So about a week ago I made a post here titled If you create a world in the Sims 3 with a lot for a single Sim how difficult would it be to survive? Could you think of anything that could help?. In it I talked about the possible challenges of a post-apocalypse play-through where you have a single Sim in a town and you need to find a way to survive. I decided to give it a go and some people seem interested so I’ll outline my attempts so far below.

---

Attempt 1:

I originally tried creating a Sim with the combination of the Loner and Insane traits so they wouldn’t seek out social interactions and could talk to themselves as needed. I tried to kill everyone in the town to fit the post-apocalypse theme but eventually new Sims started taking their place and they would still continually spawn at community lots for events.

At this point I decided to build a basement and isolate my Sim by deleting the ladder and relocating my Sim (and the mailbox and garbage can) underground to test having a Sim that has no one to socialize with it. It went fine. I was able to work on my Sim’s writing skill and make enough to pay the bills.

I had the Hates the Outdoors trait so none of this proved to be a problem.

---

Attempt 2:

After a bit of struggling I was able to get Create a World working with the “Steam” version of The Sims 3 and figured out the PNG thumbnail requirement and created a tiny island with a single lot free of all rabbit hole locations and item spawns.

Immediately after moving in and building a basic house two wild horses, a racoon, and (despite having the Opt Active Household out of Celebrity System option checked) three members of the paparazzi spawned as well as a lone onion in the same location. The animals never seem to leave the general proximity of the lot and occasionally it shows that they are hungry. I’ve fed the racoon.

Opening up my fridge I had some plantable items so I was able to work on my gardening skill. Apparently through using items, such as the time machine, you are able to acquire things like the omni plant’s seed so I may do that eventually.

Despite not setting any spawn points I was still able to fish.

When calling for services the fire department arrives immediately spawning almost directly in front of my Sim, mixologists spawn immediately at the bar, and the child delivering the newspaper delivers the paper then pings out of existence. All other services from pizza to the police never show up.

Making one of the members of the paparazzi join my family and have a child did crash the game but the Sims Wiki says the following

If the school has been deleted then children and teens will stop going to school. This is the only way to not go to school, and is only possible in Windows and macOS as consoles do not have the ability. Also, if the player is controlling one ghost teen or child, they might not be signed up for a school. However, if the school is deleted then children and teens appear to be forced age up badly because they haven’t been to school, but if an adult with a high enough logic skill tutors them, their grade can go up, and allow them to age up well without having to go to school.

So I assume having a child and no school wouldn’t be a major issue.

The chess grand master challenges are limited to whatever Sim is on the lot.

---

That’s about where I am at. It’s interesting to see some elements of the game fall apart in confusion and the atmosphere reminds me at times of the original Sims game where you are basically limited to your lot. I am curious if adding a road would fix some of the service issues I mentioned.

I don’t know if there would be any interest in me testing other mechanics and updating this post or uploading the very simple map I made for people to test out themselves.

If someone else wanted to give this a go an additional challenge could be trying to complete the various skill challenges.