House 7 Drifter Challenge: Overview and Meet Our Bachelors

House 7 of the Drifter Challenge is scheduled to return on February 4. Playlist link

There are two parts to house 7, in the first part we have a bachelorette challenge to see who our drifter will marry & in the second part our Drifter and the winner of part 1 will start their life together. In both parts we can only control the Drifter (with some exceptions noted in the rules on Vihisha’s blog post and summarized below).

If you have any questions, or would just like to share any of your sim related game play, head over to my Facebook group, Sims Sanctuary.

Part 1 of House 7:

Meet our Bachelorette:

Our bachelorette is our heir from house 6, now our drifter, Gabrielle Driver, she is proper, a cat lover and creative:

Meet our Bachelors:

Which bachelor will win her heart? (EA ID of those who created them is included with their pictures):

Some bachelors were already spellcasters, but for those who weren’t, I had one of my sims who knew the spell to convert sims to spellcasters do so, so they are all now spellcasters. Here are our bachelors as originally uploaded to the gallery, which in some cases includes families, if you’re interested in adding them to your own game.

The bachelorette challenge has detailed rules on Vihisha’s blog post (link here), and will take place in Gabrielle’s family home in Willow Creek (the Oakenstead lot) and it will comprise of a mix of elimination challenges (painting on Day 3 and fishing on Day 5, dates, parties and the relationship of the contestants with our heir Gabrielle will also have an impact. During this first part aging will be off.

Thanks very much to everyone who provided bachelors, which included Tiger_Lover_78 (link to her Sims YouTube channel), katbos20963, SoulGal7 (link to her Sims blog post), Simslover163 (link to his Sims blog post & Sims YouTube challenge), BipolarPrincess & Mammabird672.

While not required, I am using the Sims Info mod to get the exact relationship numbers when determining who has the highest/lowest relationship. Here’s a link to the mod if you’re interested in using it. https://modthesims.info/d/576053/show-search-sim-info-mod.html

Part 2 of House 7:

Part 2 of the challenge is similar to other houses where we start with nothing on an empty lot (this time on Springscape Residential in Oasis Springs). The goals for this part of the challenge are as follows:

  1. As a minimum create a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house worth at least 40k simoleons,
  2. Complete the Soulmate Aspiration with our Drifter,
  3. Produce & raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage.

Please let me know if you’d like to play along, the bachelors, in some cases with their families, can be found on the gallery (see EA IDs mentioned above) and I can add my Drifter, with or without her family if you’d like.

Details of what we can do with non-played sims in this house (as of Feb 3/2021):

  1. Use the options available through their portrait in the bottom left hand corner
  2. Change their aspirations
  3. Drag items in or out through their inventory
  4. Redeem their points in the Rewards Store
  5. Answer phones
  6. Respond to pop-up events
  7. Use the following interactions:
    • Change outfit
    • Alter Disguise (Get To Work needed) – Alien exclusive
    • Drink Medicine to cure Illness (Get To Work needed)
    • Spend Power Points (Vampires needed) – Vampire exclusive
    • Select Weaknesses (Vampires needed) – Vampire exclusive
    • Purchase an Antidote on the computer when poisoned (Jungle Adventures needed)
    • Drink an Antidote to cure poisoning (Jungle Adventures needed)
    • Drink Rabid Rodent Serum to cure Rabid Rodent Fever (My First Pet needed)
    • Spend Fame Points (Get Famous needed) – Celebrity exclusive
    • Spend Talent Points (Realm Of Magic needed) – Spellcaster exclusive
    • Open Spellbook (Realm Of Magic needed) – Spellcaster exclusive
    • List, Un-List and Mail Off items on Plopsy (Nifty Knitting needed)

Bachelors Needed for House 7 of the Drifter Challenge!

Gabrielle Driver is about to age up to a young adult so I’m looking for 7 bachelors for the bachelorette part of house 7 of the Drifter Challenge which is coming to my channel very soon!

Her traits are Creative and Cat Lover, along with having a Muser trait from choosing the Painter Extraordinaire aspiration.

Please no custom content and they must be unplayed (ie no skills, etc). I’d love it if they came with parents/siblings; if they do, I will place their family in my Drifter save.

If you’d like to provide one (or more) comment here and please upload them to the gallery using the following hashtag: #MSDrifterH7Bachelors

Gallery IDs of the creators will be shared in my video introducing them & in my Drifter blog post. 😊

Link to my Drifter Blog post as an FYI: https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2020/04/27/drifter-challenge/

If you have any questions about the challenge or the Sims 4 in general, please come join my new Facebook group, Sims Sanctuary.

Snowy Escape Expansion Information & Links (Sims 4)

Release date is November 13, 2020 at midnight in your region on Origin (for Mac and PC) and at 10 a.m. PT for Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation4!

It’s also been confirmed that Seasons is not needed for this expansion.

Price: US$39.99 and should be the usual expansion pack price in your country.

It is available to preorder, however there are no advantages to doing so.

My video overview

Trailers & Livestream replay:

Official Release trailer
Official Gameplay trailer
YouTube Livestream replay
Sims Twitch

EA Blog Posts:

Key Features Blog Post
Snowy Escape Reveal Blog Post
Sims Interactive Quiz; What’s Your Snowy Escape?
Gameplay Trailer Blog Post
Interactive Map

Some SimGuru Tweets re Cross Pack Integration:

https://twitter.com/SimGuruGraham/status/1322416410119696384

Link

https://twitter.com/SimGuruGeorge/status/1323024311657979904

Link

Other Links:

Original Press Release

Oct 6, 2020 Game Update Overview & Issues (The Sims 4)

Video Link

Time stamp of what’s covered in the video:

1) Issue with Enabling Mods after update  
2) Update – What’s New:
     i)  Object & Food Overview
     ii) CAS Overview
3) Skin tones not fixed
4) Updated hairstyles (2)
5) Bug fixes
6) Mod Issues
7) Common Bugs not Fixed

Note new items will not show as new as they were added to base game. I show them in the video (see above links) but they can be easier to find if you filter by base game only (both for build/buy and create a sim).

Links referred to in the video:

Patch notes:

Sims Forums: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/982109/october-6th-2020-patch-notes#latest

EA: https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/update-notes-oct-06-2020

Links for Issues with Enabling Mods:

Crinrict tweets:
Re: Options.ini: https://twitter.com/crinrict/status/1313816978549813249
Re: Avast: https://twitter.com/crinrict/status/1313909761725935616
Re: Default.ini: https://twitter.com/crinrict/status/1313910179579166720

How to do a factory reset (Crinrict blog):
https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/resetting-the-game-to-factory-settings-without-reinstalling/

Forum Post re Updated/Outdated Mods:

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/980785/broken-updated-mods-cc-sw-jb-sept-oct-2020/p1

Work around for broken custom content windows/door: https://softpine.tumblr.com/post/628472141284786176/how-to-temporarily-fix-cc-windows-find-a-base

Skin Tones Still Being Blotchy:

SimGuruFrost tweet acknowledging they are also still seeing the Skin Tone issues:
https://twitter.com/SimGuruFrost/status/1313921930185981952

EA AHQ Links for Common Bugs:

If you are experiencing any of these issues, head over and add a ‘Me Too’!

Existing Issues Not Yet Fixed:

1) Freelancer Career: gigs not completing:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Freelancer-All-task-done-Gig-not-completed/m-p/8249033#M106373
Mod to fix this: https://louisim-yt.tumblr.com/post/628437862619201536/this-is-a-mod-that-fixes-the-freelancer-career-in

2) Games (chess, cards, etc) not finishing:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-JTB-GT-Several-games-go-on-forever-chess-llama-sabacc/td-p/9471630

3) Gardening issues (plants look like harvestables/turning to dirt piles):
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Plants-shrink-after-harvesting-Turns-into-harvestable/m-p/9187001#M136476

4) Kids not consistently learning adult skills:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Children-don-t-gain-adult-skills/td-p/9173470

5) Nanocans not paying when player puts the garbage in:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Nanocan-not-giving-simoleans/m-p/9167567#M132706

6) Issues with some Get Together doors/windows:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-GT-King-of-Diamonds-Door-Stone-Frame-Holey-Geometry/td-p/9467717

New Issues:

1) New issue with new foods being normal:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-INPUT-Latin-cuisine-grill-foods-always-come-out-normal/m-p/9565371#M158140

Super Teens Challenge

We are continuing with our seven children from Super Kids Challenge (before that, they were the toddlers in my Rags to ‘Riches’ 7 Toddler Challenge😊), in a new Let’s Play Challenge series as teens.

Here are the finalized goals for what is now called ‘Super Teens Challenge’ (draft name was ‘Life Skills Challenge’).

The children have all completed their child goals and this Let’s Play started on Friday, September 25, 2020.

Super Teens Challenge Playlist link

Goals for our Teens

Here are the goals for all seven when they are teens:

  1. To become grade A high school students,
  2. To get to level six in the following skills:
    * cooking, handiness, gardening, fishing, charisma, fitness, logic, one instrument (FYI, level four allows them to continue with their emotional control), research & debate (requires Discover University),
  3. To do the first & second tiers of the following aspirations:
    * Friend of the World
    * Nerd Brain
    * Athletic
    * Music
  4. To max a part time career or their odd job rating (the latter requires Island Living)
  5. To keep at least 4 character values in a range to be positive, though preferably all 5, when they age to Young Adult, these must include Manners & Responsibility (requires Parenthood).
  6. At a minimum, get to level 3 of their chosen aspiration (or their secondary aspiration, if as teens they can’t reach level 3 of their chosen aspiration)
  7. At a minimum max one skill (this will be determined up front, but will depend on the teen & their interests/chosen aspiration, see their pictures below for chosen skill )

We will also see if any of them make any friends and/or start any romances. As such I’d love to have your teen sims (if they are part of a family and/or have been played with, even better) in my save. Use #MaplesLifeSkillChallengeS , #MaplesLSChallengeSims or #MaplesSuperTeenSims when sharing to the gallery. Please no custom content.

Goals for Norah

While the children are working on those goals, Norah will need to finish the fortune aspiration, complete the gardening aspiration and she plans to start university and perhaps work on her cooking aspirations while attending university.

Also, after raising seven children it might be nice for her to find love so her nest isn’t that empty when the kids eventually leave. I’d love some sims to place in my world for her too, use any of the same hashtags as above. 😊

Pictures of each of them as Teens:

Picture of each of them as a Child:

Here is a gallery link to the family (& home when it’s available) if you’d like to play along.

Gallery link to the family when the teens just aged up: https://tinyurl.com/y55tto66

I will add a link to their updated family home as soon as it’s available, the child version is already available and linked below.

As an FYI, here’s the gallery link to the family just after the toddlers aged up to children: https://tinyurl.com/y7b8bvsw

Link to their furnished home as set up for when they were children: https://tinyurl.com/ycfmsyc6

Alternatively, there are also two unfinished, unfurnished versions using base game only available on the gallery:

Version on a 30 x 30 lot:
Gallery link: https://tinyurl.com/y9umjzr3



















Version on a 30 x 20 Lot:
Gallery link: https://tinyurl.com/y7g8ah42
















If you do play along I’d love to see how you do! Please come join my new Facebook group and share how you do in this challenge, or in anything sims related, be it sim creation, build creation or your sims stories or challenges! It’s also a great place to ask any sim related questions that either I or other members can try to answer. Sims Sanctuary

Life Skills Challenge

I’ve asked if viewers would like to see the seven children from Super Kids Challenge (before that, they were the toddlers in my Rags to ‘Riches’ 7 Toddler Challenge😊), continue in a Let’s Play as teens. So far the consensus is yes. As a result I’ve come up with some goals for them as teens in what I’m tentatively calling ‘Life Skills Challenge’, though I’m open to other name suggestions! Timing of when it will go live will depend on when the kids have completed all their child goals, but we’re getting close on that!

Super Kids Challenge Playlist link

Goals for our Teens

I’m thinking of the following goals for all seven when they are teens:

  1. To become grade A high school students,
  2. To get to level four in the following skills:
    * cooking, handiness, gardening, charisma, fitness, logic, one instrument (that allows them to continue with their emotional control), research & debate (requires Discover University),
  3. To do the first tier of the following aspirations:
    * Friend of the World
    * Nerd Brain/Renaissance Sim (the first tier is the same)
    * Athletic
    * Music
  4. To max a part time career or their odd job rating (the latter requires Island Living)
  5. To keep at least 4 character values in a range to be positive, though preferably all 5, when they age to Young Adult, these must include Manners & Responsibility.
  6. To get to level 2 of their chosen aspiration (these will be picked based on ones teens can do)
  7. At a minimum max one skill (this will be determined up front, but will depend on the teen & their interests/chosen aspiration)

We will also see if any of them make any friends and/or start any romances. As such I’d love to have your teen sims (if they are part of a family and/or have been played with, even better) in my save. Use #MaplesLifeSkillChallengeSims when sharing to the gallery. Please no custom content.

Goals for Norah

While the children are working on those goals, Norah will need to finish the fortune aspiration if she hasn’t already done so and she plans to start university and perhaps work on her cooking aspirations while attending university.

Also, after raising seven children it might be nice for her to find love so her nest isn’t that empty when the kids eventually leave. I’d love some sims to place in my world for her too, use #MaplesLifeSkillChallengeSims, same as above. 😊

Let me know in a comment, either here or on the Super Kids Challenge Let’s Play, if there’s anything else you’d like to see added to this challenge or in general for the Let’s Play.

Once the children have aged up to teens I will add a link to the family and their home if you’d like to play along.

Here’s the gallery link to the family just after the children aged up: https://tinyurl.com/y7b8bvsw

Link to their furnished home as set up for when they were children: https://tinyurl.com/ycfmsyc6

Alternatively, there are also two unfinished, unfurnished versions using base game only available on the gallery:

Version on a 30 x 30 lot:
Gallery link: https://tinyurl.com/y9umjzr3



















Version on a 30 x 20 Lot:
Gallery link: https://tinyurl.com/y7g8ah42
















N.A.P. Issues with Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle

Eco Lifestyle N.A.P. Issues

Do you have Eco Lifestyle? Are you finding things are going missing? Are NPCs constantly doing things like playing with future cubes, drawing tablets and baking cakes, among other things? This is probably caused by Neighborhood Action Plans (also known as N.A.P.s) that are currently in place. The July 23 game update was supposed to have fixed the issue of N.A.P.s enacted in other neighborhoods impacting your active neighborhood. Here are some suggestions that may help, including links to a couple of mods by Simvasion. 😊

I try to avoid it by turning off NPC voting in game options before I start playing in a save; I would recommend doing this from the world selection menu because I’ve heard of some people having issues with the game crashing after they made the change if they don’t, though not everyone does, so you may be fine if you go in from your neighbourhood menu or from your household.

Here’s what I mean by the world menu.

From there go into game options and select the Eco Lifestyle tab and uncheck the ‘Enable NPC Voting’ option.

Along with not enabling NPC voting, the NAPs I have found to cause no issues are as follows:

  1. Clean Energy Production: Just make sure to add a dew collector & solar panel or windmill (I usually add at least one of all three and have had no problems passing the inspection).
  2. Green Gardening: I’ve heard to pass this one you need to make sure you have bugs (ie the Mitey Mitey Home Insect farm, or bees if you have Seasons) and that the inspector doesn’t look at the size of your garden. I usually have both and have passed this inspection.
  3. Self-Sufficiency: If your sims have a garden and NPCs have access to it, the NPCs will harvest your garden if you’ve not already done so and you lose the harvestables, however if you fence your garden or lot and lock the gate to the area, this NAP also causes no real issues.
  4. The two initiatives that are unique to Green Harbor, Green Initiatives and Modern Development (all three neighbourhoods in Green Harbor have these two options) have not caused me any problems either.

However, if you’ve already started playing in a save and the N.A.P.s are already in place, you can try repealing the N.A.P.s (either using the game play mechanics of getting 5 signatures to support the repeal or by using cheats). If you plan on using the in game mechanics to repeal a N.A.P., you can only do one repeal per voting period and it’s only available while the voting is open (ie 8 am Friday to 6 pm Monday). The use of cheats has the advantage in that you can repeal N.A.P.s at any time and as many as you want.

To use cheats, you need them on (to turn them on type ‘testingcheats on’ or ‘testingcheats true’ in the cheats console). Once they are on, shift click on a mailbox or community board and select ‘instant repeal Neighborhood Action Plan (Cheat)’.

Then select the one you want to repeal. If you want to repeal more than one, just do this again until all the N.A.P.s you want removed have been (there can only be up to four at one time 😊).

Unfortunately my understanding is that sometimes the actions will persist even after they’ve been repealed, if so you can try a couple of mods by Simvasion that should help. They should also help if you want to leave the N.A.P.s in place but have them be less intrusive, for example have them remain in the neighborhoods they originated in. 😊

Here are the links for Simvasion’s mod (it was previously two mods, but they’ve now been consolidated into one), which has been confirmed to still work and be needed after the July 23, 2020 game update:

Eco Lifestyle Interactions Fixes:
https://simvasion.com/eco-lifestyle-interactions-fixes/

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/979020/broken-updated-mods-cc-july-2020-nifty-knitting-patch/p4

The issue of NAPs in other neighborhoods affecting NPC behaviour outside that neighborhood was supposed to be fixed with the pre Nifty Knitting game update of July 23, 2020, however other issues remain.

EA AHQ Links:

Here are the links to the EA AHQ reports on these issues if you want to add a ‘Me Too’. 😊

Items disappearing from lots:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-ECO-Objects-disappear-from-lots-NPC-Stealing-with-and/m-p/9178834#M134874

Other threads related to the same N.A.P issue:
Future Cubes/Clay Spawning in Inventories:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-ECO-Future-Cubes-Clay-Spawning-in-Inventories/td-p/9180759
Objects disappear from lots/ NPC Stealing (with and without N.A.P):
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-ECO-Objects-disappear-from-lots-NPC-Stealing-with-and/td-p/9178299
Random Romance Interactions w/wo active NAP:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-ECO-Random-Romance-Interactions-w-wo-active-NAP/td-p/9180001
Obsessive cooking and baking by sims:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Sims-are-obsessed-with-cooking-and-baking/m-p/9187007#M138704

There is also another issue that causes objects to be swiped. This is your OWN Sim swiping his OWN own household objects (Recycle Trait):
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-ECO-Sim-swiping-own-household-objects-Recycle-Trait/td-p/9175363

Super Kids Challenge

The vote results were to go ahead and do the Super Kids Challenge with our 7 toddlers from my Rags to ‘Riches’ 7 Toddler Challenge. First part will go live Friday, Jul 3 at 1 pm Eastern.

Playlist link

The goals for all seven children will be as follows:

  1. To max all four childhood aspirations;
  2. To complete all their scout badges; and
  3. To get all their character values in a positive range.

While the children are working on those goals, Norah will continue to work on her fortune, painting and gardening aspirations.  We’ll also see how green we can make their Newcrest neighbourhood. Of course her long term goal is to complete her cooking aspiration, but that may have to wait.😊

I’f you’d like to play along with the same family, here’s the gallery link to the family just after the children aged up: https://tinyurl.com/y7b8bvsw

Link to their furnished home, now set up for children: https://tinyurl.com/ycfmsyc6

Alternatively, there are also two unfinished, unfurnished versions using base game only available on the gallery:

Version on a 30 x 30 lot:
Gallery link: https://tinyurl.com/y9umjzr3



















Version on a 30 x 20 Lot:
Gallery link: https://tinyurl.com/y7g8ah42
















7 Toddler Let’s Play Vote

7ToddlerR2RFacesThPt01FB

We’re almost finished with this challenge* so I’d like to know if you’d like to see the family continue in a ‘Super Kids Challenge‘ where the goals for the seven toddlers, once they are newly aged up to children, to do the following:

  1. To max all four childhood aspirations;
  2. To complete all their scout badges; and
  3. To get their character values in a positive range.

While the children are working on those goals, Norah would continue to work on her fortune, painting and gardening aspirations.  We’ll also see how green we can make their Newcrest neighbourhood. 😊

Here’s a link to the poll for the vote, voting will be open until 11:59 PM Eastern, Friday, June 26, 2020:


Regardless of how the vote turns out, after the toddlers age up to children I’ll put both the family and their home, as it is when the challenge ends, on the gallery in case anyone wants to continue with them.  I’ll update this post with the gallery links when they are up on the gallery.😊

*Link to the original challenge: https://maplesimmer.video.blog/2020/05/26/rags-to-riches-seven-toddler-challenge/

 

Rags to ‘Riches’ Seven Toddler Challenge

Now on my channel!

7ToddlerR2RFacesThPt01FB

First part will be released Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 1 pm Eastern;
P
laylist link:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyPCBQSeZfrLNx8p8BMP7UWYQw1_n0A6a

Goals:

  1. Build a house which requires at a minimum (can have more):
    • Minimum two bedrooms, one living area and one bathroom
    • A bed for each toddler and for the caregiver
    • A kitchen area with fridge, stove, a counter, and a sink
    • Living room area with television, radio, and a seating area
    • At least one bathroom (at a minimum needs a tub, toilet, sink)
    • Toddler items: Blocks, toys/toy box, bookshelf (with toddler books), large plush, potty chairs
    • Highchairs are not required (and not recommended)
  1. Max all skills on toddlers
  2. Have a minimum of 10k in simoleons

Once all goals have been met you can age all the toddlers up to children all at once. 

Rules:

  1. The household starts with nothing on an empty lot (use cheats to set funds to zero; i.e. ‘testingcheats on’ or ‘testingcheats true’, then ‘money 0’ )
  2. No cheats or mods for needs or to add money.  Can use cheats to reset sims when they are stuck.
  3. Must bring all the toddlers with you if you travel off the home lot (wandering around the neighbourhood is fine).
  4. Aging should be on long or off.
  5. Can hire services, including a nanny.
  6. Can use lot traits and if you have Tiny Living you can build the house as tiny residential lot (may change to regular lot if wish).
  7. Caregiver can do freelance work. If choose to be a freelance artist, you can’t accept gigs that require you to leave the lot; cancel gig if you accidentally accept one.
  8. Can’t modify community lots to add things you need; however, you can add toddler items to them once you have provided them at home.
  9. If have Seasons, it’s your choice as to whether you have weather/temperature effects on or off.

Challenge is considered a fail if any toddlers are taken away.

While it is considered a challenge fail if you have a toddler taken away you could try an easier ‘version’ of the challenge and keep going! In this case the challenge is to see how many toddlers you still have when you meet all three of the goals, the more toddlers you have to age up to children at the end, the better.😊

Here’s a closer look at the toddlers and their mom, including their names and traits:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

If you’d like to play along with the same family on and the same starting lot, the family will be starting on Tranquil Crescent in the Llama Lagoon neighbourhood of Newcrest and I have uploaded them to the gallery under my Origin ID MapleSimmer. 😊 https://tinyurl.com/yawemswm

00GalleryShot

NewcrestMap

If you have any questions, feel free to comment here or to head over to my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/MapleSimmer/

Alternatively, you can come join my Facebook group and share how you do in this challenge, or in anything sims related, be it sim creation, sim builds or your sims stories &/or challenges! It’s also a great place to ask any sim related questions, including questions about this or other challenges, that either I, or other members can try to answer. Sims Sanctuary