Isolation Experiment Subject 1A-- A Room Challenge COMPLETED

[Brian_Z]

Inspired by @Granny Lawlor 's recent playthrough of this challenge, I've decided to try it out for myself.  I've never done a challenge before, but this is one that doesn't look like it will take forever to complete, and I can get back to my usual style of playthrough.

The (really old!) rules set for this challenge:  https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/793808/sims-4-room-challenge
These rules were set up before most of the DLC packs, and later packs have made things much easier.  I'm playing on the principle of "if it doesn't say you can't, then it means that you can."  There's no official contest taking place anyway, it's just for fun.
I've got quite a few mods, and lots of CC.  I'm not using any mods to cheat, and the CC is almost purely cosmetic-- except for her piano.  It's a CC upright piano that takes up a lot less space, although there is the electronic keyboards with the same footprint.  The only advantage of the piano is that it doesn't break down, and it doesn't make annoying noises.

Autumn is a Teen with 4 traits (because mod):  Feminine (A CC trait that's a little bit of Romantic, a little bit of Family Oriented, small bonuses to "girly" things like Cooking, and small penalties to "manly" things like Fitness and Logic), Cheerful, Freegan, and Music Lover.

Settings:  Aging on Long, with customized age spans.
               2-week seasons, starting in spring.



My name is Autumn Weaver.  I'm a Native American, of the Navajo nation.  I've left "the Rez" behind for a couple of reasons:  My only realistic career option was to drive an hour each way to work in retail, and I'm only half Indian.  The wrong half.  In Native society, you inherit everything from your mother, and mine was white.  So I get a lot of nonsense from peers with less Native blood than me, saying I'm not really an Indian.



I'm not sure why I'm locked in this tiny house.  All I really know is that I found myself standing out in front of it, and I had a strong urge to go inside and pick up a guitar that was in the kitchen area.  And then I turned around, and there was no front door anymore.



Well, here's the kitchen area.



A pretty nice piano, a love seat, and a cheap TV sitting on an old crate.



And then a bed, computer, shower, and toilet.  Those cameras freak me out, I have no idea who's watching.



And then a little outdoor area.  For some reason there's a mailbox.  How is anything supposed to get into that mailbox?



The outside view of Autumn's prison... Er, house.



I did cheat to unlock the cameras, but they don't do anything other than fit the weird experiment theme.  And they were pretty expensive.  She's got a whopping $88 left right now!

[Brian_Z]

Well, I've managed to play through a week already.

Week 1
Starting score:  100
Penalties:  -6  (7 days passed, the first day doesn't count.)
Aspiration bonus:  +10  (Musical Genius, 2/4)
Total: 104


So one of the very first things that happened, was that a Welcome Wagon tried to show up.  Except that there's no way in, and they went away after a while.  However, I still got their phone numbers somehow, and chatting with them on the phone was SO much better than chatting on a computer!


Autumn is a sim I made quite a while back, and I just dropped her into CAS from my library.  I forgot all about changing her aspiration, but fortunately it was Body Builder.  Doing yoga counts as working out, so she hit a point where she couldn't do any more without traveling later that day.


And then I remembered you can also use a TV to work out.


There actually is an advantage to dumpster diving au naturel.  You get dirty much more slowly!


But you still get dirty.  As much as I don't want to put on a show for the cameras, there isn't really anything I can do about that.


One of the wondrous things I've pulled out of the dumpster.


And the proceeds from selling the stuff that's worth selling, have paid for seed packets, and getting started on the money I'm supposed to raise before I can get out of here.


And soon, I should start getting some song royalty money coming in.

[Brian_Z]

A two-week update.

Week 2
Starting score:  104
Penalties:  -7  (7 days passed)
Bonuses:  Aspiration  +15 (Musical Genius 3/4, now stumped because of the Mentor Others requirement)
               Skills  +50  (Piano, Cooking, Guitar, Singing, Violin)
               Total of Bonuses +65
New Score: 162

Week 3
Starting Score: 162
Penalties:  -7  (7 days passed)
Bonuses:  Aspiration  +10  (Writing Aspiration 2/4)
               Skills +30  (Gardening, Gourmet Cooking, Writing)
               Total of Bonuses +40
New Score:  195

I think I forgot to mention, that the lot is the medium-tier Tiny Home, which is helping tremendously!

(Autumn)  The cameras bother me less and less every day.  In fact, I have to confess they now give me a perverse pleasure, and I don't always dress every day.
I've mastered all three of the instruments I have, and singing as well, so I have 4 songs generating income for me every day!


(Autumn)  And now I've started writing books.  The money is starting to come in, but still pretty slowly.  Whoever is watching on the cameras, sometimes tells me things over the wall speaker that usually just plays music.  It's a computer-generated voice, I'm sure so that I can't indentify them later.  They say I can get a Money Tree seed, once I "earn" it.  Not sure what they mean by that.
(Watcher)  I'm sure I'm not going to have the same incredible stroke of luck that Granny Lawlor had, pulling a money tree seed out of the dumpster.  Autumn's first 4,000 Satisfaction was spent on Savant, as soon as she saves up 5,000 again I'm buying the Money Tree seed to speed things up.  She's going to run out of skills and aspirations she can do from in here!


The dumpster was crucial early on, when Autumn was broke.  Not as much anymore, but with the Reduce and Recycle lot challenge I still have her clear it out rather than pay to have it emptied.  She did get a much nicer TV than she had before though!


Stay classy, random passer-by.


Publishing another book.  Since Autumn likes the yoga mat so much, she keeps changing into her workout outfit.  Maybe I should put together more of them...

[Brian_Z]

And another two-week update.

Week 4
Starting Score  195
Penalties  -7  (7 days passed)
Bonuses:  Aspiration  +5  (Bestselling Author, part 3 completed)
               Skills  +20  (Handiness, Wellness)
Bonus total +25
New Score  213

Week 5
Starting Score 213
Penalties  -7  (7 days passed)
Bonuses:  Aspiration  +25  (Bestselling Author complete, Fabulously Wealthy complete)
New Score 221

Two weeks of Autumn doing a lot of the same things I've already shared pics of!  But some progress was made, especially in the money making department.  She wrote a ludicrous number of books, which means she now gets around 10k a day in royalties.  She also bought a money tree, which has finally matured, and now the money is pouring in.  She had to write a lot of books-- when she got to the final part of Bestselling Author, it took many, many tries to write 3 bestsellers.  I really should have bought her Creative Visionary first!
I got rid of the dumpster, and now a treadmill is in that space.  You can see the money tree with its golden leaves behind her.


And an auto-recycling trash can.  This is cc, but it's exactly the same as the vanilla one.


Publishing all those books has made Autumn very famous, in spite of the fact that no one has ever met her!  So now paparazzi hang out on the sidewalk pointlessly.


Once she finally wrote her last bestseller, I had her do Charisma before she gets started on the painting aspiration.  It went fast, between the Tiny Home boost, Savant, and the celebuserums she gets in the mail.  But she didn't quite get there before the week ended, so Charisma will get counted in Week 6.  But having 3 Fame Quirk slots open, and talking to a mirror for hours on end, she got Vain Street!  D'oh, she'll need a Quirk-B-Gone when she gets out of here.  That one drives me nuts.

[Brian_Z]

Week 6

I caught a scoring mistake in a previous post, I counted 2 levels of Musical genius twice!

Starting Score  211  (corrected from a previous mistake)
Penalties -8  (8 days passed)
Bonuses:  Aspiration +30  (Painter Extraordinaire 2/4, Mansion Baron complete)
               Skills  +50  (Charisma, Fitness, Painting, Vampire Lore, Acting)
               Bonus Total +80

Final Score:  283

I could have continued learning quite a few skills, but I'm about ready to wrap this up!
The final week was an all-out blitz to learn whatever she could by Sunday morning.  She painted like a fiend:


Worked out like a maniac:


Spent a couple of days practicing Acting:



And also bought and read the Vampire tomes.  And so, on Sunday, I built all the stuff needed for Mansion Baron, and wrapped it all up.  I wish I had gotten a screenshot of the ridiculousness that was this property at that point!  I didn't care about actually building something, so there was just expensive junk... everywhere!
               

[Brian_Z]

I had long since lost track of what day it was.  I have to look out the window to see if it's day or night, I just go to bed when I'm tired and get up when I'm not anymore.
But late one morning, there was a knock on the door.  Wait, the WHAT?  Where did that come from?
So these two men identify themselves as Mike Bender, a lawyer, and Detective Prewett.  They tell me about this corporation running a highly unethical experiment, and I'm the test subject.  The detective takes a statement from me, and the lawyer informs me that the best solution that had been come up with was that I keep this property.  Not that I would want to continue living here, but there's a ton of valuable stuff and I'm now kind of rich. 


So they leave, and... I'm free to go!  At last!

"You think she believed us?"
"I don't know, she's pretty smart.  But she has no idea who we are!  She'll take the money and get on with her life."


I can't believe this place is mine!  But it was actually well under my budget.  I love the way it looks from the street, the very strange floor plans, the beautiful but very strange decor, everything about this house.

[oshizu]

Yay!  Looking forward to reading all about Autumn's shenanigans!
Oh and, of course, to learn all about the weird experiment of which she's now a specimen.

I love her look.  She is rocking those jeans with the turquoise-inset belt buckle.

[Brian_Z]

Even browsing for CC, I couldn't find very much at all for Native American themed stuff.  Those jeans are one of the few items that fit, because of the turquoise and silver.
Hopefully I'll have time to daydream a bit at work, and come up with more storytelling.

[Granny Lawlor]

Oh, I'm so glad you've started this story. Those cameras really add to the experiment story and are a bit creepy! Lol

I understand about cc mods and screenshot care now! I've resisted using any mods because I worry that they'll break my game.

Good luck to you and Autumn!

[sdhoey]

Cool story, but the bad thing is, now this on my bucket list. Boy, you guys need to take it easy on the old lady!!

[Brian_Z]

Oh, I'm so glad you've started this story. Those cameras really add to the experiment story and are a bit creepy! Lol

I understand about cc mods and screenshot care now! I've resisted using any mods because I worry that they'll break my game.

Good luck to you and Autumn!

Lol yes, the "shocked" emoji and the barrel are things I pasted in, to sanitize the screenshots for a family friendly forum.  Autumn is anatomically correct and not pixelated when undressed in my game.  That's from one particular, well-known naughty mod.  One might even call it "wicked."
Stuff like hair and clothing would rarely cause any problems with your game, and pretty much never break.  Things that affect gameplay in some way, often need an update whenever there's a new game patch.

[Granny Lawlor]

Cool story, but the bad thing is, now this on my bucket list. Boy, you guys need to take it easy on the old lady!!

Ha ha! I'll be looking out for it!

[Nevermore]

I am obsessed with these Room Challenges. Autumn is a funny sim. Dumpster diving naked... classic. LOL! 

[Brian_Z]

Bump so people see a "new" flag!

[Nevermore]

LMAO! Playing the piano naked...
Random pregnant sim.
So much humour.

Great progress!