Good luck on the new sim! Hopefully she works out better.
Jarod started the Profession Sports career and made it to level 8 in the first week. He missed a promotion on day 2, and on his second game day his career performance barely went up at all, despite winning the game. I was a bit disappointed. So it's Sunday in BB and I thought he ought to start on his second degree since he's should reach level 10 the next two days.
I sent him for 1 class again, on a 2 week term. He had 18 credits towards Business and needs 30 more. He stayed at the fraternity house this time. I was debating on sending him for 2 classes and my decision to go with just one worked out really well. H had MWF classes at noon, and TuTh classes were at 4pm. That's plenty of time to get a party together after MWF classes and rest up before ThTh class. I've always had keg parties be a nightmare if the kegs aren't upgraded to auto-fill, so he spent the first few days upgrading 4 kegs and getting a few points in Handiness a bit earlier than I anticipated. With Legendary Host the parties were a huge success. Before his first party he had 13 friends and some 57 relationships. I have no idea how he met so many people! Anyways, after the first party get got the Super Friendly Charisma skill challenge completed. And after the 2nd party he got the Everybody's Best Friend challenge done. Charisma skill level was at about 5 or 6. I saved a wish to have 5 more parties which he threw over the weekend and throughout next week. I didn't push Charisma skill that much because he'll have to return to complete his Business degree.
I had given him the Opportunistic LTR last term. I don't use that one very much. Jarod picked up another Organ Donation day job and made 7k simoleons! I had no idea Opportunistic doubles those rewards. That paid for a hot tub. It never occurred to me that day jobs (or WA adventures) are considered opportunities. He missed out on a lot of cash due to me not giving him that LTR earlier. Live and learn, I guess.
The police came by to shut down one of the early parties. The cop, Samuel McNeil got distracted or something and just stayed for a while. I got Jarod and him to talk and one thing led to another. I wasn't planning on getting Jarod romantically involved but why not? They dated a few times during the term and I added Samuel to the household with NRaas MasterController just before Jarod returned home. Samuel already has a PE degree and has a lifetime wish to be an International Super Spy. Jarod's next career will be Criminal Thief. I've never had a couple on opposite sides of the law before.
So I need to get Jarod promoted in the next 2 days and take 1 or 2 more trips back to university so both guys can get a degree. I was thinking he could complete his degree after he reaches level 10, I just need to make sure I can get him back in time for Jarod to switch careers without missing a day. The Professional Sports career work day ends kind of late.
Very cool...I am still in creating stages with my new sim. I think I am going to make her get super popular...it's always easier for sims to move up the career ladder when they have a boatload of friends. To do that, she has to befriend a lot of Jocks! So...that being said, I may end up putting her into the athletic or communications track first, most likely athletic, then communications. Parties are fun...unless your sim has a class or final exam in say, oh...four hours and is still partying hard. Mine tend to do that!
Is there a support group for Simming Addiction? I think I need it...
Good plan! I find getting the Super Friendly Charisma challenge completed really helpful as I don't have to worry about losing friendships. And with the Attractive LTR it's not all that difficult.
Jarod got a work opportunity to go to China and learn the Martial Arts skill (he was at level 8 of Professional Sports). I ended up sending him and Samuel to university first for their 2nd degrees. They rented a house this time. No parties this time, they took a heavy class schedule. Samuel took 3 classes and Jarod took 2. Jarod got close to mastering Cooking during the term and Samual got high enough in the Jock group to get his social group trait (I gave him Schmoozer). They both earned As. I switched Jarod's graduation trait to Handy from Charismatic (he'd already mastered Charisma). That's two degrees earned, 4 more to go.
I left Samuel's graduation trait at Genius since he still had the Logic skill to master for his future Law Enforcement career. Jarod also learned enough Alchemy to discover the Invigorating elixir. I had Samuel harvest alchemy plants I had added to the alchemy elixir shop so Jarod had ingredients to work with. Jarod created 5 Invigorating elixirs before reaching level 5 of the Alchemy skill. I stopped because the Alchemy skill helps the Science & Medicine major and wanted to put off learning any more of that skill until he was working towards that degree.
After graduation I sent them to B's Bowlarama to celebrate. They immediately headed to the photo booth to...well, I thought to woohoo. I have a mod to allow same-sex pregnancy and autonomous woohoo/TFB. Apparently I didn't readjust that mod's settings in the university world and they autonomously tried for baby. I didn't know what was happening until I heard the conception chime. Oops! Samuel ended up pregnant. Not what I wanted at all, but I decided to roll with it.
After returning home they almost immediately took off for China. "Almost" because I realized that at some point while at university the game dropped Jarod's work opportunity to go to China. I thought that was cheaty, so I used MasterController to give him the opportunity back. Jarod had the Prepared Traveler LTR so they were able to go for 6 days. While they were there Jarod learned the Martial Arts skill and mastered Cooking. He had a saved wish to learn 7 tofu recipes. That was the main reason I had him study Cooking; I wanted to complete that wish. Well, after mastering Cooking and learning 9 tofu recipes in all, that wish was never satisfied. I'll never bother with that one again. Samuel mastered Athletic, which he'll need for his lifetime wish of becoming an International Super Spy, and then he completed the wish chain to work out for 8 hrs, 10 hrs, and 12 hrs.
When they returned home Jarod drank an Invigorating elixir and worked from home for 6 hrs. After sleeping in the Super Sleeper I had 2 hrs to kill before work. His teammate relationship smiley face had dropped a bit so I decided to have make some phone calls to his teammates. Didn't raise the requirement and at work that day he missed a promotion by a hair. I should have had him work from home some more, lesson learned. He got his promotion the next day and I had him work from home as much as possible before his 3rd game. That paid off and he reached level 10 the next day! Took a week and a half. If I had pushed working from home a bit more he could have saved 2 days. One career down, 5 more to go.
By this time he and Samuel had moved to a larger house, since a baby was on the way. I was going to put Jarod in the Criminal career, but I recently became aware of some job performance bugs with that career. I thought it better for him to go into the Business career. The Education career is another possibility, but Business pays more. Later than night Samuel gave birth to a baby boy, Orion.
Jarod got promotions his first two days at the Business career and then it was the weekend. Samuel still isn't working. He hasn't gotten the wish to join the LE career and I'm content to wait until Origin ages up to a child. Jarod and Samuel both had a wish to marry each other, and another wish just to get married. On Sat, Samuel introduced himself to people all over town and Jarod held meetings, became best friends with his boss, and completed another work opportunity. On Sun, Orion aged up to a toddler, Jarod taught Orion to use the potty, and Samuel threw a wedding party at a customized version of the Grind which I had added to Barnacle Bay.
The wedding was a success for Samuel. At the end of it he completed the Super Friendly challenge. But it was almost a disaster for Orion. Apparently I had invited the baby sitter to the wedding. She was supposed to be home taking care of Orion but, I guess, a party takes precedence. I think Orion was all alone from about 11 am to 6 pm when I noticed he was dead tired and need to be put in the crib. So I sent Jarod home early to take care of Orion. Jarod tried unsuccessfully to interact with 2 sims who were stuck throwing rice at the wedding arch and then I sent him home too.
Currently Jarod has 2 days off from work due to getting married. I'm not sure whether removing those days with MasterController would be considered cheating, so I'll just leave them. He didn't get any paternity leave when Orion was born, thankfully. He wants to visit Egypt and get a 3rd degree. Samuel wants a 3rd degree too. Orion needs to be taught some skills. Jarod also needs to work on his Handiness skill. He just learned enough to upgrade things to unbreakable. He'll need Handiness for his next career, Military. For the Technology degree I'll have him learn Logic to help out his academic progress. I haven't found Handiness really helps that major very well.
So, my sim doesn't have what it takes to complete three degrees, let alone six...so...I changed her LTW to reach the top of the Journalism career and she found a husband in Egypt, brought him to Monte Vista, got married and is currently pregnant. Maybe their child can have the academic prowess I am looking for. This sim is, however, an ace reporter, and one heck of a chum to all who know her! Her husband wants to reach the top of the military career, so he is in that track, but because they are both heading toward Elder stage, no more University until the newest generation becomes of age.
Is there a support group for Simming Addiction? I think I need it...
Jarod just reached the top of his 2nd career, Business. On the same day he aged to Adult! I thought he would be in the middle of his 3rd career by his this time. He lost 3 days (IIRC) in the Professional Sports career, and then 2 more due to the wedding. He didn't get any paternity leave for him first child. Don't husbands normally get time off? I usually play gay couples and NRaas SP handles that. But for this challenge I have NRaas SP disabled. Maybe the game is confused because I'm using a mod to allow same-sex pregnancy and the pregnant sim is male.
Anyways, Jarod's next career is Military. I checked on the wiki and from level 4 to 9 his work schedule is MWF. So it will take him 2 weeks to reach level 10 with that career. His next career will be Science, and I doubt he will be able to complete that before aging to and Elder. I'll make a decision about ambrosia just before he ages to Elder, and definitely will use a death flower. I'm thinking I won't use any ambrosia and just see how it goes with the death flower, Vegetarian trait, and Marathon Runner skill challenge. I'll probably have him earn all 6 degrees before he ages up again.
Jarod mastered Handiness as he earned his Technology degree. I bought along every upgradable object from home and had him make everything unbreakable. Later, he and Samuel visited Egypt as a honeymoon and woohooed in every tent at the base camp. I tried to have Samuel complete as many adventures as possible, wondering how he'd do with the Opportunistic LTR. He got to visa level 2, but didn't have enough ancient coins to buy anything interesting. Samuel maxed out his Advanced Technology skill by hover boarding all over Al Simhara collecting rocks, gems, and metals. He picked up 3 tiberium! I set those aside in a CC storage chest, smelted the good metals, and had Samuel use the gem cutter with all of the gems he found. All of it consigned for some 166k simoleons and I still haven't done anything with the tiberium. He also collected a ton of seeds at university, so I have plenty of death flower seeds and a few life fruit seeds for ambrosia if I decide to use that. On graduating with a Technology degree I switched Jarod's Handiness trait with the Green Thumb trait. He'll garden for academic performance for his Science & Medicine degree.
I'm also thinking of doing this challenge again with a variation. In addition to getting all 6 degrees and reaching level 10 of 6 careers, I'd have my challenge sim get married (or start off that way) and father as many children as possible. At least five and give the spouse sim the Surrounded by Family LTW. This might work for a male sim but I think a female sim would get a too much time off if she regularly got pregnant.
To explore that idea, that I had Jarod and Samuel try for another baby. I had the timing all picked out to see how the maternity leave affected Samuel's career. But he didn't get pregnant the Saturday night I tried (3 times!). So I exited the game without saving, reloaded, and tried again. Samuel spun up the wish to have a child with Jarod this time and they conceived in the tree house on the first try. Later Jarod and their child aged son, Orion, went to bed and Samuel was finishing up the gardening. He was headed for a shower around 1am or so and got abducted! 10 hrs later we was alien pregnant as well. I've had this happen in my game before and as long as the alien pregnancy comes to term first my male sim usually has both kids just fine.
So I moved them to a new, larger house in Barnacle Bay. It's a bit modern, which I like. It has disjointed rooms so sims must walk outside to get from one part of the house to another, kind of a pain since it's winter. Definitely designed before Seasons. The house is on its own little island. Problem is that my sims couldn't leave or return. Some routing issue with the bridge connecting the island to the main part of BB. They could move there, and Origin took the bus to school. But he couldn't return and Samuel couldn't go to the spa. I teleported them around town with testingcheats until Samuel had both babies later that day (he got 4 work days off for maternity leave, Jarod didn't get any leave again, maybe it's because he's a Workaholic? both are Ambitious), then moved the house in Edit Town to another lot. Their house was on a 40x40 lot and luckily there was an empty 60x60 lot in BB to move them to. I think this location will work fine. Shame about the original location though.
With Jarod having every other day off, I'll focus on having him complete his last 3 degrees and work from home enough to get a promotion every work day. Hopefully by the time he's an Elder I'll just have to focus on his jobs. After Military, I want him to go into the Science career, then Culinary, and finally either Journalism or one of the Fortune Teller branches. He's already mastered Charisma for the Journalism and FT Scam Artist careers. I'd just need to have him master either Writing or Logic for those, or master Alchemy for the FT Mystic career. He'll be writing novels for academic performance for the Communications career, so I'm leaning towards Journalism. The only other skill he needs to master is Gardening for the Science career.
Jarod now has completed 5 degrees. He's returning to university one final time for a degree in Communications right after his next child is born. He's at level 6 of the Science career, his 4th. He's 4 days from aging to elder. His husband is pregnant with their 3rd child, which should be born later in the day. I think Samuel will join him for his 6th degree too. Their first born, Orion, will probably go as well, mainly to explore a romance with Cyd Servous. If that works out Orion and Cyd will stay at the home and raise their own family and watch over Jarod and Samuel as elders.
Jarod's next career is Culinary, and then probably Journalism. I went online to look at work schedules and tried to map out how soon he'll complete the challenge assuming he gets a promotion every work day. I'm not too worried about Science and Culinary, but I'm not sure how Journalism will work out with the article requirements. Anyways, assuming I mapped it out correctly, he'll need another 24 days minimum to reach level 10 of Journalism. That means he'll need to live a week beyond the end of the elder stage. I was trying to decide whether to give him the Ambrosia the day before aging to elder, or whether a death flower would be enough. I think I'm not going to use the Ambrosia and see what happens and see if he needs to use the death flower.
So far (IIRC) he missed 3 promotions in Professional Sports, 2 work days due to getting married, and 1 work day due to a holiday (Love Day from Seasons). If he had not gotten married and if I had pushed working at home harder while he was in Professional Sports (or had a mod which added the Work Hard tone to that career) he would be doing a lot better. I think I also made a mistake with the Military career. For levels 4-9 he only worked MWF. Maybe one of the Law Enforcement careers would have had a better work schedule allowing him to finish that career off faster.
Samuel completed his lifetime wish of becoming an International Super Spy. I had trouble keeping up with his reports requirements at one point, but he managed to reach the top of the career after his 2nd child (and alien child) was born. Then, since he and Jarod wanted another child, I had him quit, join the Criminal career, and get pregnant. This time I used a mod (NRaas Retuner) to eliminate maternity leave just to see what that's like. Samuel was scheduled to work only 1 day during his pregnancy. He got arrested but the game left him outside the police rabbit hole. I guess pregnant sims don't get detained, lol. He returned to work to complete his shift, but no promotion. He's got 10 days before he ages to an elder. His baby is due the next morning, and he works the next evening, and I'd like to work in a trip to university as well.
I usually play with NRaas StoryProgression, but I disabled that mod because I wasn't sure what effects it has on job performance for active sims. I've noticed though that many inactives are dying and the town population seems to be shrinking. I counted some 9 empty houses in the town. So I've enabled NRaas SP hoping some residents will move in and I'll ask on the NRaas site about job performance settings. As a consequence, NRaas SP is trying to set up a graduation for Orion and all the inactive sims who have aged up to YA from teen. it's currently Saturday in my game and I postponed that until Sunday because otherwise I'm sure it would conflict with Samuel's impending labor. By Monday everything should settle down with Jarod, Samuel, Orion (who will go into the Science career), and possibly Cyd, all pursing their respective careers. I'll alos have two teens to age up and move out, and one baby to raise.
Work (IRL) has gotten in the way of my simming...I plan on giving this challenge my attention tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday. I have those days free. I may have to completely start over, because I really don't remember where I left off! LOL! I love starting with science, especially with vegetarian sims...just because they can grow their food source and not have to shop for groceries as much. I also like starting off with military, just because I like my sims to have that handiness skill. I despise having them call the repairman to fix the toilet or shower all the time! Starting with culinary allows for more fulfilling meals, but your sims get lazy with other things, depending on other traits they may have. I am glad you are having fun with this! I hope more people get through it! When you're finished with it...you'll earn a badge for TS3!
Is there a support group for Simming Addiction? I think I need it...
Finished the challenge! I don't remember all that happened since my last update. Some highlights:
Samuel had another baby. He and Jarod had 4 children total (and Samuel had one alien child). Orion (their first born) and Cyd Serverous had 4 kids (one set of twins), with Cyd also getting abducted and having an alien baby. A meteorite hit on Leisure day and destroyed a few things, and caused quite a few fires. Samuel reached the top of the Criminal career, Master Thief branch, and then quit. Orion is working to become an Astronaut, but has a few more levels to go. Cyd is almost at the top of the Art Appraiser career, and has completed the opportunity chain to be able to paint brilliant and masterpiece paintings on command, something I've never done before.
And then there's Jarod, my challenge sim. Jarod reached level 10 of the Science career, and then level 10 of the Culinary career without any real difficulty. He got a promotion each day he went into work. His last career was Journalism. I haven't played the career in a long time and didn't remember how much of a job performance boost that negative reviews gave. So he mostly breezed through this career, although he lost a few friends in the process.
Jarod lived to be 92. At level 9 of the Journalism career the Grim Reaper came for him. The vegetarianism and marathon runner skill challenge didn't help at all. He only lived 2 days past the 90 day minimum lifespan. That was also 2 days away from his next work shift and promotion to level 10 of the Journalism. So close! He had a death flower in his inventory, and thank goodness! I would have been crushed having gotten 1 promotion away to completion. So Jarod was saved from death and 2 days later reach level 10 of the Journalism career.
His career history:
And degree history:
Thoughts:
I think it's totally possible to complete 6 degrees within a 90 day lifespan. Jarod missed 3 promotions in the Professional Sports career, then 2 promotions due to getting married, and 2 or 3 promotions due to seasonal holidays. Professional Sports is tough because (without a mod) there is no 'work hard' tone and it's difficult to judge how much working from home is needed to guarantee a job promotion. I also made a mistake with the Military career. I think Law Enforcement has more workdays per week and he might have finished LE sooner than Military. I also learned (from Orion and Cyd's experiences) than if your unemployed sim gets married and then immediately gets a job, they won't immediately get any time off for the wedding. At least Orion didn't. I possibly could have exploited that for Jarod and kept him working instead of being forced to take 2 days off after he married Samuel.
Fortunately Jarod never got any paternity leave. I don't know whether that's due to his traits or due to me playing a gay couple, using a mod to bring same-sex pregnancy to the game ,and the game not knowing how to deal with that situation. I eventually enabled NRaas StoryProgression, but neither Cyd or Orion got any paternity leave for their 3 pregnancies. I have no idea why. Paternity leave seems to be bugged in my game.
I really enjoyed the challenge and had a blast playing it. I do think you should allow the challenge sim to have a death flower in inventory. Despite stacking the deck, so to say, with the Vegetarian trait and the Marathon Runner skill challenge, it's still a dice roll after the end of the elder stage. You really can't depend on your sim living too long after that. While I think it's possible to complete the challenge within the 90 day lifespan I think you need know what you are doing and really plan your strategy. A death flower provides some breathing room.
I don't think Ambrosia is necessary though, so I retract that suggestion. A single death flower should be enough, and really encourages the player to get all 6 careers completed before the sim dies. When Jarod turned 90 days I was only 4 more calendar days (which was 2 work days) away from completing the challenge. I never even considered using Ambrosia at that point. I did think about it when Jarod was about to age to Elder. At that point I knew he'd be older than 90 when he completed the challenge, but thought that with the Vegetarian trait and the Marathon Skill challenge that he'd make it. (How wrong I was.)
Great challenge! I learned a lot, and had a lot of fun playing it.
Awesome!!!!!! I am so glad you liked it! I think others should try it. When I have more than one or two days to fiddle with it, I plan on focusing on my sim again, really getting them to get those degrees and get that badge!
Is there a support group for Simming Addiction? I think I need it...
Comments
Jarod started the Profession Sports career and made it to level 8 in the first week. He missed a promotion on day 2, and on his second game day his career performance barely went up at all, despite winning the game. I was a bit disappointed. So it's Sunday in BB and I thought he ought to start on his second degree since he's should reach level 10 the next two days.
I sent him for 1 class again, on a 2 week term. He had 18 credits towards Business and needs 30 more. He stayed at the fraternity house this time. I was debating on sending him for 2 classes and my decision to go with just one worked out really well. H had MWF classes at noon, and TuTh classes were at 4pm. That's plenty of time to get a party together after MWF classes and rest up before ThTh class. I've always had keg parties be a nightmare if the kegs aren't upgraded to auto-fill, so he spent the first few days upgrading 4 kegs and getting a few points in Handiness a bit earlier than I anticipated. With Legendary Host the parties were a huge success. Before his first party he had 13 friends and some 57 relationships. I have no idea how he met so many people! Anyways, after the first party get got the Super Friendly Charisma skill challenge completed. And after the 2nd party he got the Everybody's Best Friend challenge done. Charisma skill level was at about 5 or 6. I saved a wish to have 5 more parties which he threw over the weekend and throughout next week. I didn't push Charisma skill that much because he'll have to return to complete his Business degree.
I had given him the Opportunistic LTR last term. I don't use that one very much. Jarod picked up another Organ Donation day job and made 7k simoleons! I had no idea Opportunistic doubles those rewards. That paid for a hot tub. It never occurred to me that day jobs (or WA adventures) are considered opportunities. He missed out on a lot of cash due to me not giving him that LTR earlier. Live and learn, I guess.
The police came by to shut down one of the early parties. The cop, Samuel McNeil got distracted or something and just stayed for a while. I got Jarod and him to talk and one thing led to another. I wasn't planning on getting Jarod romantically involved but why not? They dated a few times during the term and I added Samuel to the household with NRaas MasterController just before Jarod returned home. Samuel already has a PE degree and has a lifetime wish to be an International Super Spy. Jarod's next career will be Criminal Thief. I've never had a couple on opposite sides of the law before.
So I need to get Jarod promoted in the next 2 days and take 1 or 2 more trips back to university so both guys can get a degree. I was thinking he could complete his degree after he reaches level 10, I just need to make sure I can get him back in time for Jarod to switch careers without missing a day. The Professional Sports career work day ends kind of late.
Jarod got a work opportunity to go to China and learn the Martial Arts skill (he was at level 8 of Professional Sports). I ended up sending him and Samuel to university first for their 2nd degrees. They rented a house this time. No parties this time, they took a heavy class schedule. Samuel took 3 classes and Jarod took 2. Jarod got close to mastering Cooking during the term and Samual got high enough in the Jock group to get his social group trait (I gave him Schmoozer). They both earned As. I switched Jarod's graduation trait to Handy from Charismatic (he'd already mastered Charisma). That's two degrees earned, 4 more to go.
I left Samuel's graduation trait at Genius since he still had the Logic skill to master for his future Law Enforcement career. Jarod also learned enough Alchemy to discover the Invigorating elixir. I had Samuel harvest alchemy plants I had added to the alchemy elixir shop so Jarod had ingredients to work with. Jarod created 5 Invigorating elixirs before reaching level 5 of the Alchemy skill. I stopped because the Alchemy skill helps the Science & Medicine major and wanted to put off learning any more of that skill until he was working towards that degree.
After graduation I sent them to B's Bowlarama to celebrate. They immediately headed to the photo booth to...well, I thought to woohoo. I have a mod to allow same-sex pregnancy and autonomous woohoo/TFB. Apparently I didn't readjust that mod's settings in the university world and they autonomously tried for baby. I didn't know what was happening until I heard the conception chime. Oops!
After returning home they almost immediately took off for China. "Almost" because I realized that at some point while at university the game dropped Jarod's work opportunity to go to China.
When they returned home Jarod drank an Invigorating elixir and worked from home for 6 hrs. After sleeping in the Super Sleeper I had 2 hrs to kill before work. His teammate relationship smiley face had dropped a bit so I decided to have make some phone calls to his teammates. Didn't raise the requirement and at work that day he missed a promotion by a hair. I should have had him work from home some more, lesson learned. He got his promotion the next day and I had him work from home as much as possible before his 3rd game. That paid off and he reached level 10 the next day! Took a week and a half. If I had pushed working from home a bit more he could have saved 2 days. One career down, 5 more to go.
By this time he and Samuel had moved to a larger house, since a baby was on the way. I was going to put Jarod in the Criminal career, but I recently became aware of some job performance bugs with that career. I thought it better for him to go into the Business career. The Education career is another possibility, but Business pays more. Later than night Samuel gave birth to a baby boy, Orion.
Jarod got promotions his first two days at the Business career and then it was the weekend. Samuel still isn't working. He hasn't gotten the wish to join the LE career and I'm content to wait until Origin ages up to a child. Jarod and Samuel both had a wish to marry each other, and another wish just to get married. On Sat, Samuel introduced himself to people all over town and Jarod held meetings, became best friends with his boss, and completed another work opportunity. On Sun, Orion aged up to a toddler, Jarod taught Orion to use the potty, and Samuel threw a wedding party at a customized version of the Grind which I had added to Barnacle Bay.
The wedding was a success for Samuel. At the end of it he completed the Super Friendly challenge. But it was almost a disaster for Orion. Apparently I had invited the baby sitter to the wedding. She was supposed to be home taking care of Orion but, I guess, a party takes precedence. I think Orion was all alone from about 11 am to 6 pm when I noticed he was dead tired and need to be put in the crib. So I sent Jarod home early to take care of Orion. Jarod tried unsuccessfully to interact with 2 sims who were stuck throwing rice at the wedding arch and then I sent him home too.
Currently Jarod has 2 days off from work due to getting married. I'm not sure whether removing those days with MasterController would be considered cheating, so I'll just leave them. He didn't get any paternity leave when Orion was born, thankfully. He wants to visit Egypt and get a 3rd degree. Samuel wants a 3rd degree too. Orion needs to be taught some skills. Jarod also needs to work on his Handiness skill. He just learned enough to upgrade things to unbreakable. He'll need Handiness for his next career, Military. For the Technology degree I'll have him learn Logic to help out his academic progress. I haven't found Handiness really helps that major very well.
Anyways, Jarod's next career is Military. I checked on the wiki and from level 4 to 9 his work schedule is MWF. So it will take him 2 weeks to reach level 10 with that career. His next career will be Science, and I doubt he will be able to complete that before aging to and Elder. I'll make a decision about ambrosia just before he ages to Elder, and definitely will use a death flower. I'm thinking I won't use any ambrosia and just see how it goes with the death flower, Vegetarian trait, and Marathon Runner skill challenge. I'll probably have him earn all 6 degrees before he ages up again.
Jarod mastered Handiness as he earned his Technology degree. I bought along every upgradable object from home and had him make everything unbreakable. Later, he and Samuel visited Egypt as a honeymoon and woohooed in every tent at the base camp. I tried to have Samuel complete as many adventures as possible, wondering how he'd do with the Opportunistic LTR. He got to visa level 2, but didn't have enough ancient coins to buy anything interesting. Samuel maxed out his Advanced Technology skill by hover boarding all over Al Simhara collecting rocks, gems, and metals. He picked up 3 tiberium! I set those aside in a CC storage chest, smelted the good metals, and had Samuel use the gem cutter with all of the gems he found. All of it consigned for some 166k simoleons and I still haven't done anything with the tiberium. He also collected a ton of seeds at university, so I have plenty of death flower seeds and a few life fruit seeds for ambrosia if I decide to use that. On graduating with a Technology degree I switched Jarod's Handiness trait with the Green Thumb trait. He'll garden for academic performance for his Science & Medicine degree.
I'm also thinking of doing this challenge again with a variation. In addition to getting all 6 degrees and reaching level 10 of 6 careers, I'd have my challenge sim get married (or start off that way) and father as many children as possible. At least five and give the spouse sim the Surrounded by Family LTW. This might work for a male sim but I think a female sim would get a too much time off if she regularly got pregnant.
To explore that idea, that I had Jarod and Samuel try for another baby. I had the timing all picked out to see how the maternity leave affected Samuel's career. But he didn't get pregnant the Saturday night I tried (3 times!). So I exited the game without saving, reloaded, and tried again. Samuel spun up the wish to have a child with Jarod this time and they conceived in the tree house on the first try. Later Jarod and their child aged son, Orion, went to bed and Samuel was finishing up the gardening. He was headed for a shower around 1am or so and got abducted! 10 hrs later we was alien pregnant as well.
So I moved them to a new, larger house in Barnacle Bay. It's a bit modern, which I like. It has disjointed rooms so sims must walk outside to get from one part of the house to another, kind of a pain since it's winter. Definitely designed before Seasons. The house is on its own little island. Problem is that my sims couldn't leave or return. Some routing issue with the bridge connecting the island to the main part of BB. They could move there, and Origin took the bus to school. But he couldn't return and Samuel couldn't go to the spa. I teleported them around town with testingcheats until Samuel had both babies later that day (he got 4 work days off for maternity leave, Jarod didn't get any leave again, maybe it's because he's a Workaholic? both are Ambitious), then moved the house in Edit Town to another lot. Their house was on a 40x40 lot and luckily there was an empty 60x60 lot in BB to move them to. I think this location will work fine. Shame about the original location though.
With Jarod having every other day off, I'll focus on having him complete his last 3 degrees and work from home enough to get a promotion every work day. Hopefully by the time he's an Elder I'll just have to focus on his jobs. After Military, I want him to go into the Science career, then Culinary, and finally either Journalism or one of the Fortune Teller branches. He's already mastered Charisma for the Journalism and FT Scam Artist careers. I'd just need to have him master either Writing or Logic for those, or master Alchemy for the FT Mystic career. He'll be writing novels for academic performance for the Communications career, so I'm leaning towards Journalism. The only other skill he needs to master is Gardening for the Science career.
Jarod now has completed 5 degrees. He's returning to university one final time for a degree in Communications right after his next child is born. He's at level 6 of the Science career, his 4th. He's 4 days from aging to elder. His husband is pregnant with their 3rd child, which should be born later in the day. I think Samuel will join him for his 6th degree too. Their first born, Orion, will probably go as well, mainly to explore a romance with Cyd Servous. If that works out Orion and Cyd will stay at the home and raise their own family and watch over Jarod and Samuel as elders.
Jarod's next career is Culinary, and then probably Journalism. I went online to look at work schedules and tried to map out how soon he'll complete the challenge assuming he gets a promotion every work day. I'm not too worried about Science and Culinary, but I'm not sure how Journalism will work out with the article requirements. Anyways, assuming I mapped it out correctly, he'll need another 24 days minimum to reach level 10 of Journalism. That means he'll need to live a week beyond the end of the elder stage. I was trying to decide whether to give him the Ambrosia the day before aging to elder, or whether a death flower would be enough. I think I'm not going to use the Ambrosia and see what happens and see if he needs to use the death flower.
So far (IIRC) he missed 3 promotions in Professional Sports, 2 work days due to getting married, and 1 work day due to a holiday (Love Day from Seasons). If he had not gotten married and if I had pushed working at home harder while he was in Professional Sports (or had a mod which added the Work Hard tone to that career) he would be doing a lot better. I think I also made a mistake with the Military career. For levels 4-9 he only worked MWF. Maybe one of the Law Enforcement careers would have had a better work schedule allowing him to finish that career off faster.
Samuel completed his lifetime wish of becoming an International Super Spy. I had trouble keeping up with his reports requirements at one point, but he managed to reach the top of the career after his 2nd child (and alien child) was born. Then, since he and Jarod wanted another child, I had him quit, join the Criminal career, and get pregnant. This time I used a mod (NRaas Retuner) to eliminate maternity leave just to see what that's like. Samuel was scheduled to work only 1 day during his pregnancy. He got arrested but the game left him outside the police rabbit hole. I guess pregnant sims don't get detained, lol. He returned to work to complete his shift, but no promotion. He's got 10 days before he ages to an elder. His baby is due the next morning, and he works the next evening, and I'd like to work in a trip to university as well.
I usually play with NRaas StoryProgression, but I disabled that mod because I wasn't sure what effects it has on job performance for active sims. I've noticed though that many inactives are dying and the town population seems to be shrinking. I counted some 9 empty houses in the town. So I've enabled NRaas SP hoping some residents will move in and I'll ask on the NRaas site about job performance settings. As a consequence, NRaas SP is trying to set up a graduation for Orion and all the inactive sims who have aged up to YA from teen. it's currently Saturday in my game and I postponed that until Sunday because otherwise I'm sure it would conflict with Samuel's impending labor. By Monday everything should settle down with Jarod, Samuel, Orion (who will go into the Science career), and possibly Cyd, all pursing their respective careers. I'll alos have two teens to age up and move out, and one baby to raise.
Samuel had another baby. He and Jarod had 4 children total (and Samuel had one alien child). Orion (their first born) and Cyd Serverous had 4 kids (one set of twins), with Cyd also getting abducted and having an alien baby. A meteorite hit on Leisure day and destroyed a few things, and caused quite a few fires. Samuel reached the top of the Criminal career, Master Thief branch, and then quit. Orion is working to become an Astronaut, but has a few more levels to go. Cyd is almost at the top of the Art Appraiser career, and has completed the opportunity chain to be able to paint brilliant and masterpiece paintings on command, something I've never done before.
And then there's Jarod, my challenge sim. Jarod reached level 10 of the Science career, and then level 10 of the Culinary career without any real difficulty. He got a promotion each day he went into work. His last career was Journalism. I haven't played the career in a long time and didn't remember how much of a job performance boost that negative reviews gave. So he mostly breezed through this career, although he lost a few friends in the process.
Jarod lived to be 92. At level 9 of the Journalism career the Grim Reaper came for him. The vegetarianism and marathon runner skill challenge didn't help at all. He only lived 2 days past the 90 day minimum lifespan. That was also 2 days away from his next work shift and promotion to level 10 of the Journalism. So close!
His career history:
And degree history:
Thoughts:
I think it's totally possible to complete 6 degrees within a 90 day lifespan. Jarod missed 3 promotions in the Professional Sports career, then 2 promotions due to getting married, and 2 or 3 promotions due to seasonal holidays. Professional Sports is tough because (without a mod) there is no 'work hard' tone and it's difficult to judge how much working from home is needed to guarantee a job promotion. I also made a mistake with the Military career. I think Law Enforcement has more workdays per week and he might have finished LE sooner than Military. I also learned (from Orion and Cyd's experiences) than if your unemployed sim gets married and then immediately gets a job, they won't immediately get any time off for the wedding. At least Orion didn't. I possibly could have exploited that for Jarod and kept him working instead of being forced to take 2 days off after he married Samuel.
Fortunately Jarod never got any paternity leave. I don't know whether that's due to his traits or due to me playing a gay couple, using a mod to bring same-sex pregnancy to the game ,and the game not knowing how to deal with that situation. I eventually enabled NRaas StoryProgression, but neither Cyd or Orion got any paternity leave for their 3 pregnancies. I have no idea why. Paternity leave seems to be bugged in my game.
I really enjoyed the challenge and had a blast playing it. I do think you should allow the challenge sim to have a death flower in inventory. Despite stacking the deck, so to say, with the Vegetarian trait and the Marathon Runner skill challenge, it's still a dice roll after the end of the elder stage. You really can't depend on your sim living too long after that. While I think it's possible to complete the challenge within the 90 day lifespan I think you need know what you are doing and really plan your strategy. A death flower provides some breathing room.
I don't think Ambrosia is necessary though, so I retract that suggestion. A single death flower should be enough, and really encourages the player to get all 6 careers completed before the sim dies. When Jarod turned 90 days I was only 4 more calendar days (which was 2 work days) away from completing the challenge. I never even considered using Ambrosia at that point. I did think about it when Jarod was about to age to Elder. At that point I knew he'd be older than 90 when he completed the challenge, but thought that with the Vegetarian trait and the Marathon Skill challenge that he'd make it. (How wrong I was.)
Great challenge! I learned a lot, and had a lot of fun playing it.