The Apocalypse Challenge Support Thread

[Playalot]

Oh my gosh! I have just found this thread. I wish I had found it earlier as you guys have posted gold!

I have a question: I've been using the local parks grill for all cooking as I didn't want to place a grill inside my house (as it looks ugly *blush*) but now I am wondering if this is breaking a rule?

I have to admit to finding the rules quite confusing as there are a lot of gaps which I realize is because Pinstar does not want to be constantly updating the challenge, but does leave a lot of 'reading between the lines' when trying to figure out exactly what is ok and what is not. 

[oshizu]

@Playalot
In one of my first attempts, I placed a grill in the house and later regretted it because I couldn't move the grill after clearing the Chef career. It has a 1x2 footprint so I'd have to clear Bodybuilder first.
When I restarted the story, I just used outdoor grills. There's no ruling against it.
So looking forward to how your challenge unfolds!

[Playalot]

@oshizu  thanks, I was almost sure using the park's grill was ok, but then got confused the more I thought about it! As to my challenge... well, I decided to unlock the restrictions that annoy me the most rather than powering through it so my 'strategy' may or may not work out.

Another question, what are the aging settings for townies supposed to be set at? The only post I could find was where Pinstar said he didn't make any ruling on this.  Part of me want to have 'no aging' as I love having townies in my game but that feels very, very cheaty. Mainly due to there being a few townies that I could see being useful later in the challenge due to their skill levels.

Then again, I suppose that is no different to exporting skilled sims in once that restriction is unlocked, which I also don't intend to do as that feels quite 'cheaty' too. Argh... the decisions!

[oshizu]

@Playalot
About the ageing setting, you're right about Pinstar not ruling on this, so you can set it to suit your gameplay.

I personally disabled Townie Auto-Ageing for two reasons. 1) I like to play with random townies since I actually hadn't played much with the premade sims, 2) I thought it would be fun to see my moved-out sims around town, invite them to parties or cater, etc.
Well, I guess there could be a third reason: I didn't want to have to bother with pollinating the simverse in this challenge.

It's really up to you. 

[Playalot]

Oh great, well in that case I will leave the townies to 'not age' so I can have some fun playing with them throughout the challenge.  And not having to pollinate is a huge relief, that is just so time consuming!

[HelenP]

In my wonderchild challenge that created my founder, I had to create and import a family with kids to do social butterfly as I could only find teens in the world.  As I can't do this (yet) in my AC challenge I decided to disable aging when I got a notification that one of the npc kids was having a birthday so I wouldn't have this problem.

[Playalot]

That makes a lot of sense really @HelenP it certainly makes it a lot less stressful and more fun to play when the rules around townies are a little freer than the ID rules. 

[HelenP]

Any suggestions please, on how to get gourmet cooking past level 6.  She has read the skill book the professorial sim wrote and is now bored of that. The discuss gourmet meals interaction has a time out and so can't be used often. So far only cleared management but will clear e-gamer soon, all other restrictions in place.  I've also already bought in the move in for her generation.  Have I made a huge mistake?

[oshizu]

@HelenP

I think I'd mentioned in an earlier post about the skill books. My Wonder-Child founder cleared the Chef career then joined the Author career in order to write skill books.
I'd found that the household members could never level past Level 6 with a sim-created skill book.
Anyone else in the household with Gourmet Cook skill can also "Discuss gourmet cooking" with your target sim, which will also slightly raise that skill.
But I don't know if you could raise it 2 more levels for maxing your Chef career.

[HelenP]

Thankfully she still has a while as she is only a teen.  I could get other household members to read the skill book so  there are more people for her to talk to.  I know you can raise cooking skill through a work interaction, can anyone remember if they can do the same with gourmet?

[oshizu]

This is what Pinstar wrote in a comment to his Apocalypse Challenge Rules about learning gourmet cooking:

1. Start with a founder who already has an 8+ skill in gourmet cooking and have them lift the culinary restriction first.
2. Have a sim complete the Renaissance sim aspiration to pick up the perk that allows them to write skill books and write a gourmet cooking skill book.
3. Lift the author restriction first, allowing you to order books. Order gourmet cooking skill books and train up using them.

As we've learned, a sim-produced skill book can only take the reader to Level 6 (all my sims stopped at around 6.33%).
You might monitor how much your sim's Gourmet Cooking rises with each "Discuss gourmet cooking" social performed or received, so you can check if this would be a feasible strategy for reaching Level 8 by the time your now-teen sim reaches L9 of the Chef career.
If not, the other option would be to have that teen, when s/he's a young adult, clear either the Author or Oracle career instead.

Sorry I can't be more helpful...

[officialghosts]

If she's still a teen and already at level 6 I think she'll be fine. The spilling social interactions generally remain powerful even at the higher levels, so just remember to do those as often as possible. If need be, I do believe she can level Gourmet Cooking at work. (It might not show up until the higher levels or until she maxes Cooking.)

[HelenP]

The skilling interaction seem to get between 1-5% at level 6, and I guess it will reduce as she goes up the levels.  It is also affected by the level of inspiredness. (Is that even a word?  ).  She has maxed home cooking so I hope G cooking comes up as a work option early on otherwise I'll get bored of the 'discuss gourmet meal' interaction long before she does.

[KTK10]

Not sure if this has been asked before, but by placing the voidcritter battle station without lifting the e-sports gamer, have I just failed? The kids aren't using it to play, but are using it to train their voidcritters.. Thanks in advance!

[oshizu]

@KTK10
There's no official ruling on the VC battle station, as you know, since the AC rules haven't been updated since Get Together.
I would imagine that it should be treated like tablets and gaming gigs (under the eSports Gamer lock).
Pinstar has remarked that, if we make a mistake because of all the rules, just fix it and move on.
If I were you, I'd put away the battle station for now and continue playing (and your challenge isn't failed).

Others may interpret the battle station's categorization differently, though. So maybe wait for someone else to chime in?  @JudesSims @officialghosts @Caterina