Just off the boat in a strange new country.

The Background (Non-Wonder Child)

The old country was your home, your birthplace. Traditional values, traditional culture and… abject poverty. You’ve heard of the stories; the avenues for opportunity and growth in the new world were all there. Selling everything you had in the old country, you are able to purchase a ticket to the new world.

Arriving there, broke and full of dreams, you find that the job market in the new world is just as bad as the old world; too few jobs for too many workers. There is a spot of hope, however. Wanting to boost small business, the government is offering a loan of $20,000 to whomever starts their own business. With the promise of full citizenship if you are successful, you take the deal and now must figure out how to get your new life established.

Doing so will not be easy. The title of ‘temporary citizen’ brings many restrictions on your shoulders, not to mention you are in a land where you barely know the native language and culture. Whatever social skills you had are no longer are relevant.

Background (Wonder Child addendum)

You…were a government experiment. Bred and raised to perfection. Your entire life and childhood has been monitored, analyzed and documented. Now this same insane government that created you, wants you to move into a zombie filled irradiated disaster area to try and clean it up? “Fnarb That!” you say, and flee the country, thus finding yourself broke, seeking to establish a new life in a new country, knowing that going home is not an option.

Getting Started

Start a new game. Create a brand new young adult Sim in CAS OR start with a pre-existing young adult Sim. They may be male or female, have any aspiration and any traits. They may be human or alien. There may not be any other sims in the household. You may use a #WonderChild Sim to start off this challenge. You may move them into any neighborhood and purchase any lot. Pre-made houses may be used/downloaded as long as you can afford them. Keep your house budget tight though, as you’ll be needing money for a business.

You may also populate the neighborhood with any custom or gallery Sims that you desire (Though you don’t have to do this and may just stick with stock neighborhoods if you desire). None may be in your immigrant’s household.

Once in-game, you must purchase a retail business. You may purchase any lot in any neighborhood for your business. You are now ready to begin the challenge.

Because of the language barrier and culture shock, any skill in charisma your Sim had previously must be removed. (You can skip this step if your Sim has a 0 or 1 Charisma skill already)

To do this, do the following:

1. Press Control + Shift + C to open the cheat console.
2. Enter (without the quotes) “TestingCheats On” and press enter
3. Enter (without the quotes) “Stats.set_skill_level major_charisma 1” and press enter, this will set their charisma skill to 1
4. Enter (without the quotes) “TestingCheats Off” and press enter
5. Press Control + Shift + C to close the cheat console

Lastly, if you Sim had a job, they must quit it immediately.

Global Rules

As per all my other challenges, no cheats, mods, hacks or CC that would give you an unfair advantage over a player who does not use them.

If your starting Sim is in a career, they must quit it immediately. Your Sim may never take a career. If your Sim’s spouse joins the household already in a career, they may keep it, but may not choose a new one. (The job market is lousy)

Your immigrant Sim begins the game as a “Temporary Citizen”. Later, they may become a “Full Citizen” There are different rules that apply to you depending on if you are a temporary or full citizen, so refer to those sections.

You must play with ‘normal’ lifespans. Your Sims may not consume anything that would extend your Sim’s natural lifespan (Cow Plant Milk and Potions of Youth).

Sims may not be aged up until their birthdays. This applies to ALL Sims in the household.

You may not move in or merge in Sims into your household. A single spouse may join via marriage.

Besides Potions of Youth, you are free to spend earned aspiration points however you wish. You may also spend business perk points however you wish, though you can also earn points with them by leaving them unspent, see scoring for details.

Both Temporary Citizen and Full Citizen business owners are free to hire employees.

Fruit/Music may be used to influence the gender of any children resulting from pregnancies.

Temporary Citizen

Your Sim is not yet a full citizen of the new world, and thus begins the game as a ‘temporary citizen’. This has a number of effects in the game.

Because the economy of the new world is still shaky, the government has issued strict tariffs and restrictions on foreign made goods. While your Sim is still a temporary citizen, anything they produce is considered ‘foreign goods’ and thus not allowed to be sold at retail or on the open market. Sim-made objects may be created and used for normal purposes – paintings may decorate rooms, food may be eaten etc- they simply cannot be sold. This also includes ‘found’ items (like crystals) and reward items (like party or date reward objects).

Temporary Citizens are here to create businesses and thus jobs and are strictly prohibited from profiting by non-sanctioned means. You may not sell items in buy mode, sell items via interactions (like sell to art gallery), may not ask other citizens for loans. May not publish books or songs, may not play for tips or write jingles and especially not allowed to hack for funds. The ONLY legal way to gain money is to sell items at retail. (You may sell walls and build-mode items during construction if needed)

Due to concerns for overpopulation, temporary citizens are not able to obtain marriage licenses and thus unable to be married or have other Sims join their household on a permanent basis. Temporary Citizens may not adopt and any children born out of wedlock must be given up for adoption. (Age them up to child and move the child into another household)

In order to prove to the government that you will be a productive member of society you must repay the $20,000 loan that you began the game with plus 10% interest. To replay the loan do the following:

1. Gather at least $22,000 in your household funds (You may transfer money out of your retail account to help with this)
2. Press Control + Shift + C to open the cheat console
3. Enter (without the quotes) “Testingcheats on” and press enter
4. Enter (without the quotes) “Money x” where “x” is your current household funds – 22000. So if your household funds were at $23,000 you would enter “Money 1000” which would subtract $22,000 and leave you with $1,000.
5. Enter (without the quotes) “Testingcheats off” and press enter
6. Press Control + Shift + C to close the cheat console.

The moment you have paid off your loan, your Sim becomes a Full Citizen. You immediately begin playing under the new rules detailed in the Full Citizen section.

Full Citizen

Your Sim may bring one Sim into the household, but it must be done via marriage. This “one Sim” may be anybody, even if they are a pre-established Sim with skill points and/or an existing job. If they bring in $20,000, you may keep it. However you may not move in any other Sims from their household (including pre-existing children) You are still barred from moving in non-spouse Sims into the household. You may also only get married once, so a divorced or dead spouse may not be replaced.

Children born in the household may now be kept. The family may adopt children, but they must be infants, and you may not adopt a new child when there is an infant already present.

All object related restrictions are lifted. You may now sell anything in your store, even if it is Sim-made, found or a reward object. You may gain household income via other sources now, such as publishing books or selling paintings to art galleries. If your Sim’s one spouse came with a job, they may keep the job and earn the family money.

Two new restrictions: Once your Sim becomes a full citizen, you may no longer transfer household funds to the retail funds. (You may still transfer retail funds back into household funds). You may not sell items in buy mode on your retail lot. If you wish to get rid of an item on your retail lot, either sell it via retail and remove the restock sign or move it into family inventory and sell it from your household lot.

End of the challenge

Your challenge ends when your immigrant Sim becomes an elder or dies (whichever comes first). If you throw a birthday party for their adult > elder transition, the challenge doesn’t end until the party does. If your business is open at the time, close it. After you do all of this, you may calculate your score.

Scoring

50 points for paying back your initial loan and becoming a full citizen

5 points if a wedding party is thrown and a gold is earned when your Sim is married.

Earn 1 point for every $10,000 (rounded down) of funds in your retail business’s bank account. The Net worth of your retail lot, the net worth of your house lot or the cash in your household funds do not factor into this score.

Earn 1 point for every 1000  (rounded down) unspent business perk points accumulated by the family business.