Author Topic: 2024 Challenge Tournament Finale: My Swan Song <<Live Challenge -- Jump In!>>  (Read 3165 times)

Offline Nandarelle

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First off, I’m afraid I found a mistake in my notes. I did slightly less well in part 2 than I thought I did.
My actual score is 148080 (Museum funds) + 192000 (Townie family goals) - 10032 (speed test) = 330048.

Part 1a: Speedrun
For the speedrun portion of this challenge I used the new basegame update and started with a ghost spellcaster, and also a live human, named Alqua (Swan) and Lírë (Song) Swansong. Having a ghost meant an instant ‘Ghostly’ achievement and another easy one for Woohoo with a ghost. And it  made eating Ambrosia a bit more fun. The spellcaster part was just for easy access to the Magic Realm and moving around a bit faster with a broom.
I built them a tiny house, made a club, and moved in some Sims: Ian & Derek from Henford-on-Bagley, Dani Davilla, Kristopher Volkov, Judith Ward and Marcus Flex (after spotting him as a gym trainer). The household briefly moved to Judiths house, and then back to the tiny house.

Requirements:
1)   Ambrosia: Alqua started getting her cooking skill up to level 5 almost immediately. She then prepared gourmet dishes during parties, and leveled the rest of her cooking up in spare moments. An angelfish and death flower were purchased in the Magic Realm on day 1 and day 2, respectively.
2)   15 skill levels: Leveling up cooking and gourmet cooking alone is already more than enough for this requirement.
3)   15 job levels: Someone got Connections and got 4 different jobs at level 4.
4)   Different skills: charisma, writing, fishing, cooking, nectar making, gardening, violin, dancing, cross-stitch, gourmet cooking, animal training, fitness, herbology, vampire lore, and acting.
5)   Achievements: Several maxed skills, two party related ones, 2 ghost ones, Full House, Older & Wiser, Stay up all night (can’t remember the proper name in English), befriended the Grim Reaper (using the new stereo), and All Signs of San Myshuno Meadow.
6)   Household members: After the initial 8, the Villareal family moved in, and Hugo adopted several more kids (also to help Jacques with Big Happy Family).
7)   15 traits: I was working on aspirations anyway, so 1 Sim just bought a couple of the cheap 500 point ones.
8 )   15 aspirations: Party Animal is still buggy, as it turns out. So I didn’t get that one.
-   Mansion baron (All initial Sims, in Judith’s house)
-   Bodybuilder (Marcus)
-   Soulmate (Moody & McMillan)
-   Leader of the pack
-   Incredibly rich
-   Werewolf Initiate (Kristopher)
-   Painter Extraordinaire
-   Artistic prodigy (Max)
-   Rambunctious Scamp (Max)
-   Chief of Mischief
-   The curator
-   Friend of the world
-   Nerd brain
-   Grilled Cheese
-   Big Happy Family (Jacques)
9)   Collections: Tried really hard with postcards, but used the plushies in the end. Lírë got bits of several other collections while working on the Curator, and picked up a snow globe to complete the 15.
10)   Income sources:
-   Sell honey
-   Collect & sell postcard
-   Bonus from work
-   Woodworking statue
-   Painting
-   Milk from mini goat
-   Wool from mini sheep
-   Gardening
-   Make & sell drink
-   Photography
-   Dumpster diving
-   Sell celebrity autograph
-   Breed & sell frog
-   Sell Christmas gift from gift pile
-   Sell holiday cracker plushie
11)   Perks: Judith Ward had her fame perks reset, so she could get 10 new ones. The remaining 5 were club perks.
12)   Picked a Sim and made meticulous notes of her emotions. She experienced 14 of them naturally, and then got Flirty from decor. “Hysterical” was way to common in this household. I spent half the time getting the Sims to calm down in the mirror.
13)   15 non-human best friends: mostly spellcasters, also the Vatores, one mermaid and the Grim Reaper
14)   Unique upgrades: Lírë got her Handiness high, and spent some time going through the neighborhoods, while her wife was working on het relationships for the BFF requirement.
15)   Parties: this was by far the most time consuming part. I tried to have back to back parties most of the time. But I did need to take some breaks to work on the other requirements as well as for my sanity. I had to use almost every type of party (with the packs I have), including a toddler play date, a charity fundraiser (from high reputation) and farm events. Alqua was the host, because that combined well with making ambrosia. I really should have made my starting Sims engaged in stead of already married, because you can only host a wedding as the bride or groom.

Part 1b: Museum

Judith Ward provided plenty of money for this part. I went through build/buy to find the most valuable items. My game and notes are all in Dutch, so I don’t have the exact names in English. All of the items were simply bought, no collecting or unlocking necessary.
A few unusual items were the big screen from Get Famous (§15000 before depreciation) and four skating / rollerskating tracks, all with different wording, at §12000 each. This required a large lot for sure!

Part 2: Townie households

I could get all 15 requirements done in about a day and a half, and I did so for 4 households. Leaving out the fishing requirement meant I could get it all done in time, and I did for most households. At the end of the challenge I did have to take real life time in consideration, so all requirements that required a lot of me as the player were dropped (whims!)
For promotions, I chose only households with at least one child or teen. They joined scouting, and got a promotion by earning a medal. That way, I didn’t have to worry about work schedules. I also only chose households who already had at least 15 skill points among themselves. Most households were small (2-4 people) to make the good friend requirement easier, but that did mean I sometimes had to scramble for aspiration points to buy more traits.

Here is a typical playthrough of a townie household:
Join scouting, then take off the pub in Henford-on-Bagley, which has the Convivial lot traits. Have everyone work on their good friend requirements, mostly by cloud or star gazing, and meet someone for the BFF requirements. Fulfill some whims while there. (When going for all 15, we can also buy some seeds in the stall and do some fishing). Most of the time, this will take way more than 2 hours.
Then head home. Upgrade the lot value by buying stuff (most household have enough money for this). Bonus points if it contributes to aspiration point from Mansion Baron, and if fulfills any whims.
Designate one Sim as writer and just make them write. Another Sim can invite their new friend an d improve to relationship to get to BFF level. Other Sims (or whoever is ready) can do the reading, upgrade and cook a meal. Fulfill some more whims, find an object to place in the park, and do whatever is needed to get an achievement.

Part 3: Metropolis Man
 I don’t know how many hours I have spent playing challenge made or contributed to by you, but in the Sims 3 and Sims 4. Not only in these tournaments, but also the Dynasty challenges (even if never got to the Hall of Fame). You’re an actual legend in the Sims community. Thank you very much for all of it.

Online Metropolis Man

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Wow, @Nandarelle, you are so kind. Thank you for the compliments. That was a great write-up, too. I'll go ahead and change your score on the leaderboard. Thankfully, it does not impact the rankings.



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Offline SueDenim

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And so it comes to this moment, my friends, where I say farewell. Thank you so much for participating in the challenges and the Dynasties over the years. As I said in the introductory ruleset, I am not leaving the forum. I will remain an active administrator assisting @MrsFlynn. And the remaining challenge team members know how to pull my chain if they need help for 2025.

I wish every one of you the best.
Thank you so much for the time and effort you've put into these challenges over the years. I've had so much fun participating in them and being a part of this community and you were an integral part of everything!

Offline Elinoee

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Great write up @Nandarelle , thank you!

I'm now realizing that I (again) misunderstood something in the rules, and that's about the "placeable" items for the museum...I thought that they had to be items that sims can take in their inventory and then place anywhere!
So I lost more than one week sim searching for all the omniscan treasures  ;D

Offline Rebelangel

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Awesome job on the challenge and thanks for the write up, @Nandarelle !

@Elinoee , I also misinterpreted the answer to your question (and spent ~1-2 extra sim days trying to get Omicasan Treasures). I got about ~6 unique treasures and filled the rest of the museum with paintings made by the rest of the household while 1-2 sims explored the temple (Large Classical Painting, Large Abstract Painting, etc.)