The first challenge I’m going to attempt to blog/story-write about is my “Nothing is Free” challenge. (Mod The Sims – The “Nothing Is Free” Challenge) I started this on the Sunset Valley 2 world from Sims 3 Exchange. The basic premise of the challenge is to build a city from nothing – a completely blank, unpopulated world. I’ve already started the challenge, but I haven’t gotten all that far.. so I only have a little catch-up to do on the story writing.

These are the first lots in my new project, the Rural Small Town / Farm Community lots. Basically, the idea is to make a set of “matching” community lots for town builders (and me) to use in small-town worlds. Themed to be very rural/farm oriented, they’re mostly put on the smallest lot possible for venue size (or at least lots that are easily place-able in game) to adapt to small-town community size.

The Old Smithson’s place (Criminal Warehouse)

Strangely enough, lately there has been some activity spotted near here. It’s been abandoned for years, condemned and infested with junk and bugs. Occasionally picked over by collectors of metal and gems, but otherwise.. why else would people be seen near this filthy place? .. Could something foul be afoot?? (Criminal lot with low-end bug, gem, and metal spawners, including some late night ones. Designed for small rural town builders.)

(More pictures here)

Small(ish) Public Services Office (City Hall/Military/Police Dept.)

Military, City Hall, and Police Services. Designed and landscaped on the smallest lot possible for small rural town builders.

(More pictures here)

Lunar Lakes Horse Ranch / Training Grounds:

Designed for Lunar Lakes as a companion for my Equestrian Center. Full jumping and racing training, as well as water, tie rack, and hay. Benches for spectators or grooms. Graded and fully fenced sand arena to keep the equestrian athlete in fighting form. Not lighted (the EC practice arena is lighted, btw), designed for day-time training. By IllusoryThrall NO CC

Lunar Lakes Dog Park:

Designed especially for Lunar Lakes by IllusoryThrall No CC. Plenty of toys, bone-shaped fountains to swim in. Biscuit balls, and chew toys… plenty of space to run in. Dry grass to roll in (and dig up).. and a couple benches for humanoid companions. Even some beds for the lazy pup, and a house in case you meet your perfect mate!

Lunar Lakes Cat Jungle:

Blast off for cats! Toys and platforms galore, and an enclosed bathroom for the finicky feline. Even a couple benches for the humanoid companion. Between the boxes of toys, jungle gyms, scratching posts, and places to Survey your world, this is the place every cat must go! Designed by IllusoryThrall. No CC

(Published 2/19/2012 on the Sims 3 Website)

For anyone who was interested in the challenge I posted earlier in my blog, I’ve have a post up on modthesims outlining the rules. http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=467665 I’ve also got some comments in there, and there are a few other people who are trying it out too. So far, it’s one of the toughest challenges I’ve ever attempted. I’ve been forced to re-start my game out of frustration at a world I picked up on the exchange. The load times were horrid – I was spending half my playtime loading. So I ditched that save after the first drone – and am starting over.

Meantime, I’ve found a challenge I absolutely adore.. and has completely addicted me…. the “Nothing is Free” challenge on modthesims by Avalikia. http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=468464 It’s a re-vamp of the “Build a City Challenge that was originally in Sims2, got redone for Sims3.. and never seemed like it was quite right for the actual Sims3 gameplay. Basically, you start on a completely blank world.. and earn all job buildings and venues. There’s a whole bunch of people doing the challenge now, and watching all the very very different towns and stories evolving out of this challenge is SOOOO much fun!

The other challenge I just started up is an Alien/Rainbow world challenge. http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=427790 More to play with lunar lakes and skintones than anything else. As well as exploring sim-genetics. The Red Rover guy I uploaded is from that challenge, obviously.. and is the reason all these fun Lunar Lakes lots are getting uploaded.

Sorry I didn’t get the rest of the Pets lots uploaded today, I will be able to tomorrow. Spent most the day in bed, sick.. somehow I managed to catch the cold I thought my family was done with. (So much for rejoicing that it had passed me by… d’oh!) .. why is it the last person to get sick is always the one who gets it the worst?!

One other thing: there are two other challenges I’m going to be starting soon… one, the 50 foals challenge – only I’m going to tweak it a bit and make it into a Horsacy (Horse Legacy) as well, and possibly even go to 100 foals! /whew .. I’m such a horse nut. I rode horses in real life for 25+ years of my life, so getting to play with virtual ones (who, I might add are FAR cheaper!!) is a huge attraction on the Pets expansion for me. The challenge is hosted by our lovely SIMyth, and is also generating some really fun stories – and awesome looking pets!! http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/450566.page .. The second challenge is the Micronation challenge from modthesims http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=458258 I want to start it on a really tiny island, and sorta compare/contrast what happens vs. the Nothing is Free challenge.

In all likelihood, the Nothing is Free challenge and 50 foals challenge are going to take most my sims time though.. 😉

(Published 2/18/2012 on the Sims 3 website)

I spent a couple hours.. well.. ok, more than that.. on doing a “quick” upgrade to the EA Lunar Lakes “The Warrens” lot. Of all the existing lots I looked at, it seemed the most likely to be able to house a couple of horses. I didn’t touch the house itself, other than to lessen width of one stairs, move a few walls and doors, and put some flooring in for the barn roof. It’s designed to be a two-stall barn with tack area, grooming rack, and covered hay storage. There is no race training posts included, but there’s full jump training available. Full amenities for the horses, NO CC. Should work just fine – although I have not play tested it yet. PLEASE let me know if you find any problems with it. – I uploaded some actual screenies from while I was building it if you want a closer look – should be under my studio ..

Also, I spent a rather long time building a decorated Equestrian Center for Lunar Lakes. I designed it on the 15 Hyperion Way lot using the EA rabbit-hole building “Petite Pony” Center. Also built in four individual pastures for horses with sheltered stalls and full amenities. There is also a sand lighted arena for training, warm-ups, and practice. (I suppose one could say even the lessons could be held there?) Full jump course, and a line of flame jumps for the advanced teams. Cavaletti (training jumps) included on the side, and a race track around the outside. Arena is fully lit for even late night practices. Items used should ONLY be from Pets and Lunar Lake (or base game).. and no CC was used. I have not actively play-tested it yet, but everything should work.

I’ve ridden horses in real life for 25+ years of my life, so there’s practical experience included in the lots.. hopefully.. and they’re as “realistic” as I could make them. I also have a “Horse Ranch” training grounds community lot in progress, as well as Dog Park and Cat Jungle lots. New to this uploading created lots thing, so PLEASE let me know what you think of these lots!

Added: pics and links….

Lunar Lakes Equestrian Center

Designed by IllusoryThrall. NO CC! Four individual pastures with sheltered stalls and full amenities. Large lighted sand arena with race training and a full jump course, including fire fences. and training jumps. Designed for 15 Hyperion Highway. Look for the companion Horse Ranch/Training Grounds Community Lot! Please let me know if you find any issues with the lot. (Uses the Petite Pony EC)

The Warren – 1 BR, 1 BA (2 stall barn, jumping training)

Wander the halls of this meandering house with its many domed roofs as it blends seamlessly into the surrounding forest. Lunar Lakes Lot – Updated by IllusoryThrall to house horses, too. A full jumping training area, covered decorated barn with two stalls and tack area. Hitching rack in barn area for grooming and saddling. Hay storage area – fenced and covered. NO CC! Very little was done to house, no furnishing changes, I simply added the stables. Check my blog for more pictures. More Pics!

(published 1/29/2012 on the Sims 3 site)

I’m actually doing a bit of a variation of of the Queen Bee challenge at the moment. I had the rules for the Sims 2 Queen Bee challenge printed out, and my 12 year old daughter was looking through Challenges for her Sims 2 game (her computer doesn’t run Sims 3) and she picked this one….. and then promptly challenged me to play along.

Basically, the challenge asks you to start a female sim as your “queen bee” – and keep making baby “bees” until you have a total of 60 babies from ten different fathers! Each male “drone” moves in – NO marrying – and fathers six children with the mama “bee”. Once all six babies are at least toddler age, he moves out and takes the “larvae” with him – and she begins again with a new “drone”. There’s some interesting scoring, including a bonus point for each set of “natural” twins (or triplets), penalties for any deaths or social workers and a bonus point for each baby that has all “toddler skills” learned on moving out. (walk, potty, talk) No cheats used except for moveobjects, and no turning into a “creature” – vampire, mummy, zombie (sims2), etc.

Here’s how it’s playing out:

My daughter started her “beehive” in Sims 2, and I started mine in Sims 3. She started as an “adult” (no college), while I started as a Young Adult. She started on a 5 by 5 lot (Sims 2) .. and to make the difficulty/money issues as close as possible, I started on a 64 by 64 lot. No money cheats are being used, or any other cheats besides the general building or un-sticking ones – mostly moveobjects. She started on a blank newly created neighborhood, I set up a world with a bunch of cookie-cutter houses with one master bedroom and two smaller ones, two bathrooms… and made sure I had all the different community lots. The only sim I actually moved in was my Queen, and same for her. Both of us found a male “townie” and moved them in and started producing babies… Since her sim will be using the Elixir of Life – and sims 3 doesn’t have that – I’ll be going for Life fruits. Working on gardening and cooking, but whether I get all the way to ambrosia – and can afford it (cringe) by the time she needs it after first “worker bee” or not is debatable. Additionally, since Sims 2 doesn’t really have the same sort of advantages in the aspiration rewards as Sims 3 does.. and I’m the more experienced player – I’ve elected to balance the challenges a little bit more by not buying any happiness rewards at all. It would be a completely unfair advantage if I got rewards that helped with .. say.. fertility, or ability to take care of kids.. lower bladder need, etc. Also, I set my age sliders to be exactly what sims 2 has theirs at (well, the max time span for each life stage). We’ll leave the assumption that all her babies will be going through college, since “young adult” stage is mandatory for sims 3, but not for sims 2 (and she hates playing college sims).The challenge is a good bit harder than I thought, however.. but playing on side-by-side computers with the same challenge, but different game versions is a lot of fun. I think we’ll be doing this with some other challenges, too, after this.Oh, and I’m playing my sims 3 challenge on every expansion/stuff pack through pets (don’t have master suite yet) – she’s playing on a complete Sims 2 game – all expansions and stuff packs. One of the biggest challenges she’s come across is dealing with the weather from seasons – something Sims 3 doesn’t have yet. She already almost froze the babies and babydaddy due to shortage of funds to actually build a real house with roof and walls.. haha.. 🙂 It almost seems unfair that I don’t have to deal with it! I’m avoiding all vampire (or other race) “bees” as potential breeding partners, as is she, because the races are so completely different in each game.

“Challenge” will end when either the Queen bee dies, or becomes unable to produce more biological childred (turns elder). Whoever has the most LIVING kids at the end wins. In the event we both gets to 60 children, we’ll total up our points and either pick a winner from that, or pick the last-born female child, and promote her to “queen” and keep going. She is currently up to four children and one in the oven… she managed TWO sets of natural, not-cheat or cheesecake twins. I’m struggling to catch up with two babies born, and another pregnancy underway. What I’m finding most difficult currently is getting everything done with the toddlers in their minuscule four days as a toddler!! Somehow the toddler stage always seemed longer when playing on Sims2….