Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.

The Toddlermania Challenge for TS3

Burn out on toddlers before Sims 4! 1 parent, 7 toddlers, 7 days, 1 training potty. What could be more fun?

I originally wrote Toddlermania for TS2 back when raising toddlers was substantially more difficult than it is in TS3. Now, with the news that TS4 will not ship with toddlers, I thought I should update my challenge for TS3. Other people have updated my original rules for TS3, for example, here. The original rules are preserved here.

When play testing this concept in TS3 I felt that this challenge was not nearly as difficult as it was in TS2. I didn't have half the toddlers passed out on the floor with stinky bottles and a parent sim about to collapse. I tried to revise the rules to make the TS3 version slightly more challenging but I suspect it's still quite doable. I'm going to give it another attempt now that I've settled on rules and scoring.

I have blogged my first play test here and plan to blog my 2nd attempt. The rules are also posted on my blog which might be better formatted than what I can do on this forum. I also have a link to a simple scoring spreadsheet that might be useful. My first attempt resulted in a a score of 201. I'm not sure what the highest possible score is since part of the score involves earned lifetime happiness points for the entire family.

Goal:

Using 1 parent sim, raise 7 toddlers to children racking up as many points as possible while minimizing penalties. It's only 7 days, you can do it.

You earn points for: each major toddler skill learned (walking, talking, and potty training), each level of the xylophone and peg board, each skill book read, each best friend relationship the parent has with each toddler and each pair of best friends the toddlers have with each other. Your score also includes 1% of the total Lifetime Happiness points earned by the entire family.

Penalties include: each time the training potty overflows, each time a toddler or parent bladder goes and bottoms out the hygiene bar, each time you max the motives of the parent (by whatever means), each time a toddler or the parent sim passes out, each time all toddler portraits are yellow (or worse), extra training potties.

How To Play:

1. Start a new game and choose any world (EA or player created) and any residential lot you like. Build the best ‘Toddler-Rearing Institute’ you can. Optimize the entire house for raising 7 toddlers and scoring points while avoiding penalties. Use every trick you can think of to assist you. Limitations:
-You get 1 free training potty. Each additional training potty over the first one costs you 10 points.
-You may use up to one trash bin or trash compactor in addition to the garbage can on the lot. You do not need to have one though.
-You may not use any Premium Store objects, either sold alone or sold in a Premium Set. (no playpen, no swing, no walker, no multi tab 6000, etc.).
-You can spend as much money as you like.
-No CC buy mode objects. Anything in the base game and all EPs/SPs is fine. Non-premium Store objects are fine too.
-You cannot use buydebug objects.

2. Go into CAS and create your family with 1 parent and 7 toddlers.
-You may only use each trait once. (I don't think you'll run out, but if you do you can reuse them.) You may assign traits however you wish.
-Using CC in CAS is fine.
-The LT wish for the parent sim is up to you. All sims must be human (no occult).
-By "parent" I mean young adult, adult, or elder.

3. Enable the "freerealestate" cheat and move the household into your Toddler Rearing Institute lot. Motherlode a few times so that you are certain they can afford bills and any future buy/build mode additions that you might want to add.
-This is not a financial challenge, you can add money, buy new stuff, and rework your lot at any time.

4. Raise all 7 toddlers to childhood following the rules below. Keep track of events which trigger scoring and penalties. At the end of the challenge note how many Lifetime Happiness points each sim (including the parent sim) has earned, whether you were allowed to choose the trait of each toddler on aging up to a child, and the final relationship levels each toddler has with the parent sim and the other toddlers.
-Suggestion: save often using Save As. I saved at least once a sim day and always with a new name so I could go back if necessary. I ended up with about 10 saves, which I'll eventually delete.

5. The challenge ends on 8 pm the seventh day. Assuming your game starts on Sunday morning, that means you have until 8 pm the next Sunday. Toddlers should start aging up around 8 pm (at least they do in my game) and may take to midnight to finish. If you have problems you can use Master Controller or testing cheats to trigger age transitions one toddler at a time.

Rules:

1. You may not turn aging off. You should leave aging set at the default Normal setting of 7 days for toddlers. You cannot age toddlers up early.
2. Your parent may not get a job (but can leave the house).
3. Toddlers must remain on High Free Will. I think you can disable autonomy for the parent sim in the Options screen if you like, or perhaps use a mod to do so. It's up to you (I play with all sims on High Free Will).
4. You may use any money cheat at any time.
5. You may purchase any Lifetime Rewards for the parent sim with the Lifetime Happiness points the parent sim earns.
6. You may save the game, rework your house, and/or reload after bad events as many times as you want.
7. The moveobjects cheat is allowed only for bugged items. You cannot use moveobjects for building. You can sell and replace bugged items if necessary.
8. Do not use reset sim unless absolutely necessary. If you get a stuck sim it would be better to go back to an earlier save. Resetting screws up needs. If your sims get stuck in a jam, chalk it up to bad house design, rework your house, and try again.
9. You may not sell ‘full’ training potties in buy mode and purchase new ‘empty’ ones. You cannot sell full trash bins or trash compactors either.
10. If the social worker takes any kids, or your parent sim or any toddler dies – you lose. Either reload or start over. Any other sims that die on the lot are ok, but no cheats to kill anyone.
11. You may not sell/replace any items needing repair or cleaning. You can call the repair person or maid whenever necessary or have the parent sim do the work.
13. You may hire babysitters or butlers (or any other service sim) as often as you like.
14. Mods: generally mods that affect needs and skills are forbidden (unless otherwise stated). If you use NRaas Relativity, make sure you do not change the time speed from the default. Many mods probably won't impact this challenge, but do not use any mods that:
-Change routing fail behavior
-Routing fixes
-Affect needs (motives) or skill rates for toddlers, the parent sim
-Disable autonomous behaviors
-Are otherwise 'cheaty' - which I'll leave to your discretion. If you are unsure post (with a link), and I'll try to answer.
-Error Trap, Overwatch, Saver, and similar mods are fine (I wouldn't play without them).
15. Cheats: see above for mods. Same rules apply unless otherwise stated.
16. You may not use any Store items which affect the needs or skills of toddlers or the parent sim. This includes: Local Motion Toddler Walker, Head Start Playpen, Solace Snugabunny Deluxe Baby Swing. In general, you cannot use Premium Store items, including items in Premium Sets. If in doubt, stick to objects in the base games, EPs, and SPs.
17. You can max the motives of the parent sim only, for a penalty. You can do this with testing cheats by dragging the bars, or with Master Controller or other mods. You cannot manipulate the needs of the toddlers by cheat or mod.
-Note: this rule is a holdover from the TS2 version where the toddler stage was only 5 days and I wanted to spend the entire time focusing on raising the kids. I found that when play testing this challenge in TS3 it made Toddlermania far less challenging. I don't recommend taking advantage of this rule regularly, but it's up to you and it's how I play tested the concept.

Scoring:

1. +5 points for each toddler skill (potty, walk, talk) each toddler learns (max 105 points)
2. +5 points for each toddler that grows up well, as measured by your ability to chose a trait when the toddler grows up (max 35 points)
3. +1 point for each peg box and xylophone skill level earned by all toddlers (max 42 points since there are 3 points to learn for each toy)
4. +1 point for each skill book read by each toddler (max 63 points)
5. +2 points for each best friend pair (between toddlers), +1 point for each good friend pair. Determine this at the end of the challenge. (max 42 points)
6. +2 points for each best friend relationship between the parent and each toddler, +1 for good friends at the end of the challenge. (max 14 points)
7. Total earned Lifetime Happiness points for the toddlers and parent divided by 100 (i.e. 1% of the total). Note which, if any, Lifetime Rewards you buy for the parent and include those amounts. This is 1% of the total Lifetime Happiness points earned, not just the points remaining. Note the totals at the end of the challenge as each toddler ages up. "Age up well" wants by the parent count (if satisfied), so make sure to note the parent's value after those toddlers have aged up.
8. -10 points for each training potty after the first one
9. -10 points each time all toddler portraits are yellow or worse (i.e. not green).
10. -5 points each time you max the motives of the parent sim whether by cheat or mod
11. -5 points each time your parent sim or a toddler passes out from exhaustion
12. -5 points each time a sim's bladder bottoms out and the hygiene bar goes red (toddler or adult, but does not apply to to sims outside the family).
13. -5 points for each potty overflow. If an existing puddle gets larger because it overflows again before your parent sim can empty it, that counts as another penalty.
14. -5 points for each social worker warning message you receive (I've never seen this in TS3, but you could get them in TS2, so I'll leave the rule in).

Variations:

Overstuffed Toddlermania: Using various mods from NRaas, play the challenge with more than 7 toddlers.

Supernatural Toddlermania: use supernatural sims. If you use fairy toddlers you cannot let them use the fairy houses.


If you decide to play this challenge, please post your score. As I stated above, my first score was 201. I plan to try it again using what I learned and trying some different strategies. I'll post my score when I'm done as well as blog my second attempt. I hope others have fun with this. Really.

Comments

  • abbyc97abbyc97 Posts: 1,550 Member
    edited July 2014
    This will be bookmarked it sounds great!
  • cianeciane Posts: 16,996 Member
    I'm going to call this the Toddler Training challenge. I've done the seven babes and one adult challenge before. It is doable, but it is also intense.

    For those that want a challenge, but a calmer experience, try creating a family with both parents and six toddlers in CAS. Then, using no cheats (money or otherwise), build them a home where ever you like. Premium content store items and cc furnishings that are cheaper or give better benefits are considered cheats.

    Your goal is to completely train each toddler before they grow up. My toddlers are only toddlers for five days (as I set one Sim day equals a year) and I completely trained five of the six, but had one tot who didn't finish the logic series. I'll play it better next time, hopefully!

    So, each tot gets potty trained, learns to walk and talk, and reads (or is read) all the skill books.

    Here's my example play through:

    https://2sim3.wordpress.com/other/tots/
Sign In or Register to comment.
Return to top