That's Quite an Achievement!

[Blackrosea]

Grats Claymask on winning! Very nice detailed explanation of what you did. I even learned a few things on the hidden achievements

[CynKuy]

Congrats ClayMask, I was wondering how you triggered the Basket Case achievement.  What are the names of the emotions and how many different emotions are there exactly? Thanks. 

[ClayMask]

Congrats ClayMask, I was wondering how you triggered the Basket Case achievement.  What are the names of the emotions and how many different emotions are there exactly? Thanks. 

These are the emotions and how I triggered them:

Fine, triggered by being indoors in a nondecorative area.  Best done after first waking up.
Playful, triggered by mood lamp aura.  You could alternately trigger by a painting aura.
Focused, triggered by mood lamp aura.  You could alternately trigger by a painting aura.
Inspired, triggered by reminiscing.
Embarrassed, triggered by reminiscing.
Sad, triggered by reminiscing.
Angry, triggered by reminiscing.
Flirty, triggered by reminiscing.
Happy, triggered by reminiscing.
Confident, triggered by reminiscing.
Energized, triggered by drinking some coffee.
Dazed, triggered by drinking another cup of coffee.
Uncomfortable, triggered by needing to pee after drinking all of the coffee.
Tense, my Sim triggered by introducing himself to a group of strangers, due to his loner trait.
Bored, triggered by repeating the same conversational interaction three times in a row, such as ask about day three times.
Asleep.  This is the one most often missed by people trying to do Basketcase.

Following the fine mood, it's best to do the moods first that are applied by aura since they are easily removed, followed by reminiscing since each time you reminisce it removes the last mood.  The bad moods can easily be overridden by happy, so you can't be too happy to trigger them.  Sometimes they can still be triggered if you have a +1 happy.  Dazed replaces energized when drinking too much coffee, but it's only +1 dazed so it can be easily overpowered by other moods.  Bored from conversation gives +2, so it's best done near the end.  Otherwise, you'll have to wait for it to wear off before you can continue.

It seemed that since the last patch, the game wouldn't recognize the achievement as being complete unless your Sim travels afterwards.  He may need to travel a couple of times.

[callycat]

Fantastic, I thought the social ones would be the way to do it, but I didn't think they would all be possible. Fitting in Granite Falls was a surprise though, I tried to avoid time away from the lot and all their stuff so I didn't even consider it for long.

I just worked on five aspirations that I thought should fit into the time allowed and be possible with one sim and practiced until I had a way to get them. Painting, writing, gardening, Renaissance sim and nerd brain worked for me. I thought I must have made a mistake on Basketcase, that will teach me to practice everything!

I used the buying 10 cheap radios right at the start thing as well but I discovered you don't need to turn them on for them to break, which helps avoid distracted sims if you're as bad as me at keeping a close eye on them ;-)

Congrats, Claymask!

[Nettlejuice]

I tried and failed with parties and didn't even know you can marry without moving in the spouse. Congratulations, Claymask 

[MarianT]

ClayMask, I woke up to see your sim in his romantic apparel, and it gave me a good laugh. That cow hat can turn anyone into a Prince (or Princess) Charming.

I don't have much to add except that I discovered that you have to do some sort of social interaction and then not do any socials for 24 hours to get the Introvert achievement. Waiting 24 hours when you first start won't trigger it.

As for ways to get the Basketcase achievement, that's a great list. I would add that you can get Bored from reading the first skill book in any skill where you're above level 4. One of the hats will give you Dazed, and eating one of the toxic plants gives you Dazed as well. The toxic plants can also give you Tense, Angry, and Sad; I can't remember the 5th one, probably Uncomfortable.

[Tixxis]

Did you end up doing pretty much everything else the same then, minus the party achievements?

Mostly yes. I didn't do 'Channel Surfer' and 'Speed Dating'. But I did get credit for 'Till Death Do Us Part' (100). My Sim mastered 11 skills. I was more than half way through the game when it dawned on me that 'Friend of the World' and 'Serial Romancer' make a good fit. But I had already done 'Over-Achiever' by then with Curator, Bestselling Author, Nerd Brain, Renaissance Sim and Bodybuilder.
I played on speed 1 throughout to get 'In The Game'. This is unusual for me and it tended to make me do things that were unnecessary. So, in the end, I missed another mastered skill by minutes.

I'm not crying over spilled milk, though. I was very happy with my result.
You and Lena are simply much better than me. Heartfelt compliments to you both! 

[christinal3106]

Way to go ClayMask. 
I don't have outdoor retreat, so unfortunately I was lacking when it comes to those achievements.  I started off with painter extraordinaire, just so I could make enough money to fund all her other efforts.  I got all of the gardening achievements, but I never completed the aspiration.  I found out in a legacy by taking cuttings, you build skill really fast.  So, all the poor wild plants in the neighborhood were dead after I harvested then 3-4 times a piece then took two cuttings from them all, but she maxed gardening.  She got the splice of life by grafting strawberries and blue bells to make grapes.
Of course, dinner parties.  I was trying to get host with the most by doing dates.  I got to 40 something, but ran out of time.  Dinner parties would of been so much better.  I also missed out on the mixology achievements. 
All in all though, I am really happy with my score.  I wasted a lot of time on dates, but she still accomplished so many things, both good and bad.  She completed 5 aspirations soulmate, painter extraordinaire, serial romantic, nerd brain, and renaissance sim.  She maxed charisma, painting, logic, rocket science, cooking, gardening, and gourmet cooking.  Not to mention, killed 5 spouses, kissed both Goths for the first time at a dinner party at their house (haha) plus another sim.  Also, the two achievements for the 5 gold and 5 different silver parties.  She was very interesting indeed.   Even with random bladder failures  .
This was so much fun.  Congrats to everyone who finished.

[Deklitch]

me setting my sim to cooking on low speed plus me being called away from my laptop and not freezing the game. On my reurn, I found my sim in the death sequence.

[londonsim]

Yikes - I missed the deadline on this one. We went out of town and somehow I missed this event closing on Wednesday... Congrats to everyone who completed this! Now onto the next challenge(s).

[ClayMask]

Mostly yes. I didn't do 'Channel Surfer' and 'Speed Dating'. But I did get credit for 'Till Death Do Us Part' (100). My Sim mastered 11 skills. I was more than half way through the game when it dawned on me that 'Friend of the World' and 'Serial Romancer' make a good fit. But I had already done 'Over-Achiever' by then with Curator, Bestselling Author, Nerd Brain, Renaissance Sim and Bodybuilder.
I played on speed 1 throughout to get 'In The Game'. This is unusual for me and it tended to make me do things that were unnecessary. So, in the end, I missed another mastered skill by minutes.

I'm not crying over spilled milk, though. I was very happy with my result.
You and Lena are simply much better than me. Heartfelt compliments to you both! 

I tried doing the 'Til Death Do Us Part achievement in a practice run, but the game wouldn't give me credit for it unless the Sim that died lived with me.  I wonder why yours did and mine didn't.


Playing on speed 1 throughout is the way I've been playing all of the challenges this year, unless they're sleeping or at work.  I feel like I make fewer mistakes this way, and the mistakes I do make aren't as bad.  It used to be that it spawned more whims.  Now that they've changed the way the whims work,  if I redid the money challenge I might have done some of it at a higher speed.  What did it make you do that was unnecessary?  Satisfy more whims?

Good job maxing so many skills.  I don't think I'm better than you, by the way.  Every challenge I know there's a good change you'll win.

me setting my sim to cooking on low speed plus me being called away from my laptop and not freezing the game. On my reurn, I found my sim in the death sequence.

Yeah, leaving your game running while you're away from the keyboard seems like a bad way to go.  As long as you're at the keyboard, everything should be fine though.  Just make sure to pause right away if you see any fires.

All in all though, I am really happy with my score.  I wasted a lot of time on dates, but she still accomplished so many things, both good and bad.  She completed 5 aspirations soulmate, painter extraordinaire, serial romantic, nerd brain, and renaissance sim.

I had read online that the five different aspirations had to be of five different types for the achievement to count, so I didn't think Renaissance Sim wold qualify since it was the same type as Nerd Brain.  Same with Soulmate and Serial Romantic.  I never tried it.  Maybe they changed that.  Did the game give you credit for the achievement?  This question goes to you, Callycat and Tixxis, also.

I don't have much to add except that I discovered that you have to do some sort of social interaction and then not do any socials for 24 hours to get the Introvert achievement. Waiting 24 hours when you first start won't trigger it.

I didn't know that either.  In all of my games where I play a lone Sim, I tend to get this achievement at some point without even trying, but it's a good thing to know in case trying is required.

[callycat]

I had ready online that the five different aspirations had to be of five different types for the achievement to count, so I didn't think Renaissance Sim wold qualify since it was the same type as Nerd Brain.  Same with Soulmate and Serial Romantic.  I never tried it.  Maybe they changed that.  Did the game give you credit for the achievement?  This question goes to you, Callycat and Tixxis, also.

It definitely gave me credit for the five aspirations even though I had two sets of two that were the same type. No problem with it in practice files with different ones either. Maybe it was a bug that's now fixed?

[ClayMask]

It definitely gave me credit for the five aspirations even though I had two sets of two that were the same type. No problem with it in practice files with different ones either. Maybe it was a bug that's now fixed?

Sounds like it

[christinal3106]

Yes, It gave me over achiever as well.  I give you all mad props to have the patience to play this on speed 1 the whole time.  I don't think that I would have the patience for that.  My file had 8 hours on it.  I did a marathon to get this done in one day.  Every time challenges come out, there usually is one that I am really excited about that goes along with my play style and one that doesn't at all.  I didn't think I would enjoy this at all, but a couple days before it was over, decided why not, maybe I'll learn a couple things, and it turned out to be so much fun. 

This is probably too much info, but I think I might continue with that file.  It's funny that I never got into achievements in sims, since I love achievements in other games.  Now, I want to get all of them, but those new legacy ones they added seem almost impossible. 

[MischaMusic]

So sad to hear that happened to someone else as well. My sympathies MischaMusic

Deklitch, I told you I would be tying you for last place!!  It's still fun to try!