The Apocalypse Challenge Support Thread

[oshizu]

@Mack
I'll try answering a few of these. Everyone else please feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken. I'm just going to give my personal interpretation of the rules since they've not been updated for close to a year.
Pinstar's site also has a link to a spreadsheet for scoring, which I use (not for scoring but) to keep track of updated restrictions (like spa day), career-related skill requirements, etc.

1) Repairman:
When the rules were created, the only NPC that could be summoned was a maid, which can only be unlocked by clearing the Teen/Manual Laborer career.
So, in my game, I didn't hire a maid, repairfolk, or gardener until after I'd cleared Manual Labor.

2) Cupcake factory:
My take is that we can't buy any kitchen appliances except the cheapest grill until  the Culinary career is cleared.

3) Buy/Build mode on Sundays: Yes, that's correct, until you clear the related teen career.  Anything you can't move without going into Build mode. Can't you move small paintings in Live mode?

4) Writer job:
Not clear what you're asking. Just buy a bookcase? You can read books that come with the bookcase; you just can't order books.

5) Inventory fish:
Yes, as long as the sim has nothing else in personal inventory. But you can store more fish (even foul fish) and other stuff in the Buyer Beware/Ornate Beauty storage chest.

6) Easel
I got an easel right from the start because I didn't read anything restricting them. I painted non-emotional paintings for decor and family porraits. You can't sell them without clearing Patron of the Arts, though.

Anybody else have thoughts on Mack's questions?

[Caterina]

You can't hire a maid or other service person until you have full use of your phone.

I have an unrelated question.  I am curious how those of you who are playing the challenge interpret the one item in inventory rule.  I feel I may be a little cheaty when I go collecting.  I probably should run the sim back to the house between each collection to drop off the newly collected item into the home/chest before going out to get another.  That would certainly increase the difficulty of the challenge considerably.  I just left the chest open while my sims were out and placed items into the chest as they made their rounds.  What do you do?

[oshizu]

@Caterina

About hiring maid/gardener/repairfolk, yes, I forgot about that because I cleared Esport Gamer before Manual Labor. I still waited on the hired help until clearing Manual Laborer, though.

Single item in inventory: I didn't run back and forth when collecting, either; I just transferred stuff home by stack as I went along. Same for fishing. I did do the back and forth initially, but once I realized I could just move things home even while away from home, there was no going back to running home after each fish caught.

[Mack]

Oshizu and Caterina

1) Thanks. I read Pinstar's site again. I was aware the rules were created for the base game only. No updates of the rules for the expansion and stuff packs coming out. I honestly did not know that the repairman did not come with the base game. I am trying to use only base game objects and such.

And Caterina, absolutely right, the phone, what was I thinking?  I knew I needed three pair of eyes. So no repairman.

2) Now I can see that the cupcake factory would fall under the "oven" category.

3)I can move small paintings in Live mode. Again, to be clear here. Example 1:  I have not clear the teen career yet. It is Wednesday. I am in Live mode.  I have 6 small paintings on the wall. I want 2 paintings in the bathroom. Can I move them or must I wait till Sunday?
Example 2. I have not clear the teen career yet. It is Sunday. I am in live mode. I go to buy/build mode. I buy a bed but to place it I must move the other bed already there. Can I re position/move an object that is more than 1 X 1 when I am in buy/build mode on Sunday?

4) Here is my logic. Until you clear 1)writer-author : "You may not order books, May not visit library lots nor add bookcases to existing lots" and 2) tech-guru-eSport : "Can only use computer for actions that are daily tasks, I thought I could work around these restrictions by acquiring a book to clear writer-journalist career first to get access to a shower. It drives me nutty to see my Sims having to wash wash wash and wash hands. How can they get dirty sitting at a computer? Argh!!. But it might be easier to clear writer-author first? Both careers require; at the beginning anyway; that you read a book as daily tasks. So how do you get a book? Loopy this one. Or you can clear secret agent-diamond agent. There is a few community lots that have books. Time consuming? you bet. By the time they get there, they wont read the book until they have washed their hands. Hah!

5) & 6) Great. I have been doing this. Needed confirmation. Thanks for the tip on storage chest. Will get one (I guess Sunday).

Caterina,

I collect only one type of edible harvest (Inventory is empty). Then I return my Sim home. Pause, transfer the fruits on shelves, computer table, dining table, floor. Then I might repeat the process. It's time consuming. I do this Saturday or Sunday because Monday bills arrive and unless you have cleared criminal-boss career, you have no money to grill food. So until more money comes in, my Sim can feed on fruit. It all based on where you are at in your game. But I don't sweat it. If I see there was already something in my Sim's inventory. I correct it and go on. It's like when your Sim uses the phone when they need entertainment. They pretty quick with that one and you can easily miss it.
I tried to get one rock (focus), a Chrystal (energized) or a frog/metal (environment). Once I have them I do not collect again.

This challenge is like a circle. At which point do you start? Career, aspiration,skills, needs are all interconnected. It is difficult to advance in a career when they spend all their time washing hands instead of working on their skills Hah!

 

[oshizu]

@Mack
I didn't realize until today that you'd posted a few more questions. Let me try to answer until someone else comes along.

3a) No problem with moving small paintings any day of the week, since you don't go into Buy/Build mode.
3b) You cannot move/relocate any object with a footprint larger than 1x1 (once you've placed it and exited Buy/Build mode) until you clear the Athlete/Bodybuilder career.
       So no, you can buy a new bed and place it but you can't move the old bed until Bodybuilder is unlocked.

4) I'm still unclear about your question. You cannot add a library bookcase to existing community lots (like a gym, for example), but you can buy the cheapest bookcase for your home.
    You just can't order more books until you clear the Author career. Though, if one of your sims is allowed writing as a daily task, that sim could produce skill books for your other sims.

Good luck, Mack!

[Mack]

Oshizu

About 4. My bad. I get it. You can buy a bookcase and can read a book. Dah!

Thank you very much for the help. I am close to obsession with this challenge. I think I am on my 7th or 8th attempt.

[boomboomraccoon]

Spoilers! I've begun my Apocalypse Challenge. The story isn't going to start until after I'm certain Vanarra can complete her career, a little for plot, and a little because I've yet to max a career, and she started the challenge with 9 days to adult.

Anyway, I just experienced an ugh moment that isn't going to be in the story, and I wanted to confess it here.

This week, Vanarra got two promotions, level 8 WOO, and did a bit of lucrative hacking over her days off. I got into the rhythm of things and next thing I know it's Monday, bills are here, and I didn't spend any money on improving the house, and I'm about to give 8.5K to the mob! Bleh!

[Mack]

In one of my several attempts to this challenge, I invited in the postman. After that I never got bills. Not sure if it was a bug or not. Other experience the same? Though I pass this along.

[oshizu]

In one of my several attempts to this challenge, I invited in the postman. After that I never got bills. Not sure if it was a bug or not. Other experience the same? Though I pass this along.

Never getting any bills is definitely a bug.
Personally, I think working around those Monday pay-offs to the mob before clearing the Criminal/Boss career is one of the toughest parts of the Apocalypse Challenge.

[oshizu]

I just wanted to provide a link from this thread to Joria's thread, where she introduces her builds for the Apocalypse Challenge.

Apocalypse Challenge Builds

I'd actually just asked her if she'd mind if I posted her link here, but then I got too excited and did it without waiting for her reply.
She uploaded another build to the Gallery last month so hopefully she will grace us with more Joria awesomeness in the form of a house tour. *drools
@Joria   Sorry for being so eagerly impatient!

[Mack]

Oh boy! Here I am again and I need more answers.

Regarding Pinstar's restriction from the Culinary-Chef career: "Non-fish items may not be cooked on grilled on fire pits. If you do not have the Outdoor Retreat game pack, you may make non-fish items on the grill, but must move a fish in your inventory to the family inventory each time you cook a meal."

1) The first sentence is a bit odd to me. Did Pinstar meant to say: "Non-fish items may not be cooked on grills or fire pits." OR "Non-fish items may not be cooked or grilled on fire pits."? 

2) I am unsure on the meaning of this non-fish/fish thingy because I have Outdoor Retreat. If my Sims has 0 (zero) cooking skill. What can I cook on a grill ?  if anything is needed, what do I need in my inventory?

3) Can any/all Sims in your household walk to the neighborhood park and eat any kind of food prepared by other Sims ?

4) Can a Sim cook a gourmet meals on a grill?  Can a Sim complete the job requirement of "cooking a gourmet meal" in the Culinary-chef career so he/she gets promoted without a stove which you cannot have until you lift the Culinary- Chef career restriction? 
Do I detect a Merry-Go-Round here that never stop?  Can you get around this one instead? I did found some information on this subject. Are the only solutions includes lifting Writer-Author to be able to order a skill book (in this instance, Gourmet book) and downloading from the Gallery a Sim that you know has gourmet skill? Are there other ways that I missed?

Regarding this restriction from Culinary-Mixologist: "They may not drink any Lifetime Happiness reward potions."

5) What are Lifetime Happiness reward potions? Never heard if this one.
                   
And finally,

6) Can a Sim uses his/her phone to take a picture with his/her friends? I do not see this option restricted by Pinstar under the Teck Guru- eSport Gamer : " The cell phone may only be used to take or quit a job and cannot be used to play games, chat, text, prank, or invite other sims."

Thanks
           

[HelenP]

1 - My take is, if you can grill fish on either item you should, if you can't grill fish then make something else but have a fish in your sim's inventory and get rid of the fish once you have made the meal.  I would see this as the only exception to the 'no build/buy mode except Sunday' rule.

2 - Pinstar or ImagineMystic said that other grillable meals can be made if you have all the ingredients in inventory.  So if you have harvested all the fruit you need you can make Fruit Cobbler on the grill.  If you have a beetle you can roast a plate of them to eat.  Just take into account any restrictions on number of items your sim can carry in inventory or whether they can visit Granite Falls.

3 - Not sure about this myself, have mostly tried to have my founder cook (maxed cooking/g-cooking) but when one of the kids took a plate of hot dogs I didn't cancel it.

4 - Don't know, sorry.

5 - Lifetime happiness reward potions are any potions that can be bought with Satisfaction reward points, including moodlet solver, potion of youth, instant hygene etc. 

6 - Personally I'd say no because the phone is only to be used for jobs, but if it happens autonomously and you don't catch it in time there's no problem.  I've found that the Business career has 'make business phonecalls' as daily task at higher levels.  As we are allowed to use the computer for daily tasks and essential skilling, I've taken the same route with the phone.

These are, of course, just my interperatation of the rules.  Others may have different opinions.

[oshizu]

I'm not sure I understand all the questions, but I'll give it a go.

1) Without lifting the Chef unlock, you can only cook on the cheapest grill or fire pit, both of which you can find in Buy mode or at a grilling area.

2) Yes, to everything @HelenP wrote about grillable meals if you have all ingredients in inventory and the Bodybuilder restriction on only a single stack in personal inventory.
    Regarding fish grilling, I have Outdoor Retreat and a founder with maxed cooking, so the household lived off of Fried Fish (cooking level 3) at the start.
    Until you can prepare Fried Fish (actually, it's Grilled Fish), you can prepare other dishes but must move one fish into your household inventory every time you prepare a non-fish dish.
    Example: You've caught one fish & moved it to your household inventory. You can now grill a non-fish dish. There's quite a few grilled  dishes that only require L1 cooking.
    Fried fish is the cheapest grilled dish, though.
    You can access the fish in your household inventory after you've lifted the Bodybuilder restriction.

3) I did just as @HelenP did.

4) Gourmet cooking can be leveled by: (1) starting with a founder who has both cooking skills maxed; (2) cooking on a stove or chef station (requires lifting Chef career); (3) importing a Gallery sim (requires lifting the Oracle career); or (4) lifting Writer-Author to order Gourmet Cooking Vols. 1, 2, and 3. I chose Method #1.

5) What HelenP said.

6) I agree with HelenP on all her points. As you quoted from Pinstar: "The cell phone may only be used to take or quit a job." The only  exception would be if phonecalls were a required for a daily task, like HelenP wrote. Even after my sims were allowed to take vacation days from school (lifted Business/Management), the kids couldn't phone to request a vacation day because Esport Gamer was still locked.

Like HelenP, these are my personal interpretations based on Pinstar's rules. Good luck with your challenge!

[Mack]

Helen P and Oshizu,

You guys are gold. Thank you so much for clearing that up. I do not sweat autonomous actions. When I see something that is not allowed, I made them stop and go on. But you also passing on a common sense approach to this challenge which I did not see until now. Too busy trying to remember all the little, many, warped, maddening restrictions. Haha!.

Good luck to you both.

[officialghosts]

First off, congrats to @oshizu for completing the challenge! I'd love to hear any reflections on your experience.

Less exciting, but as of 10 minutes ago, my Gen 2 is officially done, with my Journalist (finally!) getting her final promotion and maxing her career. I was right when I predicted before that I would be getting really tired of the Journalist restrictions by the time I maxed it; if I had to wash someone's hands one more time I would've exploded. While it was difficult at the time, I'm really glad I ended up having twins.

Her brother had maxed Bodybuilder just a few days before, and by using massage tables I got her a two day promotion... or would've, if I hadn't accidentally clicked "Take it Easy" instead of "Work Hard" on the first day . On the bright side, this means I should be able to get 2 day promotions for pretty much all of the careers from now on. Except for Comedian, since as far as I know the only way to get a longer than 4 hour Playful moodlet is by Cowplant Essence, which I don't have access to. Speaking of which, my Gen 3 spouse has been moved in and is at level 6 of the Comedian career. The oldest of the Gen 3 children, the heir (ESports) and his cousin (Villain), are halfway through their teen years.

There's a rather wide age range of my Gen 3 children; the youngest was just born yesterday. Considering I may be trying to finish this challenge within 4 generations (with 17 careers left to do!), this is probably a good thing. It'll make me less likely to pull my hair out if I'm not trying to max 8 sim's careers at the exact same time.