Challenge Blog: Llandros Ultimate Sim Challenge

SEASON 4 - BARNACLE BAY

Sim Fu King

I really wonder what the person who gave this challenge it's name was thinking.... Anyway! I trained both Amber and Eugene to level 10 in the Martial Arts skill, so that they were well matched to spar together. I have spent literal sim-weeks trying to get the non-travel challenges for this skill done, and have succeeded! I also got two stars in one for the athletics challenges! I was doing a lot of cardio training, and all of the sudden I was notified I had gotten the Marathon Runner star. I have yet to see a single other situation in game where one activity leads to two different challenges within the same skill. But I am not complaining. I wasn't looking forward to having to jog for that long after all those hours for the other challenges! She also started the Professional Sports and as expected got from level 4 to 5 on the first day. I am planning to finish all the careers first before traveling to Shang Simla for the Martial Arts tournament.

Goals

• Work on the Professional Sports career
  
• Finish the other two careers on the list
  
• Work on the Jock rank
  
• Become a Martial Arts Grand Master in Shang Simla
  

SEASON 4 - BARNACLE BAY

Sports Legend

With all of her athletic skills and her many preparations for each game Amber practically owned the professional athletics career and has now reached level 10. I just remember that I should do each fulltime job for 4 sim weeks, and I don't think I did that with any job. Not even filling up the week when the top level is reached. I am just like "Done. Check. Next." In fact I think I am just going to skip that rule, as for me it doesn't add anything to the sense of achievement, and there is so much to do that I think it's a bit of a waste of time.... In the off hours I also got her finish some of the hidden skills, and I bought another handful of traits from the reward store.

Goals

• Check off the remaining 2 careers
  
• Tutor other sim for 2 of the logic skill challenges
  
• Become a Chess Grand Master for another logic skill challenge
  
• What was it again with that social group? Jock? Still have to look those up. What even are they for real?
  

SEASON 4 - BARNACLE BAY

Meet The Double Master

After a week of inviting, chasing, and dropping chess opponents I managed to get her to the Chess Grand Master title and get that challenge done. Something really weird happened also, once she lost to a challenger, and then that same challenger was locked into a cycle of "practicing chess" at the only chess table at the venue, I couldn't get her to stop in any way except resetting. So I went back to the main menu and tried again. In these situations (going for a title, like with the martial arts challenges) I tend to make a new save every time she defeats an opponent, so that helped a lot!

Rock All Star

Ok, the music career has been a major pain in the plum. It kept getting stuck, where she would go to work but gain 0 on her performance bar, no matter what type of working she did. So instead of hanging in the balance I used Nraas to get the performance to 100 on each level where it didn't go up. It seemed a bit random which levels worked and which didn't. But that helps. Nraas is a good anti-bug-cheat : P! After finishing that I also tried to get a job at the grocery store but that only lead up to Amber being a script error and being reset automatically, even when I tried to enter her into the job by shift clicking the mailbox. Somehow this save has, again, a lot of bugs. So I think I will just reset all by Nraas next time I load up the game and try again!

Goals

• Fix the save (if at all possible)
  
• Finish the 3rd career
  
• Have a go at the soccer ranks, just because I can
  
• The jock influence.... Seriously, still didn't manage to figure that out.... Help????
  

SEASON 4 - BARNACLE BAY

The End of the Season

This is an official announcement that Season 4 has come to an end, and this is what she managed to do this season:

• Degree: Physical Education
  
• Social Groups: Rebel, Nerd & Jock
  
• Skill: Martial Arts
  
• Career: Music - Rock Star (FT)
  
• Career: Professional Sports (FT)
  
• Career: Grocery Store (PT)
  
• Father: -
  
• Offspring: Eugene Allstar (Adopted)
  

The next post will be the start of season 5!

Comments

The Grocery Store part-time career is striped through because due to a glitch in the game she couldn't apply for the job, not even with cheats. I will do that in another season, when I find a suitable moment!

https://i.imgur.com/pn0j1PN.png

SEASON 5 - BRIDGEPORT

University

• Degree: Communications ☆
  
• Influence: Rebel ☆
  
• Influence: Nerd ☆
  
• Influence: Jock ☆
  

Careers

• Fulltime: Film - Acting ☆
  
• Fulltime: Film - Directing ☆
  
• Self Employed: Band ☆
  

Skills

• Primary: Bass ☆
  
• Primary: Drums ☆
  
• Primary: Mixology ☆
  
• Primary: Photography ☆
  
• Primary: Piano ☆
  
• Primary: Writing ☆
  

Activities

• Service: Hire a Butler ☆
  
• Occult: Vampire ☆
  
• Offspring: Vampire Baby ☆
  

SEASON 5 - BRIDGEPORT

No Job, No Dropping

I've been playing this season for 2 in-game weeks, and unlike my plan I wasn't able to get her to finish the grocery clerk career for the simple reason that she couldn't take a job in the university world. If I had known that I might have tried to find a way to get this degree in 1 week, because the university thing starts getting a bit repetitive to be honest. I have considered dropping out and going for a 1 week term instead but I decided against it in the end. In these 2 weeks I have been working on her photography skills with the podcasts from the tablet, and she has reached level 10 without making any photos! I haven't worked on any of the other many skills of this season and I don't think I will have time for many skill challenges with this many new skills to learn, but that is ok! In later seasons there are very few if any skills to learn, so having some challenges to work on in those will be nice! And finishing all the challenges of a skill in a season isn't in the rules, so thats fine!

Thirsty

In this season she had to become a vampire, so I thought I was smart and placed the red velvet lounge near her sorority house. I thought it would be a breeze to visit the place as it would be sure to lure vampires to hang out in the evening, right? Wrong. There were around 10 sims in it and none of them were a vampire. Eh. Okay. But I did manage to locate one that same evening, somewhere else in the world, and with the transmogrifier app I had no trouble making him a best friend and asking for a bite. Literally! Fast forward a couple of days and we have a Vampire Amber! And as this season is supposed to have a vampire baby I have been checking out all the vampires in town, only to conclude they were a sorry bunch and not up to my standards. Then she met Eddy Mullis. I vaguely recall his name from Llandros lets plays and I decided I liked him. So they became best friends and then I had her offer to bite him. He actually LIKED her for it! I was anticipating a drop in their friendship, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Finding an Apartment

After returning her to Bridgeport and inviting Eddy over I still had the headache of where do I want them to live! Those 1br 1ba apartments that are slightly above starter homes are not nearly acceptable for my 5 star celebrity millionaire sim and her future husband. Still not knowing what to do I took a small sim break (I am also an avid minecraft player) and then I received a very helpful PM from @SemaviLady with tips on how to expand small apartments and make them bigger! Then I started googling for more details and found out you can also make a high rise without using any of the premade shells! I have no ID if I will be able to pull it off, but since this challenge is about trying/doing everything I will have a go for it. Yes I could have them live in a big house in the outskirts of town, but this season is about bridgeport, bridgeport has penthouses, and I like her to live in the middle of where all the activity is. So there is this build challenge written down for me! And if it doesn't work out to my liking then I will go and demolish expand an existing one and use that instead! To be continued....

Goals

• Build / Extend a high rise apartment to move my sims in to
  
• Marry Eddy and get them 2 vampire babies (yes, 2 this season, more on that later)
  
• Land Amber her first job of this season
  
• Work on the long list of skills for this season
  

SEASON 5 - BRIDGEPORT

Move!

After checking out a LOT of options, and failing miserably at building my own apartment building, I found a house that I liked to work on! The only problem: It's already occupied.... The Pala mother and her daughter were living in it. So I moved them out and thought to put them in another home. Then I ran in to the same problem that made me consider building in the first place. There is literally no free home with more then 1 bedroom in this town. Like, what?? I know that this NPC mom and her daughter wouldn't care, but I just couldn't do it. So I built a second bedroom on the garage of the Minty Julia house and moved them there, and then I started working on this castle-looking building called Landgraab Brownstone!

Not Quite An Apartment

Okay, I might have been a little, ahem, too enthusiastic expanding their 'apartment'.... I commandeered all three floors of the building AND the garage for their private use. I guess you would rather call it a house with a callbox now. But hey, it does have a hidden room next to the garage, where the water for the swimming pool and hottub are stuffed away. And it has a public room, with a callbox. Aw, who cares. With a 5 star celebrity millionaire I think it is fine for her to just own the whole building anyway!

Grand Makeover

From a single parking lot in a huge dark basement there is now room for 4 cars, and a hidden tucked away area that has all the water of the pool and hottub. On the first floor I made a major chill area with a swimming pool, hottub, lazy chairs, but also a bar and some fitness equipment. It also includes two small bathrooms with a shower to freshen up after working out before jumping in!

On the second floor are 3 sets of a bedroom with a bathroom, 1 for Amber and her future husband, 1 for the butler and 1 for their kids. The big staircase from the front door only leads to the 3rd floor, so in a matter of reverse building I made the kitchen, living room and workroom on the highest level instead of on the lowest. I also placed some spiral staircases from the garage all the way up to the 3rd floor, to be able to reach all the other floors as well!

SEASON 5 - BRIDGEPORT

Kickstarting Bridgeport

A good start is the best way to get a season in to action! After moving in and getting a butler I wasted no time in getting them married and going for the first of the two planned vampire kids of this season. According to Nraas it is a boy, and this season has F for names! Not sure what I want to call him yet, so ideas are welcome! She also joined the film career, allthough being just married and having a baby soon probably means she won't be going up anywhere soon. But that doesn't matter, it's a start!

Accusations Bite!

Also somewhere during the first day the butler stood before her and accused her of being a vampire. Which of course she is.... And she was slightly offended. So she did what any good vampire would do to someone daring to say such a thing. Even worse, someone that gets paid to take care of her and her house! She offered to bite him, and he took the bait! That should keep him from nagging about it again properly!

Goals

• Have 2 vampire kids
  
• Build some skills
  
• Rise in the Film career
  
• Start a band with the family
  

SEASON 5 - BRIDGEPORT

Nearly Drowned Eddy

Ok, I understand the luring effect of having a nice big indoors swimming pool, you can take a plunge summer and winter and its a lot of fun. But can someone please explain to Eddy Mullis, Amber's husband, that if you are so exhausted that your energy bar is red and nearly gone, there is a very simple solution! Waving your arms telling me (the player) how tired you are, while repeatedly going under with your head, is NOT that solution. Getting out of the plum pool and going to bed IS.... Just saying!

The Next Generation

As in this season Amber needs to have a band and finish the Band SE career, and I rather have her form one with household members then random townies, it is a good thing that Eddy is a virtuoso with guitar skills. They also have gotten two little vampire boys, Frederick and Ferdinand, that are also virtuosos. That makes 4. And for a band name? How about "The Vampires". Nobody told me I had to be original, right? I mean, Llandros just stuck with the random band name that the game generated, so my idea isn't that bad, right?

Goals

• Get to the top of the Movie Careers
  
• Get the boys to grow up with the top skill of one instrument
  
• Form a band and get to the top of the Band Career
  
• Work on some more skills
  

SEASON 5 - BRIDGEPORT

Eddy & The Pool?

Before I begin telling you how much progress we made I have a mystery on my hands. It is about Eddy and the pool.... Like I said in my previous blog he kept swimming until he nearly drowned. So I kept an eye on his vitals (okay, I might have cheated a bit with their needs bars at this point, cough cough) and this time he kept swimming until he got the stir crazy moodlet. Dude! The pool has LADDERS. Why doesn't he just go and do something else? Autonomy is on high (except for selected sim), there is nothing stopping you?

Family Dresscode

Then there is the boys, which are by now young adult vampires! I decided to dress Eddy and both sons in the same outfit in every category! Why? Because I can! And when they perform as a band somewhere in the near future they will look smashing without taking the spotlight away from Amber who is in the lead. Because she has her own outfit and they will look like the background choir, except they are the background instrument players! All of them in black and white outfits. I like it a lot!

Goals

• Get to the top of the movie career
  
• Get to the top of the band career
  
• Learn the other instruments
  
• Work on some skill challenges