The Nectar Invitational (Complete!)

[Trident]

Hello everyone! I'm Trident, and I'm resurrecting a very old challenge indeed.

This is a for-fun-only version of Metro’s Zeus and Hera's Nectar Making Invitational. Essentially, you create two Sims, put them on the Long lifespan, give them fifteen weeks, one vacation to France, and try to make as much expensive nectar as you can. At the end of the challenge, you sell it all, and hope it's a lot.

In the interest of playing on the same field as when the challenge was created, the only expansion pack I have downloaded is World Adventures. I've also banned myself from the multi tab and the dragons from Dragon Valley.

But enough of that; let's meet our nectar slaves makers, Brandy and Jack Barstool.





Jack and Brandy as a young couple who used to own a microbrewery pub in Bridgeport. Unfortunately, it was shut down when the FSA (Food and Sim Administration) learned that all of their nectar was pre-bought. Rats! If they want their lovely home back, they're going to have to prove that they can make their own stuff.

(Brandy is Artistic and Insane. Jack is Handy and a Loner. They're both Ambitious, Green Thumbs who Love the Outdoors).

The two were set down in Sunset Valley, since I know where to find special seeds and gems in Sunset Valley. They bought 2500 Pinochle Pond, and Jack was sent right to the store to purchase seeds.



They got this nice tiny shack, and Brandy got an easel to work on her painting skill. It's not required for the challenge, but it will hopefully help pay the bills.

Jack bought thirty apples and thirty garlic. Brandy planted the apples. (And I divided the  Jack went to the library to learn handiness and gardening. He also harvested plants on the way home.

Here’s their lovely little garden. They each have half to tend to.



The next few days had lots, and lots, and lots of aggressive skilling and wish fulfilling. They ended up adding limes and watermelons to the garden. Jack learned cooking and worked on his handiness; Brandy painted. (Not as much as I would have liked, but she did). I also wanted to show her formal outfit:



(Yup, it's Agnes hair. I thought she look quite cute, really.

By Wednesday, Brandy purchased the Prepared Traveller reward. It's both a good and a bad thing that Jack needed to catch up. It's bad because it took longer. It's good because, when checking the price for traveling, I learned that they were short.

Hmm.

The good news is that Brandy had already planted two special seeds, and they had both sprouted into money trees. The bad news is that it would take precious, precious time! Ack!

(Really, the whole time, I had to keep reminding myself that I would have nine days in France, and a whole fifteen Sim weeks to do this challenge. And yet. I worry.)

We pursued happiness points and opportunities. Brandy joined two careers and quit both of them for a quick 900 LTHP. Jack fished to make some quick cash. I scoured the map for metals and gems. Brandy started a non-fiction novel called “How To Google Gem Locations”.  Jack fished more to fulfill an opportunity.



The next morning, the  first apple harvest came in.

I debated if I should sell them, or make simple nectar with them. I finally decided to plant the Great quality ones, sell the Normal and Nice ones, and make nectar with the rest. There's plenty of free produce in France to make cheap start nectar with, but we can't get to France without money, and at the very least, if I can't make nectar with this next apple crop, (hopefully I'll have watermelon and lime and such,) I can sell it.

It was Thursday night. The gems I had found the day before had been cut and sold for a profit. Brandy, who wishes for everything, could purchase the Jetsetter reward. Jack had become a Prepared Traveller. The apples were harvested, sold, and planted. Garlic for future fertilizing was growing beautifully. High-value traveling wishes had been locked down ages ago.

The Barstools were ready for France.


(There is a rule in the Invitational that people can't share detailed information. I asked Metro; he says it's fine. After all, it is nine years old......)

[Trident]

The Trip To France

Now.

The bad news was that we set down with only about $300.

The good news was that we only needed one nectar maker and one rack. I can use the duplicate tool to get more from home when there's more money. (And, that Brandy finally wore her pajamas).



But goodness gracious, to get to that point? We had our work cut out for us.

Brandy was sent off to get her Visa level up, if only for those precious rare grapes. Jack, who has the Bottomless Nectar Cellar LTW, threw up plenty of wishes and ran off to the nectar. (After he got the foreign fruits at the Pivert house).



(You can find almost every foreign fruit here in France. It's crazy. Pomelos, pomegranates, and plums all grows at the Pivert house, for some lovely alliteration.)

While Brandy went grave robbing in her cute formal outfit,



Jack harvested plants.



The poor guy. He really just wants to make nectar, but no. There's work to be done. I didn't even let him learn the skill when he finally finished harvesting, because I remembered about the tomb in the bottom of the nectary. Jack can't unlock the whole thing, but he can at least take what he can and make a quick buck.



My true eternal thanks to whoever put a bed, bathroom, and fridge in the nectary.

On the morning of their second day, after selling the collected tomb loot, Jack purchased a nectar rack and a nectar machine. He also got that one mission that gives you map access to titanium reserves. Brandy was sent after those. Jack was busy harvesting the nectar garden. (This ended up being a bad idea, but I'll get to that).

Now, we get into some strategy. See-I’m sure everyone knows about the China wing at the museum.



Did you know you can use those?



My plan was to have Jack learn Martial Arts so that he could get the grapes in case Brandy didn't get her Visa maxed out. (We're gonna get more into that in a second.) Brandy was doing her best to max it out as rapidly as possible.



(This was the point where I decided that I needed to stop properly tomb reading. No extra secret doors, etc; I needed to get through the tombs as quickly as possible. I've never gotten a maxed Visa in one try before. I really needed to focus if I wanted to get it.)

And, since I couldn't work this in naturally, Jack got the titanium quest around the second day. He and Brandy grabbed and smelted titanium whenever they were near some. It really helped the family funds. I bought a few nectar machines and the fancy racks.

The next few days passed with a mix of apprehension and panic. Brandy did manage to get her Visa to level two, but level three was coming slowly. Jack was steadily progressing along his Martial Arts skill, but it was already day six and no one had even learned the Nectar Making skill. I was, truly, freaking out a little bit.

Then the game crashed.

Luckily, I managed to get back to a slightly earlier save. I only lost a few hours. Since I already knew that Brandy wouldn't be able to get her Visa finished, I pulled her out of the Landgraab Chateau. I put her on making batches of apple and cherimola nectar in between trips to gather the Pivert fruits, and the Nectary garden.



She only gained a few levels, but we have nectar! Real nectar! And about a billion grapes. Perfect.

And Jack?



He got to Zenport.

With Brandy's level two Visa, I bought the remaining grape varieties. Just like that, I had access to almost every fruit in the game. Sure, it would have been better if I had set Jack to Zenporting immediately, and Brandy hadn't wasted a whole day running around the Chateau, but ack. I have to take my wins as they come.

Neither one of them gained more than a few levels of any skill, but they made about 20k, got the Nectar books, and had the machines, the racks, and the fruits. Overall, a rather successful vacation.



Why the cab dropped them off at the Wolff's house is anyone's guess.

[mpart]

This sounds like an interesting challenge! It's always horrible when the game crashes, but going back into game afterwards always feels like having and exasperated game plan. Brandy is gorgeous and it's crazy how well you did during their vacation!

[Trident]

@mpart Thank you so much! Brandy really is a cute Sim. I modified one of the pre-made ones; that's where her square jaw comes from. I think it really adds to her character. (And, of course; the game crashed again during this next bit. In a little bit of the game's defense, I really, really need a new computer).

Week Two (Mostly)

The Barstools went back home at 11 pm on Thursday of the first week. I set them up a basement and their machines immediately, (I had five), and put the nectar they had made into the racks. The sooner it started aging, the better.

(There was supposed to be a photo of the basement, but I lost it).

(There was also supposed to be a picture of he machines, but here's the best I got).



(I'm gonna reuse it in a minute).

You might notice the hole in the ground.



I put a ladder there because I had a problem moving nectar from the inventory into the basement.  And then deleted it. And then, for no apparent reason, couldn't fix the ground.

So that's there now. At least they can't fall into it.

You'll notice the two chests! One is for perfect fruit. The other is for non-perfect fruit. See, the garden got a few expansions.



(Really, I lost a lot of screenshots. I've been having some issues with my PC. It's a freaking jungle right now. It takes the whole day to harvest, and even then, they rarely get the whole thing.)

Anyway, that's the main garden. Pretty much everything they found in France was planted there. We also have two smaller gardens.



The one on the left is where I plant special seeds. The one on the right is for the generational plants, the ones that I'm aiming to fertilize and re-plant until I get perfect plants. When I started getting perfect plants, they went into this third pen, which I lost the screenshot for. I'm waiting until the current garden is picked barren; then I'll plant rows and rows of perfect plants. For now, all the prefect plants sit in their own chest.

By the time I got this all set up, week one was over.

Value as of Week 2, Day One, 12:13 AM: $733.

Jack set to work upgrading the nectar machines. Every single one got Improved Pressing added on. Improved Pressing adds an extra bottle per each batch. Very useful!



As you can see, poor Jack still didn't get to make nectar.

Since we had enough fruits to start a farmer's market, Brandy spent a lot of time making nectar. (I used the wiki extensively). Without life fruit or flame fruit, she still managed to make quite a few high end blends, over and over and over again.

And oh, fine, I felt bad, and Jack got his share, too. By the end of the week, Jack was at level five of the Nectar Making skill, and Brandy at level eight. They had both completed the Master Farmer challenge, and Brandy was even a Master Planter. (I had to plant 21 plants for the challenge to register, instead of 19. Ridiculous). Neither had Flavorful Feet, but poor Jack did manage to accomplish his Lifetime Wish of Bottomless Nectar Cellar! (And then bought the Meditative Trance Sleep reward). We have tons of fruit, a jungle landscape, not enough photos,  four varieties of perfect plants, and about two hundred bottles of nectar.

Value as of Week 3, Day One, 12:34 AM: $15,876

I'm feeling good about this.

(Sorry for the tiny update! It felt like so much more. If anyone is curious, I'm tracking the nectar value by hovering over Jack's LTW box. It keeps track of the cost of nectar on the property).

[Beks]

This is fascinating to read! These types of challenges always daunt me because of everything you have to keep track of and all the strategizing they require. You're doing an excellent job so far. Also, I love your writing style.

[mpart]

Computer issues are rough! Agh!
$15,876 already? :O Wow! that's impressive.
 Also, I agree with amaranthin. I'm happy I can just write down traits and points most days. I can't imagine how much work must go into this challenge behind the scenes.

[Trident]

@amaranthin Thank you so much! I'm doing my best
@mpart I've needed to get my computer looked at for like. Two years XD. And really, this challenge isn't that hard, it's mostly just googling nectar recipes 

Real Sick Of Looking At The Same Thing

This is going to a pretty rapid summary of weeks, uh, four through six!

Now, I don't know how many of you know this, but! Nectar increases in value when you use perfect fruits. You might remember my careful circulation of generational plants I mentioned last time.



As perfect plants finally started to sprout, I planted them in their own little pen. Every perfect plant went straight into its own chest. (One giant chest for only perfect plants, not a ton of chests for each kind of plant). I stored them up and didn't touch them.

This took, uh. Quite a while. Mostly it was waiting, and watching, and using whatever high quality plants I had t make the higets quality wine I could make.







Pretend you've just seen these images on repeat for a whole week. Congratulations! That's what it's like to play this challenge XD

Value as of Week Four, Day One, 12:04 AM: $76,501. 427 bottles.

The massive jungle finally began to die out.



My plan was to wait for it all to die out, and then replant the whole thing with perfect plants, prioritizing the high-valued grapes over things like limes and cherimola blan grapes. (I have about, uh. Four hundred of those. I don't think I'll ever use them).

Brandy and Jack continued to harvest and squish grapes. They both have Flavorful Feet and are Masters of Nectar Making, which respectively give a bonus to price and an extra bottle per batch. Every machine is upgraded with Improved Pressing, which adds another bottle per batch, meaning that instead of three bottles per batch, the Barstools make five.

As the jungle began to die out, Brandy and Jack actually had time to spend together.



This was about the point I realized I had made a tactical blunder. Brandy, who's LTW is to be a Renaissance Sim, should have been the one to learn Handiness. Instead, Jack's the one sitting on three maxed skills. Whoops 

With the jungle dying out, at least she has time to paint.



The whole thing is really an endless cycle of harvesting and nectar making. At least it makes for relatively quick play?

Value as of Week Five, Day One, 12:01 AM: $170,030. 683 bottles.

Week Five began with birthdays. (I think. I didn't write this one down).





Again, I made an error. My computer has an issue where it seems to apply the aging of the last game I played, to the next game I play. The Barstools are supposed to be on the Long lifespan. Since the last file I played was the normal-living Paperclips, the Barstools had been reverted to a Normal lifespan. Gah! I fixed it after their birthdays, but it's still just. Really annoying. (And it makes me super paranoid during Dynasty play).

The jungle was finally almost gone.



With just about the only things left being plum trees, (and I had five hundred plums,) I finally caved.



On the left, a little bit of everything. On the right, the beginnings of twenty-four perfect life plants.

(Now, what I should have done is just ignore the rest of the plants, and focus solely on pomegranates and life fruit. With life fruit/pomegranate nectar being the most valuable by several dozen miles.....I have no idea why I didn't. Ah, well).



The new jungle, (with some flame fruit,) was thankfully small enough that it didn't take literally all day to get through it. Brandy and Jack actually have some free time!

And, the most exciting thing to happen since France;



At least nothing got taken. If he had taken a nectar machine, I would have screamed. (It turns out you can't use the eyedropper tool on nectar machines. You can use them on the, uh, bottle holder? Thingies? Those work fine, but you can't eyedrop the machines. Ack.

Value as of Week Six, Day One, 12:42 AM: $325,635. 973 bottles.

The value-to-bottles dropped a little in the last week there. That's because, as the jungle died out, we started to run out of plants, and I just. Made more bottles of lesser value nectar. Mixed feelings, mixed feelings.





I think they'll go on a proper honeymoon when this is done. Isla Paradiso, maybe. Somewhere that's not France.

[Sonshine]

Hi Trident, did you know that you can find the special grapes on the little island free for the picking in France? No need to spend time building up visa points to buy them unless you want to of course, lol.  

[Deklitch]

There is that premium content (the fruit and vegetable stands) that can also result in the purchase of the French grapes.

[Beks]

I've had the same problem with aging between files. I assumed it was just built into the game that if you change the aging span in settings, it applies to all your files, but now I'm wondering if it is a glitch. It definitely doesn't make a lot of sense in a game like this (where a lot of players play in multiple files at a time).

I'm still so impressed with your strategizing. And with your ability to do so much gardening. The gardening skill drives me insane in TS3 because it's so time-consuming and because you have to re-plant everything in order to increase the quality. I want to pull my hair out just thinking about it!

[Sonshine]

I've had the same problem with aging between files. I assumed it was just built into the game that if you change the aging span in settings, it applies to all your files, but now I'm wondering if it is a glitch. It definitely doesn't make a lot of sense in a game like this (where a lot of players play in multiple files at a time).

I'm still so impressed with your strategizing. And with your ability to do so much gardening. The gardening skill drives me insane in TS3 because it's so time-consuming and because you have to re-plant everything in order to increase the quality. I want to pull my hair out just thinking about it!

I've noticed the same thing about the aging. Whenever I change the aging in one world, it applies to all worlds.   I really wish we could have separate aging for each world. I also hear you on the gardening thing. I don't mind it, but it is time consuming. You could possibly cheat and use debug enabler to grow them instantly, but that would take the challenge out of it.

[Trident]

@Sonshine  I did know! I got them on my trip to France : ) There's a pic of Jack getting them from the island!
@Deklitch Alas. If I only afford premium content. But at least I got the grapes anyway! They're in the France trip : )
@amaranthin The aging thing drives me bananas. I actually really like gardening in TS3! It feels almost like doing laundry, in a weird way? You put the seed in the ground, you leave it alone, you come back, it's done. You put the laundry in the wash, you leave it alone, you come back, its' done. Getting those higher value plants is a definite hassle, though.

Quick Summary

Nothing interesting has happened, at all. I played more life fruit, I locked the jungle, (so we can focus on the life fruit,) and made a ton of nectar.

Value as of Week Seven, Day One, 12:02 AM: $623,102. 1,328 bottles.

Value as of Week Eight, Day One, 12:16 AM: $1,083,209. 1,728 bottles.

Value as of Week Nine, Day One, 12:12 AM: $1,689,553. 2,158 bottles.

We did hit a million!



Here's a conciliatory picture of Brandy in her work-out gear. I'm glad I made her insane. Her clothes-changing at least lightens up some of the monotony.

Thanks for reading!
 

[Deklitch]

I find gardening is a good way to keep elders occupied while you are waiting for Grimm to come for them ... I think that David Eddings' Belgarath the Sorcerer put it best when he said something along the lines of "Immortality isn't all its cracked up to be ... sometimes there's nothing to do but wait for the centuries to pass." Not that I know anything about immortality of course.

[KRae]

I'm laughing at @Deklitch's  gardening comment. I'm officially retired as of July 1 and I've got 4 large raised veggie beds growing this summer. I haven't started playing in the sprinkler yet though.

[Sonshine]

ROFL KRae! My hubby does most of the gardening and I put it up. We've been retired for a little while now.