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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 12th Oct 2014 at 9:41 PM Last edited by justJones : 17th Jan 2015 at 8:09 PM.
Default The apartment Complex Challenge
Apartment Complex Challenge

Ah, apartments. What would be city life without them?

Well, noisy neighbors wouldn’t be so close. If someone burnt their home, firefighters could easily contain it before it spread to yours. You didn’t have to say hello to people you never met. No stairs.

But really, where is the fun of living somewhere where gossip is much harder to come by (who needs noisy people while you can hear all the interesting stuff from your couch?). And meeting that cute guy from downstairs would be much harder.
Getting Started

It’s pretty easy getting started, first all you have to do is think of how many apartments you want your apartment complex to have. Because that is what will give you how many sims you have to create. You can go crazy, even more if you mod your sim so there is no household limit.

Open a new game by clicking the plus side on the right upper corner of your sims game – it will bring you to CAS mode. Then just do whatever characters you want, the crazy guy that never left his frat days, the sweet old lady that wants to fatten everyone up. Go with what works best for you, develop their looks, personalities and aspirations.
Now, all you have to do is choose one of the bigger lots in any of the worlds (the 50x50 ones) and bulldoze it (I use the freerealestate on cheat and then bulldoze it while I move my family in). It’s ready for you to create the apartment building of your dreams! Use any money cheats you want, but careful, there are restrictions!

You can’t place:

- Skill leveling up objects that wouldn’t normally exist on an un-habited house.
- Sound systems, televisions, computers, decorations or toys.

Because, let’s be real. When you move into a new apartment house, even if it has furniture in and basic appliances (stove, fridge and microwave), it won’t have your favorite gadgets or decorations. Those you have to buy for yourself from your own money.


Where things get tricky
Now that you have you complex all done, you need to see if anyone wants to buy (you already have the buyers ready, but hey, who’s counting?). So let’s set some prices:

Loft (no divisions besides the bathroom) - §10000
One bedroom – §12500
Two bedrooms - §15000
Three bedrooms - §20000

Each additional bathroom will cost Sims §1500 more. After three bedrooms, each additional room will cost §2000 more. Nicer apartments (meaning you use the most expensive items) have an addition of §2500 to the base price – some things in life have to be paid.

I advise you to keep a pen and paper near you because you’ll have to manage the finances of all your households at the same time. Why you may ask? Because they aren’t the same house, they’re in different apartments, hence no sharing money between them.

A single Sim will start with §20 000 after CAS, so this is their base money. Each single Sim household on your complex will have a starting balance of §20k, but from there you have to deduct the price of the apartment they chose. And then from all the decorations/items they bought.

And then as they make money, you have to make sure only they can spend it and when one of your households can afford a nicer item, etc…

Eg:
I have four households. I made two different types of apartments, all lofts, but two have nicer items. That makes two of them cost §10k and two of them §15k
So, two of the households would be left with §10k while the other would be left with §5k.

But don’t make lofts just because they’re cute and leave your Sims with more money, a family wouldn’t leave that comfortably on a loft if they have kids. You can always change your Sims’s apartments at any time you want, just keep in mind their budgets!

Now just play! Your goal is to fulfill all your Sims aspirations while making sure they stay healthy and happy. And of course, on budget!

Some important info - Sim's starting budgets:

One Sim – §20k
Two Sims – §22k
Three Sims – §24k
Four Sims – §26k
Five Sims – §28k
Six Sims – §30k
Seven Sims – §32k
Eight Sims – §36k

If you're making a Sim!Story and want to change the budgets because your Sims have diverse back stories, feel free to! You can make as many creative changes as you want as long as it's not against the rules.


Rules

1. Besides making the apartment complex, you can’t use any money cheats like motherlode, kaching or rosebud.
2. No cheats/hacks/mods that give you an advantage over someone who did not use them. I leave this rule deliberately open-ended because of the sheer variety of cheats/mods and hacks out there that have been, and will be made.
The rule of thumb is that using a specific cheat/hack/mod will not put your family in any better of a position compared to someone who did not use one. For example, money cheats like motherlode and kaching would be against this rule because someone who did not use them would have less money than someone who did.
Whereas a mod that, for example, created a brand new yellow shirt in CAS that your Sims could use, would be fine because having a pretty yellow shirt would not cause your family to gain any more points than someone who stuck with the stock clothing options.
3. You can move in other Sims, as many as possible (which can be a lot if you have the no household limit mod)
4. If I Sim dies, you may sell his apartment to another. All you have to do is take the dead Sim’s budget off of the household funds and merge in the other Sim’s funds minus the apartment price (have into account any upgrades you’ve done).
5. You can keep changing your complex the way you like it, adding and subtracting families (again, managing the money is important – use the testingcheats on followed by money (amount)). So this game can go on forever if you so wish for.


Points
This is the fun of the game isn’t it? Getting as many points as you can because hey, it’s nice.
  • For every aspiration you’re able to complete, you receive 50 points. If you wish for you can change the aspiration of the character – For every second aspiration completed you will receive 40 points (the first one must be completed for the points to be awarded. The first doesn’t mean the first aspiration you choose, but the first completed).
  • If a child gets an A in school, you’re awarded 10 points and 25 for every childhood aspiration you complete.
  • Every skill you level up to ten gets you 15 points.
  • Every career you level up to ten gets you 25 points
  • Because I know how hard managing a budget is, for every §10.000 simoleons (in each flat budget), you get 50 points.
  • Children make everything harder, so for each child you get 10 points.
  • For every flat you sell after your initial household, you get 20 points.

But it’s not all fun and games here. You can lose points.
  • For every dead Sim, you lose 10 points.
  • For every needs fail (bladder, sleep, etc) you lose 5 points
  • For every aspiration you change without it being completed you lose 15 points
________

Do you think this challenge is too difficult because of the managing of different budgets? Do not worry! Start with one of these ideas:

Adult community complex (or you can make a retirement home) - Same common rooms (dining room, fun areas) but different rooms! That means a communal budget! (idea by Davina - thank you!)

The older crowd isn't for you? What about some college dorms? Get those young adult Sims in the funnest part of college life!
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Test Subject
Original Poster
#2 Old 16th Oct 2014 at 5:20 PM Last edited by BabiCastro : 21st Oct 2014 at 5:07 PM.
Change Log

Version 1.01(16/10/14) - Added Sims' budget's according to the game.
Version 1.5 (21/10/2014)
- Added ideas for those who don't want to manage so many budget's. You can change budget's depending on backstory too! Also changed some mistakes on the nicer apartment prices, it's not §5000 anymore, but §2500.
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 21st Oct 2014 at 2:27 PM
Can we change the person's starting money based on their backstory? I have a successful bussineswoman who recently got divorced, so I want to move her in a nice apartment, not something starter and crappy.

Bookworm,Loves The Cold,Couch Potato,Dog Person, Insane Psychopath ;-D
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 21st Oct 2014 at 3:22 PM
How do you keep the sims from going into each others apartments and using each others stuff? Or do you just have to ignore them being in each others apartments?
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 21st Oct 2014 at 4:46 PM
If we ever get lockable doors, I'm definitely going to try this! But right now, it would drive me nuts that they treat it all as community property. Crossing my fingers some genius will create the doors!
Lab Assistant
#6 Old 21st Oct 2014 at 4:52 PM
How about an apartment based on the nursing home/active adult community model...everyone has their own little apartment, but entertainment (TV, computers, Stereo, chess boards, fitness equipment) are all in a communal space, and there is a communal dining room? That way, you can start out with the nice stuff, and the sense of community will be enhanced. Also, you do not have to worry about Sims using other Sims' stuff. I think that would work.

I like this challenge concept, but I don't think I would be interested in keeping track of separate bank accounts.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 21st Oct 2014 at 4:52 PM
TeckieSimmer - I never thought about it, but yes, you can. I'm going to change it on the main rules

Rhayne - The game has already a bed selector: If the sim sleeps in one bed, they will only sleep on that one. And in the downloads section of this site, there is a mod for a preferred shower/bath/toilet, which is super useful on this challenge! But yeah, this is one of the hardest parts of the challenge, making sure they don't go into each other apartments unless you want them to.

kmore61 - That would be so awesome and make this a lot easier! I'm hoping someone creates it so I can see how you do the challenge :D
Test Subject
Original Poster
#8 Old 21st Oct 2014 at 4:55 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Davinia
How about an apartment based on the nursing home/active adult community model...everyone has their own little apartment, but entertainment (TV, computers, Stereo, chess boards, fitness equipment) are all in a communal space, and there is a communal dining room? That way, you can start out with the nice stuff, and the sense of community will be enhanced. Also, you do not have to worry about Sims using other Sims' stuff. I think that would work.

I like this challenge concept, but I don't think I would be interested in keeping track of separate bank accounts.

I'm going to add this, maybe make some difficulty levels and make this one the easiest as you don't have to keep track of separate bank accounts
But you shouldn't be picky with food, as it would be too boring to always be noting down §3 spendings. So I was just talking about pricier things. I'm going to add it to the rules!
Thanks for helping me make this better ^^
Lab Assistant
#9 Old 22nd Oct 2014 at 4:43 PM
Quote: Originally posted by BabiCastro
in the downloads section of this site, there is a mod for a preferred shower/bath/toilet, which is super useful on this challenge!

I can't find the mod you are talking about. Can you put the link to it?

Bookworm,Loves The Cold,Couch Potato,Dog Person, Insane Psychopath ;-D
Test Subject
Original Poster
#10 Old 22nd Oct 2014 at 8:58 PM
Quote: Originally posted by TeckieSimmer
I can't find the mod you are talking about. Can you put the link to it?

Here it is: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=537327
Lab Assistant
#11 Old 25th Oct 2014 at 1:35 AM
Well went ahead and decided to try this, but after setting up all the apartments and using the mod for toilets, showers and tubs. The first thing the sim did was go to the fridge and take food out and head down stairs to cook it in another apartment. This will drive me nuts so guess till they come out with lockable doors this will have to be put on the shelf.(sigh)
Test Subject
Original Poster
#12 Old 25th Oct 2014 at 11:51 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Rhayne
Well went ahead and decided to try this, but after setting up all the apartments and using the mod for toilets, showers and tubs. The first thing the sim did was go to the fridge and take food out and head down stairs to cook it in another apartment. This will drive me nuts so guess till they come out with lockable doors this will have to be put on the shelf.(sigh)

My Sims cook on their apartments, but I have to be careful or they'll eat in another one --'
Test Subject
Original Poster
#13 Old 25th Oct 2014 at 4:46 PM
I'll be posting LP videos on this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj...eUKq7iSCo_72HTQ
Besides my own challenge I'll be doing other lp's too, so check it out if you want to ^^
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