Fallen Angel: Planning Your Apocalypse

UPDATE: Note that Harold should not have been allowed to use the inventor's bench, since I have not lifted Art Appraisal. This makes no difference to what actually happens here, but try not to make the same mistake I did. Thanks to Sarah for catching this. Originally this post contained references to a short future jaunt by Harold; I have removed these references for clarity.

After your first dozen or so lifts you will hopefully have lifted at least one of:

• Journalism
• Master Thief (preferably)
• Military

If you're lucky you can lift one of these right out of the gate with your founder. If you're terribly unlucky, you might not have lifted any of those yet. It happens. Just keep fighting the good fight.

But once you do, you gain a measure of control over your destiny. Journalism gives you a choice of 3 jobs each day (or more, if you've lifted Science and can use the computer); Military allows you to roll the same way you did for your founder which will give you a choice of 3 jobs as well. (What happens if you roll a number where you've already lifted all those jobs? Same thing as if you'd opened the paper - you wait until tomorrow and roll again).

Both of those are good. Master Thief is the real prize here though - while not giving you any more than the basic "first job in the paper" option, it allows you to say "nah, don't want that job" or quit any time you choose. So effectively, you can get whatever job you like if you're patient. Don't wait too long, but definitely hold out for something that isn't terrible.

In my case, I have both Master Thief and Military lifted, along with Science. I have two sets of twins, one with 3 days until they become teens, and the other with 7 days. What are the restrictions I should most focus on lifting next?

Well, the first thing to do is check the tiers - or whatever list you have decided is better. It's not necessarily as simple as "always take the best tiers first", but as a general rule that's never going to be the worst choice. We see that I've already cleared all tier 1 restrictions, plus 3/7 of the tier 2s. 4 kids, 4 remaining tier 2s, no thought needed? Well, I certainly could do that. But because I lifted Paranormal early, I only have 2 ghosts, and they aren't really that annoying. Instead, take a look at Gamer, which is a tier 3 that I've noted is close to tier 2. I think Gamer will be a superior choice to Paranormal at the moment (and even Naturalist has to come under scrutiny - maybe even Architect).

At present, all the twins have Athletic, Ambitious, and Friendly, which seemed reasonable "wait and see" choices. The plan will be:

• Ivy (the heir) will lift Athletic. All she really needs is Athletic skill here, but a few points of Charisma would be wise once she becomes a young adult. Note that I'll be attempting the Admirable Adonis prestige lift here - so far so good, all members of my direct family had 10 Athletics before they died (or left the house), and indeed so did the spouses (though that isn't required).
• James will lift Espionage. He'll need Athletic and Logic. Since he will also need to know a bunch of Sims to write reports on, he again will be well served by learning Charisma.
• Karen will lift Journalism. In fact, let's try for the Prestige lift, so she'll have to read 100 books and achieve all Writing challenges. I've been keeping track of books I've collected (15 so far), which means I'll need another 85. But it looks to me that this is entirely possible - once I have lifted Journalism and later Art Appraisal, I can create a large number of rooms that have a bookshelf in each. Reading the 100 books will be challenging, but if I make her a Bookworm and keeping in mind that the library will be available once she has lifted Journalism, this looks possible as well. In any case she can get started on the Writing as a child, and once again she'll need Charisma too.
• Lilandra will lift Gamer. Mostly she just needs Logic and Writing, but again she will be well served by Charisma since she's going to have to get her Nerd Influence up and might as well train Charisma while doing so (she's going to be doing it via the Video Game Developer Engineer method).

So it looks like we have a fairly clear plan: send all the kids to a Charisma class ASAP, get a couple more computers slapped down for the writers (keeping in mind that Harold is a writer as well, so they can't use his), and aggressively train Athletics for the elder twins.

It isn't necessary to plan out the entire rest of the challenge at this point (though it wouldn't really hurt), but it does help to at least have a general idea what you want to aim for. Of course it may not work out as well as I'd hope. I can pretty much guarantee Lilandra. The rest requires a little bit of luck. Athletics is the one that must come up reasonably early, since otherwise I risk Ivy getting too old to lift it...

... but wait. Let's think more carefully here. So far, I've had the founder and the first heir lift the restriction first, get the next generation sorted last. A few moment's reflection suggests this is no longer required. Instead, Ivy can get pregnant as soon as she becomes a young adult, and check the computer (or roll, or whatever) every single day while pregnant and, subsequently, while raising the kids. She can be working on all the Athletics challenges while this goes on. If the paper ever gives Athletics as a job, she can take it and just accept the fact that she'll miss several days - now that she no longer gets sacked for getting pregnant, this is a plan that would have to be absolutely obscenely unlucky to fail. (If she rolls every day, then she has an 85% chance of rolling a 2 some time in the first 10 days she looks).

And there are no real time challenges for the rest, as long as they comfortably get the jobs before they reach adulthood. So I should be fine.

Wonder of wonders!

No cane. Never can be sure of the age, but Oxqa looks youngish. I immediately grab Harold and get him to ladle on the charm. The bad news is that Oxga left before I could befriend him, but the good news is that I did manage to make contact, and with Military lifted I don't need to be friends to invite him over. So the next day he moves in - and he has 8 days until he becomes an elder. But it may as well be 800 days; all I need (indeed, all I can have) is 7.

7 days later, Oxqa escapes his captivity:

Harold managed to earn $9650 from mostly space rocks on his trips - $6547 from a gigantic space rock he got on the very last trip. You are allowed to analyse space rocks before selling them (and I would suggest you might as well) but you can't smelt metals or cut gems - you have to count them "raw". (If you've lifted Business, as I have, you can sell them). I found I almost always got a large space rock worth $100+ if I went to the Asteroid Belt, but that may have just been luck.

The final step is to get a job as a test subject. While he's working on that career, Ivy and James become young adults. While James diligently checks the computer each day for a job, Ivy finishes up the last of the Athletics challenges:

The Marathon Runner one was tedious - I had her jog from one side of the house to the other, over and over. (It's much easier when you get a treadmill of course, but I can't get one of those yet - and except for the Fitness Nut, she had the other two as a teen). This occurred on the day that James found a Law Enforcement job (note: James not only already has Logic 10 and Athletics 10, he has even already completed his lifetime wish as a teen - Perfect Body Perfect Mind; he will have no trouble at all). Now she needs to find a Sports job, but she might as well start spouse hunting. Karen is diligently writing novels, while Lilandra has taken a break to work on her Nerd influence. As it turns out though, Ivy gets her job the day after, so spouse hunting can wait.

When Karen and Lilandra become young adults the next day, Lilandra is already level 10 Nerd so she gets offered the Video Game Developer job. And Karen checks the computer and is able to skip past Military and Business to get Journalism. So now all four are in their "planned" careers.

And after the weekend:

Alien Technology is lifted!

Let's take stock:

• Harold has outlived his usefulness, having lifted Alien Technology. He is the child of a spare, and cannot live any other restriction.
• Ivy (the heir) has just reached level 3 of Professional Sports. She has completed all the Athletics challenges. She has 16 days until she reaches Adult.
• James has reached level 3 of Law Enforcement. He has not only achieved a maximum in Logic and Athletics (the only skills he really needs for this career), but has also completed his lifetime wish already. He is Ivy's twin (and thus also has 16 days until he's an adult).
• Karen is at level 2 of Journalism. She has Writing 8 at the moment, and has read 29 books (it appears she can easily read 5 per day, more on the weekends, so making it to 100 will not be a problem). I am fairly certain there are more than 100 books in the bookshelf, but even if I'm wrong I am probably not far wrong. She has completed the specialist author challenge (she is a Childrens' Book Author). For the collection portion of the Prestige Librarian, I am currently sitting at 18 books; recall the plan is to lift Art Appraisal in the next generation (or perhaps even with Ivy's spouse, though that is unlikely) and then create a bunch of rooms so that I can buy bunches of bookshelves.
• Lilandra is at level 3 of the Video Game Developer career. She has Logic 8 and Writing 9, and has already completed her lifetime wish as well (Living in the Lap of Luxury).

All of them have Multitasker and Entrepreneurial Mindset; all are Ambitious Workaholics (though note they can only work from home on Mondays and Thursdays at present). Only Karen lacks Fast Learner. James and Lilandra also have Steel Bladder and Dirt Defiant, and they all have a couple of others as well (some have Simmunity, James has Immune to Cold so that he could use the telescope without needing breaks, and so on). Both Ivy and Karen have career based lifetime wishes.

I've gone to considerable effort to lift Alien Technology. Is it worth it? After all, I could have cleared at least one more restriction by now if I hadn't bothered with it. Well, next time I'll take a look at how clever use of Alien Technology can virtually trivialise the challenge.

Let it Play: Taking Advantage of New Powers

UPDATE: An error has been observed here (thanks to Katrina for this!); where I mention that I can switch to half summer and half winter, it should be half spring and half winter; summer is still restricted. I've noted this in the text as well. The rest of the post should still be useful, I hope.

There has been a series of lifts:

• Barbara has lifted Business. This means I am no longer restricted to purchasing 1 item per day, or 14 build mode items a week. I've added another floor to the basement, decorated everywhere, sold off all the reward certificates (at $1000 each, this is an increasingly big contribution to the payments for Criminal), sold off my hamper (no more clothes to clean up), and sold off the old fridge and grill.
• Charles has lifted Education. So Harold can now go to school even as a teenager, and I can choose traits now. Plus I can tutor skills.
• Eleanor has lifted Politics. I am no longer limited to an 8x8 area. I have subsequently significantly expanded the top floor of the basement.
• Francis has lifted Military. I now have considerable freedom to move around town, and can move Sims out.
• Gabrielle has lifted Symphonic. I can now lock wishes.

In addition, Diana has now taken a job in the Science career, and Barbara has married one of her Business colleagues (Elmer) who is now in the Criminal career (from the newspaper; he was allowed to quit, since Business is lifted).

First up:

Changing from all winter to half winter/half summer is a bit of mixed blessing. On the minus side, it means you lose access to Snow Angels which instantly refill Fun. But on the plus side, it means you get less Snow Days which in turn means you can get your grades up more quickly - and of course, you can grow crops when you're ready to tackle Naturalist. I usually choose to restore Summer just because it's thematically appropriate, but it must be noted that it is not compulsory. You can leave it as all winter if you prefer, and change it later.

UPDATE: Yep, the above is wrong. I should have switched to half spring, half winter: not half summer. Make sure you don't make the same mistake I did. Thanks to Katrina for spotting this. It makes no significant difference to the rest of the post.

All of my second generation Sims took a bit more than their 23 days of young adulthood to clear their restriction. Diana started with only 2 days to go until adulthood, and Elmer came into the family only 10 days from Elder. Should I abandon hope?

Of course not! Remember that you may not be able to control elders, but they will usually still go to work on their own. In addition, I can make use of all my new powers to speed things along. As soon as Charles lifted Education I bought Multitasker for both of them, which significantly speeds performance. Ideally I also want to get Midlife Crisis so I can tune their traits, but it was difficult to earn enough LTR points. But now that Gabrielle has lifted Symphonic, it will become all too feasible.

But let's begin by cleaning up a bit. I no longer need Charles, Eleanor, Francis, or Gabrielle, and having lifted Military, I can just get rid of them:

Make sure you tick "Kick Out". They can find their own way in life, they're not getting any of your hard earned cash or items.

I'm using the following new abilities:

• Tutoring to teach skills. This is generally faster than reading books, and can be used on teens even before Entertainment is lifted. (It is inferior to reading books in the library, but until Journalism is lifted, I can't go to the library).
• Locking wishes to earn LTR points.
• Eventually, once I have 20 000 LTR points for Diana and Elmer (Barbara and Harold are of lesser importance), select Midlife Crisis and edit their traits.

On day 81 of the challenge - just after Snowflake Day - Elmer already has 10 Athletics which is the only skill requirement for Master Thief. Diana has Gardening 9 and Handiness 6, plus Science 2 (I'm not sure if that helps with the Science career though after you join it). As long as Diana can get to 10 in each of Gardening and Handiness in the next 15 days she will almost certainly be OK to lift Science as an elder - and that shouldn't be difficult, since Barbara already knows these skills and can teach them.

Barbara is now pregnant, and will be trying for multiples. She has of course quit her job, but I have a comfortable amount of cash now (about $180k and change) so that shouldn't be a problem.Unlike her and her siblings, I will be teaching toddlers all the relevant skills because now that I've lifted Education it is very much worthwhile to do so.

Elmer manages to get this shortly after the new twins are born (Ivy and James). I switch his traits to Ambitious, Bookworm, Family-Oriented (he's going to have at least 4 kids), Schmoozer, and Workaholic. Diana took a bit longer, but then again she has more time, so no great issue there. The real problem is that I have some good news and bad news when Harold becomes a young adult:

The good news is that his alien dad is still alive - he must be really old, but he's still alive. The bad news is that, taking a closer look at The Alien Baby lift for Alien Technology, it's of no use to me. In order to lift this restriction, I need to befriend an alien that can spend 7 days upgrading their spaceship. Since Obgu is an elder, the fact that he's a very long lived Sim is irrelevant - I cannot control him, and therefore he will not serve this purpose.

Which leaves me in a bit of a bind. I need to find another alien. On the plus side I have Military unlocked, so as long as I take an escort, I can wander around and try to find one. On the minus side, I'm by no means optimistic I will be successful - it has already been a long time since the last alien visitation (which resulted in Harold's birth).

Here's a little trick. Zoom out to the map view, and you'll see little orange houses where there are Sims living. By hovering on one of these houses, you can see who lives there:

By hovering on each house in turn, I can tell if there are any aliens living in town. A quick inspection shows that the answer is no, there aren't.  Note that this doesn't necessarily mean that there are no aliens anywhere - but they're not residents. Which means I cannot just hang around near a house with aliens in it and then introduce myself.

So, I'm probably going to have to hope that an alien visits. To maximise the chance, I'm going to see if I can find some rocks. Now, the problem with that is that it's difficult to find rocks without a Collection Helper (and in the classic catch 22 situation, you can't get a Collection Helper until you lift Alien Technology). It's never easy. :)

I start by zooming around my immediate vicinity (ie the area that I am allowed to walk to without an escort). Note that without having lifting Athletics I can't carry more than 3, but that's not a big problem; as soon as you have 3, pause the game, and drag the rock out on to the lot. After looking carefully in the immediate area, I manage to find 8 rocks. They're all tiny, but I don't know if that matters.

There is little else to do but hope that attracts the appropriate attention; I just have Harold continue to churn out books.

Continuing with Diana's education, she gets to the 20k LTR points needed, and I switch her traits to Ambitious, Bookworm, Handy, Over-Emotional, Workaholic. In anything but an Apocalypse you'd want Angler in there, but since she can't fish anyway, it's largely pointless.

That very night, we have a mixed success:

Diana gets abducted. It's nice that aliens apparently are attracted to the rocks, but I would rather they were a little less ... invasive.

A few days later Elmer became an elder:

He's currently at level 8 of Master Thief. What with the promotion after midnight bug, I'd say he's probably somewhere around 5 work days left to clear - a little over a week. Certainly he will live that long. Can he be kept focussed?

Well, Woo Hoo can fill the fun metre, and with Medical cleared Barbara can haul him into the shower for that. By dragging a meal out of the fridge and clicking on "Call Household To Meal", and then cancelling it for all the adults, I can make sure he eats. The rest is basically up to autonomous activity, but he has a Steel Bladder so it's really only Hygiene that is likely to tank.

However, Barbara herself is only 4 days from being an elder, and I will be moving her out before that happens. I basically have 3 days and change before Woo Hoo is no longer an option, but I can still ask him to play chess, so Fun can still be sorted (albeit less efficiently).

With Harold in for the long haul (until he meets another alien, or until he becomes an elder, whichever is first) I can safely get rid of Barbara and Diana (8 days from elder, at Science 7) before they become a problem. Ideally, Diana will lift Science before becoming an elder, and Elmer will lift Master Thief before that, so that Diana can move out and take Elmer with her. I have a feeling it's not going to work out that neatly.

Harold will be left with the toddlers Ivy and James and the new twins Karen and Lilandra. I might as well get some use out of him, after all.

Note that I could easily have avoided all this if I had wanted to. You are allowed up to 10 days aging off. Had I done that before Elmer's birthday, I would easily have lifted the restrictions before they became elders. I didn't do this for two reasons:

1. I always feel if I have to turn aging off that I'm admitting defeat. Some Apocalypses are harder than others, but this one has gone pretty well - Military as an early lift, plus Education and Symphonic, means that I really have nothing to complain about.
2. For illustrative purposes it allows me to demonstrate that Artist need not be a high priority.

You really shouldn't be dealing with elders much except for spouses. Diana is a special case (and she may not be - there's still a bit of time) because I delayed her entry into the workforce in (what appears to be) a futile attempt at lifting Alien Technology. Since you have only 1 spouse per generation, and you can have 4-6 kids, it shouldn't affect enough Sims to be a high priority (though again, it is not useless; had I lifted Artist, then I could have controlled Harold's father and finished Alien Technology already - so judge for yourself whether I was just unlucky or not).

Remember: the rule with elders is that you cannot issue them any orders. But there are a bunch of things you can still do:

• Select what action they take at work. Or to put it simply, you can still have them Work Hard.
• Accept opportunities. Most opportunities cannot be actually accomplished, but some can. For example, if there is an opportunity that requires you to fix something, or to wash dishes, you can drag the offending items out of the inventory of the elder, have some other Sim fix the object/wash the dishes, and if necessary put the result back into inventory of the elder. This is all legal. If it completes an opportunity, all the better.
• Tutor them in skills.
• Have them help you procreate. (Assuming they are male of course).
• Act as an escort for Espionage, assuming they have a 10 Athletics.
• Lock wishes for them (assuming you've lifted Symphonic of course). Whether they can complete those wishes is another matter, but often they can (for example, "Kiss X" is fulfilled no matter whether he kisses X, or X kisses him - so if you control one but not the other, you can still fulfil the wish).

They are most definitely "second class Sims", but they are not completely useless. Proper use of elders will allow you to master the Apocalypse Challenge, as you will be able to assign (hopefully more useful) careers to your Sims than Artist. It's not that Artist is bad per se, it's just that it is not among the more powerful restrictions. My own, admittedly biased list, can be found on the wiki. For new players, I suspect you could do a lot worse than to treat that list as definitive. Of course as you get more experienced, you may decide that I am misjudging the value of some restrictions, or overlooking something - or maybe your own play style is such that some restrictions are more valuable to you. That's fine - there is always a level of subjectivity. Most experienced players agree that Military and Master Thief are probably the two most powerful restrictions - if you get either of those with your founder, you have very little excuse for losing. But the rest certainly vary from player to player.

It's important to remember that you have some level of discretion over the order. While you cannot outright select your careers until you lift Journalism, Science, Military, and Master Thief, lifting any one of these opens a few doors (see here) - but more to the point, you have a choice on who to marry. One of the reasons it's important for founders to make as many contacts as possible is because you should always be spouse hunting - not only for the founder, but for his kids and potentially his grand kids.

Your founder cannot choose her career. But she can choose her spouse. Your founder should probably clear their restriction while still a young adult, because even on a Prestige Start they can front load a bunch of skills at University and select appropriate traits (Ambitious, for example). 

For a female founder, using the radio to work out and then switching it to the kids station, you can reliably get twins; assuming you want 6 kids, that should take around 12-18 days. That leaves you about half a dozen days to comfortably go spouse hunting. If you know enough male Sims, you can pick whichever one is in a good career - a soldier, or a crook, ideally.

For a male founder, it is both better and worse. You can in principle take right up until your elder birthday to find the right spouse - that's the good news. The bad news is that if you are unlucky, you'll end up marrying someone that is too close to being an elder to give you any kids (in the extreme case, no kids at all - if that happens, you can divorce them and indeed arguably must do so, since you aren't technically allowed to marry if you can't produce kids; however, you're still down time, and if you cut it too close you'll be in trouble). I recommend with a male founder not being too picky; with at least 10 more days till elder, look for a spouse with at least a tier 2 career, but after that pick anyone that looks young (though be warned that can be very difficult to judge; I'm hoping that Sims 4 will have a clearer graphical distinction between young adults and adults).

With 1 day to go before she became an elder, Diana lifted Science. Elmer lifted Master Thief a bit earlier. Time to get rid of the elders and Diana, and leave it to the alien and the kids.

It is day 96. Time to take stock:

• Business has been lifted
• Culinary has been lifted
• Education has been lifted
• Master Thief has been lifted
• Medical has been lifted
• Military has been lifted
• Politics has been lifted
• Science has been lifted
• Symphonic has been lifted

Master Thief is especially important - from now on, I can choose to not take the job that I see. With Science and Military lifted as well, I can either roll a die or check the computer for jobs instead of the newspaper (but I can't check multiple places in any 24 hour period). In effect, I can now choose what restrictions I want to lift.

There's another important factor to consider. Having lifted Military, Science, and Symphonic, I have unlocked the possibility of time travel. Science allows me to purchase an inventor bench; as soon as I invent a time machine we can investigate that interesting looking portal that has been around since day 1.

Next time, I'll cover the planning for the next generation, and we'll see if we can track down one of those pesky aliens.

Tearin' Down The Walls: Making Friends In An Apocalypse

The three most common skills needed for careers in Sims 3 are Athletics, Charisma, and Logic. Charisma is not always a direct requirement, but almost all jobs at some point need you to be friends with your boss and co-workers, and Charisma helps with that.

If you buy the same Toddler books that I bought, you'll be starting on Logic as a toddler. A chess set and domino table will keep that moving along through their childhood years. Once they become teenagers, they should be doing at least one daily workout to get Athletics moving. As soon as they get their first point of Charisma (from a mirror, from a skill book, or whatever) they can raise Charisma just by talking and socialising. Unless you've lifted Entertainment, Charisma has to wait until the Sim is a young adult.

Charisma is unique amongst the skills in the Sims in that practice alone will not be sufficient. To rise to the higher levels of Charisma, you need a certain amount of relationships and friends. The exact number you need for each level can be found here. In a normal Sims game you hit the streets, go to parties, wander into night clubs, make friends with the paparazzi or newspaper delivery girl, or whatever - all of which are usually unavailable in an Apocalypse. So how do you make the friends you need?

There are a few ways:

• Pass on the friends of the founder. The founder (even on a Hard or Prestige start) will meet plenty of people at university that they can befriend; these can be invited over. Once they are on the home lot, any household Sim can interact and get that founder friend on their own relationship panel. Since Sims at university do not age while they are there, it is possible to make enough friends this way to carry you through the entire challenge.
• Meet your co-workers, boss, and neighbours. You can wander within a small distance from your house; make use of that to meet your neighbours. Use the Meet option at work during the early levels. And once you have them on your relationship panel, you can call them over and over on Mondays and Thursdays to make them friends.
• Have a large family. If you have 6-8 Sims all in different careers, who can make friends with their own co-workers and boss and then invite them over to meet the rest of the family, you can quickly get a large amount of friends this way.

It's the last one I'm going to focus on here. Workmates have the following advantages over random Sims:

• You know what their job is. Unfortunately that doesn't give you any hint as to their skills, because the NPCs don't necessarily do logical things, but you can be certain of their career at least. Why is this an advantage? Mainly because you might want to marry them. Once you lift that career, even with Master Thief still in effect you're allowed to have a workmate that you marry quit and find another job. Any random Sim you decide to marry may turn out to have a job that is legal, that you haven't lifted yet, and that you would prefer not to have to lift yet (like Sports Agent, for example). And for some jobs you can make even better use of this; for a career like Criminal or Law Enforcement (a "split career") if they are below the "split point" but above level 1 in the job, you can marry them and have them pursue the opposite path.
• You can socialise with them during work hours. If you can see that you're going to get promoted anyway, or that there's no way you will get promoted today but you definitely will tomorrow, you might as well socialise with your co-workers or boss.
• They're easy to meet.

This is not to say that you should ignore other Sims. If a Sim walks by your house, you'd better have a good reason for not having one of your family introduce themselves. Haul them out of bed if necessary. Don't let random opportunities like that pass you by. But you can't rely on random walk bys, so let's concentrate on what we can control.

If you're following my advice, you're having your Sim make friends with their boss as soon as possible. Once that's done, as soon as there's going to be sufficient time (a day off, or whatever) have a "virtual party": get as many bosses invited over as you can. It's not "throw a party" - it's "Invite Over" a lot - but it has the same effect.

First up - Gabrielle joins her siblings as an adult and enters the Music career. She will be going the Symphonic branch, as that is by far the more powerful of the restrictions, the main one being that it allows locking of wishes, which in turn means I can earn a lot more LTR points. Her traits are Artistic (handy for this profession), Friendly (always useful), Natural Born Performer (neutral), Over-Emotional (good - usually), and Perceptive (decent). I'll have to get her a guitar after midnight. Currently she has Logic 10, Painting 5, and Athletic 7.

Next, make sure that everyone has at least Charisma 1. There is no point talking to someone if you haven't unlocked Charisma yet; all that valuable skill training time will be wasted. Read the book, or use a mirror if you have one. Usually getting that first point of Charisma should be a focus as soon as they become a young adult. (By the way, it's also worthwhile to have stay-at-home Sims not otherwise engaged learning whatever skills you happen to have available. It's not that they'll necessarily be useful, but they will keep the Sim occupied, and in a large family that's the key to tolerable micromanagement. Obviously any skills they actually need take preference).

Before the weekend hits though, Harold is born:

If you recall I'm trying to lift Alien Technology with The Alien Baby method. Harold must become a young adult and then abduct another alien. The way I see it, my best practical chance here is that his father Obgu may still be alive at that point. This seems unlikely, but if true, then that is a workable way to lift this. Otherwise I will just have to hope that at some point in the next 30 days another alien makes itself known. It is of course highly unlikely that Obgu will live another 30 days, but I'm not sure that it is less likely than another alien. I'll have to wait and see.

If you have multiple adult Sims in the house, and their careers are such that there is always one of them at home, you can go ahead and get anyone that has just given birth a job right away. I'm not quite that lucky; Gabrielle starts at 1500, while Francis finishes at 1500, but that effectively means there's a 2 hour gap (since Gabrielle would leave for work at 1300). No huge problem though, Diana can delay her job hunting for a while.

On the Saturday, the "virtual party" begins:

It's a miserable day of course. The idea is simple: introduce everyone to everyone, and then make friends one at a time. Since everyone there is a friend of somebody, you can go inside occasionally to warm up. Don't even start socialising until you have that first point of Charisma, because you want to be "training" Charisma as you go. It's worth making these contacts for everybody, even those in careers that don't really need it much; having a high Charisma is never a bad thing.

I'm sure everyone has their own favourite way of making friends. Here's my usual technique:

1. Start with Funny->Make Silly Face, Funny->Tell Funny Story. Repeat. By this point they should think you are being funny; if only amusing, skip to the Friendly cycle starting on step 4. Also skip ahead immediately if you determine that the target has No Sense of Humour.
2. Now do Tell Joke, Funny->Goof Around, Funny->Make Silly Face, Funny->Tell Funny Story.
3. At this point they should think you are being hilarious (and you should have a nice moodlet as well). Now Tell Joke, Funny->Goof Around, Funny->Impersonate Celebrity, Funny->Make Silly Face, Funny->Tell Funny Story, then repeat this cycle. There's a decent chance you are already friends at this point if you already have a good Charisma; if not, proceed to the Friendly cycle at step 4. Proceed immediately if at any point your listener is bored, and if that happens begin with Friendly->Apologise.
4. If you repeat those any more, you'll bore the listener. So now begins the Friendly cycle. This is less set in stone. In general, cycle through "harmless" interactions on the Friendly wheel that are not overly time consuming. Things like "Chat", "Boast About Gamer Skillz", "Tell Story", "Gossip", and "Share Secret". For appropriate Sims, "Praise", "Flatter", "Compliment", "Ask About Day", "Brighten Day", are also good. Once they think you're being friendly, add in "Get to Know", "Admire", "Tell Dramatic Story". If you discover a trait, throw in that as well (for example, if they are a Natural Cook, certainly you can use "Talk about Cooking"). Try to get as many different interactions before repeating as you can, but avoid anything that might backfire - most Boasting (except about Gamer Skillz) is dangerous, any Complains are dangerous, if you're not Insane you don't appreciate Speak About Madness, and most of the Asks are either restricted (Alma Mater cannot be asked until you lift Education) or take too long (Make Snowman, Pillow Fight). You'll get a feel for it.

Your objective in a "virtual party" is to get to Friend and then a couple more interactions, so that it doesn't fade too quickly. Then move on so you can make more friends.

Note that if you absolutely positively need to make a friend as fast as possible, Romantic interactions move the bar the fastest. But use these as a last resort; Sims 3 uses telepathic alerts so that you will be known as a cheater even if the two people you're cheating with have never met. Of course if your LTW is Heartbreaker, go for it.

When your Sims are all getting tired and hungry, have one of them Ask Everyone To Leave. You should find that such a session gets you at least a couple of extra Charisma points for each of your Sims, unless you're starting to run into hard limits with number of Sims known. After the Saturday session I had:

• Barbara with Charisma 6, having completed the Celebrity challenge and with 9 friendships. (Though having said that, I count only 17 people in her relationship panel; certainly she knew her Mum and Dad, but that's only 19, and I can't recall her having met any other dead folks).
• Charles with Charisma 5 (needing another friend for 6).
• Eleanor with Charisma 6 (but needing to meet someone new and get one more friend before she can get to 7).

Francis and Gabrielle invited over their work mates but did not really participate (Francis didn't have any Charisma, so he spent the time learning Charisma from a book and then just introducing himself, while Gabrielle spent the time playing Guitar). Diana was asleep for most of it, waking towards the end and starting to teach Harold to talk.

As you reach higher levels of Charisma things get easier. Once you've met the Celebrity challenge, you start with a hefty bonus towards any new relationship; with Charisma 2 you can kick things off with an Amusing Greet and speed up the Funny cycle. After Charisma 5 if you bore your target you can use a Smooth Recovery instead of Apologise and it will restore the state of the conversation to what it was (eg Funny, Friendly, or whatever, instead of just okay). And never forget that you're looking for potential spouses as well - but I recommend never using a romantic interaction until you're ready to get married. A best friend can become a husband or wife almost instantly anyway.

On day 59 of the challenge, it was time to have another virtual party when everyone got home from work:

At this point:

• Barbara (doing a snow angel to the right of the car) has reached level 6 of Business, and has Athletics 10, Charisma 6, Cooking 4, Gardening 7, Logic 10. She's just gotten home after holding a meeting. In the business career, remember the general rule that you want to have all green before Working Hard. For that reason, she's been Holding Meetings all day, plus one more after work. It's green now and she'll easily get promoted tomorrow.
• Charles is downstairs practising chess. He's at level 5 of Education, and has Athletics 7, Charisma 5, Cooking 4, Science 6, Handiness 3, Logic 8, Painting 5. For the moment everything is green for him, but it wouldn't hurt to get his Logic to 10 soon.
• Diana (with the green plumbob) is still unemployed. She has Athletics 10, Charisma 1, Cooking 3, Science 2, Handiness 3, Logic 8, Painting 4, and Writing 5. I figured this was a decent opportunity for her to meet people; she's going around with Charming Introductions on everyone.
• Eleanor (bottom left) is my main focus here. She's just reached Political level 5, which is where the funding requirement starts. She has Athletics 8, Charisma 6 (could do with 2 more to go green), Cooking 3, Gardening 2, Logic 10, and Painting 3. The plan is for her to schmooze her way around the crowd (most of whom she invited over) and ask for campaign contributions.
• Francis is downstairs fixing the sink; his boss is at the far right top but he's finished schmoozing her. He's at level 5 of the Military career, currently all green. He has Athletics 10, Charisma 2, Handiness 6, Logic 10. Once the sink is fixed he's going to be reading the Handiness book to push his Handiness higher.
• Gabrielle is playing guitar at about the middle of that picture. She's at level 3 of Music. She has Athletics 7, Charisma 2, Guitar 7, Logic 10, Painting 5. Her relationships are fine for now; I'm concentrating on getting her Guitar skill up to 10 as soon as possible.
• Harold (left of the bin) has met his Dad, and is trying to talk him into playing Tag. This is his first day as a child, but a quick go on the chess set plus the toddler books gave him Logic 3. He is Artistic, Brave, and Rebellious, but it largely doesn't matter, because he can't lift a restriction. I am not particularly hopeful that dear old Dad will last the distance - but might as well make friends sooner rather than later.

Some miscellanea:

• If you have visitors over and you either invite them inside, or it's a basement style "no front door" abode, then make sure your fridge is inaccessible. Don't want visitors nicking your food - especially if you haven't lifted Culinary. This also works to prevent ghosts raiding your fridge - as soon as a ghost spawns, turn the fridge so that they can't get to it. If you need to feed your Sims, turn it back around just long enough for them to get fed.
• You'll see some haphazard pillars there around the car. I'm slowly building an 8x8 roof there; that will allow me to move some objects like the chess set outside. This is useful if you want to try to become a Chess Grandmaster. Of course if you're playing above ground, you already have something similar. The reason that the stilts are weirdly placed is that I had to move them to be able to place roof tiles - remember, you can only buy 14 objects from the build menu once a week (or 2 per day if you prefer), but you can move anything that is only 1 square whenever you like. And once placed, a tiled roof doesn't actually need pillars for continued support - it will just magically hang in the air.

The target now is to just push on with those careers; once I get a bit more overlap in work times I'll get Diana a job as well. When Military is lifted, I will be able to just move out all the spares. I'm keeping an eye out for an appropriate spouse for Barbara; ideally I'd like to find a Criminal since I can use them to lift Master Thief. But so far, no such prospect has appeared, so I'm still looking.

Next time we're going to get a lot of restrictions lifted, and I'll offer some advice on how best to take advantage of that.

Bad To Be Good: The Fine Art Of Sim Murder

Last time I left it with 4 days to go until my oldest twins became young adults. That is, in fact, actually later than I usually leave it to dispense with the parental units, but it makes a decent breaking point for an instructional blog - and besides, there's a bit of preparation needed that will require some construction, so I need to pass the next Monday.

So first up I get through the next few days. There's nothing new here - I no longer even have any feeding problems at all. To occupy 6 teens I have a chess set and a domino table, plus there's an easel and where I have the radio placed two of them can work out. So no real problem keeping them busy.

Since I've lifted Culinary, I'm having Derek prepare a bunch of meals and stash them in the Minus 1 Kelvin Fridge reward. (What happened to the old fridge? You'll see). This fridge preserves food indefinitely, and since Cooking will only be a hobby skill from this point on, I might as well make use of him while he lasts. Besides, he can maybe get his Cooking skill to 10 - though I doubt that, the last couple of points take a long time to get "manually".

Note that even though the Minus 1 Kelvin is not one of the "cheapest appliances" that Architecture would otherwise restrict me to, it cannot be bought from the Buy menu, and so it is legal for me to place it. Some career rewards cannot be placed immediately, but most can.

Monday passes. Here's my set up on my new basement level 3:

It's difficult to see, but basically what we have here is a cage on the right (with the old fridge in it), and another on the left (with the grill at the end). There are gates that go in, but that is a temporary situation.

We're not quite ready yet - there are 3 more days until Barbara and Charles become young adults. But I'm sure the more astute players will already seen what dastardly plan I have here. The rest of you - the suspense won't kill you, I promise.

A few days later, I'm waiting for this:

Because I've lifted Culinary, I can use the cake to age them up, but I cannot do this until I get the message that it is their birthday. I believe this usually happens at 0700, as in this case. (And of course there is a similar message for Charles, but you get the idea). (I bought a cake yesterday just before midnight as my one item for the day and put it in Barbara's inventory; Charles gets the cake from the one item today). I chose Renaissance Sim for both of their life time wishes, for much the same reason it was Anna's. Their current stats are...

... wait, what? You want to see me kill somebody? Well, if you absolutely insist.

First, I walk Anna and Derek down into the new basement. Careful placement of objects ensues.

So what we have is, from left to right:

• A grill
• Anna
• A fridge (facing towards the grill - in other words, Anna can access it). This is the one that we had before Culinary gave us the Minus 1 Kelvin.
• Derek
• The hamper
• A gate

The first thing to do is move the gate over to the other cage. There is no escape now. Note that before the Sims were still enclosed by objects, but objects are sadly impermanent.

Now, usually, this is about all you have to do. Put the Sim in a cage, and remove or move the gate. Within a little more than 48 hours they will starve to death.

Unfortunately, Anna is Hardly Hungry. And from previous experience such Sims take ages to starve to death. And who has that sort of patience?

The next step is for her to prepare hot dogs, and then cancel the action once they're on the grill. To do this I need to manipulate the counter. First, get the hot dogs from the fridge, then move it out of the way and put the counter where the grill was:

Note that since I've already moved the gate, they cannot escape if I get careless. Anyway, she can now prepare the hot dogs on the counter. Once she picks them up, pause it:

And then swap the counter for the grill. You may have to get the Sim to move a bit (I did):

Continue cooking if she puts them on the floor. As soon as they are on the grill, cancel the action.

Now watch the Sim carefully. They will likely try to do something like continue to grill; cancel that immediately. Something else to keep in mind: if you have Twallan's Overwatch installed, disable the stuck check and stuck check autoreset:

Make sure you toggle both of those to false. Otherwise our cunning plan to trap the Sims will be undone; they'll get reset automatically when it is noted that they haven't moved.

After a little while, the grill will change its appearance:

So to anyone who is not yet with the programme, here's the plan. I'm starting a fire. The fire will consume both Anna and Derek, as well as the grill, the old fridge, and the hamper. This is solving several problems at once - getting rid of now surplus-to-requirements Sims, as well as getting rid of unwanted objects (especially the hamper - I have lifted Medical, I no longer need one).

Not long to wait after the grill changes graphic. It will briefly go black, and you might think that it's gone out. But sure enough, a few moments later:

Now I have a frantic bit of micromanagement. Here's what the Sims will attempt to do:

• Any Sim adjacent to a fire will either panic or try to put it out (if they are Brave).
• Any Sim on a lot with a fire will immediately, suicidally, run to the fire so that they can stand around and panic.

In this case Derek is Brave. So what I'm going to be doing is cancelling every attempt of Derek's to extinguish the fire, as well as all of my teenage (and Barbara/Charles) attempt to run downstairs to stand around and panic. Indeed, I'm going to make the others run as far as away as they can on the lot - they will not make it, it will keep trashing their move, but if I'm careful I can keep them far away from the fire.

Fire is dangerous to play with - it's a lot safer to starve Sims to death - but if you have a Hardly Hungry Sim you have few options if you're impatient like me, and besides a cleansing fire to get rid of unwanted objects can be handy. If I was less capable at micromanagement, I could just remove the stairs so that my other Sims can't get there, but I don't really want to buy new stairs every time I burn something to death. Think of the economy.

Unfortunately, this is one of those things that is difficult to be precise about. When you want to burn a Sim to death, they will often just stand right next to a grill and not catch light themselves. Another time when you are just trying to make breakfast you'll burn the entire house down. In this case, it was the former case:

I realise that when I promise you a burning and fail to deliver it lacks a certain punch. What can I say? Sometimes the dice don't roll the way you want them to. The good news is that this is just a stay of execution. I move the fridge out into the other enclosure, and then I can just leave them to it. End of the day, they're still trapped in a small corridor with no escape - and I'll just have to be patient.

With that as a complete failure, I return my attention to the other Sims. Consider first Barbara:

Barbara grew up to be Athletic, Frugal, Grumpy, Neurotic, and Over-Emotional. She has Logic 10 and Athletics 8. Business will be at least a mild challenge; she has no traits that will help her make friends. I immediately set her to reading the Charisma book.

With Charles, when he checks the newspaper the first job is already taken (by Barbara, 5 seconds ago). So he can look at the next job in the paper:

We can skip that too, because it's already lifted. What's job number 3?

RIIIGHHHTT. It is not my night, obviously. Retired is not a career, it is not supposed to even appear in the paper. There are only three jobs per day; it looks as if Charles has to wait until tomorrow. In the interim I get him reading the Cooking book, as we're about to lose the two people in the family that know their way around a fridge. Derek has stocked us up, but it won't last forever. Cooking 1 opens up PB&J, so that's really all that's necessary; at 4, you can get Veggie Rolls.

While I am allowed to buy a stove now, there really isn't any good reason to do so until I get someone that can't start a fire with it (a Natural Cook, in other words). Fire is a fickle lady as we've seen; I don't want to start a fire unintentionally.

I'm really not having a good run here. As soon as Barbara wakes up to get ready for work, I'm informed that it's graduation day today. There is really only one chance; it is a Thursday, so she is allowed to call anybody. She has until the end of the day to try and makes friends with her boss (who, fortunately, appeared in her relationship panel as soon as she got the job). That's the good news. The bad news is, he's likely at some point to say he's not available because he has to go to work, which means I have a lot less than a full day to pull this off, with a Sim that has no traits that help:

Why even bother for a career that isn't what I would like? Well, the rules are clear: I am not allowed to intentionally arrange to be fired. The spirit of the rule says that I have to make a good faith effort here to make the necessary connection so that I can avoid it.

The above happened at 0807. The way Sims counts, that means that he'll be available at 1400 again (which is when her shift would have ended), and hopefully will remain available until midnight. That's a reasonable amount of time - I would say if my Sim were Friendly, or had a few Charisma points, we'd be in business. As it is? I'll do my best.

Note that you can cancel graduation as soon as it comes up, but you still miss the day. There's only one way to avoid that: don't play with Generations which is a surprisingly tempting strategy.

Anyway, after graduation, I have Charles look in the paper:

My luck may be changing. Education is a great lift, especially early in the challenge. Of course he isn't necessarily perfectly suited. He is Absent Minded, Insane, a Loner, Socially Awkward, and Unlucky; he has Athletics 7, Cooking 3 (from the book, since he became an adult), Logic 7, and Painting 5. He's going to need some Charisma, but I foresee no serious problems there.

Indeed my luck seems to hold; at a little after 1900:

Her begging her boss all day apparently has done the trick; she's allowed to keep her job. The time limit is that you must make friends before their next shift starts. Obviously if there are no Mondays or Thursdays before that point, you're probably going to be unable to do this, unless they live close by. So I guess it could have been worse.

A reasonable question at this point is, "Why don't I try to burn Anna and Derek to death again?" The answer is because as soon as a fire starts, it will occasionally make Sims come back from work to see it, and I don't want to have them lose their job. Other than making sure that they aren't doing anything illegal autonomously, they can't really cause any mischief. While Barbara and Charles are at work on their first day, Derek succumbs:

To put Hardly Hungry into perspective: when I first imprisoned these two, Derek had a full Hunger bar, and Anna had 17 hours left of the Very Hungry moodlet. He has just starved to death and she is still only on Very Hungry. I think it takes at least 3 or 4 times as long to die; she will, in all probability, be an elder before she succumbs (2 days to go for that).

The "cage technique" of killing Sims has two main benefits. Firstly, it makes sure that the method you're using to kill them cannot be interrupted: they can't escape from a fire, find their way to a fridge, or whatever. Secondly, it ensures that their tombstones appear in an out of the way location, where they cannot block your living Sims. If you insist on having your Sims die of old age, you have a much harder job. Essentially you have to take a guess as to how long they have left, and then have a controllable Sim lure them some place their tomb stone won't block access to something. It's tedious, it's error prone, and I cannot recommend it; the Apocalypse Challenge favours those with the intestinal fortitude to prune the tree now and then.

A death in the family will tank everyone's mood. This is never a good start to a new job, of course. But it must be borne. In my case it's actually not so bad; it happened on a Friday, and both Barbara and Charles have the weekend off. The Mourning moodlet only lasts 2 days, so they'll be fine by the time they go back to work (unless Anna dies in the interim).

It's not about needless cruelty. You can only have 8 Sims in a house. If you want to have more kids, someone else has to go. So I had Barbara invite over Obgu:

A cane is a pretty unambiguous method of indicating an elder. This is not ideal. Marry an Alien is the easier method to lift Alien Technology - but not in this case, since he would be completely uncontrollable. That means I must fall back to Alien Baby. It would be foolish to have her get pregnant before lifting her restriction, which means that we now have a very definite time limit: she must clear her job and get pregnant before Obgu dies of old age. There's nothing I can really do to affect that, of course - it's not as if I was going to be be slacking about clearing her restriction as fast as possible. But there is an alternative: I can have Diana, Eleanor, or Gabrielle get pregnant instead. This is not ideal, because the alien baby would then be unable to lift any other restriction, but we're in a situation where no solution is perfect:

• If I have Barbara bear the alien baby, then Obgu might die of old age before she can get pregnant.
• On the other hand Diana and Eleanor will be young adults in 2 days. Either of them can get pregnant effectively before they start on their lift, but the resulting child will be dead weight.

There's also the very real risk that the resulting baby will never meet another alien to abduct. This is why Marry an Alien is much the preferable way to lift Alien Technology.

I cannot stress enough how powerful Alien Technology is. The mere possibility of letting this opportunity slip away is enough to persuade me to go with the second of these options. Obgu will be invited over on Saturday and introduced to Diana, who will make friends with him as a teen and then bear his child as soon as she becomes a young adult. I will just have to trust that at some point another alien will make their presence known to complete the lift.

You can admittedly forestall and make this easier by having lifted Artist, which can be done in theory by any Sim, but Artist is not generally a great lift; the only way for me to have lifted it this earlier would be via Video Game Developer (Artist branch) and I certainly would not have wanted to give up Culinary or Medical for that opportunity.

When the triplets age up on Sunday, Francis gets Military, Diana of course does not look (no point getting her a job if I'm going to get her pregnant), and Eleanor had a choice of Business or Retired, and took neither. It's very difficult to be upset if you get Military, as it is a very strong restriction. Francis has the traits Couch Potato (they'll whip that out of him I'm sure), Friendly, Insane, Slob, and Virtuoso. Not exactly ideal traits, but he does have Athletics 7 already (and Logic 9). He'll be working on lifting his Handiness skills.

Diana is going to stay unemployed until the alien baby is born. She's Athetlic, Artistic, Over-Emotional, a Party Animal, and a Snob; she has Athletics 9, Logic 7, and Painting 2. Finally, Eleanor is a Couch Potato, Good, a Schmoozer, a Slob, and a Snob; she has Athletics 7, Logic 10, and Painting 2.

Diana calls over Obgu again. She puts the moves on him, and in an hour or two:

Remember, listen for the "Rock a bye baby" tune. Anyway, she doesn't want to get tied down with this guy, so after a quick Try for Baby she asks him to leave - there are skills to learn, can't be wasting time.

The next day, the options for Eleanor are Education, Medical, and finally Politics. So we will have a politician in the family.

The day after that, Anna finally dies:

You can see what I mean about how long it takes. Hardly Hungry is basically something to be taken very sparingly, unless you've lifted Military. Anna will actually probably be the last Sim I kill, which is disappointing I'm sure, but there's really no need to if you lift Military, and Francis is already level 3 after 3 days, so that's well on target. (Admittedly aided by a "stay late" opportunity).

Next time, the alien baby will be born, Gabrielle will join her siblings as an adult, and I'll discuss how you can make the friends you'll need for so many jobs - I already have Education and Politics here, and Business sort of counts as well. Limited phone? Limited problem!

Something To Believe In: The Teen Years

Teens aren't really harder than children - they're just a more intense version. Sometimes children will get fed at school (as in, sometimes it isn't a Snow Day), but teenagers can't go to school at all until you lift Education. That means that you need to feed them every day, and that they cannot yet meaningfully contribute to the house.

However, they can now build some skills they previously were unable to build, with Athletics being top of the list. I always strive to get teenagers started on the Athletics skill as soon as possible - it's useful in many careers (for example, Criminal, Military, Law Enforcement, and of course Athletic) and of course if you can get it to 10, then they can even leave the lot for short distances. You can really push Athletics by working out until you get fatigued, and then playing Kicky Bag - or alternatively you can have them play chess or similar when they're fatigued. Teens are also candidates for finishing off spoiled food on plates - sure, they might get sick, but they are the most expendable of all.

It's been brought to my attention that if you have Cooking 4 or better, Veggie Rolls are a superior alternative to Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches; you can make them for dinner (instead of lunch). (Thanks to Rob for that tip). If you have a day where all your family are at home (also known as a "worst case scenario") try to feed them as late as possible; a single meal will still fill up the hunger bar, and it will last longer that way. You may need a lot of nap time to achieve this, but remember that a Sim can go for 48 hours without any food at all. So you don't really risk killing anyone - though it will likely be a wasted day skill-wise.

The other thing that teens should start preparing is getting to know their intended spouse (for heirs only of course). Derek invited over Obgu (his best friend, thanks to a lot of chatting on Mondays and Thursdays) and Barbara has now rushed over to introduce herself.

A few jokes, a bit of conversation, and now she's friends with this guy as well. It's a shame she doesn't have the Charisma skill, but there's no way for Sims to get that without a few more lifts first.

On day 42 since the challenge started (not counting University):

Culinary is lifted. This gives me the following new abilities:

• I can deliver food to townies or NPCs (as part of an opportunity, for example).
• I can get drinks from barista bars. (I cannot yet work at them).
• I can grill food on community lots.
• I can hold food in inventory. (Note that cooked food will still spoil in inventory; raw food won't).
• I can learn the Mixology skill.
• I can make drinks at juice bars.
• I can prepare food at University (otherwise I would be reliant on whatever the dormies made - and note, this didn't apply to the founder, because I used an Easy Start).
• I can prepare food whenever I wish. (This is obviously the biggie; I am no longer restricted to one meal a day).
• I can purchase ovens. (As long as they still meet the Architecture restrictions - so only the cheap stoves).
• I can use birthday cake (only to age them up on the same day they would normally age up; this is a general Apocalypse Challenge rule that is never lifted).
• I can use the toy oven. (Of course I have no more children at the moment).

In addition, the following Lifetime Rewards are now available:

• Atomic Grazer
• Better Mixologist
• Born to Cook
• Competitive Eater
• Desert Pony
• Discount Diner
• Hardly Hungry

As previously mentioned, it's good practice to keep a record of these things. For example, here's my Google Spreadsheet:

The top one is my "current powers" sheet, and the latter is "available LTR".

All of the kids are currently teenagers; Barbara and Charles have 4 days to go. Anna has 7 days until she's an elder.

Now, elders are uncontrollable. And they will, left to their own devices, cause nothing but grief. It is best to dispense with Sims before they become elders. Let's look at some methods to do that next time.

Life Goes On: Feeding the Kids

I'm on week 4, day 3 (just hover over the day and time to see this) of the Apocalypse - a Tuesday - and I have 2 young adults (Anna has 2 days left, Derek 5), 2 children (the twins Barbara and Charles have 8 days left), 3 toddlers (triplets Diana, Eleanor, and Frances have 2 days left) and an infant (Gabrielle has 1 day left). I have 2 cribs, 1 set of bunk beds, it's midnight, and I'm wearing sunglasses... let's go!

More seriously, before I get stuck in to the rigours of "feeding time", how is Derek doing with Culinary? He's currently a Line Cook (level 5) by which you can infer he has not been getting promoted as rapidly as Anna was. On average he gets a promotion every 2 work days, and most of the time he's spending on Practice Cooking; he's at level 6 there, while Line Cook prefers level 8. For the moment, it is still worthwhile to push his Cooking skill, but once it gets to 8 (or maybe only 7) it is probably worthwhile to just Work Hard. You ideally don't want any of the Performance modifiers to be anything other than full green:

(though of course with Science you'll have to put up with the fact that you can't Fish). But remember that the goal is to lift the restriction, not to get a 10 skill; the reason to improve your skill is to increase your rate of getting promotions. At present he's only halfway through the career, so he's saving time in the long run, but once that is no longer true even if I do want him to get Cooking 10, the quickest way to do that is to lift Culinary and then just have him make piles of food at home.

OK. So, the main pending problem I have is that until the twins become young adults, I will have a steadily increasing number of mouths to feed. (Admittedly in my case, I'll have lifted Culinary by then, but I'll still have to put up with a bit of it). The solution to the problem, unsurprisingly, is to make the food last as long as possible:

• Stop eating as soon as the hunger bar is full. In fact, if you have lots of Sims and the adults have a day off (so more food needed than normal), stop when the hunger bar is about 2/3 or so. The objective is to keep them fed enough that you can make them do useful things - and no more. This does mean that you won't get a positive moodlet for food - but you won't get a negative one either.
• Don't throw away food. I'm not just talking about the plate of PB&J you have; I'm saying when you stop eating because your hunger bar is full, leave that plate around so some other Sim can eat it too.
• If a Sim is not currently useful, push them to the bottom of the priority list. An adult that has lifted their restriction would be an example. Don't let them starve to death, necessarily - oh, don't worry, we'll get to that - but feed the others first.
• Finish every last morsel. If you have lifted Medical (as I have) remember that you can buy Simmunity and Sims that have this LTR do not get sick. But even if you haven't, pick the Sim that is least affected by being nauseous. Again, an adult that has lifted their restriction would be an example. They won't be very happy about being sick all the time, but it will keep them alive.
• Hungry Sims can be made to nap until 1030-1100 (whenever you are next able to make PB&J). In extremis, haul up the stove and make them hot dogs, but be prepared for a fire.
• Watch their autonomous actions. In particular, you don't want any of your Sims queuing up a "Wash all dishes on the lot" action, because they'll go and clean up all the bad food.
• Eat the good stuff first, of course!

For example, Barbara and Charles shared half a PB&J before bed, and Derek has just gotten up:

Derek does have Simmunity (I bought it a while back) so he's going to finish off the kid's sandwich.

If your children get a few days at school clear from Snow Days, they should generally focus attention as follows:

• Work on Late Homework. Remember that until you lift Education you can't do it at home.
• Meet New Friends.
• Talk to Friends.

There is actually very little point to Work Hard or Study Normally. Uninterrupted by snow, you will fill the bar easily with the socialisation options. Of course you will get interrupted by snow, but again: a good education would normally mean that you get to pick the trait when they become teenagers. Since you can't do that anyway until you lift Education, it's really not a high priority to do well at school. By contrast you definitely want them to make friends at school, because those are potential spouses later. And remember that with almost no exceptions your children can't do opportunities at school (cleaning the bug cages, etc.) without lifting Education, or attend field trips without lifting Military and Forensics; they have to come straight home.

Just following the general "eat only what is necessary" rules above, I got through to Barbara and Charles' birthdays.

I haven't listed the traits for the kids; I'll do that here:

• Barbara (the heir) is Athletic (good), Frugal (irrelevant), Grumpy (bad), and Over-Emotional (generally good, but makes Grumpy worse). On her birthday, she has Logic 8 and no other skills.
• Charles actually got an A at school, but of course he had to randomly pick his teen trait anyway. He is Insane (neutral - but generally more good than bad), a Loner (bad, but not terrible), Socially Awkward (bad, but not terrible), and Unlucky (very very bad). Unlucky is a terrible trait; I'll elaborate below. He has Logic 7.
• Diana is Artistic (good), Athletic (good), and a Snob (entirely manageable). She has Logic 4.
• Eleanor is a Couch Potato (bad, but not terrible), Good (usually good, with one exception: see below), and a Slob (usually good, but not so much now that I've lifted Medical - far from terrible though). She has Logic 6.
• Francis is a Couch Potato (bad, but not terrible), Friendly (good), and a Slob (usually good, but not so much now that I've lifted medical - far from terrible, though). He has Logic 5.
• Gabrielle (the only single birth, and the youngest) is Artistic (good), Friendly (good), and Perceptive (good). She has Logic 5.

I've noted that Slob is usually better than it is in this case, but it does have one useful feature. A Slob can lick a plate clean, and even if the plate formerly had spoiled food on it, this will not cause the Sim to get sick. And this will entirely fill the Slob's hunger bar!

"Good" is usually a, well, "good" trait to have - there are better ones to pick, but it's certainly not a terrible one to get landed with randomly. The exception is if you have the Emperor of Evil in the house, because the relationship between any Good Sim and the EoE will tank rapidly. Of course that's not the case here, so Good is fine.

The bad one here is Unlucky. Unlucky is not bad because of the minor effects it has on moodlets, or even that it makes fires and so on more likely. All of that is controllable, and even useful in some cases. No, the problem with Unlucky is that Unlucky Sims cannot die except by old age. You might not see why that is a disadvantage. In the real world, it wouldn't be. But in the Sims, unless by great fortune one of the next generation lifts Military, I will want Sims to die. It is the only way to them out of the household (you can't move out until Military is lifted), and ideally they should die as soon as they are no longer useful. Currently, Derek is useful (he hasn't cleared Culinary yet). Anna is useful to help look after the kids; she's also very low maintenance (most of the time she is napping, only waking to fix the shower or whatever). And Barbara will be useful because she's the heir.

But the other kids are not longer useful from the moment they lift a restriction; they will be taking up a slot that one of Barbara's kids could take up. So I will be executing them as soon as that happens. But Charles cannot be killed; if I do not unlock Military, he will have to die of old age, which takes ages. All of his traits at at best only neutral, but it is Unlucky that makes him a horrible twist of fate.

It's 32 days into the challenge now (a Wednesday evening). Shortly after Barbara and Charles become young adults, Barbara will become an elder. And hopefully long before then, Derek will have lifted Culinary. In the next entry, we'll see some examples of the fine art of Sim murder.

Every Rose Has Its Thorn: Mewling Infants

So yeah, probably most doctors would agree that it's not necessarily recommended to leave newborn infants in snow drifts.

There are several points to keep in mind when raising Apocalypse children:

• Keep them alive.
• Depending on restrictions still in place, spend the absolute minimum amount of time ensuring their continued existence.

They can't actually die as toddlers or infants, even if you set fire to them. But you should probably feed them and try to keep whatever bars you can in the green. Remember that feeding an infant or toddler a bottle from the fridge can be done as many times as desired, even with Culinary restrictions still in effect.

But if you haven't lifted Education, it is entirely up to you whether you bother teaching them to walk, talk, or use the potty. In normal Sims play the reason to do these things is that they will be allowed to choose a 3rd trait when they become children (otherwise it will be random); if you are in an Apocalypse with Education restrictions still in effect, the trait is going to be random anyway. So concentrate on teaching toddlers from the books first - skill points are always welcome, after all.

So what about my twins, and my lack of crib situation? Well, babies will eventually go to sleep on the floor. They do yell about it, and they need to go to zero energy first, but they will nod off. Toddlers complain a lot more, so I don't recommend "sleep on the floor" tactics for toddlers. After midnight, I bought my first crib and shamelessly played favourites by putting Barbara into it. Pick your heir as early as possible if you have multiple kids; I'm sticking with the ladies for the same reasons I decided on a female founder. Your heir need not be the first kid you have, but remember that until your heir is born your spouse cannot lift a restriction, so don't wait too long.

Infants, incidentally, can sleep through any noise.

Anna is pregnant once more (though it hasn't registered yet) so she is once again getting some Kids music cardio (Work Out, then change the station). This is essentially my usual method of play: if you have less than 8 Sims in the house, produce more. In this way you can complete the challenge in a minimal number of generations. It does mean that you have to be careful to keep an eye on all of your Sims, so it's not to everyone's taste. If you have insufficient cribs for the toddlers and the infants, give them to the toddlers, as they tend to scream a lot more.

They've toddlerified. (Excuse the wall cut out; it was tricky to get an angle with them up). Remember that you can't have anyone read to the toddlers, but they are allowed to read the books themselves (go to Open Bookshelf and drag the books on to the floor). I'm following my own advice here; teaching them to walk and talk will not be a priority, and I don't even own a potty (though I may eventually buy one). They still need to be fed, and they still need to be socialised with, but other than that don't worry about their hygiene meter - it will refill when you change their diaper.

Unlike infants toddlers are sensitive to noises, particularly other crying infants or toddlers, but I recommend just putting up with that. It's only four days until they become children, and as long as you make a reasonable effort to keep them alive they should be fine. Of course, if you're following my method, you're going to have to repeat this as the house population goes from 4 to 6 to 8, but it is entirely manageable, as we'll see.

It does get a bit crowded though. With two cribs, I have very little space on the top floor, but the bottom floor isn't useless:

As you can see, I have stashed virtually every 1 square object I'm not currently using down there. Whenever I need the fridge or the sandwiches, I just move the object to the top floor, use it, and then stash it back downstairs. In this way I have enough room for two cribs.

Friday morning, triplets arrive (Diana, Eleanor, and Francis arrive: two girls and a boy). This is where it gets a bit hairy. As a general rule: do not buy more than 2 cribs unless you have the ability to move them, or unless you already have two stories. This is not meant to be taken literally. If you've cleared Politics and have plenty of room, buy as many cribs as you like. But generally, only buy 2 unless you've cleared Athletics, or perhaps Business (you can't sell a crib unless you've lifted Athletics and Business, but if you've lifted Business you may be able to sell enough 1 square objects to give you the room you need).

Three triplets, only 2 cribs (and that's not counting the two toddlers that still have 2 more days to go). Have I overreached?

Throw out your real world parenting books; in an Apocalypse Challenge you need to shamelessly play favourites. The heir gets all the attention; her siblings get attention only if they are in dire need or if the heir is asleep. So yes, this means I'll have a lot of kids sleeping on the floor. But that is a very temporary situation. If I buy an extra crib, then that is 4 more precious spaces of my living area gone forever. And they don't remain toddlers forever, but that space will remain in use until I get Athletics lifted. It's just not a good trade.

Of course, if you really can't stomach that, the easiest solution is to have smaller families. That's absolutely fine, it just takes more generations to finish the challenge.

Early Sunday morning, and we have a visitor:

As a general rule, the earlier you can lift Alien Technology the better; there are rewards (such as the Moodlet Manager) that make the entire challenge fairly trivial. It is optional to lift it at all, but an alien visitor is generally a stroke of luck. The intention here is to have Barbara eventually marry this alien. Of course, she's currently a toddler. But it's important to plan these things. The first requirement is that I need to make contact; Derek is the most alert at this point, so I haul him out of bed and make the alien's acquaintance.

"Hey dude, I'm a cook - and no, that letterbox isn't edible."

Now, there are essentially three categories of Sims that are not under your control:

• Sims that you invited over. With the restrictions currently in place, I cannot invite over anyone that isn't a friend - but I can invite friends between 0600 and 1900; they have to leave by midnight. You can do this any time. It does not have to be a Monday or Thursday to invite someone over - though it does to chat with them, assuming Gamer has not been lifted.
• Service Sims. The paperboy, the mailman, and so on. You can't interact with them at all, until you lift Espionage.
• Walk by Sims. Anyone on your lot that is not a service Sim, and that you didn't invite there. (Note that a burglar is considered a service Sim - you're allowed to beat them into submission, but not to socialise with them). You can socialise with walk by Sims as much as you like.

There is one exception: from 1900 until dawn on a full moon, you must not go outside. Too many zombies around. But it's not a full moon tonight, and an alien is a walk by Sim - so even though it is only 0200, it is completely legal to socialise with this Sim (though not to invite him inside - that's covered by Espionage as well).

The objective here, ideally, is to make this alien a friend. That way, he can be invited over later as needed. If he is young enough, when Barbara becomes a young adult he can become her mate (if he's still an adult or young adult, she'll marry him; otherwise, she'll just seduce him).

Kind of creepy to have dear old Dad planning the father of your children when you're a toddler, but Apocalypses cannot adhere to normal social behaviour.

Unfortunately it didn't go perfectly:

The alien was obviously after money. I didn't make it as far friendship, but I did manage to make him an acquaintance. Aliens appear on your relationship panel just like normal Sims; since tomorrow is Monday, he can therefore be called up to chat. Do that often enough and he'll become a friend; essentially, you just have your Sim dial them over and over again until they're either a friend, or else it's no longer Monday (or Thursday).

Monday morning rolls around, and it's time to pay protection money. This is the last time I will make a special note of this, so I'll be thorough. First, go to the Buy/Build menu and take a look at the Lot Value:

Subtract the Unfurnished value from the Furnished value, and multiply the result by 0.6 (60%):
(17527 - 7019) * 0.6 = 6305 (always round up).

There are two ways to adjust your funds. The first works without any mods. Press CTRL + SHIFT + C to bring up the console and type "testingcheatsenabled true" followed by Enter:

Now work out how much you will have left. I currently have $66664; 66664 - 6305 = 60359. Press CTRL + SHIFT + C again to bring up the console, and type "familyfunds struction 60359" (except substitute your family's name for "Struction" and the amount you should have left for "60359"):

Finally, turn off the testing cheats. Press CTRL + SHIFT + C to once more bring about the console, and type "testingcheatsenabled false":

That way will work without mods, but I think you may agree it's a bit tedious. If you have Twallan's Master Controller (with the optional Cheats module as well), there's a much simpler way. Recall I worked out that I need to spend 6305. In Live Mode, click on any Sim and select NRaas -> Master Controller:

Now select Household:

And then Family Funds:

Type in the amount you want to adjust by (in my case, -6305), and then press Enter. All done!

I think this is much more convenient.

Now the second level is beginning to be functional for more than just storage. After building a bit more of it, my daily item purchase is a bunk bed for Barbara and Charles (who have just become children - the other three have just become toddlers). Bunk beds are one of the few reasons to play with Generations active; they are very space efficient and can be shared amongst siblings that are not necessarily friends with each other. I have Barbara and Charles working on their Logic skills (of course they got a 3 point bump from the toddler books that they read).

I am "hot cribbing" the triplets - I have staggered their sleep cycles so that three of them can share the two cribs. In fact I can handle four with two cribs, which will mean that the last baby (Gabrielle) should be able to sleep in a crib sometimes even as an infant.

As Tuesday morning dawns, I have the adults, toddlers, and infant on the first floor, and the kids playing chess on the second:

The transition from a family with mostly infants/toddlers to a family with mostly children is in some ways easier, in others harder. It's easier in that children require much less attention than toddlers (infants don't require much either); set up a chess set and that's two of them sorted, for example (and all the rest can watch the other two play). But it's harder in that you now have to abide by feeding restrictions - with Culinary still in effect, you can really only feed any Sim once per day. This is not really an issue with adults because most days they will get fed at work. While kids get fed at school, until you lift Symphonic and restore Summer you'll miss almost every day of school due to a snow day.

It is the calm before the storm right now; 3 toddlers and an infant are easy enough to handle, and two children are easy enough to feed. But soon, it will be 5 and then 6 children. Let's tackle that next time.