Pinstar's new Apocalypse challenge

[rohina]

This one just might be twisted enough to get a Pescado stamp of approval.

http://legacychallenge.com/apocalypsenolc.html

[kutto]

I really like the way this looks. The idea of unlocking things is appealling to me. not usre how I'll remember every rule, though.

Which two are you unlocking first? 

[SaraMK]

I'm going to wait until someone makes a score card of some kind. The rules are too many and too complicated for me right now. I felt lost even after reading it twice. Does sound great though.

[rohina]

I'm going to think about it for a while before I play it. I'm kind of up to my knees in legacy at the moment, and I'm not ready to start another multi-generational story. Plus, I'm thinking I want to make a neighbourhood of mutants, and that might take a while.

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, obviously, you need military for the ability to send to college (or else this isn't going anywhere), and you need a creativity unlocker. You also need the buy/build mode items, but there are a few loopholes you can use to get around that. The ability to travel about unlocked by Mil also opens up a great number of potential exploits. Also, the entire "spouses" thing is an exploit, as there are no limitations for how many spouses you can have, or what you can choose as a spouse, so you can marry as many times as you wish, whoever you wish. In a best-case scenario using the above, it's entirely possible to defeat this challenge within a week or two on gen-zero, possibly faster.

[SaraMK]

Plus, I'm thinking I want to make a neighbourhood of mutants, and that might take a while.

I'll be going for a neighborhood populated only by zombies and a few survivors ...  all of who will be sims from the Maxis neighborhoods. This should be fun.

Also, the entire "spouses" thing is an exploit, as there are no limitations for how many spouses you can have, or what you can choose as a spouse, so you can marry as many times as you wish, whoever you wish. In a best-case scenario using the above, it's entirely possible to defeat this challenge within a day or two on first generation.

As I was reading it, I was thinking of ways to make it more challenging. One spouse per sim seems a reasonable way, and so does not allowing spouses to unlock restrictions. Otherwise I'm afraid it will turn into Legacy, where things get tedious after a generation or two.

[rohina]

Pescado, are you suggesting polygamy? Does the game allow that? Or serial monogamy? I would certainly purify my game of awesomeness such as harder jobs if I were to play this challenge.

[J. M. Pescado]

Black Widow Strategy!

Prep a set of 13 spouses in college, lining them up for the aforementioned career tracks, max skills, get relevant friends, getting to 100/100 rel, etc., loading up with supplies, etc. Now graduate your founder, get military, do the "top job in one day" thing that all Uni graduates get by default, and then start abusing your community lot powers. Now comes the fun:
Marry one of your preselected 13 spousen, in order. Use him to complete an unlock, which him can do, as a spouse. Now kill him! There's no rule against this and no penalty for sims dying. In fact, the Paranormal lock suggested this strategy. Congratulations, you are now free to pick up another spouse, which can unlock another one. Do so. Kill him. In theory, this can be accomplished quite quickly. Heheheh.

[rohina]

That is awesome! It is even plausible, what with the whole apocalyptic ambience being so dangerous to human health and all. Heh.

It might take more than 2 days purely because of the luck of the draw with which jobs come up in the paper. It's also a very strong argument for making your founder a romance sim, because that way he/she might actually enjoy the whole serial spouse experience.

[J. M. Pescado]

It might take more than 2 days purely because of the luck of the draw with which jobs come up in the paper. It's also a very strong argument for making your founder a romance sim, because that way he/she might actually enjoy the whole serial spouse experience.

The paper is kinda useless in this regard, since it will only offer L1. You need the computer for this. Plan accordingly. As for knowing which jobs come up, that's only a problem when your choices start narrowing later, since early on, you can just pick whichever one has the offered job of the day. There are also ways around that, too....

[Sagana]

You can only use a computer as a typewriter to 'write novel' or 'write term paper' until the Science restriction is lifted.

[J. M. Pescado]

So do that, then. Actually, there's a few other ways you can abuse some nice loopholes if you want, that should eliminate the need for that, too. Think about it.

[Pinstar]

I'm glad you guys like my challenge!

You can't finish this challenge in one generation. The only spouse that can lift a restriction is one that directly contributes to the birth of the next generation.

In fact, the ONLY Sims that can be added to the family via move-in/marriage are spouces that will produce the next generation, thus you may have only one spouse per generation.

[J. M. Pescado]

That sets up kind of a race condition: If you move in a spouse, and then they reach level 10 before anything is born, does this mean it doesn't count and you do not benefit from the level 10 position, meaning that they have to spawn first? Even with a requirement of spawning first, very little actually changes, other than that your cycle time is up to about 3 days instead of < 1. The strategy remains sound.

[kutto]

The way I read it, I interpretted that only the spouse that taht produces the heir can unlock restrictions. Since you can only have one heir, only one spouse would count. Though, that brings up another question. Say that you had two children with two spouses, an heir and a spare. If the heir dies, and therefore the spouse didn't actually contribute, if she unlocked something, would it be relocked? I think I've confused myself. 

[J. M. Pescado]

I don't recall reading anything about there being only one heir.That wasn't in the ruleset, it merely states "next generation". In fact, it distinctly states "heirs", meaning more than one.

[rohina]

Yes indeed. In fact, you can have as many heirs as you want, so gen 2 could theoretically unlock 8 career rewards. (That is 7 kids, plus the spouse of the producer of the gen 3 heir.)

[kutto]

Okay, I just have Legacy on the brain.

Adopted Sims, spouses to non-heirs and servos cannot lift any restrictions.

Who would fit this category then? 

[ElfPuddle]

I read "heirs" as in one per generation....14 generation = 14 heirs. I realize, of course, that the rule don't state this explicitly, which means Pesacado's strategy is still valid until the grammatically-induced loophole is closed.

[Pinstar]

I should have been clearer with that. Let me rephrase it.


The spouse that has currently or will bring in the next generation may unlock a restriction.
Children produced by the family may unlock restrictions.
Each generation, only one child may take on a spouse (who can unlock a restriction) and create the next generations.


For example.
You have your founder, who can unlock a restriction.
They marry a townie. If that spouse is going to be the one to help them produce the next generation, they may unlock a restriction. If they AREN'T going to help produce the next generation, then they cannot unlock a restriction.

The founder and spouse have 3 children. Each of the three children can unlock a restriction when they reach adulthood.
Only ONE of the children may bring in the next generation. The spouse of that child can unlock a restriction, but spouses of the others cannot.

So on and so fourth.

Simply:
The founder and any biological children born into the family can unlock restrictions
You may have 1 spouse per generation unlock a restriction too, but no more.

Thanks for really grilling me on this. I'll post these clarifications on the other boards.

[kutto]

So, this makes it at least a 7 generation long game. Right?

[Pinstar]

Not at all. The more children you can produce, the more restrictions you can lift

In my test family I was able to produce 3 children for the 2nd generation. That means 5 total restrictions unlocked, plus a 6th for spouce of one of the children.

Thats 6 out of the 15 done before the birth of the 3rd generation.

[kutto]

Now I see. You can have multiple heirs unlock things, but not multiple spouses.

Just curious, why did you stop at 3 children if they all unlock something?

[J. M. Pescado]

Probably because that's as many squealing spawn as he could stomach at once.

[neriana]

I was thinking that this challenge would be pretty difficult, but if you can handle your Sims reproducing a lot in one generation, it wouldn't be tough at all.

A limit of two surviving children per generation would re-introduce a certain amount of difficulty. The main problem would be making sure your Sims didn't burn to death; the founder would pretty much have to be Captain Hero, as far as I can tell. That's the reason I haven't bothered with the asylum challenge, all of them I've read have become "who can survive the blazing inferno" stories.