Sunset Valley: Attack of the Clones!

[Metropolis Man]

Sunset Valley: Attack of the Clones!

Goal
It’s 2012. But, you come from an advanced species of Sims and things like eating, sleeping...even Try For Baby are now considered primitive activites (congratulations!). Supreme Sim Entity has sent 4 of your species to Sunset Valley to bring new meaning to the phrase “world domination.” How quickly will you be able to achieve this? Supreme Sim Entity is watching you.

General Challenge Rules
The General Challenge Rules always apply. If applicable, exceptions will be noted below.

Specific Challenge Rules

• Create a new Sunset Valley game file. Before you create your household, go to Edit Town.
• All empty lots (hollow diamond icon) need to have homes placed on them. Click on the Show Empty Houses tab, find the house you want, click on Place Copy, then click the lot of your choice. If you have all expansions, you're looking at 16 empty lots. BUT...
• Everyone is allowed to change one lot type to community to place ONE EA building not already in Sunset Valley. You may delete one existing structure if it's necessary to place the new EA community building.
• You may not use Edit Town to bulldoze larger lots to make 2 smaller lots.
• Create 4 Young Adult Sims and move them into one of SV's empty homes. You must always play this home (no moving to a new home).
• Generations must be installed.
• Enable Story Progression must be unchecked while playing your file (forgetting to do this will not disqualify you, but may result in your Sims moving out of town. That’s not good.).
• You are free to use the Make Needs Static cheat.
• No restrictions on pets, BUT...
• Sims may only be added to the household via Clone Vouchers.
• You may not change the active household.
• Vacations are banned.
• All properties in SV must be purchased and fully upgraded.
• You must acquire full ownership of all SV buildings.
• Once you attain full ownership of any building or have purchased and fully upgraded any property, you may enter Edit Town and Evict one household.
• Once you attain full ownership of ALL buildings and have purchased and fully upgraded ALL properties, you may enter Edit Town and Evict as needed.
• Once you attain full ownership of any building or have purchased and fully upgraded any property, you may move out three Young Adult household members.
• The challenge ends when all residential lots (premade empty homes as well as premade SV homes with families that have been evicted) are occupied by your Sims as well as the business and property requirements have been met.

Scoring
This is a speed challenge with no set ending date. Your goal is to achieve Sunset Valley world domination as soon as possible. When you have achieved all requirements for world domination, post your Weeks and Days in this thread. Hover your mouse over the game clock to find out the total number of weeks and days it took you to finish the challenge. Do not be concerned with the hours.

There is a chance you may “give up.” That may sound depressing, but unless you employ certain unmentionable techniques (a friendly reminder to keep quiet) to make a challenge such as this feasible, it is unlikely you will be able to achieve world domination in any reasonable amount of time. If that’s the case, don’t worry about it. Just post that you tried your best, and you will be moved to the bottom of the Leaderboard and listed as DNF. It happens and it’s just a game.

Good luck, everyone. This one is a toughie, I admit.

This Event is Now Closed

Final Leaderboard

Player	World Domination Time (days)
Nutella	13
ClayMask	13
Chuckles_82	16
LenaLJ	16
drift9999	18
rahmbr	19
annieb	22
Metropolis Man	23
khynnea	25
Anjielicka	26
lvrugger	28
Wench	29
GlazeyLady	29
alyssa.cole	30
sdhoey	32
brennan068	32
SassySimmer	34
cndneh	34
MarianT	36
matrona99	38
ratchie	39
Twinmum	39
klop90	40
MomOfMany	46
Joria	47
Anhysbys	48
mismck	57
kearn76	83
rubywyld	114
smastbrook	167
nocturnalie	178
Esther1981	DNF
Teresa	DNF
lynyeld	DNF
sethelD93	DNF
Orange Iguana	DNF
smartburn	DNF
Catarra Nightshade	DNF
Vegangeekgirl	DNF
Odie	DNF
crth	DNF
Sarleenia	DNF
mammabec	DNF
Cynkuy	DNF
Cugi-teri	DNF
gracieoscar	DNF
tara1727	DNF

[samoht04]

This sounds really cool!  Also did you mean disable story progression?

[Metropolis Man]

Also did you mean disable story progression?

No. The option is called Enable Story Progression and you want to have it unchecked (which amounts to you disabling it).

[cndneh]

I love the sound of this!  can't wait for the start date!

[MarianT]

I'm looking forward to this. Two questions: 

1. Do you have to kick out the  2 YA's on the same "move" screen, or can you kick them out separately? Also, I'm pretty sure that "kick out" is the option you want.

2. If you don't have 2 YA's available when you buy a building, can you get credit for them and kick them out later?

[Metropolis Man]

I'm looking forward to this. Two questions: 

1. Do you have to kick out the  2 YA's on the same "move" screen, or can you kick them out separately? Also, I'm pretty sure that "kick out" is the option you want.

Why would "kick out" be the option I would want players to make? The goal is to occupy all residential lots. If they'll automatically move into an available place, fine, then it would indeed be simpler. Adding the rule about having Enabled Story Progression unchecked was a late edit to the final ruleset, so maybe there's no fear of anyone leaving town if they're kicked out?

2. If you don't have 2 YA's available when you buy a building, can you get credit for them and kick them out later?

Definitely. There's no time limit involved.

[Seabody]

Questions:

1. Other than the allowed cheats in the General ruleset (if there are any, I can only think of resetsim), Make Needs Static is the only allowed cheat?

2. If it becomes too much of a struggle (week 20, for instance), we are allowed to give up and will be marked as Did Not Finish, right?

3. WooHoo is permitted right? We just have to delete the Sim who got pregnant and the Sim that WooHoo'd with her? And if so, is it with TestingCheats?

4. Say we did finish, and on Week 21, Day 3, for instance. Do we post "I finished on W21,D3" and let you do the math, or do we work it out ourselves?

5.

The challenge ends when all residential lots (premade SV empty homes, premade SV homes with families that have been evicted, as well as all empty lots) are occupied by your Sims as well as the business and property requirements have been met.

My main question refers to the bolded bit - by Empty Lot, do you mean Lots with nothing on it, or am I missing something?

[Catarra Nightshade]

First Question: Do we have to move out 2 sims at a time, or can we move only 1?

Second: Is aging still set to long, and dieing of old age is still an option? Game over if you die without a clone in the active household?

Third: I know you said Unmentionable Techniques...Why do I get the impression that if such techniques exist, then they are the key to everything, and I am missing out? 

[Pam]

Yeah, I'm confused about the Unmentionable Techniques, too.  I'm never any good at riddles.

[Metropolis Man]

Questions:

1. Other than the allowed cheats in the General ruleset (if there are any, I can only think of resetsim), Make Needs Static is the only allowed cheat?

Correct. If more were allowed, then they would be noted.

2. If it becomes too much of a struggle (week 20, for instance), we are allowed to give up and will be marked as Did Not Finish, right?

That's right.

3. WooHoo is permitted right? We just have to delete the Sim who got pregnant and the Sim that WooHoo'd with her? And if so, is it with TestingCheats?

WooHoo is allowed. And yes, if a Sim gets pregnant than you would use TestingCheats to delete both Sims.

4. Say we did finish, and on Week 21, Day 3, for instance. Do we post "I finished on W21,D3" and let you do the math, or do we work it out ourselves?

There's no math to figure out — I am not converting all of this to hours. I'll just rank players according to weeks/days.

5.
My main question refers to the bolded bit - by Empty Lot, do you mean Lots with nothing on it, or am I missing something?

Yes. You need to occupy ALL residential lots. Now that I think about, if you kick a Sim out they probably would never inhabit an Empty Lot — that's why you need to manually use Move Out so you can choose both Home and Empty Lot.

Hmmmm...but Static Needs is only going to affect the active household. If you simply plop down a Sim on an empty lot they will not have what they need to take care of themselves and survive. So, it looks like I need to allow use of Edit Town for a player to build on empty lots pre-move. Am I right?

First Question: Do we have to move out 2 sims at a time, or can we move only 1?

One is fine. That may be all you have at a given moment.

Second: Is aging still set to long, and dieing of old age is still an option? Game over if you die without a clone in the active household?

Game length is long. That's all I can address.

[BellaClo]

I find myself very lucky that I had just finished my cup of tea when I found this thread... or I would have ruined the keyboard and the screen when I burst out laughing. This is an absolutely great challenge! 

Yes. You need to occupy ALL residential lots. Now that I think about, if you kick a Sim out they probably would never inhabit an Empty Lot — that's why you need to manually use Move Out so you can choose both Home and Empty Lot.

Hmmmm...but Static Needs is only going to affect the active household. If you simply plop down a Sim on an empty lot they will not have what they need to take care of themselves and survive. So, it looks like I need to allow use of Edit Town for a player to build on empty lots pre-move. Am I right?

The bolded part: I don't think so indeed. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I think the game makes a minimum of check on the content of a lot before moving a household there. One of the key item is a fridge for instance, maybe some beds too.

Couldn't we say that either:

1. we are to remove all empty residential lots in Edit Town before we enter Live mode for the first time.
2. or we have to add premade EA homes (from the Lot bin) on all those empty lots, so that they are none left empty when we enter Live mode for the first time. Which EA lot is plopped is left up to the player's choice.

And "make needs static" is indeed only for active lot, inactive Sims are always at the mercy of the game engine.

On the woohoo/pregnancy question:

And yes, if a Sim gets pregnant than you would use TestingCheats to delete both Sims

I'm not sure this is a very good idea. Doesn't this induce some corruption in Sims' data and save files? And anyhow, isn't woohoo (vs. Try for a Baby) a 100% reliable contraception method in the Sims? So as long as a player doesn't goof with a mouse click, there is no reason to have a pregnant Sim.

No, time to think about those unmentionable techniques...

[Metropolis Man]

2. or we have to add premade EA homes (from the Lot bin) on all those empty lots, so that they are none left empty when we enter Live mode for the first time. Which EA lot is plopped is left up to the player's choice.

That works for me. It would be cool to see a neighborhood so filled up with houses. What's everyone else think?

On the woohoo/pregnancy question:I'm not sure this is a very good idea. Doesn't this induce some corruption in Sims' data and save files? And anyhow, isn't woohoo (vs. Try for a Baby) a 100% reliable contraception method in the Sims? So as long as a player doesn't goof with a mouse click, there is no reason to have a pregnant Sim.

To my knowledge, Woohoo is not 100% effective contraception. There is a minute chance of getting pregnant. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[MarianT]

I'll go with the pre-made houses.

I've done some checking. If you move someone into a house, the cost of the house is deducted from the active house's funds. If you kick someone out, there's no cost, but they might not show up in Map View.

I do have a suggestion to make as to which pre-made house to put in the empty lots, but don't know whether that would be considered strategy.

[BellaClo]

In fact, we should all end up with the same number of houses in SV, so that it's fair and every player has the same goal. Depending on which EP players have and which community lots they might want to add in Edit Town, the number of empty lot can vary.  They are 42 houses (with or without Sims) in SV at the start of a new game.

[Metropolis Man]

I've done some checking. If you move someone into a house, the cost of the house is deducted from the active house's funds. If you kick someone out, there's no cost, but they might not show up in Map View.

Yeah, that's a huge concern. I'm pretty sure we do not want "kick out" in the ruleset then. You're not finished until you can go to Map view and every single residential lot is one of your Sims.

[MarianT]

BellaClo is right. If you have all the EP's, you can add a fair number of community lots, which would make a difference. On the other hand, stripping down to the base version seems excessive. Some of us might miss our consignment shop. Maybe say you should have 40 residential lots, and leave it to people whether to add bars and parks?

[Metropolis Man]

BellaClo is right. If you have all the EP's, you can add a fair number of community lots, which would make a difference. On the other hand, stripping down to the base version seems excessive. Some of us might miss our consignment shop. Maybe say you should have 40 residential lots, and leave it to people whether to add bars and parks?

Then a simple solution would be for me to add a rule such as — you may add one community lot that is not in Sunset Valley.

[cndneh]

Then a simple solution would be for me to add a rule such as — you may add one community lot that is not in Sunset Valley.

So if we have all expansion packs, and the game plops down community lots on its own we need to go to edit town and delete all community lots (minus one) that isn't Sunset valley?  ( I know that lots from ambitions and pets gets placed automatically in a new game for me) 

I think you should say X amount of residential lots, so its the same for everyone, and everyone is positive how many lots should be full, to be fair. We can always place more properties at the beginning, of the game through edit town, if we want community lots for late night /ambitions /pets /etc.

[Metropolis Man]

So if we have all expansion packs, and the game plops down community lots on its own we need to go to edit town and delete all community lots (minus one) that isn't Sunset valley?  ( I know that lots from ambitions and pets gets placed automatically in a new game for me)

Actually that was not what I was referring to. I was meaning that no matter what expansions you have, before you would go into Live mode and create your Sims, you are allowed to add ONE EA commercial building that is not already there. I realize there will be some variation in commercial lots numbers vs residential lot numbers for players. I'm okay with that. It's not perfect but, if someone has Pets, then they'll have to fork over 100+k to buy the Horse center. On the other hand, if they did not have Pets, they would have to come up with 45k happiness points to get a voucher to move someone on that residential lot. Are the two tasks equivalent? Of course not. But, is it worth complicating the rules?

[cndneh]

Ah... so even if the game plops down pets/ambition lots we have to buy and upgrade those as well and not just Sunset valley lots.... essentially every lot in town regardless of what expansion pack?

[Metropolis Man]

Ah... so even if the game plops down pets/ambition lots we have to buy and upgrade those as well and not just Sunset valley lots.... essentially every lot in town regardless of what expansion pack?

Well, of course. World Domination means everything.

[cndneh]

Well, of course. World Domination means everything.

sounds good.

Thanks for clarifying.

(I always want to do the evil muwhahahahaa laugh when I read world domination.)

[Metropolis Man]

Okay, folks...read the first few lines of the ruleset and tell me if it's a move in the right direction. We want simple. We want clarity. Off to play Rift for a few hours, so let me know if things need more work.

[cndneh]

Sounds good Metro, thanks for clarifying.  Have fun with Rift!

[BellaClo]

New rules sound good to me: balanced & simple.

To my knowledge, Woohoo is not 100% effective contraception. There is a minute chance of getting pregnant. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

I just did some search and I'm afraid I have to correct this. I have found several confirmations -on sites that cannot be named here- that there is absolutely 0 chance to get pregnant with a simple woohoo (at least for a Sims :-). It is just not part of the game code. So, no risk to have to delete Sims.