2013 Tournament General Rules (Read This First)

[Metropolis Man]

2013 Sims 3 Challenge Tournament Overview

Welcome to the 2013 Sims 3 Challenge Tournament! The 12-event Tournament runs from January 7th to December 8th (anyone can jump in the Tournament at any time throughout the year). Two events will kick off the season on Monday, January 7th — one event will be a Minor (4 weeks long) and one event will be a Major (8 weeks long). Two more events will start once the Major is over and the same cycle continues through the year. Here is a link to the official 2013 Sims 3 Tournament Events Calendar. Rule sets will always be posted 4 weeks in advance of starting dates.

The 2013 Tournament Champion will be the player at the top of the World Ranking at the close of the Tournament Finale in the beginning of December and will receive a complimentary future EA Expansion Pack (courtesy of Carl) as well as a 2013 Sims 3 Tournament Championship Plaque (courtesy of Metro). An Amazon.com gift card will be awarded to the first runner-up (courtesy of Pam).

General Challenge Rules

All challenge players are responsible for knowing and following the General Challenge Rules. The rules below apply to all 2013 Tournament events (Dynasty challenges are not Tournament events).  There will be exceptions and you will be clearly 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 you officially begin any challenge is fine, but once you create your scoring file, that’s it. You have one attempt at a challenge. You cannot create a 2nd scoring file. And here is a new rule for 2013 — you may not use any mods even during the practice phase. All mods must either be uninstalled or disabled once you begin practicing for a challenge.

Starting Dates/Closing Dates
All challenges begin on a specific date (a Monday) and close on a specific date (a Sunday). These dates are clearly noted at the bottom of a rule set. You need to be aware of these dates because playing your scoring file before the starting date or playing after the closing date is not allowed. Scores submitted after the closing date will not be accepted. 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.

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.
Unless the individual rule set states otherwise, you are free to create your challenge file in Sunset Valley or any neighborhood that came with an official expansion. The forum's own Union Cove and EA's Riverview are also ok to use for challenges. No other worlds are allowed. You play the entirety of a challenge in one neighborhood and do not move to another one. You may only use the Edit Town screen before you enter Live mode and start to play your Sim(s) for the first time. You may only use the Edit Town screen for the following reasons:

• To add missing Book Corrals or Penningway Bookshelf to a town library. You cannot alter anything else in the library;
• To add missing lots such as Fire Stations, Salons, Laundromats, Consignment Stores, Bars, Subways, Studios, etc. to your neighborhood. Those added lots must either be designed by EA or must be unique to the forum's Union Cove world. You can't alter them in any way. You can grab them in the Lot library or copy paste them from another unaltered EA-designed town/(or Union Cove);
• World Adventure's specific lots cannot be added to your town;
• Only one of a particular building/lot can be added (i.e. one Waylon’s Haunt can be added, not two);
• You cannot bulldoze existing structures to do so — these must be placed on empty lots, but you can bulldoze completely empty lots. This will let you free up space to create new empty lots of adequate size with the Edit World tool;
• You can also change an empty residential lot to a community lot type.
• If the neighborhood you choose has no empty lots on which to build (i.e. Bridgeport) after you've placed your missing lots, you are free to tear down existing homes to have a place to build.


Options > Game Options: Freewill = High; Enable Story Progression and Enable Aging need to be checked. Sim Lifespan = Long (leave plumbob sliders at default middle setting including Pet sliders). Seasons, Population Controls, Lunar Cycle and Memories are all up to a player’s personal preference, but need to be chosen once and not changed again for the duration of the challenge.

Household Size: Individual Challenge rule sets will specify how many Sims/Pets you create and their starting life stage.

3rd Party Custom Content and Modifications
3rd party Custom Content that alters appearance such as skin tone or hairstyles, etc. 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. And remember, no mods can be used during practice as well.

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).

**All gifting is banned.
**Asking another Sim to be your roommate is banned.

For more information on how to open the cheats panel, please read the Carl’s Sims 3 Guide on Cheats. Cheats must always be turned off when you are done using them.

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 that your challenge file is plagued by a game-breaking bug, then you will need to provide us with specifics. We will then make a decision as to restarting from a previous save or simply allowing a complete restart.

Hey, Can I Do X?
Yes, you can! No content from the base game or expansions is out of bounds. If you’re not opening up the cheats panel, and assuming you’re following the General Rules and specific challenge rules, then you can do it.

Premium Content
All Premium Content from the Sims Store purchased with points (money) is banned for the 2013 Sims 3 Tournament.

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. 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. After an event closes you are free to discuss strategy for that event.

The Honor System
The 2013 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 bring this to our attention. 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.

List of Exploits that are not allowed to be used:
♦ Selling items in buy/build mode, hitting the undo button and reselling them.
♦ Reselling an item again because the game placed it on the floor or did not remove it from inventory while the game was paused.
♦ Using the festival ticket glitch to gain extra tickets.  This particular trick is when you place festival tickets inside a cabinet/chest and it doubles the amount you have at the time. The LTR to gain more festival tickets is still allowed unless otherwise stated in a challenge ruleset.

Understanding Scoring and Submitting Scores
The Major events typically will have at least 2 different scoring components. Multipliers may also be involved to mix things up and add variety to the scoring, but we’re never talking about complicated math when computing scores—it’s very rudimentary arithmetic (usually adding some scores together, and then maybe throwing in a multiplier).

The Mini events will be very simple, short challenges where your goal is essentially a sprint: “accomplish X as quickly as possible”—so players will be ranked by the single time score.

The vast majority of challenges have the concept of time as the stopping point— “accomplish X by Y date.” So, when Y date comes, you simply pause your game and note the scoring factors. The game clock is the white box located directly underneath a Sim’s Lifetime Wish box.

Submit your final scores for an event right in the individual challenge thread and we will update the leaderboard with your information.



***********

We hope the 2013 Sims 3 Challenge Tournament adds new and exciting dimensions to your playing, and most importantly, we hope everyone has a great time.

See you on the leaderboard — Metro, Ricalynn, and ratchie.

[Metropolis Man]

I want to bring everyone's attention to two modifications that will affect ALL challenges next year. The first is your choice of world/neighborhood for a given challenge. Allowed worlds are Sunset Valley and any expansion pack world, and of course Riverview and Union Cove. But, worlds that you have to pay for are out...

All challenges begin in a fresh, virgin, completely unaltered town.
Unless the individual rule set states otherwise, you are free to create your challenge file in Sunset Valley or any neighborhood that came with an official expansion. The forum's own Union Cove and EA's Riverview are also ok to use for challenges. No other worlds are allowed. You play the entirety of a challenge in one neighborhood and do not move to another one. You may only use the Edit Town screen before you enter Live mode and start to play your Sim(s) for the first time. You may only use the Edit Town screen for the following reasons:

• To add missing Book Corrals or Penningway Bookshelf to a town library. You cannot alter anything else in the library;
• To add missing lots such as Fire Stations, Salons, Laundromats, Consignment Stores, Bars, Subways, Studios, etc. to your neighborhood. Those added lots must either be designed by EA or must be unique to the forum's Union Cove world. You can't alter them in any way. You can grab them in the Lot library or copy paste them from another unaltered EA-designed town/(or Union Cove);
• World Adventure's specific lots cannot be added to your town;
• Only one of a particular building/lot can be added (i.e. one Waylon’s Haunt can be added, not two);
• You cannot bulldoze existing structures to do so — these must be placed on empty lots, but you can bulldoze completely empty lots. This will let you free up space to create new empty lots of adequate size with the Edit World tool;
• You can also change an empty residential lot to a community lot type.
• If the neighborhood you choose has no empty lots on which to build a home (i.e. Bridgeport) you are free to tear down one existing home to have a place to build.

--------

That last exception noted above for use of Edit Town was also just added. Some towns like Bridgeport literally have no empty lots on which to build, so we are allowing players to bulldoze one existing home to give themselves an empty lot to build on.

[Chuckles_82]

Does this mean that EA lots from store worlds are also now banned? What about worlds available for purchase in stores, like Barnacle Bay?

[Metropolis Man]

Does this mean that EA lots from store worlds are also now banned? What about worlds available for purchase in stores, like Barnacle Bay?

Yeah, I really want to move away from allowing anything for the Tournament that someone would have to pay extra for above and beyond the base game and/or expansions.

[smartburn]

I'm very glad I read this - I had all sorts of debates in my head regarding what I should do for the first two challenges of the year, and this has simplified things. Thank you.

Now back to my furtive planning...!

[Kuro Warau]

So, sorry for being a chalenge dummie (my first time entering any challenge in Sims ever - just started Immortal Dynasty a couple days ago), but does that mean that there's no Hidden Springs, Lunar Lakes, Lucky Palms and such allowed? The only EA-created downloadable town we can use is Riverview right?

[Metropolis Man]

So, sorry for being a chalenge dummie (my first time entering any challenge in Sims ever - just started Immortal Dynasty a couple days ago), but does that mean that there's no Hidden Springs, Lunar Lakes, Lucky Palms and such allowed? The only EA-created downloadable town we can use is Riverview right?

Right. Allowed towns for challenges are:

Sunset Valley/base game
Any world that came with an expansion
Riverview
Union Cove

If any other EA worlds become free in the future, then they can be added as well.

[Ricalynn]

So, sorry for being a chalenge dummie (my first time entering any challenge in Sims ever - just started Immortal Dynasty a couple days ago), but does that mean that there's no Hidden Springs, Lunar Lakes, Lucky Palms and such allowed? The only EA-created downloadable town we can use is Riverview right?

Remember this is for tournament challenges only.   The Store worlds are still allowed for all Dynasties.

[miricats]

When you say "no store content that provides an advantage" does that include better fun ratings, or only skilling speed and such?  And are free items always allowed, or are they also limited?

Thank you!

[JSBrantner]

When you say "no store content that provides an advantage" does that include better fun ratings, or only skilling speed and such?  And are free items always allowed, or are they also limited?

Thank you!

The idea is to keep everything fair and equal between the players. So items such as the Multi-tab 3000 that allows Sims to gain skills they aren't actually working on (listening to gardening tabcast while exercising for example), the Baby Swings, etc. that can only be purchased through the store and are not a part of any expansion pack or stuff pack is banned. Items that are offered free from the store are available to everyone, and I can't think of any off-hand that would give an advantage, so it's my belief that these would not be banned.

[folcon]

Hey Metro, do you already have all the challenges picked out, or will you be considering suggestions?  Though I realise this probably isn't the thread to talk about that in.

[Metropolis Man]

Hey Metro, do you already have all the challenges picked out, or will you be considering suggestions?  Though I realise this probably isn't the thread to talk about that in.

I pretty much have an general idea of what is in store for 2013. But, please feel free to PM Ricalynn, ratchie and me with any ideas.

[RainBeau]

Two questions: When you say no gifting is allowed, you mean you cannot accept gifts from friends into your game?

And, are you allowed to add venues from the store?

[MarianT]

My understanding is that you can't accept gifts from friends or send them, as sending them will give your sims a boost in happiness points. Store venues that would give your sims an advantage in a challenge are not allowed. You probably should PM Metro, Ricalynn or Ratchie if you have a specific venue in mind.

[Metropolis Man]

Hey everyone, at the request of Rica to keep things simple the team has decided to make a flat ban on all Premium Content from the Sims Store. This way there's no confusion about wondering whether or not something gives you an advantage:

Premium Content
All Premium Content from the Sims Store purchased with points (money) is banned for the 2013 Sims 3 Tournament.