Hobos to Heroes: Teen Scene

[Deklitch]

I found the homeless part fun.

I found the school and skilling part fun.

I found the BFFs fun.

I didn't find forgetting to send one of them to work on a day in week 2 fun.

I wasn't looking forward to throwing parties, because of my bad habbit of never being able to throw a gold medal party.

I didn't manage to cause a single fire while cooking, so that was a plus (mind you food was usually all from the a snake bar.

When the rules spoke of only being able to place portable things on lots, I took that to mean I could purchase a tent and plop it down on the park in Oasis Springs, was that correct? If not, I failed on day 1 at 8am.

[GlazeyLady]

I found the homeless part fun.

I found the school and skilling part fun.

I found the BFFs fun.

I didn't find forgetting to send one of them to work on a day in week 2 fun.

I wasn't looking forward to throwing parties, because of my bad habbit of never being able to throw a gold medal party.

I didn't manage to cause a single fire while cooking, so that was a plus (mind you food was usually all from the a snake bar.

When the rules spoke of only being able to place portable things on lots, I took that to mean I could purchase a tent and plop it down on the park in Oasis Springs, was that correct? If not, I failed on day 1 at 8am.

I'm glad that you found most of it fun! 

And yes, tents go in inventory, so they were allowed.

[Ginj]

@Deklitch, I hope that pitching a tent in Desert Bloom park was legal because I did the exact same thing.   BTW, I found it rather creepy that Jacques Villareal and various homeless Sims barged into said tent.

[mismck]

With all of the clarification additions well into the second human week of the event, I’m hoping I didn’t mess anything up…

Jack Tripper: Angling Ace Aspiration — Collector bonus trait, Loves Outdoors & Insider.
Janet Wood: Nerd Brain Aspiration — Quick Learner bonus trait, Geek & Genius.
Chrissie Snow: Friend of the World Aspiration — Gregarious bonus trait, Cheerful & Good.

Goals: get through school ASAP, make §§§ to buy house, and Fame Level 2 for CelebuSerum. Secondary goals: Skills and Best Friends.

Season was set to Summer: no extreme weather & Sims not affected by temperature. I created holidays every day for the 1st week, making sure that the option for no school or work was unchecked. The daily holiday activity was Egg Hunt - easy and even though eggs aren’t worth much, every little bit helped. Discovered on Friday that you can’t throw a party when there is a holiday in progress, so did not create any more holidays.

I did a lot of Aspiration jumping to shop for satisfaction points, because without Rally the Troops, I would need Moodlet Manager potions to keep the hoodlums in check sweet teens happy. Any time one of them switched activities, I would change their Aspiration to complement the activity. There was a lot of micromanaging, but I love that.

Clubs: Even without Rally the Troops, I find clubs to be very helpful. Popular is good with that initial introduction, boosts to skills was important with this event, and being able to set certain club activities helps. For example, even though they couldn’t access their Household Inventory until purchasing a house, I wanted to make sure they would have enough Simoleons after purchasing that house to buy the things needed to succeed. So I set a club activity to Swipe Objects, and had them each enter a museum alone to swipe something valuable, while the others held off the hoard of Sims that showed up. They did this a few times during that first week.

School: They always went to the library in Britechester to do homework, because it has the Study Spot lot trait. They did not promote on Monday, but the bar was so close to B that I only had them do homework on Monday afternoon, not extra credit or projects. On Tuesday, they all came home with a B, so I had them do homework, extra credit, and the school projects they had brought home Monday. On Wednesday, they all came home with an A - no more school - YAY! I updated the holidays for Thursday & Friday to be holidays from school/work.

Jobs: They all joined Scouting immediately and they stayed in Scouts until going to the scout meeting on Saturday, since jobs didn’t count until they went to one shift. After that, they all went to one shift of the following jobs: Babysitters, Baristas, Retail Employees, Fast Food Workers, Drama Club, and lastly, Lifeguards. Sometimes they were promoted and sometimes not, but I always had them Work Hard, just in case.

Making Best Friends: Selfies are incredible. Introduce to new Sim, take selfie with them (3 sets max; Popular Club & higher reputation level mean fewer selfies needed), Become Best Friends. Repeat with next victim. Besties were made at the museums, Britechester Library, Myshuno Meadows, GeekCon, and especially at Parties (guests can’t escape until the Party ends).

Squatting: They obviously spent a lot of time at Britechester library from the first day until they got A’s in school. They also spent a lot of time at Myshuno Meadows because of the full kitchen, bathrooms, and other skilling items (bar, easel, instruments). I dropped a tent at both places and when it was time to sleep, set club activity to sleep.

Skills: Any free time was spent on skills. I tried not to have multiple Sims work on the same skills, since only one Sim per skill counted in the multiplier. Some duplication was necessary, like Painting and Vampire Lore. Even though they all painted until they could afford a house, Chrissie was the only one to max the skill. They all read the first Vampire Encyclopedia for Aspiration points in two of the vampire based aspirations, but Janet was the only one to max all 15 points of the skill. Once they had each maxed a unique skill, I tried to tag into each of the skills in the game, since the first few bars can usually be filled quickly (much faster than the last few bars of a skill).

§§§: Simoleons were admittedly a problem. At the beginning, they sold their selfies to the mysterious Publication for Fame. They were collecting holiday eggs during the first week to sell through their personal inventory. They also painted and sold their paintings for Fame. Since we could place items that normally fit in personal inventory onto community lots, I placed 3 digital sketchpads at Britechester Library and Myshuno Meadows. They also went to the Casbah Gallery to paint. By Friday morning of the first week, they had scraped together just enough to buy their first home: Nookstone in Oasis Springs for §13,019. With the party rewards received, they ended up moving twice during the second week: they evicted the BFF household on Tuesday and they evicted the Roomies household on Thursday.

Parties: Once they had a house, the parties began. Even though it wasn’t a requirement, I had them each host a different type of party for their Hero Status: Chrissie hosted a Gold Incognito Party, Janet hosted a Gold Spooky Party, and Jack hosted a Gold House Party. I ran the parties longer than just reaching Gold to give more time for selfies & besties. They held a few Incognito parties each day, always letting them run past the Gold timeframe to get besties.

Friday of Week 2 was interesting. In shopping for Aspiration/Satisfaction points, Janet needed to host a dinner party. They already had a lot of food in the fridge from working on skills, so I put out a group meal and started a Dinner Party. Janet called the group to the meal which was the primary party goal. The party bar went immediately to Gold so I stopped the party. Total party time was 9 Sim minutes. That was so interesting, they each had to try. Between 12:43AM and 1:26AM (43 Sim minutes), they successfully hosted 3 gold dinner parties (making the call to plan the event took longer than the actual party). This was the moment my strategy changed completely. Chrissie became my main party thrower while Jack & Janet worked on raising skills. Sometimes Chrissie would take a break to work on her own skills. They collectively hosted 17 gold dinner parties that day. On Saturday, Chrissie hosted 27 parties, Jack hosted 6 parties, and Janet hosted 2 parties. Sunday between Midnight and 8AM, Jack hosted 4 parties, Janet hosted 5 parties, and Chrissie held the final gold dinner party.

Hero Status:
Jack: Grade A Wed. Week 1; Scouting Level 4; 1st BFF Marcus Flex; Gold House Party Sat. Week 1; Unique Skill Bowling
Janet: Grade A Wed. Week 1; Scouting Level 3; 1st BFF Mortimer Goth; Gold Spooky Party Sat. Week 1; Unique Skill Vampire Lore
Chrissie: Grade A Wed. Week 1; Scouting Level 3; 1st BFF Lilith Pleasant; Gold Incognito Party Sat. Week 1; Unique Skill Baking

Skill Levels (One Sim Per Skill):
Jack attained 51 skill points across 12 different skills
Janet attained 68 skill points across 14 different skills
Chrissie attained 71 skill points across 11 different skills
No points were attained in Parenting or Selvadoradian Culture

Hosted Gold Medal Parties: Jack = 14; Janet = 12; Chrissie = 46

Part Time Job Levels:
Jack: Scout 4, Babysitter 1, Barista 2, Retail 1, Fast Food 1, Drama 2, Lifeguard 1 = 12
Janet: Scout 3, Babysitter 1, Barista 1, Retail 1, Fast Food 1, Drama 3, Lifeguard 1, = 11
Chrissie: Scout 3, Babysitter 1, Barista 1, Retail 1, Fast Food 1, Drama 2, Lifeguard 1 = 10

Best Friends Outside of Household: Jack = 40; Janet = 42; Chrissie = 46

[Isabelalabe]

I am so fascinated by all your strategies. There are so many things I didn't know before. Also, I don't have all the packs and expansions but these make them seem more appealing now .

[Vesper]

congrats to the high scorers. I really did not have the patience to get more points, kudos especially to Sruixan who always combines an excellent strategy with vigilant gameplay.

My early game strategy differed a little from others so may be of interest, especially as my strategy is decent but you can compare to better ones to what makes most impact on scores.
Planning: I focused on BFFs and skills as this seemed the most efficient use of time though throwing parties continually would have earned more points that's just too much going on for me to handle so I only threw a few. I plotted all the skills in the game against what mood boosts them, what lot trait helps, and if they can be learned by reading books. Then allocated them among the three teens so that there was no overlap, for example with school projects, so few skill points were wasted and most would be scored. Obviously they all maxed photography in their BFF-making efforts though. I thought scouts wouldn't count for job because I am an idiot so also allocated careers based on unique skill. One of these was Barista which was a huge mistake as it's only two hours per day so took more days for promotion. Was very disappointing on testing to realise that teens no longer get part time job boosts for good grades, my initial plan was to wait until they'd improved to B but this was redundant.

First days: Goal was to get housed as soon as possible because this would enable the point-gathering by better moods, choice of lot traits, emotion control etc. We went to Laurel Library in Britechester as it has the study spot trait for a boost to all skilling. Sims A and B worked on some allocated skills - writing and programming, then when their fun got a bit too low moved on to videogaming and logic (chess table). Sim C worked on making money through photography. She stood at the library entrance and photographed everyone up to max relationship, best-friended them, then moved on (I actually forgot to best friend a few so had to catch them later). This enabled her to max photography (although it wouldn't be a unique skill) make 14 best friends, and earn enough for Creek Cabana by around 10pm Sunday. I got Sim A to sell all the photos though as she was going to be skilled in writing and painting so I knew she'd be able to achieve Fabulously wealthy aspiration points later.

The first night once everyone was fed (they were all pretty hungry at this point) they did homework and a school project. I meant to have adults in the club at this point to help with homework and projects as I'd done in trial run but forgot for some reason. Everyone had a few satisfaction points (from writer, tech guru, friend of the world, and leader of the pack aspirations) so each guzzled a moodlet solver then I took them on a club outing to thieve from the Landgraabs for extra cash. They went to the house, met all three and added them to club, then "go here together" to get them out of the house while our teens stole three computers (club activity = swiping). I chose the Landgraabs rather than the Goths as the expensive items are in different rooms so there was less chance of a teen not stealing because she'd been "caught" by another club member. Plus three family members to get out of the way is easier than four.

Back home and we now have a lot more money so the house is remodeled. Four rooms - shower room, bedroom, inspiring room and focused room. Got rid of bins and washbasins to save time (no washing hands and dishes) all dirty dishes would then go into the recycling bin for a steady stream of cash. We never had to worry about money again, especially as future BFF making ensured loads of photos. An expensive good quality double bed was bought as it's easy to schedule three to share it. I had made the teens siblings so that they'd be willing to share a double bed with each-other even though they weren't close friends.

After that it proceeded like for others (except for my stupid part-time job mistake). Everyone reached A grade on Tuesday so no more school after that. Two would be skilling while the third made best friends. Sometimes I just got tired of the grind so they'd all work on skills for a bit to save my sanity. Continual club gatherings would get enough points for skill boosts but I may not have optimised this, got them in the right order etc. The general idea was to get skills up to level seven or so then move on to another as levels take longer to gain once they're high. I didn't send them to Humour and Hijinks as they needed to do homework and projects the first Monday night for Tuesday's A but they skilled like crazy at the following week's Geekfest.

[I'll edit to add info on what each teen earned in a bit]

[coolsim9999999]

congrats Sruixan!

[oshizu]

Thanks to everyone who shared their strategies!  So many creative ideas!

[Rainbow Dash]

Re: Hobos to Heroes: Teen Scene
« Reply #188 on: April 19, 2020, 07:18:31 PM »Wow, great score, Sruixan. It does not look like Rainbow will challenge you given it's already 4/20 in her neck of the woods. So, she decided to sit this one out. But, she she better do the Bill Nye one given it was her idea! Lol.

Nope, I never planned to enter my own challenge at all, I just want to sit back and watch all of you duke it out ... I'm kidding! *Ducks beakers thrown her way* Of course I'm going to enter this challenge @Metropolis Man, did you really think I wouldn't, this is my baby after all!

Metro is right, it would have already been the 20th at that time for me, I'm about a day or so ahead of my American counterparts on the forum when it comes to time zones. Congrats to the winners on this one and I'll see you all in the science lab!