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Test Subject
#1001 Old 9th Dec 2018 at 9:31 PM
So, I'm trying this again, with a new computer. Same problem. I had to take out Pet Service just to get my family's lot to load. And I still get the problem where my sim can only do one action at a time when dealing with people, because clicking on them again to queue up a second action jump-bugs them right out of the current action. Also, "Force Error" does nothing on bugged objects, like the car that can only be driven ONCE before it gets stuck in "object in use" mode.

I'll see how long I can stand it. I might just have to learn the rules, and do it without the mods. But I want the one to protect the kids from being taken by Social Services, at least. We'll see how it goes.

I do love having the 64 squares of usable space per floor rule, because the roof will hold the military obstacle course reward! Yay!
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Test Subject
#1002 Old 9th Dec 2018 at 10:17 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Sketching
I'm considering adding Laura's Out With the Bathwater mod and incorporating it into the Medicine career for clean water, but I still have to work out the kinks. Since they can only leave the lot once a week, they could pick up some water supplies along with the military rations*. Maybe they can get more water sources or invent more water collectors with Oceanography, Natural Science, or Science. Would they be able to carry that much water around? Hmm...


Oh, wow! I just checked that link, and OMG! I want to play medieval now! Hmmm, if I can't stand to do this tiered thing with the mods, then I'll use my "backup plan" sim (a sim who played through college with my founder), and send her to a MEDIEVAL APOCALYPSE! BWAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! And I'll totally tweak the rules, since I'll be doing it without those specific mods, so she can make the lifts in any order she likes, but she has to live medieval style. I figure I'd put down some rocks for her to collect water from the "snow", and if she digs for treasure, she can collect "ground water," near the rock. Yeah, that would work. I think I'd tweak the Athletic restrictions to allow for sims to carry buckets in their inventory. Maybe limit it to five items, instead of three, so they can carry sufficient buckets for a bath, and still hold a couple of other necessary items.

Golly, I'm already thinking of ways to kill off my official founder, so that I can do this. After all, I've completed the official, regular apocalypse a couple of times, sooo... Yeah. I think I will do that. Take out the mods (although they're wonderful for those who can get them to work right!), and use a tweaked version of the rules, for story-telling purposes. For example, I truly do believe that Athletic should be Tier 1. Really. How can you rebuild society, if you can't even build up your own body? How do you build strong buildings, if you can barely lift the bricks, let alone the beams? Tier 3 doesn't make sense to me.

Yep. I'm gonna do it. I love the rules, but Tier 1 is too small, and Athletic should not be in Tier 3, and I'll change the rule to carrying 5 items in the inventory for short periods of time. That is to say, you have 3 slots in your backpack, and two hands, so you can carry 5 buckets at once, but you have to put them down somewhere before you can do other things! That totally works, logically, right? IF you really want a bubble bath, you empty your inventory of other things, and fetch five buckets of water, and have your bath. Sponge bathing before that, of course. And besides, it's only day one, and I'm already sick of that glitch, that I have tried many times to remove, last year, and it's here AGAIN on a brand new computer! So, yeah. I'll use the rules, but manually, just like the original version. I'll have to refer to the rules ALL THE TIME, but I'm used to that.

Oh, can you wash dishes in these things? Or can I just declare that you used one to fill the special sink? I know! I'll place an object that looks like it can hold a store of water near the grill, so you heat it up for washing dishes. Put the sink near that, and you have one dish-washing sink. But still use the sponge-bathing from the bucket on a table. And with this, you can postpone Medicine for a generation or more. I think if children can sponge-bathe in a bucket, then I won't miss the mod preventing them from going to school. Hygiene is the biggest obstacle to passing school in this game. With an "armored school bus," they will be safe enough to go to a secure school, where they can learn their basic reading, writing, and 'rithmatic. Like in the original Pinstar rules, though, they would not get to go to high school, until Education is lifted, which means teens won't be able to have jobs, unless they start with A+ grades from elementary, and then get lucky with lots and lots and lots and lots of snow days (or else lots of Elixir of Life, drunk in the red).

Hmm, I'm thinking now, I'll have a mix of medieval and modern. The military hummer, no changes to defaults (I don't do default replacements, because I am not tech-savvy enough, anyway), but with the addition of these water-things (including that cistern/fridge! Awesome!). I even have only 63 used spaces on my ground floor, so I could put a rock just outside it, with a "dig for treasure" hole, and let my sims collect their ground-water there, and still keep my same basic building. I have a few spaces on the ground where I can put the grill, a bucket or rain barrel, and a sink, for washing dishes.

I'm gonna go check out that place, and see what other medieval-themed things I can put into my Medieval/Modern Tweaked-Tiers Apocalypse. I'll post links to AuthorStream, when I have stuff ready to go.

This is awesome! Thank you! You've inspired me to keep going, despite the glitches. Embrace the Manual, and do things manually!

Also, another tweak, is that I'm saying that the military ("We're under martial law, until the crisis is over, or at least eased up enough.") has declared that all families must attend the Headquarters (which I have set up as a combination Military, Medicine, and Culinary, and I'll add Athletic to it), once per week. To facilitate this, they will arrange escorts for each family, for their once-weekly visit. However, other than the once-weekly visit, no visits are allowed during Tier 1, and during Tier 2, everyone must have at least 7 body points for any un-escorted visits, until Law Enforcement is lifted, as the Police will then make sure the streets are safe for weaklings, as well as the strong.

Yaaaay! I'm excited!
Inventor
#1003 Old 10th Dec 2018 at 8:25 AM Last edited by Sketching : 10th Dec 2018 at 2:09 PM. Reason: pictures
Hey, FlinkeMeisje! Glad to find another taker of the challenge here - I actually just finished the 12th rotation of my own tweaked challenge, though I've been slack on the updates. I was worried that it'd be against the rules to post about it here when it's been heavily modified, but then I read through the other threads and it seems to be fine to post about edited challenges, so maybe I should post about it here again.

To be fair, I like the tier system since it makes sense in the setting - it'd be rather inefficient to spend much needed resources on art when they barely have food. I did make several changes to the rules, and I agree about Athletic, especially since Military is in the first tier. I couldn't reconcile the thought of being able to attack zombies but unable to move a loveseat, and I thought that Science of all careers had several restrictions you can live without anyway, so I had to up the game to make it and a few of the other careers more important. The mod set caused a few problems in my game too, so I play without it and refer to the rules instead. I've been playing this challenge often enough that I nearly have most of the rules memorized anyway.

Another thing was that some of the restrictions didn't fit my setting. I imagined a ragtag bunch of survivors who worked together but not necessarily trusted each other, so I wanted a weekly mandatory community lot visit which was more like an examination of sorts, just like yours. Instead of further limiting community visits, I decided on rolling ROS weighted on skill points for them, though there's already a risk of community lot zombie attacks anyway. If they get into fights with other sims, there's a chance of death for the loser; if the fight was witnessed by playable friends or relatives, however, there's a probability of them retaliating as well.

I tweaked the original rules and weaved several of them into each other. Medical will allow access to water in limited doses and from limited sources, which can be increased through Natural Science, Oceanography, and Science. I use ACR to determine pregnancies for variety and randomness, and birth control will be introduced when (if?!) someone tops Medical. I grew tired of manually deducting my sims' funds during my previous runs, so I decided to just increase the bills and burglary rate, which works fine since I already normally play with halved EAxis wages.

The biggest rule change I created was allowing 3 founders from the get-go and allowing sims to start families despite not lifting a single career yet, mainly because I wanted a few more sims to play in the setting. You'd think it'd make the challenge a lot easier, but with all of the increased challenge mods and motivation levels affecting skilling, it's been a long 30 days without a single topped career. If I'm being realistic about my prospects, my military founder is likely to top the career, but the rest of Tier 1 will probably be on the second and/or third generation at this point. Just as well, since I added a rule about spares being sent to the military with death rolls for story purposes and her topping Military will mean decreased rates of draft and death.

I definitely agree with hygiene being a surprisingly difficult obstacle, especially for children. Out With the Bathwater is a semi-global makes all sinks/showers/baths require water, and though you can edit sinks to bypass the mod, I opted not to. The water's mainly for teen-adult sponge-bathing in my game for now, as sims can just throw their dishes into the trash can - you don't have to worry much about washing the dishes if you run out of water for that. With all of the motive-restricted items, even poor hygiene can cause sims to be passed over for promotion, prolonging the agony.

You can change babies' and toddlers' diapers to bring their hygiene up, but since Phaenoh's rules have it so that kids don't go to school until Education is unlocked, children spend nearly their entire childhood washing their hands at the sink and using up the household's water supply. It's funnier that kids and teens end up earning more useful skills when they stay at home instead of going to school, but children lose skilling time in favor of futilely trying to raise hygiene. I wish there was a mod to allow them to sponge-bathe too, though at least they can bathe at the medical facility and have time to catch up on skills when they age up into teens.

I'm confused about your statement regarding teen jobs - if I remember correctly, Phaenoh's rules have it so that teens can get non-military teen jobs as long it's one in which one of their parents is employed. This works out a bit since if said parent is still a living adult (or is elder fine?) by the time the teen ages up into an adult themselves, they can remain with the career level they jump into instead of starting again from Level 1.

I have a link in my signature for increased challenge mods if you want to increase chances of death. I recently added in an edited version of Cyjon's Ghost Hack. I didn't think I'd have a need for it just yet, but a founder's spouse died in a fire and now seems keen on taking everyone else with him! His former wife recently just got remarried after almost losing two best friends to her first husband's ghost, and needless to say, it's been a struggle keeping them alive. I'd say it's even deadlier than the actual zombies and ROS deaths - if it keeps up, the later generations might be in for a rougher ride even if other restrictions are lifted.

Now you've got me thinking about an actual medieval zombie apocalypse - that sounds even harder than a modern one for some reason. Have fun at PBK - they have loads of amazing stuff there too.

Eh, I don't know if anyone's interested, but I posted about the set-up here and I'll plop some random pictures here anyway.
Alchemist
#1004 Old 14th Apr 2019 at 5:44 AM
Don't know whether anyone is still reading this thread, but I have been poring over it for the last few days. I played an apocalypse challenge many years ago (possibly the Seasons version was current then). Not sure I want to do it all again, although this variant intrigues me...but I did get enthused about the career lots!

I thought Phae's First Aid Station looked too -established- for the early stages of a disaster, so I have made one based on the style used in refugee camps and similar, comprised of an expanding shipping container and a big tent, connected by a short tunnel. Not sure how exactly to upgrade the lot for later tiers - the way Phae did it was very clever! I think I would use the same size lot, but build a real building next -or Phae's versions would also work well as the upgrade.

I also made a military compound, including the local Food Relief Centre. Will get some pictures if anyone is interested.

Now I am considering some buildings for Tier 2 - a tent school perhaps, a Research Facility, business hub and civic services building.
Instructor
#1005 Old 15th Apr 2019 at 7:44 AM
I still play this challenge, although right now I'm focused on my own Homestead Challenge. Please share the lots, I'd love to have something a bit more on the grungy side.
Alchemist
#1006 Old 16th Apr 2019 at 9:31 PM Last edited by aelflaed : 16th Apr 2019 at 9:49 PM.
My lots are actually not grungy, they are the pristine version, just sent in by the UN or similar. Also, no CC.

Some pics to show you:




The First Aid setup is copied from an actual 'Fast Response Unit' which is advertised on the internet.

Working on some lots for Tier 2...I have built an emergency school, in a UN tent like the First Aid Station, and am now messing about with a Research Facility. No more tents after the school, the absolute worst must be over, right?
Screenshots
Test Subject
#1007 Old 17th Apr 2019 at 5:36 PM
aelflaed, I love the military lot especially, and the idea of basing your builds on UN disaster response structures is really cool. And you don't see a lot of cc-free post-apoc lots around, so it'd be awesome if you shared those somewhere- I'd love to use them when I get started on this challenge!
Alchemist
#1008 Old 17th Apr 2019 at 9:41 PM Last edited by aelflaed : 19th Apr 2019 at 6:35 AM.
@Shadalan, thanks. I should be able to upload them here sometime soon - have to find some time and functionality combined, so I can write the spiel and so on.

I admit, it is hard to resist all the lovely apocalypse CC that's out there, but I also find it very daunting to see a great lot for download, only to find there's a CC list as long as your arm that has to go with it. So, I wanted to see what could be done without it. Having the idea for newly-assembled disaster relief structures certainly helped.

UPDATE:
I decided to play after all - hard to test my lots properly without a real apocalypse situation, no? My founder Jewel Tones dropped out of college after failing to roll any doubles, and has swanned through all ten levels of the Military career without a hitch. She only had two chance cards, and got a promotion every work day. Then she invited over a baby-daddy, with nicer genes than the sim she will ask to move in with her tomorrow...

She worked hard on the flower station during college, and it was worth it - I never used a snapdragon bouquet before, but Jewel has been so easy to keep happy with that around. Now that she is pregnant, things are less delightful. She has morning sickness like you wouldn't believe, and I had to feed her so she didn't starve before work.

Her house is smaller than it looks, with 124 usable tiles so far. The loft over the carport is not accessible at the moment, but will eventually be the equivalent of walling-in the roof space on a traditional tower. The balcony over the porch is blocked off, as is a chunk of the upper floor. When I open all of it up, the house will still be under the total allowed space if there were four 8x8 floors.

I am working on upload information for the community lots, too.
Screenshots
Alchemist
#1009 Old 25th Apr 2019 at 11:04 PM Last edited by aelflaed : 26th Apr 2019 at 5:52 AM. Reason: Questions
Default Lots Uploaded...and questions
I have just uploaded my starter community lots for this challenge:
http://www.modthesims.info/download...626655&posted=1
Hope someone finds them useful!

My apocalypse household is going along nicely, working on Tier 2 and the family graveyard.

I have built lots for Tier 2 as well, some grungy, some not. I may upload them down the track, when they have been thoroughly tested. I swapped Athletic and Architecture, because it made more sense to me that way, but otherwise all is as prescribed.

Question One - college scholarships. Teens can go to college once Education is unlocked, but there seems to be no mention of scholarships at all. I think perhaps applying for them should come under Intelligence?

Luckily, my founder's first grandchild is still halfway through teen, so with both Intelligence and Education unlocked, he can catch up on schoolwork and then go to college with as many scholarships as he can get! No subsistence living on campus.

Question Two - career rewards. Sims currently in a career are allowed to use their reward at home. On the special community lots, with a current employee present, other family members may also use them. Once the career is lifted, is the reward for open use?
Alchemist
#1010 Old 1st May 2019 at 7:38 AM
Huzzah! Steel Tones just lifted Politics, which takes a lot of the stress out of careers for my sims.

His cousin Sapphire is currently in Science, but will be checking the paper every day in case Law comes up before she hits the top.

Opal and Chalcedony will be going off to uni shortly., The older generation, done with working, spends most of the day woohooing and chatting together. Nice if you can get it.
Alchemist
#1011 Old 20th May 2019 at 8:02 AM
Bumping, just to say that I have made (and uploaded here) a set of community lots for Tier 2 as well as Tier 1, and three starter houses to suit this challenge. Find them under my profile.

My sims are now spread over four houses, just waiting for someone to grow up and lift the last career for Tier 2. Then it will be full speed ahead, with all the cousins frantically chasing the right careers to finish. Thanks for the ride, Phaenoh!
Instructor
#1012 Old 10th Aug 2019 at 5:08 AM
I've just started my second attempt at the challenge. My first try a few years ago was total drudgery and misery. Yes, it's supposed to be a challenge, but I found the rules so restrictive and punishing that I wasn't enjoying it at all. I decided to give it another go, but this time I've modified the rules so that they're still challenging but still allow for some reasonable actions. For example, until Culinary is lifted, teens and adults will be limited to instant meals (which I figure are more "post-meltdown" friendly anyway, being prepackaged in metal, as opposed to freshly ground beef).

Very fortunately for me, my Knowledge Founder maxed his 7 skills for permaplat at UNI and then spent the rest of his time there inviting his girlfriend to join him watching the Yummy Channel so she can lift Culinary after he does Medical. So, all maxed and platinum he has ample time to raise a baby to teen and then max his career, and he can still be an elder near death before his girlfriend moves in and has his designated heir, so I decided to let him use his first couple of nights as an adult to get himself alien abducted right off to lift the alien tech. Then he can use the "typewriter" to keep earning, and as soon as his alien baby reaches teen, Founder can do his thing. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Yeah, the joke's on me.

He had twins.

Heir #1 or his/her mate is gonna need to lift Military and quick, or this little 8x8 tower is gonna get crowded! Just realizing I needed to place a second crib I wasn't gonna be able to move until after Athletic had me shaking my head in amused resignation. It's been a long time since I had to deal with a curve ball in the game, though, so I'm actually happy about it.
Alchemist
#1013 Old 11th Aug 2019 at 4:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Liz
I've just started my second attempt at the challenge. My first try a few years ago was total drudgery and misery. Yes, it's supposed to be a challenge, but I found the rules so restrictive and punishing that I wasn't enjoying it at all. I decided to give it another go, but this time I've modified the rules so that they're still challenging but still allow for some reasonable actions. ...Just realizing I needed to place a second crib I wasn't gonna be able to move until after Athletic had me shaking my head in amused resignation. It's been a long time since I had to deal with a curve ball in the game, though, so I'm actually happy about it.


Can you use one-tile cribs?
Have you watched Honeywell's version, very fun to watch and lots of great game tips? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRBsf9CyT7k
Instructor
#1014 Old 12th Aug 2019 at 1:50 PM Last edited by Liz : 13th Aug 2019 at 11:59 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Sunrader
Can you use one-tile cribs?
Have you watched Honeywell's version, very fun to watch and lots of great game tips? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRBsf9CyT7k


Thanks for the rec! Just checked out the first chapter and have the rest bookmarked for later. ^_^

Actually didn't know there were one-tile cribs, but I'm cool with these taking up space in the bunker for now. First twin just hit teen, and his sister should follow in another day... because naturally, there was some weirdness getting them to age from baby to toddler together, and their personalities are just yikes. Boy is zero Neat, zero Active, and max everything else. Girl is zero Playful and zero Nice, max everything else. Lazy slob of a sweetheart and a hyperactive, cranky neat freak. The hand washing never, ever stops.

EDIT: OMG, I was not prepared, physically or emotionally, for the shock of adrenaline that just crashed through my system when, two days before elder, Founder's morning paper served up Medical as its first job...

Test Subject
#1015 Old 13th Oct 2019 at 1:38 AM
Decided to try this. My founder Atherton Hopewell left college his senior year to get back home after the disaster but the military could only get him to an abandoned mental facility. He joined up with the military and after he became general he married his sweetheart Ada Nicholson. They had 2 kids, Nichol, and Bridgette. Ada then started her career in culinary and became a celebrity chef bring food to the starving.

Nichol hated not being clean (10 neat) and he and his mom went into medical in hopes of getting plumbing. After he topped that he married Judith Michaels who happened into an architecture position. They currently have a son, Michael. So I managed to lift all the tier 1 restrictions.

Bridgette found a position in law and quickly moved up the career ladder until she became the Law. She married her love, Hank Lewis and they moved out to their own small fortified home made of a rebuilt industrial warehouse. They currently have a toddler, Carson.

Hank is in the paranormal career (I switched things up a bit and moved paranormal to tier two and only nat. science should have a college degree requirement, but leaving the no one but paranormals can use the death phone and until politics is lifted there are no public spaces for graves, so no moving them off lot/selling/inventory.) I figured that cults might start very soon after a post apocalyptic event as people come together to make sense of the event and the aftermath. (Plus... plans for the Cult of the Freezer Bunny)

For the three objects I brought back, I haven't used the elixir, but the snap dragon and the smart milk have been invaluable.

Each house currently has over $75000 in family funds. I don't see me bothering to lift criminal anytime soon. My next plans are education and intelligence. For level two restrictions, which ones did you feel needed to go first?
Instructor
#1016 Old 16th Feb 2020 at 12:40 PM
I've beaten this challenge 4 times already, and started a 5th attempt, but felt bored as my founder was lifting the first career, I guess because I've done it so many times already.

So instead, I started the apocalypse in an established neighborhood, Strangetown (by far my favorite premade hood). During his experiments with the weather machine, Loki Beaker destroyed the atmosphere causing it to rain fire and resulted in the global disaster.

In each household, I used the rocks fall, everyone dies mod to burn everything down. Those who lived through it were the survivors. An added bonus is now, as part of the challenge, they have to clean up all the ashes.

Survivors got to stay on their lot if the house was stone and on a foundation. Otherwise, the family moved to a lot conforming to the architecture restrictions.

The survivors were Circe Beaker, Pascal Curious and his infant alien daughter, Sun, alien pregnant Vidcund, Gen. Buzz and Ripp Grunt (Ripp actually ran away shortly after his brothers died due to his negative relationship with Buzz - storywise, it was because of Buzz's anger and resentment that his hated son survived while his two prized sons didn't), Johnny and Jill Smith, Olive Spector and Ophelia Nigmos, Chloe and Lola Curious, and Erin Beaker.

The Curious household became a detention center for all the surviving aliens and their allies. Buzz and Circe played on the fears of the survivors and convinced everyone that aliens were dangerous and could not be trusted. This included Johnny Smith, but Jill escaped and was taken in and hidden by Olive and Ophelia.

So I've just set up the neighborhood and 4 households: Circe and Erin; Buzz and Ripp; Olive, Ophelia, and Jill; and Pascal, Sun, Vidcund, Lola, Chloe, and Johnny. Next steps are to play rotation style, clean up the ashes, refurnish the homes with the necessities, and then start lifting restrictions!

Quote: Originally posted by aelflaed
...I have made...three starter houses to suit this challenge. Find them under my profile.

I love your container house! It inspired me to build all my Tier 1 and early Tier 2 community lots around this idea of converted shipping containers.
Forum Resident
#1017 Old 17th Feb 2020 at 2:28 AM
Quote: Originally posted by ttowntallyho
I've beaten this challenge 4 times already, and started a 5th attempt, but felt bored as my founder was lifting the first career, I guess because I've done it so many times already.

So instead, I started the apocalypse in an established neighborhood, Strangetown (by far my favorite premade hood). During his experiments with the weather machine, Loki Beaker destroyed the atmosphere causing it to rain fire and resulted in the global disaster.

In each household, I used the rocks fall, everyone dies mod to burn everything down. Those who lived through it were the survivors. An added bonus is now, as part of the challenge, they have to clean up all the ashes.

Survivors got to stay on their lot if the house was stone and on a foundation. Otherwise, the family moved to a lot conforming to the architecture restrictions.

The survivors were Circe Beaker, Pascal Curious and his infant alien daughter, Sun, alien pregnant Vidcund, Gen. Buzz and Ripp Grunt (Ripp actually ran away shortly after his brothers died due to his negative relationship with Buzz - storywise, it was because of Buzz's anger and resentment that his hated son survived while his two prized sons didn't), Johnny and Jill Smith, Olive Spector and Ophelia Nigmos, Chloe and Lola Curious, and Erin Beaker.

The Curious household became a detention center for all the surviving aliens and their allies. Buzz and Circe played on the fears of the survivors and convinced everyone that aliens were dangerous and could not be trusted. This included Johnny Smith, but Jill escaped and was taken in and hidden by Olive and Ophelia.

So I've just set up the neighborhood and 4 households: Circe and Erin; Buzz and Ripp; Olive, Ophelia, and Jill; and Pascal, Sun, Vidcund, Lola, Chloe, and Johnny. Next steps are to play rotation style, clean up the ashes, refurnish the homes with the necessities, and then start lifting restrictions!


I love this idea for the challenge! The backstory adds to the drama in the aftermath and I can see this being super fun to play. Can't wait to hear more about what's happening in your game!

aka fir3princ3ss
My Youtube Channel
Currently playing:
-Medieval Charter Challenge on The Sims 2
-Ye Olde Royal Kingdom Challenge on The Sims 3
Scholar
#1018 Old 20th Feb 2020 at 9:31 AM
I have tried to beat this challenge several times but get so crazy with the eternal winter winds howling that I am toying with the idea of making it into a tropical challenge instead.

Paladins/SimWardrobes downloads: https://simfileshare.net/folder/87849/
Instructor
#1019 Old 24th Feb 2020 at 9:42 PM
Quote: Originally posted by lfria
I love this idea for the challenge! The backstory adds to the drama in the aftermath and I can see this being super fun to play. Can't wait to hear more about what's happening in your game!


I've played through two rotations. By FAR the hardest household is the detention center. With 5 adults (and 2 toddlers) and no one with any cooking skill, everyone is always starving. I never really had issues with the culinary restrictions with just one founder in the house who always ate and got full at work. So for this household, those restrictions are really hitting hard. I've always had issues with the medical restrictions - I choose not to use a sponge bath for all mod because I felt it made those restrictions too easy to overcome. So Pascal, Vid, and Lola are also filthy as well as staring. (Chloe and Johnny autonomously sponge bathe.)

Anyway, in the detention center, Pascal got fired from his science job for missing work, and is now in the medical field. Vid is still in the science track (I'm not strictly adhering to the tiers this time, as long as it makes sense storywise). Aliens can't be trusted to lift careers, so Chloe's purpose is to work on her cooking skills to make the one meal a day more filling, and Lola is in charge of Pascal and Vid's respective toddler daughters. Johnny is just skill building (with activities that also raise fun) and meeting with Ophelia whenever he can.

Circe got fired for poor work performance (she kept going to work in a bad mood) so she is in between jobs and working on getting her needs back up. Erin rolled the want to get a job in culinary, so it seems obvious that's the field she'll lift. (She and Buzz became romantic through ACR on community lots while I was playing the Specter household.)

Buzz is working in the military. Right before the disaster, he got demoted to astronaut. I decided not to drop him to level 1 and just work on him getting the friends needed to get back to level 10 to lift military. I felt that storywise, that made sense and he had 0 household friends so it's still challenging with the military and intelligence restrictions. Ripp ran away from home shortly after the disaster and since he could not be reported missing, he will stay gone until he ages up. He sometimes shows up at the community lot and he and Buzz fight.

Lastly, Ophelia is struggling with her sudden responsibility of a senile elderly aunt and a young child. They also occasionally starve because Olive autonomously gets food at 2am before I can stop her, and thus that's the one meal for the whole day. Mostly they are just surviving until Jill is a teen, since she cannot be left home alone with a senile elder. They spend their days playing chess with Olive or listening to Jill play the piano. When she ages up, Ophelia will get a job and work on lifting restrictions.

It's going much slower this time around, since there is no founder to skill up during college and most sims have no skills. And also, playing rotation style from the beginning slows things up. But I am having a lot of fun. The slower play and the backstory add richness to this iteration of the challenge.
Theorist
#1020 Old 30th Mar 2020 at 4:43 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SciBirg
I have tried to beat this challenge several times but get so crazy with the eternal winter winds howling that I am toying with the idea of making it into a tropical challenge instead.


I've only used the winter rule once tbh. WHen I think of Post-Apocalypses I think deserts (Fallout, Mad Max, a million other cheesy Post-Apocalyptic movies/shows/games), not tundra, so I usually make it Summer/Summer/Summer/Summer. Still has people succumb to heat stroke and all. When I keep to the complete unlocking rules, I just have Music unlock instruments instead.

But to be completely honest I've never kept to the rules 100%, since a lot of them seem just to be there to give a career something to unlock and seem quite unrealistic for the situation (like a Sim not wearing a ballgown in the Apocalypse because that's what she aged up into and can't change out of because Show Business isn't unlocked yet)

Avatar by MasterRed
Taking an extended break from Sims stuff. Might be around, might not.
Field Researcher
#1021 Old 10th Apr 2020 at 4:49 AM Last edited by MommyIce : 7th May 2020 at 3:29 AM.
I have never tried an Apocalypse challenge! I started to read the rules once & went cross-eyed and moved on to a Legacy challenge.

I saw Phaenoh's mod for the restrictions and got really excited to try something new!



I found some things I could change to help me reach my first career & started with another founder, shy, intelligent & extremely serious Zoe Sharp.

Zoe and Craig bring in the second generation. Hopefully they can lift the next set of restrictions, too!


Yoshi & Orlando bring in the 3rd generation. Unfortunately, due to poor family planning, the couple won't be able to get started on their next career restriction until *counts on fingers* 7 or 8 or 9 days.


Yoshi successfully completes her Military career & Tier 1 restrictions are lifted! Now it's her children's turn to save the town!


Brothers Vito and Urias begin working on lifting restrictions while children of the non-heir Wasabi help around the house. Hopefully Law is lifted sooner rather than later so they can have families of their own!


Vito successfully lifts Law & all the family members start their own households.
Test Subject
#1022 Old 17th Jun 2020 at 2:46 PM Last edited by FlinkeMeisje : 18th Jun 2020 at 3:35 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by SciBirg
I have tried to beat this challenge several times but get so crazy with the eternal winter winds howling that I am toying with the idea of making it into a tropical challenge instead.


Actually, I think that would be even more challenging, considering that you still have to deal with heat stroke, instead of freezing, and you get NO snow days. But then again, with the mod to remove school, snow days isn't even a thing, so yeah. Same amount of challenging? Yes, since you lose out on fun from making snow angels, and both fun AND social (vital for a lonely founder) from making snowmen. Although, water balloon fights to build friendship with the neighbors should actually cool you down. But then again, if you use the medieval get-your-water hack (Sorry, it's linked somewhere up thread, something about babies and bathwater), then you might have a problem doing water balloons. Anyway, heat stroke or freezing, it's still a challenge.

Aelfled, I LOVE your lots, and fully intend on using the community lots, at least, for Tier 2. I did build a HQ (military/medical/culinary), based on my own experiences growing up an army brat, and my imagination. It's built from wood and aluminum vertical siding, like modules taken from shipping containers, so easily built. I also decided to swap Athletic and Architecture, so Athletic is Tier 2, now.

After having SO MANY errors and crashes, I had to uninstall/reinstall/uninstall/reinstall/uninstall/reinstall, and so I started this time by placing my simself, and having nothing but the SimBlender and SimWardrobe's teleporter. I'd pop in a townie, SimBlend the relationship, so I could instantly ask about jobs, and verified that this time, my townies were all employed. Because for TWO, count them, TWO installs, my townies had "I'm a " for their jobs. And when I boolpropped them to be selectable and checked their work panels, it said, blank, with $0 pay and no requirements listed. For ALL the townies. So, yeah. I checked all the townies.

When I noticed that Brandi LeTourneau was level 9 in Medical, I took note.

My first legacy founder guy of the new game was a Pleasure sim. He rolled "Fifty First Dates" as a Lifetime Want, which is something I have never played before, and had to add in a Downtown and Bluewater Village, and make him bi-sexual, just to get enough sims to date. And I had just finished watching Puffin Forest's Youtube Playthrough of Dungeon's and Dragons' Curse of Strahd. One of the player characters, Gouda, would ask literally every NPC they met, "Whatsyernaaaaaame? And how do you spellllll that?" and write it down in her little journal. Well, I was inspired. I took my founder around Downtown, asking, "Whatsyernaaaaame? Whatsyerjooooob? Whatsyersiiiiiign?" and then, "Wanna date?" and he's write it all down, including their aspirations, in his diary.

So far, so good, and just regular play, right? But then, I caught him gossiping about my simself! Nobody talks smack about my Goddess/Queen and gets away with it, so I decided, naturally, he had to be punished. Note - Whenever my simself is in the hood, people get punished. That's how I justify all my challenges. And since I had not succeeded with Phaenoh's version, before, naturally I had to do this as my challenge. Especially since he and Brandi had hit it off so early. She was easily his favorite lover, and although he was going for 50 first dates, he kept dating her over and over, for dream dates. I made him a warlock, so he could Apello Simae sims to the magical realm, for absolute privacy for the dates, to avoid jealousy. And, of course, that meant he spent a lot of time at the cauldron. And since sims leave right away, if you pop them in during the middle of the night, he spent a lot of time crafting thrones, as well, for money and to place at his vacation homes and dorm. He made a LOT of thrones.

I managed to get him his 50 first dates, and permaplat before Junior Year, so he could change to Knowledge sim and bring his chemistry up to three bolts with Brandi, when my Simself showed up at his house and shoved him. He had been spying through the telescope, and she was the designated pusher for the hood! Who knew? And so, I had her tell him that he was going to be punished with an apocalypse, and that this time, instead of letting him graduate with a 4.0 GPA, and start high up in the career, he would no longer be allowed to study, and be kicked out, with no university benefits (Phaenoh says you start at level 1 in a career, anyway).

So, my guy went through his diary, sorted it out, and picked about 15 or 20 members of the "Future Spouse Club" and took them all on vacations, where they fished and fished and fished and fished. He was going to lift Culinary, so they could stock the fridges with fish! Brandi would lift Medical, and one of the Downtownies, Ally, was a General, for an instant Military lift, meaning his son could marry her, and start on Tier 2, at once! Great plan!!

I even had Brainania installed, and you know you can visit other universities, while you're a student, right? He brought three future spouses, Brandi, Ally, and Ira (Politics level 10), and trained them up, so they would be prepared for their dream jobs, whatever that might be, after making their lifts.

I built my HQ, and had my simself buy it, so all 8 employees are dressed in military uniforms or medical scrubs. With a checkbook, the pay will be sent to my simself, since running HQ is actually expensive, not profitable. And I built my founder's lot to be a very stable and secure, well-built stilt-house/bunker, that will fit the military obstacle course on the roof. Since he joined the Secret Society, they built the house for him, from good quality materials, before the apocalypse hit.

And I decreed no phones (except temporarily, when you write a novel, using MogHughson's manuscript), and so he has to buy a bunch of MogHughson's postal service cards, and invite sims over (teleporter). He has to plan it at least a day in advance, to invite them over.

So far, so good. He's halfway through the Culinary career, and I've had very few glitches. I hope it works this time!

Edited to add: Made it through the first week, and I just saw the postal worker deliver something in the middle of the night. It was a large bill, but not what I expected.
Here's the thing: He bought the pre-built home for just under $45,000. When he moved in, I placed the postal notes he had already bought, and the three Elixirs of Life he bought (I'm saying that the note cards are free in the inventory, since my simself literally required them), and checked the lot value, in Buy mode. It was not at $144,000 and change. WHAT THE HECK?!!! So, I figured I would see what happened (he had a bank account over $330,000, because of his mad prep in college days, selling soooooo many thrones of light, and oodles of fish), and if it was ridiculous, I would manually charge him $25,000 per week, until he got married, and $30,000 thereafter. But, I played out the week, to see what would happen, and then the bills came in the middle of the night (interestingly, no bills any other day), and he had to pay approximately $7 thousand, so, I do NOT understand the numbers, but I like what you did with the mod, and think it's brilliant, and will certainly keep it in, rather than doing things manually, and just won't worry about the deal with the lot value in buy mode.
His spares will have to build small and prepare for the weekly Life of Crime thing, until it's lifted, but it is actually POSSIBLE, now, so Hurray! I was really concerned, there for a while, thinking that even with his initial riches, he would go broke by the time his heir was an adult. Now, it's added pressure for sims starting a new house, as it should be, while he reaps the benefits of his hard work and preparation, as it should be, and it's still manageable, while challenging, as it should be.

But the numbers are certainly not the 50%, as listed on the front page, so I'm confused, but still very happy.

Phaenoh, it's worked for a whole week, and I have to say, you are AMAZING! You have done a phenomenal job with these mods!

I think I am really going to enjoy playing through this challenge. I'm especially looking forward to the spares setting up their own households, and lifting things there, while I do rotational play. The nice thing about rotational play is that it breaks things up, so you don't get bored with the same household, while still building up anticipation to get back to the original household, and from the sims' standpoint, restrictions are lifted even faster, and you still get the fun challenge of starting out, which is my favorite part, actually, of any sims challenge. What can I say? I like that initial "How do I do this?" stage. Once you've established a groove, you feel warm and fuzzy, but I guess you lose some of the adrenaline, or something. Anyway, I look forward to heirs and spares.

And once again, thank you SO MUCH for making the mod do the thinking for me, because right now, with my disability, I have a REALLY hard time thinking clearly, and was sure I'd mess that part up. Now, I'm just happy and excited to continue.
Test Subject
#1023 Old 2nd Jul 2020 at 2:53 AM Last edited by FlinkeMeisje : 3rd Jul 2020 at 6:27 AM.
So, I got through Tier 1. Sending my founder to college as a Pleasure Sim who wanted 50 First Dates netted him a LOT of lovers, many of whom were high in their careers, and lovers could be invited over even before Military was lifted, so he lifted Culinary and married a Chief of Staff. They had twins, and since he didn't graduate college, he brought home 3 bottles of Elixir of Life. By expanding his life, and shortening his son's life (Poor David! He was barely allowed to fulfill any wants, until he drank 4 sips of Elixir, as a teen, and grew up straight away), he was able to get his lover, the General, into the family early. Ally married David and lifted Military, the same day that Alegra lifted Security. Tiffany was in the career with her, and it was a race to see who could lift it, first. Now, Tiffany is racing with Alabama for Service, while David's sister, Astrid, is working on continuing the Future Spouse Club for the next generation, by befriending her father's lovers. Yeah. Free will is problematic here, but the plan worked for the lifts, at least. Now, I just need to get Ally and Seth to stop flirting with each other, or Brandi is going to break up with him, this time, for sure.

But Seth is making big plans. So long as he and Ally don't get caught by their spouses, that is. David is taking a job in Law, and as soon as that's lifted, Seth and Brandi will move into their own house (preferably as controllable elders, thanks to a Service lift), so that their ghosts won't haunt the home lot. But! If Brandi is still young enough, he plans to have ANOTHER baby with her, because as long as they survive until the kid is at least a teen, it's all good. The teen can even move into her own house, once she's orphaned, to get away from the ghosts. And that starts yet another household to make lifts.

And did I mention that David is a twin? Astrid, his teen sister, is "engaged" to Ira, who happens to be the Mayor, for an instant Politics lift, and is planning to lift Education, herself. And if Seth and Brandi's second pregnancy goes well, there's still one bottle of Elixir left, to grow up a poor, miserable teen, so they can get married for an instant Athletic lift, or Science, depending on who marries whom. Since the rules state that spouses must contribute to the bloodline, they have to have at least one child, so that means heterosexual marriages. Athletic would be nice, because they can move furniture and hold inventories (Yes, I agree with Aelflaed that Athletics and Architecture should be swapped), but an instant Science lift would mean that the teens can actually call for scholarships, meaning they can go to University on more than a mere $500. And at least one of them needs to go during Tier 2, for Natural Science. With Culinary lifted, I'm looking at lots of cheesecake twins, so they are born early, and there's only one pregnancy to deal with.

Anyway, I built my own Apocalypse Head Quarters, combining Military, Culinary and Medical, and I'm keeping it. My simself actually runs it as a business, so that all the employees are in uniform. Haha! But I saw Aelflaed's Tier 2 community lots, and downloaded them all! My sims are now making the Grand Tour, visiting each one. Seth, Brandi, and Ally are taking jobs (from the Jobs Board - I think it's MogHughson? who made that? LOVE it!) from every Tier 1 and Tier 2 career they didn't already have, and filling their career-reward inventory with rewards they can place, as soon as someone lifts that restriction, so that each household will have as many career rewards as possible, especially the ones that allow children to train skills and build fun at the same time.

Aelflaed, I LOVE your community lots! I also love those apocalypse homes you made. I moved my Queen-Goddess simself into the container house. She triggered the apocalypse as a punishment, because Seth was talking smack about her, and now she's been sucked into living in it, too! But she does still keep SOME of her super simself powers. Mostly as a way to "fix things" when stuff glitches. Just call on the Watcher, and she'll work her magic to set things right. I don't even have to invite her over, either. She makes a habit of just coming over and walking right into the house, even though she's one of the few people with whom Seth did not get romantic. They are BFFs, but he could not invite her over until Ally came and lifted Military, because he didn't get a car.

This is SO MUCH fun! And so much easier than Pinstar's/ApocaBorg's with trying to remember so many complicated, and sometimes nonsensical, rules.

Although, if I ... when I do ApocaBorg's set again, I'm going to try lifting Paranormal and Law first. Law allows Law Enforcement, Slacker, and oh, something else, I forget what, to be lifted, and stay lifted, rather than just suppressed, and Slacker is important, because it's the one that controls the chance cards. I HATE THE CHANCE CARDS! And with a Paranormal lift, you get rid of the ghosts. I have lost sims to ghosts, and do not like. No sir!

As a matter of fact, when I play the ApocaBorg's version again, I think I'll actually use some of the restriction mods, just to make it easier. The ones that correspond closely, or exactly, such as Medical and Culinary, would do well, and I just LOVE how the Criminal one takes all the math off my shoulders. Did I mention I love this, and you did a great job? Really, the only reason I want to do the ApocaBorg version again is because I want to try the different lifts in a different order.

But then again, there's nothing stopping me from doing that with all of your mods and rules, is there? That is to say, I could CHOOSE to lift them in any order, and not worry about the Tiers, can't I? Or is the Tier-ness hard-coded into the mods? If they actually can be done in any order, I will do my next apocalypse (Still gonna finish my current one, thanks), as if it were ApocaBorg, with the free order, but keeping all of your mods and YOUR restrictions, that actually make SO MUCH more sense. It will be a sort of Phaenoh-Borg rules set. Haha!

But first, the Cosimona family must lift all of Phaenoh's restrictions, according to her rules. Well, time to get David his job in Law, and see if he can lift it in time for Seth and Ally to move out and take their ghosts with them. Although when Seth told me last night about his crazy idea of having yet another baby (Yes, my sims talk to me when I am TRYING to sleep. Don't yours?), I thought it was insane, but I am gonna do it, and hope that poor kid survives. Because that's the sort of player I am.


Mommyice - I just finished reading yours. Well, all that you have posted. You zoomed right through, until you paused. I guess life happens that way. Anyway, I REALLY enjoyed it. You have a good writing style, and I was super-impressed by your managing to lift restrictions without using books!
Alchemist
#1024 Old 2nd Jul 2020 at 11:48 AM
Quote: Originally posted by FlinkeMeisje
Aelflaed, I LOVE your community lots! I also love those apocalypse homes you made. I moved my Queen-Goddess simself into the container house.


Why, thank you! Glad someone is enjoying them. You seem to be having a lot of fun withyour apocalypse.

My new downloads are on my Pillowfort
Test Subject
#1025 Old 2nd Jul 2020 at 12:17 PM
Quote: Originally posted by aelflaed
My lots are actually not grungy, they are the pristine version, just sent in by the UN or similar. Also, no CC.

Some pics to show you:




The First Aid setup is copied from an actual 'Fast Response Unit' which is advertised on the internet.

Working on some lots for Tier 2...I have built an emergency school, in a UN tent like the First Aid Station, and am now messing about with a Research Facility. No more tents after the school, the absolute worst must be over, right?


WOW! I must say it's pretty cool!
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