Sims Sunday: Challenge Central

I got bored with the vampires, so I started young miss Wilma on a Sims 3 challenge I picked sort of at random. This was a good one to start with a child Sim, because you can get all the collecting and reading out of the way while they’re young.

Here, Wilma is catching butterflies in the rural countryside of China.

Later, she read a book. (I’m afraid this may be one of those challenges that’s more fun for me to play than it is for you to watch.)

Apropos of nothing, here’s my favorite sound effect in the game. It happens when you manually drag a pile of clothes into the hamper. I love the sound of tumbling clothes, it’s so perfect! (Ignore the “whissht” from the left-hand side, that’s something else.)

Aaron grew into a teen, and began assuming his vampire heritage. He now does that freaky coffin-hover-sleep thing.

And he drinks plasma packs.

He’s only halfway to vampirism, though. He can still go out during the daytime.

Speaking of vampires, a bunch of ugly ones showed up at Wilma’s birthday party.

That’s Aaron on the far right, looking kinda jealous of his non-undead sister.

After trying out a bunch of new clothes, I finally settled on a bright pink Mel’s Diner sort of outfit.

Because you know kids, with the irony.

Speaking of diners, Wilma is very brave. When she encountered a food truck parked at the subway station…

She ordered the clam chowder.

There are a lot of things I’d order from a food truck. But clam chowder is probably not one of them.

So here we are, wandering around town, collecting insects.

The other day I was talking to a friend who was playing (I think) Call of Duty. Some war game, where you shoot people and yell a lot. And I was all, “I spent the day collecting beetles with my Sim.”

And she enjoyed it, too.

While Wilma was traipsing around town working on her collection, I suddenly noticed that Elvira’s thumbnail had gone bright red. That’s a Bad Sign. I toggled over to find that she had somehow left work, but not gone home. Instead she just stood around outside until she passed out.

Stupid fragile vampires! She was on the verge of starving to death. I managed to get her home, and get a plasma pack in her hand.

But not QUITE in time.

Sigh.

I sent Wilma to Egypt next. It’s very scenic, but the bugs are few and far between. This one represents a damned long walk, for what turned out to be only a water beetle.

At least I got a nice snapshot out of it.

That night, I had her pitch her tent somewhere Dramatic.

Bugs, sand, ruins, etc.

I didn’t realize that teenagers could travel on their own, so I sent Zardoz with her on this trip. There aren’t many buildings in Egypt where a vampire can hide from the sun. He spent a lot of time sitting around down in the underground tombs.

“Doop dee doo.”

A couple of people have asked me how the vampire hunting thing works. You click on the ground and choose “Hunt.” First, your Sim snarls and makes a lot of silly faces.

The game chooses a target for them, and briefly paints them in heat-o-vision.

“Oh hi, Zardoz! Um… why are you looking at me like that?”

After introducing themselves, your Sim can choose “Drink” as an interaction with their target. Your Sim will drink from the target’s forearm.

After your Sim is finished, they wipe their mouth on their sleeve (so rude!) while the target makes more silly faces.

It doesn’t seem to have a negative effect on the target. And drinking from someone doesn’t turn them into a vampire. You have to use the “Ask to be Turned” interaction for that.

Anyway. In France, I bought a scooter for Wilma.

I love how they lean forward when they ride their scooters. “Neeeerrrrrr!”

And… more reading.

By the end of this week, Wilma had bought all the books she needs to read, read 2 of the books, collected all but 1 butterfly (Glowy), collected all but 2 beetles (Trilobite and Stag), and collected about half of the gems and minerals she needs to make the skulls and ingots respectively.