"Erica87;15494390" wrote:
@Rawla Honestly, if people like it a lot I'd even replace the current lot trait rules with it. I feel like it adds an additional dynamic to the lot trait system as then you have to think about whether you want to have babies and risk the traits being changed or whether you want to wait a bit and make full use of them.
@Chellejo, I haven't even gotten 3 skills to the max yet. Apparently toddler skills are really hard to teach :lol:
@CactiSimmer I have autonomy on but I check on the adults every few minutes to cancel any unnecessary toddler-related actions. Usually player-issued commands take precedence over autonomy-issued commands so when I keep my sims busy by giving them commands often they don't go crazy about the toddlers all the time.
@Eminik Oh no :( I hate the prospect of corrupted savefiles looming over all of us, I really want to find out what the cause of that is. Even though yours wasn't corrupted in the end I'm still scared it will hit either me or someone else again.
@Mareviola I plan on building another one or two baby challenge houses for people who don't feel like building them themselves. I personally want to move into something cozier down the line as well, my own house is too blue and white for me right now.
@meubanks You can chime in whenever you'd like to! Any input is welcome. However concerning the baby daddies I don't think we're able to greet them because they seem to be part of the household in that state. Paolo Rocca was able to move through a door that was locked and set to only allow household members. Frankly, I don't see any kind of cheating to work around or avoid glitches as rule breaking. As long as you age your child up on the day it's supposed to age up or whenever it gets an A it doesn't matter how you do it. I have all mc command center modules installed but have it set up in a way that they're not giving me any advantages in the challenge and as long as people don't exploit it I don't feel it's an issue.
Considering what @meubanks said I think we do need additional rules for the clubs. While I don't think people using what the game gives them is all that wrong I do want to limit exploitation of ingame glitches or mechanics that could be abused in a profitable way. In this case I would suggest that we add a rule that states that sims in the household may either join already created clubs or create clubs that have no encouraged / discouraged activities. That way the exploitation of the system should be limited while players who use the clubs for daddy hunting or family gatherings still can use them. What does everyone think about this?
And what does everyone think about randomizing lot traits, should we replace the current existing options with the rule that lot traits have to be randomized every 5th child?
My specific point about clubs is that they can be easily set up to give a pronounced advantage in this particular challenge. I love clubs, and they were a great addition to the game, but in this case they are so good that they almost act as an in game exploit. The most exploitable aspect of clubs is that you can keep an active gathering 24/7 in a household club. Within a generation or two, a min-maxer who sets up the club properly can unlock all of the perks fairly easily.
My chief concern is that they can basically make raising children much easier, and they put children in a position to age up to teen at a much faster rate than they normally can if the rules don't reflect the clubs advantages. In my clubs have I normally have 4 aspirations completed, and a few points in unlocked adult skills, so that I can age the kids up as many as six days early. The connected perk (I think it's called) also has a noticeable impact on school promotions, and the focused perk allows them to benefit from the ideal emotion all-day, every-day if you keep an active gathering.
One option would be to create club and non-club variants, and to change the age-up requirements to reflect club advantages. For example, instead of allowing them to age up as soon as they get an A, require them to complete some aspirations as well. Conversely, you could REQUIRE them to age up when they get an A, to avoid the every kid-is-maxed-out effect. Another possibility is to just not allow the kids to join clubs until they hit teen, because the advantages are much more balanced from that point on. Maybe only allow kid clubs to be kid-only clubs, because that also changes the dynamic a bit as well.
In any case, my suggestions are just suggestions, and they are certainly not the only, nor necessarily the best possibilities. My personal input would be to use separate variants and place the choice in player's hands. Either don't use clubs, or use them with some balancing rules. At the end of the day, the challenge isn't a competition, but if clubs are always allowed there is simply no reason not to use them. They do provide a clear advantage.
FWIW, I'm not "against" allowing them. I just want people to realize how powerful they can be, especially once you unlock the perks. "Rally the troops" alone is amazing, because it basically means that sims never have to sleep, or eat, or use the bathroom. They can just fire off RTT on occasion, and go non-stop forever. Not bad for 500 pts.
As for lot traits, tbh, I think their advantage is less pronounced. While they boost some skills, they also force sims to compulsively engage in autonomous behavior that kind of offsets the advantages. For example, if you have the homey trait and a workbench, Sims will craft knife block after knife block until you force them to stop. Crafting knife blocks with the trait is less efficient than crafting higher skill items without it, so the advantage and the annoyance factors cancel each other out. The Ley Line trait can boost the chance of twins, but the natural chance is so small that it still amounts to a fairly low probability. Even with Ley Line + 1 parent fertility, twins are rare enough that the advantage isn't unbalancing. Adding fertility massage on top might boost the number of twins, but if you've taken the time to grind out Wellness, IMHO you've earned it.
I don't think lot traits need additional rules for balance sake. If the goal is just to keep things interesting, a randomization option might be appropriate.
