House 10 Drifter Challenge: Overview

House 10 of the Drifter Challenge will be returning this Thursday, October 27, 2022 at 3 pm Eastern.

After living a sheltered life where we couldn’t even control her directly, our new drifter Jackie Driver is returning to the first neighbourhood of the Drifter challenge started in (Bedrock Strait in Oasis Spring). She will be living in Pebble Burrow, a 30×20 lot. This is the neighbourhood where Johnny Zest usually lives in a new save!

Will she be up to the following challenges?

As a minimum create a 2 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons – include a pool and a designated personal workout area.
Achieve level 10 of the Fitness Skill
Produce and raise the Heir (see my notes on this*)

There are some optional goals for house 10, the ones I plan to complete are:

complete the Bodybuilder aspiration
max the Wellness skill

If it fits in with the house, I may try maxing one of the SE skills (rock climbing, skiing or snowboarding).

Note that I will be adding goals from House 11 to this house, so here are the additional goals that will be required, note House 11 also requires you to raise an Heir:

In addition to the house requirements noted above, it will also need to include a designated party space.
Complete the Master Mixologist Aspiration.
Achieve level 10 of the Mixologist branch of the Culinary career.

Optional goals for house 11 I’ll be attempting are as follows:

*Re the heir, usually the goal is to raise the heir to the young adult life stage, however, with the changes to life stage lengths that came with the July 26, 2022 game update, I plan to end this house when either A) all the goals are complete or B) the heir ages up to a teen, whichever happens second.

In this house we can control the Drifter.

Exceptions are as follows:

*per Vihisha’s blog post as of Oct 26, 2022*

(screenshot is from Vihisha’s blog post as of Oct 26, 2022)

The ability to leave your home lot is limited, usually you need 1,000 simoleons and where you can travel to is set by house. Here is a screenshot of the details, again screenshot is from Vihisha’s blog post as of Oct 26, 2022 (Note the club gatherings should say ‘Get Together needed’, not ‘City Living’. ):

As part of house 10, we are able to place a spa or an Onsen on the Pique Hearth lot (where the Pancakes usually live). I will be placing a Spa there.

Some exceptions or amendments that I do re places that can be visited is that I include Bars and Lounges as ‘Nightclubs’ as they act similar to Nightclubs. In prior houses I have hosted club gatherings at museums & gyms, however gyms are now unlocked & I will continue to visit museums for the Painter Extraordinaire aspiration & for dates (I find museums are a great place for dates as other sims don’t interrupt as much).

Link to my Overview of the Drifter Challenge.

If you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/maplesimmersimssanctuary or my discord, https://discord.gg/aJaX7Pca8A

Rags to Riches?: High School Years Edition (Sims 4)

Meet our teens, Hermione Driver (Genius & Bookworm) and her younger twin siblings, Hugo (Creative & Overachiever) and Harry (Good & Active). Their younger brother Herbert, who is still a child, will be joining them once they have a home. All four sims were born in House 7 of my Drifter Challenge.

Playlist

Goals:

To complete two of the four aspirations that came with High School Years (Goal Oriented and Admired Icon). We will take a look at the other two aspirations (Drama Lama & Live Fast) and attempt to do the first tier of both if we can.
They all need to max the new 5 level entrepreneurial skill.
Each sim will complete a different after school activity (i.e. the four new ones that come with High School Years, Cheerleader, Football Team, Chess Team & Computer Team) and they will also all max one of the two new part time careers that came with the pack (Video Game Streamer & Simfluencer, between our sims, both careers will be covered).
To build at a minimum a three bedroom, two bathroom home.
To see how much money they can make after building their home!
We will also try to examine the other new aspects that come with the pack including prom, social bunny and Trendi.

Rags to Riches Rules for This Challenge:

They will start with nothing on the now empty 30×20 Hillside Haven lot that usually has a rental property on it in Copperdale.

Since selling paintings directly helps the entrepreneurial skill, they will be able to sell those directly without a street gallery, however, for other items they first need a yard sale table. They can sell paintings on a street gallery, I just won’t require it.

They will earn money from odd jobs and their part time careers to get the ‘seed’ money needed to get the yard sale table & do some painting.

For more Rags to Riches guidelines, see my blog post.

Contact Me:

If you have any questions, need troubleshooting help or want to share your own Sims game play with other friendly Simmers please head over to my Facebook group, Sims Sanctuary or my Discord

Common Issues Since the July 26, 2022 Game Update (Sims 4)

Updates as for Aug 2 Game Update & Video

Video Link

Link to Aug 2/22 update notes: https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/update-08-02-2022

Link to EA’s Mod Policy: https://help.ea.com/en/help/the-sims/the-sims-4/mods-and-the-sims-4-game-updates/

Link to Sims4Studio: https://sims4studio.com/board/6/download-sims-studio-open-version

New bug reports referred to in video:

Aging Settings Broken: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Aging-Settings-Broken/td-p/11668082 Sims Greyed out When Travelling for Festivals: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Sims-greyed-out-for-quot-Travel-with-quot-option-for-Festivals/m-p/11692219#M224695

Original Post After July 26/22 Update:

There have been a number of issues with the game since the July 26, 2022 game update and I will try and summarize some of the more common ones here.

The biggest issue is with aging, both on the long lifespan and short lifespan. This issue is so big EA has a message about it on your main menu, this appeared on July 27:

They are recommending you back up your saves and temporarily play on a Normal Lifespan. I recommend avoiding any saves where you currently play on Long or Short Lifespan. Also, while turning aging off is one option, make sure you change the Lifespan to Normal before turning off aging, otherwise there are reports that the issue persists.

I did a separate video on the long term issue and how to use the no aging option.

I also did a video on how to recover your save for those who play on computer. Unfortunately that’s not an option for console.

Link to Bug Report for the Aging Issues:

Issues with Long Lifespan but there is a little discussion of the issues with a Short Lifespan too. Note sims get days added if you play on a Long Lifespan, they seem to get days removed, i.e. they become younger, if you play on a Short Lifespan

Other Non Mod Related Issues Since the Update:

Here are some other issues I’ve seen noted on EA AHQ with links to their bug reports. If your issue isn’t here, I recommend going over to the Sims 4 Bug Section of EA AHQ and looking for the issue you are experiencing.

Here’s a screenshot of a Tweet by SimGuruNick re the first issue noted here:

Wants/Fears: Sim wants to ask a relative to be GF/BF Note EA Cade has responded to this report to say the Sims Team is looking into this. SimGuruNick has also tweeted (see above screenshot) to say they can reproduce this and are working on it. I have uploaded a room to the gallery with 5 want refresher potions so you can use that to get rid of wants you don’t want and not use any reward points (each want refresher potion is 200 reward points).
Lifespan duration for teens and adult sims changed on Normal Lifespan Now 21 and 33 days respectively, normal lifespan, I’m wondering if this is by design.
Sims turning into celebrities since update
Most sims greyed out when trying to travel
Excessive use of cell phone while walking
NPC roles not filling regular positions I was playing in Henford-on-Bagley so noticed that there.
Sim resetting when queueing livestream (no HSY Pack) This impacts Sims in the Tech Guru career & Social Media career. LittleMsSam has released a mod to fix this, see her Random Small Mods.
Child sims can’t quit afterschool activities
Elders can’t retire Carl’s Sims 4 Guide has a mod (free Patreon) that fixes this.
Traits from other packs don’t have wants associated with them
Note this doesn’t have a lot of Me Too’s but I did also see this Twitter response from SimGuruGeorge re wants and packs.

10. Elders can’t retire. Carl Sims has a mod for that now. His Patreon link (free)

Bug Template to Use When Making Reports on EA AHQ

You should be prompted to use this template, however if you aren’t, then just copy and paste this and fill in the details.

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:
Which language are you playing the game in?
How often does the bug occur?
What is your current game version number?
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed?
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves?
What happens when the bug occurs?
What do you expect to see?
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods?
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system?

Mod Issues

Most mods broke with the game update so make sure to check all your mods to see if they broke and if they’ve been updated. Many have already been updated including MCCC, UI Cheats, Twisted Mexi mods, Wonderful Whims and LittleMsSam mods.

As of early on July 28, 2022 here is a statement re Kawaii Stacie mods:

One common issue I see mentioned is not being able to change your hair colour in Create-A-Sim, my understanding is this is caused by the More Columns mod by Weerbesu which has been updated.

There’s a Sim forum post that tracks what broke, what’s been updated and what’s fine which is a great source to check.

Another source is Scarlet’s mod tracking list, this includes mature mods, the Sims forums don’t allow mention of mods that increase the games’ rating.

Contact Me:

If you have any questions, need troubleshooting help or want to share your own Sims game play with other friendly Simmers please head over to my Facebook group, Sims Sanctuary or my Discord. Either I or other members will try to answer any troubleshooting questions and I also have some guides that can help in my Facebook group. I can also be found on Twitter and Instagram

Honeymooners & Proud Parent Scenario (Sims 4)

Now that the No Skills, No Problem scenario is done, I’m going to do the Honeymooners and the Proud Parent Scenarios with Sebastian and Fern.

Honeymooners Playlist

Proud Parent Playlist to be added when we get there!

Scenario Goals:

Honeymooner Scenario Goals:

Proud Parent Scenario Goals:

Proud Parent goals will also be added once we get to that point.

Additional Goals:

Along with the scenario goals, I’ll also be working on the following goals with them while doing these two scenarios:

Have them complete the frog collection.
Have at least one of them complete the following aspirations:
* Country Caretaker
* Freelance Botanist
* both Spellcaster Aspirations
Have both of them complete the following aspirations:
* Painter Extraordinaire
* Soulmate Aspiration

Please let me know if there are any other goals/aspirations we should try and work on with them.

Gallery:

I’ve put their current version, i.e. as of the end of the No Skills, No Problem Scenario Let’s Play, on the gallery, if you’d like to play along with them. The home they move into during the first part is also on the gallery, this includes their garden & collectibles. There is also a mostly unfurnished version of their new home on the gallery. Both versions are modified micros, i.e. the core is on 32 square tiles, the rest is unconnected walls with roofs covering them.

Contact Me:

Highlights from the Sims 4 Werewolves June 10/22 Livestream

Link to their YouTube livestream and their Twitch vod.

Link to my highlights video.

Main Items Covered:

*Including Items Coming to Base Game

Create-a-Sim (‘CAS’)
World
Gameplay, including Lunar Cycles
Brief look at Build/Buy

CAS:

Regular CAS:

Majority of assets are gender neutral
Two cute outfits for toddlers
Something for kids – showed hat, 3 hairstyles & one outfit but I wasn’t sure if that was everything.
One new aspiration in CAS (new category too), once you complete it, you unlock four other aspirations, so five in total.

New fuller beard coming to base game with update.

Werewolf CAS:

You can link/unlink forms
Werewolf fur has the same customizations that cats and dogs fur has
Werewolves can wear clothes or not
Werewolves don’t wear shoes
While toddler and up are considered werewolves, only teen and up have beast forms.

Some werewolf examples from the livestream

Note I included a sped up version of the CAS in my highlights video, this shows CAS items available for everyone & items for creating werewolves.

World:

5 lots but large neighbourhood with various area.

Tweet with lot sizes (1)

and explanation of what’s in the world (2)

Gameplay:

Note along with the beard, lunar cycles are coming in the base game update, as are two new terrain paints. Lunar cycles affect werewolves (and other occults) more than regular sims, but regular sims are impacted a bit too. Kids can ask about the lunar cycles. You can customize lunar cycles, i.e. their length, freeze it on one cycle and turn it off completely.

They showed how the tunnels worked.
They are rabbit holes with pop ups where you decide what to do (reminds me a bit of space adventures).
You can unlock paths to quick travel between the 3 tunnel entrances.
They can be more dangerous for non werewolves.

We see Greg, who is a werewolf, seems to be a loner and is hard to befriend. But if you do, you can woohoo with him.

Werewolves, including Greg, can be seen in other worlds. However, you can disable that under pack settings.

Here are the ways to become a werewolf:

Create a new sim as a werewolf in CAS
Born in game (greater blood vs dormant?)
Create in game:
- ask to be turned into a werewolf
- or get werebies (from bite or from tunnel adventures).

Being asked is the quicker of the two options to turn a regular sim into a werewolf, but the second one you can be ‘cured’ before you turn into a werewolf.

They showed a sim turning into a werewolf after asking to become one and showed the different stages (they get very uncomfortable and their hunger goes down very quickly so they need to eat a lot during the time between getting bitten and becoming a werewolf. They will rampage the first time they become a werewolf. My highlights video includes footage from the stream where the sim was bitten (after asking) and when the sim becomes a werewolf for the first time.

There are two werewolf packs, Moonwood Collective (Kristopher is the leader) vs The Wildfangs (Rory is the leader). Here is a screenshot of some of the sims in the pack, Kristopher and Rory are shown.

There is lots of lore in the new pack. You can learn some by talking to the residents of Moonwood Mill. You can also learn some lore on the new Werewolf Books. Werewolves, especially those with certain abilities, can get more from the books (these aren’t skill books). More details on new books, from tweet shared after the livestream:

Only teens and up can have a ‘beast’ form, but toddlers and children can learn to howl, they can get growing pains, toddlers can bite their toy, and children will get excited about beating up their siblings like they are the alpha of the house.

They showed ‘fury’ and what it does, if it maxes they will go on a rampage, temperaments can build fury. Werewolves can have 22 temperaments, 18 appear naturally and 4 are unique (see tweet).

Werewolves have abilities – some (25) you buy with points as they level up and 6 that are dormant. Here’s a link to the SimsVIP article where they show the ones they were able to see when the SimGurus hovered over them in the livestream.

Build/Buy:

The objects look grungy to tie to the look of werewolves reclaiming things from abandoned buildings. They mentioned learning more in the game, so I expect we will get more information in their catalogue descriptions.

We will be getting two new terrain paints in the base game update that have been used in the new world.

I show a sped up version of what was shown in the livestream in my highlights video, but here’s a couple of screenshots:

Telescopes coming with the pack, however there is a telescope coming with the base game update that precedes the pack. Link to tweet.

Sundry Tweets from After the Livestream

Fated mate tweet :

Tweet re hunting food and vegetarian werewolves:

Link to The Sims 4 Werewolves trailer

Link to The Sims 4 Werewolves blog post

If you have any questions, need troubleshooting help or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers please head over to my Facebook group, Sims Sanctuary or my Discord.

Best Friends Forever Scenario – Rags to Riches Edition (Sims 4)

How long will it take to complete the scenario with the extra goals added on? First part goes live tomorrow, Sunday May 29, 2022: Playlist link

Sharon is creative, an animal enthusiast and a freegan. Ashlynn in creative. They are on the gallery if you’d like to play along.

Best Friends Forever Goals & My Tweaks:

Our sims will be starting with nothing. Their lot is off the grid and they will have to pay 6,500 to connect to the grid (approximate starting value of their lot, which comes with some landscaping, but no home or amenities).

Ashlynn will also be joining scouts and have the additional goal that of completing all four childhood aspirations. She will also work on getting positive character values; at a minimum she will need to get her conflict resolution to be positive before she ages up to a teen.

Similar to many of my other rags to riches LPs, as an added challenge, I will not let my sims sell directly from their inventory/directly off the plants until they buy a yard sale table (street gallery for paintings). Some ways to make money to get the yard sale table are to do odd jobs (requires Island Living) or to sell items, including harvestables and fish, at the grocery and plant ‘shops’ (requires Cottage Living) or flowers to the plant shop (requires My Wedding Stories).

For more Rags to Riches guidelines, see my blog post.

Contact Me:

If you have any questions, need troubleshooting help or want to share your own Sims game play with other friendly Simmers please head over to my Facebook group, Sims Sanctuary or my Discord

Plant-a-Sim Scenario: Rags to Riches Edition (Sims 4)

I’m going to attempt the Plant-a-Sim Scenario with my young adult sim Fern Pruett; the twist? She’s starting with nothing (see note 💰 below) on an empty, albeit beautiful, lot in Sulani (Key Point).

How long will it take her to complete the scenario and will she have a home by the time it’s completed? Playlist link (first part went live today, April 17, 2022).

Meet My Sim:

Here is what Fern looked like before she became a PlantSim. She is creative, loves the outdoors and an animal enthusiast with the freelance botanist aspiration.

Details on Becoming a Plant Sim:

Here is the notification the game gives when your sim becomes a PlantSim. Keep in mind only non occult sims can become PlantSim. I tried with a spellcaster and when she ate the forbidden fruit, nothing happened!

Plant-a-Sim Scenario Goals:

Written Summary of Plant-a-Sim Scenario Goals:

Eat the ‘Forbidden Fruit of the PlantSim” from your inventory	1 time
Have your PlantSim Talk to Plants	5 times
Harvest from a Perfect Quality plant	1 time
Satisfy Water Needs	5 times
Absorb solar energy from plants	5 times
Photosynhesize by absorbing sunlight	25 times
Care for Plants as a PlantSim	99 times

💰 Rags to Riches Element:

Note that while I am doing this as a rags to riches challenge, your sim is given 5 forbidden fruit and one starter package of vegetables. I am letting my sim keep them.
No selling into inventory/directly off the plants until your sim buys a yard sale table. Some ways to make money are to do odd jobs (requires Island Living) or to sell items, including harvestables and fish, at the grocery and plant ‘shops’ (requires Cottage Living) or flowers to the plant shop (requires My Wedding Stories).
For more Rags to Riches guidelines, see my blog post.

Note I have no target for money earned, this is just an added element to see how my sim manages after starting with no money or home, and only the items given to her for the Plant-a-Sim Scenario.

Poll for Secondary Sim of Drifter House 9 (Sims 4)

Thanks to everyone who uploaded their sims for us to vote on for the secondary sim of House 9 of the Drifter Challenge! 😊

As a reminder, this secondary sim for House 9 of Drifter will will eventually marry my heir from house 8 of Drifter. Here is a screenshot with details of the House 8 heir.

Whichever sim is chosen, I will change one trait to match Isobel’s. 😊

Here are the sims uploaded to be included in the poll for the secondary sim.
I will add the Origin IDs after the poll closes in case you want to add them to your own game.

The poll is closed and Izaiah Kuro won!

Rags to Wellness (Sims 4 Spa Day Refresh)

New Let’s Play starting today, Sept 10. Playlist link

In this challenge we are going to follow our teen Lily Lombardi.

Lily Lombardi, Spellcaster Teen
Loves the Outdoors & High Maintenance

She will be starting with nothing on an empty lot and she has two weeks to see how far she gets in the following goals:

Learning the wellness skill,
See how much money she can make with the wellness skill,
See how much of the three new wellness aspirations she can complete.

During the two weeks of the challenge she must follow these rules:

She can only make money from wellness,
She can harvest plants/fish to eat, but not to sell.
As an added challenge her home lot must have Simple Living Lot Challenge.

I started without the Simple Living challenge on the Spa Lot I’m using but I will be adding it starting with part 3. This means she will no longer have access to quick meals on the spa fridge but she will be able to make food from items harvested the world/groceries she bought. A cooler has been placed so she has access to limited quick meals.

If you have any questions or want to share your own Sims game play with other Simmers head over to my Facebook group, Sims Sanctuary.

Link to my updated Rags to Riches blog post:
maplesimmer.video.blog/2020/05/05/sims-4-rags-to-riches-guidelines/

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:

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.

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