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

Virtual BEAT is just like Actual BEAT:

Given recent events, I feel we should plow all our money into a hat collection, to be shared amongst the Sims.

The Sims: Team Fortress edition

There is certainly a ridiculous array of hats to choose from.

You can only have one hat per outfit at a time, but the good news is they don't actually require monetary investment.

Oh man i still have that hat!
I keep it on a little wooden sculpture of a chinese zen master i got at goodwill!
FOR WHEN I NEED IT.

Remember last update, when Wild woke up and the first thing he wanted to do was steal? Well... this update starts off with the results of those urges, I think.


Even though he can't help but not be there, Ayesha's such a harsh overlord she still counts it against Wild that he's not at work.




Wild is stuck at jail for a little while, with some of the usual options that show up when he's at work. He can twiddle his thumbs, practice Athletics, meet people, or play simple games. Since his Fun meter has just about emptied from his working so hard to please the boss, Wild spends most of his time incarcerated playing dominos.

The police empty your inventory while you're in jail, but to be fair, a book on how things break and how to fix them might actually be used to bust out of prison. That makes more sense than, say, the confiscation of fish and fruit.

Now, who might have squealed on Wild to get him arrested in the first place...


Hmmmmmm...


With Trar's promotion comes new responsibility. Now his career advancement is also based on interrogating people.


His personal advancement, of course, is still based on buying stuff.

Once he's out of the clink, Wild spends the entirety of his next night on the job by doing whatever degrading and terrible things Ayesha asks him to. It works a little, since he's no longer actively "Disliked".


His perseverance in the face of misfortune and the street cred he gets from jail time manages to nab him a promotion, too.


But in retaliation for this whole situation he takes a little bonus home with him when he leaves work.

Without a whole lot of guidance from the players regarding what they want to invest their wealth in, I remodeled the house myself to address a few in-game problems.


This is what it looks like now.


Trar and M'dair now share a bedroom. Vixen, being the only lady at this sausage party, gets a private room. Both have bathroom access.


The front door now feeds into the living room/rec area, with the kitchen and dining area off to the side. Beat and Wild, being BEST BUDS 5EVER, share a bedroom. Yes, that's a pot of calla lilies at the foot of Wild's bed. How did those get there?

To keep whoever's on the treadmill from stinking up the entire living room with their sweaty miasma, I moved the workout equipment into its own room. The workout equipment is now five paces from the nearest shower, so nobody has to walk through the entire house to reach a bathroom while dripping sweat.




To make room for the expansion, I had to move the henge. I went ahead and replaced the grill and picnic table with a fire pit. It seemed more fitting.

Vixen also got a promotion, and like Trar her new job involves new responsibilities. But she's already been working on her Handiness, so that's no problem at all.


In fact, she's good enough at Handiness to attach a timer mechanism to the lawn sprinkler so that it comes on every day to water the plants without any effort on Vixen's part. That saves a lot of time! And that's good, because between long work hours and the biological demands of food and sleep, Vixen doesn't always have the time to give her garden the care it needs.


Wow, rude.






Wild had finally caught up to Beat in career progression, but then Beat got another promotion. And now Beat's dreaming big.

It's Trar's lifetime wish to make it big in law enforcement. And the military career demands Handiness -- at a pretty high skill level by job level 4 -- and Trar doesn't have that. So... no. Emphatic no.


Unlike other skills, you need more than just practice to develop Charisma. You have to actually go out and make friends!


I... huh? Is he?


Wild's been featured pretty heavily in this update, but what can I say? He had the most to do, recovering from his nigh-constant career issues. But now he's got a big break, a chance to make some cash and get some recognition, so he'd be a fool not to do it. But how is he going to get to the venue?


You already know.

The rundown:

Beat: LAPs 14,653, Professional Slacker
Wishes: Join Evil Career Branch +1000, Improve Athletic Skill +1000, Befriend All Coworkers +1500, Be Worth More Than $35,000 +1500
Opportunity: Payment Options (Go to work for a cash bonus)

Wildkin: LAPs 6,798, Opportunistic
Wishes: Become More Muscular +300, Work Out for 6 Hours Straight +900, Reach level 8 of Athletic skill +1750

Madhair: LAPs 15,401
Wishes: Reach level 6 of Cooking skill +1000, Reach level 8 of Painting skill +1750, Paint Something Worth $350 +400, Have 2 Friends +500
Opportunity: Getting To Know... You (Go talk to Nich for a cash bonus)

Trar: LAPs 9266, Steel Bladder
Wishes: Reach level 5 of Law Enforcement Career +1000, Reach level 6 of Painting Skill +1000, Earn a Promotion +1000, Earn a Raise +750
Opportunity: Read Police Book (then return to work for a job performance boost)

Vixen: LAPs 7,425, Multi-Tasker
Wishes: Play Video Games +250, Earn a Raise +750, Talk About Gardening +250
Opportunity: Learn a Thing or Two (Conduct research on a computer)

Cash on Hand: $5717
Lot Value: 29,286
Adding cash on hand and the lot value sums to $35,003. Not sure why Beat hasn't gotten his Wish yet, tbh

Meanwhile, in an alternate dimension...

This trait is hilarious but oh man I see how this would cause problems.

I realized I haven't actually asked: We keep calling it "my" bike, does the game actually have an ownership mechanism?

I am pretty sure that "Useless Contraption Manipulator" is my actual role at work in real life. I am also changing that to my forum title right now. Aw, doesn't fit, and I can't figure out a good way to shorten it. Sad.

It does! But nobody cares because I turned it off to keep the running gag.

I guess we know who's next.

All of this bike stealing makes me wonder how a sim based on Lady would react.

Heh. After seeing that I was thinking of asking you if that's what your RL job was like. I guess it is. (Might I suggest 'Useless Gadget Wrangler' as an alternative?)

Curse you R^2, you made want to play this game!

Doodad Manipulator?

soon, the gods will receive their sacrifice

Also, do purchased LA Rewards subtract from the total LAP score or is the cost still kept?

When it comes time to add up scores, I will:
Add back in the buy cost of everyone's Rewards,
Sum the LAP totals from all five characters upon their deaths, and
divide by five.

One of three victory conditions goes to the team with the higher average.

Rewards are just too goshdarned important to day-to-day gameplay to have characters stockpile their points to win some dumb LP.

So I realized that the nocturnal habits of Beat and Wild threw off my count of days having gone by. Normally when everyone's asleep, I save the game and take a minute to check up on wishes and stuff. But with someone in the house awake and demanding some sort of attention all the time, I lost track of time.

So the Tyrant House was two days ahead of the Bronto House. To balance out, this is kind of a short update.






And it has a lot to do with Trar getting a promotion to a beat cop (not a BEAT cop, you know what I mean). Trar gets his own squad car to use at his leisure with this promotion. While I don't think it adds any value to the household's net worth (whereas most cars are expensive), it does mean he doesn't have to sneak off with Vixen's bike to get anywhere.


Vixen leveled up in her job, too.

Having checked in with Nich to complete his Opportunity, M'dair talks to the guy for what seems like ages.




: "DAYUM GIRL IS YOURS THE GRAVE THAT'S SIX FEET ACROSS INSTEAD OF SIX FEET DEEP?"

Beat, being Evil, prefers rude introductions.




In happier news, pieces of art by Trar and M'dair have plenty of wallspace to fill. Most purchased possessions slowly decrease in value as time goes by, but the value of handpainted art goes up instead.


It's not that Vixen has a musical ass, that's the visual indication of a cellphone ringing. It still works when they're in the shower and presumably without pockets.


In this case, it's another cash-in Opportunity.

Wild's kleptomaniac urges lead him to steal from himself.


This guuuy...


The pathfinding in this game is so bad, you guys. Beat got a meal for himself out of the fridge, walked to the dining table, and put his plate down. But then he couldn't figure out how to get to the chair to sit down and eat, so he went to sit down in a different chair and just sort of stare longingly at his food instead.

Good, good. Soon I will have bent the police department to my will, and they will be powerless to stop the dark rituals.

That happened once.

I've never encountered that pathfinding issue, but then I don't play without running AwesomeMod, so I don't even remember what vanilla gameplay even looks like.

Vixen has a large and impressive garden! So large she doesn't have any free time to do anything else, what with all the weeding and harvesting. I pare it down a bit.


Beat careers up. One more promotion and he'll be on his path to evil overlord.


The best part is that condescending "Yours, Brooks" at the end. You know somebody's butthurt.


Trar and Vixen both have a couple of days off to enjoy. Trar spends some time in a shirtless painting binge with M'dair.


Once she finishes in the garden, Vixen takes a fishing trip. Gotta get that practice in sometime!

Hey, isn't that...


Despite chatting at her for a rather long time, Trar doesn't learn anything about Ayesha other than her career path, and she refuses to be Questioned, meaning he can't write up a report on her.


I buy him the Observant Reward, since from what I recall the reports are tied to how many of the target's Traits you've discovered. Observant automatically tells you three of the person's traits, so that should make things a bit faster.






Trar then meets the entire Landgraab family at their next outing to the park. But either he can't get a word in, or there's a conspiracy to prevent him from reporting on one of the town's richest households, so he still can't get any reports done.

Fuck it, time to do what Trar does.


Trar roots through the garbage for evidence. It's disgusting, but it gets the job done.


Before you know it, Trar's at home cranking out investigative writeups like you wouldn't believe.


The free rubber duckies he pulled out of the garbage are just a bonus.

Wild is still a bit behind Beat on career advancement. That random setback with Ayesha has some lasting consequences!


But in celebration of their new income level, I buy the pair another workout machine and a rockin' stereo for their home gym. The system comes with 5.1, but Wild quickly sets to work installing a bitchin' set of, like, 9.3 speakers instead.

(The two Handiness upgrades for a stereo are Improved Speakers that give a better moodlet for those in the room with a stereo playing, or Wire the House With Speakers to spread the moodlet around the entire lot. Since Wild and Beat are generally up all night while everyone else is asleep, I opt for the former -- it'd keep M'dair, Vixen, and Trar from storming into the gym to complain about the stereo staying on all night.)


Ayesha Ansari is turning out to be a major player in this LP.


Spending the rest of his shift in the "Conspire with Accomplices" option is enough to get Beat to be good friends with the NPC that's captured everyone's hearts. Next shift, he'll reap the benefits of the Opportunity.

Update rundown:

Beat: LAPs 6092, Attractive, Professional Slacker
Wishes: Join Evil Career Branch +1000, Be Worth More Than $50000 +2250, Befriend All Coworkers +1500,
Skills: Logic 4, Athletics 7
Opportunities: Criminals, Partners, Friends (Having befriended Ayesha, return to work for the next shift); Bursting With Energy (work out long enough to get pumped)

Wildkin: LAPs 10,984, Opportunistic
Wishes: Upgrade 10 Objects +1250, Join Thief Career Branch +975, Earn a Promotion +1000, Befriend All Coworkers +1500
Skills: Athletics 8, Handiness 7
Opportunity: Vegetized Plumbing (visit the diner and clean a bunch of garbage out of the plumbing)

Madhair: LAPs 22,797
Wishes: Have 3 Friends +600, Decorate House With 15 Paintings +1000, Paint Something Brilliant +500
Skills: Painting 8, Charisma 4 (will advance to 5 as soon as M'dair makes another friend), Cooking 6

Trar: LAPs 11,270, Steel Bladder, Observant
Wishes: Paint Something Worth $350 +400, Join Forensic Analyst Career Branch +900, Earn a Promotion +1000
Skills: Logic 6, Painting 6, Writing 1

Vixen: LAPs 10,163, Multi-Tasker
Wishes: Reach Level 8 of Gardening skill +1750, Improve Gardening Skill +1000, Go Fishing +150
Skills: Fishing 3, Gardening 6, Handiness 5
Opportunity: Absolutely Great Produce (have at least three "Great" quality things to give Red Silvers)


Cash on Hand: $7464
Lot Value: $34,916

$7000 is enough to get some new beds, individual bedrooms, a cheap car, or bathtubs to put your new rubber duckies in. What's the next house upgrade, guys?

Meanwhile, in an alternate dimension...

The ducks need their habitat. Buy a bathtub please.

Do we have a video game system? We should have one. Definitely the oldest crappiest one available.