'Tis Always The Season - A Room Challenge (COMPLETE)

[Brian_Z]

Lol and I was going to point out the connection between Satisfaction and completing aspirations, after you mentioned how little aspiration stages count for your score.  Seems you figured it out for yourself!
In TS4, the devs abandoned trying to keep a timeline together consistent with the previous releases.  But they did bring back many characters.  Nancy Landgraab has a husband, Geoffrey, and there's a Malcolm Landgraab too.  But this time he's their son, not Nancy's brother.  If you go to Manage Worlds, you can explore the map and see who all lives there.  For someone who only owns the base game... well, there's the Goths, everyone is in love with Bella, and the BFF household, I know they were in at least one previous release.  I think the Caliente household was in previous releases, but is different now from those previous games.

[Brian_Z]

Oh, and just caught something.  You said you maxed Writing and Cooking, but you only gave yourself +10 for skills!

Right, never mind me, you had maxed Writing in the previous update...

Anyway, you're now locked into Fabulously Wealthy for a while.  After that, might I suggest Musical Genius?  You can get through 3 stages of that, the final stage requires you to mentor others for 3 hours though.  You can buy a guitar and that can stay in your inventory and not waste space.  There are electronic keyboards that take up much less space than the piano, but I'm not sure if they were introduced with a pack or if they're base game.  They are VERY annoying to listen to at low level though!

[Nevermore]

Oh, and just caught something.  You said you maxed Writing and Cooking, but you only gave yourself +10 for skills!

I counted the writing +10 in the previous chapter. That was the one where she maxed the skill points. In this one she completed the author aspiration, I added that to +5 for Aspiration Points. Thanks for spotting that, though. I realised earlier I'd miss calculated somewhere, because my overall score was too inconsistent to my notes.

Lol and I was going to point out the connection between Satisfaction and completing aspirations, after you mentioned how little aspiration stages count for your score.  Seems you figured it out for yourself!
In TS4, the devs abandoned trying to keep a timeline together consistent with the previous releases.  But they did bring back many characters.  Nancy Landgraab has a husband, Geoffrey, and there's a Malcolm Landgraab too.  But this time he's their son, not Nancy's brother.  If you go to Manage Worlds, you can explore the map and see who all lives there.  For someone who only owns the base game... well, there's the Goths, everyone is in love with Bella, and the BFF household, I know they were in at least one previous release.  I think the Caliente household was in previous releases, but is different now from those previous games.

I did know about the Goths! I did do a test play before doing this challenge, where I tried to create another sim. I didn't do much with her. I switched straight to the Goths and explored their house. ((Didn't hear it from me but... If Briar-Rose has a son, he will probably marry Cassandra Goth, to get them in the family.  )) The Goths are my absolute pre-made family. I played like 6 generations of them on Sims 3. Also, OMG! :O Don and the Calientes are in this too? I'm going to have to find them. I am spouse hunting for Briar-Rose for after this challenge. Don could be an option.

Yeah, I noticed that aspiration stage points didn't contribute much, when I was constantly getting like 1 or 2 points left over after I subtracted the days. Now I'm going for skills to really boost that up. She has a steady income now, so I do have room to play. Thanks for all your tips and help along the way. I wouldn't have gotten this far without it.

[Brian_Z]

Lol yeah I went back and double checked, and saw that Writing had already been counted.
This challenge might take a while... In fact, Alexander might be old enough for Briar-Rose by then!

[Nevermore]

Ageing is off for everyone in town as well as for Briar-Rose. But, that is a good idea. If I don't find anyone already YA, I could play them and age Alexander up. As much as I loved Sims 3, I hated that story progression outside the household.

I do like using pre-made families for spouses. One that I played for 2 years in Sims 3, they had a fair few pre-mades mixed into their genes. I don't know how well you know that game. One branch had Moonlight Falls townies, another had Sunset Valley townies, Riverview townies, even my founder was descended from a Brideport vampire. One sim was downloaded for a spouse from a friend was Mortimer Goth's son.

[Granny Lawlor]

Congrats on getting the Bestselling Author. I think it's the best way to earn money unless you can get a dragon fruit planted.
The writing royalties will start tailing off over time so Briar Rose might like to write one every now and then...

[Brian_Z]

One sim was downloaded for a spouse from a friend was Mortimer Goth's son.

In the postscript for my story, the girl Morticia that Autumn met was Morticia Goth, daughter of Mortimer.  I have a save I return to now and then, that does nothing but breed me new sims to save to library.  My sim Rebecca lives on a Tiny Home exploit lot-- much of the "house" is outdoors, giving them more room, but it fits into the 64-tile tier.  Rebecca has babies with whatever father catches my fancy, the skill boost gets them through the toddler stage, with Top Notch Toddler, in no time, and gets them all the child aspirations fast, then they age up, get a makeover, move away with 50k to start, and save to library.  What this does, is now I have a new Teen to start with, who has already gotten the Charisma grind out of the way, has all the toddler and child aspiration bonuses, and does not have the "same-face" issue-- where a player who makes a lot of sims, falls into a rut of making the same face over and over again.

[mpart]

Nice job, Nev! It was crazy how much Briar-Rose accomplished in that last chapter. I didn't even realize there was a comedy skill in the Sims 4...whoops. I have seen them talk into the microphone but just assumed it raised their social bar. Anyway, I like the fact that you are slowly but surely building her a house outside of her small room. I would have personally just placed statues outside to increase the value of the lot...and then bulldozed it when she got to leave her room. Your method sounds a lot better and more motivating because you can see exactly how much progress Briar-Rose is making towards the end of this challenge! It's going to be a lot of fun seeing what the house looks like when you are all done.

[Nevermore]

Congrats on getting the Bestselling Author. I think it's the best way to earn money unless you can get a dragon fruit planted.
The writing royalties will start tailing off over time so Briar Rose might like to write one every now and then...

The bestselling author one is probably the hardest aspiration I've done so far. Really put me off making another author sim. I don't know how to get the dragon fruit. At this point in, I don't want to dabble with gardening again.

In the postscript for my story, the girl Morticia that Autumn met was Morticia Goth, daughter of Mortimer.  I have a save I return to now and then, that does nothing but breed me new sims to save to library.  My sim Rebecca lives on a Tiny Home exploit lot-- much of the "house" is outdoors, giving them more room, but it fits into the 64-tile tier.  Rebecca has babies with whatever father catches my fancy, the skill boost gets them through the toddler stage, with Top Notch Toddler, in no time, and gets them all the child aspirations fast, then they age up, get a makeover, move away with 50k to start, and save to library.  What this does, is now I have a new Teen to start with, who has already gotten the Charisma grind out of the way, has all the toddler and child aspiration bonuses, and does not have the "same-face" issue-- where a player who makes a lot of sims, falls into a rut of making the same face over and over again.

Oh! I thought she had a little of Goth genes. When I'm done with setting up the Christmas family, there will probably be plenty of pre-mades genes in them. I do have an idea in mind for their family set up. It won't be a legacy, but it will be a nice little family I can play and document their lives on my blog.

Nice job, Nev! It was crazy how much Briar-Rose accomplished in that last chapter. I didn't even realize there was a comedy skill in the Sims 4...whoops. I have seen them talk into the microphone but just assumed it raised their social bar. Anyway, I like the fact that you are slowly but surely building her a house outside of her small room. I would have personally just placed statues outside to increase the value of the lot...and then bulldozed it when she got to leave her room. Your method sounds a lot better and more motivating because you can see exactly how much progress Briar-Rose is making towards the end of this challenge! It's going to be a lot of fun seeing what the house looks like when you are all done.

The building of that house is as much a curse as it is a blessing, in that it taunts me what she can't live in yet. It really does look amazing. Like my dream come true Christmas fantasy house. It does get a point where I've built the house and not hit the total, and just have to fill in a basement with statues and spare columns.

[Nevermore]

Kitchen Drama

Briar-Rose woke up in a good mood, and decided to cook up some breakfast. A gourmet meal, I think.



Ooo! I totally forgot I took this pic of Don Lothario jogging past the night before.



Briar-Rose: "GET BACK IN THE PAN FIRE DEMON!!"

For an experienced chef, she had an um... (cough) interesting technique.



Then after breakfast, she repaired the stove she broke.



I played about 5 days in this sitting. Not a lot happened with aspirations, but she did get her comedy skill to 9. (Just one more to go!)



OMG!!! Dina Caliente knocked the door of the blocked off entrance hall! :O

I found her while I panned the camera around the lot and around it. I really want to start exploring and meeting more sims like her.



After all the gourmet food she has been eating lately, Briar-Rose has put on a few "lockdown pounds," so I bought another treadmill for her to work out on.



While she was going around her routine of needs management and skilling, I started doing some sim watching of who happened to be walking along the paths near her house. Don Lothario walked by again. I really can't wait until she can meet him officially.



Briar-Rose painted this really beautiful painting. It sold for about 1400 or thereabouts simoleons.



Briar-Rose started making upgrades around the house. The first one was the toilet, apparently making it pretty much unbreakable.



Briar-Rose: "What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?"
...
Briar-Rose: "Frostbite!"
badum-dum-tst.
Briar-Rose: "What goes Ho Ho Whoosh, Ho Ho Whoosh?"
...
Briar-Rose: "Santa going through a revolving door!"
badum-dum-tst.



To give me something to do that feels like real progress, I decided to spend her accumulating funds and build a second floor that she has no access to yet. (Can't wait until she does.)

This is the master bedroom, and an exact replica of the bathroom downstairs. After this, I added a white archway to the master bedroom to adjoin it to the room next to it...



A nursery! I think this will stay as a permanent nursery until all the children are born, then probably turn it into a study.



This is what the new upstairs looks like from the outside. Also new roof style. I've not added a chimney back on yet. It looks weird next to the mostly unfinished entrance hall there, but it will look good with what I have in mind.



Cassandra Goth just walked by the house!! The Goths are first on my list of hanging out with when she is finally free.



Then I focused on a little landscaping, to at least make the yard look good. Not as nice as I intended, but it's work in progress.



Briar-Rose's fitness was going well. Not anywhere near maxed, but still going great.



I focused on adding little touches like this wreath, and some hanukkah decorations around the entrance hall as well as christmas stars.



The royalties started to dip, so she had to write a book, but I think I'll just let them dip fully. Painting is much more profitable.



She went to sleep on the fifth day, after not really achieving much at all towards the points gain.

--------
Starting score: 137
Day points: - 5
Skill points:
Aspiration points:
Mansion Baron Progress: 0/4
Ending score: 132

[Brian_Z]

Snapdragon grafted with strawberry gets you dragonfruit.  You should be able to get them from starter flower and fruit packets, but it might take a lot of tries before you get lucky.  However... even normal-quality dragonfuits sell for $250 each, and that goes up a lot with better quality.

[Nevermore]

I haven't gotten a sim yet with skill enough to do stuff like that. Maybe in another challenge.

[Nevermore]

That's All Folks

I played 20 days in one sitting. Bringing this up to 8 weeks and still not an end in sight. Moving on...

This is the upstairs balcony and upstairs hall above that entrance hall. Can't really see into the hall, but it isn't properly decorated.



LOL! Don Lothario and Nancy Landgraab walking by together. It's funny considering that Nancy often ends up with Nick Alto in Sims 3, when story progression is left on. Looks like Geoffrey can't keep her happy in this game either.



The alterations allowed Briar-Rose to complete an aspiration stage.



The challenge rules do say that I can check freely my progress in Mansion Baron, so I briefly switched after adding an item to that nursery, and instantly completed the first stage.



At some point in that time, she maxed comedy.



OMG!! BELLA GOTH JUST JOGGED PAST!! Be cool.... OMG!



Gourmet cooking was the next to max.



Alexander! First Cassandra, Bella, and now Alexander!



As if the epic pre-mades spotting couldn't get any better, Nina Caliente! She knocked on the blocked off entrance hall door. She looks better in this game. Didn't much care for her TS2 look.



After a lot of painting, she maxed it.



The money I made was enough to finish the outer shell of her house at least. Most of it was unfurnished upstairs, but things for a while were really looking up.



This is the mostly complete living room. That mini-bar doesn't stay there. It goes up onto the balcony, and a microphone goes there instead.



MORTIMER GOTH! That's it. All 4 Goths have walked by the house. I swear they are taunting me with their awesomeness like they know I can't play them yet or have Briar-Rose befriend them.



I did an improvement to that little yard, changing the fence to match the one up on the balcony.



I really upped the ante with painting. And it was here, where I couldn't take it any more. I didn't get a pic of it, but she did some how manage to get Mansion Baron stage 2. I'd made too many mistakes earlier on, focused too much on writing, not realised that the microphone was better for social, not bothered with painting earlier that is far better for profits. The days were just getting more and more, and it felt like I was never going to beat this.



I did manage to complete the Fabulously Wealthy aspiration.

At this point, I decided close enough. I had to get Briar-Rose out of that room. I considered it challenge failed. Then I started putting her portraits around, and that turned it around. I didn't get any screencaps of that, it seems. Or they accidentally got deleted. I'm going to try again with a new sim, and a clean slate. Going into it with everything I've learned through this. You will get to see Briar-Rose's life after this challenge.

----------

Final overall score
Starting score: 100
Day points: - 52
Skill points: + 50
Aspiration points: +70
Mansion Baron Progress: 4/4
Ending score: 168

[Granny Lawlor]

Farewell Briar-Rose. Hope to see you soon!