Zeus and Hera's Nectar-Making Invitational

[NancyJ]

Hmm, maybe there's somewhere else too then - not sure if we're thinking of the same place.

I'm pondering the best strategy for the gardening part too. Best keep my mouth shut before I spill a strategy heh.

[Metropolis Man]

I'm pondering the best strategy for the gardening part too. Best keep my mouth shut before I spill a strategy heh.

I'm kind of between a rock and a hard place here, guys. I don't want everyone here to think you need to walk on eggshells and be totally hush-hush. That's not a fun and friendly environment to be in. But, try and see it from my perspective. If I or anyone else that's a respected player just lay out their whole game plan right here, then chances are a lot of players are going to say, "Well, they're doing it that way, I'm going to do it that way." So, there's little diversity and learning. Fewer players would take chances and try something different.

[NancyJ]

Oh I'm not walking on eggshells, I'm keeping my mouth shut for my own benefit Don't want to spill my idea and have someone take it and do it better It is a competition after all. I suck at keeping secrets though... as you've probably noticed by now :p

[Metropolis Man]

Oh I'm not walking on eggshells, I'm keeping my mouth shut for my own benefit Don't want to spill my idea and have someone take it and do it better It is a competition after all. I suck at keeping secrets though... as you've probably noticed by now :p

Yeah, this is a perfect example where some things are just better left unsaid. I'm quite certain you and I will be employing a key difference in our strategy based on some things you've said.

[Metropolis Man]

Horkslair, I specifically have asked players not to post recipes and detailed info in this thread. Why did you completely ignore that?

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EDIT: Wow. Horkslair deleted his account and is gone. That's a bummer. He was strong-willed and I'm not going to knock anyone for that. But, he posted a detailed list of recipes and their value and in my opinion it was simply going overboard. Right after I deleted his post I PM'd him and flat out told him I would have no problems with him posting the info in the Careers and Money-Making Section. It was really good info and could have helped some players. This is upsetting to me.

[samoht04]

Horkslair, I specifically have asked players not to post recipes and detailed info in this thread. Why did you completely ignore that?

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EDIT: Wow. Horkslair deleted his account and is gone. That's a bummer. He was strong-willed and I'm not going to knock anyone for that. But, he posted a detailed list of recipes and their value and in my opinion it was simply going overboard. Right after I deleted his post I PM'd him and flat out told him I would have no problems with him posting the info in the Careers and Money-Making Section. It was really good info and could have helped some players. This is upsetting to me.

That is quite odd!

[HelenP]

EDIT: Wow. Horkslair deleted his account and is gone. That's a bummer. He was strong-willed and I'm not going to knock anyone for that. But, he posted a detailed list of recipes and their value and in my opinion it was simply going overboard. Right after I deleted his post I PM'd him and flat out told him I would have no problems with him posting the info in the Careers and Money-Making Section. It was really good info and could have helped some players. This is upsetting to me.

Definitely a bummer, not only was the info good, but he could relay it in a readable way.  At a guess I would suspect he didn't see the difference between posting the info on the challenge thread and posting it on a careers/money making thread and so didn't understand why you had a problem. 

I would like to think that he would re-join after a chance to cool down and think things through but like you said he's strong-willed and I suspect he's gone for good. 

[Metropolis Man]

Definitely a bummer, not only was the info good, but he could relay it in a readable way.  At a guess I would suspect he didn't see the difference between posting the info on the challenge thread and posting it on a careers/money making thread and so didn't understand why you had a problem.  

I would like to think that he would re-join after a chance to cool down and think things through but like you said he's strong-willed and I suspect he's gone for good.  

I had forgotten about this thread that Carl already started —

http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=219.0

That would have been the perfect place for Horklair's list. I hope he comes back. It was solid info. Everyone deserves to see it. And that kind of backs up my thinking on my (and Pam's) position for not revealing too much info in challenge threads — that info is for everyone, not just challenge players. The only players who are looking at the nectar thread are the nectar event players and ones who may be considering it. On the other hand, everyone is interested in nectar recipes, so detailed info like that should go right in Carl's thread.

I'm going to try and give a good example in the rules about the difference between general advice and giving away too much information.

EDIT: Okay, I just spent the last half hour coming up with a decent example between general advice, and TMI. I have included the example in both current Tournament rulesets as well as the Challenge Standards sticky. I hope this clears up my expectations for what can and cannot be discussed in challenge threads. And if you are still unsure about revealing something, just keep it to yourself. That pretty much solves any potential problems. If you feel compelled to share the information, then you can ask Carl to publish it on the Guide, or just post it in another forum section.

[simsa]

I'm in!!!!
This is my first challenge 

[Metropolis Man]

Welcome to the forums, simsa. You're on the leaderboard.

[NancyJ]

Does the forum store deleted posts? If it was really good, maybe you could repost it in another area.

I've got started on my spreadsheet which I'll share with everyone when the challenge is over - so far I'm finding the "predict combination flavour" completely useless. Out of the combinations tested so far 50% that it said were good, actually came out pretty good or better and the rest were not very good or terrible.

[Metropolis Man]

Does the forum store deleted posts? If it was really good, maybe you could repost it in another area.

I don't know. Only Carl can answer that. I'm about to move the new topic that Eftyen started on strategy. I have no problem with it, I'm just a neat freak and only want certain things in this section.

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EDIT: I want to openly thank ik for making me aware of an exploit that would have had a huge impact in this event from someone who knew about it. The gist of it is — if you have a garden and move, then your Sim can go back to the original lot and the existing garden no longer needs watering and weeding. So, moving will not be allowed in this challenge to keep things simple. Here's the new rule:

• Move your Sims into an existing house or build one yourself to start. But, you are not allowed to move again during the challenge.

[ik]

EDIT: I want to openly thank ik for making me aware of an exploit that would have had a huge impact in this event from someone who knew about it. The gist of it is — if you have a garden and move, then your Sim can go back to the original lot and the existing garden no longer needs watering and weeding. So, moving will not be allowed in this challenge to keep things simple.

Not only do you need no weeding and watering, but the plants will never die either, so there is no need to replant anything and wait for it to grow again.

My sims will now hate me, Metro. They were dreaming of a lazy life squishing the fruit the harvest in the neighbourhood and making lots of nice Nectar that way. Now they will have to get their hands dirty by growing their own garden .

That said, I would like to enter this challenge, too. The Perfectly Happy challenge was a lot of fun and did not take nearly as much time and work as i expected, and i learned a lot of new things about the Sims (and especially about Nectar making ). I hope this Challenge will be as much fun as the other one.

[Metropolis Man]

My sims will now hate me, Metro. They were dreaming of a lazy life squishing the fruit the harvest in the neighbourhood and making lots of nice Nectar that way. Now they will have to get their hands dirty by growing their own garden .

That said, I would like to enter this challenge, too. The Perfectly Happy challenge was a lot of fun and did not take nearly as much time and work as i expected, and i learned a lot of new things about the Sims (and especially about Nectar making ). I hope this Challenge will be as much fun as the other one.

Ha ha. Yeah, I learned a lot in the Perfectly Happy one myself. The recipes part was where I really thought there was going to be a lot of time wasted. I didn't do the Culinary career route either for the uber fridge. But, when you start with perfect ingredients, many of the recipes popped out perfect the very first time. That was a nice surprise.

[Eftyen]

Regarding the moving & gardening bit, I totally agree with banning it from any garden-heavy event.

Just as a side note, the plants may never die or get weeds, but you also cannot fertilize them for more better yield.

[e^(pi*i)]

Regarding the moving & gardening bit, I totally agree with banning it from any garden-heavy event.

Just as a side note, the plants may never die or get weeds, but you also cannot fertilize them for more better yield.

I would imagine one would just plant perfect plants, then. It'd be worth it, for sure.

[jmz95]

Regarding the moving & gardening bit, I totally agree with banning it from any garden-heavy event.

Just as a side note, the plants may never die or get weeds, but you also cannot fertilize them for more better yield.

I would imagine one would just plant perfect plants, then. It'd be worth it, for sure.

Definitely worth it.
I got to thinking about this challenge, and I think that this challenge should not be taken as heavily as some other challenges such as the Perfectly Happy challenge. While there is always some luck involved, as it has been proven (in this thread I believe) that there is a huge amount of luck based on the amount the nectar made is worth, as well as what machine you're running on and given the fact that not every game will give out the same results.

For example, in the Perfectly Happy Challenge, there is virtually no luck involved in getting the Perfect seeds, aside from the fact that you may find a great, outstanding, nice, normal, bad, etc. quality seed, but that can be fixed with the Green Thumb trait, Super Green Thumb reward, and Garlic or life fruit at perfect quality. For nectar however, no two bottles will be worth the exact same no matter how hard you try to keep things constant. Sorrying for my little rant on it, I still want to participate, I just want people to know that no matter how good your recipe is, it may be better for someone else 100% of the time just because of their CPU.

[Metropolis Man]

Sorrying for my little rant on it, I still want to participate, I just want people to know that no matter how good your recipe is, it may be better for someone else 100% of the time just because of their CPU.

Rant noted. Does that mean this event will count any less than other events. No way. There is a huge amount of skill involved in this event. I've got some tricks up my sleep that I'm going to employ in France. I'll be curious if anyone else thinks of doing a couple things that I want to do there. Yes, there's some luck involved in the recipes. But, there's so much micromanagement and skill involved that completely overshadows the luck aspect. Let's say you and I both employ recipe A as our go to recipe throughout the event. Your CPU values the batch at 2500 per batch and mine values it at 2400 per batch. But, let's say I'm simply able to out produce you bigtime because of finding Special Seeds, and whatever else I can throw into things. I mean, if you run dry because of resources and your nectar-machines are idle because of it, then someone whose a better gardener is still going to come out on top.

[jmz95]

Rant noted. Does that mean this event will count any less than other events. No way.

No, no. Of course not. I was just saying one so reassure myself of it, and two to maybe let others know about it.

There is a huge amount of skill involved in this event. I've got some tricks up my sleep that I'm going to employ in France. I'll be curious if anyone else thinks of doing a couple things that I want to do there. Yes, there's some luck involved in the recipes. But, there's so much micromanagement and skill involved that completely overshadows the luck aspect. Let's say you and I both employ recipe A as our go to recipe throughout the event. Your CPU values the batch at 2500 per batch and mine values it at 2400 per batch. But, let's say I'm simply able to out produce you big time because of finding Special Seeds, and whatever else I can throw into things. I mean, if you run dry because of resources and your nectar-machines are idle because of it, then someone whose a better gardener is still going to come out on top.

I think you mean sleeve, and I couldn't agree with you more about the out-producing thing. However, someone (like myself) might get confused if they did a test run of nectar making and got completely different results, or two people compare what they did and they did very similar things, but one person beat the other by a large amount.

[Eftyen]

However, someone (life myself) might get confused if they did a test run of nectar making and got completely different results, or two people compare what they did and they did very similar things, but one person beat the other by a large amount.

Hasn't it been established that although the same recipe may give varying results between computers, it will always give the same result on the same CPU for different saved games?

[samoht04]

Maybe the outcome of nectar depends on traits, skills, ingredients etc.

So unlucky might get fewer good outcomes than a lucky person?

Maybe a cooking skill also helps?

[Metropolis Man]

Well, the big day is tomorrow when everyone can begin this event. I ask that you please reread the rules carefully. There have been several important changes made since I first posted the ruleset a week ago.

Good luck, everyone! Happy nectar-making!

[samoht04]

Metro - Can we use other ways to make money as well? Or is it a gardening/nectar money making thing only?

[Metropolis Man]

Metro - Can we use other ways to make money as well?

Yes, there are no restrictions to sources of your income.

[kat]

Maybe the outcome of nectar depends on traits, skills, ingredients etc.

So unlucky might get fewer good outcomes than a lucky person?

Maybe a cooking skill also helps?

It is interesting to watch to see which traits roll the 'bottomless cellar' lifetime wish...