Thank you Challenge Team for such a fun event! Like I said before, I love micromanaging my Sims, even/especially kids & teens. I apologize in advance for the wordiness of this post — I threw it together this morning (been waking up around 4AM lately for some unknown reason) since I finished playing last night at bedtime.
I started out with Mike & Carol Brady who each had Loves Outdoors, Cheerful, Insider, and the Fabulously Wealthy Aspiration for the Bonus Trait of Business Savvy for the higher-than-average salaries from Careers (they got jobs as Astronauts on the 1st day to benefit from Family Leave on Monday). They were not going to go to work (vacations & holidays), but I was hoping for the groovy phone calls from the townsfolk offering jobs starting at Level 3, 4, or 5. I ended up getting several of these calls and each one gave a bonus and the perks from the level-up bonuses.
I had a 28 day Summer with no extreme weather and no temperature effect on the Sims. For the Eco Lifestyle pack, I disabled NPC voting so I wouldn’t get sidelined by anything weird (like "don’t use excess water or we’ll shut it off and fine you" — had that happen during Elder Traitsman…). I also disabled the Eco Footprint Gameplay, as that definitely wasn’t my focus. I kept Fame enabled because I wasn’t sure if I would utilize that system — (I did not).
The Brady Bunch lived in Oasis Springs on the empty lot of Pebble Burrow. I immediately set the lot type to Tiny Home Residential and kept it at Micro Home for the duration of the challenge. The best perk of this setting is the skills increase. Since you have to have a building to trigger the Micro Home perks, I built a 2X2 doorless building that housed the Satellite Dish. I set the lot traits to Private Dwelling, Study Spot, and Good Schools, but I changed them constantly depending on the current activity.
Holidays: Each day I would check the calendar to see if any holidays had populated so I could delete the unnecessary ones (Night on the Town) or keep the good one (New Skills Day - finally populated on Week 3 Day 1). Then, I would create a holiday for the following day that included school on days I wanted them to go and gave them a holiday from school on days I didn’t want them to go. The activities were always Fasting (because of Rally the Troops) and Make Resolutions (always chose Gain a Skill). The holidays were always a success for everyone and when the holiday ended, everyone received 100 satisfaction points.
Carol created The Brady Bunch Club, but also joined The Good Timers Club for Rally the Troops. The first thing that Mike & Carol did was to add Mortimer to the club, go to the Goth house, start a club gathering that included swiping objects as a club activity, and steal the Armor from the 1st floor and the violin from the 2nd floor. (Once they got home and sold these, they had a little extra cash for purchasing skilling objects.) Then, I filled the club with townies, changed Swipe Objects to Read, went to the library, and had Mike & Carol get all the Satisfaction Points for Vampires (use the computer to search for info on vampires X 2 different Aspirations, read the Vol 1 Encyclopedia, & reach Level 3 Vampire Lore) - quick, easy way to get 1200 points each. After that, the only club activities were skilling related and only included household members. The club ran constantly to earn points, the activities were changed as needed for whatever the kids were doing, the skilling bonuses were purchased as needed, and I didn’t purchase any of the Club Vibe perks.
They adopted all 6 kids on the first day. While Mike was adopting the first Toddler, Carol made a cake for the necessary aging up of the second set of children. They alternated adoptions until all 6 were present and accounted for: Toddlers Bobby & Cindy, Children Peter & Jan, and Teens Greg & Marcia. All who had Aspirations, would constantly shop for points and change aspirations according to the current activity so they would have points for Hygiene & Fun potions and the Savant & Mentor traits.
The daily routine was essentially the same: Toddlers would work on skills with toys, the tablet, or a parent; Children & Teens would do homework and projects when available with parental help, then focus on skills. When the parents weren’t helping the kids, I would have them work on a skill that they could later mentor: Logic, Painting, and Instruments. There was a lot of pausing to facilitate the micromanaging.
I set up different areas of the lot for activities that needed the same mood and purchased the Plumbob Reward Lamps that produced the right mood for the right area. For example: instruments, creativity table, easel, and the kitchen (fridge, stove, & 2 counters) were grouped together with lots of the Inspiring lamps placed throughout the area. That way, the mood would always fit the activity. Also, I only bought items as they needed them, and when all of them were done with that specific skill, I would sell back the items so they wouldn’t get sidelined later with doing an activity that they already had maxed.
They did not take any vacations to foreign lands. The only Field Trip (and the only time Mike & Carol actually left the lot) was to go to Vlad’s house to befriend him so they could invite him over to mentor them on the Pipe Organ. For this, I built a small Pipe Organ room (so the stupid vampire wouldn’t catch fire) that stayed within the boundaries of the Micro Home. (He came over to visit during the third week and after chatting with someone inside, decided to go outside and wait for the sun to do it’s thing… Stupid Vampire!)
I did not have a set plan when I got started, but here is an example of how all my chosen perks helped to max skills:
With the Micro Home perks, Study Spot & Homey lot traits, the Plumbob Reward Lamps, and the Cooking Club Skills Bonus, a Sim could go from Level 0 to 7 in Cooking with only making a Hamburger Cake. Two more group meals and the Skill is maxed. I always had them make group meals so the Toddlers could eat and so that during the first full weekend, they could throw Dinner Parties to max their Charisma skill. (Parties cannot be thrown during a holiday, so the weekdays were not an option and I did not create holidays for that weekend.)
Aging Up:
Cindy maxed all her Toddler skills and was able to age up to a Child on Thursday Week 1 Day 5 around 4:00 AM.
Jan maxed all her Child skills and as many Teen+ skills (funky 'glitch' here that if you don’t start the related skill as soon as the child skill is complete, you can’t start that skill as a child - didn’t know that until after Peter & Jan messed this up…) as she could and was able to age up to a Teen on Thursday Week 1 Day 5 around 7:45 PM.
Peter maxed all his Child skills and as many Teen+ skills as he could and was able to age up to a Teen on Thursday Week 1 Day 5 around 9:00 PM.
Bobby maxed all his Toddler skills (FINALLY) and was able to age up to a Child on Friday Week 1 Day 6 around 1:00 AM.
Cindy & Bobby maxed all their Child skills and as many Teen+ skills as they could and were able to age up to Teens on Tuesday Week 2 Day 3 during the 3:00 PM hour — as soon as they got home from school with their A's.
Greg & Marcia aged up naturally to Young Adults on Monday Week 3 Day 2 in the afternoon. I kept them around to Mentor the other kids.
Skills:
Vampire Lore: all 6 kids got to Level 14 for the most benefit — 84 points toward the multiplier.
Between the 6 of them, they maxed 128 skills. Once I got to around 100 maxed skills, I would check my spreadsheet to see if maxing a skill would help my score or if Level 9 would be the best. Sometimes they maxed a skill without my permission (they all loved to sing). If it was a 5-Level skill they were working on, they definitely maxed it for the most benefit.
They had 969 points toward the multiplier from skill levels not maxed.
To save space (ha ha) here is a link to the grid showing the Teen+ skill levels they all achieved:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NLv7AwgGiFjUS87Pt64AUg36lMFnHlrcBY1TKQF2L1Y/edit?usp=sharing
