Cecil's CCL, Chapter 2
- 1. Welcome back to Cecil’s CCL! I hope you’re ready for more kitty cat goodness! …Of course you are. If you weren’t you wouldn’t be reading a Crazy Cat Lover Challenge, now, would you? Recap: Last time, Cecil Shankel moved into a house and adopted a female Blue Russian cat named Cher, who is not really blue, and a male Blue Siamese named Louis, who is. Both Louis and Cher got jobs in Security, and Cecil hopes to be able to buy them individual toy mousies soon. Yeah, there’s not a whole lot of plot.
- 2. Before we get started, let me mention a couple tiny modifications to the rules. (Since this is a playtest, modifications are to be expected.) I added a sub-rule and clarified scoring; new information is in blue. Rule #11: If the cats get taken away by the pet services agency, the game is over. Otherwise, the game ends when your Sim dies. Rule #11a: If your Sim dies with no other Sims on the lot, the cats will be taken away by pet services. This is supposed to happen and does not incur a penalty. -50 If cats are removed (If the reason the cats are removed is that the last Sim on the lot dies, there is no penalty)
- 3. And there was one completely new rule added: Rule #12: You may Praise or Scold a cat as much as you like, since it doesn’t affect your score. Now that’s settled, let’s see what’s happening with the kitties!
- 4. In between last time and this time, I installed some bit of custom content that unexpectedly reset my game. That meant that when I opened Cecil’s lot, all motives were improved except for Bladder. Cecil took advantage of the extra time this afforded to do the really important things in life.
- 5. …Wait, what else did you think I might be referring to?
- 6. Cecil also spent quite a bit of time teaching both cats to Stay, since that is the job skill they need to be promoted. I have never yet met a cat that would stay when commanded to do so, and I still haven’t: Cecil didn’t manage to teach either cat the skill.
- 7. Although Cher is very close.
- 8. After the kitties go to work is plenty soon enough do to things like get dressed, call your friends and relatives, and all those other little things that need doing on a regular basis.
- 9. Even if they don’t always work out as planned. Cecil particularly needed the money from digging for treasure.
- 10. And this would be why. See? Louis and Cher have their own toy mousies and birdie-on-a-sticks! (Or is that “birdies-on-a-stick”?)
- 11. As you can see, Cecil still can’t afford ceiling tiles, but he is going for those extra points! (Or, well, I am, anyway.) +20 Having as much cat-themed decor as you can fit in the house/stand to look at without throwing up
- 12. Since the household needs money rather badly, it’s a real pity that two of Cecil’s three successful tries at digging for treasure yielded these cat statues. We can’t sell those. I mean, they’re kitties! And they’re supposed to be good luck, too.
- 13. Although maybe not such good luck as all that, since that very evening, we had a burglar.
- 14. Cecil and the cats don’t really have anything worth taking, but that didn’t seem to phase the burglar: she took one cat statue and the recliner.
- 15. While Cecil was out attempting to dig up something worth enough to replace the chair, a chance card popped up for Cher. I made a choice, and it was the wrong one: Cher got fired. Two game minutes later, the same chance card popped up for Louis. Since I am not an idiot, I picked the other option -- and Louis got fired too. Not to mention that after all that work, Ceil dug up a rock worth a whopping $25. Obviously, it just wasn’t anybody’s day.
- 16. Cecil did what any responsible cat caregiver would do: he consoled the unhappy kitties.
- 17. Interestingly, it was the cats who initiated the comforting actions, and after they’d been hugged and petted, they went off to take care of their other needs.
- 18. Cecil was able to buy another recliner, where he got some sleep -- at least, until Cher decided she wanted to be petted.
- 19. The bed simply was not an option for Cecil. Rule 6: Your Sim may not shoo a cat off of a piece of furniture they want to use. They can always sleep on the floor, as long as the cat's comfortable.
- 20. Like any good caregiver of two amazingly gifted cats who has a bank balance of $4, Cecil lost no time in finding replacement jobs for Cher and Louis.
- 21. To avoid a repeat of the chance-card-from-Hades fiasco, the kitties now have jobs in different fields. Although Cher is back in Security, Louis is now a Vermin Chaser.
- 22. At this point in the proceedings, I made a change to the scoring based on discussion in the rules thread over on Boolprop. +50 If you start with twenty kittens at the same time and raise them all to full-grown cats simultaneously. (This will require a larger households hack.) I don’t anticipate it making much of a difference, even to people with the required hack, since I can see just petting and feeding twenty kitties taking up all the time needed to train them.
- 23. Certainly it takes up enough time that Cecil can’t get very much sleep in a household with just two cats. Coffee is the secret. Lots and lots of coffee.
- 24. Also lots of little efficiencies, like having Cecil serve a meal and then put the leftovers away, saving on prep time for the next meal and increasing his chances of actually finishing eating.
- 25. Working, especially working nights, seems to really take it out of the kitties. Poor Louis here is so deficient in Energy, Comfort, and Fun that he couldn’t even make it up the stairs to his comfy pillow.
- 26. When Cher got home, she had much the same problem, although she was just awake enough to make it upstairs to Cecil’s bed after a bit of a rest on the lawn.
- 27. That would be why Cecil invested in a double bed. Although the pillow in the window seat looks cool, I removed it after this picture was taken: the cats can’t use it anyway, and it cost money that could be better used for replacing toy mousies. Those things get ripped to shreds in no time. The bedding is “Cat Is Not CoOl With It” by billielith and is available at Mod The Sims. Alas, the matching rug requires Kitchen & Bath Stuff, which is not available for Macs.
- 28. I then had Cecil run some experiments. Finger Wiggle raises a cat’s Fun a little bit…
- 29. …Cat Teaser raises it a little bit faster…
- 30. …and Toss In Air raises it the fastest, although that’s still not super fast. And your Sim is in real danger of being thrown up on. Of course, that wouldn’t phase a true Crazy Cat Lover. You will note that Cecil is still not able to afford ceiling tiles.
- 31. Toy mousies raise Fun the fastest, but if the kitty is in a bad way, they often don’t survive the experience. The food bowls are not extras -- Cecil (or, you know, I) moved them out to the front yard in an attempt to get Cher to eat before she starved to death.
- 32. This didn’t work so well. Cher reused to eat, and I got several warning popups. She was also desperately tired, but that will not lead to me losing the challenge, so I didn’t want her to fulfill that Need. No matter what I did, she kept heading to one sleeping spot or another. Finally, in desperation, I took the chair, the bed, and both pillows and stuffed them in Cecil’s inventory.
- 33. This tactic worked: Cher finally had something to eat.
- 34. However, I have subsequently decided that it was cheating, since Cecil could have used the Feed Treat option at any time instead, and I never even tried it. I will continue on with the challenge, since this is a playtest as much as anything, but I am declaring it not-kosher for anyone from now on -- including me.
- 35. Hopefully, this situation won’t occur again, since Cecil has spent what extra money there was on a pet house (raises both Comfort and Energy) and a food bowl (raises Hunger) for the front yard, for immediate use when the cats come home. There is a toy mousie on the lawn as well, but since it is both small and gray and since this is a night shot, you’ll have to take my word for it.
- 36. All the renovations mean that Cecil can finally get a good night’s sleep for the first time in almost nine days, so let’s leave him to it, shall we? Thank you so much for reading! Don’t forget to ask if you have any questions about the challenge, and until we meet again, Happy Simming!