Hi, everyone!
Congratulations to Drift9999, LenaLJ and all participants!
Many thanks to Metro and all the Moderators for creating and supporting this event.
I think there was a lot of luck involved with this challenge. So, I went the 'easy route' with gnomes that could be found 'within reason'. I then refined testing until I could be sure to find at least 17 of them in 11 to 13 days max.
Reading over the comments, I'm shocked to find that the Sleeping McMulty Gnome counted as a magic gnome. I dispatched this one as soon as found, because it doesn't move. Am I wrong in thinking that it is not a magical gnome at all?
'Femme Fatale' lived in Bridgeport. 16, Dean Road allows for drilling without disturbing neighbours.
All seasons were set to three days. I turned off hail, rain, snow and fog.
Femme (a genie) became a 5-star celeb overnight, but unfortunately, received no Bling-A-Boo in the official file.
She found Mysterious Mr Gnome and Evil Mr Gnome from drilling. She found the Gnome of Invention as well as the Gnome of Sculpting from mining.
She skated for 500 festival tickets. The time can be cut short on a large rink like the one in Bridgeport by cancelling the action at the exact right time. Each ticket counted double with 'Festival Frequenter'. She went to France for one day to get the Famous Three from the Art Museum and returned with 2000 tickets. That secured the four seasonal gnomes.
Femme had the lucky trait and she found the Gnome of the Darned in three tries on the Claw Machine. In testing, it often took a bit longer, but not by much.
Her puppy, Petunia, found the Freezer Bunny after four barks at the fridge. In testing, I found that it works faster with puppies. I'm ashamed to say Femme never even made friends with her little dog or her horse (who was piggy from eating apples and carrots strewn around). She placed them for adoption as soon as 'the goods' were delivered. I never bothered with a cat either. The odds of getting the dog and cat gnome didn't look good.
I found the Multiple Adventure Hole very handy. It's a hole your Sim can jump into endless times given a potent invigorator. The use of the moodlet manager will kill the action off (as will a vial of potent bliss and in some circumstances eating food).
Femme found a Multiple Adventure Hole in one try a couple of times - alas not in the official file. She had to drill eight holes to find one.
Femme used three liquid job skill boosters. Testing had shown that four job boosters was ideal, but it was not to be in the official file. Magician-Illusionist was reached in 22 hours and the corresponding gnome was conjured almost at once. Singer-Headliner took up the two other job boosters. She had to plug on for about four hours after the effect of the last booster ran out. Lounge Lizard Gnome arrived on 11 pm on the next day in the official file (but in testing he often appeared on the same day). This gnome always arrived in the bathroom where I had placed a xylophone close to a stereo speaker.
Anecdote:
My best test file result was 19 gnomes in 11 days. It was really a question of sitting around waiting for the Spring Festival stands to open to get Bucktooth Butternut (last of 19) and it happened only once.
This was one of my early testing files. I had not given a thought to the Art Museum in France and the easy spoils there yet.
My Sim (called Rumple Stiltkin) went to explore the catacombs in Egypt for Sultan Sam. He'd hardly found the gnome when the sky turned dark. A gigantic space rock hit the catacombs and scattered all those lovely bits of space rock and scrap around. Rumple started drilling. He found Mysterious Mr Gnome and Evil Mr Gnome in one go. His next drilling hole was a Multiple Adventure Hole. He found Mr Manchu, Little Leon, the Magical Gnome of Sculpting and Inventing within six hours. Rumple went home before his first day abroad was over. All the other gnomes were easily acquired and there was plenty time for romancing and so forth!
Woah! Pure bliss when the game treats you nicely like that!
