RESTORING SIMILIZATION
Acknowledgements first: I am heavily indebted to Pinstar’s Apocalypse Challenge, both the version on the official Forum, and the one on Sims Wikia. So why provide a different version? First, to eliminate some of the conditions that make the challenge either unplayable or unbearably tedious. (One in particular is the “no showers until someone has gone to the top of the medical career” condition. It worked in TS2 because Sims could still take sponge baths at the sink; in TS3, unless your Sims have the inappropriate trait, they have to spend most of their time washing hands, brushing teeth, and cleaning the sink.) Second, to make it more flexible. Third, to provide a way of dealing with the disasters that can occur with long-lasting legacies and dynasties, i.e., the game-breaking bugs.
The bug work-around first: Every time a new heir ages up to young adult, you should take him or her to Create-a-Sim and save him. If your game breaks down, you may re-establish the heir in a new town (I’d recommend one different from your original, so he doesn’t get romantically involved with his great-grandmother), and continue where you left off.
Each time the founder, founder’s spouse, heir, heir’s spouse, or heir’s sibling(s) achieves a lifetime wish, a new element of similization is restored. Lifetime wishes have to be unique. If someone marries into the bloodline with a lifetime wish that has already been satisfied by someone else, use the “change lifetime wish” reward. Except for the first and last items, you may restore the elements in any order. They are not tied to any particular lifetime wish (in other words, you do not have to reach the top of the military career in order for your Sims to be able to go places other than work). Initially, the only cheat allowed is RESETSIM.
At the Start of the Game
You may start with any world. I recommend staying with EA-created worlds, but if you want to build your own or download someone else’s, that’s okay. Lunar setting should be a 6-day cycle, and population control is up to you. Create a Young Adult Sim as your founder. You may choose traits for your founder. (NEW -- Your founder may be a witch. If you have Seasons, weather and seasons may be chosen at your discretion, but they must not be changed after you start a world.)
In the beginning, your Sim is the survivor of a terrible disaster (your choice of disaster). After buying a lot, your Sim should build an 8x8 shelter either below ground if you have WA or on pillars if you don’t. If you have Generations, you may use the cheaper spiral staircase. You may not place anything else except a vehicle or decorative rocks on the surface of the lot until further notice. You do not have to make the lot dirt- or sand-colored. If you build above ground, you should have a flat roof. After the first day, you may only build two squares at a time, either adding a sub-basement or a second floor. Your shelter must stay within the 8x8 square. You may shift-click to add floor and wall coverings. When Island Paradise comes out, you will be able to use a small houseboat, but may not fish or swim in the ocean until those restrictions have been cleared.
(NEW -- From the beginning, you may use fences and gates to keep your founder and family safe from zombies. However, if a founder or heir is turned into a zombie at any time, this is considered an automatic fail. Aliens and alien babies resulting from abduction may be added to the household as spouses or spares. An alien born in the household to two parents may be considered an heir.)
You may use only the cheapest floor and wall coverings. You may not re-color anything. You may not buy any furniture that costs more than $500. You may not buy any decorative items except the cheapest mirror. You may not buy anything that requires electricity except the radio, which we’ll assume is battery-operated. You should remove non-skill books from the bookcase. Don’t bother buying a dresser; your Sim won’t be able to plan outfits or change appearance for a while. After the first day, you may buy only one new piece of furniture a day.
Your founder may only go to and from work, except on the first day, when he or she may buy skill books at the bookstore and meet some people. (My recommendation is that you concentrate on meeting children and teens of the opposite sex, as they will probably be young adults by the time your founder is able to marry.) Your founder must be back at home by 6 pm on the first day. You may accept opportunities that involve staying late at work, but not ones that require going anywhere other than work. You may accept opportunities that involve co-workers or people who will come over when you invite them. You must pay bills the same day they arrive.
Age setting should be normal. Your Sims must quit their jobs upon becoming elders; they may not retire. Elders are uncontrollable; you may not give them commands (except for having them quit work) or cancel actions, unless those actions would break some restriction (preparing autumn salad, for example). However, other Sims can call them over, call them to meals, etc. Cakes may be used only on birthdays. Your Sims may use only the “try for baby” option.
Children and teens may not participate in after-school activities (including proms). Children may go only on field trips to a parent’s workplace; teens may go on field trips anywhere. They may not go to boarding school, and teens may not have part-time jobs.
Space permitting inside the shelter, you may buy a chess set and an easel. Each person may paint only one picture per day. Only small pictures may be hung on the walls. (NEW -- you may buy planters and harvest indoor produce.)
Once a week, you have to pay protection money to the local criminals. For each level of your shelter in use, you should buy a Big Lemon car and put it in the family inventory. Family inventory is also where you store wedding presents and celebrity gifts that are still restricted. You may remove these items as the restrictions are lifted, but the Big Lemon cars have to stay.
Sims must work at rabbit-hole jobs until they've unlocked self-employment. If they miss work for any reason, they must quit that job and find another. They may not return to a career track once they’ve left it. In cases of pregnancy and personal leave, they may keep their jobs by buying something that costs as much as the pay they receive and putting it into family inventory. These objects must also stay in family inventory.
If you have Into the Future, you may use the Dystopia version for your founder and first or more generations. Instructions are at the end of this post.
Restoring Similization
Note: Aside from the fact that item 1 has to be first and item 35 last, and that some items require prerequisites, you may add these abilities in any order. Whenever a member of the bloodline (founder, spouse, heir, or spare) achieves a lifetime wish, you or your Sims may:
1. Get married and move a spouse into the household. Have children. Purchase the lifetime rewards: Change Lifetime Wish (you may customize wish), Midlife Crisis (randomize traits unless you’re allowed to pick them), Change of Taste, and Fast Learner.
2. Go places other than work (unless other restrictions apply). Read skill books and read to toddlers at the library. Invite chess players over. Take classes at community lots. Move out young adults and adults (kick out only). Visit friends. Take graves to the cemetery. Manage graves at the cemetery.
3. Buy and use electrical appliances costing less than $500. These include the stove, dishwasher, washing machine, and electric lights. You can eat something other than quick meals, peanut butter sandwiches, and hot dogs, but you may not eat anything requiring fish, fruit, or vegetables as an ingredient. You may buy a television, but your Sims can only watch skill channels. Dance to the radio.
4. Pick traits for children and Midlife Crisis reward. Woohoo without trying for baby. Go to hospital for services (have baby, cure mid-life crisis, learn baby’s gender, get flu and allergy shots).
5. Buy items costing between $500 and $1000, including a computer and musical instruments. At this point, you may use the computer only to write reports and articles and improve writing skill.
6. Buy lifetime rewards – Speedy Cleaner, Steel Bladder, Dirt Defiant, Hardly Hungry, Meditative Trance, and Carefree.
7. Quit paying protection money. Buy fire and burglar alarms.
8. Use the phone to get (and cancel) services; make friends with NPCs. May pay bills after a day or two or even let them lapse. Adopt children; heirs may be adopted. Buy recycling bins.
9. Give directions to elders (including moving them out).Elders may continue to work. Teens may participate in after-school activities.
10. Buy skill books, toddler books, and sheet music at the book store. Buy and sell items at the consignment shop. Purchase lifetime rewards Bookstore Bargainer, Haggler and Suave Seller. You may make, buy and use elixirs, except the ones that change life states. The amount you can spend depends on items 5 and 21.
11. Place items on surface of lot (telescope, sandbox, treehouse, clotheslines, tents, etc.)
12. Fish and garden. Prepare all meals. Buy recipes at the bookstore. Shop at the grocery store. Go to restaurants. May have household birthday party when notified that it will be in a few days. Do cooking opportunities.(Requires 11.)
13. Collect rocks, gems, metals, beetles, butterflies, and minor pets. Get scrap from junkyard. Use miner. Purchase Collection Helper reward. (Requires 11.) Own a dragon.
14. Work in professions, be self-employed, and be employed part-time. Keep pregnancy and other leave pay. Take time off without pay. Retire.
15. Build on surface of lot. Expand beyond 8x8 square. Move to new house. Buy more than one article of furniture per day and place more than 2 walls or floors. Use MOVEOBJECTS cheat. (Requires 11.) Use Create-a-Style and do landscaping. Buy decorative items. Own a chicken coop or cow corral.
16. Own a dog, cat, or horse. Purchase pet rewards.
17. Buy a dresser and plan outfits. Change appearance. Go to salon, spa, gym, and swimming pool. (Getting makeovers and tattoos are allowed, even though they may affect aging.)
18. Buy a vehicle. Purchase Motive Mobile reward. Children may participate in after-school activities. Teens may learn to drive. (NEW -- swim and dive in ocean.)
19. Go to the park. Attend concerts, movies, games, and Simfests. Play for tips. Buy and read all books. Play computer games. Write novels. Watch all television shows. Perform as acrobat, magician, or singer. (Go to seasonal festivals, the Renaissance Fair, the casino, and open air markets.)
20. Purchase Observant, Never Dull, Excellent Groupie, Inappropriate in Good Way, and Long Distance Friend rewards.
21. Buy items costing more than $1000. (Requires 5.)
22. Attend parties and throw parties (including weddings and bachelor parties). Teens may go to prom. Purchase the following lifetime rewards: Fast Metabolism, Discount Diner, Complimentary Entertainment, and Legendary Host. Adults may take free vacation.
23. Go to bars, lounges and dance clubs. Work as mixologist. Purchase the following rewards: Watering Hole Regular, Hustler, Better Mixologist, and Always on List.
24. Buy and upgrade properties. Purchase job-related rewards – Multi-tasker, Opportunistic, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Profession Simoleon Booster, Office Hero, Vacationer, and Professional Slacker. (NEW -- Own and manage a resort, restaurant or shop.)
25. Try to become a celebrity. Do celebrity opportunities. Purchase Map to the Stars reward.
26. Travel. Use BUYDEBUG cheat. (NEW - Send and receive gifts. Go to University.) Children and teens may go to boarding school.
27. Purchase Jetsetter, Prepared Traveler, and Learned Relic Hunter rewards. Purchase University LTRs.
28. Purchase Fertility Treatment, No Bills Ever, Super Nanny, Fireproof Homestead, Inheritance, and Food Replicator rewards.
29. Purchase Acclaimed Author, Extra Creative, Efficient Inventor, Artisan Crafter, The Next Big Thing, and Super Green Thumb rewards.
30. Purchase Eye Candy, No Jealousy, Master of Seduction, Stone-Hearted, Attractive, Hover Bed, Clean Slate, Body Sculptor, and Above Reproach rewards.
31. Purchase LTRs from Showtime, Supernatural, and Seasons.
32. Add imaginary friends (i.e., make IFs real) and ghosts to the household. Become a vampire (unless heir or possible parent of an heir). Add Simbots and mummies to household. Purchase My Best Friend reward. (NEW- Add genies, fairies, aliens, or werewolves to household. Make, buy and use all elixirs.)
33. Use death flowers, prepare ambrosia, take young again potion, and eat life fruits. Readjust age sliders and choose age length (normal, long, or epic).
34. Purchase Age Freeze, Moodlet Manager, Young Again, Clone Voucher, and Teleportation rewards. (Must be able to purchase all other rewards.) (NEW -SimPort.)
35. Travel to the future. Own and use futuristic gadgets. Add Plumbots to your household. Purchase lifetime rewards from Into the Future. Add and use any venues from the Sims Store not referenced above.
36. Sell contents of family inventory. (Must be last.)
The game automatically ends if your founder fails to achieve his or her lifetime wish before becoming an elder, or if your heir dies and there is no spare in the household or possibility of a spare. Failure to pay protection money is a game-ender unless there’s a spare, aged young adult or older, who can continue in a new town. (NEW -- the game automatically ends if your founder or heir becomes a zombie.)
NEW: Store worlds can be used in addition to the ones that come with EPs. With regard to Premium content, I've only included a few items. Generally, you can bring in premium content when your sim is allowed to buy items over $500 or over $1000.
If your only town is Sunset Valley, and you have to continue after a game-breaking bug, you may go into Edit Town and move out your ancestor(s). You may also go into Edit Town to add book corrals to the library and bars, dance clubs, lounges, the Film Studio, and other venues.
Into the Future Dystopia
If you have Into the Future, you may use Dystopia for your founder's beginning.
1. Create a YA human or witch in CAS.
2. Move to a small lot in any neighborhood. You may build on this lot only if you don't have Ambitions (for the Firehouse), Generations (for the sleeping bag) or World Adventures (for the tent, available in buydebug). You can only build on this lot if you have Seasons and can only put up 4 pillars and a roof on top of them to go over your founder's bed.
3. Go through the Time Portal to Oasis Landing. You may use the jetpack, hoverboard, and food synthesizer to gain 1 skill point in Advanced Technology. As soon as you have 1 point, you must return to the present and sell any future objects that are in your possession. You should not buy anything or make any alterations to Base Camp (the Erutuf Lounge).
4. Click on the Time Almanac in your inventory (it's next to the collection journal) and select "Trigger this Event" under Dystopia.
5. Go through the steps. You may sell the space objects you attract, but must get rid of the magnet as soon as you've completed the opportunity. You may either get 1 skill point in charisma or purchase the Observant lifetime reward to help with trash-talking the environment. While working on the opportunities, you are allowed to move freely around town and may eat at the diner.
6. As soon as you've achieved Dystopia, go to Oasis Landing through the Time Portal.
7. When you arrive, buy an empty lot. You may build only an 8x8 underground bunker (no above-ground structures because of the meteor showers). You may put a 3x3 fence and gate around the entrance to keep out zombies. You may add sub-basements, following the rules for building. Furnishings follow the same rules as the standard project, except that if you can find more futuristic-looking furniture for under $500, you may use those alternatives.
8. You should also place a school for your heir(s) to attend. Go into Edit Mode and either change an existing lot or set down a new lot as Community, No Visitors Allowed. Go into build/buy mode and add a school from community lots (i.e., don't use one from the bin).
9. You will have more freedom of movement in Dystopia -- you can excavate debris piles and enter the spaceship, rummage in trash piles, harvest crystal flowers, collect and sell meteorites, and explore the vents. Your sims do have to be on the home lot from 7 pm to 6 am unless their job requires them to be at work.
There are no Lifetime Wishes connected to the careers in Dystopia. For each career completed in Dystopia (2 in Astronomy, 2 in the Bot Arena), your heir may lift a restriction upon return to the home world. Your founder, spouse, heir, or spare may do either the Bot builder career or the Lifetime Wish More than a Machine but not both. Thus, it is possible to lift as many as 5 restrictions while in Dystopia.
Once you return to your home world, you may not return to Oasis Landing until travel restrictions have been lifted. It is not necessary to return Oasis Landing to Normal Future when you return.
Edited to include material from Pets.
Edited to include material from Showtime and Supernatural.
Edited to include material from Seasons and University Life.
Edited to include material from Island Paradise.
Edited to include material from Into the Future.
