This challenge was inspired by The Sims Community’s “Off The Grid Challenge”, which can be found here. I was originally gonna do that, but it was written in 2017, before “off the grid” became a Sims 4 lot trait or any of the eco or holidays/weather stuff was implemented, so then my imagination ran wild and I decided to make things a lot more complicated in some ways and a lot simpler in others.
My Objective
My objective for this challenge is to create a functional, self-sustaining, off the grid, hippie eco cult using the club game mechanic in Get Together and the eco footprint and Neighbourhood Action Plan mechanics from Eco Lifestyle, with custom holidays and celebrations to suit the cult using the holiday mechanic from Seasons.
The Challenge Setup
I, perhaps stupidly, not realizing it was the biggest world, chose Brindleton Bay as the stage for the challenge. I bulldozed every lot in the world and left them vacant. As per the “Off The Grid Challenge”, I chose 3 lots and built community venues.
- Venue #1: Community Garden/Marketplace/Maker Space (which my Sims have to vote in using Neighbourhood Action Plans to be functional).
- Venue #2: Lounge with a bar, piano, several guitars and assorted off-the-grid-friendly games like darts.
- Venue #3: Recreation Complex with bowling alley (there was bowling before electricity)/Pool (technically uses water but it has no lights or chemicals and it’s as close as I could get to a natural hot spring oasis)/Spa (massages)/Sauna (most don’t use electricity)/Yoga/Gym/Coffee Shop (okay so an espresso machine isn’t exactly living off the grid but do YOU wanna live in a commune without coffee? Me either).
There were 13 empty lots left over so I (painstakingly, it took ages) created 13 unique families to move into them. These will be my cult members. There are no NPCs living in this world.
Each family is starting off with meagre funds as per the “Off The Grid Challenge”. The base amount for each family is $2000 Simoleons, which I took to meaning that was for the first 1 or 2 adults. After that, funds were added for each dependent as follows:
- $300 per child
- $500 per toddler
- $100 per pet
The most any family started out with was $3600, which was a family of 8 and their houses all basically looked like this:
The Rules
I’m allowing myself to adapt and set justifiable rules as I go because the whole point of this is to have fun playing a challenging game, but here’s the ones I’m starting with:
- All residential lots must have the Off-The-Grid lot trait, which means nothing that uses power or water will work on the lot with a few exceptions. The other 2 lot traits are free to be anything. For most houses I chose Penny Pixies and Good Soil, but for the vampires I chose the one where they get vampire mail.
- Per the “Off The Grid Challenge”, the Auld Crow Wood-Burning Cookstove and IceBOX Vintage Refrigerator are the most modern appliances any family can have. However, in this challenge, Sims won’t have to have ingredients to eat or make food. That means meals from one of the coolers or from any of the BBQs or fire pits are fine.
- The only way a family can have indoor plumbing is by someone raising their Handiness skill and crafting a wooden toilet or bathtub at the woodworking table. After that has been achieved by 1 person in the household, the family will then be allowed to purchase off-grid-functional sinks and showers, but will still be limited to handmade toilets. Until then they have to pee in the bushes OR they can make use of the double stall outdoor toilets placed around the world by the developers. Sims are NOT permitted to use the bathrooms in community venues with ONE exception: ladies who have just given birth may have ONE shower afterwards at the Rec Complex.
- Families may not purchase anything from the electronics category in Build Mode. This includes automatic pet feeders and litter boxes. If you have to plug it in or it uses batteries, it is forbidden until a later stage of the game when the cult members can afford solar panels, wind turbines and dew collectors to be a self sustaining community.
- Sims may only sleep in beds made of wood. They may also sleep in tents.
- Sims will primarily make money from gardening, fishing, and selling handcrafted goods. Cell phones don’t work on off-the-grid lots so they can’t get traditional careers UNLESS they get a call offering them a full-time job. Cell phones work on community lots so Sims are only permitted to seek part-time or do odd jobs to supplement their home grown income. It’s better if they don’t work and just live off of gardening, fishing, and selling handcrafted goods. Home career tasks to get promotions are either ignored or can be done off-the-grid.
- Sims may not travel to other worlds because the only things they have to get around on are bikes and going to another world would take too long. The 4 exceptions are going to Granite Falls to gather bugs for herbalism (but they must stay at the campgrounds, no renting cabins), attending festivals as a large group in San Myshuno (let’s pretend they have a psychedelically painted bus for such outings) , warping to the Magical Realm for magical needs or going to a vet in Newcrest if you have to deal with a sick pet that is vomiting uncontrollably.
- Sims may not take sick pets to the vet unless they have uncontrollable vomiting because keeping up with that is basically impossible. Otherwise, they either have to get better on their own or die.
- Money trees are forbidden. They’re too powerful.
- No electric powered lights; lanterns and candles only.
- Using mods is fine, but no cheating with them, like hyper-inflating satisfaction points and eliminating bladder/sleep needs. The “bb.showhiddenobjects” cheat may only be used on community lots. Be honest or this is no fun.
- This challenge must be played on “long” lifespan with aging up manually at an appropriate time because I kinda doubt I can meet my own goals on “normal”.
Challenge Goals
- For the whole world of Brindleton Bay to have a green eco footprint.
- For every household to have indoor plumbing.
- For every household to be self-sustaining with solar panels, wind turbines, dew collectors, and insect farms so they can support electronics and other home comforts.
- To have wall and floor coverings in every room and exterior.
- To have a window in every room of each house.
- For everyone to stay alive and for no pets or kids to be taken away.
- For every household to have a “kitchen garden” (all herbs, garlic, potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach).
- The cult members must create a community space (garden/marketplace/maker space) through voting on Neighbourhood Action Plans.
- Create and celebrate at least 1 new cult holiday per season.
- To have every Sim’s party outfit be in the theme of the Cult somehow, like everyone’s party outfits are the same colour or they all wear the same piece(s) of jewellery. The goal is to have group gatherings where they all match.
- To create some sort of weed economy using the Basemental Drugs mod. (TBD)
- For all of the spellcasters in the world to be comfortable enough in life to start exploring and building their powers. Their bodily/social/sleep needs are easily met and now it’s time to create a community of powerful eco hippie spellcasters.