You know you've been playing too much NIF when you load up a world that was made before Pets, you notice that it has no Equestrian Center and you go: Oh, well, I need to have my Sim max Riding and earn... Wait a minute, no I don't!

So, I had to give up on my NIF game. I was just running out out of room for more residential lots. I'm going to start a new one on a bigger world, and tweak my SP settings so the inactives aren't inviting every service NPC to live with them.
In my last play session, I moved a guy out of my house after he unlocked the salon. He immediately turned it into another Bubba house. While that's amusing, it's also a problem, I had six adults and two infants, and not enough money in their funds to split them up.
And I started on a project I've been wanting to do for some time, and really need to do for this challenge. I'm building comunity lots to hold the rabbithole rugs to replace the big rabbitholes in town.
I've just finished an urban clinic, a small hospital on a 20x30 lot. Pics are in the spoiler below, and the file is attached to this post if you want it. I did not include the rabbithole rug, you'll have to place it yourself. (I'd put it in the empty room behind the waiting room.)
I put a hidden room marker in the big unused area of the first floor, and level skip markers in the frieze and top levels. If you want to make changes to the lot in any of these areas or the exterior, you'll need to use RestrictBuildBuyinBuildings Off

The waiting room is purely decorative, there are no skill items or fancy things like hot tubs. Just chairs, not even computers in the reception area, so it should fit with the rules of this challenge regarding not abusing rabbitholes.

I used one piece of CC, windows by Huge Lunatics, found here:
http://modthesims.info/d/404365

I did not use any Store stuff, there is stuff from LN, Pets.
If people are interested I will upload more of these as I make them.

Im terested in cali but have the rabbit hole rugs been updated to the latest patch yet (1.31/2). I know some people have been having problems with them since updating.

I know what you mean about small worlds. I love using Avalon but it does mean I can't have lots of the large lots. I had to do without the film studio last time. Not a major issue for me.

I would use the rabbit hole rugs if I were a better builder but my buildings all look the same, little square boxes.

I haven't patched, actually, so the rugs are working fine for me. I guess if you've patched you'd need to check the Custom Sims site to see if they've been updated.
For me the rabbithole rugs are more important than useless social features, so I'm certainly not going to patch if it breaks the rugs.

No, they haven't been updated yet.

My inactive NPC's still don't invite randoms in... Maybe I'm missing something...

Ava, Jolene and Grady's eldest daughter unlocked the graveyard before I hitched her up with an unsuspecting firefighter.
Aimee, their second daughter is only just a teen, but I dont think I'll get her to do anything, I'm trying to get all the regular work spaces first so everyone can stop working at the diner...

It looks great Melissa! I would totally snag it, but as wolfsbayne said the rugs haven't been updated and apparently they were causing some crashing issues in patched games. I really like it though. I kinda wish I hadn't already installed SHT now...

*head -> desk* So THAT'S why my game was crashing.

I'd totally forgotten about my rabbit hole rugs.

If I buy SHT at all, it will be along with the next EP. I'm just not that interested in it. And since I haven't heard about the patch actually fixing anything, just adding social features I don't want and won't use, I haven't bothered patching. Which is a good thing as I won't play if I can't use rabbithole rugs. I get really tired of the standard rabbitholes all the time.
I hope Jynx updates the rugs for the patch soon.

Breaking news update! I finished gutting Sunset Valley, and I set up my first home. It's kinda depressing to have nothing in town! However, my sim (Polaris 'Polli' Far) started a fire and snagged a husband that way. He writes and paints and she gardens, fishes, and cooks.

They already have two children, a boy named Tiberius and a girl named Bell. Polli is going to buy the Bistro or the diner when they have money, though her husband (I already forgot his name! I think it's Adam) is going to buy the bookstore first. Tiberius is working towards the school, and Bell is eventually going to get the police station. I think I'll have a third child soon who will buy the graveyard, so I have somewhere to put dead sims.

Green sims just fit the challenge, don't they?

Speaking of which I should really go work on that... stupid homework.

Goodness, I've been playing this for 2 generations not realizing that the new Nraas Story Progression is by default off! Nothing was happening, other than a sim I moved out adopted a cat, and would offer pets for adoption. It wasn't until no sims were assigned a job at the grocery store or book store that I realized something was wrong. Of course this was after I sent my first gen out into the world to live alone after the all the kids grew to YA. Then SP broke up my super faithful devoted whatever founding couple so I had to fix it.

Also how in the world do you sell rocks and such at the consignment store? The only thing I've been able to sell is works of art, and produce. Yet I see rocks to buy. Is this stuff part of the different levels? Right now I'm at level 1 and need to add about 3K to the next level.

The Nraas Consigner mod allows you to sell all kinds of things through the consignment store.

Thanks Cali, I guess I will stick with what the game provides, as that seems a bit like cheating Selling them through inventory isn't really too bad, they are found for free, plus searching for them keeps them off the computer.

It's super annoying that the sound for computer games is blasted over all other sounds. I can't even mute it. As soon as my current writer moves out the house the computer goes too! Until then I'm building a small study and locking it to everyone but the writer!

uuuuuugh, I had to restart the challenge. Long story short, I messed up my neighborhood. I've made a new sim, but there's a real lack of dude in the neighborhood.

I had a question--are we allowed to buy the genie lifetime wish that came with Showtime? I figured using the money wish would be cheating since it gives you 100,000 simoleons, but I really like genies otherwise.

The money wish (inheritance) only gives you 30,000 but is disallowed. What does the genie wish actually do? A lot of us haven't got showtime yet so don't know about the new things.

If you're only using the computer for writing, you might want to look into Buzzler's scribbling pad: http://modthesims.info/d/422974. It's awesome for technophobes too.

Has anyone seen this mod yet?

http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=471164

I just downloaded but haven't tested it out yet. It looks to me like it could be REALLY helpful for placing lots in this challenge.

There are several wishes the genie can grant, including a longer life (what I would probably use him/her for). Your sim can also complete a challenge to free the genie, and he/she will be added to the house. Genies can autoclean the house and other sims and they can also prepare food quickly. I'm more interested in freeing the genie than anything else. :p

I only played around with the genie a bit on another save file, so I can't really give more information. The wish for money is super-ridiculous, though, as it gives your sim $100k.

ahh, im with you now.

Well, seeing as you can have imaginary friends and simbots, I don't see any reason why you can't free the genie and use it as a character to free a lot. The money wish would definitely be out though.

Reya - I already had Jinx's custom lots in my mod's folder but wasn't really sure of the missing/needed lot sizes (which you need to edit the file before you use). I have installed this new one but haven't yet used it. I keep forgetting to be honest!

I have an update!

Chapter 2: Into the Oblivion
http://appaloosaplains.blogspot.com...o-oblivion.html

I'm on patch 1.29 and this has been update already. Hopefully I can get an older version, if not oh well. I'm not adding the new patches, and I'm not buying any future EPs.

im gonna try it now, this would be Extremely helpful for me!

No, but that feature is built into the AwesomeMod, so I basically already have it. It's really, really nice being able to make custom-sized lots for odd sized areas.

And on the subject of the genie - granted I have no ability to playtest them myself, but from what you guys are saying it sounds like the reasonable rule will be to allow them but no wishing for money. Just being handed $100,000 is utterly ridiculous. Getting a Sim that way and letting them clean your house or make you live longer on the other hand sounds perfectly fine to me.

AHHH!! I go AWOL for a few days, come back, and you guys have posted two whole pages of goodies! I didn't read them.. although I did see cali's post about having to ditch her town (cry!!!) ... you better start a new one, girlie!

Anyway, I spent the last few days exploring SimPort and Showtime.. and now that the mods are fairly stable, I can finally get past my Nothing is Free withdrawl and get back to playing! (which I did for most of yesterday.. haha.. yay procrastinating on catching up the blog first... ) Anyway, today I finally did get around to posting my first chapter. >> Chapter One - A Place to Call my Own << ... The second should be forthcoming soon.. and I have enough screenies and play data to do a third, as well. I think I will also put up a page of "who's who" in Falconvale so that can be seen at a glance. ... I'm trying to think of who it was that posted that gorgeous family tree earlier in the post, but the name escapes me.. if they're still around, what did you use to make it??

Another question.. anyone ever had a move-in sim that seemed... stuck? I adopted a child into the family.. and after a couple days of playing with her there, I noticed her needs/motives weren't changing. At all. All but Fun stay maxed all the time, no matter what she does, and fun stays at half. I tried several things, including setting the needs as static in the mods I have to use for my nothing is free challenge for the more than 8 family members and then setting them as dynamic again.. but that didn't fix it. Resetsim reset her nicely, then she instantly went back to the levels of motives she had before the reset.. (which is when I knew for sure she had an issue). I also tried the shift click cheats on mailbox to set static then dynamic.. again, nothing. Tried asking on the the sims tech support forum, and I can't seem to get any replies. Googling the problem, the only thing I could find was maybe moving her out to clipboard and then back in will fix it - going to try that next. If not... *shrug* .. it's driving me nuts. Sure, it's a nice little glitch.. but I am so perfectionist, I can't stand to not have a "normal" simmie. I remember having a similar issue with one sim in college in Sims 2.. but that particular sim was a god-send at the time.. and I used it to skill her up like crazy. Once she aged out of University, and moved back into main neighborhood, she reverted to normal.. so I'm hoping that if the move fix doesn't work, then when she hits teenage years she'll fix herself? .. or if nothing else, when she and her parents move out of my crowded little "commune" for their own house. .. anyone have any thoughts? If anyone has ever seen this before or knows how to fix it I swear I will love you forever. :lovestruc I am crazy enough already (certifiably!) without having the sims making it worse.

Now... hm. whether to work on chapter two... play.. or catch up on post reading.. decisions decisions!

EDIT: so does that lot size adder work with mastercontroller and twallin's mods? anyone know? because that would be totally awesome.

also: Avalikia, on the subject of mods .. would it be okay if I turned off Celebrities until I have lots that would have careers that are celebrity based, like film studio, or theatre? .. and can I turn vampires off until I have a vampire lounge? I hate the way vampires seem to take over towns and challenges when I'm not planning to use them - least not for quite a while in this town.