Who wants to be the Last Sim on Earth? (A Challenge!)
Hi! I’ve been gone for so long I’m sure none of y’all remember me.
I come with an offering of Something to Do. I've had this rattling around in my head for a long time, and finally decided to give it a shot. This may be better suited to the Stories and Legacies section? But I didn’t want to combo-break all those fine tales with a half-formed idea.
Stop me if this has been done before...
I know the Apocalypse Challenge exists. The Last Sim On Earth challenge has a similar premise - some world-ending calamity - but a different focus. It’s not about being stinky and starving (I mean unless you want to be. Go ahead.) This is about being the last sim standing. Silent streets and empty buildings. The looming threat of dying alone, and all humanity has built crumbling to dust behind you. About trying to build a new society out of scrap and rubble so that something will continue on before you go.
It’s basically the Monster Maker lifetime wish dialed up to 11.
So here's the first rough draft of the rules, as I'm playtesting them:
To Begin:
Start with a lone starter sim. Any appearance, traits, and LTW you want. Occults are fine. Whatever lifespan you enjoy playing on.
Start on any world you want, but it must be depopulated and emptied. You can have hollowed out building shells set to No Visitors Allowed if you want, but - at the beginning - only these community lots and rabbitholes are allowed to be placed:
You may place any spawners you like around town. You’re going to need those raw materials.
You can live in as nice a house as you want. Who's gonna tell the last sim on earth that they can't take over a mansion and drive a Bugatti?
Your Sim's goal from this starting point is:
Repopulate the town with 30 adult residents.
Have children being born in inactive households.
With no other (living) humans left, there are a few ways to go about this:
You may NOT
Rebuilding civilization:
Along with the starter lots, you may build as many residential homes as you like, and move your new residents into them at your own pace as you build, befriend, and summon them.
As your population reaches certain milestones, new community lot types become available, bringing with them all the services and entertainment you imagine when you think “civilization”. You’re by no means obligated to place all these, but the minimum goals to unlock are as follows:
Adopted a pet of the appropriate type:
You may commemorate your new friendship by building:
At least 2 households, first child born:
You may open a school
At least 5 adult residents and 2 households:
A few neighbors can begin to trade with one another. You may now open:
At least 10 adult residents and 4 households:
As a community begins to form, businesses offering more than daily necessities and spare junk start to pop up. Your neighbors rebuild community spaces. You may now place:
At least 20 adult residents in 8 households
You're starting to form a society again, for better or worse. There's now a need for order and rule enforcement, and you have enough neighbors to gather a crowd for a show. Your community is big enough for:
20 adults, and at least 2 households have horses:
Show off your riding skills at a rebuilt Equestrian Center
20 adults, at least 2 households contain PlumBots:
Battle your Bots in the new PlumBot Competition Arena
At least 30 adult residents across 12 households
Your community thrives now! All the trappings of commerce and culture begin to reappear. Luxuries become available as there are enough sims to cater to niche interests. You may now place any and all lot types, including:
Other questions regarding gameplay for the last sim on earth:
Can I have a subway or LLAMA networks?
LLAMA network magic still works, and if you're the last sim on earth, there's nothing to stop you from driving the train if that's how you want to get around. These can be placed and used for travel.
What about pets?
You may befriend and adopt strays, but the pet adoption service (as well as any other phone or computer based service) is no longer available.
What about jobs?
There are no jobs for the last sim on earth. Money can’t buy you friends, so you can use money cheats if you want. Your new residents, however, may have careers according to their interests and available rabbitholes.
Money cheats are okay? Awesome! What about other cheats?
You can use any that don't contribute to the creation of new residents. You can, for example, reset the burglar (he shouldn't exist anyway!) or shove puddingface mermaids into CAS and give them a makeover. But you can’t use cheats to, for example, drag relationship bars up with other Sims to more quickly invite them to move in, or make your needs static so you can grind sim-building skills on fast-forward.
Mods?
Same ruling as cheats. In fact, I have a few recommendations that will make your experience better:
Ambrosia? Curative elixirs to turn occult sims human?
Sure.
I've found someone I can have babies with! Are there any rules for kids?
Children must age up at a natural pace. You can use birthday cakes only on their birthday. Also, per the lot type restrictions, you cannot build a school until there are at least 2 households in your community (otherwise, who are you sending them off to learn from?) There are no boarding schools.
Oh no, my founder died! Now what?
I hope they didn't die alone! If the town has at least one other resident, they can pick up the task of rebuilding where the founder left off. The task of building a new society can be a multigenerational one, and anyone can be your "heir".
Okay, I’ve got 30 adult residents and some new babies around town. Now what?
Congratulations! You win! Your sims can rest, knowing that they have rebuilt a new society out of the ruins of the old. I hope you took a bunch of screenshots along the way, to show off your weird and wonderful town as it formed.
…
Gosh, that’s a lot of words.
Are you still reading?
What do you think?
Playtest Household storytime to follow.
I come with an offering of Something to Do. I've had this rattling around in my head for a long time, and finally decided to give it a shot. This may be better suited to the Stories and Legacies section? But I didn’t want to combo-break all those fine tales with a half-formed idea.
Stop me if this has been done before...
I know the Apocalypse Challenge exists. The Last Sim On Earth challenge has a similar premise - some world-ending calamity - but a different focus. It’s not about being stinky and starving (I mean unless you want to be. Go ahead.) This is about being the last sim standing. Silent streets and empty buildings. The looming threat of dying alone, and all humanity has built crumbling to dust behind you. About trying to build a new society out of scrap and rubble so that something will continue on before you go.
It’s basically the Monster Maker lifetime wish dialed up to 11.
So here's the first rough draft of the rules, as I'm playtesting them:
To Begin:
Start with a lone starter sim. Any appearance, traits, and LTW you want. Occults are fine. Whatever lifespan you enjoy playing on.
Start on any world you want, but it must be depopulated and emptied. You can have hollowed out building shells set to No Visitors Allowed if you want, but - at the beginning - only these community lots and rabbitholes are allowed to be placed:
- Science Lab - You can achieve the challenge goal through many methods, but a good laboratory is a key path to several of them.
- City Hall - To gain access to the NRaas mods (I can't play without them).
- Library - the town may be empty, but you've got a treasure trove of books! (May contain a Vault of Antiquity if you like)
- Junkyard - one thing you have a lot of in an empty world is scrap material.
- Cemetery - One with actual ghosts in it is HIGHLY recommended!
- Parks - Just basegame parks. No Showtime venues or festival grounds, yet.
- Beaches
- Fishing Holes
- Dive lots
- Tombs
You may place any spawners you like around town. You’re going to need those raw materials.
You can live in as nice a house as you want. Who's gonna tell the last sim on earth that they can't take over a mansion and drive a Bugatti?
Your Sim's goal from this starting point is:
With no other (living) humans left, there are a few ways to go about this:
- Befriend and restore the ghosts of the dead
- Create SimBots and PlumBots (PlumBots must have the Sentience trait chip to count)
- Dig up canopic jars and summon Mummies.
- Befriend visiting aliens and mermaids and invite them to stay.
- Make imaginary friends real.
- Use lifetime rewards to find a dusty old lamp, working cloning vat in the science lab, etc.
You may NOT
- Interact with any human NPCs anywhere, anywhen. This means no travel to populated destinations, no calling for services, no chatting up cops in the park. Sadly the game won't let you do away with certain role Sims entirely, so you must instead pretend they don't exist.
Rebuilding civilization:
Along with the starter lots, you may build as many residential homes as you like, and move your new residents into them at your own pace as you build, befriend, and summon them.
As your population reaches certain milestones, new community lot types become available, bringing with them all the services and entertainment you imagine when you think “civilization”. You’re by no means obligated to place all these, but the minimum goals to unlock are as follows:
Adopted a pet of the appropriate type:
You may commemorate your new friendship by building:
- Dog Park
- Cat Jungle
- Horse Ranch
At least 2 households, first child born:
You may open a school
At least 5 adult residents and 2 households:
A few neighbors can begin to trade with one another. You may now open:
- Bookstore
- Grocery
- Consignment Store
At least 10 adult residents and 4 households:
As a community begins to form, businesses offering more than daily necessities and spare junk start to pop up. Your neighbors rebuild community spaces. You may now place:
- Bistro/Diner
- Hospital
- Bot Emporium
- Elixir Consignment Store
- Gym
- Pool
- Hangout (regular or Supernatural)
- Fire Station
- Laundromat
- Pet Store
- Fortune Teller's Wagon
At least 20 adult residents in 8 households
You're starting to form a society again, for better or worse. There's now a need for order and rule enforcement, and you have enough neighbors to gather a crowd for a show. Your community is big enough for:
- Abandoned warehouse
- Military Base
- Police Department
- Office Building
- Stadium
- Theater
- Bars of all types
- Arboretum
- Academy
- Salon
- Your Parks may become show venues
- Coffeehouse, Live and Private show venues
20 adults, and at least 2 households have horses:
Show off your riding skills at a rebuilt Equestrian Center
20 adults, at least 2 households contain PlumBots:
Battle your Bots in the new PlumBot Competition Arena
At least 30 adult residents across 12 households
Your community thrives now! All the trappings of commerce and culture begin to reappear. Luxuries become available as there are enough sims to cater to niche interests. You may now place any and all lot types, including:
- Spa
- Art Gallery
- University expansion hangouts
- Dance clubs and Lounges
- Big show venue
- Film Studio
- Resort
- Festival Grounds
- Nectary
- Stellar Observatory
Other questions regarding gameplay for the last sim on earth:
Can I have a subway or LLAMA networks?
LLAMA network magic still works, and if you're the last sim on earth, there's nothing to stop you from driving the train if that's how you want to get around. These can be placed and used for travel.
What about pets?
You may befriend and adopt strays, but the pet adoption service (as well as any other phone or computer based service) is no longer available.
What about jobs?
There are no jobs for the last sim on earth. Money can’t buy you friends, so you can use money cheats if you want. Your new residents, however, may have careers according to their interests and available rabbitholes.
Money cheats are okay? Awesome! What about other cheats?
You can use any that don't contribute to the creation of new residents. You can, for example, reset the burglar (he shouldn't exist anyway!) or shove puddingface mermaids into CAS and give them a makeover. But you can’t use cheats to, for example, drag relationship bars up with other Sims to more quickly invite them to move in, or make your needs static so you can grind sim-building skills on fast-forward.
Mods?
Same ruling as cheats. In fact, I have a few recommendations that will make your experience better:
- Mods to remove the "A ghost/SimBot/Mummy!" reaction are encouraged if you're planning on having them as residents. There are a couple options on Mod the Sims, and NRaas Retuner can be made to do this with a bit of fiddling.
- NRaas Register to get rid of tourists and paparazzi, and make it so that any cash registers or mixology bars are staffed with locals.
- If your ghosts like to flee the graveyard before you can say hi, NRaas GoHere will make them stay put.
- Ani’s No Fridge Shopping can help hammer home the lack of basic services. No more magically materializing produce. My founder must garden and fish if she wants to eat, until she can gather enough residents to open a grocery store.
Ambrosia? Curative elixirs to turn occult sims human?
Sure.
I've found someone I can have babies with! Are there any rules for kids?
Children must age up at a natural pace. You can use birthday cakes only on their birthday. Also, per the lot type restrictions, you cannot build a school until there are at least 2 households in your community (otherwise, who are you sending them off to learn from?) There are no boarding schools.
Oh no, my founder died! Now what?
I hope they didn't die alone! If the town has at least one other resident, they can pick up the task of rebuilding where the founder left off. The task of building a new society can be a multigenerational one, and anyone can be your "heir".
Okay, I’ve got 30 adult residents and some new babies around town. Now what?
Congratulations! You win! Your sims can rest, knowing that they have rebuilt a new society out of the ruins of the old. I hope you took a bunch of screenshots along the way, to show off your weird and wonderful town as it formed.
…
Gosh, that’s a lot of words.
Are you still reading?
What do you think?
Playtest Household storytime to follow.
