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.

Flesh and Blood: The Next Generation

Last time I left it with my founder Anna about to start her second week, having just paid protection money.

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

I recommend every time you lift a restriction you keep a spreadsheet handy of at least the new LTRs that are available; ideally jot down what actions you can now perform and what new objects you can use as well. You can find a number of useful templates at the Facebook group.

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:

1. Have the hungry Sim eat the bad food.
2. Watch the plate carefully as they eat.
3. Before they finish eating, cancel the action.

Sims only get sick if you finish eating bad food. Otherwise, it's fine - they won't quite fill up their hunger bar, but close enough. Of course it's worth noting in passing that I could just let Derek have a quick meal and let Anna eat the bad food, since she has Simmunity and can't get sick, but for illustrative purposes it seems prudent to demonstrate this technique.

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?)

In Derek's case he's going to spend time at first making friends with his boss. While he is all green at the moment for Cooking, he's going to have to push that at work because one PB&J a day at home will barely give him any practice. As it is after the first day of work he does get promoted anyway - the first level is easy - and he makes the friend he wanted to. It is unfortunately a full moon; otherwise, I would have invited the new boss friend over to try and push him into Good or even Best Friend territory.

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.

Don't Need Nothin' But A Good Time: Our Humble Abode

UPDATE:
It has been quite correctly pointed out that my design for the house could use some simple improvements. Check the first comment for details.

It's time to build our home. Just for reference, this is what it looks like right now:

Observe the portal. This is not considered part of my house; I do not have to construct my house such that it lies within the 8x8 area. To all intents and purposes this is considered to just be a feature of my lot. I cannot interact with it until I invent a time machine anyway. Emit, if he shows up, will be treated as a service Sim that I cannot interact with until that point.

The university goodies I can keep, if I want to, but I don't particularly, so I toss them into family inventory. The first thing that I have to do is visit the book store, so off I go.

I'll be buying a Classically Tasteful bookshelf when I get back to the lot. This will always contain volume 1 of the Cooking, Handiness, and Logic books, plus a random toddler book. I must buy at least three books, and I can buy as many as I like.

Keep in mind it will likely be a long time before you can visit the book store again. On the flip side, though, you don't want to blow all your money here. Some players deal with this issue by making a nearby lot a community lot that has a bookshelf on it - I call this a "virtual library". It means that your Sims can do all their study there, until the real library (with its study bonus) becomes available with Journalism. It's definitely a strong choice. I'm not going to do that here though - other than a bit of bulldozing for residential lots, I'm using this town unaltered.

What books you decide to get is up to you, but I can give some general advice:

• If you won't be able to use the skill that the book teaches, don't buy it. Alchemy is a great skill, but you can't use it for quite a while; similarly with Mixology or Photography, and definitely with Social Networking. The exception is Gardening. You want to get at least the first Gardening volume, and probably all three, since without them Science will be very difficult to lift. About the only exception is if your founder is going to lift Science and he already has Gardening 10 from University.
• If you can learn the skill without a book, strongly consider whether it's worth buying the book. You might want to get the first volume of Charisma, but after that your friends will be the main limitation, and you will automatically skill Charisma while making the friends. You can learn Logic from the chess table, and you probably will use a chess set a lot anyway. When you are eventually able to get an Inventor's bench, you'll have the means to skill it without the books. On the other hand, it can be dangerous to cook or tinker; books are a safer way to learn those skills.

While you learn faster with books - a lot faster in some cases (library + Bookworm trait) - you generally don't do anything except learn. With an Inventor's bench, for example, you might pick up the skill more slowly but you'll be making inventions as you go.

With all that in mind, I'm buying Charisma volume 1, Cooking volumes 2 and 3, the three Gardening books, Handiness volumes 2 and 3, and the three Science books. I'm throwing in the three pink toddler books as well (the logic ones). The total cost is $4885. If you're strapped for cash - as you might well be for a Hard Start, and will almost certainly be for a Prestige Start - then the bare minimum is the Gardening books, and really try to get the first Charisma book too.

Notice that I'm choosing not to bother with the other toddler books. They aren't by any means useless - buy them if you like, they're fairly cheap. I just feel that I can get Painting and Writing stills fairly easily as a child, but a nice 3 point head start in Logic (since it helps with homework) is more useful.

Before I go home, I visit the hospital and get my Medicine job. Thanks to my medical degree and Science skill I'm starting as an Intern, level 4, in 20 hours time.

Now, the fine art of Apocalypse architecture. There are two main approaches:

1. Stilts, and an above ground living area. You'll put your car on underneath the house.
2. Bunker life, with everything underground. In this case, the car will be on top of the house.

You can mix and match if you like. I'm going with option 2; I will start by laying out an 8x8 basement.

I drop down one level and place the stairs. Then I place the bed. I purchase the Classically Tasteful bookshelf, a Chillgood fridge, a single Country Fried Counter, a Bargain John (use the Common Commode if you have it), a Plain Basin, a Table-Licious, and a single Bistro chair. Above ground I buy the cheap parking space and place the car. I have $417 left:

Notice I haven't built any walls. Privacy is not going to a feature of this Apocalypse for some time. But this set up allows us to deal with Hunger, Bladder, and Energy. Social we'll get from work and our occasional visitor. We still need Fun. Now, my Sim has already increased Logic to the maximum value, but otherwise I'd buy a chess set and share the one chair between it and the dining table. As it is, I'm going to buy a kicky bag instead. Oh, and don't forget to buy a hamper if you have Ambitions.

I'm left with $342. If you like, you can spend more and get yourself a radio or something, but I'm happy with what I have right now.

Next, I empty the bookshelf of any non-skill books; there are 2, and these count towards the Prestige Librarian. The random toddler book was Counting for Those Who Cannot, which means I have two of those. Hang the diploma on the wall (to clear my inventory - except for a beeper), and we're ready for live mode!

There's really nothing crucial to do before work starts. I have Anna play Kicky Bag, which is a way to build Athletics in addition to a source of fun. The trick with Kicky Bag in snow is that you must place it on the ground; if you try to use it from inventory it will refuse and say the snow is too deep, even though you're inside.

A useful thing to do at this point is go to the Buy menu and note the Lot Value:

If I subtract the Unfurnished value from the Furnished value, and then multiply the result by 0.6, I see that I have to come up with $5610 within the next 8 days so that I can make the first mob payment. I have 5 work days of 10 hours each, with $97 per hour. That's only $4850! But don't panic. I expect to get promoted a few times; we'll make the first mob payment easily enough. If you're worried, though, you don't have to get as flash a bed or car as I bought.

But you can see why I haven't even bothered with lighting yet. I've bought what I consider the bare minimum.

As far as meals go, the founder can only eat quick meals and peanut butter; the latter can only be made as brunch or lunch. Try to make peanut butter when you can, as it's better (especially if you chose it as your favourite food). They will get fed at work, usually; it's weekends when they tend to whine a lot. Despite this advice, I have to have a quick meal on the first day of work, since I start at 0900. Remember the "Hand of God" rule - do not have your Sim waste time with dishes, but rather get rid of those yourself.

Try to go to work early. You don't want to get in the habit of only just making it, because at some point you'll only just miss it, and then (without Master Thief lifted) you're fired. A few lifts in, and the house can get quite crowded; try to get moving the moment you receive the carpool message. If you get to work early, use one of the social options until work officially starts; before that point, you'll still lose Fun from Work Hard (for example) but you won't get any performance credit for it.

It's worth it to try and Work Hard as often as you can. Workaholics get away with this more often than others, but you want to try and aim to get promoted at least every couple of days, and more often at the start. Once it becomes obvious you're going to fill the bar, switch to another option - your boss, if possible, since it's always useful to be friends with your boss in the challenge. If you're friends, and you just missed a promotion, you can call them over and ask for one. In dire circumstances that can make all the difference.

Sometimes you can do opportunities; often you cannot. On the first day, a little before closing time, I got this:

"Can we 'ave your liver then?"

The relevant restriction is Military. If I can complete this immediately after work, then it's OK. I didn't know off hand whether I would be allowed to, so I accepted it figuring I would cancel it if not. But it seemed fine, and I came home from work at as a Resident, but minus a pancreas. Anna didn't seem to enjoy that very much, but she seems more or less alive.

I put her straight to bed. Thanks to the promotion, she has $2475 now. As you can see, making the mob payment isn't going to be a problem. Meditative Trance Sleep means that she gets up only a few hours later to read the medical journal she brought home. Incidentally, that journal counts towards Prestige Librarian as well, but they keep getting replaced, so it's only ever one book. She has time to play a little more kicky bag before going to work on Tuesday.

On Tuesday I get offered medical work; it is important to note that I cannot do this. Military is not yet lifted, so I can't just wander the neighbourhood handing out bandages. They are in short supply, necessary for the troops keeping the zombies at bay.

Anna gets another promotion, and incidentally is now best friends with her boss. Trauma Surgeons work late, which means that she gets a day off. That's actually a bit unfortunate, but there's nothing to worry about, since she now has $8722 and will comfortably make the mob payment.

I'm not going to buy anything just yet though. The optimal time to buy things is Monday just after midnight. You are allowed to accumulate your "right to build" on a weekly basis, which means that on Monday just after midnight I can place 14 of any thing in the build menu. I can't do this with Buy mode objects, but there's nothing I desperately need there, and why buy it just to increase the mob's payment? During the challenge you'll quickly reach a point where the mob is nothing but an annoyance - but don't get overconfident at the start of the challenge!

Thanks to a couple of emergencies, by 0300 Thursday when her shift ended, she got promoted to Gene Therapist and now has $17060. And again, because the shift times change so much, she has a day off. But that's actually great, because last night I had her invite her lover over from 1st term to visit, and he'll be at the house in 6 hours. Just enough time to get a quick sleep.

Note: Hopelessness only says that you can't marry or move in anyone. You are allowed to have visitors, you are allowed to Try For Baby, and you can even propose if you want. Of course I don't recommend you Try For Baby unless you've decided not to bother with lifting a restriction - at least for a female founder - but it is legal.

Derek is complaining because he's starving and he can't reach the fridge. Remember that until Hopelessness is lifted you cannot make group meals. But the other Sims don't know the rules; they will try to raid your fridge. You are allowed to build a little room with a door and lock it if you like, but the simplest and cheapest solution is to just turn it sideways, as shown.

I couldn't quite make it to a promotion on Friday, but the boss happens to be my best friend...

By the way, as you can see I'm in a group there. That's just something that happens occasionally when you invite someone over; as long as it wasn't intentional it's OK.

The weekend was spent playing a lot of kicky bag. She managed to get to level 9 Athletics in this way. And then midnight rolled around. Let's recheck how much I owe:

(13911 - 4749) * 0.6 = 5377.2, so I owe 5378. Note this is less than I'd calculated 7 days ago; that's because you'll note that both the Furnished and Unfurnished numbers have decreased due to depreciation.

I have $27439, so after paying the mob I have $22061 left. Time to start building.

Here's the plan. I'm going to slowly build lower basement levels, and slowly decorate from the top to the bottom. This time, I've built part of the basement, a few walls, and a few floor tiles, and I've bought a Light of Brahman (remember: no electricity yet).

And that ends the first week. I have $20638 left, and two more promotions to get before clearing Medical. That should comfortably come in by Friday, and it is possible it will be slightly faster if I get an emergency or an opportunity.

University Life - Weeks 2-4.

One of the things I love about the Sims is that I'm always learning.

You may recall I mentioned off hand that there wasn't much use for Science skill, even though it helps my major to increase. Well, turns out that I'm wrong about that; if I have Science 10 then I get to start two levels higher in the Medicine or Science careers (source). No harm done of course; I have plenty of time to get that. In fact, it can be argued - and I will so argue - that it is more important to for me to get Science skill than even Logic skill, as the latter can (if necessary) be gained while in the Medicine career, while the former is best if it is already level 10 before starting.

Shortly after classes on Wednesday I got enough LTR points to purchase Hardly Hungry. While you can't purchase rewards on a Hard or Prestige start, you can on an Easy Start while at University, and it is well worth the effort to do so - they may be the last time you spend LTR points for a while.

It's worth getting a boyfriend or girlfriend at Uni, because Woo-Hoo is a quick way to maximise your Fun meter.

A quickie for luck before the exam! By this point I couldn't really fail to get an A. I spent the weekend making friends, only pausing to use the brain enhancer when available. The A (along with the appropriate locked wish) gave me enough LTR points to get Multitasker as well. I also managed to get to level 8 in the Nerd group; since I'm using Easy Start I can choose my trait, and I'll pick Bookworm as the Medicine career will require me to read quite a lot of journals.

Back home, I immediately re-enrol. We're going back for the last 24 credits. Again, this costs me only $300 after the financial aid.

This is probably a good point to take stock. Here's what I have:

• $7358. I have not been pushing for cash at all; with an Easy Start, there's not a lot of point since you can't keep it, and don't really need much. What I have earned has been from star gazing, and selling gifts (which again, you can only do in Easy Start).
• Charisma 10, Cooking 10, Gardening 1 (to get some seeds for the Science station), Science 4, Handiness 9, Logic 7. With the exception of Science and Logic that's all from the brain enhancer.
• The rewards Hardly Hungry and Multitasker, with about 3500 points left over.
• 14 friends, 13 more acquaintances; 3 of the friends are best friends.

This is by no means difficult to achieve; if you find yourself with significantly less skill points than this you need to use the brain enhancer more. Remember the trick with Charisma! It is probably worth getting Charisma to maximum with the brain enhancer for your founder regardless of what job or major you have, since the automatic friends alone are worth the price of admission.

Try and remember to go back to the same dormitory! It's likely you put all the cool stuff there. I admit I've often forgotten myself, but be better than me!

The instant I arrive back, I use the brain enhancer to get Handiness 10. That's my 3 skills for Renaissance Sim; with my 43000 odd points, I purchase Meditative Trance Sleep and Steel Bladder to maximise my "useful time". Fast Learner is a good alternative, of course - there are lots of useful Lifetime Rewards.

On Tuesday, I managed to get my 20th friend:

This is well worth shooting for. It means that "friendships never decay" which in turns means I can now concentrate pretty much entirely on skilling; even in an Apocalypse 20 friends is plenty.

As we start the last week, I have:

• $7861, from a couple of new galactic discoveries. Though I also have a Plasma Bug in my inventory from a successful radiation experiment.
• Charisma 10 (all challenges except Everyone's Best Friend, and that's 8/10), Cooking 10, Fishing 5, Gardening 10, Science 9, Logic 8, Social Networking 1 (from a few texts).
• Fast Learner, Hardly Hungry, Meditative Trance Sleep, Multitasker, Steel Bladder. I have about 9600 points, so there's a decent chance for Dirt Defiant or Born to Cook (though my chances of starting a fire are probably already low enough).

I already have the study bar at maximum, so I'll be concentrating on getting the last point of Science, 2 more best friends, and more Logic skill (in that order) plus whatever I pick up in Fishing from the brain enhancer.

Shortly after midnight on Thursday, I have achieved two of those goals and also have Fishing 10. So now I'm concentrating on Logic, plus I guess a few more skill points from the brain enhancer - Writing, perhaps. I've also picked up Dirt Defiant.

A little after 1730 on Saturday, I've also got my Logic skill at maximum (and Writing 5). There's not a lot of time left, but here's one little trick I can try. I mentioned early I had a plasma bug; if I clone a sample of that bug, I'll get another. It is possible to earn a fair bit of cash this way. More than 83 080? Let's find out.

There's an interruption for the graduation ceremony, where I pick up Over Emotional as my 7th trait. And unfortunately that ends the experiment - I manage to make all the samples I'd need, but I get the 1 hour warning before I can clone the rest. That's fair enough. A better use of my time would have been to attempt to lift Alien Technology, but I suspect I would have had to have started that a bit earlier too.

With the 1 hour warning, I now follow these steps:

1. Reduce my funds to $8308. I had $56031, and 10% of that is only $5603, so I get the $8308 start.
2. Pick the items to take back. I have to take the University diploma, and I can put my two graduation gnomes into Family Inventory (gnomes are one of the scoring criteria in tournaments, so it is best to get into the habit of keeping them). I get two more items, and I choose my bed (the Delicious Slumber XV) as one of them. Now I have a difficult choice: a car, or the Group Science Project.
• A car makes the friend requirements for visitors much easier, and it's tough to get a car for a while if you don't start with it.
• The Group Science Project on the other hand will take a very long time to duplicate, since the next visit to University is probably a long time in the future. On the other hand, it isn't even possible to place it until Politics is lifted. I decide - reluctantly! - to take the car (a Yomoshoto Evasion) and leave the science project at the dormitory. Perhaps I left something there that reacted with something else, causing the Apocalypse?
3. Head home.

The final "score" looks like this:

• $8308. Could have been higher if I've cloned some Plasma Bugs earlier, but for illustrative purposes I'd have lowered it to that anyway. $8308 is plenty, as we'll see.
• Charisma 10 (all challenges complete), Cooking 10, Fishing 10, Gardening 10, Science 10, Handiness 10, Logic 10, Social Networking 2. 6 skills at their maximum. But you don't have to match that (though I'm sure you can beat it easily if you try); really, the only important skills are Science and Logic, plus you want 1 point of Cooking so we can make Peanut Butter. Remember at this point your founder still has 23 days of young adulthood left; you have plenty of time to make up whatever you missed. Try to ensure you have at least 5 in any skills you're going to need immediately in your chosen career, but don't despair if you miss out. It's possible to lift any career restriction starting as a young adult with no university background - it's just harder.
• The traits Workaholic, Inappropriate, Ambitious, Friendly, Genius, and bonuses Bookworm and Over Emotional from high Nerd status and the degree respectively. Try to get both extra traits; you should easily manage to get level 8 in a social group at University.
• The rewards Dirt Defiant, Fast Learner, Hardly Hungry, Meditative Trance Sleep, Multitasker, No Bills Ever, and Steel Bladder.

And now the Apocalypse begins in earnest. I've given myself a pretty decent start. Can I follow through?

University Life - Week 1.

After selecting a dormitory (I advise picking a central one), Anna moves in and meets her dormies.

There are three main things to concentrate on at University:

• Getting the skills for your job. This is, again, why method 2 is better: you already know what that job will be. In my case I need to get Logic skill. But I would also do well to increase two other skills as much as possible as well, to lift my Renaissance Sim lifetime wish too. Unfortunately, the skills that help with my major are Science, Gardening, and Fishing, none of which are really all that useful once I get home. But it's easy enough to get good marks without the right skills, so that won't be a problem.
• Making connections. Anyone you meet at Uni will stay frozen at their current age until you yank them out by inviting them to move in with you. I want to meet and make as many friends as I can here, not just Anna's spouse, but also for potential partners for her kids and even grandkids. University is a gold mine for making contacts; make the most of it.
• If you're playing Easy Start, you'd also do well to try and earn as many Lifetime Reward points as you can, and buy whatever rewards you can - except for objects, as those will be non-functional when you get home. But if you can get Fast Learner, Multitasker, Hardly Hungry, and similar rewards, you'll breeze through your founder years. Unfortunately you can't do any of that with a Hard or Prestige Start.

There is a bunch of objects you're allowed to put on the lot. Go ahead and do that; you definitely want the brain enhancer and a couple of cars, if nothing else. If you forgot to modify the lot before you moved in, use the family funds cheat to give yourself the money and then adjust it back to what it is supposed to be.

Now, because I'm using the easy start, I am basically unrestricted at University. So I can lock wishes, earn money, talk to whoever I like, and so on. I spend the first day taking a class in Logic skill (fulfilling two wishes), a class in Science skill (fulfilling another), and meeting a bunch of people. But first I lock the door to the best dorm room in the house and get myself a good bed. I'm also making use of the cerebral enhancer once a day; I'm choosing to boost Charisma, because that will automatically give Anna friends as she increases it.

At the end of the first day, I've got about $2800 left (buying a bed, chess set, and telescope - the latter two were wishes), I'm about half way to being friends with one of her male dormies; I have Logic 2, Science 1, and Charisma 1. I have about 5000 lifetime reward points - not a bad start for the experience, and I'm in bed by midnight after making some autumn salad.

I had two classes the next day, during which I chose Work Hard and played a few video games to restore fun. After that, it was playing chess time. I made more Autumn Salad, and was about half way through when this happened:

Abducted by aliens! They must have been alien chefs, because Anna got a point of Cooking from it.

There's a trick to University. For the rabbit hole classes (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) you can choose to sleep in class, and you will recover energy rapidly. This doesn't work on the other days; choosing to sleep in a lecture barely moves your energy bar. But you should generally be going to class on Monday/Wednesday/Friday morning with low Energy, to make efficient use of your time.

Along the same lines, make frequent use of the "Hand of God". Your Sims should never be loading plates into the dishwasher, for example, or moving papers to the trash - you can do that, while paused if necessary.

At the end of the first week, here was my tally:

• Passed exams with flying colours.
• Maximum Charisma skill; Cooking 8, Science 2, Handiness 1, Logic 6.
• $6009 (from spotting objects with the telescope, and selling one giant meteor).
• 10 friends (one of whom is a best friend, the other is a boyfriend). A bunch of acquaintances.
• 21000 Lifetime Reward points (and change). Hardly Hungry is a great reward, so I'm holding out for that. When I get my lifetime wish, I'll pick up Multitasker and perhaps Fast Learner (or perhaps Meditative Trance).

The Charisma skill and friends were all from the brain enhancer; so was a lot of the Cooking. I was using the telescope a lot both to raise Fun and Logic, and I spent a lot of the weekend making the best friend and the boyfriend. I am also keeping notes on whatever traits I discover for everyone I know, as this information will be useful for several generations. The boyfriend Derek is a Fine Arts major with Perfectionist, Dislikes Children, Avant Garde, Brave, and Great Kisser - not ideal, but it could be a lot worse.

Choosing A Place To Live

One thing we don't want to do is rely on the Sims 3 tutorial settings to place our founder. So go in to Edit Town; it will warn you that you're about to turn off the tutorial, but that's what we want.

Now take a look at the town. Some neighbourhoods have everything you want, but others are a bit bare. You'll want to add in any community lots that you're missing. Appaloosa seems reasonably complete. You want to be somewhat careful with your choice of starting area. Here's what I see:

From here, even without lifting Military, I can visit the dog park across the road, and all the buildings to the north west (two neighbours and three community lots). I can't go south east because I have to cross a four way intersection to get to the neighbour that way, but that's still pretty good. It's only a 30x40 lot, but that's OK - I can delete it and replace it with a 40x40...

... or so I thought. Annoyingly, after going ahead and bulldozing, I was unable to place a 40x40 there. Instead, I slapped down a standard house in that lot and bulldozed the one to the north west - that's already a 40x50. So the lot is empty; it's time to move in and get started:

First, I use the Master Controller cheat to reduce my funds to $8308. You can also do this the old fashioned way with testingcheats, but Master Controller makes it much easier. (It's under the Household options). I also note that she is already 2 days into young adulthood; I use Master Controller to reset her to the start of it. She has a camera and a high school diploma in her inventory; I put the camera into family inventory (aka "the black hole") and I'll get rid of the diploma when I get to University.

I'm going to use the University Easy Start, so I don't start building just yet. Instead, we'll use Founder Method 2, and roll for our job. I strongly recommend novice players, at least, do not use Founder Method 1. If you happen to roll a 2, you are essentially getting a very bad start this way; there are no really bad options for method 2.

In any case I did roll a 2, so that was fortunate! Instead of having to choose a Communications Major and end up stuck with Paranormal, Journalism, or Politics (of which only Journalism isn't terrible - and Journalism is very hard to lift for the founder because you won't know anyone), I instead get to choose between Medical, Athletics, and Forensics. It isn't going to be Forensics. Athletics is a solid choice - you'd be surprised how useful it is to be able to carry a lot of stuff in your inventory. But I think few people would disagree that Medical is the best choice here.

What would I have chosen otherwise?

• A 1 is the worst roll. Of the three options, probably Espionage is the best choice, but some people may prefer Criminal just to get out of protection money early.
• With a 3, pick Business. It's not a great start, but it's solid; you'll be able to sell things that are starting to clutter up your house. Journalism is better, but again - harder for the founder, and much easier for one of his kids.
• With a 4 you pick Master Thief instantly 9 times out of 10 without thinking. The 10th time, you think about it, and then pick Master Thief anyway. Master Thief for the founder is one of the best possible starts.
• With a 5, you can choose between Culinary and Science. Probably Culinary is a better choice, but Science is perfectly fine too.
• A 6 is an agonising roll. All three options are excellent; the trouble is choosing which of them to lift.
• Symphonic allows you to lock wishes, and incidentally gives you a summer season.
• Education allows you to pick traits, which is extremely handy, as well as tutor your kids.
• Military allows you to wander the neighbourhood and is a prerequisite for a lot of other restrictions.
• All else being equal, you probably should pick Military here. But I certainly wouldn't fault you for either of the other two.

If you insist on going with Founder Method 1, hope that you roll a 4, 5, or 6. The problem with Method 1 (besides the fact that 2 is really hard) is that you don't really know what you'll end up with. If you rolled 1, you might get Criminal (in which case you can take Master Thief) or Education, but you could equally get stuck with Business (which isn't terrible, but it isn't great). But if you assumed you were going to get Criminal and focused on Athletics, you'd be annoyed to find you actually ended up with Business. With a roll of 5 you know what you're getting, and a roll or 4 or 6 isn't bad either: with a roll of 4, concentrate on Logic (both Medical and Science use it) and with 6, go for Athletics (both Military and Law Enforcement use it).

Anyway, all I can do at the moment is wait for the mascot to arrive:

and then I take the Aptitude test. With no skills, it's only going on traits. I've ended up with 349/400 for Business (presumably because I'm an Ambitious Workaholic), and 183/400 for the rest. Just as I'm about to head to University, our friend Emit arrives:

Despite the Business credits I'm going to enrol for a Science and Medicine degree, for 2 terms, and for 24 credits. After all, I only need 48 credits to graduate, and this way I'll have more skilling time. This is going to cost Anna $2300, but she gets $2000 financial aid for her Aptitude, so it's a mere $300. Away we go!

Starting The Apocalypse

UPDATE:
This blog was created in April 2014 and reflected the rules as they existed at that time. I was an adjudicator for the tournament and involved in maintaining the rule set, but it's 2017 now, I've stepped down as adjudicator months ago, and the rules have changed considerably. This blog will be kept as an historical footnote; however, I am now in the process of creating a blog that reflects the new rules. That can be found here.

ORIGINAL TEXT FOLLOWS.

Sure, this is a Sims 3 Apocalypse Challenge blog. It's not my first. There's a pretty decent chance it won't be anywhere near the last. But this time, we're not going for story.

This time, we're going behind the scenes. How does one play this challenge? What decisions do I make, as a player, to kick things off and keep things moving? How do I decide to deal with adversity?

I don't claim to be perfect. I've played the challenge many times, and I have a fairly active part in the Facebook community. I even help out with the website. So I'm not a novice, either. There are a lot of rules for this challenge - it can be very intimidating for new players. Hopefully, this blog might help dispel some of that daunting mass of rules in the hopes of discovering why we willingly play with such a laundry list of restrictions.

Because it's fun!

Anyway, let's get down to it. I've chosen Appaloosa as my starting town. I have all current Sims 3 expansions (which, given Sims 4 isn't far away, is likely all the expansions that will ever exist) through to Into the Future. I've never played with Island Paradise before, and I've barely played with Into the Future. Normally, I don't play with Generations or Pets active. I'm choosing to do so here for illustrative purposes, and perhaps to showcase some of the pros and cons of this stance.

I'm playing with a few of Twallan's mods, which can all be found here:

• Error Trap
• Master Controller (with the additional Cheats package)
• Overwatch
• Story Progression
• Traveler

None of these are required of course, but with the exception of Story Progression they all greatly aid the stability of the game. Many players have problems with the default Sims story progression - especially with supernaturals not spawning frequently enough. I leave Story Progression with default settings except for turning off the stories.

Before creating our Sim, I first pop over to the Options screen to configure the aging settings:

They are slightly different to default settings; babies and toddler stages are shorter (as is elder), young adult and adult stages are slightly longer. Since I'm playing with Pets, let's go ahead and change those too:

I've shown dogs here, but cats and horses are the same. Essentially the baby stage is minimal, and the elder stage 1 day longer than the default for dogs (cats and horses have different defaults, but in the Apocalypse Challenge, one size fits all).

Next, I set the weather options:

As you can see, we start with only winter enabled. I'm Australian, so I've set the temperature to Celsius, but obviously that doesn't have any game impact. We are allowed to set whatever we like as the lunar cycle; I've made it the maximum of 10 days, but you can leave that at the default of 6 if you prefer. You're even allowed to disable the cycle, but if you do that you have to remember which day of the week is "zombie day". As you'll discover, there is a lot to remember already in an Apocalypse Challenge, so I am not going to add to my burden.

Finally, let's set the Demographics:

As you can see, I have everything ticked here. Note that since I'm using Twallan's Story Progression mod, the Enable Story Progression won't do anything for me, but it doesn't hurt and I'm trying to make it representative for people that don't like using mods. I've also selected to opt out of the celebrity system. This can be changed when I start the Music or Film careers; until then, celebrities are basically a disadvantage as you can't keep any of the gifts and you have to put up with paparazzi. It's not fatal, but again - I don't see any reason to make things harder than they already are.

It's time to create our household. You can start with a Sim of almost any supernatural species, and you can start with a pet as well if you like. But I'm going to keep things simple here and go with a human female, young adult. There are pros and cons to each gender:

• If you have a male founder, you have more time available. As long as you lift Hopelessness and get married before you become an elder, in principle your founder can be uncontrollable and still help produce the next generation (control his spouse and have her invite him to Try For Baby).
• On the other hand, if you have a female founder, you can marry any male of young adult age and older and not have to worry that they are past their fertile years. It can be difficult to tell whether any randomly met Sim is a young adult or an adult - at least, I find it hard to spot.

Past experience has taught me that I would rather rush through lifting a restriction than risk marrying someone that was already too old to get pregnant. So I'm going with a female founder, and I start by randomising everything for her appearance. By all means take your time to make your founder look the way you want to; I am choosing this for expedience.

I definitely don't want randomised traits though. It is a truism that if you ask 5 Apocalypse Challenge players what the best founder traits are, you'll get 10 different opinions. Here are my choices, along with my reasoning:

• Ambitious. Especially with a female founder, I will need to lift her career restriction as quickly as possible, and Ambitious is good for any career. It also gets you more Lifetime Reward points!
• Friendly. It can be really tough to meet and make friends in an Apocalypse Challenge; every little bit helps. Good alternatives here are Charismatic and Schmoozer, but Friendly is a decent middle ground (Charismatic lives and dies by how many Sims you manage to meet, and Schmoozer is only useful at work).
• Genius. A lot of careers need Logic skill, and you will likely have a lot chess playing time anyway.
• Inappropriate. At the start of an Apocalypse Challenge (until you lift Medical) you can't shower or bathe. Inappropriate Sims can use a sink to sponge bath themselves. Note that you must be careful with Inappropriate Sims not to let them offend people in conversation. An alternative here is Slob; Slobs don't get to sponge bath, but they aren't bothered by being messy.
• Workaholic. Workaholic means I can use Work Hard for longer without stressing out my Sim. There are good alternatives here; Athletic is worth considering as a lot of careers use Athletic and it's useful to get to Athletic 10 before becoming an elder, but since elders are uncontrollable anyway I prefer Workaholic for the founder.

Of this list, you'd probably find most people agree with Ambitious and Inappropriate (or Slob) as being good picks; the rest are debatable. None are crucial, but try to avoid negative traits for your founder - you'll get plenty of those with your next generation anyway. No need to go looking for trouble.

Now I pick the lifetime wish. This is important; without the ability to lock wishes, this will be the main source of Lifetime Reward points for the founder. There are a few rules of thumb for this:

• Don't pick a career oriented wish. Your founder may not get that career, and then it's just wasted.
• Don't pick a reward that you can't complete because of Apocalypse restrictions. For example, Blog Artist requires you to have a 5 star blog; you can't have a blog at all without lifting both Science and Gamer, so that's right out. More subtle is Bottomless Nectar Cellar; you can't travel without lifting a lot of restrictions, so you're never going to be able to make that with your founder.

Basically, you want a skill oriented LTW. There are a bunch of possibilities - Chess Legend is not too difficult (you can call over chess opponents on Mondays and Thursdays, as long as your board is outside or you're in a nearby lot). Illustrious Author is well within reach. But I like to keep things flexible with Renaissance Sim. Yes, that means I have to master 3 skills instead of only 2, but they can be any 3 skills, which is often easier.

There are some other choices. Heartbreaker is tricky, but possible. Perfect Student is certainly possible, and if you're going to get that at all you want it for your founder. But you can't go far wrong with a skill oriented LTW.

Finally, choose your favourite colours and foods, and your star sign. The best choice for food is probably Peanut Butter and Jelly as you'll probably make a lot of those. The rest you can leave as random (I got favourite music Soul, favourite colour lilac, and Virgo). I'll name my Sim Miss Anna Struction.

If you like, you can add a pet cat or dog. Be aware that this will make it difficult in terms of food at the start of the challenge; I don't recommend it, regardless of how useful pets can be. I'm forgoing that choice here.

Time to take a snapshot:

Almost ready to start, but I think that's enough for an introductory post! The next step is to choose a place to live, and then head to University. I'll tackle that in the next post.