Just wanted to say that I'm having an excellent time doing this challenge. It is so fun and worth the complication of following the rules!

So far my founder Landon has a wife Marion, and 4 sons. Keynan is a child, Tildon is a toddler, and natural twins Jarius and Darius are newborns. I'm hoping having twins doesn't sink the family before I even get through any restrictions. Landon is working on the Culinary restriction set. Marion was in Law Enforcement (came with the job) but quit at pregnancy. She will stay home until Landon completes his career, then he'll stay home while she goes into the Medical field.

Keynan spends his days unsuccessfully trying to befriend neighborhood pets. I need to read up on that because I've never adopted a stray in the regular game. So far my challenges are having everyone "bathe" by repeatedly washing their hands, and keeping everyone fed. Marion barely made it through her second pregnancy. I wish the sponge bath option was available as player directed.

Couple tips for you:
Utilize Appreciate:Groom between spouses! (Also available between siblings and parent/child once both parties are adult and/or elder.) Doesn't help keep kids clean, but it's certainly helpful for pregnant sims.

The key to developing relationships quickly, whether between human or animal sims, is to rotate between three or more interactions. Reason being that the effect of an interaction is diluted if repeated one after another. Thus Chat/Admire/Play is more effective than Talk/Talk/Talk.

With strays, you can't use Feed Treat yet, but a lot of strays know tricks (and those are the ones you want to adopt anyway!), so you should have Stroke/Command [do trick]/Play options right away. Switch from Stroke to Rub Belly (dogs) or Hug (cats) as soon as those options are available. It's quite possible to get the Adopt option with one visit this way.

ETA: Sponge-bathing can be induced pretty easily by locking the stinky sim into the bathroom with nothing else to do. Do be aware that sims with high Neat points will never sponge bathe. I think 6 Neat is as high as it can be for them to do this.

Thanks for the tips!

I read somewhere else that only teen and higher can initiate a stray adoption, so Keynan will keep making friends and training the dog and will adopt once he turns teen. The parents have too much else going on to even venture into the yard to meet animals for now.

I'm finding the child's hygeine is even harder to raise with "wash hands" than the adults. Good thing he doesn't go to school!

A tip for those of you with toddlers. If it's before tubs and showers (medical) then don't potty train them. Wetting themselves and the resultant diaper change is the only way they get clean.

Great challenge!!

I think technically you already broke the rules, you aren't allowed to get your founder a spouse until after they've reached the top of their career, see the Hopelessness bit.

Thanks for the tips about Adopting Strays, I've also never done that and I wondered how it worked.

Oh man........I totally did miss that when reading through. Shoot!

I did an adult start and had him married by Wednesday, so I thought I could get around having to find a spouse without being able to call and invite her over. On reading the rules through I knew it would be really hard to build up that kind of relationship without being able to go anywhere or call anyone without a heart, so I decided to marry him off ahead of time. I thought I was being so clever........

Of course you're right though. I totally cheated my face off upon closer reading of the setting up section of the rules. Oh man..........Well, I'm already connected to the characters, so I'm going to play through the best I can and start again when this one is complete or goes up in flames. I won't score it, but I'm having enough fun that I don't want to bail on days worth of playing.

Why don't you use your first child as your new founder and just play the family out without lifting any restrictions? That will give you a cleaner start, kinda like a Uni start, but in your case I think it would save you from failing. The not having a spouse before the first restriction is lifted is a big part of the challenge to get past. I totally understand about being attached to the characters. I started my founder years ago under the regular apox rules, lifted military, got married and had kids and haven't done anything since. I'm going to keep using that family and follow my new rule set instead.

have you considered using the hack that unlocks sponge baths for everyone? also, custom content, a question. (or 5 lol)

if something is designed to look like it is older (say for example, a pestle and mortar. we have those even now, but in sims its copied from the food processor) could that be used instead of the more modern items?
i have a lot of ancient items like those, and things that were copied out of castaways (such as a shower that has a bucket of water over the top, water tower for collecting rainwater [even though it would be irradieted] BBQ from an oil drum ect) if they have the parts to be used without the modern tech, would they be allowed to be used?

have you considered turning the player made chars that become zombies into the inteligent Ghouls of fallout? (if they were a usefull founder type at least, if zombie infestation made too many then you could save your fave as a ghoul then move the rest out as ferals?) you could technicaly then move the new ghoul into a lot that was designed to be like Underworld (from f3) where they could hide out? (allowing the person who prefers no humans to at least have a lot they can move their non-humans to if they aren just zombies, or even vampires since we had the Famly in fallout3, so long as they stayed out of sight and sunlight hehe)

I'm about to start setting up my challenge hood, however I don't do 'ordinary' or 'modern'. I don't even do Earth. So, I'm going to tweak the setting somehow (not quite sure how yet, but I will). I am also probably going to make the scenario more about building a new society than recreating the old one, because that's more my style.

I already have one post-apocalypse hood going; it's the one hood that gets away with being Earth, because in that hood all the humans have died out, leaving only mutants. I wanted to combine the challenge with that hood at first, but since it already has five families (all couples with kids), I don't think I'll get away with that. Fortunately I have plenty of grungy and apocalyptic-looking CC (my favourite style after steampunk) so I can set up another one easy.

- VT

That would qualify as a hack that would allow the user an advantage over players who don't use hacks, and thus be illegal.

The whole idea behind most challenges is to see what you can do with what's provided by the game. Many challenge creators have relaxed about mods/hacks that save the player finger clicks, but that's different. In this challenge, the fact that some sims can sponge-bathe and others can't is an important, inherent part of the challenge. Makes you think about the pros and cons of uber-Neat sims versus uber-Sloppy sims when selecting your founder's personality traits.

well i wasnt actualy asking the players, i was asking the creator of the chalange (maybe i should have clarified that)
this is the first time a chalange has grabbed my interest, and since im terrible at langscape gardening i thought a zombie infested world with no greenary might be just the place to start building (and posably uploading for others to use)

hence why i wanted to clarify the CC use/do not use of items that could be listed in the shopping list. as there is no point in me including most things if they are out of the list. since housing tends not to be my thing in post-apocalyptia but com units might be, i wanted more info about CC on those rather than for how i could cheat thru the challenge via what others *will not* or choose not to use.

Actually Rayea and Darby, I'm ruling opposite on both of these. I was actually working toward including a 'sponge bathe for everyone' mod in my Medical restriction but either forgot or ran out of time or whatever and it didn't make it in. Its silly that there would be a reason why a sim physically could not sponge bathe if he got dirty enough, but the neat ones tend to do it autonomously on their own more. You may not however, use 'old' technology that has been cloned from a restricted item. No motar and pestal food processors.

I also don't really know what you mean about the player characters becoming zombies. I've already ruled against the supernaturals, but the zombies themselves are even worse! (From a strickly storytelling point of view) Your family would be in dire peril!

And the rule about disadvantages to those not using hacks is dumb too, I'm practically requiring you to use mods to begin with so the people who don't play with mods already might not be likely to be playing this challenge.

As for those asking about the storytelling aspect of it, you don't have to pretend it was a nuclear meltdown that turned all the townies into zombies, you could be starting your own settlement on Vega 7 or colonizing a corner of the African desert, whatever backstory gets *YOU* excited to play and build up the hood. As long as your changes don't alter how the challenge is set up and played through its ok. After all, this is more about having fun, we aren't competing against each other, just against ourselves and our game.

I like the sound of the "sponge baths for all" mod; does one already exist? If so, where can I find it?

Good point.

Don't mind me - I'm an old-school AC vet. I think your take on it is awesome, though, Phaenoh. Just a new way of thinking for me that could take awhile to get used to.

well i use alot of hacks from MoreAwesomeThanYou, especialy the bathroom controler. depending on the version you have, you might find the hack in any of the sub directories here
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s.../topic,7.0.html

my own usual reason for using spongebath hacks is im a roman builder. i love to make and build roman hoods (in all 3 sims versions)
and plebians didnt HAVE a bathroom hehe, they had to go to the local baths, but my sims drive me nuts crying about being dirty, so sponge baths from bucket sinks it is^^

well, what i meant about zombification and Ghouls is...say you have a famly, and dad gets bitten, turns zombie...your rule (i think) say he goes out into the wasteland and finds himself a place to hide out (ie, he gets moved to a new lot and canot realy take part in the chalenge)
now one poster up above was unhapy that humans dominated the chalenge (which is understandable to them, the humans are the ones rebuilding the world after the big Whatever happened *grin*) since they usualy play with supernatual chars. while i understand most of those have access to abilites that would mean they have an unfair advantage (such as zombies being imune to sicknes, radiation [the imagined, since we cant code it into the game] and so on..) they also have huge dissadvantages (even if they are assumed, such as being shot at while trying to collect the days firewood hehe)

so, your zombies (which are hacked) are now more like the chemical zombies from the rez evil films or the dawn of the dead type? and since Grimmy is over worked (and under paid, i hear him yelling lol) there are no zombies from dying and getting back up hm....

i guess what i meant was that, if your fave famly memeber got turned, you could send them to an appartment (or style lot if you havent got appartment life) built just for sims that were faves but are now the shambling dead....allthough he (or she) might be dead, and couldnt unlock anything, they could at least, still be playable in a fashon. perhaps a side-story about Bob the Zombie and how he faired after he became the recently deseaced? (is reminded of a song called 'all we want to do is eat your brains' about the attack from the zombies PoV hehe)

as fer the mortar n pestle, i have decorative versions so its not all bad. have been working on a food place allready but im not sure its fit for use yet, maybe an outdoor place might fare better since all my stoves are ether low grade outdoors ones or hunger10 versions...and i cant realy play properly becasue i have a hack to stop fires XD so while my sims might fare fine, everyone elses sims would be toast if i used a bbq indoors...hard to build everything as i want becasue i have Numenors invisible and prizon walls but others may not and suddenly finding your watchtowers invisible walls are now visible in everyone elses game is no fun as a builder

*edit ooh, is this one of the ones you use?
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...pic,6720.0.html (zombie apocalypse, now with more BRAIIINS!! hehe)
i might actualy grab a new PSU and do a clean install no CC on my older machine to try a real zomb-apocalipse ^^ (well...maybe next month, my fiance arrives tomorow and he's not much of a sims player..though he might, if his sims had to live in fallout-simsVille hehe)

Thanks!

Looking around, I also found a sponge bath mod from CJ: http://drupal.cyjon.net/node/140 .

Regarding children and Hygiene, who suffer the most before Medical:

If I understand correctly, with these mods the Social Worker won't come before Law is lifted, which is a huge advantage because kids (not teens) who refuse to do homework due to tanked Hygiene levels would normally be taken away due to poor grades (along with all their pre-teen siblings). Obviously this can be devastating and even a challenge killer, if Mom is too old to have more children. Once you get that first child safely to teen, it becomes less important because they can do little brother/sister's homework for them. But back on topic: with this ruleset, Medical should be lifted before the Social Worker can come so you wouldn't need a spongebathing mod for very long anyway... if I've got all this right...

You know phaenoh this is how I tend to feel about challenges. Challenges have rules for reasons otherwise they wouldn't be challenges, but at the same time there is no point if its not actually fun. For the apocalypse hood I'm building I downloaded the no social worker hack because where the bloody hell is the social worker coming from in an apocalyptic society. Also I decided no school for kids because what the hell school are they going to. Instead your founder has to spend so much time reading to them otherwise they are ignorant. I'm not sure how I would restrict that maybe your founder has to put the bookcase in their inventory when they are off the lot or something...

Also I play with Inteen and use the flavor pack miscarriages for low motives. Miscarriages make sense under these circumstances so I figure there would be a higher food ration for pregnant sims, but the danger would still be present. Another thing I'd been thinking of is that there is no birth control under these situations so maybe sims could only try for baby...or if they use ACR just let the sims take their chances...dunno'. I'm still sorting out what I want to do with it all.

I wonder. Would i be able to build lots my self? or do i have to download houses?

Rayea, you can follow any zombified sims you want to enhance your storyline; if its fun, do whatever, they just can't lift Restrictions.

Yup lorinsv, you've got it right. The sponge bathing mod is only until Medical is lifted, and Medical is in the first Restriction level while Law is in the second.

Skimmer, you can definitely build your own lots! I personally would prefer everyone to build their own lots, but a lot of people don't like building so downloading is an option.

Oh good cus i was not looking forward to trawling through thousands of lots.

Right. My first lot is complete. I just wondered if it broke any of the rules before i use it. The furniture shouldn't break the rules because i built it with the mods already in place. but i wanted to make sure. Pics below with .rar file. ( I will remove rar if it breaks any rules).

I'm doing a lot of the trawling for you, lots that I find that I believe are right for this challenge I'm including links for. You can look at them to see what I'm thinking is appropriate and either download them or create your own along those lines.

First off, I have to say, after setting up a clean downloads folder and downloading the recommended lots and content, I am excited to be starting the challenge. Ive decided to play the mid-uni version and so far (day 1!) I am safe.

I was wondering about this: Founders may bring up to 3 items back from college that were purchased with their own money

If you can bring back 3 items, what 3 items do you select (or 2 plus diploma if you make it to graduation), and can you use those items even if the restriction has not yet been lifted, or is it for resale value or what purpose does this serve? Curious as to what other people selected as their items and why.

For the most part people bring back either Aspiration Rewards or high priced items to sell back. Many things still have restrictions based on them, so you can't bring back a shower. I personally brought back SmartMilk, as skilling seems to be one of the most important things to this challenge, and everyone older than kids have a harder time of it. Power skill baby, while you still can

I'm very interested to hear how your story ends up, you are the first to report with a mid-uni start. That one is my favorite, but its untested, you are the guinea pig (or womrat). Keep us informed!

*head-desk moment*

i just realised..i can take my entire downloads folder out, make a new one just for the chalenge and pop THAT one in instead of doing a full install...
maybe the zombies have been nibbling XD on m allready.

i can recomend prety much everythin made by the purity project here at MtS becasue its cosmetic stuff or build stuff, most of pixlehates and pheno's stuff too. (so i think i might actualy make an apocalipse folder, slap all the fallout theme and apocalipse them build and buy recols in here and have a go in a totaly new hood.)

so, can i check..the grungify your yard, since its dead grass and trees, is that okay? (my decoration set) grungy or apocaliptic recolors of non CC stuff too?
i also grabbed http://skuld.modthesims.info/files/...olition_set.rar it has a HUGE amount of windows and doors that are just holes....ya know, i might make a set of ghoul appartments (not actualy appartments mind, just a place to move the ex playables into to keep em safe) and some deco houses with that. i tend not to actualy *play* the sims these days, just build and do basic 20min testing. guess im a frustraited interior designer at heart :P