Author Topic: The MAX Skills Marathon (Read 9028 times)

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #100 on:** December 19, 2009, 05:19:31 AM »

It might be time a 2.0 version of this challenge when I return from Florida — the SuperMax Challenge which would include everything from WA as well. I'll think about it.

Mrs. Metro is getting all the troops up as I type this so it's off to Florida in about 20 minutes. Happy Holidays everyone!

romagia · « **Reply #101 on:** December 22, 2009, 01:49:24 PM »

Quote from: Metropolis Man on December 19, 2009, 05:19:31 AM

It might be time a 2.0 version of this challenge when I return from Florida — the SuperMax Challenge which would include everything from WA as well. I'll think about it.

Mrs. Metro is getting all the troops up as I type this so it's off to Florida in about 20 minutes. Happy Holidays everyone!

what could be so complicated about a challange that would include WA skills too...?

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #102 on:** December 22, 2009, 03:00:49 PM »

Quote from: romagia on December 22, 2009, 01:49:24 PM

what could be so complicated about a challange that would include WA skills too...?

Did I somehow give you the impression that such a challenge would be complicated?

romagia · « **Reply #103 on:** December 22, 2009, 03:03:29 PM »

well adding some extra text in there to make it WA compatible shoudn't take more then 20 mins

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #104 on:** December 22, 2009, 03:07:40 PM »

Quote from: romagia on December 22, 2009, 03:03:29 PM

well adding some extra text in there to make it WA compatible shoudn't take more then 20 mins

Explain to me how I can just modify the rules of this tournament and have it be fair? PJ and I have already finished this tournament under the existing rules. Adding in more work for future participants is out of the question. It has to be a new event started from scratch.

romagia · « **Reply #105 on:** December 22, 2009, 04:37:37 PM »

Why start it from scratch? You can just make some minor edits to the rules of the old one, and pass it as a new challenge!

Create 1 Young Adult Sim. No other Sims can be played.
We can all agree WA does not bring related changes, so this rule shoudn't be modified.

Lifespan set to Long.
Same

No cheats or modifications.
Same

Use of the Moodlet Manager and Mid-Life Crisis is banned.
WA does not bring new overpowered rewards so this rule should stay unchanged too

No Careers (don't start them and Quit just for Happiness points) or business investments. All income must be from Skills, Skill Opportunities, or Special Opportunities.
Since all income should come from skills, it's natural relic hunting should be excluded too; relic hunting means selling stuff you find in tomb.
Adventures also would not be allowed(since they give simoleons), unless they are skill-related Adventures. Tomb exploring however, would, as long as you don't pick up anything (for Photography).

Move your Sim into an existing house or build one yourself. Move as often as you want.
Vacation homes aren't relevant to this, as you cannot move in them. You would be allowed to get vacation homes if you can get enough Visa Points from skill-related adventures.

The Challenge ends when you have maxed all 13 skills and completed all Skill Challenges in each Skill Journal. NOTE: It is widely accepted that the Guitar Star Challenge is bugged and nearly impossible to accomplish without using a cheat. So, it is recommended you just ignore Guitar Star.

New Rule: For every vacation you have, add the number of days you spent there to your score. Round the number up (so if you spent just 2 hours in a vacation, to buy a nectar machine or a camera, it counts as one day).

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #106 on:** December 22, 2009, 04:52:37 PM »

Quote from: romagia on December 22, 2009, 04:37:37 PM

Why start it from scratch? You can just make some minor edits to the rules of the old one, and pass it as a new challenge!

Obviously. I didn't mean start from scratch as in every single thing was going to be different. While I appreciate your input, you're not giving me enough credit. I've got it under control, Romagia, and I will be updating this event to incorporate WA content, so stay tuned.

romagia · « **Reply #107 on:** December 22, 2009, 04:59:39 PM »

I can't wait to see what new changes will your challange bring, other then what i said in my above post.

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #108 on:** December 22, 2009, 05:08:59 PM »

Well, it may start as early as January 1. I'm working with Carl (and Pam) in hopes of firing up 3 new tournaments on January 1. I'll let the cat out of the bag and say that these events as well as all future moderator-approved official site events will go towards a brand new world ranking that I'm very excited about.

I'm not sure if a 2.0 version of this event will be one of the January events. It may be. There's a couple other events I have in mind and there may be a revised version of Baby Boomer. There's a lot of work and planning to be done between now and the New Year.

romagia · « **Reply #109 on:** December 22, 2009, 05:14:18 PM »

Sounds intresting ^__^
Especially the "World Ranking" thingie. Does that mean something like a high-score table?

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #110 on:** December 22, 2009, 05:24:07 PM »

I'll explain more later as Carl and I get closer to unveiling this in March -- I hope. That's the target date I have in mind because I want to put a 3 tournament minimum participation requirement for players to be ranked. And I think it's going to take at least 3 months of tournaments to give us the necessary data for the ranking. But, in a nutshell it's going to be your long-term win/loss ratio. So, it won't be rocket science by any stretch. That's about all I want to say for now.

But, I do want to add one more thing since I brought up the new ranking: Carl, Pam and I will be putting our heads together and cleaning up the whole challenges section of the forum -- moving threads. Maybe even deleting threads. It's still a work in progress. But, we need to clean things up to make room for the new upcoming events. And PJ, I'm not intentionally leaving you out of the loop. All we're trying to do is thin out old challenges that basically fell flat and very few if any players did. So, if you have opinions on that, then please PM any of us.

HelenP · « **Reply #111 on:** January 02, 2010, 11:18:49 AM »

Hurray, at last I've finished it. Not a good score, 107 days (Week 16 day 2) but it's done and now I can move on to something new and exciting namely World Adventures. My poor sim spent the last week of her time drinking coffee and trying to make something electrical break so I could repair it

now she can sleep.

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #112 on:** January 02, 2010, 11:37:57 AM »

Good job, nonetheless, Helen. Thanks for participating. If you read back at the beginning of the thread my first effort wasn't that great either. I'll update the leaderboard.

PJSim · « **Reply #113 on:** January 03, 2010, 01:27:03 AM »

Congratulations Helen!

Finishing this is an achievement in itself.

Quote from: HelenP on January 02, 2010, 11:18:49 AM

now she can sleep.

Sounds like something you would say at a funeral.

NancyJ · « **Reply #114 on:** January 04, 2010, 03:38:37 PM »

Week 14, day 4 and I've got everything but the Omni plant... poor maxine will just have to sit by the phone waiting for it ring... or I'll start again and hope my next sim is luckier heh.

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #115 on:** January 04, 2010, 03:45:59 PM »

Quote from: NancyJ on January 04, 2010, 03:38:37 PM

Week 14, day 4 and I've got everything but the Omni plant... poor maxine will just have to sit by the phone waiting for it ring... or I'll start again and hope my next sim is luckier heh.

Nancy, don't forget that your Sim can only have one type of each Opportunity — Career, Skill, etc. I completely forgot that today when I was finishing up the Perfectly Happy challenge. I couldn't understand why I wasn't getting the Omni offer because I had done the first two restaurant opportunities and had the number of steaks ready to go. While I was in Map mode one time it dawned on me — I saw a headshot of someone over their house and remembered I had taken another Gardening opportunity. I immediately fulfilled that and lo and behold within a few hours I got the call from the restaurant.

NancyJ · « **Reply #116 on:** January 04, 2010, 04:02:02 PM »

Nope, didn't have another opportunity - I was turning down everything to make sure I didn't miss it. I never have much luck with that - my Sim for the perfectly Happy challenge is the only sim that has ever been offered it.

PJSim · « **Reply #117 on:** January 04, 2010, 04:07:39 PM »

If you want a gardening opportunity you should make the Sim do lots of gardening. That will increase your chances of getting it.

NancyJ · « **Reply #118 on:** January 04, 2010, 04:14:41 PM »

She gardened every day (like all my sims). It doesn't help that I have WA installed and it keeps asking me to bring pomegranates back from Egypt heh. I did get a gardening opportunity at the last minute - just not the right one - it wanted me to bring flamefruit to an office party

NancyJ · « **Reply #119 on:** January 05, 2010, 12:43:01 PM »

Grrr, got everything in 87 days, except that stupid gardening opportunity, didn't even get as far as the burgers and steaks this time. I'm having one more go and then I give up

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #120 on:** January 05, 2010, 12:53:37 PM »

Quote from: NancyJ on January 05, 2010, 12:43:01 PM

Grrr, got everything in 87 days, except that stupid gardening opportunity, didn't even get as far as the burgers and steaks this time. I'm having one more go and then I give up

Wow. So, you would have topped PJ and me had that Opportunity come up in a timely manner. I guess I'm not surprised mainly because of Meditative Trance Sleep. That's a huge time saver which I'm assuming you've taken advantage of. When PJ and I did this challenge WA wasn't released yet. Nice job, Nancy. Good luck on your next attempt.

NancyJ · « **Reply #121 on:** January 05, 2010, 01:27:58 PM »

Nope, no meditative trance sleep. I was very careful not to use anything from World Adventures so my score would be fair. I just wish I could stop all the travel opportunities coming up. So, any hints on what the next challenge will be, so I can plan

I totally blew it on the Perfectly Happy challenge, I was just so excited to get started.

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #122 on:** January 05, 2010, 01:38:20 PM »

Quote from: NancyJ on January 05, 2010, 01:27:58 PM

So, any hints on what the next challenge will be, so I can plan

I posted in the Proposed Challenges thread earlier today. It's going to be a nectar-making challenge. I thought of an interesting twist: to ban nectar-making on the weekend and to only allow nectar consumption on the weekend. So, there will be a big time party component with # of Sims served. I'd like to somehow incorporate the different combinations stat, but I think the problem with that is it will be a big time waster for players trying all kinds of combinations and getting frustrated if certain combinations don't turn out well. So, at least right now it will score simple: total money made from selling nectar and then the # of Sims served.

The big question for me right now is the spacing between events. I want plenty of time for players to finish events and not feel rushed. Right now the gap is 2 weeks, but I can certainly increase it to 3 weeks if necessary.

NancyJ · « **Reply #123 on:** January 06, 2010, 12:02:38 PM »

Week 13, day 2 (just - it was about 11:45pm)

Hurray for snow days! I can plan my nectar making setup now.

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #124 on:** January 06, 2010, 12:19:28 PM »

Nice job, Nancy!