Aye aye aye, wtf was I THINKING with this challenge? Oh, man.
First of all, giving almost every family a pet or two was probably a mistake, because not only do you have to worry about your Sim being uncomfortable because they’re stinky, but you have to worry about your dog being stinky too, because if he is, your Sim is gonna be DOUBLE uncomfortable. Charlie’s dog, Frances, would get sprayed by a skunk approximately every 12 hours, which gave Charle an additional +2 uncomfortable moodlet. When you have TWO +2 uncomfortable moodlets, it means your Sim is basically too uncomfortable to function; they won’t read any skills books, knit, craft any furniture, or do anything that might otherwise build any sort of skill. (I did not test yoga.) This situation sucked and basically I had to just keep needs fulfilled, sometimes resorting to Potions, and wait for Frances’ skunk stank to go away.
Even worse, Frances got sick multiple times from fighting with squirrels and he had green snot all over his muzzle. When he came in the cabin and laid down, he would leave big puddles of drool that Charlie was forever mopping up. It was super gross. And then one day, magically, Frances got better.
I started playing Charlie’s household in the fall and I played him until spring, when he finally crafted a bath tub and a toilet. Where I left him though, he could only afford to expand his tiny home by 4 tiles: enough to fit the bath tub indoors.
To be able to afford a woodworking table and eventually a tub and toilet, Charlie dug around Brindleton Bay for collectibles to sell and since he has a little community space next door to his house, I was able to use the cell phone to take odd jobs pretty easily. I also gave him a part time job as a manual labourer and then forgot about it. A week went by and suddenly I got the notification that work started for Charlie in an hour and I looked at his needs meters and his sleep, fun, and hygiene needs were in the red. Fuck. Good on Charlie though, he did his job both days even though I left him completely sleep deprived.
I had Charlie make a mirror on the woodworking table to gain Charisma skill because what kinda cult leader doesn’t have charisma? I created a club called The Moody Family and I added the maximum amount of Sims I could add which was maybe 6-8. I think I may have to start chapters of that club in each neighbourhood, headed by a Sim Charlie trusts, with Charlie in all of them so he can attend everyone’s club gatherings. I can apparently unlock 2 more spaces in The Moody Family club for 2 more Sims, but I haven’t looked into how I do that yet. Yesterday was dedicated just to getting indoor plumbing so Charlie’s needs would be better met. He’ll worry about leading people later.
As I suspected, Sims have to vote on Community Gardens, Marketplaces, and Maker Spaces, so right now the venue I made comprising all 3 is empty. Worse, much to my dismay, only Sims in the venue’s neighbourhood may vote on what the spaces should be. That meant Charlie couldn’t vote and kickstart the Community Garden, which would help everyone. Due to this, I decided to switch to my next family, one within that neighbourhood.
Allow me to introduce my 2 hippie sisters, Faith & Gemma:
Faith Moody is a young adult, looking after her teen sister, Gemma, after their mermaid parents were swept away during a storm on their home world of Sulani. Faith is cheerful, romantic, good, and wants to find her soulmate. She wonders if Charlie isn’t it, but she’s too shy to approach him yet. She wants to kickstart the Community Garden with Gemma and impress him. Since it’s fall, they may have to wait until spring to plant. In the meantime, their primary objective is to be able to bathe and pee inside.
I’ve never played a mermaid before, so I was surprised to find they have a “hydration” need instead of a hygiene need. It’s a good thing I built them a spring-fed pool at the Rec Complex because I’ve found the most efficient way to fulfill this need is by having them sleep in the pool as opposed to a bed. You can’t swim in the natural water of Brindleton Bay the way you can on Sulani, and if their hydration need goes unfulfilled, your mermaid Sim will start to smell like fish, which they’ll be super cranky about. Faith & Gemma don’t have a bath tub yet (or even a woodworking table yet), so I don’t know if mermaids can also sleep in the tub, but it’d be pretty handy if they could.
So, tonight’s goals are to (hopefully) plant the Community Garden before it gets too cold to plant, and craft at least a bath tub for Faith & Gemma. Hopefully Abigail, their Bernese Mountain Dog, doesn’t get sick or sprayed by a skunk because that super sucked with Charlie and Frances yesterday.
I changed/added a couple of goals to the challenge today. The 1st is that I want the commune to create some sort of weed economy using the Basemental Drugs mod where they grow and sell a fuck tonne of weed to afford their improvements. The 2nd is that I want them to get comfortable enough in their needs to explore their spellcaster abilities. Every Sim in Brindleton Bay is supernatural, either a spellcaster or a mermaid and I have one set of vampires. It would be good to finally explore that content since I’ve had it for ages and barely dented it. It’d add another dimension to gameplay after I meet the primary objectives. Finally, 3rd, I took out the rule that every adult and elder Sim must max out their Fishing, Gardening, and Handiness skills because it’s really only necessary for one Sim per household to max out their Handiness skill to craft tubs and toilets. Also, if the adults establish gardens, it’s gonna be difficult to get the kids’ Gardening skills to 10. Not impossible, but difficult and maybe too perfectionist. I haven’t decided how I feel about maxing out the Fishing skill because I’ve found fishing isn’t as profitable yet as foraging and gardening. Faith is just level 3 fishing though, I think, so maybe it will get more profitable as she levels up. I’ve never really explored this aspect of the game before.
So, that’s today’s update. Stay tuned to @SimsBunker on Twitter for more!