Homeless Tips & Tricks

Make it Easier

Traits
Slob, Inappropriate, Mooch, Loner, Kleptomaniac, Loves the Heat/Cold

Lifetime Rewards
Inappropriate But in a Good Way, Dirt Defiant, Hardly Hungry, Steel Bladder, Haggler

Kinda Cheaty Lifetime Rewards
Immune to Heat/Cold, Simmunity, Discount Diner, Complimentary Entertainment, No Bills Ever

Make it Harder

Traits
Ambitious, Absent-Minded, Clumsy, Grumpy, Hot-Headed, Hydrophobic, Insane

Expansion Pack Tips

• Watch the temperature - Your homeless Sims may be prone to bursting into flames and freezing solid--plan accordingly. (Seasons)
• Lots with Festival markers in them (lots that changes with the seasons), will push your Sim off the lot in order to make the changes to the lot. If you're forced off the lot while items of yours were on the ground, they will be placed in your active Sim's Inventory. (Seasons)
• Beware of Zombies! Building a border fence around your empty lot, or finding someplace indoors to spend the full moon should keep your Sims from becoming zombified. Just remember to lock the doors... (Supernatural)
• Occult founder - Should be fine, just make sure it fits with your story. How would a hundred-year-old vampire end up homeless on the street? A werewolf, sure--moving from town to town as vagrants, creating a pack one Sim at a time. (Supernatural)
• I recommend that you have a Fire Station in your town. If you don't have Seasons, then don't take too much advantage of the fire house. (Ambitions)

Homeless Challenge Rules, TL;DR

Those rules kinda got away from me.

I like structure,
but I also really like
not being told what to do,
and maybe so do you.
So here's the jist of it all,
just in case the rules were...

Too Long; Didn't Read

• No job. That means no part-time, no self-employed, nada.
• No home. No roof, no private space, just the outdoors.
• Normal lifespan.
• 10 generations.
• Have fun!

Set-Up:

• Person: Young Adult (make 'em look homeless!).
• Place: Empty lot, smallest available.
• Buy a bicycle, then set your funds to 0.

Sims 3 Homeless Legacy Challenge Rules

The rules I'll be playing with are a blend of desertrose0601's rules for a homeless challenge and Username-Optional's rules for a 10 generation challenge, with additions/subtractions by myself as needed. Some rules I've added or removed due to previous homeless-Sim play-throughs, things that made it more realistic or difficult or fun, or things I noticed that are important to know.

Feel free to mix and match rules from Hard mode into your game to match your play-style or experience, I know I will.

Legacy:

• 10 generations.
• Founder/heir and their family must be homeless.
• Non-heirs can move out of the household once they reach Young Adult, but you need to send them off with some cash.
• Pick the traits for your founder & heir each generation. If the picked heir dies before producing an heir of their own, you'll just have to deal with your dysfunctional other kids.
• [Hard Mode] Randomly roll Sims' traits and Lifetime Wishes (founder & children).

Set-Up:

• Founder: Young Adult (make 'em look homeless!).
• [Option 1] Purchase an empty lot, smallest available.
• [Option 2] In Town Edit mode, place a 10x10 lot in a non-affluent, vaguely vacant part of town (example: in Twinbrook, place the lot in the swamps, away from the occupied houses), and buy it.
• Feel free to add some trees, rocks, terrain paint, etc to the lot to give it a bit of atmosphere, but nothing to help a character (no spawners, for example), and nothing too expensive, you may regret it later.
• Purchase a bike stand, and the cheapest Adult bicycle (so your Sim won't hop in a taxi or random car when routing).
• Time to sack up and make yourself destitute! (Set your Family Funds to 0)
• Ctrl+C - "testingcheatsenabled true" - hit enter
• Ctrl+C - "familyfunds familyname 0"  - hit enter
• Ctrl+C - "testingcheatsenabled false" - hit enter
• Go for it!

General Play Rules:

• No job. That means no part-time, no self-employed, nada.
• No home. No roof, no private space, just the outdoors.
• Ageing set to Normal lifespans.

Normal Difficulty:

• Build Mode - No enclosed structures, no roof, and only build on ground-level. A few scattered walls at most (for a sink, toilet, etc when your Sim can afford them).
• Buy Mode - Your only limitation is your budget (try to keep your lot and Sims looking homeless).
• Moving - Feel free to move around the various empty lots in your town, but it must be an empty or previously owned lot.
• Travelling - Your Base Camp is off-limits except for travel purposes.

Hard Mode options:

• Build Mode - Build nothing on your home lot.
• Buy Mode - Buy only from in-game vendors (Grocery store, Consignment store (AMB), Savvy Seller Lot, Food registers (WA), etc), and place stolen or salvaged (AMB) items.
• Community Lots - You may only "Buy on Lot" or "Build on Lot" after you've purchased the lot (Real Estate menu from phone/computer).
• Moving - Only allowed once per generation.
• No gardening on your home lot.

Expansion Pack notes:

• Turn off the Celebrity System for your family. Trust me, becoming a celebrity makes this challenge waaaay too easy. (Late Night)
• If you find a Genie Lamp, don't Wish for Fortune--it'll ruin your fun. (Showtime)
• University
• Rent or place an empty lot and that's where you're staying. All Build/Buy/etc rules still apply.
• University Meet & Greet - You can pick up a max of 1 freebie each (I know it's tempting, but resist the urge to stock up on pop & candy bars).
• Hard Mode:
• No scholarships, so don't take the prep-exam from the Univeristy basket the mascot delivers.
• No financial aid - once you're at University you cannot go to the Administration building and request financial aid.

Once you go CC...

You never go back. Figuring out what to/not to install has been super difficult. Then I just gave up and installed a bunch of stuff I thought would be fun for the homeless challenge.

I'm trying out NRASS mods for the first time as well, so this should be interesting.