Bachelor/ette Challenge rules updated for Nightlife

Here is my revision of the Bachelor/Bachelorette challenge to incorporate interactions from Nightlife.

The original challenge by PA Vicky was written before University came out, and the thread can be found here:

The challenge basically mimics (or satirisies) the TV show The Bachelor, and the idea is to start with a sim who needs a life-partner, and end up with that sim fulfilling a want to get married to a specific sim.

General Rules:

• No cheats or hacks that modify relationships, jealousy or mood. Hacks to make gameplay smoother may be okay, but if it feels like a cheat, it probably is a cheat.
• If you normally use crowd-controlling hacks like JMP’s Bathroom Uses You, you may use them, but then you may not direct your sims to use the bathroom or whatever.
• Motherlode to your heart’s content (you are, after all, the producer of a successful reality show). Of course, if you want to play some cheap low-budget knock-off version in a shack, that’s fine, too.
• If you are planning to play the couple at the end of the challenge, you may want to turn aging off; I think this is quite legitimate.
• You may not ever direct any of the sims in the bachelor mansion to interact with one another, except where it is required in the daily rules.
• You may not cancel any spontaneous interactions between any sims. If slapping is about to occur, you must watch it happen. Pausing to take pictures is encouraged.
• This challenge requires you, the director, to remain mostly hands-off. You may direct each sim to the toilet and shower once per day, and you may send them to bed. If you play the aspiration failure rule, you may also direct them to fulfill one want per day, as long as it is not a relationship-type want. Eg, directing them to work out to get a skill point is fine. Directing sims so they don’t die is fine; e.g. if you use the buffet table, you must direct sims to clean it up and serve food once in a while. Giving sims things to do so they don’t interrupt dates is a grey area. Consult your conscience.
• No sims may hold jobs during the course of this challenge, nor may they communicate with family or friends outside the house.
• Every day at 12 noon, you must pause the game and check your lonely sim’s relationship with the other singles in the house. Add the top (daily) and bottom (lifetime) scores together (note that this scoring method will not be exactly the same as the ranking your sims get in their relationship list). The sim with the lowest score must move out. In the event of a tie (very likely in the final couple of days); use the following rules to eliminate someone:
• Check the lightning bolts – the sim with the higher compatibility stays.
• If compatibility is the same, check the single sims’ relationship with your lonely sim – the one with the lower score is out.
• If it is still a tie, check the wants and fears of your lonely sim – if he/she wants to woohoo, get engaged to or marry one of the sims, that sim stays.
• If it is still a tie, check the wants and fears of the singles – if one of them wants to woohoo, get engaged to or marry the bachelor/ette, that sim stays.
• If you have to, add up the previous two items. The sim with the most favourable wants is not eliminated.
• Flip a coin.
• By the end of 7 days you should have a couple who want to get married. Throw a wedding and let them keep the house, or move them out and award them a cash prize. Losers can be recycled through the challenge again, or converted into players in the Asylum challenge.
• Aspiration failure – you have two choices. You may, as stated above, fulfil one aspiration want per day. If you do this, however, any sim who goes into aspiration failure is immediately eliminated, and there is no elimination at the next regular elimination time. On the other hand, if you want, you can play hands-off, not fulfilling any wants, and leave the psycho sims in place.

Optional Drama Queen Rules

• When you have to direct your sims to perform an interaction during a date, always choose the riskiest action. This includes using the lightning-bolt actions. For instance, from the flirt menu, you should choose “caress” if it is available, rather than “hold hands” or “suggestion”. If an interaction is rejected, you do not have to repeat it on that date.
• If there is an outburst of jealousy (slapping), involving multiple sims, you may invoke a recall at the next elimination. If the sim who was eliminated last now has a higher relationship score with the lonely sim than 2 other sims, eliminate both sims, and bring the previously eliminated sim back.

Starting the Challenge

· Build your mansion. Part of the challenge in terms of getting smooth gameplay is in good building. See below for suggestions, but there are no requirements for building.

· Create or borrow your lonely sim. The lonely sim can be a CAS sim, or it could be one someone else made (ask permission). I think it is fine if the lonely sim is one who was born in-game and has been played before, as long as he/she is not in love with any other sim. University graduates are fine. If you are playing an existing sim, be mindful of the “no outside communication” rule. See below for discussion of turn ons/offs.

· If your lonely sim is a CAS sim, you may move him/her into the house first, and play him/her for a day to get into a good mood.

· You will need to have the lonely sim perform the “check sim out” interaction on a random stranger (not one of the singles), so the action “scope room” becomes available.

· You will need 7 single sims. Again, make them yourself, borrow them, or drag them away from their happy families. See below for discussion of turn ons/offs.

Compatibility – your choices

When creating your sims for this challenge, you will need to make some choices about aspirations and turn ons/offs. You can make all of these totally random, of course, or you can do some social engineering.

The difference in the gameplay will be that if your singles vary widely, you are more likely to get one obvious “right” choice for a couple. The more similar the singles are, the closer the decision will be. I tend to lean towards this option as being more entertaining.

Compatibility is, in part, based on aspiration. You might want to make all your sims the same aspiration, or you can make a variety of aspirations and see how they interact. From observation, Fortune sims really suck at this challenge, so you might want to avoid them, or could make all of your singles Fortune, and watch them go into aspiration failure (JMP variation).

Star sign is also a factor in attraction, so you will need to consider whether you want a variety here, or all your singles to have essentially the same personality.

You may want to consult the compatibility chart when you are making your decisions.

Playing this challenge might give some interesting insights into the accuracy of the chart.

As far as turn ons/offs goes, you can make them random, or you can choose to give everyone the same. If choose to make the turn ons/offs the same for all the singles, you also have the choice of whether to engineer them so they are favourable, neutral or negative (JMP variation).

For example, if your single guy is a redhead with a beard, you can make the girls all like red hair and beards (favourable), or make them like swimwear and cologne (neutral), or make them hate red hair (negative). The same goes for your lonely sim.

Daily Rules

I found that since Nightlife, sims seem to get to know each other much more quickly, so some of my changes to the rules here are to give them more free time because they don’t need nearly as much help to develop relationships.

During “date time”, that is, when you are directing your sims to interact, you may want to put them in a date room which is out of the way of other sims (to minimise jealousy issues). Give your sims a few minutes either before or after the required date interactions to socialise autonomously.

N.B. Until the final 3, "date time" is just time when you get your sims (hopefully alone together) to interact. You don't use the "ask on a date" interaction at this time. I guess you could, if you wanted to, but the rules about not directing interactions would apply

Day 1

Meet and greet. No required interactions, just let your sims get to know each other. If you get the chance, have your lonely sim do a “scope room” when all the singles are in the same place.

If you want, for variety, have all the sims go on an outing together. You have to let them interact without intervention, so it might be a short trip.

Day 2

At 12 noon, the sim with the lowest score is out.

After the elimination, it’s time for group dates in the hot tub. Put the lonely sim in the hot tub, then pause the game, and direct all the singles to get in. Then unpause. Ready, set go! The race will be more amusing if there are stairs to the tub. Someone will get distracted by the buffet.

The hot tub date should last 2-3 hours. The sims who miss out can be left alone, directed to a spare hot tub, directed to fulfil a want (if that’s how you are playing) or directed to work out. This last direction becomes more of an issue as turkey syndrome sets in.

At 5pm have someone open the buffet (or serve a meal), and hopefully they will all eat together.

1 on 1 dates: in the evening, have the lonely sim do the “check sim out” interaction, and dance with each single sim.

Day 3

Before elimination at noon, have your lonely sim flirt with each of your single sims.

At 12 noon, the sim with the lowest score is out.

Most of your sims should be friends with the lonely sim by now. If relationships are slow to build, hold another the hot tub date.

Chess dates: get your sim to play chess with each of the single sims for about an hour each.

Day 4

Morning dates – have your lonely sim do 1 flirt, 1 hug and 1 ask “do you like what you see” with the singles.

At 12 noon, the sim with the lowest score is out.

Send your sims on an outing, or let them hang out at home.

Evening dates – give each of your singles an hour alone with the lonely sim in a room that has music. Initiate one flirt, but let them do what they want for the rest of the time.

Day 5

Morning dates – change things around. Have your singles initiate 1 flirt, 1 hug and 1 kiss with your lonely sim.

At 12 noon, the sim with the lowest score is out.

Now you only have 3 singles left, it is probably manageable to send your sims on actual NL-style dates. Send them to a venue of your choice. Actually, it’s better if you send the lonely sim to the venue and then call the date because going to a venue seems to waste a lot of date time.

You may not direct any actions or interactions, except interactions that sims will not do autonomously. You may direct interactions such as "dine out with" or "sing karaoke with," but only if both sims want to do the action. If both sims want to woohoo, you may direct them to do so.

It’s really quite hard to get a good date if you let sims just do what they want. Maybe there’s a key in good venue design.

Day 6

Morning dates – have your lonely sim do 1 flirt and 1 kiss with the singles.

At 12 noon, the sim with the lowest score is out.

Have your single ask his/her final 2 on dates. Dress up, go somewhere nice. ;)

Day 7

Have your lonely sim agonise all morning over the final decision.

At 12 noon, the sim with the lowest score is out.

Hopefully, you will be able to hold a wedding in the afternoon.

Huzzah! You won the challenge.

Helpful Hints

• The buffet table is a much better way to feed your sims if you are dealing with a house full of CAS sims with no cooking skill. On the other hand, if you have any Grilled Cheese sims, you should probably have a stove.
• Put a secret room in the basement and hide a fridge in there and anything else you don’t want them to have.
• Having lots of fun group activity items will help move the challenge along.
• Lots of bathrooms!
• Put a Men’s/Women’s room door or a lockable door on one bedroom and bathroom to reserve them for the lonely sim’s use. You can give him/her a double bed, and finally unlock the door when the lucky winner is chosen.
• You may hire a maid and gardener.

Feel free to play around with the rules, and thanks again to PA Vicky for such a great challenge idea.