Hi.

This is going to be a quick documentary adult start apocalypse using FT rules. And I mean the

quick part. I am playing with pets restrictions shoved under Medical (Senility), Entertainment

(Skilling), and Beds (Law). I have the expansion, but I also have clean templates. I don’t feel like

spawning pets just for this. This will also point out loopholes and tricks to playing a FT adult start.

Let’s go.

This is our founder, Ding Dong. He’s a Fortune Pisces with stats of 3/6/6/0/10. He wants

to own 5 top level businesses – Ha! Not happening. You’ll be lucky to be able to sell the

crap you get. We’re playing in Strangetown, only because I don’t feel like making a

custom hood and populating it. I admit it, I am lazy.

Pause your game immediately. And build. This is what you should end up with. It is a

small 3x8 room with a door (locked to household) and floating sections of ceiling/roof.

Use the 4 pillars required by Architecture to place them. I use the “All EARS from

Suburban Appeal” carpet for flooring. Trust me it comes in handy later. Leave the

spaces open for your stairs and place the stairs before placing wall sections on either side

up or down.

NOW SAVE!!!

I was left enough for an Ikea Bed ($480), an Ikea bookcase ($190), a recliner ($149),

fridge ($600), sink ($275), toilet ($300), and phone ($60.)

If I had been smart, I would have held off on the recliner and bought a cheaper chair and

had enough for the $99 stereo. But it is a habit for me to but the recliner first.

I am not showing it but RoseFyre was here when it happened. The first job in the paper

was Military. Again. My last adult start got that literally not 3 days prior.

Military needs 6 friends and since he already got a mechanical point while waiting for the

paper and he can’t work until the next day. Get started on the friends early. Friends

mean networking promotions and cheaper household items and building material (and

better wallpaper and flooring).

Friends also help with that all important fun motive. And if you didn’t know it before red

hands is the fastest way to build fun. Faster than a TV. Faster than a computer game.

Slapping someone’s hand is the funnest thing EVER in the sims (other than kicking a

flamingo).

Also get used to instant meals and the trek to the trashcan until you can afford a counter

and a grill or the trash chute (which is not affected by lowest rated.) Instant meals also

keep for longer, and are slightly less likely in my experience to cause food poisoning when

drunk spoiled.

You didn’t need to see the car pool right? Assume time passes and I am spending the

time skilling, caring for needs and building what little I can.

Ding here is actually not bad at skilling. He sucks in other ways. Which we will get to.

This townie just gave me my most favorite thing ever. Lower household costs. So useful

early on.

Which means we can get the stereo. Getting the three body is the hard thing in an apoc.

Especially early on.

In any career, if it requires body and you are skilled in the other skills needed for the next

promotion, work on the hardest to gain skill first. For me, that is body. For others it will

be creativity or charisma. Work on the hard to gain skill first.

And this is why I like messy sims. Sponge bathing will up you to 3/4ths of the way full and

takes less time than hand washing. And if you have 3 or less neat you can lick plates

clean for that extra nutrition.

Unfortunately the downside is that things break faster. But if you need mechanical, it is

okay.

I should point out that at this very moment, his environment score is at about 3/4ths full.

The windows and the mirror coupled by the small space make it a great skilling place.

Also, let me point out that banning the “Great Divide” floor dividers from pets was

pointless. You can achieve the same effect with any garden edging which is unrestricted.

This is the $5 stump fence. It’s cheap and it serves its purpose – which is the illusion of

privacy, cleanliness, and silence – just like the floor dividers.

Now for all that Ding Dong was great at skilling (the low playful). He rarely rolled

fulfillable wants – not even get promotion or skill needed for next promotion. So I saw a

lot of worry hands. However, aspiration isn’t as important if you have friends who are

calling in your promotions for you (Bella Goth, Johnson Pai, and Margaret Howe all did

that).

Also he ate a good amount of green food. Mostly because I was using him to make cereal

to skill a little cooking and cereal isn’t really filling. But taking time from necessary

skilling wasn’t happening so sacrifices were made.

Like Ding’s aspiration. Fun fact, sims will roll the wants for their highest level hobby first.

Ding’s is fitness. That means Jogging – which is quite possibly the most annoying thing to

do since it tanks your needs. Ding could not jog, he was sad about this.

However he did at some point roll the want for a promotion. He in fact rolled this want

exactly twice. He also brought home Buzz Grunt.

Fun tip, there is a hack that puts people in their right clothes for their skill level. So you

can tell by uniform what level they are likely at so might have an idea of who has high

level skills and who has what careers pre-Intelligence. If someone who is in Science

brings home Mr. Claw you know you have a Mad Scientist or in General Buzz’ case a

General

At the halfway point, Ding is a Senior Officer and has the following built. Note: I haven’t

placed a car. This is deliberate. Because I am in Military, if I lift I will get “Walk to

Work/School” options. Thus saving the bottom level for other things. Also, don’t place

the car until later anyway. It tanks hygiene and comfort but raises fun. The latter is great

for those housebound teens who can’t do things anyway.

He also froze.

If you don’t have friends over, making a snowman builds both fun and social. It also can

lead to other side effects.

Like Penguins talking while you take a header in the snow.

And then returning while you are still frozen.

He got unfrozen but collapsed after not peeing himself (he had the fear of an accident but

not passing out.)

Steal my paper, Olive!

Soon it was time to start spouse hunting/scouting. Ding likes High Creative/High Logic.

Which point to Business, Culinary, or Politics high levels.

He has negative bolts with this person. But she fulfilled a much needed role. Friend

number seven. The buffer friend.

Because soon after he lifted Military. Ding was 11 days to elder at this point and had no

other real skills other than two cooking and two cleaning.

So now the spouse hunt was in earnest. Trick. Stop every walk by you can. The game

likes to throw new sims at you before old ones. Also in this hood because of clean

templates I don’t get the social group wallabies.

Also note the knocked over trashcan. With the trash chute from Apartment life, you need

never pick it up again and you will not get roaches from this. I have a trash chute on

both floors.

Also, the keep out fence is built. Four sections of fence, one gate (locked to household),

and the pillar. Sims can’t walk around the pillar and this is an effective deterrent for

unknown sims.

We also got promotion calling in sim Margaret Howe as the 6:30pm walk by. One greet.

One kiss. And the hearts went flying. She has 3 bolts with Ding so I crossed my fingers

and moved her in, hoping for Culinary.

Not Culinary but something even better. Medical. 2nd level but skilled for 3rd. No Friends. No

crap in inventory. She is perfect. She also had 2 cooking points, 4 mechanical, 3 charisma, 3

body, 7! Logic, 7! Creativity and 4 cleaning. She’s a Fortune sim who wants to be a criminal

mastermind and is a stock Scorpio. Thus explaining the bolts.

As soon as she moved it, she walked to work and got promoted. I got her promoted until she

needed a skill again (which took two days). Just because I know that stock Scorpio’s make crap

pregnant sims.

Unfortunately, she’s also got one of my least favorite neatnesses. Too neat to sponge

bathe. Not neat enough to use the sink effectively.

I’d rather not pass that along to the kids.

Then it was baby time! I want the first kid a child or close thereto before Ding became an

elder and therefore senile.

Chimes on the first go.

I was right about Margaret’s ability to be a good pregnant sim. She didn’t throw up, but

her needs dropped like a stone. I constantly had to wake her up to eat green food (which

if I wasn’t careful she would clean up the serving plate on) just to keep her alive.

And yes, sponge bathing pictures amuse me.

All clean, Ding proposed to Margaret. I had him check her out to see if the want would

show up. But no dice – he wanted a butler – and since she’s pregnant and I want his last

name. This needs to happen before she spawns.

Naturally she said yes.

Note the curtains. They are unrestricted except by lowest rated which dictates how much

environment they can have and for how much. Shove windows and curtains and mirrors

EVERYWHERE. Your sims environment score will not even notice the blank walls and crap

floors because of it.

A few days later, the marriage took place.

Just in time too since she started popping a few hours later.

And the first child was born, Long Dong, with his father’s eyes and hair and a darker

freckled skin tone.

This is also the first time I’ve seen Margaret in her everyday clothes. They aren’t bad.

Margaret goes back to skilling while Ding settles down to write a few novels before aging

up.

And yes she is thinking about the promotion before getting pregnant. She didn’t get any

during but she didn’t miss work or get fired either.

Now she’s back off to work to keep going for Medical. I think she was general practioner

at this point.

Which Ding aged up Long.

Long has his father’s ears too. But gods he’s got the personality from hell – 1/10/10/10/4.

He’s going to be miserable.

Get promotions Margaret! Your child needs you!

Margaret is much better than Ding at keeping happy. She rolls stead wants for money and

promotions and every day she wants to talk about hobby and play chess. She’s almost

always high gold/low plat. Unlike Ding who rarely got out the green.

This and a crib is all you need for the kid. If they want to learn a toddler skill, teach them

the nursery rhyme. It raises charisma while you do it. Screw the rest. Keep the kid

happy with tickles and snuggles.

Ding managed to pump out two novels before he aged, but because the first novel was a

bad one he dipped into the red. Oops?

Luckily he didn’t make it to the phone before aging for the second one.

Because it was a flop too. Sending him into aspiration failure. Oops?

Margaret continued skilling, ignoring her crazy old husband in the corner.

A little chicken dance and Ding felt marginally better.

And Margaret deemed him worthy of red hands.

Then he made a mess and left his wife to clean it up.

And this became a theme. Ding preferred the recliner to sleep in. Which made me

annoyed because the recliner glitches open and sims snap reset out of it. So every time

he slept in it I had to replace it (which lowered my funds not much because he got the

general chance card full of money, but it’s the principle of the thing!)

I also realized that because of my lighting mod, I didn’t show you what Margaret looked

like. She’s face 2, I think. And Ding seems to like having a hot young wife.

He’d also like an aspiration point or three.

Sigh… Go back to work again.

Long got his Dad’s attention and demanded a bottle and a diaper change.

Because he had some growing up to do.

Even though he didn’t get all toddler skills – he only had the Nursery Rhyme. Long was

able to get all 4 needs perks. Toddler Skills are not necessary. I aged him up because of

hygiene and because of Ding’s stupidity. He had 7 charisma though.

While Ding found his favorite pass out location and made good use of it. Now that he’s an

elder, he sucks at caring for himself. Sucks at it. Will not eat when called to eat. Even

though he is starving. This sim as a death wish.

I wouldn’t mind if he died out here, because you know, it’s not in the house. But not until

Margaret lifts.

Because I think Ding passed on his stupid gene to his son.

“Come to see me off to school, Dad?”

“I thought garbage pail kids went out of fashion in the eighties.”

“Bye, Dad! I’ll play red hands with you when I get home!”

“Red hands?”

“Can’t, got to pee.”

“Red hands NOW!”

“Fine.”

Another fun tidbit. Kids will do their homework with fully red hygiene, if the rest of their

needs and fun bar are really high. Remember that for later.

Meanwhile, Ding scares the neighbors with sponge bathing outside.

“Help me?”

He almost looks like a kicked puppy. But I am not that sympathetic. He could have rolled

a fulfillable want. BUT NOOOOOOOOO!!!

His wife and son roll them all the time. I usually get about 1000 aspiration out of the two

of them every morning and every evening.

Which is pretty much the only way Long will do his homework. He’s way too messy to get

clean with hand washing so Plat it is.

It doesn’t mean he doesn’t hand wash. Just enough to make things dirty so he can clean

them.

“I’m really boring.”

She’s one promotion away from lifting Medical so that means that I can afford to get her

pregnant and still get her pregnant once more right before Ding dies.

“I hate being dirty!!!”

Such is the life of an apoc kid.

However, Long’s extreme personality means that he will do one thing autonomously.

Jump Rope. High Active and/or High Playful they will jump rope to raise fun. So I am

happy about this. Unfortunately I don’t think this going to happen for all of my kids. It

only happens 3-4 times in a full apoc.

Meanwhile, Margaret keeps working on getting 10 body so she can walk to work as an

elder.

Unfortunately she keeps getting distracted by vomiting.

Not that this bothers me, just means more toilets for Long to clean.

Despite my torturing him with cleaning, he gives me such fulfillable wants. Like eat a

sandwich. Which did you know that spoiled food totally counts toward fulfilling this want?

It does.

Unlike his father. If you wanted talk about your hobby, we wouldn’t be in this position! I

named him way too accurately.

“Mmmmm… Green sandwich! +500 points!”

And she got food poisoning. Oh well, more dirty toilets.

“I think I’m starting to lose my hair.”

No, that’s mine from watching you almost starve every day while I can’t control you.

“No one loves me!”

“Mmmm… Green hot dog…”

“Ewwww!!! Kissing parents are gross!”

“Despite the fauxhawk I am not a Fitzhugh. I do not like cleaning.”

I think it was with relief that he went to school. Or as I like to call it, the place that sucks

all of the fun out of life.

Then Margaret heads off to work for the final promotion.

BTW walking to school is not restricted for children/teens or pregnant sims walking to

work. So that means that the car is totally useless at this point. This is the power of

Military.

In pre-celebration, I bought a photo booth.

It’s allowed. I combed the restrictions and even had RoseFyre double check. Not restricted.

Why would I add it? Well, a few reasons. Depending on interpretation, taking pictures with

it isn’t restricted, nor is hanging the pictures on the wall restricted. Sims will also take

pictures autonomously. Then there’s the real reason. Woohoo location. If you don’t want a

double bed and want to save space, buy a photobooth and try for a baby in there. I don’t

need it, but I wanted to point out the loophole.

Where Ding promptly proved my point that sims will use it autonomously.

And she gets a chance card. Apparently resting her ankle was the right choice. Because

she is a Chief of Staff. And what was the first thing we bought?

A tub, of course.

“Totally worth it.”

“I have an A and I hate my mother. She’s in the tub and I want to play in it.”

Margaret finally got enough cooking points to make hamburgers. This was necessary

considering her pregnancies.

“Mmm… Green Cereal…”

Now able to actually not be a complete idiot anymore, Ding read all of the novels he

wrote. They were moderately horrid.

“I’m home and I hate my life!”

This slide isn’t here to show birthing. This slide is to point out the medicine cabinet. The thing that

shouldn’t have been restricted or at least only restricted once… Want to know why? It raises hygiene at

the same level as a sink and messy sims will Brush Teeth rather than sponge bathe. And did you know

that it is triple restricted – Medical, Intelligence, and Artist? It’s so powerful that it apparently Dates and

Outings are easier to get than a medicine cabinet. Just saying… We are not even talking about

It got sold as soon as I could after the birth (grayed out buy/build) which was when Annoying Ding used it.

So say hello to our newest Dong, Young. She’s a girl with her mom’s hair and eyes and

freckled dark skin.

And say goodbye to the medicine cabinet. Maybe at the end of the challenge.

Also as soon as I could after the birth, I got Margaret knocked up again.

Long is creepy, that is all.

“I just know you are going to make my life hell, that is all.”

Actually he did that himself. He’s now Popularity/Family with the want to graduate 3 kids.

Sorry Long, you aren’t breeding.

Sometimes I regret letting these two breed.

Welcome to another loophole. Tables. Dining Tables, End Tables, and Coffee Tables are

not restricted at all per Lowest rated. Desks are restricted. Tables aren’t. And the

bloody medicine cabinet is restricted 3 times.

Apparently, hiding your game from the boss is a bad idea. As is bringing home Circe

Beaker.

Long at least has the right idea and is embracing his role as the new friend maker.

And just in time too, since Ding is sent off to the corner of the lot to amuse himself until

6pm.

“And I will call you George and you will love me!”

“Um, George, I feel a little weird.”

“And that would be why.”

“Ding, you suck. Time to die.”

“But I haven’t frozen yet and where’s my tiki drink!”

“Entertainment isn’t lifted. No Drinks until then.”

“Lei?”

“Natural Science.”

“Apocs suck.”

“Stop stalling and do the walk of shame.”

So goodbye, Ding. We will miss you. Or not. I know I won’t. The fact that your family

didn’t even notice, well, that says something.

So those are the first two lifts. Along with a lot of loopholes, tricks, and observation.

See you next time, or not, at this point it is pretty much standard Apocing from here.

However if you want more snark, observations, and tricks I’ve learned per lift. Let me

know.

Until whenever I publish something, happy simming!