The Murray Apocalypse Challenge: That's a Wrap (Completed Oct 15, 2018)

[BallerinaHippo]

Congrats on Glory's birth, the birthdays, the many promotions, and lifting the Patron of the Arts career.
Had your household been hoarding paintings since the founder's generation?
The astronaut uniforms are the best!

Thanks!  Yeah, they've got lots of paintings around.  Some of them are on the walls, some are in personal inventories (after bodybuilder was cleared), and some remain in family inventory.  They still can't sell the ones in family inventory until business investor is cleared.  So many overlapping rules!

Congrats on all the progress and the new nooboos.

Thanks!  I'm glad you are posting your apocalypse challenge at the same time.  I like looking for the similarities and differences in our stories.

[BallerinaHippo]

Moving Day

As usual, I have so much to cover in this update!  First, Mercy and Justice maxed all of their toddler skills.


Then it was time to celebrate their birthday.


Mercy is an active girl who wants to be a Rambunctious Scamp. 


And Justice is a genius who wants to be a Whiz Kid.


Glory loves her older cousins.  As a toddler, she was always following them around watching everything they did.


Soon enough, it was Glory’s turn to blow out the candles on her birthday cake.


Glory is a cheerful child who wants to be a Whiz Kid.  Her father came over to help her get started on her aspiration.


It didn’t take long before Mercy, Justice, and Glory all had A’s in school.


Which reminds me, the grade school in What Cheer has experienced quite the population boom.  We have so many new children in the area!  I’ve counted five sweater boys in just the last week.


There’s also Mercy’s new friend, Armando. 


And we finally have one (and only one) young girl in the neighborhood.  Here she is talking to Glory and Justice.  She’s a cute little red-headed vegetarian named Carla.


Meanwhile, Courage became the next one to reach the top of his career. 

His promotion to Diamond Secret Agent meant that we could now visit community lots and neighbors.  More importantly, we could move sims out of our household.

I know Courage was eager to move, but I convinced him to stay for a little while to mentor the kids.  He’s a fantastic uncle.


A few days later, Patience was promoted to Space Ranger.

We can now have objects outdoors (except they still have to be confined to an 8x8 area).  We can take vacations, sleep in tents, use the observatory, watch clouds, stargaze, and enable the mood aura on objects. 

To celebrate Patience and Courage’s promotions, we traveled for the first time ever to…the gym.


Why didn’t we take a vacation to Granite Falls?  Because even though we can go on vacation, we can’t take vacation days from work until the business management career restriction is lifted.  Sigh.  So we went to the gym to allow Patience and Miracle to work on the Bodybuilder aspiration.  It was still a momentous occasion. 

After both Patience and Courage had reached the top of their careers, I couldn’t ask them to stay in the house any longer.  They both wanted to move on with their lives. 

Courage met a really nice guy at work named Aarush who he invited over a few times.  I started to suspect that something might be going on between them because Courage really isn’t that good at the guitar.


Sure enough, Courage later confirmed that he and Aarush were dating. 


Patience met a guy named Maverick who she really hit it off with.


So all four of them—Patience/Maverick and Courage/Aarush—bought the house next door and moved in together.  I was sad to see them go, but they aren’t far away.


Miracle and I recently celebrated our adult birthday.


We’re both at level 9 of our careers which means we have many days off in our schedules to play with the kids.




Nobuya and I attended the Romance Festival and renewed our wedding vows.  Can you believe we are the first sims in four generations to be able to travel here?


And guess what?  I’m pregnant again! 

[oshizu]

The birthday cake shot is so cute, with each parent holding the toddler who shares their hair color!
All three toddlers aged up into beautiful children.

Congrats on lifting two more career restrictions, especially Diamond Agent.
You mentioned at the start that you would be remodeling the homes in the neighborhood to reflect the main household's status.
At this point, would that mean mostly "interior decor"? I guess we'll soon find out since you can visit them now.

I noticed that Aarush was an elder in the "kiss shot." My moved out apocalypse sims were also ageing into elders, even if I moved them out as adults.
In retrospect, I wonder if my ageing settings had been wrong.

The new generation will be a big one! Looking forward to watching your Murrays grow and prosper.

[Tynynounours]

So much was being done here. You're a lot ahead of me now. And thanks, reading you is often what kicks me into updating.

Congrats on every lift and birthdays. The children are adorable. And sweaters boys keep being a funny constant.

[BallerinaHippo]

The birthday cake shot is so cute, with each parent holding the toddler who shares their hair color!
All three toddlers aged up into beautiful children.
Congrats on lifting two more career restrictions, especially Diamond Agent.
You mentioned at the start that you would be remodeling the homes in the neighborhood to reflect the main household's status.
At this point, would that mean mostly "interior decor"? I guess we'll soon find out since you can visit them now.
I noticed that Aarush was an elder in the "kiss shot." My moved out apocalypse sims were also ageing into elders, even if I moved them out as adults.
In retrospect, I wonder if my ageing settings had been wrong.
The new generation will be a big one! Looking forward to watching your Murrays grow and prosper.

I think I was ambitious at the beginning of the challenge with my plans for the whole neighborhood.     I've gone through and made the grass green again, and I eventually made some houses bigger (when Honor cleared her career) but I didn't do as much as I'd planned. 

I have aging turned on for everyone.  I think I read that aging could be on or off for non-played households as long as it doesn't change during the challenge.  Aarush did become an elder right before Courage moved out.  If I was to ever do this challenge again, I think I'd start with aging off for non-active households.

Gen 5 is going to be a big one!  As much as I love all of Liam's descendants, I am really motivated to finish this challenge as soon as possible!

So much was being done here. You're a lot ahead of me now. And thanks, reading you is often what kicks me into updating.

Congrats on every lift and birthdays. The children are adorable. And sweaters boys keep being a funny constant.

Thanks!  Honor's generation has cleared some important careers. 

The sweater boys continue to amuse me, mostly because this is the only file that they keep popping up in. 

[BallerinaHippo]

Breathing Room

Since I ended my last update with a pregnancy announcement, you might reasonably be expecting some nooboo pictures.  We’ll get to that soon, but first I have to report that I reached level 10 of the Secret Agent Villain career. 

That means we can now build outside of our original 8x8 grid; and we can sell, delete, or release spirits of urns or graves.

It’s difficult to tell in the photo above, but I was still very much pregnant.  Here’s a side view of me leaving for work the following day.


Miracle also reached the top of her career—interstellar smuggler.  She was a little tense, but doesn’t she look good?  I’m still jealous of her career outfit.

We can now use career reward objects and upgrade any object.

As much as I wanted to expand the house and bring some career reward objects out of family inventory, there was something I had to do first. 




It should come as no surprise that I had twins again.

We named our boys Loyal and Chance.

And then we did a big, huge update to the house.  We wanted to honor the history of the Bunker so we went with a modern cube design. 


The entryway is in its original location.  We expanded the first floor to include a kitchen/dining/bar area, a family room with a focused vibe, and a nursery/toddler/play room with its own bathroom.


Going up a level, we have a music room and an art room which both have room to expand.  There are also two bedrooms/bathrooms on this level.  Nobuya and I have the bedroom on the left while Miracle and Glory share the other bedroom. 


On the top floor is another bedroom and bath for kids.  Mercy and Justice currently share this bedroom.  They will eventually be joined by their younger brothers so we have lots of beds in this room.

There is also an outdoor patio on this level with a wedding arch and space for a future garden (once the manual labor career is cleared).  Finally, there is a home gym with lots of windows that provide great views. 

Outside, we added a pool.


And a hot tub.


And we had room to finally make a family cemetery.  I strengthened the connection to the physical world for all my departed relatives.


We also built underground bunkers for all three of our rockets.  We have the original rocket that Patience and Miracle built plus the two rockets that they received as career rewards.  Miracle built one of the new rockets.


Launched it.


And crashed it.


Don’t worry.  She was okay.   

We might not keep all three rockets, though.  Miracle says two will be more than enough.  We’ll keep the original one that’s already fully upgraded (for going to space) and one more (to upgrade for the Nerd Brain aspiration).

Whew!  That’s a lot of house pictures.  Right after the big renovation, it was time for Mercy and Justice to have their teen birthday. 


Mercy is active and outgoing.  She has the bodybuilder aspiration.


Justice is a genius and outgoing.  He chose the Nerd Brain aspiration.


Next, it was time to snuggle Loyal and Chance one more time before aging them up to toddlers.


Loyal looks more like me, and Chance resembles Nobuya.


They are both independent which will serve them well in this busy family.


And yes, there is quite an age difference between my two sets of twins.  They all get along great, though.  Mercy and Justice are a big help with their younger brothers.



Note:  Even though the villain branch of the secret agent career has 11 levels, both Pinstar and ImaginingMystic have said that it is okay to count the career as maxed at level 10 because the game awards the achievement at that level.

Current household members:
Honor and Nobuya
Their children Mercy and Justice (teens) and Loyal and Chance (toddlers)
Honor’s twin sister Miracle and Miracle’s daughter Glory (child)
 

[oshizu]

Congrats on more career unlocks!
The remodeled house looks fantastic! I love how you've kept its cubistic orgins and its very spacious feel.
How does it feel to have so much space after living in the 8x8?
Happy birthday to Mercy, Justic, Loyal, and Chance.

I look forward to learning about the future choices of those four + Glory!
You've mentioned on several occasions now that you're eager to complete this challenge.
Is it because, after completing many of the most essential career unlocks, the Apocalypse Challenge has begun to feel, well, less challenging!

May the Murrays enjoy life in their new home. They've certainly earned it!
Lol, your game seems to have mobilized all the sweater boys the world ever. My current game hasn't seen a single one...

[Tynynounours]

Whoaaah. The new house is beautiful. So much space...

Welcome to Loyal and Chance. They're really cute.

[BallerinaHippo]

Congrats on more career unlocks!
The remodeled house looks fantastic! I love how you've kept its cubistic orgins and its very spacious feel.
How does it feel to have so much space after living in the 8x8?
Happy birthday to Mercy, Justic, Loyal, and Chance.
I look forward to learning about the future choices of those four + Glory!
You've mentioned on several occasions now that you're eager to complete this challenge.
Is it because, after completing many of the most essential career unlocks, the Apocalypse Challenge has begun to feel, well, less challenging!
May the Murrays enjoy life in their new home. They've certainly earned it!
Lol, your game seems to have mobilized all the sweater boys the world ever. My current game hasn't seen a single one...

There are many reasons that I'm eager to finish this challenge.  One is, as you say, it's gotten less challenging with so many career unlocks.  I'm also afraid I'm going to make a stupid mistake because I constantly have to remind myself that there are still some things I can't do yet.  For example, I caught myself starting to buy a mirror the other day.  Luckily, I didn't do it, but mirrors can't be used until Comedian is unlocked.  I was wondering why none of my bathrooms had mirrors in them, and then I remembered.  Duh!  There's also the fact that the only "goal" for each sim is to complete one career, and that's getting a little monotonous at this point.  Of course, I really like this family so I want them to finish strong.  At this point I'm just trying to figure out the fastest way to do that.   

As for the sweater boys, it's just such a weird thing!  The other day in CAS, I realized that "the sweater" also has a few solid color variations so there may have been even more sweater boys that I didn't notice because their sweater didn't have the pattern on it!  It's also interesting to me that my family has had many female births, but the kids my game generates for friends are mostly boys.  Maybe the game is trying to provide spouse options?

Whoaaah. The new house is beautiful. So much space...
Welcome to Loyal and Chance. They're really cute.

Thanks!  I had fun making the new house.  It's probably more space than they need, but I figure they deserve it!

[BallerinaHippo]

Crowning Glory

I want to begin this update by bragging about my twin sister Miracle.  Earlier this week, she became the first sim in our family (who wasn’t a Wonder Child) to complete the bodybuilder aspiration.  Way to go, sis!


Of course, she never could have done it without Courage’s help.  He’s the one who cleared the restriction against visiting community lots (e.g. the gym).  I bumped into both Courage and Patience in the park the other day, and it was so good to see them.  They are both doing well.


Since completing bodybuilder, Miracle has been mentoring Mercy in fitness.  I’m so glad Mercy has her aunt to help her because you know my fitness isn’t high enough to mentor anybody.


Justice has been spending his free time crafting all kinds of sculptures and furniture while working on his Nerd Brain aspiration.


It’s nice having someone else in the house with some handiness skill.  A bigger house means more things to break, but Justice and I have been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with repairs and upgrades.




I was afraid that having ghosts in the house would mean a never-ending cycle of broken plumbing, but so far our ghosts have been fairly well behaved.  They seem to take most of their aggression out on the poor dollhouse, but the dollhouse is easy enough to fix.


Overall, I think I quite like having the ghosts around.  Nobuya and I had a nice chat with my grandfather Ernest who died before I was born.


And I also got to meet my great aunt Faith.  She was just as sweet as could be.


The most amazing ghostly visit, however, has been from my great grandma Jasmin.  At first, she seemed busy on the computer and I didn’t want to bother her.


But later, she followed me upstairs and mentored me while I was working out on the treadmill. 

It really was such an honor to meet her, and I can only hope that our founder, my great grandpa Liam, will show up someday. 

In other news, I received one more promotion at work.  I’m in the only career with 11 levels, and I finally reached Triple Agent.


Anyway, when I’m not working or talking to our ghosts, you can usually find me playing with one of these cuties.


It seems everyone likes to hang out in the playroom.  It’s a popular spot for eating meals and doing homework.  Luckily, Loyal and Chance don’t seem to mind sharing their space or their beds.


Nobuya still enjoys painting, and I’m so glad that he has a proper studio to work in now.


My niece completed her Whiz Kid aspiration, and soon it was time to celebrate her teen birthday.


Naoki came over, and he and Glory enjoyed some daddy/daughter time before she blew out her candles.


Somehow no one thought to take a picture of Glory with her cake, but I do have this picture of Glory with her parents.  You can see that she looks a lot like Miracle, but with Naoki’s blonde hair. 


Glory’s birthday was in the middle of the week so she had plenty of time to improve her grades in high school before the weekend.  Why was this important?  Because it meant that she started the manual labor career at level 2 on Saturday.


And after her second shift, Glory maxed her career.  We can now grow and harvest our own plants.  And we can hire a maid (although I doubt we will).


As soon as Glory reached the top of the teen manual labor career, she and Miracle moved in with Naoki.  I can’t say that I blame them for being so anxious to leave!


Editied to add:  In the picture of Honor being mentored in fitness by ghost Jasmin, you can see plants in the background.  I just want to note that they were planted AFTER Glory maxed her career.  Sometimes I put pictures in a little out of order if it makes sense for the story.  In this case, I just wanted the two pictures with Jasmin's ghost to be back-to-back.

[oshizu]

Congrats to Honor on reaching the top of the Villain career!
It seems so unfair that all the work should culminate in such a blah career outfit, thought I, so I googled "James Bond villains."
Turns out Daniel Craig wore a similar outfit (P. Neal mock turtleneck) in the 2015 Bond film "Spectre" which I never saw.
It hardly matters, though, since I imagine Honor will quit her career to turn her attention to the household of children!

Wow, Glory grew up into a really beautiful teen! Good on her for completing Manual Labor in one weekend!
Awww, how nice that Naoki, Miracle, and Glory are reunited! Do they live in the 'hood?

How many careers do you have left now? 2 teen and 4-5 adult careers?

[commasplice]

You're making me want to retry this challenge!

[BallerinaHippo]

Congrats to Honor on reaching the top of the Villain career!
It seems so unfair that all the work should culminate in such a blah career outfit, thought I, so I googled "James Bond villains."
Turns out Daniel Craig wore a similar outfit (P. Neal mock turtleneck) in the 2015 Bond film "Spectre" which I never saw.
It hardly matters, though, since I imagine Honor will quit her career to turn her attention to the household of children!
Wow, Glory grew up into a really beautiful teen! Good on her for completing Manual Labor in one weekend!
Awww, how nice that Naoki, Miracle, and Glory are reunited! Do they live in the 'hood?
How many careers do you have left now? 2 teen and 4-5 adult careers?

Haha!  Yeah, the Secret Agent outfits are kind of blah.  The criminal and astronaut outfits are probably my favorite.
Miracle's family lives in the neighborhood so we might see them around. 
Glory cleared the 16th career which means there are still 9 more!  2 of them are teen careers and 7 are adult careers.  I still feel like I'm close, though, because Honor and Nobuya have so many kids.  Speaking of which...

You're making me want to retry this challenge!

I will take that as a compliment! 

[BallerinaHippo]

What’s one (or two) more?

In my last update, I got so excited explaining how Glory maxed the teen manual labor career that I forgot to mention that Loyal and Chance had a birthday!  Once again, we neglected to take pictures with the birthday cake, but here they are as toddlers on the morning of their birthday:


…and here they are after aging up.

Chance (on the left) is self-assured and wants to be a social butterfly.  Loyal (on the right) is a genius who wants to be a whiz kid. 

They are already the best of friends.


I think this picture of them leaving for their first day of school really shows how much they look alike.


We had a family day at the big park in Willow Creek so that Chance could meet people for Social Butterfly. 


Mercy brought along her friend Armando.  They somehow got stuck in the middle of a cosplay club, but it didn’t seem to bother them.


Justice brought along his friend Carla to play chess.


Nobuya and I simply found a quiet place to sit.


And of course, Loyal and Chance met a few new kids which fulfilled the main purpose of our outing. 

Surprisingly, only one of the new kids was a sweater boy.


When Glory and Miracle left our household, we were a family of six—me, Nobuya, Mercy, Justice, Loyal, and Chance.


I suppose we could have moved someone in to fill one of those empty spaces in our household, but Nobuya and I had other plans.






I don’t know if watching the kids network really increases your chances of having multiples or if that’s just an old wives’ tale.  We’d like to have twins again, though, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to try it.  Our ley line seems to be pretty strong, but you never know.


Meanwhile, Nobuya painted portraits of Mercy and Justice for the family gallery.


Then, it was time to celebrate their young adult birthday.  And look!  Cake pictures!

Yes, my two oldest children became young adults while I was pregnant.  It happens.

Justice immediately joined the business career.  He added cheerful to his outgoing and genius traits.


Mercy joined the athletic career.  She is now an active, outgoing bro.


Nobuya also received a birthday notice around this time, but we didn’t bake a cake.  We didn’t want him to become an elder until the last possible second.


I think he still looks great, but I do wish we had more time.


There wasn’t a lot of time to dwell on that, though, because I soon went into labor.  Nobuya knew just how to get me through it.  He’s an old pro at this by now.


And here we are with our third set of twins. 

I’m holding Felicity who was born first.  Nobuya is holding Harmony, our sixth (and last) child.

[oshizu]

Nice! 2 teen careers and 7 adult careers aren't that much at all!
Looks like that generation of three sets of twins (wow!!!!) will be finishing up the Murray Apocalypse Challenge!

Loyal and Chance were cute as toddlers, but even cuter as children.
Haha, "only one sweater boy"!
Honor/Nobuya's kids are so balanced! Girl/boy twins, boy twins, then girl twins, lol!

I'm so curious to learn which one or two careers you save until last.