Rules: Candidate Teen Challenge

[Granny Lawlor]

The Candidate Teen Challenge

(last modified Oct 7th, 2021)

Background
The Wonder Child Program has been and will continue to be a good training scheme for potential agents and many have graduated and gone on to redeem the City of Glassbolt following their now historic nuclear plant melt-down. However, despite the numerous full and partial successes to address the issues facing the populace, all gains have been followed by repeated relapses.

Doubts have been raised as to whether raising a child in a nurturing environment with strong parental role-models is the best preparation for the isolation not to mention deprivation that will be experienced by our agents.

Exploring a new direction, candidates from all walks of life have been (lured, manipulated, harvested) invited to enter an new project on their child-teen birthday.

Once locked into the project, the terms and conditions, which are clearly laid out in the original promotion (albeit in a tiny font) are made crystal clear to the Candidate Teen by their assigned one-to-one mentor. This is met with a predictable mix of responses. Will the project produce heroes or villains? Master Chefs or Oracles? The City of Glassbolt wait and hope.

Challenge Goals
1.   Achieve Mansion Baron aspiration before aging up to a Young Adult
2.   Age up with the responsible trait (Parenthood)

Challenge Fails
1.   Leaving the 64 tile area for any reason
2.   Travelling outside the lot, ie anything that includes a blue screen.
3.   Aging up to a Young Adult before achieving Mansion Baron
4.   Aging up without the Responsible trait (Parenthood)
On challenge failure, the project will withdraw all support, mentoring, etc. Individual mentors may choose to help their Failed Candidate out of their compound at their own expense although relations between Candidate and Mentor have usually broken down by this point.

Expansion Packs Needed
Parenting is needed to get the Responsible trait - you could play without it but working on responsibility is a significant part of the challenge - please state this when publishing scores
No other packs are needed – see notes below for extra guidance/restrictions

Getting Started
Ideally you should start in a brand new game. No mods that give unfair advantages may be used.

Create your Sim
1.   Create the Candidate Teen from scratch. You may use CAS to create the genetic child of any pre-existing Sims but the parents may not be played as active Sims once the Candidate Teen has moved out.
2.   Choose any two traits or you wish except Loner.
3.   Choose any aspiration with its associated trait. The first level of your aspiration must be possible within the challenge.
4.   If you wish to play with an existing Teen – a townie or downloaded from the gallery – you must cheat to get all skills to zero and have only 3 traits (2 + the aspiration trait). If you want to keep any toddler/child traits earned previously, do not include them in your final scoring and declare them if publishing scores.

Choosing Lots
5.   If you have Seasons, you may start in any season.
6.   An independently created Candidate Teen will have the default amount of funds - $20k. If the Candidate Teen comes from a household, you can either send them with $20k from the household funds or you should use the money cheat to set their funds to $20k less the cost of the lot.
7.   Choose any lot you wish, as long as you bulldoze every object from the lot before moving in
8.   Only the Candidate Teen may move in.

Building the Compound
1.   Build a room or platform or a combination of these that is a total maximum of 64 tiles.
2.   A square footprint of 8*8 is the easiest to monitor but any layout of adjoining 64 tiles is allowed
3.   Walls may be any height.
4.   You may place walls and doors within your compound.
5.   You need access into the compound at the start – a door/gate is the easiest thing to remove quickly
6.   Foundations are allowed.
7.   You can build an outdoor area of your room, or make the entire room a fenced off outdoor area, as long as it fits within the space, and prohibits communication with other sims.
8.   You may NOT build a staircase or ladder to another overlapping floor/basement that is accessible to your Sim within the compound.
9.   You may place any objects, beds, skill objects, or furniture that are for use by the Candidate Teen within the confines of your 64 tiles.

Other Building
10.   You can build outside of the Sims 64 tiles and have other floors/basements as long as your Candidate Teen cannot access them. This will be necessary to complete the Mansion Baron aspiration
11.   Any lot traits may be added at any stage but never removed or replaced: once a lot trait has been assigned in Build Mode and gameplay has restarted, it is fixed for the remainder of the challenge.
12.   Lot challenges such as Gremlins may be added or removed at any point
13.   The lot type must be set to Residential

Finally
14.   Move the Candidate Teen into the compound, then delete the door/gate/access. No-one is now allowed in or out.

Gameplay Rules
1.   General challenge rules apply, eg: no mods that ease gameplay, only cosmetic; no recovery from failures; no begging Grim; etc
2.   You may NOT switch aspirations once one is selected, until it become impossible to complete, or is completed. For example: steps requiring adulthood, getting jobs, visiting other lots, face-to-face conversations make aspirations impossible. Steps requiring more time or tedious gameplay but not impossible must be achieved before switching. The exception to the above, is Mansion Baron. You can switch to it at any time to track your primary progress.
3.   You may spend points on any rewards you wish excluding both the Needs No-One trait and Moodlet Solver potions.
4.   The Candidate Teen not allowed to have a job, other than the Scouting activity.
5.   Aging should be set to normal for the Candidate Teen. Aging for other SIMS is optional.
6.   You may only use ONE SIM in the household.
7.   Remote harvesting: harvestables can be placed anywhere on the lot but may not be harvested repeatedly using the build/buy mode. If the plant is moved in such a way that the harvestables end up in the family inventory, they should remain there and not sold. If sold inadvertently, please cheat your funds accordingly. If you wish to move plants in and out of the compound (or within reach by the Candidate Sim), you need to do it when they do not have any harvestables on them.

Expansion Packs
•   Parenthood includes the 5 character traits of Manners, Emotional Control, Responsibility, Conflict Resolution and Empathy. The first 2 are achievable and may be positive or negative giving a +10 score either way.  Responsibility is considered an essential end goal in preparation for the Apocalypse Challenge. The last 2: Conflict Resolution and Empathy, are thought impossible without interactions.
•   Seasons – start in any season, extreme weather optional, season length - any. Holidays and Festivals have their own challenges for an isolated SIM – play them or cancel them – players choice. Money Tree seeds may not be planted/harvested. They may be purchased using reward points or found in dumpsters and then sold. Father Winter will enter the compound if there is a fireplace. This is allowed but do not delete the fireplace while he’s there or ask him to move in – you may not imprison Father Winter – just think of all those disappointed children!!!
•   Tiny Living: gives major skill boosts for living in a small house
•   Get Together – the Candidate Teen may only start/belong to teen-only clubs and those club meetings must not take place during regular school hours (during festival school holidays is OK) to allow the members to go to school.
•   Country Living: the Wild Foxes lot challenge may not be used. Foxes do not respect fences or doors!
•   Spa Day: no teleporting to outside the compound
•   Cats & Dogs: Pets may not be moved in
•   No purchase of external businesses (Dine Out, etc)
•   Vampires: If you attempt this challenge with a vampire, I'd be interested to know if it's possible?
•   Realm of Magic: Spellcasters not allowed

Scoring
You START with a score of 0 points. Your FINAL score should be calculated immediately on aging up to a Young Adult and before allowing entry to or leaving the compound.
•   +1 point for every skill point earned by the Candidate Teen.
•   +3 point completion bonus for every skill that reaches level 10. (So getting 10 points in one skill will net you 13 points in total)
•   +5 points for every aspiration step achieved.
•   +1 point for every Scouting badge achieved (Seasons)
•   +10 points for every trait the Candidate Teen possesses on aging up to a Young Adult.
•   -1 for every day that passes, excluding day 1.
•   -10 for every time the social need reaches critical.
•   -10 every time utilities are shut off from unpaid bills.
If you publish your scores, please give any expansion packs that featured significantly in your strategy.

Hall of Fame
(If anyone has a go - publish your score and expansion packs used on this thread and I'll add them in)

Your future
Having successfully completed this challenge, you may consider entering the Apocalypse Challenge which requires a SIM of any age so do take some time to increase desirable skills and complete useful aspirations that were not possible during your teen years and will not be possible once you enter the City of Glassbolt.
Should you not wish to embrace this opportunity, the funds earned during the project are at your disposal regardless.  Thank you for your participation.
NOTE: If you are going on to the Apocalypse Challenge but want to achieve an aspiration before aging up, eg the Gold Scout Award, make sure that the Responsibility is in range to get that trait and record other traits held for scoring purposes before continuing.

Hints & Tips
•   The limited area should be no more than 64 tiles but can be in any configuration.
•   Be wary of invites to festivals etc which, if accepted, would be an automatic fail.
•   Potions of Youth can be purchased and drunk at any point. This will reset the Candidate Teen back to the start of their teen days forestalling a fail due to aging up.
•   You are guaranteed to get at least 40 points from traits by the successful end of the challenge from their 3 personality traits and 1 aspiration trait (50 with Responsibility from Parenthood).
•   There is no bonus for completing an aspiration.
•   The Loner trait may be chosen as an adult trait at the completion or failure of the challenge.
•   It is hard to keep track of days/weeks if you get caught up in the gameplay. Take notes or log the weeks as they go.

Fences

• Fences should be used with caution, especially when moving room/platform boundaries. What may have operated as a total barrier may start to allow conversations, leading to challenge failure. It is OK to have a back-up file to return to in for this reason.
• Access to a mailbox is possible by having an outdoor part of the compound that is fenced off. Position the mailbox against the fence. The mailman/woman will complain but will be able to access it.
• Objects like chess tables with chairs outside but up against barrier fences can cause challenge failure. NPCs have a tendency to get up from eg a chess table “through” the fence and are then stuck within the restricted area. Should this happen, you should immediately go into Build Mode to create an escape route which you close after them. Use your personal judgement as to whether the Candidate Teen interacted with them before they left, thus failing the challenge.
• The Candidate Teen may reach through or over fences to access items just beyond them. They will not have left the compound so this is permitted.

Acknowledgements
I freely admit that the creativity and structure of this challenge has been borrowed heavily from other challenges. If I have overstepped, please let me know.

The Candidate Teen Challenge bases it’s restrictions on The Room Challenge by katoregama at https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/793808/sims-4-room-challenge
The challenge goals are based on The Wonder Child by Pinstar at
https://simslegacychallenge.com/wonder-child-challenge-rules/

The concept is that working through this challenge could prepare your Sim to take part in The Apocalypse Challenge also by Pinstar at
https://simslegacychallenge.com/sims-4-apocalypse-challenge-rules/

Finally, thanks to Carl & Pams The Sims Forum at
https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php
All the creativity in the stories plus gameplay hints, tips & strategies have inspired me to offer this challenge.

Qualifications

I have played this challenge through a few times now and it seems to hold up. However my SIMS experience is comparatively low and I do not possess certain expansions, notably Vampires, Realm of Magic and Tiny Living. I would welcome input from those who do plus any questions for clarification or suggestions.
* modified using input from @Brian_Z *

I disclaim all responsibility to adding to anyone else’s obsessions with THE SIMS. Welcome to the club!

[Brian_Z]

Vampires would likely be almost impossible to play within these rules.  With no sims to feed on, and plasma packs/plasma fruit almost completely useless, Thirst would be unmanageable.
A spellcaster might well be "Easy Mode."  They are usually banned from most challenges.  They can conjure food out of thin air, and manage their needs simply by drinking a potion.  Without visiting the magical realm for training, they would have to place a cauldron on their lot to learn potions, and it would be a tremendous space hog-- the footprint is 3x3, i think.  However, Potion of Plentiful Needs is a low-level potion they would get pretty quickly, and totally be worth the limited space until they've learned that, and can get rid of the cauldron.  What it does, is all needs full, instantly.  With no "cooldown" on being able to drink another.  And you get 5 or 6 doses, from one apple.  That's the only ingredient needed.  Spellcasters also eventually learn a teleportation ability, although I'm pretty sure it has to be possible to get into or out of the room normally.  So, I don't think they can transportalate out of their closed room, because there isn't a normal way out.
Under "Expansion Packs Needed,"  you say "Parenting will definitely add to the challenge but is not essential."  Um... Parenthood is the pack that has the Responsibility value, so it kind of IS essential!
Strangerville would be irrelevant to a locked room challenge like this.
You don't have Tiny Living?  OMG, it makes this and the Room Challenge WAYYYY easier!  The 64-tile limit exactly coincides with the 64-tile "medium" tiny home tier, which gives you a 100% boost in skill gain.  You can pick up a new instrument, and as long as you can stay Inspired, you can max it by bedtime.  Building stuff for Mansion Baron will break you out of the 64-tile limit, but I know what's in that aspiration, and I can just save up a lot of money and build it all at once when I'm ready to wrap it up.

[Granny Lawlor]

Thanks @Brian_Z for looking this over for me. I know it needs a bit of tweaking but didn't have the knowledge/experience.

I've disallowed spellcasters but allowed vampires as you think it might be impossible so it'll be interesting to see if anyone tries. I've also removed a few hints/tips as I guess part of doing the challenge is to discover those for yourself?

Under "Expansion Packs Needed,"  you say "Parenting will definitely add to the challenge but is not essential."  Um... Parenthood is the pack that has the Responsibility value, so it kind of IS essential!

I've amended the wording to indicate essential

You don't have Tiny Living?  OMG, it makes this and the Room Challenge WAYYYY easier!  The 64-tile limit exactly coincides with the 64-tile "medium" tiny home tier, which gives you a 100% boost in skill gain.  You can pick up a new instrument, and as long as you can stay Inspired, you can max it by bedtime.  Building stuff for Mansion Baron will break you out of the 64-tile limit, but I know what's in that aspiration, and I can just save up a lot of money and build it all at once when I'm ready to wrap it up.

Wow - that is a game-changer for quite a few challenges. Note to self: must resist urge to spend more money....maybe just one more pack...Oh dear! lol!

[Brian_Z]

Lol!  If you're doing stuff like this, it's $10 well spent!  And if you can get the house down to 32 tiles, you then get a boost to learning from books as well, and your plants will grow faster.  It counts tiles based on "enclosed by 4 walls,"  so you could still fence in 32 squares of back yard.  And you can extend your roof to cover it, it doesn't look at roof overhang at all.

[Granny Lawlor]

Lol!  If you're doing stuff like this, it's $10 well spent!  And if you can get the house down to 32 tiles, you then get a boost to learning from books as well, and your plants will grow faster.  It counts tiles based on "enclosed by 4 walls,"  so you could still fence in 32 squares of back yard.  And you can extend your roof to cover it, it doesn't look at roof overhang at all.

I have just bought Tiny Living - I blame @Brian_Z ! lol

[Granny Lawlor]

I've managed to get 407 but I'm hoping to have another go soon!