Pinstar's new Apocalypse challenge

[Jack Rudd]

Silly me.  I should know by now that just because a sim rolls up a certain want doesn't mean the want can actually be satisfied.

Well, quite. Denise Jacquet regularly rolls up the fear of catching her husband cheating. That's her DEAD husband, ladies and gentlemen.

[J. M. Pescado]

Actually, a lot of the OFB dead exist in an indeterminate state of not-quite-deadness. I saw one of them walking around and was like "Wait-a-minute, isn't she supposed to be dead?", and flagged her properly dead this time. Also, sims are routinely known for having unreasonable fears, something that makes them hard to torture. Popularity sims are prone to fearing nothing but becoming enemies with 3 random 100/100 friends, a Herculean task that would be harder than becoming friends with them in the first place!

[Jelenedra]

Well, you could always make them fall in love with your sim and then cheat on them.

That's how the Popularity Sim in my Bachelor Challenge went mental. Was in love with the Single, then saw her kissing another bachelor and went off the deep end. Got into three fights with the Single then went stomping after the guy once the Shrink had set him back to sorts.

[rohina]

I love the hiring of YAs because it is soooo realistic. All my students work in shops or as wait-persons. So a big thank-you kiss for JM! I love those business fixes.

[kutto]

I thought that was fixed in the latest patch.

[Treehugger]

Silly me.  I should know by now that just because a sim rolls up a certain want doesn't mean the want can actually be satisfied.

Well, quite. Denise Jacquet regularly rolls up the fear of catching her husband cheating. That's her DEAD husband, ladies and gentlemen.

Denise is still married to her husband. Very annoying.  I tried to pair her up with Malcolm Landgraab in one of my hoods and kept wondering why I was getting this weird reaction from Gilbert and why Malcolm only had the option to move her in not get engaged to her...

As for the hack that allows you to hire YAs, doesn't that fall into the category of hacks that allow an unfair advantage over players that don't have them?  I mean your YA founder can get all their badge,cooking,and body skilling done on their employers time not in their valuable Uni time.  (can you get body and cooking skills on a business lot you don't own and aren't employed at?)  There's also a money loophole if the YA employee returns to the lot as a playable sim.  If she/he uses a workbench the costs for the raw materials comes out of the owner's pocket but if they sell the items after they are completed it goes into the playable sims pockets...

But apart from this challenge my opnions are pretty close to the rest to you on hiring YAs.

[J. M. Pescado]

Denise is still married to her husband. Very annoying.  I tried to pair her up with Malcolm Landgraab in one of my hoods and kept wondering why I was getting this weird reaction from Gilbert and why Malcolm only had the option to move her in not get engaged to her...

If you're getting a weird reaction, you might not have installed the Romance mod. Maxis apparently left a lot of sanity checks out of the "weird reaction" checks, resulting in, well, weird reactions. It's utterly incomprehensible and I never did entirely understand what was going on.

As for the hack that allows you to hire YAs, doesn't that fall into the category of hacks that allow an unfair advantage over players that don't have them?  I mean your YA founder can get all their badge,cooking,and body skilling done on their employers time not in their valuable Uni time.  (can you get body and cooking skills on a business lot you don't own and aren't employed at?)

I believe so, yes. I think you can gain skills on a lot where you have to pay for it.

There's also a money loophole if the YA employee returns to the lot as a playable sim.  If she/he uses a workbench the costs for the raw materials comes out of the owner's pocket but if they sell the items after they are completed it goes into the playable sims pockets...

Completed items go into the owner's inventory, not the employee's.

[Treehugger]

There's also a money loophole if the YA employee returns to the lot as a playable sim.  If she/he uses a workbench the costs for the raw materials comes out of the owner's pocket but if they sell the items after they are completed it goes into the playable sims pockets...

Completed items go into the owner's inventory, not the employee's.

Not strictly true, completed items only go into the owner's inventory if the "make many" interaction is selected.  If the "make one" interaction is selected or if a sim is completing a partly completed it is left on the bench when completed and must be manually moved into the owner's inventory, moved to a location on the lot or sold.  If a visiting playable sim does the latter the money goes into their household funds (Believe me I have tried this, it works).

Has anybody else realised how a visiting non-employee could take advantage of this loophole?

[rohina]

You mean there's a shoplifting loophole?

[Treehugger]

Visiting employees can use a workbench, not have to pay for raw materials, get the full price of the item if it is sold, and work towards their next badge level.

Visiting non-employees can use a workbench, have to pay for raw materials, get the full price of if it is sold but the time spent on the bench doesn't go towards their next badge level (at least according to the Prima guide).

But what happens if the business owner left a partially completed item on the bench the last time he was on the lot?

That's something I must tryout the next time I fire up the game.  (of course to be really profitable for the YA founder he/she has to get a gold or silver robotics badge on top of everything else.)

[J. M. Pescado]

Not strictly true, completed items only go into the owner's inventory if the "make many" interaction is selected.  If the "make one" interaction is selected or if a sim is completing a partly completed it is left on the bench when completed and must be manually moved into the owner's inventory, moved to a location on the lot or sold.  If a visiting playable sim does the latter the money goes into their household funds (Believe me I have tried this, it works).

A visiting playable cannot enter buy mode without cheating.

[Treehugger]

Not strictly true, completed items only go into the owner's inventory if the "make many" interaction is selected.  If the "make one" interaction is selected or if a sim is completing a partly completed it is left on the bench when completed and must be manually moved into the owner's inventory, moved to a location on the lot or sold.  If a visiting playable sim does the latter the money goes into their household funds (Believe me I have tried this, it works).

A visiting playable cannot enter buy mode without cheating.

There's no need to enter buy mode, a visiting playable can click on the completed item on the workbench and select "sell it".

Running away to get my Prima guide... a couple of paragraphs are relevant here.

 "When a playable sim makes a single product, it appears on the bench, not in inventory.  To get it off the station and make the bench usable again, the product can be moved with the Hand Tool in build/buy mode as a regular object, sold for the Average Price level with the product's sell interaction or placed for sale with the For Sale Tool."

"If your sims travel to a community lot and use crafting stations, they neither receive badge level increases nor any products they produce on the station.  They can, however, sell the items from the station for their standard resale amount."

Basically selling the item is the only thing the visiting playable can do with the item to make the bench usable again and is the only point of using the bench at a community lot anyway since they get no other benefit from it.

[rohina]

Which is yet another piece of evidence that this challenge is really not that difficult as long as you are willing to do monotonous repetitive tasks ad infinitum. As long as there is caffination and a bathroom on a lot decorated with snapdragons, you can essentially do this forever, or until you have as much money as you want.

[Treehugger]

Which is yet another piece of evidence that this challenge is really not that difficult as long as you are willing to do monotonous repetitive tasks ad infinitum. As long as there is caffination and a bathroom on a lot decorated with snapdragons, you can essentially do this forever, or until you have as much money as you want.

Or until boredom sets in...  But if my loophole works the way I think it does the process of earning as much money as you want should be a lot shorter...

[Alvaron]

Which is yet another piece of evidence that this challenge is really not that difficult as long as you are willing to do monotonous repetitive tasks ad infinitum. As long as there is caffination and a bathroom on a lot decorated with snapdragons, you can essentially do this forever, or until you have as much money as you want.

True enough. As soon as Pinstar allowed your founder to go downtown without restriction, he opened the door to infinite simoleons on the carry back. It's too boring for me however. l tip-leech some and bring back $30k-$40k because I don't need more than that.

I hope someone can help an OFB rookie. My bots don't work. I turn 'em on and they just sit there, never leaving their stands. The cleanbot has piles of garbage to pick up, the hydrobot has flowerbeds to water and I'm sure some evil sim is thinking of breaking into my shack so I'd like the security bot to do something. The munchiebot doesn't provide any munchies either. I thought I'd seen a posting on the board somewhere that talked about this problem but I can't find it and multiple searches using the search engine haven't borne any fruit. A pointer to the proper thread would be much appreciated.

Having punched three businesses to level 10, I'm about to decide that OFB is... um... droll. Getting a retail business to the top level is predictable and it matters not what craftable you sell. In fact, with the proper perks, it's better to sell catalog items since you don't waste time crafting. Given the stupidity of shopping Sims, exorbitant price gouging is the order of the day. Show/dazzle/restock almost as boring as "clunk +16 simoleons". I guess I'll mess around with a venue and see what that's like. Zapping the unwary for thousands of simoleons/hour should be absurdly wicked. 

Maybe I'll skip it and run the challenge again, at least that's interesting. I still can't figure how parking the tombstones of dead heirs on a business lot speeds things up but I'm sure there's a way. 

[Sleepycat]

Denise is still married to her husband. Very annoying.  I tried to pair her up with Malcolm Landgraab in one of my hoods and kept wondering why I was getting this weird reaction from Gilbert and why Malcolm only had the option to move her in not get engaged to her...

If you're getting a weird reaction, you might not have installed the Romance mod. Maxis apparently left a lot of sanity checks out of the "weird reaction" checks, resulting in, well, weird reactions. It's utterly incomprehensible and I never did entirely understand what was going on.

I've had the same problem - sim still married even though spouse died - ever since installing OFB (just took me awhile to notice) - I've used simpe to fix them. I have all your death fixes and romance mod. 

[Kyna]

Just finished my fastest playthrough of this challenge.  Done in 58 days.  Military/Culinary founder and spouse.  Used cheesecake once culinary was lifted.  Founder had 7 kids, her firstborn went off to uni as soon as she turned teen, and the firstborn had the remaining 4 kids as 2 sets of twins.  The military reward was very useful.

I had some bad luck at the start.  I was going to make my founder culinary, so that she could start popping out twins as soon as she lifted hopelessness.  But not a single downtownie or townie was in military (I checked in SimPE).  The best she could do was a downtownie with lvl 8 in culinary who was underskilled.  I had to make my founder military instead.  As a result, she had to wait until her spouse hit the top of his career before she could force twins.  She started with single births in the meantime.

I am never, but never, playing this challenge again without unlocking medical with the founder or spouse.  It wasn't so much the hygiene (although that was a pain), as the fact that sponge bathing is only available as an autonomous action so you have to turn free will on when their hygiene bottoms out then hope they'll be good little sims and take a sponge bath. Free will + 8 sims in a bad mood because of low hygiene is NOT my idea of fun.

[Alvaron]

Just finished my fastest playthrough of this challenge.  Done in 58 days.  Military/Culinary founder and spouse.

Well done.

A question: how often did the lack of a car come into play early on? Did you miss any "Daily Double" promotions (full work shift -> partial shift, for two promotions that day)?

It wasn't so much the hygiene (although that was a pain), as the fact that sponge bathing is only available as an autonomous action so you have to turn free will on when their hygiene bottoms out then hope they'll be good little sims and take a sponge bath. Free will + 8 sims in a bad mood because of low hygiene is NOT my idea of fun.

I send them singly to community lots with good sinks and do a run of forced hand washing to 90% clean. It's extreme but better than turning on free will.

I agree that the lack of hygiene is so debilitating that one of the first two unlocks of the 2nd generation has to be Medical. Either the heir or the spouse can do it, depending on the townie draw.

Maybe Medical+Military is OK iff you run the first 2nd gen heir through University by themselves. I'll try it and see how much it slows me down.

Kyna, any idea on the bot problem I'm having (see my prior posting for details)?

[J. M. Pescado]

I agree that the lack of hygiene is so debilitating that one of the first two unlocks of the 2nd generation has to be Medical. Either the heir or the spouse can do it, depending on the townie draw.

Hygiene is merely a nuisance factor if you have permaplat from college, as hygiene is not generally a critical motive that forces an abort of most activities. Plus if you have a spouse, you can do "monkey hygiene". Did you know the "Groom" action raises hygiene?

[Jelenedra]

Grooming and primping are a good way to raise hygeine before work. 

[Alvaron]

Hygiene is merely a nuisance factor if you have permaplat from college, as hygiene is not generally a critical motive that forces an abort of most activities. Plus if you have a spouse, you can do "monkey hygiene". Did you know the "Groom" action raises hygiene?

It's generally kids on a weekend who have the problem since they've dropped out of platinum. Groom does raise hygiene but it's slow and is limited to spouses.

To be sure, kids aren't very efficient at raising hygiene through hand washing but they're shot anyways since they've reached the point where they won't skill so better to freeze time on a community lot than sit at home accomplishing nothing.

[Jelenedra]

You could always use Holy Simoly's "Hot Springs Hot Tub" It's all natural!

[kutto]

Not limited to spouses, just those with high lifetime. I've seen mother/daughter, brother/sister, and just really good friends do it.

[Jack Rudd]

A question: how often did the lack of a car come into play early on? Did you miss any "Daily Double" promotions (full work shift -> partial shift, for two promotions that day)?

Ah yes, Daily Doubles. I like those. There's at least one career track (Science) where you can do a "Daily Treble" - Science Teacher -> Project Leader -> Inventor -> Scholar.

[Kyna]

A question: how often did the lack of a car come into play early on? Did you miss any "Daily Double" promotions (full work shift -> partial shift, for

The heir was medical, but she got promoted to the 6pm-1am level on that job's day off.  If you're going for three generations (counting founder as the first generation) getting the first heir to top of her career is critical for the timing so that she can get to work on producing the last born as quickly as possible.  It doesn't matter as much for the rest of her generation, as you can switch them in from college and then out while the third generation is being raised.  I sent her off to college by herself, then did 2 more batches in the first generation (a pair - one of whom lifted science, and a group of 4).

My biggest problem with the heir was keeping her platinum from college.  I had her meditating to keep the platinum from graduation.  Her youngest siblings were twin toddlers.  Her mother was an unemployed elder who I had on power idle.  The baby controller kept calling the heir from meditate to tend to the toddlers, even though I was cancelling the mother's queue (e.g. phone calls or bed) and sending her to tend to them.  I'd put the heir back to meditate, but she would be called out of it again and go to see to the kids before her mother could get there.

I send them singly to community lots with good sinks and do a run of forced hand washing to 90% clean. It's extreme but better than turning on free will.

The batch of 2 that I ran through college went through before their sister had lifted medical (because the science job was available in the paper).  They did it on a comm lot.  I didn't want to send them home then send them out singly to a lot that only had sinks, as the loading of home lot, loading of comm lot, etc would slow me down.  One of this pair would stubbornly refuse to sponge bathe, I'd send him to the bathroom and he would wash his hands instead of bathing. Then he'd come out and try to sponge bathe in the sink by the espresso machine - shooing everyone out of the room in the process.  I spent a lot of time monitoring his queue, cancelling the sponge bath icon whenever it appeared for the wrong sink.

I agree that the lack of hygiene is so debilitating that one of the first two unlocks of the 2nd generation has to be Medical. Either the heir or the spouse can do it, depending on the townie draw

The townie/downtownie draw in my game really sucked.  For the first two unlocks in the 2nd generation I wanted to lifted science and medical, but none of the townies/downtownies were high in either of these.  Most of them were in slacker or culinary, or were very low in their careers thanks to sadorandomness.  So I unlocked slacker earlier than I'd planned to, with the heir's spouse.

Kyna, any idea on the bot problem I'm having (see my prior posting for details)?

I'm just a player, and not very awesome, so I don't know what causes it.  I find that sometimes mine stop working, so I turn them off and then turn them on again.  That usually fixes it until they stop working again.