As Anna was sleeping, I queued up a session of kicky bag. It's always worthwhile to do this; Sims tend to oversleep if they have no queued actions. Even if it's just a "go here" or "sit there" action; as long as there is something in the queue, they will get up when their energy bar is full. While we have to play with high autonomy, at the start of the challenge you definitely want to make sure your Sim rarely has a chance to perform autonomous actions. This involves considerable micromanagement; the Apocalypse Challenge is not really well suited to a "hands off" approach.
I'm showing this for two reasons. Firstly, it's another example of a legal opportunity (within limits - I will have to meet these Sims nearby). But more importantly, I want to demonstrate a trick. Here is Anna's performance bar at the end of Monday:
As you can see, it is very nearly full. If I hadn't just used the "call your boss and ask" technique I'd do that to ensure a promotion, but there is a delay on this so that's not an option. Virtually anything I can possibly do on the next work day will result in a promotion.
That means that it would be poor judgement to complete that opportunity right now. The opportunity will make her bar go up, but it's already near the maximum. So what I will do instead is to only meet 3 of the 4 Sims (hopefully) at the park across the road, get promoted normally tomorrow, and then complete the opportunity. That will mean that the performance bump goes to the next (and in this case final) level of the career, at a point when it is going to be empty rather than almost full.
So I wandered over to the dog park across the road:
We can see a Sim over there in the south east corner of that screen shot. But she's already my best friend, so she's no good. Fortunately though a couple of other Sims wandered in. However, what I really wanted to demonstrate was this:
Pets count for almost any "meet new Sims" opportunity or wish. Just go up to a stray dog and let them sniff your hand. Animals are much lower maintenance; they never get bothered if you don't call them. :)
Remember before Espionage is lifted you have to be back on your lot by 1900, so don't take too long. This is not a full moon night for Anna, so there are no further restrictions on having to be indoors by a given time. The result of the park trip was 2 new friends (with all the Charisma challenge pretty much anyone I meet is instantly befriended), and a pat on the head for a nice doggie - as planned, 3/4 new Sims are now met.
Since it's a Monday, I'm going to go ahead and call one of the acquaintances on my relationship panel for a chat, and keep doing that until midnight.
Unsurprisingly the promotion is achieved the next day, so I wander back over to the park to complete the opportunity (with another dog, as it happens). I'm also sending a love letter a day to my fiance, since it's a cheap way to make sure the relationship stays high.
"Wait, Gaz. Doesn't Anna have the Charisma challenges completed? Doesn't that mean that friendships never decay?" Well, sort of. I've experienced before - and can see here as well - that "long distance" friends (in this case, those at University) do seem to decay slowly over time, even with the Charisma challenge Super Friendly (or the Lifetime Reward Long Distance Friend). I'm not sure if that's a bug, or if it is even universal, but (for example) when I invited Derek over to propose, I had to lift his relationship bar from about 80% back up to 100%, and I can see on my relationship panel that he's not the only one:
Most of those were at least 2/3 of the bar, as opposed to about 40-50% now. (They're all still at University, and are generally her former room mates). As long as the relationship panel still says they are a friend you can still invite them over (assuming you have a car), but expect to have to to schmooze them a bit.
This is also the first point where my hamper is full:
What do you do with the dirty laundry? Well, as it happens, the rule is that anything with zero value can be deleted, sold, or otherwise removed without penalty. So the most straightforward solution is to open up the founder's Inventory and drag the dirty laundry from the floor to the simolean icon. No need to let it clutter up the house or produce bad environment ratings. This can get a bit tedious. Even lifting Medical doesn't solve this problem; while it means I no longer have to have a hamper on the lot, I can't sell the one I already have (and I can't actually do laundry until I have lifted Science as well).
I'm slowly buying more objects (1 per day) now. Be careful if you buy anything more than 1 square in size, as you can't move it once it is placed. I'm only buying 1 square objects until my basement is ready, and I'm stashing the ones I am not using in that basement. I'm going to gather a chess set with a couple of chairs, an Audio Lite, and some more lights by the time it gets to the next Monday. Anna spends her day off maximising Athletics from a bit more kicky bag, and then napping, but she gets called in for an emergency at about 2200. Combined with the opportunity bonus this assures her of a promotion on Thursday, which lifts both Hopelessness and Medical restrictions.
Let's take stock here. With the lifts, here's what I can do that I couldn't do before:
- Move in or marry a Sim that will contribute to the next generation.
- Buy and use showers, bath tubs, and even hot tubs (though I still have a $1000 limit).
- Can Woo Hoo in showers and other unlikely places; they are also permitted to Woo Hoo rather than being required to Try For Baby.
- Go to the hospital for medical advice (though it is currently too far for me to do without lifting Military first).
- Can have as many sinks and toilets as I wish.
- Can turn into a mermaid. Nice to know. Won't be doing that.
- Can use the All In One shower.
- Doctors can conduct health clinics, try experimental procedures, and give medical advice. The former falls under Military still, but the latter two may be useful.
- I need not have a hamper on the lot (though I can't sell it without lifting Business).
- Purchase the following Lifetime Rewards:
- Change of Taste
- Dirt Defiant
- Fertility Treatment
- Immune to Cold
- Immune to Heat
- Jock Influence
- Nerd Influence
- Rebel Influence
- Simmunity
- Speedy Cleaner
- Steel Bladder
- Vomit Machine
It's time to start thinking about the next generation. I have Anna call over her fiance.
This means that Anna is now going to get 5 days off in a row, but fortunately she's (best) friends with her boss. Weirdly, it did not move in Derek. This a Sims 3 bug; I fixed it by chatting to him a bit and then just asking him to Move In (it did make him her husband; the marriage worked). In general, you are allowed to resort to otherwise illegal actions in order to fix or work around bugs, up to and including the use of cheat codes. Don't think you fail the challenge just because of a nasty bug - we've all had them.
Now I take a closer look at Derek Struction nee Khan. He's Avante Garde, Brave, Dislikes Children (tough - he'd better get used to them), a Great Kisser, and a Perfectionist. About the only one remotely useful there is Brave, since he'll have a better chance at putting out fires or burglars. He's at level 1 of the Acrobat career.
With Master Thief still in effect, no Sim under your control can quit a job (unless the appropriate restriction has already been lifted). HOWEVER - in this case, Derek is in a career that he cannot possibly be in. To lift the Entertainment restriction via Professional Acrobat requires Athletic, Military, Business, and Espionage to be lifted.
Under this circumstance, and analogous circumstances, you not only can but must have the spouse quit the job. Make sure you know what job your potential spouse has before marrying them; in this case I knew it was "safe" because he'd have to quit.
Derek is still a young adult and he has 16 days to go (by contrast Anna is down to 12 - clearly she has a thing for toy boys). He has 2 points of Cooking and no other skills; he has no Lifetime rewards and less than 5000 points. And even though he has level 8 in Rebel he only has 5 traits. Basically he's a bit of a loser. Compared to Sims under my control, all the other Sims in this town are lazy layabouts with no ambition in life. That's OK, he's a Struction now, he'll learn fast. His lifetime wish is Professional Author (earn $4000 a week from royalties) which is actually quite doable; often spouses come with lifetime wishes that are impossible to fulfil, so this is a nice surprise.
Finally, in his inventory is a High School Diploma (which can be hung on the wall), a street art kit (which is permissible, as long as he only uses it at home), and a fiction book Exit At Powell that I add to my family inventory and Prestige Librarian notes.
Anna has about 21k lifetime reward points, so I first buy Fertility Treatment and Simmunity for her. Then I have them Try For Baby. You want to listen closely for the "Rock a Bye Baby" sound; it doesn't always happen, but if you don't hear it try at least a couple more times. You don't want to waste days thinking that your Sim is pregnant when they're not. In Anna and Derek's case it happened first time. It's a Friday, which means that the pregnancy will end some time on Monday - or, in other words, in time for me to build a bit more basement to stuff the kids.
Next thing to do is get this lazy layabout a job. Of course in my usual overzealousness I've already Hand-of-Godded away the newspaper, so he gets his first look on Saturday morning. He spends the rest of Friday evening playing kicky bag and then going to sleep.
I have Anna napping a lot until after 1030, so that she can make a plate of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. Of course that has Derek whining a lot. Here's my tip with whining hungry Sims: nap time. They will nap for the same amount of time regardless of their energy bar, and it gets them out of your hair. Queue up a bunch of naps if you need to.
Well, this went well:
Just about the best choice for this Sim; the only skill he has is Cooking, after all, and Culinary is a great restriction to lift early. I would have to accept it in any case of course but I'm genuinely happy to do so in this case. I send him back to bed to nap some more after that - it's still only 1000, and he's too hungry to study Cooking.
But 1030 comes around and Anna gets a plate of PB&J together. She eats one, and then it's back to nap time for her. She is in the unfortunate position now of being of only secondary interest to me - not even worth kicky bag since she's already reached Athletics 10. Once the kid arrives she'll be given a bit more of my focus.
Derek, on the other hand, has a lot of work to do. For a start, he's a lot more intensive (without any of the Hardly Hungry etc LTRs, he needs more attention to keep his bars full). Secondly, he literally has a lot to learn. I start him off reading the Cooking book to get him to level 3, but I don't have any others for him to use. From now on, where reasonable, I'll have him prepare the food, but he's going to have to spend a lot of time practising at work, which is never an efficient way to get promoted.
Next, I have him learn Charisma from the book too, and note in passing that Anna now has a total of 8 days off until she has to work again. There is some confusion as to whether she would have to lose her job over this or not. I'm going to have her quit anyway on Monday morning, which is permissible since she's already topped the career.
A little after midnight on Sunday and Derek is hungry again. But all there is to eat is those sandwiches Anna made several hours ago. Yes, technically he could cook at this point, but I don't have a stove yet and it's not late enough to make more sandwiches. But if he eats the bad ones he'll get sick, won't he?
Well, no. Not if you're sneaky. Here's what you do:
- Have the hungry Sim eat the bad food.
- Watch the plate carefully as they eat.
- Before they finish eating, cancel the action.
I've just cancelled the action. You can see that he still has the crusts left, but his hunger bar is well into the green. If you're brave you can cancel later than that - but I recommend practising caution until you get a feel for it. Sick Sims can miss work, and lose their jobs.
A bit of a nap after that, and it's 1030. I toss the old sandwiches and have him make a fresh batch, then get him showered and ready for work.
Unless you're trying to lift Science or Journalism, the founder will typically have little problem getting promoted at work. It's usually the spouse where you need to start thinking. Here's my advice:
- The first priority is to become friends with your boss, coworkers, or whatever else you need to avoid getting fired for a day off. Generations makes days off difficult to predict when you have a large family, and you don't want to have to abandon a lift out of carelessness. This is not the most efficient way to raise the bar, but it is worth doing regardless.
- If your job requires skills you are not fully qualified in, and it lets you train those skills, you need to balance that with Working Hard. Working Hard will move the bar the fastest, but on the other hand if you have no other way to learn the skills you need, there's no point getting promoted to a point where you cannot proceed any further. I generally follow the rule that I want all my skill requirements to be fully met before Working Hard, but I'll bend a little if I'm really close to a promotion or the end of the career. Use your judgement, but if you're not about to get level 9 or 10, it's worthwhile to get the skills. On the job training is not very efficient, though, and if you have any other way to learn use that instead. For example, if you have a kicky bag or chin up bar, don't train Athletic while working in the Criminal career - Work Hard instead, and do your skill training at home.
- Remember that Business As Usual or Work Hard will drain your Fun from the moment you get to work, but it won't actually give you performance until work officially starts. So choose one of the socialisation options until then (you are getting to work early like I advised before, right?)
Remember that in many careers your boss will change as you get promoted. Always try to be friends with your boss before worrying about performance, unless you're really close to a lift and you are running out of adult days. It's devastating to lose your job because of a missed day, and well worth taking a bit extra time just to push that unpleasant prospect as far away as possible.
It's midnight on Monday morning again:
This time I owe (16942 - 6623) * 0.6 = $6192; after paying this I have $57817 left. I'm not going to show these calculations every time, but I figured it was worth illustrating the first two times to demonstrate just how unafraid of the mob you should be. By the time you have to pay a large amount, you'll have a massive stock pile of cash. I say this because if you happen to get the Criminal career in the paper, you should always pick Master Thief if you haven't lifted it yet. Criminal is much less valuable a lift.
I've completed the outline of the next floor down, and you can see I've put the stairs in too (after moving the fridge and stuff out of the way - which is legal, they are 1 square objects). You can see it's getting a bit crowded. Once the baby arrives I will be moving the one square objects downstairs when they are not in use; the crib will be unmovable. It's a bit tedious, but once the next floor is more complete we can move the kitchen down there permanently.
You may just be able to see (next to the bed) there's an Audio Lite there now. If you have your Sims work out to that, you can change the channel after they've started. The Kids channel gives pregnant listeners a higher chance of twins or triplets. Just something to keep in mind - some people (like me) love multiple births as it speeds progress through the challenge, but others find the micromanagement a bit tedious.
As it turned out, I did get twins: Barbara and Charles:
That's Barbara down there under the snow. She's holding Charles. Great parenting, I think you'll agree.
Oh, what's that? Cribs? We don't have any. Can't buy any until midnight, and even then only 1. Well, in fairness - cribs can't be moved, so you don't want to necessarily buy them early. Yes, it sucks for the baby, but look at it this way: I haven't lifted Education yet, so there is literally no benefit to a happy infancy: it's a random trait either way. Harsh, but realistic: leave them on the floor and it will build character.
We'll resume next time with a look at how these little monsters become an integral part of the family.
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