Author Topic: Flight of the Starship Crescent Wrench: the Upgrade Quadrant (Read 20608 times)

alyssa.cole · « **Reply #225 on:** March 27, 2011, 07:29:02 PM »

Done!

Sunset Valley: Week 1, Day 6, 5:40 PM = 8260
China: Day 5, 10:14 AM = 6374
France: Day 5, 7:35 AM = 6215
Egypt: Day 2, 7:49 AM = 1909

Total = 22,758

Largo The Stampede · « **Reply #226 on:** March 27, 2011, 09:38:55 PM »

Finally finished this one. I've been playing a lot of Sims Midieval. ^_^

Finished Sunset Valley on week 1, day 6 at 1342
5(24)(60)+1(60)+42=7302 minutes
Finished China on day 4 at 1510 PM
3(24)(60)+15(60)+10=5230 minutes
Finished Egypt on day 2 at 0433
24(60)+4(60)+33=1713 minutes
Finished France on day 4 at 1614
3(24)(60)+16(60)+14=5294 minutes

Total: 7302+5230+1713+5294=19,539 minutes

Ricalynn · « **Reply #227 on:** March 27, 2011, 11:29:27 PM »

Yay ! TSM didn't distract me too bad!

SV: Week 1, Day 7, 15:57 = 9597
Egypt: Day 2, 10:20 (am) = 2060
China: Day 5, 13:39 = 6579
France: Day 5, 7:35 (am) = 6215

Total is 24,451

Lizzy3272 · « **Reply #228 on:** March 27, 2011, 11:37:15 PM »

Sunset Valley = Day 8 1:54pm = 10,914
China = Day 4 2:56pm = 5,160
Egypt = Day 2 3:05am = 1,625
France = Day 6 4:40pm = 8,200

Total = 25,899

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #229 on:** March 28, 2011, 06:14:01 AM »

This Event is Now Closed.

Congratulations to winnow for quite an impressive victory and my thanks to all participants.

ratchie · « **Reply #230 on:** March 28, 2011, 11:51:19 AM »

Can we start sharing any strategies that we used now?

Rachel

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #231 on:** March 28, 2011, 11:56:00 AM »

Absolutely, Rachel. I honestly do not have much to share. Needless to say I wish I had chosen the tinkering option like winnow did. She can detail that particular strategy in the HOF at a later time, but it's incredible. I didn't believe her score at first to be honest. Then she told me what she did and I tested it out. Sure enough, quite a few Tinkerings result in an upgrade within an hour or two as opposed to something like 3 or 4 hours for your run of the mill self cleaning upgrade.

NancyJ · « **Reply #232 on:** March 28, 2011, 12:01:29 PM »

I tinkered with the tinkering option but it didn't work out so good for me in my limited testing (was down to the wire on this one - I actually did my testing in the live file, no practice runs). I made 3 of them tinker while 1 did the regular upgrade. 1 tinkerer finished really fast - maybe 1/3rd of the time for the regular upgrade but the other 2 took *much* longer - like tinkering all day on 1 sink. So I gave that up.

ClayMask · « **Reply #233 on:** March 28, 2011, 12:04:45 PM »

Quote from: NancyJ on March 28, 2011, 12:01:29 PM

I tinkered with the tinkering option but it didn't work out so good for me in my limited testing (was down to the wire on this one - I actually did my testing in the live file, no practice runs). I made 3 of them tinker while 1 did the regular upgrade. 1 tinkerer finished really fast - maybe 1/3rd of the time for the regular upgrade but the other 2 took *much* longer - like tinkering all day on 1 sink. So I gave that up.

Yeah. from my testing too tinkering was really luck dependent. Sometimes it was better than a regular upgrade, and sometimes way worse. In my testing it was definitely slower on average, though.

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #234 on:** March 28, 2011, 12:04:49 PM »

Quote from: NancyJ on March 28, 2011, 12:01:29 PM

I tinkered with the tinkering option...

Lol.

NancyJ · « **Reply #235 on:** March 28, 2011, 12:11:04 PM »

I wonder if you stop and start the tinkering you'd have better luck - eg. if they've not come up with an upgrade after and hour or so, if you stop it and start it again, maybe that would work out better. I dunno, I suck at the upgrade race - we weren't allowed tinkering last year and I still got beat by like 2 whole days! Looking forward to the careers one though

Babies - probably not so much lol.

TheChronicR · « **Reply #236 on:** March 28, 2011, 12:42:53 PM »

Tinkering was my main strategy in this event. Just in case I bought 4 tents and 100 lettuces so they could refill their important needs at any time. The main minus for me was the lack of the Jetsetter reward for the trip to China. It made me go on a second trip. I was truly shocked when one of my Sims died of starvation while in the base camp, relaxing. Everyone's needs got awfully low, but fortunately it all happened while upgrading the last building, the Nectary. I've never liked that place.

Ricalynn · « **Reply #237 on:** March 28, 2011, 12:49:08 PM »

Congratulations to winnow and everyone else we did great jobs! I'm curious if winnow will share strategy. I am in awe of you getting china and france done in only three days.

ratchie · « **Reply #238 on:** March 28, 2011, 12:54:14 PM »

I moved my entire crew into the fire station which meant there was enough beds for everyone plus no queuing for showers or the toilet. I also tried to have it so that they were not all sleeping at the same time that way I didn't get bored watching them all sleep. It probably didn't help with the challenge but it helped me get through it.

Rachel

Jonna · « **Reply #239 on:** March 28, 2011, 01:13:29 PM »

I didn't actually finish (or start, lol) this one, but my thought was to finish SV, then have everyone join the Actor career, to get the Actor's Trailer. I am pretty sure it gives a better mood boost than the tent, which would mean that upgrading on vacation would go smoother. I know teleporting doesn't take more than a few minutes, but the beds provided aren't really better than the tents, so why bother teleporting back to base at all?

TheChronicR · « **Reply #240 on:** March 28, 2011, 02:28:17 PM »

Forgot to mention: before going to the countries and buying the tents, I used to make my Sims nap in the town. Sleeping was a very rare thing in Sunset Valley. I especially liked the facilities of the Fire Station.

Another important strategy of mine was to make sure that each of the four had unique traits. Of course, all of them were Handy, but I made one of the guys (I had 2 males, and 2 females) a Technophobe, which helped quite a lot when trying to learn the first levels of Handiness. Computer Whiz helped a lot, too, so did Adventurer. Bookworm was another mutual trait for them, but it wasn't used mostly. Since I'm a pro cheater (not in challenges, I'm a honest player), I knew that teleporting would be a great help in this event. Teleporting as close to the item as possible was the key. The few seconds Sims spend while walking to the object is precious for an event like this. I hate when they stop upgrading, and after one Sim hour they get electrocuted. One Sim hour!

P.S. Can't wait to see how Winnow managed to make it so fast in China and France, and congrats to her.

BellaClo · « **Reply #241 on:** March 28, 2011, 03:53:34 PM »

As usual, I'm very impressed by the amazing scores reached here. Congratulations to all of you, and especially Winnow!

Although it didn't produce an extraordinary score, here are the few things that I did:

I gave my Sims the following traits: Handy (obvious), ambitious (to get more LTHpoints/wish => faster LTR), over-emotional (to keep them in the green bubble as much as possible), loner (no time lost to socialize), then athletic or disciplined for their LTW, Physical Perfection. I should have given them The Tinkerer for the sake of the challenge, but this wasn't matching the story I had in my head...

The 1st day in SV, they learned handiness at the Library, then I sent them to their first trip in China. They 'stole' the books from the base camp ($ = good beds at home = faster sleep + better moodlet). They survived on morsel for the whole challenge. I picked up 4 incense holders too and a tent. I paid attention that they completely upgraded the Hot Springs on the 3rd day of this trip, there is a routing issue there and I didn't want to suffer it on the 2nd trip to China.
Back in SV, they upgraded (yeah :-) and slept at home, each one in a good bed in his own room. The first LTR I picked up was Prepared Traveller. So, on their 2nd trip to China, they had 15 days to spend. When they finished their last upgrades on the 2nd day, they spent their time at the Academy to fulfill their LTW and catch a maximum of LTH points, and all the needs LTR.

Twinmum · « **Reply #242 on:** March 28, 2011, 05:22:05 PM »

I toyed with the idea of moving the crew into the fire station, but rejected it in favour of buying them decent beds for better and therefore less sleep. I also gave each the eco friendly trait so they had shorter showers.
I completed SV entirely then spent a couple of weeks getting them all to fulfill their lifetime wish of Renaissance Sim buy maxing logic (playing chess with each other and searching the galaxy) and painting (then they had paintings to sell for income). Once they all had a pile of happiness points, each one got Meditative Trance Sleep, Steel Bladder, Dirt Defiant and Hardly Hungry. Only when they all had those rewards did I send them abroad.
I didn't buy a tent, again opting to teleport back to home base to sleep in beds (except in Egypt where they had to sleep in tents)

Other things I considered -
I got them to work on gender specific upgrades first in any location. That way towards the end, I could send anyone to do the work. In one of my tests, I didn't do this and ended up with the guys standing around doing nothing while the girls worked in a ladies toilet.
I tried to keep them all together while they worked as it was easier to watch them and make sure they were not shooed out of a toilet to stand around idly while waiting for someone to use the facilities.
I also tried to to keep what they were upgrading inline with their needs. For example, when they need to bathe, I would teleport them to a shower where they would have their shower and then immediately move onto upgrading the same shower.
All these things while not getting me a spectacular time, did contribute to reducing wasted time a bit.

Norma

ratchie · « **Reply #243 on:** March 28, 2011, 05:25:08 PM »

@Twinmum did you know that you can transport a man into a womans bathroom so men can upgrade womens toilets and womens mens. If you get what I mean.

Rachel

Veldmuisie · « **Reply #244 on:** March 28, 2011, 05:34:12 PM »

Tinkering saved as much time as it wasted, plus the toilet would clog or the sink would break and if you do not catch it, they wander off. The lucky trait did not seem to make a difference. I made mine slobs and never let them shower. I can't tell you how much discipline that took!

Alexandria_ · « **Reply #245 on:** March 28, 2011, 05:40:12 PM »

My strategy was nothing more than "Get everything done as quick as possible" really

I didn't even try tinkering, because in my experience in other games, it was slow.
So I don't really have much to add on to what people have already said.

My sims all had the traits handy, over-emotional, ambitious, loner and neurotic (for the freak-outs).
And I went with the comfortable beds on the home lot, over the fire station.

Twinmum · « **Reply #246 on:** March 28, 2011, 05:50:24 PM »

Quote from: ratchie on March 28, 2011, 05:25:08 PM

@Twinmum did you know that you can transport a man into a womans bathroom so men can upgrade womens toilets and womens mens. If you get what I mean.

ha, I never knew that. Teleporting was new to me with this challenge and I just assumed that if they couldn't walk into a room then they wouldn't be able to teleport there either. Lesson - never assume anything in a Sims game!

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #247 on:** March 28, 2011, 06:00:12 PM »

Quote from: Twinmum on March 28, 2011, 05:50:24 PM

ha, I never knew that. Teleporting was new to me with this challenge and I just assumed that if they couldn't walk into a room then they wouldn't be able to teleport there either. Lesson - never assume anything in a Sims game!

Yep. The light bulb went off in my head over that whole issue too. My team was in Egypt and I sent everyone out in different directions at the beginning. William Shatner was in the base camp — no really, he was! But, he couldn't go into the women's bathroom. I finally figured it out to transport him right inside.

Oh, one other tip — I knew I would be able to pull off Egypt in one 3-day vacation, so that was my first vacation. Why? I knew I wouldn't need Prepared Traveler for Egypt and it was more opportunity for one team member to rack up happiness and purchase that important reward for China and France.

Anushka · « **Reply #248 on:** March 28, 2011, 06:06:56 PM »

I did similar as many here. They were slobs and loners, so no showers or talking until whole world is upgraded

They had only beds (best) on property. No money needed, kaching was enough to cover that and trips. They ate apples, and slept but not always till fully rested - on last day they would sleep only enough to finish the world (I lost a few hours there too). Only then they could shower and talk to each other, except in France they needed to socialize after 3 days, not shore why (they did just got married for that nice moodlet but don't know if that made them more needy for social interactions). And steel bladder was the first LTR, after Egypt, one got Prepeared traveler. I haven't used free time enough to buy more LTRs, completely forgot about it!
Tinkering rarely ever gave me an upgrade, in any game I played so far it was a loss of time. In dynasty I even used it to break items so I could fix them! So I'm very surprised that there is a chance to be that lucky. I'm not the lucky one, my crew even had to repair some toilets to be able upgrade them, so I didn't even consider trying tinkering, even for those first 3 levels. It was safer to let them read and then upgrade, rather then to break things and lose even more time! I guess that safe play can't bring the winning result!
Congratulation winnow!

EDIT: Metro, we posted at the same time. And now I saw my number in world rank, lol!

Twinmum · « **Reply #249 on:** March 28, 2011, 11:21:27 PM »

Quote from: Anushka on March 28, 2011, 06:06:56 PM

I'm not the lucky one, my crew even had to repair some toilets to be able upgrade them, so I didn't even consider trying tinkering, even for those first 3 levels.

I found that if a toilet needed fixing before it could be upgraded, leave it and go upgrade something else (if time permitted), then come back to it the next day as things that break on public lots tend to mend themselves overnight.

Oh and something funny, because there was a gap between when I started this challenge and when I finished it, I totally forgot we could use kaching when we upgraded all the items on a property.. oh well, they enjoyed painting to max that third skill.

Norma