Challenge Blog: Llandros Ultimate Sim Challenge

"SemaviLady;c-16708061" wrote:
Consignment:
Early in the game, I'll send my sim to the grocery store and buy a couple hundred of the cheapest fruit and cheapest fish. My sim will sell about 50 at a time each day for several days in a row at the consignment store. This quickly raises their consignment reputation so they get better prices for things that take an effort and time to create and sell. Then on the Skill Journal (type J in game), complete as many of the challenges for consignments. And soon as possible, get that happiness reward for Suave Seller. In your situation, I'd do the grocery store trick, then you can really get a good reputation of being a seller. Everything my sim brings to the consignments sells fast and quickly gets greater profits. (rags to riches or elixir doesn't matter -- it's unified reputation)

Social groups... ah sorry I have not yet tried to max any of them yet so I don't have first hand tips for that one.

Ah good tips, thank you very much! She has the born saleswoman trait from either a degree or her level in the rebel rank. She also has suave seller and has had the max level of consignment reputation since the very first season when she sold tons of gems and metals that she acquired as a werewolf. I believe she even got all the challenges in that first season too, due to all of her hunting outings!

I think that there might actually be a glitch in the current consignment store. In the beginning it wouldn't even open as no clerk showed up untill I reset all sims. I also replaced the register several times, but to no avail. If you know of any other tricks I could try I'd love to hear them!

SEASON 3 - TWINBROOK

Consigning Annoyances

Okay, after resetting everything I felt elated! I had an actual clerk in the consignment store AND 2 of her time machines sold for well over double their original price. Then everything went downhill. Clerks no longer showing up. Items being "eaten" without getting any money, dropping in value, and not being able to cancel them because there is no clerk. Resetting everything, resetting the lot, resetting all sims, nothing worked. So I got frustrated and closed without saving. I have no clue how many time machines I lost but I have a plan! I am going to put a regular consignment register in the Elixir Consignment store that is across the street from Amber's house. I remember having read somewhere that someone else used that as a workaround, and as that store seems to work most of the time I'm opting for it. Is it cheaty? Probably! But I'm tired of waiting for nothing!

Blog

Also today, I discovered that the newest version of GIMP no longer supports the filters I used for my banners. Yes you can download them somewhere, and then stick them in a folder, and technically you should be able to use them. But they don't give nearly the same result, and it just looks plain ugly. So I spent half the day trying to cook up new banners for this topic. I think they turned out OK enough to my liking! I also edited all blog posts (the posts that aren't a reply to awesome people reacting to this blog) with a header of the season they were written in. All in all, except for the huge white spaces, the blog is more readable now!

Goals

• Fixing Aleisters to sell regular stuff
  
• Making time machines
  
• Wrapping this annoying career up
  
• Starting the next skill/career
  

SEASON 3 - TWINBROOK

To Save or Not To Save

Well, after even more trouble I decided that the save was probably corrupt, so I took my losses (another couple of time machines eaten up without any money) and copied Amber to the library. I started a fresh save, and decided to move her to a different house this time! I went in to edit town, moved the Simoleon Saver family out of Portico Model to Peak of Perfection, demolished their old house, and placed the Doubleday Lodge from the library on that location instead! I really liked that house. In the end, she doesn't really need the most expensive and big villa in town, but I'd rather have her in a home large enough for just her (she lives alone at this moment) and close to all the action. She now lives next to the fire station and practically across the street of the consignment store! I did upgrade her furniture and sold some stuff she didn't need (emptied the whole second floor) and I am really happy with the layout now. But even more importantly, everything (still) works as it should for now!

Goals

• Make and sell the last couple inventions
  
• Upgrade the fire extuingisher
  
• Start on the sculpting skill
  
• Work on the fitness skill
  

SEASON 3 - TWINBROOK

A Saved Inventor

Finally. The consignment shop works! It still does! I finally managed to sell enough inventions for that last 10k to rank 10 and be done with it! I also had her briefly enter back into the firefighter career to upgrade her fire extinguisher, because I want to complete 100% of the unique upgrades!

A Sculptors Workshop

After starting with the sculpting skill I saw that she needs 5 sculptures of each type and a total of 25 made out of ice to get most if not all of the challenges for it. So I took the empty top floor, build a floor where there was none, and turned it into a workshop with 5 sculpting stations! So far she has made 5 of clay, metal and wood, and they are all either at the consignment store or sold. She is very close to becoming a level 6 sculptor, and has already reached level 10 in the skill, so this does seem to go way better!

Some More Details

In the moments in between of working on careers she managed to reach the top of the skating and snowboarding skills and buy another 3 reward traits. I also removed a few rewards from the list, stuff I'm not planning to get like a free degree or inheritance as well as a simbot (which I believe she can and has to make herself) and stuff that she will get gifted anyway. It also has a complete list of all the 26 rewars traits she currently has!

Goals

• Make a lot more statues
  
• Do all challenges for the sculptor skill
  
• Reach level 10 in the sculptor career
  
• Become a level 10 nerd
  

I just wanted to comment that I really like what you've accomplished and the tweaks you've made to the challenge. I had a lot of fun coming up with it and have changed a few things along the way as well. I have to agree about the deceased spouses though - in my personal game I had to leave them all behind due to game issues that popped up.

Sorry to hear about your crashes and setbacks but you seem to be moving along - my major issues really didn't hit until Starlight Shores but that's all cleared up now. Hope you are still enjoying the challenge and will keep reading as you post!

Here's a shot of my Brandon during his final performance and at home with three of his four kids!

https://i.imgur.com/dmqFZxp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/s57sHGM.jpg

have i really not replied? i've been reading along xD
I want to do this challenge. but i don't own all the packs :/ nor can i afford them.

"Shadami;c-16720380" wrote:
have i really not replied? i've been reading along xD
I want to do this challenge. but i don't own all the packs :/ nor can i afford them.

You can still do this challenge perfectly fine, just skip the towns / packs / content that you do not own. There are also some premium items in the challenge that not everybody owns either. Just improvise along the way! Why don't you make a list of all the requirements for yourself, where you remove everything that you don't own and then rearrange it so that stuff from scrapped seasons ends up in other seasons? Here is a link that you might find useful: TS3 Complete List. If you need help feel free to ask!

@Llandros2012 thanks for the thumbs up! Which tweaks did you like best? Are you going to further tweak the original challenge? I am contemplating redoing a tweaked version of this challenge with a male sim after this. One thing I will definitely NOT be doing the 2nd round is all of those kids. I noticed that I find it very tedious and boring when I would rather focus on getting my ultimate sim to be ultimate. Even if you let them roam free you still can't fully focus on your main goals. So at this point I've been a bit, *cough*, 'generous' with birthdays.... I have seen you on your series waiting until they are like 120ish days old and moving on on their own, but I fear I am not as patient as that! But even in the 100 baby challenge you are allowed to age the kids up after certain accomplishments, so I refuse to feel guilty about it! LOL!

SEASON 4 - BARNACLE BAY

Getting Settled

I set my eyes on Barnacle Bay for the first time, and there were two expensive houses and some starters spread very thin. Not a lot of choice IMHO. As it stands I didn't like either of the expensive ones, one was way too far away from everything and both weren't much of my taste. And a starter home is simply too small. So I demolished the Angler’s Apartments and put Classic Facade, another 40x40 lot from the games default library, on it. First I upgraded much of the furniture, recoloring the new items to the styles of the old ones to keep the look of the interior with the upgrade as I've seen Llandros do. I also built a garage for her two cars, as there wasn't even a parking lot on there! Then I moved her in and put her culinary fridge in the kitchen.

University

As she is going for the Physical Education degree this time, I decided against renting her a private house and, just like Llandros, moved her in a dorm next to the gym. Practicality above all else. I did pick a nice bedroom on the 3rd floor this time, which I usually don't because of too many stairs. However it was one of the few with only 1 bed, and it was next to the gym, so why not! I also put an All-In-One in her room, as the 3rd floor has no bathroom and I'm a lazy simmer. In don't use them in her main homes, but in the University world such skips are perfectly fine to me!

It's A Human!

Before starting up my new save I watched a part of Llandros' first video of this season, and I heard him say that he is not going to cure his Lacey of her occult witch status until she returns from the university. He probably has his reasons, but as I didn't like the witch thing a bit and didn't use it anyway, I cured her before moving her out of Twinbrook. This season has free choice of occult status, and for now I choose to keep her a human sim!

Goals

• Study for the Physical Education degree
  
• Reach level 10 of the Athletic skill
  
• Keep an eye out for a possible companion
  
• Have some fun with new friends
  

SEASON 4 - BARNACLE BAY

Where To Begin?

These past two weeks Amber has made so much progress that I simply don't know where to begin! She has gotten her physical educations degree with flying colors and an A grade. We bought our way in to the level 10 nerd influence with reward points, because I couldn't be bothered to play videogames for hours while I had other stuff to work on. She managed to spread enough graffiti murals in town to get all the street art challenges done AND she reached level 10 in the athletic skill. She also sold another blog that I conveniently called Street Art & A Physical Education Degree Do Go Together. Because we can. And because it doesn't really matter what she calls it anyway.

Save Hopping

I'm not sure if 'having traveled' has anything to do with my previous save issues, but just to be on the *cough* safe side I decided to put her in the library after she came home from the university, and go back to my freshly built and backed up Barnacle Bay save to have a clean start. Now we will have all the time to work on all of this seasons requirements.

Goals

• Find another sim & start some kind of family (free choice of type)
  
• Work on the Martial Arts skill
  
• Join the Professional Sports career
  
• Find out how to rise in the Jock rank
  

SEASON 4 - BARNACLE BAY

Adoption

This season did not have a specific requirement for offspring, so I choose to have her adopt! I was already imagining getting a list of names and pictures, as it works in TS4, but I had to choose the age and gender and then someone just popped over to my lot with a baby in a basket. She adopted a little baby boy that we named Eugene! Also different this season is that for adopting you do not need the genetics of a husband, so she has none. And I will not go look for one for this whole season. If someone interesting passes by, who knows, but I'm not going to make it a goal! Besides that she did another couple of upgrades, making the total amount of unique upgrades count to 20, 48% of the available unique upgrades. And she also started training for the martial arts skill, which she managed to get on level 2 / yellow belt.

Goals

• Work on the Martial Arts skill
  
• Work on the Athletics Challenges
  
• Join the Professional Sports career
  
• Work on the Jock rank