Cross-Forum Fervor! Let's Play The Sims 3!

Micro-update:


First off, level the fishing pond. I'll just have to find somewhere else to put it, if Vixen ever gets enough time to herself to catch enough fish to stock it.


Next up, build Vixen a workshop instead (meaning her room in the sub-basement will need another purpose). The walls will keep the yard from getting too devastated by any errant explosions, and there's no roof, so any pyrotechnics will go up instead of around. How does "Nano-Turbo Technological Omni-Laboratory" sound?


Inside there's a smoke alarm to automatically summon the fire department if any errant fires start. And if the fire catches Vixen herself, there's a little pool in the corner she can jump in to put it out. I call it the "Non-Organic Independent Water-Affiliated Nano-Turbo Technological Omni-Laboratory Incendiary Vixen Extinguisher".

Or "NO I WANT TO LIVE" for short.




Zap! Right through the wall!


Somehow the experiment made the foosball table emit piercing, shrieking noises at random intervals.




Yeah, now we're talkin!


Normally granted by taking a long bubble bath or enjoying the calmness that comes after a screaming, sobbing nervous breakdown, Tyrants and guests can now enjoy the emotional tranquility that comes with knocking a ping-pong ball around a table with tiny wooden pegs painted to look like people.

I move the foosball table back downstairs, and Vixen goes to work for the day.


Beat: LAPs 22,499, Attractive, Professional Slacker, Teleportation Pad, Legendary Host, Observant
Wishes: Master Logic Skill +8500
Skills: Logic 8, Athletics 10

Wildkin: LAPs 60,327, Opportunistic, Dirt Defiant, Steel Bladder, Hardly Hungry
Wishes: Own a Venue +1500
Skills: Athletics 10, Handiness 10
Skill Challenges: Marathon Runner

Madhair: LAPs 9707, Fast Learner, Never Dull, Extra Creative
Wishes: Paint Something Brilliant +500, Paint 2 Masterpieces (currently 1) +750, Cook 5 Perfect Meals +750, Master Cooking Skill +7500
Skills: Painting 10, Charisma 7, Cooking 9
Opportunity: A Large Painting (paint... one of those.)
Skill Challenges: Proficient Painter, Celebrity, Menu Maven

Trar: LAPs 30,060, Steel Bladder, Observant, Dirt Defiant, Hardly Hungry, Extra Creative
Wishes: Master Painting Skill +7500, Paint 2 Masterpieces (currently 1) +750, Own a Venue +1500
Skills: Logic 7, Painting 9, Writing 1

Vixen: LAPs 53045, Multi-Tasker, Super Green Thumb, Opportunistic
Wishes: Master Gardening +7500, Master Handiness +7500
Skills: Fishing 6, Gardening 9, Handiness 7
Opportunities: Funny Looking Fish (Catch a Tragic Clownfish)

Assets: $194472
Cash on Hand: $14790
Lot Value: $126682
Partnered With: Outstanding Citizens Warehouse Corp. ($15000), Divisadero Budget Books ($7000), Hogan's Deep-Fried Diner ($6000), Doo Peas Corporate Towers ($18000), Everfresh Delights Supermarket ($7000)

I did not know you could win the Sims, but I have just won the Sims.

I am so honored.

Vixen, if this isn't winning I don't know what is.

R^2, you wouldn't mind if I used the Sims from this LP in a possible LP of SimCity 4? I am strongly considering doing it.

Sure, do I need to get you the save file or what?

No, you can't import Sims from 3. I'll try my hand at creating a Sim from the LP or two soon and post pictures.

For reference, "Leader of the Free World" is the top-tier Politician career title.

I'd also like to thank everyone who applied for not going for the Politician career path.






Vixen do what Vixen do.


Including, later, a Skill Challenge.


M'dair tracks down Tamara to deliver her painting, and catches her just as she finishes wiping. Sheesh, this guy.


Beat enacts some nefarious plans...


...and Wild's just business as usual.

For recipes that call for any sort of fruit, M'dair will randomly pull anything that's a fruit from the fridge to cook it. This occasionally leads to some questionable culinary decisions, like lime pancakes and lime cobbler.


Anyway, with the fridge stocked, we're ready for Beat's party to start. Woo!


Beat starts by mixing some fruity cocktails at the bar, then helping himself. In the interests of family-friendliness, the drinks are "juice" that give the consumer a "sugar rush", rather than "booze" that makes people "drunk".


With their growing rivalry, Beat didn't bother to tell Trar there was a party happening, and Trar comes upstairs in his skivvies.


Ah well, what has been seen cannot be unseen. Who's up for Foosball?


My clever idea for a dancefloor isn't going to work if nobody dances on it.


Anyway, after a few hours of dancing, feasting, drinking, and chatting, everyone goes home and the party is declared a great success!

Become the most muscular.


Not only does Beat run the Organization, but the house owns the Organization outright and gets to rake in all the profits themselves.


Whoops! Well, this is why the Nano-Turbo Technological Omni-Laboratory is outside the subterranean complex.


Vixen is a capable, emancipated woman who doesn't need nobody to help her with a fire.


Whoa, that's pretty harsh, Beat.


Vixen extinguishes the flames just as rubberneckers arrive.


What? You dick!

Well, it's not a fire, but Vixen's not having much luck lately.


Damnedest thing. Beat was playing chess while Wild was working and everyone else was asleep. The Mysterious Mr. Gnome teleported in to sit in front of the stereo, and turned it on. The speakers wired throughout the house wake up Trar, Vixen, and M'dair, who all come upstairs to shout at the stereo for interrupting their sleep. The gnome statue had vanished by this point, of course, quite ruining the screenshot.

I assume everyone blames Beat for the prank.


Wild takes over the Omni-Laboratory while Vixen's at work the next day, fixing up a piece of hardware to...


...complete a skill challenge. I like using fireplaces for this challenge; they have several upgrades unique to them.


M'dair picks up his own challenge...


Trar gets his...


Beat's at the top of his criminal organization, and now everything's in place for the biggest heist ever!


Wild, of course, has his own Opportunity to-- oh, damn it! Again?!

Are you kidding me?


This Opportunity is mostly noteworthy because it's so goshdarned lucrative. I'm pretty sure Trar got over $60,000 for doing it; it seems to be something like four times the basic worth of the paintings given away.


It's time! This job takes all night, but...


Ha ha! Success! The reward is... well, only about $4000. Maybe Beat should take up painting for office buildings instead? (He also gets a raise of about $60 an hour, so there's that too.)


Another skill challenge! I told you guys you were on the cusp of a lot of these.

For all her experimentation, Vixen has finally finished her Collection Helper.


This makes it easier to find, say, the seeds randomly scattered around town.


It also makes collectibles easier to spot in the usual view, since they shine brightly. Vixen collects several seeds to replenish her garden.


Meanwhile, Wild purchases himself a Body Sculptor. Working out takes time and effort, but the Body Sculptor gives results instantly! This means Wild can easily achieve his Opportunity to be the buffest dude in Sunset Valley.

I do a little remodeling, largely to show off that Wild swiped yet another Ambiguity Itself sculpture. The stairs up the volcano are replaced by a narrow tower of spiral stairs. They're faster than regular stairs, remember?


The shed at the top of the tower leads to a mountainside path...


...which leads to another tower.


The top of the tower is flanked by stolen Medusa Victim statues, lighted by limelights as before.


Then the path leads into the caldera. Aren't you guys glad you have a teleporter?


Wouldn't it be easier if the game included elevators? Building this was massively complicated, since the engine doesn't seem to handle "stairs from the ground to the fifth floor to the ground allows a Sim to enter the first floor to climb to a different fifth floor to take stairs to a different ground level to enter the first floor and descend to the basement" very well.


Running with the "museum of stolen art" idea briefly discussed previously, the second basement is now a gallery with lots of extra wall space for all the paintings. Further Medusa Victims might be stored down here, too, but any additional Ambiguity Itself is too tall for the ceiling and I'll have to find a place for it outside.

Time makes fools of us all.


One more!


M'dair is done with painting, unless he gets an Opportunity for it or something.


WOULD YOU TWO JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY

Okay! Beat is the oldest Sim across either game, and his birthday is coming up in the next few days. The next update will probably include everyone aging up into seniors. From their senior birthday, Sims live for at least 17 days. A semirandom number of days after that, the Sim dies of old age.

Once a senior, a Sim may retire from their day job. This frees up their schedule and gives them a small daily allowance. I'll probably do this for everyone once the chance comes up, let me know if you don't wanna.

If anyone hasn't yet completed their Lifetime Wish -- lookin' at you, M'dair -- finishing that is my top priority. For everyone who has, I'll be working on Skill Challenges for the skills they know. If they've wrapped up all of those, they can take up a new hobby.

The current score breakdown:
For Lifetime Award Points: the Tyrants have a total of 517,730 and the Brontos 545,172. The Brontos lead.
For Assets: the Tyrants have $343,620 and the Brontos have $286,419. The Tyrants lead.
For Skill Challenges: the Tyrants have nine and the Brontos a whopping eighteen. The Brontos lead.

It'll be tough for the Tyrants to catch up in skill challenges, but they enjoy a generous lead with income and assets. LAPs are too close to call, so it's anyone's game!

Beat: LAPs 43,337, Attractive, Professional Slacker, Teleportation Pad, Legendary Host, Observant
Wishes: Master Logic Skill +8500, Be Worth More Than $500,000 (currently $344,260) +14000, Own 5 Venues +5750
Skills: Logic 9, Athletics 10

Wildkin: LAPs 47649, Opportunistic, Dirt Defiant, Steel Bladder, Hardly Hungry, Body Sculptor
Wishes: Own 5 Venues +5000
Skills: Athletics 10, Handiness 10
Skill Challenges: Marathon Runner, Tinkerer

Madhair: LAPs 37,345, Fast Learner, Never Dull, Extra Creative
Wishes: Paint 3 Masterpieces (currently 2) +1000, Be Worth More than $500,000 +12500, Own 5 Venues +5000
Skills: Painting 10, Charisma 7, Cooking 10
Skill Challenges: Brushmaster, Proficient Painter, Master Painter, Celebrity, Menu Maven

Trar: LAPs 56,196, Steel Bladder, Observant, Dirt Defiant, Hardly Hungry, Extra Creative
Wishes: Earn a Raise +750, Own 5 Venues +5000
Skills: Logic 7, Painting 10, Writing 1
Skill Challenges: Proficient Painter, Master Painter

Vixen: LAPs 35,203, Multi-Tasker, Super Green Thumb, Opportunistic, Collection Helper
Wishes: Master Handiness +7500, Own 5 Venues +5000
Skills: Fishing 6, Gardening 10, Handiness 8
Opportunities: Funny Looking Fish (Catch a goddamned Tragic Clownfish)

Assets: $343,620
Cash on Hand: $34344
Lot Value: $163,276
Investment Total: $146000
Partnered With: Hogan's Deep-Fried Diner ($6000), Doo Peas Corporate Towers ($18,000), Wilsonoff Community Theater ($18,000)
Owns: Outstanding Citizen Warehouse Corp ($50000), Everfresh Delights Supermarket ($27000), Divisadero Budget Books ($27000)

Meanwhile, in an alternate dimension...

Oh it's on now fuckboy

Oh my GOD YES

We have the classiest goddamn sinister volcano base and if that's not victory I don't know what is.

Those flanking sculptures just scream 'we live in the final boss dungeon and it's fucking radical'.

Is BEAT in both LPs? Or is the Bronto version just Beat, as opposed to BEAT?

Elevators are actually in one of the expansion packs.

The Bronto Beat is BeatBandit, formerly Rygaron. The Tyrant Beat is BEAT Skeleton, formerly a high-ranking officer in the skeleton war. Two different people.

Although both of them were the first on their respective teams to achieve their Lifetime Wish. Pretty suspicious if you ask me!

LOOK IF SHE'S GONNA DIE I WANNA TALK TO THAT GHOST.

I RUN THIS SHIT.

Formerly? I thought the skeleton war never ends.

So I'm cruising along, playing the next leg of the game. Go to save the game, and bam, Error 16. Not unusual while saving, except the aforepictured message popped up right after.

That fucked up the save game. But I have a backup!

One that, upon further investigation, crashes the game as spectacularly as the issues that had me patch up to 1.6 in the first place. I've spent a few days trying to fix it, to no avail -- the only way to keep going would be to roll back two weeks of game time, and that's so significant it's more than I'd want to do.

So that's game. I'm wrapping the LP. Tyrant Team wins on assets, Bronto Team wins on Skill Challenges, and LAPs are so close I'm going to call that category -- and thus the LP as a whole -- a draw.

Sorry, guys.

I'm not dead yet!

Noooooooooo.

But I understand. Oh man this has been the best and I want this to be done more often. Such a great idea.

R2 I just wanna say thank you so much for this awesome LP. I loved every single update of it.

It's a shame the crashes cut it short but really can there be a better ending than this?



I don't think so.

Hey, Sims 4 just came out. There's hope yet.

Vixen was just looking for her bike, man.

It may technically be a draw, but we already won when we constructed the volcano lair (which I originally typed as 'skeleton lair').

Thank you for this beautiful LP. I may very well start that SC4 LP in a month or so.

I kinda wanna kick off a Sims 4 version of this now. Anyone up for it?