Pinstar's new Apocalypse challenge

[Avalikia]

I believe they can use those objects, as long as they don't violate the other rules.

[J. M. Pescado]

However, spending effectively unlimited time in Uni kind of defeats the purpose. Several restrictions fall by the wayside if the founder comes home from college with an ungodly amount of money and powerful business perks under their belt. Don't expect me to make any more major rules shifts like that again. Just little tweaks and clarifications.

Strictly speaking, Uni already gives an enormous amount of time. 8 Semesters at 3 days apiece is 24 days, nearly as long as the adult lifespan, and field tests have shown that even with the clock running, it's entirely possible to amass wealth in excess of 150K, more if you REALLY milk it. Money has never, ever, been a serious issue in the game, especially when your choices of what to buy are so restricted that you have nothing to spend it on anyway.

[Avalikia]

I'm sure Pinstar has average players in mind though. 

[Kyna]

Mayhaps even TWO Elixiars, as that is something that is not replaceable, and as such, cannot be taxed by the mob. (Which is a mean restriction, btw, so Criminal Mastermind spouse FTW!)

It's a bad idea to unlock Criminal Mastermind if you haven't unlocked another way of getting groceries or dealing with food issues.

Either:
business - to sell existing fridge (unless you have room for another fridge on your lot)
natural science - snapdragons, and ability to order groceries for delivery
military - ability to travel to community lots to buy groceries

While on the subject of the Criminal Mastermind - the buying and selling gets tedious.  Can we use the familyfunds cheat to take a percentage of the household worth?  In OFB you can go to build mode to see the net value of land + building + items.  Some sort of percentage of the total worth would work (but less than the % that depreciation is, as the depreciation only covers buyable items and not the entire worth of the lot).  You would of course need to balance that against the bills being lower as the buyable items would remain at fully depreciated.

Going back to my last post, the military reward.  My sim was in the SS (since I used DAC, all the dormies in his dorm were also in the SS, thanks to Maxis lack of randomness).   So I used the bomb shelter safehouse.  Counting the steps to the foundation, that is 8x8.  I was intending to build upwards to put it on a floor of its own, but there was no way I could do that.  If I'd taken out the foundation to place the reward, I would have lost most of my basement including items that were too big for my sim to move, such as the bed.  I guess I painted myself into a corner here.

And thanks Turtlemell for the idea to buy a bathtub as one of the 3 items that could come back from uni.  I was so happy that my founder's wife lost her first job and ended up in the medical career as her second choice.  The bathtub has made it so much easier.

I do consider that I've failed this challenge, but I'm still playing it to learn more about strategies before I start over again.

[rhodaloo]

My game didn't like my founder using the grill to make breakfast.  He was at level 9 on his career when errors began to occur.  I managed to hit reset every time but one. Yup, I deleted him.  Now I'm saving every two Sims days instead of every 7 sim days.  He's also eating cereal for breakfast on work days.

[Pinstar]

Using the fridge to "Make one" ...."Group Meals"...."Hamburgers" is a way to grill burgers during the AM hours. I almost never make cerial...it spoils to quickly.




Your point about the long time at uni is a valid one. Tell me, can you skillbuild while on those off-lot businesses?



Also: About life of crime. I agree that even with the $100 or less exemption, it's still annoying.
Give me a little time to come up with a fair % to knock off the family's networth and I'll allow you to familyfunds it rather than selling everything. You'll still be able to replace the fridge to refill it.

[J. M. Pescado]

Your point about the long time at uni is a valid one. Tell me, can you skillbuild while on those off-lot businesses?

Yes, but you can skillbuild at any other lots also, under the right conditions, and I find it fairly trivial to max all skills at Uni anyway.

[Pinstar]

I'm going to stick with my ruling on 8 semester strict timeline for Uni. If maxing all skills is easy, and money is a non-issue for an Awesome player such as yourself, then you shouldn't need any extra time. For us less awesome players, well, that just makes the challenge all the harder. Being a cruelly hard challenge is what the Apocalypse is all about 


Now about those snapdragons.... (just kidding).

[Frankenbeasley]

My game didn't like my founder using the grill to make breakfast.  He was at level 9 on his career when errors began to occur.  I managed to hit reset every time but one. Yup, I deleted him.  Now I'm saving every two Sims days instead of every 7 sim days.  He's also eating cereal for breakfast on work days.

You let them eat before work? At level 9 most of the jobs seem to do a very good job of feeding my Sims and emptying their bladder. Many of them also deal with other things as long as the levels are low enough.

[rohina]

Frankenbeasley, you clearly have the skills to play the email challenge.

[J. M. Pescado]

There's a concept. Combine this with E-Mail and/or Ethiopian.

[rohina]

Heh. I was thinking of playing the updated Legacy rules with a handful of handicaps and my own little additions, including email. I miss my emailers. They had simple lives. Of course, now we have snapdragon technology and improved meditiation, email will be a doddle.

[Avalikia]

This challenge has got me thinking.  To tell the truth, as presented the challenge doesn't really appeal to me (specifically, it's a little on the compicated side and I'd prefer to unlock things by reaching goals that aren't already present in the game).  However, the premise and the idea of unlocking items and abilities has really got me thinking.  Perhaps I'll invent a doomsday themed self-challenge sometime.  It would make for a very interesting start to a new neighborhood, or maybe a story.  Thanks for giving me something to think about, Pinstar!  You have good ideas.

[Kyna]

In need of some clarification here:

1. There's no rule that home lot must be timesynced with campus lots, is there?  I'm about to send a YA off to college - do I have to play his home lot while he's at college?

2. I've lifted military, medicine, law and culinary restrictions so far.  While at uni, my YA would be able to go to a community lot that has a fridge, a caffeinating station (espresso machine + dishwasher) and a bathroom.  What about going to a comm lot at uni that has a cook - can he do that, or does that count as hiring a service under the business restriction?

3. The rules state that before the Science restriction is lifted, I am only allowed to purchase one computer.  Does this mean he needs to take the family computer to university with him?

4. Will future generations of YAs be able to go to the lot I build for this sim to live on* while he's on campus?  Or does every generation of YAs need to move into an empty lot?

5. Only future spouses can be moved in, and they must be townies or NPCs.  Presumably this means I can move in a townie teen, skill them up, then marry them to the heir when they're adult?

* he won't actually be living there ... he'll be spending most (if not all) of his time at the community lot.

[GayJohnScarritt]

This is my interpretation of some of your questions with those rules:

2.  As long as it's not YOUR employee, it would be the same as eating at a restraraunt.

3.  I was reading this as per lot.  Also, i thought the computer would be covered under the 'Protection Money' and replaced each week.   It does bring up another question tho, if the computer IS covered by the mob, would you have to go back to your lot at the end of each semester, to replace the computer?  You wouldn't be able to take your own computer to a community lot so is it worth taking the computer with you.  Without Politics, you can't influence someone else to do your term-paper.

4.  I was reading it to mean 'Each' future YA has to be on a different empty lot, If 2 go at the same time, each would have to be on their own lot.  But since you won't be having them actually 'live' at that lot, all you'd need there would be a phone to call the taxi. 

[GayJohnScarritt]

   This does bring up a question tho.  What do you do with Family Members who move-out/not join the Family Household after Univ?   Do you have to play them or can you leave them in the Sim Bin?  You've already stated that blood-line family members who move out to find own place, can't unlock any careers.  I'm mainly thinking of Elders who have already contributed all they can and might just be in the way of future generations.

[Avalikia]

I think that you're probably okay to do anything you want with them, because once you move them out they're effectively "out of the challenge".

[Kyna]

3.  I was reading this as per lot.  Also, i thought the computer would be covered under the 'Protection Money' and replaced each week.   It does bring up another question tho, if the computer IS covered by the mob, would you have to go back to your lot at the end of each semester, to replace the computer?  You wouldn't be able to take your own computer to a community lot so is it worth taking the computer with you.  Without Politics, you can't influence someone else to do your term-paper.

I decided he would take the family computer with him, and the family gnome for fun.  (Brought back from uni by the founder.  Has survived three generations of kicking, and one theft before I remembered to lock the area he was in).  I'm addicted to the sport of kings

4.  I was reading it to mean 'Each' future YA has to be on a different empty lot, If 2 go at the same time, each would have to be on their own lot.  But since you won't be having them actually 'live' at that lot, all you'd need there would be a phone to call the taxi. 

But Pinstar said:

8. Since there are no 'weeks' in college, Sims (other than the founder) attending college that have not lifted the life of crime restriction must pay protection once per semester, immediately after finals. If you have more than one family member attending at the same time and in the same lot,  the household only needs to pay protection once per semester.

I've bolded the relevant part.  So it looks like siblings going off to college around the same time can use the same lot, which means the family computer is available to all of them.  It's needed before you unlock some sort of creativity allowing restriction, as they can't learn creativity before YA or adulthood otherwise, and you need at least one point of creativity for any degree.  My question is can future generations use the same lot?

GayJohn, on the elder question - with the first generation of elders I sent them off to an empty corner of the lot to meditate once they'd done their duty and unlocked their restrictions and raised the next generation.  It kept them out of the way and ensured I wouldn't have unmoveable tombstones in icky places in the house (like blocking access to the toilet or something).  And no ghosts in the house, since ghosts can't cross the required foundation.  I'll be doing the same with the next generation.  I hope I didn't miss a rule about a restriction on meditation ...

EDIT: to fix a mistake

[J. M. Pescado]

Worth noting: Ghosts cannot use elevators successfully. If an elevator is present on a lot, the ghost may *TRY* to use it, but he will simply fail, causing horrendous game lag instead. A soon-to-be-released hack prevents the lag.

[Jelenedra]

I think a good thing for bloodline family members that unlocked a restriction should spend the rest of their days cloud watching and stargazing, for that whole "Alien technology" thing.

[PlayLives]

Not sure if this has been mentioned before....
the Law Enforcement restriction states that Teens with less than 10 body skill can't leave the house for any reason, which means no school, so can I school them at home using Inge's school at home object - a desk that generates a workbook?

[Jelenedra]

That has already been addressed.

Teens are allowed to go to school. No Community Lots.

[PlayLives]

Technically, your female founder could have 7 kids with random walkbys and then get a job. 

You could also carry the love tub back with you in inventory to make it a little easier.
(I just started thinking about strategy so this may not be a worthy enough item you would choose to take)

ETA-

That has already been addressed.

Teens are allowed to go to school. No Community Lots.

Okay, but is using the school at home objects legal? I'm thinking that since doing the workbooks at home only takes a sim hour or two, you can use the rest of the time having the child/teen skill build instead of spending 5-7 hours in school.

This thread needs to be added as an attachment to the rules on the Legacy sight. 

[Jelenedra]

One could argue that the bus ensures safe delivery of children to and from school. Just like owning a car enables you to invite people over (because your sim goes and picks them up, supposedly).

NOT going to school makes the challenge a lil easy. Besides that, you cannot invite the headmaster to get into private school, so post-Apocalyptica is even harder on the youngins.

Besides... no school, no college, natch!

[PlayLives]

The school at home object allows the kids/teen to get grades, so college would still be possible.