Forum Discussion

Eik4si4's avatar
7 years ago

Rags to Riches with Seasons

So, I'm a total Rags to Riches addict. Practically all of my sims start off with no house and zero simoleons in their pockets.
I love to have a goal in mind when I play and to see the evolution of their life conditions as they get more and more wealthy.
I am super excited that Seasons will add more difficulty to the challenge.
BUT
I am a little worried that the fact sims can't swin in oceans and rivers yet may make it somewhat annoying. Let me explain.

Usually, when starting a Rags to Riches challenge in Sims 3, I would start in summer, so that my sims had some time to earn a little bit of money and have a shelter before winter.
However in this iteration of Seasons, it seems sims will suffer a lot from extreme temperatures; not only from the cold this time around, but from the heat as well!
Although I think it is a nice addition, I can't help but wonder... How will I keep my sims from dying of heatstrokes when they have no money?
I get that swimming in cool water would cool them off, but it's not like they can buy a swimming pool out of the blue. Also, buying a kiddie pool or a sprinkler when you don't even have a shelter yet seems like... a weird priority, let's say.

I can't help but imagine my sims camping on the beach in Brindleton Bay and dying of an heatstroke with the sea right there in the background. :s

What do you think, can you think of other free or cheap ways for a sim to cool off?
And if you plan on doing a rags to riches challenge, what season do you think you will start in?
  • I plan on starting in the spring but instead off just worrying about having shelter by winter my sim will also have to worry about cooling in the summer. I can't wait!
  • > @ikiamyetta said:
    > I plan on starting in the spring but instead off just worrying about having shelter by winter my sim will also have to worry about cooling in the summer. I can't wait!

    I agree, I don't think it's unrealistic to prioritize ways to stay alive over a house.
  • I’m wondering about this as well as I do this sometimes too. I think the tent may help to cool them off. You could also set up a national park in a lot very close and add a natural looking pool and consider it a little pond they go to swim in. Or you could buy the kiddie pool and consider that it’s filled with rain and your sims happened to find it laying on the road one day and decided to use it. The outdoor shower tarp may be an idea too.
  • Um... Sorry to burst anyone's bubble but I hope the tents won't protect them unless it's in the shade. Have you been in a tent standing in the sun a hot summer day? It's a sauna in there!
  • "Toadette12;c-16506449" wrote:
    Maybe you could have your Sims visit a public pool to cool down? I love Rags to Riches stories in the Sims as well so I'll probably end up doing that at some point with Seasons!


    Yeah but then that means we would have to go through a loading screen every few sim hours... The sims couldn't paint there, and the plants would stop growing every time they leave the lot... That's far from ideal :/
  • "illustratedhappiness;c-16506752" wrote:
    You could utilize the pool-effects from Get Together to make a grungy-looking swamp on your lot, and then remove money and start the challenge?

    If you use the official rules it would count as cheating though, but hush I won't tell :joy:


    Yes, that's a good idea! (Well, for lack of a better implementation in the game, like swimmable oceans, or parks/pools of the same neighbourhood being open without loading screens...)
    I might just do that when Seasons come out.
    It's still going to look completely ridiculous to have a swamp area on my lot after my sim could afford a proper house and a real swimming pool though.
    But I guess it's better than not being able to do a rags to riches at all... :/

    I'm disappointed there isn' t a better way to do it in the game. For me the way you can load one lot at a time especially really prevents Sims 4 from being "the best tool possible for the players to tell their stories". If at least the plants still grew on your lot when you're not there...
  • > @ilil92 said:
    > Um... Sorry to burst anyone's bubble but I hope the tents won't protect them unless it's in the shade. Have you been in a tent standing in the sun a hot summer day? It's a sauna in there!

    That's a really good point. Might be best to start in Spring or build a community pool nearby like others have said. It shouldn't be cheating if the way the game works changes imo
  • I started the Rags to Riches challenge for the first time on any version of the Sims last week... Darn founder worked his butt off, managed to become overweight eating very sporadically and hiking around to fish all the time, finally completed his little home and his first aspiration (that 20th fish was a birch to catch!), married the librarian, and immediately had mod-free/cheat-free twins. Everyone is hungry, tired, and crying in my little starter house. Founder will keep trucking and take care of the kids as needed, but mom just keeps sneaking out to eat cake offered by founder's cowplant, then goes and cries in bed while the twin toddlers get hangry. :/ (Both twins just aged up to children and both randomly rolled the Perfectionist trait, so hopefully they can help me get the house in order!)
  • @towerhill To be honest the chaos is part of why I like this challenge so much :s
    If the mom eating the cowplant's cake all the time gets too annoying, you could always put a fence around it and allow access to your founder only :) (when you can afford it)
    But it will probably be easier now that the twins are children!
  • Sketch793's avatar
    Sketch793
    Rising Veteran
    Just started a Rags to Riches sim yesterday, using the rules found at ModTheSims. I started in winter and had no problem. Wearing the right clothes was all it took to avoid freezing, even in the coldest weather, and my Sim spent most of the first week in the library anyway. He was using the library's computers to earn money by programming (Hack, Make Plugin) and writing.

    Dylan (my Sim) did spend a couple days at Granite Falls, using the chessboard and woodworking table at the national park to learn logic and handiness. He also bought a tent from the ranger shack as soon as he arrived in camp. He started out making statues which I could sell from his personal inventory, then moved on to furniture which had to be sold from the household inventory after he got back home. I still haven't placed anything on his lot, which is one of the rules for the challenge I'm following until I complete certain requirements, so he hasn't spent more than a few minutes at home to pay his bills and publish his first 5 books.