Apocasylum!

Post Reply
User avatar
MichelleCYoung
Posts: 1624
Joined: August 15th, 2014, 6:12 am
9

Post Counts

Apocasylum!

Post by MichelleCYoung »

Because I am clearly insane, I came up with an idea for a Sims 2 Apocasylum.

The apocalypse has been going for three generations, now. At the Founder's household, the following restrictions have been lifted:

Natural Science (founder)
Artist (founder's spouse)
Athletic (1st generation heir)
Criminal (1st generation spouse)
Culinary (1st generation spare)
Medical (2nd generation heir)
Military (2nd generation heir's spouse)
Science (2nd generation spare - Unlocked one aspirational reward of your choice)

The third generation's heir, was taken by the powers that be! They have collected a bunch of the neighborhood "zombies" and placed them into an asylum, with the spare placed in charge. Unfortunately, during the housing transfer, said spare lost all his memories and skills, and is starting out as much of a blank slate as the inmates! At least he can control his own actions, however.

He has been told that he will be set free to live with his family once again (and lift his restriction!), only if he manages to reach his own lifetime want, whatever that may be. He'll have to hurry before it's too late. Will the apocalypse fail, if the heir can't follow through and return in time to continue the family's goal of lifting the apocalypse? Will the heir have to give up his position as heir, and let the spare continue the line? Is there even a spare to take over, if the heir fails? Oh, no!

Even if you only have University installed, there are still plenty of restrictions, including Politics, to make building a workable asylum difficult. With the added asylum rules, it should make for a very interesting spin on things.

Note: Medical allows for a hot tub, in case the LTW is to woohoo lots of people. But with Gaming still in place, that's going to be VERY challenging. With Music, Dance, and Entertainment in force, the TV and radio are not allowed (since any autonomous dancing, or watching any channel other than news/weather or Yummy would all have to be canceled, and you can't control the inmates to do that). You can have a shower or bath, but ONLY ONE. With Show Business not lifted, you can't do dating LTWs, such as 50 First Dates or 50 Dream Dates. If you really, truly, want to do those LTWs, then replace either the Founder's or Founder's spouse's lifts, since they are the only ones with college degrees to allow a Show Business lift. Will you replace Artist or Natural Science?

If your founder rolls an unfulfillable LTW (such as marrying off 6 children or having 3 children graduate, or having a golden anniversary, or raising 20 puppies or kittens, all of which are impossible with the asylum/apocalypse restrictions in place), you can choose to have the ReNuYu SensoOrb as the Science aspirational unlock, and allow your founder to use it to change aspirations as many times as necessary to get a fulfillable LTW. If his LTW is fulfillable, you might want to get energizers or thinking caps, instead, or even noodle soothers or money trees! Your choice.

For those who want the joys of playing an apocalypse challenge, without the months of time it takes to finish one, this mini-challenge should be fun. As for the medal, it would be the same as any asylum. The apocalypse restrictions are more or less to establish a theme, and add a bit more interest to the basic asylum challenge.
Badass Alphabetocalypse (Complete!)
All of my other projects should be moved to the graveyard. But I have a new computer, at last! WOOOOT!
User avatar
Radiochocolate
Posts: 989
Joined: August 5th, 2012, 2:45 am
11
Sweden
Contact:

Post Counts

Re: Apocasylum!

Post by Radiochocolate »

This looks interesting! Against my better judgment, I feel like trying it out (probably won't be in a while though).
So basically, create 7 random sims + 1 caretaker as per asylum rules and live by all restrictions except for the ones lifted while trying to reach the caretaker's LTW.

Is zombifying mandatory or could it just be a bunch of people living in a safehouse while slowly (or rapidly) losing their minds? If I turn the 7 into zombies while using Pescado's zombie hack, do I get a penalty for the caretaker turning into a zombie him-/herself?

IIRC, computers are the only creativity skill objects allowed without Art or Music lifted, but computers lead to a lot of autonomous gaming. Would MogHughson's "write a novel w/out a computer" object be an acceptable substitute?

I'll be back with more questions later.
//Currently on a non-committed hiatus from Boolprop and Sims//
Iron Values TPC | Sim!Mia | Simbia Penal Colony BaCC
Sunny's Monster Mash | Sim Scrabble: a TS2 Name Game
User avatar
MichelleCYoung
Posts: 1624
Joined: August 15th, 2014, 6:12 am
9

Post Counts

Re: Apocasylum!

Post by MichelleCYoung »

Radiochocolate wrote:This looks interesting! Against my better judgment, I feel like trying it out (probably won't be in a while though).
So basically, create 7 random sims + 1 caretaker as per asylum rules and live by all restrictions except for the ones lifted while trying to reach the caretaker's LTW.

Is zombifying mandatory or could it just be a bunch of people living in a safehouse while slowly (or rapidly) losing their minds? If I turn the 7 into zombies while using Pescado's zombie hack, do I get a penalty for the caretaker turning into a zombie him-/herself?

IIRC, computers are the only creativity skill objects allowed without Art or Music lifted, but computers lead to a lot of autonomous gaming. Would MogHughson's "write a novel w/out a computer" object be an acceptable substitute?

I'll be back with more questions later.

I know, right? I just really want to do this! I'm an apocalypse addict.

I would say actual zombifying not necessary, although it could be a blast. And if you have the "zombie apocalypse" mod, where they can eat your brains and zombify you, even more so. Although I would say that for THIS challenge, you'd be allowed to cancel the interaction, and that if your caretaker was zombified, it would count as him dying, or at least going senile, as elders without service pets do, because he's now brainless. Of course, with culinary lifted, and a proper set up, to avoid autonomous breaking of rules, and depending on the LTW, it might still be possible to win, even if he is brainless.

With Artist lifted, you can use other creativity objects, including musical instruments, even if Music and Dance are not lifted. If Dance is not lifted, you cannot CHOOSE to dance to the music, but autonomous dancing to musical instruments (not the stereo) is allowed. Autonomous dancing to the stereo is NOT allowed, and must be canceled. It's weird, but I double-checked.

"Sims may not dance at all. Autonomous dancing must be cancelled.
If Artist has been unlocked, Sims may dance autonomously to musical instruments.
Sims may not do tai chi.
Sims may not meditate.
Sims may not use the dance sphere or any ballet barre to build body even if Athletic has been unlocked.
Stereos may be used only to build body."

So, that means, without Dance, you can have a stereo, but must put harsh controls on it, so I recommend just not having it, at all. Put a piano or violin would be fine. Dance sphere or ballet barre are not allowed, either. For the athletic thing, I'd say use the weights or a treadmill. I do NOT recommend the Death-Cycle of Non-Quittiness.

Likewise, since the TV channels are limited by Entertainment, I recommend not having that, either. But if Medical is lifted, I don't see why you couldn't have a hot tub as your single entertainment item. Besides, it's a good place for woohoo. Alternately, I would say that if you don't have a TV or a stereo, but you have Science lifted, you could choose to have the Photo Booth as your single entertainment item. Basically, choose one entertainment item that fits your current restrictions. I think the basic chess board counts as a logic item, not entertainment item. Besides, unless you are able to look at the clouds, you can't have the telescope for logic, anyway. Heck, you could have Myshuno as your one entertainment option, if you want. It doesn't do any good, but you could choose it.

If you want to skip the Artist lift, and replace it with another one, then by all means, use the novel-notebook mod. It's not likely to be used autonomously by the inmates, of course. If you want them to autonomously build creativity, I would then recommend taking the "Fisherman's Dream" advantage, and placing the lot on the beach, to allow for sandcastles. This would also allow for fishing, which is nice, but not necessary. On the downside, they would have a bit more of a tendency to freeze. Let's just say I had a senile elder who insisted on watching the waves and swimming just a bit too long, once upon a time. Still, it's a good advantage to take, if you do advantages and disadvantages.

I chose Nat. Sci. and Artist, because those would be the two college careers I would choose for this particular challenge, since they allow for food delivery and/or growth, and they allow for the autonomous creativity points for the inmates. If it were a regular apocalypse, I might go differently, but getting those points for the inmate skills does alter the strategy, for me. Although I have found, actually, that both of those make great starters for a regular apocalypse, as well, depending on how the founder lived, and if you're able to keep a close eye on keeping everyone alive inside and dead far from the house. If Nat. Sci. is lifted before building, you can build right on the ground, so that's nice. With Science, you can have the indoor garden lamp. Or switch Science for Architecture for a greenhouse.

There are lots of possibilities, which is why I said you can switch the lifts, if you want. Makes for more fun in strategic choices.

I DO recommend Athletic, because of the autonomous jump-rope, as well as the ability to carry stuff in inventory. In fact, if you have Athletic, you can keep Criminal (and pay the weekly dues), and just put old fridges in the inventory and buy new ones, in order to restock the fridge. I've seen that done many times in an apocalypse, when people could not buy groceries or garden. Business also allows you to sell/re-buy the fridge.

Culinary MUST be lifted, however, to allow the inmates to cook and set themselves on fire. That's really not a negotiable thing. You can't stop them from cooking, even by turning the fridge around, because this is an asylum, and they need free access to fire. This is, I believe, the only non-negotiable lift.

Medical must be lifted, if you are going to have the asylum's single allowed shower/tub. If you really want to forego the single allowed shower/tub, and just have them be permanently stinky and breaking the sink all the time, I suppose you could swap it for something else. Adults actually can make a dent in their hygiene by hand-washing. If you make them all related (it's your story, so change the set-up if you want; they don't have to be related to the Founder family, at all, just living in an apocalypse town), you could actually groom them, I suppose. Or let them autonomously primp in front of the Charisma-mirror.

Since you're not allowed alarms, pets or teens, there's really no point in lifting Law Enforcement.

If you choose Business, you could have a home business, which could be quite useful, actually, getting people to come by and befriend the inmates. Make those inmates useful in building up the caretaker's career! Although, if you swap Business for Science, that pretty much means no tickets or sales, but they'd still come by, right?

Yeah, I can see swapping out the lifts for all kinds of different strategies.

Who knows? Maybe someone will play an actual apocalypse, and then after the 8th lift, break off into a little asylum break. As long as Culinary is lifted, and there's a way to keep the fridge stocked, the variety of relatively random lifts could be quite an adventure! Again, it's your story, and they don't actually have to be related to the founders. Just have fun with it!
Badass Alphabetocalypse (Complete!)
All of my other projects should be moved to the graveyard. But I have a new computer, at last! WOOOOT!
User avatar
Radiochocolate
Posts: 989
Joined: August 5th, 2012, 2:45 am
11
Sweden
Contact:

Post Counts

Re: Apocasylum!

Post by Radiochocolate »

(My phone decided to reload the tab with part of the draft unsaved :censored: Some parts of this post was written more than 12 hours ago, so there might be some inconsistencies)

Silly me didn't notice that Artist was listed up there! I think I'll go with a piano; it's an asylum must for me.

I have the up-to M&G version of the restrictions in a separate tab and wooh boy, there are a lot of tidbits that one needs to remember, even for an asylum (such as Oceanography restricting the locking of wants).

Just summarizing the food part:
Culinary - grocery delivery w/ Nat. Sci. (with Military comm lots are enabled, but the original asylum rules don't allow leaving the lot).
Nat. Sci. - can grow own food, but must be indoors unless Music or Architecture is lifted. Science - heat lamp, Medical - sprinklers and with Politics, you don't have to put the greenhouse on the roof.
Business/no Criminal - re-buy the fridge (at the end of the week, even with "low-rated items" instead of "protection fees"). Athletic - buy new fridge without selling the old one.

Slacker is a must-have for career LTWs, unless you want to lose after missing only one day of work.
Should the player be allowed to choose their lifts after the LTW has been rolled (or maybe only aspiration)? Could GC be one of the rollable aspirations as Family isn't an option in the original asylum rules? Does the player have to use Science and the Re-Nu-Yu Orb to change LTW, when one could use a hacked object/testingcheats instead? If the answers to the latter two are yes and no respectively, I assume it's fair game to change to GC using a hack/testingcheats.

I think I would swap out Nat. Sci. to Paranormal, because 1) I don't want to fuss around with gardening 2) 8x8 asylum just beckons for inconvenient urn locations (at least for me).

I would swap out Criminal and Military too, replacing either of them with Slacker. Lifting Military makes you able to invite other people than loves/best friends (with a car), but Gamer still holds restrictions on the phone. Criminal can be used either with the "low-rated items", which I think would work quite well with the asylum object restrictions, or with protection fees. Either way, you can rebuy the fridge once a week, with which Nat. Sci. is not needed! Even if you use protection fees, "low-rated items" is still part of Intelligence.
//Currently on a non-committed hiatus from Boolprop and Sims//
Iron Values TPC | Sim!Mia | Simbia Penal Colony BaCC
Sunny's Monster Mash | Sim Scrabble: a TS2 Name Game
User avatar
MichelleCYoung
Posts: 1624
Joined: August 15th, 2014, 6:12 am
9

Post Counts

Re: Apocasylum!

Post by MichelleCYoung »

The thing about replacing the fridge once a week is that it works if you eat once a day, but if your inmates are going for meals whenever they are hungry, you'll run out before it's time to change the fridge, so some means of getting food is a must. Either procuring new groceries or procuring new fridges (and stashing/selling the old ones), is definitely going to be a necessity. Micromanaging food works in an apocalypse if you are not REQUIRED to give senile elders (or zombie inmates) full access to the kitchen and the ability to set themselves on fire.

You might go for Oceanography - locking wants and fishing (with Nat. Sci. and Medical). Alternately, don't use Oceanography, but take the "Fisherman's Dream" advantage, and put in a pond on the ground. It's possible to have both a pond and a small garden in the basement, with Science.

If you take an advantage, though, you probably ought to take a disadvantage to counteract it. Although Fisherman's Dream is a moderate advantage, and the only moderate disadvantages don't really apply to an asylum, at all: Adult Start, Blood Ties, Follow Your Dreams, and Hands Off the Founder:Xtreme! So, yeah, either admit to an advantage, take Oceanography, or don't fish.

How in the world do you put a greenhouse on the roof? Move Objects, I suppose. You know what? If you have something you can place that looks like planter boxes, and a means of making the plants grow (Architecture for greenhouse walls or Science for heat lamps) then I say go for it! I'd love to see a rooftop garden! No magic dirt-rugs, though. This isn't "Into the Future." It's "Supernatural," at best. But with an appropriate lift, I don't see why planter-boxes would not work.

As for using Batbox/Simblender, instead of ReNuYu, that's completely up to you, I suppose. Some might call it cheating. I think, though, that if you're just setting your caretaker's LTW to an actual fulfillable one (such as Education Minister or Captain Hero for Family sims), and then you leave it alone, you could go with that, and just say, "Look how lucky I was to roll a fulfillable want right off the bat." It does happen, after all. But no using that to swap it out later! If you're playing with Slacker rules, and your caretaker gets fired, well, you just lost the challenge.

Hence, the idea of a ReNuYu SensoOrb being unlocked - that allows you to go for a Hail-Mary Pass. Also, per asylum rules, it's OK to turn off aging.

Military - I think it's kind of necessary to be able to walk to work, especially with Slacker in place. But then again, if you don't have Slacker restrictions (and for some careers, those chance cards are deadly!) then it's OK to miss the odd day of work, so yeah, you might want to swap that out.

Basically, I think it all boils down to your own favored playing style. Pick the most important 8 lifts for you, follow the asylum rules, and go from there. The only lift that is absolutely, 100% mandatory, is Culinary. You can have stinky inmates, but you MUST allow them to set the kitchen on fire, as many times a day as they want.

I'm even considering swapping out Artist for Show Business, and sticking in a closet. And if my sim is Fortune, and wants to make $100,000, I might go for Business and Science, and open a home-based business with jacked up prices. With Business, Criminal, and Natural Science, you could have a house full of snapdragons. There really are just SO MANY options.

Here's an idea: Set up your sims first, check the LTW, and then decide the strategy you want and build the asylum based on your actual sims. Maybe even spend a lift-slot on Politics for more space. Stinky sims wandering all over a sprawling asylum? Go for it!

BTW, I fully support any mod that allows neat sims to sponge bathe. Why? Because in real life, neat people are MORE LIKELY to sponge bathe, rather than just wash their hands and call it good. You're still limited to one sink, of course.

And if you want to have a "one sane member of the family," you could let your caretaker spend all day grooming his "patients." It only works if they're family members (unless you have a hack), but it kind of makes sense, anyway. After all, he's their nurse, right?

I figure, if you can explain a valid reason why it would work, go for it. Including CC. There are CCs/hacks/mods out there that will actually add to the challenge, after all. Such as ACR with Try For Baby enabled, and Bigger Households. You might wind up having a bunch of zombie babies, even if your caretaker keeps it in his pants. :jaw drop:

Edited to add: Asylum rules say no aspiration or career rewards are allowed. In that case, I think we should allow SimBlender/SimModder/BatBox, or whatever to allow your caretaker to change aspiration and/or LTW (rather than using the ReNuYu orb) to enable an actually fulfillable want. As for changing turn-ons and off, only if Paranormal allows the sim to train and use magic, and create his own Portachug.
Badass Alphabetocalypse (Complete!)
All of my other projects should be moved to the graveyard. But I have a new computer, at last! WOOOOT!
User avatar
Radiochocolate
Posts: 989
Joined: August 5th, 2012, 2:45 am
11
Sweden
Contact:

Post Counts

Re: Apocasylum!

Post by Radiochocolate »

You're right about the fridge thing. I'll keep Athletic though. After a bit of cross-referencing, I think protection fees should be used if swapping out Criminal, because the asylum objects have such low ratings to start with. Method 1 and 2 should be easy enough to follow, but method 3 seems a bit too easy since this is a short term challenge.

Zombies are naturally stinky, so I might consider swapping Medical (I'm tired of sims dying in bathrooms anyway), but then I can't have the hot tub as my entertainment item and must put a "Always try for baby/Risky Woohoo 60%" override for ACR... which sounds tempting, except that zombies can't reproduce! Unless I download another mod.

I was thinking about having Entertainment as a lift because it restricts so many fun objects. By the way, I haven't seen "Perform..." restricted anywhere, but per my judgment it shoukd be either Entertainment, Business or both. Entertainment only lists "Entertain". If you have a musical instrument in an asylum, inmates would most definitely perform for tips autonomously, but since the household won't make money from it unless an outsider is listening it shouldn't count as Business imo.

Speaking of Business, I like the twist you did for Bart. I think the asylum rules came out before OFB, so there's no saying what Scout's take on home businesses would have been.

As for Science, if I'm not going to need solar lamps it seems pretty unnecessary. Might re-evaluate my stance on that though after seeing basement gardens are possible.
//Currently on a non-committed hiatus from Boolprop and Sims//
Iron Values TPC | Sim!Mia | Simbia Penal Colony BaCC
Sunny's Monster Mash | Sim Scrabble: a TS2 Name Game
User avatar
MichelleCYoung
Posts: 1624
Joined: August 15th, 2014, 6:12 am
9

Post Counts

Re: Apocasylum!

Post by MichelleCYoung »

I've never seen Perform be restricted. It's not a self-interaction, nor an interaction with other sims. It's an interaction on the object, itself. And most sims do it autonomously, anyway. I wouldn't worry about it, regardless of Entertainment.

As for Zombies and ACR woohoo - why make it so they can reproduce? If they're actual zombies, then it's just like old people - they're naturally sterile, so they can woohoo as much as they like, without worrying about contraception, or lack thereof.

Criminal - use whichever method works best for you. I chose to have it lifted, anyway. If you like Method 3's simplicity, but think it's not expensive enough, just jack up the rates.

Thanks! I think running a home-based apocalypse business, while hoping the inmates don't burn down the joint, will be an adventure.

I chose Science for the lamps, but also for the business. You can't really run a business and make money from it without Science (or money perks) for the ticket machine and/or cash register. I suppose a restaurant would work, though. The phone at the host stand is not usable as such, so it could be disregarded as an extra phone. Having Science lifted does allow for extra phones, so that's nice. Of course, without Gamer or Law Enforcement, it's not such a great issue. But if other sims call the inmates, it's nice to give them multiple options, so they're not always clogging the same area. Also, with Science, I put in some of those Apartment Life radiator heaters, and turned them all on. That should make sims warm up faster when they come in out of the cold. I think. They may have to actually interact with the heaters, rather than just be close. Well, it's something to find out, I suppose.i

My inmates are pretty bored, already, and keep heading out into the cold to amuse themselves. That's the problem with having insufficient fun things to do. This could get very interesting, very quickly. We'll see how it goes.
Badass Alphabetocalypse (Complete!)
All of my other projects should be moved to the graveyard. But I have a new computer, at last! WOOOOT!
MaxiBuckle
Posts: 39
Joined: July 15th, 2018, 8:16 am
5

Re: Apocasylum!

Post by MaxiBuckle »

This looks like a wonderful way to use up my failed Adult Start founders. Once I get 7 of them, I can put them in an apocasylum.

Right now, I am playing them through old age on "3."
Post Reply

Return to “Sims 2 Rulesets”