vacations to get away from everyone...and acquire goods to turn into cash. No Inheritance rewards here. I

nterestingly, the clan mother got a job at the military base as soon as it was earned - but was still breeding at the time, so never actually worked a normal shift until she had reached Level 9 in the career - due to high skill levels and plenty of overtime. I didn't think work performance increased with overtime, but it obviously did for her. She got Level 10 on her first official day of work, after I got sick of her having babies!

lauratje86

2nd May 2012, 04:26 PM

aelflaed

3rd May 2012, 09:22 AM

Did I mention that I got sick of her having babies, and that it is getting tricky - and tedious - to keep track of what each sim is supposed to be doing? I prefer small households really, but it is more challenging this way. And they will go from nothing, to the bones of a city, in the first born-in-game generation. By generation two or three I'll probably be ready to move onto other things anyway.

kewpie

3rd May 2012, 05:06 PM

I now see why there are restrictions on travel. I assumed it was because some folk would grind out skills and money and abuse it. I am only doing the quests and buying all the stuff unique to each country and I am still coming out way ahead. Like I was almost 10k richer on the way home and that doesn't count the stuff I sold on consignment. And like I said, I didn't even work at that money - just piddled around slowly learning quests and getting frustrated at lag. But I will still do it, because I've never done them and I'd probably give up playing if I couldn't play with the new features on an EP I just bought.

SawaDoll

6th May 2012, 03:22 AM

FINALLY! A challenge to get me back into the Sims 3 game play (: <3 I am going to start working on this challenge tonight and i will post about it later tonight or tomorrow.

aelflaed

6th May 2012, 07:32 AM

My founder is travelling occasionally now, and the difference to the family's money is fast and furious. Of course, they need it now that they are eligible for several buildings!
Sims can still sacrifice their ability to unlock buildings in order to get money for the household, if you like. They just can't use that free skilling time to get the edge on the challenge.

SawaDoll

7th May 2012, 01:45 AM

Well I was doing wonderful actually with my lonely Sim... I got painting, gardening, cooking, and inventing up pretty high. I then realized the 4 people I knew shrunk to 1 person under the social tab and every time I would call to socialize the relationship bar would go up a little and then reset to zero after the phone call was done. (I downloaded a world that was a small island type thing and I noticed when I loaded it the scenery and some buildings were glitchy but ignored it since I deleted all the buildings anyways). I decided to just start over tonight. :D

EDIT: Except this time I will use a default world!

kewpie

7th May 2012, 02:51 PM

@aelflaed - I don't think there's anything wrong with travelling. I just meant that if I gained 10k simolean just from poking around, I can only imagine the skills and money you could earn if you did a grind.

@SawaDoll, do you use Twallan's story progression? You have to turn off "Clean Up Homeless" to stop people from vanishing in this challenge. Oh and If you want a good world or two, I've had no problems with "Sunset Valley 2" except that there are almost no seed spawners. But if you want a really safe bet, someone put on an Apaloosa Plains - Empty save file here on MTS. It's a default world where someone else cleared it out for you.

Another note on using Twallan's mods in this - I just discovered that a base camp is a free lot and works as a Capital building so you can plunk down a 1x1 base camp and put a shack on it to use the commands that only work at the capital builing without having to install/delete it over and over. I don't count this as an unlocked lot since I only use it to use the commands. The only advantage it may have in the game is that NPCs like to hang out there even though it's just a 4 tile shack (so it's big enough to see from far veiw) with no doors and nothing inside it. They do stop hanging around once a real lot opens up. You MAY have to have Twallan's Traveller mod installed too, but I'm not sure.

ReyaD

7th May 2012, 03:23 PM

Another note on using Twallan's mods in this - I just discovered that a base camp is a free lot and works as a Capital building so you can plunk down a 1x1 base camp and put a shack on it to use the commands that only work at the capital builing without having to install/delete it over and over. I don't count this as an unlocked lot since I only use it to use the commands. The only advantage it may have in the game is that NPCs like to hang out there even though it's just a 4 tile shack (so it's big enough to see from far veiw) with no doors and nothing inside it. They do stop hanging around once a real lot opens up. You MAY have to have Twallan's Traveller mod installed too, but I'm not sure.

I'm pretty sure you can reach those same commands by clicking on your sims' computer. No capital building required.

kewpie

7th May 2012, 04:44 PM

haha! I had no idea. thanks!

Socialtool

7th May 2012, 08:57 PM

I wanted to poke my head in and say hi. It is this challenge that kind of got me to join MTS. I am just starting the challenge on a custom map I made.

I did want to ask a question. I noticed that there are no rules against it, but I'm wondering what people's opinions are on marrying a genie especially in the beginning?

So far I've found out some interesting things about this game when you have all of the expansion packs installed.

All the horses will not leave my tiny lot and I found out that if I befriend the mail carrier and then invite her household over, all the homeless in the world seem to be part of her household. I was surprised how easy it was to find a husband that way.

SawaDoll

7th May 2012, 08:59 PM

@kewpie Thanks for the suggestions on that, i haven't really troubled myself with mods in The Sims 3 yet except for that book that sets skills for you and what not I used a long while back before having to reinstall my game onto my new computer. I looked up Twallan's mods onto this site and found story progression, I am just a little confused about which files i need. It says I need the base-mod, would you recommend all of the others installed too?

SawaDoll

7th May 2012, 09:00 PM

@Socialtool I had that same problem as well! It sounds like we need some mods to fix all of that though. (:

lauratje86

7th May 2012, 09:24 PM

All the horses will not leave my tiny lot and I found out that if I befriend the mail carrier and then invite her household over, all the homeless in the world seem to be part of her household. I was surprised how easy it was to find a husband that way.

I'd noticed about the mail carrier thing, it was quite helpful to me the first time I tried this challenge. I haven't had the horse problem though - horses in my game go all over the world even when my lot is the only actual lot available. They do pass by a lot, but they must hang out elsewhere as well.

I looked up Twallan's mods onto this site and found story progression, I am just a little confused about which files i need. It says I need the base-mod, would you recommend all of the others installed too?

It really depends on what you want from the mods! Obviously the base mod is essential, as that forms the core of story progression. I also use the Expanded and Extra bits, as I wanted to have more options and be able to customise more things. I don't use the personality ones, as that aspect didn't interest me. Have a read through what all the bits do and see if you think they're things you'd like to have in your game! :-) As long as you have the base mod story progression will work, but like I said, I like being able to customise things more and have extra options. But then I'm a bit of a control freak, in a weird way! :-D

kewpie

7th May 2012, 09:39 PM

I don't think there's anything wrong with getting a genie into the family. I would think the only thing forbidden would be wishing for money with a genie. I will have a genie in the family as soon as I unlock the graveyard (you need the graveyard to do the quest to free the genie)

I started a new game, because I decided to try some new twists.

I am doing NPC unlocks as well as building unlocks. I also have a few added locks - like you can't buy from the fridge until the grocery store is unlocked etc.... If anyone wants to know the specifics of my unlocks, let me know. I will just assume nobody wants to bother with it otherwise.

I can't remember who mentioned it, but I decided to try making a new house for every building unlocked. This is FUN. I just started it. I have unlocked 3 buildings and I have 3 houses. It was tough in the beginning because I had to separate the husband and his wife - when the youngest baby was only 4 hours old! I was happy to see that as soon as I made house #3 and left him in it, he moved back in with his wife and she's still young enough to get pregnant (for a day or two) This new house for every building is my favorite new feature.

Another thing I do is allow the sims to use the unlocks if they just buy the empty lot. But once I move the other sims out of their house, I use Twallan's master controller to switch out the families and build the lot up with all their spare money. Then once the place becomes a 3 star venue, I make their house fancy. It's a lot of fun.

My new unlocks so far:

Mail Carrier and Paparazzi Free to start

Founder - Consignment Register - unlocked Cashier
Husband (former Paparazzi. That was HARD to get him... even with no celebrities in town he kept running away after 2 - 3 interactions) - Salon - unlocked Tattoo Artist and Stylist
Oldest Son - Grocery Store - Unlocked MAID and buy from the register.
Unlocks in the works:

Youngest Son - Library with Book Merchant - Unlocks Book Merchant
Imaginary Friend - Fire Station - Unlocks Fire Fighters and use of fire alarm - She will also travel once she unlocks because she came with the traveller trait . (LUCKY!!!)

lauratje86

7th May 2012, 09:44 PM

If anyone wants to know the specifics of my unlocks, let me know. I will just assume nobody wants to bother with it otherwise.

I would like to know! :-) New ideas are always fun, and I am considering starting again with some changes to see if it will help hold my attention (I am getting bored of the Sims 3 in general, but really think that this challenge could help hold my interest!) :-)

ReyaD

7th May 2012, 10:16 PM

Since I can't update my stories with my main laptop in the shop right now I downloaded sims 3 onto my sisters' laptop and started a new NIF challenge there. After about a week of playing Gen 3 has just been born and I'm quite happy with what I've done so far.

Achieved Lots:
- Consignment Store (Founder, Kayla Smith)
- Bookstore (Ex-mailman, Jarrett Smith)
- Military Base (Gen 2, 2nd child, Brent Smith)
- Grocery Store (Gen 2, 3rd child, Charlotte Smith)

Lots in Progress:
- Police Station (Gen 2, 1st child, Angela Smith)
- Criminal Warehouse (Ex-Imaginary friend, Angela's husband Alex)
- Theatre (Gen 3, 1st child, Debbie Smith)
- Hospital (Gen 3, 2nd child, Eric Smith)

I got screwed over in Gen 2 since only Angela was given an IF doll, but luckily both of her children received one and both will be coming to life. I also have three residential lots unlocked. One from a paparazzi Kayla befriended and moved in (who then went on to move in her husband and two children. O_o Did you guys know NPCs had families?), and then one each for Brent and Charlotte.

Sculptor + Inventor + Painter + Consignment Store = $$$

SawaDoll

7th May 2012, 10:41 PM

Started my new game using the empty Apaloosa Plains! My sim is Ivy Green and she is going to be a gardener/chef maybe do some painting on the side. So far have not attempted to find a mate but have been trying to find some seeds. (no luck :/) i am thinking of just stealing the lettuce in the fridge and plant them until i can harvest more and just make a huge lettuce garden unless I find something else to plant. Also got that mod installed to fix all the issues!

kewpie

8th May 2012, 12:14 AM

I have my unlock list, but I think I'll put it up later. My toddler daughter is running around and I want a BREAK tonight. But I'll put it up soon. Glad someone was interested. I have been trying to figure out all the billionty two new SHT NPCs. I thought I had them all and then I had some random one show up as a consigment specialist once - still dressed in her Fire Dancer (aka hooker) costume.

Tourists would be free too, but for some reason they never show up in my town.

SawaDoll

8th May 2012, 01:26 AM

So I decide it is now time to find Ivy a mate. I call every NPC I can... ALL WOMEN. So after a long night of painting and Ivy is sleeping in... the only man around shows up. THE MAIL MAN! And the only days he decides to show up are the days i forgot he exists and my sim decides to sleep past 10 AM. /facepalm. LOL oh yes and before I forget, while i was in the middle of /ragequitting over the mailman my sim had found a pygmy komodo dragon outside her house. So besides the mailman that got away, Ivy made a new friend today. (: I kept his default name as Curt. <3

@kewpie: I forgot to mention in my last post that I am interested to see your unlock list as well when you get around to it!

Everyone is way father than I am and has way more interesting things so far. Can't wait to start unlocking some stuff :D

SawaDoll

8th May 2012, 02:21 AM

kewpie

8th May 2012, 10:23 AM

Here are my list of unlocks. To be honest, most of the Showtime NPCs are kind of random and most of the ones I had to hastily move around because of the few that made sense with showtime are random too. I didn't lock any NPCs that naturally appear on the map. And if for some reason I bump into an NPC hanging out on a lot and they are locked, that specific NPC sim is unlocked, but their class is still locked (does that make sense? Like if I opened a park and Bob the Maid was standing there, I could talk to Bob, but I couldn't call a maid to work at my house - not even Bob!) For a period of time in another game of this I played, I had a sim that stalked a big park I got early and just snagged any NPC that walked by.

Here is a link to the ODS file. It's a spreadsheet and it's saved for Open Office. I don't know if that opens in microsoft. Let me know if it doesn't and I will resave it in excel format.
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?gw5ry9bbk7ss1se

NPC UNLOCKS:

Criminal Warehouse Magician for hire (SHT?)
Bistro Butler
Bookstore Paper Carrier Paper Service
Day Spa Babysitter
Diner Pizza
Hospital Social Worker Adoption

Office Building
Science Lab Handyman
Stadium Dancer
Supermarket Maid Buy from fridge
Theatre Sing-o-gram
City Hall
Graveyard Genie
Military Base
Police Department Police
School kids can go to school Boarding School
Art Gallery Relic Cashier
Beach
Big Park Food Cashier (park cafe)
Fishing Spot General Cashier Unicorn
Gym Acrobat for Hire (SHT?)
Library Books Cashier Book Club
Pool Fire Dancer (SHT)
Small Park
Academy
Chinese Garden
Nectary Nectar Cashier
Consignment Shop Consignment Cashier
Fire Station Fire Fighter
Hangout Bartender
Junkyard Simbot
Laundromat
Salon Tattoo and Stylist
Film Studio
Equestrian Centre
Dog Park
Cat Jungle
Horse Ranch
Pet Shop Pet Cashier Pet Adoption

---

I forgot to mention that I have immigration turned on (and yes SawaDoll, it's normal to have those tags on your game. There is a way to turn them off.) I don't restrict access to the immigrants because they appear on the map.

Another wrinkle in my challenge is that I start building residential lots on a 1x1 lot and then gradually get bigger. I am on my second 1x2 - when they aren't squares, I flip the lots and build the other way. This isn't part of my "NIF(ty)" challenge, I just suck at building houses and am giving myself a challenge to get better. My third house already looks almost good enough to upload -- on the exchange.. heh.

wolfsbayne

8th May 2012, 04:53 PM

Is it normal for me to be able to see where people are on my map? I just noticed this! I see where horses and people are, and for some odd reason get updates for a girl the sta

nds in one spot singing for tips all day and gets a promotion every few days.

If you are using twallen's story progression then yeah, perfectly normal. Seeing where people are comes with the story progression extra I think, the stories are standard, you have to go to the town hall, nraas, general options, stories to turn them off or change them to friends only or whatever.

kewpie

8th May 2012, 07:01 PM

I like it. Let me tell you, it makes lots of things easier - especially if you are skilling up Charisma and don't have the relationship requirement. You just pull back and stalk any townies with a white circle around their portrait. Also.. unicorn LTW? Piece of cake (ish) .. if he's there, you'll find him very quickly.

mirheart

8th May 2012, 08:26 PM

I agree that it is fun with the one house per lot unlocked restriction. :) I actually ended up making it one per normal lot, and two per rabbithole, just because otherwise there were a lot of homeless people working with my sims. I just started befriending every mailman I met, moving them in, and then befriending the next that showed up, rinse and repeat. Or with the rabbitholes, befriending all the coworkers and moving them through the house to homes of their own. Its actually helped me set up quite a few completely unrelated couples in my town, and its probably something I'll continue to do in hopes there are more offspring later down the line. Plus with the rabbit hole people they're all at work most of the day anyway and the funds help quite a bit.

I think of it more as a boarding house then a legacy sim home :P Yes, I have my founder and her family, and they will always be my favorites, but I sort of consider it her job to make sure everyone is happy and settled.

With the tourists, I saw one here or there early on... then I put in the bookstore finally, and 12 tourists showed up on the lot within five minutes of the game running. It was a little crazy, I've never seen that many in one place in a home world.

SawaDoll

8th May 2012, 09:18 PM

My sim decided to master painting and unlocked the Salon. (Finally my first community lot!) Before that she had adopted 2 children a boy and a girl.I finally was successful with her marrying the mailman who was now the old retired mailman. They got married and woohoo'd once and he immediately died. >_>.... No babies either :( I figured it would take me too long to find her another mate since she was almost going to be an adult anyways and did not want to chance her getting too old so adoption! Her son is a master sculptor and her daughter is a master inventor. Now we have 2 lots so far, the Consignment Shop and Salon! And to make things more great my sim finally found another husband and they had one son to pass on at least her genetics. Once the 2 teens turn into YA I will find them potential lovers and move them off into their own homes.

I really want to put a bookstore! I have each of my sims focused on one skill for now to max out based on their traits. I totally forgot only one lot per person and was trying to make my main sim start writing for a book store then immediately realized she had bought the salon with her painting already.

Another glitch I encountered. After her first husbands death and I tried to get her a new one my sim assumed she was "cheating"?? Later on the ghost of her dead husband is seen and they are apparently engaged. I thought Oh cool! Ghost babies for sure! Nah, he wasn't having that so i had to get them to hate each other. Oh this game is actually fun now :D

P.S. I want a unicorn :D

SawaDoll

8th May 2012, 09:42 PM

Wait wait... it is one lot per family? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! D:

lauratje86

8th May 2012, 09:50 PM

Wait wait... it is one lot per family? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! D:

Nope, it's one lot per sim :-)

**EDIT** Thank you for sharing the downloadable spreadsheet, kewpie :-) I have now downloaded it and edited it slightly for my own use and I'm sure it will be very helpful! It does open in Microsoft Excel, by the way :-)

**EDIT AGAIN** Question: If my sim goes on vacation and makes a friend there, then goes home and invites the foreign sim over and invites them to move in and they were the only person living in their household (or if the entire household moved with them) can my sim keep the money they bring with them when they join the household or not?

kewpie

9th May 2012, 10:42 PM

THat's good. Any sim that your playable meets naturally can come over. Now if you wanted to get persnickity, you could build an airport before you travel. I thought of that and then decided not to do that. I basically locked the sims not just for the challenge, but to make it plausible in game. How likely is it that your postal worker lives in a giant boarding house with 40 other sims who are all slaves for this nonexistent town? Not too likely. So basically I didn't want to have my sim "invite household over" and have access to everyone in town. BUT like I said, if the sim just meets them normally, I think it's fine.

One thing I took for granted and forgot to add was that I add skills on some of my lots. On my big park, I am adding cooking since there will be a working food register there. On my fishing lot, I'm adding gardening. Most of my stuff makes sense. It's not meant to be back breaking (except for the poor sims who get stuck with the babies. My second gen sim bought his library the same night his wife gave birth to twins. She already unlocked her lot, but since she's the traveller, she's going with the babies. OH MAN will she have a rough time) I just wanted it to be reasonable that you'd be able to tell somewhat of a story if you wanted to. "I met Betty Mailman and she invited her 40 best friends over to my party" isn't really much of a challenge (to me. Nothing wrong with doing that.)

I don't do anything "stupid" (IMO) and lock any townies that naturally appear on their own. Like the salon opens the tattoo and the stylist, because I thought it would be silly not to be allowed to speak to one of them. Also, my SHT is kinda dodgy since I have been playing this challenge since before it came out and Starlight Shores doesn't work on my game. So I haven't actually played it yet. I only know the NPCs by the ones who randomly show up at the bookstore.

SawaDoll

10th May 2012, 02:01 AM

Thank the watcher it is one lot per sim! Makes me super happy i didn't mess that up. (: I think my game is kind of bugged though... My consignment shop has no cashier... (always CLOSED) I think it has to do with the lack of houses in my town. I moved out my sim's son the master sculptor into his own cute little house and I had switched to just playing him to build his house. When i switched back to my main family I found the father inside the consignment shop (perhaps he was the cashier?) and all of my sims except him were in the Stylist career, the daughter is somehow at the top of that career? So confusing... I took her out of it though because that didn't seem very fair to me at all and she is a master inventor anyways.

SawaDoll

10th May 2012, 02:04 AM

@lauratje86: Also! I think in the rules it says you have to waste away any money anyone that moves in brings with them using a cheat. D:

Avalikia

10th May 2012, 03:12 AM

Question: If my sim goes on vacation and makes a friend there, then goes home and invites the foreign sim over and invites them to move in and they were the only person living in their household (or if the entire household moved with them) can my sim keep the money they bring with them when they join the household or not?
No. Either one member of their family needs to stay behind to occupy their house, or you have to waste the money.

Also, update on me! No, I did not fall out of existence. In fact, I had a birthday last week and got the Showtime expansion! Trouble is, I've been busy enough that I've only had so much time to tinker with it. And when I have had time, I've gotten temporarily bored of playtesting this challenge (yeah, hard to believe, I know) so I've been doing other things. (I may have an idea for a new challenge, actually, though it's not nearly as awesome as this one.) Oh, and seeing as I literally don't know any Sims 3 players IRL with Showtime, I need more friends and I'll accept anyone who adds me - I'm Avalikia in the game, just like I am here.

But! I know I will be back to updating this soon, and I've been mulling over the proper way to unlock all these weird new lot things. I know that everyone's been working out their own rules for this though, so if anyone's come up with some unlock rules that they think are awesome and seem to work well, I'd like to hear about them so that I can consider them - I know that some of you have mentioned them here already, but I don't want to dig through all the replies so pretty please repeat?

And I already know that I'm going to allow genies but not allow you to wish for money - any other burning Showtime related questions I should be sure to address?

kewpie

10th May 2012, 03:50 AM

It looks like you can get to level 10 in each show time career without the lots, but it's painful and slow. Maybe TOO painful and slow to require it for a venue? Or not? Has anyone actually made it all the way? I've only seen NPCs do it with Twallans mod. I had a consignment clerk moonlight and level out singing and acrobatting. Then I had a magician paparazzi do magic for tips in my yard about 20 hours a day every day.

SawaDoll

10th May 2012, 07:33 AM

i see the same exact thing all the time in my town with people getting promotions earning tips constantly ha. Is there another way to purchase lots? I was so excited for my sim's husband to finally max out his writing skill... I go into edit town and in community lots I cannot find the bookstore o_O in fact i couldn't find a graveyard earlier in the game and just ended up making my own "graveyard" with a couple trees lol. I don't see any default lots just ones from expansions.

ReyaD

10th May 2012, 08:26 AM

The graveyard mausoleum and other rabbit holes can be found while editing a community lot under build -> community something-or-other. Its the little half building that isn't there when you edit your own lot.

Basically trear rabbit holes like an item. Only its under the build tab, not buy.

SawaDoll

10th May 2012, 03:14 PM

Oh i see now /facepalm.

kewpie

10th May 2012, 05:57 PM

Speaking of interesting gene pool. I have a family in town with very messed up genetics. Somehow an immigrant toddler became the mother of two sims - I assume it was supposed to be a husband and wife with their baby. Instead the game treats her like a single mom with two kids. Here is a freaky part. One of my Legacy offcasts started DATING the toddler when she became a child. He married her when she became a teen and she had a baby. Then, the mother of my legacy re-married (she's a widow) she married the toddler's "son"...

So now my sim's mother is also his daughter in law. I think I need to fix this in Master Controller it's getting confusing.

lauratje86

10th May 2012, 06:57 PM

No. Either one member of their family needs to stay behind to occupy their house, or you have to waste the money.

Ah yes, that makes sense. But if you move just one sim out of a vacation destination household of two or more sims then you can keep the money they bring, right?

Good to have you back, by the way :-) I hope you had a good birthday! When was it? Mine was on the 6th, but no Sims related presents for me as I already had all of the EP's and SP's. I did use some of the money my grandma gave me to buy myself some simpoints for the store though :-D

Speaking of interesting gene pool. I have a family in town with very messed up genetics. Somehow an immigrant toddler became the mother of two sims - I assume it was supposed to be a husband and wife with their baby. Instead the game treats her like a single mom with two kids. Here is a freaky part. One of my Legacy offcasts started DATING the toddler when she became a child. He married her when she became a teen and she had a baby. Then, the mother of my legacy re-married (she's a widow) she married the toddler's "son"...

So now my sim's mother is also his daughter in law. I think I need to fix this in Master Controller it's getting confusing.

That certainly sounds confusing! I wonder how that happened!? I hope you manage to fix it :-)

Avalikia

11th May 2012, 07:42 AM

Ah yes, that makes sense. But if you move just one sim out of a vacation destination household of two or more sims then you can keep the money they bring, right?
That's right. Basically what you're avoiding here is getting all the money they bring from selling their house on top of whatever cash they have on hand.

And my birthday was on the 29th. And it was fabulous!

kewpie

11th May 2012, 03:06 PM

I think something in story progression got mixed up. It doesn't seem to be wrecking the game.

Happy belated birthday, Avalikia! Did you age up well enough to pick a trait? I am glad the cake didn't catch you on fire.

lauratje86

11th May 2012, 04:43 PM

I've restarted this using my self-sim in the hope it will keep my interest. She managed to adopt a stray dog (I'd never managed to do that before!), and he's earned her a ton of money. So far he's found two bits of tiberium, amongst other things :-) She's bought a graveyard, and when she gets up to 30,000 ltr points she'll be getting a dusty old lamp with them and releasing the genie. She is also a sculptor, with 9 points in sculpting, but I wanted her to unlock a graveyard so I can try and release a genie - never done it before! :-)

**EDIT** She has released a genie! :-) I am quite chuffed. The genie is female, but that's ok, because the male ex-mailman has also moved in and married the genie and they are now expecting a baby. As my selfsim wished for a long life, she doesn't need to rush with having kids. Neither did the genie, but the ex-mailman becomes an elder very soon - probably on the day that the baby's born. I want him and the genie to have one or two more kids as well. I hope that the ex-mailman will be able to unlock a junkyard before he dies. Not sure what the genie's going to unlock yet - she's got plenty of life still to live!

So Laura is still single, and William Cross and Lorena Bobbit Cross are married and expecting a baby very soon.

kewpie

12th May 2012, 02:48 PM

I love hearing your updates, Laura. You're having a blast it seems. I've added a new "rule" for my town. After the person who owned the original unlock died - and there is no family member in the house that owns the building, I get to download a nice replacement. While I am getting better at building, my stuff is still fuggo and there is no reason that my sims have to be punished with a butte ugly town just because I suck at building. To counter this, I am making the rule be that I have to get the property up to a level 3 real estate deal before I replace it. So if the sim dies and it's still level 2, someone has to buy it (not unlock it, just buy it) and fix it up until it's level 3. Then I demolish it and put something far less yucktastic in it's place. My sims library looks like a giant walmart and I hate it.

I am keeping the houses though, because I like to watch my evolution. Building community lots seems harder to me than houses. Anyone have tips for the community lots?

lauratje86

12th May 2012, 03:01 PM

That's a cool idea kewpie :-) I also suck at building, but I like to challenge myself to build half decent community lots so I'm going to make my sims keep them! :-D (*mwahahahahahahaha*)

So far I've only built a graveyard, and it's pretty basic, though it is open and will soon be at level 2. I pretty much just boost the lot price with statues :-) Haven't played anymore since my last update, just about to load the game now....

How many community lots do you have now, kewpie? Residential lots? Sims? Are your sims allowed to adopt pets from the shelter right from the beginning or do they have to unlock that somehow? (I'm nosy - can you tell?!) :-D

I'm using different requirements to unlock the pet lots (dog park, cat park, horse training ground) as I'm not allowing sims to adopt pets from the shelter at first. Despite it being so stupidly hard and time consuming to adopt strays I'm making it that sims have to own 3 animals of a given species before that species can be adopted from the shelter. Small and large dogs count as one species together. So far my sims are at: 1 dog, 0 cats, 0 horses. I haven't even seen any stray cats.... This does mean that, say, if my selfsim manages to adopt a female stray dog to go with her male ex-stray dog and they have puppies, dogs can then be adopted from the shelter. Not all of the pets have to be former strays.

To unlock the pet lots a pet of the relevant species has to max a skill - so hunting for dogs and cats and racing or jumping for horses. My selfsim's dog, Malachite, has maxed hunting, so when they have enough money the household will be placing and buying a dog park. He's the only owned dog around to use it, of course! :-D

kewpie

12th May 2012, 04:38 PM

If I don't replace the lots that are too ugly to look at, I'll probably restart the challenge. I am far enough along that I don't want to do that. But I keep thinking -- oh if i could restart it would look better. So I am just downloading nice lots so that I can have something I don't want to hurl when I look at the monitor. Oh another thing I'm doing that people may find different. I only play one house at a time, except to build up the lots and houses. So my sims I don't play - like the kids who are the castoff son's, don't unlock anything. Only sims who live in the houses I build for.

Community Lots:

I have -

Founder - Consignment (just replaced - http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=415044 )
Husband - Salon (Pets default since I didn't have to buy it)
Oldest Son Grocery (Rabbit Hole)
Youngest Son Library (with a book cashier - boy this lot is UGLY)
Imaginary Friend (youngest son's wife) Fire station (Pets default)

Waiting To unlock -
Twin Daughter1 - Bookstore (rabbit hole)
Twin Daughter2 - Big Park (with a food register for a cafe) she will also max out cooking for the register.

There are 5 houses. Two of them were abandonded - first when the founder's husband moved back in with his wife autonomously and second when the founder died. Two families immigrated into the empty houses - and there seem to be 3 in a family that move in. My older brother sim - I had low hopes for him having a family since he is unflirty and a loner, but he has a girlfriend who lives next door to him in his dad's old house and she's pregnant for the second time.

I don't have a pet register (and I am MAD that you can't buy it from the store. I know it was suposed to be an exclusive, but it's too unique not to be available to anyone anymore... GRRRRRRR!!! ) I may improvise and have the relic register as the pet register and have a fake pet store. It's not so much that I need one - I just want one in town. My sims will adopt strays until the pet store is open. I just want to try some features I've never used in the game. Like I've pretty much ignored pets because I've been a wuss. For some reason, I don't mind my sims dying, but I can't handle pets in the game dying. So I never get them. It will be easier to get them when I am moving every time a sim unlocks a house. Then they can die off lot and I won't have to see the reaper take them.

I just got World Adventures and my Imaginary friend got Pangu's Axe in China and maxed out her visa level. I am definitely going to be doing more travelling. Instead of leaving her behind in the house, I will leave one of the twins and take her so she can max out all 3 visas.

Socialtool

15th May 2012, 08:45 PM

I know, I haven't updated since I made the one post.

My founder got a husband, and a couple more friends ended up moving in. Since it is my first time playing this challenge, I am letting myself use invite household over, though if I play through again I might make the whole thing a lot more challenging for myself.

I paired them up, and they all had kids. Then, once they were kids and not toddlers, I moved both the kids and one set of adults out so that there would be a little more room.

The kids are now grown and have spouses of their own. Actually, one of the spouses disappeared, I have no idea where she went or how but her icon disappeared, so he got another wife since I tried everything I could find on the internet to get her back.

Unlocked so far:

Founder-School
Husband-City Hall
Female friend who moved in- Bookstore
Her Husband-Equestrian Center

First Son-Criminal Warehouse
Second Son-Bistro
First Son's Wife-Giving up her lot for adventuring.
Second Son's First Wife - disappeared before I could unlock anything
Second Son's Second Wife- Library. (I just got this one last night.)

Now, I have taken to trying to not change people's traits after I get them to move into my house, so I try to be really picky and not ask people to move in until I know a bit about them. This also means that I am trying to unlock buildings based on traits and lifetime wishes that they already have instead of what I want to give them. That is how I have ended up with an Equestrian Center so quickly. That would not have been my choice normally.

Building community lots seems harder to me than houses. Anyone have tips for the community lots?

It might sound silly, but I have a hard time with building in general, so I am enjoying trying to figure out how to build all these things myself. One of the things that I have started doing when I have no idea where I want to go with a building, I look up floor plans for similar buildings in real life. It's true that real life lets us have more shapes than Sims does, but it can help me get an idea of what I want it to look like.

I am actually getting ready to look up some library floor plans and see what I want to do.

lauratje86

15th May 2012, 09:59 PM

I made the mistake of downloading some sims off the Exchange and ended up with some very glitchy toddlers, but I *hope* that it's sorted now.... May have to go back to a previous save, but hopefully it'll be ok!

aelflaed

16th May 2012, 12:57 AM

My multitudes are going quite well now. The house is still very full, but a number of them will very soon be moved into places of their own - once funds allow, and they have paired up.

Quick rundown, since that's what we all seem to be doing -
Founder - consignment store
Wife - military base
ex-postie friend - City Hall
first twin sons - school and police department
Rose - library
Fluffs (ex-IF) - fishing spot
Corey - Diner
Hesper (ex-IF) - Hangout
Boinky (ex-IF) - Bistro

Nearly there are: Eric - Criminal warehouse, Emma - science lab, and Ginger - movie theatre. There are two cats who may or may not earn lots - perhaps one of them will get the graveyard. There are still only two houses, but will soon be a couple more - just making sure the next gen gets hooked up first. They'll need to assign someone to earn the graveyard pretty soon, as the first generation is getting on rather! And I don't enjoy ghosts roaming around at home.

Edit- oh, I forgot Jelly Bean! She's another Imaginary friend, and will unlock a big park.

kewpie

17th May 2012, 10:31 AM

I think I may take a break from this challenge so I can actually PLAY the SHT EP and see what needs to go there.

aelfs - Hey my IF is Fluffs too!!! She is my traveller.

lulume

18th May 2012, 02:54 AM

So, in my game, my sims cannot buy the graveyard I built. I can't figure this out. Anyone have any idea about how to make it buyable?

aelflaed

18th May 2012, 07:49 AM

Is it labelled properly? They can't buy a lot marked as No Visitors, I think.

lauratje86

18th May 2012, 07:55 PM

Yup, that's right. Or some other lots, like small park and junkyard, unless you use a mod to make that possible. Graveyards should be buyable though - my sims have bought them before. I'd say check the labelling and let us know if it doesn't work, maybe someone knows something I don't about buying lots! My sims don't usually buy lots, really, unless I'm playing this challenge :-)

lulume

19th May 2012, 03:34 AM

Thanks for responding! It was labeled "No visitors allowed". That was dumb, but I've found that most of my lots in this challenge seem to change sporadically during editing, or maybe I just click the wrong buttons...

I started this about a month ago and gave up, but the second run-through seems to be going better. I think the key is to not get attached to the sims! I want to play some of them until they're dead! Once they are no longer needed, though, they need to MOVE.

I'm making my sims move someone into a new house with each lot. I'm also thinking of making some houses that are just for the npcs - some duplexes. I don't want them to be homeless, sniff.

aelflaed

19th May 2012, 05:06 AM

Glad you solved it. My lot got their science lab, and the house is again overstuffed because grandchildren have begun arriving - and there isn't enough cash to move people out, because the science lab cost so much! However, the founder and wife are having an Egyptian holiday to cash up, so all should be well.

lauratje86

20th May 2012, 04:33 AM

I've started this challenge yet again, starting with a sim version of a friend of mine. And it's finally holding my attention! :-)

My friendsim married the mailwoman, whose appearance and name I altered to turn her into my selfsim (albeit with some wildly inaccurate traits!). My friendsim and my selfsim are married and have three sons; Marcus (just turned teen), Zachary (child) and Sheldon (toddler).

They've both wished for long lives with the genie, so as they now both have about 20 days before they become elders they will be having another baby before then - probably just before then. I'm waiting 'til Laura unlocks the grocery store, because then she can eat watermelon during the pregnancy and have a girl! Both she and Jon have the Have A Girl want locked.... I'm not surprised after three boys! I'd like all the boys to be at least teens by the time the last baby is born, for in-my-head story purposes...

They each have two wishes left, and will both be freeing their genies eventually. Jon's genie is female and Laura's is male, so the neighbourhood will eventually be gaining a genie married couple. I expect that their other wish will be the one that gives a permanent +25 moodlet. Peace, or something, I think it's called.

They also have a small dog, Jake, who loves finding collectables and has really boosted the household's income! So far he's found two tiberium gems... :-D

Current Households:

- The Brookes's - Jon (A), Laura (A), Marcus (Te), Lily (Te), Zachary (C), Sheldon (To) & Jake (SDog)

Current Community Lots:

- Bookstore (Jon - Writing 10, obviously; he also had good Gardening and Handiness skills and is a decent cook)
- Grocery Store (Laura- Gardening 10, Fishing 7)
- Hospital (Marcus - Logic 10)

Planned Future Community Lots:

- Fishing Spot? (Zachary - Fishing 7)
- Consignment Store? Salon? Police Department? (Sheldon)
- Dog Park (Jake)
- Equestrian Centre? Nothing? (Lily - Marcus's made-real IF - Riding 7)
- Chinese garden? Stadium? Nothing? (Peter - Zachary's made-real IF)

- Unknown (Leonard - Sheldon's still-imaginary IF)

(One of the sons will probably be unlocking a Graveyard, but I'm not sure who it'll be yet. It's possible that one of their IF's will unlock it, if Marcus learns to make the right potion soon and makes them real!)

**EDIT** Marcus's IF, Lily, has now been made real. She has pretty rubbish traits, apart from Equestrian, so I'm hoping that she'll unlock an Equestrian Centre... Zachary's IF, Peter, has also been made real. He's athletic and has Photographer's Eye, but I think I may move him out before he unlocks anything. Or maybe he'll unlock the graveyard. Unfortunately both genie lamps glitched, so no second wishes for Laura and Jon and no genie married couple... :-(

kewpie

25th May 2012, 07:55 PM

I just plain started over with a teen, now that Twallan has a "no adult needed" mod (too bad he refuses to let children live alone as Pescado does in AM - doubly too bad that I've been having serious issues with AM and won't install it anymore. Anyway, that's another story.) I also like the new option in mover that allows sims moving out of the house to take the venues with them so I don't have to constantly switch families to edit the properties. So finally, it's set up how I like it.

Because I was getting SO SICK of sculpting and the consignment store over and over, I've made new rules. I am rotating EPs to get more variety.

Founder - Book Store (Base Game) UNLOCKED - rabbit hole so nothing interesting.

Spouse - Fishing spot with General Store register (WA) - It's going to be a "Pick your own produce" orchard with a place to buy the produce and fish. It will also have some playground equipment. I am basing it off a real orchard near our house. Dad has fishing but not gardening unlocked. I added gardening since the fishing spot also has a grocery store and will also have garden plots (it will only have the plots that my family unlocks) The poor guy is a diva with star quality who wants to be a magician and I am forcing him to fish all the time by himself. He's miserable.

Twin Daughter one - (child) going to unlock the Fire Station (AMB) - I know I should probably unlock the consignment store but I am SO SICK OF IT. Her traits are Brave, Adventurous and Atheletic. She's going to be my adventurer.

Twin Daughter two (child)Going to open a dive bar for LN (that one has no charisma, right? ) She's a perfectionist, diva, party animal.

This is nice because it's going MUCH slower than the consignment store worlds. Sounds odd but I am getting to know my sims better and I like that.

Buckley

27th May 2012, 08:22 AM

Hey all! :) I recently decided to try this challenge (again!), and I wanted to share my progress and a few pictures. I cleared out St Clair by AweSims and am using that as my world. It's kind of big and a bit too urban for this challenge, but oh well. I really like it. What world(s) are you guys using?

This is my founder, Kylie Sinclair. (I figured that since she's the town's founder, the city might as well be named after her. ;) Lol.)
http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a466/colleen_davis/Screenshot-4.jpg

And this is her house.
http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a466/colleen_davis/Screenshot-5.jpg

It's pink and girly, but don't let that fool you. Kylie doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. She wants to start a garden and live off the earth, independent from the rest of society. However, she quickly realizes that she can't really afford the rent by herself, so soon she is forced to find a roommate. Finn Adler. And, of course, one thing leads to another, and these roommates become a bit more than just friends.

...Quite a bit more, actually.
http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a466/colleen_davis/Screenshot-7.jpg

Her pregnancy was an accident, unintentional. She wasn't ready to settle down and start a family, but at least Finn seems happy about it. Now, they have two kids (not twins), Cooper (the brunette in his pajamas) and Beau (the blonde in the front), with another baby on the way. Finn wants a girl this time, but Kylie is hoping for another boy.
http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a466/colleen_davis/Screenshot-59-1.jpg

They recently hired a maid to help around the house, but when she got turned out on the street by her boyfriend Kylie graciously offered to let the woman sleep on her couch in exchange for helping with the kids. Little did Kylie know that the woman is a flirty kleptomaniac with a major crush on Finn. Will Finn succumb to temptation and leave Kylie for the pretty young maid? Or will he remain faithful to his girlfriend and their soon-to-be three children?

I don't really know yet, lol. That's just the plot I have in my head, but I'm not really sure where I'm going to take it. The family has plenty of money right now, and so Natasha Hahn, the maid, will be moving out into her own house soon. Question: Does anybody know if a single Sim will marry and/or move in an NPC or do I have to hook her up with someone before I move her out? I have twallan's story progression, if that helps.

I'm playing this challenge like a legacy, so only the Sinclair family will be active. I'm also taking it really slowly, as I want to build almost all of the lots I'm going to use. Here are my stats:

Current Households:

The Sinclairs- Kylie (founder); Finn (her boyfriend); Cooper (their son); Beau (their other son); Natasha (the maid).

Current Community Lots:

None.

Planned Community Lots:

Diner/Grocery Store Combo (Pets)- Kylie (Gardening 10, Cooking 4)
Military Base- Finn (Handiness 10, Athletics 7)
Bookstore- Cooper
Fishing Spot? Small Park? Graveyard?- Beau

kewpie

5th Jun 2012, 03:38 PM

I started playing this again once I found Finnington. It's so beautiful. I didn't bother making all the lots no visitors though. So all the community lots are in place, but empty. I also have mods by Shimrod called "Sims on the Town" and "Service Sims on the town" So even though the town is totally empty, you can find TONS of sims out there standing around reading books in the middle of empty lots.

Avalikia

5th Jun 2012, 07:12 PM

I also have mods by Shimrod called "Sims on the Town" and "Service Sims on the town" So even though the town is totally empty, you can find TONS of sims out there standing around reading books in the middle of empty lots.
I'm going to have to call that breaking the rules...

And sorry for my lack of updates! I definitely meant to, but my life's taken off in a million directions and I haven't had as much Sims time as I'd like. I'll definitely get back to this though, I promise!

lulume

5th Jun 2012, 08:13 PM

I don't have either of the mods kewpie mentioned, but in my game there is a lot the paparazzi just chills and reads in. It's set to "no visitors allowed" so I don't know why they go there. I had the first paparazzi marry my founder, but during their courtship she'd invite him over for dates and he'd hang out for a few minutes and then jog off to that empty lot. Finally I figured out she'd have to go there to woo him. Marriage solved the problem of him going there all the time, but the replacement paparazzi followed the same patterns. I'd have her coming over to the house to make friends with one of my player sims, and she'd drop everything suddenly, hop in a taxi, and go hang on the lot. Finally, there are enough houses and lots that the paparazzi freaks have real places to go. I realize this is a bug in my town, but I loved not having the paparazzi just hanging out on the lawn taking pictures of my sims in their sleep (most of them crash in sleeping bags on the lawn until I can move them into their own houses).

kewpie

6th Jun 2012, 05:37 PM

I have NPC restrictions self imposed. So this isn't giving me any sort of an advantage. I can only talk to the Paparazzi and Mail Carrier to start with. If I get robbed and managed to get the burglar in my memory or get repoed and get the repo person in my memory, I can talk to them as well. It's too much of a pain to go in there and fix everything right now. It just makes things more interesting to see the sims out DOING stuff rather than just standing around in other games. I don't want to remove it. In this world, the only thing they do is read and talk to each other. They have given me entertainment. I had an Insane, hot-headed, mean spirited, brave (and handy) fireman who kept attacking EVERYONE in the empty dive bar. I did a cheat and moved him into my family for a few seconds to look at his traits to see if it was some sort of bug or if his traits were causing him to go berserk. It was his traits. He attacked a police officer, a burglar, a repo man and a male exotic dancer. He was starting to yell at a mime looking person before I stopped him.

Anyway, I will be closing up the lots as I go into "edit town" but I'm not going to say this is breaking my game or giving me an unfair advantage. I think calling up the 50 person "family" of the mailman to make quick relationships is more cheaty and less realistic than just having the NPCs wander around town randomly. And I have a rule that I can't talk to them anyway.

LethargicEmu

15th Jun 2012, 12:27 AM

I finally created an account just to say how much I love this challenge! I'm playing in Sunset Valley 2, and my starting Sim just died by fire from a scrap bench accident. His adopted son, now a teenager, writes novels to support himself and to eventually fulfill the library requirement.

Thanks for this challenge-- it's a lot of fun!

Redbottom

16th Jun 2012, 11:27 PM

i assume making a wish for fortune (with the genies) is no no?
otherwise, great challange! playing right now :)

edit: also, it would make sense for me if you had to max gardening in order to unlock graveyard. i'm thinking like a groundskeeper kind of thing.

ChihoSan

17th Jun 2012, 12:23 AM

So how does one actually put a community lot in? Do we build the lot through edit town and then have the sim purchase it through the real estate option on the phone/computer? Or do we just place it it and then familyfunds the money out of the family's money?

kewpie

17th Jun 2012, 01:24 AM

I'd been saving all my money to buy a junkyard. I had no idea it doesn't cost anything. Woohoo! My sims are rich for once in the game!

wolfsbayne

17th Jun 2012, 03:15 PM

I thought you did have to buy the junkyard lot

kewpie

17th Jun 2012, 09:01 PM

Try it. There is no option to buy. I think if I finish this one, I may try a mod that makes all lots buyable.

wolfsbayne

18th Jun 2012, 04:13 PM

I've always purchased it fine in the past. Is the lot definitely set as a junkyard?

I've just placed one in the game and am working on getting the money together for it - usually, if I can't physically buy something I just use family funds cheat to remove the money.

Redbottom

18th Jun 2012, 10:04 PM

For the junkyard thing (it's so stupid you can't buy it) you could try adding an empty lot in game. and then testingcheatsenabled true --> and then shift+ click on the lot, select build/buy here. that way you will use your familys money to build it, so even if they wont actually own it, there won't be a lot in the hood that has not been paid for.
personally i use this method for pretty much all lots in game. and also to upgrade my neighbours houses as i get more money (altho they never have less then the minimum requerements to start with). it's much slower to play that way, but it gives me a sense of acomplishment knowing that there isnt a single park bench or rose bush in my game, that i have'nt earned.

wolfsbayne

20th Jun 2012, 06:44 PM

hmm, I must have been using a mod to buy it in the past as I can't buy it now (or it could have been an update I suppose).

So I just used familyfunds - serves the same purpose at the end of the day

kewpie

20th Jun 2012, 08:11 PM

I am starting over yet again to change two things.

First I am adding this mod http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=459861 that allows you to purchase all of the unbuyable lots in the game (except I didn't see anything about City hall or the police station... but maybe I glossed over that) This will make it easier to keep track of paying for stuff - because it makes you pay for stuff!

Secondly - I am using a Twallan feature that I didn't know I could use before. I take all of the pudding and I can change them in CAS. I HATE pudding and one thing I don't like about this challenge is that there is an abundance of it. I have tested this and the only thing aside from skin it seems to sometimes change is the age of whoever you are putting in CAS. I'll just be careful with that. All of the traits and favorites and the name stay the same. If this is declared cheating - no sorry - I don't want an ugly pudding town. I don't use it to look into their traits or change them. I just randomly select a new body for them that somewhat resembles the old one (same hair and skin color - and I sometimes use the sliders on the weight) but now my town look like real people live in it.

I know it sounds like I must not like this challenge because I keep starting over, but that's actually a sign that I love it. I keep getting to about the 4th generation or so and then I think, OMG if I started out playing like this, my town would look like THIS instead of THIS! Oh wow I gotta restart!! I can't play the "normal" way anymore. Even when I download a town that's already built, I don't let my sims access anything until they buy it. I love this challenge. It's one of the best out there. I'll probably never finish a challenge, but I can't stop playing this way.

wolfsbayne

21st Jun 2012, 02:22 PM

I don't think i'll ever finish this challenge either but I keep restarting it - I agree, it's the only challenge that keeps drawing me back to it again and again!

I think there is another mod that replaces pudding faces, can't remember what it's called now but it's not twallen's. I don't mind them too much, if they are horrendous then I got into master controller, cas and change the sliders a bit until im happy. Also, with the imaginary toys/people, if im going to move them out I go into cas and change their names as I have ended up with towns in the past where nearly everyone had the same surname and it got to be a nightmare.

seraphina1226

24th Jun 2012, 03:44 AM

Once we put up the Rabbitholes are we allowed to work at them?

seraphina1226

24th Jun 2012, 06:06 AM

Also Do we have to build everything from the ground up I am horrible at building house and such I would prefer to use stuff in the bin and then buy it is that allowed?

wolfsbayne

24th Jun 2012, 01:00 PM

Yes - you are allowed to work at the rabbitholes and visit all the lots that you have 'unlocked' - once you have met the requirements for unlocking them that means you can use them however you want to

Yes - you can place lots and buildings from the bin, im not great at building either so I quite often do that, especially for the community lots.

Has anyone else noticed a problem with the charisma skill? For some reason, the game isn't recognising friendships properly and despite my sim having seven friends, it says he only has three and so won't increase the skill. Im using the master controller skill cheat as and when he increases his friends to the level it should be but it would be easier if the game just did it by itself. I havent seen the problem anywhere so maybe it's a world glitch or something?

seraphina1226

1st Jul 2012, 07:08 PM

Very upset I was making alot of progress with this challenge my generation one had almost mastered The gardening and writing skill. I also had four kids and an imaginary friend turned real along with 5,000 simeloens saved to buy the book store. :/ My game however seemed to have lost the file so I will have to start over hollowing a town and starting a new family

wolfsbayne

1st Jul 2012, 07:25 PM

lulume

1st Jul 2012, 09:35 PM

Has anyone else noticed a problem with the charisma skill? For some reason, the game isn't recognising friendships properly and despite my sim having seven friends, it says he only has three and so won't increase the skill. Im using the master controller skill cheat as and when he increases his friends to the level it should be but it would be easier if the game just did it by itself. I havent seen the problem anywhere so maybe it's a world glitch or something?

In my game (all of them, not just for this challenge) my sims friendships with family members do not count toward the charisma skill requirements. So, if a sim is friends with her spouse and two kids, and two neighbors, she only has 2 friends. If that's the sort of situation you're encountering, then I think it's normal, since I don't have any mods that affect relationships.

aelflaed

2nd Jul 2012, 03:00 AM

That charisma limitation is normal. If your have family members living in a different household, however, they will then count towards your sim's friendships. It isn't the genetic relationship that matters, but the household.

wolfsbayne

2nd Jul 2012, 01:57 PM

Thanks, it was more than the household thing though. I did figure out that friends in the household didn't count BUT for some reason, the game wouldn't increase the skill level from 3 to 4. i tried this with several different sims, each had about six friends outside the household plus around the same number of relationships who weren't friends and it just wouldn't do anything. Once I had used master controller to get to 4 the other levels increased fine.

seraphina1226

3rd Jul 2012, 09:45 PM

I would recommend downloading twallens saver mod - it allows you to save the game automatically every 10 minutes and you can create as many different save files as you need, so if something goes wrong, you should have lots of recent back ups to choose from. Have you checked your recycle bin to make sure the save file hasn't gotten in there somehow?

Twallen's mods can be downloaded from here

http://nraas.wikispaces.com/

No, I didn't check my recycle bin. I just started over I have the same amount of money saved up since I made a new girls with different traits and giving her the book worm trait makes it easy to earn money writing books and her skill is almost full already!. I have almost the same saved up as well

Nathanael

4th Jul 2012, 09:39 PM

I started this challenge a little while ago... I screwed up a little, there's a fishing spot in the neighborhood (Ridgeview) and I haven't earned it. I'm using the whoohooer mod, so same-sex couples can have babies. Also playing the Spanish version, which explains the townies' names.

My founder, Edith Houston, seduced and married the repair lady, Tomasa. They have two kids, a teenage boy, Timothy, and a girl (child). Tomasa befriended a mail delivery guy, Lopez Soledad, and he moved in and married a former newspaper deliverer, Kristal. They also have two kids, both boys, one a child and one a baby. So the house is full. Tomasa unlocked the first community lot, a military base, where she now works, and Edith just unlocked a bookstore. The Soledads annoy me, especially Kristal who recently set the stove on fire, and I'm hoping to move them out soon, once Lopez maxes out Gardening, but I'm not sure I'll wait 'til I have the money for a grocery store. Might just go for a small park. Kristal is far from maxing out anything so I might just have her get them a graveyard. Timothy is well on his way to unlocking the police station and I think I'll have his sister work on a hospital. The next thing to unlock is a school.

This is my first challenge and I'm really enjoying having actual goals.

ETA: I have a fully patched game (base game only). Still can't buy the cemetery.

wolfsbayne

10th Jul 2012, 02:54 PM

If you can't buy a lot then you either need to download a mod which allows you to buy them or use familyfunds cheat to remove the value from the household funds. I use the mod, there is one posted on the page previous to this one.

kewpie

10th Jul 2012, 06:28 PM

I started my last game in Storybrook Lite - I don't think it's quite fair to play this challenge in that town. The spawners are insane. My kid who had no skills to max in childhood went out gem hunting and was pulling in 60k a DAY all by himself. And I wasn't just memorizing a few good spots. There is too much supernovium spawning randomly. I may restart in a less rich town.

wolfsbayne

10th Jul 2012, 07:19 PM

I've been playing in Ridgeview. It's set as a winter world but it is large enough for all the lots, flat and I haven't had many lagging problems until the population really got going (which I think is more down to my computer than anything else). I'm 75% through the challenge now which is the furthest I have ever gotten mainly because all the other worlds I had issues with.

There are spawners, not many but enough.

dlb036

13th Jul 2012, 11:45 PM

Haha I know it's a funny family to start with. But I figured it'd be appropriate. I'll try to update you guys on how Bob is doing. Currently he's just moved into the lot, I used Sunset Valley 2. And he's looking for a wife, maybe I'll call a maid as the mailperson is male. He's Sooooooo lonely though because there's no one around to talk to, and he keeps missing the paper girl to chat with. But so far, so good! ;)

wolfsbayne

15th Jul 2012, 04:10 PM

Ok, spoke too soon. There are now too many bugs and my game is pretty much unplayable. It could be custom content. As I have very nearly finished i've decided to finish this one, remove the custom content and start again, probably in an empty EA world.

By week 45 I had managed to unlock:

Criminal Warehouse, Bistro, Bookstore, Diner, Hospital, Office Building, Science Lab, Stadium, Supermarket, Theatre, City Hall, Graveyard, Military Base, Police Department, School, Art Gallery, Big Park, Fishing Spot, Gym, Library, Small Park, Consignment Store, Fire Station, Junkyard, Pool Club, Sports Bar, Live Show Venue.

I am disappointed but yeah, I feel I have achieved enough to call it a day now.

arisachu

17th Jul 2012, 10:22 PM

I love this challenge! I've always been a huge fangirl over the sims, but never got into the more fun aspects like mods or challenges until just now. I started this the other day, but I think I'm going to start over with a little more creativity after seeing some of these blogs! I love writing and have plans to blog about it, I just need to figure out what sort of layout/background I want and if I can code it myself. I'll definitely need better pictures, I always speed through gameplay because I'm so impatient! Haha.

One question, though, that has been answered sort of but I'm still confused. In my current game I unlocked the consignment shop, which placing it didn't take funds from me, but when you say "purchase lot" do you mean the 2,400 that the empty lot costs or purchasing the store itself? Nothing appeared in the purchase venues on the real estate, also I couldn't get a cashier to show up, so that might be the problem? I'm sort of a scrub when it comes to this game, even though I've been playing it forever, so if anyone can literally spell it out for me, I'd be so so appreciative!

Oh, this is my first post on these forums (I specifically joined so I could post in here hehe!), so I guess I'll introduce myself sort of to you guys. You can call me Alex, and I've been Simming for quite some time but would like to get to know more adept Simmers like you guys and learn more fun Sims things. :)

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give, and thanks for this challenge!

wolfsbayne

18th Jul 2012, 02:58 PM

Purchasing a lot usually means going to 'check real estate' on the computer and checking 'purchasable lots' and the lot you want should be on there.

Some lots don't show up like the junkyard but there are mods to make all lots purchasable.

It sounds, arisachu, that the store hasn't recognised the consignment store register which is why it isn't showing up. Check that the lot is down as consignment store in edit town , sometimes you do need to do it twice. I personally use all of Twallens mods, he has one called 'Register' which allocates npcs to lots where needed, it might be worth you downloading it/them.

If the consignment store still can't be purchased and you don't want to install any mods, you can use the familyfunds cheat to remove the money from your household.

arisachu

18th Jul 2012, 11:42 PM

Thanks so much, wolfsbayne, for your help! I'm going to go ahead and nab those mods, both for making all lots purchasable and allocating NPCs to their registers and see what happens.

Bananas8338

19th Jul 2012, 12:37 PM

Great challenge idea! I love the whole "build as you go" thing. Hopefully I'll get the chance to try this challenge on the weekend.

tiffyandthewall

19th Jul 2012, 07:38 PM

I'm restarting this challenge after playing it out for quite a few generations and getting most of the basic lots. This is by far my favourite challenge. Everything else bores me after awhile. My game started getting buggy after awhile unfortunately, but then my family was becoming far too wealthy anyway (it's so hard to get enough money even for autumn salad at first, but then suddenly my sims are overloaded with book royalties and potion making and sculpting and real estate). I'm going to be more watchful for that this time, and if the family fortune becomes too...fortunate...I'll have them donate it all to charity, or spend extraneously on foliage for their gardens.
Anyway, I actually made a green sim for the first time ever. I was interested in seeing how prevalent the founder's genetics would be in the town generations later, and green skin is probably the easiest thing to track. Besides, it's getting me excited for the Supernatural EP. I rarely play fantasy-esque sims, but I'm very excited to start.

So far:
-Emmalyn earned the consignment shop; she's a sculptor and gardener and quite a renaissance sim besides
-Joshua (husband) has earned a book shop
-Eda (daughter) is in the process of earning a junkyard
-Tessa (Eda's wife, former newspaper girl. they're childhood sweethearts!) has earned the graveyard (in memory of poor Joshua)
-Malcolm (son) has earned the criminal warehouse), is married to his imaginary friend Cosmine and has two kids
-Nathan (son) is working on earning the police station
-Roland (son) is working on the firestation

I swear I didn't intend for Emmalyne to have so many kids! I use the woohooer mod and have risky turned on. That accounts for Roland and Eda.
I actually just used a Young Again potion on Emmalyn. I've never used one on a sim before, but she's about to turn into an elder and I'm not ready yet! I didn't want to de-age her to use her for skilling purposes or anything, I just want her to live an extended life in her cute little stilted house. Also I wanted to send her on vacation. The family dog just died, too. I'd switched households and story progression gave me a dog and I was annoyed at first, but I just don't have it in me to send the animals away again. I guess somewhere along the line I got attached too because when she died I was so sad. She died a few days after Joshua, and they were best friends! Heart-breaking. I'm thinking of setting Roland up with the former newspaper girl (generations built on imaginary friends and newspaper girls!) because story progression hasn't kicked in with many options yet. We still don't have a proper cashier at the consignment shop; it's just whoever I'm not playing. Nathan is going to be with his imaginary friend, Maylene. I have three houses so far: one for Emmalyne, Roland, and Nathan; one for Mal and Cosmine and their kids and cats; one for Eda and Tessa and their new baby.

kewpie

20th Jul 2012, 09:15 PM

I have restarted as Storybrook was too rich in resources and felt too much like cheating. I will also play differently because Twallan has added the ability for custom towns to have tourists, so I start off with 10 extra service sims in the game - that means I can open up charisma much sooner. Also, he's added a feature that you can take property deeds with you when you move. I am still using SIM monopoly and another mod that allows me to buy all lots - even the "free" ones. And I am going with what my sims seem to want - not just what I need. This makes things a little bit interesting.

Founder: Maxed Sculpting - opening the Consignment shop when the cash comes in

Spouse : Maxing out sculpting, painting and inventing (DaVinci wish) which I have made all of those skills needed for the 80k to open art museum. I think his kids are going to get their properties before him. The art museum will have a relic vendor. I don't think the relic vendor will be able to actually sell anything, but she will be an extra NPC in my town and also - someone has to be in charge of the museum.

Firstborn daughter: Will be maxing out inventing so we can get the Junkyard.

Imaginary friend: No idea yet until I see his traits. Founder is taking a break from sculpting and working on a friend potion.

I am playing in Finnington, which has an added challenge of tons of tiny lots in the main town area so I'll likely have to make my own rabbit holes (using the Lunar Lakes RHs and putting a shell around them so they don't look all futuristic. Another thing - I won't be traveling because I end up getting bored and scrapping my town whenever I travel. So I'm going to get my travel stuff out of buy-debug. I don't know if that's considered cheating. I consider it an extra challenge because my sims won't be able to get extra money from all the quests.

bellenoire2005

26th Jul 2012, 04:23 PM

I'd love to try this, because I think it is too easy to make money in TS3, but I am unclear on how to earn the Showtime lots. Is it similar to the LN lots?

apostf

26th Jul 2012, 08:34 PM

I thought that maybe some of you would like to see how I track my legacy in this challenge :) I simply created a file in Word and put the info in a table. I know that probably nobody else wants to track such small things like skills or income, but I guess this may inspire someone to create their own way of tracking.

http://i.imgur.com/232kOs.jpg (http://imgur.com/232kO)

I pasted the Unlocking Spreadsheet (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?gw5ry9bbk7ss1se) by kewpie into the file as well. I also keep photos of all sims + photos of first house and how it has changed since the beginning.

kewpie

26th Jul 2012, 10:37 PM

I am liking my current town a whole lot.

I have unlocked the Consignment, an Art Gallery (which is just an empty lot with a Relic register selling stone fruit), junkyard, Criminal Warehouse (the imaginary friend I was waiting on last post ended up being an evil kleptomaniac) and I am about to open a school!!

Twallan added a mod that allowed Tourists to come to custom towns so my sims had 10 extra townies to start with with. I don't consider this a cheat as EA towns do this by default. I wanted a mod that made the custom town the same as an EA town. A simbot unlocked the school and it was very difficult because she had to befriend the paparazzi in order to get the friend requirements. One of the paparazzi died on the front lawn of house number five. So she's going to be annoying us in the afterlife until we build house number six.

So right now I'm raising the 46k needed to open the school (Thanks to Sim Monopoly from this site)
I have a toddler who I hope will open a big park with a food register restaurant. - So she'll max out gardening, logic and cooking.
And that toddler has yet another imaginary friend. I need to check and make sure my "Imaginary Friends harder to get" mod is still installed.

---

I think I'll be in the new house for a good long while. I opened up the school so the kids can't just skill all day anymore. I also have a mini personal rule that the same kind of NPC can't marry into the family twice. So I've got a French Tourist and an IF as spouses. So this next IF will just be an adopted cousin. Right now it's just the simbot and the toddler with the "unborn" IF and an orange potion waiting. I think she may go all the way into adulthood before she opens up her lot. I don't really know how much school will cut into her skilling - and she has 3 or 4 skills to max out before she gets her lot.

I'm only having one kid per family this time around just because.

kewpie

28th Jul 2012, 05:02 PM

Just wanted to say that this is the first time my sims have gone to school since this challenge was posted. SO surreal. I have sims going to work and school. They are still missing basic things like real food rather than bowls of cereal all the time. But it's like a real town now.

kewpie

2nd Aug 2012, 03:47 AM

Wanted to add that I am adding my own rules for SHT venues. You need to max out some sort of SHT profession before you can build a stage. To build a big park, you still need the same old requirements, but if you want a stage in the park, you need to be some sort of performer to get it. Same goes with the other venues -and you can just get a venue without a stage if you don't want to max out performing.

So far, it's not so bad. My guy performs for tips all over the place. And even if there is nobody there, he still gets xp for it. He's only level 2, but I think he will be able to make it to 10. He's been super busy. He's maxed out gardening and logic for the park, but he's also maxed out cooking for the little parkside restaurant I am making to add an NPC to the mix. He maxed out fishing too because he had a few days where he had everything else maxed out but was still a teen so he did lots of fishing. He's a busy guy. He drives to the places in town to perform in his Motive Mobile, so I don't think he's eaten or slept in weeks.

He also just got married and his wife's LTW is to sleep with 5 different sims in 5 different places. I've never done that one before. The fact that I have sims move out and families frequently separate, she won't have much trouble woohooing around on her husband in the future. She's going to max out painting to get the salon. I decided to add a rule that nobody could change clothes in CAS until the stylist salon was around. Considering that this guy's father wore a chinese coolie hat for most of his life and mom aged up bald, I decided that it was an emergency to get it.

Has anyone else put in SHT venues? Did you do anything special?

Zokugai

2nd Aug 2012, 04:32 AM

For the record, there's also a hidden skill for each SHT profession. You could base it on that rather than job levels.

kewpie

4th Aug 2012, 09:21 PM

**** ACK! You can't adopt wild horses until you get level 8 in riding, and I didn't want my sims to be able to adopt over the phone until they had the equestrian center.. but they can't get the equestrian center until they have level 10 in riding. AUGH! What are other people doing about horses? GRR!

OK until I hear someone with a better idea for their town, I may change the Pet Store requirements to whatever the 20 minor pets one is. Once a sim has all those minor pets, they can adopt horses over the phone. This is silly that they can't adopt wild horses until they already are very high in the skills.

I have started over yet again. I have saved my old world and may come back to it, but I had to check out that new Tuscan Village blank world that went up on MTS a while back. It's GORGEOUS, but the spawners are a bit over the top as far as I can tell. I may crack down on it. All of the lots seem to have +100 beautiful vista and I'm not sure how that's going to affect the game in the long run. It may give kids born into the world a big leg up on points.

Here is the world I am checking out: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=482415

Pssst. Is there any chance that you guys can post where you got your empty world if you didn't make it yourself? I'd like to collect a few.

For the first time, a guy married into the family who has the jockey wish so I'm starting the Equestrian center and it's HARD as heck so far. It's taken him 3 days to befriend a wild horse and it still runs away half the time he tries to pet it. I'm assuming it will take a little bit longer to adopt it. At least the horses are trackable with Twallan's mods. I wonder if I can have it track cats and dogs too for future uses.

I like going by what the sims want instead of what's most convenient -- to a point. I have the sims born into the game groomed to a specific life goal of what I want and the spouses and others that come in with their LTW already in place - they get to do that. In another game I remember having this DINKY house and I built a basement just so the spouse could have a mixologist bar set. It mixes things up a bit and makes it more interesting.

Zokugai

5th Aug 2012, 04:18 AM

If you have the bookstore already, they sell riding books.

itsjulie

5th Aug 2012, 03:16 PM

I love the idea of this challenge - it is right up my street as I dont usually play with built up worlds i always use empty worlds and build the town that I am going to play in.
With this challenge I can build and play at the same time - its an awesome idea. :up:

I am going to have a trial run - then i might even blog it - im not sure yet as i do have quite a few other challenges running at the moment.

kewpie

5th Aug 2012, 03:54 PM

I'll remember that for next time. I was SO frazzled because he was the first sim in my new game - so the first lot wasn't even opened. It turned out that I had a save right before she met him and I went and met another sim. His wish is almost as silly. He wants to be an acrobat. So he's doing the mega park I was talking about in my other save file.

So he's maxing - gardening, cooking, logic, body (for the acrobat career) AND the acrobat skill.

oxJennxo

5th Aug 2012, 05:48 PM

I followed Julie here. I am definitely putting this on my to-do list as I have completed two challenges in recently and freed up time. I am going world hunting. Good thing I have 20 in file on my desktop.

kewpie

6th Aug 2012, 01:05 AM

I take back my suggested world until the spawners get fixed. Remember when I said I thought the spawners seemed a bit excessive? Well my sims finally got themselves a collection helper and I fired it up. The game lagged insanely and almost crashed. I used Master Controller to see what was up. There were almost 900 pieces of metal and 800 or so gems. There were over 430 gem spawners and as many metal spawners. There were also almost 300 dog dig sites.

There's cheating with gems - that's an issue - but then there is a genuine fear that the game will explode if you put more than 2 buildings in it because there are so many pieces of rock and metal the game is keeping track of.

pandadoraa

8th Aug 2012, 06:40 PM

I just wanted to post real quick to add that I've been playing this challenge and am having a blast so far :)

cam94509

19th Aug 2012, 12:41 AM

I've just started playing this challenge on my YouTube channel, because I've been having a lot of fun with it, and hopefully I might inspire some more people to play it. If anyone wants to see the first video, it's here: (Or the second video, lol... or third video. Am I the only person left in the whole world playing this challenge?)

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oxJennxo

25th Aug 2012, 04:57 PM

I am still trying. I have failed it 3 times!! I am taking a break to catch up on my regularly scheduled stuff, but I plan to keep on trying this one.

Wyldhawke

25th Aug 2012, 05:13 PM

Sigh. Well, here I am - late, again. For the life of me, I cannot seem to fix my Falconvale. Appears after all the work I did, the hours I've spent - a buggy imaginary friend killed it ( I cancelled something during her aging up, or becoming real - and the she started being really weird, couldn't select, etc etc).. tried everything I could, but after switching household with mastercontroller to check something in one of my other little sim-families - I can no longer load the main house. :( After downloading a bunch of debuggers / error catchers, it keeps coming up with that same imaginary friend being the culprit - but because she's not actually real, I can't delete her - and I can't get into the household to get to the inventory to get rid of her - and even then, that's only going to cause more issues. So, after letting my frustration at this drive me from sims for a few months - I came back and patiently tried to fix it again. Again... with no luck. :( My current thought is - oh well. Falconvale gave me a good handle on how the challenge works, and was a learning experience. Now I'm busily looking around for new inspiration and new ideas. Going to start a new storyline, a new town, and pick a new town. The only question that remains, is whether I'll wait until Supernatural ships... or whether to start a second town with all the spooky stuffs when it comes out... hrm.. Going to spend a couple hours poking around the exchange for new worlds and ideas. :)

ogamaga

26th Aug 2012, 08:32 AM

I've tried this challenge a few times, but got rich too fast in my opinion. As a result, I'm adding an income tax this time to slow things down. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it interesting this way.

Wyldhawke

26th Aug 2012, 04:10 PM

Okay.. update. I found my muse. Or it found me. I'm not sure which, but here's how things look at the moment. World set up, story starter in place, researched, and written. Sim created, founding lot built, furnished, and saved. All Master Controller/ Story Progression settings in place.. and I'm ready to begin. That being said, I think I'll quickly clarify what I'm doing.. I found a world on the Exchange called "Silent Hill".. one I'd downloaded in the past and deleted, wondering what on earth I would ever do with it. This time, when I ran across it, a story for a town-starter popped into my head. (which, let's be honest, finding a plausible reason for a lone sim heading off into the wilds to start a town is rather... difficult) I dismissed it, kept looking, but it nagged at me until I did some research, checked up on a dreaded set of rules, and decided to take the plunge. That's right. Apocalypse Challenge. I've always had the darn thing on my list, but been too afraid to attempt it. Granted, due to the fact I'm going to follow the Nothing is Free rules as closely as absolutely possible, I'm going to have to modify the Apocalypse challenge, but I'll do that as little as I can. The major changes I can see is 1, no rabbit holes for jobs; and 2, no sims around to befriend, romance, or anything else. Which leads to a third: had to find a way to 1, get more sims; 2, make money; 3, unlock a lot of SOME kind with my founder; and 4, lift the "Hopelessness" condition for the Apocalypse Challenge. Easier said than done, I'm sure.

Here's my rather... er.. steep conditions for starting. Picked an existing town lot, set funds to the correct amount for Apocalypse. Randomized a sim for the most part, with only two traits swapped out. Deleted ALL sims, turned off all immigration and jobs/professions, as well as all NPC's. Yeah.. one of the traits I specifically picked was "Insane" - it fits the situation, I think. She will be going for unlocking a Junkyard (maxing Inventing). Yes, it's a major rule break for the Apocalypse challenge, but at the same time - it solves most of the above issues. EDIT: I will allow her to make a Simbot (or more) should she ever get that far, and add to household - but I will not let them unlock anything for either challenge. Change- I am going to keep the Simbot as "locked" (i.e. can't make) until requirements are unlocked in Apocalypse. Ditto for the "Big Inventions" - i.e. anything that has an actual .. well.. USE... :) Except for, of course, the Time Machine. -And the only interaction I will allow on that will be visiting the past, for story purposes, as well as the issue of "getting a second sim" - the next generation.. hm.. I'll figure out when I get there... but, depending on what second gen "unlocks" in the Apocalypse, the "outside world" might again be "visible".. (EDIT end) As for an heir.. I'm going to have to rely on random chance in a Time Machine. .. Hopefully she'll bring someone back from the past... If she doesn't before she dies.. challenge over. Try again. :)

Anyway, here's the links to the blog posts: RIP Falconvale (http://illusorythrall.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/rip-falconvale/) -- Welcome to "Spectres of the Past" (http://illusorythrall.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/welcome-to-spectres-of-the-past/) -- and (drumroll) .. the Prologue (http://illusorythrall.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/prologue/) to the whole story. Will post more later, since I'm dying to get things started. Meantime, I didn't get a single wink of sleep all night due to crazy Simming ideas running through head begging to be written down and designed. Now that it's all nicely organised and ready to go, I'm going to attempt a nap. :jest: Oh and yes, there's a picture of my founding sim and her .. err... shack. :lol:

EDIT 2:
p.s. I hope my apocalypse stuff and basically shutting the rest of the town down doesn't break the nothing is free rules TOO badly - I didn't change any game play, and won't use any of the existing lots until they're unlocked.. I simply created a "ghost town" .. but not literally, there aren't any ghosts .. yet.
EDIT 3:
oh yeah, and I'm going to be pro-active about my saves... and back up my game to a separate save file in between each story "chapter" so that if something (gasp) goes wrong, I'll have a place to start from. .. I also downloaded a "no icecream truck" mod for story purposes, and two mods that allow ALL buildings to be invested in - I'd much rather actually be able to track it in-game. Hopefully they'll work.

Wyldhawke

27th Aug 2012, 03:23 PM

Update:
Chapter one, part one - Where is everyone?? (http://illusorythrall.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/where-is-everyone/)

Having tons of fun playing this one. :)

whitewater

28th Aug 2012, 02:29 AM

I've enjoyed it so far. I'm on take two. My first go around I started with four adults and it got too easy to fast. So I've started over. To make it harder, I'm trying perfect genetics.

So far I'm enjoying it.

I like the embellishments you've added Wyldhawke. Might have to try it. After take two of course!

Wyldhawke

28th Aug 2012, 02:59 AM

Thanks. :) I spent the afternoon working on the file that kewpie posted, updating it with some other ideas / moving some npcs and unlocks around and adding the apocalypse rules. Anyone who wants to check it out is welcome to.. and if someone wants to help me proof-read it, that would be great. The only "major" change I made to the nothing is free challenge rules is on the hangout requirements, I took away Mixology and added the clause that you can't add any bars to a hangout - simply because the only reason I ever use that lot distinction is for a teen-type hangout. I did add a bunch of requirements to some of the lots, but I didn't take anything away.

Howabominable

28th Aug 2012, 03:18 AM

This sounds like a lot of fun. I was looking for something to do with the new Sunlit Tides neighborhood, and this looks like a perfect fit. Though it made me sad bulldozing all those pretty houses and getting rid of the giant volcano.

I decided to start with Pearl Yang, one of the sims that comes with the hood (I reset her skills back to zero). Everyone else has been annihilated. I have no idea what lot I want to go through first!

cam94509

29th Aug 2012, 12:00 AM

I've done three more episodes, so if anyone wants to check those out, here they are:

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Wyldhawke

29th Aug 2012, 04:24 PM

Next episode up on mine too:

Spectres 1.2 - The Will to Survive (http://illusorythrall.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/the-will-to-survive/)

kewpie

6th Sep 2012, 01:42 AM

ogamaga

12th Sep 2012, 10:32 AM

I think the SN lots are going to be fairly easy to incorporate. I am still experimenting, but the lots shouldn't be an issue -- now whether or not to allow the players to start as supernaturals.. hmmm!

Mind sharing your thoughts on the elixer shop? I was thinking max alchemy and buy it.

newcast

12th Sep 2012, 08:01 PM

Mind sharing your thoughts on the elixer shop? I was thinking max alchemy and buy it.

I really love this challenge so far. Been playing w/ Supernatural. Couple of observations that i've figured out.

1. Alchemy - for this i figured max my alchemy guy. I think to buy it its either 22K (i just installed a mod that bumped it to 110K (which i think is a more fair price).

Alchemy is also SUPER powerful if you get it really going at first. I was able to get 1 sim going on that early, and i just kept on inviting pizza delivery folks, then tossing vials of friendships on them and a few interactions later, i got to invite them into the household. Seems very powerful especially at the start.

2. Witches conjuration spell into something else also powers up very nicely and youre able to get some nice collectables, that when cut really adds some profitabitlity to the household.

Right now I've just bought my first park (18K). But am eyeing the alchemy store because one of my guys is in elder state, and i want him to down a youth potion to get him young again (before moving him out). Am 80K away from buying the store, and about 10 days out from when he's bout to die. Talk about a race against time.

Melancolie

12th Sep 2012, 09:31 PM

What I'm mostly concerned for regarding Supernatural it's all the non-supernatural rabbitholes that came with the expansion. There are loads of them that I would like to use just because of their aesthetics, but they're almost all combined (the hospital is for example both hospital and science lab), not sure how to solve that. :/

kithri

12th Sep 2012, 09:37 PM

This challenge sounds fascinating. Think I'll give it a go. :)

ogamaga

13th Sep 2012, 03:48 PM

I really love this challenge so far. Been playing w/ Supernatural. Couple of observations that i've figured out.

1. Alchemy - for this i figured max my alchemy guy. I think to buy it its either 22K (i just installed a mod that bumped it to 110K (which i think is a more fair price).

Is this a yes or a no for my "Max and Buy" idea?

What I'm mostly concerned for regarding Supernatural it's all the non-supernatural rabbitholes that came with the expansion. There are loads of them that I would like to use just because of their aesthetics, but they're almost all combined (the hospital is for example both hospital and science lab), not sure how to solve that. :/

I recommend starting by checking the already listed rabbitholes for any functionally identical combo ones, if you still need help then post tho one(s) you need help with, I'll give my opinion, and I'm sure others will too.

In terms of the hospital science lab combo,

- Pets Rabbitholes:
snip
Hospital/Science Lab Combo - Maxed Logic, Gardening, Handiness, and Fishing, and buy (not partner) the rabbit hole. ($240,000)

newcast

13th Sep 2012, 06:39 PM

Is this a yes or a no for my "Max and Buy" idea?

Yes. I think in order to get the elixir shop, Alchemy must be maxed.

I was also adding that for me, i felt the shop should be an expensive purchase. I think the initial buyout price was 30K (i could be wrong on this, and it could be partner only). The new price i got w/ a mod was 110K (which i felt was more realistic).

tiffyandthewall

14th Sep 2012, 01:41 AM

This is my favourite challenge and the only one that I've really become invested in, but since I last stopped playing sims (phases, you know) I've started a new family just for the purpose of playing around with Supernatural. However now I'm super attached to my sim family and I'm trying to figure out how to best combine this challenge with my current direction of gameplay. I don't want to completely devastate the town, but some sort of apocalypse is going to have to happen in order for me to have them start from scratch. I might get rid of half of the town and just leave a few things and earn the rest (maybe just leave the school, the city hall, and earn all of the businesses back) but I think I'm going to keep my family in tact as well as a handful of townies...hm.

wolfsbayne

14th Sep 2012, 05:47 PM

Melancolie

25th Sep 2012, 08:19 PM

I recommend starting by checking the already listed rabbitholes for any functionally identical combo ones, if you still need help then post tho one(s) you need help with, I'll give my opinion, and I'm sure others will too.

In terms of the hospital science lab combo,

Ooh, right. I didn't actually look at the estate prices for the rabbitholes, and I just assumed that they'd be similar to the ordinary ones, so that the hopsital/science-lab for example would cost 140,000€, which I assumed would be kind of cheating. But thanks for clearing that up for me (and for making me pay attention to the actual prices, hah). I'm sure I can figure the rest of them out!

Rowan402

4th Oct 2012, 05:31 AM

Oh I have to try this! I spent the last couple days reading most of this thread (I have to admit to skimming a bit after page 13 or so :P ) and I can't wait to give this challenge a shot! Unfortunately it'll have to wait until tomorrow since I need sleep so I don't fall asleep in class. I've never tried a building challenge before, usually I'm working on some variation of the legacy challenge so this should be interesting :D

Thanks. :) I spent the afternoon working on the file that kewpie posted, updating it with some other ideas / moving some npcs and unlocks around and adding the apocalypse rules. Anyone who wants to check it out is welcome to.. and if someone wants to help me proof-read it, that would be great. The only "major" change I made to the nothing is free challenge rules is on the hangout requirements, I took away Mixology and added the clause that you can't add any bars to a hangout - simply because the only reason I ever use that lot distinction is for a teen-type hangout. I did add a bunch of requirements to some of the lots, but I didn't take anything away.I was wondering if you were going to or had already updated this for Supernatural? I would like to use it to keep track of my own game :)

EDIT: Thought I would share some of the optional rules I'm going to play with in addition to what Wyldhawke included in the spreadsheet, although I'm not using most of the Apocalypse challenge rules:
1. Unlock services with their lot

Diner - Pizza
Office Building - Paper Carrier
Science Lab - Handyman
Theater - Sing-o-Gram
City Hall - Social Worker (Adoption)
Police Department - Police
School - Babysitter
Gym - Acrobat for Hire
Fire Station - Fire Fighter
Laundromat - Maid
Any Club - Mixologist/Bartender
Performance Park - Magician for Hire
Stadium - Party Dancer
Butler - Bistro, Day Spa, Theater, Film Studio, Exclusive Lounge

2. Only place new community lots after a new residence has been place (mutli-rabbit holes require two residences being placed)
3. Only place WA lots after someone from that world has moved into the town (that sim doesn't have to be the one to unlock the lot)
4. No Showtime or "club" lots from Late Night until all Base Game lots have been placed.

I have two other Optional rules written down but for my first try I'm not going to use them, they are:
1. Don't use age-modifiers or long-lived occult sims.
2. Don't use skilling modifiers including traits and/or occult sim bonuses.

whitewater

5th Oct 2012, 04:42 PM

I like your unlocking rules. Thanks for sharing. I have a list I'm working on myself, but its more of the ambitions jobs and when to start using them.

I don't think you really have to worry with your other two optional rules making it too easy. In one game, I'm on generation two have four houses (outside mine) and ten community buildings. My house of six averages 50K a week. My other save is on gen three and has even more. They where to easy, I had to move on...

Rowan402

8th Oct 2012, 03:36 AM

So I've started my NIF Challenge! I'm playing in an empty version of the Legacy Island, I was amused to see how fast my game ran when there was only 1 sim in the town :P After a couple days of on-and-off play my founder sim has a wife and neighbors in the form of a married couple (who are expecting their first child) as well as two more "transition" sims hanging around their lot. I'm getting all these poor sims from Mail Carriers lol. I couldn't decide what I wanted to unlock first so I took the easy way out and wrote everything that didn't require something else to be unlocked (i.e. celebrity, another lot) down on little slips of paper and drew one from a hat. So my founder is now working towards a 66k Graveyard -sigh- Well at least I won't experience any bugs when it comes time for my residents to start dying. His wife drew the Criminal Warehouse, much better! At least we'll have a career in town instead of a part-time job. I decided I wouldn't draw for the "transits" since they're going to leave as soon as I find them a mate and my founding couple gets the cash to buy them a house.

So far I'm loving this challenge! :D

kewpie

8th Oct 2012, 10:53 PM

What I'm doing with SN in my game: Supernaturals with their lifespan and power are 100% allowed, but you have to make them with alchemy or inventing table with found ingredients - or spend LTR points on the simbot or genie or do the whole mummy quest (which Im not doing because my sims aren't going to travel at all. All of my best attempts at this challenge end adventuring because I end up getting bored or the game gets too buggy.) While I don't think that spending LTR points on the genie or simbot should be forbidden, I am not going to do it myself. I am going 100% alchemy and inventing to become LTR- except for ghosts.

The significant changes in the rabbit holes or new lots are this:

Fairy arboretum: Must have a fairy max out fairy magic and succeed in the "inner beauty" lifetime want along with gardening and maybe logic (because it's placed in a big park)

Supernatural hangout: Werewolf or Witch must achieve whatever the werewolf or witch ultimate lifetime wants (cant remember now) along with anything you need to open a vampire lounge (I don't include vampires since they already have a lounge to max out and fairies have the arboretum.)

--
Other things I added: Graveyard - gardening, fishing (for the death fish), and sculpting (for the gravestones)
Spa - Athletic

Any bar that ends up having a stage required one band instrument maxed out and any place that has a showtime venue requires level 10 in a SHT profession.

I have added skill requirements to all of the "no skills needed" but I'll have to look them up. This is because I play with the "build a new house for every building" rule and I hated when I decided to unlock the spa and theoretically we could move into a house and have enough money to buy the spa and move again. I just can't remember everything I added skills to right now.

kewpie

29th Oct 2012, 02:41 PM

Because money ended up easy to get by gen 4, I have added a mod that slows skills down by 50%. I've also added mods that allow me to buy every single lot and rabbit hole in the game.

kewpie

7th Nov 2012, 01:53 PM

I wanted to mention that the mods that allow you to buy all your lots are still good with this patch.

Sims Monopoly : Buy all the rabbitholes up to LN
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=433202

Investable Fire Station.. (more): Buy all of the lots and all the rabbitholes introduced from Pets to SN.
http://www.modthesims.info/d/459861

Note on the second one - if you want to be REALLY evil to your sims - this mod also allows you to buy "No Visitors Allowed" lots and other lots like that. You could require a sim to buy the land AND the rabbit hole to count.

kidhedera

8th Nov 2012, 09:59 PM

I'd never heard of Sims Challenges until a couple of days ago, and had been reading this forum with a sense of fascination while muttering to myself 'Mad. They must all be mad.'

Until I saw this challenge, and you know what, it reminds me of Harvest Moon. (Another game I kinda suck at, but love). Harvest Moon, except I get to actually build all my lots! Yeah! (Add more booze and beards and it would be Dwarf Fortress...)

So I started my own NIF Legacy. But now I have a question and would be most obliged if someone could help me out.

My founding sim is a lass named Verdanata Dynasty. She adopted a puppy on her first day in Sunset Valley 2, and befriended the lovely lady who dropped the dog off.

Anyway, it turned out that Esmeranta was also gay, and found Verdy quite attractive, so after a few friendly games of gnubb and some star gazing, Esmeranta moved in. She and Verdanata are best friends, and have been on 3 dates.

They tried for a baby in the shower together, and Esmeranta is now pregnant. (Also, I have same-sex pregnancy turned on in nraas story progression).

The problem is, I cannot get them to kiss, and they haven't actually started a relationship, they are still 'best friends'. I was wondering why that might be? I don't usually interact much with other sims (my households usually last less than a week before I get bored and play in CAS and build a new house), and haven't had a pregnancy before. I'm also unsure if maybe I messed something up in the story progression settings?

whitewater

9th Nov 2012, 03:58 PM

Welcome! It sounds like you are off to a good start; I hope you enjoy and play longer than a sim week!

I'm not sure if I can help because I usually just move on to a new spouse when I have problems (but mine usually occur early in the relationship). I think as long as they are spawning children then - at least according to the rules- it's not a deal breaker. If it's important to you I would check your pregnancy options. I don't have the most updated story progression, but apparently under General Options >> Pregnancy make sure 'allow steady' is true and (on the newest one) you can enable 'always marry expectant parents' and see if that works. I have a feeling that might only work for townies but maybe worth a try if you're desperate.

You might make sure that under romance (again General options >> Romance) 'Allow Service Marriage" Again that might just work for townies to marry NPC - but I'd try it too.

So in the end none of that might help BUT I'd play with it and change it back if it doesn't help. I say if all else find a way to cheat :) You've built the relationship the hard way so really (at least to me) it's not cheating. More of tricking the game to do what you want! Good Luck.

kidhedera

10th Nov 2012, 01:05 AM

Hello!

Thanks for your reply. I checked the settings, and 'allow steady' was true for all categories, as was 'Allow Service Marriage' (and romance, and so on). They both had wishes to kiss and marry the other, and I just can't get that option to appear in their little sim menus. I also discovered a new bug, and can't figure out what is causing it... when their son Jeremiah was born, no one could snuggle the poor little tyke. The game would crash as soon as the interaction completed. I eventually figured out that you can feed, change and play with him, so that was ok.

I've uninstalled most of my CC now, except the official 'freebies', and some nicer skins for my sims and patterns for my pets. I also realised that I'd been levelling up my sims in multiple skills so I can get multiple lots from one sim... against the ruuuules.

So I'm trying again, with one minor tweak to the rules. I created a small park with a loo and a table near my home so the NPC's can sit there. I felt really bad for the paparazzi always loitering on street corners with no where to go. My reasoning is that Lillith is an elf (Pointy ears and everything) who's always been fascinated by humans. Her 'dishonorable' interest in them had her thrown out of the Fae and made mortal, so she decided to use her final bit of magic on a cherry tree in a park, to attract humans to a particular place so that she could found her own town. Its a bit silly!

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this challenge, cos there is always another NPC who desperately needs a make over (I'm editing their faces in CAS with NRAAS, particularly where their name and race don't line up), and a new lot to buy and design, so I keep interested for longer since those are my favourite bits. :) I've also had much less crashes with Lillith's world (Only one so far) so if she can get her bestie to kiss and woohoo (I don't care if they marry, neither is 'family oriented') I'll call it a success and settle in.

kidhedera

12th Nov 2012, 12:14 AM

Hi again!

This game is much less buggy - no crashes and my sims are married and breeding like the proverbial bunny. (Lillith moved in a gentleman who knocked her up before promptly aging up to elder, and a lady who moved in and aged up the moment she moved in. I cheated and reset her to the beginning of adulthood cos I was like 'OH WHAT NO'). Anyway, Lillith and Ericka started cheating on the dude (who still lives with us, but his name escapes me), and he broke it off. Eventually between potty training toddlers and getting pregnant Ericka and Lillith got married in the bedroom to make things 'official' for the offspring.

Lillith has purchased the supermarket, which has a lovely community garden and playground on the same lot. She managed to regain her fairy agelessness using a little herbal magic (the 'Age Freeze' potion) and has been feeding Ericka life fruit to prevent her from aging. Lillith thinks often of a phrase she heard a troll use once... 'Mortals lives are short, about the length of a fairy sigh', and worries about her family. When she has them established tho, she plans on eating a birthday cake with Ericka and fading off into the summer realms in the arms of her love.

Their unfortunately unattractive children are:
Anna (First child from Lilliths first relationship) - Teen, LTW = Illustrious Author - The Bookshop (or Library depending on how she goes).
Boinky (Anna's imaginary friend) - Teen, Virtuoso - ?
Arabelle - Lilliths true genetic hair. Fairy eyes, ears and pink hair like mum.
Auma - Child
Astrid - toddler
Alice - toddler

Ericka is pregnant again, so I have sent Anna, Boinky, Auma and Arabelle off to various boarding schools cos I wasn't coping. (SO MANY CHILDREN! CURSE THAT FERTILITY TREATMENT. Also I shouldn't have made boinky real. That was a mistake. She's really pretty tho, so I reckon I'll set her and Anna up. Although I had an impression that imaginary friends are meant to be the opposite gender to their sim?)

You may have noticed that I'm not playing strictly by the book. Basically I decided that since I haven't really played the sims before (I've owned all 3 games, and have most of the expansions for Sims 3, I just spend most of my time building houses not playing the actual game) so I don't really know how a lot of it works. I'm seeing a whole bunch of stuff for the first time. For example, imaginary friends, pregnancy and babies, marriage, investing in properties, any lifetime reward worth more than 5k points... Heck, when Lillith maxed out gardening I discovered those extra achievements with their extra rewards under the skills panel. Its also the first time I've had a sim achieve a life time wish (Lillith got The Perfect Garden).

SO, I decided to be a bit relaxed about the rules. Until I get the hang of things, there is no point in my getting all strict on myself.

whitewater

12th Nov 2012, 05:25 AM

I'm glad to see it's working out for you. Sucks that the first save didn't work out. But it sounds like you are getting established. I started a nothing is free challenge and the game crashed 10 times BEFORE I had cleared the lots so I promptly threw that neighborhood out. I've lost enough games to errors. I love being able to send kids to boarding school. Especially later in the game when I just don't feel like dealing with a house full of people. Maybe I'm a bit mean :) It'll get easier with time.

kewpie

12th Nov 2012, 10:47 PM

I'm just curious about what people are going to do for Seasons. I think that the weather will be a HUGE gamechanger, unlike any other EP we've had. And I am considering starting over. I just wondered if I am over estimating how much the game will change with seasons. I felt that it radically changed everything in TS2.

whitewater

13th Nov 2012, 05:14 AM

I was thinking I would play it by ear. I haven't stayed current on what's happening. I'm just excited I'm getting seasons :) I've heard it is a massive overhaul though.

kewpie

13th Nov 2012, 04:22 PM

Well so far, I noticed a HUGE change in how I'll be handling moveouts in the future. I assumed that because it was summer, moving when too broke to build walls in a new house would be OK. Not true! My poor sims are baking in the heat and I can't figure out where to buy umbrellas for them. The dad is all sunburned to bits. Instead of crafting elixirs to sell at the new elixir shop, he's hanging out in the plain consignment store all day until he cools off enough to garden his former lot's plots to make some cash. Mom is busking for guitar money inside of the old consignment shop instead of making paintings. I MAY put an aisle for her to paint with in the store's attic. I can't afford an alchemy station so poor dad is mostly useless. He has to just carry the baby around and stand arguing with tourists all day.

whitewater

13th Nov 2012, 07:18 PM

OH that sounds so AWESOME! I can't wait to get it now. I feel a new plot coming on! Seems like it would make the challenge a bit harder at first.
Do you have enough to build a small basement? I haven't compared prices (because it was easy to just live on the lawn until walls could be built) BUT I feel like basements are a little cheaper - but don't quote me.

kewpie

13th Nov 2012, 08:28 PM

That would have been good. Monday rolled around so the money from investments came in. But yowie!! Right after the walls went up, there was a huge rainstorm.

That was a rough couple of days. Luckily, babies are immune to weather.

kewpie

14th Nov 2012, 07:14 PM

Just an update.. weather REALLY changes this challenge. It's much harder now. I had a sim I planned to max out gardening, but it's winter and the gardens are dormant. Luckily, he has a book and can do it. His sister was going to max out cooking with all of the veggies her brother grew, but now that he can't grow them, she's stuck with books as well. The house is too small for a television.

I should mention one thing I add to the challenge is that sims are not allowed to have more than 10k past the value of the next lot they wish to purchase (it used to be no more than the max value and then they had to move out within 24 hours - even if they just had a few bucks in their pockets - but seasons changed that since they will DIE in the winter time if they tried camping on the lawn.) So once they get too much money, they have to upgrade their properties or their houses. That dumps lots of cash out of the game so my sims are almost constantly broke. Now this weather and I almost feel as if it were an apocalypse challenge.

SNOW is free! Haha! I just discovered that sims can make igloos. So guess who is camping on the lawn at the end of the day today?

kidhedera

14th Nov 2012, 10:24 PM

Wow Seasons sounds amazing! Pity it and Supernatural aren't coming out on Steam. :/ Maybe eventually. I bought The Sims 3 twice cos my retail copy wouldn't work without a noCD mod, which is just unacceptable, so I will only buy from Steam now, cos at least then I'll know it will work, even though it costs more than retail/origin.

I was popping in to ask if there is anything special unlocked by befriending and adopting a unicorn? I had never seen one before, and got all excited when it started just hanging out in my backyard. (Seriously, wild horses are now obsessed with my home for some reason. I had a wild horse wander into the kitchen and get stuck.) So I adopted it last night, and feel like I should be able to unlock something cool!

Maybe I should just build a really cool unicorn themed park.

Also, thanks for all advice and replies, this forum is really friendly. Its nice. :)

whitewater

16th Nov 2012, 06:46 PM

My family puts me on a "buy ban" Nov and Dec so they know what to get me for Christmas. So I have to wait a whole month and a half to play Supernatural and Season (in retrospect, I should have bought supernatural when it came out). But I would die without the noCD mod. Or my computer would, but then I wouldn't be happy.

I've always thought there should be something for befriending and adopting a unicorn because it seems a bit difficult to achieve (I haven't even seen a unicorn yet). But I haven't seen anything yet or came up with anything. I'd probably add it to the equestrian lot because maxing riding really isn't that hard.

newcast

17th Nov 2012, 04:58 PM

I am really loving this challenge. Really has given me a new way to play. The first season of summer was a bit tough, but once I got rolling it seems I've gotten into a nice groove.

Wanted to mention a few of my strategies that I use.

- You cant buy the festival grounds. You can change it to "big park" and then buy it, but if you buy it, then change it back to festival grounds, your house is reimbursed the money. I dont know if changing the name to big park affects its functionality. One workaround I came up with was having a Sim max gardening and logic and then "buy it". It costs 226K, but I am going to simply deduct that from my household income. Then once "bought" open it to the public and return it to the "festival grounds" desgnation (its currently at no visitor). I figured that was a decent workaround.

- having a witch early in your household is really a game changer. I have one witch who's been constantly casting spells on apples to change them into a gem/seed/insect. I have made so much cash with that and have found some hard to find collectibles (ie the fair fish, mummy fish, and plenty of rare butterflies). She's even conjured up 3 tiberium so far and let me tell you...that is serious cash to help you along.

-alchemy is seriously helpful here. My founder sim just tosses bottles of potent friendship on people and BAM instant besties and a new room mate. Should make the charisma requisite lots that much easier to get.

-Gem cutting machines are absolutely required i figure. I keep my house locked in and working on various projects ie skilling up, painting, etc. So they dont get out much and they frequently get the going crazy from being stuck inside so long moodlet. What i do then is have them go out and pick up some gems. Of course the gem finding lifereward is absolutely required here. Its just a nice way of making cash and getting rid of a moodlet. Usually the first reward I buy now is the rock finding one that costs 40K (forgot the name).

Anyway, i really really love this challenge. Really gives you something to work toward.

I am kind of curious did you ever update the rules to take into account the alchemy consignment store? What about the gypsy fortune telling caravan?

newcast

17th Nov 2012, 05:05 PM

i should add that the winter really threw a curveball into my plans as well since it was so centered around gardening. I had to change up some of my goals some of my toons were going to aspire too. But it worked out and resovled itself. I am heading into winter 2 here shortly and should have enough stuff lined up to do.

Another thing I found was a helpful reward to take were: simimmunity, loves heat, loves cold. I think those are very helpful if you have a gardening sim and then in general the sim-immunity is nice to have so they dont get that nasty sick moodlet.

wolfsbayne

18th Nov 2012, 02:09 PM

I thought I had seen a post about unlocking the supernatural lots but I can't find it now newcast

For the alchemist consignment - I maxxed alchemy and purchased it as its quite expensive to buy (100k ish)
For gypsy teller I've never been sure - I figured charisma is important - so possibly complete one of the supernatural wishes and charisma?

Really it's up to you how you want to do it, there's a lot of flexibility with this challenge AND after the first generation it's pretty easy, money is far to easy to obtain in my opinion. So I like to mix challenges up like others here do - currently im starting a new one which is a mix of this, the random legacy and the perfect genetics challenges otherwise I'd find it to easy and get bored. I wanted to do it with the apocalypse challenge but that challenge has so many rules I always forget a lot of them and feel i've cheated! lol

Edit: I'm also adding a rule where contributors to lots cannot work on the skills required until they are young adults - otherwise especially before the school gets placed, it takes no time at all to max skills (and I use the 50% harder skills mod too).

newcast

18th Nov 2012, 03:42 PM

Thanks for the reply Wolfsbayne. I've been doing some internal tweaks as well to tweak the difficulty, one of them is that no kids until a school is placed.

I do agree with you with the Gypsy caravan as well, and figured max a supernatural (didnt think the charisma angle actually).

My problem right now is the charisma thing, there are no people around to skill up! I've just built a small park so hopefully that will ease that up and there will be more people flocking around. 25 relationships is a bit tough i'd think.

I was also wondering about the money angle as well since i am sure it will get easier the further we go. I am just wondering how to levy a tax or what not. I think if i get any further tiberium I'll sell it in its initial stage and not let it bloom to the 40K worth.

whitewater

18th Nov 2012, 04:43 PM

I love the rock finder LTR. It's amazing and the first one I buy now too. I usually start building bigger houses farther in - I figure that sim worked for the cash, they might as well get something to show for it. The first time I only got to generation three. The save I'm on now is gen four but I still enjoy playing with it.

I got the school gen one with the first save. I called and fired a lot of baby sitters/maids. The guy was an elder before it was achieved. There's an optional rule against calling NPC's somewhere on here, but it was the only way I could think of with everything else disabled.

I also shoot for the more expensive buildings first the hospital, the science lab etc. It takes a while to save for it then you're broke. I've actually played this save up until I decided to knock out my midnight sun challenge.

I love seeing how everyone plays. Nice to see I do some similar things too.

newcast

18th Nov 2012, 09:08 PM

Has anyone encountered the harvest stage glitch (plant shows harvestable, but its not) doing this challenge? i've had it now twice on this save. The first time it devastated my crops, when i had to delete about 50% of them. I just had it strike again as well. I think i read somewhere its caused by an out of town person moving in w/ stuff in their inventory. I think thats right. But i might have to purge the inventory of any new sim joining the households.

The other problem I am facing was the festival ground not having any vendors. I unlocked it mid fall, and no attendants showed up. I am hoping that they arrive w/ winter. Otherwise not sure how to work around it.

Great to hear how you play was well whitewater. The rock/gem LFR is absolutely a wonderful tool to use.

I've also found another building (i think a musuem) in the moonlight falls that i cant seem to buy, so not sure how to deal w/ it. I think get painting up then open it. Just not sure on money costs.

I also opened up the broom riding arena (more so for small park than anything else) but that also doesnt have an option to buy.

I've definitely had to do some personal workarounds, but on the whole still fun.

I think going forward I'll do a mix of goals when people coming in. Some will go for the 3 skill buildings, while the others go for 1 skill ones. This mixes it up so it lets the 1 skill sims do the daily chores of the house (cleaning stuff, gardening, etc.). In fact i usually have 2-3 sims simply on support duty.

I wont buy the butler or bonehilda simply because I am afriad they'll clean up stuff I've left out for sims to use (ie i have a table w/ vegetables on it for my witches to transmute). I had that happen w/ baby books in another game where the maid/butler or someone would take all the books out, when I had the kid books organized so i could orderly read them.

wolfsbayne

18th Nov 2012, 10:17 PM

Never heard of that glitch to be honest - might have something to do with seasons though as it makes them dormant during autmn/winter.

Some lots aren't buyable unless you have certain mods - they're listed at the top of this page - one is called sim monopoly or similar. Best way to purchase is to get a computer and go to purchase real estate (or whatever its called) as some lots you can't buy as a partner first.

If you haven't got any townies due to no houses then you're not going to get any vendors unless you use a mod like Twallens Register which assigns sims to cash registers.

Charisma is really hard and I deliberately leave the lots requiring charisma until towards the end - fourth generation onwards as people you live with don't count so you need several houses in the neighbourhood to actually create enough people to become friends with.

kewpie

18th Nov 2012, 11:32 PM

Twallan's Master Controller is supposed to fix that harvest glitch. He said that it should always fix it, and if it doesn't you can just use MC to push the plant into the next life stage (if it's at harvest, it will go back to sprout).

Look for my posts on the last few days, I posted both of the investable mods. Sim monopoly allows all of the RHs up to LN to be purchased. The other one allows ALL lots and all RHs after LN to be purchased. You can even buy "no visitors allowed" lots if you want.

I didn't realized Twallan's mod was spoiling me so much. I assumed that the town would always make cash register sims. Considering that my sims almost marry them early on, I should appreciate Twallan's mods more. Twallan's mod also helps with charisma, as it makes sure that tourists can show up to your custom towns. If you are playing an empty EA made town, you shouldn't notice a difference, but if you're playing a player made custom town, EA goofed up and didn't code for tourists to show up at all. Twallan's mod makes 10 tourists show up by default. So that's 10 extra people and a much sooner to open charisma requirement.

newcast

19th Nov 2012, 04:58 PM

Thanks for the heads up about Twallan's mod. This is my first time really depending heavily on mods I usually play without, but I've found myself using quite a few of Twallans mods. For some reason I love looking at the statistics aspect of it. If that harvest issue comes up again I'll do as you suggested. I am not using them to cheat to benefit myself, more to navigate this challenge. Though I must admit that when a new sim enters the house I go into CAS and edit their appearances.

Oh the "no vendor" glitch was actually caused by Twallaan's I think. I found a thread on here discussing it, and I had to install another one of Twallan's mods (register I think), and that caused the vendors to pop up. Evidently a mod clears up homelesss people was evicting the vendors (i think).

I finally got the charisma thing done and I felt much like a stalker. I'd check out the various stores/parks I'd bought already and if I saw someone off went that sim to make a new bestie. My initial group of sims are now moving out, so the next charisma sim should have it much easier. I am still debating wether to move out 4 or 6 of them. The couple I am dragging my feet on are a massive power couple (he's a sculptor, she's a witch) and they both contribute mightily to the ongoings of the house financially and otherwise. They'll leave eventually, just I dont think yet, once the new foursome are settled in. I am also giving each of the folks moving out a shot of the youth elixir so they have a nice long life :D.

Also Kewpie I looked back on your previous posts, how did the SHT venues work for you? Could you get someone to lvl 10 without the performance park? I had rather limited playtime with SHT and thought the professions were very dependant on performances and venues to skill up. I could be totally wrong though.

Anyway, fun fun challenge.

kewpie

19th Nov 2012, 10:17 PM

newcast - oh yeah. The SHT lots aren't so bad. You just perform for tips and they raise skill.

Zerhai

20th Nov 2012, 12:31 AM

i thought of possibly doing this challenge again.... how does it work when some of the skill things are glitched? like the telescopes and once i had a problem with the athletic skill.......

Zerhai

20th Nov 2012, 12:41 AM

i just looked up.... *feels very silly* who would have thought adding a mod helped more than removing all of them

lisail

20th Nov 2012, 04:26 AM

I've been really enjoying this challenge.

I've currently unlocked the Consignment store, Grocery store, Bookstore, and the Junkyard. It was a close call on the bookstore and grocery store, as the two sims were almost elders when I moved them in, and are now about to die at any moment... I'm not entirely sure what the next generation is going to unlock, aside from the Firestation.

I have some pictures uploaded here (http://simmy-things.tumblr.com/tagged/nothing-is-free-challenge/chrono) if anyone is interested.

wolfsbayne

20th Nov 2012, 02:00 PM

Well, as has been said already but will be said again - seasons really makes this challenge difficult! For the first time ever (and ive done this challenge several times now) my founder died without getting her lot unlocked - which was the simplest lot to get - the grocery store. Gardening is so hard with seasons now - I admit, I do have a 1.5 difficulty mod installed as I usually find skilling up too easy but even so . . . seasons really has made the sims a very different game! I think im going to have to either shorten winter (at the moment ive got short summer, long fall and spring and average winter to resemble what the weather is like where I live) OR probably have to do gardening after ive got the bookstore unlocked. . . .

Really going to have to plan this mission now I think . . . . fishing, gardening and probably busking is so much harder!!

Mods

I use all of Twallens mods (except karma simtra as it slowed my computer) - they don't make things easier for me but they remove most of the glitches and make the game playable imo. I also have a 1.5 difficulty skill mod as I found skilling up too easy before (but that might change now), a 1.25 increase of lifetime rewards as I found it too easy to accumulate points which made things easier too. A few others but nothing that makes the game easier as I already find it easy to the point of boring, just things that add to the experience of the game.

kewpie

20th Nov 2012, 02:44 PM

How do you do gardening before you get the collection helper? I never start with gardening because finding seeds without the collection helper is painful!

newcast

20th Nov 2012, 03:45 PM

How do you do gardening before you get the collection helper? I never start with gardening because finding seeds without the collection helper is painful!

for me I dont delete all the buildings when clearing out a town for this challenge. I usually leave about 5-7 of them, and its more out of laziness than anything else. I'm using moonlight falls. But I do change those lots to no visitors and ignore all opportunities those lots generate and ignore all sims who wander by there. So generally a couple of plants are found via those lots. those lots dont really get used until someone buys em.

The other thing is to wait a few days after you start, then pause the game and literally scour the map for common seeds. Yeah it will take a while, but once you find em youre good to go.

Wolf - yeah you kind of have to plan a secondary skill to work through the winter. Or even plant with the harvest timing with the opening of spring. What i did was buy a bunch of paint stands and had them paint for the following 7 days. I also had some build relationships between future couples or work on other tasks. Maybe logic so that sim can build the big park as well.

I was lucky I was able to get one big harvest in before winter hit so I had plenty of apples for food and such.

wolfsbayne

20th Nov 2012, 06:09 PM

How do you do gardening before you get the collection helper? I never start with gardening because finding seeds without the collection helper is painful!

Usually where there are fish there are other spawners - you only really need three seeds and to water them for a day or two to start the skill off and then you get lots of seeds given to you (esp now you get the supernatural seeds too) and you quickly get going.

Also, where you have deleted buildings you don't automatically delete the spawners - so key places to find seeds are the parks. In custom worlds I tend to leave one fishing spot otherwise you don't always find freshwater fish elsewhere in the world.

Newcast - I know what you mean about trying to find alternatives for winter - it's because im trying to play random legacy rules too which means you're only supposed to earn money from what your career/career skills, etc are. I would find it too easy money wise if I just had everyone painting too and I don't like the paintings that much to use them as decoration!

FlyingOcto

21st Nov 2012, 02:55 AM

Starting this on an empty SV world, going to do some research first and see what the best lot to unlock first is.

Figured I'd play as if this was a real starting from scratch town.

First thing I'd think I'd see of the available lots would be a grocery store/ general store.

whitewater

21st Nov 2012, 04:14 AM

I use the spawners. Many are left even after you delete the lot. I pretty much know where they are in the EA 'hoods. If I was playing a regular challenge, I'd hit up the grocery. I think my next go will be combining this with the random legacy.

Lisail- your pics are pretty amazing. I like them.

wolfsbayne

21st Nov 2012, 12:35 PM

FlyingOcto

21st Nov 2012, 12:39 PM

So I was making good progress, level 8 in gardening, had some money coming in. Game rage quit so I'll have to restart later. Coming up with ways to make it harder though. Figured I'll only sell my inventory stuff when the mail man/lady comes around to make it a bit harder.

whitewater

22nd Nov 2012, 04:16 AM

I meant other than this challenge. NIF is the only challenge I have where I didn't start with a grocery store. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

FlyingOcto

23rd Nov 2012, 10:49 AM

Restarting this and adding some of my own rules
Making it a partial apocalypse style challenge aswell.

No furniture unless I sculpt it myself. For time being anyway. Toilets and sinks will be a welcome addition.
No electrical items until Science facility is constructed.
Most items will be dependant on inventing level
Can only sell items through inventory (Max 5 items) after talking to the mailman/lady / Can only use buy option after talking to them
Only 1 beneficial trait can be added every generation.

Starting on legacy lot with a sleeping bag, fire pit, and a small wood looking cabin

Going to change the life stage rule aswell, making it go up the game progresses, large bonus when hospital is made.

lisail

26th Nov 2012, 07:25 AM

Lisail- your pics are pretty amazing. I like them.

Thankyou! :)

poweradee

26th Nov 2012, 05:30 PM

wow ill definitely try this out, it also looks like you put alot of effort into this idea XD

kewpie

26th Nov 2012, 05:42 PM

I had to restart because I needed to do a clean folder restore because I have some bad simpacks and I thought it would be easier just to make a clean game folder than figure out which CC was causing crashes. It wasn't mods for a change...

BubbleTeez

9th Dec 2012, 11:54 PM

I'm loving this challenge so far!

My founder, Luna Silver, made her living writing novels on her computer. She eventually fell in love with a paparazzi, Marcelo, and he moved in and painted.

With Luna's skills I eventually bought the town a bookstore, and while Marcelo was a painter, I built up his logic/charisma to get the town a school (though not until well into his elder years).

Their son, Henry, is a giant loner who at first tried his hand at potion making and then alchemy. He's now the town's first witch and with him the town gained an Alchemy Consignment Shop. He now lives on his own with his infant twins, Luna (after his mother) and Felix.

Their daughter, Aria, has a green thumb and makes her living gardening in the spring and summer and gaining skills in the fall/winter. I plan on buying the grocery store with her. She just moved in her boyfriend, another paparazzi, who will hopefully gain the town a bar/cafe type hangout.

Love this challenge!

Zerhai

10th Dec 2012, 12:14 AM

i was looking for this one ty! btw i have a question, for extended challenges (if they last more than 2 generations) i have to move to a different town or my save becomes corrupt, is it ok to just save the lots you have already made and put them on a new copy of the same town for the same effect

wolfsbayne

14th Dec 2012, 06:08 PM

I would think you can Zerhai - you can play this challenge how you want and you've done all the hard work to unlock those lots

Zerhai

14th Dec 2012, 10:33 PM

I would think you can Zerhai - you can play this challenge how you want and you've done all the hard work to unlock those lotsthanks :bunny: now as soon as I complete at least one of my current 3 projects I will start this challenge again....

kidhedera

18th Dec 2012, 11:34 AM

Zerhai

18th Dec 2012, 10:11 PM

The new expansions are on Steam now. I just caved and bought Supernatural (after all, I'm an honorable individual and I did SAY I would buy it if it was on steam), so I'm going to play for a bit in Moonlight Falls, and then I'm going to start a new NIF challenge (My last one was lost to a black out and a corrupted save file). Does anyone know if there is a version of Moonlight Falls that has all the lots pulled out up for download somewhere? Otherwise I'll use Sunset Valley 2 (cos its my favourite).

GAH SO EXCITED! 35 minutes until download complete. :Dhmmmm i have been using origin, but i have had problems with it before(i had to reinstall the game and even though I had registered my original game with them, it wouldn't let me install directly from origin, I had to dig out my physical copy of the base game, install it that way, then my expansions installed fine from origin) i wonder if i can register them with steam......

kidhedera

19th Dec 2012, 05:30 AM

I had a similar thing. I bought it hard copy when it first came out, registered it with EA collected my freebies etc, but the disc didn't work properly (kept saying it wasn't a legit copy). I had a bit of an argument with EA and eventually gave up trying to get a working disk. (I installed NRAAS noCD instead). When I had to reinstall it after a computer failure, my disk didn't work at all, and I couldn't get any help from ea, so I ended up not playing for months and then buying it the minute it came on steam. Spent $90 on the steam version plus the expansions cost more than in a shop, but I haven't regretted it. All the expansions work fine, I've had no more trouble with reinstallations.

kidhedera

20th Dec 2012, 07:09 AM

My girlfriend just bought me seasons too! SQUEE!

BEST DAY EVER.

And I think I'm spoiled for playing the sims 'normally'. I'm going to keep on playing NIF challenges I think. Its just so much fun to watch your town grow... and for me it means I can start slow, and the game naturally balances out building, giving 'newly adopted' ex-NPC's make overs, and actually making my sim achieve things.

I love moonlight falls, and I think I'm going to clear it out for my next NIF. (What is with all the SMALL PARKS in moonlight falls? I always have tourists just chillin' in empty expanses all over MF. Why can't EA make them 'no visitors allowed' like normal people do?)

Zerhai

20th Dec 2012, 02:39 PM

kidhedera

21st Dec 2012, 11:05 AM

I drafted up a table of Life Time Wishes mapped to what I think they should unlock for a NIF challenge.

Some of them are sensible, others are a bit silly cos I just wanted to make sure all LTW had a lot or feature attached to them, and some of the lots were really hard to place. For example... Emperor of Evil gets you the laundromat (cos of money laundering right?), and the Pool is unlocked by the "SWIMMING in Cash" LTW.

I think that I've covered everything except the Showtime stuff (I haven't got that expansion), and I also don't have all the prices of the rabbit hole lots, cos I haven't looked them up yet.

I thought perhaps folk might want to have a look tho, especially if you are playing with Supernatural and Seasons. The link to the table is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkJ-Lqgftu6LdEo4TWN4cG0xU2g2R19wSWtwbjNrUlE

All the usual rules apply, except I added a few little bonuses around - like unlocking travel to certain destinations, and eventually unlocking travel for all sims, not just ones that have already completed their LTW/lot purchase. Also, I decided that since you need 5 rabbit holes to complete the 'Jack of All Trades' LTW, if you get that one, you get a 'wildcard'. You can purchase any profession or career related rabbit hole of your choice if you get that LTW. (So if you are really stuck on one of the hard LTW's, you have a way out).
Its intended to be played so that you only do each LTW once, and to encourage you to try LTW's you might otherwise ignore or overlook.

Anyway, what do people think? Have I missed any important lots or features?

kidhedera

24th Dec 2012, 03:29 AM

I've been trying to playtest my LTW based NIF, but keep losing hours of play time to the Seasons saving bug. So I've followed directions from around the interwebz to try to fix it, and I'm currently rebuilding Twinbrook to be a supernaturals focussed town to see if I've fixed it or not. (I'd rather lose a custom lot than a few sim days of events. The nif challenge is like the only one where I'm like 'A BURGLAR! AWESOME WILL YOU MARRY ME?', so when I didn't get burgled again when I reloaded I was so sad).

I've made a few minor modifications as I've been playing. I started with a Professional Author and quickly realised I really wanted to be able to join Book Club... so I'm trying to decide if that should be unlocked by default, or if it should stay unlocked with the bookstore or the library. I adopted 4 mail carriers (I'm pretty sure the post office is freaking out about 'missing persons' at this point), and one of them was a werewolf. One of them had an unachievable LTW, which lead to the moral dilemma of using the reward to change it, or just changing it in CAS. I changed it in CAS, but I think that I'd probably LTR it in future... rewards points aren't too hard to come by and even a 'useless sim' adds to genetics, earns money and raises children, so if I never got to change it cos they died unexpectedly that wouldn't be such a huge deal.

Anyway, happy holidays!

PS Zerhai, I hope that your sims games are all working in Steam, and that your financial difficulties ease in the New Year. <3 Good luck!

Shitomi

24th Dec 2012, 08:01 AM

I bought it hard copy when it first came out, registered it with EA collected my freebies etc, but the disc didn't work properly (kept saying it wasn't a legit copy). .
you have disc reading warranty from shop ,so kinda strange story you saying here.Also on Steam games cant be so expensive

kidhedera

24th Dec 2012, 08:42 AM

The disc read fine, its just that the sims would launch and then declare me to be using a pirated copy. I googled it and it was a pretty common problem at the time, cos the DRM was a bit funky. I believe that the problem has since been resolved. As for returning the disc to the store, I didn't even think of that, given EA never suggested it, and I've never been able to return a video game disc to a store. I suppose it makes sense that there would be some kind of warranty on discs, but I've had several games that haven't worked correctly, and I've not been able to return them (except on one occassion where I had a screaming shit fit in the store and I think they just wanted to get me out. I try not to lose my temper like that tho.). So yeah, I don't know.

As for Steam not being expensive, well I'm in Australia, and we regularly pay up to double for new video games.... and well any software. Now the Sims 3 and its expansions are a reasonable price on Steam (We're paying the USD price at the moment for some reason) so I've been snapping up EP's and stuff packs. Steam is even cheaper than stores at the moment, which was not the case when I first bought the sims on Steam.

nmgbrennan

2nd Jan 2013, 09:26 AM

Howdy folks. Long time creeper, first time poster. Just wanted to let you know I appreciate the Unlocker. I'm still in my first generation but have unlocked the grocery store. I am also trying to unlock the school so I can pick traits for the future generations.

washout

3rd Jan 2013, 03:24 AM

A quick question and I only skimmed the thread so sorry if I missed it - say that I wanted someone to complete the lifetime jockey challenge, where can I sell her horses without the horse-y building? You know what I mean. Any help would be great.

Avalikia

4th Jan 2013, 12:20 AM

Hey everyone! Sorry for being a no good, disappearing, lack of updates challenge starter. I'm ashamed of myself, I really am. But I updated the challenge to include Showtime, Supernatural, and Seasons today, so that makes for a good apology, right? Let me know if there's anything you think I should tweak, or if there's any major unanswered questions that have come up during my absence.

A quick question and I only skimmed the thread so sorry if I missed it - say that I wanted someone to complete the lifetime jockey challenge, where can I sell her horses without the horse-y building? You know what I mean. Any help would be great.
You need to max riding and earn the money for the equestrian center first, and then you're able to use it to sell horses.

wayaway3

4th Jan 2013, 01:19 AM

Heya, I just started playing this challenge and I'm ready to buy my first rabbit hole but I'm having some difficulties:

I want to buy the bookstore rabbit hole. So I placed the rabbit hole on a "visitors allowed" community lot. My sim has the option to shop for books there, get a part-time job and become a partner, but not buy it? I've been browsing around and I can't seem to find any info on how to buy a rabbit hole, only that it's do-able. What am I doing wrong?

nmgbrennan

4th Jan 2013, 02:02 AM

You have to become partner before you can buy it out.

Avalikia

4th Jan 2013, 02:11 AM

What you need to do is pull out your Sim's phone and choose the Real Estate option. That should work.

whitewater

4th Jan 2013, 05:00 PM

I've noticed on some of my saves that it doesn't give me the option to buy until I have enough to partner/buy the rabbit hole (at least until recently).

Simsdestroyer

4th Jan 2013, 07:08 PM

Is there a way to print the rules out? I want to try this challenge, but I need rules to refer back to while in game.

calisims

4th Jan 2013, 07:20 PM

Is there a way to print the rules out? I want to try this challenge, but I need rules to refer back to while in game.

copy paste onto a text document and print it out.

wayaway3

4th Jan 2013, 09:14 PM

Thank you, nmgbrennan! Now I was able to buy the bookstore and everything is dandy when it comes to that.

Now I have some other problems with this bookstore..

When I click the bookstore and choose to "shop for books" they take the taxi about halfway to the bookstore. Then they get out of the taxi and try to return home. I interrupt them and continuously try to get them to go to the bookstore, which they finally do (after many bouts of 'getting lost'). So the bookstore can be shopped in, but it's hard work apparently. One of my sims also got an opportunity to clean up the bookstore - same problem there. The sim has a very hard time finding his way. And then, when he finally gets there, he's only able to spend like two seconds within the bookstore before being sent out, and thus he was never able to complete his opportunity.

I wonder if this has anything to do with how I placed the lot. It's on a "visitors allowed" community lot. I tried changing it to "no visitors allowed" but didn't get any different results. How do you guys do it with your rabbit holes? thinking bookstore, grocery store, etc?

nmgbrennan

7th Jan 2013, 09:16 AM

I haven't had any issues like that with the bookstore. I'm wondering if you should try deleting it and placing it again? If you've already paid for it once, I would call it good.
I set up my sim in Lunar Lakes (thinking she was the last surviving member of a spacecraft who needed to learn to survive on a barren planet) and all of the rabbit holes I am using are small enough to fit on one community lot. As the town expands I may branch things out. The lot is set as No Visitors Allowed, but townies do appear there to go to school and the paparazzi hang out there.
I've been using the unlocker Kid posted and have the school, city hall, science facility, and business building unlocked. I've really enjoyed that I have to play LTWs I wouldn't normally choose for my sims.

wolfsbayne

8th Jan 2013, 07:20 PM

You have to become partner before you can buy it out.

Not true - just go to 'check real estate' on phone or computer (I usually use the computer) and then click on 'view purchasable properties' and then click on the one you want to buy, click buy and job done.

wolfsbayne

8th Jan 2013, 07:21 PM

ladykelien

9th Jan 2013, 11:38 AM

m1nks

9th Jan 2013, 08:02 PM

Hello all

I stumbled across this challenge a couple of days ago and just fell in love with the idea of it. I've been running a very severe apocalypse challenge as well and decided to use this one as a greater chance to tell a story.

I haven't read all of the forum posts yet and it looks like there might be some updates added which may or may not fit into my game. My Nothing is Free challenge is taking place on a very small island where my first sim is the only resident (or nearly) and all NPC's have been disabled, so I'm not following each 'rule' to the letter. I'll save that for my apocalypse :P

Thank you to the inventor of this challenge, it's a lot of fun!

I've started a blog to record it although it's barely off the ground. I've actually gone a little way into it but I've spent more time playing than blogging so....

It's here anyway: http://sim3nothingisfree.blogspot.co.uk/

elmos123

10th Jan 2013, 03:07 AM

hey, does anyone know when we can add new sims to the world ? :)

whitewater

11th Jan 2013, 04:55 PM

My understanding is you don't get to add new sims. Story progression does. New sims move in to houses you've built when the sims living in it die.

kidhedera

11th Jan 2013, 05:21 PM

Hey, your missing the stadium. You have it as something needed to unlock something but not a way to unlock it specifically. I checked several times to make sure I wasn't just missing it then had one of the kids follow up behind me. If It's there, we can't find it.

Oh no!
You are quite right. I completely missed the stadium. (Probably cos I care so little about sports both in the game and in real life...!)

This could be tricky... my instincts say to make Physical Perfection unlock the Stadium instead of (or as well as?) the academy. But that would make the stadium quite a late unlock because it would then rely on travel.

I got Showtime for christmas, so maybe while I'm adding the LTW's from that I'll rejigger the whole thing and see if I can't make it work better.

ladykelien

12th Jan 2013, 04:39 AM

Oh no!
You are quite right. I completely missed the stadium. (Probably cos I care so little about sports both in the game and in real life...!)

This could be tricky... my instincts say to make Physical Perfection unlock the Stadium instead of (or as well as?) the academy. But that would make the stadium quite a late unlock because it would then rely on travel.

I got Showtime for christmas, so maybe while I'm adding the LTW's from that I'll rejigger the whole thing and see if I can't make it work better.

Well you could put it in with Firefighter super hero or Forensics specialist. Neither of them unlock a building they are both dependant upon some form of physical development and though not the most important buildings to unlock... It would fit as well as anything.

m1nks

12th Jan 2013, 05:46 PM

hey, does anyone know when we can add new sims to the world ? :)

If you are following the rules as written then the only sim you are allowed to create directly is your first one. There is nothing preventing you changing a sim once you have them under your control though if you don't like their traits or something.

I also created two sims to start with as I needed an adult to make my child playable [http://sim3nothingisfree.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/nemo.html. So you can 'play it your way' if you like, no one will stop you. :p

izzyxo

14th Jan 2013, 11:34 PM

Started this challenge today, first challenge ive ever done :) have a female who is preggers already! (sim day 3 or 4 i lose track) lifetime wish to master painting and writing :)

Avalikia

15th Jan 2013, 07:02 AM

I also created two sims to start with as I needed an adult to make my child playable [http://sim3nothingisfree.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/nemo.html. So you can 'play it your way' if you like, no one will stop you. :p
I actually restarted this challenge again myself and made a child living alone. I thought about blogging it, but I'm about to start another major project that has to be blogged and I don't want to overload myself - maybe I'll start blogging it mid-stream when I'm done with that.

Anyway, I wouldn't know if it's default game behavior or not (I never play without the AM installed), but I know I can play a child Sim living alone as long as nothing beyond the simple fact that they live alone triggers the social worker to visit. (Keeping Mary's social from bottoming out was hard since I didn't want to make her a loner, but stray pets helped out a lot...)

When she became a young adult I started playing it as a Random Legacy on top of a NIF (as outlined in the rules) - probably breaking a few of the Random Legacy rules about how to start the challenge in the process, but I don't care about that and I'm still following all the NIF rules. True to form for when I'm playing a NIF, she was robbed as a teenager and then became acquainted with the burglar - very closely acquainted, if you know what I mean. Sadly, she's not allowed to marry him because the RL roll was for a single, but they have a son together and she's pregnant again. She's already earned her lot - the elixir consignment shop - so she can concentrate on raising her kids now. She also has an adopted cat and dog to help her hunt down ingredients for her alchemy. Hopefully she can rake in enough money by the time her kids grow up to provide them with decent homes.

m1nks

20th Jan 2013, 08:57 PM

I actually restarted this challenge again myself and made a child living alone. I thought about blogging it, but I'm about to start another major project that has to be blogged and I don't want to overload myself - maybe I'll start blogging it mid-stream when I'm done with that.

Yes it's the blogging that takes the time. I've never done it before so I'm keeping it simple ;) I'm playing far in advance and although I have ideas of where I want the story to go so far it's not really being very co-operative. I could 'force' it but I'm determined not to. If the events that I want to happen don't happen then I'm going to have to work around them and come up with another way.

I have also given myself all sorts of restrictions over and above what is in the 'official' rules because of the fact that my Sim is on a deserted island and has no other people around at all. So I will only let her and any descendants have access to things I think reasonable. So a sink and a toilet to start with because in my mind they don't have plumbing they are just a basin and a long drop. No bath yet though because even if it was able to thought off as a tub with water heated on the fire, Whitney doesn't have the skill to make one and Nemo doesn't care.

Anyway the next two chapters are up if anyone cares to take a look.

http://sim3nothingisfree.blogspot.co.uk/

ogamaga

22nd Jan 2013, 09:10 AM

You may make 1 CAS Sim in this world, and 1 only. You are never allowed to make any other CAS Sims. Gender, exact age, etc. are all up to you. Pets may not be created with them.

For those without AwesomeMod, would it be ok to create a child and adult tag-along, eliminate the tag-along, and familyfunds away the extra money in order to start as a child?

Avalikia

23rd Jan 2013, 06:15 AM

Hmm, that sounds reasonable to me as you're taking away the possible advantages of the adult's involvement that way. Some might see starting as a child an advantage in itself since there's more skilling time, but a child alone has a lot of problematic aspects. Again, I don't know if a social worker will come for the kid or not without the AM after you get rid of the tag-along, but feel free to test that out.

If it does work, some tips on taking care of single kid households: Don't try to use Edit Town until the kid is at least a teen, kids can't make repairs or call a repairman so they'll either have to live with any broken objects or buy new ones, and kids can't pay bills but you can still pay them if you use the dialogue box that pops up warning you that you're almost late.

PSDuckie

23rd Jan 2013, 06:25 AM

ogamaga

23rd Jan 2013, 11:43 AM

Thanks for the info.

AdiTT1980

23rd Jan 2013, 09:21 PM

Great challenge. I had a family with 5 kids when I switched school requirements to writing + logic and messed it up. Writing kind of sounded more logical ... So starting all over again.

m1nks

23rd Jan 2013, 09:40 PM

Great challenge. I had a family with 5 kids when I switched school requirements to writing + logic and messed it up. Writing kind of sounded more logical ... So starting all over again.

That does sound logical. I think I'll make that my requirement too. I'm thinking now of changing the requirements for the gypsy caravan as I don't really get the charisma restriction with that lot (and with my setup getting full charisma is going to be a way away...)

m1nks

23rd Jan 2013, 09:57 PM

A stage may be added to any normally earned Big Park. Stages may be included in any other lot, but the Sim earning the lot must be a level 10 performer in addition to the other requirements. Acrobat, Magician, and Singer are allowed when you have a Big Park with a stage.

I have only just picked up Showtime so I haven't tried the careers there yet but I thought that you gained rank in performer by being an acrobat, magician or a singer? Can you earn this in another way? And if you can't then I don't understand this phrasing because it looks like you can only add a stage when you are a 10 rank performer and you can only be one of those when you have a big park with a stage, and you can only have one of those... etc etc etc Or if you have a big park are you then allowed to put in a stage but you can't if it's a small park?

G-Mon

24th Jan 2013, 03:12 AM

@m1nks: I'm guessing it means that once you've earned a Big Park the normal way, you may add a Showtime stage to it for free (it's in the BuyDebug section, BTW). Once you have at least one Big Park with a stage, the Showtime professions become available to your Sims. You only need to be a level 10 performer to add a stage to a lot that isn't a Big Park.

And I've also been playing this challenge on and off; I just haven't posted here because I'm a serial restarter.

Avalikia

25th Jan 2013, 05:29 AM

@AdiTT1980: I'm not the type of challenge creator that yells at people for not following my rules if you want to tweak them to your own taste, especially since this isn't the sort of thing where you're keeping score, just so long as you don't go around saying that you did things absolutely correctly. I think that NIF is the only challenge I've ever played exactly as written, and probably because I was the one who wrote it. Except now that I think of it, I think I may have managed the asylum challenge a few times among the bajillion times I've done that without bending any rules... But I digress. The rules for the school are what they are because for rabbitholes with an associated career I base the skill requirements on that career. And the charisma requirement makes sense to me because to found a school you don't necessarily have to be good at the subjects they teach - instead it's a lot of organization, getting the community involved, etc. It also makes the school very difficult to earn until your town has a decent start on a population, which only makes sense because communities that are small enough don't have their own school.

@m1nks: Similar to the school, the charisma requirement is based on the skills for the associated career, and again Charisma makes sense to me as a requirement for earning the Caravan - in this case because, while it's probably not difficult to be a gypsy in a remote location, being a Fortune Teller would be since you'd want to be in a location where there's enough clients who believe in that sort of thing for you to make a living. Perhaps it would make more sense if you saw it more as earning access to the career rather than the building itself? Either way, again I don't mind people tweaking the rules for themselves.

@G-Mon: And yes, you're understanding what I meant perfectly! You do not need a Sim to be a performer to add a stage to a Big Park, and doing that allows your Sim to become a performer. You only need to be a performer to add one to any other type of lot, but not a Big Park.

Bananas8338

8th Feb 2013, 07:52 AM

Hi all! I started this challenge a week ago and I've gotta say, I'm loving it. Good job on it, OP! I haven't progressed very far because I don't have a lot of time to play, but when I am playing, I'm having loads of fun!

I started out with CAS Bear Sloan and a completely emptied Sunset Valley. Bear's traits are Brave, Loves the Outdoors, Family-Orientated, Hot-Headed, and Green Thumb. I figured I'd have him grow plants for food and money - unfortunately, it turns out there's no way for him to get the initial skill point (that I know of) in order to be able to grow things. T_T Here he was, in his little shack, money going backwards... so I had him start writing as a source of income.

Over the next few days, I wanted to find him a gal. I called for a pizza - a male came. I called for the maid - another male came. Waited outside the mailbox, and what do you know? Another male came. :faceslap: I tried these options again over the next few sim days, with the same results. I became so desperate, I called the fire brigade (I figured this service is okay as I only play base game), and was slapped with a $500 fee. On the bright side, the NPC was a chick! A woman called Robyn came, a pretty thing with the traits Exciteable, Handy, Clumsy, Charismatic and Lucky.

They had a 10/10 attraction, yadayadayada, Bear proposed whilst naked for some reason, wedding bells rang, and out came a couple o' kiddies. They have Daniel (Brave, Artistic), who is now nearing childhood, and Bryce (Loner, Loves the Outdoors), who has just turned toddler.

I've already got 3 child-related wishes locked in for Bear, but I'm waiting for a wish from Robyn before they have another one. I'd love for their next child to be a girl. Then they'll be a perfect little family. :lovestruc

Anyways. Bear has level 8 writing and will unlock the Bookstore so I can buy that damn Gardening book, provided we can raise the $27,000 it costs. Robyn's got level 5 in painting, purely from trying to earn some moolah, and she has also become quite handy around the house too, with level 6 handiness now.

With only $6,170 in the bank and the family squeezing into a 2-room house (yes, you read right... not two bedroom, TWO ROOM), I don't think I'll be unlocking anything too soon. But they're only young adults though - there's plently of time left. :anime:

Edit: Okay, just had a massive 4 hour long playing session and got loads done. Robyn rolled up the want for another child so they tried for a baby and a few days later, they had little Aurora (Good, Genius). The family was perfect. :lovestruc I'll fast forward you through ages and ages of skilling and money making until the two eldest boys were teens and Aurora was a child - this is when we were finally able to buy the Bookshop, woot! Things were going great until damn risky woohoo kicked in and Robyn fell pregnant T_T. She had a boy and I named him Mallory (Artistic, Clumsy) which means "unlucky". >_> Aurora became a teen and Daniel became a young adult and got a part-time job at the Bookstore. He found himself a girlfriend, a maid by the name of Shannon. Meanwhile, my two rabbit simmies were at it AGAIN and I heard the lullaby happen again! :@ This is when the two are about 2 days and 5 days away from elderhood respectively. :rolleyes:

Shannon and Daniel got married and now they sleep in a double bed on the front lawn, the only place there's room. Turns out Shannon's almost an Adult, and there's 19 days difference between the two, so I made her fall pregnant asap as I hate big age gaps between sim children/parents (*cough* LOOKING AT YOU ROBYN AND BEAR *cough*)

So now I have 7 sims in one house, soon to be 9 with the birth of Shannon's baby/Robyn's baby, which is actually why I'm taking a break because they're becoming too much to handle atm. xD

Here's my plans for the moment:
Bear: Bookstore
Robyn: City Hall
Daniel: School
Shannon: ?
Bryce: Grocery
Aurora: Hospital
Mallory: ?
New baby 1: ?
New baby 2: ?

I'm not sure Robyn will be able to maximise Charisma in time as it is actually quite difficult to meet people in a near empty town.
But, I suppose it's not like every sim has to unlock something or you lose the challenge. Phew.

AdiTT1980

11th Feb 2013, 08:23 PM

m1nks

18th Feb 2013, 08:41 PM

@m1nks: Similar to the school, the charisma requirement is based on the skills for the associated career, and again Charisma makes sense to me as a requirement for earning the Caravan - in this case because, while it's probably not difficult to be a gypsy in a remote location, being a Fortune Teller would be since you'd want to be in a location where there's enough clients who believe in that sort of thing for you to make a living. Perhaps it would make more sense if you saw it more as earning access to the career rather than the building itself? Either way, again I don't mind people tweaking the rules for themselves.

So far I'm sticking to what you've got down. I think I'll probably add the Writing requirement while keeping the Charisma so making it a bit harder. With the way my world is set up though it will be a long! time before I have enough people available to make this a reality.

Still, it's fun trying to work out ways to increase my people stock' while still keeping within your rules and the rules I've set myself to ensure my story doesn't get out of whack.

I had a 3 week holiday so I'm just back to posting another couple of chapters. I've got two more to set up but I've been flying for two days and had a full days work as soon as I touched down in Heathrow so I'm about to crash! :P

http://sim3nothingisfree.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/my-teenage-years.html

m1nks

19th Feb 2013, 11:52 PM

Hi unfortunately, it turns out there's no way for him to get the initial skill point (that I know of) in order to be able to grow things.

Anyways. Bear has level 8 writing and will unlock the Bookstore so I can buy that damn Gardening book, provided we can raise the $27,000 it costs.

Banana you don't need to learn gardening through books; I have never done so.

I'm not sure but you might be trying to plant seeds that are too difficult. When you first start you can only plant common seeds (apples, lettuce etc) and you are only able to water them. So it's a bit slow getting your gardening up this way but you can do it.

m1nks

20th Feb 2013, 12:07 AM

I'm not sure Robyn will be able to maximise Charisma in time as it is actually quite difficult to meet people in a near empty town.
But, I suppose it's not like every sim has to unlock something or you lose the challenge. Phew.

You probably wouldn't want to do this as it's a lot of hassle but if the sim that you wanted to max charisma moved out for a little bit then all of the people in the old household would count towards their 'friend' total. As you have a large family that would be quite a lot. Then with service npcs and tourists and paparazzi if you have them enabled you could probably manage to make this.

m1nks

20th Feb 2013, 12:28 AM

And the next two are up.

http://sim3nothingisfree.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/alone-at-last.html

AdiTT1980

21st Feb 2013, 09:07 PM

... Then with service npcs...
This is sufficient. Just invite their big household via phone (select several at the same time), then work on your relationship with them :) I exploited the phone calls alot!

Actually the Repairman was quite awesome and eventually became my son-in-law and was already ahead in Handiness ;)

Bananas8338

22nd Feb 2013, 08:21 PM

Banana you don't need to learn gardening through books; I have never done so.

I'm not sure but you might be trying to plant seeds that are too difficult. When you first start you can only plant common seeds (apples, lettuce etc) and you are only able to water them. So it's a bit slow getting your gardening up this way but you can do it.

I went searching for seeds and I only found ones that couldn't be planted. After about 2 days of seed searching, I gave up, assuming it simply wasn't possible without the first skill point. I'll remember to keep searching for next time though, until I find those common seeds, and be more patient! :)

You probably wouldn't want to do this as it's a lot of hassle but if the sim that you wanted to max charisma moved out for a little bit then all of the people in the old household would count towards their 'friend' total. As you have a large family that would be quite a lot. Then with service npcs and tourists and paparazzi if you have them enabled you could probably manage to make this.

Thanks for the interesting tip, but I'm afraid it sounds like too much hassle for me. I doubt Robyn will manage to max charisma, as she's now an elder and I've shifted my focus to her children. I have 3 households in the town now - when the oldest kids found partners and started having children themselves, the household became too busy and so I've had to move out two of the eldest in order to save my sanity. :p

m1nks

25th Feb 2013, 05:28 PM

I'm starting a NIF/Random Legacy challenge to slow down my NIF Lonely Island 'Looking for Love in the Strangest of Places' challenge so my blog can catch up a bit.

Wow, this is a heck of a challenge! My first rolled Random Traits, Perfect Career (Ghost Hunter) and 4! Children. Fortunately they were allowed a partner. As it was random I just took what I got given as a sim and he was a darker skinned male which is a change for me as I normally only play women.

He moved in and hit it off big time with the mail delivery lady and then my game crashed :-) Reload and he didn't jell with the second incarnation as much. Still, beggars, choosers, etc etc.

The secondary income was military so that was actually good as I realised it didn't have a price tag! Yay :-) They got busy breeding and my main guy realised that getting a science lab up so he could join the Ghost Hunter career when there were no other people on the island just wasn't viable so he picked Grocery store and started a garden. Money was veeeerrrry tight. Three kids to be provided for and all.

I learned a lot though:

1. Focus early on getting the right skills done for the lots. His wife shouldn't have had kids or done anything but work her butt off to skill up and get that military lot. She was already an adult when they married and she got it just before turning elder.

2. Get the fertility treatment and/or adopt. Having 4 single kids took up a lot of time.

3. Decide when the kids are born/grow what lots they are going to try for. Preferably free ones :P

4. If you get an empty house by chance DON'T put one of your offspring in it when they move out!!!! Leave it free for the game to populate. WHAT AN EGG!

Heh :)

Re my blog, another two posts are out.

http://sim3nothingisfree.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/necessity-is-mother-of-invention.html

Avalikia

25th Feb 2013, 09:11 PM

m1inks, I love your blog! And also, I'm glad to hear that you're doing the NIF/Random combo a shot - it's really tricky getting the logistics worked out, but I've personally actually found it funner to play it that way instead of just the raw NIF challenge. Then again, I really, really enjoy making the game hard for myself. Not being able to pick the order that you earn things, having to provide your quota of kids with the money to move out right when they hit YA, and all the other madness the combo causes makes it that much harder but also that much more rewarding to you when you're successful.

m1nks

4th Mar 2013, 08:45 PM

Update on my NIF/Random legacy with a couple of questions at the bottom. Sorry it's a monster!

So my first generation as I said in a previous post had 4 kids to provide for and two incomes that were very slow in starting to generate. I managed to get the military base in but it was late so the spouse didn’t make much money off of it before she died. My main guy rolled Ghost Hunter which I changed to Grocery store and started gardening. He got a part time job once that had been gained because he had the ‘perfect career’ and got to level 3. The spouse I figured had done enough in just gaining the lot as she was partway through adult when he married her.

The kids all moved out one by one to ok houses. I had problems with the game crashing and realised later that it was a bug with rain droplets etc causing it when I was trying to build. At the time though I had to resort to buying houses from the bin so it was more expensive (I had a ‘spare’ 50,000 which came in handy but I’m not sure I’m I should have been allowed it. It’s in my questions below). The kids were meant to unlock some free lots but I totally misjudged my skilling up time and they all moved out without having contributed in any way. Who says the Sims isn’t like real life?!

Once they were out and some starting sprogging I had a bit of a weird thing where kids were being born and then just vanishing. I’m not sure if it was because they didn’t have a crib in the house or what. It didn’t happen to all of them but some just went. I have some nephews and nieces that only appear in the family tree, other than that I’ve never seen them.

My last kid from that first crop was named my heir and she had rolled up couple and Supernatural – Scam Artist which meant she needed to max out Charisma. That was a bit of a pain but not too bad with all of the Paparazzi and Tourists running around plus the family being born in the other houses. I sent Dad to China on a friend making mission at one point and then he invited them all over including one guy which he thought would be a nice husband for her. They had great chemistry fortunately and married soon after she hit YA stage. He was rolled up for ‘job hopper’ which is a bl**dy nightmare when you only have 3 lots open! There was a bit (lot) of creative juggling. The first thing he rolled was Singer so I gave him Big Park to unlock and let him garden until he had maxed that and could finally set that up and put a stage down. Up till then doing one sing o gram every week or so was taking his singing career nowhere fast.

That couple was only supposed to have 3 kids but the last birth was twins and then really late in life the guy gets himself abducted (again – it was like a taxi service honestly every 3rd night someone would run out to see the glittering lights) and comes back pregnant! So that was kid number 5… I guess it IS a random legacy though.

Well with two more kids than I was anticipating money was once again really really tight (gee, shock) and I had my sights set on my little alien opening up a science lab. I moved the main family out the day before the heir aged up and her restrictions took effect (Living Green and Homemade), so her twin was left in possession of the old family home and they got a bunch of new stuff. As I didn’t make her imaginary friend real (I think someone else must have had it in their inventory when they moved out and it vanished) she is probably going to dwindle off into old maid status and there will eventually be another spare house (which I will NOT move people into as I’ve learnt my lesson).

The heir had drawn stylist and was destined to be a single mother of two. Her twin sister unlocked the Salon before she aged up so she was free to pick something else. With the science lab going to be costing 140,000 simoleans (gulp) I decided on a school as it was FREE!!. Single mum and all. She unlocked that shortly into her YA stage and her alien sister is now really desperately trying to scramble into the maxed Logic, Fishing and Gardening that she needs to unlock the Science Lab. I have the money (just!) and with a combination of alchemy potions, use of the rocking chair and getting tutored by sims with maxed logic skills I think she’s on target. Mind you, I have thought that before and now she is going to school so that sucks up a huge chunk of the day. I forsee a future filled with alchemy potions to keep her working throughout the night.

The heir found this rather attractive looking man with a small nose and violet eyes so I decided on him for the father of her kids (the small nose is important because due to genetics that whole family has the most ENORMOUS hooked honkers – I’m hoping to breed it out within a few generation if I select small nosed partners). The guy came around and gave an evil cackle (dodgy right there) and when she asked what his career was announced he was a burglar. I checked his traits using Overwatch and he was indeed chock full of the most vile character traits imaginable. So that fitted in quite well, my naïve little heir getting swept off of her feet and falling accidentally pregnant (I don’t think I can say twice, the second time might be her desperately trying to connect with the father of her first child) before realising that he is in fact an irredeemable a**hat and moving on with her life without him in it). The only problem with that is that I am sure the game will often select the traits of both parents if it has a random selection to make so unless I keep the kids happy I have visions of a bunch of vile little monsters tottering around. The first one turned out ok due to great care being taken in the raising but mum needs two so she had to get pregnant again. She selected the fertility trait prior to the first one hoping for twins but didn’t get them, so knowing my luck I’m probably going to get triplets. Oh Joy!

Anyway that it how it currently stands but I have a couple of questions that I can’t work out the answers for.

1. What is the ruling regarding gifts? I got gifts when I got married and occasionally from potential suitors especially my guy who was a singer for a brief period and I turned on the celebrity status for that. He only gained one star and I got rid of it once he’d quit his job but when he was performing he seemed to generate a fair number of star struck fans every time he performed. They were probably desperate because he is (was) currently the only star in the place. Or seems to be. Anyway most of these gifts are low level but one of the wedding gifts was worth 50,000 simoleans (wow, rich friend) and one painting from an admirer was worth 5,000. At the moment I’m ruling that they are random events and just selling them. The 50,000 was very handy when I had the ‘Luxury’ Misc rolled up and 4 kids to provide for on my first generation…

2. I was wanting to know what the ruling is on lots that are opened by kids who then move out? Or even what happens when the sim who owned the lots dies even if they are still on the same lot ie parents of the heir? Do you still own them and might be able to draw an income from them or should you gift them away?

P.S. I have put up another chapter in my blog, a couple more will be coming out shortly.

http://sim3nothingisfree.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-very-best-of-friends-for-realsies.html