House Hunters: Movin' On Up!

[Schipperke]

NancyJ just PM'd me with some interesting info I did not know concerning object depreciation when going from Buy mode to Live mode. So, the following info (in bold) was added to this parargraph—

For your last house you will obviously not be moving, but you can "pretend" you are moving by calling to move before the challenge ends and writing down the worth of your house on the left side of the Move screen. It's mandatory to go back into Live mode after you purchase your final object, and getting your last house's worth via the Move screen accomplishes that.

I had realized that we would need to go into live mode for the depreciation to occur, but is there some reason why we can't just immediately return to Buy mode to see the value after depreciation?  This seems to me to be simpler than pretending to move.

[Metropolis Man]

NancyJ just PM'd me with some interesting info I did not know concerning object depreciation when going from Buy mode to Live mode. So, the following info (in bold) was added to this parargraph—

For your last house you will obviously not be moving, but you can "pretend" you are moving by calling to move before the challenge ends and writing down the worth of your house on the left side of the Move screen. It's mandatory to go back into Live mode after you purchase your final object, and getting your last house's worth via the Move screen accomplishes that.

I had realized that we would need to go into live mode for the depreciation to occur, but is there some reason why we can't just immediately return to Buy mode to see the value after depreciation?  This seems to me to be simpler than pretending to move.

That's fine. Whatever is simpler for you.

[Abyshep]

Hey Metro and Pam,

I've just had an interesting thing happen when playing another family. My Sims were burgled and called the police. When the policeman left he said 'the stolen items are in your inventory'.

Sure enough there were my items waiting to be placed back in the house.

For this challenge would it be ok to go into buy mode to re-place items that were stolen?

Cheers

Shep

[Metropolis Man]

Hey Metro and Pam,

I've just had an interesting thing happen when playing another family. My Sims were burgled and called the police. When the policeman left he said 'the stolen items are in your inventory'.

Sure enough there were my items waiting to be placed back in the house.

For this challenge would it be ok to go into buy mode to re-place items that were stolen?

Absolutely. You're only returning the house to its original state.

[CarlaluvsSims]

Sounds fun!!! Can't wait to start on this one!

[Metropolis Man]

The new House Hunters Challenge starts in just one day, so please reread all the rules before you begin. Good luck to all participants!

[Saltypaws]

Ok, I will give this one a try.

[Tikki]

Count me in! :3

[Metropolis Man]

Alright, Tikki, you're in. Good luck and welcome to the forums.

[Tikki]

Thanks! :-)

[Tikki]

Okay, so I don't understand the 1 object concept. You're allowed to add 1 object, but you may not go into build mode. Can you explain this to me? Thanks!

[Metropolis Man]

Okay, so i don't understand the 1 object concept. Your allowed to add 1 object, but you may not go into build mode. Can you explain this to me :3? Thx!

You're buying one object with each move. It's actually optional, but one object per move is your limit for Buy mode. Build mode is entirely different.

[Pam]

I started!  My couple is Nomad and Gypsy Traveler.  My creativity for names is lame, I know.  Haha!

[Pam]

Another clarification for everyone...

If your house comes with a desk and has a phone sitting on it, it's ok to scoot the phone over to place a computer on the desk.  Just remember that the computer will have to stay behind when you move, even if it's a portable laptop.

[Metropolis Man]

Another clarification for everyone...

If your house comes with a desk and has a phone sitting on it, it's ok to scoot the phone over to place a computer on the desk.

Incorrect. You would then be moving an object to make it possible to use another object. A computer would have to be placed on a surface that's ready to go as is.

[Margerita]

Ok, sign me up for this one!

[Pam]

Another clarification for everyone...

If your house comes with a desk and has a phone sitting on it, it's ok to scoot the phone over to place a computer on the desk.

Incorrect. You would then be moving an object to make it possible to use another object. A computer would have to be placed on a surface that's ready to go as is.

Ok, as you wish.  I thought I remembered seeing most of the empty desks around town with a telephone in the center and felt that it would be alright to make room for the computer. 

I withdraw from this challenge.

[TheCub]

Are we allowed to feed the omni plant at the science lab, or would that be considered changing a public lot?

[Metropolis Man]

Are we allowed to feed the omni plant at the science lab, or would that be considered changing a public lot?

Yes, that would most certainly be changing a public lot given you'd obviously be looking to do this to reap some expensive harvest.

---------

Ok, as you wish.  I thought I remembered seeing most of the empty desks around town with a telephone in the center and felt that it would be alright to make room for the computer. 

I withdraw from this challenge.

Okay, everyone, here's the lowdown. I've spent the last hour with Pam working out a fair solution. Pam obviously did nothing intentional to break any rules. It was simply a misunderstanding on her part. But, in two homes she did move 2 objects. So, my offer was to have her take a 5% hit to both houses in which the objects were moved. So, she'll need to reduce the value of those homes by 5%. If one home was worth 10000 when she moved, then she'll only be able to claim 9500 with the penalty. Pam felt this was fair. I told her withdrawing over this was basically out of the question. So, I'm glad we worked out a solution.   

[Saltypaws]

Well, I have a little problem.  I have never had a burglar come to a house that basically had nothing in it, but, two nights in a row I had a burglar, first night he stole the lamp and toilet and the next night he store a chair and lamp.  Can I replace them, I assume I had to replace the toilet, unless I have them go down the street to go to the bathroom.  I am working really hard on this game, but not going anywhere, especially if I have to keep replacing stuff.

[NancyJ]

There are public facilities available, and neighbours and if you have a job they usually let you go there rather than pee your pants.  It's not up to me but I'd guess the answer is no, you can't replace things that were stolen (unless the police returned the items to you). It's all part of the strategy, you can choose to have the burglar alarm as your 1 item, or risk it and get something more expensive/useful. There are also traits and lifetime rewards that you can use to deal with the situation in one way or another.
In my test run I got burgled 3 times, every time my sims got up in time and called the police and prevented the burglar from leaving (only really works in small houses) until she arrived and every time she lost the fight But it's not a game breaker.

[Metropolis Man]

Yeah, sorry Salty, but you can't replace items that were stolen because you'd be buying items and you're limited to one object per house.

[Metropolis Man]

Marcus and Maxine Movealot are done. This was so much fun. I was PMing with Pam this morning and told her that deciding what object to buy for each house was half the fun! There's so much I want to say, but I obviously can't. I have no illusions of winning this because I know someone is going to get lucky and have one of the huge mansions come available. Still, my endgame could not have played out better. It went like clockwork. So, we'll see how it goes. My total was $1,212,023. Thanks Pam for a really wonderful challenge idea! Now it's time to morph the Movealots into collectors to practice for the next event. I know absolutely nothing about collecting and using that XL table which is pretty embarrassing. 

[Schipperke]

FootLoose and FancyFree Wanderers are done.  I think there was a great deal of chance in this challenge.  A lot of the houses I had on my initial list weren't available when my pair were ready to move in, so they wound up moving much less often than I had planned.  On the other hand, the Alto mansion became available when Vicious Vita and Nasty Nick downsized (do you suppose they went broke?  Couldn't have happened to a more deserving pair  ).  Final score:  $1,224,027.

[Metropolis Man]

ACK!  You got the Alto house!! Yeah, that happened in one of my test runs, but no such luck for the real deal. Nice job, Schipperke.