01-12. Spring Has Arrived

Max has one more day of winter. Then the snow will be gone! I never want to see it again!!

My 8th Achievement badge from Max: I Smelt a Lot. He's been buying raw metal from the store (too difficult to find it in winter and he doesn't have the collector reward). Then he has it smelted and consigns it. With the Haggler and Suave Seller rewards, he's making a bunch of money doing this. Add that to his Power Broker income and weekly investment returns, and this guy has it made.

I replaced the regular consignment shop with a combo lot of consignment, elixir, savvy seller, comic book, bot emporium, and relic registers. The relic register only sells home world gems and metals, but that helps Max do his ore and gem deals. I call the lot the City Center Coop. It's another crazy place!

The hobby shop (comic) clerk is a riot (Childish Nerd). Always wants to play chase or pillow fight. But check out the kilt and cowboy boots on the bot clerk.

And then there are the zombie shoppers. This zombie spent over 500 simoleons on savvy seller stuff. (I checked the sales records.)

Speaking of zombies. I was hoping they'd leave the money tree alone. But no. Luckily I had saved right before Max went to bed in the tent, so I went back to that save and had Max sleep elsewhere. As long as he's not on the lot during a full moon, the zombies don't show up. The plants are then safe.

In the meantime, Max is also trying to work on athletics and martial arts. (I haven't started him doing any fine arts stuff yet.) I edited the gym by adding some of my store items: ballet barre, stiff as a board dance floor, pull up bar, martial arts equipment, sauna, massage table. Max took Kirby there one night.

Challenge Feedback:
Maxwell doesn't have a new boss. I guess he'd already gone past that stage. Funny thing in a weird way, Lala's grown daughter calls Max up for a date the day after her mother died. Hmm...

I did manage to see a couple of other family dogs today. But I haven't seen any horses, cats, or any stray dogs. I checked the species population with Nraas, and oddly, there are no deer or raccoon. There is suppose to be a unicorn, but I haven't seen it. Max spends most of his time in town though.

The resort has everything it needs to be 5 star, and would probably get there very quickly. I've had a family build a resort in Roaring Heights which became 5 star, so I know the tricks of the trade. That's one reason I don't want to buy the resort until the last minute because Maxwell would complete his Lifetime Wish before the challenge was over. And another odd thing, the game seems to be counting Max's overall investment revenues toward his lifetime wish. In addition to having a 5 star resort, he's suppose to make at least 40,000 simoleons running it. The game is listing his Wish resort earning as around 300,000 now, and he hasn't even bought the resort yet!
__________

Now Max is a few days into Spring. The weather was nice at first, then it iced up again. He's waiting for a good chance to propose to Kirby, but that weather needs to clear!

He's been working on his martial arts. And to round his experience out a bit, so he's not so money-driven, he earned a point in writing. And he found a good deal on a guitar at the consignment shop, so he's also picked up 3 points in guitar. Even had an opportunity to attend a guitar seminar.

He collects around 50,000/wk in his investments. Bought a new property. Saving for the resort now. Still collecting ore and gems for smelting/cutting and reselling. Was able to find a few on the ground for free with the snow gone for that day or two.

A good spot for collecting. He found 3 valuable gems.

The friendly relic dealer and his buddy at the snack bar:

Max headed over to the Festival Grounds with Kirby. They tried the love meter machine, which I had never done before, and receive this rating: "Love Inspector feels terrible for taking your money to observe something so beautiful--Love Inspector should be paying YOU!"

 While at the Festival, he also did some Easter egg hunting.

Max collected enough to get two fancy decor eggs and earned us the Festival Fanatic achievement badge for visiting all 4 seasonal festivals. (The middle egg is a glass-blowing object: a glass dragon egg.)

01-11. Adjusting Living Arrangements Again

So after a few days in the apt, I had a brainstorm and decided to see if I could make it work. I had Max move back to his tent lot and sold the apt, but using Nraas, I moved Kirby into it so that she lives there alone, no roommates. I had sold off any extra items I had put in the apt from gifts Max received, so the apt is pretty cheap for her to live in. I did leave a couple of upgraded appliances and I also managed to give her a Multi-Tab (had to use another Nraas mod to help do that!), umbrella, sketch pad, and Flying Disc. She also is level 4 in her political career. And the game gave her 20,000 for her household funds. Financially she should be fine. However...

I still worry about her being on her own. She seems to have "adventures." She's been abducted by aliens twice, turned into a mermaid then almost died of dehydration before turning human again. She stays out in the cold too long doing crazy rebel stuff. Max would be heartbroken if something happened to her. I really don't want to see her begging Grim for her life like poor Lenny did. Her decisions are sooo very NPC.

She was finally able to go to Max's tent lot, so they spent a little time there. But I think she's confused about where she's suppose to be. I hope in a day or so, she'll settle down into her new place ok. Max had to try to lead her to her own house and kissed her goodbye there.

A little fun first.

Kirby protesting in her jammies.

Following Max back to her apt doing the strut of pride.

Max alone, except for the snowmen.

But Kirby never went into her apt. Here's where I found her the first night on her own.

_____

Kirby finally settled in her own apartment ok. And all is well there.

A winter gnome showed up on Max's lot. I've never had one of these types before.

Then, something sad. Lala Angelista, Max's old and best friend (and boss) died of electrocution. No warning. Max had attended her party just the night before. I think the game was determined to take a life. At least it wasn't Kirby. Max laid Lala to rest by her mother, Tatiana.

Challenge Feedback:
I guess I was around half way when Maxwell really started showing his big accomplishments, maybe a little sooner than that. I think this was pretty quick for one of my sims, especially with the money. I play on epic life span and my sims do a variety of activities, so each focus would be different, but it most often centers around the lifetime wish. Even Max, though he hasn't concentrated on his resort wish, still is doing investing and activities related to that wish. Also, my sims don't always marry or have kids, but they usually pair up with someone. So Max getting close to Kirby is typical. During spring, Max will propose to Kirby--he has that wish. Then at the end of the challenge, I'll have them marry. It seems like it would be his personality, all part of his big plan.

I have enjoyed playing this, also experiencing Bridgeport. One thing, I haven't noticed any animals except one family dog in the world. No wild life or strays at all even though I put out pets things on a couple of lots like I usually do. I'm curious and need to remember to check what pet populations my world has.

01-10. A Unique Sim

It's in the middle of winter for Maxwell. Mostly uneventful, still plugging away trying to keep his money invested. As a level 10 Power Broker in the Business career, he makes top dollar, and with his investments, he brings in around 50,000 simoleons/wk now.

He did have one strange thing happen. We watched the Grim Reaper in action. I had placed the Door of Life and Death in the basement of the graveyard vampire lair (just because it looked appropriate there). Well, around midnight one evening, I hear ominous music and the game yanks the camera over to the Door. Apparently, Lenny Shutter (in my game a paparazzi) had knocked on the Door and gotten himself killed. Paparazzi are attracted to the Door and usually are pulled down by the pit monster. Well, this was a pretty gruesome little scene with Lenny on his knees begging for his life and the Reaper just slashing him with his scythe. I don't see Grim in action very often in my games. Very rare.

I felt kind of bad for Lenny. Max didn't know the guy, so there was no way to help him out. But I had just saved not too long before. I decided to give Lenny a second chance (even though he's an Evil sim and probably deserved what he got!). After reloading, I used Nraas to locate Lenny, and sure enough, he's at the graveyard. I send Max over to side track Lenny, who is heading straight for that Door. Lenny is now alive and well...but as the Reaper says, "For now."
_____

Max has definitely been a unique sim for me. I have many "firsts" already with him. It's been fun. Let me see if I can name most of them.

First Sim to:

• live in Bridgeport
• live out of a tent
• have an extended winter season
• deal with ongoing rain and hail (I turn these off in my other games)
• have zombies eat his plants
• rescue a dehydrated and dying mermaid
• join and master the business career
• work from home
• hold meetings in rabbit holes
• master Charisma
• master Social Networking
• send text messages to other sims
• use social networking phone apps
• change the ring tones and skins of his phone
• own several partnerships in real estate (my other investor bought only a few properties)
• snow board
• visit the winter festival lot
• buy and use mistletoe
• send a love letter
• be a Vice President and friends with his boss
• upgrade several things on community lots
• become best friends with and name his fixer-upper car (Benton)
• eat wild mushrooms
• live exclusively on fresh fruit and lasagna for days at a time (wood oven on a community lot)
• gain most of his gardening skills from a community garden
• gain most of his cooking skills from a community oven (wood)
• hold off on working directly on a Lifetime Wish
• choose Hotel Mogul for a Lifetime Reward
• choose Haggler for a Lifetime Reward
• buy specific qualities of ore (over 55 simoleons) to smelter into bars in order to sell for profit

...that's all I can think of right now!

01-09. Midway Through the Challenge

Challenge Feedback:
I've gotten distracted in Edit Town a few times. I like to play around with decorating, and these past few months, I've been collecting new sets, etc. from the Sims Store. I've been adding items here and there in my worlds so I can see how they look or work. 

I redid the Bridgeport Beat a little and added the Hypnotizer just for grins. The NPCs like it. But it seems they just hypnotize another sim, then walk off and leave the poor victim drooling in the rain, waiting for a hypnotic suggestion from the hypnotizer.

Winter has arrived for Maxwell. He's progressing quite a bit--almost done with his goals already--but he has changed his business plan, mainly because he has decided to stay in Bridgeport. He needs to build a future there.

_____
Max has taken some time doing other things besides building his "empire."

A costume party at the end of fall.

Some down time at the resort building a snowman.

Time at the resort bar.

Although he did upgrade a couple of things there.

After the challenge, Max will buy the resort. It'll cost him 164,761 simoleons. Here's a screenshot of the resort at the end of fall.

And the first day of winter:

The house Max wants to buy after the challenge is over (136,216 simoleons):

_____

Some of Maxwell's midway stats:

His properties, mainly partnerships right now:

His weekly earnings from properties:

01-08. A Committed Relationship

After what BlackSand said about modifying the challenge a little to fit with our story, I decided that Max and Kirby needed a place for private interactions. Public kisses and woohooing is fun at first, but finding treehouses, elevators, and all-in-one toilets gets old. Not to mention his manic work and skill building habits were taking a toll on the relationship. It was beginning to get difficult trying to connect with her.

And here's where I'm afraid I've deviated from the original challenge. Max found a dirt-cheap apt close to his tent lot, around 6,000 I think it was and he bought it as a second residence. (He uses the gifts he gets in the mail to decorate it.) I was just going to have him visit there with Kirby, but unfortunately she still couldn't come in! She would never visit his tent lot either. So I decided to just move him there while still keeping his tent lot. Kirby became his one roommate. She pays him 99 simoleons/week in rent. I don't have any control over her, but she's at the house most of the time and the two are able to interact more.

I know this is not exactly how the original challenge was set up, but I decided I needed to make a compromise because Max is not going to be an NPC for me. He's still sacrificing for the future though. He wants to marry Kirby, but they're going to have to wait. I don't even want to have control of her yet...just concentrate on Max.

Kirby has had some adventures on her own though. The first being related to the mermaid thing. Max came home from work and found her on the floor. Scared me! But she had fainted because she had dehydrated.

Max gave her water and she was ok, except that she's always hungry.

The next day, he arrives back home from doing community work and Kirby is surrounded by white fog. She lost her mermaid status. Weird. I've never seen that happen before.

Actually, it's just as well. Mermaids are high maintenance.

The next night, Kirby jumps up out of bed after woohooing and heads down stairs. What's she doing? Then I see. She was abducted by aliens!

As for his other friends and acquaintances, most of the time the best Max can do is send friendly text messages.