Pinstar's new Apocalypse challenge

[Ivy]

Since your founder at Uni is under no restrictions, there should be no reason why the founder doesn't already have a snapdragon in their inventory, not to mention way more than enough money saved up to buy another flower station as soon as the restriction is lifted.

While at Uni if they are on their business lot they don't have to go to class, and a small lot can be had very cheaply.  Put a ticket machine on there, a few inexpensive items (flamingos for example) to start with, and charge folks to come kick your flamingos.   Don't worry about "sales" interactions; just let the people come.  Spend your time then working on your flower badge to get the snapdragons.  Sell off the flowers you make in buy mode until then to make more money to add back into the business.  As you get more capital, add in a few more inexpensive items to your lot (swingsets are a wonder!) and raise your prices.  Use the small fridge on the lot, make several meals of lunch meat sandwiches immediately in a row, stick them in your inventory and get them out as needed.  Sell back the fridge after you've made as many meals out of it as you can to regain the entire amount.  Use espresso for your energy. 

In order to gain capital to start your venture, spend a little time your first semester on your community lot at Uni playing in the band.  Grades don't matter, you can earn more money playing in the band than you can from your dean's list.  You should be focused on building skills and making friends/potential mate anyway, all of which can be done at your business lot.  There's no reason why you shouldn't have at least one level 10 business by the time you leave Uni, making a ton of money this way.

Once you have your coveted snapdragons, all you have to worry about then at Uni is energy, which is well covered by working the espresso machines correctly.  Back home they'll have a bed for energy.

Before you leave Uni, make sure you've hired a manager for your lot.  The business restriction only states "Your Sims may not start their own business or purchase community lots".   It does not state that you cannot already have a business in existance.  The second item in your inventory from Uni will therefore be the deed to your business lot.  At least one of the other two items should be a snapdragon bouquet.  The moment Natural Science is unlocked you'll already have one snapdragon bouquet ready to be able to start mass producing more snapdragon bouquets for the rest of the lot since you'll already have the talent badge and money necessary to do so

Since you may purchase a phone, and phone calls to a business lot are not restricted, you may still call to check in with your business to gain the cash from it.

That's my 2cents for now on the matter.

Ivy

[J. M. Pescado]

While at Uni if they are on their business lot they don't have to go to class, and a small lot can be had very cheaply.  Put a ticket machine on there, a few inexpensive items (flamingos for example) to start with, and charge folks to come kick your flamingos.   Don't worry about "sales" interactions; just let the people come.  Spend your time then working on your flower badge to get the snapdragonse fridge after you've made as many meals out of it as you can to regain the entire amount.  Use espresso for your energy.

Flower Badgecraft can be earned just fine on your regular Uni lot. If you're doing pre-Fallout business, the idea is just to get lots of money, but there's plenty of ways to get more money than you'll ever know what to do with before even leaving Uni. And still get a 4.0, if you want. I'm gonna wait until the ruleset gets finalized, then I'm going to abuse it some more.

[Ivy]

When I stated 'grades don't matter', effectively they don't.  Since you can only get a level 1 job out of the newspaper, getting a 4.0 isn't going to help you once you finish Uni.  You only have to do well enough to continue staying in Uni until you've completed all you want to there.  And as we all know, it only takes having enough skills (which is what you're working on anyway) and minimal effort to make passing grades.   It won't affect your future spouse's job either, unless you've chosen to unlock the Science career first, which is quite honestly not the first career I would unlock.  They too will only be able to get a job out of the newspaper.

On the business lot, it excludes all that Uni nonsense and gets to the bare bones, lets you build up a level 10 business (or several) and earn your badges as well.  You could, if played right, earn several business badges and perks while at Uni.  One of the perks of course being connections, and the other being money, both extremely useful to have.

Once you are done at the business lot, you can go back to Uni, work on your grades and still get your 4.0 if you want to, and effectively no time has passed at Uni while you've gained your level 10 business(es) and all your badges and perks.  And either there or on your business lot, you'd still have plenty of time to get your skills up.

At least one business would then be giving you continued income after you leave Uni, depending on what you decide to keep in your inventory as your 3 items.

Edit: If you look at his 3 lots, you'll see one of them (the witch's one I think) has a driveway built underneath it.  I'm assuming then that means the driveway must encompass the 8x8 area.


Ivy

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm thinking I've just thought of more abuses now. Muhahahaha. I know how to beat this challenge in about a day again.

[Ivy]

I'm thinking I've just thought of more abuses now. Muhahahaha. I know how to beat this challenge in about a day again.

You're welcome


Ivy

[J. M. Pescado]

More clarifications:

1. Does the driveway tongue need to be in the 8x8 area, since it cannot be detached, or does the 8x8 area need to be drawn to include the driveway?
2. If a bloodline member does not live on the lot, either because he moved out, or because he did not join the lot from college, does he, and can he still, unblock one of the restrictions?
3. Can a bloodline member return to the lot if moved out or returning from college, even if "Hopelessness" has not been satisfied yet?
4. Does the use of the paranormal award, explicitly permitted in the "Paranormal" restriction description, count as moving anyone in, since you do not actually move-in or marry?

[Kyna]

Since the degree is one of the three items that must be taken back ... doesn't it make more sense for the founder to drop out or fail?  He's only going to be getting a paper job when he goes back anyway, so the degree doesn't really matter.

So the idea would be for your founder to do as much as he can (in terms of money, skills, meeting future spouse and spouses of future generations), then fail uni at the last possible moment.  The downside is that the founder and spouse could not unlock any of the uni career restrictions.

[rohina]

But you can't get Natural Science from the paper. Everyone seems to be assuming you can use the computer to get jobs. Pinstar, can we get a clarification?

[Kyna]

My sims normally get jobs from the computer, so I'm not sure on this point.

But I thought you could get uni careers from the paper - you just start at a lower level.  Isn't that why there are chance cards at the lower levels of uni careers?

[Emma]

Yeah, my sim got an Uni career from the newspaper just yesterday. You do start lower but they are there

[Ivy]

You can get uni careers from the newspaper just fine if you've graduated.  It may take a while to rotate thru, so you may want to have a stash of cash just in case.

Here one of my uni grads (another lot) who is in the paranormal (also gotten from the newspaper) looks for a new job and natural scientist has come up in the SimCity Times.  Her hubby beside her is already working his way up the natural scientist career, also gotten from the newspaper, so she won't take the job, but it's there nonetheless:

clicky here for pic

The only benefit to getting it via the computer is the higher starting level.


Ivy

[Jelenedra]

My assumption for the Uni-business thing would be that...

It gets destroyed in the Fallout. Makes sense right? So while you can still have the snapdragons and whatnot in your inventory, you cannot keep your business after the fallout. Although the money perk would be nice to have.

But I would make a request that "no friends for careers" be allowed for this challenge. As it fits in the theme. No one would care about how many friends you have, they would just care about if you could do the job or not.

[Ivy]

Okay, let's assume that it does get burninated in the fallout.  Not agreeing, but let's take it from another angle:

While at Uni, you can sell the deed(s) to your lot(s) to any townie for an ungodly amount of money anyway, and it will tide you over very well.  In fact, you could do this repeatedly if you wanted to, as townies have unlimited funds.  Since you can set your own price for your deeds, the sky's the limit so to speak.  You just have to have the right perks, badges and skills to do this.  You could sell a bridge in the desert so to speak.

Unscrupulous? Perhaps.  But it is still within the rules to do so, since your founder is still at Uni when this happens.  And you'd still walk away from it with more than you need to get yourself started after the fallout.

Not to mention, you have essentially an ulimited amount of time on your hands to do so if you take advantage of your business lot(s) while your founder is at Uni, since your semester time clock will not advance while you are on them tending to your business. 


Ivy

[rohina]

I was thinking of skilling and making relationships downtown for the same reason.

[gjam]

My assumption for the Uni-business thing would be that...

It gets destroyed in the Fallout. Makes sense right? So while you can still have the snapdragons and whatnot in your inventory, you cannot keep your business after the fallout. Although the money perk would be nice to have.

I thought the premise was that only the local neighborhood was destroyed, because the founder was safe while at University? So anything at University can't have been affected.

Although, it does make a honkin' big loophole that ought to be plugged.

[rohina]

Well, the rules say that future generations will be affected by all the rules. You could interpret it as part of the challenge to make the absolute most of your time at uni.

[Fish Dude]

Its also helpful to get on academic probation  Since you replay the whole semester, you get double the time at Uni, useful time for getting badges and perks and save up on the money. Oh, and just pass when you replay the semester

[Ivy]

Skilling and making relationships downtown or anywhere other than your actual lot is an excellent idea.  Founder at uni on business lot with ticket machine on it can skill build, make money and gain relationships at the same time.   hehehe  Any time not actually spent is time spent wisely I think at a time when time is precious!

Pinstar already said to take advantage as much as possible of your founder's time at University.  These are the best possible ways I can think of to do that. 

The game limitation is that the business lots cannot be in the Uni neighborhood, they can only be in the shopping district, downtown or your normal neighborhood.  Storywise though, who's to say that the "shopping district" isn't a subhood of my University instead? It's about as likely as saying that my Uni wasn't affected by the 3 nuclear bombs that went off :p

Now, on the subject of what your founder should be as an aspiration...what do ya'll think of that? I can see strong arguments for fortune or knowledge.  You want your founder to get promoted as quickly as possible, and fortune simmies want that, they also want the skills and friends to go along with that.  Their downfall is that they also want to buy stuff.  Knowledge simmies are good for skill building; their downfall is their want to see ghosts and be saved from death.  Not so sure about others as much...family sims want to interact with their spouse/children too much rather than skill build to get promoted, eh? Good for getting their aspiration up quickly if their family members are home I suppose.  That is, if you choose to have their mate live with them...which is altogether another theory that we haven't yet touched upon much here...how do you plan on setting up the household? Would love to hear that!


Ivy

[rohina]

I was thinking of going popularity at the beginning and making tons of friends (potential spouses or spice) and then changing, most likely to knowledge, just before graduation. The challenge doesn't say anthing about aspiration at all, so this seems like a legal move. Family might also be an okay aspiration - I am thinking in terms of sims who have easy to fill wants to keep them platinum for promotions. Knowledge sims can get a bit weird once their skills are maxed.

[Ivy]

Hmmm...now there's an idea...just hit on all of them as your needs change.  Aspiration changes in Uni does seem like a good thing to do for your founder at least since they won't have any restrictions with the orb. 

Like in my case: Knowledge for when you want to build skills, going to fortune for your business, popularity for your friends and then before graduating end up as family (or fortune, still undecided)...

Ooo I like the way you're thinkin


Ivy

edit: sorry 'bout the edits...afternoon meds...bleh...

[Sketch Elder]

Grades do matter. If you graduate with a 4.0 GPA, most jobs in the newspaper will be level 3 and the ones that match your major will be level 4.

My founder will probably major in Literature or Political Science to get the maximum boost for Show Business and the possibility of picking up the Lie Detector or Obstacle Course without working. I'll make him a Popularity Sim in hope of getting 20 Best Friends as his Lifetime Want. If I don't get that LW, he'll be using the Orb as often as I can afford it to switch back and forth between Popularity and Knowledge until he gets either 20 Best Friends or Max 7 Skills. I plan on him finishing college with permaplat, all skills maxed, perfect grades, enough friends for any career, and probably finishing as a Popularity or Family Sim.

After my founder graduates, I'll use his final 72 hours to concentrate on business. I might start one sooner but 72 hours on the campus clock is plenty of time for him to get all 7 gold badges, establish a level 10 business that averages at least a million simoleons per day in net income, and find a manager for the business. After all, the clock is stopped while he's at his business or anywhere else off campus and all Needs can be restored without going back to the campus, so that 72 hours can last several weeks if necessary. The business lot can also provide storage for anything he wants to keep that exceeds his 3-item inventory limit.

When my founder leaves college, his diploma will be in his inventory since it's required. I plan to use the other two slots for a snapdragon bouquet and a Smart Milk dispenser. He shouldn't need to bring the business deed with him, since the business belongs to him whether he has a deed or not, so I'll probably just hang that on the wall at his business. If necessary, he can order a new deed after he moves into his new house.

Show Business seems to me to be the most important career to start with. Once its restrictions are removed, the household members will be able to have Outings with each other, which will take care of all their Needs including Energy. They won't need to cook so there won't be any risk of fire. They won't need showers or baths. They won't need to sleep so it's unlikely that any burglars will come by. This probably removes more of the problems than any other career. For the founder's wife, I'll pick one of the Sims he met at college, probably a cheerleader for the extra skills. I plan for her to do the Natural Science career so they can use the snapdragon bouquet to take care of Toddler hygiene and use the telescope to have a chance at alien abduction. As a side benefit, she'll only be working one day a week so it should be easy to schedule her pregnancies for her off-days.

The second generation will probably miss college. I'll have them look for Teen jobs a few days before they grow up, to give them a chance of starting their Adult careers at level 6. The Sim I choose as the heir can marry another college Sim after Mom or Dad asks the prospective spouse to move in, so they can get a third college career out of the way, probably Artist. Just because they don't go to college doesn't mean the second generation can't know anyone from college.

[J. M. Pescado]

I was thinking of going popularity at the beginning and making tons of friends (potential spouses or spice) and then changing, most likely to knowledge, just before graduation. The challenge doesn't say anthing about aspiration at all, so this seems like a legal move. Family might also be an okay aspiration - I am thinking in terms of sims who have easy to fill wants to keep them platinum for promotions. Knowledge sims can get a bit weird once their skills are maxed.

Knowledge sims would easily be able to get permaplat once skills are maxed, making it kind of a moot point.

After my founder graduates, I'll use his final 72 hours to concentrate on business. I might start one sooner but 72 hours on the campus clock is plenty of time for him to get all 7 gold badges, establish a level 10 business that averages at least a million simoleons per day in net income, and find a manager for the business. After all, the clock is stopped while he's at his business or anywhere else off campus and all Needs can be restored without going back to the campus, so that 72 hours can last several weeks if necessary. The business lot can also provide storage for anything he wants to keep that exceeds his 3-item inventory limit.

Uni-clock does not move while you're off campus at a business. You have unlimited time when running a business, and money is really a nonissue. Of course, you won't be able to return to your business until you've unlocked Military, and can't open your business until Business is unlocked, and won't be able to transport large items until Athletics is unlocked.

And none of this matters in light of a few 0day exploits I've spotted.

[rohina]

We so need clarification on this jobs from the computer thing, because it definitely affects job strategery.

The permaplat in college thing occurred to me, too. Maybe the founder should be a romance or pleasure sim - they have some nicely achievable at college LTWs, too.

You need to lift Military to get off-lot, whether or not you are allowed to have outings. Military is definitely looking high priority.

Someone on

[Frankenbeasley]

Of course, it looks like business is immune to the Life of Crime restriction so at least you won't suffer having to pay protection on anything you leave there until you can move stuff and so on. Not that I know exactly what advantage this gives you, I just feel it sort of should.


It's late and I haven't slept recently.

[Sagana]

Ok, anything where it's interesting and fun just to plan out what one is going to do before even starting, and to read all about how other people intend to do it, is officially a great (but non-awesome, of course) challenge in my book.

I think I'll have anything off Uni-time be considered off-campus and lost in the apocolypse (no downtown and no business) and eliminate all the off-time advantages just for my game. It's not against the stated rules or anything, but it'll be more fun and challenging for me personally that way.