Ethiopian Challenge! Because E-Mail Was Too Easy!

[BlueSoup]

You know sending them to Uni is against the rules of the challenge, right?

[rohina]

My Ethiopian emailer is just living on a patch of dirt - not a dorm, just a lot. He got an incredibly generous scholarship from Pescado which enabled him to move in to the lot, and buy a cell phone.

Edited to add: Yes, I know Uni is non-Ethiopian, but you can't play all 3 challenges at once without exploring the exterior of the envelope.

Edited to add also, I figured out how to put the dorm doors into the Ethiopian Email lot, so now my guy is living in a dorm.

[sudaki]

Edited to add also, I figured out how to put the dorm doors into the Ethiopian Email lot, so now my guy is living in a dorm.

Does this mean...... you have dormies?? The idea of dormies at Ethiopian Email college makes me happy.

... Of course, Dormies stink, starve, and pee themselves even when they HAVE food and toilets, so....

[rohina]

Yes, I have dormies, but they are behaving a little oddly, and no wonder. They haven't died yet, and they aren't stinky, although they have been peeing on the floor/ground. Two of them are constantly fighting. The relationship between their rooms and the exterior world is a little peculiar. Also, they keep moving out when my sim brings a date home. This may be why they haven't died, of course.

I think they drank all my fruit punch, too.

[sudaki]

Ouch. And without walls, it must be tough to keep a horde of starving dormies away from the keg.

Every time Timmy has a guest over they go right for his fruit punch. The worst is the stupid mascots. I have to put a trash can in front of it now. Spoiled fridge-owning elitist jerks.

[Nick]

I may actully try this challenge....

[Kitiara]

I may actully try this challenge....

Hahahahahahaha hahahaha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahaha hahahahaha 

[Grater]

I'm going to do Ethiopian, Email and Bohemian Challenge (non-awesome challenge, no going to work allowed) all at once.

-1000 points for every child taken by the SS. Penalty applied immediately on arrival of the SS.

Is it permissable to have babys/toddlers taken away? Like in case of twins or something... I hate to think of having to raise an unwanted ugly little misfit.

[J. M. Pescado]

Is it permissable to have babys/toddlers taken away? Like in case of twins or something... I hate to think of having to raise an unwanted ugly little misfit.

Child in the traditional sense, not age category. You break it, you buy it.

[baratron]

By the way, I asked Pescado about using Gwill's paintings to achieve the "Buy a toilet" / "Buy a fridge" / "Buy a shower/bathtub" Wants, and was told they were technically non-legal. I'm guessing the same thing would be true of using them to achieve the "Buy a Guitar" or "Buy a Bass" Wants. Ah well.

Is TwoJeffs' Adult/Elder Age Duration Hack valid for use in this Challenge? I'm guessing it probably isn't, but oh joy, I'm so looking forward to 30 days of shuffling, peeing Elders... At least they'll be Permaplat by then, though I'll pretty much have to find another Aspiration for them. What do Knowledge sims get as Wants when they've already maxed out all skills?

[RainbowTigress]

Is TwoJeffs' Adult/Elder Age Duration Hack valid for use in this Challenge? I'm guessing it probably isn't, but oh joy, I'm so looking forward to 30 days of shuffling, peeing Elders... At least they'll be Permaplat by then, though I'll pretty much have to find another Aspiration for them. What do Knowledge sims get as Wants when they've already maxed out all skills?

They want to see a ghost, be saved from death, stargaze with telescope, etc.  Elders seem to get stuck on wanting to see a relative get married, get engaged, have a grandchild, etc.  Rather annoying in my opinion.  It's good when they are permaplat, as you say.

[Grater]

Well Bleh!
First child is a girl with 6 neatpoints.
Okay by my calculations there is no way to get perfect email score because the toddler will be too busy moaning hunger and getting molested by the nanny-collective to possibly train any toddler-skills. I think I have to put this family on hold until I can figure out a way to get perfect scores on both ethiopian and email.

I believe the key to (stress-free) Ethiopian is Vampires, especially for females. Sims that need to (eventually) die can simply be cured and then meditate until death do part thee.

[J. M. Pescado]

I believe the key to (stress-free) Ethiopian is Vampires, especially for females. Sims that need to (eventually) die can simply be cured and then meditate until death do part thee.

Vampirism will just drag out your challenge even longer since they won't get old and DIE. Since the idea is to plow through it, vampirism is counterproductive.

[Grater]

Nah, vamparism means no more hunger/bladder decay meaning no more heading to community lots. Then have ALL the sims meditate and set it to 3x speed. The vampire does fine meditating in full sunlight (that melting thing, all in the mind ). And since sims who are alive at the end aren't penalized as severely any "surplus" sims can (and I think should) always be vamped so they don't need to be micromanaged...
I'm pretty sure vamping massively speeds up going for the bonus points anyway (but isn't that just player-torture?)

My other idea for rapid aging: getting red aspiration then chugging elixir. But I can't remember if that slaps motives around.

[nectere]

Just to report my progress, I finished this challenge a while back; I think it was two weekends after my last update on it. I continued to have Pes meditate while he wasn't needed for anything else. Ethan never married; he adopted a baby named Chuck. (it was total luck I guess to get another boy) which Ethan and Pes encouraged to the appropriate personality. Pes helped with raising Chuck while Ethan worked, again an army of Nannies was required, but since I had been through it before it wasn't a big deal this time around. Pretty much everything was smooth sailing, Pes died in perma plat and Ethan and Chuck are still on lot. I didn't have the whacky asp failure with Chuck that I experienced with Ethan as he is a knowledge sim as well; I don't know why or care.

Ethan is an old man in perma plat and Chuck is still in play as an adult (also in perma plat) and perhaps will go on to marry someday, I don't know. I quit playing the family once I had achieved my objectives and concentrated on Maty Island. None of the men in the Ethiopian Challenge ever actually "knew" a woman, I kept them all chaste. Pes did continue to see the Nanny for a while but I got sidetracked and their relationship dissipated pretty quickly with Pes being busy with Chuck - encouraging, training etc in all his spare time. All in all it was a pretty easy ride going the adoption route. I considered taking it to the next generation in the traditional sense with Chuck and a barista (as baristas are very hearty npcs for some reason) he was crushing on, but again I was fairly bored by now and wanting to play my Maty Island hood (or I should say build all those houses).

I haven't bothered to try Ethiopian Email because I haven't yet figured out how to skill the toddler in needs failure or how to get the tot out of needs failure at all. I suppose its something obvious that I just haven't thought of or discovered yet. Nor do I particularly want to build a bunch of Email community lots since I disposed of my Email hood long ago after I beat that challenge, not that I had any email community lots anyway, as it wasn't required or needed. So that is that. Maybe I will try and use Chuck and that barista chick to do Ethiopian Email someday...

[Grater]

I've invented the Sim Perpetual Motion Machine for the purpose of this challenge but it works well in normal play too.

Outings. The boosts from a rockin' outing are large enough to easily cover any decay during the outing itself, in fact it's possible to build up to a rockin' outing in about half a sim hour, using the Baby - Rub Belly interaction, handy for keeping the Pregnant sims needs up. So when making friends, the sim can just chain outings. In fact it basically makes sense to always be in an outing when socializing, free, unlimited mood boosts for doing what you'd be doing anyway. In fact outing abuse should make a "Bare patch of dirt" challenge doable.

[J. M. Pescado]

Bah, you just ruined my secret weapon.

[bloodstainedkisses]

Oh my god! I totally forgot about that! Have a sim have a date, and for each level their mood gets a boost! My sims will be LIVING on dates! =DDDD

I may have to give this a try, now. ^^

[baratron]

There's a new chapter of mine up on the Exchange:
Tormented Family 3: All Ur Skillz R Belong 2 XT!

(I actually wanted to call it "Tormented Family - part 3: All Ur Skill Pointz R Belong 2 XT", but it didn't fit. No points for guessing what appalling "meme" of several years ago the title is riffing off... See also Andrew Kepple, a.k.a. Too Much Spare Time's Zero Wing Rhapsody.)

Enjoy!

[SaraMK]

There's a new chapter of mine up on the Exchange:
Tormented Family 3: All Ur Skillz R Belong 2 XT!

I'm loving your story baratron.

Hmmm... a hack that forces you to play chance cards? Dizzy2 has one. The option for Ignore is replaced by Random, which means you can't ignore at all anymore. I have to use that one for Prosperity Challenge because I'm so used to ignoring chance cards that I keep screwing up and clicking Ignore, which loses me points. Dizzy2 also has one that stops chance cards from appearing at all.

[Grater]

I'm playing a hobo-variant.


Unofficial Hobo Variant:
A phone-booth is the only structure on the lot, a 1x1 room with a phone, archway, windows on two sides and a decoration on the back.
No plumbing.
No food or drink.
No bed.
No electronics (other than battery powered).
No bookcases, telescopes or chess sets.
No stealing food (at least not when eating garbage is a reasonable alternative).
No working or going to school. Think unemployed and illiterate.
No dates.
Anything goes on community lots as per ethiopian rules, altough skilling, earning money and paying for stuff is forbidden.
   
It's basically Ethiopian + email + other nasty restrictions . Except with a concession allowing the phone booth and street light (walls are illegal for email, phone & light are illegal in Ethiopian, but they are intended to be "lot fixtures" rather than property of the hobos, modifying them in any way would be a breach of hobo-variant rules).

[Oddysey]

Ye flipping electrocuted gods. Are you insane?! Jeez. And I thought Pescado had a sick and twisted mind . . .

I may have to try this myself.

[Muisie]

I'm playing a hobo-variant.


Unofficial Hobo Variant:
A phone-booth is the only structure on the lot, a 1x1 room with a phone, archway, windows on two sides and a decoration on the back.
No plumbing.
No food or drink.
No bed.
No electronics (other than battery powered).
No bookcases, telescopes or chess sets.
No stealing food (at least not when eating garbage is a reasonable alternative).
No working or going to school. Think unemployed and illiterate.
No dates.
Anything goes on community lots as per ethiopian rules, altough skilling, earning money and paying for stuff is forbidden.
   
It's basically Ethiopian + email + other nasty restrictions . Except with a concession allowing the phone booth and street light (walls are illegal for email, phone & light are illegal in Ethiopian, but they are intended to be "lot fixtures" rather than property of the hobos, modifying them in any way would be a breach of hobo-variant rules).

You know Grater, you can just put a sim on an empty lot and don't buy anything at all ever.  Sounds fun?

[Grater]

ah, the "make do with gifts from seducing passabys with "awesome" outings" challenge.

[rohina]

That would be funny. My ethiopian sim would have a hot tub and about 20 telescopes.