StrangerVille Survival Challenge
TOS
This challenge is loosely inspired by Pinstar's Apocalypse Challenge; however, my challenge is more focused on the StrangerVille story and designed to make use of much of StrangerVille's content, so I think it's different enough from Pinstar's challenge to stand on its own.
If you repost, edit, or write another version of this challenge based on mine, please credit both Pinstar and myself and link back to both our challenges. Thank you!
Story
The Mother has utterly destroyed StrangerVille. There is nothing left but abandoned buildings and a town overrun with toxic plants. Most of the inhabitants have fled in terror, but the few who remain are infected... and highly contagious, but your Sim knows they can't be the only survivor who is still healthy. Others are out there somewhere. Your Sim must find a way to live in this dangerous new world and look for other survivors.
Objective
Start with nothing but an empty plot of land and a desire to survive. Build a fully self-sustainable fallout shelter and gather up a colony of fellow survivors who will help you grow your base. The challenge ends when you have a colony of 8 Sims and have built a finished, self-sustainable shelter that can accommodate your entire colony. Each member of the colony must be assigned a role and be masters of their role's skills.
Getting Started
Reach Act 3 of the StrangerVille Mystery story any way you want with a random, disposable Sim. I highly recommend downloading TwistedMexi's All Cheats Unlocked mod and using the command narrative.start_narrative narrative_strangetown_act3 in the cheat console to just set the story to Act 3 immediately. If you don't want to use mods, then just get to Act 3 using as many cheats as you like with this random Sim. The only purpose of this is to enable the crazy weather for the challenge.
Make a young adult Sim in CAS. This Sim can have any appearance, gender customisations, traits, aspiration, voice, and walk style you want. You may use any CC you like on them that doesn't affect gameplay in any way.
You may use the in-game personality quiz to determine your Sim’s starting skills and traits, but you must quit any career it assigns you as soon as you start playing and you must still remove all your starting funds.
If Cats & Dogs is installed, you may give your Sim one pet. Only one. The pet can be a cat or a dog of any breed/mix, and have any appearance and traits you want.
Move your household into any bulldozed, empty lot in StrangerVille.
Open the cheat console with CTRL + SHIFT + C and type in testingcheats true, followed by money 0. Then type in testingcheats false.
Overall Rules
No mods that give you an unfair advantage in the challenge. Mods that make any aspect of the game easier for your Sim or help your Sim in any way in the challenge are not allowed.
No cheats of any kind except for bb.moveobjects on for creative building purposes. Any cheats the challenge specifically instructs you to use are okay, but only when the challenge specifies it. For example, you can use the money cheat only to take away all your Sim's money at the beginning of the challenge. You can't use the money cheat again after that.
Lifespans must be set to Normal with Auto-Aging On for all Sims. Sims must be allowed to age naturally. No early birthdays. No prolonging life/preventing death/resurrecting dead Sims.
No careers! No rabbithole careers. No active careers. No work from home careers. No custom careers. No careers of any kind. Period. The epidemic in StrangerVille has caused the job market to collapse. Sims must make money by selling items they've crafted, harvested, or collected.
No member of your household can leave StrangerVille. All roads going in and out are blocked off and the bizarre weather has made travel too dangerous. Sims may travel to other lots in StrangerVille but cannot use any forbidden luxuries on those lots (toilets, showers, etc). Assume all appliances and tech are broken on these lots.
The cell phone is forbidden. Autonomous phone interactions can be cancelled without penalty, but you cannot use the phone for any reason. Cell towers have been knocked out, leaving phones out of service.
You may purchase in-game rewards with satisfaction points you earned properly without cheats, but Potions of Youth are off-limits. You are limited to one Money Tree. You may not exploit the glitch to get more Money Tree Seeds.
Shelter
With harmful airborne spores everywhere, its only a matter of time before your Sim breathes in so much of it that they, too, succumb to this terrible illness. It's not safe to be outdoors for long periods of time and infected Sims roam the streets at night. The weather has knocked out power lines and the water tower, severely limiting your Sim's access to electricity and indoor plumbing.
As soon as you are on your empty lot with $0, time starts ticking. You have exactly 24 hours to build an underground shelter that is protected from the elements, otherwise you fail the challenge. If you started a new save file, this should be exactly 8:00AM the following morning.
Your shelter must be entirely underground and protected from the harsh StrangerVille weather (so a door separating your shelter from the outside). The shelter does not need to have anything in it. It does not need wall coverings or flooring. It doesn't even need to be more than a 1x1 square. As long as your Sim has somewhere they can stand that is completely underground and protected from the elements, you've passed the first 24 hours. (HINT: Fishing in Shady Acres can be both profitable and an easy source of food early on in the challenge).
After the first 24 hours, all Sims in your household have a strict 9pm curfew. All Sims must be inside the shelter and remain in the shelter from 9pm to 7am every night for their own safety.
You can only have one item that uses electricity in each room of your shelter. Lights must be candles, oil lamps, or the DIY wall light that came with StrangerVille.
Your shelter is lacking in indoor plumbing. You may only have three “plumbing” items in your entire shelter. You are limited to:
Rustic basin sinks
WooHoo bushes (GT or JA – not subject to the plumbing item limit)
Portable camping shower (OR)
DIY shower (SV)
The homemade toilet and bath craftable on the workbench
Food
The Mother's infection doesn't seem to have affected the water or the fish in the town, but nothing grown on land outdoors is safe to eat. It's all been contaminated by airborne spores. The epidemic has caused all the local shops to shut down, making grocery shopping a thing of the past. Your Sim has no choice but to find a way to grow their own produce underground.
Sims may not eat anything they do not have all the ingredients for.
Sims may not eat any meals that do not require any ingredients. All meals must require at least one ingredient. The only exception to this is the birthday cake. Sims may cook and eat birthday cakes, but only for the purpose of celebrating a birthday. A Sim must age up using the cake.
Your Sim may not grow anything above ground, not even if it's indoors. All food must be grown underground in the shelter to protect them from contamination. (HINT: You need medium wall height to be able to grow trees underground)
Sims may catch and eat fish that they've caught.
Sims may not purchase, plant, grow, harvest, touch, eat, or carry bizarre fruit. No bizarre fruit may ever come into contact with your Sims or be brought into the shelter. No Sim may ever interact with a bizarre plant. If any Sim in your household comes into contact with a bizarre plant or bizarre fruit, they must be killed off or kicked out immediately.
Grow Your Colony
Once your Sim has established a proper shelter and a way to safely grow their own produce, it's time to start thinking bigger. Surely your Sim can't be the only healthy person left in StrangerVille. There must be others like them out there somewhere, hiding, struggling to survive. Wouldn't it be nice to band together and form a colony of survivalists? If they could just find them in the sea of infected Sims wandering around...
No Sim in your household may interact with an infected/possessed Sim. If a Sim in your household autonomously interacts with an infected/possessed Sim, they must be immediately killed off or kicked out of the household in order to protect the rest of the colony. This applies to all Sims regardless of age or relation to any other Sims in the household.
If your starting Sim interacts with an infected/possessed Sim, they must also leave the colony. The role of Leader then gets passed to another Sim in the colony. This is the only exception to the rule about not changing roles in the next section. If your starting Sim is the only Sim in the colony, you fail the challenge.
Your Sim cannot add the first new member of the colony until the shelter functions like a proper “home.” It must have:
A method of bathing and using the bathroom inside the shelter
A method of cooking and storing food inside the shelter
Enough seating for at least two Sims
At least one garden planter
At least one fun item
Two beds. If your Sim and the new colony member have a suitably high relationship, you may have one double bed, instead.
You cannot add a new colony member to the household until there is a bed for them inside the shelter.
New colony members may be added to the shelter either by inviting existing Sims to move into the household or by having natural-born children within the household.
You cannot invite a Sim to join your colony until your Sim is Good Friends with them.
No new colony member can bring any money with them when they move in. Use the money cheat to remove any funds they bring with them.
Colony Roles
In order for your colony to thrive, you're going to need some organization and structure. As the leader of your colony, you'll be assigning each new member of your colony a vital role. That Sim will dedicate their lives to fulfilling their assigned role for the benefit of the colony. There are lots of things to be done to keep the colony running smoothly and lots of Sims needed to perform those tasks. If everyone works together, the colony will stay strong in the face of this terrible tragedy.
When a new Sim joins the colony, assign them a role from the list below. That Sim must master the skill linked to their role. You cannot change a Sim's role after it's been assigned so think carefully. If a Sim masters a skill for a different role, it won't count towards the challenge. The Sim must master the skill that matches their role.
Sims aren't restricted to only performing duties within their role, but try your best to keep everyone as focused on their role as possible. It helps build their skill faster.
While toddlers and children cannot officially take on a role and perform their role’s duties, they must be prepped to accept their assigned role when they become teens. They must master the toddler and child skill on the list linked to their future role. A toddler or child who does not master their role’s skill before they age up is a challenge fail.
If you started with a pet in the household and therefore cannot fulfill all 8 roles, the pet automatically takes the role of Spy. The pet does not need to do anything special to fulfill this role. If the pet dies before the end of the challenge, you must add a Sim to the colony to become your Spy.
Role List
Leader
Your starting Sim. As the leader of a colony, your Sim is responsible for rallying everyone together and keeping morale high.
Adult Skill: Charisma Child Skill: N/A Toddler Skill: N/A
Farmer
This Sim is responsible for growing and harvesting fresh produce in the underground greenhouse to help keep everyone fed.
Adult Skill: Gardening Child Skill: Mental Toddler Skill: Thinking
Hunter
The colony needs a source of protein to keep fit and strong. This Sim’s duty is to bring back freshly caught fish to the colony to be prepared, cooked, and eaten.
Adult Skill: Fishing Child Skill: Mental Toddler Skill: Thinking
Carpenter
This Sim’s duties involve building and repairing things around the shelter and keeping all the nuts and gears in tip top shape.
Adult Skill: Handiness Child Skill: Motor Toddler Skill: Movement
Chef
This Sim is responsible for cooking all the fresh produce and fish that the farmer and hunter provides in order to feed the colony.
Adult Skill: Cooking Child Skill: Creativity Toddler Skill: Imagination
Soldier
It’s the soldier’s job to protect the colony from threats and invasions. They must always be on their guard to defend against infected Sims and government agents with unsavoury motives.
Adult Skill: Fitness Child Skill: Motor Toddler Skill: Movement
Scientist
This Sim manages any tech that the shelter has and comes up with ideas for new inventions that can help the colony.
Adult Skill: Logic Child Skill: Mental Toddler Skill: Thinking
Spy
The spy handles covert operations and collects sensitive information to help protect the colony. They listen in on conversations and collect valuable evidence.
Adult Skill: Mischief Child Skill: Social Toddler Skill: Communication
Completing The Challenge
When you have built up a large colony living in harmony in a fully self-sustainable bunker that can accommodate everyone living there, you’ll know your work is done. Rest easy knowing you and your colony will be safe in StrangerVille for many years to come.
To complete the challenge, the following objectives must be met:
You must have a colony of 8 Sims (or 7 Sims and 1 pet)
Each colony member must be teens or older and have the skills linked to their role mastered (including toddler and child skills, if applicable)
Your shelter must have a bed for each member of the colony
Your shelter must have an underground greenhouse with at least three large planter boxes
Your shelter must have indoor bathroom facilities that comply with the challenge’s plumbing limitations
Your shelter must have a listening station for your Spy and Scientist
Your shelter must have a B64 Training Bot for your Soldier
Your shelter must have a means of cooking and storing produce and fish indoors
The perimeter of your lot must be closed off with tall fencing and a gate that is kept locked to everyone but your household
Your shelter must have at least three items purchased from the Curio Shop (excluding bizarre fruit)
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