Flowers of the Apocalypse: Project Failure

[oshizu]

Welcome to the Aconite household, Arrow!

Counting Insta-Upgrade as "one upgrade" seems too easy to me, as it renders that AC rule pointless....
We all play differently, though.

[Granny Lawlor]

Welcome to the Aconite household, Arrow!

Counting Insta-Upgrade as "one upgrade" seems too easy to me, as it renders that AC rule pointless....
We all play differently, though.

I admit - I'm exploiting a loophole...maybe I'll restrict it going forward...

[Granny Lawlor]

Flowers of the Apocalypse 1.5: Keep On Running

Shop Keeper: She said you’d be the first!
Flint: The first what?
Shop Keeper: First to arrive.
Flint: Ah – well I’ve got a long list – essentials first. Bread!
Shop Keeper: Anything else, chief?
Flint: When I’ve run back with this…

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Fint: I’m sorry it took all day, sweetie, but I finally got all the ingredients and caught the stove when the power was on.
Angelica: Pfft!
Nina: Happy Birthday!

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Angelica: Thanks for letting me swap those boots for these jelly shoes. I love being outside but the boots are a bit clumpy.
Nina: That’s OK, honey. No-one will see them under that long dress and we never get to wear our formal stuff anyway.
Angelica: I think my hot outfit and swim outfit have been muddled up!
Nina: It’s only the first week of Spring. I think you’ll grow out of them before it warms up.
Angelica: Are you saving my toddler clothes for Arrow?
Nina: No – we have to send them back. We’ll get a new set for him.

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Angelica: Don’t mind me. I’m just off to school.
Flint: I’m not sure Agnes would like to see you out here in your sleepwear, Calendar Girl!
Nina: Agnes can kiss my….
Flint: Well she can certainly see it!

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Flint: Happy Birthday, Arrow!
Arrow: Babble
Flint: I see they’ve sent us a sarong for you, matched with a gilet. Warm and airy at the same time!

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Nina: Just a nappy for sleep and for hot weather! I think we’ll use your swim trunks for hot weather. They’ll never get worn otherwise. Everything else looks good. I wish we could have a party so we could all wear those outfits – little superman!

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Angelica: Dad? I really want to be a Rambunctious Scamp but I’ve got nothing to build my motor skills on. No radio to dance, no swing set plus there’s no play equipment in the park!
Dad: Let’s play with the football.
Angelica: Well, it’s fun and I’m outside so that’s great. But it’s not building my skills! We could see if a set of monkey bars will go in the 2nd basement?
Flint: That doesn’t sound likely but we’ll have a think…

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Nina: We did it! We’re expecting another baby!
Flint: I was sure you were too tired. So it’ll come at midnight on Friday?
Nina: Yes, I hope my pregnancy symptoms don’t get in the way of my promotions!
Angelica: Another baby. Hmm, I wonder if they’ve thought this through! Hey, Mum? A little help here?
Nina: Sorry, darling. I wouldn’t know where to start.
Angelica: Dad?
Flint: I just can’t seem to focus enough to help you (Education). I think the conditions here are melting my brain!

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Arrow to self: Gotta tink for self! No books here for Awwow (Author). No bedtime storwy (Babysitter). Rummage Rummage Rummage

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Angelica: Well, if Mum & Dad can’t help me with my homework, I might as well do it out here. Then they won’t start trying to help and then stop!

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Angelica: Phew! Thank goodness it’s still here. I’d have got in so much trouble if I’d lost my homework!

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Nina: Ugh! Last night’s thunderstorm was scary. I’m glad Arrow slept right through.
Flint: I love a storm but I can see it seems dangerous. Angelica went right back to sleep after I calmed her down. Have a good day.
Nina: No promotion all week but I’ve finally got the skills they’re looking for and my performance is high. I just wish I’d had more sleep last night.

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Flint: I know it’s still raining but I really can’t stand to see these puddles. I don’t care that people think I’m a neat-freak. Hey! What’s this? I can’t just pick it up, it doesn’t belong to me. But the storm created it. Watcher?
Watcher: Just a mo, let me check my notes…you can’t dig for metals (Education). If you click on it, what are your options?
Flint: Something about the Geocouncil?
Watcher: That’s definitely out (Business Management)
Flint: I can “Claim” it?
Watcher: Yes, I think you can. Put it in the storage box.
Flint: Furium – that’s rare, I think…

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Midnight
Nina: Hello Avon, Little Man.

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Flint: What should I do? Boil a kettle? Get clean towels?
Nina: You’re late to the party, Hairy Man! It’s all over.
Flint: It’s not over till the fat lady…
Nina: Watch it, buster. I know I’m carrying a bit of baby weight…
Flint: I didn’t mean…it’s just a saying. You look gorgeous, as always.
Nina: Well, Avon is our last, right?
Flint: I think so. We need to leave room for a son- or daughter-in-law and their babies. You know we can’t move out (Military Officer)
Nina: Right. We’re agreed. So now I can concentrate on my Logic and Gardening plus, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, you can help me get a bit fitter (shudders)

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Progress (Year 1, Week 5 - Spring)

Generation 1
Flint Aconite: Founder; Adult; Neat, Active, Self-Assured; Culinary-Chef Completed week 3
Nina Aconite: Gen 1 Spouse; Young Adult; Hot-Headed, Lazy, Romantic; Gardener-Botanist 7/10

Generation 2
Angelica Aconite: Child; (Silly) Loves Outdoors
Arrow Aconite: Toddler; Silly
Avon Aconite: Nooboo

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Notes

Both Flint and Nina keep trying to help Angelica with her homework, bless 'em, so I have to keep cancelling it. (Education)

It might not be obvious from the photos but when Flint topped his career in week 3, that Sunday saw another basement layer. The storage boxes got moved down there along with the umbrella stand but it’s mainly for the generator. Only Flint was going down the ladder access to fill it up but Angelica has decided to do her school project down there. It can’t be moved while in progress as they take up 6 squares (Bodybuilder) but once complete they are only 1 square and can be put in Angelica’s inventory to be moved to the side.

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Avon is another UK river, principally known for flowing through Stratford. The River Arrow is a tributary of River Avon. Avon Aconite is our 3rd flower (2nd river) in the 2nd generation and probably the last to ensure there will be room for a gen2 spouse and gen3 nooboos. After all those single births, you know Nina will have triplets if they try for one more!

Title:– Keep On Running – 1966 hit by The Spencer Davis Group

[Rhoxi]

Welcome little Arrow and Avon! I take it they can also contribute to careers and unlocking things? It's gonna be a lot of hungry mouths to feed! Loved the bit with Nina walking around in her undies. Typical Nina! 

[Granny Lawlor]

Welcome little Arrow and Avon! I take it they can also contribute to careers and unlocking things? It's gonna be a lot of hungry mouths to feed! Loved the bit with Nina walking around in her undies. Typical Nina! 

Yep - all natural born children of the founder born in house are eligible to clear a career. There's a whole list of who can and who can't but Angelica, Arrow & Avon all definitely qualify.
Nina's energy levels drop really quickly, presumably from her Lazy trait, so she goes to bed at the drop of a hat, hence the sleepwear which looks like underwear. I'm hoping she doesn't pass the trait on but it's all on the roll of a di! (Babysitter)

[oshizu]

This updated AC has a mind-boggling set of rules. I will definitely never try it, especially since I've already completed the original version once.
I didn't mean to sound judgmental about the Insta-Upgrades. We should all play our (non-HoF) challenges in ways that bring the fun!
As you know, I vary the child and teen stages from 6-13 days and 7-21 days, respectively, depending on my plans for each generation.
Still, it seems to me the initial weeks of an AC should be difficult to a hand-wringing degree. 

I'm not going to try to keep abreast of all the unlocks and restrictions, but here's a tip.
*When you're allowed to go into Build/Buy mode (Sundays?), you can click on a sticky storage box, then hold down Shift while clicking the [ key to downsize it.
  Downsizing your storage boxes will open up more space in your basement or wherever you place them.

Also, just curious, but do you think the longer life stages will start out being more of a curse than a blessing?
At least, until you cleer the unlock to move out household members....

[Rhoxi]

Also how do you get your family screen snip so big? I've started taking mine from the icon that pops up when you select Load Save, but it's so tiny. Is there another place to get a bigger screen snip?

[Granny Lawlor]

Also how do you get your family screen snip so big? I've started taking mine from the icon that pops up when you select Load Save, but it's so tiny. Is there another place to get a bigger screen snip?

From the Manage Worlds or Manage Households screens, select your household and Edit. I screensnip the pic that comes up then.
There is a clever app that let's you change the background but I haven't tried it. @oshizu is the expert on that, creating lovely family shots.

[Granny Lawlor]

it seems to me the initial weeks of an AC should be difficult to a hand-wringing degree. 

There's plenty of hand-wringing going on behind the scenes, lol, mainly to do with the food. I think I'll write up that particular struggle in a separate post. It would make the story chunkier.

I'm not going to try to keep abreast of all the unlocks and restrictions, but here's a tip.
*When you're allowed to go into Build/Buy mode (Sundays?), you can click on a sticky storage box, then hold down Shift while clicking the [ key to downsize it.
  Downsizing your storage boxes will open up more space in your basement or wherever you place them.

That's a great tip.

Also, just curious, but do you think the longer life stages will start out being more of a curse than a blessing?
At least, until you cleer the unlock to move out household members....

I sometimes think Nina is going to need all her adult years to clear Botanist. Flint isn't allowed to mentor her in logic and only one planter doesn't give much scope for garden skilling. She's analysed the life out of those poor plants. The skill books help but it's sooooo slow!
The toddler/child life-span isn't long enough to max skills within the restrictions but they're doing OK. Angelica should have got Happy Toddler but she lost out to the current bug.
Teen lifespan at the beginning is going to be too long. They can't go to High School (i think they can Drop Out) and I don't think they can do odd jobs. Clearing Chef unlocked Fast Food but I don't really want to clear that yet. I guess it'll just be skilling time but I need to research it a bit more before Angelica gets there - oh help! That's soon!

[Granny Lawlor]

Food & Finding It

Possible food at the start of this challenge:
Fruitcake - from the Welcome Wagon - lasts indefinitely
Grub Dogs - made from the grub meal that the Mitey Mitey Bug Farm will generate - lasts the usual amount for a cooked dish. For one person living alone, having got the Compost upgrade on the WC, one portion of grub meal is produced every 3 days. It takes 3 portions to make an 8-serving dish of Grub Dogs on the BBQ, ie one dish every 9 days. As more people use the WC, the frequency of grub meal increases slightly. Allowing visitors to use the household loo to increase production carries the risk of them pranking it. Grub meal in it's uncooked form lasts indefinitely.
Market Stall goods - Sundays only(Retail) and note that Sims can only carry 1 stack of objects at a time (Bodybuilder). Flint spends all his Sunday running backwards and forwards to the stalls in Finchwick village. Nina, off course, doesn't run (Lazy). As a child, Angelica has started to help with this job. Possible items have to be kept without a fridge include bread(2-10 days glitchy), milk(2 days), cheese(2-10 days glitchy), eggs(2 days), wrapped meat(24hrs), conserves(indefinite). Disallowed items are: garden produce - regular or outsized (Botanist) & fish (Marine Biologist)

Although you can't cook/can garden produce, the market stalls often have limited supplies of lettuce and tomato conserves which will allow garden salad to be made on the counter which then lasts about 24 hrs. There are other conserves and I haven't fully explored what can be done on the BBQ or counter. The commonly available one-ingredient options are Fried Chicken (requiring 2 wrapped meats) and Grub Dogs. Most BBQ meals require some garden produce.

My Founder had the Forever Full trait. Nina survived by being hungry most of the time. If her hunger level went red she still had 24 hrs before becoming ravenous. She hated the fruitcake but ate it when desperate. If the bread & cheese didn't go off, she required 2 portions of either to fill her up. As time goes on, I am getting better at managing the possible resources which is good news for Gen 2!

Once Chef is cleared, a fridge and a stove can be purchased. The cheapest stove (Business Management) is fortunately off-grid and has off-grid cooking options including making your own cheese from milk and making grilled cheese. The cheapest fridge is not off-grid and required more power than the single power generator (choice of that, water generator or another bug farm) can produce. The fridge is therefore on/off at times so the perishable goods vary in their shelf-lives. The big advantage is that all food-stuffs can be stored in the fridge so recipes with more than 1 ingredient can be made. Recipes on the stove or BBQ are still limited by: no garden produce/fish; possession of ingredients; power supply. I'm not allowing Grocery Deliveries - if my household can't carry more than one thing, the delivery people shouldn't be able to. Also, the phone doesn't work in the house so they'd have to be in the Village to get a signal but click on the fridge - I didn't think that was viable...

The Grody lot challenge (Environmental Manager) means that the Sims have a 50% chance of nausea for 1 hour after eating/drinking/washing/etc so I don't rush to encourage them to eat until their bars are red. Fortunately it doesn't seem to affect toddlers.

A grocery stall in the neighbourhood is essential under the rules as I've played them, limiting possible locations. It is possible to move once under these rules once Civic Planner and Military Officer are both cleared.

There are probably other details that I've overlooked - please ask if something isn't clear.

[Rhoxi]

Oh, wow! This was very insightful. At first I had thought getting a fridge meant plenty of food, so it's nice to see a breakdown of what it really means. Truly, this is grueling challenge!

[oshizu]

Your AC challenge is a nightmare, lol!
Your teen is better off graduating early than dropping out.
Career options are restricted for a teen who's dropped our or been expelled.

About your Happy Toddler, I firmly believe that if a toddler has earned the Happy/Top-Notch Toddler trait, their Watcher should be allowed the cheat to add that trait.
It's not our fault that the game is glitched and doesn't reward us for our diligent efforts! Use the cheat to give Angelica the Happy Toddler trait she deserves!
My NSB toddlers have earned, but failed to receive, their Top-Notch Toddler trait.  If I were doing an HSB-bound challenge, i would seek approval for using the cheat, but it's not, so hey!

P.S. When downsizing the Sticky Storage Boxes to the smallest size, four boxes will fit into one tile.

Edited to add:
Here's an except from today's patch notes:
"Children, teens, young adults, and adult Sims who blow out the candles on their cake now should age up reliably.
Happy birthday! We still are investigating the problem for toddlers."

[Granny Lawlor]

Your AC challenge is a nightmare, lol!
Your teen is better off graduating early than dropping out.
Career options are restricted for a teen who's dropped our or been expelled.

About your Happy Toddler, I firmly believe that if a toddler has earned the Happy/Top-Notch Toddler trait, their Watcher should be allowed the cheat to add that trait.
It's not our fault that the game is glitched and doesn't reward us for our diligent efforts! Use the cheat to give Angelica the Happy Toddler trait she deserves!
My NSB toddlers have earned, but failed to receive, their Top-Notch Toddler trait.  If I were doing an HSB-bound challenge, i would seek approval for using the cheat, but it's not, so hey!

P.S. When downsizing the Sticky Storage Boxes to the smallest size, four boxes will fit into one tile.

Edited to add:
Here's an except from today's patch notes:
"Children, teens, young adults, and adult Sims who blow out the candles on their cake now should age up reliably.
Happy birthday! We still are investigating the problem for toddlers."

I've only managed to get one birthday cake so far...it will be interesting...thanks for the advice to add the earned traits.
I need some help deciding about High Schhol. The rules from Florrie64 (pre-dating HS pack) say teens don't go to school.
I was going to have them drop-out but to do that they either need a computer or go to school and see the Principal.
One option is to just cancel the "go to school" option every day.
The advantage from graduating early doesn't feel right for our current restrictions
I'm concerned about limited jobs if they don't graduate but I can't find a list online. Do you if there is one somewhere? Maybe I should play test it...
I'm wondering about them just going alone to school on Friday - exam day? That way they get the test without the teaching. My thinking is that with the school happening whether they attend or not, they should struggle to graduate...thoughts?

[oshizu]

Here's a list I found on Reddit. I quote:
Did some testing and these are the careers your sims cannot join if they drop out or get expelled from High School
Doctor, Detective, Scientist, Astronaut, Business, Civil Designer, Education, Engineer, Law, Salaryperson, Tech Guru (unquote)

Me again: Assuming that list's correct, the available careers would be:  (I didn't playtest the list below, tho)
 Actor/Actress,  Conservationist, Criminal, Critic, Culinary, Entertainer, Gardener, Military, Painter, Politician, Secret Agent, Social Media, Style Influencer, Writer.
This is just a list I compiled for personal use, so I might have missed a few careers.
I would imagine the part-time jobs would all be available since they're available to teens who've yet to graduate.

Easier solution?: Depending on your career choices, you could simply disable the HSY pack until you lift the unlock that allows teens to attend high school.
That way, your teens would have no option to drop or be expelled.  They'd just have low grades.

Official solution?: Post a question in Florrie's AC rules thread with a @ mention.

[Granny Lawlor]

Here's a list I found on Reddit. I quote:
Did some testing and these are the careers your sims cannot join if they drop out or get expelled from High School
Doctor, Detective, Scientist, Astronaut, Business, Civil Designer, Education, Engineer, Law, Salaryperson, Tech Guru (unquote)

Me again: Assuming that list's correct, the available careers would be:  (I didn't playtest the list below, tho)
 Actor/Actress,  Conservationist, Criminal, Critic, Culinary, Entertainer, Gardener, Military, Painter, Politician, Secret Agent, Social Media, Style Influencer, Writer.
This is just a list I compiled for personal use, so I might have missed a few careers.
I would imagine the part-time jobs would all be available since they're available to teens who've yet to graduate.

Easier solution?: Depending on your career choices, you could simply disable the HSY pack until you lift the unlock that allows teens to attend high school.
That way, your teens would have no option to drop or be expelled.  They'd just have low grades.

Official solution?: Post a question in Florrie's AC rules thread with a @ mention.

Thanks for finding that - I never seem to be able to find useful lists.
OK - since Education is the career that unlocks teens being able to go to High School, dropping out is not an option overall. Also 2 of the careers that I've prioritised for gen 2 are also on that list! I suspect if they just don't attend they'll probably not be able to graduate which might give the same restrictions as dropping out.

Practical options:
1) Disable HS pack as you suggest which would mimic the prior conditions but for the longer life-span;
2) Try the Friday-only option... which would be like them getting sent homework each day in the post plus the need to study/travel for ~3 exams to graduate.
I'll see if Florrie's thought of a solution too.

I'm minded to try option 2 if only to see how they get on... and then revert to option 1 if this isn't practical/realistic. They wouldn't be allowed to attend Prom or the graduation ceremony and I'll send them alone for the exam.

Thanks for the input @oshizu - it's helpful to get options I hadn't considered.