Scout Troop

[Metropolis Man]

Scout Troop



Goal
Oh, for the happy days of childhood, roasting marshmallows, making sit-upons, singing campfire songs, collecting badges...You can relive those days now with your Sims. How much time you get to spend with your Scouts is up to you, because your score will be how long it takes your 3 Sims to collect all the badges.

General Challenge Rules
The General Challenge Rules always apply. If applicable, exceptions will be noted below.

Specific Challenge Rules

• This challenge does require the Seasons expansion.
• In CAS create one human or alien YA and 3 children.
• No becoming a Vampire.
• No adding to the household.
• No moving.
• You are allowed to use the Buydebug cheat for the sole purpose of purchasing a satellite to prevent abductions.
• No buying potions for someone else in the household.
• This challenge ends when all 3 of your children (or teens) have each collected all the badges.

Scoring

Time — When all 3 of your children (or teens) have each collected all the scout badges, write down the date and time. Plug the info into Lena's spreadsheet to calculate the number of minutes it took. This is your score.

Ch-Ch-Changes
The team does not want to edit and make changes to the ruleset once this event goes live, but we may have to. If an exploit is brought to our attention or we discover something else we reserve the right to ask affected players to redo their effort.

Have Questions?
Please think hard before you ask in the challenge thread because it may be strategy. What you may consider an innocent question could cause another player to go — “oh, I did not think of doing that.” It’s always safer to PM everyone on the team (Metro, LenaLJ, MarianT, and sdhoey) for clarifications. Thanks.

And the Winner is...
After this event has closed everyone is encouraged to discuss how they approached the event, but the winner especially is expected to do so in detail.

This Event is Now Closed

Player	Time
LenaLJ	1089
GlazeyLady	1112
oshizu	1363
Whimsical Peanut	1485
lesleyj42	1696
Nikitachi	1746
Tynynounours	1827
MomOfMany	1914
JocyMc	1985
SueDenim	2168
Snoochenpurner	2548
Eighty8Keys	3182
workingmum8	3219
cbrooks	3735
Noyo	4216
sdhoey	5667
Metropolis Man	5797
MarianT	7288
coolsim9999999	8907

[coolsim9999999]

"No buying potions for someone else in the household."
Wow!  So, we're allowed to buy potions now ?

[Metropolis Man]

"No buying potions for someone else in the household."
Wow!  So, we're allowed to buy potions now ?

Unless a specific challenge bans it (like this event), yes, you've got the green light for buying potions. At the end of last year when the team was deciding how to make the General Rules shorter with fewer bans, that was one thing that got nixed.

[coolsim9999999]

Thanks Metro.  That's awesome to know for other events !  I'll make sure not to use them for this challenge, though.

[GlazeyLady]

Thanks Metro.  That's awesome to know for other events !  I'll make sure not to use them for this challenge, though.

@Metropolis Man   We can use them in this challenge, but each sim can only use potions they purchase for themselves, right?

[Metropolis Man]

Thanks Metro.  That's awesome to know for other events !  I'll make sure not to use them for this challenge, though.

@Metropolis Man   We can use them in this challenge, but each sim can only use potions they purchase for themselves, right?

No, you can't buy potions in this event. But, the General Rules do not ban potions for other events. And that would include passing items.

[GlazeyLady]

Thanks Metro.  That's awesome to know for other events !  I'll make sure not to use them for this challenge, though.

@Metropolis Man   We can use them in this challenge, but each sim can only use potions they purchase for themselves, right?

No, you can't buy potions in this event. But, the General Rules do not ban potions for other events. And that would include passing items.

Okay, glad I asked.  Since the rule says no buying for someone else, I didn't understand that also meant they couldn't buy for themselves.  Thanks for clearing it up!

[oshizu]

Thank you for asking that question @GlazeyLady and thank you for clarifying the rule @Metropolis Man
I'd also assumed the rule permitted buying potions for personal use, but it actually means "Reward potions are banned for this particular challenge."
Good to know before practicing.

[MarianT]

@GlazeyLady and @oshizu, Metro asked me to say that indeed you can buy potions, but the Sim who buys them has to be the one to use them. GlazeyLady's first interpretation was correct.

[coolsim9999999]

Thanks a lot Marian!  That will be helpful in my scoring file .

[coolsim9999999]

At 12:27 p.m. on the first Saturday, all 3 of Phyllis Nefler's children finished all the badges.
Therefore, my total minutes/my score = 8,907 minutes according to Lena's spreadsheet.  Thanks a lot for the spreadsheet, Lena, and great idea Lena and the rest of the team ! 

P.S. I know she only has 1 daughter in the movie Troop Beverly Hills, but I added 2 more daughters to fit the challenge.

[MarianT]

Baden Powell's 3 scouts finished all their badges at 9:28 a.m. on the first Friday, for a total of 7288 minutes.

[Noyo]

 Two girl's and one boy scout kid's, completed all badges at 1st week, Wednesday, 6.16 am; final score is 4216 minutes.

This challenge finished a bit better than expected, luckily i writed a review about Seasons pack, i remember playing in details Scout's feature. Certainly i guess - expect better results till the end of the challenge. ive finished as early as possible, have to write a couple of reviews, including NBA Live 19 and "CHANGE: A Homeless Survival Experience", the last one is in early access on Steam and might be interesting for Sims players, going to try out soon. Happy simming all, ill try to play final - Collection's challenge, while ill follow Carl's guides on Youtube, sul sul, good luck. 

[SueDenim]

Bubbles, Blossom, & Buttercup finished on Monday at 8:08pm - 2168 minutes

This was a fun challenge!

[Metropolis Man]

Bubbles, Blossom, & Buttercup finished on Monday at 8:08pm - 2168 minutes

This was a fun challenge!

Oh, sheesh...I love the Powerpuff Girls reference.

[workingmum8]

My 3 girl scouts earned all their badges by the first Tuesday at 13:39 for a total of 3,219 minutes.

Really loved this one, as I've only had one child in my normal gameplay use the scout career so far.  Can't wait to start the last challenge, but I've never really been very good at completing collections. 

[oshizu]

Wow, great scores, everyone!

[Nikitachi]

Done at the first Monday, 13:06 - which equals to 1,746 minutes.

Such a quick one! Now onto practicing for the way way harder collections challenge!

[Metropolis Man]

Wow, Nikitachi. Impressive. That, my friends, is called raising the bar.

[Eighty8Keys]

My three scouts earned all their badges by the first Tuesday at 1:02 PM for a total of 3,182 minutes. I've only dabbled a couple of time with scouting so far so this was a fun experience.

[Snoochenpurner]

I really enjoyed this mini challege.
My three sims finished on Tuesday 2:28am
Total 2548

[JocyMc]

This challenge was a lot of fun.  My 3 scouts finished up on the first Monday at 5:05 pm for a total of 1985 minutes. 

[Tynynounours]

The Ptik scouts finished monday 1 at 2:27PM for a total of 1827 minutes.

That was intensive but fun

[Nikitachi]

See, nothing that impressive with my score

[Metropolis Man]

See, nothing that impressive with my score

It's still good enough for 1st place.

[Whimsical Peanut]

The Payne scouts finished Monday 1 at 8:45 AM for a total of 1485 minutes.

This was a fun challenge 

Cheers!
WP

p.s. Can I play with them now? I wanna see what's all the fuss about Seasons

[sdhoey]

The Bryd Triplets complete on Thursday Week One at 6:27 am for a Total of 5667 minutes according to Lena's wonderful spreadsheet.

I pushed my limits on this one, and my hat goes off to those that did it on the first two days. 

[Metropolis Man]

The Payne scouts finished Monday 1 at 8:45 AM for a total of 1485 minutes.

This was a fun challenge 

Cheers!
WP

p.s. Can I play with them now? I wanna see what's all the fuss about Seasons

Great score, WP! And yes, absolutely, have fun with them. Save your file with a different name before you would progress in case the team would have any questions. Can't imagine why we would, but you never know.

[Whimsical Peanut]

I did save them with a different name
Wanna play with the holidays and having 3 kids seems the perfect way to play with them

[cbrooks288]

That was really fun, although a shame that scouting presents such little challenge. I finished in the first week, on Tuesday at 10:15PM, which amounts to 3735 mins

[Metropolis Man]

That was really fun, although a shame that scouting presents such little challenge. I finished in the first week, on Tuesday at 10:15PM, which amounts to 3735 mins

Welcome to the forum. And thanks for participating.

[MomOfMany]

I finished on Monday at 3:54PM. Spreadsheet puts that at 1914. I was hoping for a little better of a time but I know at least one mistake I made.

[oshizu]

Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and Tweedled'oh collected all their badges by 6:46 a.m. of the first Monday.
Score: 1,363 minutes

Usually, I earn the badges in the process of completing aspirations and attending school, so this was pretty fun.
And may I just thank the Challenges Team for the way they keep switching around the pace and feel of the various challenges to keep us feeling "fresh"!
Also, I always forget to thank LenaLJ for her wonderful spreadsheets.
 

[Metropolis Man]

This challenge ends Sunday night, so get those scores in soon! Good luck to everyone finishing up.

[Metropolis Man]

All done. My 3 scouts finished on Thursday of week 1 at 8:37 AM -- 5,797 minutes.

EDIT: Look at the challenge team all grouped up at the bottom. Okay, Lena...break a rule or something so you can DNF and finish close to us mere mortals.

[sdhoey]

All done. My 3 scouts finished on Thursday of week 1 at 8:37 AM -- 5,797 minutes.

EDIT: Look at the challenge team all grouped up at the bottom. Okay, Lena...break a rule or something so you can DNF and finish close to us mere mortals.

All hail Lena, *bows*

LOL your something else Metro, Putting all the pressure on poor Lena.

[MarianT]

All done. My 3 scouts finished on Thursday of week 1 at 8:37 AM -- 5,797 minutes.

EDIT: Look at the challenge team all grouped up at the bottom. Okay, Lena...break a rule or something so you can DNF and finish close to us mere mortals.

Just because we can make them up doesn't mean we can actually play them. Except for Lena, of course.

[LenaLJ]

I feel a bit of presured now I will do my best, I promise!
But I must admit I nearly forgot time on this one, as practicing for the next one kinda stole my attention

[GlazeyLady]

The Andrews triplets completed the Challenge at 2:32 am on the first Monday, for a total of 1,112 minutes.

[LenaLJ]

I am sorry to disappoint @Metropolis Man but I had to go for a victory.

My 3 young children Gabriel, Kathy and Trinity managed to collect the last badge at 02:09 on the first Monday. Whic brings them to a score of 1089, that was extremely close :O

[coolsim9999999]

Wow!  That's so close Lena and GlazeyLady --- 23 minutes  . 

[Metropolis Man]

Wow!  That's so close Lena and GlazeyLady --- 23 minutes  . 

Yes, indeed. And it's going to be amazing how Lena just narrowed the gap in the World Ranking. It was so close already. It's truly going to come down to which of these two Sim giants will do better in the Final as to who gets first overall...at least that's my prediction. And knowing how both are...each is going to wait until the last day to post their score lol.

[lesleyj42]

Long time no see, everyone. My scout troop finished on the first Monday at 12:16pm.

1696 min

[Metropolis Man]

Long time no see, everyone. My scout troop finished on the first Monday at 12:16pm.

1696 min

Nice to see you, lesleyj42. Glad you were able to sneak a score in at the last minute.

----------

This challenge is now closed. Grats to all participants. Hats off to LenaLJ for the very narrow win over Glazeylady. Everyone is now free to discuss strategy.

[LenaLJ]

I must say I found this challenge amazing. The very shortness of it really opened up for testing.
During the tests I had end times all the way down to ending at 01:12 AM, but in the final run it ended up being 02:09 AM

It was all about timing and doing the tasks for the badges as fast as possible.

So I started out with making a club, with the only activity being drawing.
The I invited 2 sims that had the family oriented trait, as I hope that they would encourage and help with homework by themselves, that worked out rather well.

The order I did the badges and what I did:

1. Arts and Crafts:
Make crafts at the childrens drawing table. The mom encouraged one of the children, and the two others where encouraged by the club members, once in a while.
This one is taking alot of time. But after this, the club had enough points to get "Rally the troops"

2. Scholarly Aptitude:
Can be completed with one setting of doing homework. Mom again helped one, and the two club members instantly helped the other two.

3. Young Scientist:
Que up experiments at the science table. As soon as the action starts, cancel it. This is very very fast.

4. Sociability:
Friendly interactions with mom and the 2 club members. Its just to choose fast ones like "Ask about day" etc.

5. Good Deeds:
As soon as the Sociability is done, turn over to funny interaction to get them to laugh.

6. Give Back:
The crafts made earlier can now be given away on the PC for charity. Also very very fast.

7. Civic Responsibilities:
Make a mess, as soon as the action starts, stop it, clean it up, and make a mess again, tedious, but it works.

8. Outdoor Adventurer:
Que go fishing, as soon as it counts, cancel the task, again extremely fast.

9. Keep Fit:
The one I had the most struggle with finding a fast way to do.
But the swing saved me. Just que up swing actions, and wait on them complete.

Lastly it was just to collect the badges at the board.

[oshizu]

@LenaLJ
Thank you for the detailed breakdown of your winning strategy!

Keep Fit took me the longest--I'd say one hour for each Keep Fit point.
But I couldn't use only the swing.
For some reason, one of my kids got nauseous after two consecutive swinging sessions in my practice file.
I ended up having the kids switch between 4 different activities.

Congratulations on your win!
This was really a fun challenge. I agree that the shortness allowed a lot of opportunity for practicing.

[coolsim9999999]

Congratulations on your win, Lena!  Awesome strategy .

[GlazeyLady]

I couldn't use only the swing.
For some reason, one of my kids got nauseous after two consecutive swinging sessions in my practice file.
I ended up having the kids switch between 4 different activities.

Clearly I'm not as compassionate as you.  When your kids got sick, you gave them an alternate activity; when my kids got sick, I said, "Suck it up, kid! Keep swinging!"   
It didn't seem that nausea slowed then down with regards to how fast they got the badge.  (Oh, bad mom  )

I did pretty much the same activities as @LenaLJ , except Civic Responsibility and Arts and Crafts. - When I practiced, and cancelled mess-making right away, the mess disappeared if I didn't give more mess-making time, so I went looking for a faster activity.  When Lena said she used that, I figured I was missing something, so I fired up a game with kids, and sure enough, the mess disappears from sight, but the kid can still "Clean up".  (I love how I always learn new things in every challenge.)  Instead of that, I gave mom a bar and had her pour 24 glasses of water in a fenced in area (so the club members wouldn't come drink them). For each kid, I put out 8 glasses on a counter right beside a trash can and had them throw them away one at a time.  Very fast.

For Arts and crafts, create Summer crafts was faster than Draw, and in a test between 2 kids, one being encouraged and the other not, I saw no difference in how fast they completed the craft.  The one being encouraged did gain more skill.  (I noticed the same for homework - a kid being "helped" got the badge just as the homework was done.  Her sister, who was not being helped got the badge at the same time, but the homework wasn't completed.)  So I didn't worry about having an adult to help.  But then I found that if the birthday cake was ready and placed near a kid, that kid could age up and paint 6 small classic paintings in the same amount of time that the other kid could complete 5 Summer crafts.

I alternated socials (Friendly, Joke, Gift, Friendly, Joke, Gift, etc. so I could keep using "Ask about Day" without getting a boredom moodlet; when gifts (bottles of bubbles) and jokes were done, I pulled them from the rotation and finished friendly socials).

So I had my kids start - one on the swings (the longest activity), one on socials, and one on the very fast activities (Outdoor, Scholarly, Civic, Scientist).  When each finished all of those, I aged them up, had them paint and collected all the badges at once. 

Congratulations @LenaLJ! 

[coolsim9999999]

Awesome strategy, GlazeyLady !

[SueDenim]

Congratulations @LenaLJ !

During my trial runs, I kept running late into the week - so my parent got level 3 writing so that she could write excuse notes for them.  Then she baked a cake.

For Civic Responsibility, two of the three threw away the same plate (start, take a step, stop the action moving incrementally closer to the garbage can. repeat)  The third accidentally finally threw it away halfway through the badge and we had to find other messes to clean up.

I didn't even think of the swingset.  During my trial runs, I couldn't keep the kids on the jungle gym.  (They kept getting off to do other things). So I aged them up for "Keep Fit."

[coolsim9999999]

I had the the kids dance to the cheapest stereo and stop and start again.  In my earliest practice run, they aged up to teen (with just keep fit left to complete.)  I bought 3 of the cheapest punching bags and had them use them 6 different times.