I'm reading a lot in this thread, although I'm not doing this challange. I love to read all you're talking about it. I'm at another challange (one of my own), although I want to play this challange sometimes... Maybe in the future.
Keep going everybody you're doing great, even if you're only at the Neanderthal area !

*Blushes* Almost done with round 7, but I do have an update ... it is more like a teaser. Also stats of Round 6 and introduction of new Sim Tribe. Some Cave layouts also posted. Haven't started on the mortality table yet, but I'm doing some testing on it. HAH ... wished I had saved my Alpha group to work out some of the rolls and data. *evil laughter in background as Sim deaths are being contemplated* Hope you enjoy.



*Happy Dance* Yeah update from Cespencer and thank you for this link! I do genealogy for my family and use ancestry, but never thought to use another site for my Sims. I got such great pleasure from a day dream I had of someone coming across my ToT Sim family tree and trying to figure out if it was connected to their tree. ROFL.



*Bear hug* Oh Sandy, I finished reading your site's update and I just love your new SimStone family! I adore Wilma as a plantsim!!! The Greeks were the first to adore nymphs and later the Romans adapted them into the Greco-Roman mythology. I have an idea of keeping plantsims as nymph/dryad oracles in special garden temples when I reach that stage. You are more then welcome to do that. You could have Dionysia festivals where all kinds of antics could take place both in the rural areas and city. You could also have an Amazonia like culture on them for breeding and later plantsims could evolve into druids in medieval periods. Just some ideas, did I mention I have an overactive imagination? :lovestruc



*Crosses Fingers & knocks on wood* With so many having to start over because of computers. I hear ya Talia! Luckily I started after receiving a new computer. I can't quite remember, but isn't several ToT players skipping some ages and aging up Sims to speed things along? Would that be something you would consider? But I know you also enjoy playing and love the story making process. I know I will be slow, since I am a slow player ... but I am loving it. Nice to take your time sometimes. hehehe



Thank you Frongsnack! Eorienna and her Aridia Valley was such an inspiration in my early naming. The Clan Mother names are all rock related as a pun to SimStones. Totems are from actual experience from living out on the Navajo Rez. ya'ah teh! (really should update my Facebook and have my rez frens check it out my ToT. haha). Tribal names are actually in a pattern. Peni Griffin may be one to spot that one out! I include subtle easter eggs in some of my naming. Fun to see if anyone picks it up.

Haha, yea Pleasantview Tattler. I had a blast doing that. I have the file from my old computer saved somewhere. I was working on a whole magazine spread with articles and mini stories. I came up with the idea of telling maxis made stories in magazine layouts. Still want to do it too, but will have to be later. So focus on ToT right now. I'm glad you like it!

Strange Town was going to be like a National Enquirer layout. I'm also mulling over the idea of making each maxis neighborhood a period and genre theme. Belladonna Cove was to become a Steam punk neighborhood! Ha, so many ideas ... so little time. I just love the Sims.



I am counting my Founders as generation 1 and I know many other players are also. It helps speed things up. But technically, you are supposed to age up three generations in Neanderthal stage and since founders are already adults ... they should technically be counted as generation 0 (or that's how I interpret it). I would go with what you want to do. The ToT challenge is massively huge and open for adaptations, especially since it hasn't been completed by anyone. So it has in the past and continues to go through edits as new issues and solutions are figured out through play testing from players. In itself the Challenge is in a process of Evolution, which makes it fun and interesting!

Random Thoughts:
Hurray! Signy showing up! So I have an idea of where I want to go, but I am curious to see what everyone thinks about the fate of Rhino and Cheetah. So I am going to post a poll and who knows I might adapt the results. I'll post it on my site and a shout out here.

Raiding Rhino: Plot Endings
(Which one are you in favor of?)

1.) Skin his hide: Extinction is the answer.
2.) Wildlife Preserve: Save the Herd.
3.) Export - Import: Ship that Ivory Elsewhere.
4.) Lock up: Its the Zoo Life.

P.S. Grimmie's story brainstorming next!
*Hugs to everyone*

Oh, if anyone's curious...
http://www.myheritage.com/site-191892792/test-time

Just starting out Gen.2, so many problems! I had put a couple together that didn't get along, and then he tried for greener pastures and died of plague. I roll a d8 whenever a Sim gets sick, on 8 they die. Had an entire household die but one little girl, who then got the genie lamp and resurrected part of her family. Espagnas doing well again, now. Said little girl then married the crazy immortal woodsman who'd taken care of her (left over from a previous ToT attempt) and is going to be my first and only witch - at least for now. Have many more girls than guys, slight problem there. No other major drama. I'm now having the resurrected family be selectively shunned for witchcraft by other families, based on inferred tolerances to that sort of thing, ranging from 'ooh, powerful shaman' to 'If our inexplicable god-thing allowed sim-on-sim death in this era, there would be a purging!'

More to come!

Okay, the story of Rocky and River Gravel is up now. I'm working on getting the story of Gray and Rose Slate next.

BTW be careful what you wish for. I have the SimBlender on the lots so I can check pregnancies. Well, it was telling me that Rose Quartz was going to have 1 child. When the time came, the Triplets/Quadruplets hack asked me if I wanted a random number of babies or the original amount. I clicked on Random, and lo and behold, I ended up with TWINS! I haven't finished them yet, but they are the last family on the round.

twins
 

I always find twins to be a challenge. It seems that everyone wants to take the babies in and out of the cribs even when the babies are tired. Then everyone is red because they are hungry, tired, dirty, and need to pee.

I say 1 is more likely after he'd stolen another clan's woman, but 4 would make sense too if the population was feeble and everyone on hand was needed. They could force him to become part of their clan or fight to the death... ^_^

I have been rotating reading up on ToT blogs.

Does anyone know if Debs is still playing? I really liked her Sea and Sand Clans. I know she had to start over.

I know Lizz is trying to get interested again. It's hard when Real Life pulls you away. I just love all the custom content she finds! Her Roman Sims are very fun to read about and her Dusty Bobbin site has so much amazing stuff.

Ditzy deleted her ToT neighborhood, installed Sims 3 ... but recently re-installed Sims 2. I think she is more focused on the Medieval or Kingdom Challenge. I don't know if I should remove the link or not from my sidebar.

Any new ToT players with websites. I'll get to adding links on my site soon.

Thanks to everyone who has been voting on the poll. I truly appreciate it. I'll keep it up a week or so. Plenty of time to check it out.



Hehe. Yep, it will be interesting to see results. I agree not many options: Death, Left alone, Exile, or Forced into a Clan. Hmmm ... all got plot twists. I've decided to go by the poll's result. Making it interesting and I think it would be fun to have everyone participate. >.<

Hugs

Hi all. Loving everyone's ideas and blogs!

Nesxya, (smiling at your boom boom generation) Debs is on vacation and since she was visiting relatives only a couple of towns away, I invited her to my house for a visit. We met several years ago (on line) through the Sims 2 community when we were both playing the Victorian Population challenge. We hit it off and before we knew it, we came up with a mashed up version of the Test of Time challenge, including the sea and sand idea. Well, I had some computer trouble and stopped playing tot-m before posting my sea and sand tribes, but she managed to get her gen 2 sims going pretty well and got 'em on her website before computer problems ended her game too. Anyway, long story made a little shorter, I'm pretty sure (when she gets home next month) she's going to restart the challenge. I was trying to talk her into restarting the challenge with one season of summer, one season of fall and then the next 4 seasons set to winter....thereby, starting her off in the ice age. LOL She's a great simmer and I love giving her a challenge worthy of her skills.

I'm 1/2 through my gen 2 ice age (only 3 more rounds to go) and then I'm doing a slightly different version of the sand and sea tribes. The sand tribes will all start out at the same financial levels, they will dig for #1 water (and until they hit water...they aren't allowed any water on their lot) #2 the sim family that has dug up the most treasure chests and had the most geni lamps dropped off in the first 4 rounds becomes royalty and most of the treasures dug up will be given to the royal family as long as they fit the time period the rest will be sold to pay for the grander houses and fountains.

The Sea clan king/queen will be determined (after 4 rounds) by adding up the friendship scores per family. Whichever family has the total highest friendship scores gets to be the royal family. This is pretty much what Debs and I agreed upon eons ago...and I'd still like to give it a go. My 3rd gen will morph into Romans and Egyptians at round 5 and will continue through the 4th gen. I'm pretty sure my 5th gen will fall into the dark ages.

Anyone wanting to play this theme is more than welcome.

I'm thinking of adding ACR at the beginning of my third gen. Those of you using it....do you love it? Do you wish you'd done something different? Any pros or cons?

Debs and I are planning to get together again in a couple of weeks and I'll ask her to check in with Anna's thread here. I'm also taking off on vacation and won't be around for a week. In the meantime....

Happy Simming,
Star

Oh and Nesxya, I voted for number 4, thinking that it would give you more story opportunities. Also, I couldn't click on your signature link and had to go back a couple of pages to get to your site. (I will add everyone's links to my site when I get back and find a little time to update that piece of my website).

I do recall seeing something of the sort, and I haven't done it before because of the whole story thing, if I rush through it might take the fun out of it, at least I thought so =/ but after more thought I worked out exactly how long a sim lives (at least in my game if they make it to old age ) and how I could shrink it to help speed things up, and the sims live a ridiculously long time! O.O About 70 days (longer if I don't kill them off to make way for babies), which works out to 14 rounds! No wonder I still have Neanderthal Simmies around >_> I play one season per family so five days. I've already been using teens for marriage and pregnancy which has worked out ok with the high death rate at the moment, and I decided after playing the last few families that I really don't need teens to live 15 days =_= that's 3 rounds right.... plus 6 rounds as adult! Noooo my head is exploding! @_@ So I cut the teens and the adults down approximately a week each, and then my elders I was already killing off at 70, now only get 5 days, also the kids get a few days chopped too. From 70 they now live about 45 days, which is 9 rounds. I'll play it as a trial for a few rounds to see if it makes a difference. I don't want to spoil the storytelling aspect but at the same time I don't want to be playing for 20+ years either @_@ trying to find a happy medium.

In other news, I played through the 2 Lichtenberg and the Braun families yesterday and had some major game changing deaths O.O really hadn't seen it coming, but I love it best when I go into a round thinking "what the heck are you guys going to do for me today...." and then they surprise me XD. The best thing was seeing my beloved Korbl's twins (the ones he don't know about O.O still) grow up into teens! Omg so cute! XD *curses them too* LoL

~_~ really must get some work done today.... *sneaks back into the sims*

Death Tally so far = 14 and I have 5 more families and 2 more death matches to go this round XD

taliah~

PS: Hey Star! We must have been typing merrily away at the same time as I didn't see your post until I posted XD Just a quick edit to answer your questions about ACR - totally love it! Makes for some interesting scenarios if you don't have a leash on your sims, they have no morals! I can't think of anything I don't like about it =/ because I like spontaneity in the sims and I think that really helps with it. What I do like is the ability to click on the "adjuster" to see information on the sims, such as age, and who they like best, pregnancy percentages, and the pregnancy scanner. I'm a bit techno challenged though so hopefully someone else can tell you a bit more about it. My votes all for it though! XD

@Star: I have ACR installed too and like taliah, I love it. It can get a bit annoying when the couples are all over each other (usually only high bolt couples or family sims though) but I'm glad I installed it. Version 2.0 has alot more options than the original version (some of which I'm still figuring out. I downloaded it ages ago, but forgot to remove the old version (it was in my objects folder and not my hacks folder. No idea what happened there) but recently did, so 2.0 finally installed and I think it's much better than the original.) I vote you should go for it. ~VP

Thank you VP and Taliah for getting back to me so quickly. OMG, you had me at "pregnancy scanner and who-they-like-best" LOL Plus, it sounds like--if a knowledge sim meets a non-romance, non-family sim AND they have low bolts....they will be safe to leave alone in a dark room. Yes? I'm getting pretty excited, it's kind of like promising myself a new expansion pack for my sims 2 game. I'll be sure and get the 2.0 version.

Taliah, let us know how the lowering of the different ages and total lifespan works out for your story-telling part of the challenge. Great idea if it works!

*running to grab my suitcase and hitting the open road*

*waves goodbye to all*

Star

Yeah I think the combo you mentioned will be okay. And I just remembered why I like 2.0 better. It's more customizable and includes slightly more autonomous Try For Baby. (And I'm sad to say it took me along time to realize what TFB on the menus was for until I saw it capitalized in the ACR threads like that)

I keep my fingers AND toes crossed all the time now, and I find myself making backups of literally everything, especially my Sim Folders. BTW, I really enjoy your blog and voted on *exporting that ivory*.

I'm enjoying everyone's blogs and how each has a different scenario and play style, its what makes this challenge so interesting and wonderful.

If one is interested I have an update: Gen 5 - Beginnings

I am starting studies tomorrow and so went on a spree to get an update done, because I have no idea if and when I will find time for my sims. And should I be blessed with an hour or more playtime, it will be a little while before the next update.

Happy Simming.

Kiwi- I read all of your updates, and it's a shame that stars could fall out of the sky like that, even back in the day... Xp

Cool how you ended up with smaller families, even in the Roman generation. My earliest ones were all essentially poor because they just dated, had kids all year, and barely gardened enough to feed themselves. Such savagery!



Quick update below;

1. Branden Fahadeena pillow fights with death after the passing of his father Edward. Now that Edward and his wife Ellie have both passed on, Branden, Eldest brother Brad and Youngest brother Siddhartha mark the beginning of the fourth generation of Fahadeens.

2. Branden takes out some of his aggression at loosing his father to death, and effectively 'knocks Death back to his childhood'.

3. Keeping up with true Fahadeen tradition, Nadia marries for love and snags a Cove one generation before they became the Emperor's family, a feat that will be impossible for her nieces and nephews, who find that they have all become slaves.

4. Meanwhile, Ellie Cove (who passed before her husband Edward) decided in the afterlife to visit Maurader's Wharf- the scene of an ancient pirate's lair that none on the island have ever explored. While many say that the island's inhabitants are descendants of that marooned vessel, others believe it merely washed ashore from another place and ran aground just out of their reach. (I have no idea why Ellie decided to float off over the ocean and through several backyards- this was pretty cool considering the haunting ghosts used to be limited to just the house their tomb is at. She actually kept going East and vanished right before the sun rose, as if she left to make it rise. Was really pretty- but like I said, she'd never been there before, so what the heck, game?! lol...)

I finally got around to finishing my latest round. It only took me about a month or so. And to think I was doing a round a week when I first started... Anyway, my website is all updated with the change. And I started using MyHeritage at cspencer7's suggestion as well as tribal pages, since that one was already started and I like features from both, for my family trees. I'm off to see what I can plot out for my sims to do this rotation, then to see what they can do to destroy my plans. *glares at Cari and Rosalie* ~VP

Awesome challenge!! Not only is it a test of time, but also a test of patience and creativity!

Okay, first round of Quartz family posted on blog. Also, second round of Fred & Wilma Flintstone is posted as well. And I joined several others and used tribalpages for my family tree. The link is on the families page of my site.

Thank you Star for all the info. I love the idea of the Sea and Sand Clans. I also think that it is awesome you and Debs visit! I would love to have a simming friend like that. I hope you have a wonderful vacation and will talk to you when you get back. You will have to update us on how ACR is doing for you.

Yep Tga and Talia I think I'm due for a back up on my folders too. Still need to organize my downloads folder. Maybe I will work on it a bit in the next few days. For now I have only pulled in very little custom content and have my main bunch pulled out getting sorted.

VP I'm so excited for the update!! And Tga I can't wait to check out your update!!

Been working on decorating Grim Reapers cave in my story. Raiding Rhino Plot Poll is still open and thank you everyone for your votes. I'll keep it open to at least Saturday, since I'm focused on Grimmie right now. Also been reading ToT blogs. :lovestruc Currently just finished checking in on:

Kitcat's: Isle of Stone - Got off to an interesting start. Looks like computer troubles?
Floor's: Life's a Challenge - Totems! I love totems and Bunnies *squeals*.
Starla's: Sims 2 for you - Yeah a Sand and Sea Clan theme. Great starting stories.
Anaticula: My Simptopia - The Caves are awesome. Enjoying The Clan of the Cave Bear naming.

PS. I think I got my signature fixed. Please let me know if the link works or not.

*Hugs to everyone off to read some more ToT blogs and play Sims*

I'm Back!

Since it's summer holidays over here, I thought, why not catch up on the sims and this challenge. Wow, that took me a while. After opening the game several times and ending up doing nothing, I just quickly finished the family and updated!

@Starsaphire2: Ooh, I'm definitely doing an Ice Age! That sounds so much fun!

@nesxya: Nice to know someone actually reads my blog. When I read other people's blogs I always feel like my simmies are really boring...
And you're signature works now! You're idea sounds interesting, but that's a lot more generations :O , won't that take forever?

Oh and welcome to all the new TOT'ers!

Floor its great your back! Yep I like to cycle through and read everyone's blogs. Its nice to support everyone's efforts and creativeness, plus I enjoy reading Sim Stories!

Actually my generations are timed. A generation is three rounds and items unlock. Each round is a Sim Week. But I worried about having tons of generations too. So I have been keeping track of both: Traditional and my timed rounds. At the moment, I have unlocked the 40,000 Sim B.C. items which is third generation in my timeline. My Sims are actually still the founders which is traditionally the 0/1 Generation. I am hoping by collecting as much play data as possible I can tweak my outline.

However, I did wonder if I was cheating a bit with my Sim B.C. version. So in-between Raiding Rhino Poll and playing Death's Grotto, I have started up a Delta group. This group is strictly the challenge start up and rules. I created them to help compare start ups and use them to test my mortality dies rolls I brainstormed. I don't play them as much, and haven't made it through one round yet... but I'm totally excited about comparing and contrasting the two. I have no plans to make The Delta Group story orientated like my Sim B.C. but we will see what happens (I may only play them in-between decorating, story plots, or they may go to the wayside). Mostly I think, I am truly addicted to playing Sims and while my Sim B.C. was going through a week break I needed to play and fiddle around with some Sims, but wanting to stay focus on the ToT theme!

If anyone is interested in The Delta Group or play data collected by them, I can add them to my site if you want.

*Hugs to everyone*

Round 2 with Barney and Betty Rubble is up! Next family is Rocky and River Gravel. I should have their story sorted out in a day or so!

Hi Everyone!

I'm going to go start up this challenge in just a second, but I though I would introduce myself first. This is my very first post ever, hooray!

I'm currently in the middle of the Victorian Population Challenge, but I'm going to put it on hold for this. I'd really like to play a challenge that actually has an active thread and fellow simmers to talk to! I look forward to reading this thread and checking out everybody's blogs. I've poked around the first couple pages, and that got me so I excited I just can't wait to download some cc and play immediately.

@Starsaphire2: It sounds like you've already made your decision on ACR but I thought I'd add my two cents anyway. I do like the spontaneity and the informative features it adds to my game. However, I may take it out when I get to the last bit of this challenge (if I ever get to it!). In latter times, particularly Victorian, modesty and a prudish outlook really dominated. It kinda ruins my historical authenticity when a gently bred noble girl shows up on a comm lot and starts making out with a sim she's never met before. And that's with Pescado's no instant loves!

It was great to see the update. I love your storylines. It is fun to see how you included photos to help me "see" the story. Good luck with the studies.

I am just about to enter the Roman era and was just wondering if the slave killed every 7 days would be one 5 day house rotation and 2 days in another house? If that makes sense :s

It makes sense, but would lead to you killing off most of the slave population much to quickly. You can do it in one of several ways. The easiest would be to change your rotations to seven days long and just kill the slave at the beginning or end of the rotation. Secondly, you can pick a random day that is the slave killing day, Tuesday for example, and when it hits Tuesday in either your first lot or the lot the slave lives on, you kill him/her. Or still choosing a random day (and we'll keep using Tuesday for simplicity's sake) when your rotation includes a Tuesday, kill the slave at the beginning or end of the round. The last option is probably the easiest to implement. The killings won't be precisely every seven days, but the spirit is there and with this challenge and how much we alter the rules, that's all that matters. ~VP

Thank you VP, your words really uplifted my spirits and said it all.

Awww. Thank you! *blushes* :lovestruc

Cool ice age. Ha. :D
 

I just finished reading your story so far and I'm really loving it! I wish there was a way to subscribe to it or something so I didn't miss anything.

After reading yours, I think I'm going to try to at least do the Neanderthal age myself. I'm really bothered by playing out racism and sexism, so an alternative to the 'too real for me' TOT challenge is great. And I think my attention span is probably even shorter than yours! :P

I like your take on it, and just in reading your gen 2 blogs the captions are just great!

So funny with Hug & Rhyme... whatever, yea last night was amazing. loll!!
And I hope that Skunk turns out okay....!

The idea of friendship scores determining a leader makes a lot of sense, especially for smaller tribes. And an ice age sounds exciting.

You guys all have me thinking I should replay this game with TS2 as it's meant to be when I'm done with the TS3 version... the gameplay is so different! Although, there're roomers of a seasons EP for TS3 next November, but I am not a patient woman. Plus I MISS OFB so badly! I LOVED being able to sell random junk from the lot any old time, would make for a much more true marketplace. Although, the Ambitions pack 'architectural designer' that allows you to remake other people's home and the 'stylist' careers are awesome in the Roman era... >_<

Guess I'll just have to do everything

I'm not too big on blogging as it takes so much time, but I love everyone's blogs so far. Can anyone recommend a good host site for it? :D

Try Weebly. That's what a number of us use!

Nesxya: I do love having a RL sim buddy. Though we are several states away, we usually manage a couple mornings of instant messages each week (erm--fall, winter and spring). Summers are rough with vacations and hot weather.

Floor: Welcome back! I also love your Bunny Totem! The ice age is fun...but they have little to do except play and teach their cave-kidlets. Now that I'm about 1/2 way through, I'm thinking of allowing each cave an easel to represent cave paintings. What do you think? Still too soon?

Frogsnack (someday, I'd like to learn the origins of your name lol). Thank you for your comments on my picture captions. It greatly amuses me to make fun of my sims, not to mention of myself for some of the pictures I take. I'll think to myself...just how many penguin pictures do I really need? Doing everything is very, very ambitious, several times I wondered if I could pull off a sims 3 tot, even if just starting out with one family. But in the end, I'm a bit of a control freak and will try and stick to this challenge until it drives me crazy.

MK126: Welcome! I love the vibrant, creative activity of this thread. WOOT! I most likely won't add ACR until my next generation (which will be all about morphing from clans into two separate townships and creating a distinct hierarchy within each town). You bring up an interesting point about ACR, and I'll experiment with it during my "Sea and Sand Tribes" age. I will always post on this thread when I have an update....which should be early next week.

Kiwi: I just wanted to say I loved the picture of Gemma gardening, with the ships in the background. Wonderful pics!

On a side note.....I've added stubble and beards to all my ice-age, cave dwellers. It just cracks me up!

What do you think about using the fish stands and produce stands while in the Neanderthal era? I have one family that does great in farming and another that does well in fishing. And then I have the hopeless ones! I'm thinking about adding those two stands but wanted to see what others thought of the idea.

Sandy, what stands are you referring to? Some kind of rack at a community lot? Or are they custom content? Gosh, have I been playing my neanderthal game for so long that I've forgotten what else comes in all the sims 2 eps and stuff packs. LOL

They're CC. I'm trying to think of where I found them so I can download them again.

Do you mean the produce and fish packing stations from Simwardrobe?

(Hi everyone! VT has returned - again - after another way-too-extended hiatus. I'm thinking of getting back into the Test of Time, once I've finished building work in my main hood - again.)

Yeah, those are the ones!

I've been using the produce one. My sims aren't using the produce they're growing right now (unless the fridge is completely out of food and won't let me do anything) so my parents are passing down A LOT of produce down to their kids (I'm planning on using it as part of taxes to the higher classes when i get to the roman era) and it's easier to pass on 20 crates of tomatoes than 240 individual tomatoes. My fish are outright getting sold except for the ones the sim knows how to cook, then her/she gets to keep 10 of each of those. So most of my sims are walking around with 10 Largemouth Bass and 10 Jumbo Largemouth Bass in their pockets at almost all times. Only a few have progressed to the Catfish point (and I need to check which ones those are before I get to Sunday in round 12. Of course it would help to finish round 11 first) ~VP

ETA: Yay! VT is back! I'm not the only one with a slightly strange twist on things any more! I hope you get back to TOT-ing soon VT! ~VP

Sandy, the veggie-packing station sounds amazing. I think I'm going to add both stations to my next generation...especially for my sea clan. The stations seem like something an expanding village, on the brink of becoming a thriving township, would develop for trade purposes. Thank you for sharing!

Violet, I passed down gen one's fish and produce the slow way...one at a time.....though I would've been tempted to utilize this method if I'd known about it. I usually had the teens and kids do most of the harvesting....hoping I wouldn't lose a couple bushels of strawberries to the local bears (you know how much bears like berries). But your story completely supports their use of limited, but efficient technology. I really enjoy seeing how your kids turn out with the cross-breeding of your aliens. It's fascinating!

VT (Nuidya) you are back! YAY! I can't wait to hear about your new story lines and see your new hood.....or is it the same hood dusted and polished up? Either case, I am appropriately excited. I'm having such great fun playing this group of cave sims. After the next round I'll have a bunch of teens, and y'all know that teen sims take on a life of their own -- no matter what plans you have for them.

Yes, but isn't that the best bit? I'd still be playing a third-rate alphabet legacy right now if Sims didn't take on a life of their own.

I haven't decided on a storyline yet, but that just means I get to do the fun creative bit whenever I need a break from building in my main hood. VT doesn't like building. (Although I am a lot better at it than I was - before I started playing the ToT, all my Sims lived in five-room shoeboxes, and even that made my brain melt.)

Yeah, my genes are really getting mixed up right now with the birth of gen 2. Quite of few of them are becoming children and their facial features are becoming very apparent, and some got some of the worst combinations of my founder's features. I'm hoping they grow into their looks when they hit teen, or I'm going to have to dig into my makeup collection to find natural looking stuff to enhance them into something that I can stand to look at for extended periods of time. You know, or just get used to the way they look. I purposely gave my founders different genetics just to see how things would get combined in the later generations.~VP

See, this is why I don't buy into the whole "ugly/pretty" thing. Not everyone can be a human supermodel, especially when you're not dealing with humans - by their standards, they probably think they're gorgeous and "pretty human Sims" are hideous.

Oh i designed these sims to not be standard "pretty" I knew it would bet boring that way. And some of the Gen 1 children do look classically pretty and some don't. And most of the children of Gen 2 that have aged up so that I can see their features are not the classically pretty kind, even if they have at least one parent who is. I'm actually liking it mostly b/c I DO tend to create sims who are classically pretty and the whole point of me taking on a challenge was to pull my from what I normally do. This challenge has already made me stop god-modding everything (once I found a decent babycare hack that is) so now it'll make me appreciate the non-pretty sims. Especially since once i start adding in sims to diversify the bloodlines, I'm going to make sure they aren't entirely "pretty" so that I can keep seeing the surprise genetics pop up. (And I'm sure the ones with the most extreme genetics DO think they look fantastic. In fact I'm sure that Devon is quite proud of his very slanty and large eyes and lack of nose. Even if it makes his children and grandchildren look funky as toddlers and children. Most of them "grow into" it by teen hood.)~VP

For those who are reading the blogs, I've just updated mine so that all the families are posted through round 2. I'm working on round 3 now.

My first gen. 3 kid has been born! I feel like the baboon at the beginning of Lion King. Twins named Alodia and Cwene. When they grow up, the Roman era begins! I'm so excited....

I think its wonderful to see all the variety of ToT challenges out there!

I have just finished reading the rest of the blogs and have updated my sidebar. I know there are a few family tree links, but sometimes the family tree links are hard to navigate to other families, so I didn't include them in my sidebar. So I only have blog links. Please tell me if I have anything incorrect or missing. So here is my updated reviews.

Starla's - Sims 2 For You: So looking forward to an update on her Sand and Sea families.
Anna's - Sims Life and Times: This is such a beautiful and pretty site! I love the Tesime neighborhood! The Stonegates along with the Phans are favorites. I was wanting another update so bad. I just had to go back through and re-read the families.
Star's - StarSaphire's Sims Challenges: I absolutely love the revamp!!! Another lovely site and the Ice Age rounds are amazing! I must admit I love Bug, he is so unique looking and camp fires in the caves... brilliant. A great job diving back into the ToT Challenge!
Taliah's - Tempus Temporis: *Bows - I am not worthy* *Bows - I am not worthy* Another amazing site! I am going through and re-reading all the rounds. I can never get enough of Tempus Temproris!
jnbb's - Test of Time: Nothing new, I wonder how they are doing.
DarkRoselyn's - Test of Times Challenge: Nothing new, I wonder how they are doing also.
Tigery's - Test of Time Challenge Tigery Style: I really enjoyed her family status and heir pages. The media style stories are fun to read. Does anyone know how Tigery's doing?
Tga Kiwi's - Test of Time Challenge: Love it, Love it, Love it! What a wonderful fresh start. Of course, I love the new layout and design!!! So easy to read and follow, really pretty pages. Awesome job Tga! Truly one of my favorites >.<
Moonlight Frog - The Simming Frog: I think this website is cheery and fun. I really like the family trees and am really looking forward to an update.
Sandy's - The Test of Time: Wow, another great restart! I just adore the SimStone theme and naming. I also totally fell in love with all the plantsims! What a wonderful job Sandy! I really am enjoying the media player to flash through the stories.
Yuki's - The Test of Times Challenge: I just adore the family naming!! I am so curious about Elemekia as a neighborhood ... that I am left craving more details! The recaps are nicely put together and I am thrilled to see what happens in the Roman Era.
VP's - VioletPadfoot's Creation: *squeals* I just love your Test of Time concept! Great update! I love love the photo strips of the children through their ages. Your plantsims skins are fantastic! They match perfectly with your custom skins. I am amazed at your creativity and viewpoint on this challenge! Thorn and Rosalie are my current favorite. It's great to have the new updates!
VT's - VT's Sim Worlds: I am so happy you are back! I love how wacky your mutants are and am so interested to see what you come up with next. Your lingo and characters take me back to reading Ex-Mutants, X-Men, and Fantastic Four. I have always loved comic books and I have a soft spot in my heart for mutants who are physically different than everyone else.

I must say WOW, I am so impressed of the creativity and differences in everyone's style and challenges. Thank you everyone for the hard work you put in your stories and blogs. I really enjoy reading through them and will continue to do so!

I hope to finish some rounds and have new posts up this weekend. After I finish my current round, I will start to cycle through reading blogs again... starting with Cespencer, I can't wait I am already drooling!!!

Wow i havent posted for a while!
So i am finally geting back to my challenge, and I am ready for Gen 1 (or is it considered 2 since they are the children of the parent gen.??) to begin their lives away from home!
So far I hav a few children from that generation. Lots of people in my neighborhood already! I am kinda separating them based on Tribe/Clan/Group in the neighborhood.
All of the Aeris's are with the Aeris's, the Neci's with their people, ect. (all of the last names mean a specific element in various languages ) So I have an Earth, Water, Fire, and Air people, and then I made another group (for the fifth one) named after plants :D
Cant wait to get on to the next stage :D

So can anyone answer that question for me? Is the gen. after the starters/founders considered 1 or 2?

I like the idea of crates - could someone post a link? Also, do you have any advice for blogging? When the Roman era starts I'm going to try to start keeping track. It's fun to read everyone else's!

nesxya- my plantsim skins are actually an overlay. Gimmie a second and I'll go find the link... Ok back. Here it is: http://www.digitalperversion.net/ga...p?topic=15240.0 I got really tired of green plantsims and found that one when I went looking for a Multi Ideal Plantsim Replacement. So they match my custom skins really well 'cause my custom skins show through them. And yeah, Rose and Thorn are one of my favorite couples too. But I think I'm just rather attached to Rosalie for some strange reason. Perhaps b/c I have to yell at her the least for stupid simish-ness. You know except for her current pregnancy that wasn't supposed to happen. ~VP

Edit to answer Melibee: I counted my founders as Gen 0, so their children are Gen 1. But a lot of people counted them as Gen 1 instead so it's really up to you

And another edit to answer oboesapien: the site is www.simwardrobe.com click the "sims 2" button in the top left corner, then "objects" then "business facilitators" then its the "produce packing station" or the "fish packing station" I can't link directly to the page b/c of paladin has his site set up.

Fabulous, thank you!

Gotta question for you folks. My laptop has Vista and won't run all the EP's I have. I've got Base, NL, Uni, OFB and Seasons installed. I have Pets and AL but I can only install one more. Which would you chose?

I'd go for AL over Pets, but then I use more features from AL (like apartments and witches) than I do from Pets (most of my sims don't own pets mostly 'cause I used to god mod everything and I can't control the pets as well as I can control sims. ToT has taken me off of god modding so much though, so a few more furries may be showing up in my hoods) ~VP

Depends on your personal preferences really. AL is my personal favourite EP but I'd recommend 1) deciding which works best with whatever you want to do in your game and 2) checking this which-pack-should-I-get thread to see what other Simmers have to say on it.

I'm about to start work on an updated version of my old ToT hood, which will bend the setup rules slightly so I can pick up a few years after I left off (but hey, what challenge doesn't get bent slightly by each player?) I'll have more and better CC, maybe a couple of new Sims, and the slightest hint of a plot: it's now 20 years (give or take a few) since the event now known as the Transfer, where a virus caused some of the population to mutate and killed those who didn't. Up to this point, the survivors have mostly been living off whatever the humans left behind - but after all that time, the supplies are starting to run out, and the mutants now need to find new ways to survive. I think it works well with the basic rules, for the most part, and as an added bonus I get to use all that grungy CC I've had lying around in my CC Master Folder on an external hard drive since last summer.

ToT II: Return to the Haunt is coming soon to a blog near you (yes, I'm starting a blog, because I already have one for my main hood and I've decided I prefer that way of doing it)

- VT

Summer is coming to an end in my RL and that means back to school preparations. So before I get too busy, I wanted to spend some time updating the few families I've had a chance to play for their "one week in game time". I play my families alphabetically, so these last few weeks have been all about the Roman patriarchs. With unlimited funds you would think their life would be easy, but no! The drama of affairs, jealousy and murder make for a rather interesting time in the game. I love watching my sims do their own thing and then try to write storylines to fit what they just did. My favorite is my butler in Scalyn2. He is rather expressive in his actions. He makes me laugh. Here is a list of my website updates if you are trying to follow along.

On 8-25-12: Edits to subpages under Late Rome Age (Gen 3) Empress Affair, Monks come to Rome. Edits to Rome Gen 3 Family subpages: Krapina2, Maximus, ScalynEmperor, Scalyn1, Scalyn2, Scalyn3, Scalyn8 added a part 2 page (what drama!) Added: Nightingale2: Rome Gen 3 when Cooper married the black widow, Caelina Scalyn2.

Now I am off to take a tour of some of your blogs and websites. Thanks to Anna's blog http://www.simslifeandtimes.blogspot.com/ I can visit your sites for some storyline ideas and to learn more about your games. Thanks everyone for all your creative sharings... Playing Sims and sharing ideas with all of you has been a ton of fun!

Thank you VP for the link! The overlays do go so well with your Sims, allowing their unique colorings to show through. I really think that is neat. :lovestruc



I hope everything goes great with the school preparations and look forward to your updates. Hehe I also like to play my larger neighborhoods alphabetically too. I'm not listed on Anna's sidebar (being so new on the field), but you are welcome to check out my blog anytime. Also, I agree it has been a blast sharing with everyone this summer! I just wanted to tell you, Cespencer, you have been a great inspiration to me, thank you!

Thankyou for the answers! I will have my founders be generation zero.
I am busy creating a site to post all of my pictures, ect. for the TOT challenge :D
I am kinda making it story-like for the founders and heirs. I will also have family trees (hopefully... I find they get confusing after a couple of generations due to overlaping)
Cant wait to post the site. I will put a link here as soon as I am done!

I'm about to go into the Roman era - could anyone suggest good places for clothing/item downloads?

Check the "Where can I find..." under HELP at the top of the page. Also, I discovered this laptop doesn't like AL no matter what. So I added Pets for now.

Melibee- The family trees do get confusing with all the overlapping (right now I can start on one family's tree and eventually hit up the other four rather easily, and that's only with hitting Gen 1 people) but as long as you remember to update with any and all births right after the round is played or even when the kid is born depending on your access to the family tree, it stays somewhat mess free.

Sandy- Sad face at your computer not liking AL, IMO it's the better of your two choices (but I stated that in an earlier post). ~VP

You definitely don't want to let too much time pass before you update the family tree. Right now, I know that my Slate family had twins but for the life of me, I can't remember their names!

This is why I have a notebook that I record all major events in. It also serves to help me remember what is happening in the pics I take when I finally finish a round and update my website. I also have spreadsheet that keeps track of who is paired up with who, and had to consult the notebook so that I could note who I couldn't pair someone with as they would be cousins. That column of the sheet is more of what the mother's maiden name was since any children with that last name would be the mother's brother's children, thus the sim in question's cousins... and now I'm getting a headache from this. I can't imagine what I'm going to do when i get to Gen 3 but then I can always add in more CAS sims if I have to since they'll be the beginning of the Roman's. Just hopefully not to many. I don't need my population to explode. It takes long enough to do a rotation as it is (as I type I'm halfway through house number 4 of this rotation. There are 8 houses to play this rotation, and four more (so far) for next rotation.) ~VP

I've managed to find time for an update. It's great to see everyone is busy, and I've thoroughly enjoyed everyone's updates.
Couple of more weeks to go and then I can spend some time with my game. I'm looking forward to it...Yay!

Happy Simming Everyone ('',)

Thanks for the advice I should probably start keeping track now.
I am on generation 1 now for 3 of my families, the other two I just have to wait till the children grow up. Because of that, (I didnt want to wait for one of my sims ) I added one CAS sim for my heir of either my air tribe or plant tribe... not sure which now.
That kinda proves your point of keeping track haha

See? my whole reason for the notebook (which only has like two more pages so I need to get a new one out of my large spiral notebook stash. I love back to school sales. I stocked up two years ago and still don't need to resupply. Maybe next year though) The notes generally consist of (and these are actual random entries): "Cari gives birth to TWINS! (thanks to trip and quad hack. The scanner said only one) -Edyth (Joyous) Brn Hair Brn Eyes -Eldwyn (Wise Advisor) Brn Hair Lt Blue Eyes" or "Astyrian becomes a child" or "Roscoe Gold Garden" or a random observation such as my lack of pity for Plantsims who don't stay outside during the daytime and end up fainting from lack of sunlight. And the whole thing is colorful since I have eight different colors of pens sitting right next to the computer in what is supposed to be a candle holder, but has become a pen cup. Okay now I'm off to add more notes to my notebook. (Almost done with household #4. I had to stop 'cause i was about to fall asleep) ~VP

You have a large notebook stash too? I have hundreds of notebooks in all shapes and sizes in one of those tray stacking things in my room (I call it the notebook tree).
This is kind of weird now. VP and VT, both playing an unusual twist on the Test of Time, and now both of us have notebook stashes...

By the way, I'm nearly ready to start setting up my new ToT hood. Just have to get my main hood to a playable state first, which should take a day or two, but after that I'll be working on the Test of Time.

Mine live in a file crate under my desk. With a bunch of other half-filled notebooks. I have to remember which end to pull from when i want a new notebook. I shall probably have to buy a new crate when I get more notebooks, that thing is nearly out of room...

And yeah, the similarities b/t us are weird. You're not gonna pop up in my real life now are you? That'd be really freaky.

Anyhow in ToT news. Five and a half houses down, two and a half to go. I'll finish off the Marroquin2 household in the morning when I get home from work. ~VP

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm tired of looking tonight. Does anyone have a link to where I can get my hands on the mod to let me more the teens out? I had it on the laptop that died and I really need to get it back.

Hello Sandy,

Are you talking about inteen? I was able to get inteenimator from Simbology at http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php . Hope that helps.

PS. Sorry about the laptop. I know how it is, hubby got me my first laptop last fall, because my old computer was dying and within three months the re-charing port broke. I got to send it in for repair. Meanwhile he bought me a new computer this spring and I was able to start the ToT on it. But it can be frustrating restarting and loading all your Sims content/games, so I feel your pain. Good luck and many blessings.

Hugs

Hey Sandy, I'm not sure if this is what your looking for, but I use the TeenStar PC. Its an object mod that also allows my teens to quit school. Hope it helps.

Downloaded a bunch of clothes, apparently I missed some meshes. On the plus side, I'm slowly organizing my cc folder

I found the one I was looking for. It was actually here on MTS. I would give you a link to it, but I can't find the blooming thing again. On the bad side, my Gravel household seems to be messing up badly. I have a backup but then I would have to replay the Flintstones and the Rubbles. I'll have to see what I can do to avoid that.

Sandy, my Marroquin household was at one point glitch city. I have a day setter and a thing that sets seasons, so I just moved them out and onto a new lot and used those two things to set them even with the rest of my lots. The day setter is on this site, by Neder, and the season controller thing is on sim wardrobe. ~VP

I was able to sort things out by using SimPE to reset the toddler in that house. Somehow it got set back to being a baby with 0 days left. Once I reset that one to a toddler with 3 days left, the error messages went away.

Unfortunately thanks to some disgruntled kids who kicked over the trash can, they got bugs before I could get things cleaned up. It was morning before the exterminator came out and the father and the twins ended up sick with the flu.

Akkk... does that make them 'dead with the flu'?

And simswardrobe...MAHN that takes me back! I have about EVERYTHING that site has made... The throwing axes were particularly fun, I recall. And the candy crafting station...such helpful cheating. I even had the PC that could be repaired and resold and the junk car to repair... I had a sim with a repair shop in his garage. Ah... memories.

Well, after a few weeks of not simming so much I am back into it, and it seems it's update time!

I played the Saulson Family and brought in new Genes when Evangelica (a roman POW with freckles and strawberry blonde hair) married Trevor, the eldest son.

To Recap on the original families before I get too ahead of myself (and because I still don't have a blog, lol), the original families and their Roman rankings are;

Cove (Emperor)
Bupkis (Patricians)
Saulson (Plebians)
Edifice, and Fahadeen (Slaves)

Their income actually ended up falling according to their skin color and they ended up in power from lightest to darkest. >_>; (despite the fact that I made the Fahadeens farm their @sses off so they could marry up later on) I had a game glitch with PETS that kept me from playing them for a while and the progenitors of the Fahadeen family only had a few children. (This is why I uninstalled PETS- it was forcing pet adoptions on families I wasn't playing, and they keeping me from playing families with Pets, wtf EA?) The Coves kept having male babies, and so ended up with the most income after the initial neanderthal generations.

In order to keep family names straight, I've made a rule so that only the eldest son can carry on the original family name, and everyone else has to take a new derivative of that name when they move out. This has created branch families;

Cove= Cova, Covea, Coval
Bupkis= Bupkisa
Saulson= Saulsonesca
Edifice= Edifica, McEdifice
Fahadeen= Fahadeena

I've also changed children's names to reflect the culture of the times, so the upperclass Roman families are naming their children things like; Hermes, Ceres, Amphion, Ariston, and Apollo, while the lower class families are naming only heirs Roman names (in hopes of having their families rise the ranks), and the other children after their original heritage, such as; Martina, Serena, Ain, Yafeu, Sidhartha, Nadia, and Gale.

The original families were modeled after certain parts of the world;

Cove- Norwegian/ Icelandic decent (straight blond hair, blue or green eyes)
Bupkis- Italian/ European decent (curly/wavy dark or brown hair, brown or dark grey eyes)
Saulson- Spanish/ South American or European decent (med skin tone, med to black hair, dark eyes)
Edifice- Indian/ Central Asian OR North African decent (darker skin tone, dark eyes)
Fahadeen- South African decent (dark everything and highly defined muscles)

The new CAS sims ('captured as POWs or enslaved into Roman society so everyone is not related) are the following;

Kale Plutus- Greek origin, married Cove (introduced strawberry blond hair)
Mingus Dingus- Asian warrior's son, married Saulson (introduced blue/back hair)
Lara Iselic- Finnish (introduced white blond hair and ice blue eyes)
Brenna Mention- Germanic (introduced blue/black hair)
Faolan McGillicutty- Irish (introduced red hair and freckles)
Adelade Park- Germanic (introduced gold-brown hair and eyes)
Pertti Guliver- Irish (introduced red hair and freckles)
Evangelica Seneca- Spanish (introduced blue-black hair)
Svetlana Borsetscova- Russian (introduced red-brown eyes and hair with very pale pink skin)
Sephut & Misept Sol (sisters)- Egyptian (introduced dark blue eyes and black hair with highlights & reintroduced very dark skin)

To keep the family counts pure any POWs (CAS sims) that marry in will need to abandon their last name to adopt their new spouses'. Also it should be noted that not all last names are accurate for their heritage, and I made a few sound however I liked.

My little aliens have made it though eleven rounds and I've updated my website with their latest shenanigans. I'm going to now go work on some of the stuff I promised to make for people, but have been ignoring in favor of playing ToT. That and it's close to bedtime and with the amount of time it takes to load my game, I wouldn't get much playing in. ~VP

Thanks so much for the encouragement. I also take time every once in awhile to read my own website. It is amazing how much has happened in the last year of game playing. It helps me to remember how the families have evolved.

http://www.modthesims.info/download...5#startcomments

I thought maybe this could help the TOTC people! Awesome CC for the Neanderthal type age. I've been looking at this challenge since I first found this site, and I always go back to it, but I never did dare try it.

I've read all the TOT stories that I could get a hold of, and now more than ever I think I'm going to have to do it. I already have a Prosperity Challenge going, but I do need something with a little variety, and this just might be it, considering how many times I frequent this page, and I've read every single post on this thread. The first page of rules I've read a dozen or so times so I think I got the gist of everything. I was looking for the Neanderthal type stuff to make the game more realistic. Let's just hope all the CC I added doesn't kill my computer. When I get it started I'll start a site to track the progress!

You're right, those are fantastic CC for Neanderthals. I'm doing my neighborhood on a SimStones theme. I'll probably have to stop and recolor some things along the way to keep it going, but it is an absolute hoot!

Hey All! Long time no SEE! A new job in RL was pretty much sucking all the life energy out of me the last month so I've hardly gone near my poor old abandoned toshi let alone heard the cries of long lost sims desperate to get through the round I just left them hanging at the end of.... *cough* how cruel... =/ I knew for sure something had to be going on here so I figured I'd get my sim fix vicariously through you guys! *starving for fellow sim addict love!* you guys are so awesome just floating through here makes me feel better already~ I was just calling in to catch up on the posts since it's been so long I don't actually remember when I was here last...>_> *flamed* feel the love... feeling it...*dead* I just had to stop though after spying this comment from nesxya!

Originally posted by nesxya

- you are SO worthy! XD for this alone I bow down at your feet! I was having a less than steller day today and this just totally cheered me right back up to sun beaming levels... which are steadily fading in horror as I realise you can now point out my horrible plot holing/manipulating/ignoring/blatantly disregarding mistakes.... *dead* Thank YOU for reading, and re-reading, and cheering me up! XD

Speaking of... I just went to check the website to see the last update and was thinking to myself "I'm sure I was further along than this..." *goes to check pictures folder* >_> ok so I was naughty and about a MONTH ago I actually played through the entire round bar the last 3 families, and it was a really good entertaining round which means lots of pictures to update and stories for me to remember @_@ *just died...again* I'm banning access to Tempus until I've caught up so expect updating over the next couple of weeks... *still dead* XD

I see MORE newbies are being sucked in to our "little" challenge - to all newbies I feel it my duty (since my fellow simmers failed - maybe deliberately ) to warn you, that this challenge pretty much takes over your LIFE! But I guarantee it will be the most fun, most frustrating (you may be bald soon), most entertaining challenge you have ever played (or ever will) in the history of your simming life! Please find easy soul exchange here

On that note I'd just like to throw in a few random comments such as - Melibee: totally love the element theme! XD Why didn't I think of that?! *go bald, kurosaki!*

- I too had a stack of notebooks that I kept losing so I decided to get an entire file dedicated to this challenge . Do you think it helps me at all by GEN3?! LoL I also have a spreadsheet but there's SO much information in it now I'm getting very slack... going to regret that soon aren't I >_>.....*already is*

And I mentioned this before but my toshi (laptop) is getting...old *dont tell him that though!* you know, just the usual HORRIFYING things like - restarting randomly for no apparent reason, or restarting when I tell it to shut down and then telling ME that something tried to shut it down =_=....you don't say toshi... couldn't have been me pressing the shut down button could it?! Files disappearing that I know I saved, oh yeah, and the mother of all doozies - doesn't like to register when he's plugged in to charge! GUH You gotta last me another 20 years yet toshi! Don't fail me now! Donations of "good vibes to keep toshi alive" are welcome at any time! Note to self: when was the last time you backed up your sims files huh? ...........don't answer that, self

Now I'm off to procrastinate updating my own site by getting absorbed in everyone elses ^_^ yay! I'm sure there'll be lots to see after a month's absence!

feel the love!

taliah~ (who hopes to be back real soon!)

http://rowenalupin.wordpress.com/ Here's the beginning of the TOTC.

Yay, I can't wait for updates Taliah, I do so enjoy reading your progress.
@cespencer - A year! My goodness, now that's dedication.
@Rowena - welcome aboard. And I look forward to reading more of your site, it will be interesting to see how Jun will fare with her *1 nice point, hehehe.

Just stopped by to say hello. I have been having a few *issues* with my PC, but after sifting through my downloads folder and rearranging files into appropriate folders and removing obsolete ones, I hope my Jurassic computer will be able to cope.
I am now beginning Gen6 of the Roman Era, not too far before the next era.
*confession* I am hugely addicted to this challenge and EVERY spare moment I find is spent with my sims.

Off to catch up on everyone's sites.
Happy Simming everyone ('',)

This challenge is a lot of hardwork, but its a lot of fun too! It's very refreshing to the whole, get up, go to work, come home, work for promotion yadda yadda yadda. This certainly breaks the typical way to play, and I love that!

It does break you away from whatever your typical play style is. Mine was to constantly be feeding interactions on everyone, letting almost no one have any say about anything. The sims did what I said or else. But I decided to not do that as much with these guys and I'll definitely be letting my sims have a lot more autonomy from now on. ~VP

I think of TOT as a series of challenges all rolled into one big one. The ever changing nature of the game keeps me entertained and sharing with all of you let's me stretch my creative side. I also love reading everyone else's blogs and websites. It takes Sims to a whole new level.

I also want to welcome the newbies. The TOT challenge is addicting, but in a good way.

Okayy so I am just putting the finishing touches on my new site I cant wait to put it up.
I have been taking so long because of school... AP classes are very tiresome and take up ALOT of time..... ALOT!
haha
So hopefully I will be able to update my site on the weekends. As far as the site goes, part of it is for my Test Of Time Challenge, part is for editing pictures etc., and part is for any other stories I might think to come up with
I hope you enjoy it once its posted.
I am kinda annoyed with Weebly... it keeps putting double spaces between random words.
I will try to fix that...

Here is a little sneak peek to one of the families stories::

"Alia Aeris wanted more than her simple life.
Being the Chief of her tribe was always so boring. She never understood why she couldn't do something else with her life.
'Your entire bloodline have always been leaders in order to pass down our powers and skills,' She remembered her mother telling her. 'I became one as the job was passed down to me from my mother, and to her before that. I now pass on the job to you.' Alia was only fifteen.
As she got older, the job became easier for her - Or at least as easy of a job leading people could be. Soon, though, she would find the job unbearable. Tragedy was about to strike the Aeris Clan and the Air Tribe."

Can't wait to hear more. I love the ideas of a matriarch handing down the gifts, talents, and powers of the clan. Awesome idea.

Thank you Cespencer & Taliah! You both deserve every bit of praise for your hard work and creativity. I also understand how a few kind words can really uplift the spirits, especially from a tough day. Especially, in today's world where coldness and rudeness have become the norm. I say, villains back to your world of gloom! *Hugs all my Simmie buddies*

A huge welcome to all the newcomers!

Rowena, I really enjoyed your reward system, and you are off to a fabulous start! I myself use the in-game camera for pictures and found as long as I have the game settings set to large snapshot and highest quality, I have decent results. I have thought about using a print screen program, but I believe many require playing in window mode. I'm blind as a bat so I like to play in full screen to see my pixel friends. I am excite to see how your site develops with your ToT challenge.

Melibee, that is such a great idea about passing down occupations and talents. I look forward to seeing your site and reading about your clans! *Scribbles notes in one of my notebooks. Yep I have a stash of notepads, notebooks, and binders. And yes, they mostly get used in Sims notes. Hahaha got to love back to school sales. I keep a whole plastic bin of stuff in the spare room.*

Sorry, I haven't been on, can't believe it ... where did the month go? I had several RL projects to work on that includes painting & remodeling. Me and hubby live in a project house, but at least the rent is cheap! Also took a week to work on family genealogy, but I am back to playing my ToT.

If anyone missed it, I do have a Grim Reaper side story posted in August. I am currently drafting the next post for the next round. The Blackstone Clan is expanding and I had to migrate some of them out early to make room. I also have an update for the Delta Group.


And I have a question.

Is there a mod or cheat to kill infants, toddlers, and children? I have never killed my Sims before, but am wanting to try out a mortality death rate on my Delta Group. Besides later, I will have the Colosseum, so I better start getting used to the idea.

@nesxya: I've used Rodney's Death Creator to kill children. (Matilda Schafer most recently) Not sure if it will work on toddlers, and it probably won't work on infants since its the selected sim that dies and infants aren't selectable unless you have cheaty stuff like I do (or use boolprop to make them selectable). For anyone who doesn't know, to get Rodney's Death Creator (without a download) open the cheat window, type "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true" without the quotes, Shift+ click on a sim, choose "Spawn", then choose "Rodney's Death Creator". You may or may not have to it the "More..." button, I'm not sure. Make sure you turn boolprop off when you're done by typing false instead of true (unless you're like me and always have it on 'cause it lets you do cheaty things like adjust moods and skills). ~VP

Thank you VP! The information was most helpful. :lovestruc
I was able to make my infants selectable, but the Rodney's Death Creator would not work on infants ... but it will work on toddlers and children. I always wondered how it was done for other challenges, especially the medieval challenges.

It is amazing how long I have played and how I'm still such a noob! Always worked so much, so when I did get to play it was usually regular every day ho hum stuff.


One other question. I'm thinking of uploading some of my caves for download. I have all the EPs & SPs, but want them to be user friendly and available for everyone. Do I need to install the any game starter? And could someone explain the clean installer to me in layman terms. I would really much appreciate it.

P.S. I got a new update posted. Also I have been working on ideas on how to update my family trees. Since I started doing family genealogy in RL, I have been familiarizing myself with programs. One thing I noticed is complex interbreeding (first cousins, in-law second marriages, & polygamy ... yes, yes, I know my family on both sides have such sorted pasts! Especially when you make it to the 1700s - 1800s timeframe. It's probably why I let my StoneAge Sims "sow their oats". I could just imagine 10,000 B.C. behavior let alone 50,000 B.C.!) Anyhow, these trees don't always show up user friendly. Therefore, to make navigation more friendly I decided to try a Sim Directory format. Any feedback on the Directory to improve it, would be appreciated. So far hubby really likes it, because if I nag him to check out my site he can easily see the families very quickly.

Thank you again VP for the help, your a sweetheart! Happy Simming everyone.

In an attempt to be a sweetheart once again (and you made me blush when I read that, as well as lifting my spirit since i just got drenched on my bike ride home from work in a sudden rainstorm): to upload your lot, you can simply leave it as needing all EPs and SPs, there's nothing wrong with that. However if you don't need the features from all the EPs, I would suggest using the AGS. Here's what you'll need to do: first load up the house and making note of everything about it, and drawing it out on paper (graph paper would be best 'cause of the grid), then decide which EPs and SPs you do need based on the build tools you need and the objects you've used. Most likely you won't need anything other than base game. Check what CC you may need and copy it out of your download folder. Make an AGS game with the configuration you need and put the CC you need in that game's Download folder (the AGS documentation should tell you where that is, if the program doesn't.) Start up the AGS game (you'll have to change whatever disk you use to boot the game up to whatever the highest one for that AGS is so find your disks first!) Now rebuild your lot, export it, yadda yadda yadda, and voila! Your lot without needing all the EPs. And no there is absolutely no way to strip it back to needing less EPs without rebuilding it an AGS environment.

And the Clean installer for the purposes of lot downloading/uploading: The clean installer will allow you to install a lot into you game that uses Stuff Packs that you don't have. Only Stuff Packs though, Expansions are a different story. It also allow you to see what custom content is included in the lot and lets you remove any that you wish. What you're going to want to use it for in regards to your caves is if you have CC that the creator doesn't want shared with the lot. In that case you would build the lot as normal and export it as normal. Open the package file with the Clean Installer, remove the piece(s) that need to be and save the file with a different name. That second file is the one that you would upload along with instructions on where to get the CC and a note to make sure the item is installed before the lot is opened in game. Or you could use it to do like I did with my Pleasantview Cemetary and strip the lot file of all CC and send everyone on a minor shopping spree. But I only did that b/c everything was part of a set and I won't upload a partial build set. Opening a lot in the Clean Installer after exporting and before uploading is always a good idea just to be sure nothing extra tagged along and to double check your CC list. And to see if you have any CC that didn't get included and thus needs to be sought after by your downloaders or included in a zip with the lot.

And actually my Pleasantview Cemetary is a perfect example of taking a lot from an "everything" environment to one with only as few needs as possible. It needs Nightlife and OFB (or anything higher if you don't have OFB) It needs OFB b/c I wanted to use shelves in the mausoleum, and NL b/c of the cemetary gate. But it's first incarnation was made in normal gameplay b/c I needed a place to send a ghost who kept scaring his perpetually pregnant daughter. And I think I've rambled enough now. My brain is slightly fuzzy right now (its close to bedtime) so if any of this sounds confuzzleing, let me know and I'll try to clarify when I'm more awake. ~VP

Hello! I "just" started this challenge (I've done the first rotation) and it's so fun!

I feel very sorry for the first family, because I sucked a whole bunch when they were being played I had to cheat a few times to keep "Amethyst" alive while she was pregnant (let her drink the snack-juice because she was starving).
I've gotten much better, though.
I have *two* sets of twins and the second set was in my fifth family and I still managed to play them better than the first. (Only it poured for a whole day when I was playing them and they almost lost their garden.)

Anyway, I have some questions:
What are you guys using for fitness? It makes no sense that cavemen would be chubby! They'd have a bit of a famine-proofing, sure, but I don't want my sims to be fat. I have NL and Seasons for EPs.
Do cribs count against the "bed" limit? 5 beds seems like way too few if they do. Especially with my twins! I'll have the double for the parents, and three cribs and no more "beds" allowed! Once they're children I can rotate who gets the bed(s) when, but for the toddlers and infants... I just dunno...
I'm thinking of giving the woman a day or two off after she has a baby. After all, a nursing woman's fertility tends to be low. Is there a mod that sets that automatically? Something like "for 1-3 days after birth the fertility is lower then it returns to normal"? I think ACR has something you can set manually, but is there anything automatic? I'm very new to this whole "mods and CC" thing.

My playtime is rather... sporadic. I have a one year old son and I can't always plan when I'll have time to play nor how much time I'll get. I won't be storytelling (I'd love to, but I just don't have the time!) so I'm thinking of just going by seasons, since after the Neanderthal era I'll be able to tell who is in which season from the neighbourhood view and it won't matter if I play in a certain order or the whole season in one go, so long as I keep them all synced by the end. Do you guys think that'll work alright?

Hiiiiiiiiiiii!!

Hi Dagwon, and welcome! To answer your questions: For fitness there is a mod out there (can't quite remember where, but I have it) that lets jump roping gain fitness. I figure Neander-sims can grab a piece of vine and jump over it repeatedly. Except that I just checked and jump roping came with AL. I guess you could always plop a stereo down on lot somewhere and have them dance? I'm pretty sure there's a stereo in the SImstones collection so it wouldn't look too out of place.

As to the crib/bed issue: in my houses there are two double beds (so four beds) and I count all other cribs and toddler blankets as that last bed. Mostly so that my multi births (which happen quite often thanks to T&Q) don't end up kicking everyone out of a bed. Four beds plus the bench (when its inside and not kicked out of the hut by a crib) is usually enough and most of my families sleep in shifts (adults and teens during the day and kids at night) Plus if I get really desperate and everyone's whining at me for sleep, three more can go grab some food and sleep at the table.

And play however you want, as long as everyone stays roughly in sync. My rotation lengths vary from 3-5 days depending on what I feel like at the beginning of the round. Mostly they're four days, but I change it up now and then based on what might happen in that round, or if I don't want to spend eternity and a day playing that round. I"m thinking that when I hit the roman era I might switch to one day rotations and call seven of them a round and update at that point. Just to keep things synced up when it's time for deaths and whatnot. Especially since my plan calls for deaths on a Monday and playing four day rotations means Monday isn't always the first day of play. ~VP

Thank you, Thank you VP ... you are a super duper sweetheart! Hmmm, now I just got to decide AGS or not. Again thank you for the detail information, it helps tons!!!!

Welcome Dagwon!

LoL. Don't worry about a little cheat here and there (we all do it, at times ... hehehe). I have had to resort to maxmotives on family portrait days just to get everyone posed long enough without stomping off. Also, I have used juice in a pinch to save a starving Sim. I figure juice is close to a hunter/gatherer eating fruit.

For fitness I use jump rope for the Neanderthal Stage. I figure I will allow other workout options once matching time frames unlock. If you don't have AL. I would use the SimStone theme radio and use the workout option. Swimming could be another option, either beach lots, or swim-able ponds for Neanderthal Stage and when you reach Roman Stage use regular pools. Once you get enough fitness one of the EP allows jogging and hiking (I think it was FT). And if you don't have time for CC then just use the radio. I would pick a few basic workouts that fits your game and allows easy playtime to fit your schedule, even if it doesn't look Stone age or period theme and as your challenge progresses use more complex workout items.

I had the same question about cribs and I looked and looked, but couldn't find a restriction. So I used as many cribs as I needed, especially during my Baby Boom Boom in the Raiding Rhino Plot. If you want to include it as a restriction, I would do two or four cribs as one bed or something like that. You can pick and tweak the restriction to your needs (depending if you have the quads mod).

Fertility rates, use what makes sense to you. Sim days are a mixed bag of time (hahaha to put it kindly), always been inconsistent. Infants one day is like three months, Toddlers it is like a year, children is around a year, Teens are like three months, YA - completely different system, and Adults are one year. So for an adult pregnant Sims being pregnant for three days is like having a three year gap between offspring. But again I would use what feels comfortable for your playtime or what makes sense to you.

Many players use the season (which is 5 Sim Days) as a time measurement for Rounds for the very reason that it is very easy to track by viewing Season markers on households from neighborhood view. As long as you have a consistent routine to cycle through families and makes it easy for you to track I would use it.

This is a very user friendly challenge! Everyone is very supportive and open minded. This is a long complex challenge that is meant to be fun and user friendly. So don't worry, adapt what you need to make it work for you. The basic objective is to make it from Neanderthal Stage to Modern times (twenty generations). Each player has their own way of approaching it and playing that fits with their RL schedule.

Hope that helps, I know it nice to have input on what other players are doing. Again welcome to the challenge Dagwon!

I'm back to playing again. I haven't been updating my website for a while, but I'm working on transitioning my website stuff to my tumblr blogs. I'm currently on 4th generation going into 5th in the Roman Age.

Hi everyone !! Now that summer is officially over my simming days should be more plentiful. Nesxya I added your link to my blog. Sorry I missed you . I actually have been playing off and on for awhile now with Tesime so updates should start up again soon. Today I took the day to play the Improval challenge. Its the one where you start with one sim and try to move them all the way up to the most expensive house. Came from the original game so as long as you dont play a UNI graduate its still fairly hard to do. And last but certainly not least welcome to all the simmers who have joined us. Teehee, as Taliah mentioned this challenge does kinda take over your life - but in a great way

I have returned (again) after much distraction, and I finally figured out what I'm going to do.

I couldn't quite make a sequel to my old ToT work, so I'm going down a completely different route: anyone remember Star's mashup of the ToT and a bunch of other stuff? Well, I've mashed up that mashup with a bunch of other stuff. It's still in "concept stage" at the moment... but the basic premise is that I'll be taking eight victims of alien abduction (four men, four women, all alien pregnant) and plonking them down on a strange planet. I'm also thinking I might limit how much I control them, since I'm trying to break away from micromanaging.

And by the way, for anyone still wondering about keeping your cavesims fit, in my main hood (which is a primitive tribal village itself) I use this invisible stereo default by Almighty Hat and this mod by Numenor that stops the musical notes floating around when a stereo is on. Combining the two means you can use the stereo to work out and listen to music, but it won't look out of place in your prehistoric villages. I also use this mod by BoilingOil to remove the extra-hunger-filling bonus from fresh food, so Sims who live completely off the land - like ToT cavesims, for example - don't tend to get quite as overweight from one plate of food.
edit: the jump rope fitness mod VP mentioned is here and it's also one of the things I use.
VT says "Liberal use of mods for a happy tomorrow... or, y'know, yesterday, in this case!"

Thanks VT for finding the link, since I was too lazy to do so. And yes, mods are good. My game is modded to the hilt. So much so that playing in my AGS basegame that has absolutely no CC aside from a skintone replacement, is... challenging to say the least. ~VP

Hey everyone! :D
I'm still alive. Haven't touched my Sims game for months now, but I'm starting to miss my virtual dollhouse. I totally hope I can get into my ToT hood again. If I remember correctly, I was just in the middle of the first Roman rotation.

Welcome back Lizz, Anna, VT, & Yuki! I'm so excited to see everyone!!!

Thank you Anna and not to worry, I know you keep super busy! Lately, I haven't been playing as much either. I have been trying to rotate projects and fit ToT when I can. Also updating and keeping a blog/website takes time in itself, plus it's easy to overlook things. I do it all the time! I do appreciate you adding me and it has made my day, thank you!!! :lovestruc

VT, I just love that starting concept!! What a great idea for a modern sci-fi mash up. 8 otherworld Sims already Alien pregnant. I am so looking forward to seeing the genetic results!

Lizz and Yuki, I am so happy you two are back. I know it can be hard to jump back in and restart the motivation and motion forward again, especially when gone for awhile. Best wishes.

I am so glad I popped in and checked in today. Perhaps after some household chores, I will get some time to play today. Lots of hugs and smiles to everyone. Talk to you later.

Romans Aging
 

Welcome back to all of our returning TOT simmers. Glad to see more folks in the Roman Age. I shortened my ages to only three generations each: founding adults, their children, then their grandchildren become the founding adults of the next age. So my last generation of Romans are children right now. I just finished a short round (only took two RL weeks) since I only played the youngest ten family lots. I will do another short round and then all my lots will be set for their teens to become adults. I expect to be ready to enter the Dark Ages (Early Medieval) in November at my current rate of play.

I am so excited to start planning for my medieval lots. I love the history of the 500AD to 1000AD and the 1000AD to 1500AD periods. There is a ton of custom content on this site and others and the Viking aspect will be a fun new addition. I am almost done building my manor homes for my Lords and Ladies (current patriarch eldest males are young teens right now).