Vizard of Vine challenge

[sims96fan]

Has anyone actually completed this?  I had my Sim plant an entire garden of grapes from scratch and then took the harvested grapes to her vacation home in France to process all of the grapes into nectar, since she doesn't have to spend time gardening there.  I had her do all the planting but my male Sim did a lot of the tending/harvesting.  Does the same Sim have to do all of the gardening steps for the grapes to count??  She has used thousands of grapes and nothing.

[bshag]

Hi sims96...yeah I tried doing that one, but not nearly to the extent that you are talking about.  She completed the first one and gave the nectar back and it was ok, but the bunch of grapes he gave her kept turning out "bad" nectar so I gave up on that.  This is the opportunity you're talking about, right?

If so, I think there is something wrong with that opportunity as I couldn't seem to get anything except bad nectar.

[PJSim]

This is the opportunity you're talking about, right?

No, the Visard of Vine is one of the skill challenges for the nectar making skill. You have to make nectar from 400 bunches of home grown grapes.

I haven't completed this myself so I don't know if it's bugged and not possible to complete.

Maybe it's this:

I had her do all the planting but my male Sim did a lot of the tending/harvesting.

I had a Sim get an opportunity to deliver a meal to someone. He didn't have high enough cooking skill to cook it so I had another Sim in the house make it and put it in his inventory. That didn't work, he had to cook it himself. Maybe this is something similar.

Or maybe it's because you're growing them in one place and making nectar in another. It seems like it shouldn't matter but maybe it does?

[sims96fan]

My male Sim who can't cook got the opportunity to deliver a meal in France after delivering some nectar also.  He had to cook it himself but even though it was horrific quality, it worked as a meal delivery.  Go figure.

Half of her nectar was made in the Sunset Valley home and half in France just because it was easier to focus on nectar making, but after thousands of grapes, surely 400 must have been used from one place??  That's why I also planted a mini garden in their vacation home property in France and used those too exclusively (and there she is the only one planting/tending/harvesting) but still nothing!!  I guess at this point it doesn't matter since they have thousands of perfect grapes of all types in the fridge that they can't possibly use up, but still... the challenge seems bugged to me.

Oh, my male Sim was the original nectar making Sim, and he got the Mix Master challenge completed, which reset after he went on vacation.  However, he has made a few bottles here and there in both Sunset Valley and France, and it seems after each trip, he gets an additional combo that sticks in the journal.

[sims96fan]

Ok, I had my male Sim who harvested all the grapes make a few more batches of nectar, and it turns out he completed the challenge.  I guess it depends on who harvests, not plants!  Now to have my female Sim do the same so it doesn't matter who does what... the garden is too big for one person to take care of alone. =(

My male Sim has 14 combos now.  I'll see if he gets Mix Master to stick after one more trip to France.

[bshag]

400 bunches??!     Nope, that definitely isn't the one I was doing.  I haven't seen a challenge like that one but would have passed on it anyway. 

[PJSim]

Ok, I had my male Sim who harvested all the grapes make a few more batches of nectar, and it turns out he completed the challenge.  I guess it depends on who harvests, not plants!

So it is possible, congratulations!
It's so annoying that the game is so fussy about which Sim does what when they're in the same household. It's impossible to keep track of!
And this challenge is supposed to make the plants produce more fruit right? Now I'm wondering if this only works if it's the right Sim doing the harvesting. That would be weird.

I haven't seen a challenge like that one but would have passed on it anyway. 

It's in the skill journal for nectar making. It's supposed to make the grape plants yield more.

[sims96fan]

Yes, but both my Sims completed the challenge, so now it doesn't matter who does what.    I ended up having to have each of them keep what they harvested in their personal inventory until they completed the challenge, instead of putting stuff in the fridge.

I made a bunch of 100% Cranerlet Nuala grape nectars to get this done as quickly as possible.  These have decent value when aged a bit.  I had to build a whole new nectar cellar room in addition to my nectar processing basement room to accommodate all my bottles.  I have 66 racks now and I am only keeping the $1500+ bottles, or now the nectars with 9 Life Fruit/1 Pomegranate or 5 Life Fruit/5 Cranerlet Nuala Grapes.  



I found it's easier to grow a lot of grapes anyway, so even though the pomegranate recipe is worth the most, you can make more batches of nectar out of the same amount of life fruit used in the Cranerlet Nuala grape recipe.

If only you could store leftover poured nectar!  I had them crack open a few bottles to get the Full of Life moodlet, but each time they each drank a glass and then the maid cleaned up the platter before they were able to drink another.  Although with all the life fruits and deathfish growing Omni plants I have, they can just eat ambrosia every time they are hungry for a better effect.

Unrelated, but I also had them get a treasure chest from each of the 3 new locations for their home in Sunset Valley.  In one, they store extra relic finds that don't fit on the display cases (those are only for relics that are part of collections), in another they have cut gems and smelted metals, and in another they have reward certificates that didn't fit on the walls.

[sims96fan]

Oh, Ambrosia made with perfect Life Fruit and perfect Deathfish gives a +80 moodlet, instead of +75.  I finally cleared out my Sims' fridge of all non-perfect ingredients!

[sims96fan]

Here's the basement of their vacation home in France!  I bought the Spruce property and added a basement:



Other vacation properties were on lots with sloped terrain or homes placed diagonally, so it was difficult to add basements.

[Pam]

sims96fan -

How did you add a basement to an existing house?

[PJSim]

You just go down to the ground floor and then use the basement tool. That's what I've done, it doesn't matter that there's a house on top. Just make sure you have a place to put the stairs.

[sims96fan]

I found it really difficult (well, impossible for me) to add a basement to a house with a foundation, so I had to have my Sims move.  Otherwise, you go to the ground floor and click on the basement tool.  There will be a blue area where it says you put your basement.  Use the sledgehammer tool in building to cut 3-4 squares in a row on your ground floor, depending on how large a staircase you use.  This will be where your staircase will end up.  Go down a level and you will see your basement.  It can be hard to see where your stairs will fit, but keep rotating until you see some green that shows it can be placed.

When you go back up to your ground floor, you can put a wall around the basement squares and add a door for a more basement-like effect.  In my French vacation home, I thought that would make the house look too cramped, so I just used the red velvet rope fencing to rope the sides off.

Basements are great!  They allow you to have a compact ground floor house and a big backyard but plenty of storage for nectar, relics, and entertainment goodies downstairs.  I ended up adding a "guest" bathroom and bedroom to the basement level in the Sunset Valley and France homes so that it's easier to get my Sims to sleep if I have them working on skills down there.  Also, you need a spare bedroom if you want to invite foreign visitors over as they will stay a few Sim days!

[Esther1981]

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but my Sim sometimes wishes to make nectar out of bell peppers and potatoes. I can't put anything but fruit in the nectar maker, so how does he complete this wish? He's level 10 and has all the challenges complete except the Vizard of Vine.

[Carl]

I can only imagine them wanting to make nectar with those ingredients is a bug where they forgot to exclude those types. I can't drag garlic or potatoes into the maker even if it's the first item. Nothing 'vegetable' works. It's good they added the rare grapes to give us something with that rarity level to work with.