The No Buy Mode Project - Update for Dining Out

[Joria]

I love how you are doing this working one career after another to get the most out of each one rather than the way I did.  Connections got me a tidy sum of money and items with both my Sims doing the Connections/careers ploy, but it means it will be much harder further on for them to acquire the nice things you have gotten.  I love the pic of your Sim dancing the night away!  She looks so happy.

[grimsoul]

Cool, another room finished. Be interesting to see what the value of the finished house is considering your getting all the furnishings for free.
My plan of doing this with my job junkie sim of taking all careers to level 10 and building his home without using buy mode hit a snag I hadn't thought of. That's the Astronaut career. When you branch out at level 7 you have to do space missions which means you have to have a rocket and they don't give you a rocket until level 10 and there's nowhere to find one in the world to use. I think that's the only career that has that problem. You either get a item or can find one somewhere to do your requirements with.

[oshizu]

I also like that your sim has remained unattached so far.  No wedding cake, clingy husband, and nooboos for Jenny!  lol
Oh right, getting children's beds would be a no-go in No Buy Mode.

I love that you and Jenny are taking a break from all the woodworking and skilling to chill out.
Special moves ftw!  lol

[MissTrips]

Cool, another room finished. Be interesting to see what the value of the finished house is considering your getting all the furnishings for free.
My plan of doing this with my job junkie sim of taking all careers to level 10 and building his home without using buy mode hit a snag I hadn't thought of. That's the Astronaut career. When you branch out at level 7 you have to do space missions which means you have to have a rocket and they don't give you a rocket until level 10 and there's nowhere to find one in the world to use. I think that's the only career that has that problem. You either get a item or can find one somewhere to do your requirements with.

Believe me, I did consider  that problem with the rocket missions!  Now I know where to find a rocket to get the skills raised, it's in the scientist career lot.  But that is unaccessible in the astronaut career, so those last job levels are going to be without doing the daily task.  Slows the progression down, but having the right mood buff, working hard, having the entrepreneurial reward and doing a little job performance hacking should make up for the loss of the rocket missions.

I also like that your sim has remained unattached so far.  No wedding cake, clingy husband, and nooboos for Jenny!  lol
Oh right, getting children's beds would be a no-go in No Buy Mode.

I love that you and Jenny are taking a break from all the woodworking and skilling to chill out.
Special moves ftw!  lol

Jenny has her little on again, off again dating life with Marcus Flex.  They tend to run into each other in the gym a lot when jenny needs a fun boost and she'll get to flirt a little and smooch a little but since he's noncommittal, he doesn't mind that Jenny's a busy girl with her own life!

And yes, it's so nice to be *done* with skilling woodworking!  I only have one item left to make, an angry woodworking sculpture, but Jenny's a hard girl to get angry, since she's Cheerful.  I've had her pick two fights but even though she was saying horrible things to the other sim, she never got angry.  So that sculpture will have to wait a bit!

I love how you are doing this working one career after another to get the most out of each one rather than the way I did.  Connections got me a tidy sum of money and items with both my Sims doing the Connections/careers ploy, but it means it will be much harder further on for them to acquire the nice things you have gotten.  I love the pic of your Sim dancing the night away!  She looks so happy.

The next reward you want is Entrepreneurial!  That helps keep your career progress move on up!  I just picked up the club reward Networked and I punched through my 3rd level of Painter in one day!  It's super powerful combined with the Aspiration reward and going in with the right emotion.  With every completed goal, things just get easier and faster for the next one.  And I really recommend at least a small garden!  Having high quality produce to snack on means a +3 happy boost.  That's great for when Jenny comes home tense from working hard, one apple snack and a bath and she's out of her tense and unhappy zone and ready to go!

[grimsoul]

Believe me, I did consider  that problem with the rocket missions!  Now I know where to find a rocket to get the skills raised, it's in the scientist career lot.  But that is unaccessible in the astronaut career, so those last job levels are going to be without doing the daily task.  Slows the progression down, but having the right mood buff, working hard, having the entrepreneurial reward and doing a little job performance hacking should make up for the loss of the rocket missions.

yeah, I'm hoping it won't be to bad when I get there. I done the Tech Guru career first to get the Make Connections option on the phone to help out some too. It doesn't give a big boost but it never fails like hacking or asking for a bonus can.

[MissTrips]

The painting career was one long frenzy of time on the easel.  I managed to get a promotion every two days of work though, which knocked it out very fast.  All that painting led to a nice increase in my pocket book, though I kept several favorites for decorating Jenny's house.

It wasn't all work though!  I had some time to go to one of my fishing spots.  I go there for two reasons, one is that little plant in the forground, that's a very slow growing, but lucrative blackberry bush.  I managed to get a grafting of it and splice it to one of my perfect quality plants.  Once I get a perfect blackberry, I'll plant it in the garden to grow!



The other reason I fish in that spot is because you can fish up a violin there.   Even though I plan on the Journalism career next, a little music soothes the soul!



I've been working on improvements to the outside, the first being the pool, I'm trying for a more 'natural' look to it with rocks and plants all around.



And since Olaf the bear has gotten friendly with someone who's been feeding it fish for warm hugs, the home security system got an upgrade.  Meet Koby!



And off course, there's the end result of the painting frenzy, one wonderful *comfortable* bed.  No more jail cell cots!



.
.
.
.
.



Err... nothing to see here.. move along... (sadly the stores that come with Magnolia Promenade don't sell sinks... that's what i was actually hoping to find here, so i didn't buy anything)

[oshizu]

Your home is so fabulous now and I really love what you did with the pond/pool!
Thank you for the update on her love life--Marcus Flex is a cutie!  Is he a trainer in your game, too?
Well, Jenny does have "the boys" at home already--haha, Kolby the Cowplant.  Great name!

The sink, the sink...I'm not as ethical as you. I'd probably move in an elder and get her/him to join the culinary career....
Can't wait to read what comes next!

[Joria]

Fishing for violins!  Who knew.  Think I'll have to make a stop at Magnolia's shops.  I could sure use some sofas and chairs.

[MissTrips]

The writing career is of course very lucrative with all the books being published, but sadly, it's not very photogenic as Jenny is doing a lot of sitting and writing.  So here's a nice picture of her enjoying a bonfire.




Now, achieving the bed from the painting career has been a *massive* boon to my sim.  Now she only needs 4-5 hours of sleep versus the  8-10 hours that the poor quality cot from the detective career gave out.  That's writing a whole extra book a day!  I've hired a maid and one of the brand new gardeners, again freeing up time spent.  I now only need to harvest my plants instead of spending 2-3 hours caring for them!

When I was in the culinary career I always felt that I was rushing trying to get everything done for skills and job requirements, compounded by the drive to skill up Handiness.  Now I feel like I've reached the plateau, I have lots of spare time to work on knocking out aspirations, money is flowing in at a steady rate thanks to the novels I've been publishing and my sim is happy and productive.

My current goals are to get the high end items from the Journalism career, and continue to upgrade the value of my home.  I'm nearly at 100K in value now, almost a third of the way to the 350k value of a mansion baron aspiration completion. 

[ManiSims]

I just started reading this story/project and I am amazed! This is such a cool and unique idea for a challenge. When I first read the thread title I thought "no way that's possible..." But I totally forgot about the career/party rewards! I'm definitely trying this out in one of my games.

[grimsoul]

Something else you can fish for I didn't know about until today. I was fishing in the Forgotten Grotto and caught 2 radios. It was the GrammyFone Old-Fashioned Music Player. I don't know if it's always been there but I think it's the first time I got one, that I remember anyway.

[Cat_Mom]

I just finished reading through this thread. What a great idea, and everyone is having a blast doing this project. I think I'll give it go too.

[oshizu]

@MissTrips
When you decide on your challenge rules, I wonder if you will ban the Klepto trait.  Can't swipe skill items, though! (I thought of your project and the sudden popularity of the Panckakes with their woodworking table, lol).
Love her short red top with matching hat!

@grimsoul  The gramophones have always been around at the Forbidden Grotto along with those useless crates.

[MissTrips]

Hello everyone!  It's been a few days, but I just got a new computer and it took a bit to move everything over and get things back up and running.  But it down, have a drink of your choice and let's see what's new!

When you decide on your challenge rules, I wonder if you will ban the Klepto trait.

If skill items cant be stolen, then the Klepto trait is probably okay.  I don't want to be too rigid with the rules, since banning buy mode makes for a huge challenge on it's own.  And it's one way to get around the limitations!

After Grim's advice on the radio, I checked out both the Forgotten Grotto and the Slyvan Glade to see what's lurking under those pools!

I did indeed get some crates and a radio!  I normally don't get my Handiness skill high enough to go into the Grotto, but since the need for woodworking was there, the payoff came in the form of new entertainment!







And the Slyvan Glade also coughed up something, a piece of decor in the form of a gnome.

So far Fishing has delivered a shower, a violin, a radio, decor objects and a cowplant!  Not to mention the occasional upgrade part and fruit.  It and Handiness are top tier skills when you don't use buy mode!





Work continues on the Writing career, and I'm going to get the Romantic Garden pack and start really working on the landscaping!

[simfulicious]

I really like this challenge...and thank you for posting some rules.  I am going to go start mine now... but I am in love with the wishing well, so I am going to have to place the maxis garden lot that came with the pack, just so I can have the well in my world!  Other than that, I will follow the rules!   Good luck on yours, you're doing great!