AL money exploit - anyone ever noticed this?

[InsanePsychoRabbit]

Has anyone noticed this before? In Apartment Life, if your sim receives the secret networking benefit that gives them a discount on Buy Mode objects, they buy items at a discount but sell them back at full price, which in effect lets you get infinite money.

Here is my proof:
Price of the Chalice of Days with the discount
Selling the Chalice of Days back for full price

[Alex]

I've never really bothered with networking so I hadn't seen this. That's a pretty bad exploit in a game that already dishes out free money. Unless there's a fix for this, I guess I won't bother pursuing that.

Are you sure it's not just the object though? That one's from Castaway Stories, right?

[hooptytrib]

Are you sure it's not just the object though?

I've found it to be true of all buy mode objects.

[InsanePsychoRabbit]

It's not just that item. I used that as an example because of its price.

[nocomment]

Yes, I noticed that.  I was quite startled.  I suspect it wasn't supposed to work that way. 

By the way, what is that "Chalice of Days?"  Is it a deco object?  Somehow I've never seen it. 

[rufio]

It's an object that Pescado extracted from Castaway Stories and made available for TS2.  See The Armory->Playsets and Toys.

[hedgekat]

I can see that buying and selling the same object over and over could give you a lot of unearned money but don't see why anyone would bother.  Much quicker just to motherlode if you want to cheat. 

I haven't had AL very long and my sims are not into networking but I've had several instances lately when I was playing when I would hear the money 'kaching' and note that my sims had more money than I thought they had before.  One instance in particular I know they had only a few hundred simoleons when I entered the lot but heard the ching and they had over 3000.  No clue what it was. They were engaged in ordinary in home activities.  I consider it to be an unexpected windfall from an investment. 

[rufio]

Was there someone else they knew who had died of old age recently on another lot?  They could have gotten inheritance - that would show up in their memories.

[InsanePsychoRabbit]

don't see why anyone would bother.  Much quicker just to motherlode if you want to cheat. 

The reason I'm bothering is because I'm playing a legacy challenge, and since I'm not allowed to use motherlode and this isn't technically using a cheat code (and there are no official legacy challenge rules for AL yet).

[nocomment]

rufio - Thanks for pointing the way to the Chalice.  (I thought I had already posted that, but it seems my post got eaten.  Maybe I hit Preview instead of Post.)

The main effect this glitch has in my game is unintentional income.  I'll buy a table for the birthday cake, then when I sell it back, profit! 

[dragoness]

don't see why anyone would bother.  Much quicker just to motherlode if you want to cheat. 

The reason I'm bothering is because I'm playing a legacy challenge, and since I'm not allowed to use motherlode and this isn't technically using a cheat code (and there are no official legacy challenge rules for AL yet).

Well it's still an unintended source of money, and the Legacy challenge is on the honor system... I mean, if you want some easy money, just motherlode or kaching a few times and be done with it - it's not as if someone's going to come punch you in the face when you do. If you don't want to cheat, don't cheat. It's not that hard.

[InsanePsychoRabbit]

I'll buy a table for the birthday cake, then when I sell it back, profit! 

Pardon me, but I have to say this -
1. Buy table for birthday cake.
2. Sell the table back.
3.
4. Profit!

[hedgekat]

Well, since it's built into the game it's not really cheating to make a profit on something you buy for a purpose then resell.  But to do it over and over and over solely for the purpose of making money I think that would be as much cheating as using motherlode. 

Some of the perks of the secondary aspirations can bring in substantial cash also.   One of my sims has fortune as a secondary and has accrued several thousand simoleons through his investments in the stock market without having to even play it.  Every afternoon a notice pops up saying what he's gotten or lost.  Usually only a couple of hundred but there was a big jump in the household cash one day although I didn't see the popup itself before it disappeared.