Pinstar's new Apocalypse challenge

[Alvaron]

If one of my founders were broke, I would use any hack or cheat necessary to fix them without feeling the slightest bit guilty. Did you try deleting her and resetting her and the lot debugger and everything?

I could've refreshed her bars using moveobjects on but I felt like that violated the spirit of the challenge. Besides, I messed up by letting her oversleep so it was incumbent on me to figure out something, and I did. I had some anxious moments while she waited for the carpool, I can tell you that. My founder is my rock and my challenge household wouldn't work half as well as it does without her. If she'd died, I would've soldiered on and the paranormal track would've suddenly become a lot more important in my scheme. 

<has the lot debugger on every lot and refuses to do without it in much the same way others can't live without the phone hack - sorry but a broken game is *broken* not an "advantage">

I understand. Your use of J.M.'s lot debugger doesn't bother me one bit. I had to evict my family once in this attempt when the middle of the 2nd floor family room (only the most highly trafficked area in the house) developed a "black hole" of four blocked tiles due to a bug in the meditation teleport function. I curse Pinstar for his injunction against using birthday cakes because everyone knows that the infant->toddler grow up code is buggy. Well, I found another one. Never ever teleport into the house while someone else is holding an infant helping them grow up. It screwed up my house thoroughly and I wasted two hours trying to fix the broken tiles with buyable fire, raising and lowering the floor, and every other kinky thing you can imagine. Nothing worked so I ended up having to "cheat" by loading up and evicting them.

Here's a newsflash: after that meltdown, I started to use birthday cakes to grow up my infants because I will not put up with more bugginess from Maxis. I didn't allow anyone to eat the cake but I used them and I'll do so again rather than tempt the fates.
[/quote]

It's on Shoo Flee.

I tried to login there to get the URL for that posting but the site refused my login. They must be having problems.

I wish there was *one* place where Pinstar put everything.

In theory, that's what the official site is supposed to be. But that's only a theory. 

I just play by the rules I like. I don't want snapdragons (too easy), I do want jello (too hard without) <shrug> so that's the way I'll do it (I had culinary all along tho, so I mean for next time).

And that's what you should do. It's your challenge and I think that, as long as you play within the spirit of the challenge, the minutia of the details are unimportant. I know you're not supposed to do "sneaky satellite" foo and that having your founder get abducted while she's still in college isn't supposed to unlock alien technology but Pinstar's rules are ambiguous. They need clarification and that's why I bring up these weird ideas.

To be honest, Pinstar needs a dose of Pescado to make the challenge... well, challenging. I think Pinstar wimped out when he relaxed the Law Enforcement restrictions on teen Body skill requirements. You can bet El Presidente wouldn't have cut us any slack. 

Also, is there any rule against using the changing table to change the toddler's clothes?

None of which I'm aware. If you want to change them into their everyday wear, you can. You can plan outfits for them if you wish.

[Alvaron]

I don't have the lot debugger... actually have never heard of it.. I currently have a fresh install of the game with NO additions, after having to reinstall due to defunct hard-drive.

You're braver than I am. I absolutely will not play the game without the critical bugfixes from J.M. and Twojeffs. I guess maybe that's because my first four attempts to do the Legacy Challenge back in the early days of TS2 all ended in failure when the lots became too buggy to play. 

It was really weird how the newspaper was working. (or NOT rather)

The first day she had a problem, there was only *2* jobs in the paper...  I thought that was odd, but that it might be a 1 time glitch due to it wanting to offer a college job, and her being a non-grad adult.
The next day, she was tired and I thought when she looked at the paper and then put it away without it showing job offers that she was just too tired to job hunt.

Those things are normal, as far as I know.

Edit: I take that back. If you're willing, next time you play your challenge house, do an experiment. Have an adult get the newspaper and try to do a "Find Own Place". If that action fails (as in, the sim folds up the paper and the taxi never comes), then it's my sad obligation to tell you that your neighborhood has become corrupted. If the move out works, then it's not a problem with corruption of the neighborhood files. Just move the sim back in and use the familyFunds command to reconcile your family's bank account.

The next day or several a zombie stold it out of the yard before she could look for a job.

Pause the game after the paper boy delivers it and put it on top of your house until your sim is ready to job hunt. The zombies'll have a tough time stealing it off the roof.  If you have a proper roof on your house, make an attic by painting the floor tiles of the top level with the roof already on and park the newspaper in there 'til your sims need it.

The next day, as she carried the newspaper into the house a zombie walked by and picked the paper off the ground, and it disappeared out of her hands. (THAT was annoying)

Dunno about that one. Might be a bug.

I DO hate bugs.

Amen.

[daedreem]

I don't have the lot debugger... actually have never heard of it.. I currently have a fresh install of the game with NO additions, after having to reinstall due to defunct hard-drive.

You're braver than I am. I absolutely will not play the game without the critical bugfixes from J.M. and Twojeffs. I guess maybe that's because my first four attempts to do the Legacy Challenge back in the early days of TS2 all ended in failure when the lots became too buggy to play. 

I've either been very lucky, or too limitted in my playing time to develop the really serious bugs. I've had sims 2 since day 1 and never encountered most of the horrible bugs I've read and dreaded about... I DID have the bugged car portal that prevented jobs and school busses from arriving several times, however. (cursed buggy Maxis Book Cleanup code!)

Can I get a link to this fabulous, can't live without it hack/fix?

It was really weird how the newspaper was working. (or NOT rather)

The first day she had a problem, there was only *2* jobs in the paper...  I thought that was odd, but that it might be a 1 time glitch due to it wanting to offer a college job, and her being a non-grad adult.
The next day, she was tired and I thought when she looked at the paper and then put it away without it showing job offers that she was just too tired to job hunt.

Those things are normal, as far as I know.

3 jobs is normal for a newspaper.
Tired Sims, the normal is "I'm NOT in the mood to do that! Uh-Uh!".. not opening up the paper, looking into it, folding it up, and putting it back down.
Not unless my game is NORMALLY ab-normal.

I also tested with her having full bars with the same result. Even with the computer. She'd sit at it, and lose the 'look for job' interaction.

The next day or several a zombie stold it out of the yard before she could look for a job.

Pause the game after the paper boy delivers it and put it on top of your house until your sim is ready to job hunt. The zombies'll have a tough time stealing it off the roof.  If you have a proper roof on your house, make an attic by painting the floor tiles of the top level with the roof already on and park the newspaper in there 'til your sims need it.

I might start doing that.. but I generally make my sims do everything for themselves, instead of moving things around for them, which has occaisionally resulted in a bugged object for me.

The next day, as she carried the newspaper into the house a zombie walked by and picked the paper off the ground, and it disappeared out of her hands. (THAT was annoying)

Dunno about that one. Might be a bug.

Maybe..

I DO hate bugs.

Amen.

Amen Amen!! LOL

[Alvaron]

Can I get a link to this fabulous, can't live without it hack/fix?

Check The Armory for the critical UNI/Orig TS2 fixes. I'd install those for sure. Peruse the other offerings there for the other hacks and fixes. Unless you like the friends of your Sims driving you crazy with their idiotiic "Why haven't you called me?" bleats, I highly recommend the phone hack. Look in The Firing Range for the latest and greatest modifications and improvements by FFS to the game. It's been my experience that most of the mods by J.M. and Doctor Boris are safe to install into your game. If a mod can cause a fiery ball visible from space in your game, J. M. is very good about saying so.

I also recommend checking Twojeffs' area on this site. His work is quite good also and I love his Casual Romance mod for those trailer trash 'hoods I play. 

I also tested with her having full bars with the same result. Even with the computer. She'd sit at it, and lose the 'look for job' interaction.

That doesn't sound good. Try the experiment I outlined in my previous post (I editted that posting after I thought about what you said). I do hope your neighborhood isn't bugged because I've been there and done that.

I might start doing that.. but I generally make my sims do everything for themselves, instead of moving things around for them, which has occaisionally resulted in a bugged object for me.

I admit to a certain amount of micro-management when I'm playing a scored challenge because the Maxian notion of 'free will' is a frightening concept. Whatever it is that 'free will' decides to do, you can pretty much bet that it's the wrong choice for the situation at hand. For example,

"No! Get out of the bathroom. You really don't need to play in the bathtub right this instant since your daughter needs to shower so she can do her homework."

Or, "Um... did you really need to hold the baby for five hours while the children asked repeatedly, 'Where's supper, mom?'"? 

I'm not compulsive nor obsessive. Just let me queue up another six or seven commands for each of my li'l virtual people and I'll be right with you. Anal, you said? Nah, not me. I'm not anal, everybody should play TS2 this way! 

[Kyna]

I'm not compulsive nor obsessive. Just let me queue up another six or seven commands for each of my li'l virtual people and I'll be right with you. Anal, you said? Nah, not me. I'm not anal, everybody should play TS2 this way! 

There's another way to play TS2?  What an astounding idea!

I had that same problem with a sim who wouldn't find a job in the paper.  Other sims could, but she couldn't.  I even clicked her mood bars to full (I always play with debug mode on) and she still wouldn't, so it wasn't a matter of being borderline "I'm in a bad mood".  She'd pick up the paper, sit in a chair, open it, fold it, put it down.  In the end I just had another sim look at the paper every day, and when her chosen career track came up I cheated her into it at level 1.  I think it's ok to cheat to work around glitches ... and I did wait until the day her job came up.

[Alvaron]

I have the end of the challenge in sight. It's Day 54 and the first clump of five graduates from La Fiesta Tech has returned home, unlocking Athletics (3rd gen heiress' husband), NatSci, Slacker, Life of Crime and Politics. My heir who's degreed for Law Enforcement is at home, ready to unlock when that career shows up on the computer. The last toddler will age into a child tomorrow so I could finish as early as Day 62 but it'll probably be a day or two after that given the vagaries of what jobs are offered.

I suppose the biggest surprise for me was the 2nd gen heir's wife getting abducted by aliens the night following the NatSci unlock. I really didn't expect it and had no particular need for the aspiration rewards (though I certainly won't hesitate to use a SimVac to snarf up skills off visiting YAs at the college house -- I just love popping the cow with that thing  . I mean, why kill it when you can steal it blind? "Ventrilofart me, will you?  ).

I think I'll do some fiddling with house designs. I love the floating stilt house that I used for both the "legacy" lot and the college lot but I hate stairs so I'll happily demolish it in favor of something more to my liking. I'll package the house and upload it to the Exchange if anyone's interested before demolition. My handle on the TS2 BBS is alvaron53.

Some random thoughts about the challenge:

a) With OFB, Culinary+Military can be a very fast track. Think about it and you'll figure out why.
b) Stink won't kill your Sims (though they might wish you were dead  ) but starvation will.
c) I still want to investigate Show Biz + Military as an opening pair of unlocks. With six 2nd gen males who all look alike, I wanted to 'change appearance' so bad I could taste it. 
d) If your strategy involves birthing lots of simkids, is there anything better than Smart Milk to bring back home with your founder?
e) The Paranormal restrictions are pretty limp in the face of elixir, at least with a YA start. I'd like to see Paranormal be more important, perhaps like the cross-linking between NatSci and the Slacker career reward.

Have fun!

[Kyna]

Even without elixir, paranormal is pretty limp.   Most ghosts won't use the stairs, so the foundation or stilts rule is counterproductive if Pinstar wanted paranormal to have any bite.

In my first run-through my elders all died at a remote corner of the lot - and I had no inside ghosts except for one ghost who was out the night his grandchild was born, and he was called up to the nursery floor to see the birth.  After that he would occasionally come inside while none of the other ghosts were able to cross the foundation.  But he didn't get a chance to do it too often as I was able to put in a water feature around the graves soon afterwards.

Second run-through the founder was a vamp.  Nobody died - she never married and her kids moved out after they lifted their restriction.  Paranormal was the obvious last choice.

In my third run-through, the elders meditated and then teleported to the flat roof to die.  No way to get down to scare anybody.  Paranormal restriction was worthless.

[rhodaloo]

Athough most of my elders died at the far corner of the lot, I had ghosts who CLIMBED the stairs.  I saw every ghost in the bedroom/bathroom  area (3rd floor).  They were annoying me to no end so Paranormal was unlocked sooner than I had planned.

[Sketch Elder]

I had that same problem with a sim who wouldn't find a job in the paper. She'd pick up the paper, sit in a chair, open it, fold it, put it down.

This seems to happen when the Sim looking for a job is a nongraduate and all three jobs in the paper are University. My Sims have always been able to find a job in the next paper.

Have to agree that Paranormal is almost meaningless. Most people unlock Military pretty early, which means the Sims can move out when they get close to death. There's no reason to even have ghosts if you don't want them, unless you have a surprise death. I like the idea of teleporting to the roof, though.

Unlocking Business was great. Got rid of all the things they can't use, including a burn-proof EDS that's been there since the founder married. Upgraded the car. I'm now allowing Outings with anyone instead of restricting them to family members. Also, the family is finally collecting the remote income from the founder's business, almost §300K the first two nights. They hired a maid to pick up the old newspapers and clean the toilet.

Turns out that the founder's business really wasn't much help. I only spent about §50K building the house and my founder had that much before he started the business. The remote income wasn't available after the founder moved, until he returned to the business, but the family has been gaining money without it. I expected huge losses from the 'protection money' and the chance cards but that never happened. I unlocked Slacker early (2nd) and they only had to play one chance card (lost 2 Charisma). I've also been very careful about buying anything over §100, so the 'protection money' has never been a problem either.

[Kyna]

I had that same problem with a sim who wouldn't find a job in the paper. She'd pick up the paper, sit in a chair, open it, fold it, put it down.

This seems to happen when the Sim looking for a job is a nongraduate and all three jobs in the paper are University. My Sims have always been able to find a job in the next paper.

In my case, the sim WAS a graduate, and couldn't find any jobs in the paper.  It was definitely a glitch as her sister could find jobs in the same newspaper on the same day.  It was her sister who eventually saw the politics job that the glitched sim was after - the glitched sim couldn't see any jobs in the paper that day.  It was CLEARLY a glitch.  So I felt no guilt when I cheated the glitched sim into level 1 politics (even though she was summa cum laude political major) on the day her sister saw politics come up in the paper.

I didn't mind playing the chance cards.  I thought of them as free cash and I still answered them even when I didn't need to (after all, once you've unlocked slacker it doesn't matter if you lose your job).  I played the cards carefully using the idea of "only gamble what you can afford to lose" - if the losing option on either answer was loss of job, then I took the other answer.  Apart from the loss-of-job cards: for the 50/50 cards I weighed up the losses (e.g. stats loss is worse than cash loss, so avoid), and for the 85/15 cards I went for the 85% chance.  In one day I had a husband and wife bring home 90k in chance cards, and I found that always playing chance cards reduced the crime restriction to a tedious irritation I had to do each week that wasn't anywhere close to hurting my sim family.  When your family are millionaires (from chance cards, no business involved) then how is a few thousand in protection money going to hurt them?

[Sagana]

I don't mind the chance cards - I've always thought they were kinda fun, and I almost always play them normally anyway (rather than skipping). I don't have anything that tells me the consequences and some of them I know just from playing a lot, but I'm old and forgetful and forget most of them anyway. I just choose whatever I think that particular sim would be most inclined to do in that situation. One of mine lost 2 body, which was rather a hassle and once we lost all our money and were down to 0, but it was right after we'd paid protection and was just kinda interesting making sure we earned enough before the next sunday.

Haven't lost a job yet, which is good - I wouldn't like that. I'm playing much slower than you all though - I've still only got the oldest two kids (generation 2 I guess if you count the founder) that are adults yet, and neither have maxed their career. And this is still my first playthrough - I'm planning on doing it again, possibly several times, but at least once as I'm not bored with it yet :)

I guess I just like to make life hard on my sims - for the challenge of making it work anyway.

[daedreem]

I'm glad this thread is finally back!

Anyway...
I was finally able to get the mom her job...  3 days prior to elderhood.
During the end of that day, and her next 2 days off, and the day she was supposed to go to work, she worked on her body.. I'd HOPED I could get her to work LATE with 10 body points...  but no such good luck. She was still 1.5 short when I got the 'you missed work' notice and she had to quit.

That night, her son grew from teen to adult, and while he flirted with the new sim I'd decided he'd marry instead of the original I'd planned on, her husband got abducted. If he'd been abducted ONE DAY earlier, she could have made her 10 body!! Energizers and thinking caps would have made it a non issue.  oh well.

The next morning, her son married his new bride, and got the 3rd generation started. (good, cause dad wants 6 grandkids.)
That night HE got abducted, and got member #2 of generation #3 on the way.

Days later, no births quite yet, but he STILL doesn't have a job... and his wife has managed the top of the politics career.

He's still trying to get his job in militarty.. he was originally going to do politics, but SHE was already high in politics when he married her....  The paper hasn't yet offered either military OR politics. I missed having him look one day, because as he looked at the paper to get a job, it disappeared again...  Dang Zombie Mutant paper teleporting abilities.

anyway.. my sims are enjoying the recharge offered by the energizers, and the fast learning offered by the thinking caps. my heir has even obtained level 10 body for his lazy 2 point activity self.

[Jack Rudd]

For extra Crazy Challenge goodness, combine Apocalypse with Sleeping Through College.

[Alvaron]

Done, challenge completed in 63 days. The game apparently decided to torture me one final time since it refused to offer Show Business for two days.  The challenge was fun though running two more batches of YAs through college was terribly boring and took too long.

I'm off to install OFB and then argue with my Downloads folder until I get everything properly updated. Have fun!

[Sagana]

Well I'm certainly not winning on time. I'm just starting week 8 now, 4 things unlocked (medical, culinary, military and law enforcement) and my heir is pregnant (2 bumps). The 3 youngest kids got sent off to college the second the heir got to general and got married (her now hubby was cpt. hero), and her parents moved out of the house.

Her next youngest brother lost his job to a bad chance card (he was in politics) - so now he's an athlete. Bit of slow down unlocking with that. He also lost his opportunity at perma plat, but too bad for him. I am finding that (still without aspiration awards) I can't always manage the platinum and promotion every day which messes up the schedule badly. If they get the promotion, they usually don't have too many days off (weekends), but without it, we're sometimes stuck for several days

Next after that (Veron) is my only knowledge sim - he took a huge aspiration hit when he went to adult without Uni, and I couldn't *quite* get him to max out the skill he was working on first (he just refused :p), but fortunately he wanted the science job, it was easy enough to find, and maxing the skill put him back platinum. Only had to listen to him cry for a few min.

Next time I play, I'll run the 3 kids through Uni. So I still have the 5 babies of the next generation to go - all the pregnancy, infant, toddler and child before they're teen and could immediately send them to college and home again, then get to the jobs.

That's a lot more days. Having to live through the teen years slowed me down a lot, but even so, you were amazingly fast.

[Sagana]

I'm not editing my previous post as this one is differenter :)

I've been playing around with numbers, and the fastest I see that one could do the challenge within what I see as the rules is 54 days (I have not been counting the days in Uni, only after the apocalypse). Start with a male heir who marries a female already at the top of her career (so she can have babies). She gets pregnant on the first day and has a male that is the heir.  That sim goes through as fast as possible, marries a female already at the top of her career who needs 5 children. When that 5th child reaches the top of his or her career, all the restrictions are lifted.

Founder's wife & heir
Pregnant - 3
Infant - 3
Toddler - 4
Child - 8
Teen - 1 (then force aged to adult)

So far: 19 days

Heir's wife, married and pregnant day 1
Pregnant through 5 kids - 15 days

So far: 34 days

The last baby:
infant - 3
toddler - 4
child - 8
teen - 1

So far:  50 days

Let's say this kid goes to Uni - I'm not sure how to count it, but I added a teen day for both teens so let's say 1 day
Gets a job from the computer, far up the list, so 2 or 3 days to hit the top, counting 3

That's a total of 54 days - skipping all the teen years, and assuming no one loses jobs and gets behind the last kid and he gets to the top that quickly and all pregnancies come 3 days apart, and everything works perfectly etc. A best case scenario.

Hmm, twins would make it faster. Anyone see any other way to cut the time? Am I missing anything?

If you play the teen years rather than skipping them, the best case scenario is 30 days longer - 15 days for the heir as a teen and 15 days for the last kid, or only 15 days longer if the last kid immediately goes to Uni. So either 69 days or 84 days.

I suck at math, so if anyone notices an addition error, please mention it :) I'm also undoubtedly failing to see some big strategy... what'd I miss?

[Jelenedra]

Force aging toddlers and chidlren a day early as soon as you get the message about their birthday will save you a day at each life stage.

[Sagana]

Ah good point, so that's 50 days would be a top score? Is pregnancy 3 days or 4? I've always counted it as 3, but I'm not sure if the birth comes on the 4th day?

[Sketch Elder]

You aren't the only one taking it slow, sagana. My founding generation (gen 0) has just died, the first two kids in the first generation have completed careers, along with the first generation spouse, making 5 careers completed (Show Business, Slacker, Military, Business, Science). The third kid from gen 1 is in college. I expect she'll complete her career a day or two after she comes home, since it's already on the computer. The heir's wife had her first baby a day ago, so the second generation has just begun. Currently at 8 weeks and 2 days (58 days).
Are you ignoring Hopelessness? The earliest that can be lifted, that I can see, is on Wednesday, two days after move-in. You would have to start with a level 4 Natural Scientist on Monday, get two promotions in two days, then get lucky on a chance card. That means the founder can't marry until at least Wednesday afternoon, which adds at least two days.

There's no reason to spend a day as a Teen. Do Military as one of the first two careers. Apply for scholarships and send the Teens to college the same day they grow up if you're trying to minimize time. The other first career should obviously be Scientist, so that your Sims can start at level 9 and complete their careers in minimum time, then move out to make room for someone else. Of course, that means your founder can't be a Natural Scientist so you'll need more time for unlocking Hopelessness, probably at least 6 more days.

I only see 9 Sims in your calculations (founder, founder's wife, heir, heir's wife, 5 kids) and there are 14 careers. You'll need at least another four, even if there's a third spouse. There's also a household size limit of 8 Sims, so the extra 5 kids might require extra time.

There's no requirement to have three generations. It might be faster if the founder and spouse produce all the children, using Elixir or vampirism to remain Adults.
Thought I'd point out a few of the restrictions which aren't quite as restrictive as they might first seem to be.
"Showers and bathtubs of all types may not be purchased or used at home or on a commmunity lot." Other places, such as the Secret Society headquarters, would be okay.
"Sims may not purchase robots, including Servos. Servos may not be moved in or activated." No restriction on using robots, other than Servos, if you already have them. (Maybe you'd want to bring a Munchiebot with you from college?)
"No items from the 'Wall Hanging', 'Sculpture' or 'Rugs' tabs may be bought." No restrictions on use if you obtain them by other methods, such as Date and Outing gifts.
"Sims may not purchase aspiration reward objects." No restriction on using them. Your founder might as well stock up the Secret Society headquarters before leaving college, since he's not likely to ever need those points afterwards.

I assume the wording of all these restrictions is deliberate. It would have been much easier to just use the same wording throughout, and always restrict both the purchase and use of things, but it's obvious that Pinstar put much thought and care into deciding exactly how severe each restriction should be and exactly where they should apply.

[Sagana]

Are you ignoring Hopelessness?

Yep, I forgot to add in the days for that - I'd count 3 days for top of the career at least, so adding 3.

There's no reason to spend a day as a Teen. Do Military as one of the first two careers. Apply for scholarships and send the Teens to college the same day they grow up if you're trying to minimize time.

Well I'm playing you hafta lift law enforcement as well as Uni to go to college (but not school on the bus) - but if you aren't playing that way, this would work. The other way is to use elixir to force age the teens to adult the day they grow up. Ok, let's take out the 2 teen days, and add the 3 for hopelessness (or 2 if you prefer), so I'm seeing 50 or 51 days as a top score.

I only see 9 Sims in your calculations (founder, founder's wife, heir, heir's wife, 5 kids) and there are 14 careers. You'll need at least another four, even if there's a third spouse. There's also a household size limit of 8 Sims, so the extra 5 kids might require extra time.

The rest of them are there, it's just that there's no need to count the time for them. They're the founders other kids. The founder and spouse have 6 kids - that's 8 restrictions, and the heir and spouse have 5 (with spouse, a total of 6 more) for all 14, and probably alien tech as well, if you can get an abduction.  By the time the heir starts having kids, the aunts and uncles are in college - so all that really counts is the heirs last child - the last time restriction (and making sure they move out fast enough, so the heir can keep having babies.)

I'm trying to think if it'd be faster if you had the founder have all of them. If you lifted military (and law enforcement if you're playing that way) first, so all the kids could go to Uni the minute they hit teen. The timing is pretty good - 18 days for 6 kids and the oldest hits teen at 15 days, so moves to Uni and there's room for another. You need enough elixir brought back from Uni to keep the founder (or spouse) young enough to have them - you could bring 3 containers. But as you have to bring them back from college and keep them there until they unlock their restriction, you might get stuck with a too full house. I'm not sure, it might be another was at uni leaving a space every time. Would require careful timing, and my (sucky) math skills aren't this good

Let's see, if you can work out the timing and life-extending stuff, let's say the founder or spouse has 12 kids, 3 days apart. So 3 days to lift hopelessness, 3 days each for 12 children, that's 39.  The baby's life is the sticking point so 3 days he or she is an infant, 3 toddler and 7 child (growing them up as soon as possible.) I'm counting 52 there. Then let's say 3 days to get him to the top of his career, that'd be 55? and we're at 50 or 51 for 2 generations? Seems longer to me, unless I missed something?

EDIT: Actually I need to add 3 days to the "heir" part for the 2nd generation as the next generation can't have a child until the next teen is old enough to go to college (3 days later). *AND* that would be having a child without moving the spouse in until the *next* child goes to Uni, so it could be 6 more days. I'll amend to - I think a top score would be 55ish days either way you played it.

[Sketch Elder]

There's no reason to spend a day as a Teen. Do Military as one of the first two careers. Apply for scholarships and send the Teens to college the same day they grow up if you're trying to minimize time.

Well I'm playing you hafta lift law enforcement as well as Uni to go to college

I was assuming you'll have the Sims max Body skill as Children, since you'll have the Obstacle Course available, so Law Enforcement doesn't prevent them from leaving the lot as Teens.

[Alvaron]

...the fastest I see that one could do the challenge within what I see as the rules is 54 days...

54 is a good estimate. The challenge can be done faster with OFB and the correct unlock sequence. And, no, I'm not talking about l33t solutions a la J.M.P. and his magical mystery tour Day 0 wins either. Think about it and you'll figure out why.

Cheers,
--Alvaron

[Kyna]

I was going to post that I'd been thinking about this since you last posted that OFB + culinary + military was a good strategy and I hadn't figured it out yet ... but then the penny finally dropped.  That's "too cute" as they say on the BBS   Juggling the house size limit would add some time to your alternate strategy though.

[Sagana]

hm, the limiting factor is the aging sequence - pregnancy, infant, toddler, child. Grow up cheat would be a cheat, I'd think. The birthday cake gives you the same day 'grow up' does (and it's not an OFB thing, is it?)

Ok, I don't get it...

[Kyna]

Your calculations are assuming that all the births are single births.  I did put a hint in my last post.  I've been pondering this for days, and only got it as I was writing my last post (which was going to be the same as yours "I don't get it")