Author Topic: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. Failed. Graveyard please.  (Read 4337 times)

Offline CeresIn

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Skiillo's Household Skills Project. Failed. Graveyard please.
« on: September 22, 2020, 07:14:55 PM »
First of all, I want to thank @hazelnut for this well thought out project.

The Household skills project is something that I wanted to try for a couple of years now, but the same thing that caught my attention it’s what made me stop starting it, how immense this project is and how long it will take me to complete it.

A few months ago I was presented with the perfect opportunity to start it, my pc had complications that I couldn’t repair at that time so I started playing the sims on an old laptop that worked quite well with two or three expansions. This project seemed perfect for that situation, since I could decide which expansions I wanted to play and I didn't need to spend more than two or three generations in a town.

I got up to house four when I realized I hadn't planned ahead very well, so I had to make a decision, keep playing and see how far I could go or start over. At the same time, I had the opportunity to finally fix my desktop so it seemed like the perfect moment to start from scratch and this time share it with whoever was interested in reading my misadventures with this monster (in a good way) of a project.

Yesterday I received my desktop and after installing the sims, and without patience to install my downloads, I started this project immediately. After a few marathon hours playing, between yesterday and today, I finished the first house and I'm ready to post the first chapter.

So without much ado I present you The Skiillo Household Skills Project and her founder Audrey Skiillo.



The last name was a typo, it was going to have only one i, but I decided to leave it because I liked how it was written. For her name, I chose one that started with A, the theme for this family is to name the generations alphabetically. If my plan for this attempt goes well, I will finish this project before I use the entire alphabet.

Her traits are Neurotic, Ambitious, Natural Cook, Workaholic, Schmoozer and her lifetime wish is Celebrated Five-Star Chef. So yes, cooking is the first skill.

Chapters:

House 1: Cooking
House 2: Athletic - Part 1
House 2: Athletic - Part 2
House 3: Handiness - Part 1

Offline CeresIn

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2020, 07:32:52 PM »
House 1: Cooking

For this first house I’m playing with ambitions and generations plus all the stuff packs because I haven't installed my store and custom content yet but I wanted a little variation in the clothes.

Audrey moved to “The Monotone” in Sunset Valley with dreams of being the best cook in the town.



In my previous attempt, cooking wasn't among the skills I used, but four houses without adequate food was too much, so this time I decided for my sims to eat good meals from the beginning.

The first day, after getting a job as a Kitchen Scullion at the diner, was spent reading the first three levels of the cooking skill in the library.



It might not be the most fun first-home skill, since Audrey spent most of her time between cooking autumn salads and working at the diner, but it was an easy one and I dedicated myself to finding ways to make it more interesting.

Like doing the Grill-A-Thon opportunity in the park, a thing that I always avoid because it seems too much work for an opp that doesn’t always register.



This is what the project is about, right? To explore all the things the game has to offer.

By having only two expansions, learning all the necessary recipes for the Menu Maven challenge skill needed an extra effort on my part. So with that in mind I purchased Audrey’s first lifetime happiness reward “Bookshop Bargainer”.



A total waste of points, I bought exactly two recipes with it, because the largest source of recipes were her coworkers.  It was interesting to do this again, something I did a lot in the sims 3’s early days but it lost the appeal with the addition of the expansions.



Anyway, I didn't let her learn a lot of recipes though, not until level 9 of the skill because I wanted to see if the “learn all the recipes” wish would appear. And it did!



Audrey needed to learn one more recipe so she bought the second of the only two recipes that were bought with the bookshop bargainer reward.

Regarding her career, Audrey had a good performance in general, thank to her ambitious and workaholic traits, working from home on the library computer and asking her boss Jared Frio for a few promotions.
 


By the time she maxed out the cooking skill, she was already level 9 at her job.



Fulfilling the “reach level 10 of the cooking skill” wish helped her collect the necessary happiness points to buy her second reward “Inheritance” and with that completed the other moving requirement. Audrey’s now the owner of Hogan's Deep-Fried Diner.



But not everything is working and skilling in Audrey’s life, she was also looking for her future partner.



This is Torgo Pendragon, pizza delivery boy. He and Audrey were attracted to each other thank to his only trait, neurotic, something both of them shared. I suppose from his point of view, they are 100 percent compatible.  :P



All that was left for the young woman to do was to cook a few more meals before she could move into the next house, which she did the day after maxing her skill.



Two days before her adult birthday, Audrey completed all her requirements and with joy called the real estate company to buy the house next door.



So she ran to her future.




Audrey (founder)
Supermaxed Cooking
Traits: Neurotic, Ambitious, Natural Cook, Workaholic, Schmoozer
Career: Culinary (level 9) - to complete in the next house
LTW: Celebrated Five-Star Chef - - to complete in the next house
Building/property: Hogan's Deep-Fried Diner
Unique rewards:  Bookshop Bargainer, Inheritance



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Offline Trip

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2020, 07:47:28 PM »
I'm happy about the desktop! Even if it took ages. (then I remembered all the computer repairs we had on hold at my old job so...mystery solved)

I've only gotten "learn all recipes" to fire once; I finally had the correct EP combo where this sim didn't learn 28 or more by the time she maxed the skill (so no Supernatural or Pets).
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Offline CeresIn

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2020, 08:16:19 PM »
@Trip So so happy with my desktop back.
I fulfilled the learn all recipes wish only one time too, before this obviously. So when I started this project and realized that I would need to learn recipes I was happy. All for a simple wish. ::)

Offline CeresIn

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 2 Part 1 - 09/27
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2020, 09:23:19 PM »
House 2: Athletic - Part 1

I’m still playing with the same expansions as the previous house, ambitions and generations, this is going to be the case for at least two more houses.

As soon as Audrey got to her new home, she called Torgo for a visit.



It wasn’t very hard to convince him to move in with her considering that he lives in an invisible house. Having a roof was all it took for him to accept the offer.



What wasn’t hard either, was making him her boyfriend.



Torgo came with the Swimming in Cash LTW but I decided to change it for two reasons. The first, I chose the Professional Sports career for him. He’s four or five days until adult so I have full faith he’s going to complete it, so the obvious choice for lifetime wish was Become a Super Star Athlete. This way I fulfill the two thing together and I don’t have to repeat the career in a future generation.  I don’t like it very much, it takes too long to top and I almost never had the chance of a single day promotion.



The second reason is because I want to leave Swimming in Cash for the older spouse that I have in mind for the second gen heir.

Because Audrey needed only one more shift to complete her career and lifetime wish, I made them wait to conceive the heir until she could finish them. She spent her time in the gym.



And I spent mine sim watching. Love seeing what others are doing while my sims are working hard. In this case I had a fun time watching Madison making funny faces at the mirror while Jared bathed in the same room without a care in the world.



Later, I discovered they’re a couple living in Jared’s house. I don’t know where Connor is, I didn’t see him around town so I think the game culled him.

I forgot Audrey’s birthday so it’s surprised me in front of her house where I had a hard time taking a picture of it because she was right in front of the door.



The next day she reached level 10 of the culinary career and fulfilled her lifetime wish.



That same night, Audrey and Torgo jumped in bed to made the next gen heir. He asked her to wear her chef's hat because it was exquisitely hot on her.



I don’t have a lot of screenshot of Audrey’s pregnancy because they mainly trained, not much was happening in the house. Here’s one of them reading a pregnancy book.



And one of her training Cyclone Sword, because what he needs is being more stick looking, Audrey! But she had the wish to train someone and Cyclone was there. This is part of doing things I don’t normally bother with.



I spent some simoleons on a couple of cars for them, I was getting tired of taxis. I also made them a small sports area so they don't have to go to the gym all the time.



That night Audrey went into labor in front of a wall so I had a hard time taking that screenshot too.



This pregnancy was perfectly timed! Beatrice was born at 10 p.m. She’s an athletic brave girl.



Immediately after, her father aged to adult in a corner of the bedroom because this family mission in life is to make difficult mine and don’t let me take good shots.



Audrey maxed athletics, I’m working with both her and Torgo for the supermax but she’s a little ahead of him thanks to the long pregnancy leave she's on. I think she’s going to do it first.



Beatrice’s baby days came to an end.



She looks a lot like Audrey with Torgo’s hair and eyes color. I think the eyes shape are from Audrey but I’m not sure yet.



With his daughter being a toddler, Torgo wished to marry in general and to Audrey in particular, the woman had those two wishes for a while but I was waiting for Torgo to wish it too. They had a private wedding in their living room but at least I changed them into their formal wear for the occasion.



Both parents shared the responsibility of teaching Beatrice her toddler skills. I don’t know why I always took a lot of toddlers skilling up, so I’m going to post only two of them for the sake of everyone, myself included.





One night they had an unexpected visitor, who despite passing by two new cars preferred to enter the house and steal the computer.



It wasn't until the thief was breaking into the house that I realized that I never bought the alarm, so Torgo had to call the police. (Spoiler alert: I still haven’t bought it.)



Which was totally useless, because cop-lady arrived just when the thief had gotten into his car.



As he was already awake, Torgo took advantage of the few hours until dawn and maxed the athletic skill. The perfect moment to finish this update.



Next chapter it’s the second and last part of house 2.

Offline hazelnut

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 2 part 1 - 09/27
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2020, 10:58:05 AM »
Congratulations on the first move: you're off to a good start!  I did cooking as the first skill in one of the trial runs while I was finalising the rules and it makes a lot  of sense.  Quick meals get boring very fast, even if you mix it up with pizzas, eating out and maybe a buffet table.

I don't think I've ever done the Grill-A-Thon opp either.  Or the chess one, come to that.  And none of my Sims have married Torgo.  It'll be interesting to see how the genetics play out.

Offline CeresIn

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 2 part 1 - 09/27
« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2020, 05:19:05 PM »
Congratulations on the first move: you're off to a good start!  I did cooking as the first skill in one of the trial runs while I was finalising the rules and it makes a lot  of sense.  Quick meals get boring very fast, even if you mix it up with pizzas, eating out and maybe a buffet table.
I like having that skill unlocked first, plus the reward fridge full of perfect food made by Audrey.

I don't think I've ever done the Grill-A-Thon opp either.  Or the chess one, come to that.  And none of my Sims have married Torgo.  It'll be interesting to see how the genetics play out.
This is the first time I completed it, I had tried it twice before but time ran out before I could complete it in both occasions. The reward was a little increase in relationships with the sims that were in the park.



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Offline CeresIn

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 2 part 2 - 10/04
« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2020, 05:35:36 PM »
House 2: Athletics - Part 2

I start this update with Beatrice child birthday. Her new trait is technophobe, which makes obvious the skill for the next house.



Except for directing her to the hopscotch, doing homework and fulfilling her needs, I left her mostly on free will. She had a fun childhood.



As I predicted in the previous chapter, Audrey was the first in supermax athletic, she was on maternal (plus marriage) leave until Beatrice’s teenagehood so she had a lot of free time that was spent in the gym to avoid the stir crazy moodlet.





The house had another visit from the burglar.



This time lady cop arrived on time and he couldn’t escape.



What I don't understand is why Torgo was laughing at the woman when she did the job well. I suppose it has to do with his complex single-trait personality.  ::)



Beatrice spent much of her childhood time being pampered by her parents.



In the blink of an eye, she was already a teenager.



She gained the Daredevil trait to add to Athletic, Brave and Technophobe. She’s also pretty much an Audrey’s clone with Torgo’s coloring.



Her teen’s days were mostly spent in a treadmill at home or the gym. Her social life was almost non-existent.



The only event of importance was prom where she was voted Queen even though she only knew two of her classmates.





Torgo supermaxed athletic too. So we had two sims supermaxing this house skill, I’m not doing this with Beatrice.



He was in charge of teaching Beatrice how to drive since the only requirement that he lacked was to reach the top of his career.



And finally, Audrey got back to work.



A few days later, it was time for her last birthday. She looked very good as an elder.



Torgo can confirm this, of course, because he still finds Audrey attractive as ever.



A few days later it was Torgo's turn to age to elder with Audrey cheering behind him.



They were a very cute couple, all the time wishing romantic interactions with each other. In their elder age they went to many dates, since both had a lot of free time.



Beatrice maxed athletic a couple of days before her young adult birthday, she also bought EverFresh Delights Supermarket. She had her first lifetime reward since her early teen days, Faster Metabolism and later the Collector Helper.



Torgo reached level 9 on his career and completed his life time wish.



The next day Beatrice aged to young adult.



She gained her last trait, handy. Her lifetime wish is Firefighter Superhero; I want to do this ltw early in the project because I always had a hard time completing it. If I'm going to have problems with this I want it to be now and not when I'm more than halfway in the story.



The next day she went to the station to take the firefighter job.



Continuing in the next post...

Offline CeresIn

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 2 part 1 - 09/27
« Reply #8 on: October 04, 2020, 05:35:56 PM »
She won't be able to do much for now, as she had maxed athletic and can't learn handiness yet, Torgo’s last promotion is taking too long thank to very short shifts and free days, like Beatrice’s graduation.



Beatrice was the Class Valedictorian and voted Most Likely to get Electrocuted.



The family celebrated the occasion in the bistro where Beatrice dinned by herself at a table quite far from her parents’.



On her first shift she was able to respond to the first emergency, which surprised me very much that it wasn’t canceled as is often the case with first calls.



The house had a third visit from a thief but this time Beatrice was there to prevent the crime.



Of course, she found him dashing and they fought while thinking about each other. Sims are so weird.



She beat him and would have invited him out on a date if not for the fact that she'll be soon moving to another town.



The next day, Torgo finally reached the top of his career and fulfilled his last requirement and therefore the last in this house.



Something that I forgot to mention is that Audrey was collecting gems, I did this for various reasons, firstly because she had too much free time and I wanted to do something with her. The second reason was that I wanted to do the collection in the old way, without the benefit of later expansions. Everything was hand-collected by Audrey who didn't even have the the Collector Helper since Beatrice purchased the reward after Audrey completed it. I didn't even buy stones in the consignment store with exception of one single fluorite, I needed one more gem type for the heart cut and the pink diamond was never found (which is pretty normal without the miner or the martial arts skill). Here are all the base game gems and cuts; except for the absent pink diamond and the heart shaped fluorite that belongs to ambitions. I found just one rainbow gem.



The family spent one last night together at their house before Audrey and Torgo moved into the house across the street the next day.



One last screenshot in this skill household with the athletic certificates behind Beatrice. I also included Audrey’s cooking one from the previous house.



Finally, Beatrice left Sunset Valley.



House 2 summary

Skill: Athletic

Beatrice (Heir)
Maxed Athletic
Traits: Athletic, Brave, Technophobe, Daredevil, Handy
Career: Firefighter - to complete in next house
LTW: Firefighter Super Hero - to complete in next house
Building/property: EverFresh Delights Supermarker
Unique rewards:  Fast Metabolism, Collector Helper

Audrey
Supermaxed Athletic and Cooking
Traits: Neurotic, Ambitious, Natural Cook, Workaholic, Schmoozer
Career: Culinary
LTW: Celebrated Five-Star Chef

Torgo
Supermaxed Athletic
Traits: Neurotic
Career: Professional Sports
LTW:
Become a Super Star Athlete

Offline hazelnut

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 2 part 2 - 10/04
« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2020, 11:32:15 AM »
Wow, you're really powering through this.  Congratulations on another completed household skill.  :)

Offline CeresIn

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 3 part 1 - 12/08
« Reply #10 on: December 08, 2020, 03:03:45 PM »
Wow, you're really powering through this.  Congratulations on another completed household skill.  :)
I thought I had already answered you  ::) I'm really enjoying this project! Maybe I'm a little slow with updates but the challenge keeps me entertained enough to want to continue playing and not write about it lol.



House 3: Handiness – Part 1

I haven’t added any expansion, I’m still playing with ambitions and generations.

Beatrice arrived to Twinbrook to take charge of the third house, one I built because I was tired of premade ones.



Even though it was a Sunday, the game marked it as a work day.

Since Beatrice learned athletics before signing up for the firefighting career, my strategy is to learns the handiness skill slowly. I'm going to try to win the job’s first levels through dealing with emergencies and leave the skill for the higher levels. I hope it works!



Firefighters working hard to ensure our safety.



The emergency interrupted them and Beatrice really had to work.



For Beatrice's husband I chose Al Lyfe who is a social worker. So that she could meet him, I did a trick that I used a lot in my decadynasty. Having met any npc (in this case a maid), I use the invite household interaction on the phone, usually only the known npc shows up and the other guests don't but this makes them appear on the relationship panel. Then Beatrice called Al a couple of times until he accepted an invitation to her house.

She thinks he’s on fire, maybe because he’s red. That’s one of the reason I choose him, he’s on the red skin slider.



The other reason are his traits, Al is over emotional, perfectionist, neat, family oriented and hopeless romantic. His lifetime wish is Presenting the Perfect Private Aquarium but it’s going to change to Swimming in Cash.

Al was four days to elder when he joined the household so working a part-time job is the way to go with him. He’s a Grocery Store Clerk.



The newly couple didn’t waste time and tried for baby, three times until the bells sounded.



Beatrice spent her pregnancy mostly reading, I didn’t want her gaining job promotions only by skilling. I was only letting her use the handiness skill mainly to maintain the alarm and the fire engine.



Al's elder birthday soon came.



And this time I did give him a makeover in his favorite color. I hadn't done it when he joined the house because his birthday was very close and I didn't think it was worth the hassle of going into CAS.



Beatrice went into labor the night of Al’s birthday.



Al arrived just in time to panic.





It’s a boy! His name is Cooper, he’s good and grumpy, his favorites are latin music, hotdogs and spiceberry. Unfortunately, he didn’t inherit his father's skin.



Both Beatrice and Al wished for a hot tub and a water slide, she was the one who enjoyed the new items while waiting for her maternity leave to end.



Al collected enough points to change his lifetime wish to Swimming in Cash, which after doing so I realized that I should have anticipated a small problem. Neither adult had jobs that pay well, and the skills unlocked didn't make money (except for opportunities).  So the options left to me were dumpster diving and collecting.



For some reason Cooper's baby days seemed to last forever to me so I was happy when his birthday arrived.



He aged to a very cute toddler with random black hair. He’s a good mix of his parents; the nose, jaw and eyes color are from his father, the eyes shape and mouth from his mother (I aged him in CAS with MC and he’s going to be a handsome sim.)



Al was in charge of teaching Cooper his toddler skills because of his family oriented trait.



Beatrice eventually returned to work and responded to an emergency where she finally rescued her first sims. Three down! Twenty seven to go.  :P



All of Beatrice's coworker are women with I think it’s kind of neat. Real girl power here!



I wouldn't have much confidence in the safety of that new uniform, Beatrice.



And to finish this chapter, Al maxed his part time job and resigned immediately because with the pay of this job it’s better to use the hours in other thing like raising money to fulfill his lifetime wish.





I think in a couple of days I’ll have another chapter, until next time.


Offline Trip

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 3 part 1 - 12/08
« Reply #11 on: December 08, 2020, 04:51:33 PM »
Aww I'm glad you chose Al, I've had a lot of regrets over not getting him into any dynasty bloodline because he's far from the only red service NPC in Twinbrook (there are four!) but his genes are the least disappointing of them. :P

Is Beatrice far enough up in the career to give Cooper any cool traits like Immune to Fire or do we have to set him on fire to test it out?
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Offline CeresIn

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 3 part 1 - 12/08
« Reply #12 on: December 08, 2020, 05:33:46 PM »
Aww I'm glad you chose Al, I've had a lot of regrets over not getting him into any dynasty bloodline because he's far from the only red service NPC in Twinbrook (there are four!) but his genes are the least disappointing of them. :P

I'm pretty happy with him! It's a shame Cooper doesn't have his skin color but I can't really complain about the genes, Al's blended so well with Beatrice that I'm thinking of changing my plans of having a second child so Cooper could be the heir. I had this house all planed, I was thinking of having the second child to be the heir, age up Cooper early (maybe in his teens) so he'll have time to max a rabitt hole career but then... Cooper has to be the perfect mix of his parents and make me doubt my whole plan. That's how much I like him. And I've to make up my mind quick because Al is like 88 days in the game.  :-\

Is Beatrice far enough up in the career to give Cooper any cool traits like Immune to Fire or do we have to set him on fire to test it out?
If we set him on fire it would be catastrophic  :P, because he's not immune not a pyro. I think Beatrice was at level 5 o 6 on her career. He have the Pizza Appreciator like his mother and grandfather, though.

Offline hazelnut

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 3 part 1 - 12/08
« Reply #13 on: December 10, 2020, 03:17:44 PM »
I'm really enjoying this project! Maybe I'm a little slow with updates but the challenge keeps me entertained enough to want to continue playing and not write about it lol.
Know exactly what you mean there :)

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Re: Skiillo's Household Skills Project. House 3 part 1 - 12/08
« Reply #14 on: December 11, 2020, 04:07:02 PM »
Good that you are trying this challenge, maybe some day when I get the brave trait I'll try it. :P  Jk aside, this challenge seems very entertaining. And it has an element that I like above all, npc as spouses! There are many hidden gems among them.

 

anything