Congrats Chare
I really enjoyed this challenge, as soon as I saw it I just knew who I was going to use, Tad Broke my immortal martial arts master, he won 18 matches in a row during my dynasty and despite having to start over from scratch he still did me proud for this challenge.
I switched two of his original traits for this so he was still adventurous, disciplined and athletic then I added lucky and genius. I also made him a fairy.
I spent hardly any time at all in the home town unless I had to as you can just as easily do the chess tournament in China as at home. I bought the cheapest empty lot available so he would have lots of spare cash, then I bought a fairy bungalow for him to take with him, took a logic class, and visited the elixir store to try and get some invigorating elixirs, and the grocery store for a few coffee beans then it was off to China.
One reason I wanted money was for supplies at the market, dried food and shower cans to save time, then after going to the academy to learn the skill up to tournament level I either spent my time at the market or across the road at Emperors Plaza which has two chess tables. These are central locations that save time on sims getting to you.
The market is good because they hang around after the match so a previous opponent might come up again and still be on the lot, I've also noticed the Chinese tend to bring their entire household with them and often another member could turn out to be your next opponent. At Emperors Plaza I would often phone a chess and a martial arts opponent and whoever got there first was challenged first, they also tend to hang about a bit, often swimming which could pose a problem if they end up fatigued, but overall I found martial arts not a problem, unless fatigued a sim will fight regardless of other motives but chess is a pain as they will stop mid game, my sim included. And there's an issue if my sim stopped I could not get the other sim to, they would sit there playing chess until bladder failure drove them from the table wasting hours sometimes
I found the worst motive for a failed chess game was hunger so I took to leaving dried food on the floor and so while sparring that hungry future chess opponent would happily pick one up and eat so they then wouldn't stop play due to hunger, and hopefully they would go pee while waiting too
After the first trip he didn't even set foot on his lot, he arrived outside the McDermott's in Riverview so went straight to Dogwood Playland and started calling opponents, and played chess till it got too late, then just slept in the fairy bungalow, as soon as he could travel again he was off. I bought just two rewards, steel bladder as soon as I could and then prepared traveler so he could go for six days on his second trip, I had left his lifetime wish as martial arts master so one of his first wishes was visit China and adventurous boosted the points up a lot, so did all the wishes to spar.
I know I could have done a quicker time and most of my wasted time was the fault of other sims, I also went to a sims house if needed, it's a shame they don't have chess tables because that was my biggest hold up at nights rather then the sparring as he was too fatigued to do more of that but in any case if the sim is too tired they'd have just stopped playing.
