Lying Low Challenge

[rohina]

This is a challenge by Huzzah, posted originally on Shoo Flee. I thought it might appeal to some people here who are fond of challenges that involve sim torture:

Okay, I had an idea for a challenge. It's called the Lyin' Low Challenge. Here is what you do.

1. Make an Adult Popularity Sim in CAS. They must have 10 Outgoing. They must live alone.
2. Move them into an empty lot of any size and build a house. Unallowed items are: A telephone, An Energizer, a computer. No aspiration reward objects allowed.
3. Try to keep them from going into Aspiration Failure...and try to keep the Social Bunny away. they MAY NOT meet anyone. Ever. They must stay alone. No boolProp, but money cheats ARE allowed. In the event that you run out of food, you must sell the fridge and buy a new one. No repairmen, or maids, or gardeners, or matchmakers.

Note: for the purpose of the challenge, "met someone" is defined as gaining the memory of having met a sim. No memory editing cheats allowed.

Scoring:

-1 for every time you go to work but you shouldn't
-1 for every Social Bunny
-3 for every Aspiration Failure
-5 for every person met
+2 for every day the Sim goes without going into Aspiration Failure or seeing the Social Bunny
+2 for every day spent in gold or Platinum Aspiration
+5 if, at the end of the challenge, the Social bar is in the green
+5 if, at the end of the challenge, the house is completely clean--no options to Clean--and there are no broken appliances

The challenge ends when they transition into an Elder. And only then.

By the way--the reason money cheats are allowed is because you don't go to work often. They may go to work every other day. As for days off--if you have one, that DOES count as a day that you don't go into work. HOWEVER, if you have TWO CONSECUTIVE DAYS OFF, they count as ONE DAY YOU DID NOT GO IN. So if you get Saturday and Sunday off, and you went to work on Friday, you may go on Monday. But not Tuesday. Tuesday you must take off.

I played it a couple of times. Here are the results:

http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=102094
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=102387

[Jack Rudd]

You might want to disallow the RenuYu Orb as well.

[J. M. Pescado]

This is supposed to be hard? This sounds more like how I usually play new CAS sims. But what's the point of any of it if you have unlimited money?

[kutto]

Doesn't day dream fufill social need?

[Emma]

This looks quite frustrating, but I loved your second story rohina! Cute little alien baby!

[rohina]

There was a rule disallowing all aspiration rewards, but it seems to have gone missing in one of the rewrites. *I* didn't write the challenge. It was Huzzah, as he/she keeps PMing me to remind me. I must not take credit.

Anyway, Huzzah added some rules about downgrading items, but I think they are stupid. I was thinking of adding a one motherlode only rule, but I don't think I'll play it again. It's not as amusing as the email challenge.

[Avalikia]

It's not as amusing as the email challenge.

Well, very few people are awesome enough to fill that standard.

[J. M. Pescado]

Ponderance: Is the sim allowed to make a robot? Does that count as a person, since it's crafted on-site?

Also, I don't actually see a prohibition against leaving the lot, as suggested by your story, merely a prohibition against meeting anyone while doing so.

[twooflower]

*I* didn't write the challenge. It was Huzzah, as he/she keeps PMing me to remind me. I must not take credit.

Seriously?  Too funny. 

I absolutely loved your Hermit stories.     I thought about trying this one, but the rules became a blur to me when they kept changing.  I loved the abduction idea you had, which was a wonderful loophole.  I also like JM's idea of making a robot.  I think abbeyroad was going to try making snapdragons.

Ponderance: Is the sim allowed to make a robot? Does that count as a person, since it's crafted on-site?

Even if it did count as meeting someone, you would only take a -5 point reduction, and then your problems would be solved.  Your brain must be constantly looking for loopholes.

[Rose Outlaw]

Bunch of dumb questions...

1)

no options to Clean

Does that mean the sim must not clean the house at all? 

2) Did you count the 5 points reduction for the baby? Technically, it's like meeting someone new.

[rohina]

1) I think "no options to clean" refers to the house needing to be clean at the end of the challenge. No rules about keeping it clean along the way, so it is just a 5 point bonus, really.

2) Yes, I did take the 5 point deduction. My score at the end was 71.

Pescado: I think you could make a servo. The only issue would be keeping the sim in a good enough mood to work on developing robot skill. abbeyroad was trying to get her sim good enough at flower arranging to make snapdragons, but she said it was slow going. My guy spent an awful lot of time building charisma (practically the only thing that got him aspiration points) and stargazing.

[J. M. Pescado]

Even if it did count as meeting someone, you would only take a -5 point reduction, and then your problems would be solved.  Your brain must be constantly looking for loopholes.

Yes, but that means you lose. Winning score is 124 or 126: 29 days no failure, 28 or 29 days gold/plat (depending on how this is counted, since you start green: how exactly is this counted? The whole day, @1800, or just some point in the day?), and 10 points for clean green finish. ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES.

Other factors to note include whether a Uni start is allowed. If Uni is allowed, you can take in a few more points if Uni days count, for a 16x24 Uni period (you can repeat each semester once, doubling your days here), and/or take in still more points for using the Cow Plant (no need to meet the drinkee).

Also, does it only count as having met somebody for the "met so-and-so" memory? It is possible to utilize other sims without ever actually "meeting" them. These points all need to be clarified so I can crush you.

[J. M. Pescado]

Actually, scratch that. I can get an infinite score easily.

This challenge is now officially owned:

Here's my strategy:
Go meet the Grand Vampire: -5 points.
Become a vampire. Live forever. Rack up 4 points a day for every day you live. Forever.

[rohina]

Again, NOT THE AUTHOR OF THE CHALLENGE. Hem.

I think you must be have an adult sim. No Uni or teens allowed.
I calculated the gold and platinum days once a day at 8am, since that was when the challenge started (ie when my guy moved in the first time)
I would define meeting as having the "met so-and-so" BUT, no cheating to edit memories allowed.

Edited to add: excellent work-around. I think that is perfectly fine, but definitely shows the issue of "this challenge is kind of boring" which I had mentioned.

[J. M. Pescado]

Naturally, it is not as cool as E-Mail. I make sure that my challenges never have infinite score exploits by making sure you can't even normally get positive points.

[Ancient Sim]

Not sure I would want to try this challenge, I'd feel too sorry for the poor Sim, but those stories were great, especially the second one.

[witch]

I enjoyed both those stories too Rohina, you always manage to get a different slant.

[baratron]

I enjoyed Rohina's stories, but I missed this thread at the time, so I wasn't quite sure why the sims were being hermits. Oh well .

I'm sure it would be possible to make this challenge more awesome [1], by simply tightening up the rules. Here's what I came up with in 20 minutes of evil plotting.

baratron's modified rules for the Lying Low Challenge, originally by Huzzah at Shoo Flee

OBJECTIVE: Make an Adult Popularity Sim in CAS and play them for the span of adulthood without allowing them to meet another sim. Try to keep them from going into Aspiration Failure... and try to keep the Social Bunny away. The challenge ends when they transition into an Elder.

RULES:
1. No cheats except where specifically permitted. You may use move_objects or the debug cheat only to move or delete stuck objects and sims, or force errors on the same. You may not delete sims to refresh their moods.

2. You must start with an adult sim created in CAS, with 10 Outgoing points and Popularity aspiration.

3. Your sim must remain a Popularity sim! You must never change their aspiration.

4. Your sim must remain human! Turning them into a vampire or zombie is prohibited and will forfeit the Challenge! Cheating to turn them into a robot is also prohibited.

5. Your sim must start on an empty lot! No other inhabitants are allowed. Should pets come into existence, they are also prohibited.

6. You may never move anyone new in. No Move In, Marriage or Adoption is allowed.

7. Your sim must not go to work! Exception: You may take a job to fulfill a Want, but must never actually go to work.

8. Your sim must never meet a service NPC! They must ignore the postman and newspaper deliverer. If an object breaks, the sim must repair it themselves or buy a new one. If they run out of food, you must sell the fridge and buy a new one.

9. You may use any hacks, but may not use them to cheat. No magic mood refreshers, hacked money trees etc. [2]

10. No moving between lots unless the home lot becomes irreparably bugged.

11. NO SAVING AND RELOADING unless a bug occurs.

RESTRICTIONS:
1. You are allowed to use any Maxis items or custom contents, except for telephones, cell phones or computers. You may use a computer that is hacked so its only function is "Write Novel" [3].

2. You may use any of the aspirational awards except the ReNuYu Senso Orb and Energizer, but they must be paid for. You may not purchase them with hacked collections. No more than 5 Money Trees per lot.

3. You may not use any career rewards, as your sim may not go to work to earn them.

4. Your sim may visit a community lot, but may not meet anyone while there.

5. Your sim must live entirely with money earned on the lot. Exception: Busking is allowed on community lots.

6. You may not receive money from another lot. You may send money to other lots, but you may not receive any back.

TERMINOLOGY: For the purpose of the Challenge, "met someone" is defined as gaining the memory of having met a sim. No memory editing cheats allowed [2].

SCORING:
-1 for every day there is a Money Tree on the lot
-2 for every Social Bunny
-3 for every Aspiration Failure
-5 for every time your sim goes to work
-10 for every sim met
-100 for every time you use kaching (yes, kaching;kaching; counts as two times)
-10000 for every time you use motherlode

+1 for every day spent in Platinum Aspiration
+1 if, at the end of the Challenge, the Social bar is in the green
+1 if, at the end of the Challenge, the house is completely clean (no options to Clean) and there are no broken appliances


Now the Challenge becomes more about finding the loopholes in the rules and the bugs in the game code . I can think of at least two solo activities in my current build of Sims 2 which increase Social even when the sim is alone... Also, there is an interesting loophole in one part of the Scoring - I'll leave finding that to the experts.

Notes:
[1] This Challenge is now more awesome, but not More Awesome. I hope you understand the difference. baratron has still not finished the Ethiopian Challenge, therefore is not More Awesome, so cannot issue More Awesome rules.
[2] SimPE and other external sim editing programs count as cheating in this context.
[3] I do not know whether a hacked computer of this sort exists, I am merely stating a rule to be obeyed.

[rohina]

Excellent tightening. I really want to see someone else's story of how they do this challenge.

[Jack Rudd]

There's an easy enough way to keep social up without meeting anyone - provided you can get your Sim up to Gold talent in Flower Arranging.

[rohina]

Um, yeah, but let's define "easy", when you have a CAS sim who is mostly miserable the whole time. If you can get that gold flower arranging badge before the sim turns elder, my hat is off to you.

[Jack Rudd]

Um, yeah, but let's define "easy", when you have a CAS sim who is mostly miserable the whole time. If you can get that gold flower arranging badge before the sim turns elder, my hat is off to you.

I didn't say I was using his time to get the badge. I'll get another sim to employ him first, and he'll build the badge on his boss's lot. (Is this blatantly against the rules, or merely against the spirit?)

[Avalikia]

Do employees meet their employer if they don't actually interact with them?

[rohina]

I can't see how you could get another sim to employ your lying low sim WITHOUT MEETING him. If you can figure out a way to do that, show me.

[Avalikia]

Let me clarify:  If you hire employees using the telephone dialog instead of in-person, do you automatically meet that employee?