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Day One of Eight Sim Challenge (Move In Day)
CASH BALANCE: 340 Simoleans!
GOALS: Get jobs… earn cooking skills
Okay, and they’re off! With barely any money in the household account, we have a lot of work to do to get this house up and running.
CASSIE: How much do we have?
340 Simoleans.
CASSIE: 340?! How do you expect us to live on that?!
Well, if you guys get jobs, that shouldn’t be such a problem, will it?
MICHAEL: Sorry, d00d… but I don’t *do* jobs.
Well, you’re gonna have to, bub. Or you’ll all be starving within a few days.
MICHAEL: Whatever, d00d.
Don’t call me *d00d.* I’m not a guy.
MICHAEL: Coulda fooled me!
CASSIE (talking out of the side of her mouth): Shut up, Michael! Remember… “The Simmer giveth and the Simmer taketh away!”
TORVALD (big nerd with tall, red hair): Vhat ist mean?
ELEANOR: It means, if we cooperate, no one gets hurt!
Alright, guys! What’re you all standing there for? The house is ready!
JUSTIN (guy in picture holding stomach): Oh, you call that a house?
Whatever. Just go inside. It’ll be upgraded later. I promise.
Here is a shot of the subjects entering the house on MOVE IN DAY. As you can see, our house is not quite finished–
EMMA: Tell me about it–
But the little guys seem to be happy with what I gave them.
JENNY: Check it out! A food processor!
GERALD: Ooo– nice sinks! I can dig this.
TORVALD: Ist good, ja!
This goes to show you that when you first start out, you don’t have to really go all out to give your Sims the perfect house. As long as you give them a few basics, they’ll be happy. Besides, like I said, you can always upgrade later when they start raking in the dough!
Okay, with the subjects acquainted with the house–
CASSIE: Hey! Do ya mind?! I’m in the john!
*Whoops!* Sorry. Anyway, as our subjects settle down, it’s time to get down to brass tacks. Whenever you do an 8 Sim Challenge, the first few days are absolutely crucial. A lot can go wrong when you have this many Sims to take care of, so you have to carefully plot out a strategy to make sure everything runs smoothly. The best way to do that is to set a long term goal and a short day-by-day goal.
LONG TERM AND SHORT TERM GOALS
The long term goal is to set up a happy and efficient household. That means eventually getting a steady stream of income so we can get the bills paid, make sure everyone is well fed, and buy upgrades for the house.However for Move In Day there have to be two specific short term goals: 1) Get the Sims all jobs 2) Get them cooking point skills
You’re probably asking, well, with so many Sims in the house, why worry about getting them all jobs on Move In Day? Why not give some jobs today and the rest jobs tomorrow?
Well, you can’t take that chance. The problem with Sims is that when they get depressed, they refuse to go job searching. Since on Move In Day they’re the most happy and fulfilled, get them all jobs immediately. That way, if any one of them gets depressed in the future, you can still force them to go to work and provide income for the house. It’s better to have 3-4 miserable employed Sims than 3-4 unemployed miserable Sims who refuse to go job hunting just when you need income the most!
LONG TERM AND SHORT TERM GOALS, cont’d
Now to the second important short term goal of the day: learning how to cook. Move In Day is the best time to give your sims cooking points, since they are so well rested and are in a good mood. Cooking points are vital because if you don’t develop them, you’re gonna have kitchen fires a-plenty. So have your Sims gain at least 2 points to avoid them manslaughtering their housemates in a fire. In my last 8 Sim Challenge (Eight is Enough), I gave most of the Sims 3-4 points, and gave two Sims low points (1-2) to keep things *interesting*. However, for this family, I’m going to give each one 3 points, and even 4 points, if possible. It makes life easier because now everyone will have the ability to serve meals for their roomies without putting the fear of Will Wright in them.
MICHAEL: This bites, man. The reason I signed up for this experiment was to get away from classes. Now I gotta study!?
Just for today. What’s the big deal? It’s just so you can learn some cooking and not burn down the house. So get crackin’!
MICHAEL: Alright… alright…
CASSIE: Hmmm… chicken parmigiana… interesting…
While our Sims study cooking, let’s wait for Nancy to whistle on by with the paper so they can start looking for jobs.
The day’s job offering is that of typesetter! Blech! 4 AM and 120 a day. Not my cup of tea but we have to take it. Since one of our goals of the day is to get everyone jobs, I’ve decided that this will be everyone’s job for now, until they can get better ones.
As some of my Sims gain 3 cooking points, I’m forcing them to go to the bathroom to avoid bottlenecks later. I normally wouldn’t have to do this, but because I have one bathroom I have to be especially watchful of this situation. This is especially true since it’s getting close to dinnertime! The worst thing that can happen when you have 1 bathroom and 8 Sims is to suddenly have all of them doing the pee-pee dance after having dinner. So as long as I only have the one bathroom, this will be my strategy– to make all of them go *before* they eat.
DINNERTIME
It’s nearing the end of dinnertime, and as you can see, everything has run smoothly.
JENNY: No cake? I like cake!
CASSIE: Not with our budget. In fact, it looks like it’s salad and chips for the next few days.
ELEANOR: Sigh… well, at least it’s not gruel!
MICHAEL: Shhhh…don’t give the Simmer any ideas!
TORVALD: Vhere ist stove? Ve study, no?
Yes, Torvald is right. Technically, I could have had a stove in the kitchen because having earned enough cooking points, these guys are in no danger of burning down the house. However, we had less than 300 Simoleans in the kitty starting out, so we couldn’t afford one. In fact, we won’t be able to afford one for a good couple of days.
CASSIE: Bummer!
TORVALD: Da!
Here’s something I want to show you as our Sims finish up dinner. Now check this out! See the beauty of having Sims with high neat points? Eleanor, Emma, and Jenny are all cleaning up after themselves and everyone else after dinner! Thanks, girls!
ELEANOR: No problem-o!
Shortly after dinner it’s becoming obvious that our test subjects have had a long day–
JENNY: Yaaawwwwnnn! Whoops!
Some of our Sims are very tired. But even if they aren’t, it’s time to turn in, anyway… these guys have to get up at 3 in the morning to make the carpool. So I’m going to have to start putting them to bed on their couches at around 9-ish.
EMMA: What?! We have bedtime?!
Yup– sorry.
EMMA: Geez… this is so humiliating!
Remember– it’s this experiment or Professor Heissman’s boring lectures and the other boring classes you have to take at University.
EMMA: Awright, awright– I’m going!