Hey - YAY! for Cait - who is most definitely AWESOME!

...and, as for me - GAH! Smoke detectors! I meant to put them above the coffee machines. I thought I had put them up there. But, you are right... I don't see them *sigh*
I also seem to be missing a bonus? I shoulda had 50K in bonuses. Price was under 250K, and I used all BG content.
So, if I hadn't forgot those blasted alarms - I'd've been in 4th place with 461K...

Oh well. This was a really fun contest Congratulations Caitawesome

Yay! I'm so excited I won! My heart was seriously pounding when I first read the announcement. There have been so many great entries from everyone I really thought I wouldn't stand a chance. This is my first contest on MTS, and I wasn't sure what to expect going in. What I found very pleasant about the experience is how everyone's willing to help out one another, such as pointing out possible disqualifiers or stray cc in each others' entries. Everyone was very nice and created a pleasant experience.

Thanks to d for putting this together, and for being a helpful and conscientious contest host. And special thanks to the judges for taking the time to review the entries and write thoughtful critiques. And we get prizes! My certificate is now hanging in the construction office:



Some final feedback remarks on the competition:

I felt the time frame for building entries worked well--it didn't feel rushed, but it also didn't drag out too long. The judges' criteria and scoring made sense, since the requirements were mostly spelled out in the town contracts, and the subjective part of the scoring didn't feel too subjective (it probably also helped there were enough judges to even out the scores well).

The spreadsheet included with the final contract was helpful, and, as d already mentioned, I think most contestants would've benefited from having one with every contract. I enjoyed doing the math and figuring out how much to spend to maximize profits, but obviously not everyone did. Since this is my first sims contest, I didn't have preconceived notions for what would be expected, so I read the contracts very carefully and paid attention to the money. But, the contracts were long and wordy, so maybe including a building requirements spreadsheet similar to the judges' criteria would've been helpful, also.

Regarding bonuses, I didn't think they were worth enough, especially the base game bonus. Creating something visually interesting is difficult with base game, even more so when it's being judged against entries not restricted to base game, but, except for the last round, the bonus was typically only worth 1.5 points. Since the main judging criteria was if the entry looked interesting compared to the other contenders, bg only is a pretty big disadvantage and could've been worth a bit more.

I meant it when I said it was a well-deserved win, caitawesome - and I gave up on trying to use only base game a long time ago in this competition

The excel sheet could have made a huge difference, I think - although I enjoyed the maths part too.

Ah, Cat - smoke detectors! I forgot stair railings once - we all seem to get these attacks sometimes, don't we?

Hoping to find all your lots in the download section soon. And again - I cannot believe how much I have learned. Thank you!

Congratulations to everyone who entered, judged and organised this contest. I had a lot of fun watching! :lovestruc

Congrats, Cait! Well done!

I did forget a pool ladder didn't I? Ooops...will have to add one before I uploaded it (along with the invisible hotel desk so it actually functions as a hotel ). And yes, it was loosely inspired by the Breakwater in LB, so glad that it sends that vibe. I also wanted that sort of old Hollywood (not the place, more the era) feel.

In regards to the BG content, the water fountains in front were not in the BG of The Sims 2. That came later on. That's why there wasn't a $25,000 bonus.

Congrats Cait, and everybody! This was my first contest, and I had so much fun. I've learned a lot and honestly I love challenges like this. I look forward to the next one.
Now I'm going to deliver Henry Winters his certificate (and see if he's willing to finish some of the unfinished properties).

Congratulations Cait. :D


Was there some kind of formula for this, because no I had no clue. I knew not to go over the amount that would get me a loan, but didn't realize there was some clever figure to aim for.


Also d I still cannot open my certificate.

Jo I had trouble with my password at first too. Have you tried typing in the password? I was copying and pasting mine and it wasn't working then I typed in the password and it opened.

I haven't tried typing it in Lehcar, thanks for the idea.

Lehcar, you're a treasure! That absolutely worked. :lovestruc

The case of the messed up password is closed, when in doubt type it out! I am going to assume it has something to do with being on classic or web browsers or some such weirdness as the password was the same one I used before it just did not like to be copy and pasted.

Congratulations caitawesome and all the other participants! Thanks d_dgjdhh for running the contest, and all the judges for the time and effort you've put in. Cat & Kiri get well soon - you're in our thoughts and prayers.

It was my first contest and I enjoyed it. The way in which I integrated the contest into my normal game (by making my teen Sims Andrew Jones and Julian Moltke the directors of my company) added a lot of extra interest. But I also feel a little relief at finishing the final contract. It was starting to feel a bit like work with deadlines to meet, and me effectively an employee of the company with Andrew, our MD, as my rather demanding boss! I set my alarm for 4 a.m. to finish my entry for that last round -- the deadline was 5 a.m. in my time zone! So it's nice to have time for some other things! Like actually playing The Sims! And sleeping!! But I would like to take part in a similar contest in the future -- especially a Simoleon-based one like this one! I'm going to bed now, but I'll post again with suggestions for the future. Dear mods, please keep this thread open for a few weeks so we can post "matters arising" from the contest!

And thanks d_dgjdhh for the certificate. Andrew has put his on his bedroom wall. And then celebrated by kissing his fellow director Julian.


They've got plenty to celebrate. Not only have they got a copy of the certificate each (and they'll be putting a third copy into the site office in Monopoly Game Town), but I'm splitting the closing balance of §412,682 between them. That's §206,341 each, instantly putting Andrew and Julian into the same financial league as Consort Capp. And they're still at school! The Jones family funds (cash on hand) has just gone from §2,984 to §209,325! Not even Andrew can spend all of that on clothes!

[EDIT] I have just given Julian his certificate and his share of the closing balance. As a result the Moltke family funds (cash on hand) have jumped from §4,490 to §210,831.

All in all, I think this injection of money into the Veronaville economy is a good thing. It will make it easier for new OFB businesses to start. The boys can either start them themselves or come to an arrangement with other Sims. Up till now Consort Capp has been about the only one in the neighbourhood with any disposable capital to speak of.

Oh Pooh!!! I musta added them after putting it into my big game for pictures. *sigh* Thanks for pointing them out for me

Congrats everyone, with extra sprinkles for caitawesome!!!

This was such a fun contest to watch and be inspired by. I spent a fair share of time reading along, drooling over lots and trying to replicate little building tricks in my own game. You all were so wonderful to observe being so helpful to each other, creative with ideas and FUNNY (especially in the downtime).

I really liked the variety of places you requested them build, d_dgjdhh.

Cat, I wish we had noticed your fountain, after struggling with all that base game content to be ousted by a fountain.

Thanks Goldenbtrfly, perhaps you might like to join the upcoming contest?

Some feedback

Base game only is very hard for UC players - AGS is not an option; the cheat does not distinguish walls, floors,roofs and recolors, and the most helpful was the collections by the Ninth Wave - but there, as well, recolors are still shown with each object. That is basically why I gave up on it - not knowing if I can use this colour chair or that colour bedding. Also, I found that the wall we had to use for the shack/starter lot was missing from the collection. So I think that I would ask very politely that that should be taken into account with a building contest. While it is certainly a huge achievement to build with base game only, it simply is not a well working option with UC.

Then the rule that nothing should be downloaded : that would actually imply that the collection folders by TNW are not allowed! Also, UC often does not work without some downloads (eg. the graphic rules fixer) - and definitely does not work without it on Windows 10 if you use a NVidia graphics card. Also, some players found that they cannot use the disc version on Windows 10. (Take note that, once you have UC working on Windows 10, the game runs like a dream, so one is not likely to go back in any case). There are a bunch of new UC players (and some of them are builders with uploads here ) out there, and they may not be as bold as I am and tackle the contest anyway if no provisions are made for them. So that rule would imply that UC players cannot take part (I know it is not how it worked in this competition, but if you really are very legal, that is what it comes down to).

So the base game only bonus as well as the nothing should be downloaded rules could have put some players off from taking part in the contest; or to continue with it. The idea was a great one, but with UC existing now, probably not the most practical one. Also, there is no point for a UC player to do that - nobody who does not have all expansions and stuff packs can use it anyway!

Jo - so you miscalculated with the Simoleons, so what? You have built another lot during this contest and it was PICKED! Huge congratulations on that one, and I, for one, don't know where you found the time (we were probably calculating )

Lol, you were all calculating. I think I built it after the starter with the rain tank, that build was pretty quick, only the line gave me issues. I didn't play at all while I was building the carnival, only built that. Since I am home most of the time I get in 10-15 minutes sessions over the day. Same way I refresh MTS-no wonder my post count is so high.

My suggestion would be that any other contest like this make the money side simplified. I still have no idea what optimal sum I should have been aiming for. I understood not over spending and not taking out a loan, but what was I supposed to be aiming for money wise?

joandsarah77, yes... I sure had considered perhaps giving it the old try. I'm already looking into what programs I should have to remove the pause lines, grid lines (?) and whatnot. It would be a learning experience, but a good one. You all had so much fun it was quite infectious!

(...I agree with you on the money aspect. I tried to follow it myself as just an observer and just gave up. "Keep It Super Simple" KISS is the way to usually go.)

I did badly in the application round - and then decided to pay more attention to the money; so I basically tried to spend as little as possible and getting as many points as I can - except when we got to the business, when I gambled and spent almost my entire budget on the bridal shop - it could have backfired badly, but fortunately it did not. Something that did help was building that starter lot base game only (thanks to @AndrewGloria's help) and for less than 15K (or was it 16? (- that gave me two bonuses, I believe (and make a huge difference later). It helped that my hotel was actually quite cheap in the end, I think, although I wanted to spend a lot more (I ended up replacing lights with less expensive ones because the hotel just looked stupid with chandeliers )

Goldenbtrfly - you don't need programs to remove those lines for the pics - there is a mod that remove that red line around the screen, but you just press the 3 dots and then F10 and all the gridlines go away.

This mod will get rid of the red pause lines. For more information on screenshots I'd take a look at Screenshot basics in the Creator Guidelines here.

Thanks for the tips/links! I appreciate it and will check out/use everything in-game tomorrow.

In case any of you have uploaded your properties on ModTheSims (or other places), please let me know, I'll be adding links to the bottom of my Monopoly Game Town neighborhood.

I have so far just uploaded my shack. http://www.modthesims.info/d/575452 I will be uploading the others at some point.

But I see you already beat me to it since it's on your page. Next up will be the apartment. I did go and save it to file but I need to test that one before uploading.

Thank you, D - I will upload mine in a little while, I have been moving office around - adding shelves and stuff and now going back in - so a bit hectic here, but at least the hotel seems to work fine. Give me a week or so And thank you.

Ok, folks, it's been a week since the winner was announced, time to close the thread. You can PM lot links to d_dgjdhh. Hope to see you all in the next contest!