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Starting Out
General Gameplay Rules
Increasing the Population of Playable Sims and Households
The Sim Multiplier
The goal of this challenge is create a city with a population of at least 50,000. Of course you won’t literally have that many Sims to worry about. This number is purely figurative and that is where the Sim Multiplier (SM) will come into play. The SM is just a number that you will multiply your number of playable Sims by in order to get the city’s population. At the start of the challenge, the SM is 1. As you progress and unlock certain additions for your neighborhood you’ll increase your SM. Points for your SM are added as follows:
+1 for your first community lot
+1 when you reach a total of 5 community lots
+1 for every 5 additional community lots
+1 when the first Sim invests in a business (see the Investing section)
+3 when 4 businesses have Investors
+5 when all 11 businesses have Investors
+2 when the first Sim owns 1 business outright
+6 when Sims own 4 businesses
+10 when all 11 businesses have owners
+5 for each Airport
Note that each of the above increases to the Sim Multiplier can be taken only once except for the addition of +1 for every community lot and the addition of +5 for each airport. From now on when population is mentioned, it simply means your total number of playable Sims multiplied by your SM.
Unlocking Neighborhood Additions
1) You can take a weekly tax from each household. This tax would be 5% of their lot value. To do this you may use the familyfunds cheat, a hacked object (ex. ATM), or buy an item(s) that equals the tax value and leave in your Sims inventory. Once you have collected $1,000,000 in taxes you may add your airport. If you choose this method make sure you keep track of how much you’ve collected, and a calculator will be useful. The community will name this airport n a special election.
2) Reach a population of 50,000, and the state will build your neighborhood an airport for free. This option is only good if you simply want to meet the population goal, as this would mark the end. However, if you play beyond the goal, this method may work for you.
3) Have a wealthy Sim donate $1,000,000 to build an airport. Move this Sim to a smaller lot if you need to, in order to subtract the money from their funds using any method you choose. They can name the airport what they want.
4) Have a wealthy Sim donate $500,000 and another donate another $500,000 to build an airport. They can name the airport what they want.
Until you get an airport, Sims may not go on vacations. So, if you plan on buying World Adventures, you will want an airport. In addition to adding to your SM, for each airport you also earn 5 CAS Sims. [You don’t have to add the new Sims as you earn them. You can save up and add whole families if you choose.]
Art Gallery: Unlocked when a Sim achieves the Master Painter Skill Challenge
Bookstore: Unlocked with a population of 1,000. This earns you 1 CAS Sim. [You don’t have to add the new Sims as you earn them. You can save up and add whole families if you choose.]
Central Park: Unlocked when a Sim in the Politics career track becomes the Mayor (Level 7)
Graveyard: Must have 20 deaths first. Until then, if you really hate ghosts, you can keep the tombstone in someone’s inventory.
Community Gyms and Workout Facilities: Must have at least 5 Sims maximized the Athletic Skill in order to have enough demand for these facilities.
Community Pools: Available when population reaches 500
School: Your kids cannot go to school until the population reaches 250. Once it does, place your school, and they can go off to school each day. At 500, you can place a second school. This will earn you 5 CAS Sims, which you could use as students perhaps. [You don’t have to add the new Sims as you earn them. You can save up and add whole families if you choose.]*Note: This may not work to have two schools, as I have never done it, but you might be able to choose which school they go to, and then you could have one be a high school, and one be an elementary school*
Supermarket: Unlocked with a population 3,000. At this time, you can order pizza delivery. This earns you 1 CAS Sim. [You don’t have to add the new Sims as you earn them. You can save up and add whole families if you choose.]
Other Parks and Beaches: Can be added any time
Mirabello Plaza vs. Individual Lots
In Sunset Valley, the Bookstore, Grocery Store and Theatre are all located in the same lot, which is called Mirabello Plaza. Each venue has a different unlocking requirement, so you can use one of the following methods to place these lots:
HARD – Add the individual businesses to your Community Lot bin from Riverview and add each lot according to the Placement/Unlocking rules where they will fit in Sunset Valley. Place Mirabello Plaza once each lot has been earned as long as there is an available earned community lot.
MEDIUM – Add Mirabello Plaza once 2 of the 3 Placement rules have been met.
EASY – Add Mirabello Plaza once 1 of the 3 Placement rules has been met.
Unlocking Careers
At the beginning ALL careers are locked, meaning no job for your founder. You must find other ways to make money (painting, novels, music, gardening, scavenging, etc.). This section describes how to unlock each career.
Athletic: The Athletic Career earns an open position for each player who completes all athletic skill challenges (e.g. Body Builder, Marathon Runner, and Fitness Nut). It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Business: The Business Career track is unlocked for the Sim that owns a share in every business. It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Criminal evil/thief: Wherever there are people there is also crime. The Criminal Career track gets one opening when your population hits 100. Every time a Sim reaches the top of the criminal career they open an additional position in both the Criminal and Law Enforcement careers. The Criminal career is never truly unlocked, but can have many open positions.
Culinary: The Culinary Career earns an open position for each player who completes all the cooking skill challenges (e.g. Star Chef, World-Class Chef, and Menu Maven). It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Journalism: When the town reaches a population of 1,000 the first position in Journalism is unlocked. An additional spot is added for every 5 Sims who reach the top of ANY career increasing the number of newsworthy Sims in the community.
Law Enforcement Forensic Analyst/Special Agent: A position in Law Enforcement is unlocked when one of the following events occurs:
There have been 3 burglaries
The population reaches 500
A playable Sim reaches the top of the Criminal career
Medical: The first position in the Medical career is unlocked when the town population reaches 1,000. Additional openings are available for every 5,000 residents.
Military: A position is open for every 4 households. It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Music Rock/Symphonic: The Music Career earns an open position for each player who becomes a Master Guitarist. It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Politics: Politics is completely unlocked as a career choice when the town reaches of population of 1,000 and is only available to one Sim at a time. A Sim is eligible to enter the political career if they have achieved the Celebrity charisma skill challenge plus any one of the other four remaining Charisma challenges (e.g. Personable, Super Friendly, Everybody’s Best Friend or Comedian).
Science: A Science Career position will be earned every time any Sim transitions into Adulthood (NOT Young Adulthood) with maxed Logic. A position is opened for every 3 electrocutions by electronics.
Part-Time Jobs
Part-time jobs become available to any Sim once the related lot has been placed in your City. Sims can apply for part-time jobs at the Graveyard, the Bookstore, the Grocery Store and the Day Spa.
Investments
You can invest in several businesses by buying shares. This is a good way of getting money, but first the associated building must be unlocked and placed in the city.
Ambitions Stuff:
Fire Department: Unlocked when there have been 3 fires in the town.
Consignment Store, Salon, Junkyard: Unlocked when there is an available community lot
- Start out with a blank neighborhood. You can find blank Riverview and Sunset Valley neighborhoods available for download on ModTheSims. You WILL need an account, but the downloads are free.
- Save all community lots to your Sim Bin. (You can also save any residential lots to your Sim Bin that you would like to use during the challenge.)
- Delete all residential and community lots except for ONE of the following so that you start with only one community lot. These lots are available because they blend in with the natural landscape and do not contain any manmade structures.
- Stoney Falls
- Pinochle pond
- Crystal Springs
- Summer Hill Springs
- Recuve Strand
- Sunnyside Strand
- Create a single Sim to be your founder and move them into a lot. (Select a Poverty Class lot if you are playing with the optional Boomtown-style Class System explained below). The Sim can be made however you choose (looks and personality) and their home lot can be any size (the smaller the better since money will be tight)
- Create a Placeholder Lot. Use your imagination and give this placeholder lot a theme. You can create a Bed and Breakfast, an Asylum, a Hotel, a Halfway House/Group Home or anything that inspires you. Don’t create a “lot story” that is too compelling because you will never play this lot. Build the lot from scratch or place one you have downloaded or extracted from the game.
- Create a “family” of any combination of 8 Sims (Young Adults, Adults and Elders) and place them on the Placeholder Lot.These will serve as your Townies.
- You can create either one sibling relationship or one parent-child relationship for two members of your townie household. All other household members must be roomies.
- You can make these Sims look however you want but you must randomize their traits using the dice.
- If the townies die before becoming playable, their gravestones do not count towards the graveyard.
- Once the townies have moved out of this lot into the city, they cannot be replenished. You only get 8 townies to help you get started.
- Playable Sims can’t visit this lot UNLESS they have one best friend who lives there. You must initially meet and befriend at least one townie on the town before visiting this lot.
General Gameplay Rules
- When Sims have children, it is up to you whether or not they remain at home or move out. Keeping them home means a higher lot value, which can earn an airport (rules in a later section). Moving them out means more households and more community lots. Choose which works best for you.
- After the founder, new households may be moved into pre-built houses or blank lots.
- Optional Gameplay Options
- Story Progression - You can choose to play with Story Progression ON or OFF
- Story Progression OFF – As your neighborhood expands, you must play EVERY household for the same amount of time
- Story Progression ON – Change households at will for the duration of the challenge. Play out the lives of Sims you find interesting, strategically choose to play Sims whose lifetime wishes or developed traits could advance the community in some way, or simply free play for fun.
- Create a Boomtown-style Collection of Class-Based Neighborhoods in your city. See the Boomtown-Style Neighborhoods section at the end of this document for rules on how to craft the lots in these neighborhoods.
- Replenish the Placeholder Lot – This optional rule allows you to continue to add Sims to your Placeholder Lot to keep “townies” in the neighborhood for the duration of the challenge.
- Change the Lifespan of your Sims – It is recommended that you play this challenge either at the Default Lifespan (Normal/90 Days) or the Long Lifespan (Long/190 Days). However, you can choose any lifespan you want.
- Community Services
- Sims may not have fire detectors or burglar alarms until the first position in the Law Enforcement Career is unlocked (rules in the career section).
- Sims may not call for any services except for the Baby-sitter and Adoption at the start of the challenge. Service calls are unlocked when the population reaches 500 (figuring out population is in the next section). Pizza delivery is unlocked with a population of 3,000.
| Service | Initial State | Requirement To Unlock |
| Newspaper Delivery | Unlocked | - |
| Adoption Service | Unlocked | - |
| Babysitter | Unlocked | - |
| Fire Department | Locked | Unlock Fire Department |
| Police | Locked | Unlock Law Enforcement |
| Maid | Locked | Population 500 |
| Pizza Delivery | Locked | Population 3,000 |
| Repairman | Locked | Population 500 |
Increasing the Population of Playable Sims and Households
The actual number of Sims residing in your city can increase in one of the following ways:
- By adding earned CAS Sims
- Using the Placeholder Lot described above
- By meeting and befriending eligible Service NPCs and moving them into an existing household by marriage.
- By adopting children
- At any time, you can move a Sim who is a Young Adult or older to a new home to increase the number of households.
The Sim Multiplier
The goal of this challenge is create a city with a population of at least 50,000. Of course you won’t literally have that many Sims to worry about. This number is purely figurative and that is where the Sim Multiplier (SM) will come into play. The SM is just a number that you will multiply your number of playable Sims by in order to get the city’s population. At the start of the challenge, the SM is 1. As you progress and unlock certain additions for your neighborhood you’ll increase your SM. Points for your SM are added as follows:
+1 for your first community lot
+1 when you reach a total of 5 community lots
+1 for every 5 additional community lots
+1 when the first Sim invests in a business (see the Investing section)
+3 when 4 businesses have Investors
+5 when all 11 businesses have Investors
+2 when the first Sim owns 1 business outright
+6 when Sims own 4 businesses
+10 when all 11 businesses have owners
+5 for each Airport
Note that each of the above increases to the Sim Multiplier can be taken only once except for the addition of +1 for every community lot and the addition of +5 for each airport. From now on when population is mentioned, it simply means your total number of playable Sims multiplied by your SM.
Unlocking Neighborhood Additions
- You will earn one community lot for every 4 Sim Households. Community lots add to your SM, and for each community lot you also earn 1 CAS Sim. [You don’t have to add the new Sims as you earn them. You can save up and add whole families if you choose.]
- Before you cleared Sunset Valley of all community lots, it contained 29 premade lots. Each of these lots was added to your Community Lot bin during setup.
- When you have created enough households to add a community lot or a neighborhood addition, you can add one of these to it’s original location on the community map or you can create an equivalent replacement if you are attracted to the “Build” in Build a City.
- These options are first described then they are summarized in a table. As the table describes, some lots can be added at any time AS LONG AS THERE IS AN EARNED COMMUNITY LOT AVAILABLE. The placement of others may depend on the achievement of a mini-challenge, a certain population or a specific goal.
1) You can take a weekly tax from each household. This tax would be 5% of their lot value. To do this you may use the familyfunds cheat, a hacked object (ex. ATM), or buy an item(s) that equals the tax value and leave in your Sims inventory. Once you have collected $1,000,000 in taxes you may add your airport. If you choose this method make sure you keep track of how much you’ve collected, and a calculator will be useful. The community will name this airport n a special election.
2) Reach a population of 50,000, and the state will build your neighborhood an airport for free. This option is only good if you simply want to meet the population goal, as this would mark the end. However, if you play beyond the goal, this method may work for you.
3) Have a wealthy Sim donate $1,000,000 to build an airport. Move this Sim to a smaller lot if you need to, in order to subtract the money from their funds using any method you choose. They can name the airport what they want.
4) Have a wealthy Sim donate $500,000 and another donate another $500,000 to build an airport. They can name the airport what they want.
Until you get an airport, Sims may not go on vacations. So, if you plan on buying World Adventures, you will want an airport. In addition to adding to your SM, for each airport you also earn 5 CAS Sims. [You don’t have to add the new Sims as you earn them. You can save up and add whole families if you choose.]
Art Gallery: Unlocked when a Sim achieves the Master Painter Skill Challenge
Bookstore: Unlocked with a population of 1,000. This earns you 1 CAS Sim. [You don’t have to add the new Sims as you earn them. You can save up and add whole families if you choose.]
Central Park: Unlocked when a Sim in the Politics career track becomes the Mayor (Level 7)
Graveyard: Must have 20 deaths first. Until then, if you really hate ghosts, you can keep the tombstone in someone’s inventory.
Community Gyms and Workout Facilities: Must have at least 5 Sims maximized the Athletic Skill in order to have enough demand for these facilities.
Community Pools: Available when population reaches 500
School: Your kids cannot go to school until the population reaches 250. Once it does, place your school, and they can go off to school each day. At 500, you can place a second school. This will earn you 5 CAS Sims, which you could use as students perhaps. [You don’t have to add the new Sims as you earn them. You can save up and add whole families if you choose.]*Note: This may not work to have two schools, as I have never done it, but you might be able to choose which school they go to, and then you could have one be a high school, and one be an elementary school*
Supermarket: Unlocked with a population 3,000. At this time, you can order pizza delivery. This earns you 1 CAS Sim. [You don’t have to add the new Sims as you earn them. You can save up and add whole families if you choose.]
Other Parks and Beaches: Can be added any time
Mirabello Plaza vs. Individual Lots
In Sunset Valley, the Bookstore, Grocery Store and Theatre are all located in the same lot, which is called Mirabello Plaza. Each venue has a different unlocking requirement, so you can use one of the following methods to place these lots:
HARD – Add the individual businesses to your Community Lot bin from Riverview and add each lot according to the Placement/Unlocking rules where they will fit in Sunset Valley. Place Mirabello Plaza once each lot has been earned as long as there is an available earned community lot.
MEDIUM – Add Mirabello Plaza once 2 of the 3 Placement rules have been met.
EASY – Add Mirabello Plaza once 1 of the 3 Placement rules has been met.
Unlocking Careers
At the beginning ALL careers are locked, meaning no job for your founder. You must find other ways to make money (painting, novels, music, gardening, scavenging, etc.). This section describes how to unlock each career.
Athletic: The Athletic Career earns an open position for each player who completes all athletic skill challenges (e.g. Body Builder, Marathon Runner, and Fitness Nut). It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Business: The Business Career track is unlocked for the Sim that owns a share in every business. It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Criminal evil/thief: Wherever there are people there is also crime. The Criminal Career track gets one opening when your population hits 100. Every time a Sim reaches the top of the criminal career they open an additional position in both the Criminal and Law Enforcement careers. The Criminal career is never truly unlocked, but can have many open positions.
Culinary: The Culinary Career earns an open position for each player who completes all the cooking skill challenges (e.g. Star Chef, World-Class Chef, and Menu Maven). It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Journalism: When the town reaches a population of 1,000 the first position in Journalism is unlocked. An additional spot is added for every 5 Sims who reach the top of ANY career increasing the number of newsworthy Sims in the community.
Law Enforcement Forensic Analyst/Special Agent: A position in Law Enforcement is unlocked when one of the following events occurs:
There have been 3 burglaries
The population reaches 500
A playable Sim reaches the top of the Criminal career
Medical: The first position in the Medical career is unlocked when the town population reaches 1,000. Additional openings are available for every 5,000 residents.
Military: A position is open for every 4 households. It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Music Rock/Symphonic: The Music Career earns an open position for each player who becomes a Master Guitarist. It is unlocked when it has been topped.
Politics: Politics is completely unlocked as a career choice when the town reaches of population of 1,000 and is only available to one Sim at a time. A Sim is eligible to enter the political career if they have achieved the Celebrity charisma skill challenge plus any one of the other four remaining Charisma challenges (e.g. Personable, Super Friendly, Everybody’s Best Friend or Comedian).
Science: A Science Career position will be earned every time any Sim transitions into Adulthood (NOT Young Adulthood) with maxed Logic. A position is opened for every 3 electrocutions by electronics.
Part-Time Jobs
Part-time jobs become available to any Sim once the related lot has been placed in your City. Sims can apply for part-time jobs at the Graveyard, the Bookstore, the Grocery Store and the Day Spa.
Investments
You can invest in several businesses by buying shares. This is a good way of getting money, but first the associated building must be unlocked and placed in the city.
Ambitions Stuff:
Fire Department: Unlocked when there have been 3 fires in the town.
Consignment Store, Salon, Junkyard: Unlocked when there is an available community lot
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