I made a post here a couple minutes ago here where I talked about the Loner trait and added the fun fact from The Sims Wiki that said
Loners with the insane trait will never need to socialize with other Sims. This is due to the fact that not only will the social need decrease slower because of the loner trait’s effect, but also having the insane trait allows them to use the “Talk to Self” interaction to raise their social need in addition to their fun need.
(TL:DR) That makes me wonder. Could you survive if it was just you, a single Sim, on the map?
It would be a bit of a apocalypse situation. You wouldn’t have any rabbit hole locations; though I don’t know if having any is a requirement for creating a world. I don’t know how it would effect the “Chat with someone” interaction when using a PC or if you could potentially be able to acquire additional Sims through flirting with maids and fire fighters.
It would limit how far you can progress with certain skills and their challenges I image considering you wouldn’t have access to seeds for Gardening or other people for the chess challenges for Logic.
If someone has tried it and uploaded the processes to Youtube I would love to see it. I would be very interested to see how this effects game play mechanics and if you could potentially build up a town in this manner.
If not I may attempt to give it a a go some weekend.
Edit: I’m giving it a go. Originally I just wanted to kill everyone and see what happens (also to add to the apocalyptic vibe). It turns out even opting out of story progression doesn’t stop Sims from moving in to take their spot. I also noticed Sims would continue to show up to social spaces like parks.
I think the next step is to delete every lot on the map.
I’ve kept my Sim locked in a house in the meantime. Having the loner, insane, and hates the outdoors traits has kept him from never needing to leave the house. The loner and insane trait has kept them from talking to anyone even when using a computer.
I chose the unstable trait as my forth for fun but it seems like they can undergo episodes which change their traits. That could potentially be a major set back.
Sims can find seeds laying on the ground. So if insects, gems, and small animals are still spawning then gardenings still doable. If they have access to water then so is fishing. With a fire they can roast things. Thats food sorted. Socialising is doable if they befriend a wild horse. Not sure how theyd get clean, so theyd be stinky and cranky about that. But theres a few options for sims to entertain themselves without items. Come winter theyd die without shelter.
I think you could still make money and afford items using things like the writing skill so I don’t think that would be an issue.
Don’t you need to manually set spawn points for that and gems? I don’t think they are added automatically when you create a world.
Even using a town with every Sim just removed I wonder what combination of traits would work best. I feel like writing or art would be the way to go for money and I think everything else could likely fall into place afterwards.