Mesa Vista – A Build a City Challenge(Week 1)

This is a new challenge I'm doing that is driven mainly by the Sims 2 Open for Business expansion. You start with a single Sim in a fresh neighborhood and build the population and open up careers by establishing businesses in your new city. Doesn't look like much of a city yet though, does it?

There are variations of this challenge, but I have chosen to play by the original rules created by clintcasey85 posted on the (currently and who-knows-for-how-long unavailable) Sims 2 BBS. Fortunately there are much more reliable Sims sites than EA's, and you can find the rules I'm following at http://forums.boolprop.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=31450

Meet our founder, the dashing, adventurous, Fortune-minded Zach Adams.

Not only dashing and adventurous, but lucky too! After five digs..."Oho, man, Eureka!"

And lucky not only at digging for treasure... just look at that welcome wagon! Mesa Vista certainly has its fair share of eligible future Mrs. Adamses!

(When setting up the new hood, I decided to generate new townies and downtownies, but kept the other default EP-related Sims, because I haven't played them much due to my using AnyGameStarter for my Apocalypse.)

Diane Shin looks a fun sort.

Thanks to the $4000 vase he dug up at home, Zach was able to scrape enough together to buy a 2x3 community lot across the bridge in the designated business part of town and named it Zach's Hoops.

Meditating wasn't quite cutting it for getting the required loyalty stars, and at first the patrons weren't all that wild about playing basketball.

However, Zach was here for the long haul, so he pitched a tent to sleep in.

"I'll just sneak a bite of jello from home while you guys make up your minds."

I thought the vending machine would bring in additional money, but instead it cost Zach to use it! It was a decent draw for the customers, though I'm not sure it was worth the hefty price tag.

Oh, look, it's Diane Shin from the welcome wagon! She's a Chief of Staff and you'd never guess they have only one bolt.

And this is lovely Kerie Ng, a Criminal Mastermind, with whom he has three bolts!

After many many many days, Zach's Hoops started ranking up and he got enough cash perks and aspiration points to sustain himself indefinitely on the lot.

Business really picked up with the hot tub, Zach got his gold sales badge, and he was able to charge anywhere from $999-$4999 with two "Dazzles." He alternated this with reducing the price to "cheap" to build more customer loyalty.

All right! This business finally reached Level 10, which opened a position in the Business career. Two-bolt flame Nikki Chan in the hot tub is a Junior Executive in the Business career!

Zach's Hoops also raked in a cool $1.35 million simoleons, a million of which went to privately fund a public university...

... and 250,000 for a sports-themed community lot, which unlocked the Athletic career.

The cost of the Mesa Vista Municipal Park was a little over $100k simoleons and the difference was familyfunded away to get to the required $250k.

Following are more shots of one of my favorite building achievements:

After placing a lot of expensive statuary when I first tried to drive the lot's cost up to $250k, I decided to get rid of most of it but kept the more whimsical pieces in the playground area because I can never find use for most of them and I thought they looked perfect here.

Even though it's technically owned, this lot won't be run as a business. I just didn't want to use up an earned community lot when he had the money to pay for it. Basically it will be a destination like any other NPC community lot.

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Okay, that's all of the park.

Back at the homestead where it was still only Tuesday, thanks to the community lot space-time continuum deal.

(I don't like spending time building houses like I used to, so I downloaded a bunch of southwest-, desert- and adobe-style houses from MTS.)

First things first. I wanted a military base to unlock the Military career, which meant I needed three more playable households. Neil Cameron was one of Zach's best friends and he moved in with a respectable 11,000 simoleons. Almost immediately he moved out to start his own life in Week 2.

I didn't want this strategy to be a money maker for Zach, so I familyfunded away all cash brought in, but noted how much it was and added that to the value of the stuff in each townie's inventory to determine how much money they should start with. So far it's been over $20k, as their inventories were loaded with hot tubs, dj booths, expensive tv's, pinball machines and the like.

Now, I knew who I wanted for Zach's wife, but this was a more laid-back style of playing than the Apocalypse, so I decided to see who Zach wanted.

First up: Move in Diane Shin (killing two birds with one stone here). I thought they were cute together, but they had only bolt. I also had her quit her job as Chief of Staff.

Despite her top position in Medical, Diane had moved in with only 6000 simoleons, but had earlier dropped off a hot tub as an outing reward, and I figured fair was fair, right?

I decided to see how Zach interacted with the others before committing to Diane, so for now she too is waiting to be played in Week 2.

Next we moved in three-bolt Criminal Mastermind Kerie Ng.

Three bolts... you'd think Kerie would be more interested in Zach than walk-by Marie Sims.

Moving on to the bedroom for a cuddle...

Huh? This is three bolts?

Let's try this again.

M-M-Marie? You hussy!

And look how upset Kerie was about the whole thing! In fact, during her time there she struck me as rather a cold fish. *Sigh* So much for three bolts...

Kerie then proceeded to take a nice relaxing bubble bath.

While Marie kept Zach occupied with her own brand of two-bolt passion.Marie was a Celebrity Chef (holy cow, Mesa Vista would be an Apocalypse gold mine!) but didn't have a high enough lifetime relationship to move in. Still, she had become the top spousal contender. I mean, she's really into him!Moral of the story: three bolts isn't all it's cracked up to be.

"Sorry it didn't work out, but see you around!"Kerie looked at the taxi, then flashed Zach a brilliant smile to hide her sudden feeling of regret. You most certainly will be seeing me around, Zach Adams.

And finally, my own original favorite, two-bolt Junior Executive Nikki Chan, who even dressed the part, but who now had to contend with the fiery Marie Sims.

Dingdingding, instant winner!

And because sometimes actions speak louder than words...

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"They love me! I'm the new Vice President of the pajama division!"

And baby Adams was on the way!

Nikki gearing up for more promotions means the end of Week 1 in Mesa Vista.

Stay tuned for Week 2, where we will meet the Cameron, Shin and Ng households, plus a new CAS arrives.

Playable Sims: 5 +(?) on the way SM: 7Population: 35

Community lots: 2 + military baseUniversities: 1Earned CAS: 7

Careers:Athletic - unlockedMilitary - unlockedArchitecture - 1 openingBusiness - 1 opening, 1 taken

Taxes collected @ 10% of lot and business values: $21,390

With four playable households now, Mesa Vista qualifies for a military base, which I grabbed a few months ago I'm pretty sure from the Exchange.