Thank You for Your Service!

[Turoskel]

Nice summary SimBlip, photography never occurred to me either, like Marian I used charisma but it was a pain when it kept resetting, I had my mother sculpting for a while to earn some money until a burglar stole my sculpting station and I couldn't afford a new one 

My practice game I went Twinbrook, Bridgeport, Starlight Shores and Isla Paradiso but the routing troubles I had in Twinbrook made me drop that one for the challenge and I ended up quite different going Isla Paradiso, Moonlight Falls, Starlight Shores, Sunset Valley, I built my own house each town too as it was cheaper, they never had many luxuries though poor kids.

I could have possibly knocked a couple more days off if dad's bosses had been nicer with the promotions but he got the ones with bad traits who despite being best friends and the bar being near to full they said no,  but I knocked a few off my practice score so I was happy enough.

I don't know how others found it but in town one I had such a job getting them to try for baby on that first day, they just refused each other, and it's the first time I've ever not been able to pick both traits on birth, loves the outdoors didn't occur to me either, all mine got genius and when I could choose friendly.

I shall definitely be using photography more in future though, that is a great tip.

[SimBlip]

The bosses can be a pain! In my very first test-file Adam had to work for Sherman Bagley in Twinbrook. The man got bored talking about his job! I had never experienced that before. Needless to say that Sherman was one tough cookie to befriend.

Sorry to hear about the routing problems in Twinbrook. It was the best location for me. 568, Gulch Bayou Drive comes with the highest beautiful vista moodlet I know of.

It's so silly when married couples refuse each other. I got the first conception relatively quickly by moving Adam straight indoors. The boombox helped. Flowers helped. Most of all, Eve didn't say 'let's try for a baby'. I had Adam and Eve relax on the bed and then initiated 'try for a baby'. It saves a lot of time. 

[LenaLJ]

I amnot at home so just a short notice.
Very nice strategy simblib. Even a test with needs static could not get me to do talking training under 6, 5-7. So I was really surprised you did it that fast. I have to try that when I get home.

[SimBlip]

I amnot at home so just a short notice.
Very nice strategy simblib. Even a test with needs static could not get me to do talking training under 6, 5-7. So I was really surprised you did it that fast. I have to try that when I get home.

Thank you, Lena.
I hardly ever test with static needs, because it gives a contorted idea of what will happen in reality.
In this challenge, 'mood' meant everything. Not 'mood' as in, all bars are full, but as in the extra boost only an excess of moodlet points can give.
If elixirs or brain enhancement machines were allowed, I would have taken this much further. I would have had Eve learn the ambrosia recipe to feed it to her children for an extra 75+ moodlet and speed up learning even more.

[Blackrosea]

I amnot at home so just a short notice.
Very nice strategy simblib. Even a test with needs static could not get me to do talking training under 6, 5-7. So I was really surprised you did it that fast. I have to try that when I get home.

I tested the toddler moodlet out of curiosity, and quite often it wouldn't work for me. I think my game is bugged. I was getting 6 to 8 hours on the training. My moodlets were from 150 to 210 sometimes higher at any one time. One time I did get 4 to 5 hours on walking.

[Elena]

Wow, it was photography! Too silly of me to spam snuggles I am definitely going to try it out for getting BFF in my life dynasty now! I wonder if you could give any tips on doing Human Expert challenge? Because somehow right now I am somehow having problem to get 'a sim in the area' for strangers/acquaintances and have to get to friendship to get sims registered...

Edit: I don't have useful strategies but only many mistakes that I've made so far:p I play the (Agnes and Erik) Darling family in Riverview, Twinbrook, Appaloosa Plains and Moonlight Falls. In my test file I used Starlight Shores, found it laggy so I replaced it with Riverview in my play file. I didn't build any house for the first three worlds, just regular pre-mades, but made sure they are in good distance to library/school and won't have strange routing issues. They are mainly center located, because reading so many DNFs just because of kid's missing school had me really scared about the bus.

During practice in the third world after trying so hard befriending my boss he somehow vanished (the boss was a buggy homeless sim) and I was so annoyed that I didn't play afterwards but just started my real file - never played a challenge here so it was mainly for fun. Thankfully the play file didn't throw me any homeless sim boss, just regular townies. So every move in the first day I always have Erik going over to the boss's house and chat up a bit, then invite him over and watch Kid's TV together. In my practice Agnes played guitar but I decide it is still quicker to raise charisma early, meets neighbors who come to greet newcomers and invite them to group watch kid's TV. Later, I realized that you can summon mascots and the system generates as many as you like and gain great moodlet, I wish I'd found this earlier!

They both nap in the rocking chair in the beginning but somehow, I discovered that the energy 10 bed somehow cancels out light sleeper no-well-rested effect? So I've been using it on Erik since then, Agnes is grumpy and might wake up out of sorts so rocking chair + kids music is the safer way and I was literally praying for twin. I've never played having twins and knew not much of the tricks, so I failed in the first world and had to try immediately for a second child on the day of giving birth. It was only in world 2 I realized getting both parents watching together doubles the chance or whatever? Though I did get a pair of girls... However I made the mistake not making her genius and it slowed down the learning and I still wasted a day there.

For military business I've never had a problem in my real file. I found gym machine + kick bag when fatigued the best way to raise athletics and skill books in library for handiness, plus things at home breaks all the time and need fixing anyway :p Erik pretty much mastered skills by world 3 and helped training toddler. I forgot the science clone trick and was mainly picking wildflowers / trading consignments / getting kids’ skilling to make money. Nothing much to say here because obviously cloning is way better.

After all, I know I don't have a great result but still I'd like to thank this challenge fulfilling my dream of trying out the surrounded by family LTW, which I've never had courage to do. I also have produced six beautiful kids using my favorite star-crossed lovers in Sunset Valley, although all their traits and skills are taken away in CAS, somehow they acted, well, like themselves. No refusals on try for baby and feel attracted to each other both in practice and real. Although LTHs are useless in this file, I still fulfill as much as possible for them All kids are lovely and didn't cause me much troubles, except once, in world 4, they all waited on the lawn 7:50am for the bus but strangely, perhaps it was because they all tried to get on the bus together, the bus was there for only 15 seconds and left without two girls. Thanks to the rule change I was able to continue from there. I did realize that it's safer to queue one by one and watch very carefully.

Thanks challenge team and I'm starting to consider trying that golden opps challenge later on.

[SimBlip]

My moodlets were from 150 to 210 sometimes higher at any one time.

Those are wonderful moodlet points! 210, wow!
I do not know why this didn't reduce the time to teach tod skills for you.
Was your mum/dad happy while training them?

[SimBlip]

I wonder if you could give any tips on doing Human Expert challenge? Because somehow right now I am somehow having problem to get 'a sim in the area' for strangers/acquaintances and have to get to friendship to get sims registered...

Well. It's always going to be tricky to photograph 50 unique Sims, but it helps if you know the Sims of the town you are playing in.
First rule: use resetsim if needed, and photograph them at home.
Other than that, start with the Sims in your household. Note that animals count as Sims too.
Then, for the actual shots: two is company, three is a crowd and a group of Sims, will help you advance quickly.

The 'sim in the area' shot can be quite tricky to get. I use a smaller picture frame and tend to look for the Sims' shoes.

Once you have captured 50 unique Sims, you'll find it ever so easy to befriend Sims.

You'll start off with clicking 'sim in the area' - as I said, small frame, and look for shoes mainly.
Click twice and you should be friends. From here on it's easy: 'my friend' drowns out most of other pic titles in the environment.
Example: 'My Friend' will take precedence over 'Couch'.
One more click: you are now good friends. One more click: you are best friends. If you want the best friend bar full, take another picture and you are there.

Also, 'sim in the area' works extremely well if the sim in question is standing on the pavement outside a lot.

I think you did really well, Elena, and you should take credit for that!
33 days is a very nice score.

[Blackrosea]

Those are wonderful moodlet points! 210, wow!
I do not know why this didn't reduce the time to teach tod skills for you.
Was your mum/dad happy while training them?

Yes, they were happy also.

[jesirose]

Did you really make all 5 best friends in each town or just friends? If best friends, why?

[Metropolis Man]

Well. It's always going to be tricky to photograph 50 unique Sims, but it helps if you know the Sims of the town you are playing in.
First rule: use resetsim if needed, and photograph them at home.

Resetsim is a cheat allowed IF a Sim is stuck. That's the only approved use of the cheat in Tournament challenges and Dynasties. Not to make things easier on yourself. Doing so would be breaking a rule.

[Blackrosea]

Resetsim is a cheat allowed IF a Sim is stuck. That's the only approved use of the cheat in Tournament challenges and Dynasties. Not to make things easier on yourself. Doing so would be breaking a rule.

I also wanted to include the following rule as well for this challenge.

• We know there are a ton of bans/restrictions in this event, but we want this to be old school — we want it to be hard for the military Sim to advance. We want it to be hard for the stay-at-home Sim to raise kids and to make friends. So, aside from completing certain skill challenges to gain certain advantages anything that would be considered a shortcut to what needs to be done is banned. Period. That includes any possible new content in the new expansion that would cut your time.

[Metropolis Man]

After discussing with the team the Resetsim issue surrounding SimBlip it was decided that her score be removed from this event. She will not be participating in future events. Congratulations to Nutella and LenaLJ for sharing the championship in this event.

[Blackrosea]

Congratulations LenaLJ and Nutella!

[KRae]

I'm a DNF. I started way too late. I really like this family, though, and will finish the challenge and then get them their LTR's and play until the kids finish their LTW's. I have a tendency to cheer for the underdog, so "Go pathetic Starr family!"