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Captain Ahab inspired fishing challenge
EnkiSchmidt
Posts: 5,343 Member
This challenge started with me wanting to shoot a sims picture story in the Moby 🐸🐸🐸🐸 story. While setting up the scenes, I got inspired to turn the lot into a functional one. Of course my gameplay sims wouldn’t hunt whales, but giant tuna.
The challenge will allow your sims to go on a commercial tuna fishing trip, catch and process their catch and hopefully avoid the deep sea hazard that in my test run sank the ship. You need a single six sided die and probably also a love for micromanaging.
The challenge is still a WIP, at its core it functions, but it isn’t well balanced yet. I also have no idea how this plays with free will on, so feedback and screenshots are much appreciated!
(I'll post outtakes from my gameplay later.)
The challenge will allow your sims to go on a commercial tuna fishing trip, catch and process their catch and hopefully avoid the deep sea hazard that in my test run sank the ship. You need a single six sided die and probably also a love for micromanaging.
The challenge is still a WIP, at its core it functions, but it isn’t well balanced yet. I also have no idea how this plays with free will on, so feedback and screenshots are much appreciated!
(I'll post outtakes from my gameplay later.)
Currently playing: Journey to Batuu & Horse Ranch mashup
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The Ship
You can build a modern fish trawler or a sailship. Other than Sulani, the best lots for this challenge are those with a nice view of the ocean, of course. I used the largest one in Brindleton Bay and also added greenscreens.
The ship needs to consist of a lower and an upper deck. The lower deck can be ground level or a basement.
The boats
You also need two boats big enough to accommodate two sims. Accessing these boats in my gameplay was done by teleportation (testingcheats true, then shift-click “teleport here”), but you could also build a fake ocean with blue floor tiles and simply let your sims walk into the boats. In Sulani they can swim normally.
I better show you what the boats are for first thing, before mentioning anything else about the challenge, because this part requires heavy suspense of disbelief and may be a dealbreaker already if you prefer to realistic visuals.
Giant tuna fishing can look decent close up, like in this shot:
But what you’re really doing is this:
While one sim pilots the boat, another sim will play darts with a board hidden in the boat’s bow. The points scored will get projected into the air.
For the pilot operating the rudder there are two options:
Using the steering wheel from Get Famous, thus skilling Acting
OR
Using bb.moveobjects and the microscope from Get To Work, thus skilling Logic
The logic version looks worse, but I prefer that over leveling a skill that doesn’t make sense in the challenge’s context.
Still with me? Alright, then let’s finish building the ship itself.
The crow’s nest
Put a lookout somewhere on your ship. It needs to have a telescope or other means of raising logic skill.
The workstations
Place one woodworking station anywhere and four more close together into the main deck.
Place two embroidery boxes, two knitting bags and two easels anywhere.
Place three stoves or cc canning stations and also three candle making stations anywhere.
Place toilets, showers, beds and kitchen amenities as desired.
Finally place a planter box and a sized down fabricator somewhere inaccessible. You only need those to cheat in raw materials later.
The crew
Decide how long you want to send your sims fishing. Anything from six months (two seasons) to four years is realistic. This challenge is best played with young adults that will use the money earned here to found families.
Your household gets one week’s bill worth in cash, in my case 13,000 simoleons. That’s the money the fishing company is willing to invest in the journey and they expect it back at the end. Any surplus goes to your sims.
If the sims return with less than the starting money, they get fired (and maybe settled with a debt, your choice.)
As for regular bills, stop them incoming with any mod of your choice or cheat the money to pay them.
You need six sims, three pairs of one harpooneer and one pilot each. You can also add a captain and a wildcard sim for atmosphere, but they are not strictly needed.
The sims you pick profit from having skill points in Logic, Fishing, Handyness, Embroidery/Knitting/Painting, Canning/Cooking, Fabrication and Fitness. You can use starter sims without skills, too, or mix starter sims with experienced ones.
Lot traits: Moby D.
Add Earthquake Zone (with CL) or Volcanic Activity (with IL) or roll a die every day. When you get a “1” or the earthquake/volcano trigger, that means your ship has encountered Moby D., a sea monster.
That’s him in my game, an enlarged and rotated anglerfish. You can use whatever you want to represent Moby D.
The Sea Monster encounter is potentially lethal. It deals 40 damage that the sims can mitigate with points from their defense (aka playing darts). Damage not negated by dart playing is applied to hull and rigging, but you can freely choose how many points go to which category.
Your ship has (Number of sims)x2 hull points. If they reach 0, the ship sinks and the sims die.
Your ship has (Sims present)x2 rigging points. If they reach 0, the ship is incapable of controlling its course, but sooner or later the sims will hit an island or get captured by slavers, both of which might lead to a different challenge.
Note: It’s better to track hull/rigging damage instead of hull/rigging points, because the maximum number go can up and down depending on how many crew members you have.
The sea monster has 40 life points. Subtract whatever your defending sims scored from that number. Moby D. doesn’t regenerate between his appearances, so it is possible to defeat him once and for all.
Lot traits: Other
Decide if you want to play with the Simple Living challenge (recommended) and fill up the remaining lot trait slots to your liking. You can even make the ship a haunted lot for an extra challenge.
N.A.P.s
Cheat in four that you find the least intrusive.
There are three watches, corresponding to your three teams. First watch is 20:00 - 04:00, middle watch is 04:00 - 12:00 and afternoon watch is 12:00 - 20:00. Sims on watch have to remain on the main deck all the time and are forbidden to nap/sleep. One team member, ideally the pilot, will staff the lookout.
1-6 hours into the watch (roll a single die) an event occurs.
After an event occurs, the sim in the lookout can stop using the telescope. So if they get lucky and get an event after a single hour, they have the rest of their watch free.
Roll the die again to see what event is triggered:
1 - Nothing happens.
Except of course at any time an asteroid may hit the sim at the telescope. Accidents happen. You are of course allowed to move your sim to safety in time, plead with Grim or even shelter your telescope (but then you’ll need a mod to be able to use it).
2 - Hull Damage!
Roll a die to see how many hull points are lost.
For purpose of this event, the sims needs to craft one shelf (costing 87 simoleons) or eight figurines (priced at 10 simoleons) to regain one hull point. The finished woodworks need to get destroyed (or sold and the money gained cheated away immediately).
A damaged ship can never make big catches (explained later). Any big catches become normal catches.
3 - Damage to the Sails!
Roll a die to see how many rigging points are lost.
One large cross stitch ring (costing 150 simoleons) regains one sail point. If you do not have Cottage Living, you can also make your sims knit or even paint.
As with hull damage, rigging damage, too, causes big catches to become normal catches.
4 - Trade Ship!
The trader sells basically anything, first and foremost food ingredients (if you play with the Simple Living challenge), sugar and tea. Shop to your heart’s content. Traders will buy woodworking figurines (”fishbone carvings”), candles and pet food/canned goods.
How do you get those goods? By catching giant tuna. Your lookout in the crow’s nest might spot some…
If your crew is less than eight, you can hire replacement sims from the trade ship’s crew. The number of sims willing to sign up is one-third of your Captain’s Charisma or Research & Debate skill (round down). Pick your new crewmembers from existing sims or create new ones.
5 - Normal catch!
The on-duty watch has spotted a tuna swarm and enters a boat.
6 - Big catch!
In this case staff both boats.
The pilot now mans the rudder. Meanwhile the harpooneer plays dart.
At the end of a single game, a number of giant tuna will have gotten caught.
Tuna caught = D + F + P
D = Points scored in the dart game
On average my sims scored eight points here. Sadness or being too cold (I didn’t allow winter outfits in my test) can cause sims to abandon the game before scoring well.
F = Fishing expertise (Harpooneer only)
Sims have one point of fishing expertise per 3 skill points in Fishing (round down) and one point per completed tier of the Angling Ace aspiration. Furthermore 3 points in Dancing give +1 and 5 points in Dancing give +2.
P = Piloting expertise (Pilot only)
Sims have one point of fishing expertise per 3 skill points in Logic (round down) and one point per completed tier of the Angling Ace aspiration.
Processing the fish
Once you know how many tuna your sims have caught, you get a number of resources. All these materials are free, you can cheat the money back immediately. (I instead kept track of the sum and only added it back at the end of the challenge, it’s a matter of preference.)
Most importantly: One extra large tuna for your main deck, guts and all.
Although actually the fish needs to get placed one floor lower and raised to this level with CTRL-9, otherwise the sims won’t be able to get this close to it. Place your giant tuna so that it hides the four woodworking stations on your main deck while still keeping them accessible for your sims. You can also skip this part of the visuals if they seem too cruel.
Each tuna caught…
…allows your sims to create 4 woodworking figurines that can get sold to the trader (when it happens by) or to the company (at the end of the voyage). Choose any figurine your sims are capable of crafting. The camping mascot may be a bit cheaty, though.
…gives you one block of wax for free as well as the needed bits & pieces. Alternately, if you don’t have Eco Living, you can create cc soap or any substitute for fat that you can think of.
… gives you one seed packet (fruit) or one giant crop of your choice and one bag of sugar for free. I used fruit to have my sims create cc canned goods that come with their own skill, but normal Cooking and the Cottage Living canned products will work as well. If you have neither Cottage Living nor a cc means of canning, just cook fruit salad and add 200 simoleons per party sized meal.
…optionally also gives you one regular sized tuna to feed your crew. Buy those fish from an aquarium (it doesn't have to be a tuna).
/RULES
My sims Chris, Tina, Susan and Rika have learned fishing during their teen years on a smaller boat that I built them. Now they are ready to tackle larger prey. Along on the trip come the two premades that seem like natural fits for this lifestyle: Duane Talla and Angela Pleasant (it’s her dream job in Sims 2).
Here they all sleep in the Pequod’s hold, stowed down here interchangeably with the rest of the tools. Truth be told, to the company they probably are exactly that
Tina and Susan have first watch, so let’s wake them up!
Normally a ship that has just left port should still be loaded with fresh provisions, alas, I forgot to give my sims starting funds, so they couldn’t even buy anything if I rolled a Trade Ship encounter first thing in the morning.
It’ll be gruel for them for the foreseeable future.
Gruel is a zero cost cc food made by LittleBowbub. Since it has no ingredients or cost, sims can make it freely on Simple Living lots, but it gives them Sad+2 after eating.
My fishing crew’s first ingame encounter was an asteroid that was homing in right on Susan halfway through her watch. She left the crow’s nest in time and the asteroid crashed into the ocean, but not before razing the Pequod’s yardarms and burning her sails (because my first rolled encounter was 6 points sail damage - that’s the maximum value).
This journey was off to a rocky start.
Chris and Rika had been good friends during their teen years already. This journey brought them even closer together!
They were madly in love, but apparently they couldn’t decide what season it was: Chris donned his summer outfit at the start of his watch, while Rika insisted on wearing the heavy woolen jumper that was her everyday outfit.
Looks like nature was on Chris’ side: Duane, Chris’ fellow harpooneer, almost died to overheating.
Ah - much better now!
Time passed, but all that happened was the Pequod sustaining more damage.
I actually enjoyed this early part of the challenge a lot. Seeing the sims go about their everyday ship life, always repairing and sewing something to the sound of their guitar play, and dancing in the evening was relaxing. Later on, when their hold is full of fish, things got way more hectic.
Chris was so enthusiastic, eating with his harpoon in hand! (The harpooners have one outfit with and one without the spear in everyday/summer/winter.)
Susan: *chuckles*
Chris: “Anytime now the lookout could cry they spotted the giant tuna!”
The lookout did spot something early in the morning. However, it wasn’t a giant tuna. Spoiler: It wasn’t a regular sized tuna, either.
This looks even more impressive than regular asteroid hits.
But it also left the Pequod with a single sail point - one more lost and the sims would start drifting with no control over their vessel.
The crow’s nest is sturdy and survived the impact.
The human lookout --- not so much.
Susan: “No, wait! Both of you! No dying and no reaping before I’ve said my piece!”
Grim: “Take your time. The weather is nice and the view beautiful.”
Susan: “I’m coming, I’m coming!”
With Chris paired with Rika, his other childhood friend, Susan, had to look for a new partner. Could this be the start of her romance with Tina?
Nope. Not going to happen
Susan’s pleading went unheard...
...and in a swirl of colors the resident splinter of Tina’s soul left to merge back into her soul in the main save, where I don’t allow my sims to die. Metaphysically it was all sorted out nicely. But for those left behind, bereft of a friend, and without awareness of my multiverse, that wasn’t a comfort.
Susan: “Can we at least get our starting money retconned in now so that we can repair the Pequod?”
Grim: “That’s not for me to decide (but I’m told yes, you’ll get the money).”
But before the sims could do that, they had to see to the leakage...
Susan dearly wished she was on the good old Antelope again, the company's schooling boat.
And this is why we always slide down the ladder, never leisurely climb. Because otherwise the asteroid will catch up with you.
This came as a nasty surprise to me. I was certain that leaving the crow’s nest and moving Angela three floors down was sufficient to save her. Turned out the game isn’t looking at “how far is sim from telescope” but “is sim under a roof”.
Lesson learned. The next ship gets a roofed lookout. (Only I have no idea how to do that. The current crow's nest already is the roof of the highest allowed floor. I don't think I can put a roof even higher up. And lowering the crow's nest would look silly.)
I ruled that the asteroid impact so close to the giant tuna fried the remaining five, not yet processed, fish. Therefore the crew had their first non-Gruel meal that day.
As well as their first kitchen fire that rendered one of the canning stations unusable.
That night Chris and Rika kept even closer together than normally. They didn’t want the others to overhear their discussion...
Rika: “So we’re in agreement to jump ship when next we meet a trader? And settle down somewhere save?”
Chris: “I would, but I’m loathe to leave Susan. We three are childhood friends, aren’t we? It just doesn’t feel right to sneak away and leave Sue on this death trap of a ship.”
Rika: “Big deal! We’ll ask her to come along!”
Seeing that Susan went to bed next to now two empty cots, Tina’s and Angela’s, she probably won’t need much persuasion.
(In my headcanon the Pequod has a larger crew than just my played sims. So three leaving wouldn’t make her a ghost ship.)
After all of this, the fishing crew’s luck changed. In the span of a single day they caught 34 giant tuna.
Gutting all those fish occupied everyone’s hands, however, the workers’ minds were idle and so they turned to entertain ideas of deserting at regular intervals. It wouldn’t even be breaking contract, since by now the upfront money the crew had received before boarding the Pequod was long worked off.
“Isn’t that romantic, darling?”
I didn’t want to end the fishing trip prematurely, so when I rolled an encounter with a trade ship, I ruled that it belonged to the same company as the Pequod. That way nobody could jump ship, instead the company heir and his wife came aboard to experience firsthand how giant tuna fishing worked. They even took one watch together.
Come morning they grabbed leftovers from the larder. As always the “choice” was between tuna and gruel.
Kalamainu’u: “So this is land dweller food. It’s... exotic.”
Sigstein: “It’s certain land dwellers’ food. The working classes, to be specific.”
Sigstein of course picked up the guitar first thing in the morning. He loves playing the guitar in all my saves, it’s a bit of a family thing. The couple then tried their hand at every task there was on the ship. It was fun to them, but then…
BAMMM!
Suddenly the deck was shaking and there was a loud rumble followed by wood splintering and water gushing in.
Something had rammed the Pequod!
The “earthquake” was nothing other than a hungry predator fish. Well, what do you expect when you leave giant tuna out in the open... Of course they’d attract bigger fish.
You know something is bad news when it doesn’t fit into the greenscreen.
The arrows in the sea monster’s side look pathetic, like gnat bites, hardly noticeable. The holes in the Pequod, to the contrary, are gaping.
The defending sims scored 5 and 8 points only. That hurt Moby D., but wasn't enough to save the ship. Wood was splintering left and right, more water came pouring in and (the invisible npc) sailors jumped into the lifeboats in panic.
After the brief, desperate battle, the sea monster grabbed our giant tuna and dived.
It didn’t have to come up again to get another tuna, because by then the Pequod had already sunken beneath the waves for the sea monster’s convenience. It gorged itself on tuna and crewmembers.
Eventually the waves tossed Susan and Duane onto the shore.
Kalamainu’u being a mermaid, she hadn’t been in danger of drowning, but the water was far too cold for the Sulani resident, requiring every ounce of her strength to save herself, leaving none to rescue Rika, Chris or even her husband, Siggy.
Stranded at an unknown shore, all the three shipwrecked had were each other.
Turned out Kalamainu’u also had something else: A searing hatred for Susan and Duane, whom she blamed for the loss of the Pequod (first) and her husband (second).
Susan quit on the spot, vowing to never again sail for the company. It took a direct intervention from the owner to at least get her back to coastal fishing.
As you can see, Kalamainu’u is pregnant in the screenshots. I did that just before killing off her husband to have an heir for the fishing & canned fish company. Susan now owns the old Antelope and is married to Scott Travis, and Duane was appointed Captain for my second playthrough.