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The Sims "Homescapes" Challenge
ReisJewel
Posts: 22 Member
Hello, lovely simmers! In the past few weeks I've been working on a new challenge and now, after concluding beta-testing it and making the finishing touches, I can finally share it with you all! I hope there isn't a challenge like this one already (and if there is, I apologize, the Internet is a big place).
Before we start with the rules I want to thank Kym'sCreations, Simmer Deanna and Nancy Kubacki for the help and support they have given me with this challenge, helping to play test it, spotting loopholes and making changes to the rules so that everything works smoothly. It's been a blat working with you ladies and I hope to be able to do it again soon!
This challenge is pretty extensive. Yes, it was inspired by the mobile game "Homescapes" and also The Sims 4 Mobile but I hope you will have as much fun as we did while testing it.
I will leave links to the blog post with the rules, if it's easier to read them that way, and also to the group we created for this challenge, where you can join and post pictures as you progress through the challenge. We can even make a different forum post just for the gameplay if you guys want and if it's allowed.
Small note before we continue: I managed to make only one house for this challenge. You can find it in my gallery (Origin ID: ReisJewel) or using the hashtag #homescapeschallenge. I would like to ask builders out there, or just anyone who wants to, to build a few starting homes and to post it in the gallery using the hashtag I mentioned. I will try and make a couple more myself but the more, the merrier.
Blog post with the rules: The Sims "Homescapes" Challenge
Facebook Group: coming soon!
Without further ado, here are the RULES:
THE GOAL OF THE CHALLENGE:
Due to unfortunate events, you became homeless, lost your money and everything else you owned. Luckily for you, a distant relative recently passed away and left you their house, a small amount of money, as well as... all their junk. You can make your fortune back from it but you must turn that place into a home, clean all the rubbish and restore all the rooms before the real estate agent would have a look at it. Or you can make it your own home, settle down and grow your family. Either way, the house needs serious work and your funds are limited, so it's going to be quite the challenge. Are you up for it?
SETUP
You start off with a household of 1 Sim (brand new Sim with no skills or career levels, YA or A), a pre-built home with LOCKED rooms full of junk and 500 simoleons. The goal is to unlock, clean and restore all the rooms in order to have a fully furnished and functional home for your household, without your sim dying of exhaustion, starvation or embarrassment.
After you moved in your Sim and BEFORE you start the gameplay, money must be set to 500 simoleons and all doors inside the house must be set to "Lock for Everyone" (including any doors that lead to the backyard, if any).
The only cheats allowed for this challenge are the money cheat (for when you need to subtract amounts from your household funds) and the “Move Objects” cheat. Any other cheats are to be used ONLY in cases of emergency (sim is stuck and needs to be reset, death caused by fire, drowning, disease, death that occurred when your sim was not on the lot or other causes not directly related to their needs).
HOW IT WORKS (general rules):
You will use your starting amount as reference for the gameplay. Earn simoleons to unlock the rooms and clean them up before decorating them and giving each room a function.
You will have one room of your own to start off with. The room will contain the bare minimum for your sim to survive, according to the list provided. You are allowed to travel with your Sim to fill all their needs.
All the other rooms in the house will be locked and will contain all sorts of "junk" objects (crates, boxes, clutter, etc.) that need to be cleaned.
In order to unlock and clean the rooms, your Sim must earn simoleons and complete aspirations as follows:
Whenever you take action - unlocking doors and removing junk from the rooms - the amount corresponding to each action must be subtracted from your household’s total funds using the money cheat. (testingcheats on -> money X where X is the new amount your household will have after taking action) OR using the UI Cheat Extension mod.
You can unlock, clean and refurbish ONE room at a time. Once a room is unlocked, you must fully clean it before you start decorating. In order to unlock the next room, you must finish working on the previous one.
Cleaning a room means moving the junk objects to the family inventory. Money earned from selling those objects DO NOT count towards your goal (it’s considered junk regardless of their use). After you finish the game you may sell the junk (or use it - one man’s trash is another man’s treasure).
NOTE: We have found that some objects, when resized (“Cats & Dogs“ crates for example), can cause your game to glitch. Your sim might get stuck or might not perform actions for no apparent reason. This can be due to the resized objects being in too close of a proximity to the object your sim is trying to us and can continue to happen even after you placed said junk object in your family inventory (for cleanup). In this case, the object can be permanently deleted.
A room is considered “Done” if, after it was cleaned, it meets all the requirements for its specific function, as follows:
ROOM FUNCTION REQUIREMENTS* (for a household of 1 Sim):
*The list states the minimum number of objects required but feel free to add more.
Your house must have at least one of the rooms mentioned above for it to be considered functional. Multi-purpose rooms (kitchen and dining for example) are acceptable, continue reading for details).
How you earn money is up to you. You can pick any trait, aspiration or career to help you earn money faster, you can collect, craft or provide services for money, you can travel or build your own store or vet clinic. Anything but cheating. However you have to stick to one aspiration and one career at a time so chose wisely when you start. Once an aspiration is completed, move on to the next one of your choosing.
You can unlock rooms in whatever order you want. Keep in mind that your sim must be able to access the room you are planning to clean and refurbish (even though you don’t really need them to clean a room, it kind of defeats the purpose if the sim cannot access the room you are working on).
The game is considered "Won" (end game) if you have unlocked and restored all the rooms, making sure you have a fully functional home that accommodates your entire household.
ADDITIONAL RULES (please continue reading):
Additional house levels (basements included) are areas that become “available” to you after you finished restoring the rooms on the ground floor. If you are playing with a house that has multiple levels, finish the ground floor before moving on to the next. Like with rooms, levels will be completed one by one.
You can expand upwards or downwards if you need additional rooms to complete your house. You can also expand existing rooms to accommodate multiple room functions (kitchen and dining area for example) BUT only after you fully cleaned the room.
You can build new rooms to your house as needed. A new room can only be built AFTER you finish restoring a room you were working on and BEFORE moving on to the next. New rooms must be accessible to your sim (not connected to locked rooms or placed away from the main house). You can chose to work on the new built room right after you placed it OR you can move on to another room that needs to be unlocked and cleaned (you can’t do both).
You can combine the room functions as long as you have the minimum number of objects from all the room functions you want to put together. (i.e. if you want to make a kitchen and dining space, you must place all the objects listed for "Kitchen" AND for "Dining room" in order for it to count).
You can only unlock rooms that your sim can access (rooms that are connected to the starting room or an already finished room).
You can start placing objects after all junk objects in the room have been moved to the family inventory. Any object that was in the room when you started the game is considered junk except for lights as long as they are ceiling or wall lights.
When decorating a room, you are allowed to place any other objects in the room at any given time AFTER you clean it. You won't be able to move on to the next room if you don't meet the requirements for the room's specific function. Your sim is free to use the room even if it’s still a work in progress. You are allowed to use the “bb.moveobjects on” cheat.
What function each room has is up to you. Once you cleaned the room and decided the function, you cannot change it until the end of the game. If you decide on a multi-function room, you can work on both functions (i.e. kitchen and dining) at the same time but you can only move to the next room once BOTH functions are completed.
You cannot modify the room's layout, add, move around or remove any windows, columns, half-walls, railings, stairs or fireplaces that were already there when you started the game until you finish. You can, however, modify their colors and move and change the door. You can modify the walls and floors however you like but only on the interior of the house. You cannot change the exterior of the house in any way.
You can move the windows up or down if it interferes with the function of the room (i.e. if you have windows on the same wall as the kitchen cabinets, you can move them up or down so they don’t get blocked by the counters).
You cannot move the rooms around until the end of the game.
You cannot place rooms outside of the main house (in order to make shacks, laundry rooms, etc.) until the end of the game.
Rooms with functions other than the ones mentioned in the rules (laundry room, entertainment room, etc.) can be added only at the end of the game. Nurseries can be set up in the master bedroom or in a separate room that will become the child’s bedroom.
Hallways can be used to connect the rooms and will not contain any junk objects. They will be furnished throughout the game. The starter room can be connected to the entrance through a hallway.
Custom Content (CC) is not allowed if you build houses for the challenge for other players to use. Mods are allowed as long as they don’t interfere with the gameplay (i.e. mods that generate random events or make your sims act whacky, etc.). Cheats are allowed with restriction. You can use the money cheat to set the starting amount for your household and modify it as you progress in the challenge, you can use the “moveobejcts” cheat for decoration, you can use the debug cheat when creating your house or any other cheat that is useful in emergency situations ONLY (reset your sims, prevent untimely death, etc).
PETS
Because it can be quite lonely for your sim sometimes, especially when working on such a challenging project as refurbishing an entire house, you can add a pet to your household at any given time, so long as you can provide for them and stick to only one (cat, dog, fox, raccoon or one of the new rodents). You can add a pet to your household by adopting a stray or using the “Adopt” function on your computer (NOT through CAS). The pet must have a food bowl, a place to sleep (your sim’s bed counts if it’s a double bed or a sofa), a toy to play with and, if it’s a cat, a litter box and scratching pole.
If you do decide you want a furry little companion, make sure to take really good care of it. If it runs away or is taken away from you, you cannot adopt another until the end of the game, unless it dies of old age.
ADDING HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS
You can add members to your household by asking them to move in, by marrying or by giving birth. You cannot edit the household to add more sims but you CAN edit your existing sims. The new members are allowed to have jobs, collect objects, craft and sell to help you earn more money and you must provide comfortable areas for them (add extra seating, beds, decoration, etc).
Once you add a new member, the room function requirements change as follows:
ROOM FUNCTION REQUIREMENTS (per additional household member):
ALL objects from 1-sim household PLUS:
BUILDING THE HOUSE AND ROOMS:
If you want to build houses for this challenge or want to follow the challenge and build your own, here are some guidelines on how to do it.
The difficulty of the challenge is also set by the number of rooms your household starts with. Once you have your house in place with the locked rooms, you can make little to no changes so chose wisely. The more rooms there are, the more challenging it will be as you must complete all rooms of the house in order to win. Houses with various levels of difficulty will be provided.
When building a house, you can add any number of rooms with the minimum of 2 (the starting room + a locked room).
The starting room can be of any size and shape and must have the bare minimum for your sim to survive, as follows:
After the starting room is built, any room added to the house must have a door (set to "Lock" upon starting the challenge) with a given number of "junk" objects.
Junk objects can be crates or boxes (like the fruit crates in the base game, the boxes in "Get to Work" or "Cats and Dogs"), the damaged objects from "City living", boxes of clutter or wall posters that appear as junk (the computer parts object for example). Even the spider webs from "Vampires" or the wall cracks from "Vampires" and "Jungle Adventure" count. Objects that look modern or are expensive cannot count as junk but the cheapest ones do. Get creative and find objects as useless and as garbage-looking as possible
.
Once an object is placed in a “Locked” room, it is rendered as junk, will be moved to the family inventory during gameplay and will not be used until the end of the game (regardless of how useful it is).
Lights are NOT considered junk as long as they are ceiling or wall lamps.
After placing the “junk” objects, you can decorate the rest of the house whichever way you want, both on the inside and on the outside.
You can add railings, stairs, window panes, fireplaces, fountains, swimming pools, columns, half-walls etc. You cannot use archways to connect rooms since they cannot be locked.
You can build the house on however many levels you want (basements count as well). You can also create a backyard area, with or without fencing, making sure there is at least 1 door that connects to it.
DESIGNATED NUMBER OF “JUNK” OBJECTS (per room):
Measurements for the rooms are based on the room's LONGEST wall. Diagonal walls will count as the entire square area they take up (diagonal wall length of 1 = 1 square, length of 2 = 4 squares and so on);
The junk objects for each room size go as follows (wall cracks included; minimum number of objects):
NOTE: We have found that some objects, when resized (“Cats & Dogs“ crates for example), can cause your game to glitch. Your sim might get stuck or might not perform actions for no apparent reason. This can be due to the resized objects being in too close of a proximity to the object your sim is trying to use and can continue to happen even after you placed said junk object in your family inventory (for cleanup). In this case, the object can be permanently deleted.
WHAT DO I DO WITH THE STARTING ROOM THOUGH?
The starting room is the only room without a set function and which can be modified however you need. You can add an easel or an instrument to practice and earn more simoleons as well as cooking or dining areas that can later be moved to their designated rooms. It's a "bit-of-everything" room that will help your sim live and earn money towards completing their goal. You can add walls, half walls, columns, doors and windows to it however you need, as long as you have the space. It cannot be expanded until the end of the game, however and it must be directly connected to the front door (or to a hallway which connects to the front door).
DIFFICULTY LEVELS:
Household and house size at the BEGINNING of the game
EASY* - Household of 1 sim and a 3-room house with yard area;
NORMAL - Household of 1 sim and a 6-room house with yard area;
HARD - Household of 4 sims and an 8-room house with yard area;
CHALLENGING - Household of 4 or more sims with 8 or more rooms with pre-assigned functions** and yard area;
*For EASY mode, whenever players complete an aspiration, they will also add 5000 simoleons to their funds using the money cheat. This is the only instance in the game when the money cheat will be used to add funds.
**Pre-assigned functions refer to the locked rooms that were assigned functions before starting the gameplay. This is done by placing 1-2 main objects of a function for each room (i.e. a stove for the kitchen, a couch for the living room, a bed and a mirror for the bedroom, and so on). This can be done by players to help them plan ahead or by builders, in which case it will be mentioned in the lot description “CHALLENGING LEVEL” so as not to consider the designating objects as junk).
Before we start with the rules I want to thank Kym'sCreations, Simmer Deanna and Nancy Kubacki for the help and support they have given me with this challenge, helping to play test it, spotting loopholes and making changes to the rules so that everything works smoothly. It's been a blat working with you ladies and I hope to be able to do it again soon!
This challenge is pretty extensive. Yes, it was inspired by the mobile game "Homescapes" and also The Sims 4 Mobile but I hope you will have as much fun as we did while testing it.
I will leave links to the blog post with the rules, if it's easier to read them that way, and also to the group we created for this challenge, where you can join and post pictures as you progress through the challenge. We can even make a different forum post just for the gameplay if you guys want and if it's allowed.
Small note before we continue: I managed to make only one house for this challenge. You can find it in my gallery (Origin ID: ReisJewel) or using the hashtag #homescapeschallenge. I would like to ask builders out there, or just anyone who wants to, to build a few starting homes and to post it in the gallery using the hashtag I mentioned. I will try and make a couple more myself but the more, the merrier.
Blog post with the rules: The Sims "Homescapes" Challenge
Facebook Group: coming soon!
Without further ado, here are the RULES:
THE GOAL OF THE CHALLENGE:
Due to unfortunate events, you became homeless, lost your money and everything else you owned. Luckily for you, a distant relative recently passed away and left you their house, a small amount of money, as well as... all their junk. You can make your fortune back from it but you must turn that place into a home, clean all the rubbish and restore all the rooms before the real estate agent would have a look at it. Or you can make it your own home, settle down and grow your family. Either way, the house needs serious work and your funds are limited, so it's going to be quite the challenge. Are you up for it?
SETUP
You start off with a household of 1 Sim (brand new Sim with no skills or career levels, YA or A), a pre-built home with LOCKED rooms full of junk and 500 simoleons. The goal is to unlock, clean and restore all the rooms in order to have a fully furnished and functional home for your household, without your sim dying of exhaustion, starvation or embarrassment.
After you moved in your Sim and BEFORE you start the gameplay, money must be set to 500 simoleons and all doors inside the house must be set to "Lock for Everyone" (including any doors that lead to the backyard, if any).
The only cheats allowed for this challenge are the money cheat (for when you need to subtract amounts from your household funds) and the “Move Objects” cheat. Any other cheats are to be used ONLY in cases of emergency (sim is stuck and needs to be reset, death caused by fire, drowning, disease, death that occurred when your sim was not on the lot or other causes not directly related to their needs).
HOW IT WORKS (general rules):
You will use your starting amount as reference for the gameplay. Earn simoleons to unlock the rooms and clean them up before decorating them and giving each room a function.
You will have one room of your own to start off with. The room will contain the bare minimum for your sim to survive, according to the list provided. You are allowed to travel with your Sim to fill all their needs.
All the other rooms in the house will be locked and will contain all sorts of "junk" objects (crates, boxes, clutter, etc.) that need to be cleaned.
In order to unlock and clean the rooms, your Sim must earn simoleons and complete aspirations as follows:
- Every 500 simoleons earned/aspiration task completed = clean 1 junk object in an UNLOCKED room;
- Every 1000 simoleons earned + aspiration milestone completed = unlocks 1 room (Set the door of the room to "Unlock");
- IF an aspiration is completed* (all tasks and milestones) you are given the possibility to fully clean one unlocked room.
Whenever you take action - unlocking doors and removing junk from the rooms - the amount corresponding to each action must be subtracted from your household’s total funds using the money cheat. (testingcheats on -> money X where X is the new amount your household will have after taking action) OR using the UI Cheat Extension mod.
You can unlock, clean and refurbish ONE room at a time. Once a room is unlocked, you must fully clean it before you start decorating. In order to unlock the next room, you must finish working on the previous one.
Cleaning a room means moving the junk objects to the family inventory. Money earned from selling those objects DO NOT count towards your goal (it’s considered junk regardless of their use). After you finish the game you may sell the junk (or use it - one man’s trash is another man’s treasure).
NOTE: We have found that some objects, when resized (“Cats & Dogs“ crates for example), can cause your game to glitch. Your sim might get stuck or might not perform actions for no apparent reason. This can be due to the resized objects being in too close of a proximity to the object your sim is trying to us and can continue to happen even after you placed said junk object in your family inventory (for cleanup). In this case, the object can be permanently deleted.
A room is considered “Done” if, after it was cleaned, it meets all the requirements for its specific function, as follows:
ROOM FUNCTION REQUIREMENTS* (for a household of 1 Sim):
- LIVING ROOM: 1 sofa (loveseat or large), 1 armchair, 1 coffee table/side table, TV (wall-mounted, on the coffee table or with TV stand), 1 audio device, 1 plant, 1 decorative object (from the "Paintings" or "Statues" categories in Build Mode);
- KITCHEN: 3 counters (normal, island or a mix of both), 1 fridge, 1 stove, 1 sink, 1 garbage bin, 1 plant, 1 decorative object from the “Clutter” or “Miscellaneous” categories in Build Mode;
- DINING ROOM: 1 table with 2 chairs OR 2 island counters with 2 stools, 1 bar/audio device, 1 plant, 1 rug;
- BEDROOM(S): 1 bed (single or double), 1 bedside table, 1 dresser, 1 mirror, 1 plant, 1 rug;
- BATHROOM(S): toilet, 1 sink, shower/bathtub/bathtub with shower, 1 mirror, 1 towel rack;
- STUDY ROOM/AREA: 1 desk/table, 1 chair, 1 computer, 1 bookcase, 1 hobby object, 1 plant, 1 decorative object (from the "Paintings" or "Statues" categories in Build Mode);
- YARD: 1 bench, 1 BBQ, 2 outdoor lights, 1 tree/shrub, 3 flower beds/1 flowery bush;
*The list states the minimum number of objects required but feel free to add more.
Your house must have at least one of the rooms mentioned above for it to be considered functional. Multi-purpose rooms (kitchen and dining for example) are acceptable, continue reading for details).
How you earn money is up to you. You can pick any trait, aspiration or career to help you earn money faster, you can collect, craft or provide services for money, you can travel or build your own store or vet clinic. Anything but cheating. However you have to stick to one aspiration and one career at a time so chose wisely when you start. Once an aspiration is completed, move on to the next one of your choosing.
You can unlock rooms in whatever order you want. Keep in mind that your sim must be able to access the room you are planning to clean and refurbish (even though you don’t really need them to clean a room, it kind of defeats the purpose if the sim cannot access the room you are working on).
The game is considered "Won" (end game) if you have unlocked and restored all the rooms, making sure you have a fully functional home that accommodates your entire household.
ADDITIONAL RULES (please continue reading):
Additional house levels (basements included) are areas that become “available” to you after you finished restoring the rooms on the ground floor. If you are playing with a house that has multiple levels, finish the ground floor before moving on to the next. Like with rooms, levels will be completed one by one.
You can expand upwards or downwards if you need additional rooms to complete your house. You can also expand existing rooms to accommodate multiple room functions (kitchen and dining area for example) BUT only after you fully cleaned the room.
You can build new rooms to your house as needed. A new room can only be built AFTER you finish restoring a room you were working on and BEFORE moving on to the next. New rooms must be accessible to your sim (not connected to locked rooms or placed away from the main house). You can chose to work on the new built room right after you placed it OR you can move on to another room that needs to be unlocked and cleaned (you can’t do both).
You can combine the room functions as long as you have the minimum number of objects from all the room functions you want to put together. (i.e. if you want to make a kitchen and dining space, you must place all the objects listed for "Kitchen" AND for "Dining room" in order for it to count).
You can only unlock rooms that your sim can access (rooms that are connected to the starting room or an already finished room).
You can start placing objects after all junk objects in the room have been moved to the family inventory. Any object that was in the room when you started the game is considered junk except for lights as long as they are ceiling or wall lights.
When decorating a room, you are allowed to place any other objects in the room at any given time AFTER you clean it. You won't be able to move on to the next room if you don't meet the requirements for the room's specific function. Your sim is free to use the room even if it’s still a work in progress. You are allowed to use the “bb.moveobjects on” cheat.
What function each room has is up to you. Once you cleaned the room and decided the function, you cannot change it until the end of the game. If you decide on a multi-function room, you can work on both functions (i.e. kitchen and dining) at the same time but you can only move to the next room once BOTH functions are completed.
You cannot modify the room's layout, add, move around or remove any windows, columns, half-walls, railings, stairs or fireplaces that were already there when you started the game until you finish. You can, however, modify their colors and move and change the door. You can modify the walls and floors however you like but only on the interior of the house. You cannot change the exterior of the house in any way.
You can move the windows up or down if it interferes with the function of the room (i.e. if you have windows on the same wall as the kitchen cabinets, you can move them up or down so they don’t get blocked by the counters).
You cannot move the rooms around until the end of the game.
You cannot place rooms outside of the main house (in order to make shacks, laundry rooms, etc.) until the end of the game.
Rooms with functions other than the ones mentioned in the rules (laundry room, entertainment room, etc.) can be added only at the end of the game. Nurseries can be set up in the master bedroom or in a separate room that will become the child’s bedroom.
Hallways can be used to connect the rooms and will not contain any junk objects. They will be furnished throughout the game. The starter room can be connected to the entrance through a hallway.
Custom Content (CC) is not allowed if you build houses for the challenge for other players to use. Mods are allowed as long as they don’t interfere with the gameplay (i.e. mods that generate random events or make your sims act whacky, etc.). Cheats are allowed with restriction. You can use the money cheat to set the starting amount for your household and modify it as you progress in the challenge, you can use the “moveobejcts” cheat for decoration, you can use the debug cheat when creating your house or any other cheat that is useful in emergency situations ONLY (reset your sims, prevent untimely death, etc).
PETS
Because it can be quite lonely for your sim sometimes, especially when working on such a challenging project as refurbishing an entire house, you can add a pet to your household at any given time, so long as you can provide for them and stick to only one (cat, dog, fox, raccoon or one of the new rodents). You can add a pet to your household by adopting a stray or using the “Adopt” function on your computer (NOT through CAS). The pet must have a food bowl, a place to sleep (your sim’s bed counts if it’s a double bed or a sofa), a toy to play with and, if it’s a cat, a litter box and scratching pole.
If you do decide you want a furry little companion, make sure to take really good care of it. If it runs away or is taken away from you, you cannot adopt another until the end of the game, unless it dies of old age.
ADDING HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS
You can add members to your household by asking them to move in, by marrying or by giving birth. You cannot edit the household to add more sims but you CAN edit your existing sims. The new members are allowed to have jobs, collect objects, craft and sell to help you earn more money and you must provide comfortable areas for them (add extra seating, beds, decoration, etc).
Once you add a new member, the room function requirements change as follows:
ROOM FUNCTION REQUIREMENTS (per additional household member):
ALL objects from 1-sim household PLUS:
- LIVING ROOM: 1 extra seating, 1 extra decorative object (ANY category);
- KITCHEN: 1 extra counter AND:
- If sim is toddler: + 1 toddler chair;
- DINING ROOM: 1 extra seat OR 1 extra island counter with stool, 1 extra plant;
- BEDROOM(S):
- If sim is GF/Spouse - existing bed must be changed to double (if single), 1 extra bedside table;
- If sim is BFF/roommate - they must have their own room with the aforementioned requirements;
- If sim is newborn - add cradle in the parents bedroom, 1 changing table;
- If sim is toddler or older - see "Kid's Bedroom";
- KID’S BEDROOM: 1 toddler/ single bed (depending on child's age - toddler bed will be changed to single bed after aging without it having any effect on the gameplay), 1 bedside table, 1 toy box, 2 toys, 1 activity table, 1 rug, 1 plant, 1 decorative object (preferably for kids);
- BATHROOM: 1 extra sink, 1 extra towel rack, (if you only have 1 shower/bathtub) 1 bathtub/shower respectively OR change to bathtub with shower;
- STUDY: 1 extra hobby object;
- YARD: nothing.
BUILDING THE HOUSE AND ROOMS:
If you want to build houses for this challenge or want to follow the challenge and build your own, here are some guidelines on how to do it.
The difficulty of the challenge is also set by the number of rooms your household starts with. Once you have your house in place with the locked rooms, you can make little to no changes so chose wisely. The more rooms there are, the more challenging it will be as you must complete all rooms of the house in order to win. Houses with various levels of difficulty will be provided.
When building a house, you can add any number of rooms with the minimum of 2 (the starting room + a locked room).
The starting room can be of any size and shape and must have the bare minimum for your sim to survive, as follows:
- 1 single/double bed,
- 1 fridge;
- 1 stove;
- 1 counter;
- 1 sink;
- 1 toilet either in a separate room or in the same room surrounded by the tallest half-walls (I found that with those walls sims can do their business without dying of embarrassment; yes, that can happen);
After the starting room is built, any room added to the house must have a door (set to "Lock" upon starting the challenge) with a given number of "junk" objects.
Junk objects can be crates or boxes (like the fruit crates in the base game, the boxes in "Get to Work" or "Cats and Dogs"), the damaged objects from "City living", boxes of clutter or wall posters that appear as junk (the computer parts object for example). Even the spider webs from "Vampires" or the wall cracks from "Vampires" and "Jungle Adventure" count. Objects that look modern or are expensive cannot count as junk but the cheapest ones do. Get creative and find objects as useless and as garbage-looking as possible
.Once an object is placed in a “Locked” room, it is rendered as junk, will be moved to the family inventory during gameplay and will not be used until the end of the game (regardless of how useful it is).
Lights are NOT considered junk as long as they are ceiling or wall lamps.
After placing the “junk” objects, you can decorate the rest of the house whichever way you want, both on the inside and on the outside.
You can add railings, stairs, window panes, fireplaces, fountains, swimming pools, columns, half-walls etc. You cannot use archways to connect rooms since they cannot be locked.
You can build the house on however many levels you want (basements count as well). You can also create a backyard area, with or without fencing, making sure there is at least 1 door that connects to it.
DESIGNATED NUMBER OF “JUNK” OBJECTS (per room):
Measurements for the rooms are based on the room's LONGEST wall. Diagonal walls will count as the entire square area they take up (diagonal wall length of 1 = 1 square, length of 2 = 4 squares and so on);
The junk objects for each room size go as follows (wall cracks included; minimum number of objects):
- Wall length of 2 = 3 junk objects;
- Wall length of 3-4 = 6 junk objects;
- Wall length of 5-6 = 9 junk objects;
- Wall length of 7-8 = 12 junk objects;
- Wall length of 9-10 = 15 junk objects;
- Wall length of +10 = 20 junk objects;
NOTE: We have found that some objects, when resized (“Cats & Dogs“ crates for example), can cause your game to glitch. Your sim might get stuck or might not perform actions for no apparent reason. This can be due to the resized objects being in too close of a proximity to the object your sim is trying to use and can continue to happen even after you placed said junk object in your family inventory (for cleanup). In this case, the object can be permanently deleted.
WHAT DO I DO WITH THE STARTING ROOM THOUGH?
The starting room is the only room without a set function and which can be modified however you need. You can add an easel or an instrument to practice and earn more simoleons as well as cooking or dining areas that can later be moved to their designated rooms. It's a "bit-of-everything" room that will help your sim live and earn money towards completing their goal. You can add walls, half walls, columns, doors and windows to it however you need, as long as you have the space. It cannot be expanded until the end of the game, however and it must be directly connected to the front door (or to a hallway which connects to the front door).
DIFFICULTY LEVELS:
Household and house size at the BEGINNING of the game
EASY* - Household of 1 sim and a 3-room house with yard area;
NORMAL - Household of 1 sim and a 6-room house with yard area;
HARD - Household of 4 sims and an 8-room house with yard area;
CHALLENGING - Household of 4 or more sims with 8 or more rooms with pre-assigned functions** and yard area;
*For EASY mode, whenever players complete an aspiration, they will also add 5000 simoleons to their funds using the money cheat. This is the only instance in the game when the money cheat will be used to add funds.
**Pre-assigned functions refer to the locked rooms that were assigned functions before starting the gameplay. This is done by placing 1-2 main objects of a function for each room (i.e. a stove for the kitchen, a couch for the living room, a bed and a mirror for the bedroom, and so on). This can be done by players to help them plan ahead or by builders, in which case it will be mentioned in the lot description “CHALLENGING LEVEL” so as not to consider the designating objects as junk).
Origin ID: ReisJewel | My Sims Blog | "Homescapes" Challenge Group: coming soon
Post edited by ReisJewel on
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Comments
Of course, there is also the possibility that we may have missed something, in which case we will adjust the rules accordingly but I want players who try this challenge to have fun. I'm really excited I got to do this.
Inspired +1 - Who isn't inspired after seeing the cutest thing ever come out of the banana they were eating?
RoggieBear