2013 Tournament General Rules (Read This First)

[Metropolis Man]

Thanks, Lena. And the good news for all you Tourney players has Carl has kinda put it in my corner to maybe do something next year, so I am kicking around a half season of Sims 3 events. I am assuming Sims 4 will debut late spring, but who knows? It will take some time to get familiar with the game and I will be writing Guide articles for sure. So at this point I am not saying no more Sims 3 challenges next year. It just may be abbreviated.

[_Annika_]

How about a baby boomer challenge where both of your sims have to get as many alien nooboos from abductions as possible?

[Shirin]

I don't know if that's feasible. I can say, for me, I've had Seasons since release. In all of the game files (test files, 2nd Immortal Dynasty, 2nd Life States Dynasty, 1st Townie DecaDynasty, 1st 4x4 Dynasty), I have had precisely one (1) alien abduction. The abductee was female.

I've had several come around, and then when I try to meet them, they bail. So I'd honestly spend my whole file time waiting on abductions.

[_Annika_]

Maybe you're right. Maybe there is too much luck involved. For me it's like I spend every other night fencing off my sim to stop them running off to investigate strange lights.

[MomOfMany]

Just a heads up there is a New feature with the latest patch that is like a search and find where you can earn LTHPs from the loading screen. It says you can disable it in options.

[Nutella]

Just a heads up there is a New feature with the latest patch that is like a search and find where you can earn LTHPs from the loading screen. It says you can disable it in options.

Yes, we decided to leave it as player's choice for 2013 challenges.  We will be making some changes on 2014 challenge for the loading screen LTHP.

[MarianT]

With regard to the "search and find" loading screen, it doesn't seem to make that much difference. I typically get 800 - 1000 LTHP (might get more if I knew the names of all the furniture, lol) and spread over a family of 4 that's 200 to 250 points per person. I suppose you could abuse it by starting your game and then quitting, but that seems like more trouble than it's worth.

[Niana]

Maybe it's due to the smaller file size/less content for me, but I'm usually able to get ~150 LTHP, which when split is basically negligible. This would be more of a cheat in later days of a dynasty file, where the loading time is longer, but I don't see much of a problem for the tournament

[MomOfMany]

I was able to get 250 or so and split between the two sims is nice but you get this search and find loading screen when you go to university so I assume you get it when you vacation as well and that can really add up! I don't know that it's any advantage though!

[Nutella]

For the current tournaments we have, the LTHP is not going to affect gameplay much.  For next year challenges, we will probably put some kind of restrictions in for challenges that focuses on LTHP.

[MomOfMany]

For the current tournaments we have, the LTHP is not going to affect gameplay much.  For next year challenges, we will probably put some kind of restrictions in for challenges that focuses on LTHP.

That's what I didn't know! I knew it wouldn't for the Service one but I didn't know for the last one so I thought I would mention it!

[Metropolis Man]

Cheats and Banned Content
In general, no cheats are allowed, but there will be exceptions for special events. You are always free to use the following cheats and do not need our permission to do so:

• Moveobjects on
• PlaceFriezes on
• ResetSim Firstname Lastname (Use this in the event your Sim becomes “stuck.” This cheat is case sensitive, so make sure to type your Sim’s name correctly).

The team is currently discussing some variations on the existing General ruleset for next year's Tournament. One item under discussion is the cheats ban and specifically, Moveobjects. Now, clearly using Moveobjects to gain information on sculpture quality is an exploit and will be banned. What we want to know from players is — should players be allowed to use the Moveobjects cheat in other situations? Because the other side of the coin is just boiling things down and going very simple and only allowing the Resetsim cheat for stuck Sims. Nothing else. Please share your thoughts.

[Turoskel]

Personally I mostly use move objects for decorating, which isn't necessary for gameplay so I could live without it, but there are times when an object gets stuck or unusable and move objects is the only way to replace it/delete it so maybe like with stuck sims let it only be used for stuck objects.

As you are discussing things at the moment one request I'd like to put forward is a slight change to edit town rules to be able to move auto placed 30x20 ambitions lots to a correctly sized lot, in too many towns they get put on much larger lots when there are plenty available 30x20 lots, this leaves it a struggle to fit other lots in when there's no space left yet a perfectly sized one has a salon or firestation stuck in the middle of it.

Ideally I'd love the option to be able to remove/move autoplaced lots altogether but just the above would be a big help in setting up a town. Too many ep's and never enough room *sigh*

[saltpastillen]

I would second Turoskel's suggestion of moving auto placed lots - I find that annoying as well.

As for MOO, I mostly use it for decorating too - so banning it wouldn't be a problem for me.

[MarianT]

I mostly use MOO for decorating, too, with one exception. Occasionally I get gray ovals that my sims can't walk on. When I do, I use MOO, then shift/delete to get rid of them.