Short notice (as in: not a real blog) I have upgraded my laptop to w10 this week, and now my game will only run fullscreen. Previously it would be dark on full screen mode and fine in windowed. I prefer windowed mode, so I am slightly (cough, very much) annoyed by w10 at this moment. Still, it functions full screen, so I think I'm going to try and see if it runs more stable as a whole now that my laptop is running on 10 rather then 7. I also tweaked the graphics settings some more, as well as naturally having to install the whole game fresh meaning I have a fresh sims folder (alas, with old saves....) I will consider this a test-run-continuation of the challenge!
Well, I've made 'some' progress.... I tried to make the most money from Amber's inventions by consigning them, but somehow nobody bought anything. I'm not sure if that is a glitch or people just don't want a lot of the same, but I decided to cancel all consignments and sell them out of hand! That also means that she has to make a lot more items then I hoped to be necessary. She is now a level 9 inventor, and needs to earn another 37k before she gets to level 10. If she makes a Masterfull Time Machine that sells for a bit over 2k, so that means that I have to sell approximately 18 more time machines before getting to that top level.
At this point I don't think I will be going for the hidden second level like I did with the painting job, because the thought of making 18 time machines is boring enough, let alone how many I will probably need for that 11th level! And then there is the sculptor job, which I really don't know how long that will take! So I am not going to make it a must for myself to get to the hidden levels of careers if they have been dragging for so long already, the goal in Llandros' list says top, and top is 10. Unless I feel like it, that is.
Some More Details
As noticed in the post above this one, I had some trouble getting the game to run after upgrading to w10. I have it where it is stable enough to play now, only the main menu is still looking like a bucket of scraps. But if I unfocus the game I can see just enough to know where to click to get the save loading and from there it works good enough! The only thing I have not been able to fix is the issues with sound, but I guess I will just have to make due!
Bad Nerd?
Okay and then there is this thing of becoming a level 10 nerd. I had practically no issues to rise to a level 10 rebel and keep that up, but the nerd social group is as elusive as an eel in a bucket of slime so far.... Anyone that has some tips on how to get that high, and keep that high, that would be MOST helpful!
Goals
Find the time to make another 18ish time machines and sell them
Get back in to the firefighter career briefly to upgrade the fire extinguisher, to get 100% of the unique upgrades
Get the sculpting skill going and get the sculptor career to its top
Consignment:
Early in the game, I'll send my sim to the grocery store and buy a couple hundred of the cheapest fruit and cheapest fish. My sim will sell about 50 at a time each day for several days in a row at the consignment store. This quickly raises their consignment reputation so they get better prices for things that take an effort and time to create and sell. Then on the Skill Journal (type J in game), complete as many of the challenges for consignments. And soon as possible, get that happiness reward for Suave Seller. In your situation, I'd do the grocery store trick, then you can really get a good reputation of being a seller. Everything my sim brings to the consignments sells fast and quickly gets greater profits. (rags to riches or elixir doesn't matter -- it's unified reputation)
Social groups... ah sorry I have not yet tried to max any of them yet so I don't have first hand tips for that one.
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Consignment:
Early in the game, I'll send my sim to the grocery store and buy a couple hundred of the cheapest fruit and cheapest fish. My sim will sell about 50 at a time each day for several days in a row at the consignment store. This quickly raises their consignment reputation so they get better prices for things that take an effort and time to create and sell. Then on the Skill Journal (type J in game), complete as many of the challenges for consignments. And soon as possible, get that happiness reward for Suave Seller. In your situation, I'd do the grocery store trick, then you can really get a good reputation of being a seller. Everything my sim brings to the consignments sells fast and quickly gets greater profits. (rags to riches or elixir doesn't matter -- it's unified reputation)
Social groups... ah sorry I have not yet tried to max any of them yet so I don't have first hand tips for that one.
Ah good tips, thank you very much! She has the born saleswoman trait from either a degree or her level in the rebel rank. She also has suave seller and has had the max level of consignment reputation since the very first season when she sold tons of gems and metals that she acquired as a werewolf. I believe she even got all the challenges in that first season too, due to all of her hunting outings!
I think that there might actually be a glitch in the current consignment store. In the beginning it wouldn't even open as no clerk showed up untill I reset all sims. I also replaced the register several times, but to no avail. If you know of any other tricks I could try I'd love to hear them!
If it were my game, since I use NRAAS, what I would do is reset the whole town... it takes a minute or a lot longer depending on the computer being used. Regular users of NRAAS suite of mods, reset their games every four sim weeks or less and also use Overwatch and ErrorTrap.
I've always used Awesomemod and NRAAS mods (together) to keep the game playable. Others who do not use mods, I really have no clue how they keep their game playable. Suggestions are often given by helpful people, but there is not always a follow up report of success.
Resetting lots through Edit Town has various steps of taking the lot as if to move it then dropping it right back down (does not always work), also the bother of editing the lot type to no visitors allowed or another thing and resetting the lot to its intended purpose. I'm out of my realm here.
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If it were my game, since I use NRAAS, what I would do is reset the whole town... it takes a minute or a lot longer depending on the computer being used. Regular users of NRAAS suite of mods, reset their games every four sim weeks or less and also use Overwatch and ErrorTrap.
I've always used Awesomemod and NRAAS mods (together) to keep the game playable. Others who do not use mods, I really have no clue how they keep their game playable. Suggestions are often given by helpful people, but there is not always a follow up report of success.
Resetting lots through Edit Town has various steps of taking the lot as if to move it then dropping it right back down (does not always work), also the bother of editing the lot type to no visitors allowed or another thing and resetting the lot to its intended purpose. I'm out of my realm here.
I have some 10 or more Nraas mods in my folder at all time but I do not know the Awesomemods. What do those do? Link? And as for resetting the whole town, I take it you mean something else then resetsim *.... which Nraas mod is that? MC? I think doing that every so often might be really necessary to keep the game running. I am also going to try to reset that lot, good idea! Thank you again!
To reset the whole town from MC after you click NRAAS, take the option for Town and 'reset everything'.
Quick answer about Awesomemod:
Awesomemod is a core mod. It actual alters/ programs changes in the core behavior of the game and some of the settings that can be tweaked by users can be seen here at a copy of the mod's configuration tool. http://alpha.moreawesomethanyou.com/ts3/awesome/config.php
If you use it and decide you do not want to use it any more, you have to do the cheat window and type: uninstall (always use save as so you have saves to fall back on)
Okay, after resetting everything I felt elated! I had an actual clerk in the consignment store AND 2 of her time machines sold for well over double their original price. Then everything went downhill. Clerks no longer showing up. Items being "eaten" without getting any money, dropping in value, and not being able to cancel them because there is no clerk. Resetting everything, resetting the lot, resetting all sims, nothing worked. So I got frustrated and closed without saving. I have no clue how many time machines I lost but I have a plan! I am going to put a regular consignment register in the Elixir Consignment store that is across the street from Amber's house. I remember having read somewhere that someone else used that as a workaround, and as that store seems to work most of the time I'm opting for it. Is it cheaty? Probably! But I'm tired of waiting for nothing!
Blog
Also today, I discovered that the newest version of GIMP no longer supports the filters I used for my banners. Yes you can download them somewhere, and then stick them in a folder, and technically you should be able to use them. But they don't give nearly the same result, and it just looks plain ugly. So I spent half the day trying to cook up new banners for this topic. I think they turned out OK enough to my liking! I also edited all blog posts (the posts that aren't a reply to awesome people reacting to this blog) with a header of the season they were written in. All in all, except for the huge white spaces, the blog is more readable now!
Well, after even more trouble I decided that the save was probably corrupt, so I took my losses (another couple of time machines eaten up without any money) and copied Amber to the library. I started a fresh save, and decided to move her to a different house this time! I went in to edit town, moved the Simoleon Saver family out of Portico Model to Peak of Perfection, demolished their old house, and placed the Doubleday Lodge from the library on that location instead! I really liked that house. In the end, she doesn't really need the most expensive and big villa in town, but I'd rather have her in a home large enough for just her (she lives alone at this moment) and close to all the action. She now lives next to the fire station and practically across the street of the consignment store! I did upgrade her furniture and sold some stuff she didn't need (emptied the whole second floor) and I am really happy with the layout now. But even more importantly, everything (still) works as it should for now!
Finally. The consignment shop works! It still does! I finally managed to sell enough inventions for that last 10k to rank 10 and be done with it! I also had her briefly enter back into the firefighter career to upgrade her fire extinguisher, because I want to complete 100% of the unique upgrades!
A Sculptors Workshop
After starting with the sculpting skill I saw that she needs 5 sculptures of each type and a total of 25 made out of ice to get most if not all of the challenges for it. So I took the empty top floor, build a floor where there was none, and turned it into a workshop with 5 sculpting stations! So far she has made 5 of clay, metal and wood, and they are all either at the consignment store or sold. She is very close to becoming a level 6 sculptor, and has already reached level 10 in the skill, so this does seem to go way better!
Some More Details
In the moments in between of working on careers she managed to reach the top of the skating and snowboarding skills and buy another 3 reward traits. I also removed a few rewards from the list, stuff I'm not planning to get like a free degree or inheritance as well as a simbot (which I believe she can and has to make herself) and stuff that she will get gifted anyway. It also has a complete list of all the 26 rewars traits she currently has!
I just wanted to comment that I really like what you've accomplished and the tweaks you've made to the challenge. I had a lot of fun coming up with it and have changed a few things along the way as well. I have to agree about the deceased spouses though - in my personal game I had to leave them all behind due to game issues that popped up.
Sorry to hear about your crashes and setbacks but you seem to be moving along - my major issues really didn't hit until Starlight Shores but that's all cleared up now. Hope you are still enjoying the challenge and will keep reading as you post!
Here's a shot of my Brandon during his final performance and at home with three of his four kids!
have i really not replied? i've been reading along xD
I want to do this challenge. but i don't own all the packs nor can i afford them.
You can still do this challenge perfectly fine, just skip the towns / packs / content that you do not own. There are also some premium items in the challenge that not everybody owns either. Just improvise along the way! Why don't you make a list of all the requirements for yourself, where you remove everything that you don't own and then rearrange it so that stuff from scrapped seasons ends up in other seasons? Here is a link that you might find useful: TS3 Complete List. If you need help feel free to ask!
@Llandros2012 thanks for the thumbs up! Which tweaks did you like best? Are you going to further tweak the original challenge? I am contemplating redoing a tweaked version of this challenge with a male sim after this. One thing I will definitely NOT be doing the 2nd round is all of those kids. I noticed that I find it very tedious and boring when I would rather focus on getting my ultimate sim to be ultimate. Even if you let them roam free you still can't fully focus on your main goals. So at this point I've been a bit, *cough*, 'generous' with birthdays.... I have seen you on your series waiting until they are like 120ish days old and moving on on their own, but I fear I am not as patient as that! But even in the 100 baby challenge you are allowed to age the kids up after certain accomplishments, so I refuse to feel guilty about it! LOL!
I set my eyes on Barnacle Bay for the first time, and there were two expensive houses and some starters spread very thin. Not a lot of choice IMHO. As it stands I didn't like either of the expensive ones, one was way too far away from everything and both weren't much of my taste. And a starter home is simply too small. So I demolished the Angler’s Apartments and put Classic Facade, another 40x40 lot from the games default library, on it. First I upgraded much of the furniture, recoloring the new items to the styles of the old ones to keep the look of the interior with the upgrade as I've seen Llandros do. I also built a garage for her two cars, as there wasn't even a parking lot on there! Then I moved her in and put her culinary fridge in the kitchen.
University
As she is going for the Physical Education degree this time, I decided against renting her a private house and, just like Llandros, moved her in a dorm next to the gym. Practicality above all else. I did pick a nice bedroom on the 3rd floor this time, which I usually don't because of too many stairs. However it was one of the few with only 1 bed, and it was next to the gym, so why not! I also put an All-In-One in her room, as the 3rd floor has no bathroom and I'm a lazy simmer. In don't use them in her main homes, but in the University world such skips are perfectly fine to me!
It's A Human!
Before starting up my new save I watched a part of Llandros' first video of this season, and I heard him say that he is not going to cure his Lacey of her occult witch status until she returns from the university. He probably has his reasons, but as I didn't like the witch thing a bit and didn't use it anyway, I cured her before moving her out of Twinbrook. This season has free choice of occult status, and for now I choose to keep her a human sim!
These past two weeks Amber has made so much progress that I simply don't know where to begin! She has gotten her physical educations degree with flying colors and an A grade. We bought our way in to the level 10 nerd influence with reward points, because I couldn't be bothered to play videogames for hours while I had other stuff to work on. She managed to spread enough graffiti murals in town to get all the street art challenges done AND she reached level 10 in the athletic skill. She also sold another blog that I conveniently called Street Art & A Physical Education Degree Do Go Together. Because we can. And because it doesn't really matter what she calls it anyway.
Save Hopping
I'm not sure if 'having traveled' has anything to do with my previous save issues, but just to be on the *cough* safe side I decided to put her in the library after she came home from the university, and go back to my freshly built and backed up Barnacle Bay save to have a clean start. Now we will have all the time to work on all of this seasons requirements.
Goals
Find another sim & start some kind of family (free choice of type)
This season did not have a specific requirement for offspring, so I choose to have her adopt! I was already imagining getting a list of names and pictures, as it works in TS4, but I had to choose the age and gender and then someone just popped over to my lot with a baby in a basket. She adopted a little baby boy that we named Eugene! Also different this season is that for adopting you do not need the genetics of a husband, so she has none. And I will not go look for one for this whole season. If someone interesting passes by, who knows, but I'm not going to make it a goal! Besides that she did another couple of upgrades, making the total amount of unique upgrades count to 20, 48% of the available unique upgrades. And she also started training for the martial arts skill, which she managed to get on level 2 / yellow belt.
I really wonder what the person who gave this challenge it's name was thinking.... Anyway! I trained both Amber and Eugene to level 10 in the Martial Arts skill, so that they were well matched to spar together. I have spent literal sim-weeks trying to get the non-travel challenges for this skill done, and have succeeded! I also got two stars in one for the athletics challenges! I was doing a lot of cardio training, and all of the sudden I was notified I had gotten the Marathon Runner star. I have yet to see a single other situation in game where one activity leads to two different challenges within the same skill. But I am not complaining. I wasn't looking forward to having to jog for that long after all those hours for the other challenges! She also started the Professional Sports and as expected got from level 4 to 5 on the first day. I am planning to finish all the careers first before traveling to Shang Simla for the Martial Arts tournament.
I changed my mind and travelled to Shang Simla first! After staying nearly 6 days (thanks to the prepared traveler trait) Amber managed to get the Grand Master title! Granted, about the first 10 fights were with one of only 4 recurring sims, and in total she probably had 7 or 8 opponents over 20 fights, but hey. I did come across an un-fightable opponent twice, a sim that was rolled for the next confrontation but could NOT be challenged, after which I started googling. After some helpful tips in the direction of "good luck with your broken game" I found a tip on this forum saying you could use Nraas MC on your main sim to 'drop opponents', which allows you to phone for a new opponent. That saved my day. Anyone playing this after me running into the same issue: here is your lifeline!
I Need YOUR Help!
The house she currently lives in is not suitable for 4 adults to have their own bedroom (and preferably bathroom) so I need a new one. I don't like either of the two that are currently located in Barnacle Bay, so shout out please with some options! I don't mind if they are in the games own library or if they are from a download site, but they have to be on a 40x40 lot, be suitable for 4 non-related roommates, be free and not using cc. I do have all the packs, but I have no custom content or custom worlds installed other then Barnacle Bay. Shout it out with your ideas!
Goals
Find or build her a new house
Get further in the Professional Sports Career
Get the other careers
Google how to get something done in the Jock ranks
As I said in the previous post I was looking for a new house for Amber that could also serve for her future living-in band members! I have been looking in town, but the two houses that came close were absolutely not to my taste. I liked the location of Palace Prow, but half of the house is without a room, so certain sims wouldn't be able to go to bed without getting soaked or walking through snow. Not an option. So I checked download sites, but it is very hard to find a lot that doesn't use CC, and where I looked you could not filter for that. Sigh. So. What do you do when you are seemingly out of options? You decide to give it a shot yourself. Warnings!!!! First of all, I am not creative! Well, unless you count building symmetrical bunkers as creative, but I don't. Also some of the colors ask for sunglasses, but that's totally cool because my kid picked them and I won't change that!
Edit: I found myself confused due to Llandros video, thinking my next career would be having a band. I broke my head on how to do that in this town without major edits (which I don't like very much, I like to discover towns as they are), and then I found that the band one is in it's proper town in next season. So I'm not going to form a band yet (I don't know why Llandros did at this point) and therefore don't need a house that hosts up to 4 sims right now. So I moved 1 bedroom to the empty room downstairs, changed the walls/floors accordingly and deleted the whole top floor. I also made a pool in the garden and placed a goal and a trampoline.
With all of her athletic skills and her many preparations for each game Amber practically owned the professional athletics career and has now reached level 10. I just remember that I should do each fulltime job for 4 sim weeks, and I don't think I did that with any job. Not even filling up the week when the top level is reached. I am just like "Done. Check. Next." In fact I think I am just going to skip that rule, as for me it doesn't add anything to the sense of achievement, and there is so much to do that I think it's a bit of a waste of time.... In the off hours I also got her finish some of the hidden skills, and I bought another handful of traits from the reward store.
Goals
Check off the remaining 2 careers
Tutor other sim for 2 of the logic skill challenges
Become a Chess Grand Master for another logic skill challenge
What was it again with that social group? Jock? Still have to look those up. What even are they for real?
After a week of inviting, chasing, and dropping chess opponents I managed to get her to the Chess Grand Master title and get that challenge done. Something really weird happened also, once she lost to a challenger, and then that same challenger was locked into a cycle of "practicing chess" at the only chess table at the venue, I couldn't get her to stop in any way except resetting. So I went back to the main menu and tried again. In these situations (going for a title, like with the martial arts challenges) I tend to make a new save every time she defeats an opponent, so that helped a lot!
Rock All Star
Ok, the music career has been a major pain in the plum. It kept getting stuck, where she would go to work but gain 0 on her performance bar, no matter what type of working she did. So instead of hanging in the balance I used Nraas to get the performance to 100 on each level where it didn't go up. It seemed a bit random which levels worked and which didn't. But that helps. Nraas is a good anti-bug-cheat : P! After finishing that I also tried to get a job at the grocery store but that only lead up to Amber being a script error and being reset automatically, even when I tried to enter her into the job by shift clicking the mailbox. Somehow this save has, again, a lot of bugs. So I think I will just reset all by Nraas next time I load up the game and try again!
Goals
Fix the save (if at all possible)
Finish the 3rd career
Have a go at the soccer ranks, just because I can
The jock influence.... Seriously, still didn't manage to figure that out.... Help????
This is an official announcement that Season 4 has come to an end, and this is what she managed to do this season:
Degree: Physical Education
Social Groups: Rebel, Nerd & Jock
Skill: Martial Arts
Career: Music - Rock Star (FT)
Career: Professional Sports (FT)
Career: Grocery Store (PT)
Father: -
Offspring: Eugene Allstar (Adopted)
The next post will be the start of season 5!
Comments
The Grocery Store part-time career is striped through because due to a glitch in the game she couldn't apply for the job, not even with cheats. I will do that in another season, when I find a suitable moment!
Comments
18 Times A Machine
Well, I've made 'some' progress.... I tried to make the most money from Amber's inventions by consigning them, but somehow nobody bought anything. I'm not sure if that is a glitch or people just don't want a lot of the same, but I decided to cancel all consignments and sell them out of hand! That also means that she has to make a lot more items then I hoped to be necessary. She is now a level 9 inventor, and needs to earn another 37k before she gets to level 10. If she makes a Masterfull Time Machine that sells for a bit over 2k, so that means that I have to sell approximately 18 more time machines before getting to that top level.
At this point I don't think I will be going for the hidden second level like I did with the painting job, because the thought of making 18 time machines is boring enough, let alone how many I will probably need for that 11th level! And then there is the sculptor job, which I really don't know how long that will take! So I am not going to make it a must for myself to get to the hidden levels of careers if they have been dragging for so long already, the goal in Llandros' list says top, and top is 10. Unless I feel like it, that is.
Some More Details
As noticed in the post above this one, I had some trouble getting the game to run after upgrading to w10. I have it where it is stable enough to play now, only the main menu is still looking like a bucket of scraps. But if I unfocus the game I can see just enough to know where to click to get the save loading and from there it works good enough! The only thing I have not been able to fix is the issues with sound, but I guess I will just have to make due!
Bad Nerd?
Okay and then there is this thing of becoming a level 10 nerd. I had practically no issues to rise to a level 10 rebel and keep that up, but the nerd social group is as elusive as an eel in a bucket of slime so far.... Anyone that has some tips on how to get that high, and keep that high, that would be MOST helpful!
Goals
Early in the game, I'll send my sim to the grocery store and buy a couple hundred of the cheapest fruit and cheapest fish. My sim will sell about 50 at a time each day for several days in a row at the consignment store. This quickly raises their consignment reputation so they get better prices for things that take an effort and time to create and sell. Then on the Skill Journal (type J in game), complete as many of the challenges for consignments. And soon as possible, get that happiness reward for Suave Seller. In your situation, I'd do the grocery store trick, then you can really get a good reputation of being a seller. Everything my sim brings to the consignments sells fast and quickly gets greater profits. (rags to riches or elixir doesn't matter -- it's unified reputation)
Social groups... ah sorry I have not yet tried to max any of them yet so I don't have first hand tips for that one.
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Ah good tips, thank you very much! She has the born saleswoman trait from either a degree or her level in the rebel rank. She also has suave seller and has had the max level of consignment reputation since the very first season when she sold tons of gems and metals that she acquired as a werewolf. I believe she even got all the challenges in that first season too, due to all of her hunting outings!
I think that there might actually be a glitch in the current consignment store. In the beginning it wouldn't even open as no clerk showed up untill I reset all sims. I also replaced the register several times, but to no avail. If you know of any other tricks I could try I'd love to hear them!
I've always used Awesomemod and NRAAS mods (together) to keep the game playable. Others who do not use mods, I really have no clue how they keep their game playable. Suggestions are often given by helpful people, but there is not always a follow up report of success.
Resetting lots through Edit Town has various steps of taking the lot as if to move it then dropping it right back down (does not always work), also the bother of editing the lot type to no visitors allowed or another thing and resetting the lot to its intended purpose. I'm out of my realm here.
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I have some 10 or more Nraas mods in my folder at all time but I do not know the Awesomemods. What do those do? Link? And as for resetting the whole town, I take it you mean something else then resetsim *.... which Nraas mod is that? MC? I think doing that every so often might be really necessary to keep the game running. I am also going to try to reset that lot, good idea! Thank you again!
Quick answer about Awesomemod:
Awesomemod is a core mod. It actual alters/ programs changes in the core behavior of the game and some of the settings that can be tweaked by users can be seen here at a copy of the mod's configuration tool.
http://alpha.moreawesomethanyou.com/ts3/awesome/config.php
If you use it and decide you do not want to use it any more, you have to do the cheat window and type: uninstall (always use save as so you have saves to fall back on)
Info about the relationship between NRAAS and Awesomemod can be found here at NRAAS' current home site:
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Awesome
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Consigning Annoyances
Okay, after resetting everything I felt elated! I had an actual clerk in the consignment store AND 2 of her time machines sold for well over double their original price. Then everything went downhill. Clerks no longer showing up. Items being "eaten" without getting any money, dropping in value, and not being able to cancel them because there is no clerk. Resetting everything, resetting the lot, resetting all sims, nothing worked. So I got frustrated and closed without saving. I have no clue how many time machines I lost but I have a plan! I am going to put a regular consignment register in the Elixir Consignment store that is across the street from Amber's house. I remember having read somewhere that someone else used that as a workaround, and as that store seems to work most of the time I'm opting for it. Is it cheaty? Probably! But I'm tired of waiting for nothing!
Blog
Also today, I discovered that the newest version of GIMP no longer supports the filters I used for my banners. Yes you can download them somewhere, and then stick them in a folder, and technically you should be able to use them. But they don't give nearly the same result, and it just looks plain ugly. So I spent half the day trying to cook up new banners for this topic. I think they turned out OK enough to my liking! I also edited all blog posts (the posts that aren't a reply to awesome people reacting to this blog) with a header of the season they were written in. All in all, except for the huge white spaces, the blog is more readable now!
Goals
To Save or Not To Save
Well, after even more trouble I decided that the save was probably corrupt, so I took my losses (another couple of time machines eaten up without any money) and copied Amber to the library. I started a fresh save, and decided to move her to a different house this time! I went in to edit town, moved the Simoleon Saver family out of Portico Model to Peak of Perfection, demolished their old house, and placed the Doubleday Lodge from the library on that location instead! I really liked that house. In the end, she doesn't really need the most expensive and big villa in town, but I'd rather have her in a home large enough for just her (she lives alone at this moment) and close to all the action. She now lives next to the fire station and practically across the street of the consignment store! I did upgrade her furniture and sold some stuff she didn't need (emptied the whole second floor) and I am really happy with the layout now. But even more importantly, everything (still) works as it should for now!
Goals
A Saved Inventor
Finally. The consignment shop works! It still does! I finally managed to sell enough inventions for that last 10k to rank 10 and be done with it! I also had her briefly enter back into the firefighter career to upgrade her fire extinguisher, because I want to complete 100% of the unique upgrades!
A Sculptors Workshop
After starting with the sculpting skill I saw that she needs 5 sculptures of each type and a total of 25 made out of ice to get most if not all of the challenges for it. So I took the empty top floor, build a floor where there was none, and turned it into a workshop with 5 sculpting stations! So far she has made 5 of clay, metal and wood, and they are all either at the consignment store or sold. She is very close to becoming a level 6 sculptor, and has already reached level 10 in the skill, so this does seem to go way better!
Some More Details
In the moments in between of working on careers she managed to reach the top of the skating and snowboarding skills and buy another 3 reward traits. I also removed a few rewards from the list, stuff I'm not planning to get like a free degree or inheritance as well as a simbot (which I believe she can and has to make herself) and stuff that she will get gifted anyway. It also has a complete list of all the 26 rewars traits she currently has!
Goals
I just wanted to comment that I really like what you've accomplished and the tweaks you've made to the challenge. I had a lot of fun coming up with it and have changed a few things along the way as well. I have to agree about the deceased spouses though - in my personal game I had to leave them all behind due to game issues that popped up.
Sorry to hear about your crashes and setbacks but you seem to be moving along - my major issues really didn't hit until Starlight Shores but that's all cleared up now. Hope you are still enjoying the challenge and will keep reading as you post!
Here's a shot of my Brandon during his final performance and at home with three of his four kids!
I want to do this challenge. but i don't own all the packs
Year Long Community Challenge
You can still do this challenge perfectly fine, just skip the towns / packs / content that you do not own. There are also some premium items in the challenge that not everybody owns either. Just improvise along the way! Why don't you make a list of all the requirements for yourself, where you remove everything that you don't own and then rearrange it so that stuff from scrapped seasons ends up in other seasons? Here is a link that you might find useful: TS3 Complete List. If you need help feel free to ask!
@Llandros2012 thanks for the thumbs up! Which tweaks did you like best? Are you going to further tweak the original challenge? I am contemplating redoing a tweaked version of this challenge with a male sim after this. One thing I will definitely NOT be doing the 2nd round is all of those kids. I noticed that I find it very tedious and boring when I would rather focus on getting my ultimate sim to be ultimate. Even if you let them roam free you still can't fully focus on your main goals. So at this point I've been a bit, *cough*, 'generous' with birthdays.... I have seen you on your series waiting until they are like 120ish days old and moving on on their own, but I fear I am not as patient as that! But even in the 100 baby challenge you are allowed to age the kids up after certain accomplishments, so I refuse to feel guilty about it! LOL!
The End of the Season
This is an official announcement that Season 3 has come to an end, and this is what she managed to do this season:
The next post will be the start of season 4!
* She has only yet reached level 4, but with all other stuff completed I decided to move on anyway. Plenty of time for that!
SEASON 4 - BARNACLE BAY
University
Careers
Skills
Activities
Getting Settled
I set my eyes on Barnacle Bay for the first time, and there were two expensive houses and some starters spread very thin. Not a lot of choice IMHO. As it stands I didn't like either of the expensive ones, one was way too far away from everything and both weren't much of my taste. And a starter home is simply too small. So I demolished the Angler’s Apartments and put Classic Facade, another 40x40 lot from the games default library, on it. First I upgraded much of the furniture, recoloring the new items to the styles of the old ones to keep the look of the interior with the upgrade as I've seen Llandros do. I also built a garage for her two cars, as there wasn't even a parking lot on there! Then I moved her in and put her culinary fridge in the kitchen.
University
As she is going for the Physical Education degree this time, I decided against renting her a private house and, just like Llandros, moved her in a dorm next to the gym. Practicality above all else. I did pick a nice bedroom on the 3rd floor this time, which I usually don't because of too many stairs. However it was one of the few with only 1 bed, and it was next to the gym, so why not! I also put an All-In-One in her room, as the 3rd floor has no bathroom and I'm a lazy simmer. In don't use them in her main homes, but in the University world such skips are perfectly fine to me!
It's A Human!
Before starting up my new save I watched a part of Llandros' first video of this season, and I heard him say that he is not going to cure his Lacey of her occult witch status until she returns from the university. He probably has his reasons, but as I didn't like the witch thing a bit and didn't use it anyway, I cured her before moving her out of Twinbrook. This season has free choice of occult status, and for now I choose to keep her a human sim!
Goals
Where To Begin?
These past two weeks Amber has made so much progress that I simply don't know where to begin! She has gotten her physical educations degree with flying colors and an A grade. We bought our way in to the level 10 nerd influence with reward points, because I couldn't be bothered to play videogames for hours while I had other stuff to work on. She managed to spread enough graffiti murals in town to get all the street art challenges done AND she reached level 10 in the athletic skill. She also sold another blog that I conveniently called Street Art & A Physical Education Degree Do Go Together. Because we can. And because it doesn't really matter what she calls it anyway.
Save Hopping
I'm not sure if 'having traveled' has anything to do with my previous save issues, but just to be on the *cough* safe side I decided to put her in the library after she came home from the university, and go back to my freshly built and backed up Barnacle Bay save to have a clean start. Now we will have all the time to work on all of this seasons requirements.
Goals
Adoption
This season did not have a specific requirement for offspring, so I choose to have her adopt! I was already imagining getting a list of names and pictures, as it works in TS4, but I had to choose the age and gender and then someone just popped over to my lot with a baby in a basket. She adopted a little baby boy that we named Eugene! Also different this season is that for adopting you do not need the genetics of a husband, so she has none. And I will not go look for one for this whole season. If someone interesting passes by, who knows, but I'm not going to make it a goal! Besides that she did another couple of upgrades, making the total amount of unique upgrades count to 20, 48% of the available unique upgrades. And she also started training for the martial arts skill, which she managed to get on level 2 / yellow belt.
Goals
Sim Fu King
I really wonder what the person who gave this challenge it's name was thinking.... Anyway! I trained both Amber and Eugene to level 10 in the Martial Arts skill, so that they were well matched to spar together. I have spent literal sim-weeks trying to get the non-travel challenges for this skill done, and have succeeded! I also got two stars in one for the athletics challenges! I was doing a lot of cardio training, and all of the sudden I was notified I had gotten the Marathon Runner star. I have yet to see a single other situation in game where one activity leads to two different challenges within the same skill. But I am not complaining. I wasn't looking forward to having to jog for that long after all those hours for the other challenges! She also started the Professional Sports and as expected got from level 4 to 5 on the first day. I am planning to finish all the careers first before traveling to Shang Simla for the Martial Arts tournament.
Goals
Grand Master
I changed my mind and travelled to Shang Simla first! After staying nearly 6 days (thanks to the prepared traveler trait) Amber managed to get the Grand Master title! Granted, about the first 10 fights were with one of only 4 recurring sims, and in total she probably had 7 or 8 opponents over 20 fights, but hey. I did come across an un-fightable opponent twice, a sim that was rolled for the next confrontation but could NOT be challenged, after which I started googling. After some helpful tips in the direction of "good luck with your broken game" I found a tip on this forum saying you could use Nraas MC on your main sim to 'drop opponents', which allows you to phone for a new opponent. That saved my day. Anyone playing this after me running into the same issue: here is your lifeline!
I Need YOUR Help!
The house she currently lives in is not suitable for 4 adults to have their own bedroom (and preferably bathroom) so I need a new one. I don't like either of the two that are currently located in Barnacle Bay, so shout out please with some options! I don't mind if they are in the games own library or if they are from a download site, but they have to be on a 40x40 lot, be suitable for 4 non-related roommates, be free and not using cc. I do have all the packs, but I have no custom content or custom worlds installed other then Barnacle Bay. Shout it out with your ideas!
Goals
New Home
As I said in the previous post I was looking for a new house for Amber that could also serve for her future living-in band members! I have been looking in town, but the two houses that came close were absolutely not to my taste. I liked the location of Palace Prow, but half of the house is without a room, so certain sims wouldn't be able to go to bed without getting soaked or walking through snow. Not an option. So I checked download sites, but it is very hard to find a lot that doesn't use CC, and where I looked you could not filter for that. Sigh. So. What do you do when you are seemingly out of options? You decide to give it a shot yourself. Warnings!!!! First of all, I am not creative! Well, unless you count building symmetrical bunkers as creative, but I don't. Also some of the colors ask for sunglasses, but that's totally cool because my kid picked them and I won't change that!
Edit: I found myself confused due to Llandros video, thinking my next career would be having a band. I broke my head on how to do that in this town without major edits (which I don't like very much, I like to discover towns as they are), and then I found that the band one is in it's proper town in next season. So I'm not going to form a band yet (I don't know why Llandros did at this point) and therefore don't need a house that hosts up to 4 sims right now. So I moved 1 bedroom to the empty room downstairs, changed the walls/floors accordingly and deleted the whole top floor. I also made a pool in the garden and placed a goal and a trampoline.
Goals
Sports Legend
With all of her athletic skills and her many preparations for each game Amber practically owned the professional athletics career and has now reached level 10. I just remember that I should do each fulltime job for 4 sim weeks, and I don't think I did that with any job. Not even filling up the week when the top level is reached. I am just like "Done. Check. Next." In fact I think I am just going to skip that rule, as for me it doesn't add anything to the sense of achievement, and there is so much to do that I think it's a bit of a waste of time.... In the off hours I also got her finish some of the hidden skills, and I bought another handful of traits from the reward store.
Goals
Meet The Double Master
After a week of inviting, chasing, and dropping chess opponents I managed to get her to the Chess Grand Master title and get that challenge done. Something really weird happened also, once she lost to a challenger, and then that same challenger was locked into a cycle of "practicing chess" at the only chess table at the venue, I couldn't get her to stop in any way except resetting. So I went back to the main menu and tried again. In these situations (going for a title, like with the martial arts challenges) I tend to make a new save every time she defeats an opponent, so that helped a lot!
Rock All Star
Ok, the music career has been a major pain in the plum. It kept getting stuck, where she would go to work but gain 0 on her performance bar, no matter what type of working she did. So instead of hanging in the balance I used Nraas to get the performance to 100 on each level where it didn't go up. It seemed a bit random which levels worked and which didn't. But that helps. Nraas is a good anti-bug-cheat : P! After finishing that I also tried to get a job at the grocery store but that only lead up to Amber being a script error and being reset automatically, even when I tried to enter her into the job by shift clicking the mailbox. Somehow this save has, again, a lot of bugs. So I think I will just reset all by Nraas next time I load up the game and try again!
Goals
The End of the Season
This is an official announcement that Season 4 has come to an end, and this is what she managed to do this season:
The next post will be the start of season 5!
Comments
The Grocery Store part-time career is striped through because due to a glitch in the game she couldn't apply for the job, not even with cheats. I will do that in another season, when I find a suitable moment!
SEASON 5 - BRIDGEPORT
University
Careers
Skills
Activities