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RFLong ... the TS3AC tourney is starting soon

mikitta47mikitta47 Posts: 2,250 New Member
And I was wondering if you were still interested in what we had talked about :)

God Bless,
mik

Comments

  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,584 Member
    edited February 2013
    Hi, Mikitta :D

    Do you have the link to the post you made telling me what I needed to do? I will honestly say- I'm don't remember what had to be done to which worlds. :blush:
  • mikitta47mikitta47 Posts: 2,250 New Member
    edited February 2013
    Hmm I thought I PM'd you too ...

    http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/623716.page

    The Biggest thing is that the world be playable by players with ONLY the base game.

    I decided to also include Viper Valley, since it was made current with Ambitions and anything they don't have just won't show up. Anything AFTER Ambitions - if they don't have what the creator has, they can't load it.

    So if someone with ONLY the base game can load your current iterations of Moon Base Charlie or Mesa Valley - then maybe they don't' need to be modified at all - except to make sure that the Apocalypse lot will have 3 to 5 close neighbors and a Big Park lot of 40x40 or smaller in size. The challenge sim CAN cross the road, but can't cross 3 or 4 way intersections, and they have to be able to see their lot from the neighbor's house or the from the park at the beginning of the challenge.

    We are currently voting to see what neighborhoods get approved for the tournament and I need to have things ready by March 1st, including download links for the custom world everyone votes on.

    If you can't do this because you are too busy, I definitely understand :)

    God Bless,
    mik
  • mikitta47mikitta47 Posts: 2,250 New Member
    edited February 2013
    Bump :)
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,584 Member
    edited March 2013
    Hi, Mikitta :)

    I do have an older Mesa Valley with only some WA/Amb/Pets objects that can be removed if they don't have them. I made it for myself to use...

    http://www.mediafire.com/?o0rn89ljczgh0im

    But I think your world will be better for the challenge since you built if by your set up. :)

    To redo Moon Base will make me rebuild and retest it all again, I know I'm not up to it right now.

    I didn't know you set up the rules for a Base Game Apocalypse. Good luck with your Tournament.
    Post edited by Unknown User on
  • mikitta47mikitta47 Posts: 2,250 New Member
    edited February 2013
    Ok, no worries then. I'll ask the TS3AC community to suggest some creator worlds and we won't worry about tweaking anything for base game. Viper Valley WILL be in the tourney, and is Base Game compatible as I have very little in it that conflicts I don't think anything actually disappears even LOL.

    I would like to see one more creator world in the tournament. So I'll hold a poll. I'll have to download the newest Moon Base and Mesa Valley and see what's up w/ them :)


    Thank you for the well wishes. I'm trying to get everything up to snuff as we start in 10 days (eek!). I worked last night and this morning on the scoring system.

    God Bless,
    mik
  • mikitta47mikitta47 Posts: 2,250 New Member
    edited February 2013
    Base Game Apocalypse --

    Actually, the entire challenge is compatible from Base through Seasons now. There are 3 categories that are do not have base game methods for people who don't own the required expansion, but they ONLY cover expansion specific things - Day Care for Generations, The Amazing Performer for Showtime and Fortune Teller-Mystic for Supernatural.

    Here's the link if you want to look at the rules :P

    https://ts3ac.wikispaces.com/TS3AC

    God Bless,
    mik
  • Writin_RegWritin_Reg Posts: 28,907 Member
    edited February 2013
    Mikitta there might be a few problems you might have to think about in a few areas - like worlds for instance - used to be if you were missing an ep you'd just be missing content - but now if you are missing an ep most of the time a world will not load - as not only do you now need all the eps used in making the world, you also need all the eps the creator had installed when they made the world - even if they did not use a single thing in the world for some of the eps. It seems some of the code changes that went into Pets changed a lot of the rules. Oh and for people who manage to be able to get those world to install and actually start - as a few have managed to do - it seems they have continuous problems in the worlds that other simmers with all the eps installed do not. I see a lot of instances of this in at least all the worlds made or even updated by creators to cover all the eps since Pets. - So technically now it is about the same way it was for Sims 2 - you do need the eps the creators had installed in their games when the worlds were created.

    2nd problem I see - Is there is going to be a advantage for especially fairies possibly a few other supernatural - in that fairies do not need to learn to garden - they not only have it as a hidden trait - they can instantly cure a plant if it dies, and keep a plant producing for ever. They do need to reach the same gardening levels as all other sims to plant certain things - but again they have advantages over all other sims as they have also the hidden green thumb trait as well so they learn many times faster than other sims. I know I play fairies a lot. We also cannot control it or stop it - like we can't keep them from flying to go places - or using fairy dust when they feel like it or even using their auras to boost everything else. Like witches have a group of hidden abilities and traits to and automatically can do some spells, ride a broom even though we instruct them other ways - Genies like wise. Witches, Genies, and Fairies will use powers no matter how we try to stop them when they feel like it. So Supernatural in Sims 3 have a ton of abilities we can't do a thing about. Like fairies and their silly tricks they pull when they feel like it.

    Another problem is the rules regarding zombies - like not being able to marry a zombie - well in Sims 3 zombies are not a seperate entity but they are your sims neighbors - so any sim is a potential zombies and the game chooses randomly when a sim becomes a zombie. So say your sims is engaged to marry John Doe a house or two down the street - but because we cannot play all the houses at the same time (as only your active household is unavailiable at spending a night as a zombie) then your sims fiancee might be one chosen by the game to be a zombie that night. According to the rules your sims would then be unable to marry that sim. There are no - a big ZERO - of actual zombies in sims 3. Also killing zombies mean killing your citizens if you succeed. Witches will indeed burn them to a crisp too if they get prolific at their craft like one of my witches are and he is a good witch - I would hate to see what a evil witch would do.

    But anyway - just curious if you have played all the eps because the sims are very different than they were in previous versions and do not need that much of our guidance at all if they are supernatural. The only thing we have that is even remotely like sims 2 zombies are the mummies - as they are a class all to themselves - Also when supernaturals are zombies they still have most of their abilities - they are just more lazy at using them.

    My zombies only come out one night a sims week and only 1-3 at a time come out. They pretty much ignor any of my sims as I play some high test supernaturals. hehehe

    But I can guarantee anyone with any supernaturals will knock the blazes out of the competition in any challenge and we can't control that. They conjure stuff when they want something bad enough.
    Post edited by Unknown User on

    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.

    In dreams - I LIVE!
    In REALITY, I simply exist.....

  • mikitta47mikitta47 Posts: 2,250 New Member
    edited February 2013
    Worlds for the TS3AC Tournament - there are 6 worlds that will be approved. Sunset Valley, Riverview, Viper Valley (which is confirmed to work well for base game only players even since Pets), An expansion specific world, a premium content world and a player created world that have yet to be determined (we are taking votes on which worlds they will be)

    What this means is that if a player has ONLY the base game, they have available Viper Valley, Riverview and Sunset Valley to start their apocalypse. So it's covered :)

    Supernaturals ...

    All of that has been taken into account and there has been a great deal of play testing over this since last November. Yes I have played all the expansions. It was determined that the supers are pretty well balanced and with the rules specifically governing them, they aren't any easier to succeed with than any other sim. Their life spans are accounted for and the sheer difficulty in finding a mate is one of their major handicaps. In fact, it can be a challenge buster. Certainly they have benefits, such as faster skill building in some cases, but they have weaknesses that really offset those things. As for fairies and gardening - well growing a garden is really only a big deal for ONE of the restriction categories and it's not a game changer if a fairy does it faster. They STILL have to get top science and mausoleum, have a perfect private aquarium as well as grow that garden.

    Zombies - yes, I am aware that npc sims around the 'hood are recruited by the game to become zombies. What I have noticed is that it's around 5 or 6 consistently and once a sim has become a zombie, they don't spontaneously become not a zombie. They are normal during the day, but the full moon causes them to change. Yes it can be a pain, especially if you have a romantic relationship with someone that becomes one - but it's not insurmountable. I've had it happen one time in many hours playing since I got Supernatural. She changed RIGHT before I was ready to pop the question LOL! What a pain! I had to spend the next day finding a new mate :P

    Thank you for the input, Reg. Would love to have you join our FB discussion on the challenge,since you always come up with such good points to think about :)

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/169191289823753/

    God Bless,
    mik
  • Writin_RegWritin_Reg Posts: 28,907 Member
    edited February 2013
    That is odd that you are just getting the same 5-6 NPCs as so far I hardly ever have repeats - at least not in user created worlds where the sims are ported in. As for them being NPC - which in my head is like papparazzi, bartenders, etc all those sims we don't generally play with - that has not been the case in my games. In a new hood generally the first ones that become the zombies are the NPCs, but for the most part they are not - they are the playable sims. On top of it since one of the Seasons updates I am seeing a new problem is at least one out of the three zombies seem to be Showtime sims that pop up and don't even hesitate but run right out of my sims yard in Showtime clothing - some even having a limo pull up which they will zombie run to - jump in and take off. I have reported this in several threads since it started happening. It is rather funny, especially for performer without a limo - looks like charlie chaplin in clown makeup zombie running - and I do mean fast zombie running right out of the yard and off down the street. I haven't followed any, but i take it they either have a gig or are part of a Simfest somewhere in town. I keep saying I am going to try and follow a runner, but just haven't done so - so far just to see. But I rarely get repeats in my game. i would be curious if those who do uses Twallens mods because he sets his mod to micro manage the hoods and then it would make sense the same sims would be zombies - but in a pure vanilla game once the hood gets up and running well - generally about 3-5 sims weeks (at least on epic aging like I play) my zombies are almost always different, and generally my neighbors. At least since Seasons and the amount of papparazzi seems reduced. I did get a lot of repeats when SN first came out - but hardly ever now after 3-4 sims weeks. Again I emphasize this is in a game with no mods and only using EA SP, full free will, and epic aging.

    Nah - I am constantly helping on the boards, troubleshooting game problems for solutions or work arounds, or testing worlds, so I tend to avoid joining anything outside of this main site. I used to be members of a dozen other sites and joining YAHOO challenge or legacy groups and such - but now a days I haven't the energy or time to spread myself even thinner if you know what I mean.

    I was wondering where you had gotten too. Even was a bit worried for a while about you when you sort of dropped out of the forums after you got your world up - and then someone told me you were still busy with the apocalypse challenge and such. But I prefer to stay where I can at least try and help others and in between play the game so I can discovery oddities and perhaps fix a few or find a way around them. I try to give back as much as possible, seeing I am lucky enough to rarely have too many oddities with a vanilla game - but sometimes it is the only way to see some problems exist that others don't see - especially mod users - as Twallan is a bit of a mod God when it comes to his mods and eliminating issues - I try to do the same thing but without mods. That way if a problem does come up I know it can be duplicated in a EA lab and a fix found the right way. But anyway - those are mainly observations I see in heavily played EA default set games.

    I know i will still enjoy checking out the challenge - not me playing it of course - but seeing some of the progress as it goes along when I get the chance. Is that FB site where you will be holding challenger updates during the tournament?
    Post edited by Unknown User on

    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.

    In dreams - I LIVE!
    In REALITY, I simply exist.....

  • mikitta47mikitta47 Posts: 2,250 New Member
    edited February 2013
    Ah Reg, you are sweet to worry about me :) *hugs* things have been really busy here with my kids. They are both in high school marching band and they participate with high school concert band too, so that has kept us all busy. Between that and trying to keep the Apocalypse Challenge updated I've not had much time to work on worlds.

    NPC's -
    When I say NPC's - it's anyone who isn't of the main household since I play the AC most of the time and I never switch from my apocalypse house to any others.

    I'm playing a vanilla game, no mods and ONLY the base game + expansions right now. No store content and no stuff packs. Life span is custom to 90 days (2,4,10,14,23,23,14 respectively) and I get the same 6 or so sims popping up consistently and they stay on the lot from midnight to 6am in general. I've had several of them dying of old age on my lot, in fact. I HAVE seen them take off once in a while for other parts during the night -- but not too often.

    So far, zombie sims have not been an issue for anyone playing the challenge. That's a good thing, though - means the authorities are doing their jobs keeping the rest of the populace from getting infected :P

    God Bless,
    mik
  • Writin_RegWritin_Reg Posts: 28,907 Member
    edited February 2013
    Yeah, it's too bad they aren't though a little more aggressive - more like the mummies are who can actually infect sims and make them die and who will attack. The most my zombies have ever attacked anything was one of those zombie plant shooters - a few have been beat to a powder by the zombies - but generally neither even reacts with the other. in fact I find myself hardly even putting those on lots anymore.

    I also never get more than 3 zombies on a lot at night - generally 1-2 normal ones that just stand in one place complaining and going Yowwwwwww all freaking night. If I am playing one of my witches I used to send them outside and hit the zombies with a fire ball - but kept starting my house on fire, so now I bring the witches out and toss zombie cure on them. As once I have gotten 3, no more shows up. I wonder - perhaps it is my zombie cure elixirs why I never see repeats then. As I get tired of listening to them so I do toss out a lot of the cure elixirs. Perhaps that is why they never get turned again. Hmmmm something to check out I think.

    Ah HA - so you call all sims but your household NPC's. I thought you meant NPC's as the game describes. So then all sims but your sims get turned - which according to Graham are actually townies. I do see actual NPCs as zombies the first sim week or two in unpopulated worlds, but once a population moves in, I never see the actual NPCs out there - or almost never - sometimes the Paparazzi sims which are actual NPCs do get chosen, but mostly it is the townies.

    Yeah I recall those days of teens - I had one of my three boys was in Band - both the marching band and the school band who made it to 1st Trumpeter and a ton of awards over his school career. It was a sad day after I learned his second year at college he went and pawned his trumpets to help pay for some of his books and hadn't bothered to ask for any help. He is still that kind of - now - man, and always has to do it all himself. But it was sad to see the end of ever hearing his trumpet being played. he started in the beginning of 4th grade and actually got really professional sounding by the time he graduated high school. But I recall having to run back and forth at all the ball games as my eldest son was a football player, the middle one, in band, and the youngest in every sport he could play. But yep it is a good thing there was no sims in those days as I would have never gotten time toi play. I also worked full time and at one point even went back to college to get my BA in Literature. I do not envy you as it runs us ragged so no one ever feels slighted.

    Well I will probably peek into the FB page a time or two, so do hope it all goes well and of course should be fun to watch when I can. Hugs -

    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.

    In dreams - I LIVE!
    In REALITY, I simply exist.....

  • mikitta47mikitta47 Posts: 2,250 New Member
    edited February 2013
    I am sorry to hear he sold his trumpets :/ I hope that he gets the bug to play again and gets another :D

    My dear daughter has said she wants to be a professional clarinetist. Dear son plays the saxophone, but he wants to be a mechanic of some flavor, so he may not keep up with it past high school - though he's good at it :)

    NPC's vs. Townies - the solon workers, mixologists and consignment specialists end up most often as zombies in my world, though occasionally, an unassigned sim will show up.

    I've learned to ignore the things since during the challenge, you have to clear several things before you can even make zombie cure potions, or cast spells if you are a super. So long as you have a fenced area around your house, they won't breach the fence - USUALLY and they only show up on the full moon.

    God Bless,
    mik
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