2016 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament Overview

[Metropolis Man]

2016 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament Overview

Welcome to the 2016 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament! The 15-event Tournament runs from January 1st to December 1st (anyone can jump in the Tournament at any time throughout the year). Two events will kick off the season on January 1st — one Minor event (ending after three weeks) and one Major event (ending after six weeks). Two more events will start in February once the first two events ends and the same cycle continues through the year. Here is a link to the official 2016 Sims 4 Tournament Events Calendar. Rule sets will always be posted 2 weeks before starting dates.

The 2016 Tournament Champion will be the player at the top of the World Ranking at the close of the Tournament Finale on December 1 and will receive two Sims 4 expansions (courtesy of Carl) as well as a 2016 Sims 4 Tournament Championship Plaque (courtesy of Metro). An Amazon.com gift card will be awarded to the runner-up (courtesy of Nutella).

General Challenge Rules

Players are responsible for knowing and following the General Challenge Rules. The rules below apply to all 2016 Tournament events (Dynasty challenges are not Tournament events). There will be exceptions and you will be informed of those exceptions in individual rule sets.

Ready to Participate in the Tournament?
Awesome! Just pick an event that is currently open (live events have a thumbs up topic icon) and dive in.

Practicing for a Challenge
Practicing before a challenge officially goes live is fine, but once you create your scoring file, that’s it—you have one attempt and cannot create a 2nd scoring file. You may never use any mods while practicing for an event. All mods or programs/utilities that allow you to look at code to gain information must never be used once you begin practicing for a challenge.

Starting Dates/Closing Dates
If you look at the bottom of a particular rule set you will notice official starting and closing dates - these dates are large and are in purple. If the event is a minor event you have three weeks to finish. If the event is a major event, then you have six weeks. Playing your scoring file before the starting date or after the closing date is not allowed. The only time reference you need to remember is your local time/date. You must submit scores in the individual challenge thread before the closing date has come and gone in your local time zone. Scores submitted after the closing date will not be accepted.

Creating Your Scoring Game File
You must always play your challenge file under the most current EA patch — this applies to before creating your file as well as the duration of the event.

All challenges begin in a fresh, virgin, completely unaltered town (Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Newcrest, or Windenburg) of your choosing. Unless a particular rule set lays down restrictions, you are free to travel and/or move to any neighborhood or town.

Options - all default settings: Autonomy > Full; Auto Age (Played Sims) > Yes; Auto Age (Unplayed Sims) > Yes; Sim Lifespan > Normal

Household Size: Individual Challenge rule sets will specify how many Sims you create and their starting life stage. Always create Sims in CAS from scratch. • Cannot use gallery downloaded Sims • Cannot use cloned/twin gallery downloaded Sims • Cannot use saved Sims from your library • Cannot use saved Sims clone/twin from your library.

3rd Party Custom Content / Modifications
3rd party Custom Content that alters appearance for CAS purposes is acceptable and can be used at the player's own risk. Modifications (mods) are patches that alter some core component of game play and are never allowed. Programs and utilities that allow you to see the game code such as ILSpy are also never allowed. Remember, no mods or code utilities can be used during practice.

Cheats and Banned Content
You are only allowed to open the cheats panel for two things: a stuck Sim or a stuck object.

ResetSim Firstname Lastname. You may only use this cheat in the event of a stuck Sim. This cheat is case sensitive, so make sure to type your Sim’s name correctly).
Moveobjects. You may only use this cheat for a stuck object.

The following content is banned in all 2016 Tournament events:

Moodlet Solver (from Reward Store).
Book of Life.
All Reward Store Potions (Instant Fun, Instant Hygiene, and Sleep Replacement are also considered potions and not allowed).
All 13 Plumbob Reward Lamps (from owning Sims 3 base game and expansion packs).
Reloading a game or traveling/entering CAS to reset Whims - This is a exploit to force the game to spawn more Whims and is not allowed.
Editing Non-Home Lots - Anything from personal inventory that can be placed on a non-home lot is allowed. But, going into buy/build mode F2/F3 is not allowed for non-home lots. 
Manage Worlds - you may never use the Manage Worlds screen in Tournament challenges.
Get Together Club Content - have no fear...the team will put together a clubs focused challenge later in the year.
Romantic Garden Stuff Wishing Well.
Life Extension - anything that lengthens pre-Elder life stages is prohibited. Completing the Bodybuilder Aspiration is fine since it only lengthens Elder.

Exiting without saving to avoid a mistake or an unfortunate occurrence (i.e. burglar or fire) is cheating. Restarting from an earlier save is also cheating. In the event your challenge file is plagued by a game-breaking bug, then PM the team with specifics. We will then make a decision as to restarting from a previous save or simply allowing a complete restart.

Some Aspiration Milestone have you finding collectibles, etc, and these can be exploited by having items in your inventory already as the Milestone becomes active with you then removing and replacing the items to make progress on the Milestone. This falls into the category of cheating. Whims related to collectibles can also be quickly finished via the inventory exploit, so please do not do that.

Strategy Discussion
Do not discuss any strategy pertaining to a given event once that event’s rule set is posted. Casually or accidentally breaking this rule carries a warning and a possible event DQ. Remember, Tournament events are competitive and asking questions like "Can I do x?" may seem innocent, but may in fact put that idea in someone else's head if they had not thought of doing that. So, please, PM the team. Discussing strategy after being warned is grounds for being tossed from the entire Tournament. We need to have as level a playing field as possible and giving others tips and hints is simply not allowed once rule sets are up and an event is live. Posts with questions that hint at possible strategies will be deleted without notice. After an event closes you are free to discuss strategy for that event.

The Honor System
The 2016 Tournament is all about friendly competition and having fun. The Tournament attracts players of all abilities and competitiveness from casual first-timers to seasoned high-caliber veterans. We all want to have a good time no matter what we’re seeking to get out of the Tournament. Allowing everyone to have a good time means we all need to play honestly — no cheating and no exploits. If you discover an exploit then you must PM the team (Metro, Nutella, ratchie, MarianT, and LenaLJ) so we can quickly edit a ruleset. If it's discovered that you have intentionally cheated in any way, then you will be banned from the forum on the spot. We have a zero tolerance policy for cheating.

Submitting Scores
When you have finished all the requirements for a given event submit your final score right in the individual challenge thread and the team will update the leaderboard with your information. Remember not to comment on how you approached the event with specifics until the event is closed.

Any player entering a score into the Challenge Tournament must have registered or posted from an IP address that originates from their local internet provider. Players submitting scores from proxy servers will be considered to have reason to hide their identities, therefore any score submitted through a proxy server will be disqualified.

***********

We hope the 2016 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament adds new and exciting dimensions to your playing, and most importantly, we hope everyone has a great time. This is the second Sims 4 Challenge Tournament season, so let’s see more participation in 2016!

See you on the leaderboard — Metro, ratchie, Nutella, MarianT, and LenaLJ.

[Magpie2012]

@Metropolis Man the IP issue worries me. According to @Carl when I log in there are multiple different IPs I could be coming from. Even when on my home network like now... I think it might be because I don't use traditional ADSL/Broadband. Our internet here is by a company called Neotel and it is basically wireless like cellular technology so the IPs vary. If I decide to try my hand this year, could I be given permission to 'waive" this IP rule?

[Nutella]

Yes we can waive this IP rule for you.  You've been with us for 3 years, we trust you. 

[Magpie2012]

Lol being an old fogey has merits Thanks @Nutella now I just hope I stick to my New Year's Resolution of taking part in more challenges

[Carl]

Yeah the good thing is, we can sort of see that a person is on a cell type network by those dozens of IPs being there. They are all usually in the same range just a different ending 44.252.11.XXX for example.

[Magpie2012]

Plus you have some practice looking for mine with all the issues I've been having with android tapatalk lol

[Teresa]

Is it possible the IP issue is why my home computer appears to be blocked currently?  I am only able to access the forums through my company's remote connection.  I started having trouble yesterday here and at Boolprop due to a misconfigured mail client causing multiple login failures (got IP blocked over there which was corrected last night). 

So I generally access the forums from home, work, or cell in addition to Tapatalk.  Right now Tapatalk, home, and cell are blocked.  Only one not blocked is work access.  Unless of course I have actually been kicked off the forums and just haven't figured it out yet?

[Nutella]

We will sort out this issue.  Big boss is working on it.

[Teresa]

We will sort out this issue.  Big boss is working on it.

Yes You all are awesome!  Looking forward to the challenges!

[Indira]

I don't know about changing IP addresses either. I asked Jericho about it, and he said, it might change, but because I rarely turn off my computer, it's possible that it hasn't changed at all. Then he mentioned that the router remains the same anyway..and he lost me there completely.   Anyway, my laptop just connects automatically to a known network that our landlord provided. Or I use my phone data plan when I'm not at home. I hope it doesn't become a problem.

[Nutella]

Update:

The following content is banned in all 2016 Tournament events:
All 13 Plumbob Reward Lamps (from owning Sims 3 base game and expansion packs).

[kidakiwi04]

Can someone explain the whole IP thing? Do I need to register my IP on the forum?

Sent from my SGH-T399 using Tapatalk

[WriterJunkie]

I'd like clarification on the IP address as well. I don't know much about IP's and how they work, but I'll probably end up doing a couple of the challenges again this year.

[reggikko]

I think what they are saying is that as long as you are playing from a legitimate IP address (like the one you would use with your home internet provider), you're fine. It's proxy servers that are forbidden. The rule is probably meant to keep people who have been banned from participating. They would have to set up a proxy in order to conceal who they really are. I think?

[MarianT]

I think what they are saying is that as long as you are playing from a legitimate IP address (like the one you would use with your home internet provider), you're fine. It's proxy servers that are forbidden. The rule is probably meant to keep people who have been banned from participating. They would have to set up a proxy in order to conceal who they really are. I think?

@Indira, @kidakiwi04, @WriterJunkie, reggikko is correct. Unless you've been previously banned or are living with someone who has been banned, your IP address isn't something you need to worry about.