Congrats Chare
I saw it basically the same way as Metro, do what is easy and fast and ignore the ones that take a lot of time, even so I know there were a few things I could have changed, it wasn't until after posting my score I realised I robbed myself of a leftover vacation day, saved in case I needed to go abroad for any last minute insects and then I forgot it
I decided to play in Apaloosa Plains as it's all set up for pets already and used my self sim and her hubby, starting traits went as follows.
Tracey: Bookworm, Artistic, Virtuoso, Savvy Sculptor, Photographers Eye
Dallas: Bookworm, Angler, Athletic, Disciplined, Evil (Dallas without evil is like night without day for me so yeah I left it)
Then I used the three pets my sim has had in past games.
Galahad the horse: Fast, Genius, Obedient, Agile (learned)
Tosca the cat: Friendly, Hunter, Genius
Rusty the dog: Friendly, Hunter, Genius
I bought an empty plot to live on and then the first thing I did was buy Dallas a windcarver, he then used this to travel everywhere for the entire challenge to build up advanced tech. He then started teaching Rusty to hunt while Tosca got a toy box so she could learn hunting.
Tracey then rode Galahad to the horse ranch where I had planned for her to take a riding class, but by the time she got there the racing had started so she left Galahad training for racing, he stayed doing that until he maxed it which auto completed long distance runner and equine endurance. Then I started on practice jumping till he maxed that, the challenges required a little more input but I found I could queue up the two sets of jumps at the horse ranch and then he finished it with Tracey running the jumping course, I did no racing comps as it's too much hassle so Galahad managed four challenges and both skills.
Once Rusty and Tosca learnt to hunt I just kept queuing them up all the time, I found it more efficient than hunting for specifics, the amount of dog dig spots Rusty ran across town for that turned out to be a crisp packet were silly, so I just did sniff out collectables instead, Tosca managed all her challenges, Rusty missed out on the rock one.
The first few days Tracey and Dallas spent at the library, I bought them a portable stereo and once I could I got a Chinese incense burner, if a skill had an associated skill book that is how they learnt it, bookworms read fast and with needs static keeping them super happy and the incense they learned quickly, I gave Tracey the culinary librarian LTW but I expected Galahad to complete a skill challenge before she did that, but at level 9 cooking she finished menu maven and maxed it just before he did racing. Dallas had good old swimming in cash finished thanks to Rusty and some tiberium.
Skills got dished out as follows,
Tracey: Painting (all 3 challenges), Cooking (menu maven), Riding (mostly via books), Street Art (Always Wanted, Master Muralist), Photography (Architectural Eye), Writing (all 3 challenges writing comic and sports books) Social Networking (via books), Mixology (via books), Piano (Master Pianist, Money Maker), Guitar (Master Guitarist, Money Maker), Sculpting (learnt on a weeks trip at Uni)
Dallas: Gardening (via books then actual gardening, Master Gardener, Master Farmer), Fishing (Amateur Ichthyologist), Consignment (all challenges), Alchemy (Master Alchemist), Collecting (gems, metals, butterflies, fireflies, beetles, nanites), Logic (via books), Handiness (via books, Tinkerer), Inventing (via books, Diabolical Detonator, Scrap Collector), Advanced Tech (Catch em all), Athletic, Martial Arts (Timber Terminator), Bot Building (Chipping In), Charisma (all challenges apart from the jokes one), Drums (my single point got at 11.58 on the last day)
First lifetime reward for both was fast learner, after that I got ones related to skills, Dallas got a couple of mid life crisis, once he had done the skills for the initial traits I swapped them for things like eccentric and genius and a last minute virtuoso.
Diabolical detonator was one I got using a trick I've done in the past, line up a lot of portable stereos and detonate, they go off like dominoes but it is a fire hazard so you need to be careful. Before I began I added the fae ray gardens, and I later bought the elixir shop and put the vault on the car park, once he mastered alchemy he got the Alchemic Mastery op, it is way better than the collection helper as the first stage shows every insect on the map and exactly what it is, and I discovered when I sent him to the future for 6 days it shows nanites too.
He did charisma in the future by meeting the locals and sharing sprites, I also bought several in buy mode until I got the last couple I needed to do the Catch em all challenge, it was risky as you need all forms on one sprite so Tracey had to share them with him, luckily she didn't get an advanced tech point in doing so.
I was pretty pleased with my score, with hindsight some things I might have done differently, and I wish I had remembered that vacation day but oh well I'm happy to get as high up the board as I did
Took so long writing this I see some posts have been added, time to read what others did then.