Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 24th Feb 2010 at 5:42 PM
Default Severe Poverty Challenge
I had been getting a little bored, and a little too attached to my cheats, so I decided to go the complete other direction. My first challenge!

"Gina had been orphaned as a young girl, and lived in foster homes nearly her whole life. When she finally aged out of the system, she was turned out on her own with nothing but a few simoleons in her pocket and a beaten up tent..."

Your challenge is to create a young adult sim, with nothing but 100 simoleons, a tent, and an empty lot, and have them mature into a productive member of society.

To begin, create whatever sim you want, and give whatever traits you prefer. You can have mooch or klepto, but not both. I recommend Loves the Outdoors since they'll be outside a lot. LTW is up to you. Choose whichever empty lot you like, price and location don't matter. (Choose wisely!) Use the buydebug cheat to give yourself one tent, then the familyfunds cheat to give yourself 100 simoleons. After that, you may use NO cheats. Normal lifespan.

Now, since no business in town wants to hire a homeless sim, you cannot get a job, part-time or full-time, until you have 4 walls and a roof over your head. You do not have to have wall coverings or floor coverings, just the 4 walls and a roof. Only then can you get a job. You may not join the medical or science careers, but any other career is fair game. (After all, you bounced around too much as a kid, you don't have the schooling to handle one of those jobs.) Your money can come from whatever methods you choose, legal or illegal, until you have enough to qualify for a real job.

You MUST have an heir, biological or adopted, with adopted preferred. You can have your child at any time during your sim's life, no age restrictions. Aging up with a cake is fine, assuming you can afford the cake! The heir has no restrictions on them, except that they must exist, and you fail the challenge if you do not get to choose at least one trait for them before they age to young adult. If you fail to choose a trait for the first heir, you can have a second child and try again. (No penalty though if your game is bugged so kids won't stay in school. I have that particular bug myself. In that case, having an heir that ages to young adult is enough to win.)

There's no scoring, just see if you can make it! The beginning is some slow going, but my green thumb klepto is making ends meet enough to have one full wall and is looking forward to being able to join the culinary career soon. Another stolen car or two and she'll be in the clear!
Advertisement
Lab Assistant
#2 Old 24th Feb 2010 at 5:56 PM
I think i'll give this a go. Seems like it could keep me interested until Heavy Rain arrives at least.

Thanks for posting this. Never considered using a tent to make a hobo sim.
Test Subject
#3 Old 4th Mar 2010 at 7:56 PM Last edited by el_nerdgirl : 4th Mar 2010 at 10:31 PM.
So i decided to try this out....
there were no Specifics on certain things... like
What lot, & what to do with all the extra money i had left over.
So i bought an empty lot, & had thousands of $ left, so idk if i could do this or not, but i bought All landscaping stuff.. tons of trees,bushes, to make it more like nature outside... til i had 101$ left.
Shes an outdoor sim & loved it
I could not get a tent, so instead i put a park bench there in the bushes, lol
If this is not allowed please tell me
i can start over... i just started.. so it would be no big deal at all.

Thanks

-----
Well..lol nvm the bench...repo came & sucked it up in there dream detroyer machine...so now.. she sleeps in the park or library lol...bah!
Field Researcher
#4 Old 5th Mar 2010 at 3:23 AM
I decided to give this a go, and it was very fun until my game decided to freeze up (hoping I saved recently, I think it freezes because of my anti-virus so I'm going to try disabling it x_X) :P
I didn't realize you gave her a name so I gave her a different one.
Meet Rose Poor. She's a nature loving moocher with a green thumb

She loves mooching off her best friend and neighbor..

Who also happens to have the best trash can in the neighborhood :P

All that dirty trash picking has paid off though! She's got 4 walls and a roof over her head and is moving up on the political career track, hoping to help out those with a rough start just as she has had
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 5th Mar 2010 at 5:13 PM
el_nerdgirl, there aren't a ton of specifics on purpose. You seem to be doing it just fine! I forgot that the tents and buydebug were WA only, so good call on buying landscaping to use up money.

My challenge game is finished now, my child aged up (naturally, no cakes) to young adult, got married, and had a kid of her own. Gina, my starting sim, reached the top of the cooking track and even managed to complete her lifetime wish of Culinary Librarian, completed a couple days before she died of old age. It was fun playing without cheats again. If I had to do it again, I'd probably do a bit more metal/rock hunting than I did, selling that stuff really came in handy sometimes. I tended to spend more time gardening, which while a great money maker, took a lot of time since I had such a huge garden. My biggest pet peeve on this challenge was food. My poor sim was hungry so much!
Test Subject
#6 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 12:49 AM
I did end up, going out & buying that ex pk. & bought the tent, lol. She saved up enuf money from growing produce, selling rocks/metal, & bugs.. that she traveled to china for an opportunity that she got - (she needed to learn to make stir fry), While she was there she was given another opportunity ...When her time was up there.. she ended up making more money then she had , before she left for the trip
Shes just gave birth.. & has made enuf money to build a small cottage, living a very simple life. i have also decided bc she doesnt need much of anything at all.. that she will Only work in her very own garden.

So far i really like this challenge & may start a new one, with just the tent this time
Fat Obstreperous Jerk
#7 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 1:00 AM
Honestly, this is not a challenge. I played things this way to START, so for me, this is not a challenging mode of play, this is the STANDARD mode of play. If you want a CHALLENGE, it's more challenging to try to create a $16K house that uses no Kewian-based substitutes.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they pissed me off.
Theorist
#8 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 1:18 AM
Quote:
Honestly, this is not a challenge. I played things this way to START, so for me, this is not a challenging mode of play, this is the STANDARD mode of play.

It's pretty standard for me too, but a lot of people are used to using cheats to give their Sims everything. It was challenges like these that got me to playing the way I do, which is generally start with nothing and see if there is an up. I'm also loving having some fresh new worlds that I don't know where every little hidey-hole of expensive gems and bugs are located.
Test Subject
#9 Old 11th Mar 2010 at 5:58 PM
I do agree in a way, J.M. Pescado, & Misty_2004,
Altho..
You dont have a 100$ to start with, like you are supposed to, With this one... you start with alot more. i havent used cheats in a long time either bc i also like to have my sims earn everything thru working for it, some way or another.
I chose this bc you are literally pretty poor. theres not alot you can do with 100$, psh..pay your 1st bill & your broke!, So spending her entire young adult life, growing & expanding a garden to survive & build a small home, to be able to have a family.. Was different. then just the Standard way of game play, without cheats.
Test Subject
#10 Old 12th Mar 2010 at 6:00 AM
I'm trying this challenge.

My sim's name is Riley. Her traits are Ambitious, Workaholic, Angler, Green Thumb, and Kleptomaniac. She started off doing very well for herself. She only spent a week or so in her tent, having found a pair of simlife goggles in Agnes Crumplebottom's trash, which she then sold for like 9,000 simoleons. I managed to get her to steal a car or two, but other than that she usually stole light fixtures, which is really not good for money making, but she had enough to build and furnish a small two room home.

I then focused her solely on getting a job and advancing in the culinary career. She was at level 7 before she became an adult. After that I decided it was time to have a baby and put her career aspirations on hold. Having some bad luck in that area, I found it necessary to get her the fertility treatment reward with the points she had racked up. She soon became pregnant by Xander Donner, and managed to get promoted to career level 8 before she went on maternity leave and almost had enough simoleons to buy a 2 bedroom house for herself and her incoming baby.

On the day of delivery, she was pleased to see a baby girl, which she wished for. We named her Summer. Then, much to my confusion, another name box popped up.. "I already named the baby.." I thought. And then it dawned on me. She was having twins. Not so bad, right? Another girl, named her Madelyn... And then... Oh no... Another baby popped out! Yet another girl, named Rosalie.

We'll see how it pans out from here, but I have a feeling her dream of buying a new house will have to wait for quite some time now. I just hope managing triplets one teeny-tiny room isn't as dismaying as it seems. I'll try and upload a few pics shortly.
Test Subject
#11 Old 12th Mar 2010 at 5:01 PM
oh wow good luck with those babies! 1 baby can be draining, lol but 3!? Much luck to your sims
Field Researcher
#12 Old 18th Mar 2010 at 11:58 PM
I think I am going to give this a try. I need something new to do in my game.

Call me Sasha
Funny how when your a kid, you dream about your future and when you are an adult, you dream about going back to when you were a kid.
Lab Assistant
#13 Old 19th Mar 2010 at 3:33 AM
i love that triplet story!!! MAYBE you should move Xander in to help out???? hahahah I think i will have to try this... after i finish some of my other challanges and i am about to start the broke legacy (as in the broke family)
Test Subject
#14 Old 20th Mar 2010 at 8:23 PM
This was the first challenge I've ever tried, and I've gotta say that it was a blast! I added a few extra rules, but it was still not too hard, but much more fun than a regular game of Sims. His difficult young adulthood added so much to his character. Anyway, my sim's name is Teddy Gomphrey, an ambitious, friendly, frugal, slobby, loser. (loser and frugal might be the lamest traits ever, but I didn't know that at the time...) His lifetime goal is to be the CEO of a corporation.

As you can see, I started him out with only a pair of pants. (and his tent once I figured out how to cheat, I've never done it before...) I made him buy every article of clothing using familyFunds to reduce his cash (so I guess I technically violated the no cheating rule. Sorry. ) by arbitrary amounts that I probably should have put more thought into. Anyway, I came to the conclusion that in order to have a part time job, he needed a full set of "casual clothes" ie t-shirt, pants, tennis shoes and for a career he needed a full set of "nice" clothes (more expensive) ie button-up shirt, slacks and leather shoes, in addtion to simply having four walls and a roof. So for the first four days, he collected wild fruit, metals/rocks/gems (and won something like $1000 in an eating contest) and was able to build a small shack, a full set of casual clothes(prob. should have been pricier, oh well) and get a part time job at the grocery store until he could afford nicer clothes. He also got his unibrow plucked, hair cut and beard cleaned up because he found some ladies he wanted to flirt with



A few days later, he had a full set of nice clothes, a career in the business track, and got married to Tamara Donner, who apparently was much older than him...(7 days from elder when they married, he had just aged to adult)

(come a long way from his shirtless, unibrow and mullet days, hasn't he?)

Now he's past being a CEO (Chairman of the Board or something like that) and lives in a three bedroom, two bathroom house (which is actually just his original 4x4 shack with a several expansions, and a ginormous basement) Teddy Jr. just aged up (using a cake) to child and Teddy is considering adopting a girl since Tamara just aged up to elder.

So I learned a few things in this game, in addition to having tons of fun, and a feeling of accomplishment that I rarely, if ever get from playing the Sims 3:
1) some traits are completely asinine, ie loser.
2) Simoleans flow like water. $1000 and a free meal just for getting stuffed? Where can I sign up for that in real life?
3) Sims 3 is entirely too easy unless you use cheats against yourself...
Lab Assistant
#15 Old 23rd Mar 2010 at 4:19 AM
I am trying this with a Navi (Avatar the Movie) sim. I too used the simoleans to landscape a forest on the lot. Only change i made is that since his lifetime goal is a perfect garden, I decide that he can never get a real job. Besides what skills would a Navi who was kidnapped by Scientists then abandoned on a new world with ZERO population have? It took 2 sim weeks for another family to move in and provide a bit of trash to scrounge.

Yes I started on Niuoa Simoa WITHOUT population Needless to say, that meant the tiny lot he could afford barely has room for the tent due to the pond and all the trees and shrubs. He did steal a margaret vaugster which had a cell phone in it so, now he can travel, which helps trmendously with keeping the bills paid and, for some reason Eqyptian ladies like him so, he may marry one - if she doesn't mind living in a tent and raising kids in a forest. (yes a bit of creative licence getting the cell but, that is a place you might find one.) At this rate I'll have a martial arts chapion, with a berfect garde who had a few kids and is a millionair on adventure finds alone. Hey adventuring often gives him a real bed and always simoleans and things to sell for more simoleans.
Test Subject
#16 Old 25th Mar 2010 at 2:50 PM
Yeah, I never got the whole "free cell phone" thing. It annoys me about as much as the free clothes. And the free food in new refridgerators. And the free "quick meals." THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH EAXIS! lol
Lab Assistant
#17 Old 7th Apr 2010 at 2:01 AM
Love this. Im gonna try it!
Space Pony
#18 Old 9th Apr 2010 at 2:48 AM Last edited by Enirei : 9th Apr 2010 at 8:44 PM.
for those that don't have the expansion pack: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=391799 . It's a tent mod for the original Sims 3 and I know it works for 1.7.9 patch. Note: right after getting out of the tent the sim is invisible until they leave the lot. Dunno why but oh well.
Lab Assistant
#19 Old 30th Apr 2010 at 9:05 AM
Quote: Originally posted by aixia
My biggest pet peeve on this challenge was food. My poor sim was hungry so much!


How? Just send them to the gym and get a free quick meal...or just take food from someones picnic basket at the park or pool...easy! :lovestruc
Test Subject
#20 Old 11th May 2010 at 3:01 AM
This has been heaps of fun.

My sim mooched food of friends all the time.
Also, she only used her tent once, she stayed at friends places a lot.
Test Subject
#21 Old 11th Jul 2010 at 7:33 AM
This is the first challenge I've tried.
I LOVE IT!
She stopped sleeping in a tent after two nights.
Test Subject
#22 Old 11th Jul 2010 at 5:03 PM
Can't wait to try this! It's time for some homelessness!!!
Test Subject
#23 Old 23rd Jul 2010 at 11:16 PM
I have started doing this with my Grim Reaper sim. He is a Kleptomaniac, Green Thumb, Ambitious, Natural Cook, and Artistic. I'm just starting this, so nothing much to report that's funny, besides the fact that he's the Grim Reaper.
Back to top