Sunset Valley: Attack of the Clones!

[Pam]

I looked for the answer cause I remembered another person asking this, and Metro said:Hope that helps. Also, I'd like to see everyone's clones! But better wait for Metro even though I think he said as long as the pics don't show strategy it would be ok. I need to search for that statement lol.

Maybe a picture of as many clones as you can get posted with your final score.  That would be fun.

[Esther1981]

Yes it would be! I have a slight problem. Remember the lagging that made me move the Halliwell's from Riverview to SV? It's back and I can't do anything but put up with it because this is my one real file.  I get going really good, next thing I know it's stopping for 2-3 minutes at a time over and over. It gets worse the longer I play, but if I quit and reload the game, I get a little bit of no lag time. The weirdest part is this is the EA folder I was using for my practice runs and never had lag. I also cleaned out all my caches and stuff right before midnight before I started the real one.

[BellaClo]

Joria, for your question here:

I'd rather put my own houses on the empty lots before I enter the game.  Is this a definite no?  Can we not use any house we have in our bins?  Is there a particular reason if the answer is no? (Yes, I WAS one of those annoying children who always asked "why?" to everything.  Never outgrew it since I never grew up.  )

Metro has already answered a similar question.

When we are placing houses, do they have to be EA houses?  And, do they all have to be different?

Metro's answer:

Yeah, whatever EA houses are in your bin. But, no they do not all have to be different.

I can understand you'd like to place your own houses, this would make a very pretty Sunset Valley. But there is a specific reason we have to use EA houses only, although I don't think I can explain it without coming too close to strategy discussion. In a nutshell, using only EA houses makes the challenge even and fair ground for everyone.

Esther, my computer has become really old and I have more and more trouble to run the game smoothly. I use the "factory reset" trick of MoonsareBlue when a start a challenge file (see details here). I find it helps much with keeping my challenges' saves as easy to run as possible. Also, I only install some of the store .sims3packs in that Sims 3 user folder, only the ones I find might be useful, so as not to overload the RAM.

Besides this, I always have a bit of lagging at the start of a new game in a town which is not Appaloosa Plains. I suspect it's the game populating the stray pets pool and updating the spawners for minor animals. After a Sim week or so, things go back to normal.

[Metropolis Man]

I can understand you'd like to place your own houses, this would make a very pretty Sunset Valley. But there is a specific reason we have to use EA houses only, although I don't think I can explain it without coming too close to strategy discussion. In a nutshell, using only EA houses makes the challenge even and fair ground for everyone.

Correct. Thanks for jumping in BellaClo.

[BellaClo]

Correct. Thanks for jumping in BellaClo.

It's always a pleasure 

[Wench]

Yes it would be! I have a slight problem. Remember the lagging that made me move the Halliwell's from Riverview to SV? It's back and I can't do anything but put up with it because this is my one real file.  I get going really good, next thing I know it's stopping for 2-3 minutes at a time over and over. It gets worse the longer I play, but if I quit and reload the game, I get a little bit of no lag time. The weirdest part is this is the EA folder I was using for my practice runs and never had lag. I also cleaned out all my caches and stuff right before midnight before I started the real one.

I feel your pain, Esther. I get the same problem on random games. Once its there it just won't go but there's many games it doesn't affect at all.  There's no logical pattern to it in my games.  I have a good computer as the Sims is by miles the least demanding game I play, I never use custom content or more than one or two shop items on a challenge game, and I regularly maintain my computer with cache clearing, defragging as well as doing a factory reset before a challenge game.  It still seems to make no difference as to whether the lagging issue will show up in my game   I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope that it lets me do this challenge.

[Joria]

Joria, for your question here:

Metro has already answered a similar question.Metro's answer:
I can understand you'd like to place your own houses, this would make a very pretty Sunset Valley. But there is a specific reason we have to use EA houses only, although I don't think I can explain it without coming too close to strategy discussion. In a nutshell, using only EA houses makes the challenge even and fair ground for everyone.

Since we all have access to the Swap Shop, I really don't see why we have to stick to ugly old EA houses.  However, I will abide by the rules and hope my "why?"  will be answered when the contest is over.  I will ask it again at that time.  Perhaps you will be kind enough to explain then why it would impact strategy?  Thanks for the response.

[Skye]

I must say that this seems an interseting challenge which I would love to participate in but I do not have Generations.  However I am going to have a go by putting in adopted kids when a sim has 45000 reward points, maybe it will work and maybe not but worth a go to see have far I can get.  I too can't understand about only using EA houses where does stratagy come into it?  Obviously it does somewhere.  I may have to fork out to get Generations however not easy where I live.

[Esther1981]

Esther, my computer has become really old and I have more and more trouble to run the game smoothly. I use the "factory reset" trick of MoonsareBlue when a start a challenge file (see details here). I find it helps much with keeping my challenges' saves as easy to run as possible. Also, I only install some of the store .sims3packs in that Sims 3 user folder, only the ones I find might be useful, so as not to overload the RAM.

Besides this, I always have a bit of lagging at the start of a new game in a town which is not Appaloosa Plains. I suspect it's the game populating the stray pets pool and updating the spawners for minor animals. After a Sim week or so, things go back to normal.

That's what I did. I did a couple factory resets, one for my Dynasty that only has like 2 or 3 store items in it, and one for my clone practices. It does have all my store items in it though, maybe I should move them and see if it works. During practice, I had no lagging whatsoever, but since starting my real file, it has bad lag. I'm already well into the 2nd week so shouldn't all the spawners be spawned?

I feel your pain, Esther. I get the same problem on random games. Once its there it just won't go but there's many games it doesn't affect at all.  There's no logical pattern to it in my games.  I have a good computer as the Sims is by miles the least demanding game I play, I never use custom content or more than one or two shop items on a challenge game, and I regularly maintain my computer with cache clearing, defragging as well as doing a factory reset before a challenge game.  It still seems to make no difference as to whether the lagging issue will show up in my game   I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope that it lets me do this challenge.

I agree, it's weird how practicing I was fine but now that it's the real deal, my game has decided it's going to lag. It was about 11 pm on the 26th when I cleaned out my caches, moved screenshots, moved videos and deleted those 2 files, and restarted my computer. Than at midnight I opened the game, started a new one and it was fine for about an hour or two, than the lagging started and won't stop. When it started I even said "You've got to be kidding me!"  Good luck with yours!

[Chuckles_82]

"You may delete one existing structure if it's necessary to place the new EA community building."

So just to clarify - can we bulldoze a lot in order to place a missing community lot, even if there is a bigger empty lot that it will fit on, and place a house on that bigger empty lot? Or does it have to be bigger than the biggest empty lot available in order to bulldoze? (I hope that makes sense)

[Twinmum]

"You may delete one existing structure if it's necessary to place the new EA community building."

So just to clarify - can we bulldoze a lot in order to place a missing community lot, even if there is a bigger empty lot that it will fit on, and place a house on that bigger empty lot? Or does it have to be bigger than the biggest empty lot available in order to bulldoze? (I hope that makes sense)

Why would you bulldoze a lot to place a house? The way I take this is you open a new game and what community lots you have is dependent on what EP's you have. So say you want community lot X in town and there is not one already there, then you would demolish one empty house (it has to be empty, you can't evict someone to do it), rezone the now vacant lot to community lot and place the new lot you want. However there is a catch because in a fresh Sunset Valley game there are limited empty houses on large blocks, so you may not be able to place your community lot of choice. I know because my first choice of lot to add was larger than any of the empty residential lots and I asked Metro and he said that if it didn't fit, I would just have to make do with a different lot.

*edit* OK I just re-read your post and suddenly it made more sense (must have been my shot of caffeine lol)
So you have empty blocks and empty houses. What you are asking is can you demolish one of the houses on a small block to rezone for your community lot and place a house from the bin on a larger vacant block? I think that would be within the rules as long as the house you demolish is vacant.

[Chuckles_82]

No, I wanted to bulldoze an existing community lot to place one of a different kind. Can we do that if there is already an empty lot that it will fit on? We have to fill up all the other empty lots with houses. It's hard to explain without going into strategy. I'd rather place a house on the empty lot and bulldoze a community lot, if I can.

[Twinmum]

Oh, OK I think I get what you mean. You want to bulldoze community lot X and replace it with community lot Y. Not sure about the legality of that move, I would think no you can't, but it's not my call. I guess you need Metro to say yes or no.

[Chuckles_82]

Well, the rule says 'structure', so it didn't specifiy. But it also says 'necessary' - and it may not be 'necessary' if there is an empty lot that will accomodate it. If it doesn't matter and it makes things too complicated, however, I can use a different lot for which it IS necessary (there isn't a big enough empty lot that will hold it). Then it only comes down to whether it matters if I bulldoze a community lot.

[Esther1981]

Metro, due to the lagging issue, I decided to do another factory reset. I went into my clone game and made sure there was no store content on their lot, and I also took all of them into the mirror and dresser and changed their hair and clothes so no one is wearing store content. I just want to get your permission to move the save from the old folder to the new. I'm hoping it works, and if it does I have bad store content or something.