I put this in N99's challenge section and thought I'd stick it in here too on the off-chance anyone is interested (it might be too complicated for everyone, but we're having fun with it.) One caveat, you'd want to take out Pescado's No Playable Shoppers if you're using it for this challenge... playable shoppers being the point. You all should have an easier time living for awhile without a toilet and shower if necessary, having done that already. Anyway, it's an idea.
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After managing to interest my husband in the sims with the Lonely Shopkeeper Challenge, I wanted to keep him interested with a challenge and add back a few of the more simsish things (romances, babies and the like
so we came up with this challenge and are having fun with it. I thought some other people might like it too, so I'm putting it up here. We haven't played all the way through yet, so it's possible the rules need some tweaking and such, but we've gone a fair way and it is possible to do. I've also never made up a challenge before, so I could have major messed up - just let me know if I did and I'll try and fix it.
Stylish Shoppers
The Goal:
Completely furnish and decorate 4 houses with 1 Nursery, 1 Child or Teen Bedroom, 1 Adult Bedroom, Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room, Study, 2 Bathrooms and "Deck" or outdoor area with items bought autonomously by your sims.
Getting started:
There are 2 starting options, depending on how difficult you like to make things on your sims. In any case, create a new neighborhood (either a Maxis neighborhood or your own, it doesn't matter). You may delete all characters if you like - this will make it easier for your sims to buy things (they don't have to compete with townies) but harder on your business owners (they don't have as many customers). You may use the notownieregen hack (or something similar) if you like and you may remove it at any time.
Create 8 CAS sims. Place them in houses (build them or use whatever you have in the lot bin, it doesn't matter). If there are any furnishings in the house, delete them (including lights). You may keep the wallpaper, floors, doors and windows (or add any of your choice) and you may place a phone and a bookcase. (A small gain in finances from having some extra furnishings that you sell is fine - if some house gives you a lot of extra money for some reason, use the familyfunds cheat to bring that household back in line with the others. Everyone starts with 20k, of course.)
Option 1: If you can play a sim a few days without a toilet and a bed, make them buy every item that can be bought. We strongly suggest you Delete All Characters if you're going to play this way - otherwise it could be a very long time before you get essentials. Even using DAC, our last sim didn't have a bed until the end of the 4th day and that can be kind of difficult to play.
Option 2: If you can't bear to have your sims be unhappy that long, you may place the cheapest toilet and the cheapest single bed to start with.
If you put up stories and pictures or anything, tell us which option you're using
The Businesses:
Have no more than 4 of the sims start home businesses. You may place a counter and cash register, and an open/closed sign for the business. Each business will sell items to furnish one room only (bathroom OR bedroom items, not both). Business owners may buy for their home any item they are selling (so if you're selling toilets, your owner may have a toilet). Once they have chosen the items, however, they can't change their mind (if they bought a shower and their comfort is low, they can't turn around and buy a tub instead). They must sell items in a variety of colors, and as much as they have room to stock. Any sim running a business may NOT have a job.
A sim may change the items they sell once a sim week (this week, bathroom, next week bedroom) if they wish, and at that time they may again choose items from their stock for their own houses. They may also open venues or whatever kind of business they choose (as long as it's residential) but it must be "themed" and they cannot have a nightclub that sells beds, for example. It has to make sense. After the first week, you may also open appropriately themed mixed stores, such as a small appliance shop, or a store that sells lights, music store, nursery, etc. but they must make sense as a theme.
The Play:
Any sim not running a business may (and probably should) get a job. Now play these households in rotation (you'll want to play the businesses first) for one sim day each and let your sims autonomously buy the things they need that you currently have for sale and then live with just those items. A business owner may use any means available to him (short of cheating) to convince your other playable sim customers to buy the things they need. You may only sell toilets until everyone has one, if you like (but if you want a shower for your business owner, you can't place it until you're also selling it
Feel free to show them items, hard sell and dazzle away, whatever you can do. Sims may not buy anything from the catalogue other than the things listed above.
The sims should live as normally as possible. They may fall in love and get married. A sim that has a job may move in with a business owner or vice versa. They may put everything they own in inventory and bring them along. The sims may buy another house if they can afford it (eventually they'll need a house large enough to meet the goal). If the business owner moves, he or she must open the business again at the new lot and cannot change stock unless it's at the end of the week. At the end of the week, a sim may close his business and get a job and another sim may open a business if you like. You may never have more than 4 businesses. Dating and marrying NPCs is fine. Eventually the sims will have children (hopefully by this time someone is selling nursery items). Any child you like may inherit the first generation's furnishings, or they may divide them among all their children - however you'd like to do it.
The Rules:
No money cheats of any kind. No need or aspiration cheats of any kind and no aspiration rewards that improve moods, needs, or add money (you can use the one that changes your LTW or things for role-playing purposes). You may have any custom content you like and are encouraged to have and sell lots of decorative items (to make the houses look more interesting when furnished). You must keep the stores reasonably restocked (no convincing a sim to buy something by not having anything else at all for sale) and offer as much color variety for each item as possible.
You may use any hack that doesn't make any aspect of the game easier. Business owner sims may sell clothes and other items usually found on community lots. You may use any hack you like to enable this. If you do not use these kinds of hacks, you may buy clothes and cell phones/handholds/mp3 players, games, and perfume from community lots. You may not buy any house furnishings from a community lot, nor may any of your sims run a community business.
There must be at least 8 children born to the initial generation. If children are taken by the social worker, they must be replaced. When the first generation dies, there must be at least 8 new playable sims. (Not all sims must have children and any sim may have more than one - the limit is how many total sims, not who has them.) Choose 8 sims of the second generation to play in the same way. There may never be more than 4 businesses open at a time. This generation must also have at least 8 children. Again, choose 8 sims to play - 4 business lots and 4 others. Play ends when the 3rd generation reaches elder status.
Points:
When the game ends, you need 4 houses that have at least 3 bedrooms (1 furnished as a nursery, 1 as a child's/teens room, and 1 as an adult room), 2 bathrooms, kitchen, separate dining room, living room, separate den, a study and an outdoor area. You receive:
1 point for each major item necessary to furnish each room (i.e., a point each for a toilet, shower OR bathtub (not a point for each) and sink).
2 points for each different "decorative" item in that room (i.e. a painting, handtowel or toothbrush). (You do not get an extra point for buying two towels, all the items must be different).
2 points for each career reward on that lot.
5 points if the furnishings in a room match in color or decorating scheme (we're not looking for miracles, they just have to look right together
.
5 points for each sim platinum gravestone on the lot.
5 points for any sim in the first generation that reached permaplat.
10 for every business under 4 you start with (if you start with only 3, that's 10, 2 and you get 20 etc.)
10 points for every starting business that doesn't sell basic need items (a venue or clothes store etc.)
10 points for each extra room completely furnished (a music room, conservatory, family room, whatever else you can think of etc.)
-10 points for each listed room that is not in a house or not furnished at all.
-5 points for each major item missing in a room.
-2 points for not having any decorative items in a room.
-2 points for forgetting curtains or lights
We may need to add to the list of point values, or tweak it some - we haven't played through the whole game yet. Let us know if we're forgetting something important.
Notes On Glitches:
Some items still glitch in inventories. We've had trouble with beds. If a sim buys a bed and when you get home with it, it doesn't work, just sell it and buy exactly the same bed (or whatever other item) from the catalogue.
We are not sure if items occasionally disappear from inventories or not. It's hard to keep track, but sometimes seems like we sold something to a sim, then they buy a bunch of other stuff from another shop and the first item is no longer in their inventory when we go to play them. To minimize this, we've taken to opening all the sims after a business owner plays and placing the items in their inventory, so they start fresh before another store owner sells anything.
If you have any other glitches, you may do whatever is necessary to fix them.
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