Bachelor Challenge: Gen 1, Days 9 & 10

Finally, finally the challenge that I’ve been waiting for has arrived. Yup, it’s the last (and best) challenge of the competition. As you can see from the title, it ended up taking two days which was unexpected but so worth it. I promised epic and I hope that I delivered!

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Hang on, this isn’t the bachelor mansion. Where are we?

Vlad: Somewhere obnoxiously sunny, that’s where.

Oh shut up, you have an umbrella.

Vlad: I’m still burning, just more slowly.

If you don’t stop complaining, I can take that umbrella away, you know.

Anyway, as you can see, this chapter takes place in Selvadorada. Given that piece of information, it is probably obvious what the upcoming challenge is all about.

I love this bridge so much. Selvadorada is such a picturesque world.

Of course, the group’s destination was the temple. Another stunning view.

For anyone who hasn’t played Jungle Adventure (I know that a lot of people just ignore the whole jungle/temple exploration part), there is a treasure chest in the ‘middle’ of the temple and you have to go through several rooms, unlocking gates as you go, in order to get to the chest.

In each room there are several ‘traps’ and when you click on them there are several different options of how to interact with them (e.g. pulling the left skeleton’s spear or the middle skeleton’s spear or making an offering in a bowl to the sun glyph).

Per room only one of the options for one of the traps will unlock the gate into the next room – the others will fail to do so and your sim may experience some unpleasant consequences (e.g. a cloud of bone dust, a poison dart) although they may also dodge these bad consequences so that they suffer no negative effects.

There are five different temple layouts but the traps and which options will unlock each gate are always randomised so you never get the exact same temple twice.

For each trap, you can perform one ‘examine’ interaction which usually will tell you that certain options on the trap won’t unlock the gate but will still leave you with a number of options to choose from. Sometimes it fails to discount any options at all and occasionally it discounts all of them. It may also tell you definitely that a certain option will unlock the gate but that’s rare (although I think it’s more common if your sim has high archaeology skill – which none of the contestants had, obviously!)

Ok long winded explanation, and I should think probably unnecessary but I wanted to be clear.

The initial plan was to have each contestant unlock one gate each. I would then count how many times they tried to disarm a trap and failed to unlock the gate before they finally got the right option. The one who took the fewest tries to unlock their gate would win.

However, I then realised that there are a different number of traps per gate so some of the contestants would have more traps to deal with than others. This led to me making the decision to make each contestant complete one temple each.

Of course, I later realised that the temples don’t all have the exact same number of traps but never mind, I still feel like this was the fairest (and most fun!) way.

To score how well the contestants did, I decided to count how many times they tried to disarm a trap and how many times they failed/succeeded in disarming a trap. Then, I would calculate what percentage of their attempted disarmings succeeded. The sim with the highest success rate worked out in this way would win a solo date (the other two would get a group date automatically).

I thought I could remember reading somewhere that certain skills can help out in temple exploration so, to be on the safe side, I used MCCC to clear all of the contestants’ skills before the challenge began as I wanted them all to be on an even playing field.

So sorry for the wall of text but I hope that this all makes sense!

I will resist the urge to post screenshots of everything that each contestant did in their temple because that would bore you half to death but still, expect a lot of pictures because I just love how the images came out.

First up, was Turner. In this screenshot, he is examining a trap. As I mentioned, examining traps can help you to cut down the number of different options which might open the gate. So, I made each contestant examine every trap in a room before they started trying out the options which were left undiscounted on each trap by the examination process.

Can I just point out that Tuner’s hot weather outfit is perfect for the occasion. He’s all dressed up in Jungle Adventure gear – maybe that’s a sign that this challenge was made for him…

… Or maybe not.

Turner was hit by a poison dart on his very first attempt to disarm a trap.

On second thoughts, maybe it had nothing to do with the trap. Personally, I have my suspicions about a certain nymph.

Caly: Don’t blame me. It was probably Dad, he does things like this all the time.

By the way, Caly was there because at that point I hadn’t yet decided that I was going to have the contestants do one temple each. I made that decision after Turner cleared the first gate and then I sent everyone else back to their lodgings.

Turner: I… Don’t feel so good. Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?

Oh nothing to worry about, it’s just covered in big green welts. Probably only a side effect of the poison dart you just had stuck in your neck.

Turner: Poison dart? Oh no, I’m going to die aren’t I?

Not if you take the antidote in time.

Turner: Which we’ll be going to find now?

Ah. No. Slight problem: we need a computer to buy the antidote and we can’t leave the temple until you’re done or it will reset. So, chop chop!

Turner: I really am going to die…

Don’t worry, I got him the antidote after he had finished the temple and he’s fine.

Despite that little mishap, Turner did make it through the first gate.

Turner: Yess I did it! Am I done now? Can we go and get the antidote?

Sorry Turner, I had a change of plan. You’re each going to complete a full temple by yourselves so you’re not even almost finished yet.

Turner: You’re kidding, right?

Turner: Now which one of these options is least likely to kill me?

Here’s Turner disarming the trap which unlocked his second gate.

Turner: I’m still alive! Tell me this was the last trap.

Ok that was the last trap.

Turner: That wasn’t the last trap, was it?

Nope.

Turner: Hey, there’s a treasure chest here. Does that mean I’m done?

Um about that. There’s always at least one other treasure chest in a temple besides the main treasure chest. And that’s not the main one. There’s still more gates to go and traps to bypass, I’m afraid.

Turner: So many skeletons! Whoever decorated this temple was a bit morbid. I wonder if my skeleton will ever be found if I die in here…

For the last time Turner, you’re not going to die!

Turner: All four bowls look the same! How am I meant to tell which – if any – will unlock the gate?

I dunno pick one at random?

Turner: That’s all very well for you to say, you’re not the one who’ll get hit by a deadly poison dart if I choose the wrong option.

Ok firstly, you got unlucky with the dart – that’s not the only thing which can happen if you fail to disarm a trap. And secondly, you’ve already been poisoned, so what’s the worst that can happen now?

Turner: I could die??

Don’t be silly, that won’t happen.

Oh.

Turner: My death… Is on… Your hands…

Thankfully however, the only thing that happened was that Turner passed out for a little while.

Turner: ‘Only thing’… It wasn’t so insignificant to me, I can tell you!

Turner unlocked his final gate and looked delighted about it.

Turner: I’m done now, aren’t I? Now we can get the antidote, can’t we?

And here’s Turner opening the final treasure chest of the temple.

After leaving the temple, you can’t gain access to it again on the same vacation until about a day has passed. Obviously, I wasn’t going to wait that long so I sent everyone home and then took the next contestant back to Selvadorada (starting a new vacation will also reset the temple).

Candy was up next. I figured it was a good idea to send her during the night so that she didn’t burn but rather ironically she ran into a little fire on her way to the temple. Thankfully she was unharmed!

Here’s Candy inside the temple examining her first trap. That outfit is so cute – possible too cute for temple exploration, though.

Candy: This’ll be a breeze. I’m cleverer than those two idiots, I’ll bypass the temple’s defenses in a jiffy and then I will finally be able to claim my solo date with Vlad. Who knows, maybe something awful will happen and the others won’t make it out of their temples alive. One can only hope.

Candy! Turner has already come back from his temple safe and sound so you won’tbe getting rid of him so easily. And besides, of course I won’t let any of you die.

Candy: Well, there’s still time. Accidents happen…

Candy just narrowly escaped being hit by a poison dart (you can see it on the right of this screenshot).

Candy: Thank goodness for my fast vampire reflexes! This might be more hazardous than I had imagined.

Candy: See, I told you this would be easy! Look at that, I’ve unlocked the gate. I think I’ve got the hang of this now.

Candy: I want to register a complaint with whoever is responsible for this temple! Firing poisoned darts around higgledy-piggledy like that without a shadow of warning…. Well I mean to say really, it’s a health and safety hazard – I’ve a mind to sue! But maybe we could come to some kind of arrangement? A crazy blonde girl who thinks she’s a nymph will be coming in here next. If you make her disappear then we can forget all about this incident.

Candy: I’m suddenly so starving hungry…

Candy, you’re a vampire, remember? That food mirage should have no effect on you!

Candy: GOLD!!! I knew I could do this! I’ve defeated the temple, haven’t I? Did I win the challenge? Wait, why is it turning to sand? No, don’t do that! I was going to use you to bribe whoever’s running this competition.

That’d be me. Rest assured Candy, I couldn’t be bribed by virtual gold, sand or no sand. It’s all just pixels to me.

You could look happier Candy, you’ve unlocked the gate.

Candy: But I see more traps in the next room… I don’t know if I can do much more of this, I’m really not cut out for this kind of thing.

I thought you were going to breeze through this challenge?

Candy: I would have done but this temple doesn’t play fair.

You mean it’s getting the better of you.

Candy: Exactly. So, something must be wrong with it.

Candy: So I have to be feeling a certain emotion when I stand on this plate. But which one? Hmmm…

Candy managed to successfully disarm this trap and then pass through another gate.

Candy: I always said I’d be good at this!

Candy: What is this cloud of dirt? It smells funny – rotten somehow…

I believe that’s bone dust, Candy.

Candy: Ew ew ewww! Now my pretty pink clothes are ruined!

You’re a vampire Candy, you drink blood. Is that not equally disgusting?

Candy: That’s different!

Candy disarmed her last trap.

Candy: The final gate! I did it!

Candy made it at last to the main chest at the end of the temple.

There was another chest in the same room too for her to open.

Finally, it was Caly’s turn. She got a little side tracked on her way to the temple, though.

Caly, I know your hygiene is full because I cheated all your needs up so put some clothes on and get moving!

So, how are you feeling, Caly? A bit anxious? This temple is primed with traps capable of killing you, after all.

Caly: Why should I be afraid? My father says that this temple is dedicated to him, so he’ll tell me how to disarm all the traps.

It might come as a bit of a shock to Caly when her “father”‘s instructions lead her astray. But this could still be a good (although slightly harsh) wake up call – make her realise that there is in fact no ancient Greek god watching over her.

Caly: What’s that, Dad? Insulting the stone head will get me through the gate? Well, if you say so.

Caly: Now listen here, you ugly old thing, my father is the god Atlas so you’d better let me through or else!

‘Or else’ – nice threat, Caly, like that’s going to wor – Oh, it did.

Caly: So, what do you think about this trap, Dad? Uh huh… Uh huh… I see, none of these options will unlock the gate. I’ll move on, then.

At some point Caly decided to get naked (ok so she autonomously attempted to go outside and shower in the rain and when I cancelled the interaction she stayed naked so I just ran with it – I’m glad I did because it makes all her screenshots so much funnier).

Caly, what are you doing?

Caly: I think better when I’m naked. I keep telling you, wearing clothes just isn’t natural for us nymphs. You should really consider putting the clothes optional trait on the bachelor mansion.

I’m considering it and… No.

There has to be something about Caly which is responsible for her repeatedly doing this. I’m guessing either the erratic trait or the fact that she’s a mermaid.

Caly: Yess another trap down! Thank you Dad, you were right, I just had to eat some of those gutsberries before standing on it.

Caly was blessed when she opened this treasure chest.

Caly: The temple clearly knows who I am!

Caly: … And then I said “my father will burn your house to the ground” – and he did!

Stop talking to the traps, Caly!

Caly: Ahh a skeleton!!!!

Skeleton: Ahh a naked girl!!!!

Caly: So you see, I am a nymph and my father is the god of this temple.

Skeleton: Dealing with situations like this was not in the temple guardian job description.

Another gate opened for Caly!

Excuse me Caly but what the hell are you doing?

Caly: oh this? This is just a nymph victory cry – Dad says the end is in sight!

Skeleton: It’s that naked girl again. How did she even make it this far?

Caly unlocked her final gate….

… And opened the final treasure chest in the temple.

The challenge began on Monday morning (day 9) and finished once Caly had cleared her temple at around 5am on Wednesday (the start of day 11), so it was a really long one this time!

The plan had been not to reveal who won the solo date until next chapter as usual but a certain someone ruined that for me since, because I have no screenshots of Caly failing to disarm any traps, it’s pretty obvious who won. So anyway, here are the stats:

Turner

– Numbers of attempts to disarm traps: 7

– Failed attempts: 4

– Successful attempts: 3

Turner’s success rate: 42.86%

Candy

– Number of times attempted to disarm traps: 11

– Failed attempts: 7

– Successful attempts: 4

Candy’s success rate: 36.36%

Caly

– Number of times attempted to disarm traps: 4

– Failed attempts: 0

– Successful attempts: 4

Caly’s success rate: 100%

That’s right, Caly won by a long shot! I still don’t understand how she managed to get through the temple with no mistakes. I suppose I got very lucky with my guess work in Caly’s temple. Or maybe her father really is Atlas…

By the way, as you can see from the stats, Turner only had to unlock 3 gates in his temple whilst Candy and Caly had to unlock 4 in theirs (and so had to contend with more traps). Maybe that was a touch unfair but I didn’t know how many gates were going to be in each temple until I got to the end of them becauseyou unlock the temples room by room. Hopefully calculating the result as a percentage success rate negated any unfairness which might have accrued from the different number of traps though.

Anyway, this means that next chapter Caly will get a solo date. Turner and Candy will get a group date though so all their suffering was not in vain!

Roland and Caleb’s son, who the game named him Venkat Vatore, was born. I promised pictures of what he will look like as a YA and here they are:

Goddamit Vlad, just look at what Roland’s beautiful genes produced! Why did you have to go and chuck him out?

Vlad: Well if you love him so much why don’t you just go and do a legacy with Caleb and Roland?

Don’t tempt me!

Remember I said that Morgan was married to Paolo and Paolo was pregnant with twins? Well, I went into Morgan’s household to see what her kids looked like… Only to discover that the twins weren’t hers! That made me sad for her. Paolo must have got pregnant before they married because I believe I have switched off affairs with MCCC

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Next chapter will be a solo date for Caly, a group date for Turner and Candy and the last elimination before the finale!