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).
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.
Here are the goals for all seven when they are teens:
To become grade A high school students,
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),
To do the first & second tiers of the following aspirations: * Friend of the World * Nerd Brain * Athletic * Music
To max a part time career or their odd job rating (the latter requires Island Living)
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).
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)
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:
Abigail
Bonnie
Colleen
Declan
Edward
Freddie
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.
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
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!
I’m thinking of the following goals for all seven when they are teens:
To become grade A high school students,
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),
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
To max a part time career or their odd job rating (the latter requires Island Living)
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.
To get to level 2 of their chosen aspiration (these will be picked based on ones teens can do)
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.
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:
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).
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.
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.
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:
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’. 😊
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.
The goals for all seven children will be as follows:
To max all four childhood aspirations;
To complete all their scout badges; and
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
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:
To max all four childhood aspirations;
To complete all their scout badges; and
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.😊
We are starting with a young married couple & the husband’s mother, all of whom are spellcasters, who have recently arrived in Port Promise with a dream to build an eco-friendly home and make the neighbourhood a better place. They’ve used all their money for their trip so are now starting with nothing.
Conor Moon:
Conor is a young adult who is a Maker, a Green Fiend and a Genius, who’s also a Collector due to his Nature Aspiration.
Melody Collins-Moon:
Melody is Conor’s young adult wife who is Creative, a Green Fiend, Family Oriented and a Muser from choosing a Creative Aspiration.
Deirdre Moon:
Deirdre is Conor’s adult mother, who is Family Oriented, a Freegan and a Maker with the Domestic trait from choosing a Family Aspiration.
If you’d like to play along with this family, they are on the gallery, here’s a link: https://tinyurl.com/y9ts2cpn
Challenge Goals:
For Conor & Melody to both:
max the Civil Designer career with each taking a different branch
to complete the Eco Innovator aspiration.
For both Melody & her mother in law Deirdre to complete the new Maker aspiration.
For them all to turn Port Promise from having an Industrial footprint to having a Green footprint.
For them to build a home that is eco friendly & if possible to generate more power & water than they use.
For them all to complete the fortune aspiration.
In connection with the ‘green initiative’, Deirdre will complete the Botanist aspiration.
Since Deirdre is a freegan we will try to furnish as much as possible using things we find & repair or that we create ourselves.
Bonus Goal: For Conor & Melody to have a family.😊
Rules:
To start with nothing with a goal to get rich (in this case to complete the fortune aspiration as noted above).
Note the lifespan I’ve chosen is ‘long’, anyone playing along can choose what they want.
Optional added challenges:
Build/Buy rules – can only purchase from build/buy mode things that can’t be crafted or are known to be found in the dumpster. Timing of these purchases is limited to:
Mondays after the Neighborhood voting is done.
if the family has children, you can do one-off purchases of what you need for the child as they enter new lifespans (for example when a baby ages up to a toddler and a toddler ages up to a child. This shouldn’t be needed when a child ages up to a teen as their needs are similar to those of an adult).
if you have Seasons and Rebate Day falls on a different day, you may enter build/buy mode then too.
You can purchase things from the computer, bookcase or planters, or if you have Seasons, from the phone at any time.
In all cases, you can only go in one time, if you forget something, you need to wait until the next purchase time.
Try to stay in the three Evergreen Harbor neighbourhoods as much as possible, unless travelling for an aspiration.
Alternatively, you can come join my new 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 any other challenges, that either I or other members can try to answer. Sims Sanctuary
Once all goals have been met you can age all the toddlers up to children all at once.
Rules:
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’ )
No cheats or mods for needs or to add money. Can use cheats to reset sims when they are stuck.
Must bring all the toddlers with you if you travel off the home lot (wandering around the neighbourhood is fine).
Aging should be on long or off.
Can hire services, including a nanny.
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).
Caregiver cando 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.
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.
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:
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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
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
Your sim, or sims, start with nothing on an empty lot and the goal is to become ‘rich’. You can define what ‘rich’ is, just set this up front. I often have at least one sim complete the fortune aspiration, which means they need to earn 200,000.
Note ‘Rags to Riches’ is often referred to as ‘R2R’.
How Do You Start With Nothing?
Using cheats, first open the cheats console to turn cheats on
‘testingcheats on’ or ‘testingcheats true’
Then type ‘money 0’
If you do not want to use cheats, add your sim to an existing household or create an extra sim you don’t plan on using. Move them into an existing lot (it can have a home) and then use the ‘split from household’ option and make sure the sim moving has enough money + 1 simoleon for an empty lot (the two cheapest lots in Newcrest are 1,500, so give them 1,501). See my updated tutorial on splitting from households if you’d like to see it in action: https://youtu.be/mbA0BLEL
Frequently Asked Questions (‘FAQ’):
Can your sim have a job? Usually not to start with, and I generally find sims make more money collecting, etc than a low-level, rabbit hole career. A good time for a sim to get a job is once you’ve built them a starting home.
Does the challenge require the use of mods? The use of mods is not required and if you want to use mods (or custom content), it’s recommended not to use any that will give you an advantage over someone not using them (i.e. create a sim custom content would have no impact however furniture custom content that is less expensive than it’s in game content, especially if it has higher stats would give an advantage).
How many sims do you start with? That is up to you, most people start with one, though I sometimes start with more than one, it depends on what I’m trying to do with the challenge.
Is there a specified age for your starting sim (or sims)? Again, that is up to you. You will need a teen or older to create a valid household in Sims 4. I often start with a teen and to make it harder, make them go to school so they have less time each day to earn money.😊
What lifespan should you use? That is up to you, you can use short, normal, long or turn aging off.
Can you use cheats for needs? No, since one of the goals of the challenge is to see if your sim can survive when starting with nothing.
How does your sim survive with nothing? Re: earning money, I find it’s best to start with fishing and collecting to try and get money & when you can find some harvestables, start a garden. You can also take photos and sell that into your inventory. Re: looking after themselves, sims can sleep on benches, eat produce, or cook on the BBQs in the world after you sell something from collecting. I will have more details in my separate video on this. 😊
Can I add things to community lots to help my sim? The general rule is no, especially if it is something that doesn’t make sense it should be there. I do often add a potty chair since usually in real life a toddler can use a toilet with help.
Can my sims visit sims’ houses to help meet their needs? Generally, no, though I have seen some R2R challenges where they can do so once a week if they are good friends. Though usually sims will ask your sim to leave unless they have the ‘always welcome’ trait.
Can I keep the money a sim brings when they move into my home? Usually no since the goal is to earn the money, not to bring it into the household when you add another sim. To accomplish this, you will either have to make sure the sim you are moving in lives with another sim who is teen or older or if they don’t, make sure to choose the option ‘sell furniture’ and use cheats to reset the household funds to where they were before they moved in (see cheats from how to set funds to zero when starting)
Impact of different packs on the R2R challenge? I’m working on doing R2R video tutorials by pack for any packs that impact on the challenge, including how to survive with the impact of weather that comes with Seasons. These videos will be added to the playlist linked at the top of this page as they get released.
As you may have gathered from the answers to the FAQ, the general idea is that if something makes it easier, usually you don’t do it. That said, it’s your game and your challenge, so it needs to suit you and the main goal is to have fun!
Suggestions for Additional Rules or Goals to Add to Make it More Challenging:
Add the lot trait ‘off the grid’ and have your sims earn and ‘pay’ (using cheats’) the value of the lot to ‘connect to the grid’
Don’t let your sims travel from their starting neighbourhood until they have a predetermined amount of funds (e.g. 1,000, as used in the ‘Drifter Challenge’)
Make it more challenging;
only let your sims earn money from predetermined things. e.g. writing, programming, fishing, gardening, music. Some things let your sims earn more money than others. When I do this, I usually set a predetermined amount that sims can earn money from other things once they’ve reached that goal as I don’t like to be limited in what my sims can do/earn money from.
Don’t let your sims sell things into their inventory (examples that work with that are writing, programming, music. Also, if you have certain packs you can sell things from retail (Get to Work), yard sale table (City Living/Jungle Adventures) or the Street Gallery (City Living)
These are just guidelines for the basic concept of the challenge and some tweaks you can do to make it your own.
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 rags to riches or other challenges, that either I, or other members can try to answer. Sims Sanctuary
Challenge and Playlist Links:
There are a couple of challenges, such as Rosebud and the Rags to Riches Mega Challenge that have more details and rules and others that use the concept which I’ll link below. I also have a number of Rags to Riches Challenges Let’s Plays which I will also link below.
Nomad Challenge (you can start with a couple or a single sim who start with nothing & they can’t buy/build anything that’s not portable until the first collection is completed, this requires Outdoor Retreat. The overall goal is to complete all the collections, over as many generations as it takes, and build a museum on the lot to house it. This includes having a perfect garden with at least one of each type of plant.): https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811827/nomad-challenge-requires-outdoor-retreat
If you are moving your sim out of an existing lot and would like to know how much money they need to buy any starting (ie less than 20k simoleons) or empty lots, here are some screenshots with that information as well as some information re what is in the neighborhoods that can be useful if you are planning on doing a Rags to Riches challenge.
Keep in mind that if you want your sim to move into an empty lot they will need the value of the lot plus 1 simoleon as the game won’t allow them to move in with the exact amount. If your sims are moving into a lot with anything of value of it, this includes landscaping, they will be able to move in with the exact value.
Keep in mind that for both Willow Creek and Oasis Springs the Commercial Districts have fishing, playground area and barbecues in the common, ie surrounding, area. Oasis Springs even has a public bathroom in the common area.
Willow Creek:
Pendula View has a playground with public barbecues & public bathrooms in it’s neighbourhood as well as a community garden to the left of the empty Hallow Slough lot.
Courtyard Lane has public barbecues.
Foundry Cove has the tree that will give you access to Sylvan Glade (see my video tutorial for more information: https://youtu.be/vk0MKwM151I)
The surrounding neighourhood of Magnolia Blossom Park has barbecues by the water at the back and a public bathroom at the front of the park.
All neighbourhoods have fishing and collectibles including plants you can harvest if you stay in the neighbourhood long enough (and if it’s the correct season if you have Seasons).
Oasis Springs:
Parched Prospect has a little park with playground equipment for children, but none of the neighbourhoods in Oasis Springs have public bathrooms.
Both Bedrock Strait and Skyward Palms has fishing, Bedrock Strait also has a community garden with barbecues.
Acquisition Butte has a portal to the Hidden Grotto, Desert Bloom Park has a matching portal, however both portals need to be unlocked by a sim with level 10 handiness (see my video tutorial for more information on the Hidden Grotto: https://youtu.be/vP6Ib7ahlPI )
The surrounding neighourhood of Desert Bloom Park has barbecues and a public bathroom at the back of the park. It has fishing to the side and back of the park.
All neighbourhoods have collectibles including plants you can harvest if you stay in the neighbourhood long enough (and if it’s the correct season if you have Seasons).
Newcrest:
Llama Lagoon has fishing, two sets of public bathrooms, one of which is at the playground with monkey bars and public barbecues, a jungle gym on the water between Twin Oracle Point and Rippling Flats and another public barbecue behind Tranquil Crescent.
Ridgeline Drive has no fishing but it does have a public barbecue area.
Bridgeview has one fishing spot and a playground with monkey bars and public barbecues.
All neighbourhoods have collectibles including plants you can harvest if you stay in the neighbourhood long enough (and if it’s the correct season if you have Seasons).
Maple Simmer 