More Awesome Than You!

I'm attempting to rework the Poverty Challenge for TS3.

Preliminary rules for the Homeless Challenge:

• Your sim is a bum! Sims may only earn income from opportunities, trash rummaging, and mooching off other sims.
• Kleptomaniac sims may nick things for their own use but may not sell them. Too hot!
• Sims may NOT earn income from paintings, collectibles, or selling vegetables.
• Move along, vagrants! Your sims may not use showers, tubs, beds, or refrigerators and stoves on community lots. Realistically this is normally a difficult thing for a homeless person to do, and makes the challenge more difficult.

Instructions:
First build a lot with a fence and nothing else (so the game will allow placement of the sim on an otherwise empty lot). A gate is okay. Then move in your sim(s), and use Pescado's familyfunds cheat to set the bank to 0 simoleons. Play. The challenge ends when the firstborn child ages naturally to YA.

ETA: tents are okay, community lot tubs are not

I'm having mad deja vu.

Placing one floor tile also works to make a lot accept move-ins. Just FYI.

Can sims sleep on benches/in tents on community lots?
Can they sleep/shower/eat at neighbor homes?
Can they harvest from public harvestables or steal from neighbor gardens?

Yes to all of your questions, although I'm not sure about the tents because I don't have WA. Is there ever a cost to use the tent? Do they fill energy more slowly than the beds?

Yes, you have to buy the tent. They aren't free.

Depends on the tent and the bed. Better tents are better than worse beds.

I'd say allow the use of tents, but only the cheap little crappy tent, and your homeless sim can only have ONE. For that added homeless feel, try giving the tent a sort of cardboard texture.

I assume that the tents placed on community lots are not for rent and free to use, like the fire pit, and don't need to be placed in a sim's inventory like the picnic basket. In that case it seems best to let players buy any tent they like, but only allow them to use either the crappiest of the tents on community lots or none at all (since this gives an unfair advantage to WA players). Or, for simplicity's sake, only allowing the crappiest tent, period. Do those options make sense?

I'm trying to decide what the failure/success mechanisms should be for this challenge. Obviously you lose if your sim dies, but I'm thinking of making it so the challenge begins with a single young adult sim, with the requirement that the sim mate and raise at least two babies to YAs. This would add sufficient challenge that the player would be very busy trying to meet these requirements in addition to the difficulty of keeping up the sim's mood (especially energy and hygiene) to keep it from being boring. Other sims may move in, but only if the family funds cheat is used are reset the bank to what it was before they moved in.

So, you could possibly fail the challenge if:
-5 your spawn do not make it to the honor roll as both children and teens
-5 your sim collapses from exhaustion
-5 your sim pees on the floor
-1 hygiene failure (your sim gets stinky?)
F your sim dies of anything other than old age
-5 your spawn miss a day of school
F any spawn die or are taken away by the social worker
F your sim dies of old age without spawning and raising at least two children to YAs. Children may only age by themselves, without using the birthday cake to speed up their progress.
-1 sims fail at reaching some sort of minimum amount of LTW points (?)
-1 for not reaching some sort of minimum skill requirements (?)

Bonus points:
+2 Raise at least 5 sproggins to YA
+1 Aesthetic points for only using "trashed" home and community lots, awarded arbitrarily by me
+2 "empty lot" style play - build/buy modes are never used throughout the entire challenge

Can you think of anything I should add/remove? TESTERS WANTED

ETA: rebalanced points. The F is for automatic failure :p

Clarification wanted:


No mention is made of toilets, sinks, or tubs. I'm guessing that tubs were just an oversight, but that the use of toilets and sinks is allowed. So if I have a slob, (s)he can wash up in the sink. Is that correct?

So I make a mooching, kleptomaniac, slob who is a charismatic virtuoso. Then the befriending and mooching starts until a guitar can be purchased. You didn't mention if tips were allowed.

I'll be a guinea. I don't have WA or HELS though, so I might not be of much use to you. 

I guess that depends on whether the amount they can earn in tips can possibly qualify as super cheaty, like rock and bug collecting, which dumps a massive load of cash on the sims for minimal effort. You could help me determine that.


Yes. Terlets and sinks are okay, tubs not so much.

Wait a gal darned minute here!  If they are homeless how can they have a toilet?  I say, make them use the public toilets at the library.  


Found this on the web.
It looks like this guy blew your challenge out of the water.
http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/test/
Take a look at this blog about his homeless Sims.  It is positively heart wrenching.   

I was refering to the toilets and sinks at the gym and library. There is also a tub in the gym and the gallery in Riverview, so I wanted clarification on that. Of course, if my klepto happens to nick a toilet, I won't put it back.

They have to improve their music skill a lot before tips would amount to much, but I really have only had them play for tips when an opportunity called for it or they had a want to it. So I guess I'll find out how that pans out.

Also, collection is okay as long the rocks, bugs, and seeds aren't sold, right? They get those wants to collect now and then. Unlike some, I actually try to make my Sims happy.

I think I'll play the no use of buy or build mode, but I'd like to use the move objects cheat to place items that might need a wall if some lucky Sim happens to nick something that requires one. Of course, creative fencing might be interesting. Does fencing work the way it did in Sims 2 to allow bathroom privacy?

Hey, since we're talking about Challenges, how about the return of the Apocalypse Challenge?

Some other moron linked that badly-written shit munfs ago.

Also, who the FUCK says "gal darned"? Is this some kind of arcane knitting reference? Or are you just a mealy-mouthed fundy cuntwaffle?

There's retards off the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow,
There's retards off the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow, Jim.

This isn't the "No U" thread so I'm going to take that like a woman.  Your advice is duly noted and I will work on my cussing skills before posting any further indignation.  I hadn't realized the blog had already been referenced but this seemed like the perfect thread to do so.  I look forward to hearing about all the torturous shit (Is that better?) all of you put your homeless Sims through.

Or you could just fuck off.

They ARE using the public toilets at the library, gebus.

Collection is okay so long as they don't make money from it.
No moveObjects on to place objects you can't otherwise place, that is considered cheating. As for the fencing, I have no idea.

Other stuff:
1) I've decided that all the tents are okay, since I'm told you can only buy them as inventory items while on vacation, and they aren't normally on community lots or available in the buy mode catalog. The same goes for the shower in the can, since I gather they are not free.
2) I've decided to award +1 point for each sim that maxes out 8 skills before the end of the challenge.
3) The sim may have an unlimited number of traits, but no more than two skilling traits.
4) every toddler must be potty trained and learn to walk and talk before aging
5) children must max out their baking/blocks skills before aging
6)I'm considering making it okay for them to get money from exploring the graveyard (not the tomb raiding in WA), because that risks injuring them and grave robbing seems to fit well with the theme.

ETA

7) I think I will allow sims to search the galaxy with the telescope
8) plus 1 point for honesty - sim never steals anything
9) +1 for every 10,000 simoleons at endgame?
10) +1 for having the "perfect garden" with every plant

Your username is offensive to wiccans.

Alice and Kev are old news indeed. I made myself an entire family of homeless 12s and 6s after I read about them, it was not too hard to play as they could shower at the swimming pool. They lived in a "park" near the beach that had benches, one picnic table, streetlights and of course some trees and bushes on it. Eventually they built up a nice little vegetable garden. I did not let them have toys or any other items on the home lot, other than those that they could carry with them of course.

Having the sims take nap after nap got to be very boring, so cheap tents would definitely be a help.

As tents are not easily come by, I also propose some sort of homeless shelter where sims can use the cheap showers and beds for a small fee, and maybe do some skilling. This would have to be standardized of course to level the playing fields (either by specification or by building one and making it available for DL), but it could be a place where they could get soup or a jam sandwich too.

Well, I already made the klepto, so no honesty point for her.
I can see the move objects as a cheat as it saves the cost of wall and covering. I was just envisioning a trashed out yard with old appliances sitting around at the time. So, I won't go there.
I put in one fence along the property that bordered a neighbor, but left the rest of the property open; so I'll see if a toilet will go there or not (if one is appropriated some night). Otherwise, I just might build an outhouse someday.
I picked a rather expensive lot close to the beach in Sunset, so any extra money made in tips should be eaten up in bills.
I guess I'll get started and see how it goes.

Old news, and I scarcely find pixels 'heartbreaking."

I am heartless, so I don't really find anything heartbreaking other than the sad, emo presentation and generally inept gameplay.

I've decided it would also be okay to start the game with a bicycle and bike rack instead of a fence, so long as the bicycle and the rack are never sold. It irritates the hell out of me to see supposedly broke sims getting taxi rides for free.

Ah yes, the old poverty challenge. I loved that to no end in Sims 2. :D

I will certainly have to do this! Although, if I do, it will be in my Berry Sweet neighborhood. That should be interesting. lol!

Btw, can we post pictures here?

No.

NO, it WON'T.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/kaeli/gifs/diaf.gif)

Go back to BoolProp or the BBS where you belong, 12.

 Have you even looked over the FAQ or are you doing this on purpose?

ETA:  Read this before posting (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7437.0.html)!  Read MOAR!  Lurk MOAR!

@anna, right now this challenge is only in testing, but eventually I will post the final version and you can link to your stories in the appropriate thread.

Ah, I see. Okie dokie, thankies! ^_^ Keep up the good work!

I hate you.

If not sure how far you've taken your sims in this challenge.

My starting sim has no problems making friends and staying over as she is a charismatic mooch. She was able to have the baby with her as she visited as well. I just had her choose places with a crib. She also nicked a crib from the Goth attic just in case.

I had her marry one of the roomies (Stiles McGraw) after getting pregnant the first time. Then they both stayed at the same house one night and she got pregnant with her second. He is a loner and doesn't make friends as easily as she does, but I figured someone had to carry the second babe around. (You might have intended for her not to marry, but just raise them to children one at a time. If so, sorry. I'll replay it.)

So far, rummaging has been the most profitable as Bella found a large space rock worth 3.5k. Stiles is tending their garden as well as others' so he has food when a picnic basket isn't nearby. Mooching, however, works well for her.

His musical skills are much better than hers, but tips haven't been significant.

The additional requirements for raising spawn do make the game play more challenging.

I'm just going to poke my nose in here to say that there are two ways to move Sims onto lots, one will move them on to completely empty lots. I'm really tired and not thinking real well, but isn't it in Edit Town mode that they can't move onto an empty lot? If that's the case, then they can move onto an empty lot via the menu that has the option for switching the active family. If that's not the case it's the other way around.

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. It's for Sims who are moving out, though. It gives you options for: move into another house, move onto empty lot, or kick out (make homeless).

In my game, I can just edit a lot and it will stay available, regardless of whether or not I actually did anything. Or is it that I changed the designation from community to residential? >_> Honestly, I'm not sure what does it. But I'm pretty darn sure I don't have a bunch of fences or whatever just sitting around on random lots.

It also works for Sims straight from the bin. That's how I get most of my Sims on their lots because I generally move them onto an empty lot that costs a fortune, which leaves them no money for a house.