Congratulations
@GlazeyLady!!
Not that I did that well, but here's some things I did and some things I learned:
I had them live in an apartment:
- it's cheaper than a house and I was worried about money
- I didn't really think about lot traits making things better; I chose an apartment that was neutral as far as this challenge
- it's easy to see everything - though occasionally a toddler would wander out into the city1
- sims just wander into your apartment all the time. This was useful because they would often then feed, play with, read to, and run flash cards with the toddlers.3
- when the neighbors are loud (which is a lot), toddlers that would otherwise be way too tired get more time to skill & satisfy their "throw tantrum" whims.
I got rid of anything that would be remotely entertaining for an adult, with the exception of the chess set & heavy bag so that the astronaut would end up gaining logic & fitness.
4 I also got rid of the stove. When I tested, it was clear it was a disaster waiting to happen. They had a microwave and a popcorn popper. Toddlers can't pop popcorn, but they can grab a serving that someone else has popped and take the edge off their hunger while trying to convince someone to feed them.
5. I didn't get rid of the bathtub; that was a mistake because the parents & other random adults kept trying to bathe them.
6For the first week and a half, I adopted one child every other day until the oldest was a teenager (he moved out with the odd- numbered children. Two days later, his sister became a teenager and moved out with all of the even-numbered children). Then I started adopting one kid/day. After that, I'd keep one child in the house with the parents & toddlers. (To be an extra person to for the toddlers to interact with because the parents had really given up by this point.) As soon as a toddler aged up, that kid would be moved in with one of the sets of siblings (theoretically, that would have been room for 22 in total, but I really only had enough money for maybe one more than the 14 that I did adopt).
As 2 in toddler skills becomes 1 in child skills and a 4 toddler is 2 in child skills and (more importantly) a 5 is just a 2, none of my toddlers made it beyond 4 of anything
7. Imagination was the easiest to gain, thinking was the hardest, and movement/communication depended on the toddler in question. My goal was to get at least 6/child and try for 7 or 8. I think it would have been better if I'd spent more time on whims.
9 Usually by day 2, I could get them to 2 in everything and 3 in at least one skill. I never got any to 4 in all 4 skills (though I had a couple that got close). For the first few, I tried to potty train them at least enough so that they'd go on their own. Then, there were too many kids, too few adults, and I found out that the toddlers would get over it.
They also never had a bath unless I was paying attention to something else, like feeding them. Neither of the parents actually made a group meal until the last two days of the challenge - so they had to get fed
10. I didn't think to put the highchair behind a wall, so constantly struggled with that. I did find out it was a lot easier to feed them when the highchair is not near the dining table and even easier when there are no chairs or sofas in the house.
11 This did leave my adult sims in the middle of an empty living room
13, but functionality over form.
I do have a much better idea of how toddlers work and how to get their skills up under normal circumstances, which is good. I'm still not going to feed them, though.
14
1 There were naked toddlers running around the streets of San Myshuno. When the spice festival came around, I did send them for food; they got to work on movement and it was so much easier than trying to get them into those high chairs.2
2 I really hate feeding toddlers. Outside of the tournament, I always just cheat to fill their hunger whenever it gets low.
3in my test game, the older siblings kept coming over to talk and play and would help take care of/skill up the toddlers. In the actual game, after they escaped, they were gone. I think I saw one cross the street once.
4she ended up lvl. 4. She had Active, Genius, and Family Oriented. I also gave her "Business Savvy" because I did see money as the constraint.
5which takes forever because feeding toddlers is awful.
6when they aged up to children, the kids were usually hungry, filthy, and of course sad because no one had noticed their birthday. They spent their first day as children in tears. Tears that their parents callously ignored. At least, the later ones were kicked out the next day while they were at school. Hopefully, their siblings were able to commiserate with them.
7Seriously, if it had been possible to stop them from moving at movement lvl. 4, I would have. The time was better spent elsewhere. As soon as they hit 4 imagination, they didn't get to look at a book, play with a doll or toy, or hear a story. Their creative days were over.8
8until they were children and their younger siblings asked them to join them playing which raised imagination & communication at the same time.
9That's one thing that has been hard with the challenges. I tried whims the first time I played sims 4, then realized that I didn't care what they wanted, and I'd just do what I wanted and if they happened to fulfill a whim or aspiration, great. It's hard for me to remember to check on them, much less to chase them. I'm amazed at some of your average whims/toddler.
10which sucked.
11with places to sit, when a kid asked to eat, she would sit, the adult would sit, she would ask for food, the adult would get up, the kid would get up, the adult would pick up the kid and put them in a high chair, then the adult would get food, then sit down, then put it on the highchair and at any point in this process either the adult or child could be interrupted by some sim that I wasn't controlling (or the sim equivalent of a squirrel) and the whole routine would need to start over again.12 No chairs gave a lot fewer places for the process to get derailed. For some reason, the beds didn't cause the same problems.
12because feeding toddlers sucks. Have I mentioned how much I hate feeding toddlers?
13with the exception of the satellite, chess table, punching bag, toddler toys, and ... well maybe it wasn't that empty - just uninviting.
14see above
