The Hostel Challenge: Not My idea

[Aggie]

I figured this might be the place to post this. If it's not appropriate, feel free to ignore or delete it.

I came across a link to this challenge the other day: The Free Will Hostel: Hands Off Challenge. I thought it was quite interesting. As a matter of fact, I'm in the middle of playing an altered version of it as we speak.

Basically the premise is that you enter 8 sims into a lot (there must be two married couples and a couple siblings in these), and furnish the lot however you'd like with a budget of 250,000 simoleans and then walk away and let them manage themselves for 5 or ten Real Time hours. You can save and resume the game later on, but the gist of it is to see how well you can plan your home so that your sims can at least keep themselves alive.

I must say it's interesting flicking back and forth from the game to other things and then coming back to find one of one's sims pregnant with no knowledge of who the 'father' was. It makes it a little more dramatic and exciting.

ETA: It's similar to the Sit-On-Your-Hands Challenge, just a little more extreme.
ETA2: Duh. I didn't even notice that this challenge was linked to in the previously mentioned challenge thread.  Oops.

[BlueSoup]

Hehe.  I kinda like the sound of it.  Perhaps I'll do it.

[Aggie]

Go figure: the sim to get pregnant was the only romance sim on the lot.

I guess, in retrospect, having a married romance sim was NOT such a good idea (especially with autonomous woohoo beds). 

ETA: I guess the only thing I see wrong with it is if someone calls you up out of the blue to invite you somewhere (or your sim has a baby). Does the option eventually cancel itself, or does it require a response from you before the game will continue? I guess these issues could be solved by a). not having a phone, and b). making it so Sims cannot get pregnant, but where's the fun in that?

[buddha pest]

ETA: I guess the only thing I see wrong with it is if someone calls you up out of the blue to invite you somewhere (or your sim has a baby). Does the option eventually cancel itself, or does it require a response from you before the game will continue? I guess these issues could be solved by a). not having a phone, and b). making it so Sims cannot get pregnant, but where's the fun in that?

I've left sims on free will overnight before just to see what happens. All those things apparantly cancel themselves out eventually, just like chance cards and stuff.

When I did this, nothing particularly bad happened to my sims, but I noticed plenty of repo man visits in their memories. Plus an alien abduction.

-edit

But I have no idea if baby naming ever cancels out. I've hemmed and hawed trying to think of a name for ages before, and I've never seen it cancel.

[Aggie]

Good to know invites will eventually cancel themselves out.

It appears for the moment that by sim who had the baby may actually be starting to fill her hunger needs so she may not expire quite so soon after all. It's really a shame that psychiatrist visits are not recorded in their memories though, as hte only way I'll be able to tell if they happened was if I chanced to be looking.

[Theo]

This looks like the way I played the Sims 1
My goal then was to create a house and furnish it in such a way that would keep the "free-will" sims alive with no divine intervention.
The problem then, as it is now, was the kids' homework and the upaid bills - that would eventually lead the repoman to take away a vital object such as the fridge.

[Aggie]

Yeah I know about the rules. This one is just a test run, not only for the challenge itself but for my newly installed autonomous woohoo beds. So far, it's a very learning experience. After this run is over (in about 90 minutes), I'll take what I've learned and start the challenge for real. I like it, though.

[Zeljka]

I used downloaded celebrity Sims
Can't remember how many of what I had on my lot... probably about 8 or 9 fridges, a couple stoves, a bunch of microwaves, trash compactors and dishwashers... I had a few pianos (pre-uni) and easels, a big tv that I had my Sim turn on to the cooking channel in her 'free hour', 2 chess boards, a few computers...a telescope (BritneySpears was abducted) a pool no one used, hottubs and stereos they all used....

I left mine on for a day and a half, they were all alive, 4 in Platinum (knowledge, family and romance) 2 gold... Paris Hilton was my fortune Sim -ooo, poor Paris was always in the red heh heh

I didn't take any hacks out though, so they paid their bills and served meals (no Lovebed at that time though)

[Aggie]

Using the lovebed really screws with relationships, I can tell you that much. 

I've tried two test runs on this, and I've come to a couple 'discoveries':
1). Do not add a poker table. They'll do nothing to work on their skills.
2). Have at least two single beds so that if there are people lounging in the doubles that a sim hates, they won't have to pass out because they won't sleep with them.
3). Sprinklers help with fires, and they can help increase sims' cleaning skills.
4). There is no such thing as too many easels.
5). Everybody loves Brynne, including Brad Pitt.

[Trubble]

I've done this twice with a bunch of self sims...

The first try I kept pretty good tabs on it, Posie died first and ended up scaring mostly everyone else to death, with the exception of Hook who got deadinated by the TOILET BUNNY.

The second try features Pescado actually, and I changed the rules a little, having a teen, zombie, vampire and the lovebed. A few kids were had as I only put seven sims in to start...

[Aggie]

Well, I decided to go back to my initial lot and see how well I would fare if I tried to get them to ten hours. Not very well, I must say. With less than an hour to go, I am down to three sims (five having died and the toddler having been taken by the social worker just after he became a child). Can I at least end up with one live sim?!

[Database]

Oooo. I like this idea.

* Database might try it. He's always leaving sims going in the background

[holly]

i think for this to really intresting u need to take any hacks out , i set up a house with 6 sims a love bed and some other stuff and thy took care of themselves really well , "sniff" my sims dont need me at all

[Aggie]

Well, they certainly need you to a). get a job, b). be a lot happier, c). make friends/enemies a lot quicker. So don't despair; you are a needed entity in their sim-like lives.

[Ancient Sim]

I played this a while back, before NL, which meant all my Sims survived as they weren't starving themselves due to lightning bolt crap.  I had celebrity Sims too, but I felt very sorry for Elvis.  I made him Fortune and of course hardly any of his wants were satisfied, so he was permanently depressed.  It started on the first day, when there was a fire, and never really improved.  I didn't play it exactly to the rules insofar as I didn't have multiple appliances.  I only had room for a few of each and they lasted more or less to the end, so I only had to tell them to remove burnt food a couple of times.  I didn't want to play a huge lot so I didn't have room for the recommended number of appliances.

I've been thinking of trying it again, but I'd have to use a new neighbourhood with no other Sims, or perhaps just one to act as the telescope slapper.  As for the woo-hoo beds, I think theoretically they shouldn't be used - isn't it meant to be hack-free?  (Not that mine was - I took most of them out, but I did leave PayBillsatBox in.  Just as well, or Elvis would have been beyond repair).

[Aggie]

Yup, it's meant to be hack-free and to have absolutely no intervention on your part at all (not even to remove burnt food from the stoves). That's why I'm just doing it with the beds in as a test run. Now that I've personally learned a few things, I may be ready to try it as it was intended. I'm just considering which sims I would like to use as my guinea pigs.

[Batelle]

I gave this a try over the weekend.  I had two couples, Adam and Eve (both knowledge) and Byron and C645Hq (alien/family sims), a set of siblings (Ninja Black, popularity and Ninja Red, pleasure)and two romance sims, Fife and Diamond (I made Diamond Adam's sister).

It was interesting, Adam and Eve were three bolts and almost always on the verge of death.  Their time in the challenge can be summed up thusly:  Whine, swoon, flirt, whine, kiss, kicky bag, whine, swoon, fight with Diamond (if your're Adam), watch Diamond kick your husband's ass (if you're Eve), whine, kiss...

I thought Byron and C645Hq would be easier to manage because they were compatible but not three bolts.  However, Byron fell for Ninja Red and C645Hq had some bloodfued going with Fife that caused them to fight 25 times so she had no time for a relationship.

The real find in this was Diamond.  She's my current avatar and she is so awesome that I made her a townie so she can terrorize generations of legacy sims.  I made her full neat and active, and split the other points between playful, outgoing and nice.  Every time I checked she was the only one in the upper levels of green and she earned 20 skill points, compare this to the next highest point earner (who had 5) and you can see why she was my star.  Her biggest downfall was her obssession with kicking her brother's ass. 

Overall, it wasn't terribly exciting or eye opening.  None of them died (until I came in at the end and decided that Diamond was a keeper and the rest of them would make good ghosts) and all of them behaved stupidly in very predictable ways.  It was sort of interesting to watch them independently establish habits.  Ninja's Black and Red had identical personalities, but he was addicted to the arcade game and she would have married the pool table if i would have let her.     

[SJActress]

I've been doing the hostel challenge, and so far I've finished 3 1/2 hours.  No deaths yet, and only one stove and dishwasher is out of commission.

The only problem is that a brother and sister are furious enemies, so sometimes they neglect their needs to slap, poke, and attack each other.

Keeping my fingers crossed... 

[starrling]

Mine all died with $132,000 left and only 1 item repo'd.  Stupid sims.  I set it up before bed last night and watched for an hour or so.  Then I slept for about 5 hours.  By the time I returned they were all gone.    Maybe I'll try it again with more stoves and less micros/toaster ovens.  All they did for eating was "stuff face".  Like I said... stupid sims.