The Apocalypse Challenge Support Thread

[oshizu]

@boomboomraccoon
One of my Gen2 sims just cleared Journalist. Fill up the queue with washing hands and it'll be like one shower. Normally they don't need to shower that much unless they've been working out or trying for baby multiple times. I prioritized showers/baths for the mood boosts.

@Caterina and @JudesSims
I have a question about urns. The rules for Secret Agent/Villain say:

You may not sell or delete urns or gravestones or ‘release spirit’.

I've only had one death so far but I just stashed the urn in family inventory (like I do for all my games) because the rule only bans "selling/deleting/release spirit."
Do you think I misinterpreted it? Your thoughts?

[JudesSims]

That's what I do too. Ghosts can be too destructive.

[oshizu]

That's what I do too. Ghosts can be too destructive.

@JudesSims
Yay, thanks for reading that rule the same way.

[Caterina]

This thread is so much fun!

  Some of the "rules" I play by come from playing an earlier version of The Sims 3 Apocalypse Challenge.  The restriction there was that you could not even move the urn until the restriction was lifted.  So if it ended up blocking a door, a bed, or something else, you had to live with it.

@boomboomraccoon
I had several sinks and toilets in the house since day 1 of the challenge.  Sometimes, they would all be broken for days.  The worst part of that was trying to get your sims to have successful Romantic interactions.  Impossible!  (you guys probably know a way to do it...hah)

My solution was to clear Retail Employee as a teen early because it lets you buy/replace items any day of the week.

With an upgraded sink, one with a soap dispenser, it takes about 6 hand washes to fill up the hygiene bar when it is completely red, about 4 when in the yellow, and 2-3 when green.

I recently cleared Journalist and my poor Sims (not! their house is valued over $300k and they $150k in savings) had to do without a shower for two weeks before I realized I could buy them one...lol.

@oshizu
    I will try to link a jpeg of my house to an upcoming post.  Also, I plan to upload it to the gallery.  I like it when my stuff is downloaded   And yes, I am playing in downtown Windenburg.  I will let you know the name of the lot in my next post.  It is not a friendly lot because there is a high elevation nearby which constantly pulls me off my Sims.  Interesting tidbits:  I had a Sim die in a tunnel.  Oh, and my second set of twins, the writers, just died within a few minutes of each other, one while fishing, and one at the mail box.  I thought that was very interesting.  They were still dressing alike as elders. 

ALL
    I have a popular Elementary School that I built for my Build-A-City-Challenge.  I guess it is used with the Go-To-School mod.  Anywho... it has earned over 1700 downloads and major gamer cred from my 14yr old son.

    I am going to change my "strategy" or whim (too funny) to make it a little easier for me to clear the Painter careers.  I am going to clear Babysitter first so I can give the two Sims helpful traits.  My 6th is incubating.  I am planning 3 children to clear Babysitter, Business - Investor, and Criminal - Oracle.

    My next play through of the Apocalypse Challenge might involve actual strategy based on things I am learning this time through.

[officialghosts]

@oshizu @JudesSims I think the "spirit" (I'm sorry) of that rule is that the ghosts are supposed to be out around the house, bugging you, and putting them in the family inventory kind of ruins that. However, @Caterina brings up a good point; aren't graves 1x2? This means they couldn't be moved anyway until Bodybuilder is lifted.

Just spent the last two days building up my founder.* I could've just cheated, but I wanted to get his skills and stuff legit. It started as a serious skilling game and then soon turned into me playing dress up, building pretty rooms and testing out items I haven't used yet. Since I almost always play challenges, it's rare that I get to do stuff like that, so it was a lot of fun even though it took longer. And besides, I felt it gave a nice little preamble to the challenge, although I don't think I'll be posting a story.

*I'm not using Philappa for this challenge. This is partly because Jude was using her, but even before that I never really planned to. Philappa, with all her girly girl excess, doesn't really fit into the challenge for me. (Although Jude made her look suitably down to earth). I really want everything to fit into the "look" of an apocalypse. It's also because I'm really weird about feeling overpowered, especially in sims games, and Philappa's an especially strange case because she both feels overpowered and like a lot of her talents would be wasted on the challenge since it's so restrictive. Also, I like playing with a variety of sims. Ironically, she was one of my founder's roommates and mentored him in multiple skills.

[Caterina]

Tip:

Don't wait until the end of your challenge to clear Business - Investor.  My bills were over $72K because of all of the items in my inventory.


Update:
I am on generation 7 which will be my final generation.  Since I am incorporating all of the career rooms into my home, I have decided to clear Doctor, Detective, and Scientist too.  I've had Get To Work for awhile but I still haven't played all the way through the Scientist career or even started a Sim in the Detective career.  My household currently consists of 4 sixth generation Sims and 4 seventh generation Sims.  I am really enjoying all of the career clothing in The Sims 4.   

My boy/girl twins, Reese and Laila, will be clearing the painting restrictions.  Their older sister, Hadley, will complete the Scientist career and their younger brother will be a Detective.  Their dad, Leo, just cleared Business - Investor.  He married a level 8 Doctor, Lori, (since I've already tried the Doctor career).  Uncle Vincenzo will clear the Criminal - Oracle restriction on his next work day and Auntie Nylah cleared Babysitter.  She spends most of her time cooking and gardening.



This is my founder - Ryan Hayes.

[oshizu]

I noticed that you have a full household with four of each generation.
Just wondering if that is deliberate or simply a coincidence.
I thought two children per generation would be okay, with some intermarriage with townies or with unskilled, no-reward trait sim clones that I import into the game from other failed challenges.

What has your experience been, @Caterina ?
And your founder is very beautiful!

[officialghosts]

I'm about two weeks into my Apocalypse challenge now. It's quite enjoyable, but the tedium of careers is dragging me down. I keep barely missing out on two day promotions, and it seems that its going to continue that way for the rest of the first generation careers. My founder's Entrepreneurial trait seems to be non-existent, and his wife just barely missed a surefire promotion because I forgot to have her do her daily task.

I think I'm going to try something rather risky, and put the Chef career off until the third generation. It's risky, but my sims seem to be doing fine living off of fried fish. And besides, half the time I don't even feed them and just let them eat at work to save time, or have them eat harvested plants for the moodlet.

I have one warning for people who are considering doing Oracle and Management in their starting generation. In the later levels of the career, the Oracle's end time and the Management's start time will be the same or overlap until the very late levels of Oracle. This is a problem for someone like me, who relied on my Oracle founder's Wellness skill to give moodets to my Management wife. I decided to include meditation stools under the Bodybuilder ban, so I won't be able to teach anyone else Wellness until later. (Even if I wanted to, the rest of the family is still children.)

[oshizu]

That's brilliant to just let them eat at work. I know that they can fill their hunger and bladder meters at work, yet I always try to fill every thing before they leave for work anyway. Great tip!

Does "I think I'm going to try something rather risky" mean that you've already restarted with different Gen1 careers?

Once eSport Gamer is cleared and a sim has maxed Charisma, the sim can use Negotiate Bonus interaction every 48 hours over the phone, if you wish.
Also, once eSport Gamer is cleared and a sim has Level 6 Programming, the sim can "Hack work performance" on the computer. I don't know how frequently; when it works, the job performance tick hasn't moved; when it fails, the tick drops considerably.

In the 3/22/16 patch note, the yoga mat joined the ranks of the treadmill, weightlifting machine, and punching bag.

Spa Day
After a small debate, yoga has emerged victorious - and the Yoga Mat now counts as a piece of workout equipment when attempting to complete the Bodybuilder Aspiration.

I'm glad that the traditional workout equipment aren't banned under the Bodybuilder career lock, but find the reasoning given for banning yoga mats (it's in a comment under the Apocalypse Challenge rules inconsistent with the handling of workout equipment.
I'm keeping the meditation stools.   

Looking forward to hearing your Oracle/Management coupling work out and who you decide to import first.

[officialghosts]

I haven't restarted, but I was just looking at the potential careers for Gen 2. I planned on having 4 kids and a spouse, and I knew I wanted 2 kids to do Babysitting and Retail, but needed to decide between Startup, Bodybuilder, Diamond Agent, and Chef (among some other fleeting considerations) for the rest. I was 100% sure that I was going to import a spouse to do Chef this gen, but then I reconsidered how necessary it would be to complete it, especially with two spares running around. So that's saved for Gen 3.

I considered doing Comedian instead of Retail, but then I checked the rules again and found the Retail restriction is on planning outfits and not just dressers. Oh well. I swear, If I weren't so shallow, I probably would've saved Retail for later. I've also decided to put clubs under the restriction of Comedian, although even when I unlock it the only thing I'd likely use them for is Networked Club, in the hopes of completing this challenge before I pull my hair out from the careers.

I was aware of Negotiate Bonus, and I'm definitely going to use that... once I complete eSports. Which may be next generation. We'll see. And I technically can Hack Work Performance now, as hacking is one of my founder's daily requirements for Oracle, but from the sounds of it it isn't worth the risk.

Yea, I looked at the comment where Pinstar specifically addresses Spa Day after that post, and decided that since he didn't mention it, meditation stools are fine. Thankfully, even without the boosts, my sims should be able to max their careers in early-mid adulthood.

[JudesSims]

My generation 2 just became a child. I'm so far behind with my blog being hacked/corrupted, frantically looking for a new place to live (in real life because my lease is not being renewed) and having the cold from...well, you know. I'm going to try to play a bit on it today. These tips will be helpful!

[oshizu]

@officialghosts
Personally, I've found my founder Chef's never-spoiling meals to be extremely useful. Whenever he got playful from telling/hearing jokes, he made gummybear pancakes.
Whenever he got energized, he made the High Protein plates (or whatever they're called). I put them in a doorless room downstairs and still have some left in Gen4.
They're useful for work prep, even after I have showers and baths.

By the way, everyone, I just want to say that I've grouped both hot tubs and saunas under Writer/Journalist in my game.
Hot tubs appear in the same Buy Mode category as tubs, so that's a no brainer, I guess.
Saunas appear under Recreation, though, but I've decided to allow both saunas and pools to unlock with Journalist in my game.
Also, I wish I'd been able to start Diamond Agent a few days earlier, because it allows me to move my elders out to enjoy eternal life rather than forcing me to watch them die.
I use Manage Households to "Create a new household" with the elder, then move that sim somewhere else.
It's actually really delightful to run into them around town. 

@JudesSims  You've really had a run of bad luck lately...first your digital home (your blog site), now your physical home. 
I visit your new blog site quite often to see what you're up to and read your Wilkins Alphabet Legacy this morning.
Sending you some positive energy, Jude!

[Caterina]

I've completed my Apocalypse Challenge!  The seventh generation were all elders when I finished.  I don't have a number of days for a score.  Even if I did, I wouldn't qualify this run as valid...too many mistakes.   I even completed the Doctor, Scientist, and Detective careers. 

I am going to keep this game file around and play in it some more.  I have completed so many of the Achievements that I want to continue and try to complete them all.

I am taking a week off of all online/computer gaming.  I may write a little something about my experience when I return.

[JudesSims]

Congratulations!

[oshizu]

@Caterina
Congratulations! And good luck with all the non-legacy achievements!